The Supreme Court Rules on DOMA and Prop 8

Today, June 26, 2013 will be a day that is defined differently depending on whom you talk to. The Supreme Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act and sent Proposition 8 back to the State of California essentially ruling that the people who appealed the California Supreme Court's ruling that it was unconstitutional had no legal standing to challenge that decision.

Here are the two official SCOTUS rulings:

DOMA: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-307_g2bh.pdf

Prop 8: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-144_8ok0.pdf

So, what do you think? Did the SCOTUS make the right decisions? Did it "legislate from the bench?" Did it open up any judicial cans of worms? Please share your thoughts below.

Is Edward Snowden a Hero or a Traitor?

As you've probably heard, whistle blower Edward Snowden is the man behind leaking the NSA's massive secret electronic/phone data capturing program to the British paper The Guardian. If you are unfamiliar with the story, here are a few links for reference:

CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/10/politics/nsa-leak/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/10/report-nsa-contract-worker-is-surveillance-source/

ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/edward-snowden-reported-nsa-leaker-face-extradition-hong/story?id=19362851

The May 2013 Jobs Report

Here is the May 2013 employment situation report from the BLS: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

Key Highlights:

- The unemployment rate increased slightly to 7.6%. Non-farm employers added 175,000 new jobs.

- The number of unemployed persons remained increased from 11.7 million in April to 11.8 million in May.

- The civilian labor force participation rate increased slightly to 63.4%.

- The "not in labor force" count (those who have no job and have stopped looking for work) decreased modestly from 89,936,000 in April to 89,705,000 in May.

- The number of persons employed for part-time economic reasons (those that are considered part-time involuntary workers) remained flat at 7,900,000.

- Average hourly earnings rose by 1 cent. The 12-month average for hourly earnings have risen at a 2.0% yearly rate.

- March's jobs created numbers were revised from 138,000 to 142,000, while April's jobs created numbers were revised downward from 165,000 to 149,000.

While most of my analysis of previous jobs reports has been lengthy, to me, the best way to sum up May's report is: more of the same. We're puttering along, a lot of people are left out of the job market (though yes, some have came back into it), and many people are taking small, part-time jobs to make ends meet. We need robust, continuous hiring of around 300-350k jobs per month for the next 3 years to bring the unemployment rate down to 6%. We are nowhere close to this, but the media will make reports like this and subsequent similar reports to come out to be great news of a "recovery." Sadly, we really haven't experienced any such thing.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts below.

Oh How the Left Loves to Hide Anti-Rich Propaganda...

You know why (well, one of the many reasons) the left teams up against the rich? It isn't just the jealousy, or the pure envy, but a mixture of those emotions and the fact that there are so few rich to compared to the amount of non-rich that exist.

Frankly, there is a bullying element in it.

But regardless, the left will stop at nothing to incorporate the "we hate the evil, stinking, filthy rich" feeling into everything they do. It feels too good not to. Those who pride themselves on "social" everything love banding together in groups (hello unions) in order to facilitate a change.

Why did I bring this up? Well, it's because I wanted to discuss the article titled, "After Your Job is Gone." - (http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/01/after-your-job-is-gone/)