While having your dad elected to the U.S. presidency is exciting enough, we're sure that the girls are probably overwhelmed with giddiness over the prospect of having a pup to call their own. To help Obamas out, we decided to make a list of the best dogs for their family using Petfinder, a website that lists adoptable dogs in shelters across the nation.

Malia, the eldest Obama sister, has allergies so we had to take that into consideration when picking out potential puppies. We also tried to stick to dogs in the Washington D.C. area.

The girls have expressed interest in a Goldendoodle, a cross between a Golden Retriever and a Standard Poodle that is said to be hypoallergenic. They sure are cute and a good mix of a "All American" and hypoallergenic to suit Malia's allergies. Colton, a Goldendoodle located in Denver, PA might be the perfect puppy for the Obamas!

Obama also told reporters that his family had been looking into Labradoodles, another mix of a typical American dog (Labs) and a Poodle. Boston, a Labradoodle in Washington, D.C. would be happy to play with the girls on the South Lawn.

The American Kennel Club has a list of dogs that are generally considered to do well with people with allergies. On the list is one of our (okay, my) favorite dogs, the Schnauzer. A Schnauzer would be great for the girls since they are both hypoallergenic and temperamentally well-suited for children. Lady, a Miniature Schnauzer from Laurel, MD whose owners lost their home would be safe and sound in the White House.

Since the girls seem to like the Poodle mixes, perhaps a Schnoodle (or Schnauzer-Poodle mix) would appeal to them. Elise, a Schnoodle in Hedgescille, WV would be happy to run around the feet of the younger Obamas.

A Bichon Frise is also recommended for allergy-sufferers. Bichon Frise's have an excellent temperament with a "cheerful attitude" and a playful but gentle-mannered behavior that is great for children. Sammy, an adult Bichon Frise in Potomac, MD would use his years of dog experience to help the Obamas adapt to the doggy-owning lifestyle.

The American Kennel Club also recommends Malteses for people with allergies. A Maltese would be a great dog to play with since they are fearless little balls of fur that are incredibly affectionate and mild-mannered. Arthur in Monkton, MD is a friendly little fellow that would have no trouble rubbing paws with foreign heads of state.

A plain Poodle would also be a great dog for the Obamas. Poodles have that hypoallergenic coat that Malia would need in order to enjoy snuggles without sneezing. Sydney, a cute Poodle in Chantilly, VA that came from a puppy mill will be ready to part with her pups when they are 8 weeks. The time lapse would be perfect for the Obamas who won't move into the White House until next year!

The most American choice of all would be a mutt. Hope, a mutt in Forestville, MD has some Poodle in her so she would be well-suited for Malia. And since her name is Hope, you know that she was meant to be with the Obamas.

Although our last two picks for First Pup aren't hypoallergenic, they'd still make excellent dogs for the family.

An energetic boxer would be great for an active family with growing children. The friendly breed would also be great for meeting with guests. Rocky in Washington D.C. looks like he is ready to meet his new family.

A perfect family dog — and a favorite of conservative writer and big Obama supporter Andrew Sullivan — is the carefree Beagle. The girls would probably enjoy watching this curious dog explore their new home. Beagles also naturally enjoy the company of other dogs and people, making them the perfect addition to a family that will be meeting a lot of people. Cracker in Washington D.C. would fit in nicely at the White House, but the Obamas might want to change his name.

Obama's First Appointment, A First Dog [Chicago Breaking News]
Obama Promises A First Dog To Sasha And Malia [NBC Chicago]
Dogs For Allergies [American Kennel Club]
Petfinder

• Scientists around the world are working on new male contraceptive techniques one of which involves a remote-controlled sperm valve that can turn off sperm flow at the push of a button. • From today until October 10 a carnival will be held in Nigeria where "bachelor catchers" parade a bachelor around a village in a noose in order to encourage young men to marry. • The Guatemalan government has announced a five-month program to provide some 15,000 lay midwives proper training to avoid preventable childbirth deaths. • A new study from England says that women who are undergoing fertility treatments can increase their chances of having children if they undergo acupuncture during the embryo transfer as part of their regular fertility treatment. • The annulling of a French marriage in 2006 based on the fact that the wife lied about her virginity is currently being appealed because the court decided that a woman's virginity was an "essential quality" and therefore grounds for annulment. • Historians and economists believe that "witch-hunts" tend to occur when times get tough as evidenced by Western history and current persecution of "witches" around the world. • The Japanese Defense Ministry decided today to lift gender restrictions aboard destroyers for female members of the Maritime Self-Defense Force. • An English woman kept a baby hare alive by storing the little fluffball in her bra to keep it warm and feeding the hare baby formula with a syringe. • A pair of cloistered nuns in Spain are the country's newest celebrity chefs with a hybrid reality show and cooking show called Taste of Heaven. • A new rapid test for HPV, careHPV, may be able to help stop cervical cancer for some women in rural villages worldwide. • The Indian government's decision to review the Anti-Dowry Act has been criticized by women's organizations who want the Act to be strengthened instead of dissolved or relaxed. • Okay, so we have been entranced for the past hour by this cute video of a kitty playing "red light, green light" with a camera. Whatevs, it's cute! •

[Photo via Getty.]

One nice thing about The Handmaid's Tale is, like Sarah Palin's resume, it's a pretty quick read. Basically the US has become a Christian theocracy where piety is required and women are chattel. They can't have property or jobs, and they are forced into arranged marriages or disturbing functional roles. A few become whores, and get to hang out at a brothel called Jezebel's. Others are Handmaids, so called because of a story in Genesis. Pollution has made most people sterile, but Handmaids are still believed to be fertile. Their job is to live with rich couples and have sex with the husbands — while the wives lie on the bed with them — in hopes of conceiving a child. The narrator, Offred, is one such Handmaid, and her description of the "fertilization" process ("My red skirt is hitched up to my waist. Below it the Commander is fucking. What he is fucking is the lower part of my body") probably stuck with you if you read the novel in high school, for its sheer awful dehumanization of sex. The Handmaids are told they are better off than women before the theocracy, who were "dying of too much choice."

So, is this the kind of world Sarah Palin wants to usher us into? Well, sort of. The Christian Heritage Week she signed into law in Alaska sounds like a far milder version of the state-sanctioned Prayvaganzas. When a group of Handmaids-to-be chants "her fault, her fault, her fault" at a rape victim, I thought of women in Wasilla paying for their own rape kits on Palin's watch. And of course there's the reverence for childbearing that permeates the culture of The Handmaid's Tale, from the gruesome displays of executed abortionists to the arranged marriages of girls as young as fourteen in order to "start them soon." All this is reminiscent of Palin's avowed pro-life stance, a stance so unswerving it's hard to imagine her daughter could have gone against it.

But does Sarah Palin actually want the US to turn into a Handmaid's-Tale-style police state? No more than any of us. She's not against women holding jobs — she's a working mother of five. Nor would she, if elected, force us all to attend Prayvaganzas or have sex with other people's husbands.

However, a character named Serena Joy should offer a chilling cautionary tale to Palin and her ilk. Before the theocracy, Serena Joy was a popular televangelist, preaching about the need for women to return to the home. Afterwards, she does just that, and she is trapped in an arranged marriage with knitting and gardening as her only occupations. Atwood writes:

She doesn't make speeches anymore. She has become speechless. She stays in her home, but it doesn't seem to agree with her. How furious she must be, now that she's been taken at her word.

Sarah Palin hasn't been as anti-woman as someone like Ann Coulter, whose persistence in asking people to listen to her while telling them women are stupid is a mind-boggling exercise in doublethink. But Palin does want to deprive women of the right to decide what we do with our bodies. And as The Handmaid's Tale shows, women who want to take power away from women should be careful what they wish for.

The Handmaid's Tale [Amazon]

Earlier:
Patriotism Is Not A Cultural Pissing Contest
Palin Gives Thumbs Up To Financial Bailouts, Down To Rape Victims

• The U.S. military has announced that it has arrested an al Qaeda figure who helped in the 2006 kidnapping of journalist Jill Carroll. • A black female physician was blocked from seeking a DNA test to prove her direct relation to U.S. founding father James Madison by Madison's recognized/white descendants. • With Proposition 8 looming in CA to ban gay marriage, some Mormons are going on the internet to voice their support for gay marriage. • A new study conducted by an economics professor at UC Berkeley says that economic, environmental, and war-related stress causes pregnant women to release more hormones and give birth to more girls. • The creator of The Secret Life of the American Teenager is upset that a PSA urging parents to discuss sex with their kids is put on at the end of each episode. • Hot Cartoons And The Women Who Could Play Them: Megan Fox as Pocahontas? Really? • Angelica Alfaro defied the odds and stereotypes surrounding children of Mexican immigrants by attending and graduating from a college and not having children. • A guideline for members of district councils in England has cautioned council-members against using phrases like "man on the street" and "manning the switchboard" because they are "offensive" to women. • Rosie Swale Pope, a 61-year-old grandmother in England has just returned from her 5-year, 20,000-mile run around the world. • The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has pardoned 3 men accused of brutally gang raping a woman with a bayonet after she complained that they kidnapped her son. •

Senior Kirstin Neff discussed her leaning toward voting for Obama with her mother, who helped Ms. Neff change her mind in five minutes:

"She started telling me about how our generation takes for granted a lot of advances that women have made. She told me what it was like in the '70s and '80s and, you know, the general feeling that you were never as good or as important as your brothers or the men who you worked with. She talked about how women's stakes are so tied up in Hillary's candidacy, and how it could change what it means to be a woman and what all these little girls will think is possible in their own lives. So I just kind of started thinking about it like that, and it was like, 'Hmm. Okay. Do I really want to step in front of all of that?'"

What it comes down to is the meaning of feminism and what it means to be a woman. Is it more important, above all, to further the cause of women? Or is your number one priority to stay true to yourself and your ideals? Check out Hillary Clinton's Wellesley yearbook picture, and try to imagine her as a student and not a candidate. Which side do you think she would be on?

Young Feminists Split: Does Gender Matter? [Washington Post]
An Open Letter to Gloria Steinem [Glamour]