Mad Dog Liberal

This is my personal crusade to say, "wake up, America! Turn off Fox News and grow a social conscience!" Liberal" is not a four-letter word and I'll defend the liberal cause like a mad dog.

Big Business has purchased our politicians and hijacked our democracy. Trickle-down economics NEVER worked. The liberal media is a myth.

"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." -- Thomas Pynchon

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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor

 

Meet Eesha Khare - A Brilliant Young Scientist And Role Model ileliberte: nbcnews: Teen’s invention could charge your phone in 20 seconds (Photo: Intel) Waiting hours for a cellphone to charge may become a thing of the past, thanks to an 18-year-old high-school student’s invention. She won a $50,000 prize Friday at an international science fair for creating an energy storage device that can be fully juiced in 20 to 30 seconds. Read the complete story. That’s really cool. Would have been nice to have Eesha Khare’s name prominently on this post itself though :) She is an awesome example to all young people and especially other young women who see that they can excel at science.

Meet Eesha Khare - A Brilliant Young Scientist And Role Model

ileliberte:

nbcnews:

Teen’s invention could charge your phone in 20 seconds

(Photo: Intel)

Waiting hours for a cellphone to charge may become a thing of the past, thanks to an 18-year-old high-school student’s invention. She won a $50,000 prize Friday at an international science fair for creating an energy storage device that can be fully juiced in 20 to 30 seconds.

Read the complete story.

That’s really cool. Would have been nice to have Eesha Khare’s name prominently on this post itself though :)

She is an awesome example to all young people and especially other young women who see that they can excel at science.

Because this make so much sense.

Because this make so much sense.

odinsblog: Massive Voter Suppression Widespread Election Fraud Espousing legalized racial profiling Proposing to fix any international dispute with yet another war Opining to reignite the war with Iraq Ongoing Wars Against Women’s Health Denying Climate Change Fighting against Fair Pay for women Opposing a minimum wage Fighting to repeal Affirmative Action  Anti-Science and Opposed to Critical Thinking Skills Opposition to Universal Healthcare  Fighting Marriage Equality Blurring the line between Church and State Blocking the DREAM Act Defunding public education, PBS, and early education Fighting against any type of alternative or Green Energy… There’s one political party doing these things en-mass as a part of their party platform, and it ain’t liberal politicians or the Democrats. Republicans are dangerous. Either they are actually as ignorant and hateful as they portray themselves or they have such low moral character that they’re willing to foment racial and religious hatred for personal gain. Either way, they’re dangerous. Voting Republican endangers the planet (seriously) and makes the world a dumber, more hateful place. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who votes for the GOP/Tea Party is part of the problem. Add to this list, * Voting to do away with overtime pay (and thus the 40-hour work week), * Refusing to allow even the smallest gains against gun violence, * Championing the use of torture by our military and CIA against any so-called “enemies,” * Proposing the end of child labor laws, * Advocating the undue influence of corporations on our democracy through such means as Citizens United… and the list goes ON and ON. There is NOTHING on the Left even close to this kind of laundry-list of organized, concerted efforts to fuck over the average Joe for the soul benefit of their wealthy benefactors. When will the American public wake up?

odinsblog:

  • Massive Voter Suppression
  • Widespread Election Fraud
  • Espousing legalized racial profiling
  • Proposing to fix any international dispute with yet another war
  • Opining to reignite the war with Iraq
  • Ongoing Wars Against Women’s Health
  • Denying Climate Change
  • Fighting against Fair Pay for women
  • Opposing a minimum wage
  • Fighting to repeal Affirmative Action 
  • Anti-Science and Opposed to Critical Thinking Skills
  • Opposition to Universal Healthcare 
  • Fighting Marriage Equality
  • Blurring the line between Church and State
  • Blocking the DREAM Act
  • Defunding public education, PBS, and early education
  • Fighting against any type of alternative or Green Energy…

There’s one political party doing these things en-mass as a part of their party platform, and it ain’t liberal politicians or the Democrats.

Republicans are dangerous. Either they are actually as ignorant and hateful as they portray themselves or they have such low moral character that they’re willing to foment racial and religious hatred for personal gain.

Either way, they’re dangerous. Voting Republican endangers the planet (seriously) and makes the world a dumber, more hateful place. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who votes for the GOP/Tea Party is part of the problem.

Add to this list, * Voting to do away with overtime pay (and thus the 40-hour work week), * Refusing to allow even the smallest gains against gun violence, * Championing the use of torture by our military and CIA against any so-called “enemies,” * Proposing the end of child labor laws, * Advocating the undue influence of corporations on our democracy through such means as Citizens United… and the list goes ON and ON. There is NOTHING on the Left even close to this kind of laundry-list of organized, concerted efforts to fuck over the average Joe for the soul benefit of their wealthy benefactors.

When will the American public wake up?

thepoliticalfreakshow: We Can Handle The Truth: Why The CIA Needs To Tell The American People About The Dirty Secrets of The War on Terror In April 1975, Sen. Frank Church impaneled a special investigative committee to look into shocking accounts of CIA dirty tricks. The Church Committee ultimately published 14 reports over two years revealing a clandestine agency that was a law unto itself — plotting to assassinate heads of state (Castro, Diem, Lumumba, Trujillo), carrying out weird experiments with LSD, and suborning American journalists. As a result, President Gerald Ford issued an executive order banning the assassination of foreign leaders, the House and Senate established standing intelligence committees, and the United States set up the so-called FISA courts, which oversee request for surveillance warrants against suspected foreign agents.  But the war on terror unleashed the CIA once again to carry out dark deeds against America’s enemies — torture, secret detention, and “rendition” to “black sites” across the world. How have Americans reckoned, this time, with the immoral and illegal acts carried out in their name? They have not: the CIA has retained control over the narrative. As the Constitution Project’s Detainee Treatment report describes in great detail, the CIA falsely reported — to the White House as well as to the public — that torture “worked” in wresting crucial information from high-level detainees, and thus needed to be an instrument available to interrogators. Officials like Vice President Dick Cheney repeated ad nauseum that the CIA’s dark arts had saved thousands of lives. Is it any wonder that a plurality of Americans think the United States should torture terrorists? I wrote last month about the detainee treatment report, but I find it incredibly frustrating — and all too telling — that the findings were overwhelmed by the tidal wave of coverage of the Boston bombing. Because we fear terrorism far more viscerally than we feared communism — certainly by 1975 — we are all too susceptible to the view that America cannot afford to live by its own professed values. But of course that’s what Chileans and Brazilians thought in the 1970s. That’s why Sri Lankans have granted themselves the right to slaughter homegrown terrorists wholesale, and react furiously to any hint of criticism. People give themselves a pass unless and until they are forced to face the truth, which is why a public airing of history is so important — and so politically fraught. There’s always a compelling reason to avoid facing the ugly truth. In early 2009, Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called for an independent commission to investigate allegations of torture.  But President Barack Obama’s spokesman said that the proposal would not be “workable.” We know what he meant: you can hardly blame the president for avoiding a colossal fight with Republicans over the past, especially, when he had so many fights he needed to wage over the future. Obama probably thought that he could put the problem to rest by ending torture as well as the cult of secrecy surrounding CIA practices. He succeeded on the first count, but failed on the latter. In April 2009, he agreed to release the so-called “torture” memos written by President George W. Bush’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), as well as photos of prisoner abuse from Iraq and Afghanistan. But then, after a fierce debate inside the White House said to pit Obama’s military commanders against his counselor, Gregory Craig, among others, the administration reversed itself. The president later signed legislation allowing him to withhold the pictures if he determined that the release would harm national security. Once adopted, the logic of national security carries all before it. The release of the OLC memos, the detainee treatment report notes, was the high-water mark of Obama-era transparency on torture. CIA reports on the death of three prisoners in custody as well as on broad policy towards detainees remain classified; so do the results of inquiries by the armed forces criminal investigation division. The agency’s ability to withhold information probably contributed to the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue indictments on any of the 100 or so cases of CIA mistreatment which it investigated. Defense lawyers in the military trial of the “9/11 defendants” held at Guantanamo have had to work around a “protection order” which classifies entire subject areas — including anything related to the defendants’ arrest or capture, the conditions in which they were held, or the interrogation techniques to which they were subjected. Whatever becomes of the defendants, Americans will learn nothing from the trials.  On matters of secrecy, Obama has been little better than Bush. This has become notorious in the case of the drone program, a centerpiece of Obama’s prosecution of the war on terror. In a recent speech at the Oxford Union, Harold Koh, the former chief counsel of the State Department, said that the administration has failed to be “transparent about legal standards and the decision-making process that it has been applying.” I asked Koh why the White House has so regularly deferred to the CIA on issues of transparency and accountability. Koh pointed out that the CIA’s concern that exposing past bad acts could serve as a recruiting tool for al Qaeda was hardly trivial. But, he said of the White House: “They don’t have a good balancing mechanism on the value of disclosures. It’s almost like if nobody’s clamoring for it, the pressure can be resisted.” The pressure comes from the outside — from the press, from civil-liberties groups, and activists — but not from the inside. So the CIA carries the day. And yet it’s not too late to expose, and learn from, the sorry history of the last decade. Last December, the Senate Intelligence Committee approved a 6,000-page report on the finding of its secret investigation into the treatment of detainees. The report, which has not been made public, describes the CIA’s detention program in minute detail. Among other things, it puts to rest the canard that torture works. In his confirmation hearings, CIA director John Brennan admitted that the report had led him to question “the information that I was given at the time” that so-called “enhanced techniques” had saved lives. Brennan has learned this; other Americans may not have the chance. The CIA is likely to both dispute the findings and to try to keep them secret. In a letter to Obama, Sen. Mark Udall complained that Brennan had shown “little to no interest” in working with his staff, and had already missed the deadline for response by more than two months. A congressional aide said that there was no sign that the White House had even examined the report, much less prepared a response. The good news is that the irrepressible Vice President Joe Biden recently advocated publishing the findings, saying that Americans needed to “excise the demons” through a full disclosure of past abuses. Biden even compared the redemptive value of facing the truth on torture to the effect of the war-crimes tribunals on Germany. Obama probably didn’t authorize the analogy, but he may well have signed off on the position — in which case the comment should be read as a pre-emptive shot across the CIA’s bow. In the course of questioning Brennan during Senate hearings, Sen. Udall quoted Howard Baker, the widely admired Republican moderate from the bygone age of Republican moderates, to the effect that the Church Committee report may well have weakened the CIA in the short run, but strengthened it in the long run — by reminding the agency of what it should as well as shouldn’t do. Apparently even the CIA agrees, since its website carries an admiring description of the committee’s findings. If and when the Senate Intelligence Committee report is made public, in whole or in part, current and former CIA officials, conservative pundits, and Republican politicians will no doubt join as one to warn that America’s national security has been compromised, its enemies emboldened, its intelligence operatives compromised. That’s what they said in 1975. They were wrong then, and they will be wrong now.  

thepoliticalfreakshow:

We Can Handle The Truth: Why The CIA Needs To Tell The American People About The Dirty Secrets of The War on Terror

In April 1975, Sen. Frank Church impaneled a special investigative committee to look into shocking accounts of CIA dirty tricks. The Church Committee ultimately published 14 reports over two years revealing a clandestine agency that was a law unto itself — plotting to assassinate heads of state (Castro, Diem, Lumumba, Trujillo), carrying out weird experiments with LSD, and suborning American journalists. As a result, President Gerald Ford issued an executive order banning the assassination of foreign leaders, the House and Senate established standing intelligence committees, and the United States set up the so-called FISA courts, which oversee request for surveillance warrants against suspected foreign agents.

 But the war on terror unleashed the CIA once again to carry out dark deeds against America’s enemies — torture, secret detention, and “rendition” to “black sites” across the world. How have Americans reckoned, this time, with the immoral and illegal acts carried out in their name? They have not: the CIA has retained control over the narrative. As the Constitution Project’s Detainee Treatment report describes in great detail, the CIA falsely reported — to the White House as well as to the public — that torture “worked” in wresting crucial information from high-level detainees, and thus needed to be an instrument available to interrogators. Officials like Vice President Dick Cheney repeated ad nauseum that the CIA’s dark arts had saved thousands of lives. Is it any wonder that a plurality of Americans think the United States should torture terrorists?

I wrote last month about the detainee treatment report, but I find it incredibly frustrating — and all too telling — that the findings were overwhelmed by the tidal wave of coverage of the Boston bombing. Because we fear terrorism far more viscerally than we feared communism — certainly by 1975 — we are all too susceptible to the view that America cannot afford to live by its own professed values. But of course that’s what Chileans and Brazilians thought in the 1970s. That’s why Sri Lankans have granted themselves the right to slaughter homegrown terrorists wholesale, and react furiously to any hint of criticism.

People give themselves a pass unless and until they are forced to face the truth, which is why a public airing of history is so important — and so politically fraught. There’s always a compelling reason to avoid facing the ugly truth. In early 2009, Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called for an independent commission to investigate allegations of torture.  But President Barack Obama’s spokesman said that the proposal would not be “workable.” We know what he meant: you can hardly blame the president for avoiding a colossal fight with Republicans over the past, especially, when he had so many fights he needed to wage over the future.

Obama probably thought that he could put the problem to rest by ending torture as well as the cult of secrecy surrounding CIA practices. He succeeded on the first count, but failed on the latter. In April 2009, he agreed to release the so-called “torture” memos written by President George W. Bush’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), as well as photos of prisoner abuse from Iraq and Afghanistan. But then, after a fierce debate inside the White House said to pit Obama’s military commanders against his counselor, Gregory Craig, among others, the administration reversed itself. The president later signed legislation allowing him to withhold the pictures if he determined that the release would harm national security.

Once adopted, the logic of national security carries all before it. The release of the OLC memos, the detainee treatment report notes, was the high-water mark of Obama-era transparency on torture. CIA reports on the death of three prisoners in custody as well as on broad policy towards detainees remain classified; so do the results of inquiries by the armed forces criminal investigation division. The agency’s ability to withhold information probably contributed to the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue indictments on any of the 100 or so cases of CIA mistreatment which it investigated. Defense lawyers in the military trial of the “9/11 defendants” held at Guantanamo have had to work around a “protection order” which classifies entire subject areas — including anything related to the defendants’ arrest or capture, the conditions in which they were held, or the interrogation techniques to which they were subjected. Whatever becomes of the defendants, Americans will learn nothing from the trials.

 On matters of secrecy, Obama has been little better than Bush. This has become notorious in the case of the drone program, a centerpiece of Obama’s prosecution of the war on terror. In a recent speech at the Oxford Union, Harold Koh, the former chief counsel of the State Department, said that the administration has failed to be “transparent about legal standards and the decision-making process that it has been applying.”

I asked Koh why the White House has so regularly deferred to the CIA on issues of transparency and accountability. Koh pointed out that the CIA’s concern that exposing past bad acts could serve as a recruiting tool for al Qaeda was hardly trivial. But, he said of the White House: “They don’t have a good balancing mechanism on the value of disclosures. It’s almost like if nobody’s clamoring for it, the pressure can be resisted.” The pressure comes from the outside — from the press, from civil-liberties groups, and activists — but not from the inside. So the CIA carries the day.

And yet it’s not too late to expose, and learn from, the sorry history of the last decade. Last December, the Senate Intelligence Committee approved a 6,000-page report on the finding of its secret investigation into the treatment of detainees. The report, which has not been made public, describes the CIA’s detention program in minute detail. Among other things, it puts to rest the canard that torture works. In his confirmation hearings, CIA director John Brennan admitted that the report had led him to question “the information that I was given at the time” that so-called “enhanced techniques” had saved lives.

Brennan has learned this; other Americans may not have the chance. The CIA is likely to both dispute the findings and to try to keep them secret. In a letter to Obama, Sen. Mark Udall complained that Brennan had shown “little to no interest” in working with his staff, and had already missed the deadline for response by more than two months. A congressional aide said that there was no sign that the White House had even examined the report, much less prepared a response.

The good news is that the irrepressible Vice President Joe Biden recently advocated publishing the findings, saying that Americans needed to “excise the demons” through a full disclosure of past abuses. Biden even compared the redemptive value of facing the truth on torture to the effect of the war-crimes tribunals on Germany. Obama probably didn’t authorize the analogy, but he may well have signed off on the position — in which case the comment should be read as a pre-emptive shot across the CIA’s bow.

In the course of questioning Brennan during Senate hearings, Sen. Udall quoted Howard Baker, the widely admired Republican moderate from the bygone age of Republican moderates, to the effect that the Church Committee report may well have weakened the CIA in the short run, but strengthened it in the long run — by reminding the agency of what it should as well as shouldn’t do. Apparently even the CIA agrees, since its website carries an admiring description of the committee’s findings. If and when the Senate Intelligence Committee report is made public, in whole or in part, current and former CIA officials, conservative pundits, and Republican politicians will no doubt join as one to warn that America’s national security has been compromised, its enemies emboldened, its intelligence operatives compromised. That’s what they said in 1975. They were wrong then, and they will be wrong now.  

osirismorte: godtiercosbytop: fyeridan: “This a photograph taken from the teenager (shirtless guy) named Austin Schafer’s Twitter account, of a kid being tied up and beaten by upper classmen at Columbia High School in Nampa, Idaho. This is a recent photograph and one where the school’s authorities have not taken action yet. Remember this kid’s name and repost this picture. The Neanderthal trash who are bullying him deserve to have this picture plastered all over the Internet for prospective college admission offices to see so their career pinnacle can be asking me which kind of soup I want at Olive Garden.If you’ve been a victim of bullying or know someone who has, please repost.” Signal Boost Dang I live 5 minutes away from there Signal Boost. We need to end this shit!

osirismorte:

godtiercosbytop:

fyeridan:

“This a photograph taken from the teenager (shirtless guy) named Austin Schafer’s Twitter account, of a kid being tied up and beaten by upper classmen at Columbia High School in Nampa, Idaho. 

This is a recent photograph and one where the school’s authorities have not taken action yet. Remember this kid’s name and repost this picture. 

The Neanderthal trash who are bullying him deserve to have this picture plastered all over the Internet for prospective college admission offices to see so their career pinnacle can be asking me which kind of soup I want at Olive Garden.

If you’ve been a victim of bullying or know someone who has, please repost.”

Signal Boost

Dang I live 5 minutes away from there

Signal Boost. We need to end this shit!

secularhumanist2: couple this with the republican house voting to abolish the 40 hr work week and thus eliminating overtime pay, they don’t give a fuck about you or your friends, they need to go, tell all your friends

secularhumanist2:

couple this with the republican house voting to abolish the 40 hr work week and thus eliminating overtime pay, they don’t give a fuck about you or your friends, they need to go, tell all your friends

(Source: christopherstreet)

Thank you

(Source: standupfordownthere)

toastedpopsicle: current: oinonio: U.S. Gun Deaths Since the Massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School Sandy Hook happened six months ago today. 9/11 killed three thousand people. Gun violence kills more than twice that a year. 9/11 completely changed the way our government works. (or rather shut it down.) Gun Violence incites the occasional murmur. 

toastedpopsicle:

current:

oinonio:

U.S. Gun Deaths Since the Massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School

Sandy Hook happened six months ago today.

9/11 killed three thousand people. Gun violence kills more than twice that a year. 9/11 completely changed the way our government works. (or rather shut it down.) Gun Violence incites the occasional murmur. 

norsegays:

astrolope:

People being angry about ~dem gays~ on Target’s Facebook.

I just want to give my two cents on this and tell you a story.

A couple weeks ago, I was hired at Target. I have a job at Target. Not a big deal right?

It is a big deal because i’m a transman. 

It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that it’s hard for me, my brothers, and sisters to get a job. There are legal restraints regarding the job and if you don’t pass, it’s hard to be taken seriously at a job interview.

Right on the application, it asks what your preferred name is. It also asks if there is anything that target should know. I put the fact that I am a transman, expecting not to get a call because usually when you put that down, people will throw out the application. I got TWO interviews.

At the interview, they asked me about it. I told them I am on hormones and they told me that they didn’t care. Not in the sense that they don’t emotionally care, but that it didn’t matter. I was male and that’s all that mattered. They also told me that they give sex same couples benefits in states that do not recognize them as a married couple.

At my job orientation, I was not misgendered once. Even my supervisors who weren’t sure of my gender avoided pronoun use, which I found only happens when you’ve had pronoun training. They gave me a name tag with my preferred name and didn’t ask questions. I felt safe and respected, which is huge for a trans* person.

TLDR: Target is amazing not just for the LGB, but also the T. Shop there for the rest of your life.

virginiacountryboy: italianluxury: siknastynik: porcelainivory: thecityhorse: horsecalledbear: ohsleeper: Remember this lady? Oh my god I’ve reblogged this before and I’ll reblog is again. Fuckin al gore ! Wow… That’s amazing. Just, wow.  reblogging forever Dammit al gore….

virginiacountryboy:

italianluxury:

siknastynik:

porcelainivory:

thecityhorse:

horsecalledbear:

ohsleeper:

Remember this lady?

Oh my god

I’ve reblogged this before and I’ll reblog is again.

Fuckin al gore !

Wow… That’s amazing. Just, wow. 

reblogging forever

Dammit al gore….

Eyes On The City New original artwork… Created with Gimp software with skyline brushes by hawksmont. The fractals in the eyes are by 1389ad. You can check out my other artwork and the work of these two artists at DeviantArt. Feel free to leave comments.

Eyes On The City

New original artwork… Created with Gimp software with skyline brushes by hawksmont. The fractals in the eyes are by 1389ad. You can check out my other artwork and the work of these two artists at DeviantArt.

Feel free to leave comments.

bronitasaurous:

feministpizza:

These are pictures from the assault and arrest of my good friend and roommate. What happened was NOT okay and we really need help getting the word out.

“A 21-year-old woman was assaulted by the police and arrested yesterday while legally and non-violently protesting the Klan / Neo-Nazi / anti-immigrant demonstration that was going on at the Georgia Capitol in downtown Atlanta. She also faced extensive misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ sexual harassment during booking.”

Full story here.

PLEASE SHARE!

Signal BOOST!!!! Fight police brutality!

In an act not so much shocking as as it is a display of audacious hypocrisy, Texas law makers who opposed aid for victims of hurricane Sandy have requested the federal government render aid for the the town of West, Texas, which was flattened last week by a massive explosion of a fertilizer plant. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I lack sympathy for this little community, known largely here for their excellent Czech bakeries. It’s just that the explosion here in Texas razed a swath of land covering about a half-mile radius around the plant and killed 14 (including six firefighters and four emergency medical workers); a devastating tragedy, no doubt. But the destruction caused by hurricane Sandy covered roughly 980 miles over 24 states, killed 159 people and caused an estimated $72 billion in damages. So it was kind of a big deal.

Just demonstrates again that Republicans expect everyone to suffer through their Dystopia of austerity and sequestration unless it means people in their state are suffering and then they expect the big, bad government to step up and help them.

Boosting the Minimum Wage in the States Is a No-Brainer

workingamerica:

Reposted from AFL-CIO NOW

With the federal minimum wage stuck at $7.25 an hour and an increase facing stiff opposition from congressional Republicans, coalitions of union, community, faith and other groups are mobilizing to win increases in state and local minimum wage levels. Here’s a look at some recent wins and campaigns where AFL-CIO state federations and central labor councils are playing big roles.

In late March, the New York state legislature approved a measure increasing the state minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour over three years. New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento says:

Raising the minimum wage will make a real difference in the lives of workers, many of whom are adults working full-time, and many of whom have families to support.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, raising New York’s minimum wage to $9.00 per hour will benefit more than 1.5 million New York workers—more than one in five workers in New York. The Fiscal Policy Institute estimates that increasing New York’s minimum wage to $9.00 per hour will generate more than $1.1 billion in new economic activity, supporting the creation of 10,200 new full-time jobs as businesses expand to meet increased consumer demand.

San Jose, Calif., recently increased its minimum wage to $10 an hour after a campaign that united the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council and San Jose Downtown Association in winning a ballot measure to boost the city’s minimum wage.

Meanwhile in Hawaii, the state House passed legislation to raise the Aloha State’s minimum wage to $9 an hour by 2017 in four steps. The state Senate is expected to vote on the bill next month.

In Maine last week, the state House also voted to boost the state’s minimum wage, from the current $7.50 an hour to $9 an hour by 2016 in in three steps. The bill also protects the wage from losing its value inflation by indexing it to inflation. The bill awaits state Senate action.

A bill to increase the Minnesota minimum wage to $10.55 an hour over three years is making it way through the House. It already has been approved by three committees and further action is expected later in the spring. It also is indexed against inflation. The bill is a key part of the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s Agenda for Dignity and Middle Class Fairness.

Looking down the road, New Jersey voters will decide this fall on a ballot measure to raise the Garden State’s minimum wage to $8.25 an hour and index it against inflation. The New Jersey State AFL-CIO plans a major effort around the measure. In January, Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a minimum wage bill.

There are also campaigns or legislation under way to increase the minimum wage in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Mexico and Rhode Island.

On the federal level, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) earlier this year introduced legislation to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour; and a new report reveals the American Legislative Exchange Council is engaged in a widespread campaign to weaken or repeal state minimum wage laws and other low-wage worker protections.

You can find out more about the minimum wage from the National Employment Law Project and from the group’s Raise the Minimum Wage website.

Having a working-class and middle-class who once again can afford to buy things is the only thing that has ever acted as a “job creator.”