Crony Capitalism At Its Ugliest

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

Eric Clapton with Gibson Les Paul guitar

Is it any wonder American businesses are afraid to open their doors in the reign of King Obama?

Today Gibson Guitar’s CEO Henry Juszkiewicz announced that the company has settled with the Dept. of Justice, who ruled last year that Gibson had violated the Lacey Act by importing unfinished rosewood for guitar fingerboards from India and Madagascar.

It was clearly another case of “picking winners and losers”, the Obama administration’s favorite political tool – used to bludgeon opponents and reward cronies and contributors.

You see, most guitar fretboards are made with imported rosewood. Guitar manufacturers often buy fretboards which have been manufactured in India, and the Indian government is grateful for the business (memo to Obama – most nations appreciate the chance to employ their citizens). In fact Martin Guitars imports the very same rosewood for its guitars, from the same suppliers that Gibson does. If this is a crime (which it has not been proven to be), it certainly is a victimless one.

Gibson plants were raided by armed federal agents, who confiscated $1 million worth of rosewood inventory. They were shut down for a time, and now the company has been extorted for a $300,000 fine and a $50,000 “contribution” to the US National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Martin’s use of the same rosewood has never been questioned.

Oh, did I mention that Gibson’s CEO Juszkiewicz is a Republican supporter, while Martin’s CEO, Chris Martin, is a long-time donor to the Democrat party?

We have always been taught that there was a presumption of innocence in this country, and an opportunity for defense and redress if we have been wrongfully charged. Unfortunately in today’s world where government agencies and czars rule with impunity, that’s no longer the case. A bureaucrat can be judge, jury and executioner.

“We’re in this really incredible situation. We have been implicated in wrongdoing and we haven’t been charged with anything,” Juszkiewicz said. “Our business has been injured to millions of dollars. And we don’t even have a court we can go to and say, ‘Look, here’s our position.”

Due process be damned, this is politics.

The “picking winners and losers” tactic has worked so well on the national level that our Montana Democrat administration has taken the page from the Obama playbook. Stay tuned as that story develops.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I don’t know how someone controlled you
They bought and sold you.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps – George Harrison
(guitar solo by Eric Clapton on a GIBSON LES PAUL )

Please Don’t Vote

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Tom Balek Standard 2

“Get Out the Vote”! It’s a good thing, right? Everybody should vote! It’s your responsibility as an American. It’s patriotic. It’s for the good of the country.

Ask anyone you meet – should every American be allowed to vote? The automatic, enthusiastic, unequivocal response is always: “Yes!”

Just for the exercise, let’s set aside our rigid posture (and the Constitution) and ask, “What is best for our country, and our childrens’ futures?”

Should a person who has never paid taxes get to vote? Where else in the circus of life can a person decide how another person’s money is spent? Half of US citizens pay no federal income taxes, but they still get to elect those who spend the money taken from the other half. Isn’t that a golden opportunity for corruption? I’ll break this down: “Vote for me, and I’ll give you somebody else’s money.

I VOTED! WOO HOO!

Should a person who has no understanding of candidates, issues, government, history, or economics be allowed to vote? Let’s be honest, a large percentage of our citizens are economically and politically illiterate. They don’t read or watch any news. They don’t know who the vice president is. They can’t find China on a globe. And they are absolutely not able to make an intelligent decision about how our government should be run for the benefit of all.

We don’t let children vote. Why? Because we assume they have no clue what they are voting about. Unfortunately, when it comes to important events, many of our adult voters are child-like in their understanding of the world. An astute and well-educated fifth-grader is more qualified to vote than many adults.

Should a person who can’t prove eligibility get to vote? A state legislator from a college town here in Montana was recently testifying against stricter identification rules for state voters. “This is so unfair!” she wailed. “If we lengthen the registration period, how are our out-of-state and international students going to be able to vote?”

In a world where personal identification is a requirement of daily life, asking a voter for ID is just common sense, and everyone knows it. Those who oppose it clearly intend vote fraud.

It may seem that I want to take away the average guy’s right to vote. I don’t. But I do think that every voter should have skin in the game – when each voter pays at least some taxes, he will be more interested in how the money is spent. I think our education system should be dramatically improved so that by adulthood, each citizen knows our country’s history, understands economics, and is equipped to vote intelligently. And I think we should protect the sanctity of our electoral process by making sure that only eligible voters cast ballots.

Call me a rebel.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I’d like to help you son,
But you’re too young to vote!

Summertime Blues – the Beach Boys

The Insults That Triggered our Declaration of Independence Are Here Again

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Tom Balek Standard 1

On July 4, 1776, representatives of the States (not the nation) declared their Declaration of Independence independence from King George and Great Britain. The document they presented to the world included a list of grievances against the King that justified their bold action.

There are grand passages from the Declaration that are widely quoted and remembered. But the part that interests me today is the list of grievances. These guys were really ticked off, and with good reason. It surprises me how many of these “repeated injuries and usurpations” against the States exist today.

“Let Facts be submitted to a candid world”, they began. Each complaint in the list begins with “He . . .”, referring to King George. I can’t help making a mental substitution.

“He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome necessary for the public good.” (We now have an administration that has stated it will choose which laws it wishes to enforce.)
“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.” (Over-reach and bloated, uncontrolled growth by the EPA, the BLM, HUD, Fanny/Freddy, Education, Labor, Energy, Commerce, Justice, Agriculture, Health and Welfare, all of the “czars” – where do I stop?)
“He has combined with others . . . giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation for imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.” ObamaCare is the tip of the iceberg.

Fortunately, we can redress our grievances today without the bloodshed our forefathers bravely endured. We can again declare our independence by voting this fall to end the creeping tyranny that, left unchallenged, would destroy the freedoms our States have enjoyed for 236 years.

Tom Balek, Rockin’ On the Right Side

“Somebody Get Me A Cheeseburger!” – Steve Miller, ‘Livin’ In the USA‘

The Rattle of Jerking Knees

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

Hear that noise? It’s the sound of knees jerking all over the place from the news that the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

I have to admit, I was puzzled too when Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts sided with the transparently liberal judges on this one. I kept thinking, “there has to be more to this than meets the eye.” The reaction by many conservative pundits was to lament that Roberts caved in to the evil liberals, for any number of purported reasons. My knee started to twitch, but failed to fully jerk.

First of all, we want our judges and justices to be apolitical, so don’t go there. Second, there has never been any indication that Justice Roberts is wishy-washy on the Constitution. And third, back in 2009 when President Obama was vehemently denying that his “mandate” penalty was not a tax, I was thinking, “Of course it’s a tax. When you have to pay money to the IRS, for whatever purpose, it sure smells like a tax to me.”

Now that the smoke has cleared the battlefield, we can assess the extent of the damage. Or of victory. And I am leaning in the direction of the latter. By ruling that the ObamaCare mandate is a tax, Chief Justice Roberts took the whole “Commerce Clause” justification off the table. I was seriously concerned that a constitutional victory for the mandate could open the Pandora’s Box, allowing the government the tool to force citizens into anything. This would have set a dangerous precedent in Constitutional interpretation, but Roberts threw an extra padlock on the box.

Uncle Sam The proponents of the Act act one time publicly insisted that the mandate is not a tax. Then the solicitor general insisted to the Supreme Court that it is, in fact, a tax. No one can know exactly what Roberts’ motivations were, but the result is the same. By labeling the mandate a tax, Roberts ensured that President Obama is the proud owner of an enormous tax increase, a deceptive one at that, and this will likely cost him a second term. The frosting on that cake is the fact that tax laws are easily repealed, requiring only 51 votes in the Senate, so ObamaCare will likely be tossed to the ash-heap of history anyway.

An excellent analysis was made by Timothy Dalrymple – he pulled together a number of “silver linings” for conservatives in the wake of the SCOTUS decision.

Still, knee-jerk exercises are in order for conservatives. We need to be in shape for some serious butt-kicking this fall.

Tom Balek, Rockin’ On the Right Side

If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I’ll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.
TAX MAN – the Beatles

Let’s Just Ignore That Law

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

I’ve heard it said that the United States is “a nation of laws.” I’m not aware of any recent re-write of the Constitution, but last week it seems something changed.

Oh, the laws are still there, but our current president and attorney general have decided that they don’t feel our law officials need to enforce some of them. For instance, they say that as many as 800,000 illegal immigrants will not be deported “as long as they aren’t doing something ‘illegal’.” You can’t make this stuff up.

White House advisor David Ploufe insisted on TV that it’s not a political move intended to pander to Hispanic voters. I’m sure the thought of trading amnesty for votes never crossed their minds.

My lovely bride had a great idea. She said, “Why don’t we decide to not enforce the capital gains tax?”

That got me thinking. There are a lot of laws that might be best forgotten. I’ll bet the rancher who lost 58 of his sheep to a single grizzly bear last week near Conrad, Montana would like to say, “Oh sorry – heh, heh – I thought I could just ignore that little rule about shooting grizzlies. My bad!”

Maybe next time I’m in that long line at the airport waiting to get groped by the TSA guy, I might just jump right over their little retaining rope, bypass the whole security checkpoint, and have time to grab a tasty Cinnabon roll before my flight. I say the groping laws should only be applied to nervous-looking bearded guys in turbans praying in Arabic, anyway.

But I suppose I am just dreaming. Ordinary citizens don’t get to choose which rules they want to have enforced, at least not in our “nation of laws”. Only a dictator could get away with something like that.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

“I Fought the Law, and the Law Won” – Bobby Fuller Four