Wake up America

Mother Convicted Of Microwaving Month-Old Daughter To Death Posted: 30 Aug 2008 11:48 AM CDT Dayton, Ohio took the spotlight yesterday, with the announcement from John McCain about his choice of a running mate. Something else happened in Dayton that received far less attention. China Arnold, 28, was convicted of microwaving her one-month-old baby This was Arnold's second trial with the first having been declared a mistrial and after closing arguments on Thursday, the jury deliberated and came back Friday with a guilty verdict for aggravated murder, which potentially holds a punishment of the death sentence. According to prosecutors, the 28 year-old mother, China Arnold, put her one-month-old baby, Paris Talley, in a microwave, turned it on and burned her baby to death, after having a fight with her boyfriend. The baby's DNA was found inside the microwave, according to CNN. The defense had claimed there was someone else there and responsible for murdering the baby. Defense attorney Jon Paul Rion cited testimony from a 8 year-old boy who they allege saw another boy take the baby into the kitchen, claims the child heard the microwave go on, then later saw the baby burned in the microwave. The 8 year-old boys mother testified on Wednesday that they lived a distance away and that her child was not at Arnold's apartment complex when the baby was murdered. The original trial was declared a mistrial on February 11, 2008, after Judge John Kessler heard private testimony from the 8 year-old boy. Other testimony came from Arnold's cell mate who testified that Arnold admitted to putting the baby inside the microwave, saying she was worried her boyfriend would leave her if he found out the infant wasn't his. Arnold showed no reaction when the jury announced the guilty verdict, reports say she just lowered her head and looked at the table before her while relatives observing in the courtroom cried and covered their faces with their hands. .

Apocalypse Now: The River of Lies Posted: 30 Aug 2008 06:03 AM CDT Thoughts on seeing Apocalypse Now again: Cross posted from Radarsite It's 1979 and a young Martin Sheen is taking us up that fateful river again. He is our wise and somber Virgil, our guide, our narrator, the ORM (the Only Rational Man) leading us up that labyrinthine river of death and insanity which is our national crucible, our Vietnam War. That great river of no return, that winding thread of dark infuriating lies that will take us further and further into the Heart of Darkness, into the Heart of Darkness of our great national shame and guilt and self-loathing. This was the real secret mission of that clandestine journey. And they almost succeeded. It's the summer of 2008 and I'm taking that trip with him once again and I am breathless and speechless in shock and wonder at the enormity my previous innocence and gullibility. I am overcome by the tragedy of it all. Not just by the horrors of that bloody and inconclusive war, but overcome by what they, the narrators have done to us all. Our trusted and revered guides have all but ruined us with the binding threads of their dark unscrupulous lies. Up the river we follow them into that great cynical myth, slaughtering myriad innocent women and little children, laying waste to the fertile land, sacrificing a small courageous people in the fiery embrace of Napalm, swooping in on the little schoolchildren playing in their schoolyard, like great birds of prey, accompanied by those brutal and bombastic sounds of the furies of hell, those Hitlerian Wagnerian orgasms of supremacist passion, the demonic sounds of that self-righteous, contemptuous warrior's passion. We are all too young, much to young to know what the hell we're doing, we're all dopeheads and surfers, sadistic, drunken sex-starved smiling adolescent American monsters, smiling the awful smiles of insanity as we slaughter our helpless prey. Meaningless slaughter. Pointless death. Ghastly unnecessary erroneous war. Monumental moral blunder. And what finally do we find at the end of that gruesome river, at the end of our perilous journey? We find ourselves. And the discovery is alarming. Madness, arrogant, ruthless, contempt of all that is fine and good in human nature, thoughtlessly obliterating a fine nation for inscrutable and indefensible motives. A big stupid illiterate giant stumbling around the world in our drunken orgy of self-gratification. We have become the monsters we once abhorred, too young and naive to even begin to appreciate the enormity of our loss, that loss of all that which we once held dear. This is the grave and ominous lesson of that journey into the Heart of Darkness, into the Heart of our National Moral Darkness. This is the lesson of that ominous voyage, the message of our profound and wise Virgil, our trusted guide, our ORM. This, then, shall be our new national narrative: The epic downward spiral of a once great nation into that great hopeless moral miasma. This is what they have done to us, this is what they have wrought. Our honored Virgils, our trusted guides, our respected ORM. This, what we have become, is their doing, this is the product of their genuis and ideology and their talent. With the power of their heavy-handed symbols and crude metaphors they have almost succeeded in redefining our national narrative. We have almost become lost in that impenetrable jungle of lies and propaganda. We have almost lost our way and have almost lost our humanity. We have, they have convinced us, sinned greatly, monumentally, against all mankind, and all that saves us from oblivion is heeding their grave warnings, the warnings of our false Virgils, the concerned admonishments of our counterfeit ORM. Oh, and they have worked their magic well. They have taught us how to hate ourselves with great sincerity and how to love our enemies, and , finally, how to find hope and solace in our boundless self-contempt. There is, they tell us, still that one possible chance for salvation -- our willingness to face up to our past mistakes and to try to make amends. To give up all of our old selfish and contemptible imperialistic warrior dreams and join the humble brotherhood of man. It's not too late yet, they tell us. There is still time. If we just follow their lead. So I have taken that old trip up that long loathsome river once again and I am all but speechless in shock and wonder at my previous ignorance and gullibility. But no longer. Now my eyes have been opened, now I can see the corrupt degenerate treachery of our false guides, our false Virgils. Their lessons are lies and their messages are empty. They have almost ruined us with their deceptions and their purposeful distortions of the truth. They had almost succeeded, they had almost robbed us of our self-respect, our hard-won and well-earned self-respect. But ultimately they have failed to destroy us. Because we can still remember, we can still remember the truth of who we are, despite their most talented and ambitious efforts to obliterate it. We are a great fine people. We are a great fine nation. We owe no apologies to anyone -- least of all to ourselves. In the end the false storytellers with their secret agendas have failed. It is the beginning of a new season now, we are beginning to create a new narrative. A narrative founded on truth and hope and promise. We are looking for new guides now, for new Virgils. Not to lead us down into the depths of self-immolation and despair, but to lift us up to the heights of promise and fulfilment. We are looking for guides now who will teach us how to love ourselves once again and regain the strength of the righteous warriors that we are. We are free and we are kind and decent. And the old men's tales, the False Virgil's lies just won't do anymore.

"Who is Sarah Palin"? Posted: 30 Aug 2008 05:00 AM CDT abc news and other msm may be headlining their stories on Sarah Palin with the title "Who is Sarah Palin?", but I'm thinking that by now, not many people are cluelss as to who she is, and what she represents for America. Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, is a self-described hockey mum, who was busy raising her kids. Married for 20 years to her high school sweetheart Todd; today is their anniversary. As she says, some of life's blessings come unexpectedly: "Some of life's greatest opportunities come unexpectedly, and this is certainly the case today. I never really set out to be involved in public affairs, much less to run for this office. My mom and dad both worked at the local elementary school. And my husband and I, we both grew up working with our hands.... Read the rest at NewsBlaze here. *And yes, it is also up in all the usual places...lol*

McCain/Palin: The Shortest Critique on the Web Posted: 29 Aug 2008 05:53 PM CDT Let me see if I've got this right -- the glamorous young candidate for change has picked for his running mate an old insider politco rerun, and the old geezer has picked a fresh young vibrant newcomer. Wow. Now who's the candidate for change here? .

Obama Retreats From Campaign's 'Hair Trigger' Response To McCain's VP pick of Palin Posted: 29 Aug 2008 05:16 PM CDT John McCain chooses Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his VP running mate, announces it, and the Obama campaign issues a statement that Obama refers to as a "hair trigger" reaction, right before he backs away from that initial reaction. Beautiful optics. Many said when they first saw Bill Burton's quick response from the Barack Obama's campaign which questioned Sarah Palin's experience credentials, that they should be very careful about "going there", and it seems that Obama himself is backing slowing away from the cookie jar. The campaign's initial response: John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same. Right there they managed to insult small towns again, remember the "bitter" middle Americans that "cling to their guns and religion" remarks that Obama once made. Also, Palin has been a mayor and was elected as a Governor, both of which are executive electoral positions, to which Senators are not. For the record for those that do not understand the difference: A governor is a person elected by the people of a state to be the top leader in that state. They have many of the same powers that a president have, but only on a state level. They can pardon criminals prosecuted by the state, they can sign and veto bills passed by the congress of the state. They can appoint people to certain positions, and they speak for the state on matters regarding the state. A Senator, is one of two elected by every state. A Senator represents their states constituency by making and voting on laws that are created by congress. Some Senators also serve on various committees. So, looks like Palin, who is on the number two position of the Republican ticket has more executive experience than Obama does on the number one spot of the Democratic ticket. Hence the idiocy of the Obama campaign's original response. Which brings us to see Bill Burton tossed right under the bus for his "hair trigger" response issued by the Obama campaign. Once Obama realized exactly how that would be used against him, he backed away very very carefully. At a stop in Monaca, Pa., Barack Obama seemed to distance himself from his campaign's first, harshly critical response to the Palin pick. "I think that, uh, you know, campaigns start getting these, uh, hair triggers and, uh, the statement that Joe and I put out reflects our sentiments," he said, according to the pool report, apparently criticizing his staff for going overboard, as he did occasionally in the primary. HEH Here is the "official" statement that reflects their real feelings, which aren't the feelings expressed in the first statement shown above, according to Obama: We send our congratulations to Governor Sarah Palin and her family on her designation as the republican nominee for Vice President. It is yet another encouraging sign that old barriers are falling in our politics. While we obviously have differences over how best to lead this country forward Governor Palin is an admirable person and will add a compelling new voice to this campaign," said Senator Barack Obama and Senator Joe Biden. Hoisted by your own petard! Talk Left encourages the Obama campaign to tread carefully regarding Palin....too late, that original statement is out there and is not going away. No Quarters speaks about "Barack's Chutzpah Moment".. amusing. I never realized how shrewd and smart John McCain could be. (Check Memeorandum.com to see all the stories that now dominate the news coverage.) In selecting Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, as his running mate he dared the Democrats to make the case, as they have, that she's not qualified because she "lacks foreign policy experience." He understands that when the media decides to investigate Governor Palin they will be forced to conclude that she actually has more foreign policy experience than Obama. As Susan pointed out below, she was in Germany visiting wounded troops long before Barack sought to speak at the Brandenburg Gate. She is a Commander-in-Chief of the Alaska National Guard and those troops have been in combat. So, if you are running Barack's campaign, you don't want to renew the focus on your own candidate's zero experience as an elected executive do you? Oh hell yes. Clueless to the concept of irony the Barack team is trying to attack Palin's "paltry" experience. They did this with a straight face. Did anyone think to check Barack Obama's resume? Read the rest... Since McCain's VP announcement we also see that Dr. James Dobson,head of Focus On The Family, an influential Colorado-based ministry, who once declared he would never vote for John McCain has just announced he is voting for Mccain/Palin in 2008. Lets see, what else are we seeing by way of reactions......well, the Volokh Conspiracy brings news of some wonderful reactions over at a Clinton forum.....they are loving Palin as McCain's choice. Evidently the Obama campaign was completely unprepared for Mccain's choice as shown by a dispatch over at The Caucus. 11:40 a.m. | Obama Reaction: The Times's Jeff Zeleny has the following dispatch: The Obama campaign had no immediate response to reports that Senator John McCain has selected the little-known Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, as his running-mate. Neither Mr. Obama nor Mr. Biden talked to reporters, but Mr. Biden could be seen wearing a wide smile in the front cabin of the plane. Ms. Palin came as a surprise not only to many Republicans and journalists, but also to the Obama team. The campaign has been busily preparing TV commercials to run against Mitt Romney — with aides gleefully watching hours of footage of Romney-McCain exchanges from the primary — but far little opposition research had been prepared about the Alaska governor. And aides said no commercials were ready to be immediately released, which the McCain campaign did when Mr. Biden was chosen. The takeoff of the Democratic campaign plane was delayed for about 30 minutes, so aides were busily trying to learn all they could about the Palin pick. With the Democratic ticket in the air for the next four hours, the new Republican team will own the television coverage for nearly half the day. Should Democrats have anticipated this and left Denver sooner, so the Obama-Biden duo could be seen campaigning on a split TV screen with the McCain-Palin pair? Or was it wise to simply let Republicans spend the day airing out their views of this very unexpected choice? Ouch! Here is another little tidbit from LA Times Top of the Ticket: At organizational convention meetings in St. Paul this afternoon word was passed that some $2 million in new donations had poured into the campaign and Republican National Committee within three hours of Palin's announcement. Reactions have been coming out all day, I went over a few earlier and you can see all the buzz over at memeorandum. If I see any more must read reactions, I will update. Previously: VIDEO of McCain-Palin Rally in Dayton, Ohio Video Clip of Portion of Palin's Speech It Is Official, Sarah Palin Is John McCain's Vice Presidential Running Mate .

VIDEO of McCain-Palin Rally in Dayton, Ohio Posted: 29 Aug 2008 01:56 PM CDT Full video of the Dayton Ohio Rally below with John McCain announcing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his VP pick, and her full speech accepting. First and Second piece on Palin as the Veep pick can be found here and here. New York Times provides the transcript from the Ohio rally. .

Video Clip of Portion of Palin's Speech Posted: 29 Aug 2008 01:12 PM CDT [UPDATE] Full 26 plus minutes of the Ohio rally with McCain announcing his VP pick of Sarah Palin and Palin's full speech, found here. By now everyone knows McCain chose Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, as his VP running mate pick, below is a video clip of a portion of her speech. More on Palin from ABC: The 44-year-old Palin brings working class roots and appeal to female voters, becoming only the second female vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket and a first for the GOP. She also brings a reputation as a reformer, beauty pageant good looks, a crack shot with a rifle and a eagerness for political combat that earned her the nickname of "Sarah Barracuda." Being first is nothing to new to Palin (pronounced PALE-IN). She is the first female governor as well as the youngest governor ever of the Last Frontier, the 49th state to join the Union in 1959 and one of the country's least populous states. Palin became governor just two years ago after defeating Republican incumbent Frank Murkowski in a GOP primary. "Governor Palin is a tough executive who has demonstrated during her time in office that she is ready to be president," the McCain campaign asserted in a statement. "Governor Palin has the record of reform and bipartisanship that others can only speak of. Her experience in shaking up the status quo is exactly what is needed in Washington today." More at Top of the Ticket. [Update] Sonny from America's Future is begging the Obama campaign to focus on the experience factor. The McCain campaign is hoping and praying that someone will say that Palin is unready for the job. "Please," John McCain is praying right now AS I TYPE, "Let a Democrat say that an executive with 2 years of experience and no foreign policy expertise isn't ready for the presidency. Oh pretty please. Because you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take that soundbite, put it in an ad, slap Obama's mug up there, and run it over and over and over again." Because Palin has exactly as much experience as Obama–arguably more, since she's an executive. The only difference is that she isn't running for president. This is an interesting pick. It's a play for white, female Democrats–and you're always better off aiming at a constituency than "trying to win a state," something that never happens. Massive blog and media buzz over this VP pick over at memeorandum. .

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