this woman’s work

I think it’s a post-Palin headache. It’s kinda (not really) hilarious to go read the Fox news site where they’re going, “Yeah! She WON!” And then they link to all these pundits — including a bunch of their own — who say, “Biden totally won but at least Palin was nearly able to form complete sentences.”

That woman needs some pronouns though. I just can’t stand to hear her talk even without the folksy sayings — all those passive sentences!

Mostly though I loved Joe Biden. I loved him. I thought he did a great job even after checking out FactCheck.org.

Dare I say it? I think we just might win this one! <–for Becca

You know the whole pro-life even in cases of rape and incest thing? I get that. I do. Because if you truly believe every embryo at conception is a person like I am a person sitting here typing, you can’t quibble. You can’t say it’s ok here but not there. (And I have to add here that I’m bothered by this assumption that every pro-choice woman would handle an unexpected pregnancy the same way; that one has to be politically pro-life to carry a child to term who was conceived by rape. That’s simply not true. Pro-choicers believe that it’s a personal CHOICE, which doesn’t mean that we would all make the same choice whatever the circumstances. I know politically pro-choice women who have given birth to children conceived by rape. It’s about CHOICE; not mandates.)

So that — while I philosophically disagree with it — I get.

But I don’t get her willingness to trudge forward even though she is so obviously unprepared to be president. And I don’t get why people are still voting because they “like” her. Listen, I like my mom a whole lot. I love her politics and she’s a helluva lot more informed than Ms. Palin but I sure wouldn’t vote for her to be vice president. It’s not a learn as you go job.

I’m intrigued that she calls herself a feminist. In my mind, CHOICE is central to feminist belief. Not just (and not necessarily) reproductive choice. Although I find that absolutely unequivocally at the heart of my feminism, I understand that if you truly think an embryo ought to have the same human rights as a child that you just can’t go there. (It bothers me that you want to stop anyone else from going there either but I get it.) But other choices matter, too. I don’t know how she feels about supporting programs that give women choices because she wouldn’t talk to Moms Rising about it. That her office wouldn’t even let them drop off a stack of paper doesn’t reassure me.

Note — she says she wants to make adoption easier. Easier how? And for whom? Adoptive parents who adopt newborns from private agencies (you know, adoptions that are held up as the great alternative to abortion) already get huge tax breaks. So now are you going to eliminate homestudies so we don’t have to clean our houses and answer all those pesky questions? Maybe she means easier by creating a plethora of infants available for our hungry little homes.

Or does she mean she’ll make it easier for women to place? How’s she going to do that? It’s already pretty easy to find someone who’s willing to get your baby adopted away from you — especially if you’re white and healthy. Boy howdy is it easy! Just set up a myspace mentioning that you’re young and pregnant and out come the wolves! (That link goes to Jenna’s blog — if you haven’t read that post yet, you should. It will make you insane.)

Yeah, I’m not getting that whole “easier to adopt” thing. (She said this during the interview where they talked about evolution, charging for rape kits, and whether or not she’s a feminist.)

Oh one more thing. I HATE how often she uses passive sentences. Yikes. She’s never doing stuff — stuff is getting done. “Adoptions to be made easier” not “make adoptions easier” or “make it easier to adopt.” MS Word’s grammar check would have a field day with her!

I don’t like this. 

My dad says democrats need to learn to fight dirty because that’s how the Swiftboaters were able to win the last election. (I don’t know — I’m thinking Diebold machines helped out a bit. I’m just sayin’.) And here it goes: Palin’s Church May Have Shaped Controversial World View

I know we need to win this time around but I still hate that politics has to be so dang ugly. Wouldn’t it be nice to know we could just win by being (mostly) right?

Didja hear his firm stance on talking about Bristol? 

“The media should respect Bristol’s privacy. That’s always been the tradition and practice when it comes to the children of candidates.”

And his campaign reiterates, “The children of candidates do not choose to run for office and be thrust into the spotlight.”

(source)

Yeah, McCain! Good on you! Gee, I wonder what changed in ten years? Oh yeah, he’s talking about candidates! Not politicians currently holding office! Those kids are free game! That’s why McCain thought this joke was so hilarious:

“Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? 
Because her father is Janet Reno.”

(source)

But he’s learned his lesson!! You don’t trash kids! In fact — don’t even talk about them! Leave their personal crises alone! Certainly don’t exploit them by, say, bringing on the father of Bristol’s baby to the convention or anything. That might draw attention to her private matter.

(What do you bet they get her married for a photo op.)

McCain needs the pro-life, evangelical vote and he’s willing to exploit chldren to get it.

My rules (not your rules — my rules):

1. I only write about something for as long as it’s fun/interesting to write about. I reserve the right to stop at any time and ignore certain issues for the sake of my sanity.

2. Generally I don’t debate with folks on the other side of the aisle. It’s one thing to get into a friendly if heated discussion with someone who’s values are mostly mine but it’s quite another to get into it with someone who lives on another planet. It’s not worth the raised blood pressure for either of us so I reserve the right to skip it.

3. On this blog, I’m personally blogging. I’m not trying to share a level-headed, reasonable view of the issues — I’m writing what I think in a way that I wouldn’t if this were an official op-ed column or I was a talking head on television. My standards are lower; I reserve the right to go there.

I’m nervous/excited/terrified/hopeful about this election. My emotions are running pretty high so I’m going to try to not let my blog run away without me. I want Obama to win so bad I can taste it. I’m scared about the supreme court. I’m scared about losing my reproductive rights.

And this is why I think Bristol Palin’s personal life has become a part of the discussion and why I have issue with her mother riding on her back in her effort to get to the white house. It’s one thing for McCain to sell out a teenager; it’s another thing for that teenager’s parents to do it.

Compare the candidates’ positions on sexual education (ganked from Momocrats):

It is simple, Sarah Palin and John Mc Cain support only “abstinence based sex education programs”, while Barack Obama and Joe Biden support “sensible, community-driven education for children because, among other things, he believes it could help protect them from pedophiles. A child’s knowledge of the difference between appropriate and inappropriate touching is crucial to keeping them safe from predators.” Get that folks, age appropriate science based information that keeps kids safe. Materials that have been created by public health educators are used all over the country and have been proven to work. When more than half of the STDs and HIV in this country is contracted by people under the age of 25, comprehensive sex education is a must…. More over, most sex education programs have opt-out options. If a parent is opposed, then they can pull their child from the program.

Conservative defined “morality” (i.e., sexual politics and not morality like I define it, which would be about helping the less fortunate) is a central issue of this election. If a 17-year old Chelsea Clinton showed up pregnant during her mom’s run or her dad’s run, the religious right would have eviscerated her even though she would also be living her parents’ “right to choose” values (as we can argue Bristol is living her parents’ “right to life” values). And I’d have just as many bad feelings about the Clintons if they ran knowing their daughter would be ripped apart by the public. It’s wrong to make Bristol live her private crisis publicly but it’s even more wrong to make her a martyr/hero for the cause.

I think that they chose Sarah Palin in part because of her son Trig and her daughter’s pregnancy. I think this is part of the campaign strategy. They are making them the poster family for anti-choice rhetoric. Look — they have right there in their family two of the pro-choice arguments in Trig’s presence and Bristol’s decision to marry her boyfriend and raise the baby. I’m glad the women both had choices. Contrary to popular belief, the pro-choice mindset isn’t that every “imperfect” pregnancy is a failure but that every woman has a right to consider her options and make the decision that best suits her values and her circumstances. I’m glad Trig is here. I congratulate Bristol and am happy she has her family’s support and that they haven’t shipped her off to the Crittenton home. I am angry that the Republican candidates don’t support my right to make different choices.

But the biggest issue for me is that there’s no way Sarah Palin is prepared to step into office if anything should happen to John McCain. NO WAY. And having her step away from the presidency scares the hell out of me.

I don’t know how I’m going to make it through the next sixty-something days. My head may explode.

Now I’m off to all day meetings with no email breaks! (What?! No email breaks? My head really MAY explode!)

The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.

source

To reiterate:

1. Sarah Palin showed gross negligence in flying while in early labor with son Trig.

2. Abstinence-only education doesn’t work.

3. Palin also shows poor judgment in running now when it will foist her oldest daughter to the spotlight during what has to be a pretty difficult time of her life. (Hey, Palin’s young — if she’s that ambitious she could’ve waited four to eight years.)

Then there’s this line in the story that made me snort:

The despicable rumors that have been spread by liberal blogs, some even with Barack Obama’s name in them, is a real anchor around the Democratic ticket, pulling them down in the mud in a way that certainly juxtaposes themselves against their ‘campaign of change,’” a senior aide said.

That’s like saying Madonna endorses my blog because I’ve invoked her name in this space. And let’s remember that the left-leaning Huffington Post dismissed this rumor as ugly and unworthy of the campaign.

I think all politicians are nuts for running when it comes to what it does to their families but I sure wouldn’t run on an abstinence-only platform with a 17-year old pregnant and unmarried daughter who is going to bear the brunt of the judgment. (I felt the same way for poor Jamie Lynn Spears.)

Edited to add: Twittering Drublood points out that if this were a liberal woman running on a major ticket, McCain would be all over it saying that it proves that working women raise screwed up kids.

Since there’s no proof that Bristol Palin had Trig and her mother covered up, I’m pretty focused on her mother’s incredibly poor decision to fly home while in labor and then drive another hour to get to the hospital. I think that’s a poor choice in a low-risk birth but she knew Trig had issues that might need immediate medical care. And whatever she says about knowing labor, the women I’ve met who’ve had a lot of kids have told me that every labor is different. Brett’s cousin (she of the seven — so far — babies) has had labors that took two days and labors that took two hours. Palin made a dumb decision. I’d say the same thing about any liberal politician foolish enough to do the same.

I’ll quote some of what Tanya – a practicing homebirth midwife here in Columbus who attended two of Kristen’s births and is a rational, thoughtful practitioner — has to say about it:

And while I’m talking about questioning judgement/decision-making ability, let’s talk about the fact that she chose to make a speech and then take the 8 hr. flight back to AK with her amniotic membranes ruptured and leaking fluid…at 8 months…with a baby with a known birth defect. Now, I’m not the alarmist that most OBs around here are about ruptured membranes and infection, mainly because my clients are at home where they’ve developed an immunity to the germs, they’ve been educated to avoid introducing anything into the birth canal and they’ve often chosen to supplement their diets with probiotics, garlic and Vitamin C. Most importantly, their babies are full-term. But I do think about Group B Strep, esp. when I see premature rupture of membranes. I also know that the Center for Disease Control recommends that the test for determining if a mom is colonized with GBS be performed from 35-37 weeks, which I believe is after the time the baby was born.

To me, that’s the most convincing part of the rumors (not the pictures, not even the mono) because that is so damn stupid and selfish that I just can’t believe it of anyone. And this is a pro-life candidate so I can’t get how she’d justify risking Trig’s life just so he could be born in Alaska. (Tanya’s conjectures about why she might have done this — click to her site to see — aren’t mine but I found them interesting.)

Like I said, that’s the most convincing part of it to me.

I also think it’s ridiculous to go back to work three days after the birth — work from home for cryin’ out loud if you have the hankering! I think the same thing of men who have the choice and don’t exercise it. I just don’t get not wanting to settle in and meet the new member of your family. Still, I wouldn’t base a vote on it — those politicians are pretty crazy workaholics. The getting on a plane to fly from Texas to Alaska while in labor with a baby who will be born with disabilities? Yeah, that’s some pretty poor judgment.

Edited to add: This link puts forth the rumor that Bristol is pregnant NOW. And those pics look more convincing. Man, remind me never to run for public office. Who’d want to do that to their kids???