Action alert: “In as many as 20 states pharmacies are able to refuse to fill women’s prescriptions for contraception, including the morning-after pill.

When a woman and her doctor decide that a prescription for contraception is in the woman’s best interest, a third party has no right to override that decision. Pharmacies must ensue that patients get their doctor-prescribed medication without delay or inconvenience. Join NARAL Pro-Choice America in telling our nation’s biggest pharmacies (Wal-Mart, CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, and Eckerd) not to stand between a woman and her physician.” (Act For Change)

59 Ex-Diplomats Oppose Bolton for UN: “Challenging the White House, 59 former American diplomats are urging the Senate to reject John R. Bolton’s nomination to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

‘He is the wrong man for this position,’ they said in a letter to Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Lugar has scheduled hearings on Bolton’s nomination for April 7.” (Washington Post)

List of Schiavo Donors Will Be Sold by Direct-Marketing Firm: “The parents of Terri Schiavo have authorized a conservative direct-mailing firm to sell a list of their financial supporters, making it likely that thousands of strangers moved by her plight will receive a steady stream of solicitations from anti-abortion and conservative groups.

‘These compassionate pro-lifers donated toward Bob Schindler’s legal battle to keep Terri’s estranged husband from removing the feeding tube from Terri,’ says a description of the list on the Web site of the firm, Response Unlimited, which is asking $150 a month for 6,000 names and $500 a month for 4,000 e-mail addresses of people who responded last month to an e-mail plea from Ms. Schiavo’s father. ‘These individuals are passionate about the way they value human life, adamantly oppose euthanasia and are pro-life in every sense of the word!'” (New York Times )

Paul Krugman: “America isn’t yet a place where liberal politicians, and even conservatives who aren’t sufficiently hard-line, fear assassination. But unless moderates take a stand against the growing power of domestic extremists, it can happen here.” (New York Times op-ed)

“In a sharply divided ruling, Colorado’s highest court on Monday upheld a lower court’s decision throwing out the sentence of a man who was given the death penalty after jurors consulted the Bible in reaching a verdict. The Bible, the court said, constituted an improper outside influence and a reliance on what the court called a ‘higher authority.'” (New York Times )

Dear President Bush:

Congratulations on your victory over all us non-evangelicals. Actually, we’re a bit ticked off here in New England, so we’re leaving.

New England will now be its own country. And we’re taking all the Blue States with us. In case you are not aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, all of the North East and California.

We spoke to God, and she agrees that this split will be beneficial to almost everybody, and especially to us in the new country of New England. In fact, God is so excited about it, she’s going to shift the whole country at 4:30 pm EST next Friday. Therefore, please let everyone know they need to be back in their states by then.

So you get Texas and all the former slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole Miss. We get 85% of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get all the technological innovation in Alabama. We get about two-thirds of the tax revenue, and you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our divorce rate is 22% lower than the Christian coalition’s, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms to support, and we know how much you like that. Did I mention we produce about 70% of the nation’s veggies? But heck the only greens the Bible- thumpers eat are the pickles on their Big Macs.

Oh yeah, another thing, don’t plan on serving California wine at your state dinners. From now on it’s imported French wine for you. Ouch, bet that hurts. Just so we’re clear, the country of New England will be pro- choice and anti-war. Speaking of war, we’re going to want all Blue States citizens back from Iraq. If you need people to fight, just ask your evangelicals. They have tons of kids they’re willing to send to their deaths for oil. And they don’t care if you don’t show pictures of their kids’ caskets coming home.

Anyway, we wish you all the best in the next four years and we hope, really hope, you find those missing weapons of mass destruction. Seriously. Soon.

Sincerely,

New England [thanks, lorraine]