Did no one warn this dining room table that she was asking this

question to the ONE (sad to say) member of congress who is unafraid to call it like it is?

There are times when discussion is not useful and it is a wise

person who knows when those times are and can, at the moment

call it out humorously.

Our members of congress need to develop useful strategies which

include not dignifying contemptible, factless arguments.

Barney just gave them a one minute 18 second instructional video.

To take on just one of the issues floating in this stew---the

racism/sexism one.

the test I employ is whether the joke used would be allowed

if it were targeting an African American.

You see racism is a high crime and sexism is still not in that

category in our culture....yet

So, if you called Secy of State Powell's beer "Mad%^^^%$# Beer---it would be so offensive as not to even be considered for

publishing.

We may be coming close to the threshold here where even fratboys

can grasp this formula and not use the "b" word as it is as

offensive to women as the "n" word is to African Americans.

I am sure you are correct in your aside that one of Palin's handlers made the post on her Facebook page. How do I know?

All of the grammar was correct (including commas/quotation marks, etc). That woman brings out the worst in me and, I am pretty sure all others she comes in contact with. Kind of like pigpen

from the Peanuts comic strip. Wherever she goes, so goes a whirlwind of toxic juice.

I heard John McCain say the other day that he could not get over

how badly she was treated by the media. Poor John. He still does

not see how this kind of toxic karma works. What goes around, comes around and Palin flips a lot of mud in people's faces as she

passes by.

I think this is especially difficult for us women who want more women of substance in the public arena. She makes such a poor role

model for our daughters with her lack of interest in hard work and reality. Trying to get by as she does on toxic sound bites

that are decoupled from reality and flirty winks.

Such a perversion of the substantive woman we want our daughters to aspire to be.

Certainly is a danger in a democracy when enough people are insuffciently educated to recognize someone who is insufficiently educated to be president.

Samantha Bee nailed this.

Every woman should send this to her legislator (house and senate).

Palin promoted herself to the Republican national committee and the neoconservative elite as a rising star and possible VP choice, since at least the summer of 2007,

(see Richard Cohen, WashPo, 10/28/08 for details).

It was not good luck that brought the offer to Gov Palin.

It was the result of her dedicating a lot of money and energy

to this objective. So the decision to "run" or not was made

long before August, 2008. It was not foisted upon her.

Sarah Palin looked in the mirror several years ago and saw

vice presidential material and never looked back for a second

assessment.

As Billy Joel says: "Mistakes are the only things we can truly call our own."

I think we need to be honest here. Sarah Palin is being

manicured,made-up and dressed up, not for her star power

but her sexual power.

Kathleeen Parker made this point in her piece for the Washington Post on Friday (10/24). Her thesis is that it is not an unlikely possibility that John McCain chose Sarah Palin because she is an attractive, former beauty queen. John McCain's first wife was a beauty queen. Cindy McCain is very attractive. John McCain is drawn to this type of woman.

Certainly Sarah Palin was not chosen for her grasp of foreign

policy or military matters or domestic economic issues. Or her

long standing and immaculate record as an executive.

The republicans have not quite got up to speed on this concept

called feminism. They figured if it has 2 XX's it'll do. And other women won't notice the difference and vote for her.

Well, not so much. Now they can go sit down and think. And then go sit down and have a second think about using women as sex objects.

I thought Joe Biden was gracious to Sarah Palin and genuine and that observation seems borne out by how long the two families stayed to chat after the debate last week.

I also like the idea of humanizing Sarah Palin, but not at the cost of denying her reality. Sarah Palin is acting irresponsibly and dangerously. Her rhetoric is willfully deceitful and provoking hatred and aggression from those little able to control such impulses.

When people begin to feel uninhibited enough to shout "kill him" and "terrorist" in response to her comments at rallies, she has sprung way over any line of decent, civil rhetoric.

And, to ignore that is to deny a central part of her reality in an otherwise decent attempt at humanizing her.

The only critique I could make of the SNL piece is that

Tina Fey softens Sarah Palin too much. I think Sarah Palin

is a down and dirty street fighter.

I read a piece from an Alaska newspaper that when she was running the first time for mayor of Wasilla her campaign put

out rumors that she would be the "first Christian" mayor of Wasilla. She knew her opponent was Christian, but was playing off the fact that he had a Jewish sounding name.

There is a street fighter behind those expensive spectacles

and Joe Biden better be careful.