justice4janitors:

Columbus janitors make signs for today’s rally! As they prepare to make a stand for living wages, will you support them by signing our petition and staying in the loop on their fight?

I’m saying right now, anyone from New York or New Jersey who contributes one penny to congressional Republicans is out of their minds, because what they did last night was put a knife in the back of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans. It was an absolute disgrace.

Republican Rep. Peter King • Condemning House Republicans for refusing to vote on a post-Sandy disaster relief bill that was approved by the Senate last week. The bill would have allocated roughly $60.4 billion in disaster relief funding for the areas in New York and New Jersey that were devastated by Sandy last year. House Republicans have responded to the criticism with assurances that a vote is coming in the 113th Congress, and a denial that there is any immediate need for such funding. source (via shortformblog)

Things John Boehner deemed more urgent than Hurricane Sandy relief include:

• Drywall safety
• Frank Buckles WWI Memorial
• Redesignate Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center and Hugh L. Dryden Test Range
• Conveyance of certain property in Kotzebue, AK

John Boehner is bad at his job (and Rachel Maddow does a really good job of explaining why).

The Wisconsin hedge fund manager and his wife paid to have these billboards displayed in largely minority neighborhoods, and tried to do so anonymously. 

All I Really Need to Know About Paul Ryan I Learned From This Soup Kitchen Photo Op

After Paul Ryan spent Saturday morning at a town hall meeting in Ohio’s Youngstown State University once again blaming President Obama for the shuttering of GM plant that closed before he took office, his campaign decided to show off their candidate’s compassionate side with a detour to a soup kitchen in Canfield.

An empty soup kitchen.

From the New York Times:

The [Ryan] family put on aprons and washed several large pans, though they did not appear to need washing, according to a pool reporter. There also was no one to serve at the soup kitchen, as breakfast had ended.

While some governors and lawmakers are searching for new revenue sources, others are using the downturn as an excuse to end a long tradition of states being the final backstop for society’s neediest.

Over the last year, for example, eight states have cut or eliminated cash welfare payments to their poorest residents. It happened last week in Pennsylvania, where 61,000 residents — almost all of whom are disabled and poor — were told that they would abruptly lose their $200 monthly general assistance payments, all to save $150 million a year. Our hands are tied by a tightening budget, welfare officials told astonished recipients, though Gov. Tom Corbett’s hands didn’t seem restrained when he handed out $300 million in business tax cuts earlier this month.

Gov. John Kasich of Ohio has cut hundreds of millions from education, but when the state found itself with a $235 million surplus a few weeks ago, he announced that it would all go into a rainy-day fund, doing nothing to deal with rising classroom sizes. In Maine, Gov. Paul LePage — who compared the health care reform law to the Holocaust — signed a budget bill in May that will reduce or eliminate existing Medicaid coverage for 21,000 people.

demnewswire:

As Mitt Romney’s bus tour passes through Ohio, the Buckeye State’s middle class sends Mitt Romney greetings from under the bus. Share this postcard with everyone who needs to know what Romney economics would do to states like Ohio.

Joe Biden’s fired up and ready to go.

Make no mistake. Recalling Scott Walker is a big honking deal. America is full these days of Republican governors who overreached, and whose political support is trembly at best, whether it’s Snyder in Michigan, or Kasich in Ohio, or Bat Boy down in Florida. Bringing down Walker would bring more heat on all these guys, to say nothing of energizing labor for the campaigns ahead. Anybody who doesn’t recognize the Wisconsin recall as a national event hasn’t been paying attention. Certainly, the Republicans recognize it as such; Walker’s been in Wisconsin less than Ryan Braun has in the past few months.

Charles Pierce, Why the Democrats Lose

Read the whole post; it’s short and sums up the DNC quite well.

There is at least one Democratic primary of consequence tonight: the first redistricting-induced incumbent vs. incumbent primary is taking place in Ohio. Democratic Representatives Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur are facing off for their party’s nomination to run in the new 9th district.

With 17 percent of precincts reporting, Ms. Kaptur is leading Mr. Kucinich by just over 2000 votes.

UPDATE: Kaptur beat Kucinich.  Her Republican opponent will be Joe the Plumber (or…Sam the unlicensed electrician).  I’m not kidding.  

Once again my Republican colleagues have turned these hallowed halls of Congress into a place for political theater or better yet a circus and the joke is on working class America. Today’s so called ‘Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act’ is another scene in this unfolding plot to undermine American workers. It would be comedy if it weren’t such a tragedy for the American people. Every day the American people are forced to play the part of the clown Pagliacci. They watch Republicans put on this performance, claiming to want to protect American jobs and workers while behind the scenes they work to dismantle the rights of the American worker and like Pagliacci the American people must learn to laugh with tears in their eyes.

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI)

Video here.  Her entire speech is awesome.

The recall of Governor Walker and the GOP war on voting. 

Ohio and Mississippi (and Maine! Yes!) restored my hope tonight.

Now, ready for next Tuesday, Wisconsin?