Sarah Palin on 'America's Enduring Strength'

POLITICAL HOT TOPICS: Thursday, January 13, 2011
In between consoling those touched by Saturday's Arizona shooting and warning the nation against politicizing the tragedy, President Barack Obama delivered some good news in his address at a Tucson memorial event on Wednesday. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona has opened her eyes for the first time since being shot four days ago. "There is nothing I can say that will fill the sudden hole torn in your hearts," Obama said. "But know this: The hopes of a nation are here tonight." Congress has resp...

Michael Russnow: Media Pundit Sarah Palin Says She's Not Responsible: Oh, Yeah? I Don't Think So
The subject of the tragedy in Tucson has perhaps been talked to death on the major networks, but having watched the give and take on both sides of the political spectrum, as well as those who preach moderation, it's my view regarding Sarah Palin and her ilk, that they doth Protest too much. I'll let slide Sarah Palin's use of anti-Semitic terms such as "blood Libel" in her desperate attempt to cast aside aspersions to her integrity, because I honestly don't believe she has the intellectual dep...

Carter: South Sudan vote will meet global standards
"I believe it will meet international standards on the conduct of the process and also the freedom with which people have cast their votes ... We have two more days to go, obviously, but I don't think there is any doubt the results will be accepted without serious challenge," Carter told Journalists in the southern capital, Juba. Southerners are widely expected to vote to declare independence from the north in the week-long vote -- a plebiscite promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades o...

Carter: South Sudan vote will meet global standards
JUBA, Sudan | Thu Jan 13, 2011 4:38am EST JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - South Sudan's independence Referendum will meet international standards, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, who is observing the plebiscite, said on Thursday. "I believe it will meet international standards on the conduct of the process and also the freedom with which people have cast their votes ... We have two more days to go, obviously, but I don't think there is any doubt the results will be accepted without serious challe...

The Vote for Freedom is On In South Sudan: "The consequences of their actions will reverberate around the world."
For weeks (months), I have been urging Atlas readers to watch the freedom Referendum that began on Sunday and continues until the 15th. The South Sudanese have been voting in droves. Simon Deng and the lost boys have been tirelessly working towards this moment. The two million slaughtered in an Islamic Genocide will be given justice. Caroline Glick writes: On Sunday, the southern Sudanese began voting on a Referendum to secede from the Republic of Sudan and establish their own sovereign nation...

Joy as south Sudan vote confirmed valid
A woman smiles as she leaves a Polling Station in Juba. Organisers of a lan... Organisers of a landmark south Sudan independence vote confirmed Thursday the turnout threshold needed for it to be valid has been reached as ex-US president Jimmy Carter said the region looked set for nationhood. Drivers honked their horns in the regional capital Juba as southerners hailed the turnout achievement in just four days of the week-long period saying it showed the importance of freedom to them after five ...

What if Texas or California Decides to Secede from the United States of America?
It's possible that southern Sudan may secede, but the oil rights should belong to all of Sudan -- not just to the south. If this does not get worked out, then there may be a bloody Civil War, perhaps like the American Civil War, but on a bloodier scale because the West will certainly come in, as will the Israelis, who also want their hands on the oil and who have it in for Arabs and Muslims, in order to help the anti-Khartoum forces. No doubt there are Human Rights abuses in Sudan, as there ar...

South Sudan: Birth of a failed state?
JUBA, Sudan, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Sporadic violence has marred the historic Referendum in southern Sudan, cockpit of a 22-year Civil War in which an estimated 2 million people perished. But the largely peaceful weeklong polling due to end Sunday is widely expected to lead to the backward region's independence -- and a future so uncertain that skeptics are already talking about the birth of a failed state. The Referendum marks the culmination of a 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the war...

Sudan violence overshadows historic vote
KHARTOUM, Sudan, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Despite a milestone for South Sudan's independence, world leaders expressed concern over escalating violence in the Abyei region of the country. Voters in South Sudan reached the 60 percent threshold needed to form an independent state on Wednesday, the third day of polling. The Referendum is part of a 2005 comprehensive peace agreement that ended a brutal Civil War. At least 60 percent of eligible voters needed to participate to make the vote legitimate. The oi...

Joy as south Sudan vote confirmed valid
Organisers of a landmark south Sudan independence vote confirmed Thursday the turnout threshold needed for it to be valid has been reached as ex-US president Jimmy Carter said the region looked set for nationhood. Drivers honked their horns in the regional capital Juba as southerners hailed the turnout achievement in just four days of the week-long period saying it showed the importance of freedom to them after five decades of conflict with the north. "It has reached 60 percent and even more," r...

South Sudan moves closer to independence
South Sudan moved a step closer to independence yesterday after organisers of its Secession Referendum said the vote's turnout would pass the 60 per cent threshold needed for it to be binding. Voters are expected to choose independence in the week-long poll which began on Sunday. Secession would split Africa's largest country in two. The Referendum was promised in a 2005 accord that ended decades of Civil War between the mostly Muslim North and the mainly Christian and animist South....

Memo To CNN: Keep Parker, Drop Spitzer
Amidst reports that CNN is eager to shake-up the relatively new, but Ratings-starved, Parker Spitzer, by dumping Kathleen Parker and giving Eliot Spitzer a new co-host, I politely suggest the exact opposite strategy would better ensure the show’s longevity. With the ratings for Parker Spitzer consistently placing it in last place among Cable News networks at its time slot, and often last among CNN’s own Primetime lineup, the evidence is clear that the show’s current format is n...

Foxs Bill OReilly Wins Big: 1 Million Viewers On 1/11/11
Cable news Ratings, January 11, 2011: •There’s no disputing the numbers: Bill O’Reilly was the king of Cable News on January 11, with 1,000,000 viewers 25-54, destroying the competition in the 8 o’clock timeslot (Keith Olbermann was second with 376,000 viewers) and posting his best performance in this key demographic since 11/3/10-one day after the mid-term Elections. •The new live-format Parker Spitzer on CNN is showing signs of life, with 176,000 viewers 25-54-...

My Take: Sarah Palin's bogus persecution parallels
Editor's Note : Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of "God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World," is a regular CNN Belief Blog contributor. By Stephen Prothero , Special to CNN Just when you thought American political Rhetoric couldn't get any more toxic, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is taking us to a new low, casting herself on her Facebook page not just as a Victim of the liberal media elite but as a Victim of "...

Weird Canadian Still Trying To Sell Electronic Box Signed By Sarah Palin
Quick! What is the fastest way to make money on the Internet? “Selling Gawker your anonymous college essay about the time you saw Julian Assange’s mangy pube patch” is not an acceptable answer, because instead of paying you in legal tender Nick Denton would probably just transfer a few of his toenail clippings into your PayPal account. So basically your only other option is to ask Sarah Palin to Autograph a box — a shoebox, Julian Assange’s hairy man-box, any box wi...

Death Threats Against Sarah Palin at 'Unprecedented Level,' Aides Say
ABC News An aide close to Sarah Palin says death threats and security threats have increased to an unprecedented level since the shooting in Arizona, and the former Alaska Governor's team has been talking to security professionals. Palin has taken much heat for her "crosshairs" map that targeted 20 congressional Democrats in the 2010 mid-term election, including that of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was the main target of Saturday's attack. Friends say Palin, a possible 2012 contender, was ga...

Jews for Sarah Palin rally round
“The use of the term blood Libel is appropriate,” said Benyamin Korn, director of Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin, which runs JewsForSarah.com . Korn, a longtime Jewish Journalist and Activist, says his group has several hundred members. The website got off the ground in April 2010. Palin’s comment comes five days after the violent rampage in Tucson, Arizona. President Obama is scheduled Wednesday to visit the area that claimed six lives and injured 14 others, including Rep. G...

Sarah Palin receiving unprecedented level of death threats
(ABC News)- An aide close to Sarah Palin says death threats and security threats have increased to an unprecedented level since the shooting in Arizona, and the former Alaska Governor’s team has been talking to security professionals. Palin has taken much heat for her “crosshairs” map that targeted 20 congressional Democrats in the 2010 mid-term election, including that of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was the main target of Saturday’s attack. ...

A Brief Remark On Sarah Palin
Jon Chait is defending her: Okay, it’s a little over the top for Sarah Palin to accuse her critics of “blood Libel.” But she does have a basic point. She had nothing to do with Jared Loughner. He was not an Extremist who embraced some radical version of her ideas. And her use of targets to identify districts Republicans were, um, targeting is not exceptional or prone to incite anybody. What’s happening is that Palin has come to represent unhinged Grassroots Conservatism...

The Presidents Speech and Killing Sarah Palin
What was billed as a “memorial service” in Arizona last night was more of a pep-rally and celebration of life. It was complete with sloganeering, Bumper Stickers, and t-shirts. It is what was needed. What’s more, Mr. Obama gave a stunning rebuke to his own base who’ve engaged in a horrific blame game all week. But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized - at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of...

Sarah Palin Targets on Map Considered a Death Threat, Joe Manchin Taking Dead Aim and Shooting Bill with Real Gun Perfectly OK
Can this nonsense get any more ridiculous … The Democrats and the loony LEFT have yet another Paul Wellstone Memorial moment. Fake targets, cross-hairs or bulls-eyes on a map to show politically targeted states or districts are evil, bad and make “registered Independents” go crazy, however, using a rifle complete with scope and real cross-hairs to “take dead aim” at a piece of Legislation is perfectly ok. I think we can see the hypocrisy of the LEFT once again on...

Puerto Rico Governor Backs Priebus For RNC Chair
Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno will support Wisconsin Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus for chairman of the Republican National Committee, marking the fortieth public Endorsement for Priebus and setting him up as the clear front-runner going into Friday's election. Priebus is far ahead of his competitors, including Incumbent chairman Michael Steele , according to The Hotline's latest whip count. The winning Candidate will have to secure 85 of the 168 total votes in order to claim a win. St...

Boehner officially endorses Cino
FrumForum's Tim Mak gets hold of Speaker John Boehner's Endorsement letter of Mary Cino for RNC chair: I respect that the choice of RNC Chairman is yours alone to make. But having spent the last two years traveling the country to meet with Activists, Candidates, Donors and voters to help elect Republicans, I hope you will permit me to make some observations about that choice… I have worked closely with Maria for almost twenty years, during which time she turned around the NRCC to usher ...

Boehner Hosting RNC Cocktail Party During Tucson Shooting Memorial Service
Tonight, President Obama will deliver a “healing message,” in Tucson, AZ at a memorial service for those who died in the tragic shooting there this weekend. The somber service, which is expected to attract up to 14,000 people, will feature prayers, the playing of the National Anthem, as well as reverent remarks from various officials from both sides of the aisle. At around the same time, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OK) will be slinging back cocktails with members of the Republic...

Afternoon Fix: John Boehner endorses Maria Cino for RNC chair; Bob Menendez could face tough 2012 race
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) endorses former Bush Administration official Maria Cino for RNC chair; Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) holds a meet-and-greet with South Carolina State Legislators; and polling shows Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) could face a tough re-election bid. * House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has officially endorsed former Bush Administration official Maria Cino for Republican National Committee Chairman. In a letter to all 168 RNC members, Boehner wrote that Cino is...