I will be posting maritime news and photos at this new site.
Fair Winds and Following Seas
Cap'n Clyde
=====================================================
I'm going to hide my political comments here at the bottom so I can direct some of my followers to this blog without having to create a new blog just to share my gripes. I will also post important information that doesn't make it to the mainstream media. I always check out rumors and myths before posting and try to be as accurate as possible. If you are offended, please leave a comment.
=================================================
Heck, we don't need increased border security to prevent terrorists from getting into America!
We are not only inviting them in, we're gonna pay for them to live here! Are we CRAZY?????
Barack Obama ' s most recent actions:
By executive order, President Barack Obama has ordered the expenditure of $20.3 million
in migration assistance to the Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza .
The "presidential determination" which allows hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with ties
to Hamas to resettle in the United States was signed on January 27 and appeared in the
Federal Register on February 4.
President Obama ' s decision, according to the Register, was necessitated by
"the urgent refugee and migration needs" of the "victims."
Few on Capitol Hill took note that the order provides a free ticket replete with housing and
food allowances to individuals who have displayed their overwhelming support of the Islamic
Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006.
Let ' s review some of Barack Obama ' s most recent actions since he
was inaugurated a little more than two weeks ago:
* His first call to any head of state as president was to Mahmoud Abbas,
leader of Fatah party in the Palestinian territory.
* His first one on one interview with any news organization was with Al Arabia television.
* He ordered Guantanamo Bay closed and all military trials of detainees halted.
* He ordered all overseas CIA interrogation centers closed.
* He withdrew all charges against the masterminds behind the USS Cole and 9/11.
* Today we learn that he is allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refuges to move
to and live in the US at American taxpayer expense.
Anyone else seeing a pattern here?==========================================================
Federal CIO on leave following FBI sting at DC offices
Posted by Sam Diaz
The U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, appointed by President Obama last week, has been placed on leave, following an FBI raid yesterday at the District of Columbia’s IT offices. (Techmeme)
Kundra, who was previously the District’s Chief Technology Officer and worked in the offices, has not been linked to the raid, which stemmed from a bribery investigation involving employees and technology vendors.
Kundra, who was delivering a speech at a government technology conference during the raid, will be on leave until further details of the case become known, a White House source told the Associated Press. Washington’s WTOP, a local news outlet, has a lot of the juicy details involving the sting operation.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the Department of Justice told the White House on Thursday morning about the raid, according to the WTOP report, but wouldn’t say whether the White House knew of the investigation before then.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=14553
==========================================================
Update on who holds our Treasury Securities - UNBELIEVABLE WHAT OUR GOVT. HAS DONE TO US.
I don't want to be the one running around yelling "The sky is falling" as from the looks of this, it has already fallen and we are trampling on it. Does anyone have any idea how you would proceed to get us out of this dilemma?
Have you wondered who holds Treasury Securities issued by the USA?
http://www.ustreas.gov/tic/mfh.txt
Click on the above link to break this down into columns.
MAJOR FOREIGN HOLDERS OF TREASURY SECURITIES
(in billions of dollars)
HOLDINGS 1/ AT END OF PERIOD
New 5/ Old 5/
Series Series
Jan Dec Nov Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun Jun May Apr Mar Feb Jan
Country 2009 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008
------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
China, Mainland 739.6 727.4 713.2 684.1 618.2 573.7 550.0 535.1 503.8 506.8 502.0 490.6 486.9 492.6
Japan 634.8 626.0 625.2 629.6 617.5 630.3 637.6 628.0 580.4 575.3 588.8 597.4 583.3 585.6
Oil Exporters 3/ 186.3 186.2 187.2 176.7 171.2 169.6 162.9 159.5 170.3 164.2 153.8 150.7 146.1 140.8
Carib Bnkng Ctrs 4/ 176.6 197.5 205.0 203.5 169.3 132.9 117.6 106.4 122.2 104.5 117.4 108.7 103.9 109.2
Brazil 133.5 127.0 136.1 141.0 148.3 152.6 154.8 158.0 151.6 151.4 149.5 149.1 146.6 141.7
United Kingdom 2/ 124.2 130.9 132.4 133.2 112.8 82.5 66.1 55.0 279.1 271.2 246.8 200.1 180.5 161.8
Russia 119.6 116.4 108.0 110.8 99.6 104.2 104.0 95.2 65.3 63.7 60.2 42.4 38.4 35.2
Luxembourg 87.2 97.4 94.4 100.8 104.7 90.4 89.7 102.6 83.2 75.2 81.8 89.8 80.4 66.1
Taiwan 73.3 71.8 70.2 65.9 63.0 66.2 67.9 66.5 39.6 38.9 42.2 40.8 38.4 38.9
Hong Kong 71.7 77.2 70.6 69.8 65.5 65.8 65.2 65.8 61.2 61.4 63.1 60.5 57.5 54.4
Switzerland 62.1 62.3 63.8 62.0 49.7 45.9 45.7 45.1 44.3 41.9 42.4 41.2 39.4 39.2
Germany 56.4 56.1 54.0 53.7 51.6 51.8 51.7 51.6 40.8 44.9 43.6 42.1 41.7 42.3
Ireland 50.0 54.3 41.3 35.1 32.9 18.9 16.9 19.9 13.9 15.6 18.3 17.6 15.4 15.6
Singapore 38.3 40.8 38.8 34.0 32.2 31.9 32.8 31.7 30.3 30.6 33.5 33.3 33.5 38.6
Thailand 37.2 32.4 33.9 33.6 27.4 30.4 30.6 31.2 32.4 32.8 27.9 25.7 30.5 28.9
Mexico 34.9 34.8 33.8 32.2 32.5 32.6 34.3 41.1 41.9 39.6 37.3 38.3 36.1 35.2
India 32.5 29.2 22.3 18.3 20.3 20.2 19.0 17.7 11.7 10.3 10.5 11.8 14.4 14.6
Turkey 31.3 30.8 29.0 27.9 31.5 34.3 32.7 30.5 30.3 28.9 31.1 28.7 28.5 28.2
Korea 31.3 31.3 32.7 36.2 40.2 42.1 39.4 40.6 36.4 38.4 40.4 40.7 41.3 42.1
Norway 21.9 23.1 20.2 11.5 13.2 2.4 2.8 4.4 43.3 47.1 45.3 44.5 34.0 33.6
France 17.9 16.8 18.4 20.5 19.3 21.2 17.1 15.4 -- -- -- 1.5 3.9 4.3
Israel 16.9 18.8 13.8 12.4 8.7 7.6 8.1 9.8 5.9 5.3 6.2 6.5 7.1 7.6
Egypt 16.9 17.2 16.8 16.7 15.5 14.5 15.1 14.1 12.3 12.8 12.7 12.7 12.0 11.6
Netherlands 16.8 15.4 15.6 15.7 15.6 16.9 17.8 17.8 15.0 15.6 15.5 15.0 14.0 15.8
Italy 15.6 16.0 15.9 15.3 11.6 12.9 11.0 11.4 10.2 11.3 10.3 11.1 11.1 12.6
Belgium 15.5 15.9 15.3 15.8 15.4 14.8 15.0 15.4 12.4 12.4 12.5 12.8 13.2 13.1
Chile 15.2 15.2 15.1 15.4 13.4 13.0 13.6 12.2 11.7 11.1 10.2 9.7 8.6 9.1
Sweden 12.4 12.7 13.1 13.5 13.6 14.7 14.4 14.4 12.4 13.2 13.1 13.2 13.6 13.4
Philippines 11.6 11.7 11.5 12.1 12.0 12.3 12.4 12.4 8.8 9.0 9.9 10.8 10.4 10.3
Colombia 11.3 11.1 11.5 11.3 9.9 9.0 9.3 9.2 7.6 7.6 6.5 6.7 6.9 7.1
All Other 179.4 173.1 177.7 171.7 163.3 172.7 168.4 168.0 154.1 156.5 153.6 151.9 148.4 150.1
Grand Total 3072.2 3076.9 3036.6 2980.3 2800.1 2688.4 2624.0 2586.0 2632.4 2597.5 2586.5 2505.8 2426.1 2399.3
Of which:
For. Official 2165.8 2138.7 2104.1 2063.7 1981.0 1944.8 1926.9 1910.9 1751.7 1743.9 1743.3 1707.3 1682.3 1689.9
Treasury Bills 486.9 457.9 427.2 360.6 276.8 245.6 232.5 226.6 226.6 219.9 215.7 201.9 205.0 209.0
T-Bonds & Notes 1678.9 1680.8 1676.9 1703.1 1704.2 1699.2 1694.4 1684.3 1525.0 1523.9 1527.6 1505.3 1477.3 1480.9
Department of the Treasury/Federal Reserve Board
March 16, 2009
1/ Estimated foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury marketable and non-marketable bills, bonds, and notes
reported under the Treasury International Capital (TIC) reporting system are based on annual
Surveys of Foreign Holdings of U.S. Securities and on monthly data.
2/ United Kingdom includes Channel Islands and Isle of Man.
3/ Oil exporters include Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar,
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Gabon, Libya, and Nigeria.
4/ Caribbean Banking Centers include Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Netherlands Antilles and Panama.
Beginning with new series for June 2006, also includes British Virgin Islands.
5/ New series reflect new benchmark survey taken in this month. Estimated positions based on the
previous survey are shown for comparison.
==========================================================
