Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has had this tune running through his mind (and off his lips) for a few days now… For your earworm pleasure:

In case you were wondering about the end of the video. That is a public service from the Melbourne (Australia) Metro system.

If only WAMTA here in DC could be so ingenious.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was wrong. Not wrong wrong; but just wrong. Sure he knew that it was not going to be a good night for Romney when New Hampshire wasn’t close. Your Maximum Leader, optimistically, thought that New Hampshire, Virginia, Florida, Iowa and Colorado were going to break for Romney. When New Hampshire broke heavy for Obama your Maximum Leader realized that his most optimistic scenario for Romney (which still had Romney losing by the way) was not going to play out. Your Maximum Leader is a little surprised at Virginia going for Obama. Your Maximum Leader had spoken with people who are well connected with both parties and figured that the Commonwealth was going to be close (which it seems to be still) but that it would break for Romney. It didn’t.

Well… There is not much else to do on this one (save the requisite blame game and internecine warfare about who is “pure” enough to win in 2016) except to say, congratulations President Obama. Your Maximum Leader hopes the next four years are better for America than the first. (But he’s not holding his breath.)

In other election thoughts… Gay marriage measures passed everywhere they were on the ballot. That is a good thing. The Federal Government should just drop all objections and road blocks to gay marriage and we should just put this issue to bed. Your Maximum Leader still isn’t sure why the courts haven’t ruled against the Defense of Marriage Act and nullified it completely… But they haven’t.

There is only one place to put the blame for the Republican party not picking up seats in the US Senate. That place is the Tea Party movement. The Tea Party got nominated people who were just unelectable to the majority of people in their states. Your Maximum Leader firmly believes that the American people are, on the balance, of a center-right persuasion in the broadest sense. But, they don’t like extremists of either party. (Some of you out there think that Obama is a left-wing extremist; your Maximum Leader has to respectfully disagree with you and say that his is more left-center than far-left.) An opportunity to win the Senate, while remote to start with, was ruined back in the summer when electable Republicans like Dick Lugar (and Olympia Snowe) were done.

Well… Enough on this one… There will be more to come in the following days and weeks.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has voted. The line was short and moved at a good clip. The good people at the Stafford County Board of Elections seem to have things well in hand now. He hopes it continues to be so during the day.

Your Maximum Leader believes he’ll turn on the TV about 10 pm tonight and see what is going on at that point. Until then he will stay away from news sources that will do nothing but bloviate nonsense until some of the east coast states start to close…

In other news… As your Maximum Leader tweeted this morning: He is looking forward to seeing ads for breakfast cereal and boner pills reappear on TV beginning tomorrow.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader supposes that he ought to give some final election predictions on this, the last day before the election. Here you go…

Your Maximum Leader, as he has for a while now, believes that President Obama will win reelection. Mitt Romney has made it close; but the electoral math just breaks the President’s way. Your Maximum Leader isn’t positive that the President will win, but he is 65% certain. Looking at the electoral breakdown, your Maximum Leader has Romney at 267 and Obama at 253 with Ohio undecided - but leaning towards the President. Your Maximum Leader gives VA, NC, NH, FL, IA, and CO to Romney. He gives NV, WI, MI and PA to the President. Your Maximum Leader also thinks that Ohio will break for Obama. That would put the final count at Obama 271 to Romney 267.

It is possible that WI and OH are still too close to call… But your Maximum Leader rather doubts it. He didn’t have these doubts last week. He thought OH was really in play. But then he started to check the early voting numbers and he sees that many more Democrats have been voting early. He has even read some numbers that imply that up to 40% of those who are going to vote in the election have already voted. Those numbers seem, to your Maximum Leader, to favor the President.

Ugh… Not good news all in all…

In Virginia, we are also voting for a US Senator. The race is between George Allen (R - former Senator and former Governor) and Tim Kaine (D - former Governor). Your Maximum Leader has, in years past, voted for George Allen. But recently your Maximum Leader has come to be persuaded that Allen probably has a wide streak of racial prejudice in him that hasn’t been reformed. That sours your Maximum Leader on Allen. Tim Kaine on the other hand seems to be a good man personally; but has supported liberal policies that make your Maximum Leader’s stomach churn. What to do? At the dinner table on Saturday night your Maximum Leader’s family had a debate about which was the better course: voting for the man who advocates policies you support - but might be a bad person; or support the man who’s policies you don’t support because you believe he is a good man. There is no simple or easy answer if you are being pragmatic. If you are judging the contest on the basis of personal ethics, the choice is clear. If you are judging on the basis of pure politics, the choice is also clear.

Your Maximum Leader can honestly say that he hasn’t fully made up his mind on this race. He feels like a turd for saying so, but he probably will not know until he steps into the voting booth. All things being equal, your Maximum Leader is likely going for Allen… Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure how this race will turn out. It will all come down to turnout in Northern Virginia. From what your Maximum Leader can tell, both President Obama and Governor Kaine have “given up” on winning Virginia south of your Maximum Leader’s home in Fredericksburg. So it all comes down to turnout in the most densely populated region of the state. If you pressed your Maximum Leader he’d say that Allen wins in a squeaker. But if your Maximum Leader is wrong on Romney winning Virginia and the state goes for Obama, then Kaine will win the Senate seat.

Of course, we in the US are also electing the whole House of Representatives. Your Maximum Leader will vote for his current Congressman, Rob Wittman. He expects that Wittman will be reelected easily.

There are also two State Constitutional Amendments on the ballot. One deals with moving the “veto session” of the General Assembly so that it does not fall on the Jewish Passover holiday. Your Maximum Leader will be voting for it and he can’t imagine why anyone would vote against it. He expects it to pass overwhelmingly.

The second amendment has to do with property rights. After the Kelo v New London decision by the US Supreme Court, many states passed laws that narrowly defined a “public purpose” that permitted the taking of private land under eminent domain. Virginia was one of those states. Many people (and political types) believe that those laws protecting private property are not strong enough in themselves but should be added to the state constitution. This amendment will add property protections to the state constitution. Your Maximum Leader will be voting for this amendment as well. He expects it to pass overwhelmingly.

So there it is.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is alive and well. His family is alive and well. His property is undamaged by Hurricane Sandy. For all of that his is thankful. His heart goes out to those in New Jersey and New York who are suffering so much right now.

Your Maximum Leader spend the weekend before the storm getting the Villainschloss ready for the storm. We cleared up the leaves. Cleaned gutters. Secured loose items in the yard. Verified the backup generator was working and that we had spare fuel. All the stuff you do. The only real concern we had was for the many trees around the house. You can never tell when one is going to decide to give up the ghost and fall on your home or auto.

Providentially, nothing bad happened. We didn’t even lose power. It flickered once or twice, but remained on. Your Maximum Leader believes that the derecho storms of this past June helped us out. Those storms, which left your Maximum Leader without power for nearly three days, probably culled out lots of the trees that would have fallen otherwise during Sandy.

Your Maximum Leader is, again, thankful that he doesn’t have anything interesting to report.

Carry on.