WHO AND WHAT I'LL BE VOTING FOR AND AGAINST NOVEMBER 4th

In this historic election, I have tried to give you as fair an analysis of the issues and events that I possibly could. I believe I have treated each candidate with equal suspicion and equal respect. But at some point we have to make a final decision. I will say this one thing to help comfort you in case your candidate should lose, either Senator John McCain or Senator Barack Obama would make a good President. Neither of them will destroy our country or our economy. The rhetoric that you has been fed to you by the Mainstream Media and the campaigns has been carefully designed to make you fearful of the other. The differences between the two lies simply in their philosophy of what would be best for our country. Nothing more. Barack Obama is not a secret Muslim America hater and John McCain is not trying to destroy the Middle Class for fun and profit. So, with no further adu, here is how I will be voting, why I'm going that way and what I think the results will be.

*President of the United States of America*

I have given this considerable thought and I feel that Senator Barack Obama is the best choice for this moment in history to lead our country. I'll say right up front that Barack's association with a Preacher that spews hatred instead of Love as commanded by the very religion that he embraces, bothered me the most. I do not believe that Obama didn't know. I believe that is a lie, simply put. What I do think happened was that Barack thought he could benefit from Rev. Wright's connections and that he needed the Church to get elected, as is the case for all black politicians running in black communities. For his support, Barack sold out and then lied about it when it was no longer convenient. However, in this respect, Obama is no worse than John McCain who ran legislation for shady people like Charles Keating. The difference is that Obama's associations didn't cause thousands of people to lose their life savings and didn't cost me a dime. So, on the issue of associations, McCain lost.

Now, on the issue of oil. I can only hope that Obama will lead us out of our dependency on foreign oil. John McCain, I am dead certain, will not. With his Bush ties, his 20+ ex-oil lobbyists on his staff and his "drill baby drill" mentality, I have no faith that John McCain will lead us away from the biggest danger we face today. We will be out of domestic oil in 12 years at our current pace and I am tired of bowing and sending young lives and billions of dollars to countries that hate us and have our destruction as a goal. This is my number one issue and it effects our foreign policy, our domestic policy and our economy. On this issue, again, McCain lost.

Even though those two issues alone would have pushed my vote away from McCain, there are other considerations that have moved me to Barack. I feel that Barack Obama's election would send a message around the world that is so powerful, it can not be ignored. We, the United States of America, will have elected a person that represents a minority of less than 14% of the population, African American. This doesn't happen in any of the so-called "progressive" countries around the world. France will never elect a Muslim, the U.K. will never elect a Catholic and Ireland will never elect a Protestant. Only in the U.S. is this possible. The message sent within our borders could be equally important. Every minority child in the U.S. will now know they have the opportunity to be anything they want to be. This is America at it's finest. I believe the odds of this happening are very good. I predict Barack Obama will win by 2 to 3% of the popular vote...maybe even more.

*U.S. Senate seat now held by Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich)*

Despite the fact that Carl has lost my respect, deserted our state, and sadly become another Democrat partisan hack, I believe he will handily beat his challenger Republican Jack Hoogendyk. I will be voting for a 3rd Party candidate out of disgust. Carl, you were once my hero, how far you have fallen. J.P. McCarthy would be ashamed.

*Proposition One-Medical Marijuana (Michigan proposal)*

I would be a complete hypocrite if I didn't support this proposal. I have been a advocate for legalization of Marijuana my entire adult life. I used medicinal Marijuana when I was being treated for Cancer when I was 32. It absolutely helped. For my complete testimony check out my video at http://hk.youtube.com/user/bentdrive. I believe that this proposal will pass. Opponents claim it's an effort to move toward legalization and I don't care. To quote Jimmy Carter (the only time I do), "The punishment for a crime shouldn't do more harm to society than the crime itself."

*Proposal Two-Stem Cell Research (Michigan proposal)*

The fact is, we don't need this. Stem Cells can be grown from skin, umbilical cords, amniotic fluid, placenta, and even testes. This is a attempt to discount life at conception, a"fuck you" to people with religious morals, and I do care. Although I am Pro-Choice, there are issues surrounding this that can reach far beyond simply Stem Cells. The issue is whether it's O.K. to create life just to destroy it and I just can't support that. My joke on this issue is that when the Democrats found out that there was other ways to get Stem Cells they asked, "Can't we kill them anyway?" It is unnecessary at this point and I've done a lot of research including asking some of my very knowledgeable University colleagues. After reviewing the polls and doing some "man on the street" interviewing, I'm going to update (10/3 at 7:30am) my prediction and say that this proposal will pass. I will still be voting against it.

There you go folks, I hope all of you will make up your own minds and do what you feel is best for all of us. Most importantly, don't forget to vote November 4th. It is our most sacred right. H.C.

A WORLD IN CRISIS, A WORLD OF HOPE

The housing crisis, falling stock markets, shrinking government revenues and rising unemployment all have us feeling more than a little anxious lately. On top of all that, we have a historic election for the President of the United States, the most powerful country on Earth and the country the rest of the world is both blaming for the crisis and hoping will lead us out of it. At the root of all our problems is the problem of debt. How much is too much and how do we go about shrinking it without sending the world's economy into a tailspin? I wish I had an answer.

As I've said here several times before, "You can't be better off tomorrow by spending tomorrow's money today." It's as simple as that. As long as we insist on living beyond our means by demanding loans we can't afford, houses we can't afford and luxuries we can't afford, our problem will continue and grow. It's total hypocrisy to point at the excesses of Wall Street, or the Government, as we live in excess ourselves.

For far too long the situation was twofold. The lenders were pressured by politicians to lend to people who couldn't afford it and in return the lenders got less regulation so they could offset their losses by engaging in shady market dealings that pushed the risk around to other countries and businesses. The return for this game of "hot potato debt" was a booming economy built on a shaky premise that couldn't possibly be sustained.

So what is the end result? Millions have now lost their homes to foreclosure, the housing market is flooded with too many houses that can not be sold, credit cards are being defaulted on because the equity the borrowers once used to refinance is gone (mark my words, this will be the next crisis.) Financial Rapture is upon us. Markets worldwide have seen their wealth disappear at 20, 30 even 60 percent. Countries like Iceland have gone completely bankrupt and Russia has frozen their stock trading. Buying is shrinking and the domino effect is reverberating throughout the Global Market.

For those of you that enjoy seeing the rich suffer out of jealousy, I have a wake-up call for you. The rich throughout the world pay the majority of the taxes. This is even more true in the socialist countries. As their wealth has shrunk, so has their tax burden. This is much like the way we want people to stop smoking at the same time we use their "Sin Tax" to fund health and education. If we get our wish, we are the ones to suffer. Capital gains is a thing of the past. In fact, the richest amongst us will be claiming losses, not "gains". Retirement accounts based in the stock markets are seeing huge losses (although better lately) and that will lead to increased burdens on social programs aimed at the elderly. Automaker pension programs are in danger of not being able to meet their obligation. The government will be forced to take over more and more of the burden while receiving less and less revenue. You don't have to be an economist to see tough times are ahead.

The bright side of all this is that we have finally had our veil lifted. John McCain and his Band of Merry Deregulators are being seen for what they truly are. Robber Barons. The Democrats, for their part, are being seen for what they truly are; irresponsible and too focused on the now. We are seeing the "It's all good" generation realize that it's not all good. You can't just hand money to people who can't afford to pay it back. You can't just rely on the Rich to pay all of your bills, you can't just live for today with no foresight into tomorrow and you can't push your responsibly to yourself, your children and your future onto the Government. This is the ultimate lesson on personal responsibility. If your benefactor disappears, can you survive without him? The next President of the U.S., whoever it ends up being, will find himself, from day one, in the uncomfortable position of explaining to the American public that we simply don't have the money that we had just one year ago. We can't create more programs with less revenue. The Entitlement Generation is in for a shock.

The bad news is that hard times are ahead without a doubt. My suggestion to all of you is to save, cut down on the unnecessary, and prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. The good news is that we are finally, once again, going to understand what is really important in this world. Our families, our friends, and our inner strength.... not our possessions, our appearance and our Ipods. H.C.

A PERSONAL UPDATE

With hunting season now upon us, I'm having a little trouble keeping up with all my chores. Such as posting on my blog. For those of you interested, I've already bagged a fat 6-pointer that I caught trespassing and the venison is already in my freezer. (I do all my own processing) Outside of that, here's a quick update.

Unfortunately, Flinttalkradio and me have parted ways. The removal of Steve Brewer, who I consider a good friend, from the show has caused me to re-evaluate my relationship with the owners/operators of Flinttalkradio and Studio 1714. While I hold no animosity towards either Steve Meyers or John Wilson (they did give me good exposure), their view of the world and our working relationship is considerably different than mine. This happens even among friends. I stand by my view that everyone has a right to their opinion and I respect those of both Steve and John even as I adamantly disagree with them. I would have hoped that I would get the same respect, but I unfortunately, did not.

I will however, be trying to keep our business relationship solid and would not discourage anyone from visiting their sites.

This leaves me with only my blog for venting and I've already decided that is not enough. So, in order to create a new venue for my music, opinions and commentary, I've started working on several new sites that I'm hoping to link all together with my blog. The main idea is for me and Steve Brewer to build our own studio where we will not be under the whims of other people's visions of our show. Steve is a gifted comedian/commentator and I can't wait to start producing what I'm sure is going to be the best product we've produced yet. Part of what we're looking to do is to help promote local bands and music by running their songs between our commentary.

I'm going to be posting our show on YouTube and any other venue that will have us. I'm looking forward to working with Steve and he is already full of ideas on how we can make our show even better. I'll keep all of you posted as to our progress and I'll let you know when and where you can catch us on the Internet. For now, here's a sample of the kind of stuff we'll be running. We had a misunderstanding with Eric and Carson from Banana 101. I apologize for the bad audio, it was out of my hands. H.C.

ONLY THE LOSERS

There were a few problems with the 2000 presidential election, as all of you probably already know. There were arguments over "Hanging Chads" and "Pregnant Chads" and over missing ballots, and disenfranchised voting groups. In 2004 we went through it all again with accusations against the companies that made the electronic voting machines. For the most part, I think we, the public, view voter fraud as something Republicans do to poor people and minorities to increase their chances at the ballot box. But certainly there's always two sides to the argument, so here's what we'll do. I'll simply list the examples of how both sides try to gain advantage and let you decide. At the end I'll give my thoughts on both sides.

*Democrat Cheating Methods*

Since you already have a few examples of Republican methodology, I'll start with the Dems. When considering the Democrat position, we first have to understand that Democrats, in general, do better with people as their income bracket goes down. Republicans do better as the scale goes up. For the Dems, that means recruiting poor people, lower middle class and minorities to vote. Unfortunately, a great deal of their prospective voting block has felonies, moves often, doesn't register to vote, is here illegally and in some examples, is just plain lazy. The truth of the matter is; Democrats benefit from letting some of these people break the rules. If they let illegals, for instance, register and then vote despite not being a U.S. citizen, the odds are, the result will overwhelmingly favor their party. This is also true with people who vote under several names that they know are registered, even if they happen to be dead. (I'm sure they would have voted for my guy anyway). The Democrats know that these methods are used more by their constituents than by the Republicans, so they turn a blind eye. If it turns out people are gaming the system (like illegals), the Democrats defend them as being disenfranchised and the Republicans get portrayed as threats to the right to vote. Even though those people should not have had the chance to vote to begin with.

*Republican Cheating Methods*

The Republicans would probably like to simply respond-in-kind with districts that favor them. Unfortunately, those districts are overwhelmingly rural. In the small towns across American, cheating is not tolerated. In my small town they will check my I.D. even though I've known most of them for 20 years. No, for Republicans, their best method is to try to stop the Democrat voters from ever reaching the ballot box. Including some methods such as manipulating ballots, shorting the supply of ballots in poor areas, etc.. They demand consistent registration because they know poor people move more, voter I.D.'s to stop the illegals from voting, and clean criminal records because poor people are more likely to commit crimes. They search for any Demographic that fits them best. Drunk drivers favor Democrats? Then no voting if you've had a D.U.I.! Potheads favor Democrats? Let's make sure possession is a felony.

*MY SPIN*

I feel very strongly that the right to vote is the most sacred of our rights. Without it, everything else is out of our hands. I would like to see more people participate in voting, even though I know that would favor Democrats. However, Democrats should remember you shouldn't use public funds to encourage voting only in segments of society that favor you. For instance, Democrat voter outreach programs target the poor or minorities because they stand to benefit from it. Organizations that front being bipartisan such as the American Democracy Project or more recently the organization ACORN, who's being accused of voter fraud. If an effort is made with public funds, it can't be that one-sided, it has to be targeted to the public in general. Not just Universities, big cities or poor neighborhoods. What private people want to do to promote voting and who they want to support, is their own business. As far as the Right to Vote, I would require I.D.'s for voting because it cuts down on cheating. I would continue to demand that illegals become an American citizen before you can vote and I would make efforts to enforce that law. I would make registering to vote easier, even on-line (registering only, I don't favor on-line voting). I would make Voting Day easier in any way I could. For example, I would give every American the first Tuesday of November off from work as a Federal holiday (we could use the 'off years' for local elections). What's more important than voting? I would encourage participation in our system through P.S.A.'s and our public schools. I would monitor election personnel carefully and the companies that run the machines. I would have harsh punishments for all people caught cheating. Cheating the Vote is close to treason in my world.

This election, like every election, will have it's share of complaints by the side that loses. It's funny how the winners rarely complain. All of these accusations should be taken seriously and people found guilty should be punished harshly. So when November 5 finally comes around, and as we're looking over the results, let's remember it should be every one's goal to make our elections fair, not just the losers. H.C.