Alan Grayson

Although the successful 61-35 cloture vote last week to break the Republican filibuster on extending unemployment benefits was the real test, yesterday the Senate officially passed the bill, 59-38, and sent it to the

Yesterday, consistent with his principles of non-interference in other countries, embattled North Carolina Republican Walter Jones was one of only 34 congressmen-- 32 Republicans + Alan Grayson of Orlando and Beto O'Rourke of El Paso-- to vote against the rush by the Establishment to spend a BILLION dollars in taxpayer money to prop up a Ukrainian government of dubious legitimacy.

This week, Alan Grayson opened a leadership PAC, GutsPAC. You can contribute to it here, but let me warn you, it cannot accept more than $5,000 per year from any individual. He plans to use it to help elect other progressives to Congress. I asked him a couple of quick questions: Q: What will you be doing with that leadership PAC, donating to Steve Israel so you can rise in the House leadership?

Couched in a non-controversial endorsement of Illinois progressive, George Gollin, Alan Grayson touched on a painful-- and dangerous-- trend regarding the quality of American political candidates. "One of the dirty little secrets of Congress," he wrote, "is that many of us legislate in areas in which we are utterly bereft of knowledge. If ignorance is bliss, then some of our Members must be deliriously happy."

Friday, Alan Grayson endorsed particle physicist George Gollin for Congress from Illinois' 13th congressional district. He began his endorsement with a simple statement you can hear all too often from the more educated members of Congress-- Grayson has three graduate degrees from Harvard: "I’m really getting tired of listening to people who don’t know what they’re talking about.

Tuesday is primary day in Illinois and progressive George Gollin's insurgent campaign in IL-13 won two big endorsements yesterday. Early in the morning the biggest local paper, the Champaign News-Gazette came in for him, following the lead of the other two most read newspapers in the district, the Chicago Tribune and Springfield's State Journal-Register.

Earlier this month we introduced our newest House candidate, Illinois particle physicist George Gollin. Above is the TV ad he's trying to get up on stations across the sprawling district that goes from Bloomington and Champaign, straight through the Illinois farm belt to the northern suburbs of St. Louis.

This morning we took a sad little look at how the Democrats are fiddling while the world burns in an orgy of sociopathic fossil fuel profiteering.

At noon today (Pacific Time, so 3pm on the East Coast), Blue America will randomly select 4 "winners" of our Joni Mitchell drawing. It's been a fun little "contest" and we managed to raise around $11,000 for Congress' most essential Member, Alan Grayson, and another $8,000 for California congressional candidate with a similar progressive perspective, Lee Rogers.

Last week, the Washington Post reported that the Koch brothers are already pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into ads meant to demonize Alan Grayson and defeat him in November.