Crossposted at Daily Kos

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt has proposed a new rule that will limit the rights of women to receive medically accurate information and treatment. The alleged goal of the rule is to protect the rights of health care workers, volunteers, and trainees. The result would be limited access to birth control and abortion for women all over the country - regardless of state law.

From CNN:

The rule, which applies to institutions receiving government money, would require as many as 584,000 employers ranging from major hospitals to doctors' offices and nursing homes to certify in writing that they are complying with several federal laws that protect the conscience rights of health care workers. Violations could lead to a loss of government funding and legal action to recoup federal money already paid.

The comment period ends on September 25th. We have 19 days until this rule takes effect.

Crossposted here from Daily Kos

I took the title from this piece - which dissected the "Obama is a Muslim" smear.

Today I find myself writing a diary that I should not have to write - defending a candidate that I should not have to defend against a claim that people here should be loath to repeat. This is hardly the first time a Democratic nominee has been misrepresented, lied about, smeared, slammed, etc. on a liberal blog. I'm sure it won't be the last.

Those of us who were here 4 years ago most likely remember SYFPH very well. SYFPH was born as a result of the MANY Democrats here on DKos (and elsewhere) who felt that Kerry would win no matter what, or that he'd lose and then we should all jump off bridges and move to New Zealand, or who felt that a vote for Nader was better than a vote for kerry - because Kerry was WRONG about the war in Iraq...the Republicans were right, he was a flip-flopper, etc.

Please take action!

Straight to the action items today...there are lots of them!

My diary yesterday (over at Daily Kos) talked about the need for more action on our part regarding global warming. For those of you who missed it, the deal is this: Senator Durbin (responding to an audience question) said that the Democrats aren't doing much on Global Warming because Global Warming isn't on the radar of the public. When the public is asked about the top 10 concerns they have, global warming isn't there. He did cite gas prices and terrorism as being on that top 10 list though, so in a way, I believe we're close to getting Global Warming up there because let's face it, those issues are all connected. Anyway, we need to make the public MORE aware of energy independence issues. What better way to do that than to put a sign in your window! Environmental Action has signs you can download here! So, download your own sign and put one up! When you're neighbors ask you about it, tell them how Energy Independence through renewable sources would help us fight global warming, high gas prices, and terrorism all at the same time! You can also sign this petition through the League of Conservation Voters and Demand Global Warming Leadership Now!

No, not that kind of extremists!!

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be... The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists."

I'd like to promote a type of extremism today... Extreme Activism.

An "Extreme Activist" is my favorite kind of person. There are a lot of extreme activists here on Daily Kos, but there can always be more! So, I'm challenging everyone today to not only take action here, but to pass along some of these action items to family and friends. The more activists we have calling our Senators and House Reps, the harder it is for them to ignore us! My dream...I'd like to see Extreme Activism as part of the X Games... :-)

I'd also like to celebrate a victory for Plan B this week!! The FDA finally approved over the counter sales of Plan B to those 18 and older. The problem now is that we have to get the word out about Plan B. So, I encourage each of you to spread the word... this website is pretty informative, feel free to pass it along to everyone in your email address book!

Now, onto the action items...

Hi MyDD'ers. I've been reading MyDD for absolute ages, and I've commented here and there a few times, but for the most part I spend my time commenting over at Daily Kos. A number of Kossacks have suggested that I crosspost my weekly action diary here, so I have decided to try that. I thought I'd add a little note up here saying hello and introducing myself and what this diary is all about.

Basically, I get emails for action alerts from LOTS of interest/issue groups each week. All of them ask me to "send this along to 10 of my friends". Well, my friends were getting annoyed at getting a hundred emails from me a week with action items, but I felt guilty for not passing these action alerts along to people. I decided in November of 2005 that I would compile some of the alerts into a diary once a week (Sundays are good for me because I teach during the week) so that I could make it easy for people in the blogosphere to take action on LOTS of different issues they care about, all from one place.

I hope you find this useful!