Chinese Days - Angola

This is where the Chinese are investing their profits from Wally mart.

Canadian PM eyes China after US pipeline delay

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Sunday that he was looking at exporting more oil to China after the United States delayed a decision on a controversial pipeline. 

President Barack Obama's administration last week put off a decision on Keystone XL project after a major protest campaign by environmentalists, who say the pipeline would be prone to accidents and worsen climate change.
  
The conservative Canadian leader, taking part in a summit in Hawaii hosted by Obama said the pipeline decision had produced "extremely negative reactions" and that he discussed oil exports with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
 
"This does underscore the necessity of Canada making sure that we are able to access Asian markets for our energy products," Harper told reporters. "I indicated that yesterday (Saturday) to President Hu of China."
The Harper government has pressed Obama to approve the 1,700-mile (2,700-kilometer) pipeline extension, which would stretch through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma before ending up in Texas.
 
Canada, the pipeline's lead company TransCanada, and Obama's Republican opponents say the $7 billion project would provide the United States with a stable source of energy from an ally and create thousands of jobs.

"I remain optimistic that the project will eventually go ahead because it makes eminent sense," Harper said.
"This project is obviously what's in the best interest not just of the Canadian economy but also of the American economy," he said.

But environmentalists say an accident would be disastrous for aquifers in the US Great Plains and point to spills on an existing Keystone pipeline. The oil comes from tar sands, meaning it produces high levels of carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

The Obama administration, in ordering further study, cited particular concern about the pipeline's planned route through the Sand Hills area of Nebraska, which has a sensitive ecosystem and shallow groundwater.
The State Department delayed a final decision until 2013, after next year's presidential election.

 
Canadian PM eyes China after US pipeline delay

New GE Venture in China Raises Eyebrows - WSJ

China Fuels Waste-Paper Boom - WSJ.com

Who says we don't trade anything with China between our debt and old cardboard we are way ahead. Right?

By JENNIFER LEVITZ

CARSON, Calif.—Unemployed and short on cash, Jerry Leonhardt pulled into a recycling center here in Los Angeles County, his white Chevy pickup packed with used cardboard boxes he had salvaged from behind supermarkets and mini-malls.

Mr. Leonhardt regularly sells worn cardboard to the recycling center, which bales it, packs it into containers, and trucks it 10 minutes to the Port of Long Beach, where it is loaded on ships bound for China. "I make out pretty decent," said Mr. Leonhardt, who fetches about $85 per truckload.

Exports of waste paper, the term given to the market for second-hand boxes and other scrap paper, are taking off. The U.S. has long shipped its discarded paper—cardboard, newspapers, catalogues, phone books and other scraps—to emerging markets like China, which doesn't yet have enough imports, hearty trees, or a strong enough recycling habit to generate ample raw materials to make boxes for its own booming export market.

But now, with a revival in U.S. consumer spending underway, China needs the U.S.'s old boxes in order to make new boxes to ship stuff back to the U.S. China is also scrambling for American waste paper to box consumer goods sold to its own growing middle class, according to analysts, who say it is far cheaper for China to make boxes locally from waste paper rather than import new boxes directly.

"They simply don't have enough boxes," said Bill Moore, a paper industry consultant in Atlanta. 

The U.S., meanwhile, has plenty. With more people shopping online, U.S. houses are inundated with boxes, which now represent 15% of the residential waste stream, up from 5% in 1995, according to Mr. Moore.

After falling sharply in 2009, U.S. export prices for old cardboard boxes—the bellwether for the scrap paper market—have been steadily climbing and are passing pre-recession prices. Chinese paper mills are paying $228 for a baled ton of old corrugated containers—industry jargon for used cardboard boxes—leaving ports around Los Angeles, up 5% from March 2010, and well past the going rate of $160 per ton in March 2007, according to Official Board Markets, a weekly report for the packaging and paper recycling industry.

In a sign of growing demand, combined total waste-paper exports out of the two busiest U.S. container ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles rose nearly 25% in 2010, surpassing the overall increase of 15% for all exports from those ports, according to the Port of Long Beach.

The rebound in export prices of waste paper, or "recovered paper," was a strong earnings contributor in 2010, Sonoco Products Co., a Hartsville, S.C., packaging and recycling company said in February, reporting record sales for 2010.

The company said it is significantly expanding its sale of old cardboard boxes to export markets, although with collection in the U.S. peaking, Sonoco is having to come up with increasingly ingenious ways to get its hands on old boxes—including collecting them from cruise ships.

Read more here: China Fuels Waste-Paper Boom - WSJ.com

The Canadian Press: Chinese cities raise minimum wages as inflationary pressures persist

Do you really believe that American jobs can be created when the Chinese pay their employees a minimum wage of $200 a month? An unemployed American on average gets $1450 per month not to work. I am sure that all those green jobs will be created here rather than there.

SHANGHAI — Many Chinese cities are raising minimum wages for workers, fanning inflationary pressures while also seeking to soothe frustrations over price hikes.

The double-digit increases in major manufacturing centres like Guangdong, and the cities of Shanghai, Tianjin and Beijing follow wage hikes last year that have further raised labour costs, accelerating a shift by makers of inexpensive goods to lower cost places like Vietnam and Indonesia.

Shortages of workers in some areas and strikes and other protests by disgruntled young workers have also prompted authorities to push minimum wages higher, with most localities expected to follow suit.

A report released last week by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai said that 85 of the companies responding believed that rising costs are hurting China's competitiveness compared with other developing countries.

China retains massive advantages such as the standard of its infrastructure and its own huge market, which increasingly is the focus of foreign companies manufacturing there. But surging costs for labour, land, energy and materials have prompted many making low-cost items such as toys, shoes and clothing to move some production to other parts of the developing world.

Tianjin's labour bureau, in a statement seen Wednesday on its website, said it is preparing to raise the city's minimum monthly wage to 1,070 yuan ($160) from the current 920 yuan ($140).

Shanghai's mayor, Han Zheng, confirmed last week that the city was preparing for an April 1 increase in the city's minimum wage, by more than 10 per cent over the current monthly 1,120 yuan ($170).

Han described this as an effective way to ensure a "rational income distribution."

"It is our responsibility to raise wages in Shanghai because people living on those wages are having a really hard time," he told reporters during an annual news conference. "It is important for every worker to share the fruits of progress and harmonious labour relations are conducive to healthy businesses," he said.

Beijing has announced its minimum wage will rise by 20.8 per cent this year. Jiangsu, an affluent region adjacent to Shanghai, is hiking its minimum monthly pay by 15 per cent and Guangdong, by about 19 per cent in March to 1,300 yuan (about $200) — the country's highest.

Mindful of past links between surging inflation and political unrest, the authorities have sought to reassure consumers that they have prices under control.

China's inflation rate was at 4.6 per cent in December, down from a 28-month high of 5.1 per cent the month before but well above the government's target of 3 per cent. Annual inflation in 2010 was 3.3 per cent, and many economists are warning that price hikes may persist in coming months, especially if recent bad weather keeps food prices above normal.

Asked if rising costs might discourage companies from investing in places like Shanghai, Han said he believed companies focus more on the local investment environment and their own business strategies than on labour costs.

"If the companies cannot afford such increases it means their business model is not suitable for the development pattern in Shanghai," he said.

CNN: Donald Trump 'China is our enemy'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbdi7YG7unE

China's Inflation Problem Looms Large | FINANCIAL SENSE

China's Inflation Problem Looms Large | FINANCIAL SENSE
Submitted by Peter D Schiff on Wed, 19 Jan 2011

The global economy has become so unbalanced that even government ministers who would normally have trouble explaining supply or demand clearly recognize that something has to give. To a very large extent the distortions are caused by China's long-standing policy of pegging its currency, the yuan, to the U.S. dollar. But as China's economy gains strength, and the American economy weakens, the cost and difficulty of maintaining the peg become ever greater, and eventually outweigh the benefits that the policy supposedly delivers to China. In the first few weeks of 2011 fresh evidence has arisen that shows just how difficult it has become for Beijing.
You can read the rest of Schiff's post here.

China's BYD Auto, LA To Test Electric Car Fleet

Remember those green jobs that were going to save the economy well they are never going happen because every time you read a newspaper its China that is creating those jobs. So why are we doing nothing about it? Simple, we owe them a bundle of cash plus we can't create import laws to protect our own industries because if they stoped exporting to the U.S. we would have nothing on our shelves within two weeks.

We need to pass laws in this country that protect American workers and also reduce the regulatory burden, which hampers companys here in the U.S. Further, there is no reason that American tax dollars should be spent on any product or service, which isn't manufactured in this country or employees the majority of its workers here in the U.S. As much as I hate to say it but if the L.A. housing authority wants to buy electric cars they should have to buy Volts or golf carts manufactured right here in the U.S.

The Chinese are never going to build a car or bus here in the United States so long as we have the EPA and OSHA because in their country they can pay a person next to nothing and have them handle hazardous materials on a daily basis without fear of ever being shutdown or sued.

China's BYD Auto, LA To Test Electric Car Fleet

China's BYD Auto and the Housing Authority of Los Angeles have launched a trial program for a fleet of BYD electric cars, as the battery-maker turned car company moves a step closer toward its goal of vehicle sales in North America.

Company spokesman Paul Lin said Thursday that BYD, which is backed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, is aiming at U.S. sales of its K9 electric bus next year and hoping to begin sales of its E6 electric car in the U.S. by 2012 — two years later than originally planned.

Earlier this week, the L.A. Housing Authority and BYD began a testing program for the Chinese automaker's plug-in hybrid F3DM sedans that housing authority president Rudolf C. Montiel said would significantly reduce fuel costs and polluting emissions.

BYD, which is considering locating its North American headquarters in Los Angeles, is also in talks with the housing authority on use of an energy storage station to generate solar power that could be used for charging the vehicles.

BYD earlier signed a deal with the city to develop a battery for storing renewable energy at a wind farm in the Tehachapi Mountains northwest of the city.

Lin denied reports that BYD's export plans had been delayed by troubles over ownership of the technology for its batteries and said the company was struggling to keep up with demand.

"Since our power battery is widely used in many products, from EV manufacturers to various energy-storage projects, we are having problems with capacity," Lin said. Despite having built several new factories, "the output is still less than enough," he said.

BYD originally said it planned to begin U.S. sales of its E6 electric vehicle in 2010. An updated version of the car will be displayed at the North American Auto Show next month, and BYD is hoping to begin retail sales in 2012, Lin said.

He said that BYD hopes to reach agreement with the State of California by the middle of next year on supplying all-electric K9 buses for use in energy-saving public transportation projects.

The expectation is that BYD might set up factories in Los Angeles to produce the buses.

WSJ - A GM Unit in China's Hands

Thursday is Veterans day. It is a day when Americans reflect on the scarifies of our grandfathers, fathers, uncles, brothers and friends who fought against the Nazis, Japanese, Communists and now the Taliban.

It has been 60 years since brave American men fought against the Red Chinese on the Korean peninsula. Battles such as Pork Chop Hill and Heartbreak Ridge are rarely discussed in the history books our children are taught from each and every day in our publicly funded schools, which is why there will be no outrage from the masses about this story.

In a nutshell the U.S. government, as majority owner of GM, sold Nexteer, a unit of GM which made steering equipment for decades under the name Saginaw Steering Gear, to the Chinese government for $450M. While its certainly upsetting that Americans in America are now working for a Communist government thats not the worst part of the story. Because you see the real kick in the teeth is that Nexteer produced the M1 carbine, which was one of the standard issue rifles for American solders in both WWII and the Korean War. Over 36,000 American lives were lost during the Korean War fighting the same Chinese government who now owns Nexteer thanks to our very own government.  

On Thursday take a moment to reflect on the scarifies of our solders because our own government certainly doesn't seem to care about them anymore.

A GM Unit in China's Hands

You don't need to understand exchange rates and trade wars to grasp the economic change that has come to Saginaw, Mich. Remarkably, the largest private employer there will soon be the city government of Beijing.

Tempo's Zhou Tianbao, Pacific Century Motors' Zhao Guangyi and GM's Scott Mackie in Detroit in July when GM's Nexteer was sold.

In the weeks ahead, a 104-year-old unit of General Motors will be sold to new owners from China. The unit made steering equipment for decades under the name Saginaw Steering Gear. Now known as Nexteer, it employs 8,300 people around the world. Its new Beijing owners call themselves Pacific Century Motors.

You and the rest of the world probably missed this $450 million deal. General Motors, still controlled by the U.S. government, gave it little attention this summer as it readied its own high-profile return to the stock market.

But it is one of the landmark deals of the era, the first time Chinese investors have bought a U.S. industrial operation of such scale and history: Twenty-two factories around the globe, six engineering centers, 14 customer-support centers. All of it will be run from Saginaw, where devotion to the company extended to a now-defunct hockey team. It called itself the Gears.

During World War II, Saginaw Steering Gear manufactured M1 carbines used by Marines in the Pacific.

"Did it really need to be sold to the Chinese?" asks Roger Kahn, a Michigan state senator from Saginaw. "I want to see businesses successful in the U.S. owned in the U.S. This doesn't meet the standard."

Ironically, at the G-20 conference in Seoul this week, U.S. leaders are trying to cajole China to buy more from the U.S., to help right a trade deficit that hit $28 billion in August alone. Such imbalances, they say, helped feed the credit craze that culminated in the 2008 financial crisis.

All of these things are conveniently abstract at G-20 meetings. In Saginaw, they are experiencing first hand the collision of two economies in motion, of Chinese ambition and American pride.

People inside and outside the company seem gingerly accepting of Pacific Century, a venture of the city of Beijing's investment arm and a closely held Beijing auto parts company called Tempo Group.

Nexteer was in bad straits in recent years. It has been starved for capital. Its customers—other car companies—preferred it to be independent and not a part of GM.

Once Nexteer hit the auction block, the Chinese investors proved surprisingly thorough, even though some of them didn't speak English, said a person familiar with the transaction. They funded their deal with all cash, using no debt. And the opportunity for Nexteer to penetrate the Chinese auto market, soon to be the world's largest, was a major selling point for GM, this person said.

The Chinese buyers beat out Korean and U.S. private-equity contenders. The two sides announced their deal at a small July news conference in Saginaw. U.S. and Chinese flags flanked the dais.

"I'm sure there are a lot of people who are not happy they're Chinese-owned," says Scott Somers, who runs Mid-States Bolt & Screw just down the road from Nexteer, which is a customer. "But at this point it seems to be a positive thing. Lots of businesses are involved with that complex and depend on it for their livelihood."

The feeling is more begrudging for the workers inside the company. One, who called the Chinese "commies," complained to a union official that the U.S. flag and a P.O.W.-M.I.A. memorial flag were taken down when Chinese officials visited recently. A company spokesman said he had no knowledge of any flags being taken down.

And while they like the stability of new owners, "everyone is concerned about long-term viability," said one United Auto Workers official who asked not to be named. The union recently took a pay cut ahead of the transaction. "We don't know whether the intention is to buy the book of business and move to China or stay here. We do not feel comfortable."

One can sympathize with the union's worries of a Trojan horse. Auto parts have remained a key U.S. export. And Nexteer's new owners are eager to buy the company because of its more than 1,000 patents, says Jack Chen, an investment banker at Los Angeles's Transworld Capital Group who helped arrange the deal. "This dramatically shortens the technology gap between China and the rest of the world," he said in an interview.

It is hard to know just how the technology will make its way back to China in the years ahead. Nor whether that will hurt or help the people who work in Michigan or those served by the Beijing city government.

Meantime, Saginaw must strike a most practical of arrangements. Chinese capital and access to its home markets is once again giving the city some optimism after unemployment spiked to 14% early this year. The company is adding 100 engineering jobs this year. It is expected to increase its United Way contribution after having to reduce its gifts in recent years.

More broadly, direct Chinese investment on U.S. shores may help improve the countries' fraught trade relationship, in the same way that a wave of Japanese auto plants did here in the 1980s and 1990s.

More investment may also give the U.S. leverage to encourage China to open up its borders to U.S. firms, which are frequently hamstrung by onerous investment rules.

The U.S. was built on foreign investment for centuries, reminds Dewey & LeBoeuf attorney Alan Wolff, a former U.S. trade negotiator. "And we should bolster any investment that encourages U.S. manufacturing, including from China. We'd rather build it here than there."

And so it begins. The Pacific Century.

First stop, Saginaw.

Passaic factory that makes Girl Scout uniforms could lose business to China

If this happens I will no longer buy their overpriced cookies.

If you are like me and were a Boy Scout once upon a time you will be disappointed to find out that a majority of their uniforms are listed on the BSA official website as being "Imported", which as we all know is code for China. Shame on the Boy Scouts as well for their greed.

Passaic factory that makes Girl Scout uniforms could lose business to China

Workers at a New Jersey factory fear they could lose their jobs if the Girl Scouts of the United States of America takes its business to China.

Jackie Evans Inc. employs 90 workers at its Passaic plant. They've been making uniforms and sashes for the sole client for about 10 years.

Girls Scouts merchandise general manager Barry Horowitz told The Record newspaper the company is one of four it will seek proposals from. Horowitz says two of the vendors are overseas, including one in China

Horowitz said seeking new bids is a good business practice.

Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. wrote the Girl Scouts' president to say American scouts could wear uniforms made "in part by young girls who would be deemed not old enough to work in the United States."

NY Times- China Said to Widen Its Embargo of Minerals

Remember all those green jobs Obama promised and how they would turn our economy around and create manufactoring jobs ,well I guess the Chinese didn't get the memo or rather they did and decided they didn't like the idea of jobs being exported from their country.

Currently there are only a few mining companies outside of China that are mining these elements and the only one I know of in the US is Molycorp Inc (MCP). A recent editorial in the Washington Times suggests that the US must act now if it doesn't want to be held hostage by China should the Chinese decide to stop exports all together.

Rare earth minerals are required in order to create everything from military hardware to computers to wind turbines to batteries for electric cars. So if the Chinese are not willing to export these minerals then how are we going to create any new jobs here in America?

China Said to Widen Its Embargo of Minerals


By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: October 19, 2010

HONG KONG — China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly halted some shipments of those materials to the United States and Europe, three industry officials said this week.

The Chinese action, involving rare earth minerals that are crucial to manufacturing many advanced products, seems certain to further intensify already rising trade and currency tensions with the West. Until recently, China typically sought quick and quiet accommodations on trade issues. But the interruption in rare earth supplies is the latest sign from Beijing that Chinese leaders are willing to use their growing economic muscle.

“The embargo is expanding” beyond Japan, said one of the three rare earth industry officials, all of whom insisted on anonymity for fear of business retaliation by Chinese authorities.

They said Chinese customs officials imposed the broader restrictions on Monday morning, hours after a top Chinese official summoned international news media Sunday night to denounce United States trade actions.

China mines 95 percent of the world’s rare earth elements, which have broad commercial and military applications, and are vital to the manufacture of products as diverse as cellphones, large wind turbines and guided missiles. Any curtailment of Chinese supplies of rare earths is likely to be greeted with alarm in Western capitals, particularly because Western companies are believed to keep much smaller stockpiles of rare earths than Japanese companies.

You can read the rest of the article here.

WSJ: Pink Cadillac The Communist Party propaganda film with an all-American sponsor.

With a Marxist in the White House this is a match made in heaven.

The Communist Party propaganda film with an all-American sponsor.

Moviegoers in China will probably find few surprises in the Communist Party's latest propaganda biopic, "The Great Achievement of Founding the Party." But readers outside of China may be surprised to learn the identity of the film's sponsor: Cadillac.

Maybe we should have seen this brand alignment coming. Cadillac has been selling smartly in China since launching there in 2004, providing a rare bit of good news for General Motors. The Communist Party's new film, glittering with the brightest stars of the Chinese screen, represents great visibility. Perhaps there will even be an opportunity for product placement, such as the Red Army parading "capitalist roaders" in a classic Coupe de Ville.

Cadillacs have long inspired awe in China. In 1985, a state-owned investment company imported a fleet of 20 stretch limousines, the company's first delivery to China since before the revolution. At a ceremony in Beijing, hundreds of Mao-suited bystanders stared in wonder at the 22-foot-long land yachts, pimped out with color TVs and ice buckets. The purchase price represented 115 years of an average worker's wage, according to one contemporaneous American newspaper account.

Today, a vibrant middle class has made China the largest car market in the world. But elite civil servants still lust after Detroit iron and German coachwork. Tour any major boulevard in Beijing or Shanghai and you'll see that the party's periodic edicts against conspicuous consumption have not stanched the taste for Benzes and Caddys.

Like any company doing business in China these days, Cadillac can hardly afford not to play along. It's probably money well spent to have the film's cast roll up Hollywood-style to the premiere in shiny new Escalades. It seems Cold War ideological enemies have traded places, or—given GM's recent history—perhaps met somewhere in the middle.

As we all know the majority shareholder in GM (Government Motors) is the American taxpayer so we went from fighting Communism all around the world to now sponsoring Communist propaganda films?

So my question for you is does this latest development make us all Communists?

Remember When Obama Said the Stimulus Plan Would Help Caterpillar Rehire (I guess he meant hire Chinese)

In February of 2009, President Obama stated that Jim Owens, the CEO of Caterpillar, Inc., "said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off." Caterpillar had announced 22,000 layoffs in January of that year. After the President left the event, Owens said the exact opposite.

Fastforward to today.

Caterpillar opening facility in China

NEW YORK - Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest marker of construction and mining equipment, said Wednesday it plans to open a new facility in Wujiang, China, to build mini hydraulic excavators.

The company currently supplies Chinese customers with mini excavators produced at a facility in Xuzhou, China, and with machines produced in Sagami, Japan.

Work on the new facility in Wujiang is expected to begin in late 2010, pending approvals from governmental officials in Jiangsu province. The company expects to begin making mini excavators in Wujiang in 2012.

The facility will be part of Caterpillar's Building Construction Products Division, which has manufacturing operations in the U.S., Japan, Brazil and the United Kingdom.

"In recent years, Caterpillar and its independent dealers have made significant investments to expand the range of products and components produced in China, increase and improve customer support services, and expand and enhance dealer coverage in every province," the company said in a statement.

Caterpillar is based in Peoria, Ill.

Mark my word it is only a matter of time before this new Chinese plant will be churning out all of Caterpillar's currently American-made machines not just the ones mentioned in the press release. In other news at least you can thank Caterpillar for helping to artificially raise DOW Jones Average since the recession began.

Gold price increase is the result of a devalued US Dollar

Jim Rickards, Omnis Sr. managing director discusses the yuan's valuation and the likelihood of a trade war with China.

Maybe Its Time Congress Just Says NO!!!

The Federal Government is like a junkie, it doesn't know how to say no. The Government loves spending our money. It needs to spend our money. If it doesn't spend money our money then it ceases to exist, which at this point may not be such a bad idea.

And just like the junkie the Government promises that it will repay the money it borrows, but it never does. Last Friday, Tim Geithner sent a letter to Congress requesting that it approve an increase to the $12.1 Trillion debt limit. Geithner states that we need to increase our debt ceiling so that our debt holders, i.e. China, will remain confident that we will repay them.(By the way Geithner hasn't specified how many more Trillions he needs to keep China happy. He happily left that decision to Congress, so the Obama administration can't be blamed when its increased.)

Geithner is new to Washington but he is extremely confident that Congress will approve his request and reminds us that "Congress has never failed to raise the debt limit when necessary."

But should Congress approve raising the debt limit? I mean lets think about it logically. If the junkie never repays his debts he never learns his lesson and keeps on borrowing to feed his habit. But if you cease giving him money pretty soon he can't feed that habit and he goes into withdrawal. Sure the sweats and hallucinations can be down right frightful but you don't generally die you simply stop being dependent on your drug of choice. Call it tough love but maybe its something we as taxpayers need to teach our junkie, I mean Government.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB124970470294516541-lMyQjAxMDI5NDE5MDcxMDA0Wj.html

Tea Parties Grow in Numbers But Can They Change Anything

Yes. America is still the land of the free and the home of the brave but we need action now! Our politicians, whether they are Republicans or Democrats do not represent us. Rather they represent the interests of their party and more imprtantly to them their own pockets.

"[Some] seem to think that [civilization's] advance has brought on too complicated a state of society, and that we should gain in happiness by treading back our steps a little way. I think, myself, that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. I believe it might be much simplified to the relief of those who maintain it." --Thomas Jefferson to William Ludlow, 1824. ME 16:75

The role of the government is to protect the property of its people. This is a role that our government forgot long ago. With the enactment of the federal personal income tax the government was granted the right to take the fruits of our labor, which is our property, and redistribute it as it sees fit. Since the 1930's we have enacted more entitlement programs than we can afford, which has had disastrous results for our country. Our politicians will never admit this fact because they want to be reelected. They have forgotten that they are supposed to be in politics to serve the people not to gain more power for themselves. The fact of the matter is that in order to pay for all of these entitlement programs we borrow money and much like the homeowner who borrowed against the equity in their house to pay the mortgage there simply isn't anymore money left to borrow. Our politicians are as Jefferson so aptly put it "parasites" living on the fruits of our labor and it needs to stop now. One day our children will look at us with disdain because we have sold away their futures and were not willing to sacrifice today for their tomorrow.

"The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men" -Plato

On the 4th of July, our Independence day, thousands of tea party rallies were held around the country to say enough is enough. In Morristown, New Jersey several thousand gathered, on the same ground that the Washington once did, to say as one "we will not take it anymore". http://blog.nj.com/njv_mark_diionno/2009/07/growing_numbers_at_antitax_tea.html