Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Chinese companies pull out of US stock markets

Chinese companies pull out of US stock markets

Chinese firms leave US stock markets amid complaints about price, accounting scrutiny

By Joe Mcdonald, AP Business Writer | Associated Press – 39 minutes ago

Companies:

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BEIJING (AP) -- Just a few years after Chinese companies lined up to sell shares on Wall Street, a growing number are reversing course and pulling out of U.S. exchanges.
This week, Focus Media Holding Ltd., announced its chairman and private equity firms want to buy back its U.S.-traded shares and take the Shanghai-based advertising company private. The deal would value Focus Media at $3.5 billion, according to financial information firm Dealogic.
Smaller companies also are withdrawing from U.S. exchanges. In a sign of official encouragement, a Chinese business magazine said a state bank has provided $1 billion in loans to help companies with listings abroad move them to domestic exchanges.
The withdrawals follow accusations of improper accounting by some companies and a deadlock between Beijing and Washington over whether U.S. regulators can oversee their China-based auditors.
Some Chinese companies say they are pulling out of U.S. markets because a low share price fails to reflect the strength of their business. Withdrawing also eliminates the cost of complying with American financial reporting rules.
Focus Media "has been seriously undervalued on U.S. stock markets" and being taken private will help to promote its "long-term strategic development," said a company spokeswoman, Lu Jing.
The company, formed in 2003, operates electronic advertising displays in elevators, grocery stores and other locations.
"We haven't considered whether to list the company on Chinese markets but that possibility has not been excluded," Lu said.
U.S.-traded Chinese companies faced scrutiny after auditors for several quit and others were accused of accounting irregularities. Concerns about company finances have caused share prices to tumble, costing investors several billion dollars.
"Probably all these companies have some questionable accounting, so they may prefer to move out of the U.S., not to come under too much scrutiny," said Marc Faber, managing director of Hong Kong fund management company Marc Faber Ltd.
A financial firm, Muddy Waters Research, accused Focus Media last year of overstating the number of its display panels and questioned acquisitions reported by the company. Focus Media denied the allegations and said independent auditors confirmed the size of its network.
This week, Muddy Waters founder Carson Block said in a statement: "The markets are far better off if a few deep pocketed investors own Focus Media instead of mutual funds and other public shareholders."
The group proposing to take the company private includes its chairman, Jason Nanchun Jiang, and private equity firms Carlyle Group, CITIC Capital Partners, CDH Investments and China Everbright Ltd.
The status of Chinese companies in the United States could be complicated by a dispute between U.S. and Chinese regulators over whether American inspectors will be allowed to examine the work of their China-based audit firms.
Washington wants auditors to hand over documentation on companies that are under investigation but Chinese authorities have barred the release of some information. If a settlement is not reached, the SEC could reject audits by China-based firms, forcing companies to find new auditors.
In May, Beijing took steps to tighten control of local affiliates of major accounting firms by issuing a requirement for Chinese citizens to head those offices.
Dozens of Chinese companies issued shares on Wall Street over the past decade, raising billions of dollars from investors who wanted a stake in the country's booming economy.
Many were private companies that could not raise money on Chinese exchanges that were created to finance state industry or wanted the higher public profile.
Chinese regulators encouraged the move as a way for entrepreneurs to raise money and speed the development of China's economy. But in recent years Beijing has encouraged private companies to issue shares in China to help develop its markets and give Chinese households better investment options.
Regulators have made it easier for private companies to join China's two exchanges in Shanghai and the southern city of Shenzhen, though most listings still are for state enterprises. The Shenzhen exchange created a second board for small companies, imitating the U.S.-based Nasdaq market.
Major state companies such as oil giant PetroChina Ltd. and China Mobile Ltd., the world's biggest phone company by subscribers, also have issued shares abroad. None has indicated it plans to withdraw from foreign stock exchanges.
The economics also are shifting in China's favor.
U.S.-traded companies saw share prices plunge following the 2008 global crisis, while economic growth at home, even after a recent decline, is still forecast at about 8 percent this year. Rising Chinese incomes are creating a bigger pool of money for investment.
"Generally speaking, a company's shares are sold at a higher premium in initial public offerings on Chinese stock markets than on U.S. markets," said Mao Sheng, a market strategist for Huaxi Securities in the western city of Chengdu.
Also, he said, "If the company's business is mainly in China, it will be good for its brand promotion."
Another U.S.-traded company, Fushi Copperweld Inc., announced plans in June by its chairman, Li Fu, and a Hong Kong firm, Abax Global Capital, to take the maker of metallic conductors private.
Muddy Waters cited Fushi Copperweld in April as one of several companies it said dealt with an investment bank that helped enterprises seeking U.S. stock market listings to conceal problems and misrepresent financial information.
Fushi Copperweld denied Muddy Waters' "vague and nonspecific" claims.
The company said its privatization will be financed with loans from the China Development Bank.
Created to support construction of highways and other public works in China, CDB plays a growing role in its corporate expansion abroad. The bank provides credit to buyers of Chinese telecoms gear and other big-ticket goods and has financed building projects in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
CDB has lent $1 billion "to help Chinese public companies leave the U.S. stock market to return to domestic markets," the business magazine Caixin said last month.
Employees who answered the phone at Fushi Copperweld said no one was available to comment.
Also in June, China TransInfo Technology Corp., a provider of traffic management technology, announced privatization plans to be financed by CDB's Hong Kong branch. A company spokeswoman said she could not comment because the plan is not finalized.
In October, Harbin Pacific Electric Co. withdrew from Nasdaq in a share buyback financed by $400 million in loans from the CDB.
___
Associated Press researchers Fu Ting in Shanghai and Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinese-companies-pull-us-stock-095649722.html
Posted by John MacHaffie at 9:46:00 AM 0 comments

China Launching Gold Backed Global Currency!


[link to americankabuki.blogspot.com] 
China Launching Gold Backed Global Currency! 
Sunday, August 12, 2012 17:14

There can be no doubt that the US dollar will soon be history. China is recasting all of their gold reserves into small one kilo bars in order to issue a new ‘gold backed’ global currency. This is surely a strategic part of their recent push to sign new trade agreements with Russia, Japan, Chile, Brazil, India, and Iran. The cat is now out of the bag, the US will be given the ‘bums rush’ by the largest trading nations in the world and the dollar will go down in flames. GATA now estimates that 80% of the gold that investors believe they have in allocated accounts is long gone, the majority of it probably wound up in China.

Here is an excerpt from Jim Willie’s ‘Hat Trick Letter’

Jims recent article starts out with…

Many are the events, signals, and telltale clues of a real live actual systemic failure in progress. Until the last several months, such banter was dismissed by the soldiers in the financial arena. But lately, they cannot dismiss the onslaught of evidence, a veritable plethora of ugly symptoms of conditions gone terribly wrong and solutions at best gone awry and at worst never intended in the first place.

CHINA RECASTS GOLD BARS

China is well along an ambitious plan to recast large gold bars into smaller 1-kg bars on a massive scale. A major event is brewing that will disrupt global trade and assuredly the global banking system. The big gold recast project points to the Chinese preparing for a new system of trade settlement. In the process they must be constructing a foundation for a possible new monetary system based in gold that supports the trade payments. Initally used for trade, it will later be used in banking. The USTBond will be shucked aside. Regard the Chinese project as preliminary to a collapse in the debt-based USDollar system. The Chinese are removing thousands of metric tons of gold bars from London, New York, and Switzerland. They are recasting the bars, no longer to bear weights in ounces, but rather kilograms. The larger Good Delivery bars are being reduced into 1-kg bars and stored in China. It is not clear whether the recast project is being done entirely in China, as some indication has come that Swiss foundries might be involved, since they have so much experience and capacity.


Read entire article here..
[link to news.goldseek.com] 
Posted by John MacHaffie at 9:41:00 AM 1 comments

Manifesto puts Hillary chief in Saudi plot


WND EXCLUSIVE

Manifesto puts Hillary chief in Saudi plot

Huma Abedin worked for family institute tied to establishing Islamic America

Published: 53 mins ago
 by Art MooreEmail | Archive
Art Moore entered the media world as a public relations assistant for the Seattle Mariners and a correspondent covering pro and college sports for Associated Press Radio. After graduating from Seattle Pacific University, he served with a Christian ministry during the "Iron Curtain" era in Eastern Europe for 10 years. His return to media included two years as senior news writer for Christianity Today before joining WND shortly after 9/11. He met his wife of more than 20 years at Wheaton College Graduate School, where he earned a Master's Degree in communications. They have three children and a new son-in-law.More ↓Less ↑

humahilary
Although President Obama lavishly praised her over the weekend as an “American patriot,” a manifesto commissioned by the ruling Saudi Arabian monarchy effectively places the work of an institute that employed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff at the forefront of a grand plan to mobilize U.S. Muslim minorities to transform America into a Saudi-style Islamic state, according to an Arabic-language researcher.

Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin, was an assistant editor for a dozen years for the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs for the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs. The institute – founded by her late father and currently directed by her mother – is backed by the Muslim World League, an Islamic organization found in the Saudi holy city of Mecca that was founded by Muslim Brotherhood leaders.
Amid a backlash against five Republican lawmakers who want to probe Muslim Brotherhood infiltration in the federal government, the 2002 Saudi manifesto shows that “Muslim Minority Affairs” – the mobilizing of Muslim communities in the U.S. to spread Islam instead of assimilating into the population – is a key strategy in an ongoing effort to establish Islamic rule in America and a global Shariah, or Islamic law, “in our modern times.”

The manifesto, a sweeping account of the king’s success in disseminating the radical Wahhabi interpretation of Islam worldwide, does not mention the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs by name. But it cites a book written by Huma Abedin’s father, “Muslim Minorities in the West,” listing him as co-author.

The manifesto was unearthed and translated by Walid Shoebat, a Palestinian American author and critic of radical Islam who has done extensive research on the Abedin family’s connections to the Muslim Brotherhod and its Wahhabist affiliations.
“Muslim Minority Affairs,” the manifesto says, works “under the umbrella of the Muslim World League and the International Islamic Relief Organization and World Association of Muslim Youth and others.”

The document notes that the king “declared from the first day that the Kingdom (of Saudi Arabia) was formed that its purpose was to spread the Shariah throughout the world, as it had been revealed in the Quran and the sunnah,” the sayings and deeds of Muhammad.

It also identifies “the Jews” as the main obstacle to success: “The greatest challenge that faces Muslims in the United States and Canada are the Jews who take advantage of their material ability and their media to distort the image of Islam and Muslims there by spreading their lies and distortions in the minds of the people in these countries.”

Huma’s father, Sayed Zaynul Abedin, founded the Institute for Minority Affairs in 1979. Huma was listed as an assistant editor from 1996 to 2008 for IMMA’s Journal for the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, the key disseminator of the institute’s ideas. Huma’s mother, Saleha Mahmood Abedin, is a member of the Muslim Sisterhood, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Shoebat documents that Huma’s brother, Hassan Abedin, has worked with Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Omar Naseef, former secretary general of the Muslim World League and founder of a group reputed to fund terrorists, including al-Qaida.

President Bush issued an executive order shortly after 9/11 designating Naseef’s Rabita Trust, a subsidiary of the Muslim World League, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity, and the Treasury Department froze its assets.

Saleha Abedin also is chairwoman of the International Islamic Committee for Woman and Child, the IICWC, an entity within the Muslim World League that designated Qaradawi as the main author of its charter and policies. Her group partners with the International Islamic Council for Dawa and Relief, which Israel has outlawed as a terrorist group that funds Hamas. The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security Policy has warned that the IICWC is pressing for the repeal of Egypt’s Mubarak-era prohibitions on female genital mutilation, child marriage and marital rape. The IICWC say the prohibitions conflict with Islamic law.

Saleha Abedin also is vice dean at Dar El-Hekma College in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She helped found the school with Yaseen Abdullah Kadi, a designated terrorist by the U.S. and a member of the bin Laden family.
Two years ago, Huma Abedin arranged for Clinton to speak at the school alongside Saleha and another member of the Muslim Sisterhood, Suheir Qureshi.

Shoebat believes the Wahhabist connection to the Abedin family is significant and that Huma Abedin, as an assistant editor for the Journal for the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs was serving the interests of Saudi Arabia’s anti-American foreign policy.

Security clearance
Advocates for an investigation of the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence on the U.S. government argue a simple reading of security clearance guidelines in reference to Huma Abedin’s family would warrant investigation.

The Center for Security Policy notes that security clearance guidelines for federal employees state a “security risk may exist when an individual’s immediate family, including cohabitants and other persons to whom he or she may be bound by affection, influence, or obligation are not citizens of the United States or may be subject to duress.”

The guidelines express concern for any “association or sympathy with persons or organizations that advocate the overthrow of the United States Government, or any state or subdivision, by force or violence or by other unconstitutional means.”
Nevertheless, Clinton’s top aide, who was born in the U.S. but raised in Saudi Arabia, has been fiercely defended by both Democrats and Republicans since five Republican lawmakers led by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., cited her as an example of possible Muslim Brotherhood infiltration and asked the inspector generals at the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and State to investigate.

Yesterday, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank suggested researchers and lawmakers who have presented evidence of the Muslim Brotherhood ties of Abedin and her family are motivated by racism. He commented it’s “hard to escape the suspicion” that the charges have “something to do with the way she looks and how she worships.”

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called the request for an investigation of Abedin and her family a “sinister” and “nothing less than an unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable woman, a dedicated American and a loyal public servant.”
But Shoebat says that “page after page” of the Saudi manifesto casts “Muslim Minority Affairs” not “simply as a title or as a religious or even a social entity, but as a Saudi foreign policy, a jurisprudence and commandment from the highest of authorities commissioned to the Saudi Ministry of Religious Affairs.”

It’s the Saudi Ministry of Religious Affairs that enforces the infamous ban on any expression of any religion other than Wahhabi Islam in Saudi Arabia through its religious police, the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
Shoebat says the manifesto recalls five decades of efforts and billions of dollars spent “to ensure that Muslims will be an unassimilated group which then can influence the non-Muslim host nation and other nations, regardless how small the numbers of Muslims, by shifting the demographic scale due to their population growth in favor of this Saudi agenda.”

As WND had reported, a founder of the Muslim Brotherhood front group Council on American-Islamic Relations, Omar Ahmad, spoke to a group of Bay Area Muslims in 1998 about their duty to not “melt” into American culture but, instead, to spread Islam in America until it becomes “dominant” and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth, according to a local reporter who stands by her story despite CAIR’s claims to the contrary.
President Obama speaks at White House Iftar dinner, Aug. 10 (White House photo)
‘Values that we hold dear’
President Obama praised Huma Abedin at a White House dinner Friday night celebrating the Muslim ritual of Iftar, which concludes the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Obama said Abedin has been “nothing less than extraordinary in representing our country and the democratic values that we hold dear.”

Shoebat noted that the head of the Islamic Society of North America, a Muslim Brotherhood-backed group mentioned as an important player in the 2002 manifesto, was sitting across from Abedin at the White House Iftar dinner.
In his remarks, Obama said, to applause, that among the “American women serving with distinction in government” are his “good friend, Huma Abedin, who has worked tirelessly” in the White House, U.S. Senate and “most exhaustingly, at the State Department.”

While many defenders of Abedin have downplayed her influence – even to suggesting she’s little more than a fashion adviser to the pantsuit-wearing secretary of state – Obama indicated she has a role in policy.
“Senator Clinton has relied on her expertise, and so have I,” Obama said.

In a June 7, 2011, feature, the Washington Post reported Abedin is “personally close to Clinton” and “oversees planning and scheduling and advises on politics and policy, especially the Middle East.”

Obama told Iftar guests the “American people owe her a debt of gratitude – because Huma is an American patriot and an example of what we need in this country – more public servants with her sense of decency, her grace and her generosity of spirit.”
“So, on behalf of all Americans, we thank you so much.”

Major authorities
Shoebat says the Abedins’ Journal for Muslim Minority Affairs acknowledges that the Muslim Brotherhood’s Qaradawi and Alwani are major sources of Islamic authority to back their doctrine of how Muslims should act when they are a minority.
Alwani, who, as WND reported, vets Muslim military chaplains for the State Department, asserts in a paper titled “The Jurisprudence of Muslim Minority Affairs” that the whole world already is under the rule of Islam.
Shoebat notes Alwani speaks of a future literal war.

Alwani writes that “the land belongs to Allah, his religion is Islam, and every country is already in the House of Islam – now in the present time – since they will be in the House of Islam by force in the near future.”

The director of the Islamic Center of Lubbock, Texas, Mohammed bin Mukhtar Shanqeeti, agrees.
“The Muslim Minority Jurisprudence is not a heresy or a novel,” he writes, “it’s an ancient doctrine filled with the provisions for Muslims living in Dar al-Kufr (House of the Heathen) or Dar Al-Harb (House of War).”

Shoebat says the “Muslim Minority Affairs” plan combines two Islamic jurisprudences: The Minority Affairs Jurisprudence and the Jurisprudence of Muruna, or “flexibility.”

Under this doctrine, Muslim minorities, because of their special circumstances, can do some things other Muslims are not allowed to do, if they are for the purpose of advancing Islam.

Shoebat believes the doctrine of Maruna has allowed Huma Abedin to marry former congressman Anthony Wiener, a Jew, who resigned his office in disgrace after he was found to have engaged in illicit Internet communications with other women.
Islamic law bars a Muslim woman from marrying a Jew. But Shoebat argues the marriage is “one more reason for suspicion,” since Huma’s mother, a Muslim Brotherhood leader, never denounced it.
Posted by John MacHaffie at 6:41:00 AM 2 comments

UNITED-Continental airline pilots forced to fly with as little as 3 hours' sleep, 'worked until we drop'


Originally published August 12 2012

NaturalNews exclusive: UNITED-Continental airline pilots forced to fly with as little as 3 hours' sleep, 'worked until we drop'

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) Whistleblower pilots flying for United / Continental airlines warn that they are being "worked until we drop," forced to pilot consecutive long-distance flights with as little as three hours' sleep. In a series of secret meetings with NaturalNews, three United / Continental pilots described the "utter hell" they are being put through:

"We are being worked until we drop," one pilot to me in a recent face-to-face meeting in Texas. "United-Continental is flying us in violation of FAA legal requirements. Pilot fatigue is at red alert levels. This is an accident waiting to happen."

The FAA requires pilots to have at least 8 hours of rest in any given 24-hour period. From the FAA's website:

...a pilot is not allowed to accept, nor is an airline allowed to assign, a flight if the pilot has not has at least eight continuous hours of rest during the 24-hour period. In other words, the pilot needs to be able to look back in any preceding 24-hour period and find that he/she has had an opportunity for at least eight hours of rest. If a pilot's actual rest is less than nine hours in the 24-hour period, the next rest period must be lengthened to provide for the appropriate compensatory rest.

But NaturalNews was told that United-Continental is operating in blatant violation of this rule. One pilot explained to me, in detail:

"The airline often schedules us with only nine hours of time from arrival of one flight to the departure of the next. They claim this is supposed to give us nine hours of rest, but on a recent turnaround in [city withheld for privacy], our flight had more handicapped customers than was recorded in the manifest, and we had to wait for more wheelchairs to arrive, which took an extra 45 minutes. Then we were over an hour on transportation to the hotel, and another hour for check-in and getting to the room. I had exactly 2 hours and 49 minutes of sleep before I was required to get up, shower, dress, check out, get back on the transportation van, get through the airport, and back on the flight deck for preflight. I then flew a long-duration trans-continental flight, managed to catch six hours of sleep after that, and was piloting yet another flight."

The cost of pilot fatigue: Injury, death and lost planes

The cost of pilot fatigue can be catastrophic. Earlier this year, an Air Canada pilot awoke from an in-flight nap disoriented. He thought the planet Venus (which can appear as a bright "star" on the horizon) was an approaching plane, so he nose-dived the airliner to avoid what he thought was a potential collision.

The result? A 400-foot altitude plunge, 7 people in the hospital and 16 injured passengers and crew. As reported in the DailyMail: (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2130799/Pilot-fatigue-blamed-...)

Jon Lee, chief investigator, said the incident shows the problems airline crews face when dealing with being sleepy. He said: 'This occurrence underscores the challenge of managing fatigue on the flight deck.'

Pilots have even died from fatigue, even while piloting flights carrying hundreds of passengers.

Did pilot fatigue kill Continental pilot Craig Lenell?

"One of our own had a heart attack and died a few weeks ago, in-flight," the United-Continental pilots told me. The story checks out. The pilot's name was Craig Lenell. He was described as being in "perfect health" and was piloting a Boeing 777 from Brussels to Newark. As Fox News reports:

Lenell died of a suspected heart attack midway through Continental Airlines Flight 61 on Thursday. Two co-pilots took over the controls. Passengers didn't know anything was wrong until they landed and were met by fire trucks, emergency vehicles and dozens of clamoring reporters. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,527465,00.html)

"If something doesn't change soon, you're going to see more pilots dying in-flight," I was told. "Or worse, you're going to see a fatal mistake, and 150-plus customers could be falling out of the sky."

Pilot fatigue is even more critical when flying into difficult airports. Many airports served by United and Continental are surrounded by volcanoes and mountains. Localized weather patterns and storm cells make navigation very complex, even for experienced pilots. "The way we're being flown with these lapses in sleep, it's only a matter of time before we lose a flight," one of the pilots told me. "[United / Continental] is rolling the dice with the lives of its customers."

Pilot fatigue being pushed to its limits by airline company management

United-Continental is currently in a back-wages battle with its pilots. I was told that pilots have had their pensions stolen by the company. They're owed back-wages dating back several years, the pilots told me, and the company is refusing to pay. As a result, pilots are staging a "work slowdown" that has caused the airline's on-time flight record to plummet in recent months.

Over 1,400 pilots have been laid off by the company (http://crewroom.alpa.org/ual/DesktopModules/ViewDocument.aspx?Documen...), even at a time when remaining pilots are being stretched so thin that they're often flying in a sleep-deprived state.

"Retired Continental Airline pilots alleged that Continental had breached the retirees' pension plan by improperly calculating their salaries when determining their pension benefits," reports Corporate Financial Weekly Digest (http://www.corporatefinancialweeklydigest.com/2012/02/articles/litiga...). "The retirees received an adverse ruling from the System Board, and, as they were expressly permitted to do both by the CBA and the System Board's decision, commenced an action in federal court under ERISA challenging the ruling. The federal district court for the Southern District of Texas dismissed the action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and the Fifth Circuit affirmed.."

The pilots got screwed, in other words. Their pensions have been raided, looted by the usual suspects. This, on top of the insane sleep schedules being forced upon the pilots, is a recipe for disaster.

Bottom line? Don't fly United / Continental until the pilots get paid and well-rested

Personally, I won't fly United-Continental until I get word that their pilots are having their pensions restored and sleep requirements honored. To get on an airplane piloted by a sleepy-headed, angry pilot being screwed over by the company he works for is not my idea of a safe flight experience.

Although pilots are among the most psychologically balanced people in any profession (they undergo routine psych evaluations and physical exams), even they have a breaking point. What the airline is doing to these pilots amounts to a type of work torture. Sleep deprivation, after all, is a commonly-practiced torture technique. While not all the pilots are sleep-deprived on all flights, getting on one of these airplanes right now is a bit of a "Russian roulette" game in that you have no idea which pilot is awake and alert versus which pilot is suffering from dangerous sleep deprivation.

Steer clear of United-Continental until further notice.

And to the management of United-Continental, remember this: The pilots make or break an airline. If you piss off the pilots, they will drive your company into the dirt. If you keep the pilots happy, they will deliver a remarkable record of on-time flights, efficient turnarounds and happy experiences for customers. And as a bonus, they won't accidentally fly your precious hardware into a mountain or scatter passengers across a field somewhere, which is always a messy scene with lots of TV news coverage.

All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml


Posted by John MacHaffie at 6:38:00 AM 1 comments

PRETTY WELL SUMS IT UP............


Be sure you know the position of the people you vote for in the House and Senate because they make the laws and control the purse strings of government.  Sometimes you have to look at their record and not what they say because, guess what, they lie a lot!!!
 
 

PRETTY WELL SUMS IT UP............
To All My Valued Employees, 

Michael A. Crowley, PE is the owner of  Crowley & Associates, Inc. and was President and an owner of Crowley, Crisp & Associates, Inc. and Michael A. Crowley, PC.  As President of Crowley & Associates, Inc., Mike is a lead designer of water supply, treatment and storage projects, regional sewage lift station design, and residential and commercial site development projects and is responsible for the management of the firm.  Mike’s industry background includes over 20 years experience in the civil engineering field inclusive of executive level responsibilities in Marketing and Project Management.  Prior to founding Michael A. Crowley, PC, Mike held positions with several engineering firms in North Carolina and Maine.  Mike holds a B.S. Degree in Civil Engineering from University of Maine and a Master of Business Administration from Boston College.  Mike is a member of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and holds professional registrations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Arkansas, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Indiana, Maine, Tennessee, Australia, and Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies.  Mike is a native of  Norridgewock, Maine.  The Crowley family resides in Wake Forest.

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn't pose a threat to your job.

What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country. Of course, as your employer, I am forbidden to tell you whom to vote for - it is against the law to discriminate based on political affiliation, race, creed, religion, etc.

Please vote for who you think will serve your interests the best. However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interest. First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a back story.

This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear.  Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside.  You saw my big home at last year’s Christmas party. I'm sure all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life. However, what you don't see is the back story.

I started this company 12 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living space was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you.

My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn't have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business -- hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes.  Instead of hitting Nordstrom's for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the Goodwill store extracting any clothing item that didn't look like it was birthed in the 70's.

My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a business --- with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had.

So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9 am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5 pm, I don't. There is no "off" button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself.  I unfortunately do not have the freedom.  I eat, ****, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to me like a 1 day old baby.

You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden -- the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations... You never realize the back story and the sacrifices I've made. Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail out all the people who didn't.

The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for.  Yes, business ownership has its benefits but the price I've paid is steep and not without wounds. Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why:

I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don't pay enough. I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what?   I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes.  You know what my "stimulus" check was? Zero. Nada. Zilch.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check?

Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country. The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you'd quit and you wouldn't work here. I mean, why should you? That's nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy. Here is what many of you don't understand .. to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn't need to pay taxes, guess what?   Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don't defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart?   Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the mud of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine.

Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep. So where am I going with all this? It's quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I fire you. I fire your co-workers.   You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child's future. Frankly, it isn't my problem anymore. Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire.

You see, I'm done. I'm done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship. 

While tax cuts to 95% of America sounds great on paper, don't forget the back story: If there is no job, there is no income to tax. A tax cut on zero dollars is zero. So, when you make decision to vote, ask yourself, who understands the economics of business ownership and who doesn't?  Whose policies will endanger your job? Answer those questions and you should know who might be the one capable of saving your job. While the media wants to tell you "It's the economy Stupid" I'm telling you it isn't.

If you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the Constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me in the South Caribbean sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about.

Signed, Your boss,
Michael A. Crowley, PE
Crowley, Crisp & Associates, Inc.
Professional Engineers
1906 South Main Street, Suite 122
Wake Forest, NC 27587
Phone: 919.562.8860 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            919.562.8860      end_of_the_skype_highlighting x22
Fax: 919.562.8872

This is a real letter


Posted by John MacHaffie at 6:37:00 AM 6 comments

”Lightworkers and Wayshowers -The Final Stretch”

An Ecouraging Message from Graham Dewyea…”Lightworkers and Wayshowers -The Final Stretch”

by kauilapele
http://youtu.be/_k6G4BN-KeA
kauilapele | 2012/08/13 at 13:24 | Tags: Graham Dewyea | Categories: ascension, energies, new energies | URL: http://wp.me/p1dHgy-3DS
Posted by John MacHaffie at 6:32:00 AM 1 comments

The Civil War of 2016


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/7/the-civil-war-of-2016/


EDITORIAL: The Civil War of 2016

U.S. military officers are told to plan to fight Americans


Illustration: Battle worn Tea Party by Greg Groesch for The Washington Times
Imagine Tea Party extremists seizing control of a South Carolina town and the Army being sent in to crush the rebellion. This farcical vision is now part of the discussion in professional military circles.
At issue is an article in the respected Small Wars Journal titled "Full Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A 'Vision' of the Future." It was written by retired Army Col. Kevin Benson of the Army's University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and Jennifer Weber, a Civil War expert at the University of Kansas. It posits an "extremist militia motivated by the goals of the 'tea party' movement" seizing control of Darlington, S.C., in 2016, "occupying City Hall, disbanding the city council and placing the mayor under house arrest." The rebels set up checkpoints on Interstate 95 and Interstate 20 looking for illegal aliens. It's a cartoonish and needlessly provocative scenario.
The article is a choppy patchwork of doctrinal jargon and liberal nightmare. The authors make a quasi-legal case for military action and then apply the Army's Operating Concept 2016-2028 to the situation. They write bloodlessly that "once it is put into play, Americans will expect the military to execute without pause and as professionally as if it were acting overseas." They claim that "the Army cannot disappoint the American people, especially in such a moment," not pausing to consider that using such efficient, deadly force against U.S. citizens would create a monumental political backlash and severely erode government legitimacy.
The vision is hard to take seriously. As retired Army Brig. Gen. Russell D. Howard, a former professor at West Point, observed earlier in his career, "I am a colonel, colonels write a lot of crazy stuff, but no one listens to colonels, so I don't see the problem." Twenty years ago, then-Air Force Lt. Col. Charles J. Dunlap Jr. created a stir with an article in Parameters titled "The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012." It carried a disclaimer that the coup scenario was "purely a literary device intended to dramatize my concern over certain contemporary developments affecting the armed forces, and is emphatically not a prediction."
The scenario presented in Small Wars Journal isn't a literary device but an operational lay-down intended to present the rationale and mechanisms for Americans to fight Americans. Col. Benson and Ms. Weber contend, "Army officers are professionally obligated to consider the conduct of operations on U.S. soil." This is a dark, pessimistic and wrongheaded view of what military leaders should spend their time studying.
A professor at the Joint Forces Staff College was relieved of duty in June for uttering the heresy that the United States is at war with Islam. The Obama administration contended the professor had to be relieved because what he was teaching was not U.S. policy. Because there is no disclaimer attached to the Small Wars piece, it is fair to ask, at least in Col. Benson's case, whether his views reflect official policy regarding the use of U.S. military force against American citizens.
The Washington Times


 GOVERNMENT = SELF APPOINTED LEGALIZED CRIME SYNDICATE !!!!
Posted by John MacHaffie at 6:31:00 AM 5 comments

Farmers abandon fields larger than Belgium and Luxembourg, food prices set to surge due to drought

From AbundantHope.net
True US History
Farmers abandon fields larger than Belgium and Luxembourg, food prices set to surge due to drought
By Madison Ruppert
Aug 13, 2012 - 1:07:05 AM
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Farmers abandon fields larger than Belgium and Luxembourg, food prices set to surge due to drought



Madison Ruppert, Contributor
Activist Post

The worst drought in the United States in a half a century has led to the destruction of roughly one-sixth of the expected corn crop in America over the past month and will likely lead to a significant rise in the price of corn in the very near future.

To make matters even worse, much of the corn crop in the United States is genetically modified and thus susceptible to so-called “superbugs” and is the same strain which has been banned in multiple countries in the European Union.

This July has been the hottest in American history and has caused major damage to the corn crops throughout the United States making some farmers actually entirely abandon fields greater in size than the nations of Belgium and Luxembourg.

Obviously such a major reduction in the corn supply will certainly lead to a rise in the price of corn; it is simple economics. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like such a surge would diminish any time soon.

Even more unfortunate is the fact that corn is not the only commodity which will be negatively impacted by this drought and heat wave.

Soybeans – which like corn is used in a wide variety of food products, animal feed and other products – also has been hit hard by the weather. It is likely that it will be the worst harvest for five years now and will also likely impact the prices of other processed goods due to the rise in the price of vegetable oil, which just happens to be made from soy.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is not taking this lightly and has already predicted record-shattering price increases.
Some of the largest manufacturers of food in the world including none other than Kraft, Nestle and Tyson, have already made it clear that they will ultimately pass the price increase on to customers, according to the British Daily Mail.
The USDA has also decreased their projection for corn production by a whopping 2.2 billion bushels since just last month. Now they are down to an expected production of 10.8 billion bushels although that number could go down as well if this situation does not improve.

“We’re going to see very high prices,” said Joseph Glauber, the USDA’s chief economist, to the Financial Times.

Even more troubling is the fact that this will certainly have international implications far beyond the rise in domestic food prices here in America.

Indeed, one might even say that it will likely lead to riots in impoverished nations where increased food prices make it impossible to feed oneself and one’s family.

For instance, in 2007 and 2008 alone there were riots in over 30 nations linked to high food costs, but one United Nations official claims we shouldn’t be worried about it.

 Jose Graziano da Silva, the director general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, said that the current crisis isn’t as severe due to lowered demand from abroad.

“We do not have the demand pressure from China and India as five years ago,” he said.

I hope he is right, but unfortunately that assumption is based on believing that the drought and inhospitable weather will dissipate in the very near future, which is not necessarily true.

This is reinforced by the fact that the situation has actually been getting worse since the week starting July 29, when the USDA discovered that a whopping 48 percent of the nation’s corn crop could be classified as “poor” or “very poor.”

Furthermore, the USDA reported that 47 percent of the soybean crop was in “poor” or “very poor” condition.

These ratings are the worst we’ve seen since 1988 when a drought cut production by 20 percent and resulted in billions of dollars in losses.

The impact goes beyond just the price and supply of corn and soybeans. In fact, it also hurts the meat industry, because with food prices so high and with pastures used for grazing drying up due to the lack of water and heat, some are forced to bring their animals to slaughter earlier than they would normally.

The Obama administration at least appears to be attempting to help the situation by opening up protected American lands to farmers and ranchers for grazing.

They have also reportedly called on crop insurance companies to hold back from charging interest, and even engaged in an emergency loan program.

Farmers working in the 31 states where disaster areas have been declared have received low-interest emergency loans from the government as well.
Just how devastating this situation will eventually turn out to be and just how much the price of food will increase remains to be seen, but I think it is safe to say that whatever happens, it will not be all that great.

This article first appeared at End the Lie.
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/08/farmers-abandon-fields-larger-than.html


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Posted by John MacHaffie at 6:24:00 AM 4 comments
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