I�ve come to really appreciate the Palin selection for VP. It could very well turn out to be the best thing to happen to this country politically for some time.

Allow me to explain.

For years now I, and countless others, have been attempting (rather unsuccessfully) to warn our fellow countrymen that the people running the Republican Party right now are not who they want you to think they are. This ain�t your granddad�s GOP we�re dealing with here, and it hasn�t been for some time. The charlatans in control have only one thing on their mind -- amassing wealth and political/global power (in order to amass even more wealth). Everything else is just theater, and secondary to those goals.

So how have they managed to keep so many -- including rank and file Republicans -- believing they have the best interest of the country at heart, even as they proceed, step by step, to demolish the middle class, and, therefore, the country as we knew it, with their �smash and dash� economic policies?

Lies, deception, smears, meaningless distractions (lapel pins, fist bumps, pigs with lipstick), war, terrorism, fear . . . basically anything they can come up with to keep you from focusing on what truly matters to the future of this country, or your own personal well being.

�Course, they couldn�t even begin to get away with this if they didn�t have considerable backing from the mainstream corporate media.

Yes, that�s right, kids. This may come as a �no tooth fairy� type of shock to you, but there are not a lot of �liberals� who have worked their way into the boardrooms of General Electric, Time Warner, Disney, Viacom, and News Corp. This is just one of those little shams you�ve been fed over the years, helped along, ironically, by the corporate media.

This doesn�t mean that they�re outright GOP propagandists (other than Fox, of course). It�s typically more subtle than that. One tactic is to treat both sides of any issue in a neutral manner, regardless of the facts involved.

As Paul Begala recently put it: �If McCain were to say the moon was made of green cheese, we can be certain that Obama would pounce on it, and point out it�s actually made of rock. And you just know the headline in the paper the next day would read: CANDIDATES CLASH ON LUNAR LANDSCAPE.�

And so, for the past eight years or so, the Republican Party has been able to �muddy the waters� on virtually every issue and/or get away with redefining black as white, up as down, and wrong as right with few, if any, consequences. They�ve even gotten away with marketing a scheme to transfer wealth from the middle and lower classes to those at the very top as �what�s best for working families.�

I was recently chided about becoming a registered Republican. Here was my response. I think it�s apropos to the subject . . .

�Truth is, I�m just way too �conservative� for that particular party right now. I�m far too conservative . . .

�Fiscally -- as in not irresponsibly running up, and passing on trillions of dollars of debt to future generations, or borrowing money from China to fund tax cuts for millionaires.

�Environmentally -- as in conserving our environment for those future generations, so they�ll at least have clean air to breath and water to drink as they work off all that debt.

�Socially -- as in keeping the government completely out of our personal lives.

�Internationally -- as in not invading other countries under false pretenses in order to steal their stuff, bankrupting our own in the process.

�Domestically -- as in preserving our country�s assets and not selling them off in the dead of night to the highest bidder, like some crazed crack addict needing money for a fix.

�Governmentally -- as in adhering to constitutional precepts like habeas corpus; being free from illegal search and seizures; exercising our right to free speech without fear of retribution; not torturing confessions out of suspects; maintaining the separation of powers; etc, etc.�

The point is . . . the Republican leadership has managed to turn everything conservatives once stood for inside out and backwards. They�ve become a party dominated by a Dobson/Robertson/Hagee brand of religious extremism (working feverishly to bring about the end of the world and the Rapture), and those who are so overcome by a compulsive need to have it all -- and I mean all -- that it entirely overwhelms any sense of personal integrity and societal responsibility, making them completely antithetical to a democratic republic.

John McCain and Sarah Palin represent both sides of this spectrum perfectly, and are therefore a Neo-Republican match made in heaven.

Which brings me back to McCain�s �decision� (it wasn�t really his decision you know) that Palin be the one to step into the presidency if something were to happen to him.

Let me ask a simple, semi-theoretical, question.

Does anyone reading this (other than that 30 percent unflappable right-wing base) really and truly and sincerely believe Sarah Palin should be our next president? That she is the best, most qualified candidate, out of all the people in this country, for that job?

No, of course not. No one, outside of that �base,� who puts any thought at all into the matter, would think that.

But this is exactly what you�re contemplating when you say �I�m leaning McCain� or �I haven�t quite made up my mind.�

McCain is 72, with a history of recurring cancer, and some kind of weird �tick� that causes him to fiddle with his wedding band obsessively (early signs?). This is not a gamble we in this country can afford right now. We�re not talking about someone who would step in if the mayor of Wasilla were incapacitated; this is President of the United States, at one of the most crucial phases in our nation�s history!

And that�s why I like the pick of Sarah Palin for VP.

Because it lays bare -- stark naked in broad daylight -- the ruse that is McCain�s slogan, �Country First.�

This cynical choice did more in one fell swoop to expose the Neo-Republicans for who they are, and where their priorities lie, than folks like me have been able to accomplish in 10 years.

If McCain is elected, and the final stages of this conquest (they�ll refer to it as �reform�) are successful, you will not recognize this country in six-seven years (maybe a lot sooner). This neocon crew has every intention of dismantling what�s left of the middle class, simultaneously shredding whatever safety net there is, leaving the vast majority of us to fight like dogs over the scraps (under the watchful eye of a privatized �police state�), while they sneer contemptuously from behind their gated and guarded walls.

This election is going to come right down to the wire. The McCain/Palin ticket already has 45 percent of the vote in the bag -- that 30 percent base and another 15 percent (outside the base) who will not vote for Obama, under any circumstances, because he�s half black. And, if necessary, they can snag an additional 2-3 percent (within the margin of error) via electronic vote manipulation and voter suppression tactics they�ve honed the past eight years.

Which means McCain and Palin could be caught red handed, on live video, having sex with farm animals, and they would still have 47-48 percent of the vote locked up!

So it all comes down to you -- the moderate or traditional Republicans, Independents, and those who are still pondering whether that glass is half black or half white, or if it should even matter.

Sure, it�s a lousy deal . . . the future of the country and the rest of the world -- including untold millions, maybe billions, of people�s lives -- all riding on you. But you can handle it. I know you can. If you�ve read this far, I know you have all the �tools� necessary, in the upstairs attic, to make the right decision. Even without seeing that video.