"Sarah Palin and the rape kits" is not a punk rock band (but it explains her interview with Katie Couric)

Skepticism about Palin has been growing and for a good reason.

I've watched the segment where Sarah Palin talks about Roe vs. Wade and I have to tell you, I think it is one of the most insightful commentaries to come out of her mouth. I think she did a really good job at sounding level headed.

Yet listen to it very closely and what you can hear is an extremist taking her political views for a little mainstream spin and, fortunately for us, coming short.

So let me back track here a bit and go back to and issue that popped up a few weeks ago : Under then Mayor Palin, Wassilla was one of a handful of cities in Alaska that charged victims for rape kits. And what has been most astounding about this policy is Palin's response to the allegations : She claims to have not know about the practice. This from a woman that was voted into office in Wassilla by less than 7,000 votes.

Let me use CNN to recap the issue with the rape kits :

For years, Alaska has had the worst record of any state in rape and in murder of women by men. The rape rate in Alaska is 2.5 times the national average.

Interviews and a review of records turned up no evidence that Palin knew that rape victims were being charged in her town. But Croft, the former state representative who sponsored the law changing the practice, says it seems unlikely Palin was not aware of the issue.

"I find it hard to believe that for six months a small town, a police chief, would lead the fight against a statewide piece of legislation receiving unanimous support and the mayor not know about it," Croft said.

Remember, this is the woman who fired another Chief of Police for insubordination --for not following her orders unquestioningly. It is absolutely incredible to think Palin knew nothing of her city's practice; especially since she's always run on a "slash and burn" fiscal conservative platform.

Judy Patrick, who was Palin's deputy mayor and friend, blames the state.

"The bigger picture of what was going on at the time was that the state was trying to cut their own budget, and one of the things that they were doing was passing on costs to cities, and that was one of the many things that they were passing on, the cost to the city," said Patrick, who recalls enormous pressure to keep the city's budget down.

But the state was never responsible for paying the costs of local investigations. Patrick was also a member of Wasilla City Council, and she doesn't recall the issue coming before council members, nor does she remember discussing the issue with Palin.

She does recall Palin going through the budget in detail. She said Palin would review each department's budget line by line and send it back to department heads with her changes.

"Sarah is a fiscal conservative, and so she had seen that the city was heading in a direction of bigger projects, costing taxpayers more money, and she was determined to change that," Patrick said.

Before Palin came to City Hall, the Wasilla Police Department paid for rape kits out of a fund for miscellaneous costs, according to the police chief who preceded Fannon and was fired by Palin. That budget line was cut by more than half during Palin's tenure, but it did not specifically mention rape exams.

Now, how does this tie in to her interview with Katie Couric?

Ta-Nehisi Coates sums it up : I hear a lot about disrespect of Palin by the liberal media. But Palin's entire participation in this process has been an exercise in disrespect for government and the presidency.

Palin's disrespect for government as it has been defined in the United States is crystal clear in her interaction with Couric. She's not to much interested in how democracy is for the many. Federalism to her is coming into power as a governor and then running it not even as a corporation but as a plantation :

Couric Why, in your view, is Roe v. Wade a bad decision?

Sarah Palin: I think it should be a states' issue not a federal government-mandated, mandating yes or no on such an important issue. I'm, in that sense, a federalist, where I believe that states should have more say in the laws of their lands and individual areas. Now, foundationally, also, though, it's no secret that I'm pro-life that I believe in a culture of life is very important for this country. Personally that's what I would like to see, um, further embraced by America.

This is really scary given that, as I have pointed out before, the reproductive rights go way beyond the right to privacy. They really come close to the 13th amendment --the abolition of Slavery.

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

If a woman or man cannot control their own bodies, they run the risk of having the government own thier bodies either through forced health proxies or, in the case of abortion rights, women treated as chattle and thusly beholden to interstate commerce laws.

That's the situation for example in Texas where a teenager cannot be taken to another state to have an abortion without parental consent, even in the case of incest.

Yet there's more there : She calls herself "pro-life" and then goes on to say that she's like to see her worldview "further embraced by America". As one of the "chosen ones" she wants the heterogenenous and heterodoxical United States to become one country, once vision, one culture with her  "culture of life".

As she herself states, "it's no secret" she wants everybody to think and act like her so she can govern by deciding was is best for those who live within the lands she controls as one of the chosen ones. Just like Manifesto for the Christian Church put into paper more than 20 years ago.

Couric: Do you think there's an inherent right to privacy in the Constitution?

Palin: I do. Yeah, I do.

Couric: The cornerstone of Roe v. Wade.

Palin: I do. And I believe that individual states can best handle what the people within the different constituencies in the 50 states would like to see their will ushered in an issue like that.

This is scary in a funny way : You have a right to privacy as long as your privacy depends on her Alaskan definition of privacy.

Couric: What other Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with?

Palin: Well, let's see. There's, of course in the great history of America there have been rulings, that's never going to be absolute consensus by every American. And there are those issues, again, like Roe v. Wade, where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So you know, going through the history of America, there would be others but …

It is interesting that in the same segment, Couric has Joe Biden answering the same question :

Biden: You know, I'm the guy who wrote the Violence Against Women Act. And I said that every woman in America, if they are beaten and abused by a man, should be able to take that person to court - meaning you should be able to go to federal court and sue in federal court the man who abused you if you can prove that abuse.

But they said, "No, that a woman, there's no federal jurisdiction." And I held, they acknowledged, I held about 1,000 hours of hearings proving that there's an effect in interstate commerce. Women who are abused and beaten and beaten are women who are not able to be in the work force. And the Supreme Court said, "Well, there is an impact on commerce, but this is federalizing a private crime and we're not going to allow it." I think the Supreme Court was wrong about that decision.

This is a perfect example why we need more than ever a constitutional lawyer or historian in the United States Supreme Court who is an expert on modern day slavery. Maybe someone who has had to deal with the interstate trade of Mormon girls or with international human trafficking. Someone like Marci Hamilton.

Federalism of reproductive rights would put women of any race but mostly poor colored woman back into the dark days of runaway slaves. To have a VP woman candidate who doesn't understand that is scary.

Yet, by the way, I find it not shocking that it is not the argument taken up by Biden when defending the rights of battered women. I can understand him not interpreting the situation from a slavery perspective. After all, most people can't fathom women (aka "white " women) being treated as slaves.

On the contrary, the conversation around abortion has been one about morality, about "culture" and about religion. The idea that a group of people should demand from the government to control the bodies of women and equate that to slavery is unthinkable.

The (white) Women's Movement was about "equality" and "breaking the glass ceiling", not about (white) women reaffirming that the 13th Amendment applies to (white) women and any other person in the United States as much as it served the liberation of black men and women.

So for Sarah Palin to have women pay for their rape kits --or to look the other way and pretend she didn't know about it-- is as much a function of "letting God's will" happen as it is punishing women for getting themselves raped in the first place. After all, if it happened it was because God had it planned in some way or another.

Couric: Can you think of any?

Palin: Well, I could think of … any again, that could be best dealt with on a more local level. Maybe I would take issue with. But, you know, as mayor, and then as governor and even as a vice president, if I'm so privileged to serve, wouldn't be in a position of changing those things but in supporting the law of the land as it reads today.

And there she hammers the "let me run my plantation the way us chosen ones deign proper" even as she gives the talking point "supporting the law of the land asi t reads today". That's exactly what Alito and Roberts said during their confirmation hearings.

And look at now how McCain gushes at the thought of getting the Supreme Court filled with clones of both men so we can have a truly conservative court.

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