Georgia Congressman Westmoreland goes there:

Why stop at elitist when "uppity" is so much more descriptive.  

Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland used the racially-tinged term "uppity" to describe Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Thursday.
 
Westmoreland was discussing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech with reporters outside the House chamber and was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama.

[Emphasis mine]
 

"Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.

Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”

I tried desperately to avoid watching any of the RNC spectacle last night. The same way I avoided other Hollywood produced blockbusters like Star Wars or Lord of Rings or Mission Impossible. For the most part, over the years, I've succeeded. Sure, there are the inevitable, inescapable clips, reviews and bits that become part of the cultural landscape. I suspect there will be parts of Sarah Palin's performance last night that will find their way into political folklore.

But the repetition of the "E! True Hollywood Story: Sarah Palin: Pit Bull in Pumps" leaves me with one conclusion: I've seen this movie before. Last time it was "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde." Bring on the peroxide!

Just a few script changes and we get spunky Sarah Palin, beauty queen, hockey mom, baby factory, self-described "pit bull with lipstick," who, with no visible means of experience, no sustainable line of logic for her being chosen, gathers up her ever-expanding brood, straps on her moose-hunting gear and snowshoes, and heads to Washington to take on the Washington establishment by joining the Washington establishment.

Was that not Elle Woods on stage last night? Where was Bruiser? (Oh, yes... safe in the arms of little "Pillow" Palin busy licking his hair into place.) Wasn't that the same climatic scene where Elle takes on the other guys with snappy one-liners delivered in that perky Miss America "I'm so earnest it hurts" delivery?

Spoiler Alert: This isn't a brain-numbing comedy but a disturbing horror flick that will have you checking under your bed every night for the sex police, the mind control managers and radical Islamic-jihadi neo-terrorists hellbent on scaring the shit out you with some crazy-ass Clockwork Orange style therapy amp'ed up with a dose of waterboarding. This time Elle's not the heroine, but the villain. Near the end of the flick, she rips off her latex mask to reveal she's James Dobson in drag.

Will Americans be fooled and robotically vote for Elle and Dr. Demento, sending the world into the latest incarnation of the Dark Ages with 100-years wars and Soylent Green breakfast, lunch and dinner?

Or will they, in the secrecy of the voting booth defy their mind-control chips to vote for "the Ones" and save the world and themselves? I'm hoping they do, because I can't stand the smell of Soylent Green in the morning.

(Apologies if this becomes one of the dreaded "multiple posts".)

John McCain selected his running mate based, he told us, on the notion that he wanted someone by his side who shared his staunchly conservative views about abortion, the "family values" of sex education, contraception, gay marriage. He believes that Roe v. Wade should be repealed. He believes that "activist" judges should not be legislating from the bench and that there should be a litmus test for new Supreme Court justices applied. That test: "Where do you stand on Roe v. Wade? Will you repeal it? All of it?"

McCain tells us he picked Sarah Palin because she hews closely to his views -- on some even surpassing McCain (preferring to force women or girls who are the victims of rape or incest to bear any child that might be conceived as a result of that vile union, and disallowing all abortions unless a doctor determines that the mother's life is in danger) -- and we see that firing up his conservative base is more important than the quality of leadership his running mate would bring to the Oval office.

Much brow-furrowing and breast-beating has occured over the last few days because of the revelation that Palin's unmarried 17 year old daughter is 5 months pregnant. What the Palin and Johnston families decide to do with their soon-to-be teenage parents is a private decision.

However, Sarah Palin is not just any parent. She is the sitting Governor of Alaska and pending vice-presidential nominee of the Republican party. She would have a pivotal role (if elected) in drafting policy and legislation, selecting federal judges and Justices and impacting the debate on the so-called "family values" issues.

That Sarah Palin has a Down's Syndrome baby and chose to continue the pregnancy after she found out is only relevant to the point that she was able to exercise one of many options available to her.
That her teenager has chosen to keep the baby is only relevant in that she, too, was able to exercise one of the many options available to her, with the support of her parents.

But where a private family matter because part of the public discourse is at the same point where Sarah Palin's private views as a mother cross the line into her public policy and political positions.

Sarah Palin, the politician, does not support comprehensive or "explicit" sex education in public schools. That decision affects not just Sarah Palin's children, but the children of all of her constituents -- Alaskan and possibly federal. She holds this view in spite of empirical evidence from studies done across the country that demonstrates abstinence-only education is a failure.
 
Sarah Palin, the politician, does not believe that contraceptives (including condoms) and education about contraception should be available to teenagers in their schools. Those programs help to reduce the transmission of sexually-transmitted diseases and reduce unwanted teen pregnancies.

Sarah Palin, the politician, is fiercely anti-abortion. She does not believe that women or girls who are raped or who are the victims of incest should have access to emergency contraceptives like the morning after pill, Plan B (Levonorgestrel), or first  trimester abortifacients like RU-486 (Mifepristone), or standard "surgical" abortion.

Here is where the matter of "choice" comes into play: Sarah Palin, the politician, would deny to persons who do not agree with her views, the options to resolve an unwanted pregnancy dilemma for themselves or their daughters, that she, Sarah Palin, the mother, has been able to select for herself and her daughter.

Sarah Palin says she and her daughter "chose" life. Fine. When each of them made that "choice," they had the opportunity to choose other legal means to terminate their pregnancies had that been what they desired.

But Palin seeks to remove all of those legal means, and restrict access to information to teens -- even with their parents' consent. In Palin's ideal conservative world, you and I would not be allowed the opportunity to "choose" from among the same options. That is imposition, that is mandate, that is force. If you or I decided we did not want to bear a child, in Palin's world we would have no choice. Grin and bear it? I think not.

The issue -- and there is a political issue here -- is providing women -- and teens -- in or vulnerable to "crisis pregnancies" (to use Gary Bauer's words) options other than having her baby.