The Deuce and 2009

Since my past New Year's resolutions of the "I will" variety don't normally pan out, I thought this year I would try a different tack. For 2009 my resolutions will be of the "I won't" variety.

This year I've chosen to work on my anger issues.

I won't allow my anger to explode into a galactic super nova when TV gives me;

some mush-head in the MSM ( main stream media) uses the word crisis to describe every story presented in that particular half hour news cycle. The financial crisis story is followed by the climate crisis story which is followed by the Israeli vs. Palestinian crisis story. We catch our breath during a two minute commercial break, which I spend pouring a large vodka rocks with a twist with which to fight off my impending depression over all these damn crisis', and then the crisis avalanche continues. The AIDS crisis in Africa story and then the piracy crisis story followed yet by the California budget crisis. Now my vodka isn't working so I top it off with two quick Sam Adams lagers. Now it's time for the last story of the the half hour, usually a feel good story to end the broadcast on a high note...

and its the ubiquitous panda story! Yes, the Chicoms ( Chinese Communists) latest five year plan for the bamboo harvest has failed again and some of their slower pandas are starving. So, the Chicoms kill two birds with one stone; they thin the panda herd by giving ( leasing really, but lets not be mean) two pandas to some American zoo. This leaves more bamboo for their remaining pandas while simultaneously reminding all of America of how charitable the Chicoms are by "sharing" their most precious natural resource ( not counting a billion peasants who work for food scraps rejected by starving Ethiopians ). The breathless reporter tells us that the pandas are named Wang-Wang and Poo-Poo, which translated into English is Up Yours American Scum and Your Ancestors Are Fertilizer. Alcohol is not working...where'd I put my morphine? Oh look, it's time for the local news, which leads off with the...

gang crisis! That's one too many crisis' for me and I feel a super nova coming on so I change the channel looking for something more entertaining with which to calm my nerves, which leads me to...

Late night TV. I've got satellite TV which means 250 channels of rip roaring good times 24 hours a day. Let's see what I have to choose from tonight...

...at least 100 channels of paid programming?! Great! Half hour commercials pitching everything from the latest magical exercise machine that will give you abs of steel with just one five minute workout a month, to the latest magical pill that will melt the fat right off your body without the least bit of exertion on your part, ever. We've got over the counter boner pills, Alzheimer cures, hair replacement creams, hair removal systems, finger tip vibrators for that someone special ( yourself), nail fungus treatments and acne cures. More alcohol please. But there's got to be something worthwhile on. Then I find...

...Make Money Scams! EBay, real estate, drop shipping, day trading, gold investing, commodity futures, social security and workman's comp rip offs ( thinly veiled) and "If you've ever been exposed to," or "if you've ever operated this equipment" law suit scams. They're everywhere!

I'll try HBO. Oh good. Not one movie that's under a year old. Original programming from last year too! Oh but don't worry, HBO's got new episodes of all my favorites coming out in March! Won't we all be dead from climate change by March? Now I need really high octane alcohol. I go out to my bomb shelter and break out a fifth of white lightening...distilled by my cousin who lives in a trailer down by the river ( the trailer is just to throw off the revenuers, he nets $150K a year).

History Channel? Any good war footage, police shootouts, riots at the Japanese congress, Best of Soccer Hooligans or WWII dog fights? Uh, not tonight. Tonight it's "Modern Marvels; Corn Snacks!" Then, "Modern Marvels; Plumbing!", followed by the award winning "Modern Marvels; The History of Toilet Paper And Other Household Paper Products!" The White Lightening is burning my tongue down to a small chip of coal, but I force it down. No more super novas from me. I'm in control.

MTV? First up is "Room Raiders." Described as people selecting dates by inspecting rooms. Seriously, I can't make this stuff up. Oh, it gets even better. I've stumbled upon a "Room Raiders" marathon...eight riveting episodes in a row! Boy, I don't need any of those boner pills I saw advertised earlier now!

AMC? Movie, "The Magnificent Seven." Seen it like 50 times...and it's not even that good. It's also from 1960. 48 years old. Makes me feel like a geezer.

TCM? Movie, "Heaven's Gate." Saw it once years ago. BORING! So boring coma patients complained.

FX? "Hair Club For Men and Women." On FX? Is going bald really a crisis of this magnitude?

TNT? Series, "Without A Trace." Veteran tough guy FBI dude rides heard over younger metro sexual male agents and gender-feminist female agents...that are always screwing each other right after finding the body of some guy that's been missing for three months and decomposing in the trunk of a car. Nothing like decomp to get the sexual juices flowing!

TBS? Movie, "Richie Rich." Oh please. Richie Rich just went bankrupt after being defrauded by that Bernie Madoff sleaze.

SPIKE? Series, "Star Trek; Deep Space Nine." Love Quark and his rules of acquisition, but seen this episode. ( if Odo is a real shape shifter, why does he choose such a dull looking sissy body? Would it really take that much more energy to strut around built like Conan the Barbarian?).

DISCOVERY CHANNEL? "Storm Chasers". I live in the Mid-West. I'm too smart to chase tornadoes. Although it is kind of funny to listen to the chasers. They sound like Samuel L. Jackson, all cool and fearless and tossing around the storm chaser version of mother fucker, "Oh Geez," when the tornado is going away, then the tornado changes direction and starts coming toward them and suddenly they sound like baby seals about to be clubbed.

I won't even mention the shopping channels and the preacher channels. I'm not senile yet.

My white lightening is almost gone. I haven't gone super nova. My New Year's resolution has worked for one night. The Deuce is victorious.

Happy New Year America!

Better Late Than Never

Since the Deuce introduced himself with a lengthy inaugural blog, I thought I might as well do the same. I too am a Caucasian Anglo-Saxon Protestant, born and raised in a rural community in the middle of America. In fact, the geographical center of the nation is probably less than two hours by car from my hometown. I come from a place where it would be unusual not to own a gun, where being proud of America is a part of your DNA, and where willingness to die for freedom is a given. Its a place where folks bitch and complain about the government and politicians, but no one doubts that the United States is the greatest nation on this earth and no one apologizes for that fact.

I was raised on a large farm where we made our living raising corn, soybeans, cattle and hogs. Every day but Sunday was a work day, and sometimes Sunday was a work day. I started working on the farm, helping my father when I was 9 years old. At that age, I fed and watered the livestock ("doin' chores" in the local vernacular), and did assorted odd tasks. At 9, I was too young to operate the machines for raising crops, but in the summer before the advent of selective herbicides like "Roundup", the final act of cultivation was to walk down the rows of soybeans and physically cut the weeds from the rows using a machete-like tool called a "cornknife". I was too small at 9 to hold a cornknife, so my father had me using a large butcher knife for the job! By the time I was 14-15 years old, I was doing a man's work on weekends and in the evenings during the school year and full-days during the summer. Those experiences taught me much about responsibility, perseverance, work ethics, thinking independently and initiative.

Lest you think it was a totally idyllic existence, and it really was almost idyllic, it was often hard going. My father scratched a living out of the land, and many years after selling his crop and paying his bills, he had to borrow money from the bank to pay taxes and purchase the supplies for the coming year. My birthday being in late summer was often a time when there simply was no money left. My mother always raised a huge vegetable garden, and canned fruit and vegetables all summer, putting up literally hundreds of quarts of green beans, corn, tomatoes, pickles, and all manner of jelly. Every year, we would have a beef and a hog butchered. It was always a big day to go and retrieve the cut meat, wrapped and frozen, and bring it home to absolutely fill a big chest freezer to the brim. We even had an underground root cellar ("the cave" as we referred to it) with a potato bin. We would grow and gather several hundred pounds of potatoes that were stored in the cave. This is what we ate and how we lived because there was simply not much money.

Given this background, I hope that it helps the reader to understand as I itemize (as the Deuce did) some things about my self and what I believe:

• I hold a masters degree in engineering geology and a bachelors degree in geology.
• I believe that the USA is the greatest nation that has ever existed. I always feel an emotional lump of pride in my throat when I hear the line from the Star Spangled Banner, "the land of the free and the home of the brave."
• I hate the manner of personal interpretation in singing the national anthem to open sporting events that is fashionable now. There is only one way to sing that anthem. Period.
• I believe in personal honor and personal integrity, no matter what the cost. If you compromise your honor or your integrity you have nothing, no matter what your wealth.
• I believe in personal loyalty, no matter what the cost. You can give no greater gift to a friend, family, or institution than your personal loyalty.
• I believe that betrayal of your personal loyalty by someone to whom you have given it is unforgivable.
• I believe that family is the highest calling. I have been divorced twice and these are the greatest and most painful failures of my life.
• I believe in the right to keep arms and bear arms on my person. I exercise this right daily with the affirmation of a permit issued by the state.
• I believe that every person must accept responsibility for their actions, their situation, and their destiny. I believe that there are few true victims.
• I believe that charity is most meaningful when it is in the form of a personal service. Simply donating money dilutes the experience.
• I believe that moral relativism is a weakness in character. We all know or should know what is right and what is wrong.
• I personally believe that abortion is wrong. I also believe that is is not the function of the government to legislate or adjudicate morality, but rather the duty of the citizens of the nation to determine what is morally acceptable in their communities. The right to abortions should be decided by the citizens of the individual states by ballot.
• I am well read on the subject of religion, the existence of God, the life of Jesus, the canonical books of the New Testament, and 2nd century Christianity.
• I believe that Paul of Tarsus was principally responsible for the rise and spread of Christianity - even though he never met Jesus nor when he returned to Jerusalem (so far as we know) visited any of the places of Jesus betrayal, cruxification, or resurrection.
• I believe that in at least 40,000 years of human (homo sapien) existence, the thought that we stumbled onto the one true God in the last 5000, or last 2000, or last 700 years is absurd.
• I believe that the order of the universe is too profound to be a matter of chance.
• I believe in UFOs, really.

I am looking forward to continuing to blog along side The Deuce. Enjoy, comment, or disparage.

Introducing...The Deuce

Ever get the feeling that America is circling the drain? Do you watch the news on the MSM ( main stream media) and ask yourself, "When did my country drop to the level of a Third World banana republic?" Inundated by crooked politicians, greedy bankers, PC disciples, Eco fascists, metro sexual pretend men and the women who want to be like them, and Euro-Socialist wanna be's, it's a wonder the good 'ol U. S. of A. is still here.

I am The Deuce. Greetings! Let me introduce myself.

I'm unapologetically a Heterosexual Man.
I am descended from a Scotsman that came to America as an indentured servant in 1695.
I am an only child.
I'm old enough to remember Vietnam and Watergate.
I was once married and I have fathered and helped raise two children.
I spent six years in the United States Army.
I spent two years as a reserve police officer.
I was a card carrying member of the Libertarian Party for over twenty years, ending in 2001.
I have a BS in Political Science.
I read, on average, sixty books a year (65% fiction, 35% non-fiction).
I currently live in the Mid West, but have also lived in Texas, Arizona, Idaho and Georgia.
I am the first male of my line in nine generations not born in the South.
I've spent the last fifteen years working for two Fortune 500 companies (and hated most of it).
I've never voted for a Democrat in my life...though Senator James Webb ( D-VA) is tempting.
I believe in God and that Jesus Christ was the son of God and died for all our sins.
I'm incredibly pissed off.
I think God is too.

You get the gist. You could stereotype me as "the angry White man", and you wouldn't be far off, except I like Broadway musicals almost as much as football and hockey, and I'm more at home in a library than I am an auto parts store. I am not much of a NASCAR fan, but Lynard Skynard kicks ass! I don't particularly like grits, but the Second Amendment is my favorite because it makes all the other amendments possible.

This blog belongs to a very good friend of mine. When I bitched to him that his posting schedule wasn't making me happy and suggested he let me post here from time to time, he was gentleman enough to say "go for it." So I am. Thanks bud. I promise the FBI will not visit your home because of anything I say here, but if they do, feel free to rat me out. I'll take my own heat.

As I was saying, circling the drain. That's us. We have elected the first avowed Marxist in the history of the U.S. as President of the United States. Oh, he won't claim that title now. It wouldn't be prudent. However, in his two autobiographies, he spells it out in black and white. Add to his words his career as a "community organizer", and his world view is clear; socialism is the bomb ( Obama's pal Bill Ayers can attest to that); America is White, and that makes it Evil (Obama's "spiritual counselor" the good Reverend Jeremiah Wright has preached that for some twenty years...it's called Liberation Theology); America is Christian, which means it is intolerant and racist; America is imperialist, meaning it oppresses other countries, particularly those that are not White and not Christian.

I am not a black man. I can not walk a foot in Obama's shoes, much less a mile. I can not feel the sting of slavery, oppression and Jim Crow as sharply as he can ( please note that Obama's parents are not descended from American slaves), though if we are willing to go back far enough in history we all have ancestors who were slaves.

But neither can Obama walk a foot in my shoes as a white man. He can not feel the sting of being accused of being a racist when I'm not; he can not feel my anger when I see the daily devolving of inner city America; he can not feel my anger when Whites are demonized and described as a "cancer" on the world that must be eradicated.

Obama promises change. That's not a hard promise to keep. The world is always changing, slowly but surely. But, the change Obama promises is not the change we need. How many times must Socialism fail around the world before American leftists break the code? Call it what you like; Communism, Socialism, Liberalism or Progressivism, it all means the same thing...an omnipotent central government taking money from people who have it and giving it to people who don't. Redistribute the wealth of a nation to turn equality of opportunity into equality of results. Social Justice. Nobodies too rich, and nobodies too poor. We're all the same.

There's just one problem. We're not all the same, and no amount of government manipulation of the tax laws or the economy or public education will make us so. There will always be rich and poor, capital and labor, owners and workers. There will always be those of us who generally make wise decisions or poor ones, who save for the future or live for the moment, who live within our means or don't, who believe in honor, honesty and integrity or "it's every man for himself and anything goes," who believe in voluntary charity and not the forced redistribution of wealth.

Obama's "change" denies a basic truth of humanity, and that is why Obama and his "change" will ultimately fail. Let us hope that the failure does not destroy America.

May God have mercy on us.

Will the Real Obama Stand Up?

I have to say that the current flap over the Reverend Wright seems overblown in a lot of ways. Frankly, I think that Obama's answer, "Those aren't my thoughts and those aren't my words." ought to put the whole thing to rest. I mean, can we really hold politicians accountable for the acts and words of persons with which they have some association, no matter how indirect or remote? I for one wouldn't want to be held accountable for the words or actions of my friends and family, merely because I have some association with them. Jesus, can you imagine? If you want to run for high office, you restrict your associations to priests and nuns - no, even that might not be safe!

I understand the argument that there is some reflection of character in the friends and associates you keep. But, there is a large distinction between actively embracing someone's ideas, working with them to realize those ideas versus merely listening to someone spout racist or politically incorrect drivel and remaining their friend in spite of their flaws. This is a tempest in a tea pot.

Obama has a real opportunity here if he wishes to take advantage. He can use this entire episode to create a stark contrast between himself and the kind of stereotypical vision of black clergy that many whites have - the kind of thing that really does scare them in to voting against someone because of race.

Hard Times Coming?

The news yesterday had two articles that caught my eye and scared me down to my bones. The first discussed the potential that gasoline prices in the US could reach $10/gal in 2- 3 years. The second discussed the potential for oil to go over $200/barrel - mostly due to the declining value of the dollar. A decline in the value of the dollar by 1% increases the cost of a barrel of oil by $4.00 Gloomy to say the least.

Suppose the cost of gasoline is $10/gal. What would that mean in reality on the ground here in the US? Think you could afford to fill your gas tank for $150, twice a week? Would that mean lots of people staying home and tele-commuting via computer? What if there aren't enough ports to access the network at your business if everyone is trying to work from home? What aout food. Fresh food would become unavailable. In fact, most goods of all kinds that are transported by truck would be either unavailable or prohibitively expensive. Locally grown food would likely be the only choice.

Imagine how life would be here in the United States, an entire nation that was built without regard to the energy cost to move from one place to another. Malls and big box stores in the suburbs would be empty - people avoiding any kind of driving that is unnecessary. People in low wage jobs unable to afford to go to work if they drive, so mass transit is crowded beyond endurance. Bicycles and scooters taking the place of cars on the streets. Local vendors selling locally grown food, while the big supermarkets shelves are bare. Roads empty of trucks and cars. Maybe farmers pulling trains of hay racks behind their tractors, loaded with people, a new sort of mass transit improvised out of necessity.

Most of all, people would be miserable. I have read that the United States is only two meals away from revolution. With gas at $10/gallon, the US is probably only 10 miles from a revolution.

Universal Health Care

The debate on universal health care usually breaks down along partisan lines when it requires everyone to participate and the government to pay for all without regard to needs or means. On its face, some sort of universal health care is an idea with great merit. The argument extends well beyond your basic low income, "I can't afford health care" entitlement recipient. Take for example those otherwise middle class and reasonably paid persons that wish to change jobs (i.e., employers), but have an existing condition that will not be covered by the new employer's health insurance carrier - because it is an existing condition. So that person is stuck, no movement possible. Or a more futuristic scenario in this world of genetic engineering. Suppose genetic testing required as a condition of your prospective employment discovers that you have some probability to develop XYZ-disease in the future, so you become untouchable. No new job - or potentially dismissed from a current job or insurance coverage denied for that condition while at the current job . Notwithstanding the discrimination argument that is obvious, such a scenario is entirely plausible.

So let's postulate what reforms and what reasonable criteria a universal health care program must meet to provide for the basic needs of the citizenry, provide for personal responsibility, be compassionate to those that cannot do for themselves, and not become a draining behemoth that siphons unsustainable amounts of funding from the federal treasury:

1. Portability - must be in place always when moving from one job or place to another.
2. Must provide at least for basic health maintenance services and catastrophic event (i.e., over say a cost of $2000) health care coverage.
3. Must be market based to control costs.
4. Must be open and available to all US citizens, but enrollment cannot be mandatory.
5. It must discourage frivolous litigation.

The system I envision would be essentially a HMO type of system with the only required federal government administration being contract administration and means determination. The contract would be competitively bid to all interested health care providers (i.e., Blue Cross, etc.) to provide a basic level of coverage to include annual physicals, routine out patient office visits and procedures, and catastrophic event coverage. The contract duration could be 5 years, or longer. Providers are required to provide coverage to anyone who applies for the bid unit price (an annual per person or per family cost). Additional "menu" style coverages can be purchased by anyone as desired, but additional menu coverages will not be subsidized. . All coverage is portable from job to job. For the basic coverage, anyone without the means to purchase (as determined by a means test) will receive a subsidy from the federal government that varies from 0% to 100% depending on household income and number in the household. The means test will set some upper income level, above which the subscriber would receive no federal government subsidy - say $40,000 for a family of four and $20,000 for a single subscriber. Employers can purchase from this program for their employees if desired (this would encourage low wage jobs to provide as a benefit). No one is required to subscribe, but anyone is able to subscribe. In other words if you can find a better deal in the open market, including if your employer can find a better deal, then you are not requried to subscribe to the government program.

Lastly, there will have to be a simultaneous reform of tort litigation as pertains to health care damage claims. The basic reform would be to limit damage awards to compensatory damages for income lost and/or suffering, and forbid punitive damages entirely. Additionally, the reform should place a burden on the plaintiffs that discourages frivilous litigation. Mandating that the loosing party in litigation pay all legal expenses incurred by both parties would achieve that effect.

I think that the program described above would provide a means for universal health care that meets the criteria outlined above, and is reasonably possible to develop.

Global Food Crisis

While it seems early in this "crisis cycle" of which there seems to be an endless parade in the MSM, I thought I'd comment on the current global food crisis. Apparently the food cricis is now "eclipsing" the climate change crisis. Funny, American farmers finally start getting a reasonable return for a bushel of starch grain that can be converted to ethanol and the entire world goes into convulsions blaming them for their greed as the cause of a looming food shortage. Never mind that the cost of gasoline, diesel, fertilizer and other petro products that are necessary to the production of grain shoot through the roof as a barrel of oil goes triples in cost in the space of three years. On a comparison basis, I understand that 4oo lbs of corn (aproximately the caloric need of an adult human for a single year) will produce 25 gallons of ethanol. At 56 lbs/bushel for corn, that is about 1/3 bushel per gallon of ethanol. Ethanol is probably more valuable than gasoline ($3.40 a gallon - today's price), but lets assume that it is the same value. That means that a bushel of corn at today's market price of $6.00/bushel is producing at least $10.20 worth of ethanol. There is some cost of production at the still that is unaccounted for here, but it seems like a reasonable value in today's market place.

As the above chart produced by the FDA shows, corn divered to ethanol production in the US is currently probably less than 20% of total production. However, corn production can and has increased by this amount. The efficiency of ethanol production per bushel of corn is already increasing since 2005. Moreover, as the market for ethanol grows, other feedstock sources that are currently waste products, such as corn stover, can move to fill the source material requirements of the industry. This article by Clifford May confirms with facts and statistics that diversion of feed grains to ethanol production is not the cause of food price increases. Here is a quote from another article found here:

"The doubling of rice prices cannot therefore be explained by a sudden shift in supply and demand. And the same is true of oil, since the global growth of oil output in the past two years has been substantially faster than the growth of consumption. The key factor, as in the last great commodity inflation of the 1970s, appears not to be any immediate supply shortage but panic buying by consumers, governments and financial investors, in anticipation of possible future shortages of supply."

Maybe the solution is to develop greater domestic energy resources like arctic and offshore oil and gas fields, wind, coal, nuclear, solar. Then the demand and unit price for hydrocarbon energy from the Middle East will decline causing a corresponding reduction in market demand for ethanol. That would in turn divert more starch grains to food production.

A True Man of Steel

As I think about the kind of man John McCain is and what kind of president he would be, I can't help but think how pitiful and small Hillary or Obama seem juxtaposed against him. Here is a man who is truly made of grissle and steel. Try to imagine the pure guts it takes to spend 5 years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, turning down the opportunity to go home after a year out of loyalty to his fellow prisoners. McCain opposes torture, and probably for good reason - he was tortured, daily. Really tortured, not being subjected to loud music, or made to stay up past his bedtime, or even having to wear underwear on his head. But real torture, like getting beaten with bamboo clubs - daily. Torture like being bound and hung up like a meat sack for days. P.J. O'Rourke has an eloquent article here in the Weekly Standard that speaks to McCains toughness, guts, loyalty, honor and integrity.

So what do you think was Hillary's biggest test of character - choosing the right time to fire the Whitehouse travel staff, where to place those billing records and still have plausable deniability? Maybe it was the whole "Bill and the Oval office BJ" thing? Doesn't sound like much up against McCain.

Obama? The greatest test of his character was having to answer Charlie Gibson about William Ayres and Reverend Wright on national TV during a debate. Either that or refraining from slapping Hillary every time she smirked and said, "If I'm not mistaken..."

Dems, the Primary, and My Prediction

Well the PA primary is over and time for a few thoughts. My impression of the entire Democratice Primary race is one of watching a train wreck occur in slow motion. Why the Democratic ledership allowed these two to become dominant and the final choices in this race is absolutely mind boggling. But it is really too late, there is no white knight to ride into the convention and rescue the Dems from their own foolishness.

First, Hillary. Its clear she is determined to drive the bus off the cliff. She'll pursue this nomination to the bitter end, even though there is a miniscule chance that she will end the primary season with either a greater share of the popular vote or more pledged delegates. I suppose the strategy is to make a play for the Superdelegates to award her the nomination, and when they don't and Obama looses, make the pitch for the nomination in 2012 that they should'a listened to her. The results in Pennsylvania showed that her support came from the same demographics and in almost identical percentages and in Ohio - net effect no real gains. Her sole chance to win the nomination appears to rest on convincing the superdelegates that Obama is unelectable. Frankly, I think she is right on point but for reasons that are different than hers. She believes that the negative issues out there, i.e., Reverend Wright, Bittergate, William Ayers, etc. will sink him. But really the polling data suggests that the reason he would loose is that if Obama gets the nomination, substantial percentages of her supporters (on the order of 30%) would either not support him or would not vote. But the alternative of Hillary gaining the nomination is even worse. A 49% dissapproval out of the blocks, hard polarization of viewpoints within the electorate concerning Hillary and Bill and the Clinton scene, and more intellegently, her positions on the issues will sink her.

Obama, on the other hand, is charismatic, dynamic and inspiring. Unfortunately, all of the aforementioned negative issues and more to come will be on him like a stink from day one of the general election campaign. And, more troubling, he really does seem to lack substance. It appears that there truly has been a media love fest with Obama for the past several months, but I think that even the MSM is now getting a clue and starting to see the stains on his background and the lack of real substantive plans and direction in how to achieve all of the really inspiring things that he talks about. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I think that he out managed Hillary during this primary campaign, and he is now beyond her reach. It seems unlikely in the extreme that the Superdelegates will throw him under the bus in favor of Hillary, alienate an huge constituency (African Americans), and expose themselves to charges of disenfranchisment of the electorate and stealing an election.

My prediction - Obama will be the Democratic nominee. McCain will win the general election, and win BIG!