Korean Automobile Manufacturer Breaks Into American/Japanese Stronghold

The 2010 Hyundai Genesis is a sporty rear-wheel-drive luxury sedan that takes the top position in Hyundai's lineup, above the front-wheel-drive Azera. In its second year of production, the Genesis returns with an updated navigation system, a new adaptive cruise control option, and other minor trim adjustments. With a base price of about $33,000 for V-6 versions and $38,000 for the V-8 edition. Image Credit: Hyundai America

Korean Automobile Manufacturer Breaks Into American/Japanese Stronghold

According to the latest Kelley Blue Book www.kbb.com Market Intelligence Brand Watch™ study, Korean automaker Hyundai has made its first foray into the top five most-considered auto brands among new-car shoppers, ousting Japanese brand Nissan into sixth place.

Domestic auto manufacturer Ford continues its reign in the top spot as the most-considered among the 37 new-vehicle brands tracked in the Kelley Blue Book Market Intelligence study, followed by Toyota, Chevrolet, Honda and Hyundai, respectively.

The Hyundai Genesis claims larger luxury sedans like the Mercedes E-Class and BMW 5-Series as its competition-though it naturally lines up against such sedans as the Chrysler 300, Lexus GS, and Infiniti M as well. Image Credit: Hyundai America

Kbb.com Brand Watch Q2 2010 Study

Top Five Most-Considered Auto Brands Overall (Regardless of Segment)

Ford 29%

Toyota 22%

Chevrolet 21%

Honda 20%

Hyundai 13%

According to the Q2 2010 Brand Watch Study, over the past quarter Hyundai consideration has surged nearly six percentage points in the non-luxury coupe/sedan/hatchback segment, now garnering 29 percent of the total consideration among shoppers of this segment and bested only by Honda (45 percent), Toyota (42 percent) and Ford (38 percent).

Ford continues to hold court as the most-considered automotive brand among new-car shoppers, further increasing its lead over the second most-considered brand, Toyota (Ford has 29 percent of overall brand consideration regardless of segment, whereas Toyota has 22 percent). In Q2 2010, Ford particularly excelled in the non-luxury SUV/CUV segment, increasing its lead by four percentage points over the previous quarter to capture nearly half (46 percent) of the consideration among new non-luxury SUV/CUV shoppers. In comparison, Honda and Toyota tie for second and third places, each only having 35 percent.

Meanwhile, Toyota continues to experience the fallout from its recall and reputation crisis earlier this year. Since one year ago (Q2 2009), overall Toyota consideration has fallen eight percentage points (from 30 percent to 22 percent), now holding steady to its number two spot when it formerly dominated the number one spot. In addition, Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus experienced an all-time low since 2007 in the luxury sedan/coupe/hatchback category at 30 percent in Q2 2010 (down from 41% in Q1 2007).

On a bright note for Toyota, the company’s lauded “Swagger Wagon” marketing campaign for the all-new redesigned 2011 Sienna is resonating well with consumers, as the brand surged more than six percentage points in the minivan category over the past quarter to now capture 53 percent of the category consideration for Q2 2010. In addition, new-car shoppers ranked the Toyota brand tops in the minivan category for exterior styling.

“The latest Kelley Blue Book Market Intelligence findings show how the deck is being reshuffled in the automotive marketplace, with certain brands now holding places in consumer perception that we may not have believed just one or two years ago,” said James Bell, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com. “Ford continues its upward trajectory and Hyundai is truly on a roll. Both brands prove that when you make dynamic, exciting and affordable products that appeal to the new-car shopping masses, consumer perception begins to change and subsequently, sales will follow.”

For Q2 2010, new-car shoppers rank durability/reliability, driving comfort, fuel efficiency, driving performance and safety (respectively) as the top five important factors while shopping for their next new vehicle.

The Q2 2010 Kelley Blue Book Market Intelligence Brand Watch Study was fielded to more than 3,000 in-market new-car shoppers on Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com from April 6 – June 17, 2010. Kelley Blue Book’s Brand Watch is an ongoing study tracking and trending consumer perceptions, detailing strengths and weaknesses of makes within each segment. Brand Watch primarily tracks brand consideration, segment consideration, important consideration factors for new-car shoppers, and how brands perform on those important factors. Kelley Blue Book Market Intelligence has been tracking Brand Watch since 2007.
(ht: KBB)

... notes from The EDJE

H1N1 Flu Pandemic Danger Is Over ... For Now

Image Credit: US Army, Ft. Bliss

H1N1 Flu Pandemic Danger Is Over ... For Now

The World Health Organization (WHO) says the intensity of outbreaks has been reduced and H1N1 virus is no longer as dominant as it once was. The end of the H1N1 influenza pandemic is now in sight. Fear of H1N1 has now receded to the point that the WHO is expecting to declare the pandemic over in the next week or so.

We, at MAXINE, however, believe that after seeing how the Obama Administration responded to the BP oil rig failure in the Gulf of Mexico ... keep the filtration breathing masks that you bought and make sure to get you flu shots early ... and often!

Image Credit: World Health Organization

This excerpted and edited from the Globe and Mail (Canada) -

WHO to declare H1N1 pandemic over
By Joe Friesen - From Monday's Globe and Mail Published on Sunday, Aug. 08, 2010 11:17AM EDT Last updated on Sunday, Aug. 08, 2010 9:48PM EDT

For a few weeks last autumn, fear of pandemic influenza stalked the land. Death seemed to lurk around every corner. A sneeze in public could draw a reproachful glance, and every handshake sent the anxious fumbling for their hand sanitizer. Gradually, the panic subsided, to be replaced by confusion over all the fuss made by governments and public-health agencies.
----
Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, said the panel of experts that advises the WHO is feeling increasingly confident H1N1, which has killed more than 18,000 people around the world, has taken on the characteristics of a typical seasonal flu.

“All in all, people feel that the overall picture looks like we are ready to declare post-pandemic globally very soon,” Dr. Chan said.

Every pandemic eventually becomes a seasonal flu strain. This fall, when flu season arrives again, H1N1 will still be one of the major variants floating around, but the population has shown sufficient resistance to it that there have been very few new deaths or flu activity in Canada since February, according to Dr. Perry Kendall, British Columbia’s provincial health officer.
----
“We were planning with [avian flu] and 1918 in mind, and that meant you had to develop a vaccine as quickly as possible. The lesson learned from this is that unless we get some radical new technologies we’re not going to get an influenza vaccine within the first six months. That means for the first wave of the virus, there’s going to be no vaccine to protect people.” [Kendall]
----
The pandemic’s end will be declared as it takes its second tour of winter in the Southern Hemisphere. So far there has been evidence the intensity of outbreaks has been reduced and the virus is no longer as dominant as it once was.
Reference Here>>

Best takeaway? ... "The lesson learned from this is that unless we get some radical new technologies we’re not going to get an influenza vaccine within the first six months" ... make sure to get you flu shots early, and often, and stock up on the breathing masks now before people start dropping.

Image Credit: US Army, Ft. Bliss

Any combination of these symptoms should be enough of a concern to seek medical advice. Fever above 100.5 F - Cough - Sore Throat - Headache - Nausea - Vomiting.

Recommended actions to prevent spread of H1N1 infection:

-Hand washing with soap and warm water. Cold water is not as effective for killing germs. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

-Use a tissue to cover your nose and mouth when you cough or sneeze, or cough or sneeze into your elbow/sleeve rather than your hand.

-Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth.

-Avoid close contact with people who are sick.

-Those with flu-like symptoms should stay home from work, school and social gatherings.

Political Definitions For A Difinative Tea Party Movement

Despite the dearth of any proof, the Religious Left climbed aboard immediately with the worst assumptions based primarily on their own projected stereotypes of conservatives. The UCC’s Rev. Black insisted that he was “not surprised because I have long suspected that racism and homophobia are some of the underlying motives.” He called upon his “brothers and sisters in the United Christ of Christ and our faith partners to resist entering into dialog or debate with such demonstrations of hate that go against our Christian understanding to love our neighbors.” Caption & Image Credit: FrontPageMagazine.com

Political Definitions For A Definitive Tea Party Movement

Ever since the Tea Party began to receive real political traction when candidates they supported were winning elections, or primaries to elections, in impressive numbers, the Main Stream Media as well as the White House have tried to define just what the Tea Party Movement really is.

When Rand Paul won in an upset over all other Republican Senate nominee candidates in Kentucky, the MSM tried to characterize this and other wins as "Anti-Incumbency", "Anger", and worse ... "Racist Backlash" in an attempt to discredit the Movement. Taxed Enough Already (which many say what the TEA in Tea Party stands for), however, does not communicate enough to have people understand just how deep this Movement is and how deep the problems we have in our political system as it exists in Washington DC.

The Tea Party is gaining strength because people are beginning to understand that we all are in a Class Warfare but not the class warfare the MSM wants us all to be directed to - IE: Rich vs Poor / Haves vs Have Nots.

No, the Class Warfare we are all involved in is the Political Class vs the Country Class. It is this definition and its understanding that the Tea Party Movement really needs to make as its centerpiece above all other definitions ... Republican or Democrat.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan (L) U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2nd-L), U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (2nd-R) and South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-Young (R) speak to the media at the UN truce village building that sits on the border of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), on July 21, 2010 in Panmunjon, South Korea. Secretary Gates and Secretary Clinton participated in talks with their Korean counter parts and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak. Caption & Image Credit: Mark Wilson - Pool/Getty Images/Clarity Media

This excerpted and edited from The American Spectator -

America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution
By Angelo M. Codevilla - The American Spectator, from the July 2010 - August 2010 issue

... American people started referring to those in and around government as the "ruling class." And in fact Republican and Democratic office holders and their retinues show a similar presumption to dominate and fewer differences in tastes, habits, opinions, and sources of income among one another than between both and the rest of the country. They think, look, and act as a class.
----
Differences between Bushes, Clintons, and Obamas are of degree, not kind. Moreover, 2009-10 establishment Republicans sought only to modify the government's agenda while showing eagerness to join the Democrats in new grand schemes, if only they were allowed to.

Sen. Orrin Hatch continued dreaming of being Ted Kennedy, while Lindsey Graham set aside what is true or false about "global warming" for the sake of getting on the right side of history.

No prominent Republican challenged the ruling class's continued claim of superior insight, nor its denigration of the American people as irritable children who must learn their place. The Republican Party did not disparage the ruling class, because most of its officials are or would like to be part of it.

Never has there been so little diversity within America's [POLITICAL] upper crust.
----
Today's ruling class, from Boston to San Diego, was formed by an educational system that exposed them to the same ideas and gave them remarkably uniform guidance, as well as tastes and habits. These amount to a social canon of judgments about good and evil, complete with secular sacred history, sins (against minorities and the environment), and saints.

Using the right words and avoiding the wrong ones when referring to such matters -- speaking the "in" language -- serves as a badge of identity.

Regardless of what business or profession they are in, their road up included government channels and government money because, as government has grown, its boundary with the rest of American life has become indistinct.
----
America's ruling class speaks the language and has the tastes, habits, and tools of bureaucrats. It rules uneasily over the majority of Americans not oriented to government [the Country Class].
----
The gravity of such divisions points us, as it did Lincoln, to Mark's Gospel: "if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand."
----
The ruling class's appetite for deference, power, and perks grows.

The country class disrespects its rulers, wants to curtail their power and reduce their perks.

The ruling class wears on its sleeve the view that the rest of Americans are racist, greedy, and above all stupid.

The country class is ever more convinced that our rulers are corrupt, malevolent, and inept.

The rulers want the ruled to shut up and obey.

The ruled want self-governance.

The clash between the two is about which side's vision of itself and of the other is right and which is wrong. Because each side -- especially the ruling class -- embodies its views on the issues, concessions by one side to another on any issue tend to discredit that side's view of itself.

One side or the other will prevail. The clash is as sure and momentous as its outcome is unpredictable.
Reference Here>>

We, at MAXINE believe, the Tea Party Movement needs to be able to take up the cause of the Country Class. This is the only cause that will tip the balance of this "high school" power struggle, that will be able to maintain our country, and the individual freedoms it guarantees through the Bill Of Rights and the Constitution.

Barack Obama's Economic Train On A One-Way, Dead-End Track

Runaway Train of Thought by Tzod Earf. Image Credit: toonpool

Barack Obama's Economic Train On A One-Way, Dead-End Track

We are nearing the second quarter of 2010, ending 17 months of a disastrous economic policy that has not delivered jobs and has increased government debt to one-trillion dollars, four times larger than at anytime in our history as a country.

The $787 Billion dollar (revised upward to $865 Billion dollars), stimulus spending package has not delivered on its promise to hold unemployment down to only 8% (currently hovering around 10%) and the "shovel ready" projects that local and state governments had in the wings and were often cited as to where the money would be spent only amounted to about 10% of the spending. Most of the spending has been absorbed by the extensive network of bureaucracies that paid for studies performed by people who were already employed in education and research organizations ... organizations that do not add to the Gross Domestic Product of goods and services that grow an economy and build an economy.

The recognition of the one-way government spending track that dead-ends when the money runs out - because printing money without the goods & services to back up the amount of dollars flowing in the economy, devalues the economy and leads to inflation - even has liberal observers at Mainstream Media outlets (MSM) up in arms in frustration.

This excerpted and edited from the New York Times -

Wrong Track Distress
By BOB HERBERT, Op-Ed Columnist, New York Times - Published: June 28, 2010

It’s getting harder and harder for most Americans, looking honestly at the state of the nation, to see the glass as half full. And that’s why the public opinion polls contain nothing but bad news for Barack Obama and the Democrats.
----
Mr. Obama and the Democrats have wasted the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity handed to them in the 2008 election. They did not focus on jobs, jobs, jobs as their primary mission, and they did not call on Americans to join in a bold national effort (which would have required a great deal of shared sacrifice) to solve a wide range of very serious problems, from our over-reliance on fossil fuels to the sorry state of public education to the need to rebuild the nation’s rotting infrastructure.
----
Mr. Obama had campaigned on the mantra of change, and that would have been the kind of change that working people could have gotten behind. But it never happened. Job creation was the trump card in the hand held by Mr. Obama and the Democrats, but they never played it. And now we’re paying a fearful price.

Fifteen million Americans are unemployed, according to the official count, which wildly understates the reality. Assuming no future economic setbacks and job creation at a rate of 200,000 or so a month, it would take more than a decade to get us back to where we were when the Great Recession began in December 2007. But we’re nowhere near that kind of sustained job growth. Last month, a measly 41,000 private-sector jobs were created.

We are in deep, deep gumbo.

The Obama administration feels it should get a great deal of credit for its economic stimulus efforts, its health care initiative, its financial reform legislation, its vastly increased aid to education and so forth. And maybe if we were grading papers, there would be a fair number of decent marks to be handed out.
----
There is a widespread feeling that only the rich and well-placed can count on Washington’s help, and that toxic sentiment is spreading like the oil stain in the gulf, with ominous implications for President Obama and his party. It’s in this atmosphere that support for the president and his agenda is sinking like a stone.

Employment is the No. 1 issue for most ordinary Americans. Their anxiety on this front only grows as they watch teachers, firefighters and police officers lining up to walk the unemployment plank as state and local governments wrestle with horrendous budget deficits.
----
By nearly 2 to 1, respondents to the most recent New York Times/CBS News poll believed the United States is on the wrong track. Despite the yelping and destructive machinations of the deficit hawks, employment and the economy are by far the public’s biggest concern. Mr. Obama is paying dearly for his tin ear on this topic. Fifty-four percent of respondents believed he does not have a clear plan for creating jobs. Only 45 percent approved of his overall handling of the economy, compared with 48 percent who disapproved.

It’s not too late for the president to turn things around, but there is no indication that he has any plan or strategy for doing it. And the political environment right now, with confidence in the administration waning and budgetary fears unnecessarily heightened by the deficit hawks, is not good.

It would take an extraordinary exercise in leadership to rally the country behind a full-bore jobs-creation campaign — nothing short of large-scale nation-building on the home front. Maybe that’s impossible in the current environment. But that’s what the country needs.
Reference Here>>

These words above were written by an op-ed opinion columnist for the New York Times who has always been a champion of progressive politics and liberal causes and happens to be African-American ... a tough, but honest assessment.

But the track analogy does not end there ...

This excerpted and edited from the Los Angeles Times -

With federal stimulus funds running out, economic worries grow
Much of the $787-billion stimulus [adjusted up to $865-billion] has been spent, creating jobs and extending jobless benefits. But with lawmakers reluctant to approve more funding, concerns are rising about staving off another recession.
By Alana Semuels, Los Angeles Times - June 30, 2010

With home sales sliding, employers reluctant to hire and world stock markets gyrating wildly, the U.S. economy is in danger of stalling. Now one of its only reliable sources of fuel is running out: federal stimulus spending.
----
Jitters about a global slowdown pounded world markets Tuesday after an index forecasting Chinese economic activity was revised downward and Greek workers walked off the job to protest government budget cuts. In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 268 points on news from the Conference Board that consumer confidence fell in June after three straight months of gains.

Economists worry that the weak labor market will spook U.S. consumers, whose spending fuels the economy. Dwindling federal stimulus funds are only heightening those fears.
----
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been contentious since Congress approved it in February 2009 to aid an economy mired in a deep recession. Republicans have been particularly critical of the program and its price tag.
----
But seventeen months later, those stimulus jobs, along with temporary government positions created for the 2010 census, are among the few bright spots in a dismal employment market. The nation's unemployment rate is 9.7% and companies have shown little willingness to hire. Private-sector employers added just 41,000 jobs in May, out of a total of 431,000 jobs created.

The government has few levers left to pull to produce quick growth. Interest rates are already at rock-bottom levels. Concerns about swelling U.S. deficits have many on Capitol Hill opposed to the idea of another stimulus. That has some economists worried.

"There's an uncomfortably high probability that we slip back into recession," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. "If we slip back, there's no policy response. We won't have the resources to respond."

To be sure, there are still thousands of ongoing stimulus projects and billions of dollars to be spent. The Obama administration is calling this "Recovery Summer" and will spotlight dozens of stimulus projects in the coming weeks. But many important programs are losing funding.
----
Efforts to extend those provisions are stalled in Congress. The National Employment Law Project estimates that 1.63 million workers will exhaust their benefits by the end of this week, and at least 140,000 workers will lose COBRA coverage.

In California, which has the nation's third-highest unemployment rate at 12.4%, the Employment Development Department estimates that 205,000 unemployed workers will not receive further benefits without congressional action. About 2 million Californians are unemployed; nearly half of them have been out of work for 27 weeks or more.

"There's nothing out there," said Jennifer Tilt, a 52-year-old resident of Bloomington, a town in San Bernardino County, whose unemployment benefits will expire soon. Tilt, who has a bachelor's degree, said she's applied for jobs at fast-food restaurants to no avail. She's dependent on her two grown children and her mother's Social Security check to pay the bills.
----
"The human impact of requiring us to find another $1.8 billion in spending cuts to replace federal funding that was designed to help states avoid deep cuts … is both cruel and counterproductive," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote to the state congressional delegation earlier this month.

Republicans say extending benefits and other provisions of the stimulus bill will add to the country's trillion-dollar deficit. "Here's another idea Democrats should consider, one that Americans have been proposing loudly and clearly: Stop spending money you don't have," Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said last week on the Senate floor.

But Democrats — and some economists — say that spending money now to create jobs and fund unemployment benefits is the only way to stave off another recession.

"What worries me the most is this idea that austerity is going to be helpful," said Michael Reich, a professor of economics at UC Berkeley, who said that ending unemployment benefits could drive more people to file for disability and hamper long-term growth. "When you make an economy shrink, it makes it harder to pay back debt in the future."

The nation's construction industry provides a window into the tough choices facing lawmakers. Federal tax credits have helped drive home sales while stimulus spending on infrastructure has put laborers back to work. Such subsidies are unsustainable in the long run. But when to pull the plug?

New-home sales dropped 33% in May as home-buyer tax credits ended. Construction employment declined in 25 states that same month, according to the Associated General Contractors of America.
Reference Here>>

Stop Spending, Stop Spending, Stop Spending money that does not exist.

It is time to implement what worked after the disastrous economy handed to us by the 39th presidency of Jimmy Carter. It is time to kill off the experiment of social engineering that caused this recession in the first place with the creation of sub-prime junk mortgages instigated through the quasi governmental organizations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, cut taxed and regulation requirements imposed by the government which restrict businesses ability to invest and grow the goods and services they produce to meet the needs of our consumer-based economy. It is time to re-embrace American Exceptional-ism!

It is time to visualize becoming a winning team once again, here in Carter's Second Term.

1st Quarter 2010 Gross Domestic Product Revised Downward 15.6% By Obama's Commerce Department

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Spain's Finance Minister Elena Salgado, Bank of Korea Governor Kim Choong-soo, South Korea's Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun and France's Economy Minister Christine Lagarde at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting. Image Credit: Reuters

1st Quarter 2010 Gross Domestic Product Revised Downward 15.6% By Obama's Commerce Department

The Obama Administration was wrong in its initial estimate of the growth in our economy during the first quarter (January through March 2010) of this second year of the 44th Presidency.

The first estimates released to the public by the Commerce Department placed the growth in the GDP, which measures consumer spending, at an anemic but sustainable 3.2%. This growth would have shown some positive effect of the nearly one-trillion dollar Stimulus Government Spending legislation that was passed into law over one year ago ... if it were true, but this initial estimate was a fabrication.

Today, the Obama Administration released a second revised figure which set the level of growth downward to only 2.7%. This growth represents a negative growth because it does not keep up with the expansion in our population and shows how little Government spending can do to spur the economy in creating wealth through economic growth.

This excerpted and edited from the Wall Street Journal -

Economists React: ‘Not an Encouraging Mix’ in GDP Report
By Phil Izzo, Wall Street Journal - June 25, 2010, 10:42 AM ET

Economists and others weigh in on the downwardly revised 2.7% advance in first-quarter GDP.

–The revision was a result of a downward adjustment to consumer spending and higher than originally reported imports, which were only partly offset by upward revisions to exports and inventories.
----
The biggest debate is over the path of the labor market recovery and hence the ability of consumers to help drive real growth.
–Joshua Shapiro, MFR Inc.

–The economy is still vulnerable to a double dip scenario. The downward revision from 3.2% in the advanced report to 3% in first revision and now just 2.7% shows that as the Obama/Bernanke stimulus wears off so does the upward momentum in the economy. With the banking and consumer sector still struggling with weak balance sheets , exogenous events like the European Sovereign Debt crisis are more likely to have lasting negative effects on the recovery.
–Steven Ricchiuto, Mizuho Securities

–The 2.7% first quarter GDP gain is below the Fed’s 2010 central tendency of 3.2% to 3.7%. Growth would have to average between 3.3% and 4.0% the rest of the year to hit the Fed’s forecast. –Jonathan Basile, Credit Suisse
Reference Here>>

Do not look for any grand leadership that has our country looking to make growth our primary agenda.

This also excerpted and edited from the Wall Street Journal -

Our Agenda for the G-20
Countries should work to stabilize debt levels, enact new financial regulation, and reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.
By TIMOTHY GEITHNER And LAWRENCE SUMMERS - WSJ Opinion Journal - JUNE 23, 2010

While the U.S. was the major source of demand for the world economic growth before the crisis, global demand must rest on many pillars going forward. That is why the G-20 must support Europe's reform program and the financing that Europe and the IMF will provide to countries facing acute fiscal challenges.
----
To maintain the momentum of the U.S. recovery, we need strong, balanced and sustainable global growth. Global growth will help double U.S. exports over the next five years, supporting several million American jobs, a key goal of the president's export initiative.
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In this new era, when emerging markets account for two-thirds of global growth, concerted action by the G-20 is the only effective way to confront the challenges that lie ahead.
Reference Here>>

Now ... doesn't that make one feel confident about the economic leadership and growth here in this era of Carter's Second Term!

We need a new coach - we can not play the "World's Game" with a leadership that doesn't care that the team has as a goal ... to win the league! ... every other team on the field has that as the goal.

The Obama Administration as Hugo Chavez - Governance through "Rule Of Edict"

The Obama Administration's U.S. Labor Secretary, Hilda L. Solis; Congressman John Larson (D-CT); and Capital Workforce Partners, Tom Phillips, discuss the importance of Summer Youth Employment Programs and developing our future workforce. (l-r) AFL-CIO, John Olsen, U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Congressman John Larson, CWP Tom Phillips, and CWP Board Chair, Rich Cohen. Image Credit: Capitalworkforce.org

The Obama Administration as Hugo Chavez - Governance through "Rule Of Edict"

It was leaked to the Associated Press today that the Obama Administration plans on making and enforcing law without involving the actual body that is the only Governmental body to create law ... the Congress.

This is a disturbing precedent, for if a President and his Administration is allowed to over reach its authority in the making and application of law in this way our country becomes a dictatorship where laws are the purview of the "Strongman" and his staff as opposed to a country that is ruled through the processes and rule of law.

This excerpted and edited from the Associated Press -

AP sources: Gay workers to get family leave
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jun 21, 8:00 pm ET

The Labor Department intends to issue regulations this week ordering businesses to give gay employees equal treatment under a law permitting workers unpaid time off to care for newborns or loved ones.
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The Family and Medical Leave Act allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year to take care of loved ones or themselves. The 1993 law, which also allows employees to take time off for adoptions, has previously only been applied to heterosexual couples.

The Labor Department planned to extend those rights based on a new interpretation of the law, the officials said. There was no plan to ask Congress to change the law.
----
Earlier this month, Obama issued orders for government agencies to extend child care services and expanded family leave to their workers. Obama's order for federal employees, though, covers only benefits that can be extended under existing law, without congressional action. Legislative action would be required for a full range of health care and other benefits.
Reference Here>>

If a non-lawmaking authority is able to interpret the procedure-based properly made law to EXTEND rights spelled out in the law ... the same bastard process could TAKE AWAY rights without the proper application of the rule of law.

With the way this 44th Presidency is allowed to make decisions ... it makes one believe they think, "HELL, why do we even have a Constitution, a Bill of Rights, and a separation of powers through three branches of Government?"

Observations Poke Finger Of Reality In The Eye Of Global Warming Protectionists

Pacific islands not drowning but growing against all AGW predictions. Image Credit: George Steinmetz/Corbis

Observations Poke Finger Of Reality In The Eye Of Global Warming Protectionists

This week, the United Nations concludes a two-week meeting in Bonn, Germany on environmental climate and Global Warming issues looking for a binding agreement on greenhouse gases.

Progress toward reaching a comprehensive global climate deal among industrial nations ... read this as a Cap & Trade money gathering scheme ... has been elusive to craft ever since information was revealed that statistical information upon which climate projections were based was tainted and fraudulently crafted by scientists working at the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia. This data was then used as the core data upon which the three other main sources used as proof the AGW exists thus placing all of their conclusions as tainted or based on fraud.

During the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change sponsored Bonn meetings which are being attended by delegates from 185 nations, the first full-fledged climate negotiations since the disappointing December summit in Copenhagen which came up only with a nonbinding political declaration ... additional information was published that helps to throw the whole "Oceans Rise", "the sky is falling" fear scenario, out of the window.

Maps of the Pacific from the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission Image Credit: SOPAC

This excerpted and edited from the New Scientist -

Shape-shifting islands defy sea-level rise
By Wendy Zukerman, New Scientist/Environment - 02 June 2010

AGAINST all the odds, a number of shape-shifting islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean are standing up to the effects of climate change.

For years, people have warned that the smallest nations on the planet - island states that barely rise out of the ocean - face being wiped off the map by rising sea levels. Now the first analysis of the data broadly suggests the opposite: most have remained stable over the last 60 years, while some have even grown.

Paul Kench at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and Arthur Webb at the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission in Fiji used historical aerial photos and high-resolution satellite images to study changes in the land surface of 27 Pacific islands over the last 60 years. During that time, local sea levels have risen by 120 millimetres, or 2 millimetres per year on average.

Despite this, Kench and Webb found that just four islands have diminished in size since the 1950s. The area of the remaining 23 has either stayed the same or grown (Global and Planetary Change, DOI: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2010.05.003).
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All this means the islands respond to changing weather and climate. For instance, when hurricane Bebe hit Tuvalu in 1972 it deposited 140 hectares of sedimentary debris onto the eastern reef, increasing the area of the main island by 10 per cent.
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It's been thought that as the sea level goes up, islands will sit there and drown. But they won't
Reference Here>>

But, of course, we mustn't leave the recent ability of human analysis of the Earth's climate and the presumed effects the activities on this climate ... however fraudulently crafted, alone. The United Nations will not let the pesky observed truth in the processes of this planet or besmirched information from studies that the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change had paid for from the CRU over the last 15 years, get in the way of the advancement of progressive politics.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change logo. Image Credit: UNFCCC

This excerpted and edited from Yahoo/AP -

New climate chief: 'no option' but to take action
By VERENA SCHMITT-ROSCHMANN, Associated Press Writer - Wed Jun 9, 2:47 pm ET

World nations have no choice but to join forces to stop global warming, but achieving a legally binding treaty this year should not be the only focus, the new U.N. climate chief said Wednesday.

Christiana Figueres [Costa Rica] said that "governments will meet this challenge, for the simple reason that humanity must meet this challenge."

"We just don't have another option," said Figueres, who replaces Yvo de Boer next month as head of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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The Bonn meeting is to pave the way to the next U.N. climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of the year which some countries hope will provide a breakthrough.
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Even if a treaty is agreed on, "I don't believe that we will ever have a final agreement on climate, certainly not in my lifetime."

Her predecessor de Boer, who had struck a pessimistic note on Monday saying in his final speech to Bonn delegates that he had given up on ambitious short-term climate goals, said he was hopeful for the long term.

"We are on a long journey to address climate change," de Boer said.
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"I am confident that in Cancun you will not only try but succeed" in setting up a structure for the fight against climate change, he said.

Scientists [what scientists? ... the one's who are being paid to create studies to prove AGW no matter what?] say industrial countries need to cut their emissions by 25-40 percent as compared to 1990 levels by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050. So far, pledges to cut greenhouse gases only add up to about 13-14 percent by 2020.
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Alden Meyer, of the U.S.-based group Union of Concerned Scientists, said expectations of Figueres were high.
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The upcoming Cancun summit will be the "time for delivery" on these promises, she said. "I am convinced that Cancun is going to be very productive, that it is going to be successful."
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Experts were discussing a rough draft of a document that could become the core of the climate treaty. For now, it still leaves all of the major issues open — particularly questions about which countries should have to cut emissions and by what amount, and how to generate funds to help poor nations fight climate change.

"We are still looking for breakthroughs" before the talks end Friday, Boeve said.
Reference Here>>

We, at MAXINE, have always believed that this effort is not so much about helping to protect the Earth and live cleanly ... but it is all about controlling human activity in the name of the progressive political agenda of creating a central governance and punish groups of humans that believe in GOD granted personal freedoms. This type of agenda leads to mass slavery through taxation, and human activity control through Communism.

Al Gore's World ... Cools

The Gores e-mailed their friends to tell them of the separation. They called it "a mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together following a process of long and careful consideration," in the e-mail, which was obtained by the Associated Press. Image Credit: CultureMap Houston

Al Gore's World ... Cools

In a report that even has political insiders surprised ... Tipper and Al Gore are getting separated from their marriage union of forty (40) years.

The funny thing about the timing of this announcement is that it comes just about nine months after the revelation that all of the core information from the University of East Anglia in England that the Oscar Award winning movie (some insist that it was a documentary) was trumped up, fixed, fitted, and distorted in order to prove the theory of AGW ... or human caused climate change.

Nine months just happens to be the gestation period for humans to create a baby. In this case, given the announcement itself now that the Gore family has two multi-million dollar mansions, one has to ask ... does this prove that the world is actually cooling and not warming?

What is next, will the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences be asking for their statue back?

Will carbon credits end up having to be refunded? ... Probably, but not until after Tipper Gore gets her share of the presumed profits from the Gore Family fortune!

With Obama, when everything is critical, nothing is critical

President Barack Obama checks for tar balls washed ashore at Port Fourchon Beach Friday. The President visited the Gulf Coast of Louisiana to assess the latest efforts to counter the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Image Credit: David Grunfeld

With Obama, when everything is critical, nothing is critical

Lately, President Barack Obama has become less and less popular primarily because his policies do not seem to be working, people are finding out what is actually in the new Healh Care law (Obamacare), and the Obama Administration more than ever, operates in a business as usual payoff process as government is use to being run in Chicago (see Joe Sestak).

Yesterday, the 44th President decided to hold a press conference for the first time in 308 days. Many issues are beginning to come to a head, not the least of which would be the continuing disaster of oil being discharged out of a damaged oil well that took 11 lives about 40 days ago. During the presser, Obama stated clearly that HE was in charge of everything, but when asked about wither Elizabeth Birnbaum, the head of the troubled U.S. agency that oversees offshore drilling - which President Obama said was "plagued by corruption" at the beginning of his presidency - had resigned or was fired (the event of her departure was reported earlier in the day), Obama stated, "Now, with respect to Ms. Birnbaum, I found out about her resignation today. Ken Salazar has been in testimony throughout the day, so I don't know the circumstances in which this occurred." So, is this a man really in charge?

Today, Friday, President Obama flew down to the Gulf Coast and visited for three hours. Oil is still spewing out of the breached well and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal still has yet to receive all of the approvals he needs from the Federal Government to make sand barriers along the outer islands along the coast. In Barack Obama's own words about Louisiana lifted from his administrations website at WhiteHouse.Gov/Issues/Additional-Issues -

Katrina - President Obama will keep the broken promises to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

He and Vice President Biden will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again [NEVER AGAIN] allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur.
Reference Here>>

Memorial day is celebrated this weekend and this President has decided to spend his time around Chicago, vacationing with his wife and kids as opposed to visiting Arlington National Cemetery in honor of our soldiers that have died and to stand up as the Commander-In-Chief of our troops that are currently fighting two wars and are dispatched in harms way to protect our personal freedom anchored way of life.

Here are some of the commitments Barack Obama has made over the last month about what he believes have the highest priority.

This excerpted and edited from National Review Online -

Obama’s Ever-Changing Top Priorities
By Jim Geraghty - May 27, 2010 1:20 PM

Today President Obama said that stopping the oil spill has been his “highest priority.”

He seems to have a lot of top priorities; he’s identified several in his remarks since the initial explosion on the oil rig April 20.

President Obama with Mexican president Felipe Calderon, May 19: “We agreed to continue working aggressively on our highest economic priority, which is creating jobs for our people.”

Obama with Hamad Karzai, May 12: “This is a reaffirmation of the friendship between the American people and the Afghan people. When I came into office, I made it very clear that, after years of some drift in the relationship, that I saw this as a critical priority.”

Obama at the Business Council, May 4: “More broadly, spurring job creation and economic expansion continues to be our number one domestic priority.”

Obama at a town-hall meeting in Ottumwa, Iowa, April 27: “I don’t want to close off trade with other countries — I want to open those countries because that’s a lot of where the growth is and that’s where we can sell our products and we’ve got a competitive advantage. But we’ve got to keep on pushing and be tough in our negotiations, and that’s something that’s going to be a top priority.”

Obama in Fort Madison, Iowa, April 27: “And that’s why our energy security has been a top priority for my administration since the day I took office.”
Reference Here>>

One learns early in a business life, when all memos are stamped IMPORTANT ... nothing is IMPORTANT!

Obamacare - The Law: CBO re-projects to over $1 TRILLION in expenses

The democrats where so excited when the CBO's estimated the savings over ten years will be $130 billion because of the new health care reform bill. There is a big "but". The CBO also estimates, according to Barack Obama's budget, the United States National debt will rise $9.8 Trillion dollars in the same period. Thus, Obama is going to spending $9.8 Trillion more money than the government earns from tax revenues. How? By borrowing and printing money to cover the shortfall. This will raise the National Debt from 2010 levels of $12.5 trillion to $22 Trillion - or a debt held by the average family of four of $293,326.00. Image Credit: DeficitAid.com

Obamacare - The Law: CBO re-projects to over $1 TRILLION in expenses

This week the Congressional Budget Office, formed and mandated to provide objective and impartial economic analysis assistance to the House of Representatives and the Senate, readjusted the estimate of spending ordered through the recent passage of the Health Care Reform Bill into law ... Obamacare. Discretionary spending could add another $115 billion-plus to the 10-year cost of health-care overhaul. Since there are only 300
million people living and under control of this Obamacare law to pay for this additional spending, this translates to a projected cost to every man, woman, and child to $383.33 each.

Do the math ... which should have been done before our leaders voted this Government Control Agenda known as Obamacare into law ... for every family of four ( a mother, father and two rug-rats), this translates to a family bill to come due at some time of an additional $1,533!

We, at MAXINE, ask - Where is the accountability? Where is the real social justice in a process that intentionally hides the truth of a projected action until it becomes the law of the land so it becomes almost impossible to undue such a corrosive act to living a life in freedom?

In a letter to Rep. Jerry Lewis, the CBO estimated that administrative costs for implementing the legislation will total between $10 billion and $20 billion. Various grants and programs ranging from the small ($45 million for young women's breast-health awareness) to the big ($39 billion for Indian health programs), will add up to about $105 billion. The CBO couldn’t provide an estimate for another group of grants and programs whose funding levels weren’t specified by the bill, it said.

The A.P. notes that the costs weren’t included in earlier CBO estimates because the funds are considered discretionary, to be approved by Congress as needed.

Spending is spending and this discretionary spending is spending that can not be decided upon by the individual but decided upon by a Government worker from money that the Government will collect from each of us in fees and taxes. This collected money that one earns will not be spent by the individual as he or she sees fit for their needs, but spent by the Government as they see fit and without specific and open approval of the people who pay for this spending.

This excerpted and edited from ABC News -

CBO: Health Care Bill Will Cost $115 Billion More Than Previously Assessed
Jake Tapper, Political Punch - ABC News | May 12, 2010 9:08 AM

The director of the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that the health care reform legislation would cost, over the next ten years, $115 billion more than previously thought, bringing the total cost to more than $1 trillion.
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CBO had originally estimated that the health care reform bill would result in a net reduction in federal deficits of $143 billion from 2010-2019; this revised number would eliminate most of that savings.

In a statement, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said that the new CBO analysis "provides ample cause for alarm. This comes just weeks after the Obama administration itself released an analysis confirming that the new law actually increases Americans’ health care costs. The American people wanted one thing above all from health care reform: lower costs, which Washington Democrats promised, but they did not deliver. These revelations widen the serious credibility gap President Obama is facing."
Reference Here>>

And this excerpted and edited from the New American -

ObamaCare Already Exceeds Projections
Written by Michael Tennant, New American - Wednesday, 12 May 2010 10:16

Benjamin Franklin famously said that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. It’s time to add another certainty to that list: Any government program will end up costing far more than estimated at its inception.

Medicare is probably the most famous illustration of this truism. In an outstanding article entitled “The Medicare Monster” in the January 1993 issue of Reason, Steven Hayward and Erik Peterson wrote:

At its start, in 1966, Medicare cost $3 billion. The House Ways and Means Committee estimated that Medicare would cost only about $12 billion by 1990 (a figure that included an allowance for inflation). This was a supposedly “conservative” estimate. But in 1990 Medicare actually cost $107 billion.
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Reports the Associated Press: “President Barack Obama's new health care law could potentially add at least $115 billion more to government health care spending over the next 10 years, congressional budget referees said Tuesday.” According to the Congressional Budget Office, these costs were not included in earlier estimates for two reasons: (1) because they result from discretionary spending that Congress may or may not approve (though when was the last time Congress refused to fund anything, let alone something as sensitive as healthcare?); and (2) because the legislation was rushed through Congress so quickly that the CBO didn’t have enough time to calculate the costs fully before passage.

Thus, just seven weeks after Obama signed his healthcare “reform” bill into law, it is already likely to cost 12 percent more than projected. You don’t have to be Nostradamus to foresee actual costs dwarfing the $1 trillion estimate long before the next decade is out.

The additional cost also wipes out nearly all of Obama’s alleged deficit reduction, which was supposed to be $143 billion over the next 10 years. (This claim of deficit reduction in itself barely resembles truth: The Obama bill assumes that future healthcare spending will explode and that the new bill will merely reduce the future exploding costs by $143 billion.) Of course, the administration claims it won’t allow this to happen, saying that “Obama would demand that added spending be offset with cuts in other domestic programs,” according to the AP. Don’t hold your breath.
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Congress generally dismissed fears of cost overruns. Rep. Claude Pepper (D-Fla.) said: “The cost will not be greater than our present efficient [sic] and wasteful fee-for-service system. According to experts the charge to the average family under a national health-insurance program will actually be less than it pays now, partly because the employer and government will contribute to the fund.”

Here’s one more certainty to tack on to Franklin’s maxim: In Washington, the more things change — even when it’s “change we can believe in” — the more they stay the same.
Reference Here>>

Right now, it is time to begin the actions to reduce the influence and size of our current Government and we start in November by voting for anyone who wishes to put forth the effort to REPEL OBAMACARE!

There, right there ... is over $1 TRILLION in expenses that can be cut which translates to a family-of-four savings of $13,333 - it's just a start against the nearly $300,000 this Government expects to take from each family of four over the next decade.

It's Official - Pakistan Taliban Behind Failed NY Times Square Bomb Plot

A photo of the scene where the car traveling on 45th Street crosses the intersection at the time of the incident on Saturday at Times Square. Photo released at the press conference with the New York Police Department. Image Credit: NYPD SURVEILLANCE VIDEO PHOTOGRAPH

It's Official - Pakistan Taliban Behind Failed NY Times Square Bomb Plot

Well laa-tee-daa, it has been reported today in an article produced by Reuters that the U.S. says Pakistani Taliban behind bomb attempt.

Nearly everyone who found out that an SUV was discovered, parked in Times Square, smoking, filled with un-exploded bomb materials, felt that the first suspects on that list would have been people of Muslim upbringing and middle-east decent - PERIOD.

Sadly, our current crop of political leaders do not want to protect the rest of us by playing the odds. NO ... the first public statements out of their mouths attack the character of the average naturally born American who believes that our current Government and its leaders have lost their way given American Culture.

On the very day this plot was discovered, Mayor Bloomberg of the city of New York speculated to CBS Evening News Anchor Katie Couric that the suspect behind the bombing attempt could be a domestic terrorist angry at the government who acted alone.

"If I had to guess 25 cents, this would be exactly that. Homegrown, or maybe a mentally deranged person, or somebody with a political agenda that doesn't like the [recently passed Obamacare law] health care bill or something. It could be anything," he said.

"There is no evidence here of a conspiracy, there is no evidence that it's tied into anything else. It looks like an amateurish job done by at least one person," he told Couric.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano called the scare a "potential terrorist attack" but she and other officials held off saying whether there was a link to Islamist groups or to a domestic cause in the United States. In an interview on FOX & Friends on FOX News, she would not specifically classify the potential bomb a terrorist attack or event - YouTube below.

A U.S. intelligence official told Reuters "we just don't know at this point who may be behind this event. We believe it is a one-off event"

To be truthful, given the odds proven out over the last 15 months and the majority of this 44th Presidency of the United States, one could easily speculate that if there is a bomb set to go off, or a gun to be fired into a crowd it would be a high 95%+ probability that the people behind the action would have been people of Muslim upbringing and middle-east decent.

These people who are found to be behind these actions of terrorism and murder are of this demographic and are at war (which is not a ONE-OFF event) with the western industrialized world. The United States of America sits at the top of this world as being the most successful and productive, and hence ... the most visible target.

This excerpted and edited from Reuters -

U.S. says Pakistani Taliban behind bomb attempt
Glenn Somerville, Reuters - WASHINGTON - Sun May 9, 2010 10:24am EDT

Attorney General Eric Holder on Sunday said evidence shows a Pakistan Taliban group closely allied with al Qaeda was behind the attempted bombing in New York's Times Square. Holder, in an interview on ABC television's "This Week," said there was nothing to suggest the Pakistani government was aware of the plot.
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"We know that they helped facilitate it. We know that they probably helped finance it. And that he was working at their direction," he [Atty. Gen. Eric Holder] said, referring to Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistan-born naturalized American who is now under arrest. Shahzad, 30, was arrested last Monday, two days after authorities say he parked a crude car bomb in New York's busy Times Square. Authorities say he as been cooperating in the investigation.
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Some lawmakers have suggested that people accused of terrorism should not have all the rights accorded to those charged with less serious crimes.
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Holder said it was important the government have the flexibility it needs to counter acts of terrorism but that any changes have to meet constitutional requirements.

On NBC's "Meet the Press," Holder said the administration will suggest some changes to Congress that recognize the reality that terrorism is a rising risk for the United States. "We want to work with Congress to come up with a way in which we make our public safety exception more flexible and again more consistent with the threat we face ... This is a proposal that we're going to be making and that we want to work with Congress about," Holder said.

President Barack Obama's assistant for national security, John Brennan, appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," also cited Shahzad's al Qaeda link, saying evidence showed he was working with a Pakistani militant group closely allied with al Qaeda.
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Brennan said the Pakistani government's was cooperating closely with U.S. investigators.
Reference Here>>

It is time to prepare to remove leadership that refuses to protect us at a time of war in a proper way. It is time to vote for people who recognize that our country is a target of war by inclined Muslim terrorist who are supported through a network created by al Qaeda and the Taliban.