Fannie Lou believed in democracy. When she first learned that Blacks could vote, she did not wait. She raised her hand to go down to Indianola, Mississippi to register to vote. Though her first attempts were unsuccessful, the experience moved Fannie Lou to act. Despite the loss of her job as a sharecropper, multiple beatings, and threats to her life, Hamer became involved in voter registration drives and helped form the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which challenged the all-white Mississippi delegation to the Democratic National Convention. In 1964, Hamer took her case to the Convention. Speaking to the Credentials Committee, she famously challenged the Party to live up to its ideals, asking “Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?” Hamer’s words and presence at the Convention led the DNC to change its rules in 1968 to require equal representation within state delegations to its national conventions.

Fannie Lou served as a Mississippi delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and continued to work to expand the rights of women and people of color until her death in 1977. She is buried in her hometown of Ruleville, Mississippi, where her tombstone, adopting her signature line, reads, “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

The spirit that Fannie Lou ignited in our country decades ago continues to grow today. As millions of voters prepare to go to the polls in Virginia and New Jersey to cast their ballots, the Democratic National Committee stands strongly committed to meaningful and comprehensive election reform that will guarantee every eligible American - regardless of race, ethnicity, geography, disability, language, political party, gender, economic status or education - the constitutional right to equal participation in the political process.

Today, we remember a pioneer. A woman who dared to expand democracy for all people.

Read the DNC Resolution in Support of Accurate, Open and Transparent Elections in the United States of America.

Cesar Chavez's legacy as an educator, environmentalist, and as a civil rights leader who struggled for fair treatment and fair wages for America's workers is important for every American to remember.

Having begun as a farmworker, Cesar Chavez eventually co-founded the United Farm Workers and struggled to provide hundreds of thousands of people with better working conditions and the chance to live a better life. The cause of fair treatment and fair wages for America’s workers lives on today through the work of countless others.

Chavez’s rallying cry, “Sí Se Puede” – “Yes We Can,” was more than a slogan, it was an expression of hope and a rejection of those who said farmworkers could not organize, and could not take on the growers. Through his courage, Cesar Chavez taught us that a single voice could change our country, and that together, we could make America a stronger, more just, and more prosperous nation.

Sí Se Puede. Yes We Can.

Full remarks of the President are below.

Watch the hearings here.

I believe that Obama's inspirational leadership, contemplative nature and well-reasoned, forward-looking policies offer our troubled nation a real opportunity to face and overcome its many challenges at home and abroad.

On an array of domestic issues, including health care, education, tax policy, the environment and alternative energy sources, Obama promises a clean break from the recent past and tangible hope for a return to fiscal responsibility, economic security and true environmental stewardship, all of which are essential to restoring our greatness. Now, Obama must be aware of the hopes that he has raised through his discussion of these issues. Many people will rightly take his words as his commitment and will judge him accordingly.

On the international front, his thoughtful and responsible approach to extricating our troops from Iraq, reallocating our finite resources elsewhere in the war on terrorism, and reviving effective use of our diplomatic corps all warrant our support. To be successful in these endeavors, Obama must be an active student of history. In attempting to bring peace to the Middle East, for example, he should recognize that the United States has played a role in the region since Franklin Roosevelt went to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdul-Aziz. Obama must appreciate that he is not writing on an empty page and will need to be sensitive to that which has come before him.

Obama represents the better choice to successfully address the issues that dramatically affect the health and well-being of our nation today. The fact that he is also a black American adds special significance for me as someone who was witness to and participated in at least a part of the past century's discourse on civil rights.

Mathias served in the House of Representatives from 1961 until 1969 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate and served until 1987.

MCCAIN: You’ll have to tell me what’s changed. I love it when they say, “Oh McCain has changed.” And I say, “What have I changed on?” They can’t name a single issue or they’ll name an issue and its false. I’m the same guy. I’m proud of our campaign.

It is not exactly a winning message but the interview presented itself with a rather easy challenge: name McCain's flip-flops.

Think Progress identified 44 of them.

Shelly in Utah wrote to Barack Obama to tell him about the discrimination she faced in the corporate world. Ten years ago, because of stories like hers, I introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act. Every year, the Republican Congress blocked our bill. But after 10 long years and a new Democratic Congress, we were successful. That doesn’t mean our work is done.

The Supreme Court ended a woman’s right to challenge discrimination, and when Congress tried to change it, John McCain didn’t even bother to show up to vote. Barack Obama was there. He voted yes. As president, he will continue saying yes to equality for women because he knows that women can’t afford more of the same falling wages and income.

How fitting that I speak to you on Women’s Equality Day, when we celebrate ratification of the amendment that gave women the right to vote. Even as we celebrate, let’s also remind ourselves: the fight for equality is not over. I know that from personal experience. I was a trailblazer when I went to work as a female supervisor at a Goodyear tire plant in Gadsden, Alabama.

My job demanded a lot, and I gave it 100 percent. I kept up with every one of my male co-workers. But toward the end of my 19 years at Goodyear, I began to suspect that I wasn’t getting paid as much as men doing the same job. An anonymous note in my mailbox confirmed that I was right. Despite praising me for my work, Goodyear gave me smaller raises than my male co-managers, over and over.

Those differences affected my family’s quality of life then, and they affect my retirement now. When I discovered the injustice, I thought about moving on. But in the end, I couldn’t ignore the discrimination. So I went to court. A jury agreed with me. They found that my employer had violated the law and awarded me what I was owed.

I hoped the verdict would make my company feel the sting, learn a lesson and never again treat women unfairly. But they appealed, all the way to the Supreme Court, and in a 5-to-4 decision our highest court sided with big business. They said I should have filed my complaint within six months of Goodyear’s first decision to pay me less, even though I didn’t know that’s what they were doing.

In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that the ruling made no sense in the real world. She was right. The House of Representatives passed a bill that would make sure what was done to me couldn’t happen again. But when it got to the Senate, enough Republicans opposed it to prevent a vote.

We can’t afford more of the same votes that deny women their equal rights. Barack Obama is on our side. He is fighting to fix this terrible ruling, and as president, he has promised to appoint justices who will enforce laws that protect everyday people like me. But this isn’t a Democratic or a Republican issue. It’s a fairness issue. And fortunately, there are some Republicans—and a lot of Democrats—who are on our side.

My case is over. I will never receive the pay I deserve. But there will be a far richer reward if we secure fair pay. For our children and grandchildren, so that no one will ever again experience the discrimination that I did. Equal pay for equal work is a fundamental American principle. We need leaders in this country who will fight for it. With all of us working together, we can have the change we need and the opportunity we all deserve.

Thank you.

Leaders like them come along rarely. But once or twice in a lifetime, they come along just when we need them the most. This is one of those moments. As our nation faces a fundamental choice between moving forward or falling further behind, Senator Obama offers the change we need.

Everywhere I go in this country, people tell me that Barack Obama is making them feel hopeful the way they did when my father was president. It’s partly the words he uses—words that remind us that we are all in this together and that we each have something to contribute to this country that has given us so much. But it’s the life he has led that is the true source of this inspiration—a life spent fighting for ordinary people in neighborhoods and courts, in the state senate and the United States Senate.

I have never had someone inspire me the way people tell me my father inspired them, but I do now, Barack Obama. And I know someone else who’s been inspired all over again by Senator Obama. In our family, he’s known as Uncle Teddy. More than any senator of his generation, or perhaps any generation, Teddy has made life better for people in this country and around the world.

For 46 years, he has been so much more than just a senator for the people of Massachusetts. He’s been a senator for all who believe in a dream that’s never died. If you’re no longer being denied a job because of your race, gender or disability, or if you’ve seen a rise in the minimum wage you’re being paid, Teddy is your senator too.

If your children are receiving health care thanks to the Children’s Health Insurance Program, if you see a nurse at a community health center or if you’re benefiting from the Medicare program that he fought to create, and that just last month he returned to the Senate to save, Teddy is your senator too. If your child is getting an early boost in life through Head Start, or attending a better school or can go to college because a Pell grant has made it more affordable, Teddy is your senator too. And if you’re an 18-year-old who’s going to vote for the first time—and I bet it’ll be for Barack Obama—Teddy is your senator too.

Not only has Teddy helped put the American dream within reach for so many families, he’s been a powerful force around the world for human rights and human dignity, for refugees and the dispossessed. He helped end apartheid in South Africa and bring peace to Northern Ireland. He’s been a leader on nuclear arms control. And he took a strong, early and courageous stand against the war in Iraq.

He is a man who always insists that America live up to her highest ideals, who always fights for what he knows is right and who is always there for others. I’ve seen it in my own life. No matter how busy he is, he never fails to find time for those in pain, those in grief or those who just need a hug. In our family, he has never missed a first communion, a graduation, or a chance to walk one of his nieces down the aisle.

He has a special relationship with each of us. And his 60 great nieces and nephews all know that the best cookies and the best laughs are always found at Uncle Teddy’s. Whether he is teaching us about sailing, about the Senate or about life, he has shown us how to chart our course, take the helm and sail against the wind. And this summer, as he faced yet another challenge, he and Vicki have taught us all about dignity, courage and the power of love.

In this campaign, Barack Obama has no greater champion. When he is president, he will have no stronger partner in the United States Senate. Now, it is my honor to introduce a tribute to Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Below are excerpts of the article, which can be found online at:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10464.html

Politico.com
Racial woes: GOP fails to recruit minorities
By: Jim VandeHei and Josh Kraushaar
May 19, 2008

"Just a few years after the Republican Party launched a highly publicized diversity effort, the GOP is heading into the 2008 election without a single minority candidate with a plausible chance of winning a campaign for the House, the Senate or governor...the GOP is fielding only a handful of minority candidates for Congress or statehouses - none of whom seem to have a prayer of victory.

"At the start of the Bush years, the Republican National Committee - in tandem with the White House - vowed to usher in a new era of GOP minority outreach. As George W. Bush winds down his presidency, Republicans are now on the verge of going six - and probably more - years without an African-American governor, senator or House member. That's the longest such streak since the 1980s. Republicans will have only one minority governor, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, an Indian-American, when the dust settles on the '08 elections. Democrats have three minority governors and 43 African-American members of Congress, including one - Illinois Sen. Barack Obama - who is their likely presidential nominee. Democrats also have several challengers in winnable House races who are either black or Hispanic...

"So who's to blame for this diversity deficit? Jack Kemp, the former Republican congressman and vice presidential nominee, says the culprit is clear: a "pitiful" recruitment effort by his party. 'I don't see much of an outreach,' he said. 'I don't see much of a reason to run.'...In all fairness, Republicans have never been very good at attracting strong minority candidates, especially African-Americans...The dilemma is simple: Who wants to run when the Republican brand is so unpopular and money is so scarce?"

"The historic 1954 decision in Brown vs. Board of Education earned a special place in history by rejecting decades of discrimination and unequal access to America's educational system. More than half a century later, however, the growing economic divide in rural, suburban and urban areas of our nation has resulted in a new form of segregation that yields unequal educational opportunities for America's children, often reflected through race and ethnicity. Fifty-four years later, much work remains before us.

"The Democratic Party is committed to electing a President in 2008 who will work to ensure every child in America has access to a quality education regardless of race, ethnicity, or economic standing. The American people are looking for leadership that puts our nation's best interests first, and that starts by empowering our children with the tools to succeed and reach for the American dream. That includes reigning in the rising cost of attending college, but also insisting that this generation of Americans stop passing on their debt to the generations that follow. And it begins by never forgetting that it took decisions like Brown v. Board to help America move forward."

The decision overturned the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that established "separate but equal," ruling that it was unconstitutional.

Today, we celebrate this glorious decision and reaffirm our commitment to the betterment of our schools and the advancement of equality for all.

Read the full decision here.

"The Supreme Court of California today took a step forward in the long march toward protecting equal rights under the law for every American. This should not be a matter of politics or partisanship; it is a matter of protecting the rights and dignity of all American families."

"Now that Reverend Hagee is apologizing for his anti-Catholic comments, does John McCain think that Hagee should also apologize for his other comments? If so will he have the courage to say so publicly? said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. "Unless John McCain's idea of being a new kind of Republican includes cozying up to radicals who compare women to dogs, hold racially insensitive fundraisers and call one of the worst natural disasters in our country's history God's punishment, he should renounce John Hagee's endorsement immediately. Given John McCain's history of putting political calculations ahead of his principles, we're not holding our breath."

McCain Spent One Year Courting Hagee Endorsement. "In an interview that will appear in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, controversial televangelist Rev. John Hagee declares, 'It's true that [John] McCain's campaign sought my endorsement.' McCain has attempted to distance himself from some of Hagee's views, much as Barack Obama is doing in relation to Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But unlike McCain, Obama has not stood on stage with Wright and accepted his accolades this year." [Editor and Publisher, 3/20/08]

Rev. John Hagee on Hurricane Katrina: "All hurricanes are acts of God because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]

• Hagee Repeated Claim: "The topic of that day was cursing and blessing… What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God, in time if New Orleans recovers and becomes the pristine city it can become it may in time be called a blessing. But at this time it's called a curse… In the case of New Orleans, their plan to have that homosexual rally was sin. But it never happened. The rally never happened." [Dennis Prager Radio show, 4/22/08]

Hagee on African Americans: The San Antonio Express-News reported that Hagee was going to "meet with black religious leaders privately at an unspecified future date to discuss comments he made in his newsletter about a 'slave sale,' an East Side minister said Wednesday." The Express-News reported: "Hagee, pastor of the 16,000-member Cornerstone Church, last week had announced a 'slave sale' to raise funds for high school seniors in his church bulletin, 'The Cluster.' "The item was introduced with the sentence 'Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone" and ended with "Make plans to come and go home with a slave." [San Antonio Express-News, 3/7/96]

Hagee on Women: "Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist." [God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters, Sarah Posner]

More Hagee on Women: "[T]he feminist movement today is throwing off authority in rebellion against God's pattern for the family."["Bible Positions on Political Issues," John Hagee]

Hagee on Islamic Beliefs: Fresh Air host Terry Gross asked if Hagee believed that "all Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews," to which Hagee replied, "Well, the Quran teaches that. Yes, it teaches that very clearly."[NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]