Martin Bosworth brings us the news that one of Bush's final eff yous to the women of America will be an attempt to define contraception as abortion, covering such things as birth control and the morning after pill.

Bosworth surmises that the right wing just wants people to breed more, which seems a reasonable conclusion. While that's always seemed the case to me, I never could figure out why they seem so dead set against any kind of financial, food or medical assistance for pregnant women and new mothers. Why not directly incentivize your end goal? I guess that encourages the Wrong Kind of People to breed; for them, we have an infant mortality rate hike, to take care of the problem the other way around. Once they're born, screw 'em -- but don't use a condom, that'd be morally reprehensible.

It's hard to tell what McCain would do regarding contraception, because as Steve Benen points out, McCain is confused by contraception and acts offended when tricksy reporters ask him about it. I expect though, as baffled as McCain seems to be in the matter, that he'll be happy to listen to his new best friends in the fundamentalist community to supply him with the correct views.

And looking for good news in all this, because it's been in short supply lately, I'm gratified to be reading about these issues from progressive male colleagues outside the 'usual suspect' ring of feminist bloggers. Maybe one of these days it could come to seem strange that anyone would make a distinction between feminist and progressive sites. I can dream.

Update [2008-7-16 16:53:2 by Todd Beeton]:Senators Hillary Clinton and Patty Murray are on it. They sent the following letter to Health & Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt:

Dear Mr. Secretary:

It has come to our attention that the Department of Health and Human Services may be preparing draft regulations that would create new obstacles for women seeking contraceptive services.

One of the most troubling aspects of the proposed rules is the overly-broad definition of "abortion." This definition would allow health-care corporations or individuals to classify many common forms of contraception – including the birth control pill, emergency contraception and IUDs – "abortions" and therefore to refuse to provide contraception to women who need it.

As a consequence, these draft regulations could disrupt state laws securing women's access to birth control. They could jeopardize federal programs like Medicaid and Title X that provide family-planning services to millions of women. They could even undermine state laws that ensure survivors of sexual assault and rape receive emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms.

We strongly urge you to reconsider these regulations before they are released. We are extremely concerned by this proposal's potential to affect millions of women's reproductive health.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely yours,

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton

Senator Patty Murray

I agree with Jerome that an expansion of offcoast drilling for oil seems like the politically reasonable thing. It may even be the politically inevitable thing.

Though I don't agree that it will work, or that it's advisable.

As to whether it will work to lower prices at the pump, the US Energy Information Administration says that it will "not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030." According to the data analyzed by Climate Progress, a lift on the federal moratorium on additional offshore drilling leases would only release 8 billion barrels of oil. In part, because about 10 billion barrels that are covered under the federal ban are off the coast of California, and that state is in firm, bipartisan opposition to allowing further drilling off their coastline.

California has committed to an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050 and the state government has no desire to have their famous beaches get trashed as badly as Alaska's coastline has been.

CP also points out, having talked to an EIA analyst about their most recent data, that oil companies already have leases and access to 34 billion barrels of offshore oil that they've chosen not to drill just as yet because of normal delays in a lengthy process. The EIA analysis suggests that an end to the federal moratorium would have no effect until 2020, and would then add perhaps an extra 150,000 barrels per day. That won't even represent a one percent increase in US output, less than one percent of estimated 2005 US consumption.

But for as long as the US continues to rely on fossil fuels, we have to deal with the fact that oil is a globally traded commodity whose production is in decline in many of the world's most significant fields, and for which demand is rapidly increasing. In particular, demand is rising in developing and producer nations, leaving markets tight even though refining capacity has increased. That 150,000 bpd would be a drop in the bucket, even against last year's global production of 73.27 million bpd.

The Senate Democratic Caucus is in accord with the EIA, that we cannot drill our way to lower gas prices.

I would hope, with the serious threat from global warming as serious as it is, that instead of further empowering the fossil fuel lobby, we would follow Iceland's example and look to other, proven energy sources, rapid advances in solar technology, and the increases in energy efficiency favored by 320 US city governments.

As many have pointed out previously, there are political realities, and then there are the geochemical realities of climate change. The climate doesn't care about calculations of political expedience on the part of the world's biggest polluter, it lacks emotion and respect for nuance, but it will respond to the increase in heat retentive gases with a destabilization of a climate favorable to human life.

I would urge Congress instead to look to ways to decrease energy costs through the deployment of carbon neutral and negative technologies. I would ask them to look to funding green collar jobs retrofitting our housing stock and other infrastructure, to both decrease energy costs and increase economic opportunity for the disadvantaged.

I would encourage them to pay attention to the chemical, physical and other factual realities of our situation, and find some way to make political realities comply with them. The climate won't ask nicely.

Via DailyKos:

Reporter: I guess her statement was that it was unfair that health insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth control. Do you have an opinion on that? ...

McCain: I don't know enough about it to give you an informed answer ...

Flat out, anyone who's been the parent of a teenage daughter has a considered opinion on birth control. And no one in McCain's age and income bracket, male or female, can credibly say that they don't have an opinion on Viagra.

The question is simple. His answer, unbelievable.

I mean, I can believe that he's enough of an overprivileged prat to consider himself above learning how to type, in spite of having a white collar desk job that requires a lot of information processing. But that in spite of campaigning and voting on reproductive health issues for years, having several women in his household, and having the best of gold-plated health insurance for some time now, he doesn't know enough about these topics to answer a very simple question, I can't believe.

There's just no way that even a Republican is quite that out of touch with his surroundings and the people in his life.

... [Billy Graham's] lasting damage, I offer as an aside, was to persuade the young George W. Bush to abandon his wastrel ways, at which he excelled, and instead seek the path that has led him to where he is now, a calamity for the nation and the world. Graham's burden is heavy indeed. ...

Putting Them Out to Pastor, Richard Cohen, July 1, 2008

- A vaccine expert talks about his daughter's autism. An interesting sidenote in the article:

... Some 6,000 African American babies are born each year with congenital cytomegalovirus infection, a viral disease transmitted to babies in the womb that causes mental retardation and hearing loss. About 880,000 African American women each year come down with trichomoniasis, a parasitic infection. Another parasitic worm infection called toxocariasis causes asthmatic symptoms in about 2.8 million poor African American children. Hispanics are especially affected by Chagas disease, which causes severe heart disease, and cysticercosis, a parasitic worm infection that causes epilepsy. ...

- The climate deniers were almost right, because the scientific models were wrong ... they were way too optimistic.

- Kate and Pam got married four years and a day ago, and I'd suspect that the morons at Conservapedia aren't above claiming that it adversely affected their faculties. Without some sort of self-justifying dodge, it would likely otherwise be too embarrassing to have it publicly known that bacteria are smarter than you.

- Chinese Olympic sailing waterways taken over by blue-green algae.

- Top ten Black blogs for June, 2008.

- If you're reading this with an outdated web browser, you might be at greater risk of computer security breaches. Experts advise updating that software. (Yeah, I know, total pain the you-know-what.)

- Can we get a new Boston Tea Party around here? And a serving of whatever Denmark is having, those happy bastiches.

- Darcy Burner could use a little extra campaign love at the moment, due to her house having burned down. Criminy. You're on our minds, ma'am.

"Even before the arrival of white colonists, Africa already harbored not just blacks but (as we shall see) five of the world's six major divisions of humanity, and three of them are confined as natives to Africa. One-quarter of the world's languages are spoken only in Africa. No other continent approaches this human diversity." - Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

- The opposition candidate has withdrawn, saying that it's for the protection of his supporters, but Zimbabwe's presidential runoff 'elections' will proceed against a background of overwhelming political violence.

- The real state of Iraq.

- In the news today, hymen replacement surgery is growing in popularity among Muslim women in Western countries who want to marry back into their culture; also at link, an Appropriations Cmte votes to continue wasting money on abstinence education, a pointer to a statement by Black men against the exploitation of Black women, and the news that sexual violence is now counted as a war crime by the UN.

- There really is water ice on Mars. Wicked.

- It's an oldie, but this story about the sworn virgins of northern Albania explores the only path to social independence for women in a gender repressive society.

- Immigration is the third commonest offense in federal jails, and illegal immigration is a crime so serious that even 13-year-olds and two-year-olds can be exempted.

- "If she's not crying ... I did not do my job"

- Farewell, Mr. Carlin

Now, you. What's on your minds?

Update [2008-6-23 16:5:53 by Natasha Chart]: Correction - US jails changed to federal jails.

I'd argue that after being qualified to be president, the most important thing a vice presidential candidate needs to do is avoid being a liability. See Eagleton, Thomas.

You will note that the Republicans avoided putting up another overt Big Oil ticket this year. None of their major contenders gloried in the sort of ownership by the energy industry that padded out Bush's and Cheney's resumes, and I'll bet McCain's vice presidential pick will also be a corporate crony of a somewhat less offensive stripe. Seen at the time as a boon because of a lifetime of experience (in squeezing the public and profiting from misery), a Cheney-like running mate would probably come over as a hazard, considering this year's fuel prices.

So why would Democrats be continually urged, when global warming is such a major public concern, to run a Big Coal ticket?

"girls in trying to have the same kind of intensity and manic energy of boys become aggressive and sometimes violent." - Liza Sabater of Culture Kitchen, June 7th, 2008 on Twitter

"... In a series of studies involving hundreds of participants since 2005, my colleagues and I have found systematic social and financial backlash against even mildly assertive female executives. ... [W]omen are perhaps the only "low status" group whose members systematically and every bit as harshly show prejudice toward fellow members. ..." - Cathy Tinsley, June 1st, 2008 in the Washington Post

Someone was telling me in earnest the other day that Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) should be the VP pick because, and I am not making this up, she's younger and prettier than the other women being discussed, and endorsed Clinton -- so shouldn't that make her a great person to appease the Clinton supporters?

Other points were offered in her defense, but if someone argued in favor of adding a Black candidate to the ticket on the basis of 'well, their skin's a lot lighter than the other people of color that we considered,' that would pretty much be the end of seriously paying attention to what they had to say. And rightly. Not to say the two things are directly equivalent, either. Just that where racist arguments are generally recognized right away, sexist arguments can be slipped by in even progressive circles, among people who insist that they're feminists, without usually causing much embarassment.

And yes, that'd be the Blanche Lincoln, who voted with Republicans on FISA and the estate tax, and was delisted from EMILY's List for casting anti-choice votes in the Senate.

When I argued the other day that people with bad records on gender issues should be automatically ruled out, it was exactly that sort of tokenism I was suggesting should be avoided. I didn't argue that Clinton should be picked, or even that another woman should necessarily be picked, but that someone should be selected that showed respect and consideration towards the issues that are important to her supporters. Issues that include, but are definitely not limited to, reproductive justice.

CLIFF: I think it's beyond what you'd call dating.               
MIKEY: You going to get married?

CLIFF: (Shrugs) Maybe.               

MIKEY: You met her family? They gonna be cool about you being a white guy?

CLIFF: Priscilla says they think any woman over 30 who isn't married must be a lesbian. She figures they'll be so relieved I'm a man--               

MIKEY: Always heartwarming to see a prejudice defeated by a deeper prejudice.

- "Lone Star", 1996

- Climate change: The solution is simple.

- "... That's how right-wing crap works. It's not meant to advance or even partake of discourse; it's meant to end it. One can argue the worth of Hillary's policies or her voting record or her position on the war till the cows come home; but when she's reduced to being a bitch, that pretty much ends the discussion. ... And it's important to remember that the same holds true regarding right-wing attitudes about a black man like Obama winning the White House. ..." (via)

- "The Meeting"

- Nero fiddled while New Orleans drowned. And yeah, we knew that, but somehow it keeps being freshly awful.

- Holden obsesses with the Gaggle.

- Did you know that things are going to hell in Turkey? Well, if you did, you've been following the news better than I've been.

- McCain on FISA.

What's on your minds?