Associated Press: President Obama: 'Europe Must Act to Stem Econ Crisis'

Source:Associated Press- President Barack H. Obama (Democrat, Illinois) talking about Europe at The White House.

"President Barack Obama is urging Europe's leaders to act quickly and decisively to solve the continent's economic crisis. Obama says there are solutions available to European leaders, including injecting capital into weak banks." 

From the Associated Press

Shomari Stone: 'Grand Opening of Maryland Live! Casino in Hanover, MD'

Source:Shomari Stone- reporting for WRC-TV News in Hannover, Maryland.

"Grand Opening of Maryland Live! in Hanover - Casino is now open to the public

Shomari Stone takes you inside Maryland Live! Casino in Hanover, MD.

Thousands lined up for a chance to win big at the grand opening of Maryland Live! at Arundel Mills in Hanover, Maryland on Wednesday night. The casino opened with more than 3,000 slot machines and a mix of electronic table games including Blackjack, Roulette and Poker.

The new $500 million Maryland Live! Casino is designed to appeal to more than just gamblers. Those looking for a great meal have several dining options, including the Cheesecake Factor, Bobby's Burger Palace and Phillips Seafood. The project also created more than 2,500 jobs, with 1,500 employees working at the casino. The casino is expected to generate more than $400 million per year in tax revenue to support local schools.

Maryland Live! is now open to the public Sunday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., and Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 a.m. Guests must be 21 years or older to attend."

From Shomari Stone

If you want to look at legalized gambling from partisan, political lens, this is a win, win for both hyper-partisan sides of the political isle in America: 

The Left gets their new government revenue to support all of their so-called progressive programs that they want, as well as new revenue for government programs that we actually need like education, infrastructure, and law enforcement. 

The Right gives the Maryland Assembly and Governor Martin O'Malley the opportunity to lower taxes in Maryland on individuals and businesses, because of all the new good jobs that are created by casinos and the taxes that the people who go to the casinos will pay. As well as giving Maryland the opportunity to keep new revenue in the state that otherwise would've gone to Delaware or New Jersey that has legalized gambling in their states. 

I know the Christian-Right doesn't like gambling because it violates their fundamentalist religious beliefs. And the Nanny State-Left doesn't like gambling because they're worried about too many people gambling their money away. But this is not a theocracy (at least not yet) and the State of Maryland is not a nanny state (at least not yet) but instead calls itself the Free State of Maryland. If you are going to call yourself the Free State, then you have to live up with that. 

Everything in life that adults do can come with real risks, including gambling. Doesn't mean you outlaw it and hope it goes away, especially when you are talking about victimless crimes. Every activity that Americans participate in life can be safely and responsibly regulated, as well as taxed, to make them as safe as possible, but also put take pressure off of taxpayers when it comes to income and property taxes and allow for you to keep more revenue in your state. Which is how gambling, as well as marijuana, should be handled in Maryland.

Associated Press: Matt Friedman- 'Syria: US, European Diplomats No Longer Welcome'

Source:Associated Press- Bashar Al-Asasd: Baathist President of Syria.

"Syria barred a string of U.S. and European diplomats Tuesday, saying they were "no longer welcome" as the country plunged into its most profound international isolation in decades." 

From Associated Press

It’s a good thing that both America and Europe are pulling their diplomats out of Syria for diplomatic as well as for security reasons. Looks like the Assad Regime is preparing for war, as they should be if they want to stay in power. And of course they do and be the most authoritarian regime in the Mideast. This government is worst than the Islāmic Republic of Iran, which is an Islāmic theocracy, that of course is sexist towards women. President Assad is not interested in being President of Syria, that’s just his title. He’s interested in ruling over his people. Which is different.

The Assad Regime is more of a terrorist organization than a government. It’s more of a police state, than a government. They will allow you to live in what they claim is their country for a price: that you do exactly what they want you to do, you live under their code of conduct and live up to what they believe a Syrian should be. And the West looks like is finally waking up to that and the Syrian people are finally fed up about that and are literally now fighting back about it and it’s only a question of whether the Arab League and the West are going to help them fight back.

I wrote two blog posts last week arguing that the United States needs to stand for the Syrian people. Not calling for an invasion of Syria. No one in their right mind is, but there are other ways to assist people fighting for their freedom, without invading their country and risk killing innocent people. It could even happen short of a no fly zone, with things like military aid, weapons, food, humanitarian relief, blockades, preventing money from leaving the Assad Regime. And going to the Assad Regime, along with other sources, things we should’ve been doing for months.

We could be empowering the Syrian rebels to take the fight to the Assad Regime, but without doing it for them. Telling them that if they want their freedom, they have to go take it from President Assad. The old guard so to speak, is not going to go down without a fight, as we saw in Libya and of course as we are seeing in Syria. 

It’s good that the United States and Europe are pulling their diplomats out of Syria, to prevent them from going through any possible future violence. And this might be a sign of what’s to come, that the Syrian rebels are ready, or are preparing to go on the offense. Hopefully with the backing from the West and we will be able to eliminate another authoritarian regime in the Mideast. 

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The Onion: 'Week in Review'

Source:The Onion- Also in what's not in the news: the Republican Party endorsed President Barack H. Obama for reelection as President of the United States.

Source:The Daily Press 

"Straight and gay service members are looking forward to asking and telling, scientists believe the recent heat wave may have been caused by a massive star at the center of the Solar System, and Bristol Palin reveals that her mother has had 15 abortions. It's the week of August 8th, 2011." 

From The Onion 

Source:The Onion- Governor Flip Flopper (Republican, Massachusetts) I mean Mitt Romney (honest mistake) is desperate to be President of the United States.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney announced today that he will clone himself again, to make himself look like a woman. Along with undergoing plastic surgery to make that happen, to better reconnect with female voters. But canceled those plans, after being told by Christian-Conservatives that they wouldn't vote for a woman for President. The ironic part of this, that a lot of those voters are women as well. 

In a press release from the Romney Campaign, they announced that already managing four clones, Conservative Mitt, Liberal Mitt, Moderate Mitt and Neoconservative Mitt, would be too much to handle. To go along with a Female Mitt.

Also in the news: Vice President Joe Biden  announced that Mitt Romney was more qualified to be President of the United States, then himself. But in the next sentenced announced that Mitt would make a worst President than George W. Bush. Apparently Vice President Biden forgot to take his medication. His wife Jill Biden announced that her husband is back home in bed now. And will only be allowed to leave the house, with tape wrapped around his mouth, to prevent him from speaking. 

That's your week in what didn't happen. For more information on what's not going on in the world, I suggest you become a die hard viewer of Fox News or reader of The Onion to find out how the world doesn't work.  

The Nanny States of America: The Week in Big Government

Source:Wikipedia- The Nanny State of Britain.

"Nanny state is a term of British origin that conveys a view that a government or its policies are overprotective or interfering unduly with personal choice.[1][2] The term likens such a government to the role that a nanny has in child rearing. An early use of the term comes from Conservative British Member of Parliament Iain Macleod who referred to "what I like to call the nanny state" in the 3 December 1965 edition of The Spectator.[3][4]

The term was popularised by journalists Bernard Levin[5] and Auberon Waugh[6] and later by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher."

From Wikipedia

"Congress took up one of the most divisive issues in politics Thursday as the House of Representatives rejected a controversial measure banning abortions based on the sex of a fetus.

In the House, 246 representatives backed the bill while 168 voted against it, leaving the proposal short of the two-thirds total necessary for passage. Most Republicans supported the measure; the majority of Democrats opposed it.

Supporters characterized the proposal as a necessary defense of the civil rights of unborn children; opponents called it part of a broader so-called war on women and an ongoing assault on legalized abortion."

Source:CNN- U.S. Representative Trent Franks (Republican, Arizona) sponsor of the antiabortion bill.

From CNN 

"A federal appeals court has struck down the Defense of Marriage Act – Congress's key legislation to block gay marriage – as unconstitutional in a ruling that will propel the issue to the supreme court.

The Boston-based first district appeals court upheld a lower court decision that gay marriage is a matter for individual states to decide and that the federal government does not have the authority to deny recognition of same-sex unions.

It is the highest court to date to strike down the 1996 act, known as Doma, which denies gay married couples federal benefits and protections given to heterosexuals such as health coverage, social security payments and medical leave. A host of states have passed their own bans on gay marriage, but eight states and the District of Columbia have authorised same-sex unions." 

Source:The Guardian- "Greg Kimball and Brian O'Connor kiss outside the Massachusetts state house in Boston in 2007...

From The Guardian 

"ABC News' George Will this morning slammed Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his proposed ban on certain sizes of sugary soda in New York City restaurants, movie theaters and delis, calling it an "irritable gesture" on "This Week."

"In one sentence he's got the essence of contemporary liberalism. That is something preposterous and something sinister," said Will, before quoting Bloomberg saying 'we're not taking away anyone's right to do things. We're simply forcing you to understand."'

Will admitted the United States faces an obesity problem, but argued that Bloomberg's solution is misguided.

"Regulating the size of these drinks at some outlets will do nothing about it (American obesity problem)…what this really says is, what Bloomberg is saying, the government helps with your healthcare, the government's implicated in your heath, therefore we own you."

Will went further, comparing the effort to regulate what people drink to the liberal effort to regulate people's energy use.

"This is one of the reasons liberals are so enamored of the issue of climate change. They say all our behavior in some way affects the climate," he said. "Therefore, the government - meaning, we, liberals, the party of government - can fine-tune all your behavior right down to the light bulbs you use."

ABC News contributor Donna Brazile expressed her support for Bloomberg, but admitted the proposed plan couldn't solve the American obesity problem.

"We have a public health crisis. Obesity is national problem. I don't think you can solve it by banning one of many sugary things out there," said Brazile. "All I can tell you is that this is a very serious concern and I commend the mayor for raising it and also giving you something to drink about," said Brazile." 

From ABC News 

"George Will and Donna Brazile debate Mayor Bloomberg's soda proposal."

Source:ABC News- This Week with George Will and Donna Brazile.

From ABC News

A Federal appeals court rules that DOMA, (the Defense of Marriage Act that President Clinton signed into law back in 1996 that the Republican Congress passed) that President Clinton now says was a mistake to sign into law, is ruled unconstitutional by a Federal appeals court. Because it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. A familiar ruling and why I predict that all same-sex marriage bans will be ruled unconstitutional in the future. 

Looks like women won't have to ask Uncle Sam's permission to use the bathroom or interfere with her and her doctor in decisions they make regarding her health. 

New York City bans sweet drinks. How Mayor Mike Bloomberg was ever a Republican, I'll never know. Lately he doesn't look like a Democrat either, but governing as a left-wing Nanny Statist. I would call him a Communist, but he's a billionaire and the only billionaire Communists are dictators. And whatever you think of Mayor Bloomberg, he's certainly not a Communist. (At least on economic policy)

Whether big government is coming from statists on the Far-Left or its coming from statists on the Far-Right, it's still big government. And it's too big, because it interferes with how free adults live their own lives, not how we live among each other. But how we live our lives as individuals. Whether it involves health care, with abortion or telling people they have to take government health insurance. Or outlawing same-sex marriage, because you don't like homosexuals and it violates your religious freedom to allow them to get married.

How same-sex marriage violates anything to me, is a mystery that could make for a good book or movie. And maybe I'll write about that in the future. Or telling people they can't have soft drinks, because it's unhealthy for them. Again, interfering with how free adults live their own lives.

We are a liberal democracy and because of that we have the liberty to live our own lives. Statists whether they are on the Far-Left or Far-Right, seem to have such boring lives, that minding their own damn business puts them to sleep. So they feel the need to mind other people's damn business, with what health care they can have, who they can marry, what they watch on TV, what they can eat and drink, etc. 

Big Government is also undemocratic because you are saying with these laws, that end up getting thrown out, is that you know best how to live the lives of the people you represent, better than them. 

We live in the United State of America, which is a liberal democracy. Americans are supposed to have the freedom here to live their own lives. Not interfere with the freedom and security of others, but to be able to make their own decisions for themselves. If individual freedom and free choice is too scary for you, I suggest that their countries that you might want to try in instead. The Communist Republic of Cuba is just 90 miles south of Florida. But you hear about or see people fleeing to Cuba to escape America. 

History: ‘The Che Guevara True Story’

Source:Hewad Patman- The Che Guevara Story.

“Argentinian doctor; joined Castro in Mexico in 1954; a leader of the 1956-59 Cuban Revolution. Che served as president of Cuba’s national bank and as Cuba’s minister of industry in the period immediately following the Cuban Revolution.

Towards the end of his formal affiliation with the Cuban government, Che came to implicitly criticize Soviet bureacracy. His positions put him at odds with the party line of the Cuban CP. In 1965, Che realized that the defence of the Cuban revolution and the creation of revolutions abroad were naturally not always in sync, and this ultimately led to his resignation and his return to revolutionary work abroad.

During Che’s subsequent revolutionary campaigns, he wrote his Message to the Tricontinental (1967) in which he openly criticized the Soviet Union; claiming that the Northern hemisphere of the world, both the Soviet Union and the US, exploited the Southern hemisphere of the world. He strongly supported the Vietnamese Revolution, and urged his comrades in South America to create “many vietnams”.

In 1965 Che left Cuba to set up guerrilla forces first in the Congo and then later in Bolivia, where he was ultimately captured and killed in October 1967. Accounts of his execution have varied over the years, but many contemprary accounts indicate some degree of collaboration between Bolivia’s government troops and the United States CIA.

Guevara developed a theory of primacy of military struggle, in particular concept of guerilla foquismo. Many of Che’s theories regarding guerilla tactics are articulated in his 1961 work “Guerilla Warfare.”

From Hewad Patman 

“From his famous motorcycle trips to his historic role in the Cuban Revolution, Argentinean revolutionary Che Guevara is profiled in a documentary produced to explore the life of the man whose visage has become an iconic symbol of hard left politics.

This man, who ordered the execution of countless human beings while in charge of the notorious La Cabaña prison in Havana, who terrorized Cuban society and who denied freedom to thousands of citizens whom he considered “deviants” or “anti-revolutionaries” can never be accepted as a hero, martyr or — the shock of it — a saint.

Its a good documentary in the fact that it brings to light other people in the revolution, and it has this kind of new way of presenting the man, with lots of hard guitar in the background to make him seem “radical” i guess. Jon Anderson the author of one of the best bio’s on him is interviewed many times, also there are interviews with American soldiers who fought in the revolution,which is very interesting to get to see them. Overall it is one of the better documentaries.”

Source:Top Documentary Films- on Che Guevara.

From Top Documentary Films 

When I think of this poster of Che Guevara, I think of it as the symbol of what hipster-leftists think of this man, as an antiestablishment, revolutionary and the symbol of what it means to be cool with the Far-Left in America. I think those folks like Che because they think he’s really cool and a badass. And perhaps don’t like him so much for his politics and perhaps aren’t even aware of his politics, but just look at him from a pop culture perspective.

Source:AB Posters- Argentine Communist Revolutionary Che Guevara, who help build and maintain the Communist Revolution in Cuba.

Imagine had these socialist revolutionaries in Latin America, like Fidel Castro and Che Guevara were inspired by Socialists in Scandinavia, Britain, France, Germany, and others, and not being inspired by Socialists in Russia and China, where countries like Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile and others, how well they could be doing economically today. And how much influence they would have in the world today and not just in Latin America.

Had these revolutionaries followed the Brazilian model, a social democratic republic, that’s emerging as a world Power, that’s now energy independent, instead of following Russia, China, this beautiful region, deep in natural resources, as well as people, instead of all these nations being developing nations today, maybe they look like the European Union. Maybe they are all economically independent, not dependent on foreign aid. But instead giving out foreign aid. Maybe they have a Latin Union that represents their economic and security interests in the world.

Had Latin America developed an economic system, that promotes public education, that everyone has access to, not just the wealthy, that promotes public infrastructure, healthcare, that people who can take care of themselves should be expected to do that and that the state helps the people who can’t, which is the direction that Cuba is trying to move to right now, Latin America would probably be part of the developed world today. Instead of a collection of emerging countries.

Brazil will be a developed nation, perhaps within ten years from now. Mexico could and should be, but have corruption and crime issues that are holding them back. But a lot of these other countries are really struggling. Like Central America, Venezuela, Bolivia and others.

The Brazilian model is what the rest of Latin America should look at. Which is democratic socialism, which is a large private sector, but with a public that can defend and govern the country. And also help people who fall through the cracks of capitalism. Rather than trying to design an economic system where you put all the power in the state and make the people dependent on the state for their survival. 

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AP: Raw Video- 'U.S. House Rejects Sex-Selection Abortion Ban'

Source:Associated Press- U.S. Representative Phil Gingrey (Republican, Georgia) presiding over the U.S. House of Representatives.

“The House on Thursday fell short in an effort to ban abortions based on the sex of the fetus as Republicans and Democrats made an election-year appeal for women’s votes.” 

From the Associated Press 

I would never get an abortion myself (and not just because I’m a man, which makes that biologically impossible) because even if I didn’t want the baby, I prefer options like adoption over aborting potential human lives.

And I sure as hell would never abort a fetus because I didn’t like the gender of the baby. If gender equality (which is what leftists used to claim to care about) means anything, you don’t abort fetuses simply because of the fetuses gender.

But to pass a law out of Congress (even if it’s just in the House) banning abortions because the parents don’t like the gender of the baby, I mean you can say that they’re stupid for doing that, crazy even, but to put them in prison for simply being crazy idiots and perhaps their crazy idiot doctor for doing that, looks like Big Government with way too much free time on his hands, living such a boring life that he feels the need to tell other people what to do, to fill his time and days. 

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