Coincidence? I don't think so. And neither do 42% of Americans polled. Almost half of all Americans believe the November elections have more influence than market forces. For them, the plunge at the pump is about politics, not economics.

Retired farmer Jim Mohr of Lexington, Ill., rattled off a tankful of reasons why pump prices may be falling, including the end of the summer travel season and the fact that no major hurricanes have disrupted Gulf of Mexico output.

“But I think the big important reason is Republicans want to get elected,” Mohr, 66, said while filling up for $2.17 a gallon. “They think getting the prices down is going to help get some more incumbents re-elected.”

According to a new Gallup poll, 42 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that the Bush administration “deliberately manipulated the price of gasoline so that it would decrease before this fall’s elections.”

Fifty-three percent of those surveyed did not believe in this conspiracy theory, while 5 percent said they had no opinion.Those 53% percent need to see THIS. Almost two-thirds of those who suspect President Bush intervened to bring down energy prices before Election Day are registered Democrats, according to Gallup.

White House spokesman Tony Snow addressed the issue Monday, telling reporters that “the one thing I have been amused by is the attempt by some people to say that the president has been rigging gas prices, which would give him the kind of magisterial clout unknown to any other human being.”

“It also raises the question, if we’re dropping gas prices now, why on earth did we raise them to $3.50 before?” Snow said.All together now - TO MAKE OBSCENE PROFITS OFF THE MISERY OF OTHERS.

But, in all fairness to Snow-blow, this is NOT just about Bush & Cheney and their Oil & Blood-soaked cronies. There are other forces behind the scenes. Crude oil prices dropped below $60 a barrel for the first time in six months on Monday before rebounding a bit as nervous speculators retreated from the commodity markets, spooked by the improving picture for oil supplies and cooling economies.

[ "The market" ] reacted at first to news that Iran was willing to enter negotiations about its nuclear program and that BP would resume pumping oil ahead of schedule from part of its site in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. But underlying economic jitters, particularly fears about a United States slowdown, also contributed to the price drop, analysts said.By "the market", they mean the gambling casino we euphemistically call "the financial market." The price of a barrel of light crude oil for delivery in November fell as low as $59.52 a barrel in New York. By late afternoon in London, it was trading at $60.55 and it closed in New York at $61.45, ending up 90 cents. Oil prices have fallen about 20 percent since July, after being driven up by hedge funds and traders concerned about supply squeezes because of geopolitical unrest and hurricanes.

Whether oil prices will drift back up or continue their general slide is a matter of fierce debate. [in other words, a matter of choice]

“The oil market’s fundamentals have finally asserted themselves,” the Centre for Global Energy Studies in London said in a report on Monday. Markets reached a point recently where “the upward momentum of oil prices disappeared, and it will therefore take a combination of special factors to bring it back,” said the group, which was founded by a former Saudi petroleum minister.When he says "fundamentals", he means 'free market forces.' And when he says "a combination of special factors" he means THIS.

But, then you must ask - Who or What prevents market fundamentals from 'asserting themselves?' Noncommercial buyers, which are generally pension, mutual and hedge funds, poured money into oil and other commodities in recent years, in part because they thought that the growing emerging-market economies had created a so-called supercycle that guaranteed price increases. In recent weeks, they have exited the market rapidly as prices started to fall when the hurricane season proved to be less severe than had been feared and several producers increased supplies or announced new oil discoveries.

The net number of long contracts, not including options, held by noncommercial buyers — bets that the price of crude oil will increase — is 22,000, down from 83,000 on Aug. 15, according to an analysis by PFC Energy of the most recent report from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. “It is a huge reversal in position,” said David Kirsch, an oil markets analyst with PFC in Washington.

Kamal Murari, global head of energy marketing for Dresdner Kleinwort, said: “The move down that’s taken place has been sharp and sudden. The fact that it’s moved as significantly as it has means that any forced liquidation has been mostly priced into the market,” he said. Some of the selling in the oil market may be linked to the recent well-publicized losses in the natural gas markets, Mr. Murari said, as some funds may have been forced to liquidate assets across energy. Most market participants think OPEC will be concerned enough to take steps to stem further declines if the prices fall to $55 a barrel, he said.Think about it. Some funds were FORCED to liquidate. And those forced liquidations were "mostly priced into the market." BY WHOM??

And for what??? I can guarantee it's not for US.

Wakeup America!!! George Carlin was right - THE GAME IS RIGGED! These prices were driven down as sure as they were driven up. And not by OPEC! The members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, have been in contact by telephone since their last meeting on Sept. 11 to discuss falling prices but have no plans for an emergency meeting on the subject, a spokesman said on Monday. Questions about the future growth of the United States economy are also pushing investors out of the oil market. American consumers are often referred to by economists as the engine that drives the world’s markets, and when they stop spending, other economies are affected. United States home prices are cooling down, giving consumers less confidence and stripping them of paper gains.

In the United States, market experts estimate that the falling oil prices will help soften the effect of the weakening housing market. “The sudden change in oil price direction in the last month has reduced the total cost of oil to the United States economy by $40 billion a year,” said Lawrence J. Goldstein, the president of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation. The fall in oil prices has added back one-quarter to one-half of a point of growth to the United States gross domestic product, Mr. Goldstein estimates. If the fall in oil prices increases US GDP, increases in oil prices does the exact opposite - bringing our economy to its knees.

The same exact thing can be said of the Federal Reserve's interest rates. And in each case - energy and money - each industry is TOTALLY controlled by a handful of individuals.

This is no exaggeration.

Americans are being remote-controlled by the two levers that affect us most - our energy supply and our money supply.

And it's NOT OPEC that pulls the levers - it's the BANKERS, also known as THE MONEY CHANGERS or THE MONEY MASTERS.

If you believe in FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY - the only way to win it back is by spreading the truth about our economy - the TRUTH that THEY don't want YOU or ANYONE ELSE to KNOW.