Thursday, March 19, 2015

The Senate Budget Committee is split along party lines, 12 - 10

Social Security is entering into the discussions. The last amendment states the monies paid into Social Security by the Undocumented will be paid into the general fund. There is a significant amount of monies in the Social Security Insurance Fund paid by Undocumented Workers. This is nothing more than plunder of the Social Security Fund.

Many of the amendments passing into the Budget has the words attached to them as "Deficit Neutral." There is an article that does not recommend Deficit Neutral verbiage in any bill. (click here) 

Senator Johnson's amendment stated the federal government would not bailout any city or state pensions where their is a deficit. Senator Sanders asked Johnson to join with him in adding an amendment stating the federal government would no bailout banks or any other Wall Street crooks and bad managers. I would think with bad managers would be the petroleum industry. Senator Johnson said he didn't know if he could back those words, his amendment was to prohibit any bailout of cities and states pensions.

Senator Sessions is a piece of work. Senator Wyden wanted to maintain long term Medicaid's integrity. Sessions objection is that this is about the poor and not the elderly. Sessions stated the wording of the amendment lacks. What bothers me is that Sessions discriminates between the elderly and poor. 

...In fact, (click here) Sessions isn't just against illegal immigration. He's against more legal immigration, too - even immigration supported by those he'd otherwise call "job creators."

 
Want to build an oil pipeline across the border? He's for it. Want to bring highly skilled foreigners to Silicon Valley? Why do we have borders at all?...

I don't know if Sessions hates anyone other white men or simply anyone outside his family. That may be the same thing.

Sessions has asked for a report of the USA's history with climate change. He thinks the droughts and storms may align with the country's history at some point, hence there is no problem with funding emergency monies. What Senator Sessions has to fund is the fact the history of the USA also includes a far small population. Therefore, his question about prior storms or droughts is MUTE. The storms and droughts today are effecting vastly more people and the sixth largest economy in the world, namely California. Senator Sessions attempts to dismiss the current climate crisis by the history of the USA is hideous and ridiculous. TODAY MATTERS. 

Senator Toomey seems to think voters can discern their choice during any election regardless of the dollars spent on advertising. That was in response to Senator Sanders who asked an end to Citizen's United. Given the passionate statement by Senator Toomey I would expect any of his donations for election to be passed on to charity other than his own.

This is the front page to the US Senate Budget Committee (click here)

I had to do a double take because I thought I was Enzi's Senator page. I have never witnessed such a divisive page to a Congressional committee before. The members are listed as either Democrat or Republican on separate e-pages. The worst it usually gets is a column on the same page with Democrats in one column and Republicans in another column, but this takes it to a new low. 

This year the Senator Budget Committee is first their party and secondly a functional person that cares about Americans. 

Sessions is all about ending any government emergency spending in the US Budget. Amazing. Those seeking these funds are radicals for believing there is such a thing as the climate crisis. Sessions needs to retire. He isn't even up to date with scientific information by the USA's own scientists. 

According to Senator Sanders, the Graham Amendment will provide for another unfunded war. Senator Sanders states the past two Bush cost $3 to $4 TRILLION and it was added directly to the national debt. The Graham Amendment would cost $38 million without even beginning another war.

Senator Wyden - sixty percent of all long term care patients in facilities receive Medicaid. He states the reduction in CHIP will result in danger to that population of senior citizens (elderly). Senator Wyden states with the cuts in the budget he does not know any other way to fund long term Medicaid. 

The amendment process is completely coming down on a partisan basis.

Senator Crappo is interested in defunding DOJ to pursue gun fraud purchases. It passed. 13-9. 

Cutting Fema monies by Senator Whitehouse. Sessions is stating all storms of any kind including tornadoes are down and there is no significant drought in the country. Someone want to tell California that? It was passed. Anything hostile to the well being of Americans will pass, but, where a single American is served by their federal government is cut in the budget. 

Senator Ayotte asked for a fund for heroine addiction. It passed. Republicans have to have at least one item in the budget to make them look good. The Democrats were already on board.

They are playing with Medicare. 

Senator Sanders - There is an $600 million on defense but the DOD has yet to submit an audit. $2.3 trillion was never accounted for under Rumsfield. This amendment is to realize the fraud and the necessity to contractor overruns. Fraud and misconduct has existed in the past ten years with the defense budget. Passes.

Senator Enzi states there is an ongoing audit currently. There are many Republicans signing on to the Sander's Amendment and it passed.

Senator Murray wants clean up of nuclear problems in the USA. The funding is going to be cut at nine of the sixteen sites in this budget. Nuclear waste clean up sites are important and should not have funding cuts. Passes on voice vote.

Sequester across the board cuts are bad policy and they have to be fixed. Bipartisan Budget Act is being offered by her this year. She stated this budget can be updated with current budget caps and revenue projects. The revenues are high enough to fund the higher budget caps this year. She believes another crisis has to be averted and the cuts due to Sequester has to end. Senator Murray states the new caps are all paid for in revenue. Her amendment replaces Sequestration. Enzi is resistant to the amendment insisting there are needed taxes to meet her plan. Graham states it all sounds good but is skeptical.

Senator Stabenow states there is no petroleum liability fund for TAR SANDS OIL. The spill in Michigan is stated to be tar sands oil. She wants an amendment that will bring a tax on tar sands oil that will provide a deficit neutral fund. It would eliminate the tax right offs to the industry. Senator Murray and Baldwin wants to be added in support of the amendment. 

Senator Baldwin for NIH passes with voice vote. She also wants to create a fund for work force training and research and development. Her amendment wants to create a fund for this purpose through established practices already at work in the country. Passes on a voice vote.

That is the basic understanding in what is occurring with the budget. 

HR 9 is crony capitalism.

In 1927, (click here) Philo Farnsworth was the first inventor to transmit a television image comprised of 60 horizontal lines. The image transmitted was a dollar sign. Farnsworth developed the dissector tube, the basis of all current electronic televisions. He filed for his first television patent in 1927 (pat#1,773,980.) Although he won an early patent for his image dissection tube, he lost later patent battles to RCA. Philo Farnsworth went on to invent over 165 different devices including equipment for converting an optical image into an electrical signal, amplifier, cathode-ray, vacuum tubes, electrical scanners, electron multipliers and photoelectric materials. 

H.R. 9: Innovation Act (click here)

Rep. Rohrabacher brought opposition to the House floor to stop HR 9 that will be introduced in the next week or so.

To amend title 35, (click here) United States Code, and the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act to make improvements and technical corrections, and for other purposes.

The bill is to follow this section. Section 281 is very simple. It proves civil action on infringement. The entire sections states:

35 U.S. Code § 281 - Remedy for infringement of patent

A patentee shall have remedy by civil action for infringement of his patent. 

Rep. Rohrabacher wants HR 9 defeated to protect the US patent process. Instead, he would like to see Senator Christopher Coons' Senate bill 632 passed.

March 2, 2015
By Jeff John Roberts

“Be careful about changing patent law (click here) — it could harm innovation,” is a favorite talking point for those who oppose plans to reform to America’s troubled patent system. But what if the opposite is true? What if it’s the status quo, in which patent trolls sock productive companies with abusive lawsuits, that is hurting innovation?
That’s the position of more than 50 law professors and economists, who submitted a letter to Congress, encouraging elected officials to do something about the current mess. In one striking passage, the academics suggest patent trolls (also known as PAE’s) are wreaking havoc on both R&D and venture capital investing:

“An econometric analysis finds that the more R&D a firm performs, the more likely it is to be hit with a patent lawsuit, all else equal. Another study associates lawsuits from PAEs with a decline of billions of dollars of venture capital investment; another found that extensive lawsuits caused small firms to sharply reduce R&D spending; and yet another found that costly lawsuits caused publicly listed defendant firms to substantially curtail R&D spending,” said the letter (the cited studies can be found in the letter below)....

S.632 - STRONG Patents Act of 2015 (click here)

132 Days

Thank you, Senator Paul.

That is really nice. We are all pulling for Harry and in this case we are all pulling in the right direction.

March 18, 2015
By Ashley Killough

As Rand Paul (click here) presided over the Senate floor Wednesday morning, Democratic Leader Harry Reid took a few moments to thank the Kentucky Republican and ophthalmologist for helping him with an eye injury.
 
Reid, who now wears special dark glasses, said Paul has "has been so kind and thoughtful and considerate and visiting with me, giving me encouragement and some expert advice as to what he's seen in the past and giving me hope for better sight out of my right eye."
Reid suffered a concussion and broke several ribs and bones in his face during an exercising accident on New Year's Day, resulting in severe limitation of sight out of his right eye....

Is there DNA on the letter?

 I seriously doubt there will be a conviction without precise evidence.

March 19, 2015
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Joel Rubin and Richard Winton

...About the time Berman was killed, (click here) Beverly Hills police had received a mysterious letter. On the envelope, the writer had misspelled "Beverly." The letter contained only Berman's Benedict Canyon address and the word "cadaver." As best as investigators could tell, the letter had been postmarked on the same day, or the day after, Berman was killed.
The hand that wrote the letter, they surmised, was probably the same hand that pulled the trigger.
A search warrant released Wednesday from Houston offers a detailed narrative of how police over the last 14 years tried to identify the author of the letter....

There will be incredmental changes in the gravity of Earth during this event.

19 March 2015 
Last updated at 10:58 GMT 

Parts of northern Europe (click here) will experience a rare solar eclipse on the morning of Friday 20 March.
The far north will experience a total eclipse of the Sun, as the Moon casts a shadow onto the surface of the Earth.
But a lot of places further south will also get a taste of the rare spectacle.
Here, BBC News explains this celestial event happens and how to observe it safely - in 90 seconds.
Video by John Galliver and Victoria Gill


Zionist Union party co-leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni arrive to deliver a statement in the party's election headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, March 18, 2015.

March 19, 2015
VOA News 


Isaac Herzog, (click here) whose Zionist Union finished second in Israel's parliamentary elections, said Thursday the party will not join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's next coalition government.

Netanyahu's Likud party won 30 seats in the 120-member body, beating out the Zionist Union's 24 and putting the prime minister in position to cobble together a government and serve a fourth term.

Herzog told Israel's Army Radio that the Zionist Union will be an opposition force to "challenge a narrow right-wing government."...

The obstruction of nomination of Loretta Lynch is based in race.

In any lawsuit regarding a decision of racism with all circumstances being equal the only difference is race, that is the reason for the problem.

This is 2015 and there are other nominations that have sailed through the Senate within the past two weeks. The problem with Loretta Lynch's nomination is race. Just that simple.

The USA does not recognize the racial tones in life. Our minorities are ethnically different from the majority of our population. They have every right any American has under the law. When they are held in a different process status from any majority American and all else is equal, there is racism. This is not rocket science. 

The question is very simple, is there a racial difference between other nominations being passed into their employ and Loretta Lynch. The answer is, yes. Why her nomination as opposed to other nominations that have recently received a vote? The difference is her race. 

Politics doesn't enter the picture. Why? Because she is a minority and the reason why she is obstructed from a very important job is her race. The politics is an excuse. It is no different than poll taxes and voting obstruction, it is based in race. There are plenty of reasons to find to effect the lives of minorities in the USA. The Senate should be bending over backward to pass Ms. Lynch's nomination through. Why? Because we all should be proud of the presence of our minorities in this country in positions of power.

Just that simple. 

The Republicans are horrible in stating equal opportunity is over in the USA. That is not the case, there are still disparities and it has to end! There are tones in this country that are racist, ask any parent of a young black man. How does anyone think the tensions between the majority and other ethnicities are going to end? By playing politics with human beings? No, the differences will be dispelled when we realize how much exposure our minorities need and held in appreciation and esteem to every American in this country. When our minorities are above any obstruction and are highly regarded, then and only then will racism not be an issue.

Every day that Ms. Lynch's nomination is held in abeyance of normal process status it tells the USA there is a difference between the majority and the minority. It is translated as the privilege to do as one feels necessary where race enters the picture. 

March 19, 2015
43 minutes ago

State police (click here) have launched an investigation after footage showing the violent arrest of a University of Virginia student sparked protests and prompted concern among top officials.
Images of bloodied Martese Johnson being held down by an officer were shared widely online on Wednesday, along with footage of the black 20-year-old calling the cops handcuffing him "racists."
Johnson, a junior at the university, was arrested at 12:45 a.m. Wednesday near The Corner, a popular off-camp....

There is no intellectualizing any of this, it is very simple. 

Young black men are scared to death for their lives every day they live and breath. There is no racism in the USA, huh? 

Ms. Lynch's nomination has been held to a different standard from the beginning of her nomination. No racism, huh? 

Monsanto punishes Oregon State University for finding GMO wheat.

March 18, 2015
By Eric Mortenson 

The company (click here) will distribute money to agricultural colleges in seven states – but not in the state where the GE wheat was found.

Monsanto Company will pay $50,000 each to agricultural colleges in seven states as part of a settlement of class action lawsuits filed after the May 2013 discovery of genetically-engineered in Eastern Oregon.

The settlement contains no money for Oregon State University, however. It was OSU weed scientist Carol Mallory-Smith who confirmed the wheat found growing in the Eastern Oregon was “Roundup Ready,” meaning it could withstand Monsanto’s trademark herbicide. No GMO wheat has been approved for commercial use....

...Oregon, Washington and Idaho growers were not participants in the suit, and are not parties to the settlement. Their claims were covered in a previous $2.357 million settlement

Oregon State University, a land grant university, did not receive compensation.

I found the agility of the Tunisian police very impressive. They did a great job. Where did they learn that?

March 18, 2015
By Tarek Amara and Mohamed Argoubi

..."All Tunisians (click here) should be united after this attack which was aimed at destroying the Tunisian economy," Prime Minister Essid declared in a national address....

The Tunisian government is a newly minted government. The new constitution was recently passed and the Prime Minister only took office in February. The attack which was suppose to be carried on in a heavily guarded government building near the museum is more in reaction to the new government than anything else.

The new constitution and elected government took some time to bring it together. The party the Prime Minister represents is actually a consolidation of about six other pre-existing parties. By the coalition that formed there are many voices now heard as the result of that path forward. So, any analysis other than that is somewhat incorrect. 

The criminals that killed so many innocent people weren't really a part of an invading force so much as a disgruntled one.

The police that responded were more than likely not far away at the parliament building or the government building.

The response of solidarity within the populous after the attacks is proof of the confidence and benevolence they find in their new government. It was impressive as well.