shameless...

"Government is like a baby: an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other." - Ronald Reagan

The words of an American president. A Republican president. Yep, the Gipper was one helluva communicator. He could nail a line like nobody's business. That's still the problem with government these days: few politicians have a sense of responsibility. The sad truth is that the great majority of the attention-grabbing media whores (namely those on the Republican ticket) lack even a modicum of human decency.

Republicans heap scorn on the heads of liberal feminists who either exercise their right (or support another woman's legal right) to abort her unwanted fetus. Yet where is the public outcry over a woman who uses her children like pawns to advance her political agenda? Where is the collective uproar over Sarah Palin parading her children before the nation in a shamefully misguided attempt to bolster support for her party's platform: pro-life, pro-war, and abstinence-only sex ed? Mothers should be livid that the media continues to condone Palin's willingness to use - no, exploit - her children this way. An article in Salon.com yesterday wonders why more women aren't pissed about Palin. Speaking on behalf of my own gender: we are. Trust me, we are pissed. But there isn't much we can do about it. McSame's Bullshit Express has become a locomotive of lies barreling full-steam towards election day, leaving in its wake a country divided by derision, delusion, and deceit.

Palin has been carefully coached by the McSame campaign handlers (whose ranks include none other than Karl Rove) so it comes as no surprise that her teen daughter's unplanned pregnancy and eventually planned shotgun wedding was announced just prior to the Republican convention. That the governor's first televised media interview coincides with her oldest son's deployment to Iraq is also no surprise. Finally, her increased funding for special education programs in her home state seems most opportune considering her youngest child has Down Syndrome.

The shame is not that a mother has children whose circumstances test her sanity. There is no shame in having an unwed teenage daughter. There is certainly no shame in having a child with any form of mental or physical handicap. The unmitigated gall lies in parading said children as proof of your qualifications for the job you seek. Never mind requisite experience for the position if you have domestic proof of your ability to toe the party line. Seriously: where is the sense of decency in the Republican party?

Oh wait. Palin belongs to the party which has a lock on exploitation. Why the hell am I even surprised? The Republicans have turned September 11th into nothing more than political propaganda. They are experts in exploiting the pain of the nation and turning what should be a solemn remembrance (like Pearl Harbor Day) into an instrument of fearmongering.

They have no decency. They have no shame. And I have no respect, either for that party or for the mainstream media who turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the bullshit spewed from the lying lips of those who wish to lead.