yeah, you know i'm excited about this

i <3 rachel

i know, i know, all the ladies (and many dudes) do too. but my crush crippled me ages ago, i swear. anyway, if you don't know her by now, she's most famously known for hosting a show on air america and near-daily appearances in MSNBC punditry.

her background, via wiki:

A graduate of Castro Valley High School in Castro Valley, California, Maddow later obtained a degree in public policy from Stanford University in 1994. She then received a Rhodes Scholarship in 1995 and used it to obtain a D.Phil. in political science from Lincoln College, Oxford University. Her political activism has focused on AIDS and prisoners' rights, especially the prevention of the spread of HIV and AIDS in prisons. She is gay, and is an outspoken advocate for gay and progressive issues.

but like i said, i'm not alone. for more on her and her following, see this.

yes, i am still harping on the issue

the wonk room has the rundown of why mccain is just like those very serious anti-contraception folks:

•Voted to end "the Title X family planning program, credited with helping prevent over 9 million abortions."
•Voted against funding teen-pregnancy-prevention programs and ensuring that "abstinence-only" programs are medically accurate.
•Voted for the domestic gag rule, which would have prohibited federally funded family-planning clinics from providing women with access to full information about their reproductive-health options.
•Voted to take $75 million from the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant to establish a new "abstinence-only" program that censors information about birth control.
•Declined to help reduce the need for abortion and improve maternal health by opposing effort to require insurance coverage for prescription birth control, improve access to emergency contraception, and provide more women with prenatal health care.
•Voted against legislation that would have prevented unintended pregnancy by investing in insurance coverage for prescription birth control, promoting family-planning services, implementing teen-pregnancy-prevention programs, and developing programs to increase awareness about emergency contraception

i'm voting republican

today is share tongue-in-cheek support for the republican party day. aside from the video above, here's an additionally funny (yet more depressing) stab: a loyalty oath for clinton supporters who turn to mccain instead of obama

in my opinion, women's reproductive health is the number one reason to vote democratic this election. with the strong likelihood of an open supreme court seat in the next four years, mccain's openly anti-abortion stance, and the nomination he's suspected to make that will change roe v. wade, i really hope that all of you urge your friends and family to vote, and vote specifically obama. for more on the kind of evil we're facing that we've got to get proactive against (from the article i linked above):

And amidst these obstacles, anti-contraceptive activists attack women's access to contraception on every other level: President George W. Bush's Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2006 bars pharmaceutical companies from selling birth control at a discounted price to university health centers and safety-net clinics, leaving low-income and college women paying full price for birth control.

why? there's really little actual reasoning behind that kind of policy. i hate using the word "evil" when talking about politics, but i can't think of a more fitting word in this instance.