Read My Lips - No New Texans

Michele Bachmann won the Iowa Circus Freak Show, er, I mean the Republican Straw Poll at the Iowa State Fair, narrowly edging out Ron Paul. Why this straw poll is even covered is a bit of a mystery. Michele bought 6,000 tickets and distributed them to her supporters to attend and vote for her and ended up with 4800+ votes. She continues to mangle history and stare strangely into space. Joe Scarborough said Bachmann voters were "not fit to run Slurpee machines...." When now ex-candidate Tim Pawlenty asked her to name her accomplishments in Congress, she said, "I introduced the light bulb freedom of choice act." A bit of a short list. Ron Paul continues to be quirky and strange, and ideology always trumps knowledge and facts.

Michele Bachmann's campaign theme song could be based on Sam Cooke's old classic: "Don't Know Much About History" - Don't know much about history, don't know much about biology, don't know much about algebra, don't know much about trigonometry, don't know much about economics, don't know much about other countries, don't know much about sociology, don't know much about psychology, don't know much about science, don't know much about theology, don't know much about the arts, don't know much about epistemology, don't know much about geography, don't know much about geology, don't know much about, criminal justice, don't know much about much............

Meanwhile, Governor Rick Perry, "maybe we'll secede from the union," announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President and is simultaneously running away from his record and continuing to say crazy stuff like Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke is "treasonous." We'll see how this goes, but he may be "Hair today, gone tomorrow." He has some strange connections with a dark version of Christian apocalyptists and dominionists....I hope the lamestream media doesn't give him a pass on his strange vision. His claims of the Texas miracle seem to hinge on three things: Texas sits on oil the price of which has skyrocketed, Texas has huge numbers of Mexican immigrants, and Perry took Obama's stimulus funds to balance his state's budget. Perry has been described as not as "cerebral" as George W. Bush. Now, that's going some.

Read My Lips - No New Texans.

Former half-term Governor and losing vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin even drove her bus to Iowa to hang out. I'm guessing she sold a few books.

Mitt Romney finally made some news with his "Corporations are people, my friend" comment. Even if constitutionally true, it makes for a bad sound bite sure to appear later if he is the party's nomination.

Goethe said, "There's nothing worse than the active pursuit of ignorance." Ideology always trumps knowledge and facts. If that doesn't describe the above cast of characters, I don't know what does.