Speed of Life

The following is the full text and video of President Bill Clinton’s speech on Wednesday, September 5th 2012  from the Democratic National Convention. PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. (Sustained cheers, applause.) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now, Mr. Mayor, fellow Democrats, we are here to nominate a president. (Cheers, applause.) And I’ve got one in mind . (Cheers, applause.) I want to nominate a man whose own life has known its fair share of adversity and uncertainty. I want to nominate a man who ran for president to change the course of an already weak economy and then just six weeks before his election, saw it suffer the biggest collapse since the Great Depression; a man who stopped the slide into depression and put us on the long road to recovery, knowing all the while that no matter how many jobs that he saved or created, there’d still be millions more waiting, worried about feeding their own kids, trying to keep ...

Sandra Fluke's remarks as prepared for delivery Some of you may remember that earlier this year, Republicans shut me out of a hearing on contraception. In fact, on that panel, they didn’t hear from a single woman, even though they were debating an issue that affects nearly every woman. Because it happened in Congress, people noticed. But it happens all the time. Many women are shut out and silenced. So while I’m honored to be standing at this podium, it easily could have been any one of you. I’m here because I spoke out, and this November, each of us must do the same. During this campaign, we’ve heard about the two profoundly different futures that could await women—and how one of those futures looks like an offensive, obsolete relic of our past. Warnings of that future are not distractions. They’re not imagined. That future could be real. In that America , your new president could be a man who stands by when a public figure tries to silence a private citizen with hat...

Sister Simone Campbell, left, on her "Nuns on the Bus" tour (J. Scott Applewhite / AP Photos) 2012 Democratic National Convention: Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director, Roman Catholic Social Justice Organization, NETWORK The following is a transcript of a speech, as prepared for delivery, by Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director, Roman Catholic Social Justice Organization, NETWORK, at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, September 5, 2012.  (Full Text and Video) Good evening, I'm Sister Simone Campbell, and I'm one of the "nuns on the bus." So, yes, we have nuns on the bus. And a nun on the podium! Let me explain why I'm here. In June, I joined other Catholic sisters on a 2,700-mile bus journey through nine states to tell Americans about the budget Congressman Paul Ryan wrote and Governor Romney endorsed. Paul Ryan claims his budget reflects the principles of our shared Catholic fa...

Full text and Video of First Lady Michelle Obama’s remarks to the Democratic National Convention on Sept. 4 in Charlotte, as prepared for delivery. photo by Doug Mills for The New York Times Thank you so much, Elaine…we are so grateful for your family’s service and sacrifice…and we will always have your back.  Over the past few years as First Lady, I have had the extraordinary privilege of traveling all across this country. And everywhere I’ve gone, in the people I’ve met, and the stories I’ve heard, I have seen the very best of the American spirit.  I have seen it in the incredible kindness and warmth that people have shown me and my family, especially our girls. I’ve seen it in teachers in a near-bankrupt school district who vowed to keep teaching without pay.  I’ve seen it in people who become heroes at a moment’s notice, diving into harm’s way to save others…flying across the country to put out a fire…driving for hours to bail out a flooded town. And I’...

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.“ — Republican President Abraham Lincoln,  Message to Congress, December 3, 1861 Labor Day, 1942 by Charles Henry Alston,  the first African American supervisor for the WPA Federal Art Project Today, in honor of Labor Day in the United States,  Denise  Oliver Velez posted a moving tribute to  work and workers  on the  Daily Kos.   Inspired by the words, images and music that Velez put together, I have spent much of this Labor Day in deep consideration of the struggle and sacrifice of the brave laborers who worked together to build this country.  Peter Clothier on his site,  Vote Obama 2012 , has also been considering the meaning of this holiday. Clothier writes: "How much thought, I wonder,...