The nation's largest healthcare insurer - Veterans Administration, Medicare, All Military and Armed Services - just got a lot larger today in the face of overwhelming opposition and through the expenditure of the political capital of the DEMOCRAT POLITICAL PARTY. By a partisan one-party vote and a little less that two-minutes remaining of 219-YEA to 209-NAY, with 2-NV (non-votes), the Senate version of the inappropriately entitled Health Care Reform bill was passed by the House of Representatives and adopted into law.
Kiss the adult level of decision-making over the direction of one's personal health and care during their own life ... from now on.
Today, March 21, 2010 is the day that the United States of America ceased to be a nation of self-reliance and personal freedom and a beacon to the rest of the world as an example of a strong Constitution that protected citizens rights over the Government that they have elected into office. We are all wards of the STATE. If the STATE makes decisions about one's health from a central office ... one life is OWNED by that STATE
We all will be fined is we choose to NOT purchase health insurance in a situation where we never have an option to pursue our lives as we see fit - as we do with driving a car.
Welcome the era of Democrat Political Party chaos (here in Carter's Second Term) to the likes of which we have never visited, in our nation's history, and all of this enacted in just thirteen months.
This one vote will never be undone without totally resetting the political path of our nation and this will only happen with electing verifiable, small, smaller, smallest Government ... Constitutionalists ... beginning in November 2010 and doing the same in November 2012.
This is it. Today is the final day before a scheduled vote on a rule that will pass the Senate version of Health Care Reform (without actually voting on the legislation itself - Deem & Pass) and send the measure that will have the Federal Government in control of one-sixth of our economy and major decisions in our lives. If the measure passes with the required 216 YES votes cast, and President Barack Obama signs the measure into law, everyone's taxes will go up immediately, benefits of this takeover will NOT BEGIN for four years, the measure is scheduled to SPEND nearly one-trillion dollars on which we can see some of our collective projected debt be reduced by about one-hundred and thirty-five billion dollars (spend $10.00 to reduce debt by $1.35, doesn't make sense), and etc., and etc., and etc. ...
As of the posting of this dispatch, the Democrats are 9 committed votes SHORT out of an available uncommitted pool of 15 Congressmen. CTRL-CLICK image ABOVE to find latest Congressman count.
Also planned at the last minute, a public rally of people against the Senate legislation on Health Care Reform in Washington DC to have those Congressmen that are left see that most citizens in these United States would like to retain the right to make adult, not bureaucratic, decisions for the health of their own lives. The rally is set to start at 12:00pm EST and the gathering point is set for the West Lawn of the US Capitol.
Code Red Rally - West Lawn of the US Capitol - 3-20-2010 - 12:00pm. Image Credit: Washington DC Tea Party
This excerpted and edited from Virginia Right -
Code Red Rally Part Two – Saturday March 20, 2010 By Tom White, on March 19th, 2010, at 4:59 am
With the critical nature of a looming Congressional decision, a broad coalition of Tea Party organizations and leadership is launching the final push before a possible vote by the House. These events are being coordinated across the US and are aimed at communicating the frustration of the people while demanding the termination of this health bill legislation. While the DNC and the administration continue to obfuscate and confuse, this coalition is focused on getting activists involved prior to Pelosi’s maneuvering.
The following actions are planned: ---- ·Code Red rally in Washington, DC at 12 noon on Saturday at Upper Senate Park
Nationwide “Virtual Vigil” on BlogTalk radio sponsored by DoctorsandPatients.org
·Candlelight vigil around the Capitol on Saturday night
Featured speakers at the Washington, D.C. Rally on Saturday will include:
Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (MN) Congressman Tom Price (GA) Congressman Joe Wilson (SC) Congressman Phil Gingrey (GA) Actor & Conservative Jon Voight Dr. Milton Wolf, Barack Obama’s second cousin who opposes Obamacare ·Colin Hanna, Let Freedom Ring Jim Martin, 60 Plus Phil Kerpen, Americans for Prosperity Tim Phillips, Americans for Prosperity Andrew Langer, Institute for Liberty Kathryn Serkes, Doctor Patient Medical Association Mark Skoda, Memphis Tea Party Amy Kremer, Tea Party Express Jennifer Hulsey, American Grassroots Coalition FreedomWorks Representative Ben Cunningham, Founder of the Tennessee Tax Revolt Darla Dawald, Grassfire / Resistnet ---- The coalition of Tea Party organizations and leadership is committed to changing the dynamics of this legislative process. The Democratic led Congress is using procedural and legislative rules to ignore the overwhelming opposition to this bill. The will of the American people is being subverted by these actions and the grass roots activists who make up this coalition are focusing their energy to kill the bill.
The coalition includes: 60 Plus Americans for Prosperity Americans for Tax Reform Concerned Women for America Constitutional Sovereignty Alliance Constitutional Tea Party Doctor Patient Medical Association Family Research Council FreedomWorks Grassfire/Resistnet Heartland Institute Institute for Liberty Let Freedom Ring Memphis Tea Party Mom for America National Center for Public Policy Research National Taxpayer’s Union Nationwide Tea Party Coalition New Jersey Tea Party Coalition Northern Virginia 912 Richmond Patriots Take the Town Halls to Washington Tea Party Express Tea Party Patriots Live Radio Show Washington DC Tea Party We the People of Pennsylvania
For further information or to register and participate or assist others to come to Washington, DC, please check the above websites where details will be posted and updated regularly throughout the next 48 hours and http://www.americangrassrootscoalition.org/. Reference Here>>
Nuns and Bishops at odds - A leadership crisis with human life in the balance - who wins?. Image Credit: Oil painting signed by Stephson - Edmund Jenks (2010)
Catholic Nuns and Bishops differ on Obamacare
Today, it was reported that an association - Catholic Health Association (CHA) - that purports to represent 69,000 Catholic Nuns came out with a statement of support for the Senate bill on Healthcare Reform. This statement follows by about a day and a half a statement released by a group of Catholic Bishops urging members of the House of Representatives to vote against the Senate bill on Healthcare Reform because it will allow the Federal Government (with taxpayer money) to pay for the ending of human life in the womb.
'Catholic nuns urge passage of Obama's health bill'
Some 60 leaders of religious orders representing 59,000 Catholic nuns Wednesday sent lawmakers a letter urging them to pass the Senate health care bill. It contains restrictions on abortion funding that the bishops say don't go far enough.
The letter says that "despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions." The letter says the legislation also will help support pregnant women and "this is the real pro-life stance."
This small dispatch, however provocative, is greatly misleading because the timing of this makes it a lie ... because it happens to be three-month old news originally published in the New York Times.
About a day and a half earlier, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said Monday it opposes the Democratic health care plan heading for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives because of its language on abortion. The group noted that it liked the original House health care bill because it would continue the strict ban on federal financing of abortion.
"'This is not quibbling over technicalities,' Cardinal [Francis] George, [USCCB president] said. 'The deliberate omission in the Senate Bill of the necessary language that could have taken this moral question off the table and out of play leaves us still looking for a way to meet the President’s and our concern to provide health care for those millions whose primary care physician is now an emergency room doctor'"
The sad part in all of this is that Catholic leadership is all for a socialist solution to be an integral part of the set-up here in the Christian ideals of self-reliance inspired United States.
Being that it was the unified vote of "Progressive" yet practicing Catholics and Jews that gave Barack Obama his winning margin of victory ... we, at MAXINE have to ask, why are they, the Catholic leadership, quibbling over the spilled milk of human life now? They all knew what would happen if this man made it to the highest office in our land.
Also, will this Congressional process have an effect on their stance come November and the 2010 mid-term elections? We do not think they have the strength of their convictions.
Now is the time for people who wish to maintain the right to make decisions about the care used to keep healthy and alive ... to maintain one's quality of life ... to stand up, take action, and be a part of the last line of defense in stopping a government takeover of healthcare.
FIRST, call the following number and ask to talk with (name your Congressman) and tell them (or leave a message) that you wish for them to vote NO on the Senate Healthcare Legislation from the House of Representatives floor.
!-877-762-8762
SECOND, write your representative - especially if they appear on this list of all TARGET representatives here>>
THIRD, share this information with all of the people you know who would like to be able to remain in adult control over their own lives.
This effort may be directed by the National Republican Political Party, but this effort benefits all citizens who believe that the personal freedom to make decisions about one's own life is more important than having someone in the Government be in CONTROL over all human activity that happens in this nation.
Analysis of the latest impossible and discrediting statement made by the President of the United States, Barack Obama, about healthcare by The American Thinker -
Monday in Strongsville, Ohio, President Obamasaid that ObamaCare will reduce health insurance premiums by "3,000 percent." [YouTube videoHERE] Considering that a 50 percent decrease in premiums would mean that we'd be paying half as much as we now pay for health insurance and that a 100 percent decrease in premiums would mean that we'd be paying nothing for health insurance, President Obama is telling us that insurance companies will actually start paying us money to keep our health insurance.
If your current health insurance policy costs $5,000 a year, insurance companies will pay you $145,000 a year (2,900 percent multiplied by $5,000). If you're fortunate enough to be paying $25,000 a year for health insurance, insurance companies will pay you $725,000 a year. There's no word whether you can purchase a more expensive health insurance policy to increase the amount of money that insurers pay you each year.
About Weather/Climate Events Data - There is an old saying that expresses the thought that 'climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.' This part of the NCDC web site provides summaries of weather and climate events. In essence, climate is a statistical analysis of weather. A basic example of climate would be to say that, for the month of June in a given location, temperatures should be near 80 degrees Fahrenheit and 5 inches of rain should fall. Such climate summaries are provided in a variety of formats, many based on a 'normal' base period of 30 years. Many U.S. businesses use climate and weather data to make informed economic decisions. Some examples of these businesses include agriculture, real estate, law firms, and research institutions. The links below offer climate and weather information for such parameters as temperature, precipitation, hurricane events, and snow extremes. Image and Caption Credit: ncdc.noaa.gov
AGW datasets discovery: 75% of all datasets corrupted
It has been discovered ... or more properly, uncovered ... that the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) made a practice of doing what the principles of the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) had been doing in their temperature data. The NCDC made a practice out of not including data from cooler temperature stations and thereby exaggerating a warming illusion in the datasets thus corrupting their data with a less than Scientific Method approach.
Reporters from USA Today had been sitting on this revealation for some time now just as the reporters from the BBC had been sitting on the knowledge that has now become known as Climategate.
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 create 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.
Climategate: Three of the Four Temperature Datasets Now Irrevocably Tainted With today’s revelation on Pajamas Media, only the Japan Meteorological Agency is left to save the warmists. Don’t bet on it. March 11, 2010 - by Christopher Horner
The warmist response to Climategate — the discovery of the thoroughly corrupt practices of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) — was that the tainted CRU dataset was just one of four independent data sets. You know. So really there’s no big deal.
Thanks to a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request, the document production of which I am presently plowing through — and before that, thanks to the great work of Steve McIntyre, and particularly in their recent, comprehensive work, Joseph D’Aleo and Anthony Watts — we know that NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) passed no one’s test for credibility. Not even NASA’s. ---- NASA’s temperature data is so woeful that James Hansen’s colleague Reto Ruedy told the USA Today weather editor:
“My recommendation to you is to continue using … CRU data for the global mean [temperatures]. … “What we do is accurate enough” — left unspoken: for government work — “[but] we have no intention to compete with either of the other two organizations in what they do best.” ---- So — Climategate’s CRU was just “one of four organizations worldwide that have independently compiled thermometer measurements of local temperatures from around the world to reconstruct the history of average global surface temperature.”
But one of the three remaining sets is not credible either, and definitely not independent. - Two down, two to go. ---- But NCDC has been thoroughly debunked elsewhere — Joseph D’Aleo and Anthony Watts have found NCDC completely incredible, having made a practice out of not including cooler temperature stations over time, exaggerating the warming illusion.
Three out of the four temperature datasets stink, with corroboration from the alarmists. Second-sourced, no less.
Why would reporters from major news organizations sit on information this damaging in the pursuit of the truth? Maybe these corporations that own the news outlets are heavily leveraged in one of Al Gore's carbon trading companies ... just speculating with a "follow the money" scenario.
Fable - Scorpion, River and Frog - Parody here shown with the USA as a frog, the Scorpion as Iran and the issue needing assistance as Iraq. Image Credit: photobucket.com
You know the fable of the scorpion or snake wanting to cross to the other side of a river ... and after convincing a good-hearted yet suspicious frog to give it a ride on his back, the scorpion/snake gets half-way across the river, stings or bites the frog (as the case may be) ending its life and putting itself in peril as well.
Before succumbing to the sting or bite, the frog asks the scorpion/snake, "You have killed me and p0ssibly yourself as well. Why have you done this?
Response - "Because ... this is my nature."
President Barack Obama is a scorpion or snake asking the froggish House of Representatives (who represent the American people) to pass the Senate version of its 60 vote passed healthcare bill without modification.
The way this President and the Democrat political party plans on getting this final and verifying vote is to convince the members of the House of Representatives that if they pass this unchanged and unmodified bill, it will go back to the Senate for a "Reconciliation" vote that will fix the bill so that most damaging parts of this legislation will be amended ... then voted on and passed by the Senate with a simple majority vote.
The problem with this strategy is that if the current Senate version of this legislation gets passed on promises that it will get fixed in the Senate ... instead can go directly to the office of the President and be signed into law by Barack Obama.
The only way a true "Reconciliation" process can happen is if the Senate sends a BI-PARTISAN group of Senators (Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell needs to approve and appoint Republican political party Senate members to participate) to meet with members of the House of Representatives in order to fashion an agreeable, modified version of their bill for the House to vote on so this bill can be passed through the House, sent to the Senate, who then can pass this version with a simple majority ... then signed into law by the President.
What needs to be fixed before members of the House of Representatives would be able to come to an agreement on the Senate version of its healthcare bill follows here:
This excerpted and edited from the Daily Caller - Obama doubling down on health care reform; time to call his bluff By Rep. Joe Barton 03/08/10 at 12:01 AM
Democrats are currently cutting deals behind closed doors in the Capitol. Their plan is to abuse the legislative process by skipping regular order to pass this monstrosity by turning to a parliamentary trick called reconciliation. It has been used by both parties in the past, but never on anything as important or far reaching as health care.
To justify the move, the president and his Democratic cronies have flooded the media with half-truths and exaggerations, each designed at convincing people this isn’t a government take over of the health care system. But let’s look at the facts:
It will mandate private citizens purchase health care, whether they need it or want it.
It will cause millions of employers to cancel the health insurance they currently offer employees and force tens of millions of Americans into a government-run exchange.
It will create a health care czar to impose price controls on private health insurance that will lead to shortages and force even more people into government-run care.
I don’t doubt the president’s sincerity about the need to change health care in America, but despite his claims of compromise he has just paid lip service to Republican ideas.
There is a more effective and more affordable way to reform health care.
Instead of government intervention, we need to look to the marketplace—free choice, not mandates. Reference Here>>
Watch for the sting or bite from this President aided by the Democrat political party leadership by having the House of Representatives pass the 60 vote Senate version of Obamacare INTACT ... on the promise of having it fixed in the Senate ... but it will go directly to the President's desk for Barack Obama to sign.
Write, call and fax your Congressman and have him or her to refuse to take a vote on any heathcare legislation and Kill The Bill!
The A-TAC assault vehicle - It weighs just under half a ton, has bullet-proof windows and contains numerous firing ports. Furthermore it is able to negotiate corridors and lifts. The manufacturer, Metaltech says the squat and heavily armored vehicle can also withstand grenade blasts and last for six hours on a single charge - with a top speed of 25km/h (15mph). Image Credit: AFP news agency
That's right, this assault buggy looks, for all intents and purposes, like a beefed-up USGA golf cart with gun ports for carrying on a firefight while protected from return gunfire and/or riot missiles.
WE, at MAXINE, know that match play can get pretty brutal, almost war-like, at times ... but this is ridicules.
The designer/manufacturer created this battery-powered Anti-Terrorist Assault Cart (A-TAC) vehicle as a response to threats that were exposed after the Mumbai (Bombay, India) hotel attacks of 2008 and is expected to cost only about $45,000.
This excerpted and edited from the BBC - 'Anti-terror buggy' unveiled by firm in India BBC - 17 February 2010
A mini armored car, designed for use in confined spaces such as airports and hotels targeted in terror attacks, has gone on display at an Indian arms fair. ---- It has been specially designed to transport two armed security personnel during or after terror attacks. ---- The company behind the cart, Metaltech Motor Bodies Pvt Ltd, said the A-TAC had been designed in the aftermath of the attacks [in Mumbai, India]. ---- "It's a product of our sense of helplessness over the casualties we took in the attacks. We put our heads and hearts together and came up with the A-TAC." said Metaltech managing director JB Sehrawat. ---- The company said it was offering a prototype of the vehicle, which drew applause from visitors and military scientists attending the arms fair in Delhi, for trials with the sponsors of the Commonwealth Games, due to be held in the city in November.
India has had to reassure foreign countries that those games and next month's hockey World Cup in Delhi will be safe and free of terror attacks. Reference Here>>
In a NASA "what-if" animation, light-blue areas in southern Florida and Louisiana indicate regions that may be underwater should sea levels rise by 9 meters (roughly 27 feet) -- which may not be as likely as scientists once thought. The study paper concluded that sea levels would rise by as much as 2.7 feet by the end of the twenty-first century. Image Credit: NASA
On what the authors cite as having a lack of confidence in the data they used to reach the conclusion that sea levels would rise by as much as 2.7 feet by the end of the twenty-first century, authors Mark Siddall, Thomas Stocker and Peter Clark pull a study paper published in the journal, Nature Geoscience.
All of this effort to correct the factual record is additional evidence that the Scientific Method was never a consideration as it relates to the agenda that changes in the Earth's climate are directly related to human activity as opposed to sun spots and other natural forces that effect the Earth's atmosphere.
The media loves to attribute all of this recent activity to correct the record on recently discovered "ERRORS" and "SLOPPY MISTAKES" associated with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The truth of the matter is that the retraction of articles and study papers are two different activities designed to communicate for different purposes. Articles are ... well, stories whereas study papers are used as evidence of discovery and require a greater level of scrutiny before they are ever published.
This excerpted and edited from FOXNews -
Scientists Retract Paper on Rising Sea Levels Due to Errors FOXNews.com - Updated February 22, 2010
Scientists have been forced to retract a paper that claimed sea level were rising thanks to the effects of global warming, after mistakes were discovered that undermined the results.
The paper also highlighted that it reinforced the conclusions of the U.N.'s controversial Fourth Assessment report, which warned of the dangerous of man-made climate change.
However, mistakes in time intervals and inaccurately applied statistics have forced the authors to retract their paper -- the first official retraction ever for the three-year-old journal, notes the Guardian. In an officially published retraction of their paper, the authors acknowledged these mistakes as factors that compromised the results.
"We no longer have confidence in our projections for the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and for this reason the authors retract the results pertaining to sea-level rise after 1900," wrote authors Mark Siddall, Thomas Stocker and Peter Clark.
Since the leak of e-mails from the U.K.'s top global warming scientists in early December, many other errors and sloppy mistakes have been uncovered in leading report by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Flaws in weather stations have led some to question claims of rising temperatures, sloppy math led to holes in postulates that the Himalayas were rapidly melting and fears of a man-made food shortage in Africa seem unsubstantiated as well.
Announcing the formal retraction of the paper from the journal, Siddall told the Guardian,, "It's one of those things that happens. People make mistakes and mistakes happen in science." A formal retraction was required, rather than a correction, because the errors undermined the study's conclusion.
"Retraction is a regular part of the publication process," he said. "Science is a complicated game and there are set procedures in place that act as checks and balances." Reference Here>>
If retractions of study papers were "a regular part of the publication process" as Mark Siddall, one of the authors of the study paper insists, then why is this the first official retraction ever for the three-year-old journal, Nature Geoscience.
Did Nature Geoscience ask about the validity of the conclusions of this study paper given the fact that weekend before last, Professor Phil Jones, former director of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA), which was where the information the UN based its activity on AGW, in an interview with the BBC conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon?
And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming?
A key figure of the Climategate scandal, Professor Jones further admitted in the BBC interview that there is no evidence the Earth has warmed recently ... and new research suggests existing records aren’t sufficient support for global warming claims. Just a couple of days later, the top U.N. climate change official Yvo de Boer told The Associated Press Thursday, February 18, 2010, that he was resigning after nearly four years.
One wonders what came first in this chicken and egg situation ... did the authors of the study paper that held the conclusion that sea levels would rise by as much as 2.7 feet by the end of the twenty-first century see their "ERROR" first ... or did the journal, Nature Geoscience?
A lie is a lie - no matter how long it takes to be discovered - AGW is a lie!
Science provides a distinctive view and way of thinking about the world. The study of science has led to an evolving body of knowledge organized as an interrelated set of models, theories, laws, systems, structures and interactions. It is through this body of knowledge that science provides explanations for a variety of phenomena and enables sense to be made of the biological, physical and technological world. An understanding of science and its social and cultural contexts provides a basis for future choices and ethical decisions about local and global applications and implications of science. Caption & Image Credit: University of New South Wales
As the Queen song, "Another One Bites The Dust" plays in the background, the effort to control human behavior and activity through the concept of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW)/Climate Change has lost another general. The top U.N. climate change official Yvo de Boer told The Associated Press Thursday that he was resigning after nearly four years.
Actually, he will not be leaving until July 1, but he will not be around to relentlessly pester and bully the nations of the world into thinking they have to sign an agreement to curb their plant food production (CO2 ... the gas plants use to create oxygen through osmosis) when they meet in Mexico (one of the nations with the worst air pollution but not one that is the target of any agreement) next November 2010.
Last November 2009 it was discovered that the information and conclusions that have created this sense of urgency to control changes in our Earth's climate were based on what the world media loves to report as ERRORS, was based on conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, destruction of embarrassing and un-supportive information, an organized resistance to disclosure in the peer review process, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more. Simply stated ... a hoax based upon a series of frauds over the last quarter century ... something less that the "Scientific Method".
Over the weekend, Professor Phil Jones, former director of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA), which was where the information the UN based its activity on AGW, in an interview with the BBC conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.
And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.
A key figure of the Climategate scandal, Professor Jones admitted that there is no evidence the Earth has warmed recently ... and new research suggests existing records aren’t sufficient support for global warming claims.
Yvo de Boer was said to be exhausted after the Copehagen summit. Image Credit: The Telegraph
This excerpted and edited from The Daily Caller -
Top UN climate official resigning By ARTHUR MAX, The DC - 02/18/10 at 6:05 am
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer is known to be deeply disappointed with outcome of the last summit in Copenhagen, which drew 120 world leaders but failed to reach more than a vague promise by several countries to limit carbon emissions — and even that deal fell short of consensus.
But he denied to the AP that his decision to quit was a result of frustration with Copenhagen.
“Copenhagen wasn’t what I had hoped it would be,” he acknowledged, but the summit nonetheless prompted governments to submit plans and targets for reining in the emissions primarily blamed for global warming. “I think that’s a pretty solid foundation for the global response that many are looking for,” he said.
De Boer told the AP he believes talks “are on track,” although it was uncertain that a full treaty could be finalized at the next high-level conference in November.
The partial agreement reached in Copenhagen, brokered by President Barack Obama, “was very significant,” he said. But he acknowledged frustration that the deal was merely “noted” rather than formally adopted by all countries.
“We were about an inch away from a formal agreement. It was basically in our grasp, but it didn’t happen,” he said. “So that was a pity.”
The media-savvy former Dutch civil servant and climate negotiator was widely credited with raising the profile of climate issues through his frequent press encounters and his backstage lobbying of world leaders.
But his constant travel and frenetic diplomacy failed to bridge the suspicions and distrust between developing and industrial countries that barred the way to a final agreement at the climate change summit in Copenhagen in December. ---- Deb Boer, 55, was appointed in 2006 to shepherd through an agreement to succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which required industrial countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions an average 5 percent.
He said the high point of his efforts was the agreement by developing countries, reached at the 2007 conference in Bali, Indonesia, to join in efforts to contain global warming in return for financial and technical help from the wealthy nations. ---- When he was hired, he said, he told U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, “If you want someone to sit in Bonn and keep his mouth shut then I’m not the right person for the job.” ---- De Boer said he will be a consultant on climate and sustainability issues for KPMG, a global accounting firm, and will be associated with several universities. Reference Here>>
So the chief pursuer of the AGW HOAX based upon fraud at the United Nations will be paid by KPMG to continue his good work ... great. As it was to be suspicious of the activity of the United Nations, it is now time to be suspicious of the activities of KPMG.
Audi TDI Diesel A6 - The diesel engine of today is one of the world’s most efficient internal combustion engines, period. Today’s technology equipped diesel engines use precision electronics, common-rail fuel injection systems, VVT, advanced VG turbos. The result is a quiet, efficient, clean powerful engine that returns excellent fuel economy. How much MPG you ask… try about 30% or more than traditional means. With today’s diesel engines and today’s ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel a reduction in harmful CO2 emissions by 25% + can be achieved. Caption Credit: Banks Diesel / Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2009)
Kelley Blue Book's top ten family cars ... and no Euros!
If safe, roomy and affordable are the characteristics that qualify a vehicle as a family car, then the American family has never had so many choices. One would think that with all of these choices, one car out of the Top Ten ... would include a nameplate manufactured by at least one from Europe, but with a tradition of building small, under-powered cars, Euros need not apply.
The Top 10 Family Cars for 2010 (VIDEO) today were named by the expert editors from Kelley Blue Book, www.kbb.com, the leading provider of new car and used car information. In the list, the kbb.com editors recommend what they feel are the very best of the best vehicles for families this year, highlighting specific important attributes for each car and detailing why it made the Top 10 for 2010.
The manufacturers hail from Korea, United States, and Japan with the majority (6 of 10) of the Family cars have their design from American companies with three sporting a Ford nameplate.
This excerpted and edited from KBB -
The KBB Top Ten Family Cars Editors Compare Important Factors, Recommend a Wide Variety of Vehicles to Meet Every Family's Needs Kelley Blue Book - IRVINE, Calif., February 16, 2010
Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com assembles a list of the Top 10 New Family Cars, evaluating an ever-lengthening list of eligible vehicles on such factors as resale value, fuel efficiency, capability and kid-friendliness. This year's list features vehicles in a range of sizes and prices, offering something for a wide variety of families – everything from an SUV that can comfortably accommodate nine passengers to a compact, fuel-efficient wagon capable of taking the road less traveled.
"While the product landscape in the new-car world seems ever-changing, the vehicle needs of the typical American family remain fairly constant; capable versatility, value, safety and economical factors usually remain top-of-mind," said Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com. "There are many competent choices available on the market today, but the kbb.com editors chose a wide variety of what we feel are the Top 10 Family Cars that should be on every family's consideration list for 2010."
Select Choices from kbb.com's Top 10 Family Cars for 2010 List:
Original logo image, ProtectMarriage.com – Yes on 8, a Project of California Renewal - Image Credit: Case 2:10-cv-00132-LKK-DAD Document 1-2
For PROP. 8, Judge believes image means nothing
In the world of images and logos, a lot is made to impart the exact impression and nature of an effort or business enterprise through branding. The biggest area where branding gives its first impression comes from corporate colors and the graphic elements that are associated with the effort or business enterprise ... the logo.
XEROX Corporation comes to mind when one thinks of how important it becomes to protect an effort's graphic intellectual property. XEROX did not want the general public to grasp on to, and water down the meaning of their name when one referred to a photo-copy as a "XEROX" just as Kleenex did not want to have everyone refer to a paper wipe by their trade name, Kleenex. XEROX was mostly successful in their efforts through protecting the word XEROX in courts through lawsuits when the company saw the word used in a generic nature thereby watering down the definition and impact of the word, XEROX.
The same sensibility should govern cultural and political messages delivered through graphic intellectual property as well. A lawsuit has been brought upon The Courage Campaign Institute for using the graphic elements of the logo used by The Proposition 8 coalition.
A Judge in the California District Court did not believe the value of the graphic image and the identification brought through a logo graphic was worth defending on behalf of the effort to protect traditional marriage.
Rip-Off logo Image, The Courage Campaign Institute - Image Credit: Case 2:10-cv-00132-LKK-DAD Document 1-3
This excerpted and edited from The Sacramento Bee -
Prop. 8 backers sue foes over logo By Denny Walsh - The Sacramento Bee - Published: Friday, Jan. 22, 2010 - 10:57 am
The opposing forces in California's war over gay marriage have found something else to squabble about: the gay-marriage camp's mockery of the traditional-marriage camp's logo.
The squabble is playing out in Sacramento in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton.
A stylized silhouette of a man and a woman and a boy and a girl, all with raised arms beneath a banner reading, "Yes On 8 Protect Marriage," is the logo of Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative amending the state constitution to declare that marriage is only between a man and a woman.
Since the campaign on behalf of Proposition 8 began using the logo on Jan. 31, 2008, it has employed it in a number of ways, most recently on its Web site.
The Courage Campaign Institute began using an almost-identical logo – the adult figures both are wearing dresses and the banner reads "Prop 8 Trial Tracker" – last week on a Web site it launched for updates and commentary on the San Francisco trial of a federal constitutional challenge to the amendment.
The Proposition 8 coalition is defending the amendment in court because the state would not.
Soon after the Trial Tracker logo showed up, the Proposition 8 promoters cried foul.
The Courage Campaign argues the slightly altered logo is funny, a parody that is cloaked in free-speech protection. ---- ProtectMarriage.com – Yes on 8, a Project of California Renewal sued Tuesday in Sacramento federal court.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants – nonprofit groups that support gay and lesbian marriage – have misappropriated the plaintiff's trademark in a way that is likely to confuse the public, and they "have never utilized the infringing logo in any way that would result in humor, a … requirement for a parody."
The plaintiff claims to have spent "a considerable amount of money in establishing the ProtectMarriage Trademark in the minds of customers as a source of conservative views and traditional family values." ---- Karlton sided with the defendants Wednesday in a nine-page order denying the plaintiff's motion for a temporary restraining order halting the use of the logo on prop8trialtracker.com.
The judge ruled that Courage Campaign's "use of the mark is protected under the First Amendment, in that the use is relevant to an expressive parody and … is not explicitly misleading."
"Any potential for confusion or misdirection is obviated by the images and text that uniformly accompany defendant's use of the mark, namely, photos of homosexual couples together with text explicitly endorsing homosexual marriage," said Karlton. Reference Here>>
In California ... a vote that has expressed the democratic will of the people by nearly 70% and intellectual property are under assault along with the ability for people to grow food and keep jobs (irrigation water ordered to be turned off in the fields of the Sacramento Valley in order to protect a non-indigenous fish, the Delta Smelt) ... nothing is sacred, except, of course, the decisions of a single politically "progressive" Judge or the wishes of small, but politically "progressive" special interest groups.
