Associated Press: Ethan Harris: 'US Economic Growth Slowed to 1.5 Pct. Rate in Q2'

Source:Associated Press- Ethan Harris talking about economic growth in the United States.

"The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of just 1.5 percent from April through June, as Americans cut back sharply on spending. The slowdown in growth adds to worries that the economy could be stalling three years after the recession ended." 

From the Associated Press

Associated Press: 'Gov't Upping Fight Against Health Care Fraud'

Source:Associated Press- United States Attorney General Eric Holder, talking about health care fraud.

"The Obama administration is upping the ante in the fight against health care fraud, joining forces with private insurers and state investigators on a scale not previously seen in an attempt to stanch tens of billions of dollars in losses." 

From the Associated Press

It's the uncompensated health care in the health care system, that's the biggest problem with the health care system in America, along with the unaffordable health insurance in the country. I'm not talking about Medicaid, which is also a problem in that they don't compensate a lot of hospitals who treat their clients. I'm talking about people who go to the emergency room for the most basic of procedures, who don't have health insurance and not even Medicaid, who can't afford to pay for that health care out-of-pocket, who get that health care for free. And those costs are passed onto the hospitals, and they pass those costs onto to either the taxpayers or the patients that they have who are covered by health insurance. 

What the Affordable Care Act of 2010 does, it requires everyone who can afford it, to get covered by health insurance. And low-income workers, they can now be covered by Medicaid. And for lower middle class workers, they are now eligible for a tax credit to cover their health insurance. Uncompensated health care is not technically health care fraud, at pre-2010, but it's a major source for why our health care is so expensive, at least compared with the rest of the developed world.

Associated Press: Raw Video- ‘New York Debates Proposed Ban on Sugary Drinks’

Source:Associated Press- Shira Gans works for the Manhattan, New York Borough President.

“New York faced the next step in a bitter battle over large sugary drinks Tuesday, with the soft drink and restaurant industries protesting the mayor’s proposed ban and the public lining up to have its say.”

From the Associated Press 

NYPD: “Son, you need to put that slurpy before it eventually kills you or rots out your teeth.” No, I don’t know if that cop in this cartoon actually said that to this little boy, but that’s the attitude that nanny statists on the Far-Left represent in America: “Big Government knows what’s best for the people. The people are too dumb to make their own decisions.”

Source:FRS FreeState- Welcome to Mike Bloomberg's New York Nanny.

Another example of blogging on a slow news day, I’m probably just a step away from bloggers block if there’s such a thing. And if there isn’t, I just invented it.

I know I covered this back in June (but like I said, it’s a slow news day) but New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg apparently has had some vision that he knows how New Yorker’s and perhaps Americans in general, how they should live better than the people themselves. He has the classic one- size fits all to governing, that if this works for him or other people, that it must work for everyone.

In 2008 the prospect of Mike Bloomberg running for President as an Independent, didn’t bother me. He seemed like a classical Northeastern Republican: “keep big government out of our wallets and bedrooms” Republican. But now he seems not only believe that big government should be in our wallets, like calling for all the Bush tax cuts to expire on everyone, including the middle class, but Mayor Bloomberg also wants big government down our throats. Telling us what we can drink and how much we can drink, he’s becoming a hero in today’s so-called progressive (communist, in actuality) politics.

What New York is attempting to do with soft drinks is another example of prohibition. If New Yorker’s can’t get large sodas in the city, then they go to Long Island, North Jersey or Connecticut, someplace where people have the freedom to decide how much they can drink and eat. Of course as long as they have the money to pay for it and then if that jurisdiction has a sales tax, they’ll end up paying taxes on those products that they buy. Which will go to help that jurisdiction pay for schools, roads, hospitals, everything that communities need to be vibrant.

Tax money that could’ve otherwise been spent in New York is now helping local jurisdictions outside of New York, pay for those services. That’s what leftists and religious fundamentalists  have never figured out about prohibition, that just because you tell people they can’t do something, doesn’t mean they stop doing it. It’s just done in other ways and in other areas.

If you think people are living unhealthy and you believe that this unhealthy living is somehow negatively affects the rest of society as a whole and you want to correct that bad behavior, what you should do is incentivize people to correct that behavior. Have them pay a price for living unhealthy, short of putting them in jail. And have them pay a financial cost for living unhealthy. Like taxing soft drinks extra than what you would tax water or milk. 

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Associated Press: Marcela Isaza: 'Stars Don't Blame Hollywood for Shooting Rampage'

Source:Associated Press- actress Demi Levato.

"The AP's Marcela Isaza asks Will.I.Am, Demi Levato and others if on screen violence is to blame for the Colorado shootings." 

From the Associated Press

First of all, the fact that Hollywood actors and other workers in Hollywood wouldn't blame their own industry and company town for the violence in America, is as surprising as seeing an ocean full of water, or a lot of people at the pool on a hot day. That's where they work, that's where they got rich and famous. And besides, they're entertainers, so you have to at least consider that anytime they take a public position on anything. They're not going to do or say anything that could put their future earnings and career at risk. 

Second, Hollywood is a business more than anything else. If there's a large market for violent films and other violent entertainment and they can make a lot of money producing that entertainment, that's exactly what they're going to do. Which is their right as private individuals and businesspeople. 

So I believe this gets to personal responsibility and people knowing what they're looking at and seeing and then deciding it's not real. And just because some celebrity looks cool in a film or on TV blowing someone away or violently beating someone else up on TV or in the film, doesn't mean that would be a cool thing to do in real life. Well, that wouldn't be the right thing to do in real life, even if did make you look cool with hipsters. 

Associated Press: 'USA Elects Sigourney Weaver to Political Show'

Source:Associated Press- Hollywood Goddess Sigourney Weaver.

Source:The Daily Press

“Sigourney Weaver and Carla Gugino on the strong women they play as Secretary of State and journalist in USA Network’s new ‘Political Animals’ miniseries.”  

From the Associated Press 

I saw the premier of the new USA mini-series Political Animals last Sunday night and I liked the show. Much different from NBC’s The West Wing, with a lot more humor. The West Wing was also a funny show, but Political Animals to me looks like a political satire. Not completely based, but definitely inspired by real-life political stories.

The Elaine Barish character (played by the still gorgeous, sexy, and funny Sigourney Weaver) is divorced from the former President of the United States. Her relationship with her ex-husband, looks a hell of a lot like the relationship between Bill and Hillary Clinton, a couple who obviously loves politics and is deeply involved in politics.

This show looks like 2008 all over again with the Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton Democratic presidential race, where of course then Senator Obama not only wins the Democratic nomination but is elected President.

Senator Hillary Clinton who loses the Democratic nomination in 2008, but comes out of it strong and is able to form a good relationship with President Elect Obama in late 2008 and early 2009 and is nominated by President Obama to be his Secretary of State and obviously gets confirmed by the Senate.

I haven’t figured out if Elaine Barish was in Congress at all (House or Senate) but she goes from being a former presidential candidate who loses the nomination to her opponent who is elected President in the same year and then nominates his former opponent in the Democratic race, to be his Secretary of State. This looks like the third installment of the Bill and Hillary Show, the real-life Bill and Hillary Show, the Primary Colors version of the Bill and Hillary Show.

The latest installment of the Bill and Hillary Show with Hillary as Secretary of State and we get to see how Bill and Hillary interact with each other as Secretary of State. But instead of Bill making Hillary’s career all about him, plays more of a counselor to Hillary and tries to steer her on the right course.

There are some added new twists to the Bill and Hillary Show. With how they interact with their kids and struggles that their kids are going through as well, as well as Hillary’s relationship with the media. This looks like a very funny and entertaining show, with the new Bill Clinton doing an excellent job of playing a horny bastard who not only cheats on his wife, but mistress’s as well, similar to Bill, but the new Bill is not as Yankee or yuppie as Bill. More of a redneck, but someone who is also highly intelligent and knows and how to play the game of politics and someone who has been very successful at it. 

David Von Pein: WFAA-TV News: JFK Assassination First Coverage

Source:David Von Pein- WFAA-TV Dallas coverage of the JFK Assassination

Source:The Daily Press

"Assassination of John F. Kennedy, mortal shooting of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, as he rode in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. His accused killer was Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine who had embraced Marxism and defected for a time to the Soviet Union. Oswald never stood trial for murder, because, while being transferred after having been taken into custody, he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a distraught Dallas nightclub owner.
Encyclopedia Britannica."

From David Von Pein

"Part 1 of 3.

8-and-a-half hours of WFAA-TV's live coverage of the events surrounding President John F. Kennedy's assassination and the subsequent murder of JFK's killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, two days later.

WFAA (Channel 8) was the ABC-TV affiliate in Dallas, Texas, in 1963. A considerable amount of video footage from the ABC Television Network in New York is also included in this video series.

Part 1 begins at approximately 12:45 PM (Central Time) on Friday, November 22, 1963, which was about 15 minutes after the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, had been shot in downtown Dallas, Texas.

Local Dallas station WFAA-TV was airing "The Julie Benell Show", a regular midday program, when WFAA's Program Director Jay Watson interrupted with a report about the shooting -- "About 10 or 15 minutes ago, a tragic thing, from all indications at this point, has happened in the city of Dallas...".

Watson, who was himself a witness to the assassination in Dealey Plaza, talks with some of the eyewitnesses to the shooting within minutes of the shots being fired, such as Bill and Gayle Newman (whom Watson repeatedly refers to as the "Nunnallys" throughout the early afternoon). Abraham Zapruder, who filmed the assassination with his home movie camera, was also interviewed live on the air by Watson."

Source:David Von Pein

I saw a documentary about the JFK assassination about three years ago. I’ve seen several documentaries about the JFK assassination before. Most of them have been conspiracy theories relating to other people being involved in this 1963 assassination of a United States President. Ranging from the Italian Mafia being involved in it, because of U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy’s involvement in trying to bring down organized crime in America.

As well as the CIA and U.S. Military being involved in the JFK assassination, because they didn’t like President Kennedy’s national security policy. The most warped conspiracy theory I’ve heard so far was that Vice President Lyndon Johnson ordered this assassination, because of how badly he wanted to be President. There’s no credible evidence to any of these conspiracy theories that I’ve seen, except for the organized crime connection. And in LBJ’s case, no evidence at all, but the documentary about the JFK assassination that I saw on the History Channel, wasn’t a conspiracy theory at all and was much different.

Because it was about the media coverage of the JFK assassination, with limited commercial interruptions and about three hours long, with no outside commentary. They just showed the media coverage of the JFK assassination from 1963, up till the JFK movie from 1991. What made this media coverage more interesting was that it was the first ever of a U.S. presidential assassination that was broadcasted live on TV. So all the TV news anchors and reporters who were reporting this story, were covering something for the very first time not only in their careers, but in American history.

With no precedent to fall back on. All they really had was their knowledge of how to cover big stories and what you saw were people who were doing a very good job. Under heavy pressure and having to do it live, with no retakes and you got to see some of these people as they were actually were. How they actually react on live TV. With CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite actually choking up during a CBS Special Report reporting that President Kennedy was dead. Which was made this JFK documentary even better because of how clever and unique it was.

I liked this documentary of the JFK assassination so much that I recorded on DVD the first time I saw it. Because the preview of it looked so good and with Jack Kennedy being a political hero of mine. I expected I would want to see it again and again which I have. You even get to see things like Jack Ruby killing Lee Oswald as it happen and coverage of the 1978 U.S. House hearing on the JFK assassination and is something that anyone whose interested in this story should check out.

Associated Press: President Obama: 'There Will Be Other Days for Politics'

Source:Associated Press- President Barack H. Obama (Democrat, Illinois) talking about the shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

"President Barack Obama says the tragic movie theater shooting in Colorado that left 12 people dead is a reminder that life is fragile. He says the event "reminds us of all the ways that we are united as one American family." 

From the Associated Press

I voted for Barack Obama for President in 2008 and will probably vote for him again in 2012. There are moments when I'm even more glad than normal that he's our President, or believe there is simply no one more qualified for that job, because he always knows what's the right thing to say and what's the right tone to have. He seems to always be at his best when he's the most under pressure. He has that JFK or Bill Clinton, even Ronald Reagan quality when the heat is on (so to speak) he not just shows up, but is at the top of his game.