“We’re the most transparent administration in history . . . so long as I’m president, I won’t stop fighting to eliminate waste and abuse in Washington . . . to eliminate what we don’t need to pay for what we do . . . to rein in exploding deficits . . . and I’m going to keep on fighting for real health insurance reform.”

Call me and my conservative friends racists, obstructionists, uneducated “crazies”. Accuse us of being the new Ku Klux Clan.

At least we know better than to believe much of anything this group has to say.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ on the Right Side

Well now I don’t read that daily news
‘Cause it ain’t hard to figure
Where people get the blues
They can’t dig what they can’t use
If they stick to themselves
They’d be much less abused

I Know A Little – Lynyrd Skynyrd

My favorite Skynyrd song! Too much guitar-power for one band – enjoy!

Hail to the Whiteskins!

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 1

I am so offended by all of these politically-incorrect athletic team names.

There are too many teams named after American Natives. The Redskins, the Braves, the Indians, the Utes, the Fighting Sioux, the Chiefs, the Seminoles. Very few major sports athletes are Native Americans. Shouldn’t we call the football team from our capital city the Washington Whiteskins? Or better yet, the Blackskins! After all, 70% of NFL players are black. Or would that be offensive? Would the white football players sue the NFL under affirmative action, which requires employment that reflects the pigmentation of the general population?

Los Angeles Angels. San Diego Padres. New Orleans Saints. Hey, you can’t talk about religion! That’s against the Constitution, ain’t it? Separation of church and sports, or something like that.

Oakland Raiders? Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Pittsburgh Pirates? You bigots, what have you got against those hard-working guys from Somalia?

And speaking of stupid team names, what does Los Angeles have to do with lakes? There are no lakes anywhere near Los Angeles! The Los Angeles Lakers should change their name, maybe to something like the “Los Angeles Traffic Jams” or the “Los Angeles Smog”. Much more accurate and appropriate. (Actually, the Lakers team was transferred from Minnesota, the “Land of 1000 Lakes”).

And the Utah Jazz! What a stupid team name. There is no “jazz” in Utah – trust me, I lived there! That is totally offensive. We should call them the Utah Boring People with Lots of Kids. (The Jazz team was transferred from New Orleans, which was rather famous for jazz music).

We need a new federal agency to control this important aspect of American culture. No team should be allowed to offend even a single person by using a team name associated with any protected cultural group. University of Washington Huskies? Offensive to fat people. UCLA Trojans? Sexually aggressive. Mary Baldwin College Fighting Squirrels? Too confrontational.

Our new Federal Department of Team Names (annual budget $750 billion) might choose to just number the teams. The New York #12. The Boston #4. Or maybe just stop the name-calling altogether. The Detroit Baseball Team. The Chicago Basketball Team.

We really must address this pressing problem. Certainly this is more important than, say, writing a federal budget.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I call your name
But you’re not there
Was I to blame
For being unfair?

I Call Your Name – the Beatles

Adrian Peterson’s Love Child – Never Meant To Be

Posted on October 13, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 4

AdrianPeterson [update 10/17/13 th to Hank Jones, related article from Baltimore Sun]

Another sad headline via the sports pages: “Adrian Peterson’s Young Son Dies After Assault”.

Peterson has received much sympathy from the public and his teammates, and has reported that he will unquestionably play in today’s game against the Panthers. Yes, it’s a tragedy, but it’s not Peterson’s fault. Or is it?

It’s certainly a tragedy for the two-year child, who did not pick his parents. He was born to Peterson and a “girlfriend”. Then shaken to death by her new “boyfriend”. Call me old-school, but I still think kids should be raised by married mothers and fathers, not boyfriends, girlfriends, gay lovers, and Hillary’s “village”.

Kansas City Chiefs fans still wail about the tragedy when star defensive end Derrick Thomas was paralyzed and later died from a car crash while driving to the airport in a snowstorm. One of his two passengers was also killed. Thomas left behind seven children by five different mothers, he was not married to any of them, and he blew his millions of dollars so fast he didn’t leave them a penny. State Senator Bill Kenney, a former Chief, called Thomas “a true hero.”

Marriage is now obsolete, and I think this may be the biggest threat facing our society and our economy. Look at the listing of births in your local newspaper. Only about half of these precious little creatures are born to parents with the same last name. The other half begin their journey through life with two strikes against them. Some will succeed, but most will face poverty and will be dependent on their peers who were raised in a traditional family.

The breakup of the American family, and the subsequent dependency of unwed mothers on the government, has caused an avalanche of social problems. By eliminating the economic need for fathers, we have done untold damage to generations of kids that will be tough, if not impossible, to reverse. The solution is not as simple as just cutting back spending on welfare and food stamps – that would only do more damage to the kids. A culture shift is the only thing that will get us out of this tailspin.

Too many parents are now conditioned to think it is “somebody else’s” responsibility to see that their kids get an education. That they get breakfast and lunch. That they have school supplies and warm coats.

My wife recently visited with a single mom who was concerned about the federal government shut-down. “What if they stop Head Start?” the stay-at-home welfare mother asked. “My kids are supposed to know their ABC’s before they get to grade school. What am I going to do?” It obviously never occurred to her to turn off the TV and teach them herself.

I’m guessing all of you who read this are old enough to remember the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story about a young Puritan woman who was branded as an adulterer and shunned by her community. It was required reading for junior high kids back when we were in school, when marriage mattered. The Scarlet Letter is no longer in the curriculum, for two reasons: One is Common Core, which limits most school reading to non-fiction, featuring themes such as global warming and diversity. The other is the fact that today’s kids don’t “get it” when they read about adultery. What’s wrong with two unmarried people having sex? Doesn’t everybody do that?

I know, I am a social dinosaur, severely outnumbered and out-dated. But I was here when life was better – back when kids had moms and dads with the same name.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Love Child, never meant to be
Love Child, born in poverty
Love Child, always second best
Love Child, different from the rest

Love Child – Diana Ross and the Supremes

ObamaCare Navigators – Just Another Political Payback

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 3

obamacare [Update 10/14/13 – it gets uglier by the minute]

[Update 10/13/13 – new related post here, by I-4 Activist Watch]

Lost in all the ObamaCare kerfuffle is the fact that President Obama gave the contracts for “navigators”, those in charge of educating the public about enrollment, to crony left-wing organizations instead of insurance professionals.

This is just one more slap in the face to the taxpayer public, as more and more public funds find their way to the people who campaigned for the president (and still do).

A report in the Missoulian illustrates how Planned Parenthood of Montana received $300,000 from Obama to act as navigators. So far the services rendered are two meetings – one had seven attendees and the other had “less than a half dozen”. But Planned Parenthood is getting a ton of PR in addition to the money, and both will go a long ways toward killing more babies.

The navigators were apparently chosen strictly on the basis of political payback – only Obama community organizer types need apply. In addition to Planned Parenthood, the paybacks also extend to the SEIU and Acorn (yes, the group that was convicted of vote fraud , misappropriating HUD funds, and a host of other ugly crimes.) There are no background checks for navigators – an alarming invitation to identity theft and invasion of privacy as citizens divulge their social security numbers, personal and financial information, and medical details to total strangers, some from groups who are notorious bad actors.

I used to think that blatant, corrupt, under-the-table paybacks from elected officials only happened in banana republic third-world countries. It couldn’t happen here.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Too many people need me
I’ve got so much, So much to do
But when my travelling is over
I’ll pay you back with interest
I’ll pay you back with interest

Pay You Back With Interest – the Hollies

http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/14/obamacare-navigator-in-kansas-has-outstanding-arrest-warrant/2/

Surviving the Shut Down

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

We are in the seventh day of the federal government “Shut Down”. By now, according to the dire predictions of the Democrats on Capitol Hill and the elite media, we should all be dead.

Actually, things don’t seem so bad. If there are hardships, they appear to be rare and minimal.

Our federal employees are enjoying their paid vacations. As I predicted, Congress voted unanimously to provide back pay for all 800,000 furloughed federal workers. It isn’t enough that they earn double what private-sector employees do for comparable work, or that their benefit packages are far more generous than ours. Now they are on extended paid leave, with no end in sight. Children used to dream of being princes and princesses. Now they aspire to be Assistant to the Undersecretary of Diversity for the Department of Sustainable Green Diaper Recycling. Have a Corona for me, guys, and don’t forget the sunscreen.

Disappointed that Americans are not feeling enough pain, the Obama administration has worked diligently to manufacture some in the most unexpected places:

After closing Mount Rushmore from public access, the federal government decided that visiting motorists deserved even further punishment. The Park Service placed traffic cones on highway turnouts so that drivers could not even stop and take photos of the monument. This obviously did not save any tax dollars, and in fact there was some cost incurred.
Elderly veterans, many of whom were once-in-a-lifetime Honor Flight recipients, were greeted with a barrier at their World War II Veteran’s Memorial – an open-air facility with little or no daily maintenance costs. But the Obama administration had no problem approving the opening of the national mall for a pro-amnesty illegal immigration rally.
Today the Obama gang shut down the Amber Alert website, blaming the “lapse in federal funding”.

Each of these shameless, finger-in-the-eye provocations has been turned back by public outrage, but our shameless imperial leaders offer no apologies. Many more insulting shutdowns are being revealed by the hour. When the government spends tax money to shut down services or facilities that did not cost anything to keep open in the first place, their motivation is obvious. This is nothing more than arrogant, childish bullying, and flat-out disrespect for the citizens.

Obama/Reid defenders claim these spiteful political actions are self-defense against the growing opposition to their train-wreck ObamaCare program. We Americans are more than justified taking whatever action is necessary to stop this monstrosity – my health insurance premiums have increased by more than double (please check yours). And we know damn well that a government who can’t even make a website work in three years is not capable of managing the complexities of our entire health care system.

Please, Congress stand your ground. Our children will pay the price if we allow this insanity to continue. If our government can no longer operate within a budget and a constitution, if it has nothing but contempt for the very citizens it pretends to serve, if it refuses to reverse its tragic mistakes and prevent more in the future, then now is the time. Shut her down! Somehow, I think we will survive.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Shut it off, shut it off,
Buddy, gonna shut you down!

Shut Down – the Beach Boys

Why Do Democrats Hate the Working Class?

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 4

foodstamp For years the media has claimed that the mean old Conservatives (especially the Tea Party) only care about the rich, and don’t give a damn about anybody else. Only progressive Democrats care about the poor, the average Joe, the “working class family.”

Huh?

Wasn’t it the Democrats who rammed ObamaCare through against the wishes of the majority of Americans? This is the program that cuts the work hours of millions of “working class” employees, forces them to buy insurance that they don’t want or can’t afford, raises the cost of their existing insurance, or causes their employers to drop coverage. Here’s a dirty little secret – most of the working poor who are not already on Medicaid are not going to buy their own insurance whether you threaten to punish them at tax time or not. They don’t know how, won’t learn how, don’t pay taxes, and frankly aren’t interested. They will still be getting their medical care at the nearest hospital emergency room – after all, the hospitals have not been relieved of the legal responsibility to care for everybody regardless of ability to pay. Remind me again now, how does ObamaCare help the poor?

Wasn’t it the Democrats who fought like crazy to stop drilling and fracking and pipelines for oil and gas, and mining for coal – resources that would create millions of jobs, lower the cost of energy for all Americans, and get the economy back on track? Instead they continue to print fiat money, devaluing the currency so the average Joe can’t even afford to put gas in the family wagon.

Wasn’t it the Democrats who refused to allow working-class families to choose the school that will best meet the needs of their children, and instead herds them into chronically under-performing, high-cost schools, wasting students’ time with ideological nonsense instead of teaching them how to make a living? Don’t even get me started on Common Core.

Wasn’t it the Democrats who destroyed the manufacturing job base in our country by taxing our corporations at the highest rate in the world, making them move production facilities overseas? We could straighten out our negative balance of trade and bring those jobs back in a few years with some intelligent management of tax rates and tariffs to level the playing field with China, who continues to eat our lunch and demand dessert.

Wasn’t it the Democrats who demanded amnesty for illegal aliens, and called for open borders so that the few available low-tech jobs open to Americans are even harder to get, and pay third-world wages?

Wasn’t it these same Democrats who destroyed the American family, the traditional work ethic, and the economy by replacing the role of working fathers with a huge and growing “entitlement” culture? Fewer than half of our citizens pay income tax, and one in five families is on food stamps. Illegitimacy is normal now as single mothers no longer need to worry about feeding and housing their children.

The news media has been little more than a propaganda wing of the progressives for a long time. All of their so-called “compassion” since the onset of LBJ’s Great Society has only resulted in more misery for the poor, the average Joe, the “working class.” And they didn’t do it alone – some corrupt and self-serving liberal Republicans along the way did not exactly help the situation.

Conservatives do care about the poor, the average Joe, the “working class.” We know that a functional free-market economy offers the best opportunity for everyone to succeed, and is healthy enough to care for those who deserve help. History proves that heavy-handed, top-down, corrupt big-government enriches those few in control, and steals freedom, opportunity, and wealth from everyone else.

Next time some phony Beltway progressive politician or MSNBC lacky feigns outrage because “Conservatives don’t care about the poor”, you might hear a loud bang – that would be my head exploding.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

With you by my side
They can’t keep us down
Together we can make it baby
From the poor side of town

The Poor Side of Town – Johnny Rivers

Good Day To Be A Conservative

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 4

sunshine Today it feels good to be a conservative. Heck I might even claim the Republicans again for the first time in a long while.

Last week John Boehner finally listened to the people and decided to stand his ground against the intransigent, ideologue Democrats. Many weak-kneed squishy Republicans spent the last few weeks hiding under their desks, afraid to be “blamed” for fighting a program that they know is harmful to the nation – and even they have now sheepishly joined the fray.

Then Ted Cruz jumped to the front of the battle, his brave filibuster inspiring everyone on the right side to finally stand up. Well, almost everybody – John McCain showed us why it’s probably a good thing he was defeated in his presidential run. Cruz was still making perfect sense and a compelling argument against the Train Wreck after a physically grueling 21 hours on his feet at the microphone.

How refreshing to finally see some leadership in the GOP. It’s about damn time! Where were the Ted Cruz’s during the last two presidential elections? Will we ever learn the futility of running milk-toast candidates?

Today the federal government is shut down. Oh, we know that it’s a charade. We aren’t really going to stop, or even slow federal spending. In a few weeks the federal employees who are now furloughed will receive full back-pay – it’s just another paid vacation to them. The grants will still flow, the cronies will line up at the trough, and we conservatives will still be branded as hard-hearted meanies and racists for even questioning the insanity.

But today there is big-time symbolic significance. Finally somebody has gathered the fortitude to Just Say No.

It’s a good day to be a conservative in America. There may be hope after all.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Good day sunshine!
Good day sunshine!
I need to laugh, and when the sun is out
I’ve got something I can laugh about!

Good Day Sunshine – the Beatles

John Lennon – Liberal? Or Conservative?

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 2

beatles I’m a Beatle baby. I grew up with the Beatles. In my pre-pube years I watched their movies, listened to their hit songs on the radio, saw them on Ed Sullivan, and tried to figure out why all the girls were screaming. Like every other music-aware and girl-aware boy, I wanted to be a Beatle. I just couldn’t decide which one.

At first I thought being a British Invasion drummer would be the pinnacle of success. Here’s my story, a song I wrote and recorded a couple of years ago:

To this day I revere the Beatles (living and dead) – their magical songwriting skills, their charisma, their larger-than-life grip on pop culture, and their legendary worldview that grew beyond anything that could have been scripted. John, Paul, George and Ringo set the tempo of the universe, both musically and socially. They had the world by the ass.

Many of you who Rock with me On The Right Side might think that the long-haired, dope-smoking, guru-worshipping Beatles of the sixties were on the wrong side of political history. How on Earth could conservative Tom still get such a big buzz when he hears “Baby, You Can Drive My Car”, or “Lady Madonna” ?

Well, to tell you the truth, I never really tried to extract any deep message. Nor did you. Much of their lyrical message was nonsense.

I am the Egg Man! They are the Egg Men! I am the Walrus! Goo Goo, Goo Joob!

Lennon and McCartney occasionally tried to convey an overtly political message. Usually it was something basic, like “Give Peace A Chance.” But let’s face it: they weren’t world leaders, they were relatively uneducated twenty-something kids who were getting a lot of attention. They had no clue what message would have positive results for their world and that of the future.

But they did have the world by the ass, and still do. I still love to play and sing Beatle songs. I plead guilty to the crime of passionately singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” to audiences of all persuasions, including Montana cowboys:

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too

Could there be a more liberal, “one world order” message than that? I kind of hope that nobody really pays attention to those lyrics when I sing them. Just enjoy the beautiful song.

But then I revel in Lennon’s totally conservative anthem “Revolution”, in which he proclaims:

You say you’ll change the constitution, well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it’s the institution, well, you know
You better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right?

Was John Lennon a liberal, or a conservative? I don’t think he really cared. He was just searching for reality. For truth. Hell, maybe he was so stoned most of the time he couldn’t tell the difference. I suppose he stumbled onto wisdom and dreams from both sides, like many of us who try to make sense of the news today.

Anyway, thinking about Lennon, and the Beatles, and the huge philosophical and political differences between the left and the right today, it reminds me to . . . just keep an open mind. Listen. Think. Teach. Stay level. And do your best to help make the world a better place for our kids and grandkids.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

But if you want money
For people with minds that hate
All I can tell is brother you have to wait
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right?

Revolution – the Beatles

ALL RIGHT!

RIP John Lennon

Aaron Rogers Cost Wisconsin 184,000 Jobs

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 3

Aaron Rodgers_ Many people are demanding that the minimum wage be raised to $15 an hour. They complain that some people make too much money, and that’s why poor people earn so little.

You see, liberals believe that wealth is a zero-sum game. If one person gets more, another gets less. They think that raising the minimum wage would transfer wealth from the owner of a business, or its high-paid employees, to the poor, hard working lower-paid people. Simple.

My fantasy football team got clobbered this weekend. It didn’t help that my opponent’s quarterback, Peyton Manning, scored 7 touchdowns and passed for 462 yards . . . but anyway, some of my players’ terrible performances made me wonder how much they earn per hour, compared to their teammates.

My starting tight end, Anthony Fasano, makes $1.2 million per year. That places him somewhere in the middle of the expense report for the Kansas City Chiefs. At the top of the Chiefs report is Tamba Hali, a defensive lineman who makes over $12 million per year.

Fasano had a pretty disappointing opening week, catching only two passes for 8 yards in the first game of the season. He doesn’t block much, so his value is based on his catches. My simple math (not the way it is taught in our government schools today) works like this: $1.2 million divided by 16 one-hour games per season is $75,000 per hour. Now I know, Anthony is working at practice, and in the off-season, and during time-outs too. But let’s face it, his value to his employer is only the 60 minutes he is on the clock on Sunday.

If Fasano is making $75,000 per hour, no wonder the kids at the car wash only make $7.50! Just think, if Fasano didn’t play football, they could divvy up his paycheck!

But darn, business is so complicated. Fasano was paid one-tenth as much as Chiefs lineman Tamba Hali. Hali didn’t gain any yards – he is a defensive player. Still, he got a couple of tackles and returned an interception for a touchdown. He anchored the defense, who shut down the Jacksonville offense, leading to an easy win. How do we compare Hali’s worth to Fasano’s? They both worked an hour.

My fantasy team quarterback, Aaron Rogers, is the highest paid player in the NFL, at $22 million per year (not quite up to Madonna’s pay rate, she earned $125 million). Using the simple (non-Common Core) math, that’s about $1,375,000 per hour. Just think, if the Packers owners – who are mostly season-ticket holders – let Aaron go tomorrow, they could hire 184,000 guys for each of their eight home games at $15 per hour to sell hot dogs at Lambeau Field!

But wait a minute . . . if Aaron was not playing, who would be there to buy all those hot dogs? Maybe it doesn’t matter if the Packers win, or if there is a game at all . . . People will just go to Lambeau and buy hot dogs from the 184,000 hot dog guys anyway, right? (hmm, we might need a bigger stadium to hold all of those hot dog guys . . . )

It just seems really unfair that Rogers makes $1.4 million per hour, and the hot dog sellers only earn $7.50. So, I guess let’s just pay Aaron $15 an hour and then we can hire 184,000 hot dog sellers at $15 an hour and that will even help reduce our high rate of unemployment. That’s fairness, and unemployment problem solved!

I think?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

It seems to me
I could live my life
A lot better than I think I am
I guess that’s why they call me
They call me the working man

Workin’ Man – Rush

Here’s a different and really cool version of a classic – by one of the hardest working live performing bands in history – RUSH: Workin’ Man!

The Political Winds Are Changing

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 1

CONSERVATIVE GOOD NEWS HEADLINES TODAY

“SENATORS CHALLENGE KERRY’S SYRIA CLAIMS – (McClatchy Washington Bureau) – Senators from both parties pressed President Barack Obama’s top Cabinet offices Tuesday to provide guarantees that no U.S. troops would be sent to Syria . . . ” We can’t afford any more lame attempts at nation-building or world-policing. Let’s build some infrastructure here instead of in the Middle East for a change.

“NC HOUSE VOTES TO OVERRIDE 2 VETOES BY MCCRORY – Charlotte Observer – The (NC) state House on Tuesday took little more than half an hour to override the governor’s vetoes of two bills, on immigration and drug-testing welfare recipients . . . The votes marked the first split between Republican lawmakers, who control the General Assembly with a veto-proof majority, and the new governor of the same party.” Isn’t it refreshing that Republicans are beginning to self-police? Those whose main interest is re-election must be replaced or overruled by elected officials who stand on conservative principles.

“CITY’S STREETCAR MISSES GRANT, SUFFERS SETBACK – Charlotte Observer – “. . . the city would use $63 million in reserve funds and also apply for a $63 million federal TIGER grant.” These federal grants are so out of control – why should taxpayers in Billings pay for a boondoggle streetcar project in Charlotte? Or vice-versa? Grant money does not grow on trees – it comes out of family budgets.

Last weekend I attended the “Saving the American Dream Summit” in Orlando, where two potential Republican contenders for the 2016 presidential race learned that the Republican “base” has turned resolutely to the right. Sen. Marco Rubio was met with a strident chorus of “No Amnesty!” calls throughout his speech, and the large crowd erupted into applause when Gov. Rick Scott was admonished to “Stop Common Core”.

I sense a definite turn in the political winds, as lately we see incumbent liberals deflecting scandals and questions about their motives, and squishy Republicans facing a recharged constituency that demands adherence to true conservative principles.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

The wind of change
Blows straight into the face of time
Like a storm wind that will ring
The freedom bell for peace of mind

The Wind of Change – the Scorpions