I reccomend reading Women in Combat: The World War II Experience in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union D'Ann Campbell -

"Gun women" was the contemptuous German term for Soviet women who carried or fired weapons. Many Soviet women were without uniforms and thus considered de facto partisans. The Germans looked upon armed Soviet women as "unnatural" and consequently had no compunction about shooting such "vermin" as soon as they were captured. The verbal degradation of enemy females made it easier for German soldiers to overcome inhibitions about harming women.

Love Sex and War - John Costello: Soviet Women Snipe from Behind. Pilots: Shot Down by a Woman 

The Soviet women's contribution to their country's all-out battle for survival was heavily embellished by Stalin's propaganda machine, with the intention of both rallying the Russian people and persuading his British and American allies to open a second front in Europe. A celebrated girl-sniper, who had reportedly shot no fewer than 309 German soldiers while fighting with the Red Army on the Dnieper Front, was sent on a well-publicized tour of the United States.

Throughout the summer of 1943, American newspapers and magazines featured the heroic exploits of other Soviet military heroines, giving the impression that women and men were fighting alongside one another all along the eastern front. The reality was less spectacular, if no less heroic, for those individual women were not officially in front-line Red Army units but were guerillas operating behind the German lines. Nor, as the testimony of some of the veteran female pilots reveals, had the Soviet military come to terms with the female warriors in its midst.

'We were to have equality in every possible sense, though in reality we had to struggle for that in some cases when we got to the front,' recalled one of the woman pilots. None of them faced a greater initial resistance than a stunning blonde with grey eyes and wooing smile called Lily Litvak. The commanding officer of the unit to which she was initially posted near Stalingrad in August 1943 refused to let her fly with his men and ordered her to seek an immediate transfer. But Lieutenant Litvak used her considerable charm to plead for just one chance to prove her combat skill. The sceptical Red Air Force commander could not resist, and Lily was given a plane to show what she could do. After a dogfight in which she skilfully out-manoeuvred a German to share the 'kill' of a Messerschmitt 109, Lieutenant Litvak removed all doubts about a woman's ability to fight in combat. She was welcomed to a permanent place in the squadron.

Her male comrades, however, were probably behind one practical joke which terrified Lily's female wing-mate. While on patrol, ten thousand feet above the river Don, she discovered a mouse. 'I know it sounds crazy – a fighter pilot frightened by a mouse but I'd always had this fear of mice,' Olga Yemshokova recalled years later. 'And particularly now it was sitting on my lap looking up at me, in that tiny cockpit.' She admitted she 'could feel her flesh creeping' as she opened the cockpit and flung the little furry creature out into the slipstream.

During the next ten months, Lily Litvak led a charmed life as she out-flew and out-fought German pilots over the eastern front to become a Soviet fighter 'ace' as well as the focus of romantic rivalry between many of the men who flew with her. But Lily left no-one in any doubt that she had fallen in love with the handsome Lieutenant Alexi Salomaten, with whom she had flown 'tail' in her first combat mission. Such personal relationships were strictly discouraged in the mixed Red Air Force regiments. Women were deliberately quartered in a distant part of the airfield, even if this meant they had to live in converted cowsheds. But no regulations could prevent many of the female aircrew from forming emotional attachments with the men with whom they shared the dangers of battle.

'Lily told me that it was agony up there sometimes when Alexi was being attacked. But of course it gave each of them an incentive to fight really well,' remembered her mechanic, Ina Pasportnikova. 'Far from their love for each other affecting their concentration, I think it helped. Lily had always shown the sort of aggression you need to be a good fighter pilot. But her love for Alexi was the thing that turned her into a killer.'

Lily Litvak survived a burst of German cannon fire in which she sustained serious leg wounds. The encounter left her with a limp and sharpened her killer instinct, which hardened into a driving obsession after Alexi Salomaten died in a crash. Shortly afterwards she claimed her tenth victim, a famous German 'ace'. He had the misfortune to survive to be confronted with the pilot who had ended his career. The Luftwaffe hero refused to believe he had been out-fought by a woman until Lily icily explained the manoeuvres in the action that had brought him down. 'The German's whole attitude, even his physical appearance, changed,' reported an eyewitness to the confrontation. 'He was forced to concede in the end that no-one except the pilot who had beaten him could possibly have known, move by move, exactly how the fight had gone. There was no question of saluting the victor. He could not meet her eye. To have been shot down by a woman was more than he could bear.' (pp. 50-52) 

Soviet women bore their share of the burden in the Great Patriotic War. While most toiled in industry, transport, agriculture and other civilian roles, working double shifts to free up enlisted men to fight and increase military production, a sizable number of women took up arms.

800,000 women served in the Soviet Armed Forces during the war.Nearly 200,000 were decorated and 89 eventually received the Soviet Union’s highest award, the Hero of the Soviet Union. They served as pilots, snipers, machine gunners, tank crew members and partisans, as well as in auxiliary roles.  

At first, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, thousands of women who volunteered were turned away. Two factors changed attitudes and ensured a greater role for women who wanted to fight: the losses to the Germans after their initial success in 1941 and the efforts of determined women. In the early stages of the war, the fastest route to advancement in the military for women was service in medical and auxiliary units.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_women_in_the_Great_Patriotic_War

Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan - Conservative commentor focusing on political affairs and the president race. Rooting for Obama over Hillary, noted for his venom like hate of the Clintons.

Balloon Juice by John Cole - Conservative commentor, pro-Obama over Hillary. Very enjoyable reading because of the comments the site gets.

Political Animal by Kevin Drum - Another politcal commentor, covers different topics, good for camparison and contrast in coverage.

Think Progress - Progressive, general coverage of Administration affairs and politics. Breaks alot of good insightful stories. 

Harper's Magazine No Comment and Washington Babylon  - Legal discourse and coverage of Washington affairs, very interesting reading.

Information Clearing House - Presents stories culled from a variety of sources, many from abroad, AP and Reuters. Features alot of critical stories regarding geopolitical and economic situations. New stories everyday. 

Counter Punch - Also presents a collage of stories covering a variety of political topics from foreign policy to economy. New stories every day.

Consortium News - Progressive contextual articles, very good reading dealing with the Bush Administration, Clinton Administration and failures of both in the geopolitical sphere. All stories are very contextual giving a longer time frame understanding.