1984, no really

It's been almost a year since I have written. I realize that is the equivalent of death to a blog and so I recognize that I may be writing to crickets this morning. But, it's really getting to be an interesting election season and I'm having a hard time keeping my mouth shut (shock!).

There seem to be quite a few Democrats upset this morning that Obama picked Joe Biden. Sorry folks, but have you seen Obama? He needs Biden desperately. The race is tight. And it will continue to be so. I'm no McCain fan (he would make a great dinner guest but I don't want him running my uterus, er,, country), however all this discussion about "change" is completely irrelevant in light of the way DC is set-up. Hilary was right, she was the candidate of change because she has affected change for years. You can't effect change if you don't know how DC works and Joe Biden knows how DC works.

Obama really needed Hillary. But, since his people were unwilling to even vet her (for what stupid reason I cannot fathom), they have to go with Joe. You don't have to be a pundit to say that he raises the credibility of Obama on foreign policy, on reaching across the aisle, on knowing how DC works and importantly to me, on energizing the base, most specifically the unions whom Obama has apparently forgotten are part of the backbone of the Democratic Party. I can't figure out if his people think the unions are irrelevant or antiquated, but he needs to get a grip on the base. Because if the youth and the African American voters do not turn out in record numbers, we Democrats are in deep doo-doo come November.

Notice I keep saying Obama's people, because he's a babe in the woods on a lot of this. It isn't that he isn't an incredibly intelligent guy, but at this stage of the game, sadly, intelligent isn't enough. We the People complain about career politicians out of touch with reality. Bad news folks, it takes a professional politician to get elected. That's the game. And he isn't quite as professional as you need to be.

Don't get me wrong, I'm so repulsed after the last eight years, I'd vote for any burro they run (though I still mourn the loss of Hillary; and BTW, stop saying she has made such a difference and opened all these doors for women, I don't see her sitting in the White House, do you? Because that's the only way the mysogeny in this country would be seen as beginning to go away.

And one more thing before I go, ladies we all need to wake up and fast because our reproductive rights are going straight out the window. This isn't about Supreme Court picks, it's about these uber conservative civil servants writing laws that are putting their hands all over our bodies. Saying that birth control = abortion? This statement may shock you, but the first time I heard it was my senior year of high school 15 years ago. We had a crazy assembly with some nut trying to teach natural family planning while she nursed her four-year-old on the stage in front of 17 and 18 year old young men and women (I don't object AT ALL to public breastfeeding, but I think for a Catholic High School this was a bit much, especially to a generation where probably 90% of us had not been breastfed). She said if you took the birth control pill you were having an abortion every month. Imagine what I thought as I sat there having taken the pill that morning--actually I gave her a bunch of crap because I was on the pill for ovarian cysts and couldn't believe anyone could be as ignorant as this woman was. Couldn't figure out how she could get the entire premise of the science behind the pill wrong. And here we are, 15 years later and they are writing this insanity into law. Health and Human Services is losing their mind. And they're worried about protecting health care professionals who don't want to prescribe or dispense the pill from discrimination? 1984 calling, the state wants you.