Turn out the lights, the party's over...

When I was 15, as I had just begun to become politically aware, I turned to MSNBC to watch the news, and one person on the 5:00 hour every evening, from Monday to Friday: Keith Olbermann. From the nigtly, often funny, "Worst Persons In The World" segment, to the usually brilliant and powerful "Special Comment" and everything in between his nightly hour newscast, I watched, I laughed, felt outrage, and became more politically aware of my political surroundings. Tonight, Countdown with Keith Olbermann came to an end.

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Good night, and good luck to you, Keith.

Battle Hymn of the TEA Party

In 1861, as the American Civil War began, a writer by the name of Julia Ward Howe hears a song called "John Brown's Body", a popular marching created by Thomas Bishop of Vermont, who joined the Massachusetts Infantry one year prior to the beginning of the war. Howe hears the tune sung by the company in command of the 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Rufas R. Dawes. The man in command said that he had first come across the song by a man in his unit, Sgt. John Ticknor. Her companion, during her public review of the soldiers was a reverend, James Freeman Clarke, and he suggested that the lyrics in the song be changed. On the morning of November 18, 1861, Julia awakes with a blast of unexpected inspiriation, jots down the newly revised lyrics of the soldier's marching song on an old stump. One year later, in February of 1862, the lyrics are published on the front page of The Atlantic Monthly. The title of that song was called "Battle Hymn of the Republic". Today it is widely considered and regarded as an American patriotic song.

Much like "John Brown's Body" was re-structured into "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as a marching song for the soldiers on the front lines, two seinor members of the TEA Party has re-worked the famous tune into a song about TEA party favorite...Sarah Palin. I am not making this up.

A tale of two speeches

Last night, as the city of Tuson, Arizona, and a nation mourn the loss of half a dozen innocent civilians as a disturbed lone gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, nearly assassinated Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, there were two headlines, two speeches that, in the humble opinion of this 20 year-old blogger, voter, and citizen, speak volumes of their character as public servants.

President Obama spoke just a few hors ago on tragedy that occured at a shopping mall on the morning of January 7. Instead of rehashing what was said and what's being repeated on the cable news networks, allow me to let the words and the man speak for themselves.

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There are some on the left who will say that the President should have called out the people who were throwing red meat to their base, words and rhetoric which crossed over from passionate debate to implying that the other side must be taken out, either by the ballot, or by the bullet, for they pose a grave and dangerous threat to security of our country, and to be perfectly honest, the passionate side of me would want and say that the Palins, the Becks, and the Limbaughs of the world should have to stand trial along with the crazed shooter for the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Giffords and the senseless murder of 6 other victims. As I stated before, the nation is mourning over the loss of life, and at this time, as the President told the nation tonight, cooler heads must prevail, and our spirited debate must not blind a simple truth: that at the end of the day, we are all Americans who want only what is best for our country, so in keeping with Obama's theme of toning down the rhetoric, I won't let my spirited and heated side get the better of the me. If there's one thing that has been constant about the Obama Presidency, and what I admire, it is that the President has always called upon his supporters and his detractors to find the better angels of our nature and find ways to work together and move the debate of how we can drive the nation forward.

The same cannot be said for Sarah Palin.

Also today, the one-time Governor of Alaska and Vice-Presidential candidate in 2008 also touched on the shooting, before she exposed the real reason she took to the camera: to paint herself as a major victim of the heinous event. Again, I am going to let Mrs. Palin, and her words, speak for themselves.

Sarah Palin: "America's Enduring Strength" from Sarah Palin on Vimeo.

If you're a rising star in the GOP, had put crosshairs on the districts of opponents who are up for re-election in the House, and one of those representatives was almost assassinated, what would your choices be?
A. speak briefly; say that this is a terrible tragedy and that our hearts and prayers go out of Rep. Giffords and her family, and take your lumps.
B. see A, abd also announce that although a crazed, apolitical gunmen acted alone in his deranged, twisted mind, you announce that you and everyone must tone down the rhetoric and remember that we may allign ourselves as Republicans and Democrats, we are Americans first, and foremost.
C. take to the camera and not only paint yourself as the victim, but use a term that hold deeply negative connotations against the Jewish people.

Sarah, as you can see by the video, chose C.

Mrs. Palin probably can't understand why she's taking all kinds of shit from the national media, from people on Twitter and Facebook, and Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, so as a public service, I will be the one to help her out: Sarah -- it's not just the fact you used a highly offensive term to describe how the media is going after you (a thesaurus and/or a dictionary are you friends, Sarah!), its the fact that, once again, you chose to make yourself the victim; like it was you who was most affected by the tragedy, like it was you who was neary assassinated, or that you lost someone near and dear to you becasue of the lone gunman. You acted as if it was the media who was burning you at the stake, or nailing you to a piece of wood. None of us on the left or the national media are pointing the finger at you for this tragedy (Note: anyone on the left who seriously beleives she is to blame for this is a damn fool), but the fact that your actions with the crosshairs that were chosen at Democratic incumbents who's seats were up for grabs in the Midterms, and all the red meat you've been throwing to your base, is only heading our nation for more potential grief, and if you still can't see that...then that's you're biggest problem.

The two speeches that were given last night outline two completely different personalities: one took the high road and allowed us to grieve and celebrate those who acted without thought for themselves to save others' lives, and calls on all of us to follow their example. The other showed that even in the face of tragedy, she never misses an opportunity to play politics and make the story all about her.

Really, CNN?

Has it honestly been over two months since i've written anything on here? Sorry 'bout that, busy with college and whatnot. Let me make it up to you and I know you'll love this. To kick off the new year, let's file these three stories under the "WTF??" department.

The first one has to do with birds that fell dead from the sky on New Year's Eve.

Over 1,000 lifeless birds tragically fell from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas on New Year’s Eve. In an interview with AP, an expert with the state’s Livestock and Poultry Commission suggested “the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail.” The Commission offered another sad possibility, that New Year’s Eve fireworks could have gone off near the birds and startled them so severely, that they died from stress.

Here's where the story gets freaky: 100+ miles from Beebe, Arkansas, over 100,000 fish wash up off the Arkansas river...also dead.

An Arkansas Game and Fish Commission spokesman says dead drum fish now cover a 20-mile section of the Arkansas River near Ozark.

Seven teams from the state agency visited the affected portion of the river Friday. Commission spokesman Keith Stephens says an official estimate of how many fish have died is expected on Monday, but he tells the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the number is likely in the hundreds of thousands.

The commission determined the fish died in the river from a dam near Ozark to a bridge along State Highway 109 near Clarksville.

Many people believe that this is all just coincidence, and it probably is. But some have taken to Twitter and other social networking sites and see the dead fish washing ashore and the lifeless birds falling from the sky as sign of the coming End Times, or Armageddon. So, naturally, the good people at CNN needed to bring on someone who could reassure that these incidents have nothing whatsoever to do with the End Times...They brought on Kirk Cameron. No, i'm not kidding. They actually brought on Kirk Cameron.

Why Kirk Cameron, you ask? You see, Kirk turned away from drug addiction during the success of the hit TV sitcom Growing Pains and became a born-again Evangelical Christian, and recently he has been working tirelessly to disprove the theory of Evolution, so the suits at CNN thought they would get him on and either one of two tings would happen: he would call B.S. on these supposed "signs", or go completely batshit crazy, demand that Anderson Cooper repent for his sinful lifestyle as a homosexual man, and plead with his viewers to turn to the grace of the Almighty before time runs out. Kirk Cameron wasn't biting.



The fact that CNN would even bring on the star of a famous TV show the explain why these incidents occurred - as supposed to someone who works with animals - is jaw-dropingly stupid in of itself. I would half expect Fox News to pull off this kind of stunt, but not this news network.