On June 7th, the head of petroleum giant Exxon Mobile Corp., Lee R. Raymond stated, "the idea of American energy independence is a myth and the United States must maintain "constructive relationships" with oil-producing countries for its own prosperity. Exxon Mobil earned a record $21.5 billion last year, nearly double the previous year, and also reported record earnings during the first quarter of this year as crude oil and gasoline prices soared.

Could this be one of the reasons why we invaded Iraq?

China
The Next Huge Oil Consumer
1.3 Billion People

China is now the world's No. 3 oil importer, depending on foreign fuel to run its booming factories. The country's consumption remains strong at a 7% growth projected through 2010, even with crude surpassing $45 US dollars a barrel. Neighboring South Korea is struggling to cope with oil's rising price. But in China, labor is so cheap that chinese businessmen are not worred about the higher energy costs. China is now responsible for a third of the growth in global oil demand. Half of China's oil consumption will depend on imports within four years.

China has quickly become the largest user of oil for several reasons. Its population, being the largest in the world, is demanding more and more of the "technology" advancements of comfort and leisure. More chinese own basic comforts as refrigerators and telephone than ever before, despite that it still has a huge segment of the population living in poverty conditions. And now with the internet explosion in China, even though the internet their is government controlled, nearly a third of all Chinese have computers and access to the internet and this is suppose to grow to 50% within five years. That is double the amount of the american population.

China's manufacturing output has doubled in just ten years and is expected to double again in just five years. And as the deficits in trade grow between the U.S. and China, more jobs are being lost in the U.S. The U.S. is importing more goods from China that China is buying from the U.S.

I believe that China is a sleeping giant and it will have serious implications on the global community in the years to come. In its manufacturing expansion, it has virtually ignored pollution and global warming precautions. In many of its cities, the air has become almost unbreathable many days of the year. I predict that by 2008, due to the demand that China and India will have for oil and because of what I believe will happen with (8) OPEC Arab countries who will limit production, I predict that by 2008, the price of a barrel of oil will be hovering around $130.00 a barrel and gasoline in the U.S. will be between $4.00 and $5.00 a gallon. And by the summer of 2008 or fall it could approach $150.00 to even $200.00 a barrel. Unscrupulous managers of commodity traders dealing with oil futures and managers of hedge funds will also be culprits in diving up the price of oil in 2008. And I also predict that this is where the price of oil and the price of gasoline will stay.

China's oil consumption jumped 11.5 per cent last year to six million barrels a day, with 2.5 million of them imported, according to figures from the British oil company BP. The International Energy Agency says the growth in China's oil consumption, which hit a 25-per-cent annual rate for the second quarter, is expected to slow in the third quarter, but will still be an impressive nine per cent. Has this helped to drive up oil prices worldwide. I believe so.

China's economic growth has shown signs of slowing recently, from a searing pace of nine per cent a year toward the official target for 2004 of a still robust seven per cent projected through 2010.

What is affecting not only the U.S., but other countries as well is that Chinese authorities do little to protect owners worldwide that own copyrights, trademarks or patents on products. The counterfeit industry in China is alive and well. Knockoffs of everything from designer jeans, golf clubs to computer software and equipment is rampant costing billions in loss revenue to the original makers of the products. It takes the counterfeiters in China less than a week to duplicate an item. For example, a patented golf club in the U.S. has been duplicated in China, selling for 1/3 of the original cost. Is the quality the same? No, the U.S. made golf club has a titanium club, whereas the Chinese version is made out of lead and is hollow. That is why one of the reasons Bill Gates of Microsoft has been "working" a deal with Chinese authorities to make illegal copying of Windows illegal in China. For this, the Chinese government will get a percentage of each Windows legal sale in China.

And don't forget the number of U.S. jobs that have been permanately lost to China over the last 4 years. 1.4 million manufacturing jobs that have been in the U.S. for 20 or more years are now lost premanately, not only to sources in China, but India, Paskistan, Guam, Phillipines and Taiwan. The question that all of us should be asking is, why didn't our elected officials in Washington stop this mass exodus of jobs when they were first seen being lost in 2000?

U.S. Oil Refineries
Shrink by 200

Despite the need for more refinery capability, the oil industry has been reluctant to add or re-open closed refineries. There hasn't been a new refinery built in the U.S. in 28 years. More than 200 facilities have been closed over the last ten years. The remaining refineries are experiencing a very healthy bottom line profit. For example, Sunoco Inc. reported a $217 million from from its refining business of processing 43 million barrels of gasoline during the last quarter. Even though the remaining refineries set record production levels during the first half of the year, including 8.6 million of gasoline produced a day, they couldn't keep up with demand. So, the question here is, has a reduced number of operating refineries further pushed the price of gasoline up? The largest remaining refineries across the country are primarily owned by three corporations.

Do You Know Who Owns Over 20% of U.S. Treasury Securities?
Not Grandmothers Anymore!

90 Percent of the Increase in the Federal Debt Since 2001 Has Gone to Foreign Interests

Forty percent of our public debt is now held outside the country. More than 20 percent is owned by China and Japan in U.S. Treasury Securities.

Japan owns approximately $545 billion, up from $525 billion in 2003. China owns approximately $181 billion up from $168 billion in 2003. I believe our forefathers would have said no another country ever owning this much of our great country. Should there be laws established to prevent this or limit the amount another country can own of the U.S.?

Foreign investment in the United States peaked at $9.63 trillion in 2003, while the amount of U.S. assets abroad reached $7.2 trillion. The record negative balance of $2.43 trillion marked a $200 billion increase from 2002, according to the report released in the July issue of Survey of Current Business, a monthly publication by the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis. Due to the cost of the Iraq operations, is it expected that more U.S. Treasury Securities to fund it and the U.S. deficit that will reach over $5.4 trillion dollars by 2006.

THE EFFECTS OF GLOBAL WARMING ARE REAL

On environmental issues, Mr. Bush appeared unfamiliar with an administration report delivered to Congress on Wednesday that indicated that emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases were the only likely explanation for global warming over the last three decades. Previously, Mr. Bush and other officials had emphasized uncertainties in understanding the causes and consequences of global warming.

The new report was signed by Mr. Bush's secretaries of energy and commerce and his science adviser. Asked why the administration had changed its position on what causes global warming, Mr. Bush replied, "Ah, we did? I don't think so."

Scott McClellan, Mr. Bush's press secretary, said later that the administration was not changing its position on global warming and that Mr. Bush continued to be guided by continuing research at the National Academy of Sciences.

If you have not read my column on global warming, which is part 3 of the real issues for the 2004 election, I suggest you do. You will learn the facts concerning global warming and how something must be done now to prevent a disaster that is waiting worldwide. Part 3 - Global Warming and Other Issues.

RIGGS BANK?

On May 31, 2000, in Washington D.C., Riggs Bank NA., announced that the Board of Directors of RIMCO, a wholly owned investment management subsidiary, has elected Jonathan J. Bush, uncle of President G.w. Bush, the President & Chief Executive Officer. Sources familiar with the evidence say the payments, amounting to about $3,500 a month, came from an account at Washington's Riggs Bank in the name of Princess Haifa Al-Faisal, the wife of Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. After Al Bayoumi left the country in July 2001--two months before the September 11 terror attacks, payments for roughly the same amount began flowing every month to Osama Basnan, a close associate of Al Bayoumi's who also befriended the hijackers.

On August 20th, 2004, the Justice Department announced that it is launching a criminal investigation into Riggs Bank. In recent months, the Washington-based bank has become engulfed in a scandal related to charges of money-laundering, corruption and terrorist financing.

Jonathan Bush played a very important role in helping find investors for the various failed oil businesses that George W. Bush ran before he began his career in politics. Jonathan Bush also helped raise money for George H.W. Bush and is a former chair of the New York Republican State Finance Committee. In 2000, he was briefly named president and CEO of Riggs Investment Management Company (RIMCO), a wholly owned subsidiary of Riggs Bank.

Riggs is owned by the Allbritton family, a Texas family with close ties to the Republican establishment. Joe Allbritton, the former head of Riggs who bought the bank in the mid-1970s, is a friend of the Bush family. His son, Robert Allbritton, is the current chairman and CEO.

The bank was eventually fined $25 million in May 2004 for violating these regulations. However, the FBI has issued a statement saying it found no evidence of terrorist financing. The Bush administration has refused to release the intelligence behind the investigation, citing national security concerns.

Even after the FBI’s accusations in July 2003, the bank continued to allow massive cash transfers by the Saudi ambassador. Under pressure, the bank announced this past March that it was closing all Saudi accounts.

Riggs, which touts itself as the most important bank in the most important city in the world, has been known for decades as the bank of the Washington elite, including politicians, foreign ambassadors and the wealthy. It has held presidential accounts stretching back to the time of the Civil War, and is a prominent fixture in the political and social establishment of the nation’s capital.

Or rather, it was a prominent fixture. In July, PNL Financial Services agreed to buy Riggs for $779 million. The sale will become final by early next year.

The bank’s prominent embassy and international operations will be shut down in an attempt to bury a scandal that has the potential of becoming much larger. That an institution like Riggs could so quickly disintegrate is an indication of the extent of the corruption that has overtaken American finance and government.

There are three separate activities for which Riggs has come under investigation: (1) its relationship with the Saudi royal family and the potential financing of two of the September 11 hijackers through an account owned by the wife of the Saudi ambassador; (2) its relationship with the corrupt and dictatorial regime of the oil-rich West African country of Equatorial Guinea; and (3) its banking business with the former military dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet.

Lastly, below is the first few paragraphs that the forefathers of our great country wrote on July 4, 1776, our Declaration of Independence. I ask that you read it, and as you read it, feel not only the truth in these words, but the wisdom which has made this country the greatest nation on earth for what I believe are the greatest words ever written - Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

As you read these great words, ask yourself questions as you read the statement made in our Declaration based on the events that have occurred over the last few years, especially since 911. One of those questions should be, have we and are we truly following these tenents.

Upon arriving at your answer, keep these words and the answer you have found in mind when you cast your vote this November. And most importantly, I hope you have seen one question that must be asked....what is it that we are not doing right in this country. The answer is very simple...MUCH!

If you don't understand what I believe is the answer to that question, then I suggest you re-read our Declaration of Independence. If at any time in our history does it mean more than it does now.

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Make sure you get out and VOTE this year!

Before I close, I would like to bring attention to my readers, Aspartame Awareness Weekend that is coming up this Labor Day Weekend. If you have not read my column:

Aspartame
Sweetness Disguised as Disease or Death?
Also Known As Equal®, Nutrasweet® and Spoonful® concerning this deadly chemical sweetner,
I urge you to and become involved in spreading the word to your family and friends.

A new documentary by producer, Cori Brackett has been released. The AWARD WINNING documentary: SWEET MISERY: A POISONED WORLD was produced by Bracket and her husband, J.T. Brackett, co-owner of Sound and Fury Productions.

http://www.soundandfuryproductions.com

In this amazing documentary, you will learn about a woman, Diane Fleming who was unjustly convicted of murdering her husband when he actually died from aspartame poisoning.