Clearly, I should write my weekly American Idol assessment and then throw it out, picking names out of a hat to determine who stays and who goes. It is becoming completely unpredictable, at least if like I do you think that the results should be based on who sings the best, not who the 11 year-olds like.

It is becoming more and more a popularity contest and less and less a singing contest.

I’ve got to stop watching this trash. My friend Susan in Vermont said that if David Archuleta wins, she’ll stop watching. Hell, I might stop watching regardless, as enough voting travesties have already been perpetrated this season to last for time immemorial.

Tonight, Carly Smithson got the axe, completely out of whack with her performance on Tuesday night. In fact, she and Syesha Mercado, whose acts I rated #1 and #2 Tuesday night, wound up in the bottom two. This sure as hell doesn’t make sense to me or to anyone else who has ever listened to and appreciated music.

Brooke White deserved to go. She screwed up her song, forgetting the lyrics and having to re-start it. The judges were decidedly unhappy with her. She must have one helluva fan club out there to keep her going.

I dispute the conspiracy theories that are emerging now—that votes are being manipulated by the show’s producers in order to boost ratings. Perhaps I’m naive, but I believe that it is more likely that voters are more or less tacitly committed, like Democrats, to vote for one of their own—you know, the “if Hillary is nominated, I have to vote for her” brigade. God help us if one of Brooke’s fans should think she screwed up enough to cast her vote for Jason. But Jason has a fan club of his own. Whose fan club is the largest? Probably David Archuleta, who is a good singer but is getting to be boring. I don’t think I could listen to a whole CD filled with his stuff. Yet, it is almost a foregone conclusion that his fans will make him this year’s American Idol. Sucks, and it takes the edge off the competition for me.

Next week is Neil Diamond week. Will Archuleta be the “Solitary Man?” Will Brooke do “I Am, I Said?” Will Jason do “Sweet Caroline” to the accompaniment of his new ukulele? Tune in Tuesday night and see the remaining five go through the motions on the way to Archuleta running away with the whole thing.

I think.