The Big Bang Bucket List Of A Buddhist Blogger

I had to take a week off with allergies.  So it was only natural to link with Sheldon’s sick…..

Clown Car – Basset Hound Version

7 Walking Dead Things You (probably) Didn’t Know!

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The Day in a Picture

The Day in a Quote

Debunking The Republican Lies – A Republican World – The ‘Miracle’ In Texas Edition

Come on America!! Vote Republican and turn America into Idaho, Louisiana or Texas – 3rd World States!!

Governor Rick The Dick Perry wants to run for President of the United States….again.

So let’s see what a Rich The Dick Perry would do to the United States.

Running on his record.

Unemployment. Now everybody knows texas is ‘creating jobs’….

• Texas Unemployment rate : 4.9(2)
• Texas Minimum wage : 7.25(1)
• Washington State’s Unemployment rate 5.3
• Washington State’s Minimum Wage : 9.32(1)

Now you hold on there. Republican are a alwats a telling us that if you raise the minimum wage, you’ll kill jobs.

Doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of job killing in Washington State.

Yeah but Minimum wage don’t mean nothing (unless you the one making minimum wage) how about income?

• Texas $32,774 rank 26th
• Washington $42,857 rank 13th

Well shit.
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Well how about education?

‘ Percent of People Who Have Completed High School (Including Equivalency) (most recent) by state'(3)

• #6th – Washington: 89.4 %
• #49 – Texas: 78.7 %

Well shit……
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‘Health Index'(4)

• #13th – Washington: 9.87
• #45th – Texas: -11.85

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(1)http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wage-chart.aspx

(2) http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/rankings.html

(3)http://www.statemaster.com/graph/edu_per_of_peo_who_hav_com_hig_sch_inc_equ-completed-high-school-including-equivalency

(4) : http://www.statemaster.com/graph/hea_hea_ind-health-index

A Republican World – The ‘Poor Paying For The Mistakes Of The Rich’ Edition – ‘Paul Ryan’s Budget Would Increase The Number Of People in Poverty’

In a preview of a forthcoming report, the CBPP (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) notes that out of $4.8 trillion in non-defense cuts (Ryan increases defense spending by well over three-quarters if a trillion dollars) 69% of Ryan’s cuts ($3.3 trillion) come from programs that serve people precariously close to or already living in poverty.

‘The largest cuts in Ryan’s budget are for healthcare related programs and it makes the Republican goal very clear; keep the greatest number of Americans in ill-health and without any kind of healthcare coverage whatsoever’.

‘Ryan cuts at least $2.7 trillion from Medicaid and subsidies that assist low and moderate-income Americans afford private healthcare insurance that he will use as a partial payment for tax cuts for the rich’.

‘ Ryan’s plan reveals the Republicans’ goal is preventing at the very least 40 million low and moderate-income Americans, a little over 1 in 8, from having any healthcare coverage within ten years’.

‘Ryan claims his budget directly helps people living in poverty and builds great opportunities for the poor to become wealthy’.
From : http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/05/paul-ryans-budget-increase-number-people-poverty.html

‘Carl Sagan… so wise… so correct’

I had a conversation with a teabagger a couple of weeks ago. And that was her thinking.

She admitted she hadn’t read the Constitution.

When we let other poeple decide for us while making no effort to be informed…….we will fail.

A Republican World – The ‘Religious Hypocrite’ Edition – ‘Hobby Lobby Investments In Birth Control And Abortion Drugs Exposed’

‘Wait, what about Hobby Lobby’s deeply held religious views’?

‘In spite of their claims that being asked to contribute to a health insurance plan that covers emergency contraceptives violates ‘deeply held religious beliefs’, Mother Jones reveals that Hobby Lobby’s 401K plan includes investments in the very industries the owners say they oppose’.

‘The list of companies that Hobby Lobby and their employees help to fund includes the makers of Plan B, Tevo Pharmaceutical Industry, which makes the brand name Plan B drug, and Actavus, which makes a generic version. Actavus also distributes Ella, a second form of birth control that Hobby Lobby claims to be religiously opposed to’.

• ‘The plan also invests in companies that manufacture abortion drugs.

The company also has investments in Pfizer, AstroZeneca and Forest Laboratories, all companies that make drugs commonly used in abortions, including Cytotec, Prostin E2 and Cervidil, three drugs primarily used to induce abortions’.

‘Hobby Lobby’s 401K investment program, which offers an employer matching contribution, also invests in Aetna and Humana. These two health insurance companies cover abortion, abortion drugs as well as Plan B and Ella’.
From : http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/04/01/hobby-lobby-invests-abortion/

Debunking The Republican Lies – ‘Rush Limbaugh Gets Busted For Lying About Scott Walker’s Jobs Record’

‘A few weeks ago Limbaugh uncorked this whopper’:

“No matter how you look at this, A, let’s look at Wisconsin. One of the bluest of blue states. One of the bluest of the blue universities. One of the headquarter states for malcontent state unions. One of the headquarter states for malcontent Democrat Party union activism. They did everything they could not just to destroy Walker’s political career; they tried to destroy his reputation and his political life. They attempted to recall him a couple of times. The Democrats in the Senate walked out. He persevered. He overcame. He dominated, and he won. And in the bluest of blue states unemployment is around 3.5%.”

• ‘PolitiFact examined Limbaugh’s claims, and concluded’ :

“Although Wisconsin has voted for the Democratic nominee in the last seven presidential contests, as a frequent battleground state, it is far from being an automatic in the Democratic column”.

“At the state level, meanwhile, Wisconsin is currently Republican red but was recently Democratic blue, and by other measures it is somewhere between the two”.

“As for unemployment under Walker, it has dropped to near 6 percent, but nowhere near 3.5 percent.”
From :http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/05/rush-limbaugh-busted-lying-scott-walkers-jobs-record.html

Debunking The Republican teabagger Lies – ‘Tea Party Whacko Allen West Publishes Book Full Of Fake Founding Father Quotes To Explain His Political Views’

Apparently West is in competition with David Barton of Wallbuilders to see who can make up the most fake quotes from our Founding Fathers.

‘What’s the point’?

‘If you can’t find any real quotes from our founders to support your radical right wing agenda, you can just make some up’.

‘It’s most likely Allen West’s Tea Party followers will never know how many of the quotes he used in his book are fake. On the other hand, if your Tea Party relatives try to use one of these quotes at your next family gathering, at least you’ll have something to laugh about’.

‘Former Tea Party representative Allen West recently published a book which is supposed to explain his political ideology’.

‘West’s book, called ‘Guardian of the Republic,’ was recently scrutinized by a staff writer from the Palm Beach Post, who set out to verify some of the quotes in West’s book. As it turns out, many of the quotes attributed to various historical figures, are not real quotes, made by those figures’.

‘When contacted for further information on the source of the quotes, West’s co-author, Michele Hickford declined to comment’.

‘West, who is currently promoting his book to Tea Party conservatives across the country, was not available for comment’.

‘Crown Publishing, who published West’s ‘spurious’ book, also failed to respond to questions about the dubious quotes that appear within the text’.

‘In his book, West claims that Abraham Lincoln said’:

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

• ‘While this quote has been falsely attributed to Abraham Lincoln by numerous politicians and pundits, according to James Cornellius, Curator of the Lincoln Collection at the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, the quote can’t be attributed to Lincoln’.

———————–

‘West book supposedly cites the words of 19th Century French observer of America, Alexis de Tocqueville. The book claims de Tocqueville wrote that democracy’:

“can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result being that a democracy collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictator.”

• Harvard Historian Harvey Mansfield, who translated de Tocqueville’s work in 2000, said the quote ‘certainly’ is ‘spurious‘.

———————-

‘Patrick Henry is similarly misquoted in West’s book. West claims that Henry said’:

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it’s an instrument for the people to restrain the government.”

• According to Patrick Henry biographer and history Professor at Baylor University, Thomas Kidd, the quote cannot be attributed to Henry. Kidd also noted that the quote just started turning up recently, and seems to have gotten its start on the internet’.

———————-

‘No bad book is complete without fake quotes from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson’.

‘West would have been amiss to not include fake quotes from the first and third presidents of the United States, especially not after misquoting so many other historical figures’.

‘In the book West claims that George Washington said’:

“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, will be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans are treated and appreciated by our nation.”

• ‘Mary V. Thompson, Research Historian at Fred W. Smith Library for the Study of George Washington told the Palm Beach Post that the quote is not from George Washington’.

———————-

‘Thomas Jefferson is misquoted in West’s text no less than four times’.

• ‘The Thomas Jefferson Foundation maintains a list of ‘spurious quotes‘ attributed to the third president of the United States. All four of the quotes from West’s text appear on the list, so even bare bones fact checking was obviously too much for West or his co-author’.

From : http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/04/05/allen-wests-new-book-full-fake-quotes-founding-fathers/

Why America Is Failing – ‘The heir, the judge and the homeless mom: America’s prison bias for the 1% – A DuPont trust-fund creep gets probation. A black woman looking for a job cries in jail for a week. Something’s wrong here’

(Photo – The eight-year prison sentence of Robert H Richards IV was suspended. Shanesha Taylor languished in prison for more than a week. Photographs: Delaware State Police Department; Scottsdale Police’)

‘In 2009, when Robert H Richard IV, an unemployed heir to the DuPont family fortune, pled guilty to fourth-degree rape of his three-year-old daughter, a judge spared him a justifiable sentence – indeed, only put Richard on probation – because she figured this 1-percenter would “not fare well” in a prison setting’.

‘Details of the case were kept quiet until just the other day, as Richard’s ex-wife filed a new lawsuit accusing him of also sexually abusing their son’.

‘Shanesha Taylor, who has been charged with felony child abuse in Scottsdale, Arizona, because she left her two small children alone in a car for a little over an hour to attend a job interview’.

‘Taylor was taken straight to jail, where she languished for over a week’.

‘Her children were put in the custody of Child Protective Services, where they remain’.

‘Obviously leaving two small children unattended in a car was an ill-advised thing to do, but under the circumstances Taylor may simply have exercised the least bad option available to her’.
From : http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/02/dupont-heir-homeless-mom-america-prison-bias