You've heard about the tornado that took 139 lives in Joplin, Missouri. You may not have heard that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has refused to fund disaster relief for the people of Joplin, unless said disaster relief is offset by cuts in other areas. Mr. Cantor's stance is so disgusting that Republican Rep. Emerson, who represents Joplin, raged at the "quibbling over how we're going to offset" "the devastation and tragedy these people are facing" -- "quibbling," I'd add, that for Mr. Cantor (and for Ms. Emerson) only touches on spending cuts and not taxing millionaires and billionaires more. But it doesn't matter what they do; it matters what we do. MoveOn helps you call out Mr. Cantor's folly. I'd like to say Mr. Cantor should lose his next election -- he got a career-low 59% in 2010, during a Republican wave, no less -- but I shudder to think what let's-all-get-along Democrat might replace him.

Meanwhile, you may not know that 90 years ago, over 10,000 coal miners fought a coal corporation army (no, they were not called Blackwater) in Blair Mountain, West Virginia. Why? Because they'd been exploited for half a century, and they wanted to bargain collectively for wages and better working conditions. The corporate side, by the way, also had World War I bombers. The "Battle of Blair Mountain," though a short-term defeat for labor, galvanized the nation's labor movement, and good citizens have been trying to preserve the site on the National Register of Historic Places -- which briefly listed the site in 2009, before bureaucratic shenanigans got it de-listed. But now a pair of coal corporations -- including Massey Energy, whose substandard safety practices helped kill 29 workers last year -- wants to practice "mountaintop removal mining" at the Blair Mountain site. I'm sure the irony isn't lost on them. So change.org helps you petition the Department of the Interior and the state of West Virginia to save the Blair Mountain site.

Finally, a bit of good news: AB 52, which would give the California state insurance commissioner the power to stop absurd health insurance rate hikes, passed the lower House in the state assembly on Thursday. Of course, every silver lining has a dark cloud: the bill still has to pass the Senate, and may face a fight there, if its excruciating path to a successful House vote is any indication. I presume I'll have an action alert from CALPIRG once the California state Senate Health Committee has its way with the bill. But the journey of a thousand miles, et cetera.