Oil, the Dollar, and the 2008 Election

Well, it’s 2008 now, the caucuses are well underway, and the primaries are coming for most of us next month (February). I truly hope you will take the time to read this. You may find it very controversial, but I swear to you, I have done my best to ensure that everything I tell you is TRUE, which matters to me more than what is convenient or what I would prefer to be true or what I would like to believe or how I think the world ’should’ be.

Before you vote for your candidate, please consider the following. More important than any other issue is the financial solvency of the United States. If the American people cannot earn enough money to pay for their homes, cars, food, and gas, no other issues really matter.

This graph shows the value of oil in three currencies – the dollar, the euro, and gold. Notice that the price of oil is relatively flat compared to gold across this term. However, the price of oil has doubled compared to the Euro, and is rising exponentially compared to the dollar; at this point the cost of oil in dollars has quadrupled since 2003 – when Iraq was invaded.

This video is of Republican candidate Dr. Ron Paul explaining the relation between the cost of oil and the value of the dollar.

Remember what Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz testified before Congress on March 27, 2003?

“There’s a lot of money to pay for this. It doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money. We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.”

Yet now we have spent nearly a trillion dollars in Iraq, while the reconstruction work is often substandard, shoddy, and has to be redone.

“In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.”

Worse than projects that have to be redone, billions of dollars of American taxpayer’s money – YOUR money – has simply disappeared.

“Billions of dollars are unaccounted for, and there are widespread allegations of waste, fraud and war profiteering.”

Now let’s look at the value of the dollar since the invasion began in 2003.

This graph shows the value of the US Dollar since the beginning of 2001. Notice the steep drop as 2002 started, and the nearly continuous decline – a precipitous loss of American buying power that shows no signs of cessation.

Perhaps you’ve noticed that gas is now almost permanently around $3 (or more)? Or that milk keeps dancing around the $4 line? Food prices across the board have been on the rise for two main reasons – the increased cost of gas, and the falling value of the dollar. A third reason is the use of corn for ethanol, which affects anything made of corn (such as beef, chicken, pork, milk, cheese, plastics, etc) which is another symptom of the rising costs of oil.

Maybe you’ve heard of the housing crash, caused by banks giving loans to people who wouldn’t normally qualify, inflating the perceived value of homes, and greatly increasing foreclosures. The world is mad at America for this mess, as our banks packaged these loans into ” Structured Investment Vehicles” and sold them worldwide, leading to a liquidity crunch which nearly froze the economy of the entire world.

“ SIVs borrow money by selling short-term commercial paper and medium-term notes and buying higher-yielding assets such as financial company debt and mortgage-backed bonds. Investors began shunning the debt in August on concern they may hold assets linked to U.S. subprime mortgages. Those loans, made to the riskiest borrowers, have been defaulting at record rates.”

“The Federal Reserve and other central banks worldwide Wednesday announced a surprise plan to pump money into the global banking system to prevent a widespread credit crisis and an economic downturn.”

These are not problems that we created by you or I. These are problems that were created by the financial elite in the United States to increase their own wealth at the expense of the American people. The primary actors in this scam have been the Bush Administration, including George Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Condoleeza Rice (who has an oil tanker named in her honor), Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Henry Paulson, Richard Perle, Ben Bernanke, Norman Podhoretz, to name but a few. There are many more in both political parties. The ties that bind them together are their membership in the Council on Foreign Relations, a group of extremely powerful men and women who control the political discourse in America, often behind the scenes.

This is not anything you will ever see on TV, or discussed in the papers, because our television stations, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, and “credible” news websites are owned and controlled by a small number of people who also control financial interests related to ongoing war (The Military-Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned us about).

This is a chart showing media ownership in the United States.

“[O]nly 5 huge corporations — Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch’s News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) — now control most of the media industry in the U.S. General Electric’s NBC is a close sixth.”

Media consolidation has increased rapidly under the Bush Administration through ownership changes by the FCC. This does not serve you or I. We are not advantaged by having only a select handful of “approved” media outlets. What is more important than any “liberal” or “conservative” slant is what they do and do not discuss. What issues make it into the discourse shapes our knowledge and perception of the world. Media consolidation has allowed fewer and fewer financial interests to dictate a larger portion of popular America discussion and knowledge of events.

Friends, America is facing a crisis like we have never seen before. We have fallen largely under the control of a small group of powerful, wealthy elites who mislead us to rob us blind. They control our government, they control our media, and they control our finances. Most of the candidates running for office (in both parties) are members of this group. These powerful elite have been milking Americans for their wealth and resources for a long, long time now – one major event in this ongoing struggle was the creation of the Federal Reserve.

“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.” -Woodrow Wilson, after signing the Federal Reserve into existence (this is actually an amalgam of W.W. quotes from two sources, the first two sentences are from the first source regarding the creation of the Federal Reserve, the remainder an explanation of the first two sentences)

While executive pay rates have skyrocketed, stocks continue to fall, the dollar crumbles, commodity costs rise, and the American worker’s paycheck does not keep up with inflation. My generation will face a new Depression, and without great and difficult steps taken by all Americans at all levels, I will not be surprised by a new American Revolution in my lifetime. Perhaps I’m an extremist for even mentioning it, but friends, isn’t the true danger not from “terrorists” a half world away, but from within?

Our government has betrayed us. Specifically, the Bush Administration has betrayed us. We have been fleeced and left to starve. Our Constitution is in tatters, the Bill of Rights has been subverted, violated, and ignored by George Bush, Dick Cheney, the Dept. of Homeland Security, and governmental agents at all levels. High crimes, misdemeanors, treasons, and traitorous acts have been committed against the American people by the Bush Administration.

It is difficult to accept, especially by those who were deceived into voting for George Bush, but we have been sold down the river. I cannot blame any voter for it, by all rights Bush was a better candidate than Gore or Kerry, but our President shouldn’t be a selection from who is the least horrible.

I beg you; let us move forward from these disastrous policies that have done such grave harm to the American people. Let us behave sustainably, with sound financial, economic, and military practices that will staunch the bleeding and allow our nation to heal from the violence that has been inflicted on our people and others.

If you are a Republican, please do not vote for Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson, or John McCain. These men are all either members of the CFR (one of the main groups who have organized these disastrous policies), or have vowed to continue these same policies that are doing so much incredible damage to America. Most of them ascribe to “neo-con” principles, and it is no great surprise that “neo-con” is analogous to “new-scam”; that is what they have done, We the People have been scammed, and good.

If you are a Democrat, please do not vote for Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, or Barack Obama. These candidates are all either members of the CFR or support their policies.

The only candidates that have sworn to change course and make all attempts to head off the looming disaster we are quickly approaching are Ron Paul (R), Dennis Kucinich (D), and Mike Gravel (D). Their personal views and policies are wildly divergent, but the common thread is that they recognize the errors we have made and are motivated to correct them.

Your personal political opinion is what it is, and everyone needs options; but the options provided by “popular” candidates are completely unacceptable. I, for one, will vote for Ron Paul in the Republican primary and Dennis Kucinich in the Democratic primary. I believe that for most of the people I have sent this to, Ron Paul will be the best candidate for them. He is a Doctor from Texas, a staunch conservative Republican who follows truly conservative principles – not the falsities of the neo-con platform. You can review his positions here. While he is not a perfect candidate, and I have my own reservations, he is the only candidate in the Republican party who recognizes the bill of goods that was sold to us for what it is. His views have been consistent for more than 20 years.

Dr. Paul is a man of conviction, ruled by morals, ethics, honesty, and fear of God, and he needs our support. Dr. Paul has raised more than $4m and $6m in two 24 hour pushes on a platform of Freedom, Liberty, and Justice, girded by the words of the Constitution. Despite his popularity and ability to raise more money in less time than any other candidate now or ever before, Dr. Paul is ignored by the media because he does not serve their agenda. He serves the American People, not the god Mammon. Please take the time to educate yourself about Dr. Paul, and I do hope he meets your criteria for a highly qualified presidential candidate.