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A President Like My Father

By CAROLINE KENNEDY

OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.

Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates’ goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.

Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in Illinois, where he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people — known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in the political process.

I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.

Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.

I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

"To all of the honored and distinguished guests faculty staff and students, it is a privilege to be a part of today's convocation, and an honor to receive this degree from Howard.

Now there are few other universities that have played so central a role in breaking down yesterday's barriers, and inching this country closer to the ideals we see inscribed on the monuments throughout the city.

It is because of those victories that a black man named Barack Hussein Obama can stand before you today as candidate for President of the United States. I am not just running to make history. I am running because I believe that together we can change history's course. It's not enough just to look back and wonder how far we've come; I want us to look ahead with fierce urgency at how far we have to go. I believe its time for this generation to make its own mark, to write our own chapter in the American story.

Those who came before us did not strike a blow against injustice only so that we would let injustice fester in our time. Thurgood Marshall did not argue Brown so that we could accept a country where too many African American men end up in prison because we'd rather spend more to jail a 25-year-old than to educate a 5-year-old. Dr. King did not take us to the mountaintop so that we would allow a terrible storm to ravage those who were stranded in the valley. He did not expect that it would take a breach in the levees to reveal a breach in our compassion; that it would take a hurricane to reveal the hungry God asked us to feed, the sick he asks us to care for, the least of these he asks us to treat as our own.

I am certain that nine children did not walk through the doors of a school in Little Rock so that our children would have to see nooses hanging at a school in Louisiana. It's a fitting reminder that the 50th anniversary of Little Rock fell on this week. Because when the doors of that school finally opened, a nation responded. The President sent the United States Army to stand on the side of justice. The Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The Department of Justice created a civil rights division and millions of Americans took to the streets in the following months and years so that more children could walk through more doors.

These weren't easy choices to make at the time. President Eisenhower was warned by some that sending the army down to Little Rock would be political suicide. Resistance to civil rights reform was fierce. We know that those who marched for freedom did so at great risk, for themselves and their families--but they did it because they understood that there are some times in our history, there are moments when what's truly risky is not to act. What's truly risky is to let the same injustice remain year after year after year. What's truly risky is to walk away and pretend it never happened. What's truly risky is to accept things as they are, instead of working for what they could be. In a media driven culture that's more obsessed with who's beating who in Washington, or how long Paris Hilton is going to be in jail, these moments are harder to spot. But every so often they do appear. Sometimes it takes a hurricane, sometimes it takes a travesty of justice like the one we've seen in Jena, Louisiana.

There are some who will make Jena about the fight itself. And it's true that we have to do more as parents to instill our children with the idea that violence is always wrong: It's wrong when it happens on the streets of Chicago; it's wrong when it happens in a schoolyard in Louisiana. Violence is not the answer. And all of us know that more violence is perpetrated between blacks than between blacks and whites. Our community has suffered more than anything from the slow, chronic tolerance of violence. Nonviolence was the soul of the civil rights movement. We have to do a better job of teaching our children that virtue.

But we also know that to truly understand Jena you have to look at what happened both before and after that fight. You have to listen to the hateful slurs that flew through the hallways of that school. You have to know the full measure of the damage done by that arson; you have to look at those nooses hanging on that schoolyard tree, and you have to understand how badly our system of justice failed those six boys in the days after that fight. The outrageous charges, the unreasonable and excessive sentences, the public defender who did not call a single witness.

Like Katrina did with poverty, Jena exposed glaring inequalities in our justice system that were around long before that schoolyard fight broke out. It reminds us of the fact that we have a system that locks away too many young first time nonviolent offenders for the better part of their lives; a decision that's not made by a judge in a courtroom but all too often by politicians in Washington and state capitals across the country. It reminds us that we have certain sentences that are based less than on the kind of crime you commit than where you come from, or what you look like. It reminds us that we have a Justice Department whose idea of prosecuting civil rights violations is to roll back affirmative action programs at our colleges and universities; a Justice Department whose idea of prosecuting voter fraud is to look for voting fraud in black and Latino communities where voting fraud does not exist. And you know that these inequities are there. We know they're wrong. And yet they go largely unnoticed until people finally find the courage to stand up and say they're wrong--until someone finally says: It's wrong that Scooter Libby gets no jail time for compromising our national security while a 21-year-old honor student is sitting in a Georgia prison for something that was not even a felony.

It's not always easy to come out and say this. I commend those of you at Howard that have spoken out on Jena Six or traveled to the rally in Louisiana. I commend those of you who have spoken out on the Genarlow Wilson case. I know it can be lonely protesting this kind of injustice. I know there's not a lot of glamour in it. Because when I was a state senator in Illinois we have a death penalty system that had sent 13 innocent people to their death--13 innocent men that we know. I wanted to reform the system, and I was told by almost everyone that it was not possible, that I wouldn't be able to get police officers and civil rights activists to work together, Democrats and Republicans to agree that we should videotape confessions to make sure they weren't coerced. Folks told me that there was too much political risk involved, and it would come to haunt me later, when I ran for higher office. But I believed that it was too risky not to act. And after a while people with opposing views came together and started listening. And we ended up reforming that death penalty system, and we did the same when I passed the law to expose racial profiling.

So don't let anyone tell you that change is not possible. Don't let them tell you that standing out and speaking up about injustice is too risky. What's too risky is keeping quiet. What's too risky is looking the other way. I don't want to be here standing and talking about another Jena four years from now because we didn't have the courage to act today. I don't want this to be another issue that ends up being ignored when the cameras are turned off and the headlines disappear. It's time to seek a new dawn of justice in America.

From the day I take office as President of the United States--has a ring to it, doesn't it? From the day I take office as President, America will have a Justice Department that is truly dedicated to justice, the work it began in the days after Little Rock. I will rid the department of idealogues and political cronies, and for the first time in eight years the civil rights division will actually be staffed with civil rights lawyers who prosecute civil rights violations, and employment discrimination and hate crimes.

And we'll have a voting rights section that actually defends the rights of all American to vote without deception or intimidation. When fliers are placed in our neighborhoods telling people to vote on the wrong day, that won't be an injustice--it will be a crime. As President of the United States I will also work every day to ensure that this country has a criminal justice system that inspires trust and confidence in every American regardless of age or race or background. There's no reason that every person accused of a crime shouldn't have a qualified public attorney to defend them. We'll recruit more public defenders to the profession by forgiving college and law school loans. I will be asking some of the brilliant young minds here at Howard to take advantage of that offer. There's no reason why we can't pass a racial profiling law like I did in Illinois, or encourage states to reform the death penalty so that innocent people do not end up on death row.

When I am President I will no longer accept the false choice between being tough on crime and vigilant in our pursuit of justice. Dr. King said: 'It's not either/or, it's both/and.' Black folks care about stopping crime. We care about being tough on violence. But we can have a crime policy that's both tough and smart. If you're convicted of a crime involving drugs, of course you should be punished. But let's not make the punishment for crack cocaine that much more severe than the punishment for powder cocaine when the real difference is where the people are using them or who is using them. Republicans have said they think that's wrong, Democrats think that's wrong and yet it's been approved by Republican and Democratic presidents because no one has been willing to brave the politics and make it right. But I will, when I am President of the United States of America.

I think its time we took a hard look at the wisdom of locking up some first time nonviolent drug users for decades. Someone once said, and I quote: 'While minimum sentences for first-time users may not be the best way to occupy jail space, and/or heal people from their disease.' You know who said that? That was George W. Bush--six years ago. And I don't say this very often, but I agree with George W. Bush. The difference is that he hasn't done anything about it. When I am President of the United States, I will. We will review these sentences to see where we can be smarter on crime and reduce the blind and counterproductive warehousing of nonviolent offenders. We will give first-time nonviolent drug offenders a chance to serve their sentence where appropriate, in the type of drug rehab programs that have proven to work better than a prison term in changing bad behavior and reducing recidivism. So let's reform the system. Let's do what's smart. Let's do what's just.

Now there's no doubt that taking these steps will restore a measure of justice and equality to America. It will also restore a sense of confidence to the American people that the system doesn't just work, it works for everyone. But there's a broader point I'd like to meet here today. If I have the opportunity to lead this nation, I will always be a president who hears your voice and understand your concerns. A President whose story is like so many of your own. Whose life work has been the unfinished work of our long march towards justice. And I will stand up for you, and fight for you, and wake up every single day thinking about how to make your lives better.

The truth is, though, one man cannot make a movement. No single law can erase the prejudice in the heart of a child who hangs a noose on a tree. Or in the callousness of a prosecutor who bypasses justice in the pursuit of vengeance. No one leader, no matter how shrewd, or experienced, or inspirational, can prevent teenagers from killing other teenagers in the streets of our cities, or free our neighborhoods from the grip of homelessness, or make real the promise of opportunity and equality for every citizen.

Only a country can do those things. Only this country can do those things. That's why if you give me the chance to serve this nation, the most important thing I will do as your President is to ask you to serve this country, too. The most important thing I'll do is to call on you every day to take a risk, and do your part to carry this movement forward. Against deep odds and great cynicism I will ask you to believe that we can right the wrong we see in America. I say this particularly to the young people who are listening today. ...

I know that you believe it's possible too. The most inspiring thing about the response to Jena was that it did not begin with the actions of any one leader. The call went out to thousands across the internet and on black radio and on college campuses like Howard. And, like the young Americans of another era, you left your homes and you got on buses and you traveled south. It's what happened two years earlier when Americans from every walk of life took it upon themselves to save a city that was drowning. It's how real change and true justice have always come about. It takes a movement to lift a nation. It will take a movement to go into our cities and say that is not enough just to fix our criminal justice says what we really need is to make sure our kids don't end up there in the first place. ...

It's time to finish what we started in Topeka, Kansas and Little Rock, Arkansas. It will take a movement of every American from every city and town, every race and every background to stand up and say: No matter what you look like or where you come from, every child in America should have the opportunity to receive the best education this country can offer. Every child. We recruit an army of new teachers, and we pay them better, and we give them more support. It will take a movement to ensure that every young person gets the chance that Howard has given all of you, to say that at the beginning of the 21st century, college education is not a luxury for those who can afford it--it is the birthright of every single American. So when we go back to your class rooms and your dorm rooms and you begin this new year at Howard University, I ask you to remember how far we've come, but I urge you to think about where we need to go. I urge you to think about the risks you will take and the role you will play in the movement that will get us there.

And I finally ask you to remember the story of Moses and Joshua, I spoke about this when I was in Selma, the 42nd anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Most of you know that Moses was called by God to lead his people to the promised land. And in the face of a pharaoh and his armies, across an unforgiving desert and along the walls of an angry sea, he succeeded in leading his people out of bondage in Egypt. He led them through great dangers and they got far enough so that Moses could point the way toward freedom on the far banks of the river Jordan. Yet it was not God's plan to have Moses cross the river. Instead he would call on Joshua to finish the work that Moses began. He would ask Joshua to take his people that final distance. Everyone in this room stands on the shoulders of many Moseses. Many Moseses fought and battled here at Howard University. They are courageous men and women who marched and fought and bled for the rights and freedoms we enjoy today. They have taken us many miles over an impossible journey.

And to the young people here: you are members of the Joshua Generation. It is up to you to finish the work that they began. it is up to you to cross the river. When Joshua discovered the challenge he faced he had doubts and he had worries. He told God: 'Don't choose me, I'm not strong enough, I'm not wise enough; I don't have the training; I don't have enough experience.' God told Joshua not to fear; he said 'Be strong and have courage, for I am with you wherever you go.' Be strong and have courage. Be strong and have courage in the face of anything. Be strong and have courage and we will cross over into that promised land together. Thank you."

Senator Barack Obama

(From Blacks 4 Barack ! Please share this powerful message with everyone. Now IS the Time for a New America !!!)

Obama Criticizes Hillary's desire to Invade Iran !

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday criticized a recent vote by Democratic presidential rival Sen. Hillary Clinton as helping to give President Bush a "blank check" to take military action against Iran.

¨Sen. Barack Obama says Sen. Hillary Clinton has shown "flawed" judgment.

"We know in the past that the president has used some of the flimsiest excuses to try to move his agenda regardless of what Congress says," Obama said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

Last month, Clinton voted to support a resolution declaring Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite part of the Iranian military, a foreign terrorist group. (The nonbinding amendment to the Defense Authorization Act passed by a 76-22 vote.)

Obama said he would have voted against the measure but he didn't because he was campaigning in New Hampshire at the time. He said it was impossible to know when votes will be scheduled in the Senate. "This is a problem" related to running for president, he said.

Obama said Clinton also had shown "flawed" judgment during the vote to authorize the Iraq war five years ago.

"We know that there was embodied in this legislation, or this resolution sent to the Senate, language that would say our Iraqi troop structures should in part be determined by our desire to deal with Iran," Obama said. "Now if you know that in the past the president has taken a blank check and cashed it, we don't want to repeat that mistake."

While Clinton was campaigning Sunday in New Hampton, Iowa, an audience member at a town hall-style meeting pressed her on why she voted for the Iran measure and asked why she hadn't learned from past "mistakes." Calling "the premise of the question" wrong, the senator from New York argued the resolution calls for the terrorist label so that sanctions can be imposed.

The sanctions, Clinton said, will in turn "send a clear message to the leadership" and lead to stronger diplomatic efforts.

Earlier this month, Clinton also co-sponsored legislation with Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, that would prohibit military operations against Iran without congressional approval.

Obama's comments came on the fifth anniversary of the 77-23 Senate vote that authorized the president to use force against Iraq. Obama, then an Illinois state senator, spoke out against the resolution authorizing force at the time.

Clinton's 2002 vote shows a clear difference in judgment between the two of them, Obama said"I don't think it disqualified her, but I think it speaks to her judgment and it speaks to my judgment," Obama said. "It speaks to how we will make decisions going forward.

"I think her judgment was flawed on this issue."

Obama said he also will step up efforts to clarify his differences with Clinton, whom many political observers view as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination.

"There's no doubt we are moving into a different phase of the campaign," Obama said. "The first part of a campaign is to offer some biography and give people a sense of where I've been and what I am about.

"In this next phase, we want to make sure that voters understand that on big issues, like the decision to go into the war in Iraq, I had real differences with the other candidates and that reflects on my judgment."

Another leading Democratic candidate, John Edwards, also voted in 2002 to authorize force in Iraq while he was then a senator from North Carolina. He later called his vote a mistake.

In a veiled swipe at Clinton, Obama also suggested he could better unite the country and offer "something new, as opposed to looking backward and simply duplicating some of the politics that we've become so accustomed to, that frankly the American people are sick of."

Obama would not say whether he would consider Clinton as his running mate should he become the Democratic Party's nominee.

"I think Sen. Clinton is a very capable person," he said. "Right now my goal is to make sure I am the nominee, and she is still the senator from New York."

Are Black Civil Rights Leaders

Who Support Hillary SELL-OUTS ?

By: Greg Jones Blacks4Barack

As a fifty year old black man I'm at the age where my mind is full of memories. I remember how, as a child, we were all so proud as black people to be able to watch Julia on TV, the first TV series starring a black woman.

I would watch 'I Spy' co-starring Bill Cosby with excitement and a sense of connection. I remember the pride we all felt when Carl B. Stokes won as mayor here in my home of Cleveland, Ohio becoming the first black mayor of any major city. I remember the shock of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's death and the riots that resulted in many buildings being burned down in our neighborhood.

I remember the National Guard riding up and down my street in military jeeps with guns making us stop playing football forcing us to go in the house. I remember going to church each night where it seemed liked hundreds of blacks all came together, while we kids were in another area of the church in what was called 'Freedom School'. I remember listening to the preacher who preached the message....and I first learned the song....'We Shall OverCome'.

I remember looking up at the preacher, who was our leader at that time, in total belief. All throughout my growing years I have held steadfast to the message in that song.... that we shall overcome. But now, in 2008, I listen to our modern day civil rights leaders and find myself in absolute dismay. The very leaders who, since the civil rights movement of the 60's, had invigorated, motivated and preached the message that we shall overcome through being a united people, working together toward empowerment, have unbelievably chosen to support Hillary Clinton instead of a highly qualified, capable, intelligent man who is an extremely credible candidate for President of the United States and is black.

My heart just drops every time I hear an Andrew Young, Charles Rangel, Rev. Calvin Butts or a Bob Johnson making statements that question whether we should support Barack Obama, and instead, are supportive of Hillary Clinton. It makes no sense at all. How can these 'leaders' claim to have devoted their lives to black empowerment, while simultaneously doing all they can to block our progress as a people? It is the most hypocritical thing I have ever witnessed and I find it to not only be very sad but also destructive to the cause. I ask myself, how could this be? Why would our civil rights leaders be anti a black man who is truly credible, choosing rather to support a white woman instead, who has absolutely no true history of being pro-black ? So, I just wonder.

I wonder if they are truly sincere about their desire to see us as blacks overcome, or are they just in the civil rights business to make a living? I wonder if the Hillary camp has promised these 'leaders' certain benefits if they 'deliver' the black vote? If that is the case it would mean that personal gain is more important to them than actual achievement and empowerment for us as a people. So I watch as we cry out....we march....we boycott.....then our 'leaders' turn their backs on our very own. To me, that is the epitamy of a SELL-OUT ! I just hope that the average black man and woman will see through the tactics of our so called leaders, and will rally together, as we should, striving together so that one day.....We Shall Truly OverCome !

NOTE: Blacks 4 Barack was organized in July of 2007 due to the fact that at that time polls showed Hillary Clinton receiving 72% of the black vote. I found that to be absolutely rediculous and decided (due to the credentials, credibilty, leadership skills, and solid judgement of Barack Obama) along with others, to form Blacks 4 Barack to invigorate black support for Obama. I am so pleased that we, as blacks are coming together, as evident by the wonderfully strong black turnout and vote in S. Carolina despite the misleading of some. TOGETHER....with our friends of ALL races.....We WILL Make The Difference !

Greg Jones

Obama Speaks Out !

Regarding Justice For Blacks

Commentary: By Barack Obama

Recently, the Georgia Supreme Court intervened in the case of Genarlow Wilson, a twenty-one year old Georgia honor student who was sentenced to eleven years in prison—even though he didn’t even commit a felony. The court recognized that the case was outrageous, deemed Wilson’s punishment unconstitutional, and released him. As we celebrate this young man’s freedom, we must also to rededicate ourselves to the task of correcting the inequities in our criminal justice system that led to his ordeal.

Like Hurricane Katrina did with poverty, the case of Genarlow Wilson — much like that of the Jena 6 — exposed the glaring inequities in our justice system. They reminded us of the fact that we still have a system that locks away too many young, first-time, non-violent offenders for the better part of their lives. It reminds us that we have certain sentences that are based less on the kind of crime you commit than on what you look like and where you come from.

In America, nearly a third of African-American men will enter state or federal prison during their lives. Too many will be lost in the criminal justice system and end up in prison, poverty, and unemployment. In many cases, they will fail to become fully rehabilitated, and go on to commit more crimes.

There is no question that breaking the law should have consequences. And it’s true that we have to do more as parents to teach our children that violence is always wrong. But justice must be fair, and punishment must fit the crime.

And if convicted offenders are not given the tools they need to become constructive members of our communities after they serve their time, we will all suffer the consequences.

Every day in this country, approximately 1,800 people are released from prisons and nearly two-thirds of them return to jail within three years. Almost half of those released from prison lack a high school diploma or GED. Only one third of inmates receive vocational training or work experience designed to improve their ability to obtain employment once released.

Even fewer receive counseling and placement services after their release. As we know that in today’s economy, without a high school diploma, supporting a family is almost impossible. And with a criminal record instead of an education, the prospects for success are next to none.This has to stop. The costs of crimes are high. But failing to break this cycle costs us even more.

We must create a pathway for people coming out of jail to get the jobs, skills, and education they need to leave a life of crime. That means supporting effective training and mentoring programs to help people transition into jobs. That means reevaluating the laws against hiring people with a criminal record so that we don’t foreclose legal and effective ways out of poverty and crime. That also means giving former prisoners parenting skills so they can give their children the sense of hope and opportunity that so many of them were denied.

That’s why I co-sponsored the Second Chance Act, which would support faith and community based organizations working with state and local authorities to give former prisoners a second chance at a meaningful life. The Second Chance Act makes funding available for transitional jobs programs and housing, for support health services, and educational needs. I’m working to build support for this legislation and will fight to get it passed.

Thurgood Marshall said: “None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody—a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns—bent down and helped us pick up our boots.” As we fulfill Marshall’s legacy and strive to right the injustices suffered by Genarlow Wilson and the Jena 6, let’s bend down and help every kid pick up his or her boots for a second chance.

Barack Obama

Children Defense Fund's

Marian Wright Edelman

Very Disappointed

In Clintons !

Hillary Re-Inventing Truth....Again !

Hillary Clinton loves to visit black churches and tell folks about how her involvement in Miran Edelman's Children's Defense Fund shows how much she cares for the poor and struggling blacks. She claims to have seen Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and was supposedly transformed into this civil rights, caring, wonderful woman. Fact is, at the same time Hillary claims in our churches to have been so pro Civil Rights, she was actually what she called a 'Goldwater Girl', meaning a staunch supporter of Senator Barry Goldwater who was not only a segragtionist but was adamently AGAINST the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Now, Hillary, or make that Billary, have been tauting their wonderful Childrens Defense Fund history. Well, fact is, Ms. Marian Wright Edelman is extremely disappointed in the Clintons and has been for many years. But the Clintons don't mention that part in their smoooooth speeches. Neither does Clinton campaign co-chair Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee. Below is an article and excerpt from an interview by Marian Wright Edelman that everyone should read..It discusses facts from a book entitled Her Way about Hillary Clinton.

***************************

Marian Wright Edelman -- founder of the Children's Defense Fund and something of a saint -- hired Hillary back in 1970 to lead the organization, is a big deal to me. The fact they became close friends is an endorsement. Discovering how badly the Clintons alienated Edelman with the welfare reform bill is a major strike against them.

According to Her Way, "a key opponent of the legislation was Marian Wright Edelman, the founder of the Children's Defense Fund, and the woman who Hillary credited with inspiring her in 1970 to commence a lifelong advocacy for children. Twenty five years later, however, Hillary was no longer an idealistic advocate..."

Edelman was devastated by the Clintons' support for this bill and took great pains to let her position be known. A New York Times story at the time reported that Edelman "sent a blistering memorandum to the Cabinet, warning that one of the welfare options being considered will 'violate every standard of decency and fairness.'"

Her Way: "Publicly, Hillary denied compromising her principles or values when she endorsed her husband's support of the welfare legislation, which came as he was facing reelection. She believed, she claimed, that the third bill passed by Congress went far enough in its guarantees of medical benefits, child care and food stamps to warrant her and Bill's support. (Others, both liberals and conservatives, noted that the third bill was almost the same as the previous two Bill had vetoed.)"

This sort of self-deceptive justification sounds too familiar. When Hillary describes her vote for this blood-draining, money burning, illegal occupation known as the Iraq War, she likes to say the bill she voted for was for diplomacy. She's the only one who believes that.

Back to Her Way: "Years later, the welfare reform bill was viewed by many as a success; others considered it an abandonment of the truly needy for the sake of scoring political points. In her book Living History, Hilary found the space to acknowledge more than four hundred friends, colleagues and supporters. Marian Wright Edelman was not one of them"

Wow. That's cold . It's one thing to have a disagreement. It's another to completely and utterly dis a friend, supporter and mentor of over 20 years.

This past July, Marian Wright Edelman was interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. The subject was, in part, Hillary Clinton and welfare reform. Here is the exchange:

AMY GOODMAN: Marian Wright Edelman, we just heard Hillary Rodham Clinton. She used to be the head of the board of the Children's Defense Fund, of the organization that you founded. But you were extremely critical of the Clintons. I mean, when President Clinton signed off on the, well, so-called welfare reform bill, you said, "His signature on this pernicious bill makes a mockery of his pledge not to hurt children." So what are your hopes right now for these Democrats? And what are your thoughts about Hillary Rodham Clinton?

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN: Well, you know, Hillary Clinton is an old friend, but they are not friends in politics. We have to build a constituency, and you don't -- and we profoundly disagreed with the forms of the welfare reform bill, and we said so. We were for welfare reform, I am for welfare reform, but we need good jobs, we need adequate work incentives, we need minimum wage to be decent wage and livable wage, we need healthcare, we need transportation, we need to invest preventively in all of our children to prevent them ever having to be on welfare.

For the sake of looking tough on "welfare queens," Bill and Hillary (and they were indeed a team) sacrificed the well-being of millions, forced single mothers into underpaid, underinsured work and added further strain to many families. Edelman continues:

And yet, you know, many years after that, when many people are pronouncing welfare reform a great success, you know, we've got growing child poverty, we have more children in poverty and in extreme poverty over the last six years than we had earlier in the year. When an economy is down, and the real test of welfare reform is what happens to the poor when the economy is not booming. Well, the poor are suffering, the gap between rich and poor widening. We have what I consider one of -- a growing national catastrophe of what we call the cradle-to-prison pipeline.

A black boy today has a one-in-three chance of going to prison in his lifetime, a black girl a one-in-seventeen chance. A Latino boy who's born in 2001 has a one-in-six chance of going to prison. We are seeing more and more children go into our child welfare systems, go dropping out of school, going into juvenile justice detention facilities. Many children are sitting up -- 15,000, according to a recent congressional GAO study -- are sitting up in juvenile institutions solely because their parents could not get mental health and healthcare in their community. This is an abomination.

You know what else is an abomination? The way the Clintons so quickly sacrificed so many friends, black women especially, in their quest to appease the Right, move to the center, win elections or all three. Yall remember Lani Guinier? Oh yes, let's revisit that painful episode..

Guinier was nominated by Bill to head the DOJ's Civil Rights division. The two knew each other from back in the day at Yale Law School, but when a fanatical group of conservatives and a shamefully lazy press manipulated Guinier's positions on race to the point that she was being called "quota queen," the Clintons were nowhere to be found. They withdrew Guinier's nomination with the quickness rather than defend a friend and intellectual powerhouse who they'd know for 20 years.

The Center for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting put out an article on the manipulative press and cowardly Clinton:.

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So the next time Hillary comes to your church and tells you all about how much she is loved by Marian Edelman, during the question and answer segment, just raise your hand politely and ask Hillary (or Bill), " When Are You Gonna Stop Lying!"