You Can't Make This Sh#$% Up

No, this is not a still from a John Waters film, a B-52's video, or a do-it-yourself You Tube freaky animal fetish video. This ladies and gentlemen, is the GOP pick for the office of Vice President of the USA. At one point, perhaps due to illness, I began to wonder if this was a big joke played on us by The Colber Report or The Onion. Because Dan Quayle is Churchill, and elder statesman, by comparison. 

However, to the Fox crowd, the people who fill the stands at the televised mega-prechers' stadiums, the small-town gun-toting hunters (I grew up in the small town South with kids who were given their first gun to go "hunnin'" at the age of 5), people who are cool with using the N-word and fly the Confederate flag, this woman plays really well. So let's not get too cocky. My own Wal-Mart shopping, rabidly anti-choice mother who prays the rosary in front of abortion clinics, thinks this woman is the bomb. And she was none too excited by McCain, I can tell you. 

I am glad people are starting to ask about her family life. Usually the "family values" pols that instrumentalize their family history for political points are the first ones to go down for alleged "scandals" involving cheating spouses, porn habits, cruising for gay sex in airport bathrooms,s stealing from the taxpayers, abusing their political power (and we know Palin is under investigation for trying to get her brother-in-law fired) and the like. 

Personally, I find it very distasteful that she is using the fact that her son has a disability as a political talking point. When the child is older, how will he feel when he learns that his parents are taking credit for "not having aborted him"? Perhaps with his level of disability, he will never know, but his siblings surely do. And is anyone asking how she is taking care of the little guy? Because I am close to people who have kids with DS and can tell you that this is a FULL TIME job. The kids require constant rehabilitation type exercises as soon as they are born to develop their muscle tone, verbal abilities, reflexes and the like. They don't just learn how to walk, or even hold up their head, or roll in their crib automatically. And you can't just drop them off with the physical/speech/whatever therapist you need to be there yourself so you can learn the drill and reinforce at home later. In any case, the GOP misses the fact that the decision to terminate is a PRIVATE issue that is up to a woman to make. 

UPDATE: There are allegations swirling on the web that her fifth child is actually her teen-aged daughters. These accusations originate from Alaska and have been investigated by local press after locals noted several bizarre aspects of the pregnancy (These include that she never looked pregnant, that she gave a speech after her water broke, going into premature labor, and then flew 8 hours to Alaska, to be driven 45 min. so she could deliver in her town's little hospital, coincidentally, her daughter was pulled out of school for months due to "mono" but when last photographed, looked pregnant. Palin's office pulled photos of the Governor dating from the period when she was supposed to be pregnant, but did not look it, from the official website.)

UPDATE 2 Sept. 1: 

Here is a link to photos an aide posted of the Gov., looking pregnant. So the missing bump is found (unless these are from a previous pregnancy, but that seems very far-fetched) http://www.flickr.com/photos/30076181@N02/

However, Bristol, the 17 y.o. is pregnant NOW - no mention of the identity or age of the man who is now her fiance. Of course, this scandal will play well with the fanatics because they will think it's great that Palin forced her daughter to breed and to marry, ie. right her wrong.

But of course they miss it because under their administration, if McCain gets elected, they will have the power to nominate Supreme Court justices and this is serious if you care about choice and many other issues. We saw in the election that Gore won, how the Court shut the process down. We saw under Bush how the checks and balances system can be thwarted to undermine our constitution and promote surveillance of law abiding citizens at home and torture abroad. So head's up Hillary supporters: this ticket does not support equal pay for equal work, either. Palin is the typical "minority" beloved by the GOP - they are brought in as a token as long as they stand for things that harm others of their own race/gender/ethnicity. And for women, if McCain wins, it's Taliban time - the GOP version.