On Thursday, Americans saw the minimum wage jump to $6.55 an hour.  Boosted by the second of three 70 cent increases passed by the new Democratic majority in Congress after the 2006 mid-term elections, the minimum wage will move to $7.25 next year.  But to be sure, the two million Americans who got a raise today won't have John McCain to thank for it.

Today, the national minimum wage increases by 70 cents, from $5.85 per hour to $6.55 per hour.  I am proud to say that this is the second of three increases due to take effect under the Fair Minimum Wage Act, enacted by this Democratic Congress and signed into law on May 25, 2007.

The increase in the minimum wage comes at an important time for the millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet. Real incomes have dropped since 2001, while the costs of gasoline, health insurance, and attending college have skyrocketed. With today’s increase, Americans who most urgently need a pay raise will get a badly needed boost.

  There will be a lot of chatter about today's hike in the minimum wage. We should be happy for the people who will get another seventy cents an hour in their gross pay. But, we should keep in mind that, at the grand new sum of $6.55 an hour, the minimum wage is a disgrace and a sad commentary about the state of our social safety net, the economy and our political system.

When people ask Mayor McLin about her unique eyeglasses – one frame is ovular, the other rectangular – she always offers the same quip.  The glasses are like Dayton: the city is well rounded and gives you a square deal.

(cross-posted from Calitics)

Yes, you read that headline correctly.  Federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour, not California minimum of $8 hour.  The SacBee has this gut shot of a story.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to sign an executive order next week that will reduce pay for more than 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour to preserve cash in the midst of a month-long budget standoff, according to a draft copy of the order obtained by The Bee.

Administration officials said the governor expects to take the action Monday.

How are these employees going to be able to pay for their groceries on $6.55 an hour, or fill up their car with gas, let alone pay their rent?  The short answer is they aren't.

This is going to result in a lot of employees needing governmental assistance for basic needs, not that the state has the money to help with that anyways at this point.  This is a crisis and this damn well better get some folks up in arms.

The other day the Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed about political blogs, looking at who reads them, how effective they are, and what their potential is to generate political change. There were no earth-shattering revelations in this piece, but one thing did catch my eye:

To determine just how polarized blog readers are, we constructed a measure of political ideology by drawing on blog readers' attitudes toward stem cell research, abortion, the Iraq war, the minimum wage and capital gains tax cuts. Using this measure, we then arrayed respondents from left to right. Here's what we found.

Readers of liberal blogs were clustered at the far left...

What does "the far left" mean?  Here's the attitudes of Americans as a whole on these issues:

Iraq War:

Do you favor or oppose the U.S. war in Iraq?

Favor    Oppose    Unsure    

  30            68            2

If you had to choose, would you rather see the next president keep the same number of troops in Iraq that are currently stationed there, or would you rather see the next president remove most U.S. troops in Iraq within a few months of taking office?

Keep Same    Remove Most    Unsure

    33                  64                   3

Stem Cell research:

There is a type of medical research that involves using special cells, called embryonic stem cells, that might be used in the future to treat or cure many diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, and spinal cord injury. It involves using human embryos discarded from fertility clinics that no longer need them. Some people say that using human embryos for research is wrong. Do you favor or oppose using discarded embryos to conduct stem cell research to try to find cures for the diseases I mentioned?

Favor    Oppose    Unsure

  73           19            8

Abortion:

Do you think abortion should be legal in all cases, legal in most cases, illegal in most cases, or illegal in all cases?

Legal:  All   Most   Illegal:  Most   All   Unsure

          19    38                   24      13       6

Minimum wage:

Do you favor or oppose an increase in the minimum wage?

Favor    Oppose    Unsure

  80          18            2

We reflect the majority opinion of this country on pretty much every issue, yet the media continues to pretend that we're the far left, the lunatic fringe. They're still unwilling to admit the obvious...we are the mainstream.

I am about to climb up on my soap box and talk about economic situations which are very frightening. Poverty is the number one crisis we are facing in this country today, and I can only see it getting worse.

It used to be that if a family was living 'below the poverty level' then they would be able to qualify for certain programs designed to ease their struggle.  Once upon a time, this wasn't called 'welfare' and didn't have the stigma that it can hold for many today.

I want to make this clear that this diary isn't supposed to be 'hey look at my problem' - I used my numbers only so I'd have a reference point - it's nothing more than that.

The methodology used to calculate "Federal" Poverty levels is deeply flawed.  Follow my reasoning:

I agree with mcjoan that this wasn't the best compromise Democrats could get.  At the same time, the FISA compromise wasn't worth a quixiotic fight, either.  At the end of the day, below the fold is what this election is about:

June 16, 1933 — President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Industrial Recovery Act (NRA) including the first federal minimum wage — about 30 cents an hour.

The road to minimal wages and benefits for low-wage workers has always been long and steep. To this day every proposal for minimal wages, living wages, paid sick days, or basic health and safety in the workplace is always shouted down by whiny business interests as a "job killer" and condemned as "class warfare."

As the distinguished journalist Bill Moyers recently put it:

"Truth is, there’s been a class war waged in America for thirty years now from the top down, and the rich have won."

If you follow the issue of immigrants' rights at all, then you probably read this front-page New York Times article on the subject of state efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants a couple of days ago.  The upshot of the story is pretty familiar: sick of the Feds' failure to solve the problem of illegal immigrants, state and local officials take matters into their own hands with get-tough enforcement measures that disrupt immigrant communities and send them packing back to where they came from.  

You know: good riddance and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Sadly, this article is only the most recent example of a national media narrative that reports ad nauseam on anti-immigrant policies but fails to take into account the budding progressive movement to implement more inclusive and economically sensible initiatives.

I have long been curious as to how one would live off minimum wage. Yes, I am very fortunate that this required research on my part!

To tell the truth, I have only had 1 minimum wage job in my life and when I did I still lived at home with my parents. Like many who were lucky enough to catch a few breaks in life, I took advantage of my upbringing, but I have always wondered what life would be like if I had not been dealt such a good hand.

The following is an account of what someone actually gets for their labor at a full-time minimum wage job and how they would have to budget their money in order to survive.

Here we go again:

At least a dozen states are giving monthly payments to low-income workers, hoping to keep them off welfare rolls.

We're so damned fearful of actually doing anything for real people we have to pretend we're not paying "welfare."

Well, you swallow that lie, I got a bridge or two to sell you.

The reality is, it's welfare for employers so they can continue to pay dirt poor wages and screw working people and get away with it.

Appearing on Face the Nation, this morning, John Edwards stated, "It's important we get united as a party."

Edwards responded to Schieffer's question regarding Hillary's "hardworking white Americans" comments noting that likely she feels it was a poor choice of words. Edwards furthered discussed how "Hillary needs to decide as she makes her case for herself...she has to be very careful she does not damage our prospects for the fall."  Edwards believes that it is not possible for Hillary to win the nomination at this point, based on the math.

Watch John Edwards on FTN-May 11, 2008 Here

Quick note: Today we launched our new Special Coverage area focusing on immigration at AlterNet. We hope to advance a new and more progressive way to approach to the issue.

If you sign up for my free weekly immigration newsletter, I'll send you our best content every week.

*****

The often-overheated immigration debate is a distraction that draws attention from far-reaching problems facing American workers, particularly those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.

Many immigrants' right advocates argue that newly arrived workers take jobs that Americans won't do. That's only partially true; many unauthorized immigrants fill non-union jobs that are impossibly crappy, pay poverty wages and are rife with workplace violations, and they work those jobs side-by-side with millions of natives and legal residents. The reality is that there are not enough Americans who are willing or able to tolerate poverty wages and other workplace abuses.

Most anti-poverty rhetoric misses the mark. By emphasizing indirect measures like education and training, advocates discount direct measures like public-service jobs and increased incomes.

As I address in my online book, Economic Security for All: How To End Poverty in the United States, in 1989 the Solutions to Poverty Workshop determined what is required to end poverty in the U.S. and where we can get the money. Though the specifics need to be updated, the same logic still applies.

A lot of times politicians, pundits, analysts, experts, loudmouths and other Very Important People seem to believe that the working poor don’t exist.  It seems to go against the very mythology that has been built up around this country.  "Anyone can make it" they say, "it’s the land of the free!".  If those lazy people just had some moxie, they’d hitch up their Conestoga and head out west to make their fortune.  If the weren't so lazy/pregnant/on drugs/or Democrat, they would be fine.  But the working poor are a reality, as American as apple pie.  They are doing what they are supposed to, and they still aren’t making it.  There are over 300,000,000 people jammed into our borders now, and if we can’t figure out how to make it work, well, things may get ugly.

Today is St. Patrick's Day. As the New York Times reported yesterday, the heavy hitters are concerned that the race will continue to drag on, nothing will get resolved, and John McCain will benefit because people would see him as above the fray. We know that there was a high-level meeting recently between Barack Obama and Al Gore. What I'm hoping is that people will come together, meet with Hillary Clinton, and tell her that she has two weeks to get out of the race with dignity.

But there were rumors that Edwards would, in fact, endorse Hillary. But that was simply the opinion of one talking head. As of this writing, there was nothing on Drudge or Raw Story indicating that at all. All of this is conjecture at this point. We need to stay focused, keep doing what we are doing, and let the chips fall where they may. We need to operate under the assumption that there will be a primary fight until the convention, unless Hillary or Obama throws in the towel.

The economic collapse of the US Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands has intensified the desperation and uncertain plight of twenty thousands guest workers.  Those long abused workers marched in record numbers in December against an Island Slave Law and federal control over the situation has stalled.  Longtime garment executive and now Governor Ben Fitial has returned this week from Washington DC with representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and HANMI (hotel association) claiming to have halted federalization of the CNMI and freezing the minimum wage to 3.55 per hour.