Easy First Step to Make USA Stronger – Eliminate EITC

Posted on January 23, 2016 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

Our federal deficit and debt is so huge and out of control, there’s just nothing anybody can do about it. We’re screwed, right?

Wrong. We CAN fix it, and we must, if we give a damn about our kids.

Our debt and stagnant economy is a huge mess, that’s for sure, and the only way to clean up a huge mess is to start somewhere. I once stood awestruck on the deck of an aircraft carrier and wondered, “What was the first bolt the shipbuilders put in this baby?” Some Assembly Required. Instructions: 1. Insert 40 mm grade 5 bolt 16432-A-1216 into the top left threaded hole in whizzle restrictor plate 76-523215654.

You have to start somewhere. And I have an idea where to start the task of repairing our budget and tax code. We could do it tomorrow, it would be easy to do, and it would cost nothing. In fact it would save the taxpayers a ton of money, and would, over time, improve the economy and actually increase revenue to the government. Here it is:

Eliminate the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

Wait, come back! I know you hate even thinking about taxes. That’s why you, and almost all Americans pay some total stranger to do your tax returns instead of doing them yourself. But this one little change would make a huge impact, and it’s easy. Really! Stick with me.

The earned income tax credit was enacted in 1975 under Gerald Ford. It is, simply put, a federal welfare program. Workers earning up to $52,000 per year are eligible to receive a direct credit on their tax returns, with the amount based on a number of criteria – mostly the number of dependent children. What began as a modest little income booster for low-income parents grew over time (like all federal programs) into a monster. The 2015 cost of the EITC is estimated at $70 billion. But there are other insidious side effects that are even more harmful than the cost.

You have probably heard that almost half of US workers pay no federal income tax. What you don’t ever hear is that many of these people get a tax refund even though they didn’t pay federal income tax. This includes foreign workers and illegal aliens. In fact, a new cottage industry has sprouted where tax returns are filed for illegals, winning them big tax refund checks for EITC and dependent child deductions. These returns go unaudited, with expedited payouts, despite rampant fraud including the claiming of children who never lived in the US. Senator Chuck Grassley even learned that illegals can file for EITC for previous years in which they didn’t file taxes!

When some complain that the minimum wage is not adequate for the survival of families with children, you never hear about the EITC tax refund checks, among many other benefits, that are received. At least 26 states also have their own additional EITC programs.

The most disturbing thing you don’t hear about the EITC is the damage it has done to the American nuclear family. Unmarried filers receive more EITC than married ones, and the direct result has been an increase in single-parent households. Many parents just don’t get married because it would cost them a significant chunk of change. At a time when 54% of 15 to 17 year-olds do not live with a married mother and father, this is just plain wrong.

Financial support from EITC and other programs enables and encourages many parents to remain single. Others live together, but remain unmarried. I know a couple in this category. Despite sharing a home for twenty years, and raising two kids together, she still calls him her “boyfriend”. For many years she claimed the kids on her single-filer tax return and benefitted from EITC. When she got a promotion and her income exceeded the threshold, her “boyfriend” claimed the kids on his single-filer return so he could continue to receive the full EITC. Their combined income exceeded $60,000.

These are good, hard-working people, doing nothing illegal. You can’t fault them. But why is the federal government hell bent on destroying the institution of marriage?

When we eliminate the EITC we reduce the incentive for illegals to come here and defraud the taxpayers. We stop the disincentive to marriage. I would require all workers to pay some federal income tax – even a small amount, so all would have ‘skin in the game’ and a reason to become engaged citizens again. With $70 billion to work with, there are plenty of ways the loss of EITC could be replaced for low-income families. Wage rates would increase, employment numbers would improve, kids would have two married parents, and the quality of life in America would be back on the upswing.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Where are you goin’ to?
What are you gonna do?
Do you think that it will be easy?
Do you think that it will be pleasin’, hey!

Livin’ In the USA – Steve Miller

Here’s a cool updated version of Steve Miller’s classic, “Livin’ In the USA”. Somebody get me a cheeseburger!

Words Mean Things. But Things Change.

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard 2

Talk I don’t know who was the first to say, “Words mean things.” Rush Limbaugh invoked this truism frequently during his early broadcasting years when analyzing politicians and their rhetoric. People should be held accountable for what they say, according to Limbaugh, and not parse words to escape judgment – like the Bill Clinton gem: “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”

It’s not all that simple. Words may mean things, but things change. And two words we use with great frequency these days seem to have changed a lot.

From Webster’s Dictionary and WordNet

Conservative (con`serv´a`tive) – noun

“One who desires to maintain existing institutions and customs.”
“One who, or that which, preserves from ruin, injury, innovation, or radical change; a preserver; a conserver.”
“One who holds moderate opinions in politics – opposed to revolutionary or radical.”
“One who avoids excess; synonym: cautious.”

Liberal (lib´er`al) – noun

“One who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties.”
“One who favors an economic theory of laissez-faire and self-regulating markets.”
“One who is tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition.”
“One who favors greater freedom in political or religious matters; an opponent of the established systems; a reformer.”
“One who is free to excess; regardless of law or moral restraint; licentious.”

Wow. My eyes glaze over seeing all the contradictions above, based on what we know of conservatives and liberals today.

Some of the traditional definitions still hold up. Real conservatives on the modern political battleground are desperately trying to “preserve [the nation] from ruin” and “cautiously avoid excess [spending and regulation].” Liberals definitely are “free to excess, regardless of law or moral restraint”, and if you watch TV, witness a foul-mouthed group of protesters, or (God forbid) take your kids to a parade which includes the LGBT crowd, you would define them as “licentious.”

Many of the other definitions no longer hold up. Were liberals really once the champions of “civil liberties” and the “economic theory of laissez-faire and self-regulating markets?” What the hell happened there? I’m sure a conservative group that applied for 501(c)3 status from the IRS, or a bakery that doesn’t want to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, or a landowner who tries to defend his property rights from the EPA would not agree with that definition. And parents who would like to hear their kids sing “Silent Night” at a real school Christmas program would probably not define liberals as “favoring greater freedom in political or religious matters”.

I love the definition that says liberals are “not bound by authoritarianism.” Has there ever been a more authoritarian administration than Obama’s? And any mention of “tolerance” in the same sentence as “liberal” is pure oxymoron.

My common-sense wife likes this definition of conserve: “To use or manage wisely; preserve; save.” She asks, “Why do we throw so much perfectly good stuff away? Why do charity programs for kids Christmas toys require only brand-new items? Wouldn’t every needy kid rather have ten slightly-used toys than one new one?” My grandson’s favorite toy at our house is a big metal Tonka truck, so huge he can ride it down the driveway. They cost about $100 new, but his was a buck at a garage sale, and he thinks it’s great.

Words mean things, but things change. Democrats are almost universally liberal – at least until election time. Democrat Senator John Tester from Montana followed the party line in lockstep on every issue, until he voted against the omnibus spending bill last week, saying, “We just can’t keep spending like this.” In contrast, Montana’s Republican Congressman Ryan Zinke voted for the spending bill, showing no concern over the approaching $20 trillion national debt.

I guess the lesson here is that you can’t trust a politician based on his or her words (especially Hillary!) Better to hold our political leaders accountable based on their actions.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I can’t seem to talk about
The things that bother me
Seems to be what everybody has
Against me! (ooh! ooh! ooh! yeah!)

Talk, Talk – the Music Machine

I LOVE sixties music, and here’s a short clip by a fantastic one-hit-wonder sixties band, the Music Machine, to make my case. It’s all there – the hair, the tambourine, the teen-age angst, the “fuzz bass”. Well written rocker – take two minutes and enjoy!

Conservatives Fall For PBS Propaganda About Mulvaney, Freedom Caucus

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard 2

This week Congressman Mick Mulvaney and some fellow Freedom Caucus members are under attack on the web and social media. But not, as you might expect, by liberal opponents.

The hits are coming from conservatives, both grassroots activists and inside-the-beltway veterans.

And guess what, Hillary? This attack really was caused by a whacko video! Last week PBS played a three-hour documentary about Congressman Luis Guitierrez’ three-year struggle to win amnesty for illegal Mexican immigrants. The writers and producer of the piece made no attempt to hide their emotional advocacy for amnesty and open borders. But their methodology was a masterpiece of subterfuge.

In order to legitimize their position, the PBS writers were seeking a respected, well-known, solid conservative who favors open borders. They failed to find one, but they did stumble onto the remarkable and highly publicized film clip of Congressman Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) addressing a Hispanic town hall meeting in Gaffney, SC speaking only in Spanish. Mulvaney’s statements to that audience were consistent with the same message he had presented dozens of times to other groups: the borders and ports must be sealed, existing laws must be enforced, no amnesty for illegals, and improve legal immigration policies. But the carefully edited footage of Mulvaney, speaking eloquently in Spanish to a smiling group of Hispanics had a visceral effect. The casual observer would assume he joins Congressman Guitierrez arm-in-arm down the path of amnesty.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

These same conservatives laugh at the PBS hysteria about global warming. They see right through the propaganda in support of myriad other liberal issues. How on earth do they now decide that PBS is suddenly 100% accurate in their depiction of a solid conservative as a supporter of amnesty and open borders?

I have always known better than to believe everything I see on television, especially on PBS. And in recent years I have learned to not swallow everything that is published on the web. This post is in that category, so I urge you to please do a little research on Mulvaney and his positions on immigration (here’s a policy statement I found). Better yet, ask him – he is one of the most accessible politicians around.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I can’t go for that
Can’t go for that
Can’t go for that
Can’t go for that yeah

I Can’t Go For That – Daryl Hall with Cee Lo Green

Corruption – Time To Raise A Little Hell

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

75% of Americans think our government is corrupt. No kidding?

Everybody knows the game:

Taxpayers give money to government.

Corrupt politicians give some of that money (or favors) to organizations

Organizations kick back some of the money to the corrupt politicians as campaign contributions.

The politicians use the dirty money to get re-elected.

Return to number 1.

The corruption game is nothing new. Call it payola, quid pro quo, scratch my back – it has gone on ever since the first government came into being, and still occurs all over the world. In Mexico and similar “banana republics” nothing gets done by government without illegal payoffs.

No, the corruption game isn’t new, but the playbook has changed. Until recently, corrupt deals were made between public officials and private businesses. That arrangement was problematic – when the public found out about massive corruption (back then we had real journalism) the citizens would raise hell until the corruption was at least somewhat beat down. They didn’t like their tax dollars going to fat cat big business operators. But corrupt politicians didn’t appreciate these temporary interruptions in the game. So instead of using corporate cronies to fatten their wallets, they learned to cycle the dirty money through government employee unions, quasi-government organizations and NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) instead of private businesses.

This week’s scandal du jour is the uproar over Planned Parenthood’s use of taxpayer money for purposes that most citizens find repugnant. The dollars aren’t huge – only a half a billion or so – but what they do with the money sure has a lot of taxpayers’ underwear in a knot. Moreover, Planned Parenthood uses a good chunk of the money for campaign contributions and lobbying. They claim the government funds they get are applied only to honorable pursuits. But we all know that money is “fungible”.

Remember Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? These behemoth quasi-government organizations almost buried our economy in 2008 when the real-estate bubble of their creation popped and the government bailed out the big banks. Even President Obama, a master of quid pro quo, called the Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac business model “heads we win, tails you lose.” We really still haven’t recovered. But the Fannie and Freddy corruption machine keeps chugging along, making big contributions to campaigns, paying monster salaries to its officials, and playing fast and loose with taxpayer money with almost no oversight.

Government employee unions are now the largest group of contributors to political campaigns. What a concept: the unions contribute taxpayer money to the very politicians who promise to protect their jobs and raise their wages. Jefferson would have loved that one.

Another cool quasi-government corruption setup is the Export/Import Bank, which uses taxpayer money to make risk-free loans that benefit crony corporations like Boeing, General Electric, and Caterpillar, to foreign governments and companies, some of whom actually compete with other domestic companies. There are all kinds of opportunities for bank employees to profit personally from shady arrangements. Some honest legislators, prodded by conservative constituents, may have finally put an end to this game, although General Electric and their political partners in crime are trying hard to keep it going.

And it’s not just about dirty politicians seeking campaign funds any more; federal agencies are in on the act. They now extort funds from US companies by threatening huge fines for trumped-up regulatory violations. Agencies like the EPA, FCC, NLRB and others routinely set up schemes that trade a “consent decree” (an agreement to not destroy a business with a long, expensive legal action) for cash. The feds also use consent decrees to take control over local government operations, such as police departments and local utilities.

Some federal corruption is simple and creative. Conservatives in Congress were furious to learn that VA Administration bigshots received big bonuses by faking the real performance records of their agency while patients died waiting for care. When the congressmen found out these guys could not be fired (this belongs in Ripley’s Believe It or Not!) they passed a law that making it possible to fire VA officials. So how many were fired? You guessed it. Zero.

The exploding corruption culture in Washington, DC is not a partisan issue – both Democrats and Republicans say they oppose corruption, but only a few true Conservatives are making any effort to do something about it. Leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump admitted paying off politicians. One can only assume the practice would continue under his watch.

One thing hasn’t changed. The only way to kill corruption, or at least slow it down, is for citizens to raise hell about it.

Ask your public officials and candidates what they plan to do about corruption. Give them specific examples. Most of them don’t mention the issue and haven’t even thought about it. Let’s raise a little hell.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

If you want to see an angel
You got to find it where it fell
If you want to get to heaven
You got to raise a little hell

If You Want To Get To Heaven –
Ozark Mountain Daredevils

Another great seventies band, still on the road, gray hair and all, bangin’ on guitars!

Americans Agree More Than You Think

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

we agree If you listen to the network news, you probably think that most Americans favor abortion. You would be wrong. According to recent Gallup polling data, 70% of Americans think abortion should be always illegal or only allowed under certain circumstances, such as rape, incest, and life of the mother.

If you listen to the talking heads, you would think almost everybody opposes voter ID requirements to prevent election fraud. False. Rasmussen polls show 78 percent of voters are in favor of requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship.

You hear daily that you are out of the mainstream if you think illegal immigration is a big problem in this country. But that’s not true either – Rasmussen says 80% of voters consider it a very serious problem.

When it comes right down to it, Americans still share basic conservative values, despite the rapidly changing demographics. We pretty much all think it is wrong to harvest baby parts for profit. We support our policemen, firemen, and servicemen and women. We want to have a strong military, affordable health care, and safe roads and streets. We don’t like it when race-hustlers try to gin up conflicts among us. We want to raise our families and run our businesses without the government taking huge chunks of our paychecks and then trying to control every detail of our lives. We hate it when we find out the government is in bed with big business. We don’t want our country flooded with unvetted third-world foreigners who have no intention of becoming Americans. And we sure don’t think non-citizens are entitled to benefits at our expense.

These are not partisan issues. The vast majority of us agree.

So why won’t our elected officials do what we – the majority of Americans – elected them to do? And why won’t the media tell the truth about our shared American values?

Fortunately, it is not yet completely out of our control. We can make our elected officials represent us, and we can make them clean up the cesspool that our federal government has become. Elections have consequences, but so does good old-fashioned communication. If you want your congressman to know what your expectations are, you should be in frequent enough contact that he or she knows your name. If you are tired of manipulative media organizations, you can let them know your disapproval or turn them off. And if your neighbor, your father-in-law, your preacher or your teacher disagrees with the majority of us, you can persuade and invite them to join us in celebrating our shared American values.

For over a year I have been attending political and presidential campaign events. Whenever Speaker Boehner’s and Leader McConnell’s names are mentioned, there is a unanimous and resounding boo from the audience. The GOP candidates routinely advocate dumping the congressional leadership for a guaranteed ovation. Today’s news that Speaker Boehner will step down proves that Americans agree it is time for change, in such numbers that he had no choice.

Yes, these are dangerous times. Yes, there is corruption all around us. But please don’t believe that you are the one who is out of step. Americans agree much more than the idealogues want us to know. If we stand firm by our common values, our grandchildren still might have a nation worth living in.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Right, you’re bloody well right
You know you got a right to say
Right, you’re bloody well right
You know you got a right to say

Bloody Well Right – Supertramp

There’s no mistaking Supertramp’s Fender Rhodes signature electric piano sound. They are still rockin’, and here’s a great live take on one of their super hits.

Don’t Feel Guilty If You Are Worried About Immigrants and Refugees

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

guilty-dogs-supercut-compilation I know you are concerned about the exploding levels of legal and illegal immigration and refugee resettlement in the USA. You are worried about the high crime rates among these foreigners, the declining number of employed Americans and falling wage rates, and the destruction of our uniquely successful American economy and culture. But you probably keep your feelings to yourself because the leftists and the media (sorry, that’s redundant) call you selfish, cruel, racist, and hater. They want you to feel guilty.

Don’t feel guilty.

We have been fed a steady diet of lies about immigrants and refugees by our government and the media for decades. This is not a new phenomena – the immigration myths and atrocious government policies date back to Ronald Reagan and Ted Kennedy. But the problem accelerates as Democrats exploit their political advantage with left-leaning third-world invitees, and the world’s poor learn how easy it is to work the system here in the States.

Lies? Here are just a few, from Ann Coulter’s brilliant immigration exposé “¡Adios, America!”:

• In 1986 Congress passed a special agricultural amnesty bill that granted temporary legal status to any illegal alien who claimed to have performed seasonal farm work for 90 days in the previous year. In the first three years 888,637 agricultural amnesty applications were identified as fraudulent, but of those, only 60,020 were actually denied. One can only guess how many millions of applications were rubber-stamped with no scrutiny at all. One of the fraudulent “farm workers” granted amnesty was “Mahmud the Red”, the murderous Muslim who helped the “Blind Sheik” bomb the World Trade Center in 1993.

• Tech magnates Bill Gates of Microsoft, Craig Barrett of Intel, and others convinced Congress that the H1-B visa program was necessary to obtain brainpower from India that they just couldn’t find among America’s college grads. It turns out millions of H1-B immigrants are little more than indentured servants to their American employers, working for substandard wages in fear of losing their legal status, and displacing American workers who are often forced to train them in exchange for severance pay. There is no shortage of qualified American tech workers.

• We are told that most immigrants are here to “do the jobs that Americans won’t do.” But once here, most immigrants and refugees latch on to public benefits and are either unable or unwilling to find jobs, largely because they lack employable skills and make no attempt to assimilate to our customs and language.

There are so many more lies. Most Syrian refugees are not from Syria. Most asylum-seekers are not threatened in their home countries. The majority of “relatives” of immigrants allowed into the USA to reunify families are not related to them. Immigrants do not elevate our economy by paying more dollars in taxes than they consume in government services – not even close! Immigrants are not more likely than native-born Americans to be peaceful, law-abiding citizens.

Many third-world immigrants come from cultures with values that are appalling to Americans, including abuse of women and children. The legal age of marital consent in most of Mexico is 12. Hmong culture considers the rape and prostitution of young girls ordinary, and most of it goes unreported. Muslims practice female genital mutilation, and accept the stoning and murder of women for perceived misbehavior. Illegal border-crossers trash national parks and deface native American antiquities, and continue their littering habits in their new home cities. And while it is human nature for poor people to want the good life that others worked and died for, that does not mean it must be relinquished to them.

Are all immigrants awful people? Of course not. But many are, at least by traditional American standards. The tsunami of legal and illegal immigrants and refugees must stop until we have the ability to keep the awful ones out and invite only those who bring something to the party.

If you have a hinky feeling that the United States is in trouble, don’t feel guilty. You’re right.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

And we got nothing to be guilty of
Our love will climb any mountain,
Near or far , we are
And we never let it end

Guilty – the Bee Gees

Here’s Today’s News You Didn’t Get

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

Republican Fears in 1936 Same As Today

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard 3

image by rarenewspapers.com

My wife bought me a book of selected front pages from the New York Times, from 1920 to 1976, at a garage sale and it is a treasure. It imparts some amazing insights into the news and the history of our nation. I was astonished as I read this article from 1936.

THE TEXT OF THE PLATFORM – Cleveland, June 11

Following is the text of the party platform as adopted by the
Republican National Convention tonight:

America is in peril. The welfare of American men and women and the future of our youth are at stake. We dedicate ourselves to the preservation of their political liberty, their individual opportunity and their character as free citizens, which today for the first time are threatened by government itself.

For three long years the administration has dishonored American traditions and flagrantly betrayed the pledge upon which the Democratic party sought and received public support.

The powers of Congress have been usurped by the President.

The integrity and authority of the Supreme Court have been flaunted.

The rights and liberties of American citizens have been violated.

Regulated monopoly has displaced free enterprise.

The administration constantly seeks to usurp the rights reserved to the States and to the people.

It has insisted on passage of laws contrary to the Constitution.

It has intimidated witnesses and interfered with the right of petition.

It has dishonored our country by repudiating its most sacred obligations.

It has been guilty of frightful waste and extravagance, using public funds for partisan political purposes.

It has promoted investigations to harass and intimidate American citizens, at the same time denying investigations into its own improper expenditures.

It has created a vast multitude of new offices, filled them with its favorites, set up a centralized bureaucracy and sent out swarms of inspectors to harass our people.

It has bred fear and hesitation in commerce and industry, thus discouraging new enterprises, preventing employment, and prolonging the depression.

It secretly has made tariff agreements with outr foreign competitors, flooding our markets with foreign commodities.

It has coerced and intimidated voters by withholding relief to those opposing its tyrannical policies.

It has destroyed the morale of many of our people and made them dependent upon government.

Appeals to passion and class prejudice have replaced reason and tolerance.

To a free people, these actions are insufferable. This campaign cannot be waged on the traditional differences between the Republican and Democratic parties.

The responsibility of this election transcends all previous political divisions. We invite all Americans, irrespective of party, to join us in defense of American Institutions.

Alf Landon was unanimously accepted by the GOP as its candidate for president. He asked that two more planks be added to the platform before his nomination was final: first, that sweatshops and unrestricted child labor be abolished and that laws be passed to regulate maximum hours, minimum wages, and working conditions for women and children; and second, that the US currency should be backed by a gold standard.

I find these old newspapers fascinating in so many ways. The articles are written in clear but advanced language and style on the assumption that its readers were intelligent, informed, and educated – unlike today’s news which is written to a fifth-grade reading and comprehension level.

It’s very hard, if not impossible, to find a bias in these pages. Even during the war years, events were described impartially. The standard for journalists was: facts only, double- and triple-verified. Political coverage was painstakingly even-handed and dispassionate.

All of the news on the Times front pages was real news – coverage of real events, with no fluff or pop culture. A box in the top left corner promises “All the News That’s Fit to Print”.

In the 79 years since this front page of the Times was published, much has changed in the relationship between the media and the public. Is news reporting dumbed-down because of us, or we because of it? Do we tolerate biased reporting because we have no choice, or because we are able to choose news that fits our personal bias? Either way, the loss of accurate, salient, unbiased news harms Americans and our progress as a nation.

The stories themselves remind me that ours is not the only time in history with grave challenges, conflict and tragedy. Our parents and grandparents lived through a period of historic human suffering and heroism. What must they think of our squabbles today over gender identity and political correctness?

And the story above, contrasting Republicans and Democrats, reminds me that some things haven’t changed much.

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?
Same as it ever was . . . same as it ever was . . .
Same as it ever was . . . same as it ever was . . .

Once In A Lifetime – Talking Heads

Conservative Bloggers Are Having Fun – Seriously!

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard 4

image by JaneFriedman.com

A group of patriots from all over the USA will converge on Washington, DC this weekend. We believe in personal and property rights, smaller and more effective government, the power of the free market, and the sanctity of our unique and brilliant Constitution. We care about the future of the country and generations to come. We work every day to defend the values, virtues and policies that made America strong and to expose and oppose the actions of those who would do her harm, either through malevolence or ignorance.

We are the bloggers. And this is our weekend: RightOnline 2015, the annual conference for liberty-minded writers and online activists, sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, Townhall.com, the Franklin Center, and others.

Some of us are paid professionals, working for organizations that are funded by concerned benefactors. Most of us are citizens who consider the condition and direction of our country at this point in history so grave that we volunteer our time and money to try to make a difference.

The mainstream media and political elites are only now beginning to understand the power of a citizen-driven information stream propelled by digital technology. It seems like ancient history, but it was only three years ago when firebrand Michelle Malkin verbally smacked down Juan Williams for his condescending remark, “I am a real reporter, I’m not a blogger, out there in the blogosphere . . .”

It was a pivotal moment for those of us who now feel empowered to punch and counter-punch against liberal media bias. We take our role seriously, and as our numbers and outreach continue to grow, we are having a profound impact on political and social discourse and national policy.

Melissa Clouthier, despite her relative youth, was one of the pioneers of conservative digital media. “We write because without us the media would be even more biased and unbalanced than it already is,” she says. “And we learn so that we are empowered.” Melissa still has a full plate of activism, not the least of which is over 47,000 Twitter followers.

When real estate professional Laura Rambeau Lee saw the government bailing out big banks, she knew a financial disaster was brewing, and she was right – and angry. Laura started reading and commenting on other writers’ blogsites, and soon was publishing her own posts on her site “Right Reason” and many others . “Now, here I am being read on six continents and have friends/bloggers all over the world. Apparently I have a lot to say!” Laura says she is proud to be one of Andrew Breitbart’s “Happy Warriors” and has a huge Facebook following.

As Happy Warriors, we bloggers mean business but we also allow ourselves to have a little fun.

“Pundit” Pete Boddie has an extensive staff of employee specialists, each coincidentally named Pete. There’s political analyst Prognosticator Pete, Middle East correspondent Palestinian Pete, diversity director Pigment-Challenged Pete, and director of social media #PoundSign Pete, to name a few. “I write to make people smile,” he says. “Or to make them act.” Pete was energized by the Tea Party movement and that led him to political blogging. “I didn’t know exactly why, I just knew my country was in trouble.” Pete has been known to throw monkey wrenches into White House press briefings.

My own story is similar, as my political activism grew out of the Tea Party movement. Then a state Americans for Prosperity director invited me to a RightOnline conference in Las Vegas. At that time I didn’t know what a blog was, but after that whirlwind weekend, I was hooked. Feeling the need to “gently educate” as many misguided or under-informed citizens as possible, I decided to blend my passion for rock music with political common sense, and the result was “Rockin’ On the Right Side.”

RightOnline 2015 is a time for learning the latest strategies and technologies , a time for meeting new and old friends, and a time for planning to make our activism more effective than ever. Not to mention a great time to celebrate being “Just A Blogger.”

This post can be seen in its entirety at WatchDog Arena.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

But you can come along with me
‘Cause we gotta a lot of things to do now
And we’ll have fun, fun, fun now that daddy took the t-bird away!

Fun, Fun, Fun – The Beach Boys

Gay Wedding Cakes – What Difference Does It Make?

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard 1

photo courtesy of The Blaze

I hate to admit it, but just this once I agree with Hillary Clinton when she says, “What difference does it make?”

I’m not talking about Benghazi, I hope she goes to jail for that one. But most of the hoo-hah in the press is about stuff that is totally inconsequential. What difference does it make?

Once again, the news media has sacrificed a week of our waking, thinking lives on stuff that has absolutely no significance to the vast majority of Americans. The big item this week: Indiana’s “religious freedom law”. What a nothing-burger.

Indiana’s law just says if you own a business, and you are sued for discrimination by a customer for refusing to participate in what you consider to be a sacreligious act, you may use your religious commitment and beliefs as a defense. Doesn’t mean you will win.

Ann Coulter said in her brilliantly sarcastic column, “Evidently, the sole function of the media these days is to subject the public to a steady stream of manufactured events . . . [such as claiming] a law protecting religious freedom will lead to separate water fountains for gays in Indiana.”

Manufactured is right, and anyone with a modest sense of proportion can see that the stuff they are manufacturing doesn’t amount to a rat’s derriere. Do the math. How many people are gay? Maybe 3%? How many of them get married? Maybe 5%? How many of them are likely to run into a bakery that will turn down a $200 profit by refusing to bake their wedding cake? Maybe 1%? I’m not a statistician, but according to my non-Common-Core math I think we are talking about .0015% of the adult American population. All this fuss over maybe a hundred people? And that’s a stretch.

With all the publicity you would think there is NOTHING IN THE WORLD more important than wedding cakes for a couple of cranky gay couples. Starving kids in Guatemala? Doesn’t matter. Radiation in Japan? Yesterday’s news. Violent civil unrest in Myanmar? Forget it, Rachel Maddow doesn’t know Myanmar from a Mars Bar.

We are being played for idiots. You and me. The media / liberal Democrats (same thing) are so condescending to us, the American people, that they think they can convince the masses that we all are losing sleep over the ten or twenty gay people who go out of their way to cause problems for a few families trying to earn a living and live by their religious principles. And they think this chicanery can swing elections. God help us if they are right.

I’m not worried about the working families. They will be fine if we all just let them do their thing. The couple of gay activists making trouble? Not even a mosquito on an elephant’s ass.

Can we talk about something important now?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Doesn’t matter what the pain we go through
Doesn’t matter if the money’s gone too
Just as long as I’m with you
Nobody but you, baby, baby

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It’s the OTHER Jackson, and she’s hot. Check it out.

Tom Balek – Rockin' On The Right Side

Conservative common sense with the volume set at 9!

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