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Cenk's guest Friday on the "Aggressive Progressive" segment was Darcy Burner, who is running in Washington's first district in the Democratic primary for that seat. She has also been a guest at CrooksandLiars, and is also listed on our "Blue America" page.

Also, Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos recently attended a Townhall event with Ms. Burner, where he enthusiastically endorsed her candidacy for Congress.

Cenk began with "I love this Aggressive Progressive segment and usually I do it, but I've got an even more aggressive progressive for you. Now you think, "come on, really." Well, it's Darcy Burner. You know what she advocates for, let me show you a quick little list here":

--"First of all, "suing the bejesus" out of corporations for wage discrimination,"
--"Then targeting boycotts against conservative funders"
--"And a campaign to "cast off the shame and embarassment" of women who've had an abortion"

"To which I say, "about damn time." So Darcy's going to join us now and not only is she running in Washington's first district in the Democratic primary for that seat, she also used to run ProgressiveCongress.org, and the Progressive Congress Action fund, and the list goes on and on."

Cenk: So Darcy, what are you doing? I'm told that Democrats aren't supposed to ruffle feathers; you not supposed to be an actual progressive."

Darcy: Well, you know, I think that's a big piece of the problem the Democratic Party has and maybe we should elect more Democrats with actual values.

Cenk: Shocking. Alright, now you've gotten into some quote-unquote trouble by the press there because they say that you're stridently pro-choice. Well, given that the country is 72% in favor of legalized abortion, wouldn't that seem to play to your advantage?

Darcy: One would think. One would think. But there's this culture around the idea that we should all be timid and meek and not actually stand up for the things that matter. I disagree.

Cenk: Now, Darcy, in your district they say well, look now, this is an important swing district and if we have someone clearly on the left here, it might hurt our cause. Now that's conventional wisdom, why do you disagree with that.

Darcy: That isn't what any of the actual numbers show. First, I've been polling ahead of all of the more timid, conservative, 'other' Democrats in this primary. Second, if you look at what happens around the country when you have progressives running and conservative Democrats running, progressive candidates consistently do better than the more conservative candidates. It turns out that American voters like people who will actually fight for them.

Cenk: Shocking! Republicans succeed. Why? They fight, right? They might be wrong, but they fight. Now, Elizabeth Warren also getting a ton of donations in Massachusetts, I just read a story today, they're like...wow, why? Well, it's because she fought the banks. For example, what would you do with the banks, Darcy?

Darcy: We have a huge number of bankers who have broken the laws and they should go to jail. It's long past time the people who brought down the economy for personal profit paid for it.



Bill Moyers Essay: The Cowardly Lions of ‘Free Speech’

Bill opens this week’s show by explaining how last week’s Supreme Court decision not to reconsider Citizens United exposes the hoax that Citizens United was ever about “free” speech. In reality, Bill says, it’s about carpet bombing elections “with all the tonnage your rich paymasters want to buy.”

Full transcript after the jump...

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lots-of-money

Freep.com reports:

The Republican candidates and a few independent groups have spent nearly $10 million on TV and radio ads in seven states that vote on Super Tuesday, and more than half of that total comes from the Mitt Romney-backing Restore Our Future, which is running spots criticizing Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.

The infusion of cash into this coming week's contests has swelled total ad spending in the GOP presidential race to more than $75 million, according to a review of Federal Election Commission data and information provided to the Associated Press by several media buyers.

About $40 million has been spent by the Romney campaign and Restore Our Future to support the former Massachusetts governor.

The latest figures provide more evidence of the oversized role that these groups, known as super political action committees, have played in the campaign.

Super PACs were spawned by a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that eased campaign finance regulations for corporations, unions and wealthy individuals. These groups can raise and spend unlimited funds as long as they do not coordinate directly with a candidate.

That's a whole lot of money being tossed around, yet its producing only dismal results.

As the primary election process drags on, Republican candidates look less and less appealing. A new study finds that the contest has left only one in 10 adults with a more favorable view of the Republican party, and 70 percent of those questioned could only come up with negative words to describe the primary race. "Unenthusiastic," "painful," "lesser of two evils," and "depressed" were among the words or phrases participants used. The poll specifically suggested that negative campaigning is responsible for creating a poor image of the candidates.