Hi Sarah. This is a pig. They go oink.

Iowa contributes two great things to the world.  We produce mounains of good food in support of the international hobby of breeding ourselves into lemmingness. We decide who gets to run for president of the United States.

'tis the season, and as harvest time approaches the march of  Republican mugwumps along Interstate 80 is gathering steam. Today is Sarah Palin's turn. She'll raise some right-wing money to confound liberal/statist  candidates this fall. On balance, that is a good thing.  

More significatly,  she will prance down the runway, giving Zeke and The Missus a gander at the skin which she hopes will one day contain a president.

This is terribly exciting, and I suspect even the corn will suspend growing in awe of Sarah's nearness. I wish I could be more overwhelmed at the thought of her running for  the White House, like I would be at an invitation to hunt grizzly with her on Kodiak Island.

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For those of you keeping track, the other Republicans sitting on straw bales and pretending to understand us flyover folks are:

-- Rick Santorum (when he can break away from his exclusive interviews with God)

--Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota

--Good ol ' Newt Gingrich

Of the lot, Newt is the one who comes closest to showing a rudimentary understanding of constitutional government.  

The Council on Foreign Relations has been a target of the Three-Neuron Right for decades. It's seen as an enclave of uberintellectuals using their formidable brain power to subvert the will of Rush Limbaugh followers everywhere.

The latest, referring to the so-called end of American combat operations in Iraq:

"We could end up with a situation where Iraq is a mess," said Steven Cook, a Mideast specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations.

If that represents CFR thinking, we can all quit worrying about being steamrollered by   the council's awesome intellect.  Unless, of course, we miss its point that Iraq was  an orderly and tranquil place prior to our adventure there.

Roger Williams

Something in a guy's Celtic soul, which has been marinated in more than 200 years of Appalachian hill and holler culture,  makes him a sucker for the maudlin. Personally, I can even get into "The Green Green Grass of Home" which offends my George Shearing side.

About this time of year it is Roger Williams. Even without the molasses-jug lyrics,  "The Falling Leaves"  tops the goopiness scale, and I wish I could get his damned piano version to quit earwigging me.

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I am working this gray morning in front of the big south window, noticing that the cottonwood leave are definitely yellow.

Roger Clemons

Roger played baseball. If he took steroids, he violated a private agreement with his boss. Not a crime.

He told Congressman Waxman's nosy committee he didn't take steroids. Congressman Waxman disagreed, and Roger is about to go to trial for lying to Congress,  a crime that could send him to federal prison for 30 years.

Please do not let this confuse you about federal law. Lying to Congress is  felony. Lying in Congress is a hallowed American tradition.

Even if he did take muscle juice, all Mr.Clemon's had to do was first get elected, Then he and his congressional collagues could have rubbed Pinocchio noses to their hearts' content.