Another seemingly pointless article is published on Salon. I couldn't get through it, actually. Where is the outrage? Yawn. I don't know, let me go out and drum some up right away. That way I can show my black brothers that I'm down with their plight and all that.

Hey, here's one for you: I once saw a production of Othello with Sir Laurence Olivier playing the lead, in blackface! That's right! To play a role, he darkened his skin with theater makeup! Oh, it was horrible. I don't think Shakespeare intended Othello to be constantly on the search for fried chicken, nor was Othello's explanation of how he won Desdemona's love ever intended to be set to banjo music. "Oh I fought some wars, and I killed some dudes, singing Polly Wolly Doodle all day!"

Too, there was the way Iago was constantly having to wake Othello up from a nap to tell him some new shit about Desdemona supposedly shakin' her booty around. It makes Othello so upset that later, when offered his choice between his beloved fried chicken and some watermelon, Othello says: "Well I ain't hungry right now, so I believes I'll take both."

All of which sounds exactly like what Robert Downey Jr. does in Tropic Thunder. Imagine, the arrogance of one human being trying to imagine how life might be experienced by another human being. Fortunately, we have a group of ever watchful PC cops to remind us that black people are alien, remote and forever unknowable.

...Still, I can't help but be a little pleased at the social change the pick makes real. A night after watching the first African-American accept the Democratic nomination, we woke to find the first woman had been chosen to be the Republican vice presidential nominee. The race just got a lot more interesting.

Except that Obama is where he is by virtue of building a highly mobile and effective organization, working his tail off for more than a year and a half, meeting and overcoming all obstacles placed before him, and persevering until he achieved his goal. That's admirable; that's proof of real change in America, that an African-American candidate could put himself in line for the presidency by sheer hard work and determination. If Hillary had gotten the nod, it would be by virtue of the same hard work. That, too, would be admirable and signs of change.

But Palin will be heartbeat away from the presidency by virtue of being a woman in a year when the Republican party sees a possibility of stealing votes away from Obama, via the PUMA crowd. This is about stealing those votes, not luring Republican votes. I see nothing progressive at all in this nomination.

And if the PUMA voters can honestly be angry about Hillary Clinton losing the primary, and look at Palin and say that they would have the exact same champion for women's rights in Palin, that they see Palin and Clinton as instantaneously interchangeable, it only proves to me that they had more invested in Hillary being a female than they ever did in the platform of ideas and issues - WITH THE 35 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE - that she brought to the table. They always used her experience as the main reason for voting for her. Palin? Has none. If they begin trying to explain away why that doesn't bother them that much, then once again the PUMA crowd stands revealed as being full of beans.

I'm sorry, Joan, if I sound upset, but I sense already that you are intending to play way more fair than is required with this nomination simply because of Palin's gender. Well, sure, you can go ahead and call it progress if you want, but I see nothing here other than a cynical act of desperation, an attempt to splinter democrats in order to win the election in the only way they can. They are USING her, using her gender as a wedge; that is the real interest here. If that sounds like a sign of progress to you, if that sounds like an act of female empowerment, then I truly am amazed.

The reason I was supposed to vote for Hillary over Obama was her vaunted experience; 35 years of it. Now, McCain makes this choice, the soul purpose of it being to try and split off enough Hillary voters to make a difference. If the electorate allows her ascend to the presidency, having put in exactly zero effort in attaining it, then it really won't matter. This country will officially be too stupid to live.

Hillary worked her ass off to get as close as she did. She would never have been comfortable as vice-president. It is not in her nature. She'd have more power and leverage from her seat in the Senate. Throw a few committee head appointments her way and she should be just fine.

If the Palin nomination sits at all well with the Hillary crowd, then they stand revealed as the true sexists, interested in gender to the point that it is their sole consideration.

It would be impossible for this to be a "maverick" move on the part of McCain because McCain is not a maverick. On most issues, he has his head so far up the ass of the status quo that it is appalling that he should have that label attached to him.

Dennis Kucinich is a maverick, if you want to know what one looks like. If McCain was a maverick, he would be mocked and derided with the same vehemence as Kucinch is. Americans don't really like mavericks, you know; they just pretend to.