By Lisa Altschuler

During a week where Jesse Jackson and Phil Gramm have dominated the headlines with their moronic statements, you may have missed a story that is much more important to your personal well-being (or that of someone you love) than any of the news-makers you saw this week:  birth control coverage by health insurance companies.
 
In case you missed it, here’s the scoop:  Carly Fiorina, former HP CEO and John McCain’s national campaign manager, made a statement to the media indicating her belief that, while many health insurance companies cover prescription Viagra for men, many (like mine) do not cover birth control prescriptions for women.  Her statement said that women should “…have a choice…,” indicating that women need to receive the same consideration as men do when it comes to reproductive health.
 
As a result of that comment, McCain, who voted against a congressional measure that would have required health insurance companies to provide birth control coverage in prescription plans, was asked by a female reporter if he had changed his opinion on the issue, given the opinion of his surrogate, Carly Fiorina.
 
Here is McCain’s response to that question.  It’s important that you watch this short, two minute video to see the body language as McSame answers the question:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6IlGXhCUHo. Read the rest of this entry »

That’s it.

Enjoy your day, weekend, whatever. Take a moment to reflect and have a good time. You know, show some pride, Hamilton.

I’ll have time later this weekend to chide all you Obama supporters out there freaking out. “Oh my God, he’s trying to reach out to a lot of people and bridge some gaps! He’ll never win by gathering as many votes as possible!”

Lighten up and look at the forest.

Anyway, Happy 4th!

By Kristy Anne

I was honored when my teen-aged son asked me to take him and a couple of his friends to a concert at a small venue, so small that as I watched from the bar on the far side of the room, I was no more than about 35 feet from the stage. The two opening act’s band members milled through the crowd, greeting people and posing for photos when their sets were finished.

When the headliner, a band from Canada called Sloan, finished, it was almost 1 a.m. As in Monday very early morning, with my alarm set for a 6 a.m. wake-up. Even so, a few members of Sloan stayed and talked to the remaining audience. My son had grabbed a set list, and set about getting autographs. He talked briefly to one of the guitar players, and then we saw the bass player.

He looked at me, with the four 17-year-olds flanking me, and told me I was a cool mom. When he asked my son how he had ever heard of the band, he answered that I had listened to them on a Windsor (Canada) radio station when he was young, and he’s always liked them. Again, I got the cool mom treatment.

But what happened then still boggles me. Read the rest of this entry »

By Kristy Anne

So, McCain’s campaign has already trotted out an old favorite to use against Senator Obama. He’s got a September 10th mindset, they claim. They say he doesn’t understand that blowing up things and invading countries and using torture in the hopes of deterring or killing terrorists is acceptable. They say that the thought of catching terrorists and actually putting them on trial and in jail is naive.

A September 12th mindset: It’s all about vengeance.

So, how has that mindset worked? We’re bogged down in a country that produced none of the September 11th terrorists, effectively setting our soldiers up as targets between the Sunni and Shiite in Iraq. Over 4,000 Americans killed. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed. But that’s OK, they say, since this is the result of a September 12th mindset. Read the rest of this entry »

By J. Drake

Well, what can I say? President Bush is out in Europe doing a “Farewell Tour” or, in his mind anyway, a Victory Lap of sorts. Of course, he did his best to try and convince leaders in Europe to ramp up more pressure on Iran, which isn’t a bad idea in and of itself, but Europe’s heads of state are suffering through a vicious case of “Bush fatigue” and, more sympathetic I could not be. They are looking past him just as Americans are for the most part. “Just Don’t Touch Anything” seems to have replaced “In God We Trust” as the American motto, at least as far as our fair president is concerned.

It’s gotten so bad that even the right things just seem so shallow and disingenuous when it comes from him. Take this article by the Times of London. It seems that the president has renewed his search for Osama Bin Laden and has asked British Special Forces to help out. Evidently, he would love to catch Bin Laden before he leaves office. Every once in a while, it’s still funny and appropriate to quote the Church Lady, so here goes: “Well, isn’t that special?” Read the rest of this entry »