No Blue America live chat this week. We'll be back next week with Trevor Thomas, the progressive pro-Choice candidate running in MI-3. This week, though, we want to tell you about Blue America's new Independent Expenditures Committee. You can find it here and, unlike our other ActBlue pages, it isn't raising money for candidates. Instead it's raising money for actions-- like TV and radio ads and billboards and get out the vote efforts. First goal-- making sure voters in WI-1 know there's an actual alternative to Paul Ryan this year.

We started complaining that DC Democrats were giving Paul Ryan an easy pass even before Rahm Emanuel first took over the DCCC. The DCCC never-- and I mean never-- does anything to defeat Ryan in his own district. They talk smack about him everywhere in America-- same as they do with Boehner and Cantor-- but they never challenge any of these galoots in the one place where it really counts: back home. And even if you could say that Boehner's district and Catnor's district are two red to bother with-- McCain won Boehner's district with 60% and won in Cantor's with 53%-- you sure can't say that about Ryan's. A traditionally Democratic district, Obama beat McCain 51-48%. The only role the DCCC has played in WI-1 is to help a series of unelectable sad cases win the primaries against progressives-- and then disappear from the scene.

It didn't get any better when Chris Van Hollen took over the DCCC and, so far, it's about par for the course with Steve Israel's DCCC. The one change is that a viable, progressive candidate, Rob Zerban, actually got the nomination without a DCCC-backed primary opponent. There's ever a rumor that they may put him on their Red-to-Blue program. Unfortunately a wealthy Democratic donor told me that when she asked Israel if it was OK to throw a fundraiser for Rob, he immediately nixed the idea.

So far the DCCC has put up one pathetic, generic billboard-- the same one they're putting up in various places around the country. They put it where it will get no visibility-- and in a traditionally Democratic area-- and they neglected to even put Zerban's name on it-- since name ID at this point is the single most important factor for him in the race. And who's that guy? How lame are these people who waste tens of millions of dollars every year and lose to the even lamer Republicans?

Help us put up a billboard that means something and will be seen by people in the district. We have to show the DCCC how it's done. I wonder if they're realize why we put Zerban's name on the board-- and why we used a woman instead of a man. There is no winnable race more important than knocking off Wall Street and Insurance Industry darling Paul Ryan. And Zerban is the man who can do it. In fact, there's only one way to beat Paul Ryan-- and that's to elect Rob Zerban. We're lucky we have such a good candidate running and that the DCCC didn't slip in some corporate shill or anti-Choice Blue Dog. If the DCCC won't help, let's pitch in ourselves. And if you know anyone wealthy... there are no limits to the amount anyone can give. I mean even a million dollars is OK! On the other hand, there's no such thing as a contribution too small. So, one last time, here's the new Blue America I.E. Committee page.