Not that I'm a Palin fan, but this "Troopergate" has me feeling sorry for her. What about this Mike Wooten character wouldn't have any family pulling every string available to get him fired as a representative of the law?

It should be enough that the guy made death threats against his ex-wife and ex-father-in-law. If that wasn't enough, Palin as governor reportedly didn't want him anywhere near her at public events. He's 40 miles of bad road: drunk on the job and off, and abusive of kids and wife. (What's just one tasering incident among family? we're asked. One too many, is my answer.) How much do you want this person to be responding to domestic violence calls? How trigger-happy do you want him to be when dealing with tense situations? Not only shouldn't this sociopath a-hole be employed as State Trooper; by the usual standards of civil libertarians, such a rogue cop/citizen should be in jail.

And as for the Trooper chief, I have not the slightest doubt that he was insubordinate in every way possible and that his dismissal was justified. The mere fact that he would come back to be a part of this phony campaign in defense of a wack-job trooper says a lot about his character. (Curiously, the legislative report didn't find Palin guilty of any wrongdoing in dismissing him.)

I would be very surprised if Troopergate was pushed by the Democrats. Instead, it's clear that Palin has plenty of enemies among the Republicans in her own state. Surely somebody remembers that former governor Frank Murkowski's friends are all these concerned legislators who authored the report. Why, then, is Salon pushing Troopergate as a progressive cause to rally behind? I have enough reasons not to like Palin. This one has me sympathizing with her.

I'm getting really sinister vibes about all the videos disappearing lately. Please tell me it ain't so, that I'm imagining things . . . or that I'm imagining that, through this ACORN "scandal," the Republicans are going to steal another election. The time to get really bugged about all this was eight years ago. I'm beyond horrified.

On a personal note, everything has gone surreal. I have survived a partial going-underground of my psyche to survive these past 25 years. And now my boyfriend is telling me it's OK to steal elections if his side wins, Obama is definitely a terrorist, and McCain just didn't know what was going on in that room when he and five other Senators intimidated the Keating bank examiners. All poor people are "buttheads," he says, and it's all their fault for buying big houses they couldn't afford. And by the way, that "community organizing" Obama did didn't accomplish a thing.

There's a clear, polarizing line being drawn in this country right now and it scares me. For just a couple of days I thought it was funny how the damaged people of America were getting together at Palin rallies and shouting their neuroses. It's not funny anymore. People are coming unhinged.

When reality is too hard to take, human beings go into hypnotic trances. They don't respond to what is in front of them but to ideals and symbols. Need we be reminded of the bloody history of this phenomenon?

Pass me a double, Kate, for the times she said "second Holocaust" in response to the Iranian threat against Israel. And a beer chaser, because it directly quoted McCain's equally disgusting comparison. Shouldn't it be enough to state one's support for Israel if aggression breaks out?

Or are we all too numbed by now to the history-exploiting Republican road show?

Maybe I can use the word "lynching" next time someone discusses racial economic equality in this country. Or make reference to cannibalism about, I don't know, banks getting eaten up by other banks. And I can yell "rape!" during the next date in which I have to pay.

At long last, ma'am, have you no sense of embarrassment?

Just because you use the word "Holocaust" doesn't make you an expert on Middle East affairs. And "Joe Sixpack" doesn't mark you as a champion of the working class. "Hockey moms" are mean, but are they smart? Cut it out with the small-town homilies, because I'm from a small town (a hockey town, even) I'm not impressed. Who buys this crap?

I never doubt for a moment that Joe Biden has a vocabulary at his disposal that could rival Sarah Palin's. He chooses not to use it. His breakdown over his family's fate wasn't just genuine, it was angry, as in, "How dare this woman score points on family values after what I've been through?

Finally, finally, they've gone too far and made caricatures of themselves. Set 'em up, Joe. Straight up.