Five Reasons Why Hispanic Americans Should Vote For Conservatives

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 1

photo courtesy politico.com

Our nation is graced with millions of loyal, legal Hispanic Americans. They work hard, they raise beautiful families, and they vote – almost always for Democrats.

I recently talked politics with a couple of Mexican business acquaintances who both immigrated to the United States over twenty years ago, and was surprised at how similar our values and political leanings are. We agreed on every issue, right down the line. But when I asked them what they think of Republicans, or Conservatives, or the Tea Party, the fear and distrust was palpable.

You could say the Democrats have done an outstanding job of demonizing their Conservative opponents. Hispanic Americans are convinced that Conservatives are hateful racists who want to hurt them and hold them back in every way possible.

Apparently Hispanic Americans just don’t know what we Conservatives believe in and stand for. There can’t be any other explanation for the way they vote.

Here are five reasons why Hispanic Americans should vote for Conservatives and support our mission to downsize our over-reaching, destructive and unaffordable federal government.

1 – Conservatives want to improve the private economy and support businesses so that jobs are plentiful, pay rates improve, and families can enjoy a higher standard of living. That can’t happen when so much of our cash flows through a bloated, inefficient federal government. We think families should keep more of their earnings, and will make better spending decisions than the government can on their behalf. Millions of Hispanics came to this country for economic opportunity, and are willing to work hard to succeed. Why would they support Democrats whose policies have slashed personal income, exploded the national debt, reduced labor participation to record low levels, eliminated the middle class, and put one in five Americans on food stamps? If you want to be part of a thriving and growing economy, you are a Conservative.

2 – While Democrats work tirelessly to put more control and authority in the hands of the federal government, conservatives believe in personal freedom and responsibility. Most of our Hispanic immigrants came from countries with oppressive governments, where only those with connections or money have influence and opportunity. It makes no sense for them to support the party that pushes the United States toward socialism and heavy-handed government control. If you love opportunity and don’t want every detail of your life regulated by the government, you are a Conservative.

3 – Most Hispanic Americans have strong family and religious values. While Democrats fervently support the rights of Muslims, they find Christianity abhorrent, lashing out at any display of Christian faith with a vengeance. They have done all in their power to destroy the traditional family structure in our country. They promote gay marriage, endorse single motherhood through tax and welfare policy, and encourage abortion. If you treasure your family and your church, you are a conservative.

4 – Democrats are great at making promises, but somehow when they are in control, things seem to get worse. Is there anything the Democrats have done that has made life better for Hispanic Americans? For that matter, has any Socialist government in history improved the lives of its citizens? If you think the US Constitution and laws, and our rich history of defending freedom and truth are what made the United States the greatest and most prosperous nation on earth, you are a conservative.

5 – Fairness is important to all people, including Hispanic Americans. And nothing is fairer than being allowed to keep the property you worked for and to use it as it best serves you. Conservatives believe that our government should not try to seize or control our private property. And it should defend our property from those who would try to take it from us. My Hispanic American friends agree that our borders must be enforced, and we can’t provide benefits to those who only come here to take and not contribute. And our military forces must be ready and able to defend our homeland. If you want your property and the safety of your family to be secure, you are a conservative.

I know that most Hispanic Americans – and for that matter Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and traditional homeland-born Americans – are Conservatives at heart. We all want the same things. We just have to set aside political correctness and the Democrat agenda of deceit to find the higher common ground.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Powers keep on lyin’
While your people keep on dyin’
World keep on turnin’
‘Cause it won’t be too long

Higher Ground – Stevie Wonder

I know, Stevie Wonder is an avowed liberal Democrat, blind in more than the obvious way. But hey, he’s an amazing musician and it’s a great song. Plus I have a soft spot for blind musicians! (Hi Jeff!)

Conservatives – We Got To Keep On Truckin’

Posted on September 28, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

I talk politics with friends, acquaintances, family, and even strangers, all the time. You probably do too. Many of these people have a growing sense that something is wrong, but they have not been engaged in politics or receiving real news and honest information about what’s going on.

They find their financial security under stress due to stagnant or declining wages and hours, difficulty finding suitable jobs or promotions, more work for less pay, relentless price inflation for most consumer items, and no place to invest their savings (if they have any) that offers reasonable safety and any kind of return.

On top of that, the people I talk to don’t understand why their biggest concerns are not aggressively confronted by our government, while much attention is given to relatively small-scale issues, like gay marriage, or who should pay for birth control pills.

These ordinary folks are concerned about national security, education, health care, deteriorating race relations, privacy, property and water rights, and a host of other things, and they don’t find comfort in the words and actions of anybody in Washington, DC – Democrat or Republican. Trust level is at an all-time low, but the guy on the street doesn’t quite know what to do because he is not getting enough facts.

After I gave an interested but under-informed friend a mini-seminar on the many threats posed to us and our children by our over-reaching government’s accelerating failure rate, he asked, “Where do you get all this information?”

Conservatives, this is our challenge. We can’t let up. Not now. People know something is wrong, and they are beginning to seek the truth. It’s up to us to keep putting that truth out there.

I lamented to Bill Whittle, renowned conservative blogger and writer, that it seems we conservatives mostly “preach to the choir” and seldom actually win a convert to the “right” side. Bill’s reply: “There’s nothing wrong with preaching to the choir. When the troops are in the trenches, worn out and outnumbered, somebody has to walk down the line, hand out some more clips of ammunition, and tell them to keep their heads down.”

Keep your heads down, my friends. Keep on Truckin’. And keep Rockin’ On the Right Side!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Ain’t nothin’ holdin’ me back . . . nothin’!
I’ll keep right on, right on truckin’.
Ain’t nothin’ holdin’ me back . . . nothin’!
I’ll keep right on, right on truckin’.

Keep On Truckin’ – David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks

Made in the USA – By Mexicans

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

mexican concrete crew My wife and I are building a new home. We are doing some of the work ourselves but the majority of the work is done by subcontractors, mostly hired through our general contractor. Working on a major project like this brings many current political and economic issues from the big-picture level down to the up-close and personal level.

Today, as our driveway was being installed, I had quite a discussion with the owner/operator of our concrete finishing company. Alex (not actual name) is a legal Mexican immigrant and has been doing business in the US for almost twenty years. He went through channels, got a green card, and studied English for two years. Alex pursued the American dream, and got it. He has handled several segments of our construction project, and does top quality work at a fair price. Working in the same space every day we got to know each other and today we spent some time discussing business and politics.

Alex’s business is doing well. In fact, there is much more demand for his work than he can fulfill. He would like to hire more employees and expand his business, but he can’t see a way to do it and still maintain quality. As a retired corporate manager and business owner, I offered some growth strategies and personnel practices that have worked for me. But his circumstances are quite different than mine were. You see, all of his employees are (probably) illegal Mexican immigrants.

In fact, almost all of the residential construction work in the Carolinas is being performed by illegal Mexican immigrants.

Why? Have Mexican immigrants taken all of the construction jobs because they will work for lower wages than American tradesmen? Are American men now too lazy or pampered to take on the difficult, physical work required in the construction trades? Have our schools convinced every American student that anyone who doesn’t pursue a college degree and a desk job is a failure? Did our government over-regulate our traditional construction businesses into extinction, so that only “under-the-radar” groups of illegal immigrants can function at a feasible cost?

Yes, yes, yes, and yes.

But there’s more to it than that. I talked with another general contractor today who was interested in hiring Alex and his crew for some of his projects, only to learn they are over-booked. “It’s a shame,” he said. “Most of the (American) subcontractors went broke during the housing bust five years ago, and they aren’t coming back.”

Alex and many entrepreneurial Mexicans like him are able to seize the market opportunities because they are connected to the available army of illegal Mexican immigrant workers. Alex can find them, hire them, manage them, communicate with them, and help them with the considerable personal challenges they face working in the shadows of American life. Still, his business growth is limited because he employs these men. “My business can’t grow,” he said. “None of my workers can advance to be managers because they don’t even try to learn to speak English.” He would employ English-speaking American construction workers, but there just aren’t any. It’s a very complex business model.

I had heard that Latinos are being barraged with liberal propaganda, painting conservatives, Republicans and especially Tea Party guys as hateful monsters to be avoided and feared. So I made it a point to tell my new Mexican friend Alex that I am a conservative. Tea Party, even.

Alex winced. “I’m not a monster,” I said. “I’m not a racist and a hater. You know me. You can’t believe the stuff you hear in the media.”

“Well, the conservatives don’t want to allow any immigration,” he said.

“Not true,” I countered. “We want LEGAL immigration for people who can bring value to our country. What we don’t want is dangerous, uncontrolled borders, or slackers coming here to take advantage of taxpayer-funded benefits. And we DO want our legal immigrants to assimilate – to become patriotic, law-abiding, productive Americans, not Mexicans who just happen to live in the US.”

Like you, Alex. Without you, and men like you, there would be no new homes under construction in my neighborhood right now.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Save me from this prison, Lord, help me get away
‘Cause only You can save me now from this misery
‘Cause I’ve been lost in my own place
And I’m getting’ weary, how far is Heaven?
And I know I need to change my ways of livin’
How far is Heaven?

How Far Is Heaven – Los Lonely Boys

My favorite Mexican band – Los Lonely Boys! (this song is also on my set list)

Reacting to Crises vs. Thinking About Tomorrow

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 2

crisis-economica-empresas-internet Every now and then I complain that the news media/liberal government is totally geared to our tiny little attention spans (the news media and liberal government are now inseparable and indistinguishable). They fully understand and exploit how soon we forget one earth-shaking news story when the next one comes along. We don’t care whether the last crisis was explained, let alone resolved. Instead we lurch ahead to the latest shocking crisis. And the news media/liberal government seemingly never runs out of crises. We’re so busy dealing with the latest crisis that we never take the time to look ahead.

Do you feel manipulated?

A few weeks ago the earth stopped rotating because Central American kids were walking across our southern border expecting (and receiving) amnesty. It was 24/7 news. What happened? The hand-wringing, the speeches, the headlines, the passion, the crisis – it all just . . . stopped.

Benghazi? Forgotten. Kidnapped Nigerian girls? Who cares. Even the Ferguson riots don’t matter today.

The VA scandal? Hmmph. The IRS targeting of conservative groups? No big. Trayvon Martin? Operation Fast and Furious? Free birth control pills for Sandra Fluke? Syria? Ukraine? Hamas lobbing rockets into Israel? Fagettaboutit.

I thought ObamaCare was a BFD. Joe Biden said so. But I haven’t heard anything about it in the news for a long time. Have you? Everything must be just peachy.

Today it’s all about ISIS. Or ISIL. (Why can’t the news media/liberal government just pick one label?) The shocking beheadings supercede any and all previous shocks. Until the next shock.

Rahm Emanuel said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Hillary Clinton doubled down on the same strategy. They are disciples, along with Barack Obama, of Saul Alinsky and the Cloward-Piven Strategy, which advises socialists to stir up as much crisis as possible in order to drive the frightened and under-informed into the warm and waiting arms of a big-government oligarchy. Cloward and Piven were deep-thinking socialists from Columbia University – Barack Obama’s alma mater. But I digress.

Wouldn’t it be great if our political leaders would, just once, look ahead a little instead of just reacting to the latest crisis?

They could be figuring out how to match up the capabilities of the work force with the needs of employers. Or maybe what role our tremendous energy resources could play in the world economy. We could be working on a mathematical solution to our insolvent social security system (it is do-able). Shoot, maybe somebody could be thinking about how to deal with the cancerous radical Muslim ideology that threatens to overwhelm the politically-correct Western world. Our president says, “we don’t have a strategy yet.”

We need political leaders who are thinking about tomorrow to replace those who only react to the latest crisis.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here
It’ll be better than before
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone

Fleetwood Mac – Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)

Yup, the gig with the USC marching band – Classic!

“Talking Heads” – Think Before You Talk

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 1

photo courtesy of yourblackworld.net I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I watch the news I wonder what planet these talking head “experts” are from.

Michael Eric Dyson is regarded as an expert on race relations. He is an author and professor at Georgetown University, and a devout liberal Democrat. He was the “go to” talking head on Face the Nation this morning.

The topic was the riots in Ferguson, Missouri that resulted when a white policeman shot and killed an unarmed young black man who had allegedly just robbed a local store. The details of the shooting have not been released by the police department. Last night one person was shot and seven arrested in the rioting.

Here are Dyson’s talking points about the community, the shooting, and the riots – all wrapped up in a neat, little political package. Moderator Bob Schieffer dimly grinned and nodded throughout Dyson’s soliloquy as though his hearing-aid battery had just gone stone cold. Following Dyson’s points are the questions Schieffer should have asked:

“You’ve got white flight – this formerly predominantly white suburb is now 65% black . . . ” (Um, okay. Are you saying that having more pigment in one’s skin causes one to smash store windows and steal stuff?)

“You’ve got 22% poverty . . .” (Is that because liberal government officials made fatherhood obsolete by paying single women to stay home and make babies? Or because liberal government officials won’t allow parents to remove their children from failing government schools? Or maybe because the policies of our liberal government over the last six years have driven the economy into the dumpster?)

“You’ve got the over-policing of an entire community, who feel racially harassed by the police . . . [only 3 African-American officers on a staff of 60]”    (How many applicants for the police academy were black? Have any African-American applicants have been rejected? Most police departments will do almost anything to train and hire minority applicants. Are there any?)

“Every 28 hours across America a black person is killed by a security guard, police officer or some other executive of the state or police force . . . ”   (Did you know every 58 hours a policeman is killed in the line of duty. Aren’t there a lot more bad guys than there are policemen?)

“The militarization of the police force . . . ” (Yes, they say all that armament given to police departments since Obama started disassembling our national military forces is “surplus” military equipment. Do you suppose the administration is worried about a revolution here at home?)

This president knows better than most what happens in poor communities that have been antagonized by the hostile relationship between black people and the police department . . . (How would he know that? He was a pampered rich kid who got a free ride to Harvard. His wife spends more on designer purses than you make in a year.)

There is no functional equivalence between police who are armed to the teeth with military-grade weaponry trained at vulnerable black communities who are inflamed now as a result of decades of negligence. (Why do blacks keep voting for the same guys who neglected them for decades?)

This is one of the key points that we expected from (Obama) as an African-American male. (You voted for him only because he’s black? That explains it. He certainly had no experience or knowledge.) He could inform American society why people might be hurt and angry.   You can deploy political strategies and public policies at the same time. (Obama makes his decisions based on politics instead of good policy? Shocking!) He’s an oratorical genius! (With or without his teleprompter and speech writers?) Deploy that to . . . white people whose white privilege obscures from them what it means that their children can walk home every day and be safe. They are not fearful that somebody will kill their child who goes to get some iced tea and candy from a store. (Is that because they left the neighborhood when the gangstas took over?)

Expert talking head Michael Eric Dyson may not know it, but he finds fault with all the policies of Obama and the liberal Democrats. And still, I will bet you a dollar to a surplus militarized police department donut that Mr. Dyson will vote straight Democrat in the next election. Go figure.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

And you may ask yourself
Am I right?…Am I wrong?
And you may say to yourself
My God!…What have I done?

THE TALKING HEADS – Once In A Lifetime

Can’t have an article about talking heads without a song by THE TALKING HEADS . . .

What’s That Smell Coming From the RNC?

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 2

So you went to the Lincoln-Reagan dinner and you wrote a check to the Republican Party. You thought your money would be spent to defeat liberal Democrats, right?

Well, maybe not . . .

It seems the establishment GOP feels more threatened by the Tea Party and other conservative Republicans than by the liberal Democrats.

I first experienced this in the 2012 Montana governor’s campaign when our local Republican committee threw a wing-ding to endorse and support one of the seven Republican primary candidates – a year before the primary election! I was stunned. I thought the party is supposed to remain neutral while its candidates compete for the right to represent their party in the general election. My conservative candidate, a straight-shooting Tea Party favorite and long-time loyal Montana Republican, started the primary race with his own party working against him.

This practice (using funds from Republican donors to defeat conservative Republican candidates) has accelerated this year across the country. But the recent episode in Mississippi goes way over the top.

Senator Thad Cochran, an aging (some say senile) and ineffective member of the DC permanent ruling class, was about to be knocked out of the Mississippi GOP primary race by a young, aggressive Tea Party candidate, state senator Chris McDaniel. Cochran had made almost no effort to campaign, assuming that his seat was safe from any challenge, as it had always been in the past. After all, he had been “bringing home the bacon” for 36 years, right?

The Republican insiders realized that their boy was in trouble, and there was no time to waste. GOP operative Henry Barbour (nephew of Haley Barbour, former RNC chairman) was sent on a scorched-earth mission to take out McDaniel in the last few weeks before the primary. He shuffled funds between some PACs under his control and hired DEMOCRATS to convince black voters to cross over in the primary and vote for Cochran.

Here is where it gets really sickening. Barbour used money from Republican donors to print posters, broadcast radio ads, and make telephone robo-calls all claiming that Republican candidate McDaniel and the Tea Party are racists who are trying to prevent black citizens from voting! Cochran_Race_Baiting Barbour’s propaganda campaign further claimed that McDaniel and the Tea Party would do away with food stamps and other benefit programs and cut funding for education, especially black colleges.

One radio ad said, “A victory by tea party candidate Chris McDaniel is a loss for the state of Mississippi. It is a loss for public education. … It is a loss for the citizens of this state in a time of natural disaster, for our public universities and particularly our historically black universities. A victory for Chris McDaniel is a loss for the reputation of this state for race, for race relationships between blacks and whites and other ethnic groups. Mississippi can’t afford Chris McDaniel.”

It is unthinkable that Republican donor funds would be used to smear loyal conservative Republicans (and the Tea Party) as racists – to convince gullible Democrats to cross over and vote against a Republican primary candidate. But it worked, and Cochran won the runoff election by a few thousand votes. The election results are under scrutiny, with numerous complaints of illegal votes.

The Tea Party Patriots demanded the Republican National Committee censure Henry Barbour. Their “white paper” study detailed the many illegal and immoral activities of the establishment Republicans.

At its summer conference in Chicago this week the RNC not only refused to read a censure resolution brought by the Missouri state committee, RNC chairman Reince Preibus doubled down, threatening Missouri GOP chairman Ed Martin with his position for even raising the issue.

Apparently the insider Republicans have no fear of losing conservative voters – they assume we will continue to spend our money, our effort, and our votes to elect anybody who does not have a “D” after his or her name.

So next time you pull out your checkbook to contribute to the battle against the ongoing Democrat decay of our nation, think twice. You may be supporting Republicans without principles who will do or say anything to hold on to their gravy train. Even race-baiting.

It’s time to do some serious disinfecting in the leadership of the Republican party. It’s really starting to smell in there.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Ooh, that smell!
Can’t you smell that smell?
Ooh, that smell!
The smell of death surrounds you.

Lynyrd Skynyrd – That Smell

Guitar Heaven! – Skynrd’s “That Smell” live in Nashville 2003

Hooray! Liberal Democrats Might End Their “War on Children”

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 2

illegal-immigrant-children-packed-like-sardines

Photo courtesy Breitbart News

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson (D-Texas) handed out lollipops to the hordes of illegal immigrant children squished into detention centers in Texas this week. Is this an omen?

Could it be that LIBERAL DEMOCRATS ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT CHILDREN?

5-star liberal Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said, “If you believe as we do that every child, every person has a spark of divinity in them, and is therefore worthy of respect — what we saw in those rooms was [a] dazzling, sparkling, array of God’s children, worthy of respect.”

What’s that, Nancy? Year after year, liberal Democrats have waged a WAR ON CHILDREN.

Millions of babies (babies are children, aren’t they?) died as Nancy and the liberal Democrats promoted abortions and fought tooth-and-nail every attempt to save unborn and about-to-be-born American babies. 1,350,000 per year. One killed every 24 seconds. War on children.

Graduation rates continued to nosedive as schools failed yet another generation of children by wasting their valuable time on social nonsense and political propaganda pumped into the curriculum by liberal Democrats. The world-competitive, productive, job-ready curricula of physics, advanced math, history, and grammar has been crowded out of our childrens’ class schedules by gay rights, global warming, and diversity/victimhood. War on children.

And what could be more damaging to a child than knowing that his mother is not willing to provide him with food? Liberal Democrats believe schools must provide breakfast, lunch, and in some cases weekend and summer meals to children because otherwise they would go hungry in spite of $400+ per month food stamp subsidies. Failure to feed one’s child is egregious, criminal negligence. Liberal Democrats not only tolerate this abuse, they encourage and subsidize it. War on children.

Our children face a bleak future, because our liberal Democrat leadership does not think our economy matters. We could be the energy leaders of the world, with full employment, low costs of production and consumer prices and a growing economy. But the liberal Democrats are willing to forego the prosperity of future generations to preserve their political power. War on children.

But now, NOW! Suddenly liberal Democrats love children. Their immigration / border policies have resulted in a “humanitarian crisis”. Now we must care for the children. My God, man, have you no heart!? They are just children! You can’t turn them (and their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, drug dealers, gang bangers, terrorists, and lepers) away from our border! They need our government support! They depend on us! And they will VOTE for us!

Isn’t it reassuring that finally, after all these years of WAR ON CHILDREN, the liberal Democrats have had a change of heart?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Some day, yeah
We’ll get it together and we’ll get it all done
Some day, when your head is much lighter
Some day, yeah
We’ll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day, when the world is much brighter

Ooh Child (Things Are Gonna Get Easier) – The Five Stairsteps

Thanks to “Soul Train” and Don Cornelius for presenting so many great musical groups! I have not had cable or satellite for a couple of years and I catch Soul Train on the Bounce channel every once in a while . . .

Don’t Back Down, Mississippi

Posted on June 26, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 1

Mississippi Conservatives, I urge you – DO NOT VOTE FOR THAD COCHRAN in the general election.

At some point we have to take a stand. We have been patient. We have been loyal. We have held our noses and voted for weak, establishment Republicans only in the hope that they might be marginally better than the Democrat opponent.

We have been threatened and bullied and cajoled to “take one for the good of the party.” The establishment Republicans have counted on hard work, funds, and votes from conservatives for a long, long time. They think we will have to vote for them no matter how many times they spit on us.

No more!

Over the last few election cycles the establishment Republicans have withheld funds from conservative candidates – case in point: the GOP failed to support Tea Party favorite Ken Cuccinelli in the Virginia governor’s race, handing a narrow victory to unqualified, ethically-challenged and beatable Democrat Terry McAuliffe. It gets worse.

The insider Republicans have consistently bad-mouthed the Tea Party movement, the last and only hope for honesty in government and economic survival for the nation. They have pulled out all the stops to harm conservatives in every way possible. It still gets worse.

Now the establishment Republicans have signed a pact with the devil. They took out Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel by playing the race card to entice low-information Democrats to vote for insider Thad Cochran in the Republican primary runoff election for Cochran’s US Senate seat. This is the last straw.

“It’s too early right now to get those raw emotions out of the way,” McDaniel told Hannity. “… They used everything from the race card to food stamps to saying I would shut down public education. … I’ve fought for this (Republican Party) all my life, but they abandoned us, made fun of us and ridiculed us and brought in 35,000 Democrats to beat us.” — the Clarion Ledger, ‘McDaniel Still Pondering Challenge’, 6/25/14

For those who missed it, let me break it down. Republicans leaders reached out to Democrats – to defeat a sharp, young, conservative Republican – to protect a weak, squishy, entrenched old Republican – by claiming the Tea Party candidate is a racist – like all Tea Party supporters – and that he wants to prevent them from voting [somehow].

They (Haley Barbour’s Super PAC) robo-called black Democrats with race-baiting lies.

They printed race-baiting flyers.

Can you vote for a man – and a party – that will resort to these tactics against their own fellow Republicans? If you do, you are perpetuating and encouraging such despicable acts. We should no more vote for a Republican liar and race-baiter than a Democrat liar and race-baiter.

And black voters, why don’t you join us! We in the Tea Party movement know how you feel – the politicians we have supported have disrespected us and only made things worse, not better. We want the same things you do – an economic future for our children, good jobs and a government that is functional and solvent. One that works FOR us, instead of the other way around. Stop falling for all the lies! You are better than that!

Mississippi, please stand your ground. You will be blamed by the establishment for all kinds of terrible things, but don’t back down. We can’t let them get away with this – again! Don’t vote for Cochran.

Tom Balek, Rockin’ On the Right Side

Hey baby! There ain’t no easy way out.
Hey yeah! Stand my ground.
And I won’t back down.

Well I know what’s right, I got just one light.
In a world that keeps on pushin’ me around,
I will stand my ground. And I won’t back down.

I Won’t Back Down – Tom Petty
with Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Jeff Lynn and Mike Campbell

There Must Be One Honest Democrat Out There

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 3

honesty Several years ago, while on a long drive, I tuned in to National Public Radio’s afternoon talk show featuring Diane Rehm. I nearly wrecked my truck as several Democrats fervently defended government officials and scientists who were caught fabricating weather data and computer models to make it appear that man-caused global warming was real. They forthrightly stated that lying was the right thing to do if it achieved the results they sought.

Democrats routinely approve of dishonesty. There is no longer any question that many Democrats will say anything, do anything that will keep them in power. Part of the vaunted Cloward-Piven strategy, and the teachings of Saul Alinsky in “Rules for Radicals“, the playbook used so effectively by the Obama administration, is this tenet: “The end justifies the means”. They believe it. Honesty and playing by the rules does not matter, as long as you win.

Conservatives like me can’t understand it. We value honesty. It is the bedrock on which civilization is built. Relationships, societies, commerce and governments can not function without trust based on honesty.

But liberal Democrats don’t see it that way. It shocked the conservative world when our president looked squarely into a television camera and said, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky,” and then later admitted that he did. As stunning as his lapse of morality was, what really blew us away was the unanimous dismissal of his dishonesty by Democrats. They justified their support of a proven liar on the grounds that they generally agreed with his politics, and found him to be “cool”. Conservatives asked, “if he would lie to his wife and family, and openly lie to the American public, how dangerous is it to believe anything he says as the leader of the free world?”

When a Republican is caught in an outright lie or an illegal or immoral act, he or she is removed. When a Democrat is caught in an outright lie or an illegal or immoral act, his party and the complicit media circle the wagons and often will tell more lies aimed at baffling the dumbed-down, undiscerning populace – case in point, the Obama Administration’s ham-handed Benghazi Lie.

In an attempt to justify dishonesty, Democrats frequently turn to the only example they can think of by a conservative: the claim that President Bush lied when he said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. They stop short of admitting that he based his concern on intelligence that was acknowledged by every official in the U.S. government, including their own Democrat leaders. And Bush may yet be proven right – just this week our state department reported terrorists gained control of one of Hussein’s poison gas factories.

The level of dishonesty and immorality in American government during the Obama era has reached epic proportions. When Nixon was found to have lied about a rather minor, but nonetheless illegal and immoral campaign activity, and then tried to cover it up by erasing taped evidence, he was unceremoniously thrown out of office by officials and supporters of both parties.

This week we are told that Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS, directly after being questioned about illegal targeting of conservatives during a campaign, had a computer malfunction that caused the loss of smoking-gun e-mail evidence from her and six other officials, and that in spite of legal requirements, department policy, and common practice, no backups exist. Just “Oops, you’ll have to trust us.”

And NOT ONE DEMOCRAT will question her honesty. Not one is bothered by the stench of corruption.

It is hard for me to accept that there aren’t still a few honest Democrats out there. There must be. Believing that every single Democrat accepts dishonesty is like believing that every single voter in 59 Philadelphia precincts pulled the lever for Barack Obama.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Honesty is such a lonely word.
Everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard.
And mostly what I need from you.

Honesty – Billy Joel

How E-mail Works – THE IRS IS LYING

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 2

photo credit (AP/Carolyn Kaster)

Many of you already know the nuts-and-bolts of how e-mail works so you understand that Lois Lerner, the IRS, and the Obama Administration are caught in yet another bald-faced lie when they say her e-mail files are missing. If you are in this category, you may skip this article and move on to something productive.

I did not intend to write about the IRS scandal because I thought the “big lie” is just so obvious that everybody will see right through it and justice will prevail. But the controversy goes on. The corruptocrats are betting they can get away with their contempt of congress, the law, and the taxpayers because there are still enough people who (a) don’t care and (b) don’t understand. I can’t do much about (a), but I can help with (b).

Let me explain in layman’s terms why it is impossible for Lerner’s IRS e-mails to be lost forever.

Let’s say Yahoo is your mail service provider. When you write an e-mail and press the “send” key, the e-mail file goes through the internet to Yahoo’s mail server (a large computer system specifically designated for handling e-mails). A copy of this file is then routed through other internet computers to the recipient you specified. The file remains on Yahoo’s mail server disk drive, and is also copied to other Yahoo drives for backup protection, permanent storage, and to free up space on the main mail server. Yahoo keeps many copies of every e-mail you send, and they are retained forever.

Conversely, when someone sends an e-mail to your “@yahoo.com” address, Yahoo’s mail server forwards a copy of the e-mail file to your computer, and saves the file on several of its own disk drives.

You might be thinking “Yeah, but what if I delete the e-mail?” Well, it won’t show up in your list of e-mails any more, but trust me – it’s still there on Yahoo’s drives. There is considerable controversy right now over who owns these e-mail files, whether they can be processed and the information from them sold, and whether the government should be allowed access to them. Do not assume that the content of your e-mails will not be seen by other eyes, or that when you delete an e-mail, it is gone forever. The big e-mail providers will never destroy any data that has profit potential, and that includes your e-mails.

The process is the same for government computers. Just change the “@yahoo.com” to “@irs.gov”. The federal government’s mail servers have multiple backup copies of every e-mail received or sent by everybody who works there. And outside mail providers have copies of the same e-mail files that they processed on the way to and from their mail clients.

One IRS spokesman said that e-mails are only stored on the federal government’s mail servers for six months and are then deleted. This contradicts the government’s own policy, which states that the retention requirement for most e-mail records is permanent. Further, it instructs employees:

Once you determine that an e-mail message is an official record, you should ensure that it is kept in an approved file system that satisfies the requirements for recordkeeping set out in points 1 to 5 above. You may, of course, retain your personal copy in your personal e-mail, but you must ensure that the record is placed in an approved file system.

The government contracts with a private data security firm to provide and manage the file backup system. The defense that Lois Lerner lost her e-mail to a “hard drive crash” on her personal computer ten days after her department was implicated in the scandal, is moot. And how can we be expected to believe that e-mails from six other key IRS employees were lost at about the same time? How many times does lightning strike the same spot?

Where is the DOJ? Where is the FBI? Where are the terminations, if not criminal prosecutions? This is an outright, in-your-face assault on the taxpaying citizens of the US. We can’t allow government employees, and the elected officials who direct them, to break the law and cover their tracks without repercussions. When will we say enough is enough?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Lerner is not the first person to have problems with the mail . . .

Return to sender, address unknown.
No such number, no such zone.
We had a quarrel, a lover’s spat
I write I’m sorry but my letter keeps coming back!

Elvis Presley – Return to Sender