I just read a story from Reuters that was on the front page of Yahoo politics http://news.yahoo.com/... it begins:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Bush administration plan to define several widely used contraception methods as abortion is a "gratuitous, unnecessary insult" to women and faces tough opposition, Sen. Hillary Clinton said on Friday.

As a woman, I have been perplexed by the fixation on Hillary Clinton as the only vehicle for women's issues in the next administration. I never bought it, not once.

However, if you accept the meme that "women need to be brought to Obama" after Hillary's departure from the race, here are some thoughts.

First of all, it will be very hard to forget all the crappy things she and her surrogates said about Barack during the primary. How does she now stand by him as VP and say he's the solution to all our problems? The media and republicans will never let the criticisms drop.

Barack does not need her help to run the country, but the perception will be that he does, if she is VP. And Bill Clinton will be a distraction at the very least.

I am sick of hearing how the "mature" women of America are so overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton. While it does seem to be true that a lot of the long-time Democratic party folks are for Hillary, it is not true that "older women" will only vote for her.

This will be short because I'm on my way to vote for my local convention delegates for Obama here in California. However, I needed to post this just to get it off my chest.

My son is a senior at University of Oregon in Eugene, and the basketball team is in the first round of playoffs tonight (ahead at the half, as I understand, I'm still working...)

The whole campus is excited to be in the "dance" but what really has my kid excited is Obama's appearance there tonight.

Ok, Howard Wolfson: Take the premise to the logical conclusion.

Bill Clinton (whom I loved and supported through it all) was guilty of marital infidelity and lying to a federal prosecutor. The Blue Dress was the evidence. Without the Blue Dress, Bill would have kept denying the affair until his term was over, right?

I am a born and bred Democrat from San Francisco. I am Italian/English, married to a Latino, and I used to sing in the Glide Church Choir. I have a daughter who is married to another woman, and I'm proud of it. I am pro-choice, pro-peace and pro-health care reform. That is to say, I am anti-bigot in every possible way.

I lived in a commune in the 70s, marched against the War in Vietnam, and crashed the glass ceiling to become a physician and administrator. I have protested the war in Iraq at every step of the way and I believe we need to leave now, not later, and consequences be damned.

I am a boomer and I support Barack Obama. In fact, I've had a bumper sticker for Obama on my car for more than a year.

I am gravely concerned that, if we follow the old line democrats and give the nomination to Hillary because it's her turn, we will lose the presidential race in November 2008.

So here we are, my husband and I, on our way to the Summer of Love/40 celebration in Golden Gate Park. None of our seven kids or seven grandkids wanted to go.

We drove in from the Central Valley, where we currently live/work, in a $25k vehicle with built in iPod dock (god, we hate living in Red California, but we need to make more money than we spend, and it isn't easy on the Peninsula)...

Stayed at a Palo Alto Hotel with koi pond outside the room (Palo Alto is home turf and they take our dog at the Sheraton)(Go Ducks)...

Had room service and watched "Meet the Press" (god, I hate Mary Matalin)...

Dressed in our tie-dyes (this is what we wear all the time, we haven't changed)...

Brushed out our (graying) afros and put on sunscreen (flower children do NOT want brown spots on their faces)...

And headed for Speedway Meadows!

After reading about Congressman Foley's disgusting e-mails yesterday, I donated to the man who will take his seat, Tim Mahoney.

After reading the rest of the headlines this morning, I wrote this to all my local (Central California) papers:

Oh my fucking God! That's all I could say when I read this article in Rolling Stone this morning. The article is called "God's Senator" and describes Senator Brownback who plans to run for President as the Christian candidate.

After learning about the abomination of the K Street project, where lobbying firms who did not hire Republicans were shut out of access to Congress, I find that there is also a C Street Project (my name for it) involving these weird-ass moonie Xtians who want to make America a formal Christian Nation.

More after the fold...

When reading in the SF Chronicle about the hearings yesterday in the Senate, I was struck by one exchange:

--Feinstein quizzed Gonzales on how far the president's assertion of vast wartime powers could extend. She asked if Bush had authorized warrantless interception of first-class mail, for example.

"The president has not made any order that is against the law," Gonzales responded.--

It is so obvious that Gonzales was slipping by the question. He did not answer the actual question. In fact, by answering the way he did, he all but told us that mail HAS been intercepted, right?

There was a comment in the thread on this diary, referring to the fact that one of the writers was addicted to DailyKOS.

It started me thinking that I, too, am addicted to KOS.

I don't get the same kind of information, analysis or COMMUNITY from any other site.

Why is Steven Hadley all of a sudden the voice of Bush? Was he not implicated in some of the Plame events? He ran one of the press briefings last week and was a lot tougher than Scott McClellan (and lied a lot more).

Does anyone have any insights into this fresh face? I couldn't find any other diaries discussing this particular thing.

Love to have your comments.

I believe we have momentum in the Democratic party, folks!

I am SOOOOO gun-shy, though, after the disappointments of the last 5 years.

I keep wondering what GWB and Rove will do to swing opinion back their way. But Chimpy's performance in the last several days has been so awful, I am not sure he can recover.

The Repubs are talking about how difficult it will be to continue like this for 3 more years.

Bush has truly become a lame-duck and now it appears he is an albatross as well.

We must force our representatives in the party and the government to be aggressive, honest and faithful to the movement.

I believe Cindy Sheehan's actions this summer started this ball rolling. Thank you, Cindy. We will not forget you and Casey.

There is a palpable sense of "something going on here".

With the indictments; the details of the White House handling of the Wilson smear; the Dems maneuvers yesterday; the kids walking out of schools all over the US today....falling poll numbers; many people and institutions coming out against the Iraq war; Frist and DeLay in legal trouble.

Bush is unable to make a coherent sentence. His jaw is twitching like some dying snake. He looks irritable and angry and out of control.

Cheney is looking cornered by his arrogant actions in the Plame affair.

It appears that RoveCo made sure the newscycle would be immediately shifted, with the Alito nomination on Monday, after the disasters for the White House on Friday. They did not want days of discussion and analysis of the Plamegate revelations, obviously.

Rove is brilliant at this crap. That's why he hasn't been fired.

Today we have Bird Flu. Tomorrow we'll have something else (terror alert, anyone?).

I couldn't find any other diaries on this, so sorry if I am redundant in this observation. I have been considering the effect of an enforced blending of a "blue" population into a very "red" state.

Has anyone else had the thought that shipping all those (presumed) Democrats from New Orleans to Texas effectively negates their votes in future elections?

And a lot of the Bush planning ideas for rebuilding New Orleans sound like they will increase the number of Repub-leaning folks (especially with the emphasis on small business loans and mortgages rather than grants).

I have been mulling this feeling for the last couple of days, since Katrina hit and the enormity of the disaster became clear.

I find that each new catastrophic event brings me instantly to a state of anger and despair.

I can attribute this state to cumulative trauma, caused by BushCo actions and reactions.

Now before you turn away, thinking I'm a noodle, check out this list: