You have a uterus? I think you'd be foolish to vote for John McCain.

I'm trying to keep my political posts to the weekends, even though for a couple of hours each day I read various political websites and watch various videos and alternately crap my pants or cry. My overall experience is anxiety. This election is worse than waiting for Christmas.

I started out with 80 some-odd pieces of flair to share with you but have broken it down to three.

First.

We've seen the videos of McCain-Palin rallies where people tell John McCain they're afraid of Barack Obama, or how they've read he's an Arab (because that's a horrible thing....?????). Then there's the booing, that leads to the "Treason!" and "Terrorist!" comments.

This pretty much sums up why I am voting for Barack Obama. This ability to shut down stupid responses to opposing viewpoints, is what this country needs going forward. To turn something negative into something everyone can get behind. "We just need to vote."

We just need to vote.

The top thing I came away from this week in politics is this "thing" "McCain" "did" "at" "the" "last" "debate".

The disdain in that set of words, usually politicians at least try to hide their disregard for the rights of women. The "health" of the "mother". An eloquent set of words meant to deceive grown women into aborting their own children when their own so called "health" is at risk. Weee! I've been waiting 24 weeks, thinking I was welcoming my baby into this world....and now my body is shutting down and I'm dying. I finally get that late term abortion I've been praying for.

What the ever loving fuck is McCain talking about?

This is as brilliant as it's going to get. And that's not brilliant. I'm stunned by his air quotes, by his total disregard for the fact that there are women. HUMAN BEINGS behind the decision to terminate wanted, prayed for babies to [finger quote] protect their health [/finger quote]. That could mean so many things. Why would we want to trust [finger quote] grown women [/finger quote] and their [finger quote] Doctors [/finger quote] to make those decisions? These people are just waiting around to kill their babies. Babies they planned for, went to great lengths to get pregnant with....

Usually politicians at least hide their disdain for women's rights.

But I am not nearly eloquent enough to discuss this so I'll defer to Julie at A Little Pregnant.

"Because even if you're implacably, unconditionally opposed to abortion, a matter on which reasonable people disagree, I don't see any way a thinking person can look at those air quotes and see anything but pandering, contempt, and a dangerous willful ignorance."

And Alexa at Flotsam.

"It is my understanding that McCain believes late-term abortion should be outlawed except when it is necessary to save the life of the mother. But when do you make that determination? When does “health of the mother” turn into “life of the mother,” anyway? What organs would the infection have to spread to and shut down before I would be permitted to terminate my pregnancy? Would they wait until I was on a ventilator, or merely until my lungs were beginning to fill with fluid?"

I hope you'll read these blogs and remember these are the women Barack Obama and John McCain are talking about. A neighbor I talked to this week said he and his wife just believed there should be limits on the timing of abortions.

These women tell true stories, they are not figments of the imagination from the [finger quotes] Culture of Death [/finger quotes].

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Finally, I think this is an interesting read for anyone (like me) who is terribly disturbed by the crazy things happening outside McCain Palin rallies. Extremism at McCain Rallies Comes Naturally. (It talks about how groups of like minded people work. It's quite true on both sides.)

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Update: Heather and I posted the same links within a day of each other. As such there have been some concerns about plagiary.

Here is my response to the two emails and one comment I've gotten on the topic. As well as the kerfluffle at Dooce.com. As an FYI:

Sharing the same links is not plagiarism. Julie and Alexa have thousands of readers each day.

I am a reader of Julie's and found Alexa's post via a Twitter earlier in the week by Alice Bradley.

I have made a decision to post about politics on weekends only which explains the date issue.

Thank you for "looking" out for me.

Posted by: MelissaS | 2008.10.21 at 02:54 PM