It is so annoying reading about the stupid things that candidates are saying in the misguided belief that it will protect them from attacks. Nothing is going to stop or slow down the attacks, and facts are not influential.

No matter what you do or say, if you are a Democrat the conventional wisdom will be: you are weak on crime, weak on national defense, and will “tax and spend.”

Understand, you could start gunning down illegal parkers, capture Osama bin Laden with your bare and hands and haul him in chains to the Capitol rotunda, and manage to start paying down the debt, but you will be accused of the same troika of crimes by the GOP.

The media made up lies about Al Gore. They were proven to be lies, but you will still hear the media refer to Al Gore as the liar. The facts have not been relevant in a political campaign in the United States since the media conglomerates decided there was more money in entertainment than journalism. If an attack makes for good television, it will be aired, no matter how outrageous.

CNN reports on a poll in my state, Florida Republicans reveal views on issues, candidates, that makes no sense.

They say flatly that Giuliani is it, but later on point out that 47% of the people polled haven’t made up their minds yet. Well, if half of the voters haven’t made up their minds, the poll tells us nothing about who is actually leading. Giuliani may be leading among those who have made a decision, but there are two months before the primary. It’s a waste of time, money, and space to talk about it.

They fact that only one in five Republicans support an abortion ban is interesting, but most of the “horse race” nonsense they are trying to get out of the poll is worthless.

This is a fifth column operation from Ship of Fools, a Christian site, that reports on things that could show up in Christian stores. The BBC has a slideshow of Kitschmas, and it isn’t pretty.

I know people among my local friends and neighbors who would actually buy this stuff and give it to people, and they wouldn’t consider it a joke. These are people with camouflage cases for Bibles to take hunting with them.