Powers on Politics Issue XI

Powers on Politics

Issue XI

There are things that I believe that I shall never say, but I shall never say things that I do not believe.

New Week: New week people and not an entirely new stack of problems but you know…we’ll still talk about them. Before we do, however, I would like to issue an apology to everyone because I will not be discussing the one world currency problem as of yet…I still need to get in the mood to depress myself. Hopefully we have some fun in this issue, though, because I’m trying to choose some good things to talk about. To begin with we are going to focus on the upcoming holiday of Thanksgiving and I’m going to attempt to tell you the true story-not the crap that you learn in school about the retarded (heck yes I just said that word!) pilgrims and the thoughtful Indians who got small pox in return for their kindness (that story is so touching isn’t it? Brings a tear to my eye-and syphilis to countless numbers of Indians (that’s right I’m calling them Indians-and I’m making a parenthetical notation within a parenthetical notation-just breaking all the rules today!)). On that high note I hope you enjoy what is to come.

The Real Thanksgiving Story: Apparently everything you’ve heard in school about Thanksgiving is wrong-who’da thunk it for that price…. Let me guess you were told that the Pilgrims had nothing when they landed at Plymouth Rock and were starving because they were physically and mentally inept to help themselves so the kind and caring Indian people (whom we later diseased, and abused) brought all of their goodies over and everyone celebrated happily ever after…THE END.
WRONG! Welcome to the real story, and there’s even an economic moral to it as well (aren’t you lucky, here I’m promising to tell you a nice story and then I go in and throw politics into it…that’s just how good I am)
In 1623 the Pilgrims all sat down for a bountiful feast thanking god for bringing them out of an earlier famine and giving them an amazingly bountiful crop that year. What had caused such a drastic change, you may be asking yourself, well Governor Bradford’s diary-an elder of the Puritan colony-tells us the story.
Upon arriving the Pilgrims decided that they were going to do things completely different from what England had been instituting. They abolished private property, and decided to live in a collectivist community where rewards were drawn from the group effort. Every part of life was done as a community job, and the hope was that the result would be great prosperity and “brotherly love”. That was the last thing that came from their little experiment.
“The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients applauded by some of later times; that the taking away of property and bringing of community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For this community found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard (I’m not the only one who uses the word-see!) much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For the young men, that were most able and fit for labor and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. The strong…had no more in division victuals and clothes than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalized in labors everything else, though it some indignity and disrespect unto them.
And for men’s wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brook it. Upon the point all being to have alike, and all to do alike they thought themselves in the like condition, and one as good as another; and so, if it did not cut off those relation that God hath set amongst men, yet it did at least much diminish and take off the mutual respects that should be preserved amongst them…Let none object this is men’s corruption, and nothing to the course itself. I answer, seeing all men have this corruption in them, God in His wisdom saw another course fitter for them.”
For the space of two years the harvest failed to produce enough food to feed everyone in the community and many starved and died from famine. Faced with this the elders gathered and decided that if something didn’t change then they would surely die. Instead of committing themselves to disaster it was decided that all property and fields would be split up and given to each family as their own. Whatever they grew was theirs, whatever they produced was theirs, and if there was excess then they could use it to trade to their neighbors for something else.
Suddenly the sloth, envy, and resentment were replaced by Industry, effort, and joy. In fact the bounty of that year was so great that they began trading amongst the Indians in the forest. In November 1623 they held the now famous feast to celebrate their accomplishments and invited the Indians over to share in thanking God for the bounty.
So remember that we are not only celebrating the things we are thankful for but we are also celebrating industry and the triumph of capitalism and the spirit of enterprise in America!

HAPPY THANKGIVING
www.fee.org/thanksgiving
For more information or your own copy of the True Story of Thanksgiving.


Somali Pirates: Not quite the Jack Sparrows of our time the Somali Pirates have taken a Ukrainian ship 200 miles off the coast of Somalia last Thursday and only want “just money”-the self proclaimed leader Sugule Ali informed a New York Times writer by the name of Jeffery Gettleman.
If you haven’t heard this story yet then get ready for something you were probably not prepared for. After hijacking the freighter Faina they found to their huge surprise that there were arms on board (I’m going to interject here…OF COURSE IT HAD ARMS ON BOARD!) Really the plan didn’t seem too thought through when Sugule said “We just saw a big ship. So we stopped it.” (brilliant) Apparently their desire to get money is not quite unfounded with this ship because the worth of the weaponry on board is estimated at about $30 million. Apparently there is also another reason for this whole take over, maybe (if you are an enviro-hippy) “to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters.” OH MY GOSH! People, why are we this way, why is it so acceptable for these sorts of acts occur just because it’s in the name of “the earth”?! Currently I’m getting this information out of the New York Times website, and the article is entitled “Somali Pirates Tell Their Side: They Want Only Money” Oh, is that all? I-wow-I feel terrible…how could I just simply think that these pirates were doing wrong when in fact all they wanted was some extra cash? You know what, I’m going to take this chance to apologize to the pirates…. Give me a break people! This is wrong, it’s just like that dumb whale show on Animal Planet that follows a bunch of “whale lovers” around as they go and attack the whaling ships out in the ocean because they disagree! Why is this suddenly so acceptable? We cannot allow this to go on, it is WRONG to promote this kind of behavior and even violence against others just because we don’t agree, or believe the same things that someone else does.
Alright now that we’re past my little “come on people!” moment let’s get on to something that’s sort of funny. The pirates-as reported on www.bloomberg.com are reducing their desired ransom payment to $25 million. I believe the original answer was somewhere around $35 million. What makes me laugh about this is that the 2 million barrels of oil that are on the ships alone are worth $110 million…I don’t know if it’s just me but…they’re kinda shooting a little low aren’t they? Asking only about a quarter of what their booty is even worth? Definitely no Jack Sparrows. Oh well…I’m sure that we’ll figure this one out eventually….


All I Want for Christmas is a BIG Bailout: I believe this is the theme for American businesses for Christmas 2008. Starting in September (I believe…or was it August?) the government has become the big Sugar Daddy for American businesses. So just who has had a bailout…well there’s Wall Street, Fannie, Freddie, Banks, as of today (11/24/08) Citicorp (which includes Citibank, and Citigroup), television stations are beginning to feel like they deserve one, and then the Auto Industry. Now I don’t mean to be a downer, but what makes this worse is that the Government is feeling EXTREMELY giving. Although the Big Three have not been officially given the bailout money that they desire, yet, but that’s just because the Democrats don’t want to take the imminent fall for handing it out. In fact Nancy Pelosi told them quite sternly that they’d have to have a plan before she’d be willing to “show them the money”. Furthermore the democrats who had promised that they had an agreement with the republicans (sound familiar to anyone?) actually didn’t have any such thing so they had to cover their tracks. (Darn Republicans, making life so hard for everyone else!)
It’s getting to the point where we’re spending several million dollars every day on bailouts for this failing organization, or business, and all the while it seems that the American people are just giving up on trying to fight this. There is just the angry murmuring of those who feel like they are being slighted. I don’t know how, but someone needs to stand up to these people and tell them that we are going to let every business that is begging for a bailout to go the way of the Titanic and sink. If you don’t like the way Capitalism works-leave. Maybe for Christmas I can have my own bailout…I can think of a few books that I could buy with it.

‘Till We Meet Again: With three issues discussed and me being terribly late in releasing this particular issue (though I think a good excuse is that I wanted to bring you the story of Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving is a pretty well spun tale) it is time for me to say adieu. I promise that I will be on time next week, I’ll stop lazing over my issues and get things accomplished-this is my promise! Until next time everyone, I hope that you had an enjoyable read!


Chene’

There are things that I believe that I shall never say, but I shall never say things that I do not believe.

Howdy, Howdy, Howdy: Hello my friends (ooh, that sounded like John McCain there for a moment), hope that you are doing good. Alright as promised in the last issue-as tiny and pathetic as it was-we are going to be covering a slew of new news that has been thrown together, but is completely related (cue Twilight Zone music). I don’t believe that anyone on the news is talking about this stuff, I know the radio talk show hosts are, and so for those who aren’t able to listen-or choose not to-I want you to be able to be informed. Just as a quick note this issue WILL have a works cited column because I didn’t get much information from the links on my blog. I hope that everyone is able to read this and understand what I’m trying to say…because this stuff is kind of intense and it is confusing, but I’m going to do my best to explain it to you. It is my hope that you enjoy. So…here we go!

S’all About the Oil: It’s the truth. All of the problems we are facing affect the oil, and next to no one is telling you this. This is a complicated tangled web that is being weaved so I am going to do my best to unravel it a little bit. To begin with we have to look at the why question. Why is the price of oil falling? Is it because we are drilling, beginning to produce our own oil? Could we possibly have gone into ANWAR and into the Gulf now that the restrictions have been lifted by Congress? Yeah-no. The reason oil prices are coming down at such a consistent rate is because consumption has gone down around the world because there is a global economic crisis occurring and people can’t buy what they can’t afford. Which brings us to another question that should be asked. Who-who is in charge of all of this oil?

The truth might just scare you if you do not know already. The list of who has the oil is fairly large so I’m going to narrow it down considerably. Russia, Venezuela, and countries in the Middle East. Now…wait…I don’t know maybe it’s just me but…don’t these people…uh…HATE US?! That’s right everyone, we are dealing oil with people who want to see us go down in flame. *Sigh* Sometimes I wonder about the intelligence levels in our officials. What makes this worse is the way the economy of these countries work. To explain this I’m going to focus in on one country in particular. Russia.

Russia is a country full of natural resources which include the worlds largest natural gas reserves, second largest coal reserves, and eighth largest oil reserves and because of this they are the worlds second largest exporter of oil, second largest natural gas exporter, and third largest consumer of energy in the world. Basically their economy revolves around these specific resources. In fact “ Russia’s economic growth over the past seven years has been driven primarily by energy exports, given the increase in Russian oil production and relatively high world oil prices during the period. Internally, Russia gets over half of its domestic energy needs from natural gas”

If we are in anyway confused by what is said here let me clear it up for you. It’s telling you that Russia’s economy does very good when oil prices are high. That is completely opposite of how our economy works. We do best when prices are low, which means our economy flourishes. Which is a big red flag if anyone has been paying any attention at all. What’s going on with our economy right now? How high are the oil prices? Putting the answers of both questions together creates a bit of a conundrum. Our economy is tanking yet oil prices are low…doesn’t make sense does it? Like I said earlier, however, it is because there is no reason beyond less consumption for the oil prices to be down-which means Americans aren’t driving their “gas-guzzlers” any more-or as much-because they can’t afford it, and we aren’t helping ourselves out by drilling on our own soil.

But returning to Russia…. “Russia’s economy is heavily dependent on oil and natural gas exports….According to calculations by Alfa Bank, the fuel sector accounts for about 20.5 percent of GDP, down from around 22 percent in 2000”. Just as high oil prices present a problem for us, so do low prices for Russia whose economy has been falling apart at the seams since oil began to fall. “The Russian stock market went lower than 1,400 points due to the reduction of the oil prices and the ongoing of outflow of capital, which investors currently conduct.” This from Russian reporters on a Russian website I just “happened” upon. All reported this summer. You can’t help but wonder what’s going on when stuff like this is coming straight from the Horses Mouth.

This isn’t half of the story, however, where things really begin to get interesting are in a whole other NPR article written by Jackie Northam entitled Geopolitical Alliances Shift with Rising Oil Prices. “The soaring price of oil has a profound impact on relationships between nations that have the valuable commodity and those that don't.” This statement says it all, and gives us a little insight because it was written this summer as well. What I’m trying to get you to glean from this is that clearly, as previously stated, certain nations flourish under the high prices, but when things begin to get stingy for them they hit hard times. No nation is going to simply sit there and allow themselves to go through economic turmoil without trying to fix it (unless you’re the United States then you just try to make it worse). Northam interviewed Roger Diwan a partner at the consultancy company PFC Energy who told her that the shifting of wealth (like how all the sudden Russia was bringing in TONS of revenue) is creating a new geopolitical climate because those countries with the oil are beginning to flex their muscles and spread their influence over the countries that rely on their product. In Russia who was bankrupt one decade ago it is extremely clear that Oil helped create that change for them. “It helped them restore the country and it allowed them to play regional politics, and even as an interlocutor to Europe, to sit down at the table and say, 'This is what we want and this is what we're trying to achieve and let's see how we make a deal,' " he says. "So, it gives them, obviously, a lot of leverage.” Diwan says describing Russia’s sudden involvement in world politics. Leverage, I believe is the key word here, Russia has been looking to become a player in global politics once again-a position they haven’t held since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and it is because of that leverage that they were able to do what they did when they attacked Georgia this summer.

We all know the basics of what happened in the Georgian Russian conflict. Russia walked over and started attacking South Ossetia that was annexed by Georgia a while ago and sort of said “deal with it, we’re bigger than you.” They made a bit of a display over there in Georgia and no one did anything-least of all any of Georgia’s allies in Europe. As it happens there’s a bit more to the story. Right in the middle of Georgia through South Ossetia are a couple of large oil pipelines. One is called the Baku-Supsa, and the other is the BTC. These are HUGE pumpers of oil throughout Europe and also for the US which is why Russia targeted the area. They wanted to control more oil because that would further ensure that they would be able to keep prices up-in fact it would make it so Russia could take the already $140 a barrel price and jack it up even higher. Had this actually occurred we would have been in a world of hurt that we couldn’t have been able to compare too. Luckily for us that was a Warning that Russia sent out to everyone reminding us that they were no longer weak and were going to get what they want.

They aren’t alone in holding all the right cards. Saudi Arabia is also an oil rich province who is an ally-but I suspect only to a point. They too are effected negatively by the rising oil prices because they are suppliers. Venezuela is the same, and with these three groups who are already on friendly terms with one another all having problems because of the same thing you can bet your socks that if things continue the way they are we could have a conflict on our hands that we don’t want to deal with.

I guess you can enjoy the low oil prices, I mean really I can’t help but be happy when I see them fall, but don’t forget to listen to that nagging voice in the back of your head that is warning you to watch your back.

O.P.E.C: Who wants to mess with the price of oil? OPEC does! That’s right as mentioned in the previous article there are countries who are pissed that the oil prices are falling and they are demanding that it comes to a close. What’s worse is that OPEC is listening and President Bush isn’t doing a thing about it! Here’s what happened.

In an article released October 16^th of this year written by Jad Mouawad he discusses what is going on with OPEC. Now OPEC had announced that it was to hold an emergency meeting regarding the plummeting oil prices the following week after this article was written (I’d give you the date but I’m too lazy to figure it out right now so I’ll let you do the hard work of counting seven days from the 16^th). Apparently the problem was that petrol execs and oil producers were a nervous wreck because of the declining oil prices because they believed that this sudden decrease in price-it was sitting at $70 a barrel at this point-would “undermine the stability of the energy markets.” The problem was with the price up to $147.27 a barrel in July then suddenly back down to $70 only a few months later the market in oil wasn’t exactly what one would call “safe” and no one was willing to try and invest long term. That’s where OPEC decided to step in. With it’s meeting originally planned for Nov. 18 it had to quickly reschedule when it became obvious that some higher-ups were starting to get antsy all over the world. As the Iranian oil minister, Gholamhossein Nozari, said “ "I think the low price is a real damage to the future of production."

I think the low oil prices are a damage to YOUR future Mr. Minister, because Iran is one of those country’s that I described as benefited by high oil prices. We happen to like low prices…or would like them more if we could get them because we were actually drilling! Sorry…had to again get that off my chest.

What really bothers these people is the fact that with oil prices jumping and falling as they are there has been less of a desire to use the product from people who simply could not afford it, therefore the consumption slowed…wow I feel like this is déjà vu…. Basically it’s all the OPEC people who want to make a profit in the coming years and want everyone happy getting together. Now I’m not saying that they should not receive profits, but they should not get together and stick it to us just because they are upset at what oil is doing. What may be even worse is that a HUGE crunch is predicted on the not-too-far future. With prices falling it is predicted that people will begin mass consuming and a price surge will occur. When this happens the big wigs foresee too much need for not enough production.

That isn’t even the real kicker to this story though. Watch how different stories begin to intertwine….

The drop in prices has already created problems for oil producers, who have become accustomed to high prices. Iran and Venezuela both need oil prices at $95 a barrel to balance their budgets, Russia needs $70 and Saudi Arabia needs $55 a barrel, according to Deutsche Bank estimates. The Algerian oil minister, Chakib Khelil, estimated Thursday that the "ideal" price for crude oil was between $70 and $90 a barrel.

In Russia, which is not part of OPEC, the drop in prices is threatening the country's ability to increase production. The Russian government has reportedly agreed to allocate $9 billion to its four major producers - Lukoil, Gazprom, Rosneft and TNK-BP - to help them cope with investment needs amid the credit crisis.

Weird…sounds so familiar. Sounds to me like OPEC is out to make everyone happy except the American people who most greatly benefit when prices are low. No one is really listening to us though, and I don’t think they will any time soon.

Here’s what happened at that meeting (oh, it was on the 24^th of October…just so everyone knows). The meeting convened in Vienna, Austria at the OPEC Headquarters. Once everyone was done playing nice with the new appointees in the following posts: Minister of Petroleum in Angola, and Minister of Mines and Petroleum in Ecuador; they decided to repeat the same old thing I’ve been saying throughout the article…you know…people aren’t consuming as much and that’s the problem, then they decided that it was only going to get worse. They also noted that there were probably going to be shortages (jeez, I’m halfway through this article and I could have told everyone that…oh wait…I DID…can we just move on?). Here’s where things finally come to a head. It was decided that OPEC would cut back the amounts of barrels of oil that are put out daily down from 28.808 million by 1.5 million barrels a day…that’s a BIG cut! This began on the first of November. Here’s whose getting cut and by how many barrels a day.

Algeria: 71,000
Angola: 99,000
Ecuador: 27,000
I. R. Iran: 199,000
Kuwait: 132,000
Libya: 89,000
Nigeria: 113,000
Qatar: 43,000
Saudi Arabia: 466,000
U.A.E.: 134,000
Venezuela: 129,000

This is basically the end of the article basically…well other than this will all be managed by a big committee that no one actually cares about. Personally I don’t like this, cutting the amount of oil that is available to nations is doing nothing but putting a greater squeeze on us. In the end I think this is going to do more harm than good…but we’ll see I guess. Hold on for the ride my friends!

Since this oil thing is beginning to give me a headache…so we are going to move on to something equally happy….

The Weimar Republic: I’m about to give you a history lesson that I found on the official pbs.org website with the assistance of Google (that’s right I use Google search for my research!). This information was taken from an exert written by George J. W. Goodman. This piece is meant to show you why the phrase “history repeats itself” is extremely true. See if you can find the tangents.

Before World War I began Germany was a prosperous country whose currency was backed up by gold, and was beginning to spread in the fields of science and technology. However by 1923 not hyperinflation (very high, rapid monetary inflation that is great enough to threaten a nation's economic stability) was so bad that even a wheelbarrow full of marks could not buy so much as a loaf of bread. When looking for the cause of this we have to move back to 1914 when the war was expected to be over quickly and therefore the government borrowed money to fund it. In Germany the prices jumped between the years 1914 and 1919.

Unfortunately it was to get no easier. When Germany lost the war and was pushed into the Treaty of Versailles they had to pay reparations in gold-backed marks. With the loss of Ruhr and the loss of the province of Upper Silisea the Weimar Republic was becoming politically fragile.

The capitalist tendencies were still strong, however, with people working hard and knowing that in the end things would get better. Yet prices continued to double even into 1922 with things like milk going from 7 marks to 16. People were upset and slowly an underground economy began to emerge as the citizens tried to stick it to their tax collectors. Soon it became apparent to the citizens that the mark wasn’t what was valuable anymore and they began purchasing real goods such as pianos, diamonds and safe real estate. As value of things increased with the cost of each item banks hurried to fix the problem-for some reason no one saw anything wrong with it (if this is sounding familiar…you are one of the few sane people in this country).

The reason this wasn’t put to a stop was because of how fragile the government after the assassination of Walter Rathenau the foreign minister. By now the French had also come into Ruhr to enforce the demands for their reparations further pressuring the Germans.

Finally a group of German industrial combines by the name of Krupp, Thyssen, Farben, and Stinnes decided that the best way to fix the economy was to bring down the value of the mark. To do this marks had to be printed quick and in a large amount that would cause inflation. Now that the printing press was in full swing it was suddenly very hard to stop. Soon prices were skyrocketing so fast that the menus in restaurants could not be reprinted in time. Even the presses began to fall behind with the demand of marks until individual states and cities had to issue their own money to their citizens.

Eventually those who had been trying to back their wealth up with goods searching out anything such as soap and hairpins until the country was reduced to outright thievery.

To save themselves having to carry around huge wheelbarrows full of money a new mark was invented the “Rentenmark” which was equal to one billion old marks. "I remember," said one Frau Barten of East Prussia, "the feeling of having just one Rentenmark to spend. I bought a small tin bread bin. Just to buy something that had a price tag for one Mark was so exciting."

With everyone having given up on the economy it became a simple thing for Hitler to exploit with “diabolical talent.” No one was surprised anymore by the outrageous prices, or the growing problems that were blossoming all around them. People who had worked hard their entire lives were left on the street, and widows who depended on their husband were destitute. Pearl Buck, an American author described what it was like to be in Germany in 1923.

"The cities were still there, the houses not yet bombed and in ruins, but the victims were millions of people. They had lost their fortunes, their savings; they were dazed and inflation-shocked and did not understand how it had happened to them and who the foe was who had defeated them. Yet they had lost their self-assurance, their feeling that they themselves could be the masters of their own lives if only they worked hard enough; and lost, too, were the old values of morals, of ethics, of decency."

Farewell Until Next Time: Sorry I didn’t include the final article…it will be there next time-I promise. This Issue was beginning to get long…that’s my excuse. Alright so I won’t tell you what else we’ll discuss next time, but it will be great I promise! Can’t wait, and I hope you learned something in this issue. Thanks for reading!

Chene’

Powers on Politics

There are things that I believe that I shall never say, but I shall never say things that I do not believe.

Issue VII


Barack Hussein Obama 44th President of the USA: At 10:39pm I turned my radio up hoping to hear what was happening with the Presidential race, and I heard that Obama had been elected the President of the United States. I sat in my bed for a while wondering what could be coming our way. Many things were promised to us by Obama and by Biden things that I hope never come to pass. I tossed and turned trying to fall asleep when all I could think of was that my country-the United States of America-was about to be gutted from the inside out and turned into a socialist state that would be unable to give to her people the freedom’s that they had so long valued. That time is gone, unless…. The presidential race may have been won, but there is still the House and Senate races that need to be watched. If Barack Obama has a filibuster proof senate then there is no stopping him in what he wishes to do, but if there are less than sixty democratic and left leaning seats filled then a filibuster can be called and the chance to stop bad legislation in it’s tracks-for at least a while-is still in existence. Luckily it came to my attention that the Democrats did not get all the seats that they needed in the Senate therefore we might have at least a small fighting chance in the end.
Then I listened to the radio the next morning, I listened to Glenn prepared to be depressed-as seemed to have become the norm over the past couple weeks-by his gloom-and-doom warnings that I already was too well aware of. I was ready to hear Rush tell everyone that “Okay we screwed up, I already knew that we weren’t going to win.” Then for Sean Hannity to turn on the Pity Party all day. To my surprise it wasn’t like that at all, and I came out having learned something that I would like to share with you.
We lost, well…since I have a feeling that we weren’t happily behind McCain (and were sort of hoping that maybe he’d sort of disappear and let Palin take over…that’s right I read your minds!) I’ll say that MCCAIN lost. Obama won, he is the President-elect of the United States and come January will be taking the Oath of Office and step into the Presidency. The people have spoken. Trying to imagine a more amazing statement is impossible for me. I might not agree with who the People have decided on, but they decided. It wasn’t the government, it wasn’t some magic wizard standing behind a curtain pulling strings, it was us. Which means that Barack Obama is the elected President of the United States, and what he is able to do will be the fault of those who voted for him, just as what Bush did was-in part-the responsibility of those who voted for him. No, we didn’t always agree with him, no we definitely didn’t enjoy everything he did, but he is our President. Obama will be the same, he will be OUR president. The President of the United States, and the President of the people therein. These simple facts might make you cringe, but there isn’t a thing to be done about it right now.
Now in light of his election we have to realize that Barack Hussein Obama is everyone’s president, or if you want to be more specific if you live in the United States legally he is YOUR president. He might not be the man you wanted, but he is the one who is to take over the job. Because of this we must show him the respect and support due his office no matter what you think of him. We cannot allow ourselves to act as immaturely as many did when President Bush was elected, we cannot use the “Selected not Elected” line that seems to have become the theme for the 2004 elections because we do live in a nation that allows for people to elect those who we wish to lead us. Let’s not hope that Obama fails at this job, because when Obama fails then so do we. Instead let us hope that he does the best he can, that he somehow does this country right even when we believe that he will not, and when he does something that we can agree with let us hold him up and congratulate him for it. I won’t be like one of those people who hated Bush, who would not support him, who were being un-American. I will believe that Obama may do something that I agree with and I will be ready to tell everyone that I am happy with what he is doing, but I am also going to fight against him if he tries to pass things that I do not believe in, things that are against my values. I hope that everyone can accept that Obama is going to be our 44th President of the United States and will do everything in their power to support him, if not always agree with him.
The next four years are going to be long, but I believe that we can make it through, we just have to stick together and never forget what this country really stands for.


Do Our Voices Matter?: On the fourth of November another big fight was going on in a couple states, but specifically in California. This is a story I’m sure you’ve heard about, Proposition 8, the law that said that marriage is between a man and a woman and no one else. To truly understand what happened in California, and what exactly the vote that made Proposition 8 pass really meant I have to back up.
In 2004 the big debate was if Gay Marriage should be legal, and with the Presidential election there would also be a law passed in California that would decide the argument of that question. On election day the people of California went to the ballot box, and when the votes were tallied it was decided. Marriage should be between a Man and a Woman. Of course there were a lot of offended individuals-you know the ones who believed that their very freedom was being taken away because they were the ones who were being affected by the law. With extreme haughtiness these people ran to the government in California and cried foul. “This isn’t fair, our freedom is being taken away!” Apparently someone cared because the issue went to court, and then to the California Supreme Court where it was decided that it was unconstitutional for marriage to be declared solely between a man and a woman. (I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t recall seeing in the Bill of Rights that we have the right to be Gay, but maybe I’m just not looking hard enough).
This obviously didn’t sit well with those who voted for the ban of gay marriage, because…you know…suddenly it seemed as though they’re voices were being completely ignored. Not to be shut-up on the matter they came back in 2008 with Proposition 8, essentially the same law that was passed then ruled out in 2004. This time the people voted-or should I say Again?-and to everyone’s shock and surprise the law again passed. That’s right, if you don’t like it four years earlier apparently your view doesn’t change after four years of being called a hated bigot…who’da thunk it? This isn’t where this story ends, however, and this is probably a good place for you to begin looking for some tape for your head…. The California Supreme Court along with all of those people who are to be effected by this vote are again rallying to shoot down the votes of many Californians. But wait, there’s more….
Earlier this very year in New York the current mayor (Bloomberg) decided that instead of being reelected and going through voting process he decided that it was better if he just stayed where he was. Bloomberg took his idea to the court system in New York and basically made the argument that “so much is going on right now, we can’t possibly deal with training a new mayor…so I should just stay mayor.” I don’t know about you but this is the shakiest argument that could possibly exist, it wouldn’t make sense to agree with this man in any way…right? Wrong. The courts didn’t give the people-who called in a resounding “NO!”-the chance to make this decision and instead gave the mayor the “all clear” and now there will be no mayor elections in New York…at least not for a while.
My question to all of you is this. How long can this go on before someone begins to get disenfranchised by believing that their vote doesn’t count. Once people begin to believe that their voices don’t matter they begin to try to figure out how to get their points across, and that can get dangerous. Pay attention, these aren’t going to be the only examples of stealing the voice of the people from them by taking it through the courts.


I Apologize: Sorry everyone for the uncharacteristically tiny issue, but that’s because I’m trying to gather my thoughts. What we will be discussing in the next issue will be quite the task to tackle. First and foremost we are going to be going through the oil prices, and why they might end up causing problems rather then being a saving grace-though let’s not get me wrong…the lower oil prices are nice. After that I shall discuss what is going on with OPEC (this will kill you!) Then we are going to learn about something called the Weimar Republic, a group in Germany that came about around the same time that the Nazi Party was rising through power. Finally I will make sure that we talk about what could be a World Currency. In light of this prepare yourselves for a potential information overload, and maybe even a good time-I don’t know…it could be a bumpy ride.

In closing I’d like to remind everyone that I would love to hear some more things that you would like me to talk about. Oh, and special thanks to Mary Furse who has been sending me all sorts of information. I promise Mary I will get into some of those things soon, I just have to get these off my mind first! Thanks again to everyone for reading!

Chene’