Everyone is screaming their heads off about Obama's mandate that employer-provided health insurance include contraception, as though this is some new innovation/outrage (depending on which side you're screaming from). Thing is, it's not new. more than half US states already HAVE such a mandate, and others come very close. So while this will be helpful in making all states follow the same policy, it's not new. In fact, it seems that, not only are a majority of Catholics in favor of contraception (on account of living in the real world, no doubt), most major Catholic universities and hospitals already comply with the standards Obama set out.

OK, so the Right having conniptions over something as if it's new is, well, nothing new. And it did seem like taking this stance was a good move for Obama, helping provide a (minor) boost to his popularity on the progressive (to say nothing of female) end of the spectrum. However, what I find both fascinating and disturbing is that now Obama is talking about 'accommodation' on the birth control issue.

How completely f'ed up would it be, if after staging this mandate as though it were breaking bold new ground, and then offering 'accommodation,' Obama actually managed to end up with a net loss in terms of women's access to healthcare and contraception? Watch this one closely folks - Orwellian political theater doesn't get any better than this. Now, does anyone remember what the chocolate ration was last week?