There are many reasons why progressives will mobilize behind the campaign of Marcy Winograd, who announced on Monday that she’ll challenge incumbent Congresswoman Jane Harman in the 2010 Democratic primary.

Some will speak of Harman’s pro-war record. Some will recall her support for warrantless wiretapping, followed by her irony-free indignation when it turned out that NSA snoops had taped her own phone conversations. Some will recount Harman’s long public silence after being briefed on torture by the U.S. government.

And then there’s the extensive evidence that Rep. Harman has gone over the top to do the bidding of the Israeli government and some of its most extreme supporters in the United States.

But what may be most significant about Winograd’s race to unseat Harman in 2010 is that it reflects -- and is likely to help nurture -- a growing maturity among progressives around the country who are tired of merely complaining about centrist Democrats in Congress.

Many progressives are getting a clear take-home message: Let’s stop griping about lousy members of Congress and start defeating them.

As hundreds of our hard-earned billions are being poured into corrupt, greed-driven, lethally inefficient banks, the Administration, Congress and corporate media have studiously avoided the one sector of the banking industry that actually works---the credit unions.

Throughout the United States there are hundreds of these people-powered banks that have succeeded and prospered while all around them the traditional banking has collapsed into ruin, taking our general economy with them.

Why?

Because unlike those private banks, the America's 10,000 not-for-profit credit unions are controlled by the people who deposit their money there. Loans are made only to members. The deposits are federally insured, and investments are monitored by the depositors and, allegedly, by federal regulators.

For the most part, their decisions are made democratically. Their boards of directors are elected. Increasingly those decisions have been oriented funneling resources into new green industries whose future is bright, and that actually serve that public rather than raping it.

The sister of the Rove IT guru whose small plane crashed shortly after he became "exhibit A" in a 2004 Ohio vote-rigging lawsuit has now voiced doubts that the crash was an accident.  She told a Wisconsin newspaper:

"At first, it was really hard for me to believe Mike was dead because somebody wanted him dead.  But as time goes on, it's hard for me not to believe there was something deliberate about it."

Mike Connell was to be a star witness in an Ohio 2004 election lawsuit which alleges that the election was stolen from John Kerry.  Audio here of an interview on Air America with Steven Spoonamore, the Republican IT expert who blew the whistle on Rove, Connell, and others.   Connell was hired as one of Rove's IT wizards after the Republicans took power in 2000.

[Author's Note: I'm dedicating this piece to the courageous animal defenders and rescuers comprising the ALF, the Justice Department, the Animal Liberation Brigade, and the other militant direct action groups who are taking the fight to vivisectors and the rest of their ilk comprising the animal exploitation complex. Given the relentless nature of the systemic torment and slaughter of millions of other sentient beings that take place day after day, violent responses from nonhuman animal lovers are inevitable and are a morally acceptable means of extensional self-defense on behalf of the voiceless, defenseless victims. As my close colleague, Dr. Jerry Vlasak, surmised---and I back him 100% on this---the assassination of a vivisector or two would probably save millions of nonhuman animal lives. And given the escalating situation at UCLA, who knows what may happen?

Employing myriad tactics and strategies, those of us pursuing empty cages will prevail, and, as another steadfast ally of mine, Dr. Steve Best, stated in a speech he gave at Oxford in 2005, "wipe vivisection off the map." I yearn for that day.]

Welcome back, Dr. Flowers. In the first installment of our interview, you spoke about how you and the rest of the Baucus 8 were arrested and why single payer should be on the table while other health care alternatives are discussed.

Prior to the Senate roundtable, constituents made thousands of calls and sent emails or faxes and that didn't accomplish anything. What do you think will be effective?

It will take more direct action - meet with legislators and urge them to sign on to HR 676 or S 703, collect petition signatures and present those to your legislators with the request that they co-sponsor the legislation. If that doesn't work, then have direct actions in front of their offices, get letters in the local paper, hold health care town halls (May 30th is a National Day of Action for Single Payer - www.healthcare-now.org), knock on doors in your community and get people to sign petitions. Be creative. It will take direct pressure to have an effect. And I hope that people will come to Washington when we have rallies and marches. The next event is a march and rally on May 13th.