Many, including "progressive" bloggers, insisted that it was acceptable for Obama to remove contraceptive funding from the stimulus bill, particularly if it could get GOP votes. Besides the fact that such a move rendered zero GOP votes, appeasing the GOP is equivalent to begging to be shot in the head, and the selling out of poor women and girls has misogynistic overtones to it, the removal of this funding also took aim at the economy (Read the whole article).

As you probably know, Obama gave an interview to "Relevant," a Christian magazine in which he said that prohibitions on late-term abortions must contain an exception for the health of the mother, but that:

[He didn't] think that 'mental distress' qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term.

Given that the current law governing late term abortions includes mental distress mental health as one of the health exceptions, this would be a significant narrowing of abortion rights.

Someone remind me again what a giant wanker McCain is because Obama is trying my last nerve today. Via Talk Left:

Barack Obama said anti-abortion Democrats are backing him because they feel he respects their opinion on the issue despite disagreement on it. ...."It may be that those who have opposed abortion get a sense that I'm listening to them and respect their position even though where we finally come down may be different," he told reporters at a news conference.

"The mistake that pro-choice forces have sometimes made in the past, and this is a generalization so it has not always been the case, has been to not acknowledge the wrenching moral issues involved in it," he said.

 Read more…

So neice #2 is scheduled to depart from the mothership in December. Science has revealed her gender, and so the games begin, shaping her life before she is even living it. Naming is more complicated than it seems at first blush, no?