Members of the Raging Grannies Action League in Palo Alto

Daily French Roast

Anne is reading …

Writing for The Daily Beast, John Avlon calls Tzipi Livni, the Israeli opposition leader and head of the centrist party Kadima, “one of the most fascinating figures on the international political stage.” In New York recently to speak at the Daily Beast’s Women in the World Summit, Livni disagrees that President Obama is “weak on Israel”.

Livni, a former Israel Defense Forces lieutenant, lawyer and mother of two children, is positioned to become Israel’s second female prime minister, although she faces a primary challenge within her own party.

“I hate the idea that talking security is Likud and right wing, and talking about peace is left wing and Labor and Kadima. The whole idea is to find a way to bridge, to find a way to have security and peace together,” Livni says while pouring a glass of water. “I think that most of the Israeli public is in the center. They are in the center, and they are more moderate.”

Obama’s Gas Prices

Every time we hear the Republican candidates talk about Obama’s lack of control over oil prices, and they will control it, we just shake our heads. Every one of those guys knows that they price of oil is global and driven largely by factors that no American president can control.

The public comprehends that Obama isn’t to blame for high gasoline prices, as recent polls make clear. Think Progress reminds us that even the Wall Street Journal and Cato Institute agree: “It’s not Obama’s fault that crude oil prices have increased.”

What’s scary is that facts don’t matter in the GOP discussion. NY Times writes

The issue of gas prices has not only been misunderstood but thoroughly distorted by relentless ideological spin from industry and its political allies, mainly Republican.

More DFR

Raging Grannies.com. After being featured on Facebook today, their website is over capacity. The photo above went viral, after the Raging Grannies Action League stated their firm position that men who want drugs such as Viagra to treat impotence should be required to have strict testing before receiving a prescription “for said drugs”.

The Grannies applauded Ohio State Senator Nina Turner who has introduced a bill requiring that physicians take specific actions before prescribing Viagra and similar drugs, including giving a cardiac stress test and making a referral to a sex therapist for confirmation that the patient’s symptoms are not solely attributable to one or more psychological conditions.

The Raging Granny VRB (Viagra Review Board) was formed in response to moves by Republicans to limit women’s right to reproductive health. The members are all women who came of age before Roe v. Wade. Headquartered in Palo Alto, the grannies say that they are “old enough to know what it was like to live before women’s reproductive rights became law of the land, and they will do all they can to make sure that the US does not return to that era.”

Tennessee Bill May Expose Identities of Women Seeking Abortions ThinkProgress

New Networked Feminism Just Like the Old Networked Feminism: Organize or Die RH Eality Check

Illustration by Lola Dupré, based on an original photograph by Shaun Kardinal via NYMagNew York Magazine investigates America’s anxiety-ridden culture and the drugs that keep a calm numbness throughout the land. Xanax and its siblings—Valium, Ativan, Klonopin, and other members of the family of drugs called benzodiazepines—work effectively to keep fear at bay. Prescriptions for benzodiazepines have risen 17 percent since 2006 to nearly 94 million a year; generic Xanax, called alprazolam, has increased 23 percent over the same period, making it the most prescribed psycho-pharmaceutical drug and the eleventh- most prescribed overall, with 46 million prescriptions written in 2010. “In their generic forms, Xanax is prescribed more than the sleeping pill Ambien, more than the antidepressant Zoloft. Only drugs for chronic conditions like high blood pressure and high cholesterol do better.”