You are a woman, maybe a feminist. This election a woman is running for President. You feel it’s your gender’s turn.

You are an ethnic or racial minority and a man with dark skin is running for President. You feel it’s about time.

You are a negative voter. You vote against candidates you abhor, like Hillary, more than you vote for a candidate’s platform. So you settle for the candidate of the opposing major party.

You are a patriotic American, you don’t want cutbacks in military spending, and you want a "kick ass" President who will show the world America is boss. You vote for the ex-military man, McCain.

You are, like most Americans, reading about the new billionaires who founded Google, or you read about the tax breaks the rich are getting. When Democratic Party candidates say they will tax the rich to fund universal health care, you buy into the idea. It’s only fair.

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You are never informed the "rich," the top 25 or 30 percent of wage earners, already pay most of the government’s bills, about 70% of taxes. The recent tax rebate, to stimulate the economy, was a government giveaway to many people who paid little or no taxes. The people who paid most of the taxes got no rebate.

You are a Christian. You want a President that breathes the rhetoric of God. You want a President who will continue to pursue the Islamist fascists, spawned by "towel head" Muslims whose competing religion is spreading fast. Your vote goes to Huckabee.

You are among the one-third of American homeowners who refinanced their homes as values rose, pulling $1 trillion out of equity that temporarily catapulted the economy, but you now face a variable interest rate mortgage that is about to rise. Or you bought a home with no down payment and now you face foreclosure. You’re not sure which Presidential candidate addresses your plight. Nor are you assured it won’t happen again.

You receive a tax refund this year, and you’ve got a bit more money to pay off your credit cards, till 2009, when yet another slowdown in consumer spending will occur, predictably right after the November election. The loans most likely to go into foreclosure have been frozen so everything will appear normal for the election.

Suddenly you realize, the war in Iraq, which was so overwhelmingly opposed, has now, somehow, been relegated to a side issue in the Presidential election. Military deaths in Iraq have suddenly declined. There are fewer roadside bombings, as if orchestrated on cue. Only one remaining candidate claims he will withdraw troops and put a halt to the growing and perpetual war-based economy. This fact escapes your attention. Your attention has been drawn away from the war and towards issues like universal health care.

Whom will voters choose?

The politically correct voter will opt for Hillary or Obama.

The negative voter will vote against Hillary.

The lower income voters, the masses, will likely fall for the carrot at the end of the stick and vote to tax the rich in hopes for universal health care. (A mandated health care plan in Massachusetts is already in financial trouble and a California plan had to be tabled when it became clear it could not be launched at a time when the economy is souring.)

The ship of state is sinking

Are any of these candidates prepared to correct course and keep the ship of state from sinking? Sinking? Yes, the greatest success story in economic history is about to capsize and drag the rest of the world into a watery grave with it.

Most voters really haven’t a clue what is really happening to America. You are being swayed by an orchestrated campaign by the news media that you cannot fathom. The TV networks want to create an image that everything is OK, so consumers will keep buying goods and services from the sponsors of the TV programs. The national brain-washing machine, the TV set, is how this consumer propaganda is communicated. Living beyond one’s means has become the norm in America.

America can be likened to a cruise ship that is taking on water faster than it can be bailed out. If the issue in your mind is whether the ship’s captain is female, or black, or is willing to offer more free services while on your cruise, or wants to mount more machine guns on the deck to deter terrorists, you are completely distracted from the imminent crisis that confronts America.

The ship’s captain may continue to issue assurances from the helm, but not only is the boat taking on water, it is headed for an iceberg! The news media is akin to the public address system on the ship. Keep the people distracted from the real danger that lies ahead. No sense panicking the customers.

Certain sinking

The unseen danger that lies ahead is the $60 trillion of unfunded obligations for Medicare and Social Security, says economist John Williams. The unfunded obligations of the federal government have risen from $20 trillion in 2000, when George Bush took office, to these now unprecedented levels.

Bush now assures Americans his pick for a successor is John McCain, who best espouses conservative views. Do true conservatives spend money that can never possibly be repaid, or make promises that can never be delivered?

Survival of the republic is at stake

David Walker, comptroller general of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office, the GAO, says the survival of the republic is at stake. Walker has given up pleading with politicians and is taking up his bullhorn to warn the public directly. But the public, like sheep, is relying on the direction of their shepherds.

Taxing the rich won’t pay for universal health care, nor for the shortfalls of Medicare and Social Security. Over a 10-year period, elimination of tax cuts would only bring in an additional $3 trillion.

The people on this ship of state don’t recognize the greatest expense that is being hidden from view.

A military state

The biggest line item in the U.S. budget is defense (war) spending. The U.S. government commonly publishes a pie chart showing defense spending is about 20% of the U.S. annual budget, when it is actually 54%. According to the War Resisters League, out of a 3-trillion annual budget, the U.S. spends a whopping $1.449 trillion on war and when combined with debt payments for prior wars, the total outlays for war represent $2.650 trillion. Imagine half the cost of your cruise ship ticket is for security guards. The U.S. has become a military state without full recognition by its populace.

Despite this, emails will circulate the internet claiming that Hillary Clinton will scale back defense spending, putting our troops at risk. Patriotic American believe this.

Printing play money

To return to the ship of state analogy, the captain of the ship recognizes you might run out of money before the ship returns to its home port and has come up with a stunning idea. Print certificates that will be honored as real money below decks and have the ship’s purser divvy it out as a loan to everyone on board. Brilliant! Passengers can now keep purchasing trinkets, jewelry and clothes from the ship’s many onboard shops. This is akin to the economic stimulus plan just approved by Congress.

But this amounts to nothing more than play money. Worse yet, when the print shop on board prints the money, it hands it over to the ship’s purser for the cost of printing, and he marks it up and cuts himself in for a profit before he lends it out to the passengers. This is like a hidden charge on your credit card bill. The passengers (citizens) don’t fully realize as they spend the money it will be added to their collective credit card in the form of the national debt. The next generation will face this bill.

Hidden charges

This is analogous to the way the U.S. mint prints money, hands it to private bankers, called The Federal Reserve, which then takes a cut before loaning out money to banks so people can buy homes, cars, and re-finance their homes. Americans pay more for everything because of this.

John F. Kennedy recognized the folly of renting money from a private bank rather than distributing it out directly to the public from the U.S. Mint. Kennedy foresaw a day when the U.S. would be mired in hopeless debt.

In 1963 Kennedy went around the Federal Reserve Bank and printed $4 billion of U.S. Notes, subverting the Federal Reserve Notes then in circulation. Kennedy was shot in Dallas in 1963 and the $4 billion of U.S. Notes quietly withdrawn from circulation.

Only one candidate is prepared to take the helm

The only Presidential candidate who has the resolve to pull America out of this mess, and to keep the ship of state afloat, is Congressman Ron Paul. The TV networks have shunned Congressman Paul because his economic reforms, elimination of the Federal Reserve, down-sizing of the Federal government, dissolution of the Internal Revenue Service, and withdrawal from a war-based economy, would lead to the very demise of the TV networks that rely upon this ongoing ruse to stay in business. So the deception continues. You are being conned, and a huge bill is being rung up on the collective public credit card that you and your children will have to pay.

None of the Presidential candidates, save for Ron Paul, is prepared to save America. America is on the brink of becoming a second-rate nation. With the devaluation of the American dollar, now worth around 65 cents in world trade, the moneyed nations, China, Japan and Indonesia, that provide America with most of the goods that consumers buy, are thinking of buying other currencies. When this occurs, the entire world economy collapses.

First no money, then no jobs

The public doesn’t recognize that our trading partners hold billions of U.S. dollars in exchange for the goods and services they have provided America. If these countries don’t lend the money back to America, there will be no money to buy more homes and automobiles. Then there will be no jobs.

Can’t we just print more money?

I can hear it now. Some naïve American will ask, "Can’t we just print more money?" That’s how we got into this mess in the first place. More money chasing the same goods and services produces inflation. $5 boxes of cereal are already in the offing. If your great-great grandfather left your family with $25,000 in his will in 1900, it would only be worth about $1042 today (2005 figures). Bankers, via inflation, rob money out of your bank account. "What about raising the minimum wage, like Obama and Clinton promise?" Same outcome – inflation. You’ll be paying $10 for a fast-food hamburger, like they do in Tokyo.

Can America pull out of this mess? Another major economy hasn’t been able to. Mark Gongloff, writing in The Wall Street Journal, says "The Japanese stock market first reached the 13000 mark in July 1985. Japan’s Nikkei index closed at 13017 last week. In between there was a stock market bubble, a real-estate bubble, a credit crunch, a messing banking sector cleanup, super-low interest rates and a series of short-term stimulus packages that solved nothing."

Sound familiar?

Go ahead, vote for your favorite candidate. Sink the American ship of state for sure. You have now been informed. To continue to ignore this deception makes you a party to the crime. Pirates have boarded the ship and taken the helm and you are aiding and abetting them.