McCain Rejects and Denounces The progressive blogosphere can declare victory on this one. The main stream media simply refused to give Pastor John Hagee’s endorsement of John McCain, which McCain was "proud" to have, fair treatment. While Barack Obama dealt with a 10 day onslaught of coverage of Jeremiah Wright’s views McCain hardly heard a peep from the MSM since Hagee endorsed him on February 28th this year, nearly three months ago. During that time the progressive blogs and online media have not let McCain have a free pass on Hagee. The straw that broke the camel’s back after three months was the surfacing of an audio recording on You Tube (which you can listen to in yesterday’s roundup) in which Hagee declares Hitler was an instrument of God, sent to impel the Jewish people back to Isreal. So yesterday McCain finally decided to reject Hagee’s endorsement.

But McCain didn’t stop the rejecting and denouncing there. He also took the opportunity to reject the the endorsement of Reverend Rod Parsley, the megachurch leader
who had said it was the United States’ obligation to see the
"false religion" of Islam "destroyed."

We should all take a moment here to remember that the presumptive GOP nominee is the same man who deemed Jerry Fallwell and Pat Roberts "agents of intolerance" just a few short years ago.

All of this adds fuel to the fire that is quickly sending up in smoke any remaining political capital the Christian conservative’s had remaining. As noted in yesterday’s roundup and in Politico, the far right is feeling left out of this political cycle and it is becoming increasingly evident just why that is.

Sex Ed in the City (and State) The state of New York is debating a bill that would provide the state’s youth with "age-appropriate, medically accurate" sex education.
For four years the bill has passed the Democratically controlled
Assembly only to be blocked in the GOP controlled Senate. Hope is high
for passage this year as the failures of abstinence-only sex education have become obvious.

Papal Pill a Mass Turnoff The Sydney Morning Herald has a great article today examining the legacy of Humanae Vitae, the nearly 40-year-old dictum of the Catolic church that forbids the use of contraception. I highly recommend a read.

Beginning of the End? For weeks now talking heads have been declaring the Democratic primary race all but over as Barack Obama continues to gain momentum with superdelegates and holds his margin of elected delegates over Hillary Clinton. Today CNN is reporting that "formal talks" are underway to consider an Obama-Clinton ticket. As the contest wanes chatter of bringing Clinton onto the ticket as Obama’s Vice President has become louder, fueled, it seems, mostly by the Clinton camp.

Also signaling the beginning of the end are Clinton supporters placing increasing pressure on her to start the healing process. New York Governor David Paterson said late yesterday that Clinton is showing some "desperation" in her attempts to have the entire Michigan and Florida delegations seated at the Democratic convention. He also spoke of her candidacy in the past tense, saying, ""I thought she was the best candidate and I thought she had the best chance of
winning."