Observations while wondering why my mesquite tree out back (like this one here) loses its leaves in the spring instead of in the fall.

Phoenix is gearing up for the 100K-plus crowd expected at a pro-illegal immigration rally planned for this coming Monday. Me, I’m I’m gonna find shelter under my sheets in safe Gilbert. I’m afraid things could get ugly.

This business about public schools banning pro-U.S. clothing and patriotic displays while our men and women are fighting and dying in Iraq for the freedom of others makes me sick. Where are the parents in all this? I’ll tell you what: if it were my kids in our town’s school system, I’d pull their a$$e$ outta there so fast it would make their school marm’s head spin. Michelle Malkin has, of course, more.

“Baby shower gone bad” is how one policeman described the latest fad to grip western Massachusetts. Amazing.

This Cynthia McKinney (D-Moonbat) dust-up with the Capitol Police is clearly not helping the Dems any politically. To watch House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi icily distance herself from McKinney was a thing to behold. Of course, now the GOP is getting into it, with soon-to-be-ex-Rep. Tom DeLay, no stranger to ethical questions himself, calling her a racist and planning on filing ethics violations against her. This could get good.

How could she be so stupid? Well, Polipundit’s DJ Drummond gleefully sees the hands of Karl Rove at work, Independent Conservative discovers McKinney surprisingly finding no cover at CNN, Big Pharoah observes the same in the black community, and Michael Williams asks what seems to me to be an obvious question: what would happen if the shoe was on the other foot?

McKinney’s actions will hopefully be condemned formally by the House, and should be, if for nothing else but painting her own arrogance, stupidity, and reckless behavior with the ugly brush of racism.

Of course, things can always get uglier, like, for example, these insect closeups (hat tip: Garfield Ridge). Glad we live in a 30,000 foot view of the world.

The Baseball Crank’s AL predictions for 2006. Personally, I think the Blue Jays will finish ahead of the Sox, but outside of that he’s got it about right.

The Masters starts tomorrow, and I’m sticking with my Tiger Woods pick. BTW, seems Jack took one look at Augusta and it’s new length, and The Golf Blog reports he didn’t like what he saw. TGB is also seeking feedback on your choice for greatest Masters shots ever. Me, it’s gotta be Tiger’s chip on 16 last year.

How’s this for timely scheduling? Our company is gathering in Las Vegas the first week in June for professional meetings, the same week the U.S. military plans to test a massive, 700-ton non-nuclear bomb under the Nevada desert. They say it’ll be sufficient enough to send a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas. 700 tons, eh? Designed to penetrate concrete far underground, eh? I hope the Iranians are paying attention.

Finally, Al-Reuters has the NHC predictions for the 2006 hurricane season, but Maitri V-R can only sigh over the continued mainstream media’s dogged cluelessness about Hurricane Katrina.