Palin and GOP proud of original sin?

My fellow Alaskans: independent views hit McCain's running mate
Ewen MacAskill in St Paul The Guardian, Wednesday September 3 2008

She could be just a heartbeat away from the highest office in America. But yesterday it emerged that Sarah Palin once supported a party that wants her home state, Alaska, to break away from the Union - the latest in an embarrassing series of disclosures that have cast doubt on the judgment of John McCain in selecting her as his running mate in November's presidential election.

McCain's selection of a woman was hailed a smart move when he announced it on Friday. But each day since has brought fresh details of her life and politics, supporting the view that McCain made an impulsive choice and that his campaign team either failed to thoroughly vet her, or did not have enough time to do so.

The revelation that Palin was a member of the secessionist Alaskan Independence party motto - "Alaska First" - sits awkwardly with McCain's campaign slogan, "Country First" and will be controversial in a country whose oath of allegiance includes the phrase "one nation, indivisible". The AIP believes that the 1958 vote which led to the state joining the Union was corrupt and wants a re-run, with the aim of eventual independence. Party officials said yesterday that Palin had attended at least one convention before leaving in 1996 to join the Republicans. The McCain camp yesterday insisted she had been a registered Republican since 1982.

But a video of Palin's address this year to the independence party's convention while Alaska's Republican governor also surfaced yesterday on YouTube. A smiling and gracious Palin wished the delegates a successful meeting, ending with the words "God bless you".

The father was later named in media reports as Levi Johnston, 18. The campaign team said it had gone public to end rumours that Palin's most recent child had in fact been Bristol's.

In a Myspace entry, which has now been blocked, Johnston describes himself a "fuckin' redneck" and says he is in a relationship and "doesn't want kids".

Revelations
· Palin's unmarried 17-year-old daughter Bristol is five months pregnant

· Palin has supported the Alaskan Independence party, which wants a vote on seceding from the US

· A lawyer has been hired to defend her in an ethics investigation in which she is accused of abuse of power over the sacking of a state employee

· John McCain chose Palin after meeting her only twice

· No FBI background checks were carried out on her despite Republican claims

· Palin campaigned for $27m in federal money when mayor of a 9,000-population town. It is a kind of funding McCain disapproves of
go here for more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/03/uselections2008.republicans20082

There is a problem that really bothers me no one sees to have paid attention to. Given the fact Palin, along with McCain did not fund education for sex, Palin claims to be in favor of abstinence only education, how is it that the "pro-life" people find this event something to be proud of? If anything this has sent the wrong message to young girls all across this nation. It tells them that their parents would be proud of the fact they are just teenagers who get pregnant as long as they decide to keep the baby. What happened to original sin on this issue? Sex without marriage? They speak of the "choice" Bristol made but in their mind no one should ever have the ability to make a choice at all. So how was "making the choice" to have the baby even an option to Bristol?

Aside that the use of condoms would have more than likely prevent the pregnancy and sexual transmitted diseases, wouldn't it have been something to be proud of to not have raised Bristol thinking that sex at her age was ok? Isn't that the impression Palin's supporters just gave the teenagers across this nation, as well as by the looks of it the UK as well considering they picked up on this story too?

Most of us have people in our own families who have had their kids really young but they were not public figures holding themselves up to be "moral" leaders and in a position where they feel they are entitled to judge the actions of other people. What happened to the Republican party? Sex with hookers is ok with them for a married man who paid to cheat on is wife? Sexual advances on young pages in the Congress is ok?

We cannot control what other people do but we can help them to learn from us. If we teach and raise our kids to value themselves based on what's inside of them, their feelings, their dreams, their hopes, then maybe there wouldn't be so many kids having sex before they are really responsible enough to know what they are doing. My God! When we have girls spending more time deciding what to wear than who they share their body with, we have a huge problem. Things have gotten so twisted around that it's ok to be in high school and pregnant? That used to be a shameful condition to be in, not one to be brought into the public as something to be proud of.

Palin said she's proud of her daughters decision to keep the baby? This makes no sense at all. It would be different if she had been all for choice but she wants it eliminated from anyone else making any kind of "choice" when it comes to their own lives. She's proud her underage daughter is pregnant? The GOP is proud of this as well? It would have been better for everyone to simply say "no comment" instead of holding this up as something to be proud of.

I wanted to not post on this anymore but it's getting ridiculous hearing the comments from the Republicans coming out as if they should celebrate this. It's sending the wrong message to a generation who will now think it's ok to have sex without the slightest idea what they are getting into. After all, abstinence only "education" sets them up for all of this and Palin's reaction to all of this has proven it. Being proud of your daughter is one thing but proud of this?

Now it also looks as if there has been a lot of deception as well between what the American people have been told about Palin and what is not true. We also now know that the vetting process did not include anyone who knew Palin in Alaska. What else don't we know about her?