Go Surfin

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

US home foreclosures increase 55%

A lender-owned home is for sale in southern California
Many homeowners are unable to keep up with their repayments

More than 272,000 people in the US received a foreclosure notice in July, a rise of 55% on a year earlier, according to analysts Realtytrac.

Florida and California had the highest rate of foreclosures, figures showed.

In a further indication of the severe problems affecting the US housing market, more than 77,000 homes were repossessed in July.

As a result of this increase, 17% of all homes for sale in the US are repossessed properties.

US mortgage giant Fannie Mae recently announced that it was opening new offices in California and Florida to try to increase the sale of foreclosed properties it owns. It is even considering selling them in bulk to investors.

Last month, the US government introduced new legislation to try to prevent homeowners losing their properties.

Realtytrac said this could help the number of foreclosures start to stabilize as early as the first quarter of next year.

I don't know about the rest of you but this is ridiculous. How many children are out in streets sleeping in cars and trying to make the grade in school.

There has to be something out there to help people keep their homes. Why not let people stay in the homes and pay what they can, we aren't talking about lazy bad people these people are hard working and as proud as anyone else. Think about your grandparents losing the house they have paid on for years and had to refinance because of medical bills and utilities being so high.

I hope and pray that who every the next president is something can be done.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

UK economy comes to a standstill

Shoppers in Bath
Shoppers are tightening their belts as the economy fails to grow

UK economic growth ground to a halt between April and June, according to the latest official figures.

The Office for National Statistics said the economy stalled, showing no growth from the first quarter of 2008.

It ends a run of more than 15 years of consecutive growth in the UK and will raise expectations of a rate cut.

The 0% growth figure was down from an earlier estimate of 0.2% and lower than the 0.3% growth recorded in the first three months of 2008.

'Challenging times'

The figures were the weakest since 1992 and the news sent the pound lower against the dollar and the euro.

The government said the economy was feeling the effects of global pressures such as high commodity prices and the continuing credit squeeze.

"The Government's priority is to guide Britain through these challenging times, while also supporting those hit hardest as a result of these global factors," a Treasury spokesman said.

But the Conservatives said that Labour's economic record had been tarnished.

The figures are very weak and suggest the UK economy is already in recession
George Buckley, Deutsche Bank

"For years Gordon Brown boasted about consecutive quarters of economic growth," Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said.

"Now economic growth has ground to a halt and Brown's bubble has burst."

Friday's figures showed that the services sector, the backbone of the UK economy, grew just 0.2%, while manufacturing output fell by 0.8%. Household spending dropped by 0.1%.

Exports also fell as Europe, the UK's main trading partner, saw growth contract in the same period.

The UK economy grew 1.4% from the second quarter of 2007, revised down from an initial estimate of 1.6%.

"The figures are very weak and suggest the UK economy is already in recession," said George Buckley, an economist at Deutsche Bank.

The economy technically enters a recession when it shrinks for two consecutive quarters.

Rate dilemma

Bank of England governor Mervyn King has warned that the UK economy is in for a difficult and painful period due to a combination of high inflation and rapidly slowing growth.

Inflation, which at 4.4% is well above the 2% target rate, could make it more difficult for the Bank to cut interest rates to spur the economy.

But analysts said the zero growth reading could lead to lower borrowing costs by the end of this year.

"This really does put a rate cut firmly on the agenda although it is unlikely to come until we have seen the peak in inflation," said Brian Hilliard, an analyst at SG.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Q&A: The dollar's rally

Dollar notes
Foreign exchange markets sense a change in the global economic climate

The US dollar is making a comeback as sluggish European economies and falling oil prices make the outlook for the world's largest economy seem better.

The greenback hit a six-month high against the euro on Friday, after earlier data showed the eurozone economy shrank in the second quarter, adding to fears that the region may be heading towards recession.

Meanwhile the Bank of England issued a gloomy assessment of the UK economy.

That has caused the pound to fall against the dollar for an 11th consecutive day.

What is driving the dollar?

The US has been seen as the worst hit by the recent slowdown, but there has been promising news recently from the world's biggest economy.

A surge in June's export sales and rising industrial output in July have made economists more optimistic about its outlook.

This, coupled with news that economies outside the US are doing badly, has led to a rise in the dollar as foreign exchange markets sense a change in the economic climate.

The dollar's climb against the euro was triggered after the head of the European Central Bank (ECB), Jean-Claude Trichet, reiterated his fears about the health of the eurozone economy earlier this month.

Many analysts expect the ECB and the Bank of England to cut rates in a bid to boost their flagging economies.

So if US rates head in the opposite direction, the shifting interest rate gap should also boost the dollar, as the euro and sterling become less attractive to global investors.

The oil factor?

But commodities - namely oil - also have a part to play.

The recent fall in the price of crude oil has helped the US currency because the US, the world's biggest oil consumer, has most to lose and least to gain from sky-high oil.

When oil prices rise, the dollar traditionally weakens.

But a lower oil price helps tame inflation, helping revive consumer and business spending and so kick-starting the wider economy.

Will the greenback rally last?

If the US economic picture continues to improve and oil keeps falling, analysts say the rally will be supported.

Goldman Sachs, the largest US investment bank, said it believed "the dollar's long-term downtrend had ended".

After a decade of taking a negative view on the dollar, the bank said it was waving "goodbye to our long-held dollar bearish stance".

Still, the dollar faces challenges ahead, such as volatility in oil prices and weaker US consumer spending.

Investors will also be looking at the giant emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China - key drivers of this decade's global expansion.

If cracks start to appear in the economies of the emerging world, that too could determine the extent of the dollar rally.

Why does the currency change matter?

American tourists in Europe have bemoaned the weak dollar and how it has reduced their purchasing power for years.

Europeans crossing the Atlantic have enjoyed a spending spree fuelled by the strong euro.

These factors will change slightly, analysts said.

On the upside, European exporters will benefit as their goods will become cheaper overseas.

And institutions holding large reserves of of dollar assets, such as Asian central banks, will be breathing a sigh of relief with the current direction of the dollar

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Don't fall for these Scams

— Scams —

Update your billing information. You receive a courteous, official looking email from a well-respected company that asks you to update your billing information. The email even includes a convenient link for you to click. DON'T DO IT! Regardless of how well-known the company is, the email is a FAKE! If you do click on the link and enter your information on the page it takes you to, even if that page looks official, you've just allowed someone to steal your identity. Instead, if you suspect that your billing information does need to be updated, go directly to the company's Web site through your browser, NOT through your email program.

Variations on this theme. You receive an email from eBay or PayPal, or from a financial institution or stock broker. Their email says that they have noticed suspicious activity on your account, and to protect you from identity theft, they've suspended your account. To clear things up, you are told to click on the link they've included and resubmit your personal information to verify your account.

Once again, DO NOT click on any link in an email that involves your personal information. If you do need to update your account information, or if you just want to make sure that your information is up to date, go directly to the company's Web site using your browser, NOT your email program.

Scam emails look very real, and crooks are getting better at it every day. It is very difficult to identify fake emails, even if the email includes a link that begins with "https://." The "s" after "http" is supposed to mean that it connects to a site that's safe and secure, one that protects your private information. But, we've recently seen scam links that begin with "https://" and then redirect you to a crook's website without your knowing it.

You missed jury duty. Someone claiming to be a court official calls and says that you missed jury duty. Then, they offer to fix things up. All they need is your Social Security number and date of birth. Don't fall for it. It's another scam. Your Social Security number and date of birth are all that a crook needs to steal your identity and ruin your credit rating.

Bottom line – protect your personal information. NEVER give out your Social Security number, credit card numbers or other personal identification information to an unsolicited source. Remember, a legitimate company will never call you to ask for this information over the phone or through e-mail.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Keeping the US-Canada border safe


Officials guarding the vast and mostly unfenced border between the United States and Canada are increasingly concerned that Islamic activists may pay sophisticated organised crime gangs to transport terrorists and weapons across into the US.

In recent years, Canada has become a global hub of organised crime, run by mostly by Asian and motorcycle gangs. They have set up an intricate network to smuggle marijuana, counterfeit goods and guns into the US.

But according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), there are fears that criminals could use their network to smuggle terrorists across.

Humphrey Hawksley has been to the border to meet the people in charge of keeping it safe.

SECRET TUNNELS AND HELICOPTERS

Sergeant Brian Brasnett is a senior RCMP border investigator. He believes it would be naive to think the gangs would draw a moral line as to what they transport.

"We would hope they don't stoop to the level of dealing in terrorism," he says.

"But it's all about making money and moving a product so that's where we have to concentrate our enforcement efforts."

He showed me an example of the real danger. Three years ago, US and Canadian investigators discovered a tunnel dug 8ft (2.4m) beneath the ground and stretching more than 330ft (100m).

It ran from a large garden hut on the Canadian side under the road and ditch that divides the two countries into the basement of a private house on the US side.

"It was 4ft by 4ft ...with a cart to transport contraband", says Sgt Brasnett. "There would have been a fee for prospective customers who wanted to use it."How the gangs use tunnels under the border

The US-Canada border runs for more than 5,000 miles (8,000km) through some of the remotest areas in the world. It's often marked simply by a line cut in scrubland or a small obelisk.

One of the busiest border crossings is one the main highway between the west coast cities of Vancouver and Seattle. A motto on an arch there proclaims that the two countries are "Children of a common mother" and "May these gates never close."

Even so, since 9/11, the US has been building what it describes as a "virtual fence" with an array of gadgetry that ranges from radiation detectors for nuclear weapons, to seismic sensors to catch people illegally sneaking across and number plate recognition so that immigration officers know pretty much who you are before you pull up at the booth.

"We ask ourselves, is this person truly who they are," explains Tom Schreiber of the US Immigration and Customs Service. Does this person match a recent intelligence look-at that I need to be aware of?"

Billions of dollars of contraband cross the border from Canada every year. It's been found in container trucks, ships and in canvas bags strapped to the skids of helicopters.

"They can fly as low as 500ft through the valleys straight down into the United States undetected," says Brian Brasnett. "Sometimes on a flight that only lasts 10 minutes and vehicles are waiting there ready to pick it up."

HORSE POWER

They call it "cutting sign" - an ancient Indian skill of reading tracks and footprints and learning how the sun reflects off moving earth and plants.

Every agent of the US Border patrol is a trained tracker.

"Quite often it's just going to be a little smudge," says senior agent Lee Pinkerton, squatting down and brushing his hand across the earth.

"Let's say they're running out of water so they're dragging their toe. Or they're jamming their heel or digging that toe when they're pushing off, or something scared them or maybe they seen me coming and they're running."

Agent Pinkerton and his team ride mustangs caught in the wild then broken in, because these horses are especially good at moving through rugged terrain.

"Our primary mission since 9/11 is to stop terrorism," says Agent Pinkerton as we ride towards the Canadian border in their Spokane sector where Washington State meets British Columbia.

"It's not the hi-tech way to do things, but right here it's the only way to do things. Even though we might have satellites and we might have aircraft, there's still the element of the man on the ground that's going to make that final determination."


The horsemen from the US Border Patrol make it their job to maintain a vigil on inaccessible areas. Sometimes they camp out for days on end, following an intelligence tip that someone might be trying to cross.

At the rickety low fence that divides the US and Canada, our patrols meets up with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who, ironically, gave up their horses some time ago. About half a mile away is road where vehicles sometimes stop to unload goods to be taken across.

RCMP border enforcement specialist Brian Brasnett says he's seen some unusual tracks. "There were footprints right along the trail," he says. "Can't tell how fresh they were."

Three of our US Border Patrol team peel off the check them out. Sgt Brasnett and Agent Pinkerton discuss setting up night scope along the trail to help them in cutting the sign.

"Satellites can track radio frequency. Radar that can track aircraft. They're all cutting sign in one manner," says Agent Pinkerton.

"We're going to stand on that line. We're going to patrol. We're going to to do whatever it takes to ensure out country is protected. If they want to cross illegally into the United States, not here. Not on my watch."

The three agents returned to report that the tracks were animal, not human. The US-Canada border stretches for thousands of miles of emptiness, but there's a real determination to keep it safe

Sunday, August 10, 2008

US dominates the world economically and militarily for how long?

It will not come as news to anyone that the US dominates the world
economically and militarily. But the exact mechanisms by which American
hegemony has been established and maintained are perhaps less well understood
than they might be. One tool used to great effect has been the dollar, but its
efficacy has recently been under threat since Europe introduced the euro.
The dollar is the de facto world reserve currency: the US currency accounts for
approximately two thirds of all official exchange reserves. More than four-fifths
of all foreign exchange transactions and half of all world exports are
denominated in dollars. In addition, all IMF loans are denominated in dollars.
But the more dollars there are circulating outside the US, or invested by foreign
owners in American assets, the more the rest of the world has had to provide the
US with goods and services in exchange for these dollars. The dollars cost the
US next to nothing to produce, so the fact that the world uses the currency in
this way means that the US is importing vast quantities of goods and services
virtually for free.
Since so many foreign-owned dollars are not spent on American goods and
services, the US is able to run a huge trade deficit year after year without
apparently any major economic consequences. The most recently published
figures, for example, show that in November of last year US imports were worth
48% more than US exports1. No other country can run such a large trade deficit
with impunity. The financial media tell us the US is acting as the ‘consumer of
last resort’ and the implication is that we should be thankful, but a more
enlightening description of this state of affairs would be to say that it is getting a
massive interest-free loan from the rest of the world.
While the US’ position may seem inviolable, one should remember that the
more you have, the more you have to lose. And recently there have been signs of
how, for the first time in a long time, the US may be beginning to lose.
One of the stated economic objectives, and perhaps the primary objective, when
setting up the euro was to turn it into a reserve currency to challenge the dollar
so that Europe too could get something for nothing.
This however would be a disaster for the US. Not only would they lose a large
part of their annual subsidy of effectively free goods and services, but countries
switching to euro reserves from dollar reserves would bring down the value of
the US currency. Imports would start to cost Americans a lot more and as
increasing numbers of those holding dollars began to spend them, the US would
have to start paying its debts by supplying in goods and services to foreign
countries, thus reducing American living standards. As countries and businesses
converted their dollar assets into euro assets, the US property and stock market
bubbles would, without doubt, burst. The Federal Reserve would no longer be
able to print more money to reflate the bubble, as it is currently openly
considering doing, because, without lots of eager foreigners prepared to mop
them up, a serious inflation would result which, in turn, would make foreigners
even more reluctant to hold the US currency and thus heighten the crisis.
There is though one major obstacle to this happening: oil. Oil is not just by far
the most important commodity traded internationally, it is the lifeblood of all
modern industrialised economies. If you don’t have oil, you have to buy it. And
if you want to buy oil on the international markets, you usually have to have
dollars. Until recently all OPEC countries agreed to sell their oil for dollars only.
So long as this remained the case, the euro was unlikely to become the major
reserve currency: there is not a lot of point in stockpiling euros if every time you
need to buy oil you have to change them into dollars. This arrangement also
meant that the US effectively part-controlled the entire world oil market: you
could only buy oil if you had dollars, and only one country had the right to print
dollars - the US.
If on the other hand OPEC were to decide to accept euros only for its oil
(assuming for a moment it were allowed to make this decision), then American
economic dominance would be over. Not only would Europe not need as many
dollars anymore, but Japan which imports over 80% of its oil from the Middle
East would think it wise to convert a large portion of its dollar assets to euro
assets (Japan is the major subsidiser of the US because it holds so many dollar
investments). The US on the other hand, being the world's largest oil importer
would have, to run a trade surplus to acquire euros. The conversion from trade
deficit to trade surplus would have to be achieved at a time when its property
and stock market prices were collapsing and its domestic supplies of oil and gas
were contracting. It would be a very painful conversion.
The purely economic arguments for OPEC converting to the euro, at least for a
while, seem very strong. The Euro-zone does not run a huge trade deficit nor is
it heavily endebted to the rest of the world like the US and interest rates in the
Euro-zone are also significantly higher. The Euro-zone has a larger share of
world trade than the US and is the Middle East’s main trading partner. And
nearly everything you can buy for dollars you can also buy for euros - apart, of
course, from oil. Furthermore, if OPEC were to convert their dollar assets to
euro assets and then require payment for oil in Euros, their assets would
immediately increase in value, since oil importing countries would be forced to
also convert part of their assets, driving the prices up. For OPEC, backing the
euro would be a self-fulfilling prophesy. They could then at some later date
move to some other currency, perhaps back to the dollar, and again make huge
profits.
But of course it is not a purely economic decision.
So far only one OPEC country has dared switch to the euro: Iraq, in November
20002,3. There is little doubt that this was a deliberate attempt by Saddam to
strike back at the US, but in economic terms it has also turned out to have been a
huge success: at the time of Iraq's conversion the euro was worth around 83 US
cents but it is now worth over $1.05. There may however be other consequences
to this decision.
One other OPEC country has been talking publicly about possible conversion to
the euro since 1999: Iran2,4, a country which has since been included in the
George W. Bush’s ‘axis of evil’.
A third OPEC country which has recently fallen out with the US government is
Venezuela and it too has been showing disloyalty to the dollar. Under Hugo
Chavez’s rule, Venezuela has established barter deals for trading its oil with 12
Latin American countries as well as Cuba. This means that the US is missing out
on its usual subsidy and might help explain the American wish to see the back of
Chavez. At the OPEC summit in September 2000, Chavez delivered to the
OPEC heads of state the report of the 'Interrnational Seminar on the Future of
Energy’, a conference called by Chavez earlier that year to examine the future
supplies of both fossil and renewable energies. One of the two key
recommendations of the report was that ‘OPEC take advantage of high-tech
electronic barter and bi-lateral exchanges of its oil with its developing country
customers’5, i.e. OPEC should avoid using both the dollar and the euro for many
transactions.
And last April, a senior OPEC representative gave a public speech in Spain
during Spain’s presidency of the EU during which he made clear that though
OPEC had as yet no plans to make oil available for euros, it was an option that
was being considered and which could well be of economic benefit to many
OPEC countries, particularly those of the Middle East6.
As oil production is now in decline in most oil producing countries, the
importance of the remaining large oil producers, particularly those of the Middle
East, is going to grow and grow in years to come7.
Iraq, whose oil production has been severely curtailed by sanctions, is one of a
very small number of countries which can help ease this looming oil shortage.
Europe, like most of the rest of the world, wishes to see a peaceful resolution of
the current US-Iraqi tensions and a gradual lifting of the sanctions - this would
certainly serve its interests best. But as Iraqi oil is denominated in euros,
allowing it to become more widely available at present could loosen the dollar
stranglehold and possibly do more damage than good to US economic health.
All of this is bad news for the US economy and the dollar. The fear for
Washington will be that not only will the future price of oil not be right, but the
currency might not be right either. Which perhaps helps explain why the US is
increasingly turning to its second major tool for dominating world affairs:
military force.
REFERENCES
1. Anon., ‘Trade Deficit Surges to a Record High’, Reuters, (January 17, 2003),
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/4970891.htm.
2. Recknagel, Charles, ‘Iraq: Baghdad Moves to Euro’, Radio Free Europe
(November 1, 2000),
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2000/11/01112000160846.asp.
3. Anon., ‘A Look At The World's Economy’, CBS Worldwide Inc., (December
22, 2000),
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/12/22/2000/main259203.shtml.
4. Anon., ‘Iran may switch to euro for crude sale payments’, Alexander Oil and
Gas, (September 5, 2002), http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/ntm23638.htm.
5. Hazel Henderson, ‘Globocop v. Venezuela’s Chavez: Oil, Globalization and
Competing Visions of Development’, InterPress Service, (April 2002),
http://www.hazelhenderson.com/Globocop%20v.%20Chavez.htm.
6. Javad Yarjani, ‘The Choice of Currency for the Denomination of the Oil Bill’,
(April 14, 2002),
http://www.opec.org/NewsInfo/Speeches/sp2002/spAraqueSpainApr14.htm.
7. The Association for the Study of Peak Oil, Newsletter 26, (February 2003),
http://www.asponews.org.
FURTHER READING
William Clark, ‘The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War With Iraq: A
Macroeconomic and Geostrategic Analysis of the Unspoken Truth’, (January
2003), http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/RRiraqWar.html.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

I found this and it made me think. How about YOU?









I CAN STILL HEAR THEIR SCREAMS
PART 1 of 2

By: Devvy

December 14, 2005

NewsWithViews.com

The men grabbed each cage off this huge truck and threw them to the ground - as high up as 30'. The cries of these adorable dogs and cats as they hit the ground sent me into shock. Several dogs and cats crammed into each cage, many already bloodied and many whose bones would break upon impact. I can still hear their screams.

As I watched the video progress, I realized that I was crying. The screams of live dogs and cats as they were skinned alive, their big eyes begging for mercy and receiving none, ripped my heart out and brought incredible rage from deep down inside. The next shots of cat pelts laid on the floor with all the dead bodies still twitching in piles cast aside like garbage, would have driven someone with a weak stomach right to the bathroom. It hardened my resolve against trading with barbarians. I can still hear their screams.

More pictures of dogs being chained - the worker jerking and tightening the chain while the eyes of incredible pain stared at the camera - prepared them for skinning, alive. I don't know what sound you call dogs and cats as they are being choked and then a knife taken to them right then and there and skinned. To me, it was screams so horrific, I can still hear them two days after I watched the video.

This is an everyday operation by "businessmen" who drive their trucks on the street like a produce truck would in the U.S. It's estimated these barbarians skin millions of dogs and cats every year - while they are alive. As I watched these "workers" go about their barbaric practice, I wondered how Americans could continue supporting them with their consumer dollar? This is Communist China in all its brutality. The skinning of live dogs and cats is done for money. These barbarians sell the pelts and toss the "meat." These pelts are illegally being intertwined with fake fur for many retail items being sold in the U.S., i.e. doll clothes and into fabric for human garments, i.e. parka hoods and sweaters. That's right: That Christmas gift sitting under the tree - if it came from Communist China - most likely is made from the fur of a dog or cat skinned alive. The EU refuses to ban this barbaric practice; it is condemned and illegal in the U.S.

A couple of months ago I sent my family and friends a photo of what appeared to be a golden retriever with a huge fish hook through it's upper snout. This beautiful dog had been rescued and was at the vet so they could operate on this living creature to remove this grotesque hook. You see, the French government refuses to stop their fishing industry as they kidnap dogs off the streets, shove these huge hooks into their upper snout and throw them off the back of their fishing boats - alive - to troll as shark bait. You can view the photo here. Vacation in gay Paree? I'd rather stay home and clean house. Buy a bottle of wine or bottled water from France? I'd rather drink from the garden hose.

I do not belong to PETA or any animal rights groups; as a matter of fact, I belong to no group, organization or political party. I donate regularly to United Animal Nations because I believe they are one of the very best national organizations. I also donate $15.00 each month to the county animal care services here in Sacramento for the SPCA and our animal facilities. It's never enough. The people of this country are so busy getting their nails polished, getting their bodies buffed, sitting in front of the stupid tube watching crap, addicted to sports, meth, cocaine, porn and other useless past times, they're too lazy and selfish to get their pets spayed or neutered. The result is the euthanization of roughly nine million cats and dogs every year. Congratulations, America, for a job well done.

Let's not forget the animal cruelty in this country which I have seen for myself. Helpless living creatures who ask for nothing more than a little love, food and water. Instead, when I lived in Colorado, it was the norm for people to leave their dogs in the back yard while they went snow skiing for the weekend. Animal control would then come pick up the frozen dog from a back yard while the family was out just having fun. Let's not forget those who kick and beat their dogs while pumped full of booze and drugs and those sickos who burn them alive for kicks. Congratulations, America, for a job well done.

As I said, I do not belong to nor have I ever donated to PETA. Like so many single issue organizations, they become fanatics out of frustration or they're so brainwashed, they cross the line into illegal activities like the eco terrorists who burn down sub divisions of new homes. PETA's silliness over eating beef reaches the point of hysteria and it's a battle they can't win. My husband eats only free range beef and pork; I consume only free range chicken, turkey, fish, organic milk and eggs. If you really want to see what you and your family are eating, I respectfully direct you to this site. I fully support our family farms and ranchers, but there does need to be some changes made and themeatrix web site will help people understand why I say this.

However, mixed in sometimes, we do find good work and PETA has helped get this atrocity out to the world that is going on everyday in Communist China on film. You can view it here, but let me warn you, it will break your heart. I am one of those who refuse to buy Made in China with the exception of this keyboard, monitor and hard drive. Otherwise, there is nothing made from slave labor in my home, not my TV and I don't even own a toaster. It's not just this barbaric practice, but my first awareness of Communist China's brutal practices was back in 1993 when I actually took the time to research NAFTA and commie China. What I found sickened me. Before 1993, we the people could buy virtually everything we ever needed made by Americans, so buying foreign was a pretty much a non issue for me. Then came NAFTA and the total destruction of our three most important job sectors: ag, industrial and manufacturing because Americans wanted cheap. Well, Americans got "cheap" and have been the driving economic force behind America's decline. Since then, Americans like me keep our money, buy Made in America (see here for sources of more than 20,000 products and services) or go without. It's a matter of principle and loyalty to my country, not communist China, communist Hong Kong, communist Viet Nam, India or Macao. I have no problem with fair trade, but free trade has and will further destroy this republic.

People think that communism is just some word. They are wrong. It is a brutal form of totalitarian government. Remember Tienemen Square? The butchers in Beijing murdered their own citizens for daring to speak out against tyranny. These monsters who run communist China continue to enforce their one-child-per-family policy of forced abortions, infanticide and perilously imbalanced boy-girl ratios. During testimony last year before the House International Relations Committee, testimony centered around the case of Mao Hengfeng. In 1998, Mao was fired from her job at a Shanghai soap factory for becoming pregnant with a second child. This poor mother carried her pregnancy to term despite severe pressure from the government to have an abortion. After she became pregnant again, she sued the soap factory for firing her, and the presiding judge told her he would rule in her favor if she aborted her third pregnancy. Mao then aborted her seven-month-gestation pregnancy, but the court ruled against her, saying that because she violated China's family planning policy, the factory had a right to dismiss her. This broken woman was then sentenced to 18 months in a prison labor camp for refusing to give up her protests of the government's family planning policy.

Under communism, the people are indoctrinated into this Godless ideology. They believe it, they live it. They are also slaves and the American people are funding such barbarity:

"But Harry Wu saw the Clinton/Beijing relationship from a deeply human perspective: the blue uniforms and shaved heads in Chinese prison camps. For years, he had been one of the estimated 50 million blue uniformed “troublemakers” who had worked in the camps under totally inhumane conditions. Some of them literally worked themselves to death." Nothing has changed as Bush gleefully embraces such evil. Can anyone hear their cries of misery while they open that Made in China silk blouse or DVD player under the Christmas tree? Are gadgets like I-pods so important that Americans will ignore the human misery that created them?


Do Americans really understand how a communist system really works? Most don't and quite frankly, they don't care. Wearing Nike is more important than facing the truth. Those stock dividends in companies that have sold out this great nation and dumped on the workers who made them so prosperous is more important. Who owns all this stock? Americans. Americans funding such barbaric customs and enriching a murdering government. I wouldn't own stock in any company that trades with commie China for all the tea in China. Those dividend checks from Boeing, Dell and all the rest are dripping with the blood of human slaves and such barbaric practices like skinning dogs and cats alive
I will not buy anything from any company that has sold out the American people and/or has plants in commie China. God forgive me that I had to buy this new computer system two years ago so I can get the truth to my fellow Americans. I would gladly have paid an extra $100, $150 or $200 more for my system made by my fellow Americans, but nothing was available. Pat Buchanan called free trade 'economic treason.' It is that and more when you see what your consumer dollar is going to fund.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

I want a United States President NOT a United Nations spokeperson

During his recent speech in Berlin, Barack Obama tried to ingratiate himself to the foreign crowd by claiming loudly that he was “a citizen of the world.”

The problem is Obama’s self-proclaimed global “citizenship” appears to go well beyond just a rhetorical device to gain favor with a European throng full of pie-in-the-sky utopians.

It seems the Democrats’ would-be president of the United States of America really believes that the rest of the world’s problems, and approval, trump the interests of Americans when it comes to how we live our lives and where our money is spent.

While stumping for the support of his party’s leftist base, Obama proclaimed, "we can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times . . . and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK."

And now he’s putting your money where his mouth is.

A bill he has sponsored in the U.S. Senate, the so-called Global Poverty Act
(S. 2433), would raise the amount of American tax dollars allocated to United Nations’ redistribution efforts to $845 billion.

That’s $2,500 from every American taxpayer, when many in our country already are struggling to make ends meet.

And if you think taxes and energy costs are high now, wait until Obama’s global energy and production taxes are made law by the Nancy Pelosi/Harry Reid-run Democrat Congress.

Is this what Pelosi meant when she said, “I’m trying to save the planet! I’m trying to save the planet!”?

Senator Obama and the Democrats don’t seem to understand that American prosperity is a result of the hard work of American citizens in a free market economy. And that the American people already are the most generous in the world when it comes to global aid.

Show Barack Obama that Americans don’t need foreign approval to lead their lives as they see fit, and that he ought to remember that he is running for president of the United States, not the United Nations.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Say No To The National Sales Tax

This issue needs to be revisited again as too many patriots are jumping on this government sanctioned bandwagon. As well, a great concern has arisen among us at Free Enterprise Society as it appears many in the patriot movement have adopted a conciliatory posture and chosen to accept anything tossed at them by the government just to temporarily do away with the income tax. And worse, they appear not to be concerned that two wrongs do not make a right.

What happened to the fight to eliminate the income tax by exposing the fraud and deception of this tax? What happened to the proposition of restoration of constitutional government and taxation? How did the fight degenerate to replacing the income tax, a complete fraud, with an unconstitutional National Sales Tax? Has anyone considered the fact that the Freedom Movement, at least when I discovered it, was against confiscatory taxation, was for limited constitutional government, and decried government lawlessness? There is no argument which can justify replacement of the income tax with any type of alternative tax.

If it were conceded that a National Sales Tax had constitutional sanction, which it is not, that is not the solution to eliminating the income tax and the restoration of constitutional government. Currently the government, and I mean each and every branch, refuses to recognize the fact, and it is a fact, that the 16th Amendment was not ratified. All the government has to do to eliminate the income tax, is admit the 16th Amendment was not ratified. This isn’t hard - in fact it is a no-brainer. The problem of course, is that the government intends to keep the income tax if we let them.

Just because the federal government replaces the income tax with a sales tax, what makes anyone think the States would do the same thing? Consider this: most of the States already have an income tax and a sales tax so there would be no reason for the states to dump their income tax laws. And, take notice of one small fact, folks - if the people will tolerate both a sales tax and income tax on the state level as they already do, why wouldn’t they tolerate the same at the federal level? Let’s face it, that is exactly what we are being set up for, and more amazingly, they are getting our help. Talk about cutting our own throats!

Further, if the temporary replacement (and I mean temporary) of the income tax is the end of the race we are running, perhaps one could justify an argument for the National Sales Tax. However, it is not. Our race ends only after we have eliminated the income tax by exposing it’s fraud and deception and restoring constitutional government. Why have we forgotten this?

But, if the patriots sell replacement of the income tax to Joe-Six-Pack as the race we are running, to gain Joe’s participation in the movement, and it happens, Joe will stop at that point, because Joe will believe that the race is over.

More importantly, if a National Sales Tax is adopted, it leaves the promoters of the National Sales Tax right back where they were in the beginning, i.e., fighting confiscatory taxation and a federal government run amok.

Anyway, the National Sales Tax will not be paid by everyone, as, if it is oppressive, a black market like nothing the government has ever seen will explode on to the scene. The theory that everyone will pay their fair share, is not well-taken. And, if a black market becomes huge, the government will need the IRS to enforce collection of its sales tax. As for returns, you better believe there will be tax returns filed by someone as that is the only way to account for the total taxes collected by a business. Is it really to be expected that our good and great government will just accept a business’ representations as to how much tax it collected on sales transactions?

Those promoting a National Sales Tax boldly proclaim that the tax is constitutional, and could be constitutionally administered, but they wholly fail to explain how. Now maybe it’s just me, but unless the National Sales Tax is going to operate as an excise tax on products, and not sales transactions, I can’t find any constitutional authority for it. If this type of tax did not have constitutional problems, don’t you think the government would have implemented it long ago? After all, which of its taxing powers hasn’t it already abused?

The National Sales Tax is a classic example of how the people keep giving, and the government keeps taking.

SUMMARY

1. The patriots are winning this war today. This is evidenced by the fact that congress is now seriously looking at replacing this so called tax. The reason is simple: over 30 million people have stopped filing returns, by the IRS’s own spokesman. The income tax is now falling apart. Victory is at hand if we keep our end goal clear. NO INCOME TAX! NO UNCONSTITUTIONAL TAXES! NO REPLACEMENTS!

2. The government is looking now to protect their retirements and other perks that the income tax has illegally provided them all these years. Let’s face it, this has been the corrupt politicians’ cash cow. And what magically appears? A replacement for the income tax that Congress now says has to go. (Give me a break.)

3. As long as the government believes they have the power to implement an income tax, we will ALWAYS have one. With, or without, a so-called replacement. We must continue to teach how this so-called tax uses deception and fraud to take the peoples’ money and get rid of it once and for all, by exposing that there is no constitutional authority to implement such a tax. NOT THEN! NOT NOW!

4. Don’t let those who have been stealing from us, off the hook. By supporting a replacement it looks as if the income tax is legal. And worse, it will make heroes of the very legislators who help bring in a new unconstitutional alternative tax.

5. FULL SPEED AHEAD! GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH.