Tag Archives: Obama

Looking For Benefits?

Posted on by Standard 1

For some time now, President Obama and his PR department (the mainstream media) have contended that our nation’s biggest problem is inequality.  Not unemployment, not lack of GDP growth, not the national debt and deficit, not the growing number of people on food stamps and other government assistance.  The most important problem, according to them, is the gap between the rich and the poor.

Defining rich and poor is subjective and difficult.  Most often lately, “rich” has been defined as a couple who earns more than $250,000 per year.   Presumably the threshold is lower for singles.

“Poor” is almost never really quantified.   Some of us are old enough to remember the television ads showing skinny Appalachian kids leaning on stick-built porches, wearing rags and sad faces.  I’m not saying those were the good old days, but times have sure changed.  Kids on food stamps today are, as often as not, obese.   Recipients of federal disability payments has increased by 50% in the last ten years.  Since January 2009, the number of individuals on food stamps has skyrocketed from 31.9 million to the current record high 47.1 million. By comparison, in 1969 just 2.8 million Americans received food stamps.

If you are reading this, I’m pretty sure you have never seen the federal government’s “Benefits” website (see graphic above).   The banner headline is:  “Looking For Benefits?”  Apparently plenty of people are – 70% of federal spending in 2010 went to “dependence-creating” programs, compared to 28% in 1962.  Our Secretary of “Labor” (see Hilda Solis’ statement above) now promotes benefits, not labor.

According to the 2012 Index of Dependence on Government:

The great and calamitous fiscal trends of our time—dependence on government by an increasing portion of the American population, and soaring debt that threatens the financial integrity of the economy—worsened yet again in 2010 and 2011. The United States has long reached the point at which it must reverse the direction of both trends or face economic and social collapse.

Programs considered “dependency-creating” are federally paid housing, health care and welfare, retirement, federal payments for higher education, and agricultural subsidies.  One could argue that retirement is not a benefit, because it is supposedly self-funded.  Or that agricultural subsidies are not a benefit – but much of that budget is food stamps, and the rest is mainly farm subsidies to large corporations, both of which cause dependency.  I can think of other spending that creates dependency too, like corporate bailouts and other government investments in chosen industries. In any event, we are looking at the same spending categories from 1962 to 2010 – and they jumped from 28% of the budget to 70%.

We can argue until the subsidized cows come home about what is fair, or whether taking property from one American to give it to another is even constitutional.

But anyone who thinks we can continue our current spending habits, or continue to encourage the use of government benefits – regardless of how much tax is paid by the “rich” –  is dangerously ignorant.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I hope you hear inside my voice of sorrow
And that it motivates you to make a better tomorrow
This place is cruel no where could be much colder
If we don’t change the world will soon be over
Living just enough, just enough for the city.

Living For the City – Stevie Wonder

Obama’s Data Mining Wizards

Posted on by Standard 3

Nothing goes unnoticed by the data miners these days.  They know all about you.  They know what you like to buy, and when.  Every website you see, every search you execute, every TV show you watch is recorded. They know your age,  your political persuasion, your address, and a lot of other things you would never suspect.

Did you show your “preferred shopper” card on that last trip to the grocery store?  They used it to figure out what you might want to buy next time, and how to encourage you to spend more.  (I often express my sticker shock – “Wow, I’m glad I’m a preferred shopper!  I’d hate to see what you do to the customers you don’t prefer!)

The Obama campaign took masterful, full advantage of data mining, and some think it is what won the election for them.   Instead of relying on traditional political advisers and old-school marketing experts, Obama played the campaign game strictly by the metrics, building a huge data analytics operation two years before the election.  They designed their fundraising campaigns and advertisements to appeal to specific voters in narrowly-targeted markets.  They knew exactly who could be manipulated and how.  Their attacks ads were designed with pin-point scientific and psychological precision.

Time Magazine was given an inside look at the Obama machine and found:

“. . .a massive data effort that helped Obama raise $1 billion, remade the process of targeting TV ads and created detailed models of swing-state voters that could be used to increase the effectiveness of everything from phone calls and door knocks to direct mailings and social media.”

In this election cycle, policy issues really didn’t matter.  The horrendous performance of the Obama administration for four years was not a problem, and the Democrats didn’t even bother to propose any solutions to the country’s many troubles.

The Republicans took the high road – presenting facts and plans, avoiding hyperbole and attacks, assuming the majority of voters were paying attention and actually cared about the economy, the debt, and their childrens’ futures.  The GOP didn’t have a chance.

By the way, Rayid Ghani, the mastermind of the Obama data mining operation, cut his teeth in the monster supermarket “preferred customer” data-crunching game.

I can’t fault the Democrats for using such a powerful weapon.  They zeroed in on the weakness and vulnerability of American voters.  It worked.

I only wish they would put as much technology, effort, and money into finding solutions to the nation’s problems as they did getting elected.

Oh, and by the way – be careful what you say, do, and type.  You are being watched.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Man:  I think, I think I am!  Therefore I am!   I think?

Government: Of course you are my bright little star!
I’ve miles and miles of files,
Pretty files of your forefather’s fruit
And now to suit our great computer,
You’re magnetic ink!

In the Beginning – the Moody Blues

If Obama Wins – Then What, Montana?

Posted on by Standard Reply

courtesy ConsumerBoomer.com

  • No fracking, drilling, or pipelines – guess what that does to our Montana and US economies – and our future?
  • No coal plants in the US – if we are allowed to mine coal at all, we will probably not be allowed to ship it to the coast by train to meet the huge demand for Asian coal.  Coal dust blows off the train cars, you see.
  • Energy prices will double within a year – (see above).  We will continue to subsidize wind and solar energy companies, electric car manufacturers, and other chosen “winners”, many of whom will not survive economically.
  • $8 per gallon gasoline within two years.  Remember, Energy Secretary Stephen Chu said he wants our gas price to be the same as Europe.
  • At least two more far-left Supreme Court Justices take the bench.
  • Severe restrictions on gun ownership and use (see above – Sotomayor says “the right to possess a gun is clearly not a fundamental right.”)  Hunting on government land is forbidden, and is severely restricted on private land.
  • Health care will be expensive and rare.
  • Government employee unions will rule with impugnity.
  • Inflation will skyrocket as national debt soars and the Fed continues to print funny money.
  • Conservative talk radio, free speech, free internet, and Fox News are toast.  The first amendment fades in our memories, like most Constitutional freedoms.
  • Our government will never again write a budget – as Harry Reid said, “There’s no need to have a Democratic budget in my opinion.”  Budget, schmudget.  They can always print more money and spend it however they want.
  • Obama and his administration will make life hell for everyone who opposed them.  Listen to Valerie Jarrett:

    …Valerie Jarrett is letting it be known that if Barack Obama secures election victory next week, there may be, quite literally, hell to pay for those who opposed him…

    …Jarrett told (staff members) ‘After we win this election, it’s our turn. Payback time.

    Everyone not with us is against us and they better be ready because we don’t forget. The ones who helped us will be rewarded, the ones who opposed us will get what they deserve.

    There is going to be hell to pay. Congress won’t be a problem for us this time. No election to worry about after this is over and we have two judges ready to go.’

    She was talking directly to about three of them. Sr. staff. And she wasn’t trying to be quiet about it at all. And they were all listening and shaking their heads and smiling while she said it…

Obama has promised revenge too. If you ever spoke out against the left, watch your back.

I could go on, but it’s more than I can bear on the night before the most important, and the closest, political race of the modern political era. There is so much at stake. We can only pray for God’s mercy at this point. It may be our last chance before prayer is outlawed.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

So let’s bow our heads and pray –
with the unbelievable ZZ TOP

Have Mercy – and – Jesus Has Left Chicago

Now I’m Pissed

Posted on by Standard 9

I try to be civil in my discourse.  I try to avoid hyperbole, or vitriol, or coarse criticism of those with whom I disagree.  But this is personal.

Today, President Obama’s Special Assistant for Disability Policy, Kareem Dale, made a public statement that has me spitting nails.  Dale said the president would “protect the disabled” and  declared that ”people with disabilities are going to be absolutely killed under Mitt Romney’s plan.”

His rallying cry to the Democrat faithful was “Let’s win this motherfucker.”

Here’s the truth.  I have a son who is totally blind.  He lives fairly independently in his own condo in Charlotte, North Carolina.   After he busted his butt to graduate from college, he moved to Charlotte in the hope of getting a job with the school district there as a teacher’s aide.  After volunteering for two years teaching braille and computer skills to blind elementary students, without pay and trying to get a foot in the door, he learned that the teachers’ union would not allow any aides to be hired, because they were not required to be union members.  Thanks to the union, he is one of Obama’s 8% unemployed.

At this point I want to add that my son has never asked for or received a penny from the government, aside from disability services while at school.

Until a few years ago, my son had access to the federally funded handicapped bus system in Charlotte, NC.  This network of small buses enabled handicapped citizens to live independently, by providing door-to-door service (for a fee) to go shopping, to work, to a restaurant, etc.

Then Obama happened, along with a Democrat sweep of power in Charlotte.

Suddenly the handicapped bus program was gutted.  Service was completely cut off to the majority of clients in Charlotte, including my son.  Why?  Was it the result of a budget cut because of mean conservatives?  No, the funding which was previously available to the disabled community was re-directed to fund a $1.6 billion expansion to the urban light rail system, which was, and continues to be, severely underutilized and bleeding cash.  The few who do ride the light rail usually don’t even pay their fares – payment is expected to be voluntary, and with no enforcement, guess what?  Nobody volunteers to pay.

The authorities admitted that, because riders don’t pay what it costs to transport them, they are subsidizing light rail passengers to the tune of $7 per trip.  Coincidentally, the cost of transporting a handicapped citizen (who does pay a fee) to the grocery store is . . . $7 per trip.

The Obama administration is all about picking winners and losers when it comes to federal dollars.  And the losers in this case were those least able to defend themselves – the non-union, unorganized, and few-in-numbers handicapped community.  The winners?  Yup.  Obama lobbyists and contributors, locked-in urban Democrat voters, and Agenda 21 advocates.

You will never find any conservative – citizen or leader – who would withhold services from the truly needy or the handicapped.  But our so-called “liberal” friends?  Give me a break.  They would sell their mothers for a vote.

Today, thousands of handicapped citizens of Charlotte have lost a good portion of their independence thanks to Obama and the Democrats.

So, Mr. Partially-Blind Kareem Dale, Mr. Hot Shot Obama Administration Lackey, Mr. Foul-Mouthed Over-paid Affirmative Action Government Employee, don’t give me one more word about how ”people with disabilities are going to be absolutely killed under Mitt Romney’s plan.”

Things were great until your boy took the reins.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Too damned mad for a song today

Obama – The Six Trillion Dollar Man

Posted on by Standard Reply



Overheard from Obama’s debate prep team:  “We have the technology – we have the capability to make the world’s first bionic president.  Better, cooler, smarter . . .  Oh wait, we already spent six trillion on that, it didn’t work.  Never mind.”

“The Six Million Dollar Man” (Lee Majors) could run like the wind and crush an anvil with one hand.  Fortunately, he was a force for good, not evil.

We spent SIX TRILLION DOLLARS on our current president – that’s how much our debt has increased under his watch.  And we can expect another bill of at least that much if he is re-elected.

Six Trillion Dollars ago, President Obama said he said he would cut the deficit in half.  Didn’t quite happen.

Six Trillion Dollars ago, the President said the rest of the world would respect us once again.  Umm, not so much.

Six Trillion Dollars ago, he said his would be the most transparent government in history.  Mr. President, what happened in Benghazi?  Can we see the Fast and Furious documents you hid, invoking executive privilege?  What’s the big secret about your college records?  And what the heck happened to that 7-layer Photoshopped birth certificate?

Six Trillion Dollars Ago, the President said,  “The Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.”  Mr. President, inside the beltway they say you don’t even talk to your own party leaders, much less anybody from across the aisle.

Six Trillion Dollars ago President Obama promised, “When there is a bill that ends up on my desk as the president, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what’s in it before I sign it.”  Nope.  He said, “I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race. I don’t take a dime of their money, and when I am president, they won’t find a job in my White House.”  Nope.  And he said, “When I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.”  Nope, nope, nope.

Too bad we didn’t get a warranty when we bought the Six Trillion Dollar Man.  Maybe we could get our money back.  For sure let’s not spend another Six Trillion on this same defective model.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Have a good laugh and enjoy some great R&B too.
Click the music link below and think Obama –

My man is smooth like Barry and his voice got bass
A body like Arnold with a Denzel face,
He’s smart like a doctor with a real good rep
And when he comes home, he’s relaxed with pep
He always got a gift for me, every time I see him
A lot of snot nose, ex-flames couldn’t be him

Whatta Man – Salt ‘N Peppa

Tell The Truth!

Posted on by Standard 1

“I don’t trust you any more,” cried the mother of a slain State Dept. employee Sean Smith.  She was promised by President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton, and Defense Secretary Panetta that they would tell her what had happened to her son.

They didn’t.  They won’t.

“I cried on Obama’s shoulder,” she said.  “Then he kind of just looked off into the distance.  That was worthless to me.”

While congressional hearings continue in an attempt to find out what really happened in Benghazi, our ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, did not feel compelled to extend any condolences to the families of those killed.  Oh, but she did post several tweets about her concerns for the lesbian and gay community.

(from Sunshine State Sarah)

Rice spent an entire Sunday news cycle repeating the Administration’s politically motivated claim that the Benghazi attack was caused by an obscure film trailer released in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, the Democrat political attack plan du jour is to attempt to brand Mitt Romney as a liar because he didn’t say the things his attackers said that he said.

There’s a time for politics and a time to just tell the truth.  Too bad it’s never the same time.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ the Right Side

The whole world is shaking now. Can’t you feel it?
A new dawn is breaking now. Can’t you see it?
Tell the truth. Who’s been fooling who?

Tell The Truth – Eric Clapton

Walk the talk, Democrats!

Posted on by Standard Reply

Our nation faces a two-pronged economic problem.  We no longer produce the wealth or the jobs that our growing population requires.

That’s mainly because we don’t manufacture like we used to.  The USA has become a service-based economy, and most of our service activity does not create wealth – it merely pushes it around from one pocket to another.  We have abdicated our manufacturing prowess to developing countries, and according to the economic concept of “comparative advantage”, that should be a good thing – but only if we still have a way to make a living.

We have agricultural output that is the envy of the world.  But technology and corporate consolidation of farmland have largely eliminated employment in that sector.

We still are recognized as the world’s top producer of intellectual property – ideas, concepts, programs, designs, inventions.  Some of us are creative, and that generates wealth.  But not enough wealth to carry those of us who aren’t – the ones who used to work in factories and on farms.

So what does that leave us?  How will the US build employment and create wealth in the new world economy?

It always comes back to supply and demand, as I pointed out in a recent post.  Wealth comes from producing what the customer wants and needs.  Scarcity has value.  And in the United States, we have something scarce and valuable that the rest of the world desperately wants and needs:  Energy.

We are reminded every day how rich our homeland is in energy resources.  And we have the technology to extract, convert, and transport energy safely and efficiently.  It would generate much needed wealth and employment.  What’s holding us back?

Intransigence.  Bull-headed stubbornness.  The inability on the part of the liberal half of our nation to admit that they have been wrong.

Those who still oppose developing our traditional energy resources can’t admit that wind and solar are a colossal failure.  They won’t face the fact that nobody wants electric cars because they suck.  They hide the fact that more than half of the solar companies the federal government has subsidized have collapsed.  They pretend that today’s oil, gas, and coal industries still operate with ancient, polluting facilities and methods.

President Obama feigns concern about our energy dependence, the cost of fuel, and the sour economy.  He brags about how oil and natural gas production are up on his watch.   But he won’t admit that he has significantly cut oil leases on federal land.  And at the same time he announces that he has unilaterally (without Congress) decided to further restrict leases in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska, which was created 90 years ago specifically for oil production.

The Democrats say they want to create jobs.  They say they want to improve the economy and reduce our debt.

Why don’t they do what they say?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Enjoy some of the best rock of the 80’s

Why don’t they do what they say?
Say what they mean?
One thing leads to another.
You told me something wrong,
I know I listen too long,
But then one thing leads to another.

It’s Not a Game – Politicians Can Hurt People

Posted on by Standard 1

The debates and the surrounding hoopla have the flavor of a football game.  After the battle, the winning side cheers and the losing side retreats, licking its wounds and vowing to “get ’em next time”.  Monday-morning quarterbacks natter about body language, game plans, and alpha males.

It’s so much more serious than that.  Politicians can, and do, hurt people.

I have a friend who lives in the Central Valley of California.  He has been sending me heart-wrenching letters over the last two years about the devastation that politics has wrought on the Valley and its residents.

In January of 2010 Congressman Tom McClintock (R-CA) made an impassioned plea to the US House of Representatives for relief from the man-made drought brought on by the Obama administration, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA).  In a shameless appeasement to their environmental extremist lobbyists, this group of all-stars diverted 200 billion gallons of water away from Central Valley farms into the Pacific Ocean, leaving only 5% of the water the farmers were entitled to.  All for the benefit of the Delta Smelt, a tiny, useless fish – listed as “endangered” by the EPA, but not even indigenous to California.

The loss of irrigation water destroyed 500,000 acres of what was once considered the richest and most productive farmland in the nation,  and put 37,000 families out of work, leaving proud fathers standing in bread lines to feed their families.

California Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) could not hold back his frustration as he called out the Democrats in Congress for bankrupting thousands of families and businesses tor a fish.  And the situation is not getting any better.

Today I talked with Brian Whelan (R-CA), California candidate for US House of Representatives.  “Our valley is now called the Appalachia of the West”, Whelan said.   “We’re still getting only a small percentage of the water we are entitled to.  Having half the allotment of water that a grove of pistachio trees needs to stay alive is as bad as no water at all.  Fields have been left fallow.  Meanwhile my opponent, Jim Costa (D-CA), hands out carrots grown in China to destitute families at a food bank.”

There are real families suffering here at the hands of politicians.  My California friend laments that, like thousands of others, his daughter’s Central Valley family has been pretty much destroyed.

“She had a daycare and her husband had a good job.  They had a very nice home two blocks from a nice school in a beautiful neighborhood.  It didn’t happen all at once, but her husband had less and less work.  They lost their home, then their rental home.  Because his employer was broke too, her husband was only receiving his earned pay intermittently.  Finally he “snapped” from the stress and the family broke up.  Sick kids.  Power and water shut off.  It’s like a bad dream.”  The daughter and children have moved back in with her father.

Look back at the names of the politicians in this article.  Notice the “R” after the guys who are trying to help.  Notice the “D” following the names of those who caused the problem and won’t back off.   Am I a partisan?  Damn right.  I’m calling you out, too, Democrats.  You talk big about caring for the “middle class” and the less fortunate.  But yet you can do this kind of damage to real families and brush it off on the way to your next DC cocktail party.

As a nation, we voters had better get it right this time around.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

My Chevrolet just made steam,
Your crop is laying foul,
My grass skirt’s lost its green,
I’m alive but I don’t know how.
I need water, good good water,
They need water.

Water – the Who

Caddell: Media “Threat To Future of Country”

Posted on by Standard 2

We have known for a long time that the media is biased toward the President and the Democrats.  We watch with incredulity as news services and networks toil around the clock to protect and promote their party.  But have we really considered how serious the demise of the fourth estate is to the future of our nation?

Pat Caddell, in an impassioned speech to the AIM (Accuracy in Media) conference, blistered the media on a number of fronts:

“I think we’re at the most dangerous time in our political history in terms of the balance of power in the role that the media plays in whether or not we maintain a free democracy.”

He is furious that the truth about the circumstances of an American ambassador’s death was hidden by the media, to protect the administration, for nine days.

“We’ve had nine days of lies over what happened because they can’t dare say it’s a terrorist attack, and the press won’t push this,” said Caddell. “Yesterday there was not a single piece in The New York Times over the question of Libya. Twenty American embassies, yesterday, are under attack. None of that is on the national news. None of it is being pressed in the papers.”

Caddell said he is more frightened now than has ever been.

“When they decide that their job is not simply to tell you who you may vote for, and who you may not, but, worse—and this is the danger of the last two weeks—what truth that you may know, as an American, and what truth you are not allowed to know, they have, then, made themselves a fundamental threat to the democracy, and, in my opinion, made themselves the enemy of the American people.  And it is a threat to the very future of this country if…we allow this stuff to go on.”

Caddell reveals truths about the corruption in our media as only an insider could.  “You get what you ask for,” was his final blast of frustration.  Here is the main part of his chilling presentation.


Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Get your blues on for some hot Jonny Lang guitar –

Lie to me, it doesn’t matter anymore
It could never be, the way it was before

Lie To Me – Jonny Lang

Yes Mom, He’s An Axe Murderer, But He’s So Cute!

Posted on by Standard 5

We bumped into a new neighbor the other day.  After some chit-chat the conversation turned, predictably, to the sour economy – unemployment, inflation, the debt.  The neighbor mentioned the weak real estate market and how difficult it is to sell or buy a house.

My wife chimed in, “I think everybody is waiting until after the election to make any major financial move.”

The neighbor said, “Yes, I know everybody wants Obama out because his policies have been terrible for the economy.”  We agreed, assuming we had met a fellow conservative.

She continued, “I voted for Obama last time.  And I suppose I will have to vote for him again.”   My wife and I gave each other a puzzled look.  “Why?” we asked.

“Well, I just couldn’t vote for Romney because of the way he flaunts his wealth.”

Huh?

My mind reeled at all the problems with this statement.  Even if it were true, how is having money you earned yourself worse than deliberately destroying the wealth of American families?

When Romney was governor of Massachusetts he refused to take a salary.  He also managed the Winter Olympics without pay.  And he donated every dollar of his inheritance to charity.  Stories of Romney’s incredible anonymous philanthropy are beginning to surface.  Flaunt his wealth?  Are Michelle’s expensive vacations not flaunting?  Is sending a government jet to pick up Barack’s dog not flaunting?

And besides, what the hell difference does it make?  We have important problems to solve!

I’m befuddled as to why people vote the way they do.  It’s mind-boggling.

What is more important than the looming bankruptcy of the largest economy on the planet?  Does it really matter who pays for Sandra Fluke’s birth control pills?  Do you vote for somebody only because of his or her sex, or race, or personal appearance?

President Obama’s policies have been a dismal failure, resulting in annual deficits exceeding $1 trillion and driving our nation into a disastrous, perhaps irreversible decline.  He shows no interest in straightening out the mess.  And yet Obama continues to lead in the polls because he is “likeable.”

At the DNC in Charlotte, Peter Schiff interviewed a couple dozen delegates – these are the Democrat party’s best and brightest.  With a big grin, he asked each of them, “Do you think corporate profits should be banned?”  Every one, without hesitation, said, “Of course!  That’s a great idea!”

This is the “new” American voter.  God help us.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Don’t say nothin’ bad about my baby
Don’t say nothin’ bad about my baby
He’s good – he’s good to me –
And that’s all I care about!

Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad About My Baby – the Cookies