Assassination in Arizona

Right focuses on Dupnik
RIGHT FOCUSES ON DUPNIK.... On Saturday night in Tucson, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik lamented societal factors -- most notably, the Toxicity of our political discourse -- that he fears may have contributed to the day's violence. "When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the Bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous," the sheriff said. "And unfortu...

Can't We All Just Get Along?
I would like to know what rock David Gergen has been living under for the last two years if he thinks this tragedy in Arizona is possibly just the beginning of a period of violence. Someone needs to tell him to go read our contributor Jon Perr's post if he actually hasn't been paying attention to how many people have already been killed over the last couple of years. We don't need to know "what part of that culture" of violence led to the actions by the shooter in Arizona to know that it's long ...

That’s Political Entertainment!
EMOTE CONTROL Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Sarah Palin, and Glenn Beck. In Morning Glory, last year’s most underrated movie comedy, go-getter breakfast-show producer Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams, divine), in a burst of exasperation, explains the facts of life to journalistic warhorse Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford, face furrowed with mental indigestion): “The world has been debating news versus entertainment for years, and guess what? You lost!” Which hasn’t stopped the l...

CBS Poll: By 57% to 32% Margin Americans Say Political Rhetoric Had Nothing to do With Giffords Shooting
MSM Propaganda FAIL. (The Hill)- Almost 60 percent of the public believes that heated political Rhetoric has nothing to do with an Arizona Shooting Spree that gravely wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) and killed a Federal Judge. Many pundits and lawmakers have keyed in on political vitriol as a potential contributing factor to the shootings allegedly carried out by Jared Lee Loughner, a 22-year-old Tucson man who faces five federal Felony Charges. Loughner’s writings and videos suggest a...

GOP in Political Siege Mode for the Moment
As the nation remains transfixed by the horrific events in Tuscon, AZ, the inevitable political questions, finger-pointing and analysis unfolds.  While reports stream in about the condition of critically wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), at the root of every conversation about the mass Murder of innocent Arizona 8th Congressional district constituents is why?  Ultimately, the political calculus pushes its way into the explanation, and observers are straining to assess wh...

Keli Goff: Finding Hope in Arizona
More than a year ago former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi generated headlines due to a rare public display of raw emotion. She became visibly choked up while voicing concern that the increasingly heated Rhetoric permeating our political discourse at the height of the Health Care debate could soon turn violent; something she had seen firsthand years before with the 1978 shooting of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, one of the nation's first Openly Gay elected officials. (Click he...

The Morning Plum
* Obama steps up: The President is set to travel to Arizona tomorrow to attend the Funeral service of the Shooting Victims, and he is expected to give a Speech about tolerance, a theme he may reprise in the State of the Union address. But Obama's advisers are uncertain about the exact message he should send: It is not clear whether ideology motivated the alleged shooter, Jared Loughner, and Obama's advisers may conclude it unwise for the president to lecture the nation on mutual respect -- whi...

Ailes to Fox Anchors, 'Tone it Down'
Roger Ailes, the president of Fox News, on Monday embraced the idea of a more civil public discourse in the wake of the shootings in Arizona. In an interview with Russell Simmons, which was posted on the Web site of the founder of Def Jam records, Mr. Ailes said that his network would try to cool the heated Rhetoric. “I told all of our guys, shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually,” Mr. Ailes said. “You don’t have to do it with bombast. I hope the other ...

One wonders what we will learn from these senseless shootings
The moment of silence came and went Monday, and I tried to set aside my own anger and heed President Barack Obama's call "for us to come together as a nation in prayer or reflection, keeping the Victims and their families closely at heart." The quiet passed, and I was revisited by the uneasy sense we are unlikely to learn anything from Saturday's tragedy in Tucson. Is the lesson of the deadly shooting destined to be buried with the dead in a country that day by day watches its ability to reason ...

Political violence in America: Lets stop pretending we're shocked
By R.K. Barry I don't know. Is there anything that hasn't been said about Saturday's shooting in Arizona that left six dead and fourteen wounded, including Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords? Some news coverage and partisan commentary has tried hard to place blame and draw connections or deflect blame and deny connections as the case may be. It would have been better for Progressives if the assailant were actually on a Tea Party group membership list or if he expressed his admiration...

Top 10 Examples Of Liberal Hate
Even before details were clear about the Arizona shooting, Left-wingers tried to assess blame for the tragedy to Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the Second Amendment. When it became clear that the gunman was a deranged lunatic whose political philosophy was more in tune with the loony Left than the Tea Party, liberals continued to cry out against a so-called climate of hate perpetuated by Right-wingers. Perhaps those making that charge have forgotten the hatefulness an...

The Giffords Blood Libel Will Fail
The big push to blame Conservatives for the murderous rampage of Jared Loughner won’t work. In fact, it will backfire. The Left is riding across quicksand on a horse that is dying beneath them. Here are some reasons why. The Right can fight back: The paramount reason this strategy will fail is that liberal media dominance is gone forever. The Politico offers a disgusting quote from a nameless Democrat operati...

Hate Speech the Rights Magic Bullet (Guest Voice)
Hate Speech the Right’s Magic Bullet by Michael Winship The Russian playwright Anton Chekhov had a rule: if you show a gun in the first act, by the time the curtain falls, it has to go off. For weeks and months, that gun, the weapon of angry Rhetoric and intemperate rabblerousing, has been cocked and loaded in plain view on the American stage; Saturday morning outside a Shopping Mall in Tucson, Arizona, it went off again and again and again. The target, Gabrielle Giffords, a member of the Un...

The Tucson Shooting's Most Important Questions
Since the shooting in Tucson on Saturday, lots of important questions have been raised - questions that go to far bigger issues than one horrific shooting. In the interest of summation, here are the best questions I've seen on Twitter, Facebook, in the blogosphere, on radio and elsewhere. - If after a calculated political Assassination attempt we cannot talk about the downsides of a right-wing media that effectively endorses political violence, when can we talk about this subject? Or should w...

Taking, Not Placing, Responsibility
In the wake of Saturday's tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona, we're beginning to take a long overdue look at the state of our political debate. But that examination needs to be honest. There are times when both the right and the left are equally guilty of some sin or other, and the press' instinct to characterize every problem as the equal responsibility of both sides does no harm. This is not one of those times. The simple, unavoidable fact is that it is the right that has been purveying the r...

Double Standards
Rush Limbaugh and the right wingers are all over Sheriff Clarence Dupnik for having the temerity to express an opinion about the causes of the shootings in Tucson last weekend.Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik thrust himself into the spotlight in the aftermath of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and 19 other people in Arizona on Saturday, decrying the heated political atmosphere and calling for more civility. "It's not unusual for all public officials to get threats constantly, ...

Poll: Rhetoric, Arizona shooting unrelated
Almost 60 percent of the public believes that heated political Rhetoric has nothing to do with an Arizona Shooting Spree that gravely wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) and killed a Federal Judge. Fifty-seven percent of respondents in a new CBS News poll said Rhetoric is unrelated to the shooting, while 32 percent said they believe the two are connected. Many pundits and lawmakers have keyed in on political vitriol as a potential contributing factor to the shootings allegedly carried out by...

Who has been "inflaming tensions"
Another rampantly biased piece in the Tribune this morning by Kathleen Hennessey and others. No mention of the Pima County Sheriff's inflammatory and unprofessional outburst. No mention of the contemptible bias of the NY Times and CNN, not to mention MSNBC--and even FoxNews. The LA Times/Tribune "reporters" conveniently cut off the quote from Roger Ailes: Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes — while rejecting any suggestion that his Cable News net...

Iraq to probe maritime scuffle with Kuwait
Iraq's government says it will investigate a shootout earlier this week between Iraqi fishermen and Kuwaiti Coast Guards that left one dead. Iraqi Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Tuesday that the skirmish killed a Kuwaiti officer, whose men retaliated by sinking the Iraqi boat in the Persian Gulf. Al-Dabbagh said four Iraqi fishermen were detained by Kuwaiti forces after the Monday incident. Kuwait's government said the fishing vessel had strayed into their waters and the Iraqi fisherma...

Facts about Haiti a year after devastating quake
Some facts about Haiti in the year since the devastating Jan. 12, 2010 Earthquake: — The Haitian Economy contracted by 7 percent following the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that the government said killed an estimated 230,000-300,000 people and destroyed more than 100,000 buildings. — More than 1 million displaced people, including 380,000 Children, are still in some 1,200 tent-and-shack encampments. — The U.N. estimates that 650,000 people will still be living in camps at the end o...

13 dead after heavy rains in Brazil
Brazilian authorities say Heavy Rains have triggered Mudslides and floods in southeastern Brazil, killing at least 13 people. Sao Paulo state civil defense officials say 11 people died when their houses collapsed because of Mudslides and two were killed in Flash Floods. Heavy rains have been pummeling the region and at least 12 landslides were reported across the state. Sao Paulo nearly came to halt on Tuesday as Flooding blocked traffic in some of the city's main thoroughfares. Brazil has been ...

Jon Stewart delivers special message on Tucson shootings (Video)
Last night Jon Stewart cut away from his normal comedic routine to deliver a more serious message on the shootings in Tucson, Arizona over the weekend.  Six people were killed and fourteen more were injured in the shooting.  United States Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who is currently recovering from a gunshot to the head, was the apparent target of the shooter.  As usual, Stewart brought a different perspective to a story which has come to be dominated by partisan “poli...

Have gun, Will talk: Arizona Sheriff Clarence Dupnik not speechless over Tucson shootings or much else
For a chief Law Enforcement officer who's supposed to be assembling the complex Criminal Investigations of six sudden homicides against a local 22-year-old suspect, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik sure has found ample time the last couple of days to appear all over national News Media, spouting prickly opinions on pretty much anything asked. The sheriff, who celebrates his 75th birthday today, is understandably defensive. He had no officers at Rep. Gabrielle Giffords ' Saturday ope...

Poll: Only 32% Of Americans Think Tucson Shooter Was Politically Motivated
Despite a 48 hour campaign by Demcorats and their surrogates in the media to pain the Tucson shooter Jarred Loughner as a tea-partying Sarah Palin devotee, most of the public isn’t buying it. Even a plurality of Democrats are saying that the shooting had nothing to do with politics: Nearly six in 10 Americans say the country’s heated political Rhetoric is not to blame for the Tucson shooting rampage that left six dead and critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to ...

Burying the Needle on Hypocrisy Meter: Lefty Tweeters Wish for Sarah Palins Death Because of her Violent Rhetoric
On Twitter they are reacting to the claims that Sarah Palin incited Murder against Giffords with inflamed Rhetoric by having an evolved, civil and intelligent discussion about the limits of free Speech. Ah, who am I kidding? My favorite was the one that admitted she had nothing to do with Giffords shooting, but said they wanted her to die anyway. Also, to be fair, some merely wish for her to get Cancer and die.  Do remember that these are generally the same people who want the government to...