Crocodile's Lament

Flying by the seat of my pants

Archive for November 2012

Implications for a credit downgrade for U.S. debt

One of the things that no one seems to want to talk about, is the fact that the various ratings agencies for government debt (Fitch, Moody’s, S&P) have publicly stated that the credit rating of the USA, now AAA, will have to be downgraded as it becomes obvious that US debt is far riskier to own than has been previously advertised. It is obvious to anyone with a pulse that 16 trillion dollars of debt will never be paid back, at least not in dollars worth anywhere near what they are today. What isn’t talked about is that many pension funds, mutual funds, and sovereign wealth funds, that were allowed to own only such paper (triple A), will have to sell US treasuries when the inevitable downgrade happens. The ratings agencies, from what I understand, have already stated that a downgrade by not one, but two notches, to A, will occur if spending cuts don’t occur. Spending cuts and politicians are usually not found in the same sentence.  Ask yourself what you would do, what you would buy, if the hundreds of billions of dollars that you had invested in treasuries could no longer be held. First you would have to find someone willing to buy them, and then you’d have to decide what to do with the proceeds of that sale. The world holds 16 trillion dollars worth of them, and will have to decide in the coming months, not years. We shall see what they decide.

(www.jsmineset; Nov. 30, 2012)

Posted in Publius Economy, Uncategorized
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U.S. excluded from Asian Economic Partnership Summitt

 
Post-US world born in Phnom Penh
By Spengler

 Asian Regional Economic Partnership excludes U.S.
It is symptomatic of the national condition of the United States that the worst humiliation ever suffered by it as a nation, and by a US president personally, passed almost without comment last week. I refer to the November 20 announcement at a summit meeting in Phnom Penh that 15 Asian nations, comprising half the world’s population, would form a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership excluding the United States.

President Barack Obama attended the summit to sell a US-based Trans-Pacific Partnership excluding China. He didn’t. The American led-partnership became a party to which no-one came.

Instead, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, plus China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, will form a club and leave out the United States. As 3 billion Asians become prosperous, interest fades in the prospective contribution of 300 million American . . .

 

China’s exports to Asia, meanwhile, have jumped 50% since their pre-crisis peak, while exports to the United States have risen by about 15%. At US$90 billion, Chinese exports to Asia are three times the country’s exports to the United States.

After months and dire (and entirely wrong) predictions that China’s economy faces a hard landing, it is evident that China will have no hard landing, nor indeed any landing at all. Domestic consumption as well as exports to Asia are both running nearly 20% ahead of last year’s levels, compensating for weakness in certain export markets and the construction sector. Exports to the moribund American economy are stagnant.

In 2002, China imported five times as much from Asia as it did from the United States. Now it imports 10 times as much from Asia as from the US

 Asian currencies began trading more closely with China’s renminbi than with the American dollar

 In East Asia, there is already a RMB (renminbi/yuan) bloc, because the RMB has become the dominant reference currency, eclipsing the dollar, which is a historic development. In this region, 7 currencies out of 10 co-move more closely with the RMB than with the dollar, with the average value of the CMC relative to the RMB being 40% greater than that for the dollar. We find that co-movements with a reference currency, especially for the RMB, are associated with trade integration.

 

Without innovation and investment, all the trade agreements that the Washington policy circuit can devise won’t help. Neither, it should be added, will an adjustment in exchange rates.

It is hard to fathom just what President Obama had in mind when he arrived in Asia bearing a Trans-Pacific Partnership designed to keep China out. What does the United States have to offer Asians?

  • It is borrowing $600 billion a year from the rest of the world to finance a $1.2 trillion government debt, most prominently from Japan (China has been a net seller of Treasury securities during the past year).
  • It is a taker of capital rather than a provider of capital.
  • It is a major import market but rapidly diminishing in relative importance as intra-Asian trade expands far more rapidly than trade with the United States.
  • And America’s strength as an innovator and incubator of entrepreneurs has diminished drastically since the 2008 crisis, no thanks to the Obama administration, which imposed a steep task on start-up businesses in the form of its healthcare program.

    Washington might want to pivot towards Asia. At Phnom Penh, though, Asian leaders in effect invited Obama to pivot the full 360 degrees and go home.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/NK27Dj02.html

Posted in Publius Economy, Uncategorized
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Coming Financial Tsunami

The Giant Currency Superstorm That Is Coming To The Shores Of America When The Dollar Dies

Michael Snyder
November 28th, 2012
The Economic Collapse

By recklessly printing, borrowing and spending money, our authorities are absolutely shredding confidence in the U.S. dollar. The rest of the world is watching this nonsense, and at some point they are going to give up on the U.S. dollar and throw their hands up in the air. When that happens, it is going to be absolutely catastrophic for the U.S. economy. Right now, we export a lot of our inflation. Each year, we buy far more from the rest of the world than they buy from us, and so the rest of the world ends up with giant piles of U.S. dollars. This works out pretty well for them, because the U.S. dollar is the primary reserve currency of the world and is used in international trade far more than any other currency is. Back in 1999, the percentage of foreign exchange reserves in U.S. dollars peaked at 71 percent, and since then it has slid back to 62.2 percent. But that is still an overwhelming amount. We can print, borrow and spend like crazy because the rest of the world is there to soak up our excess dollars because they need them to trade with one another. But what will happen someday if the rest of the world decides to reject the U.S. dollar? At that point we would see a tsunami of U.S. dollars come flooding back to this country. Just take a moment and think of the worst superstorm that you can possibly imagine, and then replace every drop of rain with a dollar bill. The giant currency superstorm that will eventually hit this nation will be far worse than that.

Most Americans don’t realize that there are far more dollars in use in the rest of the world than in the United States itself. The following is from a scholarly article by Linda Goldberg…

The dollar is a major form of cash currency around the world. The majority of dollar banknotes are estimated to be held outside the US. More than 70% of hundred-dollar notes and nearly 60% of twenty- and fifty-dollar notes are held abroad, while two-thirds of all US banknotes have been in circulation outside the country since 1990

For decades we have been exporting gigantic quantities of our currency.

So what would happen if that process suddenly reversed and massive piles of dollars started coming back into the country?

It is frightening to think about.

Well, I guess the key is to get the rest of the world to continue to have confidence in the U.S. dollar so that will never happen, right?

Unfortunately, there are lots of signs that the rest of the world is accelerating their move away from the U.S. dollar.

For example, it was recently announced that the BRICS countries are developing their own version of the World Bank…

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) bloc has begun planning its own development bank and a new bailout fund which would be created by pooling together an estimated $240 billion in foreign exchange reserves, according to diplomatic sources. To get a sense of how significant the proposed fund would be, the fund would be larger than the combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about 150 countries, according to Russia and India Report.

And as I noted in a previous article, over the past few years there have been a whole host of new international currency agreements that encourage the use of national currencies over the U.S. dollar. The following are just a few examples…

1. China and Germany (See Here)

2. China and Russia (See Here)

3. China and Brazil (See Here)

4. China and Australia (See Here)

5. China and Japan (See Here)

6. India and Japan (See Here)

7. Iran and Russia (See Here)

8. China and Chile (See Here)

9. China and the United Arab Emirates (See Here)

10. China, Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa (See Here)

Will this movement soon become a stampede away from the U.S. dollar?

That is a very important question.

But you don’t hear anything about this in the U.S. media and our politicians are not talking about this at all.

Meanwhile, our “leaders” seem to be doing everything that they can to destroy confidence in the U.S. dollar. The Federal Reserve is printing money like there is no tomorrow, and the federal government continues to run up trillion dollar deficits year after year.

They do not seem to understand that they are systematically destroying the U.S. financial system.

Other world leaders get it. For example, Russian President Vladimir Putin once said the following…

“Unreasonable expansion of the budget deficit, accumulation of the national debt – are as destructive as an adventurous stock market game.

During the time of the Soviet Union the role of the state in economy was made absolute, which eventually lead to the total non-competitiveness of the economy. That lesson cost us very dearly. I am sure no one would want history to repeat itself.”

Wow.

Why can’t most of our politicians see how destructive debt is? (EITHER THEY ARE IGNORANT OR THEY ARE, IF FACT, VERY AWARE OF WHAT THEY ARE DOING.  THAT CREATES A WHOLE NEW SET OF CONCERNS ABOUT LOYALTY TO OUR REPUBLIC AND MAINTAINING A FREE COUNTRY).

What the federal government continues to do is absolutely insane. The national debt increased by more than 24 billion dollars on the day after Thanksgiving this year. But utter disaster has not struck yet, and most Americans are not really that concerned about the debt. So things just keep rolling along.

And of course our national debt of $16,309,738,056,362.44 is nothing when compared to the future liabilities that our federal government is facing. Just check out what a recent article in the Wall Street Journal had to say about all this…

The actual liabilities of the federal government—including Social Security, Medicare, and federal employees’ future retirement benefits—already exceed $86.8 trillion, or 550% of GDP. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, the annual accrued expense of Medicare and Social Security was $7 trillion. Nothing like that figure is used in calculating the deficit. In reality, the reported budget deficit is less than one-fifth of the more accurate figure.

Other economists paint an even gloomier picture. According to economist Niall Ferguson, the U.S. government is facing future unfunded liabilities of  $238 trillion dollars.

So where are we going to get all that money?

Well, why don’t we just print more money than ever before so that the U.S. government can borrow and spend more money than ever before?

Don’t laugh. That is actually what some of the top economists in the country are actually recommending.

The most famous economic journalist in the entire country, Paul Krugman of the New York Times, is boldly proclaiming that the solution to all of our problems is to print, borrow and spend a lot more money. He insists that there is no reason to fear that the giant mountain of debt that we are accumulating will someday collapse the system…

For we have our own currency — and almost all of our debt, both private and public, is denominated in dollars. So our government, unlike the Greek government, literally can’t run out of money. After all, it can print the stuff. So there’s almost no risk that America will default on its debt — I’d say no risk at all if it weren’t for the possibility that Republicans would once again try to hold the nation hostage over the debt ceiling.

But if the U.S. government prints money to pay its bills, won’t that lead to inflation? No, not if the economy is still depressed.

Now, it’s true that investors might start to expect higher inflation some years down the road. They might also push down the value of the dollar. Both of these things, however, would actually help rather than hurt the U.S. economy right now: expected inflation would discourage corporations and families from sitting on cash, while a weaker dollar would make our exports more competitive.

Of course what he is prescribing is complete and utter madness.

At some point this con game is going to collapse and the rest of the world is going to say a big, fat, resounding “NO” to the U.S. dollar.

Why should they continue to use a currency that is becoming extremely unstable and that is constantly being manipulated?

And when the rest of the world rejects the U.S. dollar, the value of the dollar will drop like a rock because there will be far less global demand for it.

In addition, if the rest of the world is not using the U.S. dollar for trade any longer, other nations will cease to soak up our excess currency and huge mountains of our currency that are floating around out there will start flooding back to our shores.

At that point we will be looking at inflation unlike anything we have ever seen before. The era of cheap imports will be over and we will pay far more for everything from oil to the foreign-made plastic trinkets that we buy at Wal-Mart.

Most Americans don’t even know what a “reserve currency” is, but when the U.S. dollar loses reserve currency status it is going to unleash a nightmare that most economists cannot even imagine.

So enjoy this holiday season while you can. There are still lots and lots of cheap imports filling the shelves of our stores.

Once the coming giant currency superstorm strikes, we will dearly wish for the good old days of 2012.

Posted in Publius Economy, Uncategorized
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Obama is all about redistribution. He’s not about economic growth. He’s about punishment.

RUSH: I mentioned a Washington Post piece, an economics reporter, Zachary Goldfarb.    “‘The bedrock belief that has driven the president for decades is the power of the federal government must be used reduce income inequality in America. According to Goldfarb, Obama formed this belief as a child and young adult living abroad, where he observed, in Obama’s words, ‘the vast disparity in wealth between those who are part of the power structure and those who are outside of it.’”
So, finally, what you and I have always known has now been admitted to in a Washington Post piece, that Obama is all about redistribution. He’s not about economic growth. He’s about punishment.  Now, this is something you and I have been trying to tell people for four years, and nobody wanted to believe it.  He’s too nice a guy.  How can that possibly be?  Now the media is out, part and parcel admitting it.  Here, in this piece, in the Washington Post, this economics writer, Zachary Goldfarb acknowledges, quote, “Although [the stimulus legislation] was not sold or viewed as an attack on income inequality, it was precisely that.’ So was Obamacare which, says Goldfarb.”

So the Washington Post has a piece that the stimulus was not what it was portrayed to be.  It was an attack on income inequality, and so was Obamacare.  He says, “Obamacare takes a shot at addressing income inequality by imposing new taxes on the wealthiest Americans,” which it does.  And the more taxes go up on people’s income, the more obstacles there are to creating wealth.  Can’t happen.  That’s the objective.

SOURCE: www.rushlimbaugh.com

 

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GOLD FRAUD EXCLUSIVE: EU and Asian sources allege the tungsten-switch has gone sovereign

Fool’s Gold? Deutsche Bank, China, and US embroiled in faking suspicions

(Fraud and Manipulation of prices of precious metals)

On and off for over five years now, I’ve been reporting on the existence or otherwise of (1) the gold the US Federal Treasury claims to have stored securely at various points across America and (2) a fix/manipulation scam on the price of gold per se. When I first raised these points (along with thousands of other sites) in late 2006, we were all of us consigned by the commentariat of the day to those Outer Limits reserved for The Loonies.

Since that time, we have seen the mysteriously dramatic rise in the level of Chinese gold reserves, the admission by several central banks that they’ve been buying and selling the stuff below the radar, and the scandals involving manipulation of the Libor and Eubor rates which, on their own, make the claims of gold jiggery-pokery look considerably more credible.

During 2009, I reported a couple of times about major gold investors known to me personally who were having trouble persuading Swiss storage facilities to cough up the shiny metal, once those gold-bugs decided they’d like to shift it to somewhere less remote than Cuckoo-clock land. Over the last few weeks, we have seen various sovereign States (led by Germany) saying they’d variously like to audit and/or shift their gold reserves nearer to home. The US Federal Reserve’s delay in obliging its clients with sight and shipping of said stocks has gone from being mildly amusing via odd to alarming.

But now a new fraud has entered the frame.

For those who don’t already know this, tungsten has very nearly the same density as refined gold. Gold sells today at around $1740 an ounce, and Tungsten at $10 a pound. With a bit of judicious disguise, putting tungsten inside a gold bar can even fool an X-ray machine under certain circumstances. A Slog source in Austria is now alleging that Deutsche Bank ‘fulfilled’ one gold repatriation in recent years with the help of Tungsten. He further claims that some of this has now turned up in Asia.

However, here’s the killer: since hearing this rumour (actually, it’s rather more than that, but I have a source to protect here) I’ve made a couple of calls and read some well-argued websites on the subject of tungsten issues. One consistent feedback concerns the Chinese opinion on these bars.

Their origin is thought by Beijing to be the United States of America.

Forbes rubbished the tungsten-in-gold story last March, but from a commonsense viewpoint I was struck by the article’s (a) apparent inability to see beyond drilling and infilling as the method, and (b) the author’s unwillingness to see the problem as only likely to occur in smallish shipments. Late last September, however, Zero Hedge ran a Tyler Durden piece confirming that several smaller retail gold bars sold in Manhattan had been found to have tungsten innards. The ZH take on this event was that it might be part of yet another Fed Reserve attempt to impugn gold’s validity, and thus keep investors locked into the stock market, bonds and property.

But the thing I’m hearing about in this instance – while it could have the same Fed/Central Bank motive – is on an entirely different scale. Here we are talking about an Establishment eurobank alleged to have been caught short on a fulfilment order, and using the tungsten scam to fill the gap.

This is an entirely different criminal intent: not the somewhat crude attempt to con a retail greenhorn, but rather an well-planned and sophisticated ‘salting’ of the gold bars by a major bank….designed to fool even an expert engaged in approving the purchase for a large sovereign client. Here, using perhaps as little as 25% tungsten would be enough to make up the embarrassing shortfall.

There is no reason at all for anyone to see this as far-fetched. The SME scams pulled by RBS, and Libor manipulations carried out across the piece of Establishment banking, have been solid evidence in recent times of desperation on the part of those suddenly faced with a brave new world where Berlin wants all its gold back….but the gold isn’t there any more.

The ramifications of this go far beyond a pro-am retail fraud. First off, ultimate discovery of the scam is a certainty: so you’d have to be pretty damned desperate to try it on. And second, I do find it intriguing that these reports have popped out of the woodwork just when the ECB is thought to be planning some form of gold-backing for any eventual eurobond issues – should the eurozone survive. Trust me, if Mario Draghi is capable of pulling the stunts he’s been at vis-a-vis Greek bailout ‘money’, Bank of Greece money-printing, and bondholder subordination, then like most Goldman Sachs graduates, he’s capable of anything.

As I write, gold is trading at the upper end of $1746-1751 per oz.

End

Ongoing Price Manipulation of Silver

A friend and long-time subscriber who intends to write a book about the silver manipulation asked if I could provide him with a bit of history. To my mind, the silver manipulation dates back to early 1983, when the commercial traders grew confident that they could sell any quantity of paper short contracts to the technical fund buyers on the COMEX. By that time the commercials learned that technical fund buyers would never take physical delivery and could be counted on to buy or sell based upon price signals that the commercials could easily influence and control. In essence, the game has remained remarkably similar ever since.

While the commercials learned to behave collusively when dealing with the technical funds, there was an additional requirement that there would be one large commercial standing ready to be the short seller of last resort to backstop the combined commercial effort. Without a “Mr. Big” standing behind and guaranteeing that the combined commercial effort to trick the technical funds would never get overpowered, the long term silver manipulation would not have been possible. Over the past 30 years, there have been a series of Mr. Big’s that have been the paper silver short sellers of last resort.

In 1983, the big COMEX silver short seller was Drexel Burnham Lambert, although the origination of Drexel’s short position began earlier at J. Aaron and A.C. Leon Israel (ACLI). After Drexel went bankrupt in the late 1980’s, the Drexel Trading operation was taken over by AIG Trading. Around 2004, the big silver short position was transferred to Bear Stearns.

in November 2008 would I learn that Bear Stearns’ big silver (and gold) COMEX short position was transferred to JPMorgan in March of that year. This revelation was due to CFTC correspondence to various lawmakers indicating that the sudden jump in the short position in the US bank category of the August 2008 Bank Participation Report was due to the JPMorgan takeover of Bear Stearns.

in May 2008, (the CFTC issued) a public denial that there was anything wrong with the concentrated short position in COMEX silver. This was the agency’s second public letter on the issue in four years.

http://www.cftc.gov/ucm/groups/public/@newsroom/documents/file/silverfuturesmarketreport0508.pdf

The only problem was that, two months before the report was published; Bear Stearns went bankrupt, arguably, because of its giant silver short position. In the two or three months before its demise, Bear Stearns had lost one billion dollars on its silver short position; no one can deny that would have contributed to the Bear blow up. For the Commission not mention this in their 16-page report is lying by omission, as I have previously claimed.

The level of concentration on the short side of COMEX silver leaves no possibility that the price isn’t manipulated. That’s why the CFTC has stalled for more than four years in its investigation. That investigation began shortly before it was revealed that JPMorgan was the big short. But if the case alleging manipulation by reason of excessive concentration was compelling enough for a third silver investigation, the revelation that JPMorgan was the manipulator raised the matter to a completely different level. It would not be an understatement to say that JPMorgan’s involvement has created an unprecedented circumstance.

can JPMorgan maintain and increase its COMEX silver short position indefinitely? I say not a chance.

While I can’t pinpoint the timing, there is no way that JPMorgan can continue to manipulate silver forever. I’m assuming that the CFTC will not start to deliberately misreport the data in the COT and Bank Participation Reports because they never have done so in the past; but even that would only postpone JPMorgan abandoning its silver price manipulation. I know that many believe that JPMorgan is invincible, fortified by protection from the US Government, but some things transcend even the most powerful of large organizations. Forces of nature and basic laws of physics and supply and demand will always overwhelm human attempts to subvert those forces; the only question is when. In any market, an artificial price level caused by an intentional manipulation distorts the law of supply and demand and must end violently at some point.

 Silver’s price level is and has been artificially depressed due to JPMorgan’s concentrated short position. In addition to the negative publicity that has been attached to JPM, this concentrated paper short position has impacted the underlying host physical market in a manner that can’t be sustained. By artificially depressing the price, JPMorgan has set in motion a more powerful counter-force of stronger physical silver demand and weaker physical supply than there would have been otherwise. The artificial low price makes it a certainty that physical demand must overwhelm real silver supply and at that point, additional paper short sales by JPMorgan will not matter. If the market is demanding physical silver and that metal isn’t available, paper silver will not be accepted as a substitute. The minute that occurs, there will be a radically different price structure in silver; quite literally almost overnight. That hasn’t occurred yet, despite the long term climb in the price, but the signs are growing that we are drawing close, mainly in the form of unusually frantic movements in the big silver depositories. The important thing to remember is that regardless of how many years and decades that the silver manipulation has been in place, when it ends, it will end in a virtual instant. That’s why it’s better to be positioned early in silver, rather than late.

Ted Butler

November 21, 2012

http://harveyorgan.blogspot.com/

Posted in Publius Economy
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VOTER FRAUD: It’s official: Obama voter fraud reason for “reelection”/growing totalitarian government

Sher Zieve November 27, 2012

The truth about the Obama syndicate’s “victory” in November due to the most massive voter fraud in American history has become increasingly dire and overwhelming. It is also merely the latest treasonous act perpetrated upon We-the-People by our slave masters. And — with the exception of the still-sycophantic Obama-media who enthusiastically embrace totalitarianism — said “win” by Obama shows how quickly he and the Marxist Democrat Party (with the help of willing RINO Senators and incorrectly named “representatives” of the people) affected the complete overthrow of the United States government…and We-the-People. If you are uncomfortable with these truths and believe that the telling of them constitutes defeatism, I suggest you stop reading now. My message will not get any rosier.

For those of you still reading, let’s jump in without further ado — or adieu as it were — shall we?

-Facts already in Place-

— First and foremost, Obama lost in each and every US State where voter ID laws were in place

— Massive Obama voter fraud occurred in multiple States — especially the “swing states”

— In 59 Philadelphia precincts, Mitt Romney received no votes and Obama received 100% of the votes — or even higher. This fact, alone, should have raised red flags and set off all manner of bells, whistles and sirens. But, the Republican Establishment (aka Marxist-lite) has remained silent

— In Florida, St. Lucie County and other counties experienced unprecedented voter fraud, with St. Lucie reporting in at a141% turnout — which is impossible

— In Ohio, Obama “won” the county by 108% of registered voters — another impossibility, of course, except with well-planned and implemented election fraud

— The military vote was almost totally suppressed in the November elections

— People were openly reported to have voted twice — or more

— Republican poll watchers in multiple states were either turned away and not allowed to enter the precincts or thrown out once they had done so

— Voters in multiple voting booths across the country reported their votes for Romney were automatically changed to Obama (video below)

— Votes for Romney/Ryan were either changed to Obama./Biden by poll workers or thrown out entirely

— Democrats bussed non-US citizen voters, many of whom could not speak English, from state to state to vote for Obama

— The RNLA reported “election fraud occurred in Flushing [NY] when a Korean-American translator helping voters at PS 20 was caught directing them to vote for Democratic candidates. A volunteer poll watcher confirmed the incident” and in North Carolina

“The father of a mentally handicapped woman claims his daughter and others were “carted off” to a North Carolina polling site last week and “coaxed” into voting for President Obama by workers of the group home where she stays Judson Berger, Group home accused of taking patients to vote for Obama, Fox News, Nov. 5, 2012″ and in Massachusetts “FOX Undercover found out something else about Santiago-Vazquez. He’s been registered to vote from his home address in Lawrence since 2010. Our investigation shows he’s not the only registered voter in Lawrence who is not a citizen. By cross-checking Lawrence voter records with criminal records that included records indicating lack of citizenship, we found three others: * Bruno Paulino is a legal resident detained by immigration authorities earlier this year, has been a registered Lawrence voter since 2009; * Jose Jimenez, a legal resident who faces “potential deportation to the Dominican Republic,” according to federal court records, has been a registered Republican in Lawrence since 2010; * and Marcos Acosta, picked up during a recent immigration sweep, has been a registered voter in Lawrence since 2008.” Non-citizens registered to vote in Lawrence but officials shrug, Fox Boston, Nov. 5, 2012.

There are hundreds and thousands of the above reports on the Net, many of which can be viewed in my source material below. The central and grave problem we now face is that with the “new-normal” massive election fraud either being ignored (accepted) or discounted by the two major political parties we have, indeed, lost our Republic. Bear in mind that without our founding legal document — the US Constitution — being protected, observed and followed to the letter by our political and judicial leaders the Republic is moot. And the majority of our political leaders have not followed the US Constitution for decades. If they had, said “leaders” would not have been able to affect the unconscionable theft of the fruits of our labors which they have unethically and with abject turpitude ‘redistributed’ into their own pockets and they would certainly not have been able to strip us of our liberties one-by-one; so that we are now left with none. However, it was our own lack of attention to what they were actually doing and our own inaction in stopping them that — in great measure — allowed these atrocities to occur.

Before the last stage of our options is forced into implementation, there may be a couple of things we can do to stop the complete destruction and chaotic onslaught by our once-fellow citizen leaders. The first is to file a treason complaint against Obama and see if you can find a grand jury in your state that will agree to pursue it. We only need one, at this juncture. Multiple treason complaints have already been filed by LCDR Walter Fitzpatrick III and have been accepted by the courts as “meritorious.” The second is to get to the electors in each of your/our home states and beg them, in light of the unprecedented November voter fraud, not to cast their vote for Obama until a recount is affected. This must be accomplished before 17 December 2012. Information on both of these items may be accessed at the Jag Hunter and The Electoral College — both links below.

By now, we all know our last course of action. It is the same one into which our Founders were forced. May we pray to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that we are successful in our endeavors for God, family and country. In the end — as always — it is God who will bring us through the darkness and, once again, into the light.

“God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, & always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13. states independent 11. years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century & a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.” — 1787 Jefferson letter to William Smith

“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you” — Luke 10:19

Barack Obama Voter Fraud 2012:
http://obamavoterfraud.blogspot.com/2012/11/barack-obama-voter-fraud-2012.html

Massive Voter Fraud St. Lucie County, FL — 141% turnout:
http://watchdogwire.com/florida/2012/11/10/update-massive-voter-fraud-in-st-lucie-county-florida-called-into-question-141-turnout/

Vote Fraud News:
http://www.rnla.org/votefraud.asp
Ohio Vote Totals (108%) For Barack Obama A Statistical Miracle!: http://www.floridapoliticalpress.com/2012/11/10/ohio-vote-totals-for-obama-a-statistical-miracle/

Massive Voter Fraud: Military Vote suppressed:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2012/11/more-voter-fraud-military-absentee-ballots-not-counted.html

Massive Voter fraud Virginia:
http://beforeitsnews.com/election-2012/2012/11/massive-voter-fraud-in-virginia-video-2447168.html

In 59 Philadelphia voting divisions, Mitt Romney got zero votes:
http://articles.philly.com/2012-11-13/news/35069785_1_romney-supporters-mitt-romney-voter-id-law

Romney earned zero votes in some urban precincts:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57548626/romney-earned-zero-votes-in-some-urban-precincts/

Busloads of Somali immigrants bussed in to vote by Democrats in Ohio, most of whom were not citizens and could not speak English:
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/busloads-of-somali-immigrants-bussed-in-to-vote-by-democrats-in-ohio-most-of-whom-were-not-citizens/question-3295615/
“The List,” Obama Voter Fraud: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2960108/posts

Ohio Man Allowed to Vote Twice:
http://electionlawcenter.com/2012/11/22/ohio-man-allowed-to-vote-twice.aspx

Obama Lost in Every State with Photo-ID Laws:
http://american3rdposition.com/?p=8416

UPDATING: Certified GOP Poll Watchers Turned Away in Florida: S
http://gulagbound.com/35809/alert-certified-gop-poll-watchers-turned-away-in-florida/

PA Judge orders Republican poll watchers reinstated: http://www.blogrunner.com/snapshot/D/5/6/judge_ issuing_order_to_reinstate_booted_ philadelphia_election_officials_republicans_say/

Watch Voting Machine Change Obama Votes To Romney Votes (video):
http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/06/watch-voting-machine-change-obama-votes-to-romney-votes/

Poll watcher sees Romney ballots changed:
http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/poll-watcher-sees-romney-ballots-changed/

The Jag Hunter:
http://thejaghunter.wordpress.com/

Electoral College:
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/roles.html

Sher Zieve is an author and political commentator. Zieve’s op-ed columns are widely carried by multiple internet journals and sites, and she also writes hard news. Her columns have also appeared in The Oregon Herald, Dallas Times, Sacramento Sun, in international news publications, and on multiple university websites. Sher is also a guest on multiple national radio shows.
© Copyright 2012 by Sher Zieve http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/zieve/121127

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Chuckle of the day: Jill Fired As Korean “Honorary Consul”

Thanks for this article goes to Hugh.

lowflyer

Korea Fires Jill Kelley As ‘Honorary Consul’ For Using Title For Personal  Gain

Joe Weisenthal|Nov.  26, 2012,  3:39 PM|

Jill Kelley

AP

Korean news outlet Yonhap  newsreports that Jill Kelley, the Tampa socialite who played a role in the  affair that brought down David Petraeus has been fired by South Korea, which had  bestoyed upon her an “honorary consul” title.

South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim  Kyou-hyun, on a visit here for regular consultations with U.S. officials, cited  Kelley’s efforts to use her title as South Korea’s honorary consul in Floria for  personal gains.

Read more:  http://www.businessinsider.com/korea-fires-jill-kelley-as-honorary-consul-2012-11#ixzz2DNO026fc

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Vladimir Putin, a Tea Party Conservative?

If you believe everything in this Pravda OP-ED he is. It is full of propaganda but there’s a lot of truth in there which should be evident to anyone who has been watching and listening.

Contributed by Fr. Jeff

lowflyer

 Obama’s Soviet Mistake

19.11.2012

By Xavier Lerma

(Emphasis added)

 

 

 

 

Putin in 2009 outlined his strategy for economic success. Alas, poor Obama did the opposite but nevertheless was re-elected. Bye, bye Miss American Pie. The Communists have won in America with Obama but failed miserably in Russia with Zyuganov who only received 17% of the vote. Vladimir Putin was re-elected as President keeping the NWO order out of Russia while America continues to repeat the Soviet mistake.

After Obama was elected in his first term as president the then Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January of 2009. Ignored by the West as usual, Putin gave insightful and helpful advice to help the world economy and saying the world should avoid the Soviet mistake.

Recently, Obama has been re-elected for a 2nd term by an illiterate society and he is ready to continue his lies of less taxes while he raises them. He gives speeches of peace and love in the world while he promotes wars as he did in Egypt, Libya and Syria. He plans his next war is with Iran as he fires or demotes his generals who get in the way.

Putin said regarding the military,

“…instead of solving the problem, militarization pushes it to a deeper level. It draws away from the economy immense financial and material resources, which could have been used much more efficiently elsewhere.”

Well, any normal individual understands that as true but liberalism is a psychosis . O’bomber even keeps the war going along the Mexican border with projects like “fast and furious” and there is still no sign of ending it. He is a Communist without question promoting the Communist Manifesto without calling it so. How shrewd he is in America. His cult of personality mesmerizes those who cannot go beyond their ignorance. They will continue to follow him like those fools who still praise Lenin and Stalin in Russia. Obama’s fools and Stalin’s fools share the same drink of illusion.

Reading Putin’s speech without knowing the author, one would think it was written by Reagan or another conservative in America. The speech promotes smaller government and less taxes. It comes as no surprise to those who know Putin as a conservative. Vladimir Putin went on to say:

“…we are reducing taxes on production, investing money in the economy. We are optimizing state expenses.

The second possible mistake would be excessive interference into the economic life of the country and the absolute faith into the all-mightiness of the state.

There are no grounds to suggest that by putting the responsibility over to the state, one can achieve better results.

Unreasonable expansion of the budget deficit, accumulation of the national debt – are as destructive as an adventurous stock market game.

During the time of the Soviet Union the role of the state in economy was made absolute, which eventually lead to the total non-competitiveness of the economy. That lesson cost us very dearly. I am sure no one would want history to repeat itself.”

President Vladimir Putin could never have imagined anyone so ignorant or so willing to destroy their people like Obama much less seeing millions vote for someone like Obama. They read history in America don’t they? Alas, the schools in the U.S. were conquered by the Communists long ago and history was revised thus paving the way for their Communist presidents. Obama has bailed out those businesses that voted for him and increased the debt to over 16 trillion with an ever increasing unemployment rate especially among blacks and other minorities. All the while promoting his agenda.

“We must seek support in the moral values that have ensured the progress of our civilization. Honesty and hard work, responsibility and faith in our strength are bound to bring us success.”- Vladimir Putin

The red, white and blue still flies happily but only in Russia. Russia still has St George defeating the Dragon with the symbol of the cross on its’ flag. The ACLU and other atheist groups in America would never allow the US flag with such religious symbols. Lawsuits a plenty against religious freedom and expression in the land of the free. Christianity in the U.S. is under attack as it was during the early period of the Soviet Union when religious symbols were against the law.

Let’s give American voters the benefit of the doubt and say it was all voter fraud and not ignorance or stupidity in electing a man who does not even know what to do and refuses help from Russia when there was an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Instead we’ll say it’s true that the Communists usage of electronic voting was just a plan to manipulate the vote. Soros and his ownership of the company that counts the US votes in Spain helped put their puppet in power in the White House. According to the Huffington Post, residents in all 50 states have filed petitions to secede from the Unites States. We’ll say that these Americans are hostages to the Communists in power. How long will their government reign tyranny upon them?

Russia lost its’ civil war with the Reds and millions suffered torture and death for almost 75 years under the tyranny of the United Soviet Socialist Republic. Russians survived with a new and stronger faith in God and ever growing Christian Church. The question is how long will the once “Land of the Free” remain the United Socialist States of America? Their suffering has only begun. Bye bye Miss American Pie! You know the song you hippies. Sing it! Don’t you remember? The 1971 hit song by American song writer Don McLean:

“And, as I watched him on the stage my hands were clenched in fists of rage.

No angel born in Hell could break that Satan’s spell

And, as the flames climbed high into the night to light the sacrificial rite, I saw…

Satan laughing with delight the day the music died

He was singing, bye bye Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

Them good ol’ boys were drinking whiskey and rye, singing…

This’ll be the day that I die

This’ll be the day that I die

So, the question remains:

How long will America suffer and to what depths?

Xavier Lerma

Contact Xavier Lerma at xlermanov@swissmail.org

SOURCE: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/19-11-2012/122849-obama_soviet_mistake-0/#

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Our “Friend,” Iraq, Calls for Oil Weapon to be Used Against the U.S.

Well, so much for the sacrifices the United States has made in Iraq in the form of lives, limbs, and suffering of our dedicated, misused and abused military.

We should, at the very least, take away from the Iraq debacle, the lesson that there is not one shred of loyalty to us in the middle east for any longer than we can be used to accomplish the aims of some faction or other to achieve power.

If we had spent the resources we’ve wasted liberating Iraq  and Afghanistan (yes, we did it once already back right after 9/11…then blew the gains over petty politics – Read “Jawbreaker” by Gary Berntsen -  on developing our own energy independence, we might be in a position by now to tell those perfidious blackmailing oil sheiks, mullahs, dictators, etc to stuff their oil and that we’ll use our dollars more productively…now, have a nice day playing in your sandboxes.

lowflyer

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

by Kevin D. Freeman

In our book, Secret Weapon (http://secretweapon.org), we explained the use of “the oil weapon.” Lest anyone feel that this is mere talk by extremists, we point out how even “moderate” Arab states such as Saudi Arabia have threatened to use this weapon over the years. Now, however, there are reports that even a government we helped install in a nation we liberated are calling for the oil weapon to be used against America. Here are excerpts from a recent Fox News report:

Liberated Iraq calls on Arab states to use oil as ‘weapon’ against U.S.

Published November 16, 2012  FoxNews.com

A top Iraqi diplomat urged Arab states to “use the weapon of oil” against the United States because of its alliance with Israel, raising more questions about the Middle Eastern nation’s allegiance to the country that freed it from a ruthless dictatorship.

The shocking statement from a democratic government in power only after the U.S. and allies ousted murderous dictator Saddam Hussein in a costly and bloody war laid bare the Middle Eastern nation’s true allegiance.

“Iraq will invite (Arab) ministers to use the weapon of oil, with the aim of asserting real pressure on the United States and whoever stands with Israel,” Qais al-Azzawy told reporters in Cairo on Friday.

- Iraqi diplomat

“The economic weapon is the strongest one to be put into effect now, to assure of standing by the Palestinian people, in light of there being no military power that can stand in the face of Israel at the present time,” he added.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/11/16/liberated-iraq-calls-on-arab-states-to-use-oil-as-weapon-against-us/

As we have said all along, we are in the midst of a Global Economic War. We must accept this reality and respond to it. Oil is just one Secret Weapon being used against us.

Kevin D. Freeman | November 25, 2012 at 9:38 pm | Categories: Economic Weapons Deployed | URL: http://wp.me/p27EWB-bX

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Small Miners: High Taxes/Regulations, Drive Gold Production and Sale Into Black Market

What happens when governments foolishly try to confiscate large pieces of the “pie” with lots of stifling regulations and high taxes. A lesson.

Date: November 23, 2012 Reporting From: Hong Kong

The Philippines is richly endowed with minerals.  So rich, in fact, that individuals can make an excellent living by mining illegal claims through dangerous, primitive methods.

Like most places, unfortunately, the Philippine government is idiotic and continues to pass new laws and taxes in order to get their ‘fair share’ of other people’s sweat, especially related to mining projects.

As the law stands, all gold and silver produced must be sold to the Bangko Sentral, the country’s central bank.  Yet after the government started enforcing a 7% tax on precious metals last year, most small-scale producers are now selling to smugglers instead.

According to Assistant Central Bank Governor Manuel Torres, who heads the bank’s refinery operations, as much as 95% of all the gold mined in the Philippines is now being sold to smugglers and moved out of the country illegally.

And the trend has been accelerating. In 2011, central bank gold purchases dropped at an annualized rate of 4%, then 76%, then 88% during the second, third, and fourth quarters. In the first quarter of 2012, gold purchases were down 92%. It’s staggering.Most of this smuggled gold finds its way here to Hong Kong, and then onward to China, where there is a voracious demand for gold despite rising prices.

Of course, it’s perfectly legal to bring gold, tax-free, into Hong Kong. This is why when Hong Kong reports its official trade statistics, ‘gold imports’ from the Philippines are 30 times higher than what the Philippines government reports as ‘gold exports’ to Hong Kong!

It’s an enormous discrepancy, and it gives a huge indication of how much gold smuggling is really going on.

And it’s not just the Philippines either; small-scale mining activity is being pushed to the black market in many countries around the world.

In Mongolia, so called ‘ninja miners’ also use crude methods to avoid government tax, mining and smuggling gold across the border to China. Gold smuggling in Sierra Leone became so problematic that the government finally had to capitulate, slashing its mining tax in half for small-scale producers.

It’s certainly an important lesson that governments should heed, further proof that obtrusive attempts to impose heavy taxes only push economic activity into the black market.

SOURCE: http://www.sovereignman.com/expat/the-thriving-black-market-for-gold-10021/

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Walmart Has “Best Ever Black Friday” – Unions only manage to get about 50 employees to walk out.

BENTONVILLE, Ark., Nov. 23, 2012 – Today, Walmart U.S. reported its best ever Black Friday events. The retailer saw larger crowds than last year and a huge response to its first ever one-hour guarantee on key electronic items. [...]

“We had very safe and successful Black Friday events at our stores across the country and heard overwhelmingly positive feedback from our customers,” Simon said.

In response to the UFCW’s planned protests, Simon added, “Only 26 protests occurred at stores last night and many of them did not include any Walmart associates.” In addition, the company did not experience the walk-offs that were promised by the UFCW. “We estimate that less than 50 associates participated in the protest nationwide. In fact, this year, roughly the same number of associates missed their scheduled shift as last year,” Simon said.

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Jill Kelley Helped Muslim Nations, Hezbollah Infiltrate Central Command, MacDill Base; “Go To Girl” For Muslim Parties w/ Generals

This one slipped by me in the Thanksgiving rush, but I feel is worth posting here in case you missed it elsewhere – lowflyer

By Debbie Schlussel

Jill Khawam Kelley was the hand-picked lobbyist for Muslim nations and their agenda at Central Command.

Kelley, who is part of the soap opera that the Petraeus scandal spawned, was in charge of hosting parties and social events to push the Islamic agenda of Middle Eastern countries. She was seen by Muslim Mid-East nations, especially Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon, as the “go to” woman to push their agenda on top American generals. She was a lobbyist for their cause and, yet, wasn’t required to register as a lobbyist, like all others who host lavish parties for top American officials, like she did, in an attempt to influence U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Gen. David Petraeus w/ the Arab Nations’ Agent of Influence @ Central Command, Jill Kelley

Kelley, a dhimmi Christian Arab of Lebanese descent, was well known in the Muslim Arab embassies of Washington for doing their bidding and hosting their parties at and near MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, where our nation’s top generals are based. It’s where Central Command–the U.S. Armed Forces’ leadership over wars and military personnel Middle East–is headquartered.

When a friend of mine said that he thought the financially troubled Khawam sisters, Kelley and Natalie Khawam, were spies for Lebanon and the Arab world, I originally expressed skepticism. I believed that these twin sisters with obvious twin nose jobs were merely bimbo gold diggers in slutty outfits, who used their Delilah ways to first nab rich husbands, and then nab idiotic top American generals to participate in Lifetime-Channel-worthy bitter child custody disputes. But then I learned that Ms. Kelley, who was until this week under the radar, was quietly involved in pushing the agenda of Muslim Arab nations on our nation’s top generals with whom she’d grown close by design. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Ms. Kelley got her hooks into our two top generals in the Middle East, David Petraeus and John Allen. I’m now convinced that my friend, lawyer Gary Welsh of Advance Indiana, who has excellent instincts, was correct.

I’ve long written about the infiltration of Central Command at MacDill Air Base in Tampa by Islamic terrorists. Islamic Jihad founder and convicted Islamic terrorist, Sami Al-Arian, was an instructor on the Middle East to our top generals at MacDill Air Force Base AT THE VERY SAME TIME that he was planning mergers and terrorist attacks in Israel with “the brothers of HAMAS” and while he was bringing Muslim illegal alien Islamic terrorists to the U.S. Al-Arian’s friend and co-conspirator, Ramadan Abdullah Shallah (one of those Al-Arian brought here), who became the Secretary-General of the worldwide Islamic Jihad terrorist group, was also a lecturer at MacDill and also taught our top generals his poisonous views on the Middle East and Israel. FBI and INS agents who investigated Shallah and Al-Arian were alarmed at the influence these two top Islamic terrorists had over CentCom. They were also alarmed to find many books on the inner workings of MacDill in Shallah’s house when they raided it.

So when people ask me how I think these women were able to insert themselves into top generals’ lives and topple them (along with, apparently, the men they married), I think back to the fact that our top generals gladly allowed top terrorists to infiltrate Central Command as alleged “professors” on the Middle East. And when generals like Petraeus and Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. openly attack Israel and America’s relationship with Israel, people like Jill Khawam Kelley and Al-Arian and Shallah are the reason why. Khawam Kelley isn’t an innocent socialite. She’s an agent of influence for Arab Muslim nations.

The Washington Post reports:

A military officer who is a former member of Petraeus’s staff said Kelley was a “self-appointed” go-between for Central Command officers with Lebanese and other Middle Eastern officials. . . . At the parties Jill Kelley hosted at her Tampa mansion, guests were frequently treated to the indulgences of celebrity life: valet parking, string quartets on the lawn, premium cigars and champagne, and caviar-laden buffets.

The main recipients of the largess were military brass — including some of the nation’s most senior commanders — based at nearby MacDill Air Force Base.

Kelley flaunted her access to these military VIPs. . . . The investigations of Petraeus’s and Allen’s actions, nonetheless, have raised questions about how Kelley, a woman with no formal military role, cultivated such close ties to two of the nation’s most revered generals.

One former aide to Allen, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the case, suggested that Kelley had become a de facto social ambassador among high-ranking personnel at MacDill, home to the U.S. Central Command and Special Operations Command.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Middle Eastern diplomats in Washington also knew Ms. Kelley, who came from a Lebanese immigrant family and who helped arrange social activities when dignitaries from the region visited Tampa, diplomats said. She also sometimes attended parties at Washington embassies.

I guarantee you that Jill Khawam Kelley wasn’t hosting visits from dignitaries from Israel. And, other than those from Israel, every single “Middle Eastern diplomat” in Washington is a Muslim, most of them Muslim Arabs. And all of them Muslims with an agenda that is anti-Israel and anti-Western. And definitely not in America’s best interests. They come to Tampa for one reason and one reason only–to ingratiate themselves with the top military brass at CentCom at MacDill.

And Jill Khawam Kelley was their social director in that mission.

Kelley’s sister, Natalie Khawam, was married to a top Bush administration official, Grayson Wolfe, Director of Broader Middle East Initiatives and Iraqi Reconstruction at the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and frequently accompanied him on trips to the Middle East, including to Pakistan. Before that position, Wolfe was the Bush-installed Manager of the Private Sector Development Office of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq. How many of the Khawam’s insider Arab Muslim friends did he give sweetheart contracts to? Before It’s News has more and asks more questions about the consulting and contracting firm that Wolfe now heads. Although they are now embroiled in a bitter custody fight over their son, you have to wonder what influence Khawam had on him and what was done in the Middle East. She recently sued her former employer, a Jewish lawyer, Barry Cohen, but gave up after her lawsuit was shown to be phony. Cohen struck back and found that Khawam engaged in bankruptcy fraud.

My friend wasn’t so far-fetched when he insisted the Khawam chicks are modern day Mata Haris for the Muslim Arabs.

Just look at what they’ve accomplished for the Muslim Mid-East, all of it under the radar . . . until Paula Broadwell had the stupidity to send her threatening e-mails and Jill Khawam Kelley had the stupidity of complaining about it to shirtless FBI agent Frederic Humphries.

SOURCE: http://www.debbieschlussel.com/56333/jill-kelley-helped-muslim-nations-hezbollahs-lebanon-infiltrate-central-command-macdill-base-go-to-girl-for-muslim-parties-w-generals/

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You Bought It, You Own It: Reward For Voting For Obama Is Biggest Tax Increases

Sandy-Ravaged New Jersey Families Face $6,933 Tax Hike in Fiscal Cliff Stalemate

christiePresident Barack Obama and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R). (AP)

(CNSNews.com) – Families in Hurricane Sandy-ravaged New Jersey will face the highest tax increase as a percentage of their income – 6.82%  or about $6,933 more in taxes — if Congress does not reach an agreement on the fiscal cliff tax issues during the lame-duck session, according to an analysis by the Tax Foundation.

In its study of how the fiscal cliff would affect typical families in each state, the Tax Foundation reports that if the numerous tax provisions that are due to expire on Dec. 31 are not changed, a four-person family in New Jersey with a median income of $101,682 will see its taxes go up at a rate 6.82 percent of its income, which translates into about $6,933.

The tax issues in question are the expiration of the Bush tax rates, which also include the elimination of the 10 percent tax bracket and the reduced deduction for married filers; ending the 2 percent cut to employee-side Social Security taxes; and the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Maryland was ranked second by the Tax Foundation because a four-person family there, with a median income of $106,707, would see its taxes go up 6.74 percent as a percentage of income, or about $7,194.

Connecticut, ranked third, would see taxes for a family of four go up by 6.62 percent, or $6,653.

All five states with the top tax increases are “blue states,” which President Obama won in the 2012 presidential election. But so are four out of the bottom five states with the exception of Kansas.

Top Five Tax Increases Tax Increases as % of Income

#1 – New Jersey $6,933                                6.82%

#2 – Maryland    $7,194                                 6.74%

#3 – Connecticut $6,653                                6.62%

#4 – Massachusetts $6,632                           6.53%

#5 – New Hampshire $5,660                          5.81%

Forty states would see tax increases between $3,000 and $3,999. Six states would see an increase between $4,000 and $4,999 and three would see increases between $6,000 and $6,999.

New Hampshire would be the only state to see a tax increase between $5,000 and $5,999 and Maryland would be the only state to see a tax increase over $7,000.

Bottom Five Tax Increases Tax Increases as % of Income

#50 – Washington $3,362                                4.12%

#49 – Hawaii    $3,453                                    4.16%

#48 – Colorado $3,646                                    4.29%

#47 – Kansas $3,227                                      4.31%

#46 – Illinois $3,417                                        4.32%

The potential for tax increases on millions of U.S. taxpayers is still possible, the Tax Foundation explains, and would be especially devastating for lower-income families because of the changes to the child tax credit; the elimination of the 10 percent bracket, which would go back to 15 percent; and the reduced standard deduction for married filers — all of which are provisions in the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts.

SOURCE: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/sandy-ravaged-new-jersey-families-face-6933-tax-hike-fiscal-cliff-stalemate

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GUNS, Restoring civility and sanity to an out of control society…One dips***t at a time.

In Assachusettes the guy with the gun would be doing a mandatory five in the big house plus whatever they could add for having the utter temerity to defend himself.    JK

(NOTE that no one was hurt and order was restored when an armed citizen RESPONSIBLY used a firearm  for self-defense  – lowflyer)

Man Pulls Gun on Rowdy, Line-Cutting Black Friday Shopper

Friday, Nov 23, 2012  |  Updated 6:30 AM CST

Black Friday got off to a rowdy start at a San Antonio mall where police say one shopper pulled a gun on another who punched him in the face while they were waiting in line at a Sears store.

Police Sgt. Rob Carey tells the San Antonio Express-News a man rushed into the store when it opened Thursday night to get to the front of a line, started arguing with people and tried cutting in front of them.

One man who got punched pulled a gun and that scattered shoppers, including the impatient line-cutter who took cover behind a refrigerator. Then he fled.

Carey says the man with the gun had a permit to carry the weapon and isn’t being charged with a crime.

Contributed Joe Kirkup (www.joekirkup.com)

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