As far as the rest of the criticism of Palin... Her positions on guns, abortion, fiscal conservatism aren't going to win over the staunch Hillary supporters who are also liberals, but she may win over some of the "I don't care, I just want a woman to be elected" voters.

As far as female conservatives go, it's a tough line between some women who are happy to see her on the ticket because she's a woman, and others who say, "Her place is home with her children, and I'm not voting her because of that."

I do think that for conservatives like me, who haven't had the interest to sacrifice my rare free time to pay attention to the election, and haven't been all that interested in what McCain has been doing up until now, the choice of Palin has revitalized my interest in the campaign and actually going out and voting.

just because she is a woman?

This is kind of off topic, but when I google icasualties I get warnings that "this site may harm your computer". Clicking for further information , I get this message:

Safe Browsing
Diagnostic page for icasualties.org/oef/

What is the current listing status for icasualties.org/oef/?

Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this web site may harm your computer.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 1 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 0 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 08/29/2008, and suspicious content was never found on this site within the past 90 days.

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

Over the past 90 days, icasualties.org/oef/ did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.

Has this site hosted malware?

No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

How did this happen?

In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.

Which sounds puzzlingly benign. What confuses me a bit is that I would expect there to be some chatter about the invasion of this website (which was down for a few weeks in April due to a malicious attack), but I don't see any-which makes me wonder whether the site itself has been infected or whether the attack on the site consists of labeling it as suspicious.

I figure a few people out there monitor this site, and was just wondering if you had heard anything about whether it was safe to visit.

swishnicholson wrote:When she is held up as some sort of paragon of a higher level of commitment to the pro-life cause due to her decision to bear her child, I believe it does a disservice to her and to disabled children everywhere, and can lead to exactly the sort of attitudes that you find so disturbing in your post above.

dammit she's a hot mama & that is that

MrsVox wrote:

swishnicholson wrote:

Woody wrote:SHE KNEW HER BABY HAD DOWNS SYNDROME AND SHE KEPT IT!!!

Yeah, this keeps popping up in articles (through no fault of Palin's)and it's driving me nuts-this insistence that she is SO opposed to abortion that she actually decided to keep a child with Downs syndrome. Because, you know, all supporters of reproductive rights would get rid of a child with Downs syndrome in a split second since they're such a burden that anyone whose scruples would allow it would clearly make that decision. By making remarkable what is most likely the usual response from expectant parents in a situation such as hers , it manages to insult both these parents and sufferers from this condition.

As one of the handful of women on the board, I'll just comment on a couple things...

If around 12/13th week of being pregnant, you get a blood test to look for markers of known birth defects -- Downs, Trisomy defects, etc. Why this time of pregnancy? Because you can legally abort without difficulty if the results show a defect/potential for defect. I also know that doctors will encourage woman to abort if they get "positive" results.

When we had Lil' Vulture, we got the genetic ultrasound. We informed the physician we weren't going to do the amnio, and the doctor seemed almost offended. While both of us are in favor of keeping abortion legal, it still bothered us a bit.

MrsVox wrote:

The Dude wrote:If they're preventing the conception, then the life hasn't begun

Technically, there is conception, the joining of the egg and sperm, and then the zygote (i believe that's what it is called), attaches itself to the uterine wall. BCPs and IUDs create a hostile environment where the attachment to the uterine wall fails.

anyone knows conception begins at the purchase of flowers & chocolates

nut right conception science is sad, not laughable, with the nut left equally inconclusive

whatever we 'know' about when 'life' begins now will look positively neanderthal in 10 yrs, when we will 'know' too much to make anything like a 'compassionate' decision about conception/life/abortion at any point short of a blowjob.

sorry if insensitive but possibly still drunk

I think the good Doc should drink more often.

jerseyhoya wrote:I think the good Doc should drink more often.

you know it brother

I've heard that it's rumored that her kid with down syndrome is actually her sixteen year old daughter's child. I'll post a link if I can find what I read earlier.

link

SARAH PALIN!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYzunr48CTg&feature=related[/youtube][/url]

philliesphhan wrote:I've heard that it's rumored that her kid with down syndrome is actually her sixteen year old daughter's child. I'll post a link if I can find what I read earlier.

link

And Manny is a Philly!

She has sweaty pits

philliesphhan wrote:I've heard that it's rumored that her kid with down syndrome is actually her sixteen year old daughter's child. I'll post a link if I can find what I read earlier.

link

Is John Edwards the father?

Lame W. Duck and Cheney skipping the RNC to address the Gustav fallout.

McCain: "Thank you thank you thank you thank you God!!!"

Bakestar wrote:Lame W. Duck and Cheney skipping the RNC to address the Gustav fallout.

McCain: "Thank you thank you thank you thank you God!!!"

Brownie reported riding Trigger toward Lake Ponchartrain

Bakestar wrote:Lame W. Duck and Cheney skipping the RNC to address the Gustav fallout.

McCain: "Thank you thank you thank you thank you God!!!"

Mumblings that the convention may be either postponed or truncated to one day (nominate McCain and say buh-bye).

Laexile wrote:

philliesphhan wrote:I've heard that it's rumored that her kid with down syndrome is actually her sixteen year old daughter's child. I'll post a link if I can find what I read earlier.

link

Is John Edwards the father?

Someone made that same joke in the link I originally got it from

And boom goes the dynamite

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Bza63nnqiKA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Bza63nnqiKA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

This trooper investigation is going to be a problem for Palin. She's already changed her story, in a few different ways.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UojMnCgqVA[/youtube]

It actually reminds me of an Eliot Spitzer scandal--not the one with the whore that cost him his job, but a slimy political operation he ran last year against State Senate president Joe Bruno. Spitzer's evasions, shifting of blame and changing of his story were somewhat like Palin's.

The reaction even of so many Republicans that this doesn't seem to be an informed or even entirely thought-through pick really confirms my sense that this was a really irresponsible move by McCain. He's raising a ton of money off it and the Kulturkampf Krew seems very excited--which I guess are the two things that matter most in the Rove equation. But it's a tough sell to square this with "Country First."

edit: I'm not going to keep listing every Republican who sees the Palin choice as irresponsible or risky. But I thought that this post from RedState, of all places, was probably somewhat telling.

From electoral-vote.com:

There is little doubt that if this storm had occurred during the DNC, many Republican-oriented preachers would be saying this is God's way of punishing the Democrats for their evil views on abortion and homosexuality. Such statements are not likely to be heard much this week.

Or, I dunno, it's something that's much more likely to happen when you wait until the end of the summer--the dead middle of hurricane season--to have a convention...