Day half gone, and sadly, no response from Dave Weigel to my Twitter announcement of Badger music at PA.

Here are some midday news/views treats:

* No surprise here: Senate Republicans successfully filibuster minimum wage bill.

* Fascinating brace of public-opinion based posts at 538 on how to define “the Midwest” and “the South.” More about this topic later.

* Democratic Governors Association not giving much love–or money–to Wendy Davis.

* At some point this year, Senate will vote on constitutional amendment restoring Congress’ right to regulate campaign contributions.

* Former SCOTUS Justice John Paul Stevens utters the ultimate heresy: “Money is not speech.” How un-American!

And in non-political news:

* Twitter user growth slowing, but still growing.

As we break for lunch, here’s another tune from One Live Badger: “Wheel of Fortune.” For the record, this tune predated the TV game show by several years.

YouTube video

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.