If you care at all about the people who fight the Iraq War then you will listen to this story about Robert Konrardy that aired on All Things Considered March 31, 2007.

I don't like using hyperbole because I feel it robs the true power of the words to use them too often.

Given the amount of promotion of Colorado as a "blue state" miracle in the west and a model for Dems across the country, the latest policy decision from Gov. Bill Ritter makes this progressive wonder what the point of electing Dems in the first place is.

Friday Ritter vetoed a bill that would have revisesd the union eletion process, making it easier for employees to form unions. This comes after promising, in writing, to sign such a bill if it ever reached his desk.

On the other side of the flip I've included the relevant passages from the Denver Buisness Journal and a few editorial comments.

With the election in Missouri proving to play a pivotal roll in which party controlls Congress and polling indicating a very tight race between GOP Talent and Dem McCaskill, the GOP has resorted to well-known dirty tricks to suppress the vote of groups they see as supporting their opponents.

The biggest target of their dirty tricks machine has been ACORN, a group that organizes and fights for the rights of poor people in the Show-Me State as well as in 110 cities across the United States. The GOP is scared because ACORN, which placed the initiative on the ballot that would raise MO's minimum wage and index it to inflation, is targeting 600,000 voters in metro St. Louis and Kansas City for GOTV in support of the minimum wage. Republicans are worried that these voters will voter in larger numbers than normal because of the chance to vote themselves a raise and subsequently cast ballots for other candidates that support their economic justice agenda. Notably there are very few of these candidates on the GOP side of the line. Read more on the flip.

For the past two weeks there have been escalating charges in Missouri against the grassroots group ACORN for voter registration fraud. Additionally attacks from the right-wing have accused ACORN of illegally campaigning for Claire McCaskill. The wingnut blogosphere has been going bonkers in their attempt to smear ACORN and McCaskill with voter fraud since the AP broke the "story" in early October. Why? Because ACORN is spearheading both the largest voter registration drive in the state (targeting primarily working families, people of color, and single working women) and the massice GOTV effort directed as boosting turnout in favor of the minimum wage ballot initiative in that state. But on Saturday Oct. 28 the St. Louis Post Dispatch is breaking a story that exposes the partisan nature of these attacks and the fact that the whole thing was an orchestarted set-up from day one. Read more on the flip.

The Sunday Times Magazine had a front page article about the living wage movement in the US, where it came from, where it's at, and what it's future might be. It was quite long, but was mostly positive and highlighted the work of one of my friends, Jen Kern, the director of ACORN's Living Wage Resource Center.

People who care about the economic justice end of the progressive political continuum should should check the article out  (note that this links to a blog not the NYT Magazine; they want to make you subscribe and then they limit access after a week or so).

At the same time a couple of folks raised some questions about the why these campaigns are needed in the first place and what their genuine efficacy is in a progressive electoral context. In other words, what we really need are strong unions to protect wages and that it's unclear whether having living wage/minimum wage initiatives on the ballot (like San Francisco in 2003) boosts the fortunes of progressive office-seekers.

This is what I wrote in response to that.