There's a fundamental difference between pro-life and pro-choice stances in this country, especially amongst Democrats (and moderate Republicans). The thing is, you can be pro-life and for Obama, because being pro-life isn't necessarily a stance that means you push for eliminating the right to have an abortion. You may push for women to make the choice to be pro-life, but not care as much about removing the legal right to abortion. So, it doesn't seem incongruous to me that these women can support Obama, who wants to reduce the abortion rate through better sex education, stopping the problem before it happens, etc.

But if you are pro-choice, I think you'd have a much harder time making the case for McCain, who wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. As much as I hate to make this a "litmus test" issue, this is a fundamental woman's right that is linked to so many things. Reproductive freedom - including the freedom to be educated soundly about the benefits of safer sex AND abstinence - is tied squarely to a woman's social freedom. McCain/Palin would take that away.

There's many, many reasons not to vote for McCain (the latest being the Time Magazine article exposing how McCain volunteers are being trained to make terrorism connections between Obama & Osama bin Laden & 9/11 when they are canvassing neighborhoods), but this is a pretty important one. And I'm glad Obama gives me lots of other reasons to vote for him besides just this one.

The good: Three cheers for this woman who stood up for herself, and took her assailant to court. And it's good that the court recognized her right to be free from harrassment.

The bad: Seriously excessive sentencing. This guy was clearly a threat to women, given the persistent and physical nature of his harrassment, but three years in prison for groping? I guess the court really wanted to make an example of him.

The ugly: After three years in the Egyptian prison system, I wonder what kind of person that man will be - will he be reformed, or will he be hardened against women and be spurred to do something even worse?

Check cards (meaning, those having a Visa or Mastercard logo, which go through the credit processing system but come out of your checking account directly) use the same credit card system, and I don't know about you, but I use my check card for everything. Even going through the occasional fast food drive-through. I've always hated carrying cash. I'm guessing that most of that credit card traffic is convenience check card use, where people just don't want to deal with cash as much.

(Though if we dealt with cash more, perhaps we would understand what a dollar really buys, and how big a stack of cash you have to have to make that purchase...)

I think it's absolutely fine that Sarah Palin wanted to keep her vote private; it's probably not a secret who she voted for, but anonymous voting is a cherished privilege in this country, and she can exercise that right just like anyone else.

Of course, it could also be that she's so used to evading real questions that she answered that way by force of habit.

Pre-election polls and even exit polls predicted that Prop 8 would fail in California. I think we can see where closeted discrimination has popped up this time.

I can only hope that the lawsuit to repeal Prop 8 will succeed.

Conservatives have had these talking points ready to go from the start, before Obama won, so they could shape the conversation and try to make Dems scared of doing anything that could be construed as progressive.

My hope is that Obama will ignore them now just as he's ignored them before, that he will do some hard talking to Congressional Dems to remind them of the spirit of change he's been tapped to bring in.

Regarding Emmanuel, he kind of scares me (mostly the story of him stabbing a knife into a dining table reciting a list of Republican enemies and shouting "DEAD!" after each one), but part of me thinks Obama wanted to appoint someone with strong Israel ties (this would be an understatement here) to combat the rumors that he's a Muslim and/or a terrorist. It's probably a smart political move, like Bush appointing Rove was a smart political move, even if it's not one that a lot of people are comfortable with.

it was promised as "posted below," but never appeared.

i will, however, have my evening sucked away by puppies now. which seems a relief and welcome antidote after the months-long stress of worrying about the election.

Google "delivering bad news with baby animals" for some somewhat related fun.

Train wreck.