Because of my real job, I couldn't attend John McCain's townhall meeting in Sparks, but the RGJ
was kind enough to broadcast it live on their website. And in spite of
my doubts, the streaming video worked out really well--much better than
the BlogHer, Netroots Nation joint session did (Good idea, the panelists still did a great job in a tough situation).

Here are my notes:

• Stem cell research good. Climate change real. McCain gets credit
  for bucking the party on these issues as long as he doesn't change his
  mind next time he talks to Dr. James Dobson or Ted Stevens. Whoops! I
  forgot, Stevens is busy being indicted. At least he's off the list.
• "Berate parents for not putting sunscreen on their children." So
  here's my question, how can you tell kids are wearing sunscreen unless
  it's zinc oxide? Anyway, I can't wait to berate my first parent at Lake
  Tahoe and tell them John McCain told me I should!
• "Troops are not a political issue." Yes my friend, the troops are not a political issue. Shame on you and your campaign. Sidebar: Jonathan Alter
  has been so funny to watch on TV lately--a truly entertaining
  curmudgeon. I actually heard him grumble audibly "oh please" as a
  Republican pundit defended the validity of McCain's latest ad on
  Countdown last night.
• "Obama opposed everything that would make the US energy independent." Uh, fact checkers? A little help please. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in an alternative universe where facts matter.
• "I'm taking public financing, Obama is first presidential candidate
  to opt out." Wahhhhh. He broke his promise. Wait, what was that you
  said about opting out of public financing my friend?
• "I've asked Obama time and time again to join me in these townhall
  meetings!" Well, yes, and it might be kind of cool. But why on earth
  would Obama want to give his good friend McCain so much free air time
  before the Democratic convention? Not to mention the free crowds? He's
  not a stupid man.
• "I've crossed the aisle many times to work with my good friend Joe Lieberman." Wow, that aisle must be as wide as a tooth pick.
• "We've got to stop putting party ahead of country." Another great idea. Too bad my good friend McCain doesn't seem able to put that idea into practice.

And I must thank you for leaving me with "Life Is A Highway" stuck
in my head for the rest of the day. That's just cruel. Not to mention
the fact that the lyrics made me think of how boring, or at least
awkward it would be to ride in a car with John McCain all night long.

One commenter made an astute observation:

This would be like putting a picture on the Mississippi press credentials tag of a trailer park, pregnant woman with a cigarette in her hand, and a man holding a bottle of JD and a pit bull. Sure people will laugh, but only at the expense of the locals. And if it was so clever and funny, why not give the same press tag to ALL members of the media, including local media?

But what this really made me think about is how mean McCain's humor is in general as Ben Smith from Politico among other recently documented. There's the joke he told in front of a reporter from the Tucson Citizen during his 1986 Senate campaign about the women raped repeatedly by a gorilla:

"Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, 'Where is that marvelous ape?'"

Or how about this one about a teenage Chelsea Clinton:

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?" "Because her father is Janet Reno."

And of course there was the bomb Iran joke that some people besides nazi-feminists like me didn't take to well.

As the campaign goes on, I find it harder and harder to believe that John McCain is a nice man. He and his campaign (which arguably takes on the personality of it's candidate) grow more petulant, grumpy, and just plain mean seemingly by the day. And when I remember that McCain called his wife a cunt in front of members of the press because she made a comment about his balding head, well, it's impossible. I don't want a man who treats his wife that way in public to be president because I can only imagine that he treats her even worse in private.

It's amazing how timely the questions I asked BlogHer to ask Obama and McCain campaign representatives during a special session were (questions that were not asked by the way). Here are the questions I submitted to BlogHer:

• I want a straight answer about whether they feel contraception is a health care right of women?
• How should the right to patient care be balanced with the right to refuse care?
• Do they know the rate of contraception use among sexually active women? (90%)
• What is the difference between the so called "morning after pill"
  and the so called "abortion pill?" What is their stance on sex
  education in public schools?

Am I psychic or what? It's like I knew about the religious right
bullshit coming down from the Bush Administration before it even
happened--their parting salvo to the women of America if you will. In
fact, I'm just going to quit mincing words and call the legislation
presented by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt what it
is--a big "fuck you" to the women of America and the men who love them.
If Leavitt and the rest of the Bush Administration get their way, women
will have have no idea whether or not they can get birth control from
their medical provider without asking. Not only that, but the proposed
legislation would overrule state laws which require employers to offer
contraception along with other prescriptions as well as state laws that
require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims.
From US News:

It would prohibit federally funded medical
facilities—including teaching hospitals and Planned Parenthood
clinics—from refusing to hire doctors who don't want to dispense birth
control pills and other types of contraception that may cause the
expulsion of a fertilized egg. (It's already illegal to discriminate
against doctors who refuse to perform abortions.)

The excuse Leavitt and Florida Representative Dave Weldon, a
supporter of the legislation, give for throwing up additional obstacles
to access to contraception is to protect and expand the "conscientious
refusal" rights of health care providers. No one is fooled by their
feigned concern for the rights of health care professionals--their goal
is to redefine contraception in medical and legislative terms so that
access to it becomes more difficult and more unfertilized eggs are
saved. So logical! By putting the rights of health care providers
BEFORE their patients, a practice that seems to violate the ethical
oaths most health care providers take upon entering their profession,
the government is telling women, that once again, their rights to
control their own bodies is secondary to the rights of others.

Why on earth do some people think unfertilized eggs inherently have
more rights than than the women who produce them? Explain the logic to
me? And men, why are you not outraged as well? Now your sexual partner
is at the mercy of the values of her health care providers. Her first
question to a new doctor will have to be "Do you prescribe
contraception?" Actually, many of us already have to do that. If you
live in Reno and are insured through St. Mary's, your employer is
required to provide an alternate prescription plan for contraception
because they refuse to cover it. This legislation would put an end to
that. Men will still get their Viagra because impotence is a medical
problem--continual pregnancy is just a biological reality. Nevada's
decimated state social services should cope with the thousands of
additional babies born because womens' access to birth control was FURTHER restricted very well, and that's just what will happen locally.

One thing I know for sure--this is another war the Bush
Administration will lose. Women are voting Republicans who have and
continue to trample on their health care rights out of office. Oh, the
times, they are a changing, and I can't wait to send this bunch out of
office with their hands covering their crotches (and that goes for the women politicians too).

Secretary Leavitt's proposed legislation goes against the opinion of
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)
Committee Opinion as read here: "The Limits of Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive Health." You can read
Secretary Michael Leavitt's response to the ACOG here.