Friday update (after the red velvet cake)

Today's Multicultural Festival was fabulous. Red velvet cake! Imani dancers! A special shout-out and copious compliments to Traci Fant for her hard work and terrific organizational skills.

It was especially fun because it was at McAlister Square, which is also the location of the WOLI radio studios, where we broadcast Occupy the Microphone. Today's show is up, as well as yesterday's, wherein we discussed various events in the ongoing trial of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin. We discussed the racist trashing of young Rachel Jeantel (prosecution witness) at length, on both shows. (NOTE: I will be writing about the Zimmerman trial at length after the verdict, as I will also be writing about the Jodi Arias trial after her sentencing.)

And speaking of trials, my deepest apologies for omitting a link to Gregg's great interview with Alexa O'Brien, one of very few reporters covering the trial of Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning. Extensive daily coverage of Bradley Manning's trial is available at her website.

Today, we wondered why some trials get daily televised coverage, and yet Manning's has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media. One might even come to the conclusion that the government and media don't want us to hear the details.

Ya think?

~*~

OTHER RANDOM STUFF you might find interesting:

[] Paula Cooper, who made big news as a teenager sentenced to death row, was released from prison on June 17th. She was only 16 when she was sentenced to death for the grisly killing of 78-year-old Bible teacher Ruth Pelke, and in 1986 was the youngest death row inmate in the USA.

The Gary, Indiana, murder was quite famous throughout the Midwest, and often cited by various pundits of the day as proof that the world was going to hell in a handbasket. Cooper stabbed Pelke 33 times, and with three of her friends, took off with Pelke's car and a whopping $10. Due to her age and (lack of) social status, there was an international outcry over her death sentence, including an intervention from none other than Pope John Paul II. Her death sentence was set aside in 1988, and it has since been found unconstitutional to execute inmates under 18.

[] Me and a horror-movie actor get in a Twitter argument after the announcement of the Supreme Court's DOMA ruling. Meanwhile, Mike Huckabee tweets "Jesus wept" and gets a torrential (and sometimes hilarious) response.

[] Charlotte, a local progressive, crafts strategies for electing Democrats/liberals here in South Carolina--and by extension, other conservative southern states. Contains an excellent analysis of the political psychology of the South, by a Greenville County native (and one of our regular radio show listeners).

[] I wrote about the documentary "Project Nim" over on Facebook.

[] Obama's War on Journalism (Salon) and Seven Myths about Edward Snowden, NSA whistleblower (The Nation)

[] Sweet three-year-old Jameson Kessler is eager to save his baby sister's life with his bone marrow; he calls himself "Marrow Man"... yes, we all want to be superheroes, don't we?

And little Jameson will become a superhero for real. :)

~*~

Your official DEAD FROM CUTENESS video for this month features adorable Jumbo Pillow (he is only 6-months-old but looks older since he is, well, JUMBO PILLOW) meeting his new housemate Cooper. OMG!!! ((((faints from the cute))))



PS: This is called "Friday update" because I will not be online tomorrow, and this will have to do until after the weekend.

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Occupy the Microphone!

As of today, the Daisy Deadhead show (archives here) is no longer on WFIS-AM in Fountain Inn, South Carolina. (Our final show on that radio station was last Saturday.) I am proud to report that our show has now evolved into Occupy the Microphone.

At present, we are an online podcast, but after the first of the year, our plucky broadcast crew will move to WOLT-FM here in Greenville, South Carolina. Onward and Upward! Hopefully, the podcasts AND the radio shows will simultaneously continue.

Double A and Gregg Jocoy have been doing Occupy the Microphone podcasts Monday thru Wednesday at 8:30-9:30pm EST, with Scotty Reid of the indispensable Black Talk Radio Network doing Political Prisoner Radio on Thursdays (also at 8:30pm). Yesterday, I tried my hand at the podcast for the first time at 3pm, and it seemed to go well. I reviewed Damien Echols' fabulous book about being unfairly sentenced to Death Row in Arkansas (as one of the West Memphis Three), titled Life After Death. We talked about prisons and prisoners, the death penalty, the factors of race, class and mental disability in sentencing, and much more. Check it out.

We are getting our act together to take it on the road.

Although I enjoyed having a radio show named after me for well over a year, many folks expected something called "the Daisy Deadhead show" to feature Deadhead-type music instead of political yammering, which is our collective specialty. I figured it was a good idea to change the name. The amazing input (and hard work) of Double A and Gregg make it much more than a show named after ME, and it is important to acknowledge them... as well as the crucial role of the Occupy Wall Street movement in changing the leftist political landscape.

We have much more to say, do, attempt and express... and we very much hope you will join us.

Stay tuned!

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Wednesday Linkage

At left: Artisphere mural, more photos here.


Once again, the celebrity golfers have invaded the neighborhood, as they do every year. I have complained about this before (notably here and here) and so I will spare you any extended howling.

But damn, I wish they'd set up their Golf Network tents somewheres else.






Got links! Lots of interesting and timely reading around the intertubes:


[] The main reason capital punishment is wrong is human error. We now know that Texas executed the wrong man, Carlos DeLuna in 1989. Whoops! Sorry about that, DeLuna family!

Carlos, my heart bleeds for you.

[] Special needs teenager in NC, placed in box for punishment.

This made me think of the movie Papillon, in which Steve McQueen is placed in a box... but that film was set in a penal colony in French Guiana in the 30s. Not North Carolina in 2012. (cries)

[] Anti-environmental activist Cal Beisner Warns the 'Depraved' Environmental Movement Models itself after Satan. Trying to save the earth is evil, doncha know, but destroying the atmosphere is Godly. Just for the record.

[] Free the Weed Department: Pro-marijuana policy bloc swings Oregon attorney general primary election: Ellen Rosenblum (champion of marijuana policy reform) is now Democratic nominee for attorney general of the State of Oregon.

Since there is no Republican challenger, Rosenblum’s victory means she will be Oregon's next AG.

[] Special link for those who claim there is no GOP War on Women. Really? How about this: Debbie Wasserman Schultz Depicted In Dog Collar On GOP Candidate's Website.

And the hits just keep on comin, kids.

[] For fans of Bravo network's Inside the Actors Studio, here is James Lipton on Mitt Romney. The piece is tellingly titled: How to Act Human, which I think is a pretty tall order for Mitt.

Money quote:

Perhaps it starts with his laugh, a device he employs at odd moments and in a most peculiar way. (The public thinks that crying is the acid test of the actor, but in fact “laughing” is much harder — and Mr. Romney hasn’t mastered it.)

Listen to his laugh. It resembles the flat “Ha! Ha! Ha!” that appears in comic-strip dialogue balloons. But worse – far worse – it is mirthless. Mr. Romney expects us to be amused, although he himself is not amused. Freeze the frame, cover the bottom of his face with your hand, and study his eyes. There’s no pleasure there, no amusement.

[] Dubya kinda sorta endorses Mitt, as elevator closes. Funny!

[] And again speaking of Mitt, it is time to face the music on Bain: Is Mitt Romney ready for Bain battle?

As the Obama campaign this week began a concerted attack on the presumptive GOP nominee for his tenure at the private equity firm he managed, strategists in both parties say the Republican has yet to give a confident, detailed explanation of his Bain Capital tenure that silences questions about his biography as a businessman.

You don't mean he FIBBED, do you? I am shocked, shocked I tell you!

And I hope your Wednesday is good.

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Edward Lee Elmore freed from SC Death Row, walks out

30 YEARS in prison. He was freed on his 11,000th day of imprisonment. From Death Row, he just walked out, a free man.

It is an unbelievable, yet all-too-believable, tale.

Ex-death row inmate in SC walks out a free man
By JEFFREY COLLINS - Associated Press

GREENWOOD, S.C. — Edward Lee Elmore glanced at the ceiling when a judge asked him if he was sure he wanted to plead guilty to the murder he has spent decades denying. He whispered to his lawyer, who had told him "freedom is justice," and then looked toward the heavens again.

"Yes sir," he said quietly. With those words, he ended a 30-year stint in prison that saw 30 of his friends on death row die.

Elmore was convicted three times of killing of Dorothy Edwards, with appeal courts overturning each verdict. Elmore lived nearby and did odd jobs for the 75-year-old widow, who was found in the closet of her Greenwood home in January 1982. She had been savagely beaten and stabbed more than 50 times, dying from a loss of blood and blows that caved in her chest, prosecutor Jerry Peace said.

Prosecutors agreed his punishment should be the 11,000 days Elmore spent behind bars, much of it on death row. He got off death row in 2010 when his attorneys argued he was mentally disabled and had a low IQ. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled states can't execute the mentally disabled, and his punishment was reduced to life in prison.

On Friday, prosecutors dropped rape and burglary charges, and an hour after the hearing, Elmore walked out of the Greenwood County courthouse a free man to the cheers of those brothers and sisters.

"What a great day," Elmore said in the parking lot.

Peace said he still thinks Elmore killed Edwards. He said Elmore confessed, telling investigators he may have blacked out as he attacked her. Small spots of the victim's blood were found on Elmore's jeans, Peace said, but he decided to make the deal for two reasons.

First, Edwards' sister asked him to end three decades of uncertainty and phone calls from reporters and other people she doesn't want to talk to. "I want peace, I need peace. Can you get me peace?" the prosecutor recalled her saying.
Second, even if he was convicted and sentenced to life again, Elmore would have been immediately eligible for a parole hearing, Peace said. And with a spotless prison record, his chances looked good.

"He didn't even cuss a guard," Peace said.

Elmore's lawyers first asked the judge to throw out the charges. Defense lawyer Diana Holt has pointed out before that investigators found evidence at the crime scene that indicated Edwards fought for her life, but Elmore was uninjured when he was arrested hours later.

A single blond hair was found on Edwards' body. Elmore has black hair, and none of that was found at the scene.

In the courtroom was former New York Times reporter Raymond Bonner, who has followed the case for more than a decade and recently wrote a book about it. He said police were anxious to make an arrest to allay a community's fears that a rapist and murderer was among them and the little evidence that links Elmore to the crime was planted.

"Don't dare call it justice," he said after the hearing. "A man served 30 years for a crime he did not commit."

Elmore's lawyer wanted to see him exonerated. But she told him he could be convicted again in a trial and talking an Alford plea, where he maintains his innocence but admits there is a lot of evidence against him, was the best thing he could do.

"Freedom is justice and that's why he is doing it today," Holt said.

Holt has done this before. In May 2002, she helped Sterling Spann get a similar deal after decades on South Carolina's death row.

"It's so bittersweet," Holt said. "But at least right now, the sweet outweighs the bitter."

Edwards smile rarely faded after his release. When Holt reminded reporters he saw at least 30 of his fellow inmates executed during his 28 years on death row, he dropped his head.

"Great guys in there, some of them," he said.

He also frowned when a reporter asked if he had anything to say to Edwards' family. Holt stepped in and said they would request the family's wishes to not talk about the case. "It was 30 years for them too," she said.

Then the topic turned to lunch, and Elmore's family was taking him to a buffet restaurant where he would have dozens of dishes, many of them greasy and flavorful, to choose from. Elmore said prison was day after day of bland meals like liver or a chicken and gravy mixture.

"That stuff was roadkill," Elmore said.

Elmore's older sister Henrietta Grant smiled. She remembered one of her brother's chief complaints every time she would pile in a van with several of her siblings for the 150-mile trip to see him on death row. "They ain't got no onions," she recalled him saying.

Grant was one of a half-dozen family members headed for the restaurant. Just before she left, she was asked her plans now that her brother was going to be back in Greenwood. She flashed a big smile.

"We're going to take him home and love him," she said. "And I do the cooking, so I am going to fatten him up."

Elmore stood in the parking lot and took a deep breath. This wasn't the way he thought this case should end, but for him, it was justice.

DEAD AIR and all our friends and associates, send our very best wishes and Deadhead vibes to Elmore. Our thoughts and prayers are with you; good luck in all of your endeavors.

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STOP THE EXECUTION OF TROY ANTHONY DAVIS!

It's official: the bloodthirsty Georgia prison system doesn't care. An ex-president, an ex-congressman, an ex-FBI director and the Vatican... nope, nothing stands in the way of the State of Georgia executing an innocent black man! Why, its just like the old days! You are NOT going to pry them away from that needle, because they are having a GOOD TIME.

Troy Anthony Davis will be executed tomorrow.

Death penalty = murder. Yes, it is. Vengeance is the Lord's, not yours.

But let me tell you: If you are in favor of the death penalty, your cause is seriously WEAKENED when an innocent man is put to death.

And Davis is innocent (my opinion)... or at least there are significant questions about his guilt:

Davis has captured worldwide attention because of the doubt his supporters have raised over whether he killed [police officer Mark] MacPhail. Several of the witnesses who helped convict Davis at his 1991 trial have backed off their testimony or recanted. Others who did not testify say another man at the scene admitted to the shooting.

The U.S. Supreme Court even granted Davis a hearing last year to prove his innocence, the first time it had done so for a death row inmate in at least 50 years. But in that June 2010 hearing, Davis couldn't convince a federal judge to grant him a new trial.

Some of the jurors have said, if they knew now what they didn't know then, they would not have voted to convict Davis.

So, seven out of nine witnesses recanting testimony is not enough for a new trial, or even a stay of execution? From the second link, above:

No physical evidence, like his fingerprints on the murder weapon or gunpowder residue on his hands, ever connected Troy to the crime, and he never confessed. The only thing that convicted Troy was the testimony of witnesses, many of whom say police pressured them to identify Troy as the murderer.

This is a monstrosity.

The state of Georgia and the USA, will once again have blood on their hands.

And I write this to say, this abomination known as the DEATH PENALTY, does not speak for me and does not represent me as an American.

Amnesty International is on the case, still, always, right up until they stick the needle in. God Bless them! Also see the update from the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Chatham County's District Attorney's Telephone: 912-652-7308 Fax: 912-652-7328.

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Radio radio

I got through my second radio broadcast! (((pants))) We still don't have a podcast yet, but I am assured it is in the works. (Commercial: The South Carolina Green Party presents THE DAISY DEADHEAD SHOW!!! Every Saturday at 9-10am on WFIS radio! You can listen online.)

Yeesh, Kathy Griffin isn't kidding about that flop sweat. After we were finished and exiting the radio station... suddenly wondered why I was so wet. I also get awful insomnia the night before. I think it will take awhile before these symptoms subside. As my late grandma would say, I have "a case of the nerves."

The good news: We had TWO phone calls! Yeah!

Gregg took these photos while I was actively running my mouth, so a bit blurry. (I was talking about the commemoration of 9/11 in the second photo.) I did not have a death grip on the Notre Dame rosary this time (as I did last week), but as you can see, I DID find it necessary to slip it over my head, just in case.

Today, we trashed the governor. It was FUN! Update: Thursday, Governor Nikki Haley called Renee Dudley (the reporter who exposed her pricey European junket in the Charleston Post and Courier) a "little girl". (Exact quote: "God bless that little girl at the Post and Courier.") I asked how she would like it if someone called HER a little girl? I then segued into criticizing Republican presidential candidate, Governor Rick Perry, for cutting funding for rural Fire Departments in Texas (from $30 million to $7 million), which is the whole reason the place is currently burning up.

We also covered the case of Troy Anthony Davis, a likely-innocent man who is scheduled to be executed by the state of Georgia on September 21. I addressed the pro-death penalty people directly (probably 95% of listeners in SC) and said it does not help their cause when innocent people (or even possibly-innocent people) are executed, and that they should be in the forefront, trying to get Davis off Death Row. (It was an unexpected comment right off the top of my head, and I was proud of it.) Not sure how that went over, but I said it anyway.

Notably, I always write out a sign, NO CUSSING, right before the show. The FCC fine is $10,000 a pop for every one of these you say. (Ordinarily, I would be madly cussing over alla this stuff, of course, as DEAD AIR regulars know.)

I got through it, but another double mocha Frappucino was required. I will never get down to a single vanilla at this rate.

~*~

I wanna bite the hand that feeds me
I wanna bite that hand so badly
I wanna make them wish they'd never seen me


Radio Radio - Elvis Costello and the Attractions

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Casey Anthony trial, Part I

I haven't been addicted to a good murder trial since Phil Spector's... and I blame my daughter for calling me on the phone to warn me I was missing Casey Anthony's crocodile tears (at left) and I'd surely regret it. So I turned it on and... yeah, you know what happened. I've been tuned in ever since opening arguments.

Typically, Casey is blaming daddy for her messed-up mind, and the defense is asserting that her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, drowned and the entire family covered it up. It's a stretch, but that's the story, and they are sticking to it.

All the Ann Rule books (particularly Small Sacrifices) that kept me entertained (for decades!) have prepared me for watching this sordid trial of mother-love gone berserk. For instance, I immediately noticed that Casey sobbed when opening arguments referred to her own bad treatment at the hands of her father. And yet she remains stoic and unemotional when witnesses say things like, "... and then a skull rolled out of the garbage bag"... excuse me, say what?! This is your baby, and you sit there like a stone when they talk about her skull rolling out of a bag? (Jesus H. Christ, that looks so bad.) But that very intense brand of narcissism is fairly typical in murderers, and was present in both Diane Downs and Debora Green. (For Casey's sake, I hope nobody on the jury has been reading Ann Rule.)

Anybody else watching? Opinions? What did you think of dad on the witness stand today?

~*~

Although thoroughly unemployed, I've been chugging along... reorganizing drawers, catching up on tarot readings for friends and fans, re-commencing hiking and yoga (I now need Yoga for Cynics more than ever!), repairing old jewelry and vintage clothing... and watching Casey Anthony sob over her sorry-ass life. I'm also reading Robert Stone's fabulous memoir PRIME GREEN, and it IS nice to have some time to read for a change.

Speaking of reading, if you have some free time, here you go:

The "Alternative" Female Actress, And Why Hollywood Has So Few Of Them (Jezebel)

Focus on the Family Head: "We've Probably Lost" on Gay Marriage (Mother Jones)

Stop the Execution of Roy Davis! (Amnesty International Alert)

Great American Patriots (Glenn Greenwald/Salon)

Required reading for movie fans: The Dying of the Light (by Roger Ebert), which addresses the fact that films are growing ever-darker due to the accompanying rise of 3-D. (Thanks to Erik Loomis at Alterdestiny for the link.) I recently noticed that THOR was somewhat dark (of course Mr Daisy forced me to go see THOR), even though we skipped on the 3D and went to the regular showing. We even talked about it afterwards; the film seemed darker than usual.

Ebert worries that the darkness is rapidly becoming the norm.

~*~

BTW, the wonderful Asheville-based blog ASHVEGAS linked my Fanaticon photos, and thank you!

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