Alan Grayson endorsed Norman Solomon yesterday. Did he ever:

I have five children. Sometimes I try to explain to them what it was like to live in America in the '60s and '70s. When the federal government listened in on phone conversations of civil rights leaders, and bugged their homes. When the President of the United States and his henchmen plotted to kill a reporter, Jack Anderson. When one major party burglarized the headquarters of the other major party. When the National Guard shot and killed college students. When rioting prisoners were picked off and killed by marksmen with rifle scopes.

There is one candidate for Congress this year who knows all about that. Because the FBI had a file on him. When he was 14 years old.

Here is how Solomon describes how it came about that the FBI opened a file on him when he was 14:

“I’d heard that some people were protesting at an all-white apartment complex close by, near the D.C. border, named Summit Hills. I was just a kid, but I’d figured out that segregation was wrong. So I picked up a sign, and joined the picket line.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was enough in 1966 to label you a “subversive,” and put you under FBI surveillance.

But what’s important now is that Norman Solomon showed what he was made of, at the age of 14.

Support someone who doesn’t just talk the talk, but someone who walks the walk. Someone who has been walking in picket lines and protest marches for the past 46 years. Someone whom J. Edgar Hoover wouldn’t like at all. Someone named Norman Solomon.

Tuesday, June 5th is what Blue America is calling its "Super Tuesday", when several extremely important primary races will be decided. In fact, early voting has begun in California and Norman's running to replace progressive stalwart Lynn Woolsey in the second district just above San Francisco.

We don't need to tell you again what an amazing person Norman is. His progressive resume spans 30 years as an activist and media critic and an elected official. He's been endorsed by the most committed progressives in the nation. His good friend and longtime colleague Jeff Cohen, co-founder of FAIR, is one of them. In a recent impassioned endorsement, he explained why this particular race is so important:

Getting to a bloc of 25 genuine, principled progressives in Congress is attainable. What’s needed is a strategy and resources to develop candidates in dozens of solidly progressive congressional districts nationwide: black, Latino, college town, liberal urban, etc. When an incumbent Democrat sells-out or leaves office, activists in such a district should be able to call upon national organizational and netroots support to get a 100 percent progressive into Congress. Once elected by the grassroots in such districts, it’s hard for corporate or conservative forces to ever get them out. Think Bernie Sanders. Think Barbara Lee.

Think Blue America. Think Norman Solomon -- a progressive leader with a lifetime of liberal activism representing a deep blue district, unencumbered by obligation to business or the Democratic establishment. This is how we build our bloc.

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Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's social polices would take the U.S. back to the 1950s.

Speaking to supporters in Keene, New Hampshire, Biden noted that his speech would focus on the economy but he also wanted to make a point about Romney's social and foreign policies.

"We will not go back to the 50s on social policy, to the Cold War on our foreign policy and to the policies of the last administration on our economic policies!" the vice president exclaimed. "We will not do it their way again! We intend to move forward!"

"I haven't even touched on Romney's social policy, either," he explained. "One that says a woman should no longer get to make her own decisions about her body and her health. One that says that it's OK for insurance companies to charge women more for health insurance than men, to count pregnancy as a pre-existing condition. I know this sounds like fiction."

Biden continued: "Ladies and gentlemen, the new Republican Party's attempt to unravel the bipartisan consensus on something that I wrote and I'm proudest of in my whole career, the Violence Against Women Act. The Violence Against Women Act has become part of our popular culture. Businesses, everybody has embraced the notion that a woman has a right to be free of violence an intimidation on the street and in her own home, wherever it is. And these guys in the House just voted down our version, the continuation of the existing Violence Against Women Act. And they cut out big chunks."

"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."

Bill O'Reilly's been on a hell of a tear this week attacking the Occupy Wall Street movement. On this Monday's show, he was calling them "terrorists" because a protester was giving him a hard time while watching a show on Broadway. Our friends over at News Hounds have more on that and O'Reilly's double standard when it comes to what sort of protesters he likes.

And never mind the hypocrisy of someone like Bill O'Reilly having the nerve to call protesters "terrorists" when he's done his best to inspire a few actual terrorists of his own as Dave Neiwert wrote about here: Bill O'Reilly has Dr. George Tiller's blood on his well-stained hands.

This Tuesday, he followed up as promised and here's how Fox's blog, Fox Nation promoted the piece tonight: The O'Reilly Factor: The Architects of The Occupy Movement:

Bill O’Reilly Asks: Who is Backing the Occupy Protesters and Why Won’t President Obama Repudiate the Movement?

Thousands of protesters and members of the Occupy movement hit the streets of Chicago during the NATO summit. 90 people were arrested and dozens were injured including a police officer who was stabbed. Tonight on The O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly looked further into who is really behind the movement, which he notes is now very well organized. He called it a “hardcore, far-left movement designed to cause as much trouble as possible.”

He found that the movement is being run out of Washington, D.C. in offices belonging to the Institute for Policy Studies. The director of the Institute is John Cavanagh, a longtime liberal activist and his nonprofit accepts money from George Soros through the Tides Foundation. O’Reilly also reported that the Service Employees International Union headed by Mary Kay Henry is paying rent for the OWS crew in D.C. at about $4,000 month.

O’Reilly stated, “It is long past time for President Obama to condemn the anarchistic element of the occupiers, which is now dominant. Instead, the president falls back on protecting freedom of speech platitudes. Sure, tell that to the Chicago cop who got stabbed, Mr. President.”

The Institute for Policy Studies' John Cavanagh responded to O'Reilly's attacks on their organization and Occupy Wall Street later that same evening here: The Nonsense Zone:

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If you ask the typical hyper-political gun owner (and I have … at Thanksgiving dinner), why it’s important to own a gun, they’ll bark about the Constitution. Yes, the Second Amendment: “The Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed!”

This of course is the slogan the National Rifle Association adopted in the 1970’s. It was then that owning a gun became an absolute right endowed by God and the Constitution. A blessing passed down by our forefathers to obliterate game and protect our property. The NRA was founded in 1870 and for its first hundred years it was for gun control and didn’t mention the Second Amendment as their cause.

Adam Winkler points out in his delicious book, “Gun Fight,” what we call the “wild west” had some of the strictest gun control laws we’ve seen as a nation. The shoot out at the OK Corral took place, after all, because Wyatt Earp was trying to disarm the outlaw Cowboys in accordance with a Tombstone ordinance. The KKK was among other things, a gun control organization. They were trying to keep guns out of the hands of newly freed slaves … but still gun control.

The part of the Second Amendment omitted from the NRA’s slogan is: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State…” Yes, well regulated—it’s in the Constitution!

Now, to some, guns are as sacred as scripture. If you ask, again, this typical hyper-political gun owner why they need to stockpile assault rifles, you will get an answer much like Pat Flynn’s, a recent candidate for a Senate seat in Nebraska. "Really, we have our guns to protect ourselves against the government, number one," Flynn said in a debate right before the primary. "Hunting's number two. But protecting us against our government is number one." Remember Flynn was trying to land a job in the government (he didn’t win his party’s nomination, by the way).

The idea is that we have to be just as armed as our government in order to be safer or have more liberty (or something). The U.S. government has unmanned drones armed with supersonic laser-guided anti-armor Hellfire missiles, “bunker busters,” and nuclear weapons. Are far-right politicians saying we need civilians to have shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles “for protection?” Of course they’re not. They actually do want limits on ownership.

And if you ask the most vehement gun rights advocate why Everyman Gun Owner shouldn’t have nuclear weapons, I’d bet you’d get the same answer as to why we don’t want every country to have the capability: “Because they could get into the wrong hands.”

So weapons-grade plutonium should be limited. But the ever-handy semi-auto Glock pistol with a 30-round high-capacity magazine is an absolute right?

A recent gun buyback drive in Los Angeles resulted in someone turning in a rocket launcher. Comforting.

So we’re not actually talking about limited vs. unlimited. We are talking about degrees of weapon ownership.

Guns fall into the wrong hands all the time. More guns and fewer requirements for ownership doesn’t curb this. George Zimmerman was the wrong hands. Zimmerman, a Florida man now infamous for shooting an unarmed black teenager at close range after a 911 operator told him not to engage the alleged suspect and wait for police to arrive, is now being defended by said hyper-political gun owners. There’s no reason a Neighborhood Watch captain should be patrolling his block with a criminal record and a pistol. Zimmerman was a catastrophe realized. Even in the wake of new evidence about this case, the fact remains if Zimmerman didn’t have a gun, 16-year-old Trayvon Martin would be alive.

The United States is number one in the world in civilian gun ownership. And since we’re not last in gun violence (we’re the 14th highest in deaths—way higher in just injuries) it’s safe to assume that increasing the number of guns doesn’t decrease the number of gun deaths. Just like cutting taxes doesn’t increase revenue—making gun ownership unlimited doesn’t make us safer. It’s a lie. A fairy tale of the gun lobby. Completely unsupported by data or logic. A falsehood.

So unless you think all Americans should get Daisy Cutters this Christmas—you believe in regulations as to who gets a weapon, what kind and where they can have it.

Gun control laws are not tyranny—as the family of Trayvon Martin can testify to—a de-regulated militia is.

Protesting Target's anti-union agenda and other problems

An administrative judge from the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that an election at a Target store in New York is invalid because the company engaged in illegal intimidation of employees, leading to the 137-85 against the union. This would've been the first union at a Target store.

The judge ordered Target, which is notorious for its anti-labor practices, to hold a new election after agreeing with the United Food and Commercial Workers, who had accused the company of intimidating workers ahead of the election, Bloomberg Businessweek reports:

The decision comes almost a year after The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 contested the 137-85 vote against unionization in June 2011. It argued that Target illegally intimidated workers for months leading up to the vote. Target denied the allegations. [...]

“Target completely poisoned the democratic process from day one,” said Patrick Purcell, assistant to the president of the UFCW Local 1500 in an interview with The Associated Press. “And now a judge agreed with everything we said.”

Among the complaints were that Target threatened to shut down the store if workers voted to organize and that employees were interrogated about their union activities. Target did shut down the store for six months for renovations. Most of their other stores undergoing renovations, however, stayed open during the process. Workers who were most vocal in their union support were not allowed to transfer to other stores and were not re-hired when the store re-opened.

Target officials said they "respectfully" disagree with the NLRB decision.

On Tuesday I wrote about the incredibly ugly intimidation campaign and enemies list distributed to Janesville subscribers to the Janesville Gazette, without the permission of the Gazette, by the way. That enemies list was compiled by Wisconsin "civic education group" Citizens for Responsible Government.

When the first disclosures were filed, the address reported for CRG was easily trackable to Chris Kliesmet and his attorney-wife Mary. Subsequent filings have used a PO Box instead of a street address, but Kliesmet is still a director of the organization and there is no reason to suspect that anything has changed.

When I started looking at this group in connection with the sleazeball tactics they employed against teachers, I started with this post by Hart Williams, which is long and goes through many twisty passages, but also has documentation for everything. Williams was able to link up CRG with the Wisconsin Club for Growth and Eric O'Keefe, who we know is connected to American Majority (the Ned Ryun effort out of Kansas), the Sam Adams Alliance, former executive director of the National Libertarian Party, and more.

Eric O'Keefe is one of the Kochtopus' best operatives, and so, it should come as no surprise to discover that the Wisconsin Club for Growth gave CRG a grant in 2009. Here's what that grant was for, according to the Wisconsin Club for Growth tax filing:

Just in case it's not easy readable, I'll quote:

Grants were given to promote education and mobilize support for a fiscally responsible budget in Milwaukee County including proposals to lower costs by outsourcing services. A fiscally responsible budget passed that included outsourcing of custodial and security services and a minimal tax levy increase.

That grant to CRG was for $126,500. It was, according to the Club for Growth return, all paid in 2009. The identification number on the postcard filing matches the identification number on the Club for Growth filing.

CRG filed a postcard return with the IRS for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2009, just as it had for 2008, 2010, and 2011. There are special rules connected with the postcard filing. For example, an organization could receive more than $50,000 in one year, (the usual threshold for the postcard filing) and still file via postcard as long as their average receipts were less than $50,000 over a three-year period.

Let's see if they qualified. In 2007, CRG received 40,959. In 2009, CRG received at least $126,500. Assuming no receipts in 2008, the average receipts comes out to $55,819.67, which exceeds the permissible threshold for filing an information-free return. Oops!

Why is this important? It's important because it seems clear that the Wisconsin Club for Growth used CRG and other allied right wing groups as funnels and fronts to avoid accountability for purely evil acts like publishing an enemies list of public school teachers, for example. It's important because there might have been at least a shred of accountability for their prior bad acts. And yes, there have been many.

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Okay, we all know there's only question that really matters today: Who is your next... American... Idol?!

Lippmann's Ghost: On how what Romney did at Bain is well worth exploring.

Thump and Whip: On whether Romney should embrace his Richie Rich persona.

The Impolitic: On the ridiculous "Obama is a big spender" lie.

I'm pulling for Jessica tonight. Because she's rather less derivative than the lame Dave Matthews rip-off known as Phillip Phillips.

Mario Piperni: On gays, the supposed sanctity of marriage, and ickiness.

Gin and Tacos: On how Bill Kristol is wrong about everything, again.

Round-up by Michael J.W. Stickings of The Reaction (@mjwstickings). I'll be here all week.

Send tips to mbru@crooksandliars.com.

Full Birther, Iowa GOP! Congratulations! [Orly Taitz and Reince Priebus in Green Acres.]

Open Thread Below....

New Joe Bonamassa. Just released. I missed the show. drat. But, I'm goin to see Taj Mahal this Sunday. :D

Whatcha listening to this evening?

Continuing Newstalgia's look at Conventions past, here is the Keynote address by Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt at the 1956 Democratic Convention. Adlai Stevenson was once again the Standard Bearer and it was this convention that the name of Sen. John F. Kennedy was first foisted into the spotlight as potential Presidential material, by being considered a vice-Presidential running mate for Stevenson. Kennedy declined and the VP slot went to Estes Kefauver, whose Crime Committee hearings made him a household name to millions of voters.

Here is Eleanor Roosevelt's complete address from that convention.