i'm amazed at the idea that we cannot support the nominee, whomever it is. you might think me naive, but i will support obama or clinton, whichever one is the democratic nominee.  

Just in case you needed any more evidence that John McCain is planning to run away from his party and president in the November election, senior adviser Charlie Black put any doubts to rest this weekend.  In Sunday's New York Times, Black described McCain, as "slightly right-of-center."  Apparently, with the Republican nomination now safely secured, McCain the self-proclaimed "foot soldier in the Reagan revolution" is trying to reverse the hard right turn he took for the GOP primaries.

On Wednesday, John McCain's home state Arizona Republic did some good excavation work in the ongoing demolition of the GOP nominee's maverick myth.  Analyzing his Senate voting record since 1999, the paper found McCain rarely strayed from the Republican Party line.  But that's only a small part of the unraveling of the McCain maverick fable.  As I previously detailed, John McCain in his eternal quest for the GOP nomination has repeatedly reversed long-held positions and compromised supposed core principles to curry favor with right-wing Republican primary voters.

The record of politicians issuing challenges to the press is not a happy one.  Just before his Donna Rice scandal broke in 1987, Democratic frontrunner Gary Hart dared the media to "follow me around."  The rest, as they say, is history.  Now, South Carolina Senator and John McCain water carrier Lindsey Graham has issued a challenge of his own.  Claiming on CNN that McCain "is his own guy," Graham then threw down the gauntlet, "Good luck making him George Bush."

Challenge accepted.

John McCain's presidential campaign has apparently found help to battle its extreme case of Bush separation anxiety.  Desperate to distance the Republican nominee from the most unpopular president in modern American history, the McCain camp is closely coordinating with the White House to create the facade of separation between John McCain and George W. Bush.

(Also posted on my blog.)

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As John McCain continues using guilt-by-association tactics to falsely portray his political opponent as a radical terrorist sympathizer, it's worth remembering that McCain himself has a little terrorism problem of his own.

In the early 1990s, McCain sided with right-wing domestic terrorists and voted against tough new legislation cracking down on a wave of anti-choice domestic terrorism targeting women who visited abortion clinics, their doctors, and clinic staff.

In both 1993 and 1994, McCain voted against the anti-terrorism measure. On each occasion, McCain was one of thirty radical anti-choice Senators to oppose the bill. Fortunately, despite McCain's opposition, it passed the Senate by a 69-30 margin.

In the wake of Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous' abominable performance in the ABC Democratic debate Wednesday, I created a list of 10 debate questions John McCain will never be asked.  (The Real McCain author Cliff Schecter subsequently featured my Perrspectives list over at The Huffington Post, AmericaBlog and Crooks and Liars.)

Now, as it turns out, this Sunday's guest on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolous is none other than Arizona Senator and Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

I’m content with, or at least resigned to, copping out on the abortion issue.

In politics and theology I consider myself a “Christian progressive”, rejecting the notion you have to earn your way to heaven, principally by being lucky enough to be born into, and/or industrious enough to discover and clever enough to recognize, the one true religion.

I think if we need to be “saved from our sins”, a concept my inadequate brain has never fully grasped, such redemption was Christ’s gift to all, and not reserved for an elite minority.

I’m anti-war unless the very sovereignty of our nation and/or a NATO ally is legitimately threatened; against capital punishment and torture; for habeas corpus; wishy-washy on immigration (we’re all God’s children, is it their fault they were born on the wrong side of a border?); in favor of gay marriage, or at least a functional equivalent; for healthcare and other social programs that aid the least advantaged in our society; anxious about the damage we do to our environment…you get the idea.

Logically, shouldn’t I be pro-life?

Intuitively, abortion seems wrong.

But...

As much as anything else, presidential campaigns are won and lost by the media narratives that rightly or wrongly come to define a candidate.  In the case of Repubican nominee John McCain, the seemingly unshakable narrative of the political "maverick" could not be further off the mark. At almost every turn, McCain in his eternal quest for the White House has reversed long-held positions, compromised core principles and swallowed his pride in order to curry favor with both the leading lights of the conservative movement and right-wing Republican primary voters.  The untold story of campaign 2008 is simply that of John McCain's transformation from maverick to prostitute.

On this 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I would like to remember the women who truly were responsible for our reproductive rights.  Estelle Griswold placed her liberty and career on the line to challenge the ban on contraceptives in Connecticut.  Catherine Roraback jumped at the chance to defend Griswold in her groundbreaking case.

We often think of Roe v. Wade as the benchmark for reproductive rights.  Not so, it was Griswold v. Connecticut.

Today is the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, one of the most important Supreme Court decisions of the last hundred years. A woman's right to an abortion was ruled to be under the privacy umbrella, which I've come to realize is really the do-whatever-you-want umbrella.

Highacidity has already addressed some of the concerns with Roe continuing as law here. I want to talk about why the right to reproductive choice is so incredibly vital. Follow me over the jump.

Today is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and this date is looked at with either celebration or revulsion depending on whichever side you happen to fall on. I think women my age sometimes don't believe this case really matters much, because we have lived it all our lives. If we get pregnant, we automatically have the opportunity to abort or keep. This is a right that not every woman has in the world, and it's an important right to keep.

January 22, 2008, marks the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide — so pause for a moment and wish those reproductive freedoms you may have taken for granted a very happy anniversary!

Thirty-five years ago today nine men in Washington D.C.  opted to give women a choice when it comes to making reproductive decisions about their bodies.

As a woman, I'd like to say thanks. Not one to kick a gift horse in the mouth, I'd like to just ask why it was we needed permission in the first place, because I still haven't figured that one out. Of course, the LGBT community is still trying to figure out why the government is in our bedrooms, dictating who we can love, so maybe the two of us can battle that one out together. But I digress...

As we celebrate the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that legalized abortion, it is time for us to take a hard look at the state of reproductive freedom, both across the country and closer to home.

Happy birthday, Roe v Wade... You're 35 today. You're not that old, just entering middle age, but I'm afraid for your health.

Tomorrow, Jan. 21, we will celibrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a brave and rightly revered but unlikely American hero who was instrumental in making the freedom of African Americans a reality by being instrumental in giving this community the right to vote, supposedly promised to them after ratification in July 9, 1868.  In 2 days, some of us will celibrate the day that truly usher in the freedom of American women that the the 19th amendment promised them almost 52 years later, in 1920.  This was the day the United States Supreme Court released the Roe v. Wade decision, written by another unlikely American hero, Justice Harry Blackman.  For without the ability to control the if, when and with whom to bear children, no woman can truly call herself free.  

Dr. King's life was threatened and at serious risk hundreds of times before he was finally murdered shortly after his 39 birthday.  Like Dr. King, Justice Harry Blackman's life was threatened hundreds of times before he finally died of natural causes a few years ago.

The recommended diary here makes allegations about vote fraud from the Clinton campaign. But the fact of the matter is that all of these allegations are merely second-hand information that is not based on independent corraborating evidence at this point. All we have is thereisnospoon's word for it that there was systematic and widespread vote suppression at the Nevada caucuses. This is in no way to suggest that he was lying; what this means is that it will not be persuasive or believable unless he follows it up with independent corraborating evidence that shows that Hillary Clinton engaged in vote fraud on a widespread and systematic basis.