November 17, 2006

Bush’s New Family Planning Czar: Like Appointing Dennis Kucinich as SecDef

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To run the federal government’s family planning program–no fewer than $283 million in funds serving low-income women nationwide–President Bush has picked Ed Keroack, an ob-gyn who has been running a crisis pregnancy center in Massachusetts that opposes birth control. Not a huge surprise, perhaps, coming from a president who seems to have it in for contraception generally (or at least understands that many of his supporters have moved from fighting abortion to fighting birth control in general). But still. Sometimes you wish it was true about laughter being the best birth control.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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