National

From what I've seen thus far, Senator Hillary Clinton did a pretty good job tonight of endorsing Obama and encouraging her supporters to do the same.

The line I agree with the most is when she said "we don't need four more years of the last eight years." That is exactly right. No matter how angry, disappointed, etc. we may be that our chosen candidate didn't win, we have to remember how bad the last eight years are and how things will be with another four years of this Administration's policies.

I also liked how Senator Bob Casey said that McCain isn't a maverick - he's a sidekick. And that they don't need four more years - how about four more months.

I'm looking forward to rewatching the convention later tonight on CSPAN since I missed it while I was out running errands.

I've been too busy with summer vacation, getting Abby ready for first grade, and getting everything together for my campaign for city council to write as often as I should. However, I wanted to do some quick hits on some items going on in the news that I find important.

With everything on the news about the Olympics, a lot of important stories are being buried in the press. I'll try to give an updated listing every few days. Here's today's listing:

The Democratic Party of Oregon today sent out an action item on the topic that I've been covering lately - women's reproductive health. As I wrote a few days ago, the Bush Administration is working on instituting new rules that will make it more difficult for women to have access to reproductive health services like annual exams as well as pushing birth control into "abortion" territory.

The Merkley campaign has put together a petition on this issue, and the DPO sent out this email about it today:

Sign the petition.

Write a letter.

Call out Gordon Smith.

While Jeff Merkley takes a public stand to protect a woman's right to choose, Gordon Smith offers only silence.

We need to respond with two actions:

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I learned more today about the Department of Health and Human Services' proposal on reproductive health and pregnancy prevention.

For a long time the accepted definition of an established pregnancy (both by medical experts and HHS) was after implantation of the embryo into the uterus. Without implantation, the egg (or embryo) would be flushed from the body during the woman's next period. And more importantly, a pregnancy test would not come up positive.

Sometimes the truth in humor hurts more than the pain in my side from laughing.

From our friends over at Brave New Films:

Joe Lieberman is a war hawk, plain and simple. He staunchly supports George Bush's War in Iraq and John McCain's plan to stay in Iraq for 100 years. But Lieberman's new alliance with the Republican Party runs even deeper. He has endorsed and stumped for McCain, wants to be the star of the Republican National Convention, and has even served on a 527 group that smeared Barack Obama with a nasty attack ad.

And yet Lieberman still holds a top rank within the Senate Democratic Caucus as chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The Senate Democratic Steering Committee needs to know just how much of a conflict of interest this is. That's why we created Lieberman Must Go.

Watch the video: http://bravenewfilms.org/watch/4063829/43061?utm_source=rgemail

As I was telling people at Saturday's Oregon State Delegate Convention, my daughter Abby watched MSNBC with me the night that U.S. Senator Barack Obama clinched the nomination. She watched with me for hours as they counted down how many delegates Obama still needed.

She'd get very excited every time his number went down, jumping up and down and saying "Mommy! Mommy! Obama only needs 6 more!"

When he hit 0, she bounced all over the room yelling "Obama won! Obama won!" Even funnier, when McCain came on to do his speech, she turns to me (hands on her hips) and says "Mommy! Why does he get to speak - he didn't win?"

I'd imagine some people would think this is just my political activism rubbing off on Abby. But actually, it's more than that.