--preserve (cp is still changing file?)

[The Batterson's]

The preserve function isn't working properly.  rsync copies over the 
existing file even though it's the same file.  Is cp changing something 
even though I have --preserve?  It doesn't seem to be preserving the 
time stamp.  Please see the script below.

# KFI Tech Guy
ls -t ~/iPodderData/downloads/'KFI Tech Guy' | head -2 | xargs -i cp -v 
--preserve ~/iPodderData/downloads/'KFI Tech Guy'/{} 
~/iPodderData/downloads/temp/{}
rm ~/iPodderData/downloads/'KFI Tech Guy'/*
cp -v --preserve ~/iPodderData/downloads/temp/* 
~/iPodderData/downloads/'KFI Tech Guy'/
rsync -a --progress --delete ~/iPodderData/downloads/'KFI Tech Guy'/ 
/media/usbdisk/Podcasts/'KFI Tech Guy'/
rm ~/iPodderData/downloads/temp/*

Thank You,

Miles Batterson
Saline, Michigan