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.

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Jake Tapper on This Week interviews Haley Barbour and Ed Rendell about how the health care law will affect their respective states:

TAPPER: Governor Barbour, I don't want to pick on Mississippi, but I should point out that studies indicate Mississippi is last in the nation when it comes to health care, when it comes to access, quality, costs and outcomes.

Your state ranks worst in the country for obesity, hypertension, diabetes, adult physical inactivity, low weight birth babies. It has one of the highest rates of infant mortality.

You've been governor for six years. I'm wondering, what's your response to critics who say that this is probably -- this lawsuit is probably not the best use of your time when it comes to health care for your citizens?

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Wouldn't it make a lot more sense for us to focus only on the humanitarian aid instead of bombing them? Yeah, I know there are huge logistical challenges - but are the challenges any worse than they are for trying to win a war?

Afghan refugees who fled the war-torn south have claimed they are so neglected by government in Kabul that their children are dying from hypothermia for want of the most basic supplies.

Families that left Helmand, Kandahar and other southern provinces to escape the fighting between US-led forces and a resurgent Taliban say the cold is much more lethal.

Living in a make-shift camp on the edge of Kabul, residents told Al Jazeera's James Bays that no government official has ever come to see how they have been forced to live.

The claim comes as UN officials say Afghan children are suffering disastrous levels of abuse and deprivation.

At a news conference marking the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child this week, officials said children’s rights were being neglected despite vast flows of Western aid into the country.

“Afghanistan has the highest infant mortality rate in the world," said Catherine Mbengue, country representative for the UN children’s fund Unicef.

“Seventy per cent of the population has no access to safe drinking water. Thirty percent of children are involved in child labour. Forty-three per cent of girls are married under-age,” she said.