There certainly is a double standard.

One of the many stories reporting on this

In case you've been living under a rock and haven't heard, the lovely Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, recently took her family on down to New York city. This is a special occasion because not only does it allow the Palin the opportunity to crawl outside of her hate cave and bask in the sun, it also allows for her to get some much needed media attention. See, Palin isn't a "real" political figure. She's not someone like Nancy Pelosi where the media constantly ask her opinion on issues occurring in congress or just in general (I don't mean to imply that Pelosi is a "better" representative, simply that the media and people and general seek her out for comment). No, Palin is very much a political figure in the Anne Coulter model, where she's basically off the news and off peoples radar unless she's saying something that is A) Inflammatory B) Hateful C) Mindblowingly stupid D) All of the above. Only during these times of fervor does anyone even know she exists, and Palin wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to make New York one of those times.

But how? How do you manage to make news out of nothing? For you or I it may seem impossible but not for someone with handlers as talented as Mrs. Palin. A comment made by David Letterman of "David Letterman's increasingly unfunny show" was the key. During his standard monologue Letterman talked about the trip and the family attending a Yankee's game noting, "There was one awkward moment during the seventh inning stretch. Her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez". Any rational human being would figure he must be talking about Bristol Palin, Sarah's 18 year old daughter, gangster partier and unwed mother. But not Sarah Palin! Oh no, she saw right through that obvious joke about her knocked up and unwed daughter and clearly found Letterman's intended target, her 14 year old daughter Willow!

Again, you or I may sit back and go, "why on earth would you assume Letterman was talking about her 14 year old daughter and not her 18 year old daughter who's already been pregnant?" Well, because making something inflammatory is one of Palin's four ways of getting news and boy, she was in rare form about it. Palin claimed that Letterman's comments caused everything from teen image problems (I'm sure a ton of teens have gone, "I'm too fat, if I don't lose weight A-Rod is gonna knock me up!") to statutory rape. Palin says Letterman should be ashamed and that this is an example of the double standard set by media.

Palin wants to claim when Obama said, "leave my family out of this" everyone bowed to his will, but they surely couldn't do that to the republican's. Yeah, the evil media knocked your daughter up, drug her baby's dad (and then fiance) to the Republican National Convention, then made him not marry her and then made Bristol come out and say abstinence may not work (side note: DUH!). What exactly would the media have done if they went after the Obama family? His kids aren't even both teenagers yet. You'd look like a hell of a crack reporter hanging out by an elementary school, seeing how many milks a kid drank.

While we're on the topic of the "double standard" let's talk about Palin's comment that, "It would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman". This could be read several ways, however, when Palin was on the Today Show and that comment was read, she delivered what can only be called "The Palin Smirk". I'm sure you've seen it. It's not her "smile for the camera" face. It's the "I just said something that my writers told me was really witty and I feel so smart" face. Here's a couple of examples (1) (2) (3). Those aren't the best but pretty much watch anytime she's on TV it'll happen at least once and it's usually after something that's A) insulting B) Super Folksy C)Really awkward out of her mouth D) All of those. Anyhow, that little smirk made the intention perfectly clear and that was, "I just made a joke about David Letterman trying to rape my daughter, tee-he". Not only does this CONTINUE her misunderstanding of the original joke, but it also makes her just as bad (if not worse) than she claims David Letterman is. So, it's wrong for someone to make a joke about your 18 year old, daughter who has a kid but it's okay for you to insinuate that a 62 year old married man with a son, is a statutory rapist?

Double standard ineed.

Newt should know better....

Some original content

So, if you haven't heard by now, at some point, at some time Supreme Court Justice nominee (and god willing appointee [omg, I'm biased!]) Sonia Sotomayor said something along the lines of, "I feel my experience as a Latino Woman, can lead to me being a better judge than a white male". I'm sure she had no idea the shit storm that would ensue after that.

Everyone with an ounce of pull in that old, bitter, republican corpse jumped to life and screamed that this woman must be racist. Well...Everyone who didn't have an elected position. Newt Gingrich (former speaker of the House and all around douche) offered this insight, "Imagine a judicial nominee said 'my experience as a white man makes me better than a Latina woman.' Wouldn't they have to withdraw? New racism is no better than old racism". Yes Newt, let's imagine. Let's imagine a world where for years and years the decisions impacting peoples everyday lives were left to white males. A situation where white males decided on racial discrimination, immigration, abortion and a number of other issues they've never dealt with first hand. Oh wait, that's a majority of America's Supreme Court for the entirety of its existence.

Old, white males are the ones who seem to believe they know the most about abortion, gay rights, even immigration. Until recently, old, white, men were also our only presidents. White guys had/have a monopoly on our laws, our elections and our judicial process. By refusing anyone else the right to take place in that process you're basically saying, "a white guy knows best". Maybe, Newt and Rush and all those other dicks are too scared to say it but by bringing up such a petty quote by Sotomayor highlights that you got nothing else to cling to but your petty racist ideals. For decades the practice has been "whitey knows best" now someone even proposes the theory that someone might know better than a white male and they're called a racist.

But then again, maybe I'm misreading it. I mean, if whitey knows best, they don't come any more white, male or scared to death of minorities than Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh...They must be like the all knowing gods of their world.