I've spent the last two or three months demonizing and vilifying the people around here who said they couldn't or wouldn't vote for Obama. I've been pretty harsh about it. I've claimed that none of them were true Democrats and said their motivations were purely self-centered. I've called them fools and Republicans. I've even called some of them racists.

Well. I'm here to issue an apology.

Not to the assholes who call Obama "Obambi". Not to the jerks who attack Michelle. Not to the racists who use Hillary as an excuse to oppose Barack. Not to the selfish idiots who are using her as a mascot for a "movement" which has little to do with anything beyond their own overgrown egos. Not to people like Harriet Christian. Certainly not to PUMA as a group.

(cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama)

[WARNING: Monstrously long diary with about a million blockquotes... but I threw some pictures in for your entertainment]

"These reforms express my deep belief in our public schools and their mission to build the mind and character of every child, from every background, in every part of America."

- President George W. Bush on NCLB, announced three days after taking office.
January 2001

In the midst of Bush's war and our current economic insecurity, many of his less publicized failures are largely ignored by the MSM. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-110), which reauthorized the ESEA, has been vigorously debated among liberals and conservatives. Its stated purposes include increased accountability for States, schools, and school districts; greater choice for parents and students; more flexibility for States and local educational agencies (LEAs) in the use of Federal education dollars; and a stronger emphasis on reading.

Five term Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones just died. The Ohio congresswoman suffered a brain aneurysm yesterday while driving and was rushed to the hospital. Report just came in from CNN.

Updates coming shortly.

(cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama)

Just a quick note because atdleft reminded me, and I know a lot of us don't want to miss this. Tomorrow (Thursday, August 8) at 12 PM EST at hillaryclinton.com, Hillary will be holding a web chat (watch her video invitation) to talk about upcoming events and activities. She's constantly reminding us of the importance of electing Obama our next president:

In just the past few weeks I've been incredibly moved by your continued commitment. You've helped me so much make progress on raising the funds to retire the campaign debt, to pay the small vendors who helped us take our message across the country. Your continued support has made such a difference as we continue to champion universal healthcare and an economy that sustains the American Dream, and especially as we work together to elect Barack Obama President of the United States so we'll be able to fulfill the goals we care about so deeply.

And that's what we're trying to accomplish -- we need a Democrat in the White House if we're going to have any chance of getting this country back on track. Hillary is supporting Obama not only because she's a good Democrat, but also because he will fight for the causes she (and all of us) believe in. She'll have a much easier time fighting for us in the Senate if Barack is president, so let's help get him elected and push Hillary's legislation through.

So don't miss out on her web chat tomorrow (especially if you're going through Hillary withdrawal like I am), and keep checking in at her website for updates on the convention and upcoming events.

And of course, don't forget to donate to Hillary and Barack, either via their websites or through the new Clintonistas for Obama Act Blue page. I recommend the latter, naturally. It will also give you an opportunity to donate to other great down ticket candidates. Exciting though the presidential race may be, gaining seats always a top priority.

This is just a personal anecdote about a pleasant experience I had this evening. Back in '07, before I'd chosen a candidate, a friend asked me who I'd be voting for. I really had no idea, but I told her I was leaning toward Obama - I didn't want to support a Clinton, and I hadn't yet fully connected with Edwards. I liked Obama because he was new. My friend said, "Hell no, you better vote for Hillary. First female president, baby! Don't help put a nigger in the White House."

I cringed slightly, and she apologized halfheartedly. She really isn't a bad person, deep down. She has many wonderful qualities, and she tries to respectfully keep her bigotry to herself when she's around me. She just grew up in a bad environment, and she's almost certainly bipolar (undiagnosed). She's never been mean to an African American, as far as I'm aware. She treats them just as she treats everyone else, but at the same time, I know she thinks they're beneath her. About a year ago, she called me one afternoon sobbing her eyes out and begging me to come over. She poured us both several shots of the most disgusting vodka imaginable (Aristocrat, which is all she can afford), and mournfully told me about the horrible mistake she'd made the night before - she'd gotten drunk and slept with a black man. Her embarrassment was incomprehensible to me, but having spent at least as many nights with African Americans as with whites, perhaps I was in a poor position to judge. I just couldn't see her point of view or why she was upset.

That's what I call my paternal grandmother. Before I was born, my grandparents each chose what they wanted me to call them. My dad's mom picked "Honey" because she said she'd never been called anything sweet before. That wasn't strictly true, but she did have a difficult upbringing and an overbearing husband. She grew up as "poor white trash," and why my grandfather married her, I'll never know. Honey taught me a lot of things, as a kid and as an adult, but I don't know that any of the lessons were good.

Sheltered though I was, I learned about sexism when I was a child, and my first experience with it was probably the most hurtful - though not the most damaging in terms of academic or professional advancement - because it was the most personal. When I was a young girl, I slowly began noticing that my paternal grandparents treated me rather differently than they treated my brother. He was cooed over and treasured in a way I hadn't been, he was given attention and praise in a way I wasn't. The differences seemed stark. At first, I couldn't figure out why it should be so - why would I be treated differently when I was so pretty, so intelligent, far kinder, and more polite? What had I done wrong? Hurt and uncomprehending, I finally thought to ask my mother, who I could always trust to answer my naïve, innocent questions in the same way: Truthfully. Gently but bluntly, she explained that my father's parents were children of the Depression and had been raised with an old Southern mentality that men were more valuable. My brother was more cherished, more loved, and more important in the eyes of my grandparents because he was the male heir, and because he would carry on the family name, whereas I, as a woman, would lose it when I married (in the old South, marriage was a question of when, not if). This was a difficult truth for a young overachiever to understand because it was something which had to be accepted rather than overcome; no amount of success on my part would ever make me equal.

(cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama)

I'm going to get flamed for resurrecting the primary wars. Maybe I shouldn't, but with the recent influx of PUMA members, I figure it can't hurt - we're already back to attacking and arguing with each other, which is a real shame because we were doing so well for awhile there. Some of us - including myself - are being pretty rude to the people with whom we disagree, and I doubt it's helpful. Still, I'm disinclined to stop because I have little patience remaining for people who refuse to support (or even tolerate) Obama as Hillary so openly has.

The two warring factions - the PUMAs and the people who are supporting the nominee - tend to blame one another (and the other candidate) for the divisions within the party, but I've begun to think that everyone involved shares some of the responsibility for the rift. Hillary and Barack certainly contributed to it, and their supporters magnified each point of contention and kept it alive. Outrage fueled outrage, and somewhere along the line, everything spiraled out of control.

(Cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama)

I think some of the PUMA people in particular are making the mistake of giving John McCain the benefit of the doubt. By now, everyone has borne witness to his frantic appeals to the fundies of the far Right; I've rarely seen such outrageous and blatant pandering. I get the impression that McCain doesn't necessarily agree with everything he's saying, and that's the problem. McCain makes it easy for some of us to think, "He's just pandering during the election - he doesn't believe that stuff." Maybe some assume he won't hold to all the hard-line GOP positions once he's in office. Fortunately, there's one thing which can dispel this notion, and no one can it excuse as harmless pandering: his voting record.