This is a great article by Molly Ivins. They even printed it in our local St. Pete Times! :)

Molly Ivins

Power Moves

From the LAT:

High Court to Address 'Partial-Birth' Abortions

By David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court today set the stage for a major ruling on abortion by agreeing to decide whether Congress can outlaw so-called "partial birth" abortions during the mid-term of a pregnancy.

The case, to be heard in the fall, will test whether lawmakers can strictly regulate how abortions are performed.

Betty Friedan has passed away at age 85. A founding mother of modern feminism, she was many things. Warrior, author, philosopher, journalist, homophobe, mother, founding member of NOW and NARAL, conservative, moderate, revolutionary...

I'll no doubt be writing more about Betty Friedan's legacy in the next couple of days. But for now I just want to sit with my feelings of loss. She may not have been able to lead us all the way home, or perhaps even envision our ultimate destination, but she was an amazing force in getting this wave of the march started. May she rest in peace.

Our beloved Kactus has started her own blog! Let's show her some love!

http://superbabymama.blogspot.com/

Do you like being wiretapped?

The extrajudicial spying may be vastly wider than originally thought or than the president acknowledged 10 days ago, 'The New York Times'? reporting that the National Security Agency has been tapping directly into some of the main arteries of American telecommunications companies in its hunt for suspicious activity, apparently with the approval of those telecommunications companies, but not with the approval of any court.

The agency combing through phone calls and e-mails said to number in the millions, not all of them, obviously, the work of terror suspects. In acknowledging the eavesdropping last week, the president having said that only those suspected of terrorist ties were being monitored.

'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for December 27

no surprise here, but this made me laugh:

Debbie Dougherty, an assistant professor of communications at the University of Missouri-Columbia, interviewed 29 nurses in four states to determine how they react to the harassment and how it affects their relationships with patients.

She found that nurses usually crack jokes or sternly reject the patient's conduct. Most nurses said they continue to provide medical care, but the emotional support patients need from them sometimes declines, Dougherty said.

oh those poor patients, getting less emotional support just because they tried to feel up the nurse as she leaned over to check their IV.