It was obvious when a freshman senator with scant experience began to pull to the front of the Democratic race. It was more obvious when the psychotic loser McCain suddenly vaulted to the lead of the Republican race.

Someone is pulling strings. This is especially unsettling in a year when the wheels are threatening to really spin off the bus - economic meltdown, oil prices, climate change, war. The president taking office in 2009 will face unprecedented challenges, yet voters this year appear to already have had their voices restrained.

It could still be that neither Obama nor McCain will be the eventual nominees - both have incredible baggage attached. Unfortunately, this is the type of situation that lends itself to even greater manipulation than we have yet seen. The dark horse candidate that emerges to "save the day" will need not to face the inquisition inherent in primary campaigns. Desparate times may spawn desparate solutions, or so we will be told.

Obama faces a brewing scandal, and the media's stone-walled silence and coverup is yet another scandal in itself. Have you heard of Larry Sinclair? Probably not, unless you turn to alternative media for your news.

To fill you in: Sinclair is a gay man who claims to have shared crack and sex with Obama as recently as 1999. While this would only register as a small blip against the backdrop of what passes for normal standards among politicians (White House secret service records indicate several hundred passes issued to famed gay escort Jeff Gannon, to enter the living quarters of the current occupant), there is the slight complication of an unsolved murder or two. Donald Young, the gay choir director of Obama's former church, was found dead of gunshot wounds on Christmas day 2007. The killing is still under investigation by Chicago police. Sinclair claims that Young began calling him frequently shortly before the murder, and that he got Sinclair's number from Obama. Young appears to have begun calling Sinclair at Obama's behest after Sinclair made his allegations public, presumably to discover how much a threat this disclosure represented.

While many may regard this as tabloid reporting at best, the fact that Sinclair is apparently willing to testify under oath, these extrordinary claims regarding an unsolved murder, raise this story's profile enough to at least merit press mention. The people and places involved are quite familiar to Obama - that alone would justify a police interview under normal circumstances.

There is widespread assumption that a dirty tricks squad exists within some nameless federal agency, which has a "bill of goods" developed against every politician in power. This is thought to be used as blackmail to prevent departure from the will of the unseen masters. Elliot Spitzer is thought to be one recent example of this coercion in use, although what he did to cross the line remains unclear.

Is the Sinclair story simply the dirty laundry reserved for Obama? Surely McCain has his own version stored away, as does every other politician who reaches a high enough position to matter. The unhappy fact is, every sucessful candidate for public office owes his or her soul to some entity behind the scenes. A cynical fact of life is that it's important to at least know who the master is before deciding to vote for a candidate.

An even more unhappy fact is that Representative Democracy appears to be dead in America. Can most voters not quickly mention at least 5 potential candidates with greater qualifications than the two we will be stuck with? We still go through the motions, but it's a huge farce.

First we saw the Supreme Court reverse the presidential election results in 2000, then Diebold helped steal the next election in 2004 (coupled with some dirty tricks to discourage likely Democratic voters from voting. Now, there is this.

-Darkwave