Obama pokes China in eye over tire tariff — what isn’t being reported

Updated 9/14/09 1AM ET
President Obama has poked China in the eye over tires manufactured in their country because of a petition filed by the Steelworkers Union. American consumers should likely expect to pay more for tires in the future because of the incident.

As an interesting sidenote:  Ron Bloom, a fierce advocate of the ”Cash for Clunkers” program who served as special assistant to the President of the United Steelworkers Union since 1996 when assigned head of the Auto Recovery Task Force was named Manufacturing Czar to the White House on September 7 (Labor Day). The Pittsburgh-based United Steelworkers Union has 1.2 million members.

Chronicled by date — you’ll see  China has poked the United States back.

While the country continues to argue over health care, a more serious matter has been materializing this weekend. China has made a gesture of retaliation to our US government over the announcement of new trade protection tariffs to be imposed on China for tires.

Friday, September 11, 2009 — With a slow news cycle, the Obama administration announced late Friday that a hefty tariff would be levied against China for tires imported into our country. This move is referred to as trade protection which is strongly discouraged – especially during times of economic struggle.

In a petition filed by the Steelworkers Union, the US International Trade Commission placed an investigation of allegations that China is flooding the US marketplace with passenger car and light truck tires.

In response to the investigation, President Obama chose to impose a punitive tariff on China. Beginning Sept. 26, a 35 percent, 30 percent and 25 percent tariff will be imposed in the coming three years, respectively, on the tires in addition to the current 4 percent tariff in spite of negotiation attempts.

Saturday, September 12, 2009 – China’s Ministry of Commerce said the U.S. had violated the WTO (World Trade Organization) rule by this decision. Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis, commitments were made at the G-20 financial summit when leaders from around the globe – including President Obama — opposed trade protectionism because it would slow economic recovery.

China contends that since their tires primarily enter the maintenance market and the U.S. tire producers have  shown no apparent changes in their business situation there exists no direct competition between China’s tire products and the U.S. The slowdown in the US tire industry is the result of the global downturn rather than increased tire exports to the U.S.

China said U.S. lacked bases for the case because tire products exported to the U.S. from China had actually declined 16 percent in the first of this year, compared to the same period last year. China’s tire exports to U.S. in 2008 only rose 2.2 percent from 2007.

China’s tire exports to the U.S. tripled between 2004 and 2007 while, during the same period, U.S. tire manufactures doubled profits. Four U.S. tire companies –Bridgestone/Firestone, Goodyear, Michelin and Cooper — manufacture in China and account for two thirds of the exports to the U.S. It appears that the U.S. government is penalizing it’s own companies for stepping away from union jobs to make cheaper goods. Remember…the union filed the complaint.

China said it reserves the right to bring the case to the World Trade Organization and may not ship tires for the first tariff year.

On Sunday, September 13, 2009 – China launched anti-dumping and anti-subsidies investigations into some automobile and chicken products originally produced in the United States. In effect, China is now charging the US with the same allegations.

The announcement from China is termed under the same policies, laws and allegations that the US accused China of.

Allegations that the US goods entered China’s markets with an “unfair competition manner”, which harmed domestic industries. The investigation was in accordance with the World Trade Organization rules and China’s laws.

Additionally, China stated that it always firmly opposes protectionism. The country hoped all countries worked together to promote a quick recovery of the world economy.

China has pointed it’s proverbial middle finger back to the United States.

Not only has the US created an antagonism through what may result in trade wars – but lets not forget China is a major player in supporting funds for our debt by buying our US bonds.

China is the second largest trading partner with the U.S. and vice versa.

President to address students September 8, 2009 with class activities

At 12:00 p.m., Eastern Time (ET), September 8, 2009, President Barack Obama will deliver a national address to the students of America. The live broadcast can be accessed on C-SPAN and the White House web site.

Some parents are not comfortable with the President entering the classroom for various reasons and are outraged. (see YouTube videos not associated with classroom activities at end of this blog)

Associated with the “address” will be classroom activities split into two groups: Pre-K through 6th grade and 7th grade through 12th grade.

For both groups the classroom activities will be broken down into suggested questions/discussions before and after the address. Children will also be assigned additional activities during the address.

This Presidential address has brought so much public attention that I believe it will be  a non-controversial event come Tuesday.

Because of the swift and angry outcry from parents, we’ll never know if the address given Tuesday was the intended original message or if it was reworked into  an innocent go get ‘em kiddo pep talk. I suppose it depends on which side of the Obama fence one sits on.

We do know that the White House has received the publics’ message:  “Mr. President, you  declared your children off limits long ago. Kindly do the same.”

Should you still be interested in the specific classroom activities outlined/released by the US Department of Education you can reach the link through EverydayMommy.Net which is promoting “The Great American Kid-Out.” Or type ed dot gov into your address field if you wish to by-pass the online conversation at the Everydaymommy blog. For further reading I highly recommend a great editorial at hotair.com that asks parents some pretty thought provoking questions.

Below are some videos that has caused distress to some people.

When Obama goes prime time — why you should listen

Listen to the speeches — but with a different perspective.

Every con game uses three ingredients against the target: Sell the dream. Push the greed button. Stress urgency.

 Every con man walking free or in jail is an articulate speaker. Who would give their trust to a man who could not use the right words to convince his targets to trust him?

Articulate speaking is no way to judge or rate the integrity of a person.

–Mark S. McGrew

The dream: Listen for him to sell you the dream

The greed button: Listen for him to assure you it’s not coming out of your pocketbook

Urgency: Listen for him to tell you it needs to happen swiftly

Instead of just listening to another moving speech — listen to the words with the new perspective.

Other articles of interest: 

Healthcare for all Americans – the “fine print”

New IRS rules and penalties defined in health care bill

Legislation for those who vote FOR the bill to drop their federal insurance and use the publicly offered health care insurance

Things your parents taught you:

If it sounds too good to be true — it probably isn’t (the dream and greed button)

Sleep on it overnight before making a decision (the urgency button)

Press argue at White House briefing over “staged” Presidential town hall meetings on healthcare

Today may indeed be a turning point in history. After viewing this short video, it leaves one to ask… is the seemingly coercive relationship between the press and the White House over?

The year the press won the election

Congratulations to the press for winning the election.

What the press isn’t reporting

 

Don’t miss the 10 minute video interview with the man who is suing Obama for proof of citizenship here.

Listen to audio tape admitting Obama’s Kenyan birthplace here.

Three videos that should leave pause for concern. I encourage you to scroll down and watch all three.

The first video WAS 8 minutes long the Obama supporters have had the video erased. Here is another video should the one below pique your interest. Currently censorship and editorial scrubs by the Obama people is rampant on the internet. If any links do NOT work contact me immediately via comments and I will go search for the new links.

Below is a short expose’ on Obama’s cousin Odinga in Kenya . Towards the end Obama is introduced into the video side by side with Odinga campaigning for president in Kenya  [circa 2006] while employed by the United States of America as a member of the United States Senate. I encourage you to watch every minute.

There is another 4 minute video of Obama campaigning for his cousin here.

If you do a search on youtube of “Odinga Obama” there are scores of videos available to view. There is no mistake that Obama DID campaign with his cousin in Kenya. Here’s a link to youtube. You can read more about his cousin Raila Odinga here and here. ONE American news article about his trip to Africa in 2006 said he arrived in Africa on a U.S. Army C-20 aircraft. I guess it means we (taxpayers) paid for the trip. Read more about it here.

Obama’s loyalties have been questioned surrounding Rev. Wright, Bill Ayres, ACORN, and numerous other “radical” relationships. The question we should all be asking ourselves is not why Obama would embrace such radicals but rather for what purpose are these radicals embracing Obama?

There are currently FOUR lawsuits in place (PA, WA, UT, and HI) to prove his country of birth (among other things). There are accounts that his mother was visiting Kenya with Obama Sr. when she was eight months pregnant and the airlines would not let her return to the US in her late stage of pregnancy.  Family members in Kenya are reported to say he WAS born in Kenya and birth records were transferred to the US a few days after his birth.

There are posts on this site regarding the ongoing lawsuit.

A more indepth post regarding the first video can be found here:

Below is a 2 minute video of secondary school youth in Paramilitary Garb:

4 minute video of grade school children singing Obama song:

A 22 minute video — an emotional cry from the pulpit. MUST SEE.

Should you feel compelled to contact the school/teacher/administration this video gives contact information: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXABTmZP6oA&eurl=http://hnn.us/blogs/3.html%22

Another video of great interest is the interview of Philip Berg explaining the details around the birth certificate lawsuit here:
http://willnevergiveup.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/lawsuit5/

Equatable press coverage?

I was reading yesterday about how the three top anchors from NBC, ABC and CBS are traveling with BO overseas.

Am I the only one who feels the media is WAY biased? Am I the only one troubled by what’s going on?

John McCain took three foreign trips in the past four months, all unaccompanied by a single network anchor. Where were they when Big John went abroad?

Does anyone else see how biased the press is?

Then today I woke up to the news saying that BO had 300 – THREE HUNDRED – policy advisers.

BO wants the presidency SO bad that he’s hired THREE HUNDRED policy advisors?

BO raised $52M for his campaign in June. The press focused on his fundraising in California. Not a peep was said about his two fundraisers in China. Did YOU know BO was fundraising in China? Legally only a US citizen can contribute to a campaign.

Did you know that according to the Federal Election Commission says “If you contribute more than $200 to a committee, the committee is required to USE IT’S BEST EFFORTS to collect and publicly disclose on a financial report your name, address, occupation and employer, as well as the date and amount of your contribution.”

The BO campaign “prides” itself on all those small donations.

BO won another election by running his opponent out of funds. Will he do that again in this election?