Welcome to Hurricane Season! Yup, its that time of year again. We need to start getting ready. The experts are saying that 2011 is going to be another busy year for hurricanes, tropical depressions, storms, etc.Bermuda has had its own political hurricane of late, with the merging of the UBP and BDA to form the OBA. Contrary to some people’s view, Wayne Furbert’s recent exposure of the move as just part of a UBP consultant’s recommendations has, for me, thrown a wet blanket on the whole debacle! The One Bermuda Alliance is a joke! More on this after the Top 20 popular and-or dance tracks on the rock and on the planet.Advancing to #1 is Rihanna’s current hit, S&M. Tumbling to #2 is Higher, by Taio Cruz featuring Kylie Minogue and Travie McCoy. Climbing to #3 is a former essential new tune - Born This Way by Lady Gaga.Improving to #4 is Look At Me Now by Chris Brown featuring L’il Wayne and Busta Rhymes. Climbing to #5 is ET by Katy Perry featuring Kanye West. I’m liking the pairings of collaborations these days. Walking, by Mary Mary jumps to #6. This track still kicks and the beauty of it is that you are as likely to hear it in a club as you are at a party or on radio-cable stations. Climbing to #7 is 6 Foot 7 Foot by L’il Wayne featuring Cory Gunz, still my favourite rap track. Tumbling to #8 is Moment For Life by Nicki Minaj. Falling to #9 is Who’s that Chick? by David Guetta featuring Rihanna.Soaring to #10 is a former essential hew dance hit, Judas by Lady Gaga. This song kicks, as do most of Gaga’s tracks. The Captain, one of Bermuda’s veteran radio personalities, plays it every day. Up to # 11 is Just Can’t Get Enough by the Black Eyed Peas. Tumbling to #12 is Memories, by David Guetta featuring Kid Cudi, one of my faves and a banger on the Bermuda and South Florida club and radio circuits. Speaking of South Florida, how y’all like my Miami Heat? Let’s Go Heat! I hope they win it all. On the way up at #13 is Till The World Ends by Brittney Spears. Improving to #14 is Beautiful People by Chris Brown featuring Benny Benassi.Advancing to #15 is one of the hottest tracks produced this year, Give Me Everything by Pitbull, Neo, AfroJack & Nayer. This is a monster dance track that is going to be around for a while. Get used to it. Improving to #16 is Taio Cruz’s current hit I’m Loving You Tonight. Falling to # 17 is Hold It Against Me by Brittney Spears.And now, the first essential new tune for the month of June! In at #18 it’s Motivation by Kelly Rowland featuring L’il Wayne. I must give Kelly Rowland credit. Since coming out from under Beyonce’s shadow in the group Destiny’s Child, she has stepped up her game in a big way and carved out a nice career in the music industry. She has been consistent and she is still cute, as we can see in the lovely picture that accompanies this article.Down to #19 is On The Floor by Jennifer Lopez featuring Pitbull. Tumbling to #20 is Firework by Katy Perry, a dance and sing-along hit in all the clubs all over the world.Now back to this week’s topic: the joke that is the One Bermuda Alliance! I’m going to shut down any critics of this submission before they even go there by saying that I’ve also been very critical of the Government, as anyone who reads this will column will agree. But DJLT calls a spade a spade. When the PLP do wrong I will call them out. When a new party is formed in a clandestine and dishonest manner I will call them out too. The moral of this whole saga to me is that old adage, “Follow your first mind and your first gut reaction/instinct.” Let me share. Indulge me if you will. When the BDA first formed, unlike many who were caught up in the euphoria of a new political option that was not the UBP, the ABC or any other alphabet group, I was suspicious. Let me digress and make a joke that I just have to get off my chest. Former Minister and then Senator the Hon Lt Col David A Burch, used to call the international business contingent ABIR, ABIC, BEC, BCC, etc the alphabet group. They hated it, found it offensive, etc. I thought it was hilarious. Those dudes and dudettes take themselves way too seriously. It’s all about egos; their egos were offended. Whatever! Thanks for that indulgence, back to the other egos. I was suspicious of the BDA because, and I told friends this months ago, it is essentially the same old UBP with a few new people who hadn’t previously stepped forward as politicians but would most likely have joined the UBP anyway, or were just so disenchanted with the PLP that they were unlikely to support or join the PLP.So really, the BDA was:n A UBP master plan recommendation number three from a consultant’s reportn A farce, a lie to the people of Bermuda to make them think that a brand new political entity really was to be formed (no different from the lie certain members of the PLP told the public when they unseated Dame Jennifer back in the day)n A move by a maverick and rebel UBP segment that was frustrated with the party’s unwillingness to reinvent itselfn A rebranding of the same old UBP.I actually felt and still believe that Bermuda needed a completely new entity and although I had my concerns and suspicions about the BDA, I thought, “Let’s just see how this plays itself out.” Well it seems that other people actually drank the Koolaid! Not me.Once talk of a merger with the UBP surfaced, my position was and is still that the BDA stood the best chance of unseating the PLP if they went it alone. They could rid themselves of any association with the UBP which has become an unviable, unattractive and highly unlikely to ever succeed option and move forward, forge a new trail for a truly new political party. Intelligent swing voters who may have been inclined to vote against the PLP will now, I think, be less inclined to support the OBA, because it is simply the UBP with a fresh coat of paint, a few new faces and pretty much the same old strategy. The players lose all credibility as far as a new direction is concerned.Once they marginalised Craig Cannonier and chose John Barritt who is a really cool guy as the leader of the OBA, it became obvious that this was, even though they really want to reinvent themselves, largely the same old UBP. I like Craig Cannonier but he is going to find, as did the rebels who left the UBP in the first instance, that the old guard, which has the purse strings, will have enormous pull, power and ultimate decision-making rights. Just watch him and others become frustrated in about a year or so! Its also about money! They rebels realised that they don’t have the financial backing to mount a really strong challenge and unseat the Government. That costs big bucks, to mount such a successful campaign. So back to the UBP they went. And with that one fell swoop, died any real chance of unseating the PLP. It isn’t gonna happen anytime soon.My prediction is that the PLP will win the next election by a comfortable margin and may not even lose any seats which is laughable given the current state of the national debt and the current situation in Bermuda simply because the new party isn’t ready and has no credibility. But the Opposition didn’t see it this way. The people of Bermuda do not have a new political option! We have the same options we’ve had for 40 years the PLP or the UBP. The UBP just has a new name. The PLP has more credibility. They are what they are. No secrets. I can’t believe that the UBP/BDA/OBA are attempting to insult the electorate’s intelligence in this condescending and offensive manner.I end this piece by stating that I was touched by former Opposition Leader Kim Swan’s wife’s article in the paper this week. I feel sorry for him. He is a good, Christian man who is genuinely interested in making Bermuda a better place. Kim Swan is for real. He’s not there trying to get rich or make his buddies rich, unlike some others, but we will leave that for another day. He is just a hard-working normal guy. He is honest, plays by the rules, doesn’t lie, cheat or steal. His issue seemed to be that the proper procedure wasn’t being followed by the rebels but eventually he gave up the fight.His job was a thankless job and nobody can question the sacrifices he made to provide a viable alternative and opposition to the Government. My advice to him is to just go quietly, love, serve and focus on his family, who will not betray him, throw him under the bus, or leave him hanging! Experiences like this can make you wonder what it’s all worth. We are all human and we have feelings. Interestingly, I’ve noticed for a few years that the licence plate on Kim Swan’s vehicle is OneBDA! Is this a coincidence? Peace ... DJLT!