Nothing's as it seems.

Within the past few days, I've learned when a slam dunk isn't a slam dunk: When it's taken out of context resulting in the deaths of tens upon tens of thousands of people.

I've also learned that the silence a shiny Medal of Freedom buys doesn't last forever. The metal apparently tarnishes even before the president who awarded it to you leaves office! Besides, a $7.95 gold plated medallion complete with red, white, and blue ribbon can only buy so much silence in the face of a $4 million book advance. And same as with the slam dunk, tens upon tens of thousands of people are dead (still).

It's a beautiful morning!

The last Sunday of April, 2007 as president and gardening hobbyist,
George Bush, is shown enjoying a stroll in his garden of crosses after a
very strenuous, yet productive Saturday when he planted nine more.

Bush, whose seedling source is being threatened by some in congress,
has vowed to veto any attempts to prune it back saying, "Gardening
is a great source of relaxation for me and this looks to be the year for
a bumper crop of crosses."

Solar winds on Earth?

El Paso Electric company is considering a number of options for increasing its electrical generating capacity. One of those options is an Enviro Mission Solar Tower driving 32 turbines that would produce 200 Megawatts.

I don't know if it this could come to pass here locally or if it's just so much "hot air" (pun intended). Final decision will be made by El Paso Electric later this summer.

But I could imagine riding to the top of the 3,000 foot tower would be quite exhilarating (save for batophobics, of course).

Pyramid of Cheops - 449 feet
Sidney Tower - 1,014 feet
Eiffel Tower - 1,063 feet
Empire State Bldg. - 1,473 feet
Solar Tower - 3,281 feet

IF: Temperature (F) outside at ground level = 86 degrees
Temperature (F) at top of tower would = 68 degrees
Temperature (F) at base after heating = 158 degrees

A 2:40 minute You Tube on the Enviro Mission Solar Tower

Necessity - The Mother of Invention

The recent Virginia Tech shootings have posed a conundrum for many of this nation. US Flags were flown at half-mast afterwards for the 33 students killed a week ago Monday. But the emotional conflict arises from American GI's killed in Iraq and Afghanistan daily without similar recognition from flag standards.

Therefore, Dada is applying for a patent of The Permanent Half-Mast Flag Pole. In that we will be at war for the future - both seeable & unforeseeable - half-mast flag poles will reflect the grief of an eternally sorry nation. It will also eliminate the emotional conflict that results when occasional, tragic domestic losses of civilian life occur like Virginia Tech's which mirror daily deaths among our military gladiators serving in war zones busily building The Empire.

For those who would point out that the shorter half-mast flag poles will make Old Glory less visible to everyone, I would answer that this is an added advantage in that Old Glory has become a symbol of disgrace and is probably better seen, the more invisible it becomes.

Dieting in America

No longer able to rely on the FDA and USDA to guarantee his food safety, Sammy is eying alternative food sources. Here he is sniffing his first sunflower. (I explained it wasn't quite yet ready for consumption, but he's getting hungry and doesn't know whether to chow down on commercial dog food and risk his kidneys, or try green sunflowers at the risk of his stomach.)

It's becoming apparent (especially under the current government we now "enjoy"), that more and more our government is doing less and less in regulating commerce. From Big Dick Cheney's "energy policy" as written by a commission of big energy and oil execs and headed up by Enron's Ken Lay, pharmaceuticals testing the safety of their own drugs and dictating Medicare prescription policy to congress, to post-Katrina appointed private securtity in the form of 'above the law' likes of Blackwater and others, examples abound of why the need for the government we currently have is becoming less and less apparent, particularly when the safety of the citizenry is trumped in most instances for the welfare of business. It's apparent our health, safety (and pocket books) are not "our" government's main concern.

The current poisons in our petfood is but another example. Yesterday ""Democracy Now!" ran another of what should be a source of public outrage:

"The new postage rates that are being implemented by the US Post Office, which could affect many small and independent publications in this country. Postal rates for smaller periodicals could increase by as much as 30%, while some of the largest circulation magazines will face hikes of less than 10%."

So where'd the government come up with the new rates? Oh, our own Postal Service Board of Governors confess they accepted the rates submitted by media behemoth Time Warner, Inc. This strongly affects small liberal and conservative publications alike such as The Nation, Mother Jones, National Review, The American Conservative. (I'm just so sure Time Warner didn't have that intention when proposing these rates, aren't you?)

Hang in there Sammy, those sunflowers'll be ripe soon!

*To sign the petition against these new rates.

"I don't work for you, I work for the American people."

Those who do not move, do not notice their chains. - Rosa Luxemburg

Karl Rove, the Executive Branch's equivalent of J. Edgar Hoover, responding to Sheryl
Crow during a weekend encounter, "I don't work for you, I work for the American people."

Karl Rove's terse reply to Sheryl Crow's reminder, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us," should serve to remind all Americans who Bush's "Turd Blossom" really works for. Obviously,

• not Americans who objected to Bush stealing of the White House in 2000,
• nor those who condemn his dirty tricks & slander of those who oppose him,
  
• or those against his paranoiac need to spy on any he feels threaten him and his power lust,
• nor those who condemn his wars based on lies and sexed-up intel
• or are in opposition to his demolition of their rights guaranteed by our Constitution
• or his neocon's "small government" running huge deficits now bankrupting the nation
  
• and who are appalled at the U.S.'s new love of torture and violation of international treaties
  
• and his public denials of global warming and losing wars for the enrichment of private interest buddies.
• and those in shocked disbelief at the many thousands--Americans, Afghanis, and Iraqis--now dead because of the lies
• et al.

No, Rove was reminding Crowe he works for those other Americans--the real Americans--who condone the above, a small minority though they be.

Just another case of "no one's responsible" or, it was all just an accident.

Family and friends of the two-thirds of a million people killed since the beginning of George Bush's war on Iraq are angry and weighing their options. An enormous class action lawsuit is being contemplated.

In that U.S. "federal law prohibits anyone who has been 'adjudicated as a mental defective,' as well as those who have been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility are banned from buying a gun," Iraqis want to know how a known sociopath like Bush could have purchased such guns with which to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians despite existing laws.

The problem likely to confront the Iraqis, if they decide to pursue legal action, is the fact president Bush has never actually been adjucated mentally defective. Furthermore, the records that Bush was ever involuntarily committed to a mental health facility or directed to seek outpatient treatment after being declared mentally ill and a danger to himself or the public don't exist. They would have been expunged (much like his questionable military record) by Karl Rove long before Bush ran for the presidency in 2000.

The most difficult burden of proof for the Iraqis, however, is going to be that George Bush, insane or not, did buy the guns which killed all those Iraqis. That's because he really didn't.

No, congress is the body that purchased the weapons for Bush after he asked them to get him some guns and ammunition. But the money congress used to buy them for Bush came from us, U.S. taxpayers.

So it's going to be difficult for Iraqis to pin all those murders on Bush when it's obvious no one was really responsible. As Bush has taught us over the past six years, particularly when it comes to screw-ups, there is no accountability. That makes those hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis--most likely--just a big "accident." But it's an accident president Bush continues to support, however. Oh wait, maybe I'd best stop here because I'm approaching that old definition of insanity, aren't I?

It's Official! Presenting my new editor, Samuel Cincos.

Sammy Cincos, new official editor of "Dada's Dally"! He thought he should have a pro-
fessional studio "glamor shot" taken for this blog. I convinced him it wasn't necessary.

Next month marks the first anniversary of the departure of this blog's original editor. Pony (aka by her greyhound track name, Maricopa Pomo -- [ugh!]) had worked tirelessly behind the scenes helping me get my early blogs ready for "print" here from her love seat just next to the computer. On difficult days, her encouragement was endless and when she left us, our loss was significant.

In the ensuing six months after "The Po's" departure, the blog was editorless. Typos and grammatical abuses soared. Then, the day after last Thanksgiving, a new member of the "staff" arrived, although we didn't know it at the time. But it soon became apparent, "Sammy" had an interest in what went on at Dada's, watching from Pony's old love seat as he did each morning.

These past five months have seen Sam make incredible progress in his OJT as my new editor. So fast has he progressed in fact, I suspect he may have had some prior experience in his previous home. We'll never know for sure.

He continually hounds me to lighten up a little in these pages. I've mostly ignored his pleas, but that may change now that he's being promoted.

This lone flaw of his is illustrated by his easily distracted attention span. That's when he begins dogging me to "Take a break, let's go outside and toss some balls, Da." But I'm sure this "play as a significant part of life" will fade as he matures into serious adulthood like the rest of us.

Quote of the Day

We are getting tired of prying your guns out of your cold dead hands.

Here's a news flash for you gun waving "real Americans": It's not about guns. It's about money. Follow the money. The NRA raises hundreds of millions of dollars by convincing you they are fighting for your "rights". Wake up. It's a business. Just like any other business, except with the help of their bought off representatives, they are the only UNREGULATED consumer product in America. What do they sell? FEAR. Fear, fake patriotism, and fake bravado, just like their commander in chief, President Custer. You're being played. Elayne Boosler

Oh, oh. Looks like it's coming that time again to roll out the debate on our constitutional right.

If 2500 children under the age of 17 were felled by apples instead of guns every year in America, there wouldn't be a congressman or senator left serving who took one penny from the National Apple Association. ~Boosler again

The president helps the terrorists when anyone can have a shoulder rocket launcher that can take a plane out of the sky. And I'm taking my shoes off at the airport? ~more Boosler

Gee, Elayne's supposed to be funny but she sounds a little upset to me. (Sometimes I really love it when this comedienne loses her sense of humor. Click on any "Boosler" to read her entire, excellent column rant.)

Ho hum.

~photo source masslive.com

This is our governor of Texas. Tomorrow he's coming to town to ride a Harley around El Paso. But as our mayor tells us, he can't reveal where he will ride because governor Perry "doesn't want a bunch of bikers to show up."

Did Einstein have bees in his bonnet too?

One of the things I love about the aging computer I curse almost daily is the unexpected paths it unfolds before me some days. Take last night for example. I set out to verify something I'd heard on a late night talk radio show that was attributed to Albert Einstein. But enroute to that quote, I ended up very sidetracked. In fact, so wonderfully diverted from my quest did I become, it wasn't until settling into bed for the night I remembered I still hadn't answered the question about Einstein I'd gone seeking. But I had debunked a myth about Kurt Vonnegut and picked up some excellent advice as well.

Einstein said, "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left!." --supposedly. He was quoted in conjunction with the sudden and unexplainable disappearance of honey bees now occurring in many places globally. I knew Einstein was no entomologist, but attributing anything to the man who "discovered" relativity tends to lend extra credibility, even to the incredible or the irrelevant if he said it.

Learning, as I did last night, that bees are essential for pollinating some 90 varieties of vegetables and fruits in the U.S., it became urgent I learn if these workers who "put food on our tables" might pose the drastic threat to humanity of which Einstein tried to warn.

There'll always be types like me who get excited at news like that, just as there'll always be doubting Thomases who might respond like one commenter imagined: "Pollination? Who gives a fuck? I don't eat vegetables. Unless there's nothin' else in the fridge."

That's ok, there'll always be Neanderthals among us. They abound on radio talk shows, branches of higher government and among the media who fail to scratch where citizens are itching, i.e., for truth.

If the bee's collapsing colony disorder (CCD) brings on Einstein's societal downfall, those pooh-poohers will be the first ones knocking at your front door to borrow some honey and strawberries for their fruit smoothies.

But as I've said, I didn't realize I'd failed in my quest to validate Einstein's quote until retiring to bed. But I did learn along the way that Kurt Vonnegut did not deliver the wonderful speech I stumbled over which was attributed to him as supposedly delivered to the graduating class of MIT in 1997.

Instead, it was a Chicago Tribune column written by Mary Schmich and it was chock full of excellent advice I found myself mulling over instead of counting sheep as I lie in bed. Things like, "Read the directions, even if you don't follow them," ... "Floss," ... "Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly." ... "Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements." ... "Wear sunscreen."

One of my very favorites was the last one I remembered: "Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young." Throughout my years, I've tried to do that.

That was my last thought before remembering what I'd forgot, "Did Einstein really say that?"

Why this shit won't come off my boots.

Thinking of the call by more and more folks for attorney general Alberto Gonzales to resign because of his role in the firing of US Attorneys, and same call being made of Paul Wolfowitz after the revelation hd gave his female companion a raise to $195,000/yr. (-- more than Bush's oil tanker secretary of state Condoleezza Rice makes!) (NOTE: For neocons, it's only a mistake if caught), I was increasingly curious why my mind was being plagued more and more by the Jerry Seinfeld show in recent days. It finally occurred to me.

One of the episodes dealt with George Costanza being fired from his job. (Sorry, I don't remember the details of why--but that's OK, as Alberto Gonzales will demonstrate in his upcoming testimony before congress.)

See, George Costanza gets fired from his job, but rather than accept that, he decides he'll just ignore his boss' decree and continue to go to work. Well, the situation deteriorates with increasingly more drastic measures by management when it becomes obvious George isn't getting the message. Disconnecting his phone, locking him out and boarding over his office entrance, Costanza is undeterred. He crawls through the office ventilation ducts to get inside his office!

I suspect this is one of the Bush administration's favorite Seinfelds because, despite the increasing outrage by the public at their unflinching denial of reality, they continue to go to work every day.

A fine example of this is attorney general Gonzales' upcoming testimony before the senate. He admits he has failed to review the memos pertinent to his case lest they affect/distort his testimony. This is just a clue for us to expect a lot of "failing memory" or no memory at all in response to senator's difficult questions.

And so, expect Gonzales and world bank president Wolfowitz to be back at their jobs next week and next month -- even if they have to crawl through the ventilation ductwork to get into their offices. George Costanza would be proud.

Why the Bush administration did not have to revoke (or ban) the Declaration of Independence.

"...when a long train of abuses and usurpations....evinces a design to reduce them" (the citizens) "under absolute Despotism, it is their right" (as citizens), "it is their duty" (i.e., the citizen's duty), "to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

(Unless, of course, the citizenry is apathetic and doesn't really care*.)

(*care - v.intr. To be concerned, interested; to give a shit.)

Just another galactic nut house. (But this one's special, it deserves a "LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD!")

Photo by NASA pics and Dada's Painter, v. 6

Pictured: Planet Earth, as seen here at home on the fringes of its
galaxy, the Milky Way. How to get there: Take a right at Pluto and
head downwards toward Pluto's sun (aka "The Sun") until you come
to the mostly blue planet. (NOTE: If flying upside down, reverse
directions.) That's Earth. It's the one with a single white orbiting
moon (aka "The Moon"), Luna, which at least once every 28 days
of its orbit around Earth is blamed by some for "moon madness"
(more commonly known as lunacy). Actually, The Moon, as cause
of the insanity exhibited by Earth's dominant inhabitants residing
there, is not at all responsible. The race, called Man, is fatally flawed
genetically, making them a bunch of lunatics (so called in honor
of the moon for which they blame it on).

Earth is well known by other residents of the Universe as the Milky Way's "State" Mental Ward. Every galaxy has one, but their's is especially amusing because of its uniqueness. As one galactic manual describes it,

"Earth cultures have one basic thing in common: They are all dysfunctional. Once a culture has decided which dysfunctional aspects it wishes to represent, it raises a flag to declare its position, packages its preferred brand of dysfunctionality for consumption at home and abroad, and passes it off as a national heritage to be proud of and protected at all costs." *

Sadly--or maybe not--Earth is dying. Until it does, however, it's a great source of entertainment for neighboring galactic residents. In an Earth week from now, the planet will celebrate another Earth Day. Some people will pause and pay homage to their dying planet. But not being the commercially rewarding holiday of a Christmas or Mother's Day, Earth's driving economic interests will once more show little interest.

And despite pleas made that day by environmental groups like Greenpeace and people's little third graders, the leader of Earth will on that day plant a tree, maybe recycle his coke cans, pay lip service to the children and ask of those concerned for the future of the Earth: "What? What'd you say? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

As a result, not many inter-galactic outsiders visit the Earth asylum any longer. As has been reported by some who have, "Keep in mind that this planet is no model for rational thought, and that what passes for sanity there is sending chills down the spine of the remainder of the universe. " *

But for those who live there, who are stuck there, "Happy Earth Day!" You sure are amusing to the rest of us!

*Attribute: "E.T. 101, The Cosmic Instruction Manual For Planetary Evolution" by Mission Control and Zoev Jho

American government: FUBAR

"Washington - The White House said Wednesday that it may have lost what could amount to thousands of messages sent through a private e-mail system used by political guru Karl Rove and at least 50 other top officials, an admission that stirred anger and dismay among congressional investigators."

Attribute LA Times

Some of the comments overheard by leading congressional democrats regarding the vanished e-mails include:

• "Wow, what a coincidence!"
• "Oh well, shit happens!"
• "Well, gosh darnit!"
  

NOTE: The Nixon white house erased 18 minutes of critical Watergate tape, Nixon eventually resigned. Bill Clinton lied about the definition of "is" and was impeached.

Thankfully we're enjoying an age of reason renaissance where calmer democratic (read "republican light") heads prevail. "Impeachment is off the table."

Further evidence of man in New Mexico (part 37-D - "D" as in "Detonation").

(Today, Saturday, April 7, 2007, is one of the two such days per year tourists and the curious are allowed to visit Trinity Site, home of the first atomic blast. It is in that vein that I continue this tour in search of man's brushstrokes upon the New Mexico landscape.)

Photo by Christopher Wheeler

Drive out of town down any highway and you'll pass an occasional house dotting the roadside. But most don't have their own names pretending to be a "town" like Bingham, New Mexico, population 2. Just before entering Bingham a sign warns "Watch for Rocks." Rocks indeed!

The Lion's Gate outside the Blanchard Rock Shop

Basically, what Bingham is is the Blanchard Rock Shop and cats are the first to greet visitors, like these two I caught keenly sizing up Mrs. Dada.

The shop is owned by Allison Nilsen and her partner. As we approached the shop, I noticed a small sticker displayed in the residence portion of the building. White letters on a blue field proudly proclaimed, "BUSH". But the rocks in the hearts of the residents of Bingham weren't my interest this day. I was there for the rocks in their heads. And boy, I was so not disappointed!


First let me say, located about 30 miles in either direction from the nearest town, these two have to have a pioneering spirit. Any anti-social motivations one may suspect as reason for their lives in the middle of nowhere are betrayed by their outgoing spirit. Highly trained and educated, either could be working as geologists for big oil or teaching at university.

But the reason I suspect they are located here in the middle of cultural and social desolation is out of choice, as given in a clue from their website:

"This district is considered one of the "richest" when it comes to the variety of mineral species it produces, which is over 80 different ones. In fact, the mines here have produced a number of world class mineral specimens...."

At any time Bingham's population of two is doubled
or tripled by visiting tourists and rockhounds.

In other words, these are people who truly love what they are doing. After a half hour tour of the local geology and the wonderful rocks sampled and explained to us, I had gained a new appreciation for Earth as a living, breathing thing, i.e., for a time I afterwards, I walked a little more lightly upon the Earth. And, once inside the shop, we were treated to a viewing of what was the primo encore presentation of all that had preceded it. It is the reason I choose to highlight Bingham and its rock shop here among those spots that evidence man's influence upon the New Mexican landscape.

HOT ROCKS OF NUCLEAR WINTER?

You see, Bingham is just sixteen miles from Trinity Site where the first known nuclear detonation on Earth took place almost sixty-two years ago. On that site, located on a restricted area of White Sands Missile Range, is erected a small obelisk upon that precise spot.

This obelisk, when compared to many, many others dedicated over the centuries to the rise of civilization, its leaders and their ideals, such as the Egyptian obelisk of Luxor down to our own Washington Monument, make Trinity Site's small stone obelisk seem modest and almost insignificant. That's ironic, in light of the fact it may be the only one ever erected to the fall of civilizations and of mankind itself. Photo by DataCollector

Upon that first atomic detonation, it was discovered the heat from the fireball it created had melted the sands beneath it into a greenish colored glass which came to be known as Trinitite.

As a result, the delightful term "glass parking lot" became part of the Defense Department's vernacular over time. Glass parking lot became the slang used in places like the Pentagon to indicate how the US might respond to foreign aggression, i.e., with nuclear weapons. Such "parking lots" are also a seemingly innocuous description used by simplistic hardline, and hawkish types, most whom have never experienced the true horrors of war, who think mass nuclear annihilation of parts of the world an answer to all of their problematic areas challenging the US policies of global bullying. (But I digress--sorry!)

I've never been to Trinity Site and I don't intend to ever go. I've read about it from those who have. Maybe I should after reading the ease of mind gained by one who did and said afterwards:

"Atomic bombs are a little less scary after you see families posing for pictures with their pets at a former ground zero. There were at least a half dozen dogs with visitors to the atomic bomb blast site."

Gee, I wish I'd felt that growing up instead of the nuclear war we were taught as children to fear so much that we practiced diving under our school desks in preparation to having our eight year old asses fried off. No, instead, the Blanchard Rock Shop saved Mrs. Dada and I the trip to Trinity Site today and every two Saturdays a year hereafter by presenting us with a real "live" sample of Trinitite.

The glass formed from sand melted by an atomic
bomb detonation. Photo from Blanchard Rock Shop

Learning that it's illegal to obtain such samples of Trinitite today, I don't remember if I asked how these came to be in possession of the rock shop. If I did ask - which I'm sure I did, I don't remember the answer. But of all the rocks we had examined this day at Blanchard's, this was the eeriest one and I couldn't help looking down in awe at a piece of glass, knowing its remaining half-life far, far exceeds that of my own.

I held a deep respect for it. Like when admiring a gorgeous animal you know at any moment could turn and bite you in the ass.

And then it was time to leave. To drive on to our day's final destination, Socorro, NM. It had been an interesting drive, from the rockets of White Sands, to the natural rock petroglyphs enhanced by man, to Trinitite, the unnatural rocks created by man.

(Dada note: After our encounter with Trinitite, I had pondered these past several years if there might not have been a glass formed by the first atomic bombs used "commercially" on Hiroshima or Nagasaki? And if so, would those glasses formed be called Trinitite in honor of where the first was created, or might they be called Hiroshimatite, or Nagasakitite?

Fortunately, I just recently had a chance encounter with a geologist that forever laid to rest my curiosity. I asked him this very question. He said he didn't know of any such similar geologic formations resulting in said Japanese cities so honored with the first US atomic bombs. I concluded that maybe the reason for that was the bombs, unlike the first that exploded over desert sand, exploded over densely inhabited cities and, unlike sand, human flesh doesn't glassify, it simply vaporizes instead, sadly, leaving no collectible "rocks" or geology.

But having answered my question, I now sleep better at night.)

Don't buy the bullshit!

As most Americans know all too well, for the past several years now, the U.S. Military has been under tremendous stress for lack of sufficient manpower to carry on the global ambitions of the Bush administration. Our military is being stretched to the breaking point.

Insufficient manpower has resulted in GI's Iraq tours of duty being extended beyond their scheduled return dates. Stop losses have been issued extending some soldiers beyond their military ETS dates to an "indefinite" enlistment status. And many soldiers are on their third and fourth tours in that war zone, often returning to Iraq without standard stateside recuperation time.

In light of that, I found president Bush's pronouncements in the rose garden today particularly confusing. Admonishing the democratic congress for failing to deliver to him their war appropriations bill so he can veto it, Bush warned:

"Congress's failure to fund our troops on the front lines will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines. And others could see their loved ones headed back to the war sooner than they need to. That is unacceptable to me, and I believe it is unacceptable to the American people." (..."except when I do it," as Bush failed to add. ~Dada.)

It appears Bush is warning Americans the democrat's actions on the war funding bill may result in the same stresses on the military that Bush has been placing on it for years now. All I am asking is, don't buy this bullshit!

Psychoses - Example 37 - the Shared Psychotic Disorder, or republican representatives go shopping in Baghdad, Indiana, or anywhere USA

Shared psychotic disorder: This illness occurs when a person develops delusions in the context of a relationship with another person who already has his or her own delusion(s)..

Sgt. Matthew Roe/10th Public Affairs Operations Center, via Reuters

Gen. David H. Petraeus led Senator John McCain and a small congressional delegation of psychotics on a tour of a Baghdad market this past Sunday. Arriving in a convoy of armored Humvees carrying more than 100 soldiers, McCain and his party leisurely strolled through the marketplace in their bulletproof vests as rooftop snipers kept watchful eyes out under helicopter gunships circling overhead.

Prior to their visit, traffic had been diverted from the market and the walking tour area restricted to Americans only, which probably explains why representative Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican touring with McCain, excitedly proclaimed, it's just “like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime.”

Despite Iraqis revelations that the market the American delegation toured was a total misrepresentation of reality and, ignoring their pleas for increased security like senator McCain enjoyed, the senator afterwards cited his walk as evidence things are improving.

“Things are better and there are encouraging signs. Never have I been able to go out into the city as I was today,” said McCain beneath the overhead roar of circling American gunships as Iraqi shop owners pulled their figurative hair out of their collective heads saying, "What the fuck is he talking about?"

It appears Sunday's marketplace charade by McCain and his delegation is symptomatic of mass shared psychotic disorder being suffered by a great number of our government representatives from president Bush, Cheney, their white house cabinet, through the halls of congress where many members appear to also be infected, as well as the mainstream media who cover them.

A prevalent characteristic of this disorder of long-term delusions and hallucinations is manifested by politicos who stage phony photo ops accompanied by outrageous, outright lies, as illustrated by McCain's "walking freely" tour of the Baghdad marketplace behind extraordinary security, or president Bush's many excellent examples such as his Katrina ops, standing before cameras with a backdrop of smiling firemen as New Orleans residents were drowning.

Sadly, it appears Iraqis are more lucid than many Americans being fed this pablum of their psychotic politicians. As one Iraqi marketplace shop owner said after McCain's visit, “He is just using this visit for publicity. He is just using it for himself. They’ll just take a photo of him at our market and they will just show it in the United States. He will win in America and we will have nothing.”

Obviously the senator's delegation didn't share with the Iraqis the Kool-Aid® they were drinking.

Attribute: NY Times via EXCITE

Your extended forecast

In that a little boat of Brits were a mile or two this way or that way in the Persian Gulf resulting in "egg on the face" of either Britain or Iran, and seeing as how it's so important, internationally, for a nation to maintain its integrity and dignity in the world of global public opinion, and despite Iran's nut-job president, Mahmoud Ahminejad, being under a lot of international pressure recently from America's nut-job president, George Bush, and seeing as how Bush's diplomacy strategy with his "enemies" is to never negotiate, ignore them, then bomb the shit outta them which makes our trading partners and potential adversaries, Russia and China, very nervous, and in that a nuclear warhead detonated over the part of country in which I reside (which is desert like most of the middle east that Bush finds so engaging for some strange reason) melts the sands into a "green glass" named Trinitite in honor of the site, Trinity, where the first such detonation occurred over sixty years ago in the New Mexican desert just miles up the road, I had a flashback to a Sixties teenie rock song by Gary Lewis titled, "Green Grass," the opening line for which the lyrics go, "Green grass 'round my window" that has suddenly morphed into "Green glass 'round my window."

(Side note of digression: Gary Lewis, son of former comedian Jerry Lewis, was the leader of a very successful mid-Sixties band until he was unfortunately drafted into military service because his dad wasn't George H.W. Bush like the current global delusionary madman leader, George W. Bush. But I digress. [Oh, I already noted that, didn't I?])

In light of all of that and in light of the fact that the 'world's greatest democracy' is overwhelmingly fed up with the psychopatholgies of their nut-job president but sit quietly by while they wait for the unveiling of the next scandalous revelation of his administration's outside-the-law domestic and international illegal forays or their next unnecessary and felonious war, I thought it might be nice to do an extended outlook weather report for the nation so rapt by "American Idol," "Survivor" and tomorrow night's Ohio State - Florida March Marchness wrap-up.

Here then is your....

Extended 5-day, 5-week, 5-month--5-year, whatever--whichever--who cares--does anyone?--forecast:

Snow jobs preceding holocaustic humidity, heavily overcast skies with a 60% chance of precipitation in the form of radioactive rain, dense deuterium fogs , intermittent isotopic horrific hailstorms, uranium updrafts and moisture mixed plutonium pulse storms precipitating cesium coldfronts and nuclear winter until the spring of 2011, 2012, '15, 0r '20 - whatever - whichever - who cares - does anyone? When rational people allow madmen to rule over them, we get the weather we deserve!