For disability advocates like me, what rapidly became frustratingly repetitive was people leaping to inaccurate conclusions about Palin's decision to not abort her infant son. People are linking it to her political beliefs, echoing the also-tiring belief that the only reason to let a disabled infant be born is the refusal to abort anything ever.

Here is part of what Palin actually said:

"It took a while to open up the book that the doctor gave me about children with Down syndrome, and a while to log on to the Web site and start reading facts about the situation."...

Once her husband got the news, he told her: "We shouldn't be asking, 'Why us?' We should be saying, 'Well, why not us?'" ...

"I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection," Palin said. "Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?"

She has one sentence out of the entire interview that refers to abortion beliefs, which is simply an acknowledgment that she's known for being against it, yet that's all the media seems interested in repeating. As anyone aware of the 98% abortion rate for DS knows, being even strongly anti-abortion is almost meaningless when the fetus has a disability. (Yes, Joan, Democrats are more likely to abort rather than do research and keep the kid, simply because more Republicans are against abortion. It's not a slam, it's a logical fact.)

So Joan Walsh, if you are tired of the same-old repetitive blather about candidates, try not doing it yourself in cases like this. Try looking into why someone really did something when it's an issue you haven't dealt with personally, rather than leaping to conclusions. You'd be surprised at all of the new avenues of conversation & analysis it brings, and at how ignorant most other people really are -- it's the one area where most fellow liberals fail to inform themselves or listen enough to be distinguished from conservatives.

Joan, you are right to call Paul on his antediluvian lapse into sexist commentary. After all, he spent considerable time working for the one woman in American politics that worked endlessly to eliminate gender discrimination--herself lately being the subject of some of the most obscene, woman-hatred this side of the Afghanistan national feminist media!

No, we can't and shouldn't let Paul go gentle into that dark night that we inhabited in the last year of the so-called "democratic" primaries. The daily on-air Hillary-bashing rudely awoke up from their lethargic contentment many young women who thought misogyny was a thing their mothers complained about and irrelevant. The vicious relentless attacks on Sen.Clinton by the media misogynist frat-boys and the Obama campaign's camouflaged sexism promotion, may almost be over--but not many of us will "get over it" any time soon.

A woman's party affiliation is no guarantee of the sexism she will endure in political life. The woman-degrading male-cultural values instilled in the two most powerful institutions of Media and Politics are still alive and well and thriving at the expense of any "uppity" woman who dares to defy the Ole Boys' Club rules. (Palin's only the latest victim!)

Hillary's run exposed the antediluvian misogyny inherent in the media (see Women's Media Centre's "Sexism Sells, but We're not Buying" and Howard Kurtz's CNN short with Carol Costello "Sexism and the Media" for a real shock) and holds a promise that the diminishment of women in politics will be treated with the same repulsion and drastic and immediate public disapproval that is now reserved for racism.

The law must start adapting ASAP to the new reality of accommodating women in politics and the sooner protective legislation is enacted to firmly incorporate public disapproval of all forms of woman-hatred and misogynist diminishment, the less of an allergic reaction will be had by the pseudo-macho neanderthals whose jobs will be on the line!

Imus learned his lesson. Why can't Matthews and Olbermann and the rest of the "journalists"--these cowardly misogynist neanderthals who get their on-the-job training chasing bimbos out of rehab--be put in their place.

Obama, to his immense credit, wrote a letter to NBC asking them to fire Imus and telling them that if "Imus had worked for me, he'd be fired..." He was genuinely concerned, at least he wrote, that his daughters would be treated as badly as the Rutgers' girls' team. He was right on! But the question for Barack is why didn't he, or his "Democratic" party leaders, speak up when the hideous, everyday assault on his fellow female senator was so resembling an on-air holocaust for the diminishment of women?

Where was his concern about the most vile of sexist attacks were waged right in front of his eyes! Surely, he doesn't think that it's okay in politics to play the Gender Card and keep silent about his own campaign's subtler attacks? Could it be that he just wanted to knock off the competition--regardless of the means used....Sen. Alice Palmer was knocked off in Chicago in '96--and supported Hillary in this primary. Why did Obama and his party keep silent? This is the question he must answer in November, of course! It's too premature at this time...

Surely Sexism should be treated as equally repulsive and unacceptable as Racism. Anything less is diminishing our daughters, mothers, sisters, aunts and friends of both genders--and deprives the society we live in of half its talent bank resumes.

Thanks, in large part, so Sen. Hillary Cllinton's phenomenal pioneering campaigning, after 88 years, the Female Vote must finally count for something! Let's put it to work for us.

And, as an incentive, since we know that Paul Begala (like Matthews and Olbermann and those other fine specimens of media gender sensitivity training) "periodically, feels down and starts launching attacks..." let's watch this Youtube mega-hit and decide on what constitutes 'appropriate' behavior in the political stage:

"Obama Gives Hillary the Finger" -- where the Democratic presidential nominee performs a well-rehearsed JayZ rapper-wannabe act using physical dexterity and camouflaged comedic talent to pay his uniquely-inspired "change and hope-full" brand of 'respect' to his fellow female Senator! Now, this is truly Change we can believe in on this 88th anniversary of Women's Voting privileges....

We really haven't come such a long way, after all, have we, sweetie!?...