From Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic Monthly:

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

Andrew Sullivan, 31 Aug 2008

Questions for the McCain-Palin campaign:

Where has Bristol Palin (far right, holding Trig, with a ring on her wedding finger) been for the past year? Has she been attending high school? Or was she absent because of infectious mononucleosis for between five and eight months, as is now being reported on the Internet?

Why would a 43 year old woman, on her fifth pregnancy, with a Down Syndrome child, after her amniotic fluid has started to leak, not go to the nearest hospital immediately, even if she was in Texas for a speech?

Why would she not only not go to the hospital in Texas, but take an eight-hour plane flight to Seattle and then Anchorage?

Why would she choose to deliver the baby not in the nearest major facility in Anchorage but at a much smaller hospital near her home-town?

Why did the flight attendants on the trip home say she bore no signs of being pregnant?

It strikes me as likely that there are reasonable answers to these questions - more reasonable than the only one given so far -

“You can’t have a fish picker from Texas,” said Todd -

and the rumors buzzing across the Internets and the press corps are unfounded and unseemly. There must be plenty of medical records and obstetricians and medical eye-witnesses prepared to testify to Sarah Palin’s giving birth to Trig. There must be a record of Bristol’s high school attendance for the past year. And surely, surely, the McCain camp did due diligence on this. But the noise around this story is now deafening, and the weirdness of the chronology sufficient to rise to the level of good faith questions. So please give us these answers - and provide medical records for Sarah Palin’s pregnancy - and put this to rest.

We didn’t want to post this. It is simply too despicable for words.

Mind you, the Democrats are forever claiming that the Republicans are character assassins who smear their candidates.

Never mind that their proof is always “email campaigns” that nobody we know ever got an email from.

But the Democrats smears are right out in the open. And straight from the gutter.

Speaking of the gutter, here is the original post from the Daily Kos which began this loathsome attack:

One of the contributors at the Daily Kos has even suggested that the daughter was incestuously raped by her father.

These people are truly unhinged. They are rabid with mindless hate.

Meanwhile, someone should take a look at the odds of Downs Syndrome Children being born to teenagers.

Here is an entry from Wikipedia:

Down syndrome

 

Maternal age influences the chances of conceiving a baby with Down syndrome. At maternal age 20 to 24, the probability is one in 1562; at age 35 to 39 the probability is one in 214, and above age 45 the probability is one in 19.

As if this smear wasn’t enough, the similarly despicable Alan Colmes has suggested that Mrs. Palin caused her child to have Down Syndrome because she was not careful enough in her pre-natal care.

From the Google cache of the page:

(Click images to enlarge.)

Hey, never mind that the same Wikipedia entry also notes:

Current research (as of 2008) has shown that Down syndrome is due to a random event during the formation of sex cells or pregnancy. There has been no evidence that it is due to parental behavior or environmental factors.

After all, there are Republicans to smear.

By the way the Rogers Cadenhead cited is the person behind the ultra-left Drudge rip-off site, The Drudge Retort. Cadenhead is of course a world renown expert on such matters as prenatal care and Downs Syndrome.

But which is it? Are we to condemn Mrs. Palin for not reacting properly to her water breaking, or for pretending to have a child to cover-up for a wayward daughter?

The Democrats need to pick one outragous calumny and stick to it.

The always courageous Mr. Colmes has subsequently removed his insight on Mrs. Palin’s maternal failings. Of course he is now blaming right-wingers for misunderstanding him.

But damn Alan Colmes, Rogers Cadenhead, Andrew Sullivan and their fellow miscreants from the Democrat Underground and Daily Kos for even making us have to post about such things.

Damn them all to hell.

It seems like people can’t get enough of talking about Sarah Palin.

As always, please keep the discourse on a level you would not mind having your sainted mother read.

From Reuters:

Thai police shoot tear gas into anti-government protesters in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Aug. 29, 2008. Thai police muscled into crowds of anti-government protesters occupying the prime minister’s office compound Friday to deliver a court order demanding they leave, sparking scuffles that left several people with minor injuries.

Thai PM’s allies hit street as debate begins

By Vithoon Amorn Sun Aug 31

BANGKOK (Reuters) - More than 1,000 government supporters marched on Thailand’s parliament on Sunday as lawmakers began a special debate on street protests threatening to topple Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej.

The group avoided areas of Bangkok where anti-government protesters are massed, including thousands who have occupied Samak’s official compound since Tuesday and are vowing to stay until the prime minister quits.

Samak, who has said he would never bow to the demands of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), warned in his weekly radio address that his patience was wearing out.

“I am not afraid, but I am concerned about chaos in the nation,” he said. “We cannot let the seizure of Government House continue indefinitely without taking action.”

Samak gave no details of his meeting on Saturday with revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who holds enormous sway in Thailand and has intervened in past political disputes that threatened the country’s stability.

The PAD, a motley group of businessmen, academics and activists whose campaign against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra led to his overthrow in a 2006 coup, accuses Samak of being an illegitimate proxy of Thaksin…

Once again a popular government — and one that had been elected in a landslide — is about to be brought down by orchestrated mobs in the street.

And, just like before, it is simply because they are fighting Muslim terrorists — even during the holy month of Ramadan.

From the Al Arabiya News:

No letup for Muslim rebels in Ramadan: Manila

August 31, 2008

Philippine troops will continue offensives against Muslim rebels in the south but commanders will make “tactical adjustments” in deference to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, an official said Sunday.

“Our operations against them are continuing even through the Ramadan,” army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres said over Manila radio. “There is no instruction for us to stop our offensive against the groups of Bravo and Kato. We cannot delay enforcement of laws.”

Soldiers have in the past week taken over more than a dozen camps controlled by Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leaders Umbra Kato and Abdurahman Macapaar, also known as Commander Bravo, on the southern island of Mindanao.

The two led deadly raids against mostly Christian towns on Mindanao in early August, triggering heavy reprisals from government forces. The fighting has claimed the lives of more than 100 rebels and more than 40 soldiers and civilians and forced more than 280,000 to flee their homes.

Torres said the rebel leaders’ forces had splintered into smaller groups on the run in the hinterland. The two men were said to be wounded and running low on ammunition amid the unrelenting offensive, which has put on hold any prospect of resuming peace talks with the separatists in the immediate term.

Kato and Bravo are hard-line senior MILF members. They launched their attacks after the Supreme Court on August 4 blocked a deal that would have given the MILF control over an expanded Muslim autonomous area.

Torres said ground commanders had been ordered to make some “tactical adjustments” including assisting Muslims in evacuation camps who want to go to mosques and places of worship.

The MILF has been waging a bloody rebellion since 1978 for an independent Islamic state on Mindanao. It signed a ceasefire with government in 2003, paving for talks that are now in peril amid the escalation of violence.

Funny how little we hear about this theater in the war on terrorism.

From the Agence France-Presse:

Former Syrian VP sentenced to hard labour: lawyer

DAMASCUS (AFP) — A military court in Damascus has sentenced former Syrian vice president turned opposition leader Abdel Halim Khaddam to hard labour for life, a lawyer involved in the case told AFP on Saturday.

“Judge Mohammed Kaddour Assad of the Damascus first military criminal court has handed Abdel Halim Khaddam 13 sentences, including hard labour for life,” lawyer Hossam Eddine al-Habash said.

The court has ordered that Khaddam, in his seventies, be stripped of his civil rights and prevented from residing in Damascus or Tartus, his native town, Habash said.

Khaddam, who resigned as Syria’s vice president in 2005 to join the opposition and now lives in Paris, is accused of “slandering the Syrian leadership and lying before an international tribunal regarding the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri,” according to the charge sheet obtained by AFP.

He is also accused of “conspiracy to unlawfully seize political power” and of having “illegitimate links with the Zionist enemy, undermining the prestige of the state and of national sentiment and worst of all, plotting with a foreign country to launch an aggression against Syria.”

According to Habash, Syrian authorities will ask Interpol to cooperate in a bid to bring Khaddam to face the courts at home.

Contacted by AFP in Paris, Khaddam’s family said they were not aware of the court ruling.

In 2006, Khaddam charged that Syrian agents implicated by a UN probe into the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri could not have acted without Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s approval.

The Damascus regime in turn accused Khaddam of treason, with parliament passing a motion calling for him to be brought to justice and tried for high treason.

Life at hard labor — for lying to the UN? (That is, “lying before an international tribunal.”)

For helping the Zionists? For undermining the prestige of Syria?

This is what comes of telling the truth in the Middle East.

According to Habash, Syrian authorities will ask Interpol to cooperate in a bid to bring Khaddam to face the courts at home.

Hopefully Mr. Sarkozy will not let this happen.

From where else but the New York Times:

Troop ‘Surge’ Took Place Amid Doubt and Debate

August 31, 2008
By MICHAEL R. GORDON

WASHINGTON — When President Bush speaks to the Republican convention on Monday, he is expected to tout the “surge” of forces in Iraq as one of his proudest achievements. But that decision, one of his most consequential as commander in chief, was made only after months of tumultuous debate within the administration, according to still-secret memorandums and interviews with a broad range of current and former officials.

In January 2007, at a time when the situation in Iraq appeared the bleakest, Mr. Bush chose a bold option that was at odds with what many of his civilian and military advisers, including his field commander, initially recommended. Mr. Bush’s plan to send more than 20,000 troops to carry out a new counterinsurgency strategy has helped to reverse the spiral of sectarian killings in Iraq.

But Mr. Bush’s penchant to defer to commanders in the field and to a powerful defense secretary delayed the development of a new approach until conditions in Iraq, in the words of a November 2006 analysis by the Central Intelligence Agency, resembled anarchy and “civil war.”

When the White House began its formal review of Iraq strategy that month, the Pentagon favored a stepped-up effort to transfer responsibility to Iraqi forces that would have facilitated American troop cuts.

The State Department promoted an alternative that would have focused on fighting terrorists belonging to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, containing the violence in Baghdad and intervening to quell sectarian violence only when it reached the proportions of “mass killing.” …

Members of the National Security Council staff made an initial effort to explore a possible troop increase by October, drafting a paper that raised the prospect that the United States might “double down” in Iraq by sending more troops there….

The rest of the typically opaque article goes on to describe the debate within the administration, Pentagon and State Department. But the article has already made its point.

Leave it to the treasonous New York Times to argue that Mr. Bush’s finest hour was one of his worst.

And that his foot dragging on the surge — which The Times excoriated with all of its womanly wrath — was responsible for Iraq’s “anarchy and civil war.”

(Though, we are told the surge only “helped to reverse the spiral of sectarian killings in Iraq.”)

What media bias?

From the UK’s Times:

Women preachers at moderate mosque ‘urge faithful to kill gays’

Abul Taher

Women preachers are urging followers at one of Britain’s most influential mosques to kill homosexuals and view all non-Muslims as “vile”, according to a television documentary.

The London Central Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre, known as the Regent’s Park Mosque, is one of the most respected centres for moderate Islam in western Europe.

However, an undercover investigation by the Channel 4 Dispatches programme has found extremist preachers have held study circles there and are teaching followers a hardline version of the faith followed in Saudi Arabia, known as Wahhabism.

The documentary, to be broadcast tomorrow, is a follow-up to Undercover Mosque, which investigated a number of mosques and was made by the same team more than a year ago. That resulted in an investigation by West Midlands Police, who accused the makers of distorting sermons and inflaming tensions. Officers took no action against extremist preachers whose words were broadcast. Ofcom rejected the complaint and the force had to apologise to Channel 4. It agreed at the High Court to pay £100,000 for libel.

In the new documentary, a female reporter infiltrated women’s study circles. In one, a preacher using the name Umm Amira told followers: “We are not going to be like animals . . . or to be like the homosexuals, God save us from that, you understand? We have to take the judgment, the judgment is to kill them.”

Umm Amira is recorded as saying converts from Islam should also be killed. “He is Muslim and he gets out of Islam, he doesn’t want any more. What are we going to do? We kill him, kill, kill.”

In another study circle, Umm Amira describes Christians as “vile”. Another preacher, Umm Saleem, tells her congregation not to take British citizenship or become friends with non-Muslims.

In the programme, Ahmed Al-Dubayan, the mosque’s director, said the women were not authorised by the mosque.

The preachers could not be reached this weekend, but Umm Saleem told Channel 4: “We are not blind followers of any government or any clerics.

We criticise other religions, just as other religions criticise Islam . . . we encourage integration into society.”

The Muslim Council of Britain, of which the mosque is an affiliate, said: “Some of the statements are deeply offensive . . . [but] it would be very wrong, and quite unfair, to smear the whole centre.”

At first thought this was an old story that we had posted about months ago.

Alas, it is just more of the same.

In honor of the third anniversary of Katrina, Democrat National Committee Chairman Don Fowler laughs about the prospect of hurricane Gustav hitting New Orleans:

Luckily for New Orleans there is now a conservative Republican in the mix down there. In fact, all of the Gulf states now have Republican governors.

Why do you think that is, Don?

From TwinCities.com:

Authorities raid, search protesters’ hub in St. Paul

By Tad Vezner and Dave Orrick

08/30/2008

Law enforcement officials Friday night raided a former theater on St. Paul’s West Side, detaining and questioning dozens of activists and protesters gathered there three days before the Republican National Convention.

About 9:15 p.m., about a dozen St. Paul police officers, backed up by several Ramsey County sheriff’s deputies, burst through the front door of the former Smith Theater at 627 Smith Ave. with their guns drawn, according to witnesses.

Several dozen occupants of the building were ordered to the ground, handcuffed, searched, photographed, asked to show identification and questioned by police and sheriff’s officials, the witnesses said.

The authorities were executing a search warrant for Ramsey County sheriff’s officials, who led the raid.

“The search is part of an ongoing investigation regarding serious criminal acts,” said Sheriff Bob Fletcher, who declined to give details about the alleged acts.

The Pioneer Press did not see the warrant. But witnesses quoted from the warrant, which was read aloud by authorities. They said authorities were looking for “items that could be used for direct action techniques, ranging from computers, Xboxes, Xbox games, Molotov cocktails and matchstick heads.”

Asked about the timing of the warrant just before the RNC starts Monday, Fletcher said “the warrant was dictated by the needs of the investigation and the criminal behavior of the suspects.”

Fletcher, reached at home, would not say whether the warrant was connected to the RNC.

The theater, rented by an activist group called the RNC Welcoming Committee, serves as one of the centers for organizing protests during the RNC.

As of 11 p.m., about 100 people congregated outside the theater, cheering their peers who were released from inside the building one by one.

No arrests had been confirmed by 11:30 p.m.

As they were let out of the theater, activists and protesters criticized the action.

“I was doing nothing illegal,” said Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality. “I’m furious about this, that you can’t come to a meeting space without the reasonable expectation to be unmolested by police.”

Jordan Kushner, head of the mass defense committee of the National Lawyers Guild’s Minnesota chapter, said the raid was unjustified.

“It’s an obviously blatant act of harassment and intimidation to suppress political dissent,” he said. “You do this in a police state. I guarantee you they are not going to find anything (illegal).”

Well, if the head of the “mass defense committee of the National Lawyers Guild” is willing to guarantee that these people weren’t doing anything illegal — that should be good enough for us.

Right?

From a “community blog” at the official Barack Obama website:

Mooseburgers for Everyone to Celebrate Palin, McCain’s VP Pick!

By Tracy DC ☮DC T☮ YesWeDid - Aug 30th, 2008

McCain chooses Sarah Palin for VP spot (after meeting her once) to woo disgruntled Hillraisers, to get financial support from his heretofore unexcited conservative base who was gonna vote for him anyway, as an attempt to reignite his fading image as a maverick, and because he fantasizes what the former beauty queen looks like when the hair comes down and the glasses come off.

Moreover, I’m sure McCain is trying to figure out if she can be paid less for being a VP than his other strung-along would-be male picks since he’s against equal pay for women. The above must be the reasons since Palin’s experience does not qualify her to potentially be a heartbeat away from being the Leader of the Free World, even more troubling, when you consider whose 72 year old little off beat heart we’re talkin’ about, here.

To end on a positive note with regard to Palin, you can’t deny her superwoman status–three days after giving birth to her son with Down Syndrome (now 5 months), she was back in the office trying to make sure that polar bears aren’t considered an endangered species, that BIG OIL rules, that incest and rape victims do not have a right to abortion, and that creationism will be taught in school, that is, if one can’t home-school.

No worries about missing dinner for her big family of 7, she’s got that handled too. She’s a moose hunter and has enough frozen microwavable mooseburgers to feed an army stored up for a year! Can’t wait to debate her myself!

Remember, Mr. Obama will bring us all together. He is the great unifier.

His acolytes prove this every day.

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news items themselves.

In order to make the articles as readable as possible, please try to stick to the format described in the first of these weekly editions here.

Of course articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread should be posted there. As always, remember to excerpt heavily and to provide a link to the original source.

A press release from NARAL:

McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate

August 29, 2008

Selection of anti-choice Palin shows just how extreme McCain presidency will be

Washington, D.C. – Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said that Sen. John McCain’s selection today of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate is further evidence that a McCain presidency will be just another four years of the same old Bush-style anti-choice policies. Just like McCain, Palin opposes a woman’s right to choose. Palin has also stated her opposition to abortion even in cases of rape or incest.

“John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate proves just how rigid and extreme his administration would be when it comes to a woman’s right to choose,” Keenan said. “For 25 years, McCain has opposed a woman’s right to choose, and we know that he will continue to push anti-choice policies in the White House. McCain’s pick of anti-choice Sarah Palin is further evidence that his White House will be just another four years of Bush-style policies. Any remaining doubts about McCain’s extreme anti-choice position should be put to rest when voters learn about the combined anti-choice records of Sarah Palin and John McCain.”

Palin, a member of the anti-choice group Feminists for Life, said during her campaign for governor that she is opposed to abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. [Juneau Empire, "Abortion Draws Clear Divide in State Races," accessed 8/29/08 and Anchorage Daily News, "Governor’s Race: Top contenders meet one last time to debate," 11/03/06.] 

“Americans are tired of the kind of divisive anti-choice policies that Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin have pledged to continue to support. The contrast between pro-choice Sen. Obama and anti-choice Sen. McCain is clear. Voters are looking for a leader who respects women’s freedom and privacy.  Barack Obama is that leader.”

Sen. McCain’s selection of Palin as his vice-presidential running mate is especially troublesome for the unique audience of women voters NARAL Pro-Choice America is targeting: Independent and Republican pro-choice women in suburban and exurban swing districts. These women play a pivotal role in the presidential election. Recent polling confirms how, once these voters know McCain’s extreme opposition to a woman’s right to choose and family planning, they will switch parties to support Sen. Barack Obama.

Can’t you just feel that sisterhood love?

A press release from the National Organization Of Women:

Not Every Woman Supports Women’s Rights

August 29, 2008

Statement of NOW PAC Chair Kim Gandy on the Selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s Vice Presidential Pick

Sen. John McCain’s choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is a cynical effort to appeal to disappointed Hillary Clinton voters and get them to vote, ultimately, against their own self-interest.

Gov. Palin may be the second woman vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket, but she is not the right woman. Sadly, she is a woman who opposes women’s rights, just like John McCain.

The fact that Palin is a mother of five who has a 4-month-old baby, a woman who is juggling work and family responsibilities, will speak to many women. But will Palin speak FOR women? Based on her record and her stated positions, the answer is clearly No.

In a gubernatorial debate, Palin stated emphatically that her opposition to abortion was so great, so total, that even if her teenage daughter was impregnated by a rapist, she would “choose life” — meaning apparently that she would not permit her daughter to have an abortion.

Palin also had to withdraw her appointment of a top public safety commissioner who had been reprimanded for sexual harassment, although Palin had been warned about his background through letters by the sexual harassment complainant.

What McCain does not understand is that women supported Hillary Clinton not just because she was a woman, but because she was a champion on their issues. They will surely not find Sarah Palin to be an advocate for women.

Sen. Joe Biden is the VP candidate who appeals to women, with his authorship and championing of landmark domestic violence legislation, support for pay equity, and advocacy for women around the world.

Finally, as the chair of NOW’s Political Action Committee, I am frequently asked whether NOW supports women candidates just because they are women. This gives me an opportunity to once again answer that question with an emphatic ‘No.’ We recognize the importance of having women’s rights supporters at every level but, like Sarah Palin, not every woman supports women’s rights.

Obviously the NOW harridans only approve of women who get ahead on the coat tails of their husbands, like Hillary Clinton.

(Caption for AP photo at right: In this Monday, June 30, 2008 file photo, Laurie Serino, left, talks about the high food prices with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in Barrow, Alaska.)

Which paper do you read?

From the Boston Herald:

Mitt Romney lauds McCain’s Sarah Palin pick

By Jessica Heslam
Friday, August 29, 2008

Former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney - considered a leading contender for John McCain’s running mate - praised the Arizona senator’s surprise pick today, saying Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s story is “inspiring.”

“Governor Palin’s story is one that all Americans will find inspiring,” Romney said in a statement issued earlier today.

“She’s a Washington outsider with a commitment to the conservative principles that will make our nation stronger. I look forward to campaigning for Senator McCain, Governor Palin and Republicans all across the country,” Romney said.

From Minnesota’s Pioneer Press:

Pawlenty calls Palin an ‘outstanding pick’

By Dennis Lien

Gov. Tim Pawlenty this morning praised the Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain’s choice for a running mate.

“She’s an executive, she’s a reformer…and she is going to be a great leader for our country,” Pawlenty said after his weekly radio show at the Minnesota State Fair.

From the Washington Post:

Palin Pick Leaves Bruised Feelings

By Anne E. Kornblut

DENVER — Though it was high in shock value, the Palin pick left bruised feelings among the short-list contenders who were not picked — and infuriated some Republican officials who privately said McCain had gone out on a limb, unnecessarily, without laying the groundwork for such an unknown.

Two senior Republican officials close to Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty said they had both been rudely strung along and now “feel manipulated.”

“They now know that they were used as decoys, well after McCain had decided not to pick them,” one Republican involved in the process said.

Wonder which spin will become the “truth”?

(Just kidding.)

From the erstwhile “war room,” Hillary Is 44:

Funeral In Denver

Friday, August 29th, 2008

This is a shocking and brilliant choice by McCain. McCain/Palin announce in must-win OHIO. Stomps out the Obama funeral story.

If McCain does not run for re-election the 44 year old Palin will be the Republican nominee in 2012. If the Democrats can be bought back to life after they are destroyed in NOvember and in 2010 they will have to nominate a women to run against Palin in 2012.

Hillary. Yes, Hillary.

Palin will help win women around the country. Palin will help with women in the Philadelphia suburbs. Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania will likely go with NRA member and hunter Palin. The Republican Party is now 100% unified and not in a fake way. The Republicans are showing they once again know how to run an election.

This is a shocking announcement with not much of a buildup (most thought it would be dull Romney, Pawlenty, or generic white male) which compares brilliantly against the trumpted [sic] weeks long hype of the Obama campaign - a big buildup for a dud.

Women will savage the Democratic Party and Obama/Dean/Brazile/Pelosi for their sexism and misogyny. Palin, whose political views we do not share, is well-spoken and articulate and tough. Palin is a maverick hated by the Alaska Republican Party because she has challenged them on ethics.

Hillary’s 18 million voters (many disenfranchised by the Democratic(?) Party) will determine this election and they just have by rejection [sic] of Obama/Dean/Brazile/Pelosi…

McCain has made a big bold amazing pick which knocks Obama’s fake campaign to the dirt - buried.

——————————————————————————————

There is really not much to say. The Party’s Over.

Something tells us that the rest of the Pumas are similarly cheesed off.

From a conflicted Associated Press:

McCain picks Alaska gov as running mate.

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer

DENVER - John McCain tapped little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate on Friday in a startling selection on the eve of the Republican National Convention.

Two senior campaign officials disclosed McCain’s decision a few hours before the Republican presidential nominee-to-be and his newly-minted running mate appeared at a rally in swing-state Ohio.

Palin, like McCain, is a conservative with a maverick streak who has shown a willingness to clash with others in her own party. A self-styled hockey mom and political reformer, she has been governor of her state less than two years.

Palin’s selection shocked numerous Republican officials.

At 44, Palin is a generation younger that Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, who is Barack Obama’s running mate on the Democratic ticket.

She is three years Obama’s junior, as well — and McCain has made much in recent weeks of Obama’s relative lack of experience in foreign policy and defense matters…

She is a former mayor of Wasilla who became governor of her state in December, 2006 after ousting a governor of her own party in a primary and then dispatching a former governor in the general election.

More recently, she has come under the scrutiny of an investigation by the Republican-controlled legislature into the possibility that she ordered the dismissal of Alaska’s public safety commissioner because he would not fire her former brother-in-law as a state trooper…

Palin has a long history of run-ins with the Alaska GOP hierarchy, giving her genuine maverick status and reformer credentials that could complement McCain’s image.

Two years ago, she ousted the state’s Republican incumbent governor, Frank Murkowski in the primary, despite having little money and little establishment backing.

She has also distanced herself from two senior Republican office-holders, sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don young. Both men are under federal corruption investigations.

She had earned stripes — and enmity — after Murkowski made her head of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. From that post, she exposed ethical violations by the state GOP chairman, also a fellow commissioner.

She and her husband Todd Palin, have five children. The latest, a baby, was born with Down syndrome.

Ms. Palin is conservative enough. And a “maverick.”

But she does cut into McCain’s argument against the Anointed One on the experience thingy.