The Big Bang Bucket List Of A Buddhist Blogger

Sheldon Plays Bongo While Walking Down The Stairs!

Cute Kitty Plays the Bongo in its Dreams

Bald Man Bongos Credit Amy Oops

What did one cannibal say to the other?

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“Did dinner taste ‘funny’ to you”?

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The Day in a Picture

Why America Is Failing – ‘Bills Blocked by Republican Filibusters’

And remember….it’s NOT Republican obstruction.
Here is a list of bills that would have passed the Senate if it weren’t for Republicans requiring a 60-vote threshold.

And it’s NOT the full list.

113th Congress:

‘Manchin-Toomey Background Checks’
Vote: 54-46

‘Keep Student Loans Affordable Act of 2013’
Vote: 51-49
‘Would keep the interest rate of subsidized federal student loans at 3.4% for another year’

‘Student Loan Affordability Act’
Vote: 51-46
‘Would keep the interest rate of subsidized federal student loans at 3.4% for two years’.

‘Sequestration replacement’
Vote: 51-49
‘Would postpone the sequester until Jan 2, 2014
Required millionaires to pay at least a 30% tax rate’
112th Congress

‘Bring Jobs Home Act’
Vote: 56-42
‘Would grant businesses a tax credit for eliminating a business outside the US and relocating it in the US
Would deny businesses a tax deduction for outsourcing expenses related to outsourcing a business’
‘Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act’
Vote: 53-44
‘Gives small businesses a tax credit if their 2012 payrolls were higher than their 2011 payrolls’
‘Paycheck Fairness Act’
Vote: 52-47
‘Requires employers to prove differences in pay are not gender-related
Would allow employees to discuss salaries without retaliation, and allows government to collect data on women workers to better evaluate the wage gap’
‘DISCLOSE Act’
Vote: 51-44; reconsidered 53-45
‘Requires corporations, super PACs, labor unions, and other groups to disclose donors who give in excess of $10,000 for political contributions’
‘Paying a Fair Share Act of 2012’
Vote: 51-45
‘Requires millionaires to pay a 30% minimum tax rate
Expresses the Sense of the Senate that tax reform should repeal unfair loopholes and expenditures and make sure the wealthiest taxpayers pay a fair share of taxes’
‘Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act’
Vote: 51-47
‘Extends tax credits for energy efficient residences, electric vehicles, and other alternative forms of energy including wind facilities’
‘Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act of 2011’
Vote: 50-50
‘Allocates grants to states to help them rehire teachers and others working in educational support’

 

110th Congress
‘DREAM Act of 2010’
Vote: 55-43
‘Emergency Senior Citizens Relief Act’
Vote: 53-45
‘Provide senior citizens with a tax credit in lieu of a Social Security COLA’
‘Paycheck Fairness Act (again)’
Vote: 58-41
‘Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act’
Vote: 53-45
‘Giving employers tax breaks for bringing overseas jobs back to America’
‘DISCLOSE Act (again)’
Vote: 59-39
From : http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/recent-business/bills-blocked-by-republican-filibusters

The GOP Lies About The Poor – ‘Economists Say Paul Ryan Misrepresented Their Research’

It’s not like Paul Ryan has ever lied before……

‘An exhaustive critique of the federal social safety net released by Rep. Paul Ryan on Monday is meant to be the intellectual foundation for an overhaul of the federal anti-poverty programs. But interviews with economists – a number of whom are cited in Ryan’s paper – suggest that he may be building his house on sand’.

‘Ryan’s 204-page report, The War on Poverty: 50 Years Later, is documented with hundreds of citations of academic work’.

‘The paper breaks down federal anti-poverty programs into eight separate categories’

‘Cash aid, education and job training, energy, food aid, health care, housing, social services, and veterans affairs’.

‘And reviews the evidence for and against their effectiveness, relying in large part on academic research’.

‘However, several economists and social scientists contacted on Monday had reactions ranging from bemusement to anger at Ryan’s report, claiming that he either misunderstood or misrepresented their research’.

‘Ryan’s paper, for example, cited a study published in December by the Columbia Population Research Center measuring the decline in poverty in the U.S. after the implementation of Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.”

‘One of the study’s authors, Jane Waldfogel, a professor at Columbia University and a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, said she was surprised when she read the paper, because it seemed to arbitrarily chop off data from two of the most successful years of the war on poverty’.

• ‘“It’s technically correct, but it’s an odd way to cite the research,” said Waldfogel. “In my experience, usually you use all of the available data. There’s no justification given. It’s unfortunate because it really understates the progress we’ve made in reducing poverty.”
• ‘Barbara Wolfe, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said Ryan’s paper simply misstates the findings of one of her papers studying the effect of housing assistance on labor outcomes’.

 

‘Ryan’s report says the authors find that “recipients initially experience an average annual decline in earnings of $858 in the initial year of voucher receipt. However, the negative income effect decreased to $277 five years after voucher receipt.”

• “This is misstated,” Wolfe said in an email. “Our findings are a decrease of $598 NOT his $858 and in five years the decrease we estimate is $47.46 (which is not statistically different from zero).”

From : http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2014/03/04/Economists-Say-Paul-Ryan-Misrepresented-Their-Research

A Republican World – Blog Running – ‘No more golden years: 7 ways Americans have been robbed of a comfortable retirement’

 

1. ‘A $6.8 Trillion Retirement Deficit in America. But $8 Trillion in New U.S. Wealth Was Created in 2013’.

• ‘The problem is that most of the new financial wealth went to the richest 10% (almost 90 percent of all stocks excluding fast-disappearing pensions). Basically you already had to be rich to share in the new wealth, and the people taking the wealth can defer taxes as long as they want, and then pay a smaller rate than income earners. Meanwhile, according to the National Institute on Retirement Security, Americans are at least $6.8 trillion short of what they need for a comfortable retirement’.

$6,500 is the Median Retirement Fund for Upper-Middle-Class 50- to 64-Year-Olds

• ‘That’s based on an analysis of the second-highest quartile of Americans by the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. It may get worse before it gets any better. The percentage of 75- to 84-year-old seniors falling into poverty doubled from 2005 to 2009. That was BEFORE the recession. And the number of elderly Americans, notes the Administration on Aging, is steadily rising, likely by 75 percent between 2010 and 2030, to almost 70 million people’.

 ‘ZERO Wealth Gained among 93% of Us, While the Richest 12,000 Families Made $100,000 EVERY Day’

• ‘It’s estimated that the richest .01% each made at least $40 million last year. A work day for many of them consists of logging in to their portfolio to see how many tens of thousands of dollars were added in the previous 24 hours. A stunning 93 percent of Americans LOST wealth, on average, in the post-recession “recovery.”

‘TWICE the Cost of Pensions — That’s What Ten States Pay in Corporate Subsidies’

• ‘This comes from a study by Good Jobs First of ten states with severe pension issues. The study found that “in all 10 states, the total annual cost of corporate subsidies, tax breaks and loopholes exceeds the total current annual pension costs.”
• ‘Americans who have worked all their lives, dutifully paying for their retirement years, continue to be accused of greed and threatened with pension cutbacks. David Cay Johnston calls it “nothing short of theft.”

 ’40 Cents of Every 401(k) Dollar Goes to the Banks’

• ‘Saving $1,000 a year for 30 years in a non-fee 401(k) fund and then holding the accumulated sum for another 20 years would net an investor $269,000. With a smallish-sounding industry average fee of 1.3%, the same investor would net just $165,000, a 39% reduction’.

‘Two Dollars: The Approximate Wealth of Black Families for Every $100 of Wealth for White Families’

• ‘According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), median wealth for black families in 2009 was $2,200, compared to $97,900 for white families. ( Pew Research reported $5,677 for blacks, $113,149 for whites)’.
• ‘It doesn’t seem possible that this number could get worse. But since the recession, black and Hispanic wealth has dropped further, by 30 to 40 percent, as the wealth of white families dropped 11 percent’.

 Almost 10 Percent of an Underserved Household’s Retirement Money Goes for Financial Fees

• ‘A U.S. Office of Inspector General survey reports that “The average underserved household has an annual income of about $25,500 and spends about $2,412 of that just on alternative financial services fees and interest.” That includes fees for payroll cards, prepaid cards, subprime auto loans, and numerous other financial products that are sold to over 68 million financially underserved U.S. households’.

‘A Death Tax? It’s not the tiny amount paid on multi-million dollar estates. Instead, it’s the slow death of millions of baby boomers, the victims of 35 years of deregulated greed at the very top of our nation’s mountain of wealth’.
From : http://www.salon.com/2014/03/03/no_more_golden_years_7_ways_americans_have_been_robbed_of_a_comfortable_retirement_partner/

The Republican War On The Poor – The ‘Voting To Cut Food Stamps By $39 Billion Was Just A Test” Edition – ‘Rep. Paul Ryan Unveils Precursor to Push for Safety Net Slashing’

Oh and they are NOT going to raise the minimum wage either.

‘Entitled The War on Poverty: 50 Years Later, the 204-page report looks at dozens of poverty-fighting programs including Medicaid, public housing, Supplemental Security Income and the National School Lunch Program, and comes a day before President Obama is set to send his 2015 budget to Congress’.

‘The Washington Post reports that

“Ryan said the crux of the report is the conclusion that federal programs need to be entirely reimagined, with more than tweaks or axed appropriations, and that legislation this year should move toward broader solutions that solve what he thinks are structural weaknesses in how the government supports the poor. […]”

“This document is a precursor not only of our budget but of our larger project to introduce poverty reforms over the course of this year,” Ryan said”.

‘On the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, the report states: “The academic literature suggests that SNAP reduces poverty — but not by much. The program also reduces labor – force participation somewhat.”

‘As for Head Start, the report states that it is “failing.” It says the National School Lunch Program contributes to obesity, and those enrolled in Medicaid have “poorer health” than those with any insurance at all’.

• ‘Despite noting successes of 16 federal programs, Ryan’s report characterizes the safety nets as a “poverty trap.”

From : http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/03-6

A Libertarian World – ‘Rand Paul seeks Kentucky law to run for president, Senate at same time’

If Rand Paul and Libertarian’s in general, don’t like something….it’s Unconstitutional!!

‘Opening a door to hedge his political bets, Sen. Rand Paul has asked the leader of the Kentucky Senate for legislation to ensure that Mr. Paul can run both for the White House and for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2016, The Washington Times has learned’.

“Yes, I am working on clarifying an ambiguous state law that Rand Paul believes is unconstitutional if it is interpreted to bar running for re-election to the Senate and for president at the same time,” Kentucky Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer told The Times on Monday’.
From : http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/3/rand-paul-looking-to-hedge-bet-in-2016-election/?page=all

A Liberal vision of America – ‘Harry Reid To Push New Bill Restoring Unemployment Benefits’

 

The only question is which Republican Senator will filibuster it so that it will take 60 votes to actually help Americans.

‘Source: Huffington Post’

WASHINGTON — ‘Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will introduce new legislation Tuesday to restore long-term unemployment insurance for 2 million workers’.

‘According to an aide, the bill would reauthorize the compensation for six months retroactive to Dec. 28th, when the benefits lapsed for 1.3 million workers (more claimants have become eligible for federal benefits since then)’.

‘Reid’s plan is to use savings from the recently passed farm bill in order to offset the cost of the measure and win Republican support’.
From : http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014745505

A Republican World – America!….The Greatest Country In The World!! – ‘More Than 2 Million Unemployed Workers Are Now Going Without Benefits’

It must be time for Republicans to take another vote to delay Obamacare or vote to cut food stamps or Veterans benefits……….again.

So the ‘greatest Country in the World‘ turns it’s back on those most in need.

Is THAT what makes us the ‘greatest Country in the World‘?

‘As of this week, the number of long-term unemployed people who are no longer receiving unemployment benefits hit the 2 million mark, according to the National Employment Law Project’.

From : http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/03/04/3359241/long-term-unemployed-2-million/

‘House Republicans just voted to cut food stamps by $39 billion’.
@ : http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/19/heres-how-the-house-gop-would-cut-39-billion-from-food-stamps/

‘GOP blocks veterans jobs bill with budget vote’
@ : http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/250391-gop-kills-veterans-jobs-bill-with-budget-vote

‘With just 41 votes, Republican senators block veterans benefits bill’
@ : http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/27/1280922/-With-just-41-votes-Republican-senators-block-veterans-benefits-bill

“All it takes is one good man with a gun….” – ‘Man Accidentally Shoots 12-Year-Old Driving By His House, Immediately Shoots Self’

A gun, any gun is manufactured for one reason and one reason only.

To kill.

Anyone who doesn’t understand that and respect that should never be allowed to own a gun.

‘Ventura Santos Mateo, 60, was in his garage teaching a friend how to clean his gun’.

‘Investigators said he was holding a Sig Sauer pistol above his waist when the weapon discharged in the direction of the street, striking the girl in her right upper arm’.

‘The 12-year-old was riding in the front seat of the car, with her younger brother in the back seat. Her father didn’t realize she had been shot until he pulled into his driveway about a block down the street’.

“Surprised and distressed by the inadvertent shot, Mateo ‘nervously’ shot again by accident, striking himself in the left thigh,” the Sentinel reported, citing police’.

‘Both he and the girl are expected to recover from the injuries’.\

‘A police report said he won’t be charged, but authorities are still investigating the incident’.
From : http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/man-accidentally-shoots-12-year-old-driving-by-his-house-immediately-shoots-self