Anti-choice activist from Kansas offers subtle endorsement of McCain:  "According to Gietzen's e-mail, a vote for Obama, who supports the right of a woman to choose when to be pregnant, is 'much the same as someone aiding a person who is planning to do a school shooting.'"

Is Galviston the new New Orleans?  The Indypendent exposes gentrification after Houston's Hurricane Ike.

Women and the economy: Hip Mama links to reports on gender and the economy, and how economic problems effect women. 

More

Labor Notes covers how Unions Talk Race as Election Nears; In Dissent's Fall issue, Harold Meyerson discusses why this dialog (and putting Democrats strongly on top in Washington) is so important for labor's future.

Racewire has two interesting videos regarding race & the McCain campaign:
Irwin Tang discusses his new book, Gook: John McCain’s Racism and Why It Matters.
McCain's Muslim supporters confront Islamophobic republicans hawking anti-Obama bumper stickers at a rally
More

With so much coverage on bankers and CEOs struggling (?) through the economic crisis, Working Life turns its attention to day laborers and the economic crisis: "Two years ago, when the economy was booming and home-building was thriving, many of these same laborers were working every day. Now, they are lucky if they work twice a week, many of them say. Their lives have become a test of wits, patience and hope."

Ayers = Keeting?  Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting investigates Obama and McCain's attempts to smear each other.

Eve Ensler, best known for having written "The Vagina Monolgues," is seeking to put an end to the worst rape problem in the world— the Congo. Ensler deems the phenomenon "femicide": "'I have spent the past 10 years of my life in the rape mines of the world,' she said. 'But I have never seen anything like this.'" The playwright is [...]More

Latin American Studies Association hopes Obama will embrace the opportunity to inaugurate a new period of hemispheric understanding and collaboration for the common welfare.

Palin and Clinton can be differentiated based on their respective relationships with castration. The phallus is symbolically removed by the Law that orders the mother, through the intermediary of the child, not to give it to herself. Palin exalts the complete power of a mother who swallows her children and who effectuates a denial of the Law's prevalence. Clinton, meanwhile, remains stuck in a stage that precedes the feminization of society. She wants to compete with men. She occupies a classic feminist position: She holds herself up as being worthier than a man to carry the phallic signifier. Her activity is limited to struggling for a place within the same structure. Palin, though, no longer imitates men. She carries out a post-feminist maneuver in which gender confrontation no longer exists—we are no longer fighting the war between the sexes.
—Tülay Umay and Jean-Claude Paye at [...]More

Columbus Day reflections…

Governor Palin: no intention to hire any minorities in her Alaska administration. More