Category Archives: the Constitution

Is Federal Waste and Fraud Inevitable?

Posted on by Standard 1

graphic courtesy of ProofDirectory.orgMy congressman, Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), frequently holds town hall meetings in his home district.  Each meeting includes a half-hour presentation of current, relevant information and a one-hour question and answer period.  Mulvaney tells his constituents what is on his mind, and then really listens to them.   His responses are honest and direct, no evasion or weasel-words. He is knowledegable, articulate, engaged, and pragmatic.

Mulvaney sets the bar high for transparency and communication from a US Congressman.  A while back I attended a meeting by a Republican congressman from North Carolina and the contrast is striking – from the outset he was defensive, unprepared, and seemed to consider the attendees to be combatants rather than constituents.  He cemented his position as a Washington insider, solidly aligned with Boehner and the good-old boys, was not up-to-speed on facts and details, and had no intention of listening to any conservative point of view from his audience.

So I’m tickled to have Mulvaney representing me in Washington, DC.  Still, I always leave his meetings totally bummed.  Here’s why:

Congressman Mulvaney sees the waste, fraud, and over-spending in government first-hand and with clarity.  He is loaded with anecdotes and examples of Washington’s out-of-control checkbook and frequently quotes from Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) “Waste Book”.  Mulvaney knows how bad the corruption and ineptitude is, and hates it as much as we taxpayers do.

But then, after exploding our heads with his tales of fiscal terror, Mulvaney pulls the chain.  “There’s not really much we can do about it,” he says.  “The federal budget is so huge that it is impossible to find and correct problems in large enough increments to make a difference.”

Mulvaney points out that only 29% of our $3.5 trillion annual federal spending is discretionary – the rest is mandatory.  If 5% of that $1 trillion in discretionary spending is wasted, we would need 50,000 fiscal repairs of one million bucks each to fix it.

So nobody even tries to stop corruption and waste.

Does that sound horrific?  It’s actually worse.  I would bet the percentage of waste and fraud in the discretionary part of the budget is much larger than 5%.   Further, I submit that the waste and fraud in the mandatory part of the budget is just as bad or worse!

Our legislators have oversight responsibility, but do not have the time or resources to even begin to supervise federal programs and departments.  And do you think for a minute the government bureaucrats give a damn about 5% of somebody else’s money being wasted or stolen?  Quite the opposite – the more money their respective departments spend, the greater their power, prestige, and salaries.  They know nobody is watching, and they know nobody ever gets fired.

So is our federal fiscal viability as hopeless as Congressman Mulvaney fears?  It shouldn’t be.  And I hate that we, as a nation, have given up.

Here are some suggestions from a retired CFO (me) who has run businesses by the numbers and knows that waste and fraud are not inevitable:

  • Eliminate government employee unions – it is impossible to manage people who can’t be fired, and it is immoral that the campaigns of elected officials are funded by the very employees they are supposed to manage
  • Prosecute any officials who are caught stealing or wasting federal funds
  • Pass a balanced budget amendment, with restrictions on raising taxes – in other words, set and adhere to a real budget
  • Audit and/or eliminate the Federal Reserve – the cancerous growth of our federal government will continue until we stop printing fiat money
  • Return most government functions and authority to the states – restrict the federal government to only those functions specified in the Constitution
  • Require detailed public online reporting of all federal spending – sunshine is the best disinfectant

And that’s just a start.

Could federal government waste and corruption be brought back under control?  You bet!  But, like Mulvaney, I fear that it won’t.  Because as of now not enough Americans give a damn.  Too many of us are under-informed, disengaged, overwhelmed, or mired in self-interest.  Just the way the Washington insiders like it.

It will take a big bang – something really strong – to get our attention.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

I’ve been feeling so much older
Frame me and hang me on the wall
I’ve seen you fall into the same trap
This thing is happening to us all, yeah

Something so strong could carry us away
Something so strong could carry us today, yeah

Something So Strong – Crowded House

The lights went out but the sound system was working – so the band kept playing!  Crowded House playing in the dark in 2007.

They’re Coming to America

Posted on by Standard 1
photo courtesy 21stCenturySchools.com

photo courtesy 21stCenturySchools.com

Standing in the checkout line at Costco, I watched and listened to the family in front of me chattering in a language that I couldn’t identify.  Was it Flemish?  Behind me a mother and her daughter spoke what I think was Hindi.  Another group of Indians near us was speaking English in their distinctive clipped dialect, and then a passel of giggling little Chinese kids ran by, with Mom and Dad sternly attempting discipline in their home language.  Then the pretty young Caribbean woman began checking out our groceries as two young Hispanic men worked the merchandise and carts and shared a joke in Spanish.

And it hit me like a brick.  The United States I had known all my life is no more.

I know, it sounds cliched, but I (conservative, Tea Party, mature white male) am not a racist.  I have no ill will or condescension toward any kind of people.  I have said I am an “economic bigot” – I expect capable people to work, and don’t particularly care for those who won’t, regardless of ethnicity.  But I enjoy the uniqueness of people from different places and cultures, especially the flavors of family interactions that are so universal – devoted parents raising their fun-loving kids.

No, I’m not a racist, but I couldn’t help but notice that American-born, English-speaking whites and blacks were outnumbered on that Saturday afternoon in that Costco store in a relatively affluent Charlotte neighborhood.

I was flooded with questions and emotions.  Do these foreigners also speak English?  Where do they work?  They seem to have plenty of money – were they wealthy in their native countries?  Are there here legally?  How did they get drivers licenses?  Do they vote?  Are their kids in the neighborhood schools, and how the heck do the schools deal with so many languages and customs?

Of course, no broad-brush answers apply.  Some speak English, some don’t.  Some have jobs, others are on government benefits.  Some are legal.  Some have drivers licenses.  Some vote.  One thing is for sure, suddenly there are a lot of them, as both legal and illegal immigration rates are exploding, compared to our earlier history.  Many states are importing more people than are being born to natives.

The United States will never again look and sound like it did during our lifetimes.  It is a done deal.

But we, as a nation, are still at a tipping point:  Will the values, social structure, and laws that made this country the most prosperous and powerful in the world survive?  Will our new immigrants become Americans who share the love of Mom, baseball, apple pie and Chevrolets, like earlier generations of immigrants?  Or will our great nation be split into hundreds of tribes, each clinging to their native habits, and suspicious of all the others?

It is a time in our history when leadership is critical.   Now, more than ever, we need leaders who care about the well-being of the nation, not just their own or their party’s political success.  We need honest men and women with an understanding of the importance of time-tested rules and practices.  America was built on laws that we could all agree upon, and that were proven to work.  And America was once a “melting pot”, where newcomers assimilated into our culture while preserving their own heritages.  Now is not the time to get fuzzy about our American laws, Constitution, or values.  Our immigrants need order and stability, too – in fact that’s what many seek by moving here.

My wife often complained that our home state of Montana changed radically as more and more people moved there from the west coast.  “They move to Montana because it’s better than California, and then they try to change it into California!”

In addition to accelerating legal immigration rates, our government has decided to erase our southern border and pretty much accept all comers.  They claim their motivations are humanitarian; some of us believe they are political.  But even if the border could be sealed like a Tupperware bowl tomorrow, the United States will never be the same as it was.  So now what?

Many of the newcomers don’t really know what made America great.  They and their families weren’t here.  It’s up to us remaining native Americans (by that I mean those of us born here) to stand up for American traditions. values, and laws.  We must make sure that our history is accurately and broadly taught, and expect our leaders to proudly defend our national identity and solidarity.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

On the boats and on the planes
They’re coming to America
Never looking back again
They’re coming to America

Neil Diamond – Coming to America

 

 

 

Another “BFD” for Obama – How Many More BFDs Can We Take?

Posted on by Standard Reply

smug_obamaI have reported to you Rockers many times that I am on the President’s mailing list.  I get an e-mail almost every day, usually just to ask me for five dollars.

Most of the time it provides me amusement.  Today, not so much.  I got four letters from my friend Barack and his operatives today.  Yes, one of them asked me for three dollars.  But the other three were back-slapping, high-fiving, chest-bumping celebrations of Obama’s latest and greatest attack on our economy and citizens.

Here is one of them, from Jim Messina, Obama’s data-mining and mass-media guru:

Friend —

This is a BFD:

The New York Times is calling President Obama’s plan “the strongest action ever taken by an American president to tackle climate change” — he’s proposing new EPA standards to limit carbon pollution from existing power plants, the single biggest source of the pollution in the United States that causes climate change.

Listen, it should come as no surprise that polluters and groups that like things the way they are have already started fighting this with everything they’ve got. The best thing we can do is show just how many Americans believe this is the right thing to do.

Add your name right now — stand with President Obama and support aggressive action to fight climate change.

Announcements like this are why we all do this work. It’s proof that grassroots organizing really does pay off. Climate change activists have fought for years for EPA standards on carbon pollution — and this week President Obama is making it a reality.

This fight is about our future, but the effects of climate change are being felt right now — it’s linked to stronger weather, from more frequent and severe droughts to floods, storms, and wildfires.

It’s affecting public health, too. Over the past three decades, the percentage of Americans with asthma has more than doubled, and climate change is putting those Americans at greater risk of landing in the hospital. Over half of all Americans live in an area where air pollution levels are too often unhealthy to breathe.

But while we place limits on dangerous air pollution like mercury, arsenic, and lead, existing power plants have had no national restrictions on the amount of carbon pollution they can emit.

None at all — until now.

The President’s plan promises to cut carbon pollution from power plants for the first time, setting a new standard for action on climate change.

As I write this, powerful interests on the other side are lining up their dirty budgets to try to tear this down. They have plenty of allies in Congress that will try to stop us.

I’m asking everyone who cares about this fight to stand up and say so today — stand with President Obama and new carbon pollution standards.

The media will not let us forget for a moment that this is the first black president.  Who cares.  I’m more concerned that he is the first president to bypass congress with proclamations that are given the force of law.  The first to openly flaunt the constitution and decide which laws will be enforced.  The first to deny the sovereignty of states, not to mention citizen’s rights including the rights of private property.

Certainly Obama is the first president to repeatedly look directly into a camera (actually a teleprompter) and lie with impugnity.  Calling carbon dioxide “carbon pollution” is so brazen that he must think we are all cretins.  Claiming that the carbon dioxide that we exhale, and that makes all plant life possible, is causing droughts AND floods, storms AND wildfires, is an insult to our intelligence.  Worse, he seeks to intentionally damage the well-being of all Americans.  Why not just break our kneecaps?

Obama’s letter to me today said, “I’m not going to wait to take action on this.”  The anointed one will accept no limits to his authority.

I thought Joe Biden’s BFD, ObamaCare, was an epically egregious assault on our economy and families.  Now comes BFD number two, using the EPA to ruin entire industries, destroy countless jobs, and raise energy costs to crushing levels.

The next BFD will be complete amnesty and open borders – you can expect an executive order for this purpose the moment Congress leaves for summer recess.

I really wonder if the United States can withstand any more BFDs from the first BFD president.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Big Deal!  So what? Who cares?
You just got lucky, that’s all
Oh oh, it’s a real big deal!
Oh, yeah!
Oh oh, it’s a real big deal!
Big deal!

 

Big Deal – LeAnn Rimes

 

 

Country gal Leann Rimes rocks it . . . Big Deal!

Compromise? Yeah, Right!

Posted on by Standard 2
For you youngsters: these are "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots" - a toy from the 1960s.

For you youngsters: these are “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots” – a toy from the 1960s.

Are you tired of getting blasted because you don’t feel like compromising your important conservative principles with the liberals – first liberal Democrats, and now liberal Republicans?

The left calls us racists.  They claim we hate women.   They say all we care about is tax cuts for the rich.  They repeat the most insulting and dishonest characterizations without conscience.  And then they blame us for refusing to “compromise.”

Have you ever seen a liberal compromise on anything? 

Compromise in the mind of a liberal does not have the same meaning that it does to you and I.  To them, compromise only travels in one direction.  Reaching across the aisle means moving from right to left, never the other way.

Recently many pundits and talk-show hosts who became wealthy pretending they are conservatives have joined the attack against the Tea Party.  Karl Rove has gone so far to the left that he has lost all credibility, even among milk-toast Republicans.  Michael Medved, Bill Bennett, and Mike Gallagher still throw out the occasional conservative talking-point biscuit, but in-between they soft-shill for the president and Democrat leaders and their big-government ideology.  They say conservatives can’t compete with the liberals politically, so we must become more like them – we must “compromise”.  In recent years we have offered plenty of weak-kneed Republicans to the voters, all eager to compromise.  Tell me, guys.  How is that workin’ out for ya?

In Montana, a group of Republican state legislators apparently worship at the altar of compromise.  Calling themselves “responsible Republicans“, they frequently side with the Democrats, even on critical issues.

What is it about “compromise” that is so noble and righteous?  If you know that something is wrong and harmful, why would you condone it, even a negotiated measure of it?

Should Franklin Roosevelt have compromised with the Nazis?  “Hey, Adolf, how about this?  We’ll stay out of your way if you would just promise to shut down the incinerators every other day.”

Should the 1964 civil rights advocates in the Senate have compromised with the southern block of Democrats who said, “We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would have a tendency to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our (Southern) states”?  Maybe they could have agreed to allow blacks to vote only every other year, and attend integrated public schools, but only through sixth grade?

graphic courtesy of Litchfield EcclesiaTolerating illegal and unconstitutional acts, or looking the other way when government malfeasance results in the loss of American lives is every bit as onerous as voting against the principles of those who elected you.

There are details that can be compromised in a representative government.  Should we build a four-lane highway or two-lane?  Do we really need new streetlights this year?

But an elected official who won’t stand on principle when he or she knows for certain that the wrong choice will cause serious harm to the citizens has no business in government.

And he or she has no moral authority to criticize those of us who will stand for important principles.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Mercy’s hard to find
It’s just a state of mind
Drop the slack, get out the way
We don’t have another day
Right is right, wrong is wrong
Right is right, wrong is wrong

Right is Right – Rufus with Chaka Khan

No video today, just a smokin’ hot song from one of my all-time favorite soul singers that came to mind with this topic.

The United States of Thunderdome

Posted on by Standard 1

thunderdomeMost Americans think our nation is superior to others.  We believe that our system of government, based on the world’s finest constitution and a reliable set of laws, makes the United States a better and more secure place to live than, say, a dictatorship where laws are made and enforced at the whim of the political elite.

Don’t look now, but our current administration and department of justice shreds our constitution and our federal laws on a daily basis, and we either don’t see it, don’t get it, don’t think we can do anything about it, or just don’t care.

[Wikipedia] Immigrants can be classified as illegal for one of three reasons: entering without authorization or inspection, staying beyond the authorized period after legal entry, or violating the terms of legal entry.[46]

Section 1325 in Title 8 of the United States Code, “Improper entry of alien”, provides for a fine, imprisonment, or both for any immigrant who:[47]

  1. enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration agents, or
  2. eludes examination or inspection by immigration agents, or
  3. attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact.

So illegal immigration is illegal, right?

[Wikipedia]Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, known as the Supremacy Clause, establishes the U.S. Constitution, federal statutes, and U.S. Treaties as “the supreme law of the land.” The text provides that these are the highest form of law in the U.S. legal system, and mandates that all state judges must follow federal law when a conflict arises between federal law and either the state constitution or state law of any state.

So federal law trumps state law, right?

And yet yesterday thousands of illegal aliens lined up at DMV offices all over Nevada to get their “driver privilege cards”.  The Nevada legislature and Republican governor Brian Sandoval passed a state law last year that not only authorizes licenses for illegal aliens, it also prohibits the DMV from sharing information about the criminals for immigration enforcement purposes. 

How is this possible in the United States of America, a nation that looks down on North Korea and Iran and Belarus and Ethiopia because of the superiority of our constitution and the reliable enforcement of our laws?

Colorado legalizes the recreational use of marijuana even though it is clearly illegal under federal law.  Our president changes major provisions of the Affordable Health Care Act without legal authority or even consulting congress, and the nation accepts it as law.  States pass laws disallowing gay marriage and are overruled by liberal courts who have no authority to create or abolish laws.

For the first time in our nation’s history, our laws are no longer sacrosanct.  They are not even meaningful.  As this trend evolves, and nobody knows who has authority and which laws will be enforced, we grow closer and closer to anarchy.  Why is illegal immigration okay, but illegal tax evasion is not?  If the president can create or change laws, or choose which ones to enforce, why can’t a governor?  A mayor?  A policeman?  If illegal use of recreational marijuana is okay, why isn’t illegal use of heroin, or LSD, or cocaine okay?

an·ar·chy

noun \ˈa-nər-kē, -ˌnär-\

: a situation of confusion and wild behavior in which the people in a country, group, organization, etc., are not controlled by rules or laws

Welcome to the United States of Thunderdome.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side Looking for something we can rely on
There’s got to be something better out there
Love and compassion, their day is coming
All else are castles built in the air
We don’t need another hero!
We don’t need to know the way home!
All we want is life beyond the thunderdome . . .

Thunderdome – Tina Turner

Boehner Splits The Sheets

Posted on by Standard 8

AP Photo - J Scott ApplewhiteLast week the big-government agenda of the liberal Democrats was on the ropes.  The American public had finally come to realize that they had been lied to, used, abused and kicked to the curb by the arrogant ruling class.  The ObamaCare power grab was exposed as an impossible and unworkable idea, poorly planned and executed, one which can only result in an epic fiscal disaster and do serious harm to American citizens.  Conservatives who warned for years of the perils of big government were finally vindicated in the public eye.  After all the hard work, the snarky ridicule at the hands of brainless media mouthpieces, and the worry that the American public might never hear or understand the truth, we conservatives were able to catch our collective breath.  For a brief moment.

Now, just one week later, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the liberal news media, and our fearless leader himself are dancing a jig, clinking their champagne glasses, and singing with glee “the wicked witch (Tea Party) is dead”.

What happened?

In a cynical leftward lurch, Congressman Paul Ryan, at the direction of House Speaker John Boehner and Republican leadership, caved in to a Democrat budget plan that increases spending and debt and pushes any potential reductions in spending increases (no spending cuts) into the far distant future.

Boehner showed his true colors – he and his circle of entrenched insiders are more concerned about re-election than they are about the well-being of the nation and its citizens.  By relinquishing ground already won – the budget sequestration of 2011 – they not only gave aid and comfort to the enemy, they waved the white flag to the big-spenders.  They endorsed the Democrat fairy tale that our $17 trillion and growing debt is not a threat to our economy or the future of our kids (we can always print and borrow more money!).  They crossed over to the dark side to join those who believe big government trumps private enterprise and personal freedom.  Boehner has already set his liberal friends up for gun control and amnesty, coming soon to a theater near you.

They showed that they would rather maintain their personally-lucrative positions of minor influence than stand on principle against the destruction of our economy.

Boehner said of us conservatives, “they’re using our members and they’re using the American people for their own goals.” 

The response by the Tea Party Patriots was powerful and succinct:  “The last time we checked, we are the American people. The Tea Party Patriots all across this country are the last hope for reining in this out-of-control government and protecting our Constitution.”

OUR members?  THEIR goals?  The single-minded goal of the Tea Party is to make our nation stronger, safer, and more prosperous for the benefit of all.

Mr. Boehner, if any of YOUR members are opposed to OUR goal, you can all go to hell.  Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Mr. Boehner may have finally sealed the fate of the Republican party once and for all.  While conservatives have almost universally supported Republicans with votes, campaign work, and financial resources, it appears that the GOP prefers to go on without us.

At your peril, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side Feeling better now that we’re through
Feeling better ’cause I’m over you
I learned my lesson, it left a scar
Now I see how you really are!
You’re no good, you’re no good
You’re no good, baby you’re no good.

You’re No Good – Linda Ronstadt

Big-Government Fails – What Did You Expect?

Posted on by Standard 3

DuhIs anybody surprised?

We now know, irrefutably, that ObamaCare really IS a train wreck.  The Affordable Care Act has instantly made health care unaffordable for millions of previously happily-insured Americans.  Many have lost coverage altogether – experts now predict that another 50 to 100 million cancellations are on the way.  It has ballooned the Medicaid rolls to the point where states don’t know how they will be able to manage the cost.  Using CBO data, the total cost of ObamaCare has been calculated at up to $3 Trillion over ten years.  And after three and a half years and $1 billion of IT work, the still-dysfunctional ObamaCare website is 40% short of completion (including the part which is supposed to deliver our subsidy payments to the insurance companies) and the personal data collected by it is not secure.

Well, what did you expect?   You glassy-eyed Obama zombies, you liberal/progressive elitists, you arrogant academics, you shameless, thrill-up-the-leg media hucksters, you blind-ambition Democrat politicians, you weak-kneed RINOs who value re-election over the will and well-being of your constituents, you crocodile-tear bleeding hearts who never contribute your own money to anything – what do you say now?  Did you really believe the bungling bloated bureaucracy you created and enabled, and Obama’s corrupt campaign-contributing cronies could actually pull off an undertaking of this scope?

Really?  The same big-government people who gave away $4 billion dollars in tax refunds to identity thieves, including 655 refunds to one address in Lithuania?  The same big-government people who left an ambassador and three brave defenders to die at the hands of radical Muslim thugs and then blamed it on a Hollywood video?  The same big-government people who waste billions of dollars humiliating grandmothers in airports, but fail to follow up on Russian warnings about known terrorists?

There was a time when the U.S. government could get things done.  World War II comes to mind.  The Hoover Dam.  The Interstate Highway System.  Astronauts on the moon.  Those days are gone.  We have allowed our government to become corrupt, fat, lazy, and mired in irrelevant politically correct nonsense.  Rudderless.  Incompetent.  Pathetic.

While they did little to address the impending health care problem for decades, I give credit to the 100% of DC Republicans (and a smattering of responsible Democrats) who at least voted against ObamaCare.  Ted Cruz and a few brave conservatives went to the wall to try to stop it.  The Tea Party took the point on patrol, battling every assault on personal freedoms, free-market capitalism, and the values that built our nation’s success.  But they couldn’t stop this latest, potentially fatal attack on Lady Liberty.

If the liberal progressives do not finally admit and capitulate to the total failure of big-government socialism now, in the face of irrefutable evidence, their motives are clear.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

You’ve been talking in circles
Since I’ve been able to cry
There’s never been any reason
for ever telling me why
Save my life, I’m going down for the last time!

Never Been Any Reason – Head East

MT Senate Candidate Confuses Tea Party with Taliban

Posted on by Standard 1

Tea-Party-TalibanJohn Bohlinger was once lieutenant governor of Montana – a Republican who shared quarters with Democrat governor Brian Schweitzer.  Strange bedfellows?

Maybe not so much.

Bohlinger is running for Montana’s US Senate seat – as a Democrat.  And his first official act as a member of the progressive party is to bash the Tea Party.   Despicable, but true to form.

My knuckles were white as I wrote our response:

On Tuesday, former Lieutenant Governor John Bohlinger announced his candidacy for the Montana US Senate seat in next year’s election.  Today Bohlinger told Chuck Johnson, Lee Newspaper Capital Bureau Chief, that his decision to run was driven by last month’s federal government shutdown, which he blamed on the “Tea Party Taliban”.  He said the Tea Party thought the shutdown was “clever” and “cute”.

It appears that Mr. Bohlinger’s campaign will consist of the same kind of inflamed rhetoric that currently paralyzes our capital.  His alarming lack of understanding of both the Taliban and the Tea Party does little to qualify him as a candidate for such an important office, and insults Montanans who actually fought the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Taliban is a violent terrorist organization of religious extremists who routinely torture and murder innocent men, women and children.  Women, gays, and anyone who opposes their oppressive Sharia laws have no rights under Taliban rule.

The Tea Party is made up of concerned American citizens who support the US Constitution, including its carefully designed citizens’ rights and limits on the scope of government.  We are opposed to government fraud, corruption and waste, and seek fiscal accountability.  We are concerned about profligate government spending, our unsustainable $17 trillion debt, and the mismanagement of our national economy, recently epitomized by the disastrous Affordable Health Care Act.  We want our children and grandchildren to enjoy a standard of living at least somewhat commensurate with our own.

If asked, Mr. Bohlinger would say he supports the Constitution.  He would most likely claim to oppose government waste and fraud.  And he may have good intentions for his children and grandchildren.

The Montana Tea Party Coalition asks Mr. Bohlinger if that makes him a member of the Taliban, too.

Yeah, kinda makes me so mad I want to just go out and behead some women and kids.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Now it cuts like a knife
But it feels so right
It cuts like a knife
But it feels so right

Cuts Like A Knife – Bryan Adams

 

If You Love Your Children, Hold Them Close

Posted on by Standard Reply
you can keep your children

via T Patrick Duffy

If our elected leaders will lie about the takeover of our health care system, about the deaths of Americans at Benghazi, about Big Brother electronic eavesdropping, about the use of the IRS and other federal agencies to manipulate elections, and about the corruption epidemic in our government – why would you trust their motives with your children?

President Obama, president-elect Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the elite progressive establishment really believe that “it takes a village” to raise your child.  They are convinced that you are not qualified to make decisions about your family’s well-being,  and they have an aggressive agenda that will continue to dilute parent’s rights and personal sovereignty.  Next on the list is mandatory government daycare/preschool for toddlers.

Parents, if you love your children, hold them close.  They are at risk.  Please learn about Common Core.  Read the textbooks and other materials they bring home and don’t be afraid to overrule the disinformation you find.  See how your childrens’ precious time is being spent at school.  Be active in your school district and school board affairs.

Do not allow federal programs to take over your local schools.  Take the time to pass on your knowledge, beliefs and values to your children.  Do not “trust” the school to raise, feed, educate, or protect your precious children – you must be involved at every step.

If you can home-school your child, you will do your family and your nation a tremendous service.  If not, you must fight for your family’s right to choose the approriate school and educational path.

Be aware of what is happening to our economy and our way of life.  Your children’s futures depend on you – nobody cares about your children as much as you do.  They can’t afford your abdication of parental rights to the government.  They can’t afford the insurmountable debts we are placing on them.  They aren’t able to defend their constitutional rights – we must fight on their behalf.

There was a time when we could trust our government to tell the truth.  We knew that our elected leaders had our families’ best interests at heart.  The American Dream was universally understood and shared.  Sadly, that time is gone.

I know you are busy, but is anything more important than your children?

If you are already aware of the dangers, and actively involved in protecting and improving their futures, please pass this on to someone you know who is not engaged.  On behalf of my kids and grandkids, I thank you.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Hold me tight
Tell me I’m the only one
And then I might
Never be the lonely one

Hold Me Tight – the Beatles



On a lighter note, here’s an old Beatles recording session including outtakes.  Note the Fender Bandmaster amp in the photos – I had one of these way back when, and wish I had kept it – they are worth a fortune today!

Whose Bomb Will Explode First? North Korea? Iran? or The Fed?

Posted on by Standard Reply

atomic bombEverybody is worried about THE BOMB.  Will Iran build one?  Does North Korea have one?

I’m more concerned that our economy will be blown to Smithereens first by the misguided Keynesian policies of our own Federal Reserve.

Ask any ten people you meet:  What is the Federal Reserve? Who owns it?  What do you know about the Fed’s power, policies, politics, leaders, and motives?

If you know anything at all about the Fed, you are a rare American, indeed.  Although the Fed controls the value of our money and indirectly manages the economy of the United States and its 300 million citizens, most of us have no clue what it’s about.   Since the Fed’s creation 100 years ago we have blindly trusted this mysterious organization with our hard-earned wealth and that of future generations.

Is it a government agency?  Well, not exactly.  It isn’t owned by the government.  It was created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and signed into law by the most progressive president in our history, Woodrow Wilson – Democrat, racist, proponent of eugenics, and enemy of the constitution.  The Fed’s leadership is appointed by the sitting U.S. president, and its actions are supposedly under Congressional “oversight”, although it claims total independence from political influence.

The assets of the Fed come from privately-owned banks who allocate a portion of their depositors’ funds to the central bank.  Do these private bankers own the Fed?  Again, not exactly.  But they are getting a pretty good deal out of the “partnership.”

The U.S. Government receives all of the system’s annual profits, after a statutory dividend of 6% on member banks’ capital investment is paid.

That 6.00% statutory dividend paid to the banks sure beats the heck out of the 0.05% interest you are receiving from your savings account.  Meanwhile, the big banks use your deposits to buy risky derivatives and stocks, knowing that the government will be right there to bail them out with your tax money if their gambles don’t pay off.  Not a bad gig.

For years the Fed has been “printing money”.  While they aren’t actually cranking out dollar bills with a printing press, they have been regularly expanding the money supply by buying treasury and mortgage bonds with “credit” – a practice called quantitative easing.  When the money supply (dollars) expands for no reason (no real wealth has been created) it obviously decreases the value of every other dollar that exists.  The price of everything goes up.  It’s called inflation.

At the same time the Fed holds interest rates to near-zero for years in the hope that it will spur economic activity.  This misguided policy has had the opposite effect, as banks fear making long-term loans in what will surely be an extended period of ugly inflation.

So congratulations for working hard, earning money and saving it.  You are not only receiving zero interest, but the dollars you have in the bank are worth less every day.  And while the value of your dollar plummets, so does real family income and employment.

And who benefits from the policies of the Feds?  It seems the big banks are doing fine.   Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced last week that the Fed will continue to “print” $85 billion a month.  That means the banks will buy more stocks and derivatives with wealth squeezed from your saved dollars, and the government will pay more entitlements in lieu of wages derived from earned profits.  It’s clear to me that the Fed exists to protect the bankers, and lately that has been at the expense of the citizens and taxpayers.

I don’t know if Iran has the brainpower or the money to build a nuclear bomb.  And I guess I’ll just trust Dennis Rodman to take care of the situation in North Korea.  But if we don’t get the Fed under control soon, the Dollar Bubble is going to blow up, and it won’t be fun.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

You turned me out, you turned me on
And then you dropped me to the ground
You dropped a bomb on me.

You Dropped A Bomb On Me – Gap Band