With the U.S President in Turkey, gobbling up all the good will he can muster and actually speaking with respect for the world of Islam, Congressional members back home in their districts where they can't do much damage and some of the nation's top CEOs beginning to duck for cover we can all breath a sigh of relief and turn our attention to the serious matters of this week: SPRING BREAK!!

No, wait, that's not right.

This is Holy Week for western Christians (Orthodox churches will celebrate Holy Week next week) and Jews begin Passover at sundown on Wednesday. So, it's High Holy Days all around! Of course, for Rastafarians every day is a high holy day.

President Obama continues to score accolades aplenty in his European trip, according to most observers and pundits. But that ain't nothing compared to the reception First Lady Michelle Obama is receiving. Even Queen Elizabeth didn't mind a gentle back rub from Mrs. Obama. The president might well remember the words of John F. Kennedy who famously reminded a European audience on his first state trip he was the man who accompanied Mrs. Kennedy to Europe.

Not even Fox News can come up with criticism of Obama's trip. A headline on the Fox News website read, "Obama gets it right…" What the hell??

The big political news over the weekend was, of course, North Korea's launch of its new and improved Taepodong missile over the Sea of Japan and Japan itself. (Not going for the obvious and overused joke here. Besides, as any John Stewart devotee knows, it's better when said aloud.)

U.S. intelligence sources are now saying the missile launch was a failure, that it didn't reach its full potential. Not to worry, Dear Leader Kim, that happens sometimes as we get older.

The missile was alleged to carry a satellite which, had it actually reached space, would have played a series of really groovy songs praising Dear Leader Kim Jong-il. It's kind of a shame, actually, the satellite didn't get to play its hit parade into the limitless universe. It might have provided a deterrent to some distance and far-advanced world contemplating an invasion of this third rock from the sun.

"We ain't goin' there," that advance civilization might have concluded. "Those people are clearly nuts! And they have really bad tunes."

Meanwhile back at home, various press reports indicate Bill Kristol is starting a new think tank, The Foreign Policy Initiative. This is NOT the Bill Kristol who is the hilarious comedian, movie star and New York Mets fan. This is the Bob Woodward look-alike (have you ever seen the two of them in the same room at the same time?) who founded the think tank, Project for a New American Century, with fellow neo-cons Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and many others.

Project for a New American Century gave us the blueprint and political will for the invasion of Iraq, among other great contributions. Can't wait to see what these guys dream up THIS time! Maybe they'll decide brute force and American Imperialism is not the best way forward. Maybe they'll decide world understanding, patience & tolerance, diplomacy is a far better way to advance the betterment of the world's cumulative society. Hey, it could happen!

Finally – and not that this is related AT ALL to the previous note – prosecutors in Spain are seriously thinking about bringing charges of war crimes against six high-level former officials of the Bush Administration for torture allegations in the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Charges against former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo and former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith are all on the table.

Don't laugh. This is the same Spanish court that successfully prosecuted former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for war crimes and torture 30 years after the fact.

"Well, I've never been to Spain. But I kinda like the music. They say the lawyers are insane there and they sure know how to use it. They don't abuse it; never gonna lose it; I can't refuse it" - Three Dog Night…kinda.

The G20 summit concludes with a communiqué: "Oh crap, we're in a world of hurt," the Congress stays up way past its bedtime to adopt a record $3.5 trillion federal budget and promptly adjourns for spring break (can't wait for the new "Congressional Members Gone Wild" video to hit the stands.)

But the really BIG news dominating the world's headlines is all about Queen Elizabeth's new iPod, given to her as a formal state gift by President and Mrs. Obama. The Obamas are nothing if not very cool. Her Royal Highness, known to be a real freak about new tunes, was thrilled with the gift and immediately showed the Obamas her version of the iPod dance. (No, not really.)

The Obamas reportedly loaded up the new Royal iPod with Broadway show tunes including the soundtracks from Oliver, Sweeney Todd, Cats, Phantom of the Opera & Les Mis (Oops, not one of the Queen's favorites.)

Under-reported, however, was the list of music rejected and removed at the very last minute. The White House Office of Seemed-Like-A-Good-Idea-At-The-Time, thought better of loading up the Queen's iPod with U2's, Sunday, Bloody Sunday; Will.I.Am and Kanye West's hip-hop version of Rule Britannia, and Parliament Funkadelic's classic, Give Up Da Funk (Gonna Tear the Roof of the Sucka), George Clinton's tribute to Guy Fawkes.

And in an iPod related story, many news organizations report the new American President was treated like a rock star at the G20 Summit with at least one commentator going so far as to suggest the summit should have been renamed the O20 Summit. Others referred to it as the OMG! Summit.

Meanwhile, back at home, the Congress wasn't slacking off while they Chief Executive was across the pond. As reported just a few paragraphs earlier, both houses of Congress adopted in the wee hours similar-enough versions the world's largest federal budget, weighing in at a hefty $3.5 trillion. In a shocking development, not a single Republican voted in favor of the budget prompting the Democratic leadership to remark, "What? There are Republicans here?"

The President didn't get everything he wanted in the budget blueprint but adopting the Janis Joplin approach to political negotiation, he got what he needed. The adopted federal budget is, of course, merely a guideline for federal spending in the coming year. Congress will vote later on actual appropriations, again in the middle of the night while we're all asleep.

And speaking of being asleep – or at least numbed to any sense of reality – the Pew Research Center reported this week a recent survey indicates 11 percent of all Americans continue to think President Obama's religious affiliation is that of a Child of Islam. That's right; just over 1 in 10 Americans think the new American President is Muslim. Pew reports 19 percent of white, evangelical Protestants think Obama and 17 percent of all Republican voters are the most likely to believe Obama is Muslim.

Pew further reports 11 percent of all Americans, 19 percent of all white evangelicals and 17 percent of all Republicans believe professional wrestling to be real and if one sails far enough to the west one will eventually fall off the edge of Earth. (Okay, not really. I made up that part…well, the edge of the Earth thing, anyway.)

And finally, it's been a tough week for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Mt. Redoubt blew, Sen. McCain said he didn't think he could back her presidential bid for 2012, Congressional Republicans withdrew an invitation to speak next month at a big dinner (she said she never got the invitation…whatev), Alaskan legislators, Native-Alaskans and Native-Alaskan-Legislators are all honked-off at her and the kids are, well, just a mess.

"I would never accomplish anything and our administration would be ineffective if all I did was try to please those who look for anything to be negative about," she reportedly told the Associated Press.

Er…uh…what? Never mind.

As my sainted grandmother used say after a long week, "I'm tired and you should be, too. Go to bed."

Happy April Fool's Day and THE perfect day to be writing and discussing American politics! Where is Rufus T. Firefly when we really need him?

The big news of the day is, of course, coming from London where the G20 Summit is meeting. No, the G20 is not another attempt to rebrand Gatorade. It is a meeting at which the leaders of the top 20 economic powers in the world get together to play Monopoly and figure out how to appear unified and concerned about the world's economy when in fact they are working as hard as they can behind the scenes to circle the wagons and protect their own dang economies.

This is really the first official gathering of the G20. They were all called together – hurriedly – late last year in an attempt to make President Bush appear statesmanlike as he walked out the door. That effort failed. The official communiqué said something about fish and lipstick, I don't know.

The G20 used to be only the G8, of course: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Or, in other words, the world's richest nations, almost all of whom grew rich over the past 400 years or so at the expense of everyone else. But that was before this world-wide econopocalypse which has seen the economies of most of those nations slip to the level near what we once called the Third World.

In an attempt to look magnanimous – and also to try to learn the secrets of booming economies like Brazil – the old colonial powers decided to invite to the party Brazil, Argentina, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey. Each of these countries – and several others – has been invited in the past but only for lunch or afternoon tea. Now, they actually get to sit at the adults table and play Monopoly, too. China and Saudi Arabia pretty much bought their way to the table because at this point, between them, they pretty much own the old G8.

Overhead on Air Force One as President Obama crossed the Atlantic on his way to the G20 Summit:

President Obama: Hu is my first meeting?

Chief of Staff Emanuel: Yes, Mr. President. That's correct.

President Obama: Rahm, I'm asking. Hu is my first meeting?

Emanuel: Yes, sir. The President of China.

President Obama: The President of China is what?

Emanuel: No, sir. The President of China is Hu?

President Obama: Yes, Rahm. I know that. I'm asking, with whom is my first meeting when we arrive in London.

Emanuel: Hu, Mr. President.

President Obama: "Whom" is grammatically correct. I thought Hu was on second.

Emanuel: No, sir. Hu is on first.

This went on for several hours, we're told, until First Lady Michelle Obama walked into the Air Force One office and snapped them out of it.

The White House says Obama will do a lot of listening during the G20 Summit. What? An American president listening to what others have to say? Trying to understand someone else's perspective? Is that legal? What a concept!

The G20 leaders are also drawing thousands of protesters, described by various news organizations as anti-capitalists or anarchists or environmentalists or guitar-players and bongo drummers, not to mention antidisestablishmentarians! (Always wanted to be able to actually use that word in a sentence.)

They have Horsemen-of-the-Apocalypse puppets, mannequins of bankers hanging from nooses and a whole recreation of the storming of the Bastille.

I just can't imagine what has everyone so upset!

Meanwhile, down in southern Europe (where they drink mostly sweet tea), the Greeks and Macedonians are it, again. Greece doesn't like Macedonia calling itself, The Republic of Macedonia, and has blocked it from joining the EU and NATO and the U2 Fan Club. To get back at the Greeks, the Macedonians have been renaming everything in the country after Alexander the Great, who was after all Macedonian by birth and one of the world's most legendary homosexual warriors and conquerors. This has irritated the Greeks all the more and they are now insisting the neighboring country be called Freedonia!

The Miss Universe pageant has apparently taken down the blog post attributed to the current Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela, in which she described her visit to the American military complex in Guantanamo, Cuba as "such a relaxing place, so calm and beautiful. I didn't want to leave."

And, no doubt, as the world's most notorious prisons-slash-torture chambers go it probably is beautiful, comparatively.

She wrote in her blog, "The water in Guantanamo Bay is soooo beautiful!" And how, "We visited the Detainees camps and we saw the jails, where they shower, how the(y) recreate themselves with movies, classes of art, books. It was very interesting."

And one has to admit, it sounds alluring the way she described it – for one of the world's most notorious prisons-slash-torture chambers. She even signed off a previous blog post, as she was departing Miami for Gitmo, with, "…muah!" (Which for the unhip is text-blog speak for "I'm throwing you a kiss." I know this because I have a 17-year-old daughter who, by the way, would never be so cavalier about a place like Guantanamo.) OMG!! XXOO!! ROFLMAO!!

Oh well, back in the states, we carry on! As the great moral philosopher and painter Thomas Hudson said from his perch high atop a sand bank on Bimini, "the true hurricane months have fine weather when there are no storms."