Deal or No Deal?

Forgive the political post, but I'm so excited that I can hardly contain myself (hey, maybe this is part of why I can't sleep lately!). The McCain/Palin campaign, and the Republican Party in general, has taken a revolutionary new position this past week, and I'm positively giddy over it!

After the news of Sarah Palin's pregnant teenage daughter hit the news media, I heard Palin's spokesperson and various Republicans say something that is music to my liberal ears: that they think family matters should remain private, and that Bristol's pregnancy is the business of her and the father-to-be alone.

HALLELUJAH! Do you know what this means?? The Republican Party has finally agreed that family matters are personal, and not the business of the government or the general public?? Sweet! So, in exchange for us backing off the Bristol story, the McCain/Palin ticket is going to back off OUR personal lives too...let us marry whomever we choose, make our own reproductive decisions, adopt children with our self-chosen spouses if we so choose, and generally run our families and personal lives without the interference of the government?! DEAL!!!!

Wait--what? What's that, you say? You say McCain, Palin, and the Republican Party are still against gay marriage, gay adoption, and abortion rights, AND that they want their religious beliefs taught to my child in public schools? You say Palin would deny someone in my family the right to an abortion, even in the case of rape? That sure doesn't sound like keeping family matters personal and private to me...sorry, guys, but NO DEAL.

If McCain/Palin are so eager to legislate our personal family matters, the least they can do is let us go ahead and mock theirs. I'm reserving my right to point out, at every opportunity, the irony of a man who cheated on his wife while she was undergoing cancer treatment, and a woman who advocates abstinence-only education while her own teenage daughter gets knocked up, touring the country talking about family values.

On a FAR less partisan note, here are a few websites that might be helpful if you're undecided in this election, as some of my friends/family have said they are:

http://www.votehelp.org/ has a quiz you can take that matches you up with the candidate you most often agree with

http://www.ontheissues.org/john_mccain.htm Shows how John McCain has voted and acted on various issues.

http://www.ontheissues.org/Barack_Obama.htm Ditto for Barack Obama

http://www.factcheck.org/ Every time a politician makes a speech or runs an ad, this site verifies their claims and checks their facts. This is where you can go to investigate that chain email you got, 99% of which are totally made-up.

I now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming.