Posted on 04/06/2003 3:50:30 AM PDT by Action-America
Here's a different poll. Instead of generating an approval rate for Dubya's handling of the Iraq situation, it asks if any of a list of likely Democrat Presidential candidates in 2004 could do any better.
http://www.ActionAmerica.org/feature/
This should help to prove that even among those few who are not satisfied with Dubya's handling of the Iraq situation, many have no better option.
They are using the last legal option left open to them. They are escaping to less oppressive nations and I fear that I may soon be forced to follow them.Less oppressive nations?
Where? Pray tell.
A sign came up saying that I had already voted, which I had not,...
Although it is very unlikely, if you have a dialup account and recently logged in, someone else who dials in to the same number may have already voted, using the same IP address that was later assigned to you, when you dialed in.
Many poll systems log your IP address, to prevent multiple votes from the same person. This can cause the problem that you saw, but it is so rare that most web designers don't worry about it. The only other option is cookies, which presents an even worse problem, since about 12% of all net surfers have cookies blocked for privacy purposes, either by themselves or by their company.
If you do have a dialup account, you might try logging in later and trying the poll, after you have been offline for a while, so you will be more likely to get a different IP address assigned.
Less oppressive nations? Where? Pray tell.
As regards the question about where American expatriates settle, the answer is varied. Because of the marked increase in the number of US expats looking for places to settle and invest, in recent years, the number of countries that are considered favorable to expats has increased dramatically. Some countries try to attract the expats themselves. Others only try to attract their investments. Yet others, try to attract both. The following is only a partial list of some of the most favored countries for residency and/or investment. I have provided links to country info pages, where available.
Those are just a few. But, it demonstrates the type of mostly stable countries where most American expats are investing and/or living. Also, most of those countries, with one notable exception, rate higher on the various freedom scales than the good ole US of A.
You will note that most (though not all) of those countries have quite stable governments. Several are major countries. Others are part of the British Commonwealth. Yet others are long-standing island paradises. When did you ever hear of a coup in Tahiti, the Caymans or Bermuda?
Trinidad and Tobago is very stable and English speaking. Even though they have a coup every 20 years or so, their coups have never resulted in a single death or significant change in policy. In fact, the people even have coup parties for a few days. The last time there was a coup, they didn't even stop the soccer playoff that was going on just across the Green from Red House (their congress). I felt much safer walking alone on the streets of Port of Spain than on the streets of Los Angeles, Kansas City or Chicago. Oh yes. It's out of the hurricane path, too.
Belize is a very stable, English speaking member of the Commonwealth, that has been independent from Britain since 1981. Property is still reasonably low priced, both on the mainland and beachfront island properties. The cost of living in Belize is about 20% to 25% of what it costs to live in the US. For those who want to go back and forth to the US, there are several flights every day to the US and it's only 2 hours from Houston or Miami. It also offers the longest coral reef and the greatest variety of dive sites in this hemisphere. The people are wonderful and again, I felt safer there than in US cities.
I did include Panama, because some wealthy Americans, who are still here, put a portion of their money in Panama, because of the extreme secrecy of Panamanian Private Interest Foundations and the fact that it will be very difficult for the US government to make such vehicles illegal, without adversely affecting other foundations that they want to protect. Panama also has a very large expat community that helps fund the nation, so regardless of who is running the country, it behooves them to protect those expats.
I included Cuba, because there is tons of money being made there by Europeans, while US citizens are prohibited from such investments. It may be considered risky. But, most investors in Cuba only invest a small portion of their wealth there. Most investors do believe, however, that whoever is invested there when Castro dies, will soon find themselves extremely wealthy. But, that will certainly not include any American citizens.
Nevis is primarily a banking center. It the smaller of the two islands that form the single nation of Nevis and St. Kitts. Nevis has very little commerce, other than banking. St. Kitts, on the other hand, has a small banking sector and more exports. Neither seems to offer enough to attract Americans to live there, although they do offer a very good economic citizenship program. Until recently, Nevis was one of the very best banking centers for privacy. But, last year, they did make some concessions to the totalitarian OECD. Even so, they still rank quite high as a banking center.
Notice also, that to US citizens, even high-tax jurisdictions like Canada and the United Kingdom are considered havens. That is because they don't tax the offshore income of their citizens, like the US does. But, the Inland Revenue of the UK is taking lessons from the IRS, so the UK may not last long as a haven for Americans. After all, most wealthy expats are more concerned about privacy than taxes.
The best general advice seems to be to spread your wealth around, thus eliminating the possibility of losing everything due to a single event. But, that only works if you are not a US citizen. Remember, as a US citizen, your money isn't safe anywhere in the world, if the US government wants it.
For more information, check out Escape Artist and Sovereign Society as good starting places. Sovereign Society offers a great report on Second Passports. I just got the latest updated version a a few months back. It was $99 and well worth it, if you are considering going offshore or just getting a second passport for safety reasons (I assume that you are aware that a US passport is considered the second most dangerous passort to carry - right behind that of Israel).
I hope this helps.
It was Hillary herself. You know she peruses all the conservative websites.
The final results of this poll and one more recent poll can be found at http://www.actionamerica.org/polls/index.html.
What it shows is that even though about 20% of people in most polls don't think that Dubya has done a good job in dealling with Iraq, it seems that even those people don't have anyone better in mind.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.