A couple of weeks ago, when extension of the Democrat’s middle-class tax cut hung in the balance, Ed Schultz of MSNBC asked me what the President should do. This is what I said:

“I think that the President needs to be tough.  It’s the only thing that the Republicans ever understand.”

That’s right – no more one-sided concessions and fake compromises.  No more payment of tribute to the Right Wing.  No more bowing, scraping and then capitulation.  Let’s be tough!  And when you support Alan Grayson’s campaign, you support that principle – that when the other side attacks us, we need to be tough.

I just received an e-mail, sent in the name of someone I know rather well. It said, in bold letters: “We are just $7,659 short of our $100,000 Rapid Response goal that we need to reach before Midnight Tonight.”

If you read these missives, you know that we don’t often send out e-mails that read that way. But the e-mail I received is from one of the greatest public figures of her generation, someone whom I like and respect. So maybe she knows something I don’t know. I can’t exclude that possibility.

Now, as it happens, we are just short of our contribution goal for the quarter. Our goal was to raise $500,000. Thanks to the generosity of more than 20,000 people like you, we have raised $494,464.55, as I write this. So we have $5,535.45 to go.

Monday night is becoming Alan Grayson night on the national news shows. Last Monday, Grayson was on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation and on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, to talk about the Federal Reserve’s secret bailouts. Tonight, Alan returns to PoliticsNation at 6:30 p.m. EST to discuss extension of the Democrat’s payroll tax cut. Then he joins Cenk Uygur’s first show on Current TV at 7:00 p.m. EST, for a colloquy on why the Republicans are so obsessed with tax cuts for the rich. (To find the channel in your area, go to current.com, and type your zip code in the upper right corner.)

Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks and former MSNBC host, returns to TV tomorrow night, on Current TV. And he has invited me to be a guest on his first show.

Cenk virtually invented Internet TV news, and completely dominates that medium. Cenk’s Young Turks YouTube channel has almost 300,000 subscribers, enjoys 1,000,000 views a day, and has accrued more than 600 million views since it started.

Cenk also was a substitute host on MSNBC last year, and he hosted the 6 p.m. hour on MSNBC from January through June this year. His show rated first among cable news shows with the audience aged 18-34.

His on-the-air signature is a quite simple one: like Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz, Keith Olbermann and Dylan Ratigan, Cenk Uygur is a hard-hitting, unapologetic progressive. He tells it like it is. He doesn’t say what you want to hear; he says what you need to hear.

Now, Cenk has decided to take his talents to Current TV. He’ll be on weekdays, at 7 pm. Current TV is channel 358 on DirecTV, and channel 215 on the Dish Network. If you have cable TV, you can go to current.com and put in your zip code in the upper right corner, to find out which channel Current TV is for you.

Cenk has been kind enough to invite me on his show several times. One of the most memorable for me was our chat on the air just after the 2010 election, which was reported this way:

Grayson, visibly downbeat about his election results, explained that the reason for his defeat was the inability of Democrats nationally to get out the vote. “If Democrats don’t vote,” he told Uygur, “Democrats can’t win.” Explaining that turnout had fallen 20% for Republicans and 60% for Democrats in his district since 2008, he argued that “Democrats are saddened and demoralized by this policy of appeasement” that he believes always leads to defeat where compromise is not an option. Compromise, he continued, was not possible with Republicans because their entire strategy is “no.”

“There is no ‘center left,’” he continued to argue, such that being a centrist or attempting to ignore extremes was a losing policy. Calling the campaign a “national disaster,” Grayson believes his defeat was not a local issue, but a national epidemic of malaise on the left. “Our voters went on strike,” he concluded, “and we have to win them back by accomplishing things for ordinary people.”

If you want to see someone with a head, a heart and a spine report the news tomorrow night, then you can tune in to Cenk’s show. And if you want to help to see someone with a head, a heart, and a spine in Congress next year, you can click on that “Contribute” button below.

Cenk -- as Edward R. Murrow used to say on CBS, “good night, and good luck.”

Courage,

Alan Grayson

This is what President Lincoln said to Congress, to America, and to us:

"It is not needed, nor fitting here [in discussing the Civil War] that a general argument should be made in favor of popular institutions; but there is one point, with its connections, not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask a brief attention. It is the effect to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor, in the structure of government. It is assumed that labor is available only in connection with capital; that nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it induces him to labor. This assumed, it is next considered whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by their own consent, or buy them, and drive them to it without their consent. Having proceeded thus far, it is naturally concluded that all laborers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves. And further, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer is fixed in that condition for life.

“Now, there is no such relation between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are groundless.

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights."

If I were still in Congress, I would have repeated President Lincoln’s speech on the Floor of the House this week, in the same spot where he rendered it 150 years ago. “Labor is the superior of capital.” And we must not “place capital . . . above labor in the structure of government.” Thank you, Mr. Lincoln. If I had to sum up my job as a Congressman in 25 words or less, that would do it.

I realize that for a statement as profound as this one, it is “far beyond [my] poor power to add or detract” (as Lincoln himself said, two years later, at Gettysburg). But I’ll try anyway, recognizing that “the world will little note, nor long remember, what we say.

I find it startling to read something like this, and realize how timeless these battles are. As the French say, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” (“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”) In fact, you can hear echoes of Lincoln’s words in what Elizabeth Warren said just ten weeks ago: “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.”

Now, admittedly, capital is wealthier, better organized, and far more powerful today than it was in Lincoln’s time. Capital gorges on Republican tax cuts for the rich, on bailouts, on government contracts and corporate welfare, on free money from the Fed, and on monopoly profit. Capital treats politicians and whole political parties like puppets. Capital creates and perpetuates a system where Labor is unemployed, where Labor is in debt up to its eyeballs, where Labor cannot see a doctor when ill, where Labor is pitted against Labor. There probably are plenty of well-meaning people who realize this, throw up their hands, and say, “if you can’t beat them, join them.”

And then there are us. People with a head, and a heart. People who want to occupy Wall Street, occupy K Street, and occupy America with the simple concept of justice for all. People who understand that the very fact that this fight has been going on for 150 years or more, and will continue after you and I are gone – that very fact – makes this a fight that is worth fighting for.

And gradually, things do get better. I know, I know -- two steps forward, one step back. But then two more steps forward.

Oh say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed, at the twilight’s last gleaming.

When Lincoln spoke, 150 years ago today, his time was the twilight’s last gleaming. And today, you can see the dawn’s early light.

Can you see it?

Courage,

Alan Grayson

During my two years in Congress, I heard an awful lot of speeches. Some of them were delivered by some of the finest public speakers in America today – like Barack Obama, Neil Abercrombie, John Lewis, Anthony Weiner and Alcee Hastings. But none of them was as profound and poignant as the one that I’m about to share with you. It was delivered to a Joint Session of Congress by President Abraham Lincoln, exactly 150 years ago today. The focus of the President’s speech was, of course, the Civil War. But President Lincoln took a short detour, and with a few bare sentences, he summed up an issue that remains with us to this day.

This is what President Lincoln said to Congress, to America, and to us:

"It is not needed, nor fitting here [in discussing the Civil War] that a general argument should be made in favor of popular institutions; but there is one point, with its connections, not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask a brief attention. It is the effect to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor, in the structure of government. It is assumed that labor is available only in connection with capital; that nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it induces him to labor. This assumed, it is next considered whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by their own consent, or buy them, and drive them to it without their consent. Having proceeded thus far, it is naturally concluded that all laborers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves. And further, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer is fixed in that condition for life.

“Now, there is no such relation between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are groundless.

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights."

If I were still in Congress, I would have repeated President Lincoln’s speech on the Floor of the House this week, in the same spot where he rendered it 150 years ago. “Labor is the superior of capital.” And we must not “place capital . . . above labor in the structure of government.” Thank you, Mr. Lincoln. If I had to sum up my job as a Congressman in 25 words or less, that would do it.

I realize that for a statement as profound as this one, it is “far beyond [my] poor power to add or detract” (as Lincoln himself said, two years later, at Gettysburg). But I’ll try anyway, recognizing that “the world will little note, nor long remember, what we say.

I find it startling to read something like this, and realize how timeless these battles are. As the French say, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” (“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”) In fact, you can hear echoes of Lincoln’s words in what Elizabeth Warren said just ten weeks ago: “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.”

Now, admittedly, capital is wealthier, better organized, and far more powerful today than it was in Lincoln’s time. Capital gorges on Republican tax cuts for the rich, on bailouts, on government contracts and corporate welfare, on free money from the Fed, and on monopoly profit. Capital treats politicians and whole political parties like puppets. Capital creates and perpetuates a system where Labor is unemployed, where Labor is in debt up to its eyeballs, where Labor cannot see a doctor when ill, where Labor is pitted against Labor. There probably are plenty of well-meaning people who realize this, throw up their hands, and say, “if you can’t beat them, join them.”

And then there are us. People with a head, and a heart. People who want to occupy Wall Street, occupy K Street, and occupy America with the simple concept of justice for all. People who understand that the very fact that this fight has been going on for 150 years or more, and will continue after you and I are gone – that very fact – makes this a fight that is worth fighting for.

And gradually, things do get better. I know, I know -- two steps forward, one step back. But then two more steps forward.

Oh say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed, at the twilight’s last gleaming.

When Lincoln spoke, 150 years ago today, his time was the twilight’s last gleaming. And today, you can see the dawn’s early light.

Can you see it?

Courage,

Alan Grayson

This week’s issue of Newsweek, circulation 1.5 million, features an interview with Alan Grayson entitled “Alan Grayson Strikes Back.” Here it is, for your reading pleasure:

Tonight provides a not-so-rare opportunity to observe the not-so-elusive Alan Grayson in his not-so-remote natural habitat – national TV.

Around 6:35 pm tonight, Grayson will be on MSNBC. On PoliticsNation, Rev. Al Sharpton and Grayson will discuss a very pertinent topic: why does Wall Street get trillions of dollars in bailouts from the federal government, but there is no money for the middle class?

And then at 8:00 pm, on Current TV’s Countdown With Keith Olbermann, Grayson will talk about what we have learned from the recent independent audit of those bailouts. That audit was the result of Grayson’s work on the Paul-Grayson Amendment, ordering the first independent audit of the Federal Reserve in its 100-year history.

(In case you haven’t seen it yet, Grayson’s five-minute examination of the Federal Reserve’s Inspector General is the most-watched Congressional hearing video in history. Over five million people have viewed it, here and here. In that hearing, Grayson uncovered the fact that the Fed’s own Inspector General had no idea where the Fed’s money was going, which led directly to passage of the Paul-Grayson Amendment.)

Alan Grayson, telling it like it is. Twice tonight, on national TV. We need him back in Congress.

Yesterday, we gave you excerpts from the beginning of Alan Grayson’s keynote speech, at the first meeting of the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida. Today, we’ll give you the second part of that one-two punch. For those who want to see it, here is the clip. The subject was “What It Means to Be a Progressive”:

Today is Money Bomb Day. Let me tell you why we do this, and why we need your help.

On this good, green Earth, there are good governments and there are bad governments. And we all know the difference. A good government uses the tools of government, like public schools, public health, the police power, taxation and monetary policy, to promote the wellbeing of ordinary people. A bad government steals from them, and stuffs their money into the pockets of the influential.

As our Constitution says, the reason why we have a government is “in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty.” When I was sworn in as a Member of Congress, I took an oath to “bear true faith and allegiance” to those purposes.

And you, through your contributions averaging $38 each,you’re the ones who make that possible. Because the Members of Congress who don’t have your support, in both parties, end up selling out to the lobbyists and their $10,000 checks.

Last week, Alan Grayson won the MSNBC trifecta, appearing on The Rachel Maddow Show, Politics Nation With Al Sharpton, andThe Ed Show. We told you already that on the Rachel Maddow Show, Alan had the guts to point out that America now has the 5th most unequal distribution of wealth in the entire world. Alan followed through with his interview on Rev. Sharpton’s show. Here is what he said: