Calls for Civility After Ariz. Shooting

No Signs Obama Will Shift On Gun Control After Giffords Shooting
Virtually since the Obama Administration took office, the White House has avoided touching the third-rail issue of Gun Control with a 10-foot pole. So will the mass shooting in Arizona that gravely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and killed six others (including a Federal Judge) change their approach? Gun control advocates hope so. Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C., said in an interview that banning the high-capacity clips (the type use...

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 ...

Barry's Angry Words
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, overseeing the investigation the Tucson shootings that left Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in a coma and Federal Judge John Roll and five others dead, wasted little time in blaming heated political Rhetoric for the crime. Shortly after the first reports of the shootings, Dupnick said, "The anger, the hatred, the Bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous, and unfortunately Arizona has become sort of the capital," adding "We have become...

Sorry Libs Only 32% of Public Agrees That Political Rhetoric Was Cause of Tucson Slaughter
Sorry libs. Only 32% of the public believes that political Rhetoric caused the “quite liberal” Tucson crackpot to go on a shooting binge at a Safeway. Even a majority of honest Democrats believe the shootings were not caused by heated political rhetoric. 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. … Republicans who responded...

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...

Only 33% believe 'political tone' had anything to do with Arizona shooting
Most Americans, 57 percent, believe the tragic shooting in Arizona isn't connected to politics. That's the result of a new CBS News poll which found only 32 percent of respondents aid the harsh political tone had something to do with the shooting. Republicans -- 69 percent said Rhetoric was not to blame; 19 percent said it played a part. Democrats -- 49 percent saw no connection; 42 percent said there was. Independents -- 56 percent said Rhetoric had nothing to do with the attack; 33 percent fel...

Live Updates: The Gabrielle Giffords shooting
Updated 12:25 p.m. The National Rifle Association declined Monday to enter the political fray over Saturday's shootings in Tucson. Asked to weigh in on the role of the Brady Bill in the shooting, NRA spokesperson Andrew Arulanandam told Politico's Ben Smith: "Anything other than prayers for the Victims and their families at this time would be inappropriate." The Brady Campaign has contended that the 1994 assault-weapons ban, which expired in 2004, would have prevented the alleged ...

Culture and Conditioning
Remarkably, some rightie Bloggers are still trying to peg Jared Loughner as a “Left Wing radical.” This is true even as News Media are doing their best to argue that only those nutty lefties are claiming politics had anything to do with the shooting in Tuscon. Chris Cillizza: In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, liberals sought to paint Loughner as an anti-government, Tea Party conservative. Conservatives retorted that Loughner lacked anything close to a coherent political p...

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...

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...

Obama, Boehner face leadership test after shooting (AP)
WASHINGTON – On opposite sides of the political spectrum, President Barack Obama and new House Speaker John Boehner suddenly face the same challenge: rise above the anger, suspicion and hostility of their liberal and conservative bases to help a rattled nation deal with the deadly outburst of violence in Arizona. But what comes after the easy moment of silence? For now, both men are stepping past the question of what role, if any, the vitriol of the past election campaign played in Satur...

Outlaw that speech because it MIGHT be a threat...
It was only a matter of time before the Gabrielle Giffords tragedy was turned into a rationale for the government to take more of our freedoms. This is how our government always responds to tragedy--it's almost formulaic: Step 1 - wait for tragedy to occur, or actually create the tragedy. Step 3 - pass laws, or institute policies, that take away people's freedoms. This same process, has led to the creation of most traffic laws, to the Patriot Act, to "enhanced pat-downs," and countless other usu...

Before Shooting, A Campaign Season Rife With Gun Rhetoric
The person who shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), a federal judge and 18 other people Saturday may or may not have had a coherent political philosophy or a rational motive. But his actions still come after a campaign season rife with gun imagery and borderline violent Rhetoric. There is, of course, Sarah Palin's map in which targeted districts were marked by crosshairs (spun as "surveyor's symbols" by Palin aides), but there was much, much more over the 2010 campaign: Target Practice Robe...

White Power, White Terrorism, White Mainstream
As you’ve probably heard by now, Jared Lee Loughner is accused of a horrific attempted Assassination of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ.) and the Murder of six other people, including a Federal Judge and a 9-year-old little girl.  Loughner also injured 14 other people.  Remarkably, Giffords survived - in no small measure due to the heroic actions of a gay, Latino intern who rushed to administer first aid - and doctors are cautiously optimistic that she will recover. ...

Giffords Brother-In-Law Condemns Irresponsible Words As TODAY Finds Palin At Crossroads
In the most unusual of comments on the Shooting Spree in Arizona that left six dead and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords critically wounded, Giffords’ brother in law-her brother’s twin-Astronaut Scott Kelly spoke on the shooting from the International Space Station, saying “these days we are constantly reminded of the unspeakable acts of violence and damage we can inflict upon one another, not just with our actions but also with our irresponsible words.” The debate ov...

Pawlenty defends Palin but differs on crosshairs map
Washington (CNN) - Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Monday he would not have used a map with crosshairs to target Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and other Democrats during the Midterm Elections, but otherwise defended Sarah Palin from suggestions that her graphic may have influenced the man behind last weekend's Shooting Spree in Arizona. "It's not a device I would have chosen to do. Everyone has their style and their own choices," Pawlenty told the New York Times when asked about the map. "But I don't...

It's On: Pawlenty Jabs Palin Over 'Crosshairs'
Possible Republican presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty took a jab at Sarah Palin, saying he wouldn't have used gun crosshairs to target Rep Gabrielle Giffords and others. "I wouldn't have done it," the former Minnesota Governor told The New York Times on Monday when asked if he would have created a map like the one posted last year on Sarah PAC's website showing crosshairs on lawmakers who supported Health Care reform. You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for those opposed to intolerance,...

Tactics backfire, Palin caught in her own cross-hairs
Sarah Palin ... has become both ubiquitous and isolated. Photo: AFP UNDER criticism that her political Rhetoric had helped create a climate for political violence, Sarah Palin addressed the issue in Trademark Fashion: with an email to the conservative commentator Glenn Beck. ''Our Children will not have peace if politicos just capitalise on this to succeed in portraying anyone as inciting terror and violence,'' she wrote to Beck in the email he read on radio. By managing her image almost exclusi...

Can Obama get his mojo back?
“Ultimately, I’ll be judged as president as to the bottom line, results,” Obama said after the Democrats’ November election “shellacking.” Democratic losses set the stage for divided government, gave Obama a chance to shift to the center by compromising with Republicans and led to White House staffing changes that signal the start of Obama’s re-election drive. It will ramp up in the coming months. The Democrat’s hurdles are great. Obama owns the sl...

Ariz. survivor: 'It was like a bad crime drama'
Eric Fuller said Tuesday on the CBS "The Early Show" that he felt the bullet that hit his knee but didn't know he had also been hit in the back. Jared Loughner (LAWF'-nuhr) is being held on federal charges. He's accused of killing six people and wounding or injuring 14 others, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Fuller says he was lucky and feels fine physically but is outraged that Giffords was attacked. Ariz. survivor: 'It was like a bad crime drama' Why hasn't Obama warned...

Gabrielle Giffords Gives Thumbs-Up
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. Doctors treating Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords said Monday the congresswoman was responding to verbal commands by raising two fingers of her left hand and even managed to give a thumbs-up. Giffords, 40, is in critical condition in the intensive care unit of Tucson's University Medical Center after she was shot through the head Saturday during a meet-and-greet with voters outside a Supermarket. Two patients were discharged Sunday n...

Accused gunman warned of brainwashing
Honouring the Arizona Victims ... Barack and Michelle Obama after observing a minute's silence with staff on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday. Photo: AFP Tucson: Online political ramblings of the man charged with the killings in Tucson bear a strong resemblance to the ideas of an extreme right-wing Conspiracy theorist who believes the US government uses grammar to control people's minds. The director of the centre's intelligence unit, Mark Potok, said Mr Loughner's YouTube rant that '...

POLITICAL HOT TOPICS: Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The CNN Washington Bureau’s morning speed read of the top stories making news from around the country and the world. Click on the headlines for more. President Barack Obama will travel to Arizona on Wednesday in the wake of the weekend shooting there that left six people dead and 14 wounded, including a member of Congress, two senior administration officials told CNN Monday. The president will likely attend a memorial service and visit with Victims' families in Tucson, the sources said. H...

Are You Now or Have You Ever Been a Whistleblower?': White House Targets 'Insider Threats' Among Federal Workers
© Unknown The Obama Administration is asking federal agencies to monitor employees with an eye toward identifying "insider threats" who might reveal "classified" information that the government is trying to keep from the American People. The White House Office of Management and Budget this week circulated a memorandum to senior federal officials that urges them to use psychiatrists and sociologists to assess - among other "signals" - the "grumpiness" of federal employees who have access ...

After Shootings, Obama to Deliver Speech on Tolerance
Obama is likely to deliver a Speech about tolerance, a theme that could also be featured in his State of the Union address on Jan. 25. However, with liberals and Conservatives assuming their assigned battle stations over whether Gun Laws and partisan Rhetoric are to blame, the White House is Undecided about the exact message the president will 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 lec...