It's funny because I was going to put the same thing as an added comment when I posted it. There's some of it I don't believe but a lot of it I do. I do believe the show is fixed and the winner is virtually pre-selected. I also believe there is an enormous amount of pimping going on to promote certain contestants and that the final 4 has already been "selected." I also believe the wrench in the plan is Taylor as they don't know how to deal with him and his popularity. SirLinksAlot's post on Taylor being evidence of a revolt holds a lot of water with me. If form holds, Taylor will be the "shock" contestant booted out before the final 3. Frankly, I will be stunned if the finale does not have Chris and Kellie in it. And the "Idol" song will be geared towards Chris's genre.
That isn't to say that they don't pull a lot of tricks to push their favored contestants -- clearly they do, and have been called on it repeatedly in this thread (including the original thread). Personally, I would doubt that they monkey around with the actual vote results just from the sheer negative publicity they'd get when caught, and you know the other major networks would love to catch them doing something like that.