Arizona shooting: Is Sarah Palin's silence an admission of guilt?

Palin's Arizona defense fuels 2012 speculation (AFP)
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Sarah Palin fanned speculation about her presidential ambitions when she cast herself as chief defender of arch-conservatives accused of inspiring a horrific act of violence with their fiery political Rhetoric. Palin accused those linking bellicose politicking by the right-wing Tea Party movement to the attempted Assassination of a US lawmaker of spreading a "blood Libel" in a slickly produced video on Wednesday. "Acts of monstrous criminality stand on t...

Palin's Arizona defense fuels 2012 speculation
Sarah Palin fanned speculation about her presidential ambitions when she cast herself as chief defender of arch-conservatives accused of inspiring a horrific act of violence with their fiery political Rhetoric. Palin accused those linking bellicose politicking by the right-wing Tea Party movement to the attempted Assassination of a US lawmaker of spreading a "blood Libel" in a slickly produced video on Wednesday. "Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the cr...

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED - Marcos "Screw Them" Moultitas, Democrats, Liberal Hate Mongers
Palin Death Threats At All Time High Let me ask you liberals, where are your calls for civility now? This is all your fault! 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. Since the shooting in Tucson, Palin has taken much heat for her "crosshairs" map that targeted 20 congressional Democrats in the 2010 midterm electio...

Backlash Grows Over Palin's 'Blood Libel' Claim
Sarah Palin's use of the loaded phrase "blood Libel" is attracting more attention and condemnation as the day goes on. The former Alaska Governor used the words to describe the claims of critics who said Palin deserved some of the blame for the Arizona shootings because of her fiery Rhetoric and her target-marked election map that put the sights on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), among others. But the phrase most often refers to an anti-Semitic myth that's been used to justi...

Obama leads mourning of Arizona shooting victims
By Jeff Mason and Tim Gaynor TUCSON, Arizona | Wed Jan 12, 2011 9:10pm EST TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) - President Barack Obama mourned the Victims of an Arizona Shooting Spree on Wednesday and urged Americans not to let the debate over the tragedy be used as "one more occasion to turn on one another." In an emotional address to thousands of people who packed a Tucson arena for a memorial service, Obama said no one knew what prompted a gunman to go on a rampage that killed six people and critic...

Obama leads mourning of Arizona shooting victims
TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) - President Barack Obama mourned the Victims of an Arizona shooting spree on Wednesday and urged Americans not to let the debate over the tragedy be used as "one more occasion to turn on one another." In an emotional address to thousands of people who packed a Tucson arena for a memorial service, Obama said no one knew what prompted a gunman to go on a rampage that killed six people and critically wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords. He warned against seeking "sim...

Pawlenty Second GOPer To Screw The Pooch Out Of The Chute
What is it with Republicans when they decide they want to run for President? Okay, to be fair, Thune made his initial splash without a belly flop. Not so for Haley Barbour and now Pawlenty. And, no, I have no dog in this fight, not yet. Not even close. Barbour ran into the whole Citizens Council flap given a Weekly Standard piece meant to serve as an intro, of sorts. And now Pawlenty makes himself look weak with this silliness. Politico calls it "a jab" at Palin. Was it that? I...

Palin Accuses Critics of 'Blood Libel' (updated)
Far from backing down, Sarah Palin defended herself today against critics who linked her Rhetoric to the Arizona shootings, accusing them of the long-condemned anti-Semitic slur "blood Libel." Palin opponents noted soon after the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) that left six people dead that Palin had posted a map on her website last fall with gun sights on 20 districts, including Giffords'. She announced it with a tweet: "Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!&quo...;

Rhetoric as comfort food: The mac-and-cheese instinct
Neither the right nor the left lost any time criticizing the other after the Tucson shootings, but it's increasingly clear the suspect was not politically motivated. If only we could go back to Monday. Discussions about Saturday's shootings in Tucson, which killed six and wounded 13, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, were so much simpler then: inflamed, righteous and deliciously partisan in a comfort-food kind of way. The fallout from the tragedy took a neat and predictable course: t...

Sarah Palin's 'blood libel' claim stirs controversy
Sarah Palin's newest Facebook page video scolds critics who say her high firepower Rhetoric could have contributed to Saturday's Arizona shooting rampage. But her use of an emotionally-charged phrase has spawned a Controversy all its own. Palin called herself the Victim of "blood Libel" — the original term for blaming Jews for the death of Christ and an anti-Semitic rallying call that led to countless Deaths of Jews, primarily in Europe and Russia. Many rabbis called her remarks insensitiv...

Obama leads memorial for Tucson shooting
President Barack Obama led a national outpouring of grief while calling for unity at an emotional memorial after a shooting that unleashed fierce debate about inflammatory political Rhetoric. In a Speech repeatedly interrupted by applause for those who tackled the gunman -- and the announcement that a US lawmaker who was shot in the head had opened her eyes -- Obama said the attack must not lead to new divisions. "At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized -- at a time when we ...

Obama: Giffords opens her eyes
TUCSON, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., has opened her eyes for the first time since she was critically wounded in Tucson, President Barack Obama said Wednesday. Addressing a memorial service for six people killed in the shooting Saturday, Obama said he had visited Giffords in the Hospital -- where she was still listed in critical condition -- and told the audience, "Gabby opened her eyes for the first time." GALLERY: The aftermath of the Rep. Giffords shooting Earlier i...

the Fruits of Political Extremism
The motives of the gunman who shot the US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killed six bystanders in Tuscon on Saturday are unclear. We do not know whether the youth who has been arrested for the crime, Jared Loughner, was driven by political grievance or Mental Illness. But to many in America this looks like an atrocity that was waiting to happen. Since Barack Obama entered the White House two years ago, the American right has adopted partisan Rhetoric of the most reckless kind. A year ago...

Sarah Palin, Blood Libel, and Death Panels
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin claims she is the Victim of "blood Libel," a reference to the anti-Semitic claim that Jews sacrifice Christian Children. A Jewish congresswoman got a bullet through her brain, but Sarah Palin is casting herself as the Victim because some people have criticized her. Talk about chutzpah. “The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘Death Panel’ so his bure...

Move Over, Mother Teresa
Rep. Giffords knew she was a literal target of Sarah Palin, and stated this fact on MSNBC after her Tucson office was attacked last March by rabid Palin-inspired Teabaggers who, in typical knuckle-dragging Fashion, smashed in her office window. Camp Palin never decried Ms. Gifford's very valid concerns about such violent targeting then, and never removed the crosshairs hovering over her district until after the tragedy last Saturday. Now Palin, Inc. is making the ludicrous claim that their map...

Sarah Palin Fumbles and Flails Into an Otherwise Solemn Day
Following Sarah Palin’s videotaped statement today, let there be no doubt about her total lack of seriousness — a character trait, in fact, that’s utterly dwarfed by her chronic inability to construct prepared, Teleprompter-presented remarks without virtually choking on her own tongue. Sarah Palin could have used her time to be a leader — to take the high road and talk about the heroes and the Victims of this Terrorist Attack. She could have used the time to discuss respo...

In floor speech, Cicilline condemns Ariz. attack
WASHINGTON — In his maiden Speech to the House of Representatives, Rep. David N. Cicilline joined Wednesday in paying tribute to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other Victims of what he called “a brutal act of Domestic Terrorism” last weekend in Tucson. The new Democratic representative of Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District was among several dozen members who spoke of their Democratic colleague from Arizona, Giffords, and the six citizens killed in the rampage that...

Obama: Polarized Nation Needs Healing
TUCSON, Ariz. - Summoning the soul of a nation, President Barack Obama on Wednesday implored Americans to honor those slain and injured in the Arizona shootings by becoming better people, telling a polarized citizenry that it is time to talk with each other "in a way that heals, not in a way wounds." Following a Hospital bedside visit with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the target of the Assassination, he said: "She knows we're here, and she knows we love her." In a memorably dramatic moment, the pres...

Obama: Rep. Giffords Opened Her Eyes
(Newscore) - Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) "opened her eyes for the first time," just moment after US President Barack Obama visited her in the Hospital, he revealed at Wednesday's memorial service in Tucson, Ariz., for the Victims of Saturday's shootings. Giffords' husband, Astronaut Mark Kelly, told Obama it happened right after he left the room. "She knows we are here, knows that we love her and knows we are rooting for her through a difficult journey," Obama said. The president ...

McCarthy Pushes For Smaller Gun Clips After Tucson
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-L.I.) drafted Legislation today in response to the Arizona shootings to renew the ban on gun clips that carry more than 10 rounds. "As someone who’s experienced senseless gun violence firsthand, I’m praying for my colleague Rep. Gabrielle Giffords" (D-Ariz.) and other Victims of the Shopping Mall shootings last Saturday, McCarthy said in a statement. Jared L. Loughner, the 22-year-old suspect in the shootings, allegedly had an “extender&rdquo...;

Obama: Don't turn on each other
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Summoning the soul of a nation, President Barack Obama on Wednesday implored Americans to honor those slain and injured in the Arizona shootings by becoming better people, telling a polarized citizenry that it is time to talk with each other "in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds." Following a Hospital bedside visit with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the target of the Assassination, he said: "She knows we're here, and she knows we love her." In a memorably dramatic...

N.C. senator keeps security at minimum for events
MANTEO, N.C. There were no bag checks or metal detectors or intimidating Bodyguards at the Dare County Center on Wednesday afternoon. Security amounted to little more than a few sheriff's deputies roaming the Parking Lot and a few others in plain clothes mingling with the crowd inside. But that's just the way U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., wanted it. Four days after a gunman killed six people and critically wounded a congresswoman and 13 others at a similar event in Arizona, Hagan stepped out of a...

Tim Pawlenty's hypocritical criticism of Sarah Palin
Tim Pawlenty thinks Sarah Palin shouldn't have used gunsight crosshairs imagery and says he would never have done anything like it: “It would not have been my style to put the cross hairs on there,” he said Tuesday on “Good Morning America,” referring to a map like the one posted last year on SarahPAC’s website showing gunsights on the Congressional Districts represented by Giffords and a select group of lawmakers who supported Health Care reform. “But then a...

Grimm: No 'Reactionary Leigislation' to Arizona Shooting
New Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Staten Island), is warning his colleagues against responding to the Arizona shootings with "reationary Legislation." “First, this is a heinous, brutal, and despicable act that in no way should be minimized," Grimm said in a statement. "However, I urge all of my colleagues not to call for ‘reactionary legislation’ or extreme measures." He didn't mention any specific legislation, but spokeswoman Carol Danko confirmed he was t...

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...