July 31, 2012

Only the ‘One Percent’ and their sympathizers oppose raising the minimum wage

I reported on Friday that over 100 House Democrats are proposing a raise in the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.80 over the next 3 years, and then tie it to inflation after that. We know it polls high, so who could possibly be against raising the minimum wage? Could it be those noble and patriotic business owners? OK, maybe it’s not all of them but it’s safe to say most of the opposition to raising the minimum wage is comes from the “one percent” and their sympathizers in congress, otherwise known as the Republican Party.

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July 30, 2012

Same-sex marriage to be part of Democratic Party platform at convention

The Democratic Party will officially make same-sex marriage part of the party platform at the Democratic convention this September. It marks a big win for gay and lesbian equality in America and is the latest achievment in a growing list of achievments for the LGBT community in just the past few years. This is what can happen (directly or indirectly) when there is a progressive and (sometimes) liberal voice leading the country (President Obama).

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July 30, 2012

A few thoughts on the Olympics and our corporate sponsor overlords

I was listening to today’s Citizen Radio episode “(2012/07/30) What the Olympics and the Springfield monorail have in common, Georgia prison hunger strike” where Allison and Jamie were slamming the corporate sponsorship at the Olympics, specifically McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. These companies are so greedy that they have exclusive rights arrangements with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which means that your local pub can’t advertise the simple fact that they have a TV, and it can be tuned to the Olympics coverage on NBC. All of these things are facts about this hypothetical pub, but if they put a sign outside stating these facts, they will get their asses sued by their corporate overlords

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July 29, 2012

Conservatives continue the Obama “you didn’t build that” nonsense, because lies come naturally

When you have nothing to run on, nothing to cite as success and you are all out of ideas, you can always fall back on lying. You can always take someone’s words out of context so that you can extract meaning to match up with a preexisting narrative. This is what conservatives are good at. This is what they do. So it’s not a surprise that conservatives are still citing Obama’s “you didn’t build that” line out of context over two weeks later.

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July 28, 2012

Is Mitt Romney suffering from a likability problem?

In this brave new world of hyper-partisan politics, I’d say no. I certainly wouldn’t discount the “he’s not Obama” sentiment creeping into the perception of Romney and his overall likability. I mean, if you are THAT against President Obama then you are likely to overlook the negative aspects of the other candidate, maybe even to the point of liking him. Of course I don’t dismiss the opposite is true when considering Obama supporters’ and their likability rating of Romney vs. Obama. But I don’t think the pundits are wrong when they say Romney is less in touch with the struggles of the average person, and that is going to play into his overall likability.

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July 27, 2012

House Democrats propose legislation to increase minimum wage to $9.80 an hour

On Thursday more than 100 House Democrats voiced supported for legislation to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.80 an hour. Introduced by Representative George Miller (D-CA), the proposed legislation (known as Miller’s Fair Minimum Wage Act – H.R. 6211) would increase the minimum wage in 85 cent increments each of the next 3 years. When it reaches $9.80 in 3 years, the proposed legislation would link minimum wage to inflation. “Anyone who works hard and plays by the rules should not live in poverty. Yet 47 million Americans now qualify as the working poor. Raising the minimum wage helps families make ends meet,” said Rep. Miller.

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