Art offers his perspective as a movement progressive activist.

Russ Feingold is reportedly pondering a run for either governor or senate in Wisconsin. And boy he let it rip this week at a labor rally. He struck at corporate power and our weak willed pols who won’t stand up to it. Its a moving speech. We need this man back in office asap!

The Progressive Caucus is going to tour the nation to talk about their plans to create jobs via WPA programs, raising taxes on the rich and more. Its high time The People’s Budget gets out there. They will make stop across the nation to promote their plans:

Rep. Grijalva hits the White House and the media for all the focus on debt instead of jobs. The CPC is:

..planning to turn the government’s attention back toward eliminating unemployment. Starting Wednesday, caucus members will fan out across the country on a summer tour that will attempt to push the focus away from spending reduction and toward using government resources to create jobs.

“The media and the right wing and, of course, some Democrats have been talking about intangibles like the debt ceiling or the job picture,” Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) told TPM in an interview previewing the announcement. “We wanted to do a tour that really talks about what matters to people.”

To Grijalva and the CPC that means discussing a government that makes “a commitment to the middle class” and pushes for an economic package that focuses on middle and working class people — “not just the wealthy and not just the CEOs,” Grijalva said.

Earlier this year, the CPC put forward their own federal budget proposal that raises taxes on the rich and corporations (as well as ends the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) and plows the increased revenues into new education, health care and other middle class-focused domestic spending.

That’s the kind of government Americans want, Grijalva said. He faulted the White House and other Democrats for veering away from the kind of solutions the CPC intends to highlight on the tour and driving the national agenda headlong into the Republican-friendly territory of tax decreases and spending cuts.

Rep. Conyers gave the message for this multi-state tour:

“So let’s get mad, you guys. And let’s tell the man …in the White House to get off his butt and start supporting some legislation for jobs,” added Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). “We want some action, President Obama.”

Yes Virginia there are real Democrats in America. Fighting for the working people. We just need more elected.

Check their website to see if your city will be visited.

Rep. Conyers is a great progressive and, in the spirit of FDR and Humphrey, he is proposing a law to create full employment for all of America. Every American who could would be able to have a job. Its based on a bill Senator Humphrey proposed decades ago. It deserves more attention than its getting right now. Did you know Germany has something similar and its unemployment is not higher than before the recession! Read about how it would work here .

Senator Boxer kicks Right winger ass on the Senate floor. If the WH talked like this from the get go the progressive wing of the Dem party would be in power a long time. Maddow had clips of this on her show. Watch it :

Americans are tired of false choices with spending cuts on programs they need while endless wars rage at a huge cost. We need those dollars at home and the Conference of Mayors may ratify a call to DC to pullout of the wars. If so it would be a major event, not since Vietnam has the Conference of Mayors done such a thing:

The basis of the mayors’ objections is not strictly the morality or strategic basis of the war, but the price tag. The resolution’s first clause references the “severity of the ongoing economic crisis” and “budget shortfalls at all levels of government” as reasons to “re-examine our national spending priorities.” The second clause notes that Iraq and Afghanistan are costing the country approximately $126 billion dollars per year. It is not until the third clause that the authors point to the wars’ casualties. They conclude with a plea for Congress to “bring these war dollars home to meet vital human needs.”

“As mayors, we recognize there is an absurdly false choice being put to Americans that we somehow have to pick between all the priorities we care deeply about but can’t touch massive spending on the military,” said Rybak. “There is this rationale that defense spending trickles down to domestic priorities. That is true. I’m happy that the space program developed Tang but that does not mean that’s the end result we should be going for.”

Here is the resolution under consideration:

1. WHEREAS, the severity of the ongoing economic crisis has created budget shortfalls at all levels of government and requires us to re-examine our national spending priorities; and
2. WHEREAS, the people of the United States are collectively paying approximately $126 billion dollars per year to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan; and

3. WHEREAS, 6,024 members of the US armed forces have died in these wars; and at least 120,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since the coalition attacks began.

4. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors supports efforts to speed up the ending of these wars; and

5. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors calls on the U.S. Congress to bring these war dollars home to meet vital human needs, promote job creation, rebuild our infrastructure, aid municipal and state governments, and develop a new economy based upon renewable, sustainable energy

Better yet 27 senators, mostly Democrats but a few Tea Party members as well signed a letter to Obama urging a speedy withdrawal from the Afghan theatre. Senator Sanders, Schumer and Right winger Mike Lee signed.

Soon I will a piece or two on the Right’s assault on voting rights. Voter ID is the craze these days, with now 32 states passing such laws. Voter ID is highly regressive, paring down the pool of folks who will be allowed to vote. By requiring government ID you disenfranchise hundreds of thousands who simply cannot or do not have the time to go get an ID. Do most have IDs? Sure. But the poorest of Americans, minorities and the elderly are most likely to not have a government ID.

So kudos to Missouri Governor Jay Nixon (D) for having the guts to veto a popular bill which would have required all Missourians to have a photo ID in order to vote. A real victory that Truman would be proud of:

In the closing days of the legislative session, lawmakers passed an amendment to the state’s constitution mandating a photo ID to vote and a bill putting the amendment into practice. Voters will have the final say next year on the amendment, but by vetoing the implementation bill Nixon has prevented the law from going into effect even if it is approved by voters.

“This [photo ID] mandate would disproportionately impact senior citizens and persons with disabilities, among others, who are qualified to vote and have been lawfully voting since becoming eligible to do so, but are less likely to have a driver’s license or government-issued photo ID,” Nixon said in a letter explaining his veto. “Disenfranchising certain classes of persons is not acceptable.”

A coalition of groups pushed for the veto. Over 200,000 citizens of Missouri would have lost their right to vote had this not been vetoed:

A 2009 study by the secretary of state’s office estimated around 230,000 Missourians are registered to vote but lack a government-issued photo ID. A 2007 study by Washington University found that among blacks, the young and low-income residents — historically among the most loyal Democratic voters — about 80 percent of registered voters had access to a government-issued photo ID. This compares to around 90 percent of whites, middle class and middle-aged voters.

A coalition of groups — including the NAACP, AARP, League of Women Voters and ACLU — had called for Nixon to veto photo ID legislation. Claims that a voter ID law is needed to stave off voter fraud are ridiculous, critics argued, since there have been no instances of the type of voter fraud this bill aimed to prevent ever occurring in Missouri.

“We applaud Gov. Nixon for taking a strong stand to protect Missouri voters,” said State Rep. Stacey Newman, D-Richmond Heights. “The only thing this bill did was ensure that registered voters wouldn’t be allowed to vote. That isn’t democracy. That is voter suppression.”

Governors Dayton of Minnesota and Schweitzer of Montana also have vetoed these suppressive ID bills.

Special mention also to North Carolina Guv Bev Perdue for vetoing the GOP legislature’s criminal budget which slashed funding for healthcare for the poor, attacked women’s health, and schools. Never has a NC governor vetoed a budget:

Perdue said in her announcement Sunday that the Republican-led Legislature’s $20 billion proposal would do “generational damage” to public education. She says the Legislature has turned its “back on our schools, our children, our longstanding investments in education and our future economic prospects.”

“I will not put my name on a plan that so blatantly ignores the values that have built this great North Carolina or the value of our people,” Perdue said.

Then she sat down in the old Senate chambers and thumped on the budget document a red-stained veto stamp handed to her by Chief of Staff Britt Cobb.

Sadly for the people the GOP legislature overrode her veto.

However Perdue plans to veto yet another regressive piece of legislation. Yep, the GOP passed a voter ID bill and she won’t sign it:

She … spoke about her belief in voters’ rights. We asked Perdue if she would veto the voter ID bill which has recently been passed by the general assembly.

“I would not go backwards on education. I would not go backwards on jobs, and I will not go backwards on rights to vote. I need to read their legislation and think about it, but North Carolina is a state that’s very proud of the fact that we have increased voter participation over the past decade, and for us to go backwards on this as well as education is the wrong thing for North Carolina.”

Perdue is in a very tough race to win re-election in 2012. Her battle with the Right in the state however is boosting her poll numbers. Alert national Democratic Party leaders about Bev Perdue and how fighting for what is right wins votes.