written form by the aunt lilly.applause] and i want to add that, if you go to our blog on on the facebook, you will hear and you will see peggy's aunt lilly because there are photographs added to her reading. i am also reading the letter that i wrote in photographs of my dad and pictures that he took during his lifetime, so go to our blog. there's a lot of good stuff. >> it is wonderful. is all wonderful. i have laryngitis, so i'm going to try to get through this. i just want to talk about a little bit what you mean to the book. my friend here, tell me about the book after she had sent her selection then and that she had been selected. and then the day that the book came, we were together in the car. and i read her poems, and then i read a part of another one, and i come from theater and film. i am an actress and a director. i said, this is a staged reading. which is have to put this on stage. it can't just be between these two pages. it just has to go onstage. and got in touch with the two queen mother's here, and

with regard to lilly's case, my democratic colleagues have talked about this case a lot. i would just say that everybody knows it is a universal rule that whenever a wrong inflicted upon an individual, they have a certain time in which to file their claim. it is called the statute of limitations. evie do not file it in the time allowed by law, -- if you do not file it but the time allowed by law, you cannot fall that lawsuit. the u.s. supreme court heard the evidence -- this one lady, lilly took her case to the supreme court. they herded and concluded that she was aware of the unfair wage practice long before the statute of limitations. by the time she thought her complaint, it was too late. years after. they concluded that. the congress was unhappy about a and passed a law that unwisely metals the statute of place -- statute of limitations on these -- muddles the statute of limitations on these cases. it was a fact based analysis by the supreme court by which they concluded that she waited too long to bring the lawsuit and it was barred. congress, thinking that it was no

her name was lilly ledbetter. she rose through the management ranks and was very happy with the asignment she was given. she worked side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder with many male employees. it wasn't until she announced her retirement that one of the employees came to her and said, lily, you know, for many years now you've been paid less than the man you were working next to even though you had the same job title and the same job asignment. this company was paying less to women doing the same job as men. and she thought that was unfair after a lifetime of work that she would receive equal pay for equal work. so they filed a lawsuit under a federal law asking that she be compensated for this discrimination against her, a reduction in pay when she faced and the retirement reduction she faced as a result of it. it was a well-known law that she filed her case under giving each american the right to allege discrimination in the workplace and set out to prove it. her case made it all the way to the supreme court of t

the lilly ledbetter case, five cusk -- five justices struck a blow to the rights of working families across the country is. 40 years ago congress put in place a law to outlaw discrimination in the workplace. men and women will receive equal pay for equal work. what they did, an activist court, a court made up of people who talked about judicial modesty and judicial restraint during the confirmation hearings, it is a court that struck down equal pay for women. i was very proud to be standing with lee ledbetter sitting right behind president obama when he signed the billy ledbetter law as his first act. -- we lilly ledbetter law as his first act. judge sotomayor will act on the mold of the conservative activists on the court now who have legislation designed to protect americans from discrimination, their jobs and voting. laws meant to guarantee the access of americans to health care. laws meant to protect the privacy of all americans from overreaching government. when those lost are in place -- windows laws are in place in the conservative strike them down, are they not the same activ

this one whraid did i lilly ledbetter took her case all the way to the supreme court. they held it and they concluded that she had -- was aware of the unfair wage practices that she alleged long before the statute of limitations, long before. and that by the time she filed her complaint, it was way too late and in fact one of the key witnesses had already died. so it was years after. and so they concluded that, okay? the congress, fulfilling its proper role, was unhappy about it and has passed a law that i think unwisely muddles the statute of limitations on these kinds of cases dramatically but would give her a chance to be successful or another person in their circumstance to be successful. so the supreme court -- this wasn't a conservative activist decision. it was a fact-based analysis by the supreme court by which they concluded that she waited too long to bring the lawsuit and it was barred. and congress, thinking that was not good, passed a law that changed the statute of limitations so more people would be able to prevail. it's not wrong for a -- for the court

and epstein wrote to one of the editors lilly shoals "i can smell of official washington is not all jubilant about the decision taken by the united nations and backed by the white house. he wrote i see a great deal of disappointment coupled with bitterness among many who do not like the idea of the jewish state's and who will not easily digest it. he was right. the state department went out on its own to do what they could to reverse the policy. first, without telling truman, the state department instituted the famous arms embargo so they could defend. of the embargo was declared on the state department without checking with tremendous and was it was done he felt he could not publicly then oppose them, it will look foolish if he acknowledged publicly this was not his order but the state department for co-chairmen went along with their probably because he was anxious to proclaim anything that had the effect to lead to american military troops entering the battle field. at this point* the state department proceeds of the plan to turn back partition and the trusteeship. one of the things german

with fear choking me and lilly turned my head to the window we rode home silent but we one [applause] women right there on the stories and as other women recall points in their life that were so important and show them sells rising with a deep passion and understanding with a deep knowledge of the place in history and their grandmother and we were most moved by women who loved the idea that michelle obama was not only going to the white house but taking her mom with her. [laughter] and we know exactly what it means to take your mama with you program looking at share and and i believe she just came in with her mom, her grand mom? fed has beene1 extraordinary, the whole experience for black women to tell us their feelings about the first lady and something about the title of the book people always ask us about that. "go, tell michelle" it started out as dear michele, letters of love and support and encouragement but we send it into the publisher but they said how about this title? we don't want anyone bossing us around but we boughtlp it. those of us who like poetry we said it is not ju

one day the phone rang, and it was eli lilly and co. >> based in indianapolis? >> yes, and with one of the single biggest pieces of good fortune that came my way. i went to work over there for 11 years. >> back to politics in what year? >> the phone rang in december of 2000. it was an inquiry about coming to be part of the incoming bush administration, which i accepted. >> you mean the george bush administration? did they offer you a job as director of omb right there? >> not initially. the first call was about a different job, which i said thanks, but no thanks. i am productively occupied here, and you can get someone better for that. then they call back and i told my wife, now we have a problem. now they are calling about the one job they have that i would probably be interested in. that was omb. >> here is a piece of tape of you testifying on september 6, 2001. it is not very long. >> the president is the biggest spender, hands down, in this town. the administration, with its tax cuts, is the biggest spender hands down. that is money that is being spent, goin

aviation ski for six years, but as one former official told me, this air marshal agency is guilding the lilly. the "wall street journal" said in an editorial a few months after 9/11, quote, we would like to suggest a new post-september 11 rule for congress. any bill with the word security should get double the public scrutiny and four times the normal weight should all become law under the phony guise of terrorism. that was from the "wall street journal." and they noticed every department and agency was requesting additional funds and using the word security to justify unnecessary appropriations. everyone on both sides of the aisle would like to call themselves fiscally conservative. even if my amendment was to pass, this agency would be getting an almost 60% increase since 2003, more than double the rate of inflation since that time. this amendment is bear bones fiscal conservativism, very minimal fiscal conservativism. and i might add that i never had a run-in with a marshall and i don't believe i know an air marshal, so this is nothing personal. but u.s.a. today had an article about this a

and lilly ledbetter said that's exactly i did when i learned i was discriminated against i filed within the statutory requirement but the supreme court across the street, the strict constructionists that they are reached a different conclusion. and their conclusion was that the law didn't mean that. the law meant that she had to file the lawsuit within six months after the first act of discrimination. in other words, the first time she was paid less than the man working next to her she had a clock starting to run. and she had six months to file the lawsuit. those of us who have worked outside of government and even those working in government for that matter to some extent -- but those working in the private sector know that it's a rare company that publishes the paychecks of every employee. and so you may be working next to someone for years and never know exactly what they're being paid. that was the case with lily ledbetter. she didn't know the man standing next to her doing the same job was being paid more. she didn't discover that until many years later so the supreme court said, m

we passed the lilly ledbetter legislation equalizing pay between men and women. we passed the children's health insurance program which had been vetoed by president bush on several occasions. now more than 14 million children can go to the doctor when they're suck or hurt. we passed the economic recovery package. 25% of that money is owvment the rest is coming. we passed, mr. president, the omnibus spending bill, very important legislation that had been held up by the bush administration. we spent $1.2 trillion within a period of three weeks of the people's money. why did we do that? we did it, mr. president, because mark zandi, among others, senator mccain's chief economic advisor, republican economist, democratic economists told us that we had to do this to stop a worldwide depression, and we've done that. as chairman bernanke said, the crops have been planted and the shoots are now appearing out of the ground. we, mr. president, went on to pass a procurement bill, extremely important, to rein in the excessive expenses of what has taken place with -- in years p

we talk about jobs and job creation we have to really first applaud the president for signing the lilly ledbetter bill and secondly, in each and every initiative that we take here in the house, make sure that we look at the bills in terms of the type of equity and justice it brings to women. because women have a long way to go in our society. we've made tremendous gains but when you look at these moral gaps in terms of wages, we have to understand that we do need to take and some don't want to say affirmative action, but i consider affirmative action a very democratic policy so we do need to take affirmative action to make sure that these disparities in wages as it relates to women are closed and closed very quickly as we create these new jobs in if the industries of the future -- in the industries of the future. ms. fudge: thank you, madam chair. i would say that there are so many things we need to be addressing. certainly what i have found in my home district is that as you look at what is happening with women and children, it's really appalling. right now the fastest growing group of

this administration has done in 125 days, whatever it has been now, i mean, on the signing of the lilly ledbetter pay act to banning torture designing stem cells, schip kenaf tobacco regulation. this is what it means. it needs standing there with the president when he is signing these, looking at them yesterday signed a memorandum on extending same-sex benefits and same-sex couples. people are in tears. these are real people, all of us are really impacted by this. and that's what it means. this change is not abstract. it is a very, very old and there will be a lot more of it. it's hard. especially in the arena, some are very, very difficult and people of real good faith are trying with a real belief in this comp petitions are working on them and some of this is, you know how but. give us your ideas and stay with us as we work through them. >> well, as i appreciate noel scanner but i'm not sure what the whole elected thing eight years ago. [applause] >> in my head i was trying not to use that had crowd i was with. >> not over it yet. [inaudible] >> i do think that, it's hard to add to th

the accord that basically struck down equal pay for women and i was very proud to be standing with lilly ledbetter, standing right behind the president's obama and that you were there when you sign the lily ledbetter long as his first act and that is going to change us. you know, those who care about the constitution, we should ask judge sotomayor after those conservative activists on the court now who have good legislation designed to protect americans from their jobs and voting, was meant to guarantee the access of americans to health care and education, was meant to protect the privacy of all americans from an overreaching government. when those laws are in place and conservatives on the court to strike those down, are they not been the same kind of activists they tell us to avoid? so it took the supreme court that understood the real world to take this seemingly their sounding doctrine of separate but equal. what is sound more fair? but in reality, of course, it was a straitjacket, it was offensive to the constitution, it allows segregation, and all americans have come to respect whe