That there are people who feel this way. On NPR the other day I heard a man say very stupidly that Sarah Palin was just like people in southern Oregon in that she hunts, fishes, and rides snowmobiles. Well, the fact is, I have friends in southern Oregon, all of them (for I have no conservative friends only family) are liberal and progressive. They work, they have money issues, they hate the war in Iraq. They hate the Bush administration. These people are not being given a voice and neither are all the black people in this country who I know will vote for Obama. This Sarah Palin thing is a joke and even in Salon with the feminist hand-wringing and WHAT DOES SHE REPRESENT?!! How do we defeat her? Man or woman, she's a backward dope being taken way too seriously. (I see she had to respond immediately to Matt Damon's criticism of her. Hey from Matt Damon? You'd be crazy not to respond.) It's so simple. GWB and his pals have gotten rich and fat at the expense of the American people by raiding the treasury and sending innocent people to their deaths. They're corrupt. Where's the endless handwringing about that? Rub these people's noses in it, don't let them ignore it.

People are racist, big deal. Pound the truth into their heads every goddamn day telling them why most thinking people prefer Obama to McCain. The McCain prison camp footage is outrageous to me after having seen parts of Phil Donahue's documentary on returning Iraq veterans on PBS. Why isn't more of GWB's and McCain's carnage plastered all over the effing place? I can understand why not on the MSM, but here? Why not? At the RNC they were allowed to sweep GWB and his policies under the rug and pretend they don't exist. Don't let them for christ's sake. So they're racist, so they're stupid, that's news? Ever lived in Florida? What I'm seeing here is a country catering to the transients and snake handlers of the swamps of Florida and I can't believe my eyes.

For this piece? I mean just at salon, no one else will do it, I feel fairly certain. Why not go nuts? It is after all big news, one would think, not big news in that no one knew before. We all know about the no-bid contracts and the record profits for oil companies, but you know it's never too late.

So succinct. This remark was not a big deal. Everyone's going nuts lately.

and here we are again debating abortion, death penalty issues, women's rights as if we were not 407 billion in debt with young people dying and being maimed and then treated like garbage while this administration scurries off with their pockets stuffed with cash. To the conservatives who applaud Camille's take on social issues, don't you see that in a free and tolerant society we're all supposed to be able to make our own life choices? I don't care how Sarah Palin raises her family or what church she goes to or if her daughter is pregnant. It's just that a huge number of people in this country are against the corruption and deceit that has gone on for the last eight years and what do we talk about? Birth control, choice, sex ed, promise rings, who gives a shit. And Durianjoe is right as usual.

the economies in the toilet, people are dying while this administration guts the treasury, another election may yet be stolen, who cares what she wears

Really who does care? So funny, I really enjoyed this column. Thanks.

for being so brave. Be true to yourself but listen to Cary and Allie. Hope you stay well for a long, long time.

to the author, how are rents in eugene? Portland is outrageous and I'm not the only one who thinks so.

on this thread can relate and have been very kind, but some just want to go off and be cruel. It can't feel good. The system is broken and working people and single parents are suffering. To the people who said that she should go back to court to get more child support, her husband must not make a lot of money if the state ordered 600.00 for three children.0 per child. Few lawyers want to take cases to court for such a small sum. Few lawyers are interested in low income cases which is what this sounds like. I am entitled to half my ex's pension when he retires, yet I have to get a special court order to get it which would cost about 600.00. I am not getting it ever at first because I couldn't afford the 600.00, now because I don't want it. Thank you so much for this article, for putting the suffering into words. When Obama talked about people being bitter without jobs and turning to guns and religion, it seemed one of the most honest opinions I'd heard from a politician in a long time. Since then he has tried to appeal to everyone BUT the disenfranchised, so I am also in despair. Good luck to you and your children, enjoy your brie and I'll enjoy my gorgonzola and hope never to see tomreedtoon or timbuktom or whoever it was so he won't punch my face to a bloody pulp. Kindness costs absolutely nothing and it feels so good.

are so right. That remark he made to your parents about thinking twice before marrying you is beyond the pale. If you have to continually apologize to him for who you and your parents are, that's so bad that it cannot be fixed. The fact that your parents are paying for this marriage to this godawful man is just too much. No wonder they couldn't be nice to him during your engagement. I couldn't be nice to someone who treated my daughter the way your husband treats you. Your husband is unforgivable, not you or your parents.