Mitt Romney Blasts Administration's Response To Economic Peril

Former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney announced on April 11 that he is “formally exploring a presidential bid”. Image Credit: conservativesforamerica.com

Mitt Romney Blasts Administration's Response To Economic Peril

In an opinion editorial featured in the little known and non-internet posting New Hampshire Union Leader, Mitt Romney does not believe that President Barack Obama and his administration is not serious about the economic health of the country.

The OP-ED entitled "Obama is not serious about America's financial health", which Romney later posted to his Facebook page, Mitt describes what he believes an executive response to the recent Standard & Poor's signaling of a change of the United States bond rating downward should be.

This excerpted and edited from Mitt Romney's Facebook posting -

Obama is Not Serious About America's Financial Health
by Mitt Romney on Monday, April 25, 2011 at 5:29am - Originally published in the New Hampshire Union Leader

America received a giant wake-up call when Standard & Poor’s, the bond rating agency, announced that it was changing the outlook on its highly prized AAA rating for U.S. Treasuries to “negative” from “stable.” This is the first ratings warning for the United States since S&P began evaluating our creditworthiness in 1941.

S&P’s action is a significant marker of our country’s deteriorating economic position.
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Obama’s top economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, downplayed the event, saying, “I don’t make too much about it.” The President himself went on a weeklong campaign swing highlighted by six fundraisers and sharp partisan attacks against Republicans for their attempts at deficit reduction and entitlement reform.
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Consider that during the Bush years, the U.S. government’s deficit — the gap between what Washington taxes and spends within a year — hovered between 2 percent and 4 percent of GDP. Already that was a problematic level.

But in the first year of the Obama administration, the shortfall in our annual spending exploded to 10 percent of GDP — a shocking number — and has risen even higher, to 11 percent of GDP in 2011.

No less dramatic has been the explosion in our level of debt, the total amount Washington has borrowed to pay for its out-of-control spending. In 2008, our debt was 40 percent of GDP. That was bad enough. But, according to S&P, even under the most optimistic scenario our government’s indebtedness will double to nearly 80 percent of GDP by 2013. Other estimates project that our nation’s debt will equal the entirety of our nation’s economy — 100 percent of GDP — by 2020.
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The main job of any executive — whether a CEO, a governor or a President — should be to avert these dangers, or work to repair them.
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We are not on a sustainable course. The consequences may come in slow-motion, with reduced growth, chronic high unemployment and a lower standard of living. Or they may come suddenly, in the kind of cascading crises that we just witnessed when the housing-price bubble burst. The only way to avert it is to take action that is rooted in the need to reduce spending.
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The overall picture may be dark, but we should not lose sight of what we are capable of as a country. Our economy is astonishingly flexible. It is highly diversified. We have low inflation.
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Even more significant are the clear signs that the American people have had enough of a federal government that is increasing in size and dominance. We are a great republic in which change is possible. The Obama administration may not be serious about addressing the problems that have caused the S&P downgrade, but in less than two years the voters will tell us whether they will issue a decisive downgrade of their own.
[Reference Here]

There may not be enough resolve in the rest of our Government houses (the House of Congress and the Senate) to stem the tide of damage this and the previous Executive Administrations have placed on our country.

Borrowing 4 billion dollars a day (that is $12.00 a day for each and every citizen living here in the United States ... or $4,356.00 each year) to hold on to the status quo will only kill what little freedoms we enjoy here in the once grand United States.

"Light Up" For Earth Hour On Saturday - Earth Hour Is A Fraud

The incandescent light bulb is abused by environmentalists – but the alternative will only raise energy consumption (costs associated with manufacture, etc.). More and more, compact fluorescent lamps are considered to be an interim technology, awaiting the arrival of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs). Image Credit: krisdedecker.typepad.com

"Light Up" For Earth Hour On Saturday - Earth Hour Is A Fraud

Earth Hour, a rolling grassroots movement aimed at tackling Global Warming (read that as the relabeled "climate change") is getting a bunch of press coverage on having governments and individuals turn off their lights to show support for a reduction in greenhouse gasses.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007 (as a reaction to Al Gore's over-reaching movie - An Inconvenient Truth) when Earth Hour founder Andy Ridley convinced 2.2 million people to switch off the lights in their homes, offices and businesses for 60 minutes to make a point about electricity consumption and carbon pollution.

Under the Earth Hour initiative, people and Governments are cowed to switch off their lights and electrical appliances from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm on March 26, 2011 in the name of Anthropogenic Global Warming (human caused climate change).

The major problem with this Earth Hour promotion is that it is an awareness program in favor of a world solution to a problem that is proving itself to be based upon fraudulent data, data that had been shaped or worse, cherry-picked and/or destroyed to prove a conclusion.

Climategate has shown that when one follows the money, power and influence exerted through and from the United Nations IPCC, that the Scientific Method and the personal freedom of individuals are victims to the powers of entities who wish to CONTROL the world through a socialist agenda.

Since proof of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) - human caused climate change - had become the coin of the rhelm with political progressives throughout the world upon which to create the justification to enact laws to tax and limit human activity (read that as to CONTROL all humans in their pursuit of rights and happiness), and that the proof of AGW had been held by only four datasets worldwide, leaves the political progressives with only one dataset upon which to promote their agenda.

LED's at Time Warner Center in New York. Image Credit: krisdedecker.typepad.com

This excerpted and edited from the LA Times -

Southern California landmarks to join in “Earth Hour” event
March 26, 2011 6:05 pm

Notable Southern California landmarks such as the glowing pylons at Los Angeles International Airport and the Queen Mary in Long Beach will go dark between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday night in observance of international "Earth Hour."

Millions of people from more than 100 countries and territories are expected to participate in the event by switching off lights and nonessential appliances in order to conserve energy and demonstrate an awareness of environmental conservation.

At LAX, the 100-foot-tall pylons will glow solid green an hour before the event and then go dark, according to airport officials. The color-changing LAX Gateway pylons were installed in August 2000. Five years later, airport workers installed a new system of LED fixtures that consume 75% less electricity than the previous lamps and burn for 75,000 to 100,000 hours, compared to 3,000 hours for the original lights, according to airport officials.

In Long Beach the Queen Mary's exterior lights will be turned off. The event will be accompanied by entertainment, such as the ship's captain answering historical questions and local competitive cyclists producing energy for a light display. Participants will also receive vendor giveaways. Hotel guests will be asked to turn off their nonessential stateroom lights.

In Santa Monica, the famous Pacific Wheel on the city's pier will go dark. The ferris wheel's emergency lights will remain on.

At the Home Depot Center in Carson, in partnership with Chivas USA of Major League Soccer, will turn off all nonessential lighting of the 27,000-seat soccer stadium, including all lighting in the venue's 42 luxury suites, according to AEG, the company that owns and operates the venue. The Chivas will be hosting the Colorado Rapids. Other AEG facilities throughout the state will also participate, including LA Live, the entertainment hub in downtown Los Angeles.

Earth Hour is organized by World Wide Fund, one of the world's largest independent conservation organizations.
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This year, Earth Hour is challenging people to go beyond the hour and think of other ways to make a difference after the lights go on. Reference Here>>

If you are among those who know about this fraud that is being perpetrated on governments of the world and do not want to be among the "millions kept in the dark" ... turn on every light for one hour from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm on March 26 as a revolt against Global Warming alarmists.

Make Earth Hour 2010 shine brightly for freedom of all peoples across the Earth ... for the freedom to pursue their lives with the rights given to them from GOD … not leaders of nations and control-freaks.

Climategate (which came to light in November 2009) has proven that AGW is a fraud so, unfortunately, since Earth Hour was based upon fraudulent data - put forward by the United Nations IPCC, the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit, NOAA, and NASA - Earth Hour 2010, as it is intended, is a fraud (suggestion for Earth Hour 2011 - make the gesture for picking up after one's self, clean potable water, planting a tree near a ravaged rain forest, and the like).

So, we at MAXINE say, light up the sky for Earth Hour 2010 and prove that you know the truth ... AGW is a fraud and that climate change on the planet Earth is a normal function of the Earth and Earth processes (volcano eruptions, fires, deforestation, flatulence, chemical reactions of chemicals found on the surface, etc.) in association with the Sun and surrounding planets.

The Lawless, Soft Tyranny Of Carter's Second Term

The Obama Administration continues to pursue the implementation of a voided health care law ... breaking additional statutes of federal law. Image Credit: White House Photo Chuck Kennedy (2011)

The Lawless, Soft Tyranny Of Carter's Second Term

This week saw the coming and going of some major movements on the 2,700 page health care law that was passed last year by the Democrat Party, without debate, without reading, and without transparency that went by the official name of H.R.3590 - Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ... "ObamaCare"!

On Monday, January 31, 2011, a federal district court judge in Florida ruled that a key provision in the new health care law is unconstitutional, and that the entire law must be voided.

Federal Judge Roger Vinson agreed with the 26 state-government plaintiffs that Congress exceeded its authority by passing a law penalizing individuals who do not have health insurance.

"I must reluctantly conclude that Congress exceeded the bounds of its authority in passing the Act with the individual mandate," Vinson writes. "Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not sever-able, the entire Act must be declared void."

On Wednesday, February 2, 2011 the United States Senate held a vote to REPEAL the 2,700 page health care law. Senate Democrats fended off a Republican effort to repeal the law overhauling the health care system, voting down the measure, 47-51, submitted as an amendment to an airports construction bill. So, Senate Democrats voted to uphold a Federal Court voided and unconstitutional ObamaCare law.

This places our government in a Constitutional crisis. For four days now, our 44th Presidency has fail to respond, and has sought to obstruct the intent of the Judges decision.

This excerpted and edited from NewsOK -

Alaska gov.: Enacting health care may violate oath
By BECKY BOHRER, Oklahoman - Published: February 3, 2011

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell is asking his attorney general to advise him on whether implementing the federal health care overhaul would put Parnell in violation of his oath of office.
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Parnell says he took an oath to support and defend the constitutions of the United States and Alaska. While the Republican governor concedes the issue is expected to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, he says he has a duty to uphold the law and wants the attorney general to advise him on what the duty is after the Florida ruling.
Reference Here>>

This begs the question; Why doesn't this ruling have every elected official and agency head in violation to their oath of office?

It turns out that there is a federal statute which will place States ... all States in contempt of this ruling if they continue to spend federal money to set up the bureaucracy required to implement the ObamaCare law.

Radio host and former federal lawyer, Mark Lavin posits, "Now the states of Wisconsin and Florida, it appears, have decided that there's no law for them to implement any longer. And they are in fact correct, since the last position of the law as it applies to Obamacare is that there is no law.

And so the states should stop implementing this statue until there is a different ruling from a higher court. If the Obama administration wants to continue to violate the Constitution, to defy a federal judge, and play rope-a dope, then you states have no responsibility whatsoever to comply.

And you insurance companies ... there is no Obamacare law officially. It's been voided. And it is not an act of civil defiance to refuse to adhere to any aspect of it.

The act of civil defiance -- that is, the act of constitutional violation -- are occurring on the other side." said Mark Lavin Thursday.

There is a federal statute - Crimes and Criminal Procedure - 18 USC Section 641 / Public money, property, or records - which will place the Federal Government, States, and local Governments in contempt of this ruling if they continue to spend federal money to set up the bureaucracy required to implement the ObamaCare law.

This is what 18 USC Section 641 states:

Crimes and Criminal Procedure - 18 USC Section 641

Legal Research Home > US Laws > Crimes and Criminal Procedure > Crimes and Criminal Procedure - 18 USC Section 641

01/19/04

Sec. 641. Public money, property or records

Whoever embezzles, steals, purloins, or knowingly converts to his
use or the use of another, or without authority, sells, conveys or
disposes of any record, voucher, money, or thing of value of the
United States or of any department or agency thereof, or any
property made or being made under contract for the United States or
any department or agency thereof; or

Whoever receives, conceals, or retains the same with intent to
convert it to his use or gain, knowing it to have been embezzled,
stolen, purloined or converted -

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten
years, or both; but if the value of such property does not exceed
the sum of $1,000, he shall be fined under this title or imprisoned
not more than one year, or both.

The word "value" means face, par, or market value, or cost price,
either wholesale or retail, whichever is greater.

AMENDMENTS
1996 - Pub. L. 104-294 substituted "$1,000" for "$100" in third
par.
1994 - Pub. L. 103-322, in third par., substituted "fined under
this title" for "fined not more than $10,000" after "Shall be" and
for "fined not more than $1,000" after "he shall be".

SHORT TITLE OF 1984 AMENDMENT
Pub. L. 98-473, title II, chapter XI, part I (Secs. 1110-1115),
Sec. 1110, Oct. 12, 1984, 98 Stat. 2148, provided that: "This Part
[enacting section 667 of this title and amending sections 2316 and
2317 of this title] may be cited as the 'Livestock Fraud Protection
Act'."

Last modified: April 13, 2006

It is high time for this government of Carter's Second Term/the 44th Presidency of Barack Obama to start obeying the law and stop with their soft tyranny of ignoring the law and legal rulings handed down from our court system.

UPDATE #1: Here is a link to additional soft tyranny tactics of Barack Obama and his administration having to do with the drilling of oil.

Favorite take-away quote from source article - “The government was not at liberty to impose its own will after the court struck down the policy,” Sam Giberga, Hornbeck Offshore Services general counsel, said. “The government, like any citizen, had to obey the ruling, even if it didn’t like it.”

UPDATE #2: This article entitled "Obama Invites Crisis If He Ignores Ruling" from Investors Business Daily.

Favorite take-away quote - "Failure of the Obama administration to stop all activity related to the law that the federal court held to be unconstitutional would create a potential constitutional showdown between the two branches rarely seen in our nation's history. When coupled with the state's refusal to submit to federal regulations implementing a law that has been stripped from the books, our nation is looking at a potentially historic fight not only between branches of government but between the states and the federal government."

Senate Democrats Vote To Uphold Voided/Unconstitutional ObamaCare Law

Barack Obama's Department Of Justice continues to drag its feet in response to the Florida ruling and fast tracking the process to the Supreme Court. Several states, meanwhile, have indicated they will not implement the health care law now that one federal district judge has ruled it void. And the prospect of a repeal brought lawmakers to the Senate floor Wednesday to argue their points on the health care law once more. Image Credit: White House Photo

Senate Democrats Vote To Uphold Voided/Unconstitutional ObamaCare Law

On Monday, January 31, 2011, a federal district court judge in Florida ruled that a key provision in the new health care law is unconstitutional, and that the entire law must be voided.

Roger Vinson agreed with the 26 state-government plaintiffs that Congress exceeded its authority by passing a law penalizing individuals who do not have health insurance.

"I must reluctantly conclude that Congress exceeded the bounds of its authority in passing the Act with the individual mandate," Vinson writes. "Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not sever-able, the entire Act must be declared void."

On Wednesday, February 2, 2011 the United States Senate held a vote to REPEAL the 2,700 page health care law it passed without debate about one year ago (affectionately known as ObamaCare). Senate Democrats fended off a Republican effort to repeal the law overhauling the health care system, voting down the measure, 47-51, submitted as an amendment to an airports construction bill.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's decision to push the House-passed repeal to the Senate floor didn't win a single Democrat vote.

As lawmakers on the Senate floor debated their position, in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, other senators reviewed the constitutionality of the law, a move that comes too late, said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

"Under our system of limited and enumerated powers, the sensible process would have been to have held a hearing on the law's constitutionality before the bill passed, not after," Grassley said.

The hearing came just two days after District Judge Roger Vinson ruled in a lawsuit filed by 26 states that the law had to be thrown out because the individual mandate violates the Commerce Clause of the Constitution because it orders Americans to participate in commerce even if they don't want to do so.

States involved in the lawsuit were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas, Maine, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Judge Vinson, in his opinion, stated the following:

"It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place. If Congress can penalize a passive individual for failing to engage in commerce, the enumeration of powers in the Constitution would have been in vain for it would be “difficult to perceive any limitation on federal power” [Lopez, supra, 514 U.S. at 564], and we would have a Constitution in name only. Surely this is not what the Founding Fathers could have intended."

So, the Senate Democrats, in a strict party-line vote, wishes to have all American people ... buy the tea they also tax. Welcome to the will of the Constitution-ignoring Democrat Political party.

The 44th President's Penultimate State Of The Union Speech

President Barack Obama delivering his State of the Union address in Washington, D.C. Tuesday's speech was his second State of the Union address. Image Credit: Getty Images via Clarity Media

The 44th President's Penultimate State Of The Union Speech

Barack Obama gave his second speech to the Congress reviewing his view on where our country is today and updating his call to spend more money during the next year. If we are lucky, this will be the next to the last "State Of The Union" speech he will be required to deliver.

Barack Obama became our nation's 44th President just two years ago and decided to outspend any other of the previous 43 presidents through increasing the budgets of the operation of all government agencies by over 25% in an economy that was only growing an anemic 2.1% over this same period. He also passed a one-time emergency stimulus spending bill that boosted the spending of all of the agencies by about an additional 25% making the increase during these two years of around 50%.

In his speech, he said he recognizes that the American people sent a message to have government spending become under control so he proposed that the Congress freeze spending at current levels for the next five years. Sadly, this would suggest not to cut the 25% of continued increased spending he has placed on all of us while our economy may only grow at between 2-3% during the same time period.

He claimed that our nation is facing a "Sputnik" moment (where the country recognizes it is behind the successes of other nations)and called for increased government investments/spending in education, innovation, and infrastructure (like high-speed trains - all the while AMTRAK looses over 1 Billion dollars as it grows to new ridership rates). Do not forget to raise the debt ceiling to 14 Billion while your at it!

Last November, the President's party saw congressional election losses that have not been seen in over 70 years and State government losses that could be claimed as the most sweeping ... ever. The President at the time of the election last November 2010 mentioned that he and his Democrat political party suffered a shellacking but in this latest speech, while speaking words that, for the first time, did not mention George Bush and the previous administration, put forth more of the same expansion of government spending and control through regulation and additional paperwork. He still wants to keep the expansion of government ownership of the nation's healthcare system.

Our country can not afford the agenda of President Barack Obama and the country knows it. If we wish to be able to experience the blessings of self-government, we will need to change the leadership in the executive branch and stop the progressive movement. Last night, we all may have just witnessed the penultimate State Of The Union speech of this 44th presidency ... Carter's Second Term.

InMap Application Creates A Matrix Of One's Contact World

LinkedIn has launched InMaps, an experimental project that creates a stunning visualization of the connections within your business network. Image Credit: LinkedIn via Mashable (2011)

InMap Application Creates A Matrix Of One's Contact World

LinkedIn, the world wide web's strongest portal in the professional life social media cloud has just released an exciting, new visual application that might help one to use the contact network in a deeper, and hopefully, useful way.

Many use these social media portals to just line up their next professional working position (a job), but when one is able to gain information through taking the existing information in one's database and look at it in a different and unique way ... a whole new world opens up. Additional opportunities to connect on targeted and previously unused common connection points is only the beginning for LinkedIn's new InMap visual application.

This excerpted and edited from Mashable -

LinkedIn Launches Tool to Visualize Your Business Network
By Ben Parr - Mashable 1/24/2011

InMaps sifts through all of your connections, detects the relationships between them, and groups them into different network clusters. For example, LinkedIn separated my networks into eight clusers, including my technology/social media contacts, my Mashable network and my network of classmates at Northwestern University. It color-codes and clumps these networks together so you can see the depth of your connections in one interface.

InMaps is an insight into who the major connections, bridges and influencers are in your network. People with bigger dots and their names in larger fonts have more connections (and typically more sway) in specific clusters. Perhaps that’s why my friend Neal Sales-Griffin, the former president of Northwestern’s student body, is so prominent in my professional graph.

InMaps also includes a few options for sharing. It creates a landing page with your LinkedIn InMap (you can check mine out as an example) and provides Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn share buttons so you can spread your map to the rest of your network.
Reference Here>>

So, launch LinkedIn's InMap and see just who in your professional contact world is a "Big Dot/Larger Font" (BDLF?) kinda' influence in your overall network!

Ahhhhhhh ... social media!

ObamaCare Repeal Watch - It's 21 For '12

Over the last two years, we have watched an out of control Congress run roughshod over the American people and our Constitution. We watched the healthcare reform bill pass the U.S. Congress, which will destroy our Healthcare system. Watching all of this insanity, we realized that we can no longer sit on the sidelines and allow our country to continue to fall short of its potential greatness. To help restore America, we created Generation America and Generation America Voice. Image Credit: Generation America Voice and the 21-12 Project

ObamaCare Repeal Watch - It's 21 For '12

The 112th Congress in one of it's first actions of duty, voted to repeal ObamaCare by a wide margin. In fact, the repeal vote received more votes in passing than the ObamaCare bill received for its passage into law. The vote count aided by the landslide election last November of 63 new Republican Party congressmen and the help from 3 Democrat Party congressmen came in at 245 for repeal to 189 against repeal ... a good day for America and a potential step back from a Government Payer (single-payer) health care system - the eventual goal of ObamaCare.

So now it is 21 for '12 in order to have the repeal bill be seen on the floor of the Senate ... the next step toward the repeal process. There are 21 Democrat Party Senators who will be up for election in the next election cycle in the year 2012. Assuming that all Republican Senators would vote to repeal ObamaCare, it would only require 4 Democrat Party Senators to join the Republicans to move this process to the desk of the 44th President of the United States.

It is important to all of those who wish to maintain the decision-making power over the health of their lives (and this is not the only decision-making power at risk in the law that was passed by the 111th Congress we currently refer to as ObamaCare).

To help organize the efforts of the nearly 70% of all Americans who are against the present health care law passed by the 111th Congress, entitled "The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act of 2010", an alternative advocacy group that counters the efforts of AARP has been established. This group is called Generation America Voice and the effort to organize all who wish to protect their rights this ObamaCare law intends to take away is named Project 21-12!

This excerpted and edited from Generation America Voice -

Project 21-12 - OUR PLAN:

Project 21-12 is Generation America’s plan to Repeal ObamaCare.

The new Republican House of Representatives have voted to repeal ObamaCare. The repeal effort now moves to the Senate. Many political observers predict that this is where it will stall and die. To the contrary, we believe that through a simple plan of action, the Senate can be motivated to pass this bill and ObamaCare will be repealed.

There are 21 Democratic Senators who voted FOR ObamaCare and all of them are up for reelection in 2012, thus Project 21-12. The project is an outreach to these 21 Democrat Senators in an attempt to inform them about the terrible harm this bill does to older Americans and the economic catastrophe that ObamaCare will create. We believe that these Senators, as they have the opportunity to reflect on ObamaCare and the negative effects we are already seeing, will listen to reason and reconsider their original support of ObamaCare.

All of Washington, including these 21 Senators fully understands the historic exceelection this past November. They follow the public opinion polls that reflect resounding dissatisfaction with ObamaCare. Many of these Senators are worried and understand that they will have a very difficult time retaining their seats if they continue to support ObamaCare.

What excites us about this plan is its simplicity. The Republicans will control 47 Senate seats. We only need 4 Democrats to change their vote to repeal ObamaCare. This can be done.
Reference Here>>

It is funny that people believe that a "Single-Payer" system is best for all. Have they ever asked themselves the following questions?:

1) Where does the money come from to pay the provider?

2) If the Government is paying the provider, who does the provider answer to - the patient or the payer?

3) If the Government payer also collects taxes on people when they die through Estate Taxes, doesn't this fact set up an additional conflict of interest?

4) Can the cost be reduced when additional people in the payer process are placed between the provider and the patient?

5) Can insurance companies really reduce additional costs if they can not compete in all 50 states (currently restricted by imposed laws)?

I am sure you and others who have pondered this issue have a few good questions for people who feel that a single-payer approach is the ideal to consider ... but this is just a start. These questions do not even address the Constitutional individual freedoms that are erased if a single-payer process were to be established.

Remember ... we Americans do have actual power over those who believe they are members of the ruling class. Get involved in the 21-12 Project and just see where this ride takes us on the path to Repeal And Replace here during Carter's Second Term.

The Beat Goes On In A Bad Obama Economy

Image Credit: citytowninfo.com

The Bankruptcy Beat Goes On In A Bad Obama Economy

All of the government "stimulus" and government spending in the world can not repair a free market economy.

The number of Americans filing for bankruptcy in 2010 ticked up 9% over the previous year to more than 1.53 million, industry groups said Monday.

The number of consumers filing for bankruptcy has increased each year since 2005, when bankruptcy laws were revamped to make bankruptcy more difficult, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Bankruptcy Research Center.

This 2010 figure of reported bankruptcies far outpaces the 1,407,788 total consumer filings that were recorded during 2009, a trend that the American Bankruptcy Institute attributes to high debt and a stagnant economy.

"The steady climb of consumer filings notwithstanding the 2005 bankruptcy law restrictions demonstrate that families continue to turn to bankruptcy as a result of high debt burdens and stagnant income growth," ABI Executive Director Samuel Gerdano said in a statement. "We expect that consumer filings will continue to rise in 2011."

With a total of 118,146 bankruptcy filings, December 2010 was a particularly bad month for consumers, an increase of 3% over November's level.
(ht: CNNMoney)

The Obama administration combined with entrenched ruling class politicians that have run Washington federal politics over these last several decades is finally coming to roost here in 2011 as the national debt exceeds 14 Trillion dollars.

using a total population of 333,000,000 (333 Million - 1/3 of a Billion) for ease of mathematics ... a Trillion dollars is 1,000 Billion dollars, and a Billion dollars is equal to a contribution of $3.00 for each and every person wither the person is 9 months, or 90 years old. Using this base of logic, each and every human being in the United States owes the federal government over $42,000 in order to wipe out the current level of debt.

The debt is growing at over 4 Billion dollars a day or by the end of today YOU will have to add another $12.00 to the $42,000 that you and everyone else owes to wipe out the debt our representatives are piling onto us at this moment.

Bankruptcy is a default against a personal debt and everyone owed looses their time and money they invested in meeting the wants and needs of the person who is declaring bankruptcy. The federal debt is still owed to everyone ... and by everyone else.

Translate this to California's debt of 28 Billion dollars the math does not get any better. At an estimated population of 37 million as of July 2009 which will translate to $27.03 for every Billion dollars of debt. Using this logic - each and every Californian is in debt $27.03 for every Billion dollars X 28 Billion = $756.76.

Red Bull Catalina Grand Prix 2010 - Opening Parade Lap

All of the racing came off with great success on the first day of the Red Bull Catalina Grand Prix. The event which is being restarted since its last running in 1957 took place through the chaparral covered hills around Avalon's Golf Course and above the iconic Santa Catalina Casino pictured here. The day's events were all kicked of with a parade lap through the village along the waterfront of this island's largest settlement [ctrl-click to launch video of opening parade lap]. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2010)

Red Bull Catalina Grand Prix 2010 - Opening Parade Lap

7:30am, December 4, 2010 - Opening Ceremonies - Downtown at the Wrigley Stage - Race #1 Parade Lap through town.

Both motocross superstars and emerging talents will vie for top honors as they blast into the hills surrounding the main port town of Avalon. Riders will look to join Dave Ekins - Bud Ekins (the stuntman who performed the famous fence jump in “The Great Escape” for Steve McQueen) brother and past event rider, and Bob Sangren (the race’s only two-time winner) as champion of the island spectacle. Sangren will also be returning to the island to serve as Grand Marshal for the 2010 race.

Photo Slideshow Here>>

... notes from The EDJE

"Cool It" - A Thoughtful & Realistic Approach To Stewardship

A light bulb won't solve global warming. This guy's bright ideas just might. A documentary that takes an alternative approach than just FEAR in dealing with the clarion call of the global warming crisis [ctrl-click photo to see trailer]. Image Credit: Imdb

"Cool It" - A Thoughtful & Realistic Approach To Stewardship

Go to "Cool It" - In a very limited release before its roll out is a thoughtful and realistic stewardship approach to our consumption of energy on this blue orb. It makes Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, feel like the pandering, fright fest, ponzi-scheme that it was meant to be. In other words ... NO, the oceans will not rise 20 feet over this next century and coastal cities really have nothing to fear from the potential and realistic one foot rise in the oceans due to cyclic world climate swings that are primarily due to changes in radiation from the sun!

CCX (the Chicago Carbon Exchange) which became noted for having "carbon credits" for sale as high as $7.00 a ton closes its doors on October 21, 2010, just before the midterm elections, when the bottom drops out after it is discovered about one year ago that the primary Global Warming data was based upon fraud.

The last listed price for trading "carbon credits" was under $.10 a ton - OUCH. Al Gore may not be as rich as people were claiming he was a couple of years ago.

Go see "Cool It" and become less hysterically informed.

AARP Raises Premiums - Advocacy Clashes With Reality

Contrary to Democratic politician's promises when they jammed Obamacare through the Senate and Congress, claiming that when the public found out all that was in the bill they would start to support it, opposition is rising as the public becomes aware of what Washington Democrats actually passed and Obama signed into law. Caption & Image Credit: wakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com

AARP Raises Premiums - Advocacy Clashes With Reality

Truth has a funny way of dispelling the aggressive distortion of an advocacy point-of-view.

A classic case in point has popped up over at the insurance and liberal advocacy organization American association of retired persons, AARP. AARP is a non-profit organization which helps people above the age of 50 to lead a peaceful life both health and finance. Most famous of AARP programs is AARP insurance.

AARP is now telling its employees that insurance costs will rise by 8 percent to 13 percent next year, partly as a result of the ObamaCare law it supported.

This excerpted and edited from the Washington Times -

Obamacare spurs AARP to raise premiums
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar - Associated Press - 6:35 p.m., Thursday, November 4, 2010

AARP's endorsement helped secure passage of President Obama's health care overhaul. Now the seniors' lobby is telling its employees their insurance costs will rise, partly as a result of the law.
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AARP added that it is changing co-payments and deductibles to avoid a 40 percent tax on high-cost health plans that takes effect in 2018 under the law. Aerospace giant Boeing also has cited the tax in asking its workers to pay more. Shifting costs to employees lowers the value of a health care plan and acts like an escape hatch from the tax.

"Most plan co-pays and deductibles have been modified," Jennifer Hodges, AARP's director of compensation and benefits, wrote employees in an Oct. 25 e-mail. "Plan value changes were necessary not only from a cost-management standpoint, but also to ensure that AARP's plans fall below the threshold for high-cost group plans under health care reform."
Reference Here>>

Ever since Barack Obama took the office as the 44th President of the United States, AARP endorsed the efforts of the Democrat political party in its efforts at healthcare reform. These efforts had little to do with improving a free market approach and everything to do with having the Government become the chief decider on what insurance will look like ... even if the Government has to become the "Single-Payer" in the insurance equation.

The chief reason AARP was an advocate on ObamaCare can be found where AARP makes their money ... in Medigap insurance coverage. Medigap plans are a cash cow for AARP and if people don't need them because they can enroll in Medicare Advantage plans, that's a revenue loss for AARP. Obamacare helps to do away with Medicare Advantage plans.

While the organization has some partnering arrangements with Medicare Advantage plans, they provide a fraction of the revenues to the organization that Medigap does.

Second, if Medicare's benefits are cut by $400 billion or more, seniors will have an ever greater need for Medigap coverage.

"There's an inherent conflict of interest," former AARP executive Marilyn Moon says of AARP's royalty arrangements. "They're ending up becoming very dependent on sources of income."

Tens of thousands of seniors have resigned from AARP, many of them cutting up their membership cards to protest the organization's promotion of health reform.

The new chief executive officer of AARP, Barry Rand, who was a strong supporter of President Obama during last year's presidential campaign, says AARP is not protesting the Medicare cuts because reducing waste and fraud in Medicare will make the program stronger over the long term.

The 40 million-strong AARP represents people 50 and older, including retirees on Medicare and Social Security. Its endorsement of President Barack Obama's health bill came at a critical time last year, just days before a vote on the House floor.

"The [insurance rate]impact on [our]AARP employees is not a factor at all in our policy-making, which is directed at the impact on our membership and on all older Americans," said said David Certner, AARP legislative affairs director.

One has to ask ... how many 50 years of age and older employees does AARP actually have?

We , at MAXINE, believe - AARP ... the American association of retired persons, is less about protecting the interests of retired persons than it is at protecting its cash cows in the insurance business.