WaPo and Obama Administration shape numbers and claim fiscal restraint

United States Surpluses & Deficits Graph (in billions of dollars) Image Credit: The Washington Post / Hugh Hewitt (blog)

WaPo and Obama Administration shape numbers and claim fiscal restraint

The average person stumbling upon an article appearing in The Washington Post, yesterday, about the economy and Government spending would think that our current leadership was having success at being responsible with the citizens money that had been collected in taxes.

The article begins with the following quote excerpted from The Washington Post:

Obama team points to smaller deficit numbers
By David Cho - Washington Post Staff Writer - Tuesday, April 13, 2010

"The federal deficit is running significantly lower than it did last year, with the budget gap for the first half of fiscal 2010 down 8 percent over the same period a year ago, senior Obama administration officials said Monday."
Reference Here>>

While, technically, this statement may be true, it masks the fact that the larger truth is that this adjusted figure moved from being ten (10) times larger than the deficit created by the previous leadership in 2007, to just nine (9) times larger. The Washington Post does reveal the information of this fact in two areas in their article on the Obama Administration report, in a graphic (above) and not until the 13th paragraph of this glowing piece of how well this administration is really not spending that much!

Quote from the 13th paragraph of the same Washington Post article:

"The deficit figure released by the Treasury Department for March means that the federal government has been spending more than it collected for a record 18 consecutive months, dating to the Bush administration."
Reference Here>>

The graph shows the truth of the deficits and Government spending and it is astounding that the Washington Post does not make the lead of this article that the improved spending number of $1,288,000,000,000 (1.3 trillion) is a whopping NINE TIMES larger than $158,000,000,000 ($1.6 billion) of the 2007 deficits of the Bush Administration, the first year with a Democrat Party controlled House of Representatives.

Nationally syndicated talk show host Hugh Hewitt could not have summed up how wrong this article is in its reporting of the effects of the policies of Barack Obama and the reporting job by the Washington Post.

This excerpted and edited from the blog of Hugh Hewitt -

"This is a ruinous level of spending, the sort of wildly-out-of-control hosing of printed money that could lead to a national fiscal stroke. Happy talk about a hundred billion of possible savings here and there and a reduction in earmarks should not divert attention from the fact that President Obama has led the country over a fiscal cliff, and has no solution in the offing except for a commission that will recommend vast tax hikes the prospect of which already chills investment and job growth."
Reference Here>>

In short, we all should expect a higher standard of context and truth in reports issued from our current leadership and more importantly, reporting of this information by the Fourth Estate (MSM).

When A Government Takeover Of A Business Sector ... Nukes

Wheels keep turning: A production line at Holden's Elizabeth plant in Adelaide, Australia. Holden Australia is a wholly owned subsidiary of GM and employs thousands of workers in South Australia and Victoria. Australian Industry Minister and Senator Kim Carr, says GM's bankruptcy, which is the biggest in US manufacturing history, will have no immediate effect on Holden Australia. "We've spoken directly with the company. Its future is guaranteed," he told ABC News. Caption & Image Credit: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC News)

When A Government Takeover Of A Business Sector ... Nukes

Okay, okay, okay ... so now we all come to the point where we can understand why it does not make sense to anyone why a Government can not, and should not take over the running of a business enterprise.

Two words - UNION CONTRACTS.

When a free market enterprise goes belly up due to changing demand or poor management decisions, everyone who was involved in that business has skin in the game.

What happens when a Government owns a business enterprise? Everything ... including the culture the enterprise, gets twisted until it becomes unrecognizable.

This excerpted and edited from the New York Times -

Automaker Pensions Underfunded by $17 Billion
By NICK BUNKLEY - NYT - Published: April 6, 2010

The pension plans at General Motors and Chrysler are underfunded by a total of $17 billion and could fail if the automakers do not return to profitability, according to a government report released Tuesday.
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If either company’s plan must be terminated, the government would become liable for paying benefits to hundreds of thousands of retirees. The effect on the government’s pension insurer, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, would be “unprecedented,” the report said. The agency manages plans with assets totaling $68.7 billion, less than the $84.5 billion in G.M.’s plan alone.
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The Treasury Department owns 61 percent of G.M. and 10 percent of Chrysler as a result of the [FORCED] emergency loans the carmakers received last year. The government spent $81 billion bailing out the companies and others in the auto industry.
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“In the event that the companies do not return to profitability in a reasonable time frame, Treasury officials said that they will consider all commercial options for disposing of Treasury’s equity, including forcing the companies into liquidation,” the report said.

In addition, the report said the government’s interests as a shareholder of G.M. and Chrysler could clash with those of pension participants and beneficiaries.
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G.M. is scheduled to release its financial results for 2009 on Wednesday. Chrysler plans to provide an update on April 21.
[Reference Here]

We, at Maxine, will update when these financial results become available.

Mr. President ... the question was about TAXES

The great elaborator: Obama gives 17-minute answer to health-care query in N.C. Image Credit: Polypore International, Inc.

Mr. President ... the question was about TAXES

On Good Friday - a day that Christians observe the day Jesus was paraded through the streets of Jerusalem along with two other criminals, dragging a cross on his back, a cross that he would later be nailed through the wrists and feet to, and then have this cross posted in the ground and hang from to die - Barack Obama took to a riser-stage in Charlotte, North Carolina at Celgard, a manufacturer of lithium battery components. The company is expanding through an economic-stimulus-funded grant.

During the Obama Administration's promotional event to highlight Government Spending, President Obama took a few questions from the audience and the following situation of note transpired.

Obama took a question on the new health care reform law and higher taxes and he produced one of the longest answers that had been documented (YouTube video below) ... and he produced this answer without actually answering the essence of the question.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. We're honored to have you here today. I'm Joyce Ravis (ph) from Lake Wiley, South Carolina. I work at Celgard. We have wonderful CEOs that take care of us and have really helped the company grow.

My question is, though, in the economy times that we have now, is it a wise decision to add more taxes to us with the health care, because it -- we are over-taxed as it is?

Time: 12:39 p.m. and 40 seconds, EDT

OBAMA: Well, let's talk about this, you know, because this is an area where there's been just a whole lot of misinformation. And I'm going to have to work hard over the next several months to clean up a lot of the misapprehensions that people have.

Here's the bottom line. Number one is that we are the only -- we have been, up until last week, the only advanced country that allows 15 million of its citizens to not have any health insurance. And the vast majority of those folks work; it's just that they don't happen to work for a company that is either big enough or generous enough to provide them any coverage.

So that's point number one: There is a moral imperative that is important.

FAST FORWARD TO END (full answer here)

Boy, that was a long answer. I'm sorry, but I hope everybody -- but I hope I answered her question.

Time: 12:56 p.m. and 54 seconds, EDT.

This overview excerpted and edited from The Washington Post -

Obama's 17-minute, 2,500-word response to woman's claim of being 'over-taxed'
by Anne E. Kornblut - The Washington Post - April 5, 2010

Even by President Obama's loquacious standards, an answer he gave here on health care Friday was a doozy.
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He then spent the next 17 minutes and 12 seconds lulling the crowd into a daze. His discursive answer - more than 2,500 words long -- wandered from topic to topic, including commentary on the deficit, pay-as-you-go rules passed by Congress, Congressional Budget Office reports on Medicare waste, COBRA coverage, the Recovery Act and Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (he referred to this last item by its inside-the-Beltway name, "F-Map"). He talked about the notion of eliminating foreign aid (not worth it, he said). He invoked Warren Buffett, earmarks and the payroll tax that funds Medicare (referring to it, in fluent Washington lingo, as "FICA").

Always fond of lists, Obama ticked off his approach to health care -- twice. "Number one is that we are the only -- we have been, up until last week, the only advanced country that allows 50 million of its citizens to not have any health insurance," he said. A few minutes later he got to the next point, which seemed awfully similar to the first. "Number two, you don't know who might end up being in that situation," he said, then carried on explaining further still. "Point number three is that the way insurance companies have been operating, even if you've got health insurance you don't always know what you got, because what has been increasingly the practice is that if you're not lucky enough to work for a big company that is a big pool, that essentially is almost a self-insurer, then what's happening is, is you're going out on the marketplace, you may be buying insurance, you think you're covered, but then when you get sick they decide to drop the insurance right when you need it," Obama continued, winding on with the answer.

Halfway through, an audience member on the riser yawned.
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It was not evident that he changed any minds at Friday's event. The audience sat politely, but people in the back of the room began to wander off.

Even Obama seemed to recognize that he had gone on too long. He apologized -- in keeping with the spirit of the moment, not once, but twice. "Boy, that was a long answer. I'm sorry," he said, drawing nervous laughter that sounded somewhat like relief as he wrapped up. But, he said: "I hope I answered your question."
Reference Here>>

Mr. President ... the question was about TAXES!

Obamacare: Nations largest insurance operation just got a lot larger - and more intrusive

Bend over ... and kiss it (personal freedom and economy) goodbye! Image Credit: U.S. Government/Marines

Obamacare: Nations largest insurance operation just got a lot larger - and more intrusive

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.

Thank all members of the Democrat Political Party for saddling our country with additional unfunded debt heaped upon a broken ... and broke economy.

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.

CODE RED: The final push ... and rally

Code Red Logo - CTRL-CLICK image to find latest Congressman count. Image Credit: NRCC

CODE RED: The final push ... and rally

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:
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·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
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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>>

Catholic Nuns and Bishops differ on Obamacare

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.

The Associated Press, today released the following headline and excerpted text -

'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.

Code Red: A call to action to save a nation

NRCC Code Red header logo - Image Credit: NRCC.org

Code Red: A call to action to save a nation

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 Obama said that ObamaCare will reduce health insurance premiums by "3,000 percent." [YouTube video HERE] 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.

Just think, America: These are the people telling us that they know best how to run 1/6 of our economy.

AGW datasets discovery: 75% of all datasets corrupted

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.

Logo of the Japan Meteorological Agency or JMA, the Japanese government's weather service. Charged with gathering and reporting weather data and forecasts in Japan, it is a semi-autonomous part of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. It is also responsible for observation and warning of earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. Image and Caption Credit: Wikipedia

This excerpted and edited from Pajamas Media -

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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.

Anyone know if Japan has a FOIA?
Reference Here>>

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.

The Obama twist in his renewed push to pass Obamacare

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

The Obama twist in his renewed push to pass Obamacare

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!

Golf cart debuts as anti-terror vehicle

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

Golf cart debuts as anti-terror vehicle

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.
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It has been specially designed to transport two armed security personnel during or after terror attacks.
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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].
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"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.
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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>>

Fraudulent 'Nature Geoscience' study paper on Sea Levels is pulled

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

Fraudulent 'Nature Geoscience' study paper on Sea Levels is pulled

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!