I love the tellin' it like it is. Keep it comin'!

Quoted: Former GOP senator calls Palin a 'cocky wacko'.

This sums up some of my feelings pretty well. And, just as an aside, isn't it a little bit strange that we haven't heard anyone refer to Palin as 'angry' yet? Whenever women are in the spotlight getting seriously fired up about anything they are always referred to as angry. Not so with Palin precisely for the reasons this blog states -- she negates any power she does have in order to seem unintimidating and kowtows to a boys-club-approved brand of "feminism" that isn't feminism at all.

Quoted: Why does this particular pitbull in lipstick infuriate — and scare us — so viscerally? Why does her very existence make us feel — and act — so ugly? New York Times columnist Judith Warner calls Palin's nomination a "thoroughgoing humiliation for America’s women," because "Palin’s not intimidating, and makes it clear that she’s subordinate to a great man." Palin, who obviously is incredibly ambitious, masks that ambition behind her PTA placard and "folksy" talk. ... What's infuriating, and perhaps rage-inducing, about Palin, is that she has always embodied that perfectly pleasing female archetype, playing by the boys' game with her big guns and moose-murdering, and that she keeps being rewarded for it.

Wow. Hands down the best article yet on the Palin-as-puppet/anti-feminist angle. Perfectly fair and well articulated. Leave it to Steinem.

Quoted: Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."

This blogger has a very fair view on the Palin drama..

Quoted: I am a mother who constantly feels the pressure from others about whether I am fit to be a parent, whether I put my kids first often enough and whether my son with learning disabilities gets enough of my attention. Who has the right to to judge my family? My grandmother always said "You can't tell time on someone else's clock". Judgments about people's personal lives are better left unsaid and unrealized. So why then do I think that Sarah Palin would be a terrible vice president? Because I also think that John McCain would be a terrible president. ...

If you're still deciding who to vote for you might want to read this. It's scary to consider how little research McCain's people did on Palin and how hastily she was chosen.

Quoted: Representative Gail Phillips, a Republican and former speaker of the State House, said the widespread surprise in Alaska when Ms. Palin was named to the ticket made her wonder how intensively the McCain campaign had vetted her. “I started calling around and asking, and I have not been able to find one person that was called,” Ms. Phillips said. “I called 30 to 40 people, political leaders, business leaders, community leaders. Not one of them had heard. Alaska is a very small community, we know people all over, but I haven’t found anybody who was asked anything.”

John Stewart's thoughts on the Palin pick. Also, some great commentary from Samantha Bee. Perfect.

Quoted: Sarah Palin may be the ideological opposite of Hillary Clinton, but she's her gynecological twin.

Quoted: She made it further than any other woman, but the barriers for a woman becoming president remain high.

I hope he means it -- saying you're a better proponent of equal pay than McCain isn't saying very much.

Quoted: Democrat Barack Obama, determined to win over female voters, talked Monday about the women who helped shape his life in arguing that he would be a better proponent of equal pay than Republican John McCain.