Broader Implications of Guifford Attack

The wasteland
We live in a violent country. It has always been thus. One of our greatest statesmen (Alexander Hamilton) died in a duel with another one of greatest statesmen (Aaron Burr). We were founded in bloody revolution, we were enlarged through a series of conquests later called Manifest Destiny, and we were forcefully unified in a terrifying Civil War. We glory in the wars we won (World War I, World War II, the Cold War) and we despair about the war we lost (Vietnam). The Second Amendment to our Cons...

Obama to lead moment of silence after shooting
WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Obama steps out on the South Lawn of the White House Monday morning, the thoughts of the nation will turn to Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other Victims of an Assassination attempt against her. Mr. Obama will lead the nation in a moment of silence to honor the congresswoman and the six people killed and 13 others wounded in Saturday's shooting outside a Tucson Supermarket. "It will be a time for us to come together as a nation in prayer or reflect...

How Sarah Palin Should Defend Herself Against the (Unfair) Loughner Charges
Photo: Matt Stroshane/Getty Images It didn't take long after one of Jared Loughner's bullets passed through the head of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday for the Internet to recall that infamous Sarah Palin map from September, the one in which gun sights marked the districts of Democrats she hoped to remove from office in the November Elections. The violent imagery created an outcry at the time, and even Giffords herself remarked on MSNBC, "We’re on Sarah Palin’s...

At Least Stand By Your Free Speech
Saturday morning 20 people were shot in a Tucson Safeway Parking Lot by a 22-year-old who stated on YouTube he “won’t pay Debt with a currency that’s not backed by gold and silver.” Fifteen minutes after the news broke, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin tweeted, “The price of gold today is at $1,368.90 an ounce.” None of us want to live in a society where hyperbole, exaggeration, satire, bad taste and horrible timing are subjective.  Stupidity is legal. ...

Palin and Arizona
Jonathan Martin writes: With a long list of enemies, a taste for incendiary Rhetoric and responsibility for a campaign website graphic that placed gunsight logos on a map of targeted Congressional Districts, it didn’t take long for Sarah Palin to get pulled into the orbit of Saturday&rs...;

Wake Up Call
Good morning! "Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' heartsick husband told lawmakers he blames inflammatory Rhetoric for the Assassination attempt on his wife," (Read more...) ...

Sermons motivated killer of Pakistani politician
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The confessed killer of a liberal Pakistani politician provided a judge Monday with the names of two men whose sermons allegedly sparked him to act, as YouTube footage emerged of the assassin chanting Islamic verses in police custody. The slaying of Punjab province Gov. Salman Taseer nearly a week ago shocked many around the world, but tens of thousands of Pakistanis have expressed support for 26-year-old Mumtaz Qadri, who said he killed the Governor for criticizing laws t...

This Week in Congress
In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader: Leader Cantor Statement on the Legislative Schedule for the Week of January 10th WASHINGTON, DC - Today, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) issued the following statement regarding the legislative schedule for the House of Representatives during the upcoming week: "In consultation with the Speaker and the Democratic Leadership, I have postponed all previously-scheduled Legislation for the coming week to accommodate any ac...

Rep. Tammy Baldwin has press conference in Madison after Giffords shooting
Rep. Tammy Baldwin, who has served Wisconsin’s Second Congressional District since Jan. 1999, held a Press Conference in her Madison office in response to the fatal Shooting Spree that took place on the morning of Jan. 8 at a political gathering in Tucson, Arizona.  The shooting, which left six people dead and 13 others injured, including critically injuring Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), has sent shockwaves throughout the political community and has others clamoring for enhanced sec...

Zandar's Thought Of The Day
We saw the same phenomenon following the Oklahoma City bombing and the Holocaust museum shooting when MSNBC hosts and liberal pundits blamed the incidents on radio Talk Show hosts. These exercises in blame-mongering inevitably run aground when inconvenient details muddle the "talk show hosts did it" mantra (e.g. Did radio Talk Show hosts tell the Holocaust museum shooter to target the conservative Weekly Standard offices?) The same is true in this incident. You can almost hear the disappointment...

Updates on the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords
Some recent developments in the Assassination attempt of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday that left six dead and fourteen wounded. First, Giffords condition: Gabrielle Giffords was able to respond to simple commands -- like squeezing her hand or showing two fingers -- after two hours of surgery Saturday night, but her injuries are very serious and she remains in critical condition, her doctors said Sunday. [...] The chief of Neurosurgery, Michael Lemole, said that he is "cautiously optimisti...

Congresswoman's Husband Thanks Americans
Mark Kelly, the Navy captain and Astronaut whose wife, Representative Gabrielle Giffords, was gravely wounded in an Assassination attempt, has issued a statement thanking Americans for their support and encouraging Charitable Donations to a local community food bank in Tucson and to the American Red Cross. “On behalf of Gabby and our entire family, I want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the people of Arizona and this great nation for their unbelievable outpouring of support,” Captain K...

Arizona Tragedy Gives Congress a Moment to Pause
WASHINGTON — The shooting rampage in Arizona seems to have created a reset moment for confrontational politics, as lawmakers reflect on the repercussions of the overheated Rhetoric traded on the airwaves and on the Campaign Trail. Members of Congress from both parties called Sunday for civility over belligerence as the House temporarily shelved the contentious debate over repealing the Health Care law and lawmakers paused to contemplate the tragedy. Critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giff...

'Violent imagery' in politics isn't the problem
The shooting in Tucson that grievously injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and killed six people, including a Federal Judge and a nine-year-old girl, has sparked a conversation about violence in our political discourse. The conversation is probably long overdue. We need to be clear that we're not talking about the mere use of violent imagery -- but political Rhetoric that implicitly or explicitly justifies actual violence. Jack Shafer warns that calls to "tamp down the political rhetor...

American politics: Altered states
Protesters parade an altered photo of President Barack Obama sporting an Adolf Hitler-like mustache. A Candidate for the Senate muses about gun “remedies” if Election Results don’t go the right way. Members of Congress are spat on and taunted with racial epithets before casting votes for a Healthcare Reform bill. Welcome to politics American-style. For the past few years, some public officeholders and pundits have warned that the political Rhetoric has gotten a little too overh...

Virginia flags lowered for Arizona shooting victims
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has ordered U.S. and Virginia flags be flown at half-staff at all local, state and federal buildings in the state in honor of the Victim's in Saturday's deadly shooting in Arizona. Flags will remain lowered until sunset Friday pursuant to President Obama's proclamation. "The Governor is deeply saddened by the news coming from Arizona,'' McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin said. "His thoughts and prayers are with the Congresswoman, her staff, the other victims, and a...

Historians win one for the team
Robert Greenwald's petition to the US History Network to not air conservative operative and creator of 24 Joel Surnow's take on the Kennedy family, "The Kennedys" has borne fruit: "We have concluded this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History brand," the network said in a statement late Friday about the eight-part miniseries, The Kennedys, starring Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes as President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie. Canadian Barry Pepper plays Robert F. Kennedy. "We...

The Morning Plum
* What did Jared Loughner believe? He was a 9/11 Truther who believed that global elites, hell bent on world domination, are in the process of creating a one-world currency. * Did he draw his ideas from the fringe right? So argues the Southern Poverty Law Center, pointing to his views on currency and related matters, though it's worth emphasizing again that the shooter seems so disturbed that it's pretty much impossible to locate his views anywhere on a recognizable political spectrum. * Left ...

Second Amendment solutions
There is no parity between "the right and the left" in the politics of hate in the America of 2011. Yes, some on the left say things I do not agree with, or approve of, and they should be criticized when they do. But the politics of hate, which I have been warning about for over a year, are heard far more from the right than the left these days. Sarah Palin should not be blamed for the Murders in Arizona, but she should be blamed for demeaning our political deba

Whats Truth? Scientific Method Under the Microscope
God-experience, ESP, and the decline effect. Arri Eisen is a Senior Lecturer in Biology for Emory University's Center for Ethics and co-editor of Science, Religion, and Society: History, Cultures, and Controversies (M. E. Sharpe, 2007). His Science in Your Life radio spots, which aired on Atlanta's NPR affiliate, can be found here. In a recent New Yorker article Jonah Lehrer shakes up this last question and stirs it well with an engaging discussion of some intriguing and troubling limitations of...

Suspect in Giffords' Shooting Not Talking to Investigators
Monday, January 10, 2011 By Jacques Billeaud, Associated Press   Phoenix (AP) - A 22-year-old man described as a social outcast with wild beliefs steeped in mistrust faces a Federal Court hearing on charges he tried to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in a Tucson shooting rampage that left six people dead. Public defenders are asking that the attorney who defended Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Timothy Mcveigh and "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski defend Jared Loughner, who makes his first c...

Now: NYTs Paul Krugman Blames Giffords Shooting on Right-Wing Rhetoric. Before: Kurgman Encourages Lefties to Hang Sen. Lieberma
But meanwhile, pass the Health Care bill. Yes, the Filibuster-imposed need to get votes from “Centrist” senators has led to a bill that falls a long way short of ideal. Worse, some of those senators seem motivated largely by a desire to protect the interests of Insurance Companies — with the possible exception of Mr. Lieberman, who seems motivated by sheer spite. (NYT- Paul Krugman)- You know that Republicans will yell about the evils of Partisanship whenever anyone tries to ma...

Civility and Political Discourse after the Tucson Shooting
An article in Sunday’s New York Times states that “with the nation’s capital reeling from Saturday’s attack on Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, in which an aide to the lawmaker and five constituents were killed [,] both parties on Sunday began a wrenching process of soul-searching about the tone of political discourse and wondered aloud if a lack of civility had somehow contributed to the bloodshed in Tucson.” A few weeks ago on this site I quoted the p...

Tragically, the shooting Saturday at a congressional event in Arizona now has the ability to do what elected officials havent be
Does Saturday’s tragedy in Arizona offer a new chance for civility, or simply a pause? … GOP-led House cancels all legislative activity this week, including health-care Repeal… Obama calls for a national moment of silence today at 11:00 am ET… But will …...

This Week in Congress
In the House, courtesy of the Office of the Majority Leader: Leader Cantor Statement on the Legislative Schedule for the Week of January 10th WASHINGTON, DC - Today, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) issued the following statement regarding the legislative schedule for the House of Representatives during the upcoming week: "In consultation with the Speaker and the Democratic Leadership, I have postponed all previously-scheduled Legislation for the coming week to accommodate any ac...