This Tuesday Blue America will move to a new day. We're staying at 11am (PT) but our weekly guest will drop by on Tuesdays instead of Saturdays. And this week we're starting the new schedule with an iconic progressive figure from western North Carolina, Cecil Bothwell. No doubt you saw the news at the end of the week that Cecil's opponent, Blue Dog leader Heath Shuler, has decided to turn in his cleats and go become a lobbyist or a gym teacher. Since his voting record showed him siding with Boehner and Cantor more than 60% of the time and since he worked tirelessly inside the Democratic House caucus making bills less progressive and more palatable to his friends in Big Business, his retirement announcement is worth celebrating.

Now, of course, the DCCC and local conservatives are casting around for their idea of a Heath Shuler replacement. It isn't someone progressive. It isn't someone grassroots. It isn't someone independent-minded. In other words... it isn't Cecil Bothwell. Cecil was elected to the Asheville City Council and managed to get the most votes city wide-- although pundits insisted an atheist and unabashed liberal could never win. But he won and he won so big because he stands up for working families, not special interests. Even Tea Party members have recognized him as a friend of working people. He's straightforward and very clear about who he is, why he's running and what he plans to do in Congress. Please come by and meet him Tuesday at 2pm (ET). And the fascinating video above shows Cecil last week at a Tea Party candidates session. He's serious about appealing to all the people in the 11th district.

If you're a Facebook denizen, please join and share this event with your friends. It's never been more important to get real progressives into Congress.

And if you can, please consider making a contribution to Cecil's all grassroots campaign at the Blue America ActBlue page. The three coolest contributions before the end of the Super Bowl will get signed books. Which books? Surprise!

If you're a Facebook denizen, please join and share this event with your friends. It's never been more important to get real progressives into Congress.

Tomorrow is the two year anniversary of the infamous Citizens United decision. And what better way for Crooks and Liars to "celebrate" than by inviting out old and trusted friend Alan Grayson back for a live chat? Blue America has decided to endorse his campaign for Congress again and he's joining us at 2pm Eastern/11am, Pacific for a live chat. Although Mitch McConnell, the evil man behind the curtain in the effort to wreck McCain-Feingold, was the only senator in the Supreme Court on that day, Grayson was the only Member of the House there. They even said hello to each other. But they had very different reactions. McConnell, Alan recalls that "Floyd Abrams sat between us. I have said publicly before that McConnell was delighted by the decision, and what I heard from him was either a giggle, or some other bodily function. Clarence Thomas looked like if he tipped his chair back just an inch further, he would fall backward."

Alan introduced half a dozen bills-- some just before the decision and some just after it-- to forestall the dreaded consequences of unleashing virtually unrestrained corporate cash into the electoral system. He was alarmed. Not enough Beltway Democrats shared that alarm and the result-- so far-- was the Tea Party takeover of the House and the crippling of the Senate's ability to move forward and the catastrophes for working families in Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and several other states. One of Alan's bills, the Business Should Mind Its Own Business Act (H.R. 4431) would have implemented a 500% excise tax on corporate contributions to political committees, and on corporate expenditures on political advocacy campaigns. Another, the End Political Kickbacks Act (H.R. 4434) sought to prevent for-profit corporations that receive government money from making political contributions, and limit the amount that employees of those companies can contribute. But my favorite was the End the Hijacking of Shareholder Funds Act (H.R. 4487). This bill requires the approval of a majority of a public company's shareholders for any expenditure by that company to influence public opinion on matters not related to the company's products or services.

Alan got over 100,000 people to sign our petition at SaveDemocracy.net, and delivered the petition to the Supreme Court. This was a new experience for the Supreme Court and the clerks had no idea how to handle it.

Please come back tomorrow and join in the free-ranging discussion with Alan, whose new Orlando-based district, is much friendlier territory for a Democrat. And if you can't wait 'til then to help his efforts to get back into Congress, please visit the Blue America page and chip in now. As you can see, even $5 and $10 contributions have been mounting up rapidly. By the way, the video above, which was watched by millions of Americans on YouTube, was the one that launched Grayson into the national consciousness-- and caused corporate America to spend more negative campaign money in his congressional district than in any other district in America. (More about that on Saturday).

As you've probably read by now, New Jersey progressive candidate Ed Potosnak withdrew his challenge to Leonard Lance yesterday to take a job as the executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters. He was one of Blue America's favorite candidates, both in the 2010 cycle and again this year. We'll miss him, but we know he will accomplish a lot in his new job. Here's what he told me last night when he came up with the idea for this contest to help out a Blue America candidate.

I have always been a strong environmentalist. As a young adult my passion for nature manifested itself by guiding my choices as an individual. As an adult I turned my commitment to the environment into political advocacy, because protecting our natural resources is bigger than recycling and requires strong pro-environment policies. It is urgent that we address global climate change and take measurable steps to safeguard our water, air, land and wildlife for our future generations.

New Jersey faces significant challenges in cleaning up and safeguarding our environment. I am extremely proud to be leading the NJ League of Conservation Voters and working with our diverse members to provide justice for an environment that cannot defend itself. With our help, our state will serve as a role model for other similarly challenged communities throughout world.

Ed has some extra money in his campaign war chest, and he's offered to give the maximum amount allowable from one campaign to another, $2,000, to the Blue America candidate who gets the most contributions in the next 24 hours. So take a look at our ActBlue page and contribute-- whether a dollar or $1,000, it still counts as one "vote"-- and the candidate who gets the most "votes" will get a $2,000 dollar check from Ed's campaign. Happily, all of the Blue America candidates are pro-environment, and all of them are running on platforms similar to Ed's in terms of protecting clean air and water and America's natural beauty.

"This is a truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Ed said to us about his new job, explaining his withdrawal from the campaign. “I look forward to building on the grassroots energy of the diverse membership of NJLCV to promote nonpartisan solutions to our environmental challenges... I will be working every day to ensure our children and future generations have clean water and air, as well open space." Every one of these Blue America candidates is committed to the same vision for our country's future.

The rules for this contest: Just contribute any amount to any candidate on this page and it will count as a vote for that candidate. And yes, you can vote for more than one if you want to. In 24 hours we count up all the votes (again, not the dollar amounts, but the votes), and the candidate with the most gets the check from Ed's campaign.

I like Will.i.am and admire the work he's done as a musician and as an activist. But the title of this post doesn't derive from him or any of the galaxy of celebrities who were at the People For the America Way 30th anniversary celebration here in LA last week. It derives from three young elected officials you probably never heard of-- state Rep. Alisha Morgan (D-GA), state Senator Angie Buhl (D-SD) and Tallahassee vice-Mayor Andrew Gillum (D-FL). will.i.am introduced the audience-- an audience waiting to hear from Alec Baldwin and Norman Lear, J.J. Abrams, Jane Lynch, Jon Stewart, Mary Kay Place, Ed Begley, Jr., Rob and Carl Reiner-- to these young elected officials and they took over the spotlight so intensely that I actually forgot it was will who introduced them!

Andrew is the leader of a People For the American Way project called Young Elected Officials. Angie and Alisha are two of the young officials. Their stories of overcoming political adversity that always haunts young people are absolutely awesome-- and that's why I have the video embedded above.

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Elizabeth Warren just made it official-- or official enough for ActBlue to open up a contribution slot for her-- which means she filed with the FEC. So... we added her to the Blue America Senate page, a page with two candidates-- her and Bernie.

If we collect $2,000 for her over the weekend, one random lucky donor will win a gorgeous RIAA Lenny Kravitz platinum award for his Greatest Hits album (above).

Last Sunday I posted about the likelihood that she would run for the Massachusetts Senate seat currently occupied by Tea Party flip-flopper Scott Brown. It seemed all but certain. Disappointed and disallusioned progressives in at least one state will sure have a reason to flock to the polls in November of 2012! At the time she said "I spent years working against special interests and have the battle scars to show it-- and I have no intention of stopping now. It is time for me to think hard about what role I can play next to help rebuild a middle class that has been hacked at, chipped at, and pulled at for more than a generation-- and that that is under greater strain every day." Music to all of our ears. Let's encourage her-- and imagine her and Bernie Sanders working together for ordinary American families... in the U.S. Senate, that hideous, hidebound bastion of privilege and entitlement.

So, again, contribute any amount before midnight and if we reach $2,000 for her, one donor will be thanked by Blue America with the beautiful Lenny Kravitz triple platinum award.

Yesterday the National Healthy Start Association, which assists communities with high incidences of infant mortality, announced Rep. Raúl Grijalva will receive its 2011 Congressional Leadership Award. In acknowledging being singled out-- along with Jim Clyburn (D-SC) and John Yarmuth (D-KY)-- Grijalva explained that he's "deeply touched by this honor, which recognizes only what I believe is my duty to Southern Arizona. Reducing infant mortality is the furthest thing from a partisan issue, and I’ve been proud to support Healthy Start’s mission since coming to Congress. I look forward to receiving this award in person and will continue to do all I can to raise awareness of Healthy Start’s successful and necessary work.”

Raúl represents a chunk of southern Arizona that includes Pima, Pinal, Yuma, Maricopa and Santa Cruz counties. And, as co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, he is also our congressman and the congressman for all working families in America who don't have what it takes to hire lobbyists and bribe congressman. We're very proud to welcome him back here to Crooks and Liars today for another Blue America live session. The chat starts at 4pm (ET-- 1pm, here on the West Coast).

Watch the video above that Grijalva asked me to post. It isn't about him. Its about the fight he's helping to lead to preserve our country for the middle class rather than just let conservatives take over and turn back the clock to a time when it was a country run by the rich for the rich, a time we're precariously close to again. “We understand we have issues to deal with in terms of the budget, but they should not be on the backs of working people. We should not rob them of their fundamental right to bargain collectively and be able to make their lives in the workplace and their homes better... Congress," he told me Tuesday afternoon after the vote on Boehner and Ryan's budget resolution, "is taking away money for agencies like this [job training], and I don’t understand the logic. How is this country going to get out of the economic situation we are in if we don’t have people prepared?”

In joining most progressives to oppose the resolution this week, Grijalva pointed out that "reducing our national debt shouldn’t be about inflicting the most pain on the biggest number of people for no good reason. This is an ideological bill that slashes government programs Republicans don’t like-- there’s nothing thoughtful or considered about how they did the job. Southern Arizona, and the entire country, will be hurting badly if this bill becomes law, and voters should understand what’s being done in their name before this goes any further.”

This is the kind of analysis we get from so few Democrats. Fortunately one who "gets it" is joining us today for a free-ranging discussion at 11am (Crooks and Liars); please come by. And if you'd like to help make sure Grijalva is reelected in 2012... you can do it here.

This year there are several Democrats running for Congress who are openly gay and Blue America has had several inquiries about why we haven't endorsed them. A couple of gay organizations have done so, and I think the DCCC is getting behind one or two as well. But Blue America isn't a gay organization that endorses based on someone's gender preference, and we're certainly not the DCCC. We're looking for smart, honest progressive leaders and we don't care what color they are, what gender they are, or how they look or who they sleep with. When we decided to endorse Ed Potosnak in New Jersey this week, the young high school science teacher running against Wall Street shill Leonard Lance, it was because of his stands on the issues important to working families and because of the strength of his character, not because he's an openly gay man. But he is.

Ed will be joining us at here this afternoon in the comments forum for a wide-ranging blogger session, not especially about his sexual orientation. In fact, it was his hammering on the importance of education policy that first got our PAC interested in his candidacy. That said, we had several long conversations about what it means for a member of the LGBT community to run for Congress. Remember, out of 435 congressmembers and 100 senators, we only have three openly gay Members of Congress-- all Democrats-- plus a dozen or so closeted Republicans. Ed made it clear that he's grateful that the trail was blazed for him by Tammy Baldwin, Barney Frank and Jared Polis.

This is a critical time for the LGBT community and the fight for justice. The LGBT community needs more representatives in elected office. We have seen throughout history that we march closer to equality for everyone when the makeup of our government better reflects the diversity of our great nation. We know that the best representation of LGBT issues will come from those of us who understand the unique issues facing our community.

My election is a historic opportunity to elect the first openly gay Member of Congress to serve New Jersey and to add to growing LGBT voice in Congress. My election is extremely close and I am well
positioned to unseat my Republican opponent, Congressman Leonard Lance. Mr. Lance has sided with the conservative leadership in Congress 91% of the time including voting against the repeal of Don’t
Ask Don’t Tell and he does not support marriage equality. It's critical that we elect someone in his place who will vote to end discrimination and fight for equality and inclusion in all legislation considered by Congress. We cannot afford more no votes from Congressman Lance on the repeal of DOMA, the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act, the Reuniting Families Act, on other pieces of legislation to establish equality, or AYES on votes to strip transgender inclusion from ENDA.

I am committed to fighting for equal and fair treatment for every American regardless of sexual orientation, gender, race, religion or creed. I strongly believe that the LGBT community must also fight for the equal treatment of women and minorities. We are partners in the march for equal rights. We recognize that strides have been made in our communities, but we still have a road ahead of us: a road that will be traveled more swiftly if we work together. When I go to Congress, I will help lead the fight to fulfill the real promise of the American dream, equality for all.

Please consider helping Ed get his message out by contributing what you can at the Blue America ActBlue page. In fact, the first 10 people who contribute at least $25 to Ed's campaign will get autographed copies of Russ Baker's Family of Secrets.

I hope by now all C&L readers are aware that we participate in the Blue America PAC to help encourage a more progressive -- and more fearlessly progressive -- Congress. Most of our candidates are running for the House (although we have a separate page for Senate challengers as well). What we don't do -- or at least haven't so far -- is endorse people running for President. I don't think we've endorsed any gubernatorial candidates either and we haven't been endorsing legislative candidates. That isn't because we don't think that's important work. In fact, it's crucially important work. And I'm excited to tell you about an organization that is doing just that, Progressive Kick. As you can see they have already endorsed progressive state legislative candidates in Oregon and Pennsylvania.

Right now they've set up a matching fund to be able to deliver a quarter million dollars across several down-ballot races around the country. A quarter million dollars doesn't do all that much anymore in U.S. Senate races and certainly doesn't win a House seat anymore-- but it is really powerful in local races and can make all the difference in the world-- a difference that impacts redrawing of districts as well as the all-important existence of a deep and well prepared "bench." Aside from the Oregon and Pennsylvania candidates, by next week they'll have candidates up from Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

So basically, what Progressive Kick is committing to is a minimum of $125,000 that they've already received from major donors as a dollar-for-dollar matching-fund for whichever candidates generate some money on the ActBlue page. In other words, if you want to see progressive Frank Bovalino take out right-wing lemming Jim Christiana in Pennsylvania's 15th House district, by donating $20, you guarantee that Bovalino's campaign gets $40. These are all carefully vetted candidates in close but winnable races. Progressive Kick is concentrating exclusively on races that will lead to control of Congressional redistricting in the respective states.

All their candidates are progressive leaders with real backbones, unlike some Democratic members of Congress who we’ll have to hold our noses to vote for in order to keep a majority. Many of the candidates in this effort will be the progressive congressional candidates of the future. Does this sort of thing work, you ask? Let me share a couple of success stories with you, direct from candidates who have benefited. Patsy Keever is currently the progressive Democratic nominee for North Carolina House District 115. After winning her primary last month she wrote Progressive Kick that “I originally decided to run for the NC Legislature when I read in the local newspaper that my current legislator was ranked at the very bottom of all NC legislators by the nonpartisan organization, Environment NC…. I was up against all the 'powers that be' in the state, and it was a real shot in the arm to get the surprise support from Progressive Kick at a time when we were unable to get support from the groups I had expected to have… we won our primary by a 60 - 40 margin against an entrenched incumbent who outspent me five to one…”

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Blue America is always appreciative that Congressman Raúl Grijalva makes time to stop by for a monthly Blue America chat. This week he -- along with two other Blue America-backed progressives, Alan Grayson and Mary Jo Kilroy -- sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi requesting that she schedule a vote on extending the Bush-era tax cuts to the middle class while sunsetting provisions that benefit the richest 3% of Americans. Before we repair to the C&L comments forum for our Q&A with Congressman Grijalva, let me share that letter:

Dear Madam Speaker:

Last decade, President Bush rammed through Congress a multi-billion dollar give-away for the wealthiest Americans on the backs of our nation's middle-class. In the process, the aforementioned Bush tax cuts eviscerated an unprecedented budget surplus and weakened our nation's fiscal health. As the Bush tax cuts are set to expire, we respectfully urge you to bring to the floor, before Congress adjourns in October, a vote on President Obama's recently proposed tax plan: permanent tax cuts for the middle-class while allowing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans to expire, using any additional revenue to close our budget deficit.

We must show the American people that our Democratic Majority stands for them-- people who have worked hard, played by the rules and depend on these tax breaks to make ends meet. We also need to get serious about cutting our budget deficit by allowing the Bush tax cuts for the rich to expire.

Some have argued that the Bush tax cuts help to stimulate the economy, or that allowing these cuts to expire would hurt our nation's small businesses. This is flat out wrong. According to a recent report by the Center for American Progress, the economy boasted 132 million jobs in June 2001, the month that the first of the Bush tax cuts was signed into law. By June 2004, there were just 131.4 million jobs-- a decrease of 600,000 jobs. Furthermore, a recent report from the Tax Policy Center states that, "Roughly 97 percent of small businesses would not be affected at all by increases in the top two tax rates."

Rather, extending the Bush tax cuts will result in an $830 billion give-away for the nation's wealthiest Americans, significantly increasing government debt, the interest on which will be paid by our nation's middle-class for years to come. This astronomical sum could instead be used to close our budget deficit.

It is critical that we pass the Obama middle-class tax cuts-- not providing an even greater lift for the wealthiest Americans who don't need it.

Congressman Grijalva's leadership on tax fairness and on protecting Social Security is what Digby, Amato and I asked him to come over and speak with us about today. He told us he is skeptical about the legitimacy of President Obama's "deficit commission" (what Digby dubbed "The Cat Food Commission").

"The commission," he told us yesterday, "has lost its legitimacy, thanks to Alan Simpson's and other members' comments. There is open hostility toward Social Security, and the intention seems to be to pit the middle class against Social Security recipients. The question now is why Social Security is even on the table and why the commission is being considered the be-all, end-all of fiscal policy, which is actually the role of Congress."

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At the end of July, Blue America and our pals at the Americans For America PAC launched the first in a series of videos that highlights what kind of people now lead the Republican Party. We featured Sarah Palin, Rand Paul and John Boehner. And we asked the readers here at C&L, at DWT and at Digby's Hullabaloo to tell us who to do the next ad for. Lots of votes for Ken Calvert and Michele Bachmann but it was that reactionary harridan from North Carolina, Virginia Foxx, who got the most votes.

As you can see in the ad above, there are a lot of things that the voters in western North Carolina need to think about when they consider returning Virginia Foxx for another term in Congress. But there's also an outstanding alternative. Populist champion Billy Kennedy would make a far better Representative for ordinary working families, a part of the population Foxx is dismissive of. Foxx already has $1,270,733 on hand. Her biggest donors are the sugar lobby, banks, the Medical Industrial Compex, alcoholic beverage companies, gambling interests and foreign powers with their own agendas. Meanwhile, Billy Kennedy has $70,406 on hand. He addressed the problem on the cascade of corrupt corporate cash flooding into congressional campaigns:

"The case of Citizens United v FEC was heard by the Supreme Court back in January. When all was said and done, the Court ended up changing the law so that corporations can now spend as much as they like on political campaigns without even identifying themselves. That’s right-- average working people get the short end of the stick. Again.

So the US House has now just passed the “Disclose Act,” a law which will at least require that these corporations tell us who they are when they put their fancy, high-dollar commercials on TV that attack anyone who would dare come up against them. The “Disclose Act” could most certainly be better than it is. If we didn’t have so many politicians in Washington beholden to corporate interests, we’d surely have gotten a better bill in the end, but the bill is at least a start.

Even so, I wasn’t surprised to hear Rep. Virginia Foxx rail against the “Disclose Act” on WPTF radio Thursday. I wasn’t surprised because Rep. Foxx’s record is pretty clear on this kind of thing. Her take is that working people need to get in line and work longer hours for less money and be thankful they’ve got any job at all. Corporations and rich people, on the other hand, deserve better because they’re the ones providing jobs for longer hours and less money. It sounds like code for "we can't do it because it's too complicated."

It’s worth noting that Rep. Foxx never said a word on any radio stations when the Supreme Court made sure individual Americans’ rights came up short against corporate rights. She wasn’t on talk radio, outraged, when Americans woke up one morning to find out they’d been sold out by corporate interests again. Not at all. The only thing on this whole issue that got Rep. Foxx in a tizzy and made her want to “sit down and cry” (as she said on the radio) was that someone in Washington was actually trying to do something about it. Rep. Foxx didn’t show up at any radio stations the morning after corporations stole the peoples’ power in the dead of night. But she showed up pretty quick to be outraged when some brave folks in Washington tried to reclaim it.

Rep. Foxx has been in Washington too long. She’s forgotten what she’s supposed to be doing up there, and she will say anything to be re-elected. It’s time to send her home."

If you'd like to help us put the ad on TV in the Piedmont and the suburbs of Winston-Salem, just click on Foxx's face-- and no, that photo is not photoshopped.