spoiler alert: railin' on palin.

I've been doing my darnedest not to be all hatin' on Sarah Palin, honest I have. No "Daily Im-Palin" here (luckily, the women of Salon.com's Broadsheet blog have got it covered). And despite myself, I do like her 'do.

But it sure seems the more we hear about her, the less we hear from her, and vice versa. I'm actually approaching a point at which I'm newly maddened at the McCain camp for its stunningly sexist treatment of its own veep candidate. The way they've had her gagged in front of the media is downright disgraceful － I mean, if she's that much of a lingual liability, then they probably should have selected someone else for the position. So mistakes － or one massive one, anyway － were made. Just man up already and OWN IT.

Of course, I understand her handlers' trepidation when they let Palin loose last week with poor, pained Katie Couric, and some of the governor's responses came out sounding strangely familiar:



Hilarious, and yet scarily serious, folks.

So, if you're feeling the need for a little relief from Palin Meltdown Syndrome (the new PMS － all the dread and ten times the nausea!), here's a handful of nuggets to get you through to next Thursday's VP debate:

The Alaskan Women Reject Palin rally, held a couple of weeks ago to coincide with the governor's return to her homestate following her nomination acceptance, drew a crowd close to 1,500 － which, according to one Anchorage blogger, is HUGE: "In Anchorage, if you can get 25 people to show up at an event, then it's a success ... Never have I seen anything like it in my 17+ years of living here." Read the whole post here － it includes dozens of photos of the protest, which featured homemade signage such as "Jesus was a Community Organizer," "Candidate to Nowhere," "Voted for her Once － Never Again!!" and "Hockey Mama for Obama." My favorite, though, is the woman dressed up in a polar bear costume, holding a sign that says "Polar Bear Moms Say: No Palin."

Women Against Sarah Palin is a neat little blog － well-written, resource-ful, not too rabid － complete with inspirational quotations, live links to other worthwhile anti-Palin action/information websites, and an online petition to "say NO to Sarah Palin." I must confess, I'm not sure I could say it better than they have in said petition: "Sarah Palin's record is anti-woman. Feminism is not about simply achieving the power and status typically held by men. It's about protecting and supporting the rights of women of all classes, races, cultures and beliefs. Palin's record and beliefs do not align with this. She was chosen by John McCain specifically because he believes American women will vote for any female candidate, regardless of her qualifications. He is wrong." Sign up for some of that here.

Finally, a spectacular suggestion from the cerebral skirts over at Broadsheet: Go to the Planned Parenthood website and contribute in honor of Sarah. Just $5 will help this vital organization provide necessary services to women, men and families across America. And if you fill in her mailing address (Governor's Office, P.O. Box 110001, Juneau, AK, 99811-0001), then Planned Parenthood will send her a nice card letting her know about your generous gift.   ;)

Feeling better yet? Not quite? Well, keep the faith, rock the vote, and hope against hope we'll all be feeling much, much better come November 5th.