I have a piece up at TAP:

Palin's addition to the ticket takes Republican faux-feminism to a whole new level. As Adam Serwer pointed out on TAPPED, this is in fact a condescending move by the GOP. It plays to the assumption that disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters did not care about her politics -- only her gender. In picking Palin, Republicans are lending credence to the sexist assumption that women voters are too stupid to investigate or care about the issues, and merely want to vote for someone who looks like them. As Serwer noted, it's akin to choosing Alan Keyes in an attempt to compete with Obama for votes from black Americans.

[...]

It's clear that Republicans believe that what made Hillary Clinton such a good candidate was her gender, not her political experience or positions on the issues. And McCain's decision to pick Palin shows he took this message to heart and chose to add her to the ticket primarily because of her gender. In so doing, McCain has turned the idea of the first woman in the White House from a true moment of change to an empty pander.

Why is this a pander? Because Palin is not a woman who has a record of representing women's interests. She is beloved by extremely right-wing conservatives for her anti-choice record (fittingly, she's a member of the faux-feminist anti-choice group Feminists for Life). Palin supports federal anti-gay marriage legislation. She believes schools should teach creationism. Alaska is currently considering spending more on abstinence-only sex education. And when it comes to a slew of other issues of importance to women, such as equal pay, she's not on the record.

Read the rest here. I'll be discussing the article (and debating this woman) on CNN tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m. eastern.

More from other bloggers after the jump...

Bush and McCain share cake for McCain's 69th birthday as Hurricane Katrina hits Gulf Coast.

With all the election news and the impending landfall of Hurricane Gustav, let's not forget that today marks the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Salon has an interview with Phyllis Montana-LeBlanc, who appears in Spike Lee's documentary about Katrina, "When the Levees Break." She describes her experiences:

Yeah, just as we were getting up to leave, a helicopter came by and we were like, "We can go now, we're saved." They came right in front of our faces, and the [pilot] looked at me, but they left. I couldn't believe they were leaving us and they were that close. But my thinking afterward, after reason hit, was that there was only 5 feet of water [where we were] and they had to go and get other people who were in more dire need. I understand that now. And I have great respect for those people, the Coast Guard, because they helped us a lot. They're heroes. But when you're in a situation where water's rising, and you don't know whether people are drowning, it's a different story.

So we were stuck there, looking at two blocks of water, before we could get to higher ground. It was me, my husband, Ron, my sister Catherine and my mom, and she can't swim, and we've got my nephew Nicholas, and he's autistic and he can't swim either. We had to get to higher ground, so we got them on refrigerators, and facing us was the longest two blocks I've ever seen in my life. And then there were the alligators and snakes that we'd heard about being in the water, eating bodies and stuff. It was beyond horrific. There was just two blocks, but you're thinking you may not be able to make it even two blocks. And the water smelled horrible. I can still smell it to this day.

Think Progress has a timeline of how events unfolded -- including a mention of the fact that Bush and McCain were eating cake together on this date three years ago. It helpfully illustrates the extent to which the Bush administration fucked up -- but I think stories like Montana-LeBlanc's are even more compelling. It's no wonder New Orleans is still struggling to recover.

Because fighting domestic violence makes one so unelectable. Via Barefoot and Progressive:

Exxon Eddie Whitfield's surrogate has just posted a clip of his opponent in KY's 1st congressional district race, Heather Ryan, performing a short piece from the Vagina Monologues earlier this year, which raised money for the Merriman House in Paducah for battered women. In it, he asks "Is this what we want to represent the first district of Kentucky?"

Uhhhh.... YES.

Violence, shmiolence - this woman is in a show about vaginas, people!! Sigh, how moronic. (Albeit not surprising.)

As we noted over and over throughout the Democratic primary, it's important to decry sexism against women in politics even if you don't agree with them on the issues or endorse their candidacy. With that we're depressed to note that the sexist bullshit against Republican VP pick Sarah Palin is cropping up so soon:

C'mon. Criticize her on the basis of her political record or experience. Don't make it about looks.

(For those who don't get the "joke," this should explain it.)

UPDATE: And Jill points out another incident, too.

Picture from littlebethany.

Trigger warning : This is very upsetting. At the convention, a CodePink protester was knocked down by a policeman saying (you can hear him in the video): "Back it up, bitch."

So McCain has chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. She's young -- 44 -- and a self-described "hockey mom." Because Palin is relatively unknown on the national level (she's been governor since 2006, and before that was mayor of a town of 8,000 people), a lot of people are already identifying this as a ploy to snag the votes of disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters. I don't know whether that's true (my guess is yes), but it's my sense that Hillary backers who don't like Obama are not going to like a McCain/Palin ticket much better.

Let me say right off the bat that, overall, I think it's great that Republicans have chosen to elevate a woman to this level -- no matter what their motivations. I want to see more women of all parties involved in politics. But, as we stated over and over in the primaries, a politician's gender isn't everything. It's merely one factor to be considered. And quite frankly, Palin's political views suck.

First up, she's super anti-choice. The forced-pregnancy crowd is thrilled today! (She recently had her fifth child, who has Down's syndrome.) She's against marriage equality and supports a federal gay-marriage ban, but has made sure to note that she "has gay friends." Though she has signed on to same-sex partner benefits. She believes schools should teach creationism. She's also pretty terrible on environmental issues, and is a huge advocate of drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. Plus, she's embroiled in a scandal:

But Palin's seemingly bright future was clouded in late July when the state legislature voted to hire an independent investigator to find out whether she tried to have a state official fire her ex-brother-in-law from his job as a state trooper.

As Vanessa blogged last month, Bill Kristol was claiming McCain would pick Palin -- and that would prove that Republicans are "much more open to strong women." Frankly, that's bullshit. Republicans are more open to a certain type of woman -- one who is strongly against things like equal pay, universal health care, and reproductive freedom. In other words, the party is pro-woman-candidates, as long as they enact anti-woman policies.

More to come later... Any Alaskans out there who know a bit more about her? What do the rest of you think?

UPDATE: My colleague Adam over at TAP makes some great points:

The pick of Palin is dripping with transparent condescension, the notion that the enthusiasm behind Hillary was simply the result of her being a woman, that it had nothing to do with what she actually stood for, and in that sense it's equally sexist. Palin is essentially a hard right ideologue, and therefore nothing like Hillary as far as substance is concerned. It's not very different from running Alan Keyes against Barack Obama in 2004. The conservative media reaction has already engaged in paternalistic language, with FOX News reporting on television that "McCain broke the glass ceiling," implying in fact, that the pick had nothing to do with Palin or her qualifications, but merely her gender. It's fitting that the party positing affirmative action as a program that picks people exclusively based on race or gender rather than qualification should do something similar given an opportunity for political advancement. While Obama is promising change through policy, not simply through the circumstances of his birth, the McCain campaign thinks his appeal is simply visual and demographic, and therefore something they can exploit.

UPDATE II: Bilerico has more on her record on LGBT issues.

Here it is! After the fabulous Feministing happy hour - where we got to talk to activists, readers and regular commenters like TheSoyMilkConspiracy and Thomas - we headed over to NARAL NY's watch party. It was amazing to get to watch this incredible speech with such a great group of people. Awesome night.

Don't let her celebrate alone, folks! Wish that girl a happy birthday!

My wonderful sister and partner in feminist crime, Vanessa, is turning 28 today. I'm so proud and happy - not just to have such an amazing friend and sister in V, but also that we've gotten to take this feminist journey with the site together. Love you, sis.

This is a great question to keep asking John McCain and other anti-choicers:

Related:
Reclaiming the abortion debate
How much jail time should women get for having an abortion?
Thompson gives her jail time
McCain's long and ugly record on choice
More on McCain's dismal record on choice
McCain: Contra-contraception