Guest piece by Tiffiniy Cheng, co-founder of "A New Way Forward"

UPDATE: We are winning this one. Our effort to call for a filibuster of any amendment to kill Lincoln's language on structural reform has worked -- Senator Dodd is pulling out his late-night, backroom amendment to kill Lincoln. We're in the home stretch. Please keep calling your senators to call for a filibuster of any amendments that strip Lincoln's language.

Our effort to fight for the only thing with teeth left in the Dodd bill, is going to be taken out without even getting a vote. It's probably going to be stripped via a Dodd manager's amendment, which is being created privately in negotiations with Lincoln, Shelby and likely dozens of bank lobbyists.

Right now is an important moment to call Senator Blanche Lincoln's office and tell her to defend her original language to cut federal support for banks' swap desks. You can reach her office at (202) 224-4843.

Last year, right-wing activists masqueraded as a pimp and a prostitute and used a phony storyline and a hidden camera to take down the community group ACORN. ACORN was eventually absolved and the unsavory tactics of the right exposed, but that hasn't stopped the right from moving on to a new target: the Berkeley, California-based Greenlining Institute. Like ACORN, the Greenlining Institute is a progressive organization that advocates for the poor and works for economic justice. It also supports implementation and enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act, a federal law passed in 1977 to mitigate deteriorating conditions in low and moderate-income neighborhoods by addressing the practice of redlining -- denying credit or insurance to people based on their ethnic background or neighborhood. Groups like ACORN and the Greenlining Institute draw the wrath of wealthy corporate interests because they seek government regulation of lucrative but abusive or harmful business practices.