The Gulf War Was Like

When Those Pictures Of Abu Ghraib Came Out, I Thought, My Gosh, This Is Like The Tiger Cages For Prisoners In Vietnam All Over Again. Only We Were Actually Doing It Ourselves, We Weren't Hiring Another Government To Do It.

It Is Long Past Time To Eliminate Bigotry In The Workplace And To Ensure Equal Opportunity For All Americans. It Is Time To Make Clear That Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Americans Are First Class Citizens. They Are Full And Welcome Members Of Our American Family And They Deserve The Same Civil Rights Protections As All Other Americans. It Is Time For Us To Prohibit Discrimination Based On Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity. Such Discrimination Is Wrong And Should Not Be Tolerated.

When I First Arrived To Congress In 1975, I Would Spend Several Hours Every Week With Republicans - Having Lunch, Drinking A Beer. But By The Time I Left Last Year, That Was A Rarity. Every Moment Of Free Time Is Eaten Up By Fundraising. And The Advent Of All These Groups That Can Threaten Passage Of This Or That With An Avalanche Of Money Or A Primary Opponent Has Poisoned Our Politics.

Obesity Now Contributes To The Death Of More Than 360,000 Americans A Year. The Incidence Of Childhood Obesity Is Now At Epidemic Levels. Alarm Bells Are Going Off All Over The Place. But Our Government Has Done Virtually Nothing.

When You Dig Down, People Are Pretty Progressive, By And Large. I Guess, I've Said It Many Times - That A Lot Of People Say We're A Conservative Country, That People Are Conservative. And My Response To That Is, Yes, That's True, And You Know What The People Want To Conserve Most? The Progressive Traditions Of Our Country - Freedom Of Speech, And Of The Press And Of Assembly. Freedom To Dissent. The Freedom To Practice Your Own Religion Or Not Practice Religion As You See Fit. Yes, We're Conservative! We Want To Conserve Those.