Sarah Palin is coming to Pittsburgh, PA on Friday afternoon, October 10th*. She's doing a private, invitation-only roundtable on sumthin' -- maybe how polar bears react to being shot at by Joe Six-Pack from a hundred feet in the air and the effect it has on Wasilla Main Street, doggone it. And don't call me dismissive of the Alaska governor -- I'm simply paraphrasing her many public pronouncements. If I botched my sentence structure, well, she did, too, when she spoke with Katie Couric. While Sarah Barracuda may not be willing to mix and mingle with regular folk while in Pittsburgh, the locals are more than happy to visit with her. A large protest is developing for Friday afternoon, with everyone from hockey and soccer moms to teenagers and advocacy groups taking part in the festivities.

Women of Steel, part of the United Steelworkers Union, is sending a sizable contingent to lead the cheers. Women of Steel is a leadership and activism program for sisters in the union. One of the group's many goals is to prime the pump, as it were, and prepare these women for positions both within the union and at the local level. Women make up only about 20% of the union's membership so they probably have to work harder to make their voices heard. Sadly, Sarah Palin has turned a deaf ear to their concerns: the sisters find the governor and her running mate to be against women, pro-trade and horrible on health care and family medical leave.

You'd think what with Gov. Palin's husband being a card-carrying member of the United Steelworkers Union, she'd find the time to meet with the Women of Steel and all the other women who'd like to bend her ear on an assortment of issues. Instead, she's closeting herself in a boardroom at the Westin Hotel. Looks like Sarah Barracuda is merely a guppy.

* Sarah Palin will be at the Westin Convention Center Hotel, 1000 Penn Avenue (near 10th Street) in downtown Pittsburgh at 5 p.m. on Friday, October 10th. Protesters are encouraged to line nearby streets beginning at 3:30 p.m. and MAKE THEIR VOICES HEARD!