Everyone knows McCain is comfortable staying in Iraq for the next 100 years.  If you think that is the only area where he would have a lasting impact of equal duration, you are mistaken. Click on the image below to see what hangs in the balance:

Consider the legally protected (for now) reproductive rights of women.  Any women under the age of 40 can be forgiven for assuming "it was always like this" and will always be like this.  After all, many take it for granted that "choice" means deciding which type of birth control to use.  

The reality is quite different.  The reproductive rights women take for granted hang by a slender thread.  Unlike the legal rights of African Americans to citizenship or voting, the reproductive rights of women are not protected by any constitutional amendment or acts of congress specifically drafted for their benefit.  Reproductive rights are protected only by a handful of Supreme Court rulings.   Over the years there has been a constant campaign to undo these gains.  In recent years, these attacks have all been held back by narrow 5-4 decisions.  

While the media was focused on the story of Goldstein's, er... Zarqawi's latest death, there was another story that got very little play.  This was from the most important "central front" of this global war -- the home front.  I'm talking about a recent case where secret evidence was used to charge people with  crimes the jury didn't think they committed, yet they were still convicted and sentenced to terms the judge felt were unjustified.

As someone on Dkos so eloquently put it:

"Going after people based upon 'what they are thinking'
should set off alarm bells in any thinking person's head."

You read that right.  The department of pre-crime is handing out warrants to the thought police, and they're forcing courts to hand out life sentences.