I've posted a few photos from last week's Democratic National Convention in the photo gallery. I hope to have more photos and video clips soon.

I only have a moment to write before I have to speak at the Progressive Democrats of America panel discussion on Healthcare Not Warfare, but I want to tell you about the event I did last night at the Convention Center. The Nation, the Denver Public Library and Rocky Mountain PBS sponsored "From Fannie Lou Hamer to Barack Obama: How the Civil Rights Movement Changed American Politics." John Nichols, political writer for The Nation, interviewed me on my experiences in the Civil Rights Movement and conventions and campaigns past and present. We were also treated to performances of musical compositions of the very talented David Avram, including a few songs by the Colorado Children's Chorale. I'll add photos to the event to the gallery later today.

Yesterday, the Washington Post reported on a recent survey by The Commonwealth Fund on the increasing strain that the cost of health care is placing on working families.

The study reports that 79 million American adults have accrued health care-related debt or are struggling to pay their medical bills and that 28% of Americans were uninsured for some time during the previous year. What the study's authors call a "perfect storm" of economic troubles affects all income levels, but hits families making under $20,000 per year the hardest-- over half in that income bracket reported going without health insurance.

The lack of affordable health care is not just a problem for the growing number of Americans facing the choice between paying for a doctor's visit and paying for food or mortgage payments-- it is a problem we must all tackle, head on. We deserve guaranteed health care coverage, and I will continue to push for it everywhere I go.

To read the study by The Commonwealth Fund, click here.

Seventy-three years ago today, President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. The country had been hit hard by the Great Depression, and many of our nation's senior citizens had been hit the hardest. Congress and the President made a promise to our seniors that a life of hard work would not end in poverty, and that is a promise we must continue to honor today.

But our promise of a secure retirement is endangered by the prospect of four more years of Republican control of the White House. Sen. McCain supported President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security, and repeated that support in a March interview with the Wall Street Journal. Over the last 73 years, Social Security has been a critical safety net for millions of American retirees, survivors of workers who die young and people with disabilities. The Democrats in Congress have worked hard to protect that safety net and we are going to need Barack Obama elected President if we are going to continue that work and ensure Social Security is available for generations to come.

I went to Pittsburgh this weekend to encourage the drafters of the 2008 Democratic Party Platform to include guaranteed health care for all as a uniform Democratic principle.

I am pleased to inform you that we succeeded in this fight. The platform now includes the language:

"every American man, woman and child [should] be guaranteed to have affordable, comprehensive health care."

John Nichols wrote about our success in a piece for the Nation magazine. The full text of his article is here.

Slate put up a new interactive feature this week that is definitely worth a look. It is a diagram of five of the most serious abuses of power at the Bush White House and Department of Justice--who the major players are, how they relate to each other, and links to relevant stories and documents. Each of the five areas have been major focal points in the Judiciary Committee's oversight of the Administration in the last year-and-a-half, and will continue to be of great importance in the work that still lies ahead.

Yesterday the attention of the Judiciary Committee was turned to an issue of paramount importance in the waning days of the 110th Congress--ensuring the fairness of this fall's elections. The Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties held a hearing on "Lessons Learned from the 2004 Election," which included testimony from former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Hans von Spakovsky. Much to my disappointment, however, the Department of Justice did not send a representative to testify at today's hearing. This was despite the assurances the Attorney General gave at his appearance before the Committee this Wednesday that making sure the November 4 elections run smoothly is one of his top priorities. The Department's engagement and cooperation is crucial--- so that we are not only learning the lessons of voter disenfranchisement from past elections, but applying them to the preparations for 2008. For more on today's hearing, Bradblog.com has this story.

We in the Judiciary Committee are not the only ones focusing on voting rights this week, however. The New York Times also ran this editorial about the need for reforms and new regulations regarding ballot design. The editorial responds to a report released by the Brennan Center on ballot design throughout the country, which claims that "eight years after the 2000 election, and billions of dollars spent on new voting technology, the problems caused by poor ballot design have not been fully and effectively addressed on a national level. Year in and year out, we see the same mistakes in ballot design, with the same results: tens, and sometimes hundreds, of thousands of voters disenfranchised by confusing ballot design and instructions, sometimes raising serious questions about whether the intended choice of the voters was certi?ed as the winner." You can find the full report here.

I went to Texas this weekend to hear from those who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes, but later exonerated with DNA evidence.  I visited at the invitation of Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson and spoke with a number of former prisoners who told heartwrenching stories about their experiences.  I was deeply moved by these stories and am so grateful that DNA evidence is available to free those who never deserved to be in jail in the first place.

The Dallas Morning News carried some good coverage of the event.

There is an article in this morning's New York Times about a study being released today on the state of health care in America. In a nutshell, the Commonwealth Fund study shows that despite the fact that we pay more for care in this country than in most other industrialized nations, the quality of care does not measure up.

While this simple statement would be readily apparent to the millions of people struggling to pay for basic medical care or to senior citizens choosing between paying for their prescription drugs and their groceries, it is also important to quantify the disparity. It is yet another sign pointing to how badly we need to universal health care coverage.