Bachmannia!

The greatest of all time calls it quits!

Obama Crosses the line twice!

Game Over!

We're finally out of Iraq.

99 Problems

He got 99 problems but Mitt ain't done.

Revelations

20+ weird things you may or may not have wanted to know about Sarah Palin.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Ad of the day

It's election season and we all know that this means it's time for poignant and dramatic advertisements from the fine men and women running for various seats in congress. Today's ad comes courtesy of a former congressional staffer who's billing himself as an outsider. He's really a down to earth guy that made more than the American family makes in a year, in 6 months of being a secretary to a congressman. When it comes to having a platform, he's basically your standard new-school conservative that hates high taxes, or really any taxes on rich people and also loves vague, unnamed parts of the constitution that Obama has violated. Oh, and he's going to shoot the president with a cannon if he doesn't repeal Obamacare immediately.




Thursday, April 24, 2014

Video of the Day

If you've been watching the news lately, old white guys have a new hero in their never ending battle against government overreach on the white man. Of course, I'm talking about Cliven Bundy, who currently is fighting it out with the government over the fact that they want him to pay for illegally grazing on their land for years at a time. What you may be surprised to find out is that not only is Mr Bundy an American hero, he's also an intellectual who has musings on things like the negro and why the negro was better off during slavery.


Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The Stone Cold Truth



If you've been in America lately, you may have noticed that gay marriage is a hot topic. People are for it, against it, fighting about it in court and judges are making rulings about it. I'm even taking pictures of weird protests about it. Basically, everyone has some sort of opinion on it, and with that said, it's time to hear one more.

If you're a fan of pro wrestling, you probably know Stone Cold Steve Austin for being a loudmouth drunk who has no time for games, bullshit or even pretending to care about his job. He's also the only person in WWE history to win the Royal Rumble on 3 different occasions. He was basically an over the top version of what most guys in the 1990's wish they were. Currently, he's a retired wrestler who spends his time drinking beer and spouting off about the current state of pro wrestling, and when he isn't doing that, he's apparently doing podcasts about marriage equality. Click on the video below to hear the man who spent twenty years in a pair of black underwear being thrown around by other shirtless men, make a lot of sense on the issues of religion and gay marriage.

Follow the money



If you live in Michigan like I do, you may have seen one of the hundreds of political ads currently filling up the airwaves. If you're also like me, you may be wondering who's paying for the overabundance of commercials. It isn't me, you, Sharkiesha or even the candidates themselves. In fact, most of the money for these commercials, radio ads and internet pop ups are coming from outside groups. How much is "most" of the money? Try 7 out of every 8 dollars spent on political attack ads coming from groups not based in Michigan. Adding to the mayhem is the fact that a lot of the funding isn't publicly disclosed, and some of the ads are misleading at best. Basically, the political agenda on TV isn't being driven by the voters or spun by candidates, but increasingly controlled by a group of unknowns who are willing to ruin this state in order to get a little bit richer. Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, this is a gigantic problem. If you feel like reading more on how some rich guys in Washington are trying to control Michigan, click here.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Video of the Day

Gin and Juice is one of my favorite songs of all time and when it comes on, I can't turn it off. This version is no exception. In fact, it may have reignited my love for the song out of sheer hilarity. Click, look, listen and enjoy.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Midnight Distraction

These young boys may be heroes, but this headline about them probably gets a few details about their heroism a little wrong.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

I need your help!

If you've been on here lately, you may have noticed that I've actually posted a couple of posts within the last week. Well, here's another one, and it's pretty big. I'm trying to get in to Netroots Nation 2014, which happens to be taking place in an area that I know very well. All I need from you is a vote and you can do that by clicking on the photo below.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Video of the day

None of my doctors were this cool, but then again, I never actually broke my ankle, just a few tears and sprains.

The Fair Wage Argument

The following is a piece of a research paper that I had to do this semester that sort of explains why the minimum wage should be raised. Read, analyze, enjoy and give me a grade.



"While it is unusual for us to take a public position on a public policy issue of this kind, we simply believe it is time for Congress to take a responsible look at the minimum wage and other legislation that may help working families,"

Those are the words of former Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott during a 2006 testimony before congress, discussing the need for an increased minimum wage, we are at that point again. Everyday in America, there are people who work full time, for minimum wage and despite working 40 or more hours in a week, can't afford to completely cover basics such as rent, utilities and food. As stated before, this problem can be helped by raising the minimum wage from it's current level of $7.25 an hour. In the richest country in the history of the world, we shouldn't have people working full time and still be in poverty. One way to reverse this is to increase the minimum wage. According to a February 2014 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour could lift as many as 1 million people above the poverty line and off of government assistance, thus freeing up those funds to be used for others, and this is reinforced by a March 2014 study by Rachel West and Michael Reich of The Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) at University of California at Berkeley which concludes that raising the wage would also save $46 billion in expenditures towards the Supplemental Nutrion Assistance Program(SNAP) over the span of ten years.

As expected, many would argue that increasing the minimum wage would slow down hiring, increase prices, which in turn would lead to fewer customers and even lead to layoffs in the fast food industry and other low wage industries. This argument is being presented by many of the executives in the restaurant industry, particularly the fast food industry. Of course this argument is refuted by a study by David Madland and Keith Miller of The Center for American Progress which analyzed the impact of raising the minimum wage on the overall economy, and according to their study, raising the wage would have a minimal at best effect on jobs. What this means is that people aren't going to get fired due to a higher minimum wage, and according to a 2011 study conducted by Dr. Timothy Richards of Arizona State University with help from Dr. Lisa Mancino at the U.S. Department of Agriculture entitled "Demand for Food-Away-From-Home: A Multiple Discrete/Continuous Extreme Value Model" showed that an increase in the minimum wage would probably increase prices by a slight amount, but it wouldn't stop many people from going out for fast food or hurt the bottom line of places like McDonald's which reported a profit of $1.5b in the third quarter of 2013, which according to the National Employment Law Project, is $300 million more than what McDonald's workers receive in public assistance every year while still holding down jobs.

Increasing the wage would not only get a lot of people off of food stamps, it would stimulate this sluggish and unstable economy. According to a 2011 study by the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank entitled "The Spending and Debt Response to Minimum Wage Hikes" by Daniel Aaronson, Sumit Agarwal, and Eric French∗, increasing the wage by just $1 an hour would lead to an extra $250 per quarter per houseld, per month, and an extra $700 per quarter in spending on average. Most of this spending is for long term, durable goods such as cars and furniture. This extra disposable income from a higher minimum wage could lead to billions in economic stimulus and President Franklin Roosevelt even called the minimum wage “an essential part of economic recovery,” in the 1938 State Of The Union speech.

The program given to everyone in attendance during 1963's March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom has a list of ten demands to help meet the goals of the organizers and attendees at the event. Goals 7 and 8 dealt with wages and goal number 8 specifically called for a raised minimum wage of $2 an hour,up 75 cents from the then current rate of $1.25, and in today's dollars, this would be over $15 an hour. Inflation is one subject that does not get a lot of discussion when it comes to the debate over wages. Over the years the American dollar has lost a lot of it's buying power and because of this, despite having a minimum wage that's $7.25 in most states, it's really like making 95 cents an hour back in 1963, when Martin Luther King and a myriad of other civil rights leaders were pushing for a minimum wage of $2. What this means is that people making minimum wage today are around 30% poorer than people making minimum wage 50 years ago.

Thanks to the rate of inflation, the cost of living has gone up dramatically during the last few decades making it increasingly difficult for people on the lower end on the wage scale to live comfortably. During the last five decades food prices have gone up drastically leading to many people turning to programs like WIC and SNAP for help covering this essential need. A dozen large eggs could be bought for 50 cents in the 1960's, but today, you'll be lucky to find a dozen eggs of any size for less than $2. The increased cost of living isn't just being felt in the price of things like eggs, ice cream and cookies, it's also effecting the cost of things such as rent, utilities, healthcare, child care, education, transportation and even entertainment. All of this can combine to make life difficult for people at the bottom of the wage scale and makes it nearly impossible to save up enough money to build an emergency fund for any unforseen circumstances.

In conclusion, the minimum wage is too low to sufficiently live on in this country and raising it would be a surefire way to help not only people making minimum wage, but America in a general sense and if something isn't done soon, we will continue to see the problems listed in this paper.


Works Cited
"The Effects of a Minimum-Wage Increase on Employment and Family Income" Congressional Budget Office, 18 February 2014.
Franklin Roosevelt. 1938 State of the Union Address
Rachel West and Michael Reich . "The Effects of Minimum Wages on SNAP Enrollments and Expenditures" March 2014
David Madland and Keith Miller. "Raising the Minimum Wage Would Help, Not Hurt, Our Economy." Study for The Center for American Progress. 13 December 2013.
Dr. Timothy Richards and Dr. Lisa Mancino. "Demand for Food-Away-From-Home: A Multiple Discrete/Continuous Extreme Value Model" 2011
Sylvia A. Allegretto, Arindrajit Dube, and Michael Reich, “Do Minimum Wages Really Reduce Teen Employment? Accounting for Heterogeneity and Selectivity in State Panel Data,” Industrial Relations 50 (2) (2011): 205–240.
McDonald's 3rd quarter earnings report, 2013
Daniel Aaronson, Sumit Agarwal, and Eric French∗, "The Spending and Debt Response to Minimum Wage Hikes" 2011
Various Authors, "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom" 28, August 1963