Note in advance the lead-up to my question below is a bit long but worth the read.  If you must skip it, scroll down to the larger text which will get you to the end right away.

So I've done a little thinking over the last few days (hey! every now and then it happens ) and I started thinking that perhaps the Democratic primary season that never ends may be part of a grander plan, perhaps even rising to the conspiracy level.  Now, please don't assume I'm a tin-foil hat wearing X-Files type individual that always sees conspiracies in everything going on around him.  I'm far from it, and I really don't think my thoughts (that I'm about to share) on the seemingly un-ending Democratic nomination process reflect any real conspiracy, but...  I have to suggest that in many ways things are playing out for the Democratic party about as well as they could ever hope for.

So Hillary Clinton gives an interview to the folks at USA Today and stupidly makes comments that make her sound like 'the racist's choice for President'.

To get the quote's right, I'm headed (and point you) straight to the source, or at least the source that had the words that will be quoted below.  In this case, see: Clinton makes case for wide appeal in USA Today (or, in Hillary's case, perhaps it's Racism in USA Today.

I had the pleasure of getting out for an evening of entertainment last nite.  Headed out to catch one of my favorite artists (musician) at a small club within driving distance.  In this case the artist was the former songstress for the TV show Ally McBeal, the lovely and talented Ms. Vonda Shepard.

Image from Viewimages.com

I became a fan of Vonda Shepard

Gee, I seem to recall someone  (one particular) suggesting that Obama was falling back to Earth and that Hillary was widening the gap and gaining strength.  In fact, there were some loco comments in this article: Hillary campaign insists on changing rules after the fact

So do the results that came in INdiana or North Carolina reflect that change?  If so, uh, gee, I seem to be missing it.

Yet another opportunity for Congress to really stimulate the U.S. economy and achieve long lasting positive change -- how about putting some effort into offering customers that are trying to unload gas guzzling SUVs and large pick-up trucks some financial incentives that will help soften the blow that those drivers would be facing if they trade in those guzzlers?

As an example, see the news article here: Frustrated owners try to unload their guzzlers

I'm not going to clip any of that article becuase in reality the headline basically tells the story, and/or you've probably already heard, as I heard today, anecdotes from friends, neighbors, co-workers and the like that tell tales of car dealers that just won't even take the old gas guzzlers in trade, in effect trapping customers in their old vehicles (if they aren't paid off) or leaving them with so little value in trade that the customers just can't afford to buy the new econo-box that they want (because it would allow them to use less gas).

You could see this coming from a mile away... Apparently Hillary's campaign learned some lessons (the wrong ones apparently) from the Gore 2000 campaign, most importantly if you are losing and the numbers are against you keep contesting and keep trying to get the rules changed in your favor until the math, hopefully, eventually turns in your favor.

From The Washington Times, by Christina Bellantoni (See complete article by clicking on linked headline below)

I was up late last nite and as I was finally climbing in bed to get some sleep I flipped the TV on and noticed that there was a show upcoming, on the HD Theatre channel, about the building of the Arleigh Burke class Destroyers at the Bath Iron Works (in Maine).

The Mrs. watched a little with me and the idea of a Destroyer flipped the switch in her head on the old board game Battleship.  Unfortunately for my wife and I it started up the question that I'm about to ask here: what are the 5 ships (or were there more) that were included in the game Battleship??

Go Amazon go!

Took the opportunity to go catch Iron Man on the medium screen (supposed to have been a big screen, but was showing in one of the smaller type movie houses so still not what I'd call an actual big screen...) yesterday.  Definitely a fun flick and worth the price of admission.  The action is good, story was not bad, and the movie delivers what the comic book fans or even casual action movie fans would be looking for.

I finally got my own experience with Windows Vista Ultimate over the last few weeks, having been somewhat forced to downgrade from Vista Home Premium 64 bit back to a 32 bit based version of Vista to get some software that just wasn't cooperative to behave itself (DVD playback software if you must know, which I'm still less than impressed with since the makers of same have had time to get their act together and make their products compatible with 64 bit Vista).

When making the switch I had a 32 bit copy of Vista Ultimate available or I could go through loading up Vista Home Premium but in 32 bit instead of 64 bit.  I figured what the heck, use the copy of Vista Ultimate and save the copy of Vista Home Premium 64 bit for loading on different hardware later (it wasn't an OEM version so I could transfer it around later if I wanted).

With the U.S. economy apparently (gee, you think?) in the crapper, several politicians are falling all over themselves (and falling all over others -- example, see McCain followed by Clinton, somewhat countered by Obama on the idea of a gasoline tax holiday) to come up with ideas to help out the U.S. consumers (read that as: VOTERS) by putting more money into their pockets (see economic stimulus bribes, I mean prebates...) or by letting us keep more of the money we make (again, see that proposed gasoline tax holiday).

What the politicians seem to be missing is the idea of finding things to spend money on (i.e., stimulate the economy) that will have long term positive effects on the economy as a whole.

I love this news (from C|Net's News.com site): Court rejects RIAA's 'making available' piracy argument

I love this news (from Associated Press, by Mark Sherman, Associated Press Writer):

Supreme Court upholds photo ID law for voters in Indiana

For details on who voted what ways for this one:

I didn't think I'd actually agree with this line of thought, but after reading through this blog article on Slate, I have to say it makes a lot of sense.  Obama should drop out.  He should drop out NOW.  Get out of the race and let the chips fall where they may.

Yup, Obama should get out of the race immediately,