RepublicanAi??pollster Harper Polling has just released a new poll it conducted of Montanans finding that former Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) leads all of his potential Democratic and Republican Senate challengers in the primary and general.

Schweitzer holds the highest favorability rating of any of the public figures polled, with 54 percent of Montanans saying they have a favorable view of him. The poll found that Montanans would favor Schweitzer for the Senate seat over Mark Racicot, a former Republican governor, by four points. Schweitzer’s lead over Montana Rep. Steve Daines (R) is even greater — ten points. Former Republican State Senate Minority Leader Corey Stapleton is bested by Schweitzer 54-29.

Within his own party, SchweitzerAi??handilyAi??bests Denise Juneau, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 78-14.

All of this is in a poll where, when respondents were asked who they would vote for in a hypothetical election, a generic Republican leads a generic Democrat 42-34.

This is encouraging news for progressives because Schweitzer is an awesome economic populist. Read our top ten reasons why and click here to join our Draft BrianAi??SchweitzerAi??for Senate campaign.

(OrAi??donate $3 that Brian will receive on Day OneAi??of his campaign, so he can hit the ground running.)

Gun control advocates plan to make the “no” votes on background checks cast by Heitkamp, Begich and Pryor politically costly. They want to change the mental calculations of politicians so that voting against gun control will amount to political suicide. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, for example, has announced plans to run newspaper ads in each of their states, including Figure 2, in North Dakota.

With members of Congress back in their home states for recess this week, activists pushing for tougher gun laws are hitting two senators with new appeals on television, asking them to change their votes.

A liberal group, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Wednesday that it was spending $50,000 on a television ad in Montana to pressure Max Baucus, the stateai??i??s retiring Democratic senator, to support an enhanced background check system for gun buyers.

The problem of lack of public services and health care access in America is often talked about in the abstract, but it has a very real human cost. For one example, take a look at the National Mobility Awareness Month Local Heroes contest, put on by the National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association, which is partnering with Chrysler, Toyota, and other auto companies for the event.

In this contest, you can nominate a disabled American you know as a local hero and say why you think they deserve to win a wheelchair accessible van. Web visitors then vote on these individuals and whoever receives the most votes will win a van.

The stories are heartbreaking. Consider this one from Rami Dechmand, who cares for his two younger brothers. He entered the contest to win the van for his younger brother, Dillon, who has had Cerebral Palsy since birth. This is how he explained his family’s need for the van:

As Dillon gets older and grows bigger, it gets harder and harder to lift him in and out of the car. I feel that soon he will get to the point where he is bigger than me and it will be nearly impossible for me to do this, and I would no longer be able to care for Dillon. Having an accessible van for Dillon will allow our family to better provide the care Dillon requires.

Or consider the case of Walter Edwards, Jr. Here’s why a relative entered him into the contest:

My father, Walter ai???Sonnyai??? Edwards, Jr., turned 80 in November, 2012. He and my mother (his caretaker), live on social security. We have been trying for years to get them a van with a side lift but canai??i??t …

The latest ad, from the national liberal group Progressive Change Campaign Committee, hit the airwaves Wednesday morning on broadcast and cable channels in major Montana media markets — Helena, Missoula, and Billings — and on cable in Washington, D.C. The $50,000 ad buy will run for one week.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, or PCCC, a political action committee, will launch a new television ad on Wednesday to up the pressure on Baucus to support gun control legislation that would expand background checks to include gun shows and online sales.

This morning the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) has launched a new TV ad pressuring Max Baucus to support background checks for gun sales, something over 79% of Montanans support according to the post recent Montana-specific poll.

Earlier this month, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) went to bat for the NRA by being only one of four Democratic senators to vote to kill expanded background checks for gun purchases.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is responding to Baucus’s move by launching a new ad featuring Montana gun owner and grandmother Claire Kelly, who herself was a victim of a home invasion and says that gun ownership can protect Americans. Kelly warns, however, against guns being in the wrong hands, which is why background checks are needed.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow covered the ad on her show tonight. Watch Maddow’s coverage:

Click here to pitch in a few dollars to run the ad in Montana.

Rachel Maddow previewed the PCCC’s latest ad featuring a Montana gun owner taking on Max Baucus and asking him to support background checks.

Momentum continues to build against President Obama’s proposed chained CPI cut to Social Security and veterans benefits, with 40 Members of Congress endorsing the Grayson-Takano letter rejecting any cut to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits.

The think tank Global Policy Solutions released a report today that should cast further doubt on chained CPI. It finds that, if enacted, chained CPI “will disproportionately harm African Americans who have dramatically fewer sources of wealth to draw upon compared to whites.”

The reason why is because African Americans are more likely to rely on Social Security benefits as a large portion of their income. One example the report uses is “forty-seven percent of African American seniors rely on Social Security for more than 90 percent of their income in retirement, compared to 33 percent of their white counterparts.” It also notes that Obama’s proposed exemptions for the very old would be less likely to benefit African Americans, because average life expectancy for African American men after the age of 65 is two Ai??years shorter than white men, making Ai??them less likely to be eligible for the proposed exemption for the very old.”

Click here to tell President Obama you wonai??i??t stand for Social Security benefit cuts.

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Austerity — the policy of restraining public spending and focusing on deficits — is being practiced in Europe, and to a lesser extent, the United States. A new book out this week by medical researchers David Zuckler and Sanjay Basu says this austerity is not only bad for the economy, but for human health.

Zuckler and Basu looked at the impact of austerity in the U.S. and Europe and found devastating effects. These range from 10,000 people in Britain made homeless thanks to budget cuts to over five million Americans losing health care coverage thanks to the recession and reductions in public health care spending.

Some of these cuts have had lethal effects, too. The researchers estimated an uptick of 10,000 suicides across the U.S. and Europe, and in Greece, HIV infection has increased by 200 percent.

The researchers note that progressive labor and social policies have helped some countries escape this damaging austerity. They note that in Sweden, suicides actually fell during the recession, thanks to generous unemployment programs.

Also, they looked back at U.S. history and estimated that the New Deal helped save American lives, writing that “each extra $100 of relief spending from the American New Deal led to about 20 fewer deaths per 1,000 births, four fewer suicides per 100,000 people and 18 fewer pneumonia deaths per 100,000 people.”

You should follow BoldProgressives on Twitter here.

Despite overwhelming support by the public, expanded background checks for gun purchases went down during their first vote in the U.S. Senate. The proposal has also been defeated in a number of state legislatures. Most blame the power of the gun lobby, represented by the National Rifle Association.

A group of activists in Washington state — where the proposal died in the legislature — plans to bypass lawmakers altogether by putting the proposal on the ballot. TheAi??Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility will today launch a drive to get 300,000 signatures to place universal background checks for gun purchases on the ballot in November 2014. Watch a local news report on the ballot drive:

After last week’s failed gun-control vote in the Senate, in which a handful of moderate Democrats defected from their party, a coalition of progressive groups is warning those at-risk incumbents to start avoiding votes that make them look too conservative. If not, these liberal activists say their support, enthusiasm, and contributions will dwindle—or, in a worst case for Democrats, they’ll mount a potentially damaging primary challenge… “No matter what, people want to feel good about a person they’re volunteering for or donating to,” said Adam Green, cofounder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “So even Democratic voters who hold their nose to vote for an out-of-touch Democratic incumbent might be less likely to volunteer or donate, which could make a huge difference in a close election.”

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a liberal political action committee, is asking its supporters to call U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) and urge her to sign the so-called Grayson-Takano letter.

“Representative Gwen Moore has not yet signed the letter, and she is hurting the ability of progressive leaders to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits,” the email to supporters says.

The letter, to be sent to President Barack Obama, is signed by 39 Democratic House members, including Alan Grayson of Florida and Mark Takano of California.

With the news that Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) is retiring, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee has launched a campaign to draft former Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (D) to run for the spot.

As of this writing, over 15,000 Americans have signed onto the campaign, and have donated over $21,000Ai??Ai??to a draft fund that will go to Schweitzer on Day One of his campaign

Here’s why you should too –the top ten things that make Brian Schweitzer an awesome economic populist:

He Unequivocally Endorses Medicare-For-All, Single Payer: Schweitzer is an advocate of expanding Medicare to all Americans, and even sought a waiver from the Affordable Care Act to allow his own state to pursue single payer. Schweitzer explainedAi??his support for Canadian-style single payer health care like so: “Imagine if you went to a gas station, and you looked over at a car with a Canadian license plate. They were paying $1 a gallon for gas, and youai??i??re paying $2. Wouldnai??i??t that make you mad? Thatai??i??s exactly whatai??i??s happening. Iai??i??m mad for all the people in the country.”
He Calls Out Corporate Control Of Our Government — And Fights It: Ai??In an interview last year, Schweitzer said that ai???corporations are controlling not just our governments but our everyday lives.ai??? How many Democrats are willing to state that truth? Schweitzer alsoAi??has blasted Citizens United, supports a constitutional amendment to ban corporate money, and is especially passionate about this issue since the Supreme Court struck down Montana’s ban on corporate money in elections.
He Stands Up To Big Drug Companies:Ai??Schweitzer sought a waiver from federal law to allow Montanans to buy cheaper pharmaceutical drugs from Canada. Big Pharma lobbying has made it illegal for Americans to buy this cheaper medicine from …

Progressive Change Campaign Committee has launched a six-figure ad buy against each of the four Democrats who voted against background checks — Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mark Begich of Alaska, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, and Max Baucus of Montana.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee launched a “Draft Brian Schweitzer for Senate” campaign just hours after Baucus announced he would step down at the end of his sixth term in early 2015. The group has already raised more than $18,700, spokesman Matt Wall told BuzzFeed, with a pitch that asks progressives to replace the “Senator from K Street” with Schweitzer, whom they call a “bold progressive populist.”

Within hours of an announcement that Montana Senior Senator Max Baucus would be retiring in 2014, political action committees have already been raising money to welcome Brian Schweitzer into the race. The Political Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) has a website devoted to Schweitzer, in which it describes the former Montana Governor as “a bold progressive populist who supports single-payer health care and lists Paul Wellstone as one of his icons.”

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives — despite opposition from both Democrats and Republicans — passed the the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), Ai??which would expand the government’s ability to spy on you without a warrant and shield technology companies from lawsuits when they participate in this spying.

CISPA’s path to passage has been much smoother than the similar Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), at least partly because the bill was crafted in a way to avoid opposition from massive tech giants like Google and Facebook, which mobilized against SOPA.

As the bill heads to the Senate, many Americans don’t even know about this new attack on our civil liberties. This is because the major news media has failed to cover the bill at all. We ran a media search going back to March 22nd, and found only a handful of news mentions on the topic — and no mention at all from CBS, ABC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News.

The networks that did cover the bill were local news networks, which featured segments critical of the legislation. Watch one segment here from Fox 19 in Kentucky:

FOX19.com-Cincinnati News, Weather
CSPAN covered the issue twice over the past month, once while featuring an advocate for the bill. RT, the english language news station funded by the Russian government, also aired several segments critical of the bill.

So why is it that the major news media has failed to talk about the bill? Certainly while the bill was being passed in the House last week, there were other major news items that could’ve crowded it out — from attacks in Boston to the massive fertilizer plant disaster in West, Texas. But the bill has been in play in …

A group called the Progressive Change Campaign Committee is taking out full-page ads in local newspapers targeting Begich, Pryor, Baucus and Heitkamp and will make television spots next week, said Adam Green, its co-founder.

Last week’s defeat of expanded background checks served as a reminder of special interest influence in Congress, and as we noted, Senators who voted against background checks received 8 times as much money from the gun lobby.

Here’s another piece of the puzzle as to why background checks went down. The Center for Public Integrity notes that the National Rifle Association spent a huge amount lobbying Congress in the first quarter of 2012, spending “at least $800,000 lobbying the federal government during theAi??first quarter ai??i?? moreAi??than any year covering theAi??same period, according to federal records..”

We’re running newspaper ads in the states of the four Senate Democrats who helped kill expanded background checks. Click here to pitch in $3 to run them.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee announced on Friday a new ad attacking Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) for his vote against background checks.

The ad is the first of four in a $100,000 campaign targeting the Democratic senators who voted against the Manchin-Toomey amendment to expand background checks for firearm purchases. The other Democrats opposing the legislation were Sens. Mark Begich (Alaska), Mark Pryor (Ark.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.).

That didn’t take long. A progressive group released the first ad in a $100,000 campaign against the four Democratic senators who voted against a proposal to expand background checks for firearms sales. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is targeting Sen. Max Baucus this Sunday in seven papers across his state of Montana — the Billings Gazette, Butte Montana Standard, Helena Independent Record, Missoulian, Bozeman Chronicle, Kalispell Daily Interlake and Hamilton Ravalli Republic.

A liberal group on Friday took aim at Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, launching the first in a series of ads targeting Democratic senators who voted against expanded background checks on gun purchases.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) is running full-page ads in seven newspapers throughout Montana. The ad includes the signatures of 75 gun owners across Montana who are protesting Baucus’ vote.

Serves them right? Several liberal groups are lining up to shame the Senate Democrats who voted against a bipartisan compromise to expand background checks for gun purchases—something nearly nine in 10 Americans support. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) said it plans to run approximately $100,000 in print advertisements against Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mark Begich of Alaska. Of the four, all of whom preside in gun-friendly states, Begich, Pryor and Baucus all face re-election next year.