Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown Law student who was dragged into the national spotlight after Rush Limbaugh referred to her as a slut, said Wednesday it is time to choose between being “a country that honors our foremothers by moving us forward, or one that forces our generation to re-fight the battles they already won.”

In a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., she warned:

Your new president could be a man who stands by when a public figure tries to silence a private citizen with hateful slurs. Who won’t stand up to the slurs, or to any of the extreme, bigoted voices in his own party. It would be an America in which you have a new vice president who co-sponsored a bill that would allow pregnant women to die preventable deaths in our emergency rooms. An America in which states humiliate women by forcing us to endure invasive ultrasounds that we don’t want and our doctors say we don’t need. An America in which access to birth control is controlled by people who will never use it; an America in which politicians redefine rape so survivors are victimized all over again; in which someone decides which domestic violence victims deserve access to services, and which don’t.

Watch the video:

Fluke contrasted that possibility with the supportive reception she received from a president who reached out to support her, strangers who lifted her up, and a convention that invited her to speak. She encouraged America to choose to be “a country where we mean it when we talk about personal freedom,” rather than “one where that freedom doesn’t apply to our bodies and our voices.”

Judge Peter Economus has set a hearing for September 13 to address Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s refusal to comply with the court’s ruling that the state must allow early voting on the three days leading up to the general election. Economus released a terse order Wednesday afternoon: “The Court ORDERS that Defendant Secretary of State Jon Husted personally attend the hearing.” The Obama campaign filed a motion earlier Wednesday asking the court to make Husted give way.

Husted issued a directive Tuesday stating that he would appeal the decision to restore early voting on those three days, claiming that changing the hours now would “only serve to confuse voters.” The directive “strictly prohibits county boards of elections from determining hours for the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday before the election.”

Lynn Kinkaid, Director of the Butler County Board of Elections, which originally voted to hold weekend hours before Husted’s directive restricted them, told ThinkProgress the board is powerless to act against the Secretary of State’s directive. “I can’t imagine we would disobey a court order…he must have a good reason for it,” Kinkaid said. “He’s the big boss. I’m not going to second-guess my boss.”

Husted fired two Montgomery County election board members after they defied his directive and voted to hold weekend voting hours. Two other Ohio counties have asked Husted to reevaluate the voting restrictions.

Kinkaid recalled huge turnout in Butler County, which voted for McCain in 2008, on the weekend before the election: “There was a lot of people out there. We had them lined up two people, down the hall, out the door, over into the churchyard a block or two away. People waited for three hours.” By Kinkaid’s estimate, poll workers worked 36 hours of overtime that weekend.

There are several pending lawsuits against Husted’s office, including a recent suit by his Democratic predecessor, Jennifer Brunner, over his directive to limit voting hours. On Tuesday, the two fired board of elections members called for Husted’s resignation over a redistricting ballot issue.

The Romney campaign announced Wednesday that Rep. Allen West (R-FL), the Tea Party darling from Florida, will be one of three chairs on the Romney For President Black Leadership Council.

West will serve alongside Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC), and Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll to “help facilitate dialogue between Mitt Romney and respected leaders who provide unique expertise, experience and knowledge on a range of issues impacting black American communities,” according to a Romney press release.

Here are some of the extremist race- or ethnicity-based viewpoints that West will bring to the table in his official relationship with the Romney campaign:

West says the federal government is ’21st century slavery.’ West once argued that “we are creating the sense of economic dependence, which to me is a form of modern, 21st century slavery,” specifically referencing Social Security Disability. He also said of all social programs “redistributionary handouts is in fact the most insidious form of slavery remaining in the world today.” Another time, West told residents of his home district that President Obama has not interest in helping Americans: “He does not want you to have the self-esteem of getting up and earning and having that title of American,” West said. “He’d rather you be his slave.” On a similar note, West once called fellow Congressional Black Caucus member Rep. Maxine Waters (R-CA) a “plantation overseer.”

West believes ‘we are at war with the Islamic culture.’ West is a believer in “creeping sharia,” the idea that Muslims are trying to instate strict Islamic law in the United States. The Congressman has been host to radical anti-Islam activists, for which he recieved harsh criticism from religious groups, but did not apologize. West also claimed that a Muslim member of Congress “represent[ed] the antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established” and was a “wolf in the hen house.” (He even screened a Muslim-bashing film in honor of September 11th.)

West doesn’t like the idea of a ‘multi-cultural America.’ West fears “political correctness or the desire to be a multi-cultural America.” He once argued, “you have to repel invasions” when talking about undocumented immigrants. Illegal immigration, he said, “can be considered what the founding fathers wrote as an invasion into your country.” When President Obama issued his directive to relieve young, undocumented students with no criminal record, West called the move “one of those backdoor opportunities to allow people in the next five months to get the opportunity to vote.”

West has a litany of other lines invoking sexism, quoting Nazis, and calling for censorship of the U.S. media. Plus, the woman West first named as his Chief of Staff has her own set of horrendously offensive remarks, and turned down the role because she said she felt she was part of an “electronic lynching by proxy.”

Nearly every prognosticator on television last night heaped praise on First Lady Michelle Obama’s primetime speech at the opening day of the Democratic National Convention.

And then there’s Fox News. Even while several of their on-air personalities applauded Michelle’s speech, the network wasted no time broadcasting the Romney campaign’s talking points after the speech ended.

After Michelle Obama’s speech, Romney campaign Press Secretary Andrea Saul issued this statement: “…There was a night full of tributes to government as the solution to every problem.” For 30 minutes, Fox News commentators took turns parroting Saul’s statement, attacking Michelle Obama’s speech as being too pro-government and failing to adequately admire the contributions of the private sector. Watch:

Naturally, despite Fox News’ and the Romney campaign’s insistence that Michelle Obama cozied up to big government, the word “government” didn’t appear in her speech once while shout outs to the recovering auto industry and small businesses both made appearances.

A recent media firestorm over referencing God in the 2012 Democratic Platform appears to be a bit of a tempest in a tea pot, ignoring critical context in a fashion that raises serious questions about the role of faith in public life. The controversy was kicked off by the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody, who noticed that the word “God” never appeared in the platform text despite the platform’s page-long discussion of the value of faith and religious institutions. The point was picked up by several Republican-leaning outlets, and then migrated into the mainstream media.

The Romney campaign has now jumped on this issue, sending Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan out to bash supposed Democratic hostility to faith:

It’s not in keeping with our founding documents, our founding vision. I’d guess you’d have to ask the Obama administration why they purged all this language from their platform. There sure is a lot of mention of government. I guess I would just put the onus and the burden on them to explain why they did all this, these purges of God.

Setting aside Ryan’s misleading implications about the Founders and Foundational documents, the notion that the platform “purged all this language” about religion isn’t accurate. The platform’s “Faith” section makes this plain:

Faith has always been a central part of the American story, and it has been a driving force of progress and justice throughout our history. We know that our nation, our communities, and our lives are made vastly stronger and richer by faith and the countless acts of justice and mercy it inspires. Faithbased organizations will always be critical allies in meeting the challenges that face our nation and our world – from domestic and global poverty, to climate change and human trafficking. People of faith and religious organizations do amazing work in communities across this country and the world, and we believe in lifting up and valuing that good work, and finding ways to support it where possible. We believe in constitutionally sound, evidence-based partnerships with faith-based and other non-profit organizations to serve those in need and advance our shared interests. There is no conflict between supporting faith-based institutions and respecting our Constitution, and a full commitment to both principles is essential for the continued flourishing of both faith and country.

Moreover, the first day of the Convention proper began and ended with a prayer. Veteran Nate Davis gave a speech that began “I’m not here tonight as a Democrat or a Republican, but as a man of Christian faith,” and a number of major speakers (including highlight Julián Castro, Lily Ledbetter, and Deval Patrick) referenced God in their speeches. It’s simply obvious there’s no hostility to God at the DNC.