Fair to partly cloudy

It’s a beautiful day in Paradise today. The sun is shining, temperature in the low 70s, nary a cloud in the sky. And Tom Delay is refusing interviews. That always makes my day, because if he’s not talking, it means he’s on the defensive.

What he’s not talking about today is the report that his own father was in a position similar to Terri Shiavo’s – in a coma with no hope of recovery and no living will - and he quietly went along with his family’s decision not to keep him alive by artificial means. No rhetoric or righteous indignation. Why? One could only surmise that he didn’t want to subject his own family to the circus that’s surrounding the Shiavo family. How’s that for family values?

Things are not so sunny in other parts of the world. In Florida, for example, where this sad episode would be taking place in private if not for grandstanding by both bodies of Congress and our so-called Commander-in-Chief.

And also in Rome. For the first time in sixteen years, Pope John Paul II was not able to preside over the Easter Celebration at the Vatican. Sure, he made an appearance and attempted to croak out a message. But, with all due respect, I think it’s probably time to pass on the baton. There are undoubtedly back room maneuverings going on to determine his successor, because the Vatican is as much a political Coliseum as our own capital.

And in Iraq, government bodyguards fired on protesters yesterday, killing one and wounding three. About 100 men who guard Iraq's nuclear power plants and other Science Ministry sites were protesting pay cuts and rationing of ammunition when gunmen opened fire on them from the ministry building.

Iraq's interior minister warned citizens Monday not to hold protests, saying the gatherings were an invitation for a large-scale terrorist attack. His comments came a day after government bodyguards opened fire on a group of employees demanding higher wages, killing one person.

Interim Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib, likely to be out of job once the new government takes over, said the protest was among "attempts to destabilize the situation" in Iraq. He accused the protesters of trying to enter the office of Science and Technology Minister Rashad Mandan Omar and said the bodyguards where just doing their job by protecting the official.

Haithem Jassim, one of three people injured in the melee, said the demonstrators were unarmed.

There’s your validation, Mr. President. They’re looking more and more like us every day. When you can take an unpleasant situation in which someone in the government screwed up, and then blame it on the victims, you have a true democracy.