Clyburn Calls for Reinstatement of Fairness Doctrine

Jim Clyburn wants to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine in response to the Arizona shooting
   Just when you thought that all of the talk about reinstating the “Fairness Doctrine” had died down along comes a politically driven, ideologist sheriff in Arizona looking to capitalize on a shooting to push his partisan agenda and thrusts the talk of the “Fairness Doctrine” back into the limelight.   Anyone who heard the words of Arizona Sheriff Clarence Dupnik could realize that they were politically charged conjecture motivated by an agenda. ...

Democrats Use Tucson Shooting As Justification For A New Fairness Doctrine
The Fairness Doctrine, of course, being an FCC policy that once upon a time limited the sort of content broadcasters could have on their airwaves by requiring ideological balance. What listeners/viewers actually wanted in terms of content was irrelevant. If you had three hours of a conservative like, say, Rush Limbaugh on air you’d have to have three hours of a liberal. Now, in the wake of the Tucson shooting, liberals are using their baseless conjectures about the motivations of the shoot...

Beware of those who would trade security for freedom
The most recent example of that is Rep. James Clyburn who thinks it is time the concept of free Speech is rethought in the wake of the Tucson shooting: The shooting is cause for the country to rethink parameters on free speech, Clyburn said from his office, just blocks from the South Carolina Statehouse. He wants standards put in place to guarantee balanced media coverage with a reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, in addition to calling on elected officials and media pundits to use ‘be...

A New Threat to Free Speech
Rep. James Clyburn asserts, without evidence, that the Tucson shooting proves that this country needs to curtail free Speech in the name of Public Safety: 'Free Speech is as free Speech does,' he said. 'You cannot yell 'fire' in a crowded theater and call it free Speech and some of what I hear, and is being called free speech, is worse than that.' Clyburn used as an example a comment made by Sharron Angle, an unsuccessful U.S. Senatorial Candidate in Nevada, who said the frustrated public may co...

The right-wing narrative about Clinton, the Oklahoma bombing, and Obama
President Obama is heading to Arizona to commemorate the Victims of Saturday's events in Tucson, and Conservatives are already expressing concern about a replay of Bill Clinton's 1995 Speech denouncing "purveyors of hatred and division" on the airwaves in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. In a preemptive strike, Conservatives are already misrepresenting the history of that event, arguing that Clinton politicized the bombing for his own gain. At National Review, John J. Miller writes...

The 2nd Amendment helped end Arizona Shooting, it didnt cause it
Twenty-four year old Joe Zamudio quietly stood at the Safeway counter waiting to buy a pack of Cigarettes as shots rang out in Tucson Arizona Saturday.  As most followed their natural instinct to run to safety, Zamudio put his hand on his gun and ran towards the chaos.   Zamudio was not an off-duty Police Officer nor did he possess Military training, he was merely an Arizona resident who was legally carrying a Concealed Weapon who believed he could stop the carnage.  In an in...

False Equivalencies: Right vs. Left
Crazy vs. Not As Crazy Y’all know where I stand on the Tucson shooting.  Those who have used inflammatory Rhetoric bear responsibility. The thing is, they know they bear responsibility.  That’s why they are running full-bore in damage control mode, instead of doing what leaders and human beings do, which is to examine their actions, to think about whether they could have done something differently, and to contemplate what they can do in the future so that they do not cont...

Paul Krugmans Totalitarian Temptation
A Washington Examiner op-ed rhetorically asks, “Was President Obama encouraging Murder during his 2008 campaign when he said, ‘If they bring a knife … we bring a gun’?” Was he encouraging political violence when he said more recently of the new Republican House majority that “we are going to have just hand-to-hand combat up here on Capitol Hill”? Of course not. Similarly, former Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Paul Kanjorski was speaking allegorically in ...

TOP ARIZONA PAPER Blasts Sheriff Dupnik: Get a Grip!
A top Arizona paper today blasted Far Left Sheriff Clarence Dupnik for his continued attacks on the law-abiding people of Arizona. Dupnik was on with Keith Olbermann last night. On Saturday afternoon, with his friend Gabby Giffords in surgery fighting for her life, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik railed against the tense partisan politics - “the anger, the hatred, the Bigotry” - that prompted the mass Murders outside Tucson, in his view. And, jarring as such claims ma...

Keep rampage blame where it belongs
We add our thoughts and prayers to the many for critically wounded Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the six people killed, including a senior Federal Judge, a 9-year-old girl fascinated by politics, a congressional aide and three other innocents, as well as the 13 people wounded, in the attack Saturday in Tucson. The accused, Jared Loughner, is a deeply disturbed young man whose violent proclivities had frightened several acquaintances but who had not yet done anything overt enough to bring h...

Polled Americans Say Conservative Rhetoric Didn't Cause Shooting (The Atlantic Wire)
WASHINGTON, DC – The days since Saturday’s attack on Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords that left 6 dead have been filled with various attempts to explain the shooter’s motives. Politicians and pundits on the left have argued that violent conservative Rhetoric is to blame, specifically criticizing Sarah Palin’s Midterm Election map which targeted 20 Democrats for defeat with the image of crosshairs. Gabrielle Giffords was one of the 20. But a new CBS poll released today sugg

ARIZONA REPUBLIC blasts Sheriff Dupnik...
On Saturday afternoon, with his friend Gabby Giffords in surgery fighting for her life, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik railed against the tense partisan politics - "the anger, the hatred, the Bigotry" - that prompted the mass Murders outside Tucson, in his view. And, jarring as such claims may be, we understood. Or tried to understand, despite the spectacle of a lawman - an official whose very job it is to dispassionately gather facts and to maintain order and calm - tying the attack on Rep...

Religiously-Themed Conspiracy Theories About Giffords Shooting Emerge
Pastor Carl Gallups of Hickory Hammock Baptist Church in Milton, Florida, has produced two videos about the attempted Assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords that glorify Gun Owners of America, claim that Giffords knew her assailant, assert that owning guns is a "God-given right," and that Gun Control leads to Genocide. One of Gallups' claims, that Giffords subscribed to Loughner's YouTube channel, is now being touted by Jerome Corsi, the conspiratory theorist and contributor to World Net Daily...

Glenn Beck Defends Sarah Palin With New Pledge Scam
It was a no-brainer that Glenn Beck would jump on the hastily gerrymandered “FOX ‘News’ Protect Palin” bandwagon after the Tucson massacre. Beck has a lot invested emotionally in the Half-Governor. Not only is she his BFF—she was his first guest on Fox “News”—but he is also knew that an attack on Sarah Palin for her “target maps” would quickly spread to the Beckinator himself. As offensive as the bulls eyes might have been—and the...

Missing From Loughner Debate: Soul Searching
Jared Loughner (Credit: Personal Photo) There's been quite a bit of back and forth this week about who should share the blame for the actions of alleged Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner. Some on the left have pointed to incendiary Rhetoric from Sarah Palin and others on the right, while some on the right have sought to tie Loughner to the beliefs of the left. Palin was blamed in part for using of a bullseye icon to identify political targets - including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords - before the ...

Mental Health Care, Not Political Blame
In the wake of the Arizona shootings, it has been disturbing to see many politicians, Journalists, and even a sheriff exploit a national tragedy for political purposes. And, in so doing, many have set themselves up as Mental Health experts, explaining to the public that political debate and Rhetoric caused a likely psychotic suspect, Jared Loughner, to kill and injure innocent people. This is especially alarming when we consider that those who are public servants might, instead, focus their ef...

Unknown militant group emerges; targets birthers, GOP
(Paulding County, Georgia) - Paulding County Republicans and birthers need to be on guard due to an unknown group calling itself, Militant Association of Democrats who sent letters, placed phone calls as well as death threats that included the words GOP and birthers through a sniper scope to the American Patriot Foundation. Two anonymous letters sent to APF from Richmond, Va. place "GOP" and "Birthers" in the crosshairs of a rifle scope alongside the exhortation "Load 'em Up!" These letter...

Reid praised Arizona sheriff in 2008 speech
In a floor Speech nearly three years ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid praised the sheriff investigating the deadly Arizona Shooting Spree who has faced criticism from the right.  Reid (D-Nev.) took to the Senate floor on April 15, 2008 to praise the "truly commendable" 50-year Law Enforcement career of Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik.  "Clarence Dupnik is known as a man of action, integrity, and innovation," Reid said. "These skills have been invaluable to his 50 years of service t...

Holder calls shootings unspeakably tragic (AP)
WASHINGTON – The killing of a Federal Judge and attempted Assassination of an Arizona congresswoman are an "unspeakable tragedy" that serve as a reminder that violence and cruelty persist more than 40 years after the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Attorney General Holder said Tuesday. Threats against public officials "continue to be cause for concern and vigilance," Holder told a Justice Department memorial for the slain Civil Rights leader in advance of the holiday commemorati...

Rep. Clyburn: Bring back Fairness Doctrine
Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C), one of the most outspoken voices in the wake of the Tucson shooting, tells the Charleston Post and Courier that he wants to bring back the Controversial Fairness Doctrine. The shooting is cause for the country to rethink parameters on free Speech, Clyburn said from his office, just blocks from the South Carolina Statehouse. He wants standards put in place to guarantee balanced media coverage with a reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, in addition to calling on el...

Dem Rep. James Clyburn Uses Giffords Tragedy to Call For Return to Fairness Doctrine
Vile opportunist. COLUMBIA — U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in Congress, said Sunday the deadly shooting in Arizona should get the country thinking about what’s acceptable to say publicly and when people should keep their mouths shut. Clyburn said he thinks vitriol in public discourse led to a 22-year-old suspect opening fire Saturday at an event Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords held for her constituents in Tucson, Ariz. Six people were killed and 14 others ...

Clyburn: Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine...
COLUMBIA — U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in Congress, said Sunday the deadly shooting in Arizona should get the country thinking about what's acceptable to say publicly and when people should keep their mouths shut. Clyburn said he thinks vitriol in public discourse led to a 22-year-old suspect opening fire Saturday at an event Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords held for her constituents in Tucson, Ariz. Six people were killed and 14 others were injured, including ...

Boehner asks Obama to Jan. 25 State of the Union (AP)
WASHINGTON – House Speaker John Boehner (BAY'-nur) has invited President Barack Obama to deliver the State of the Union Speech on Jan. 25 to a joint session of Congress. In a letter to Obama obtained by The Associated Press, Boehner mentions the Arizona shooting that left six dead and 14 injured. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was critically wounded. Boehner writes that in the wake of tragedy, "we must never waiver from our obligation." The address will be Obama's second State of the Union spee...

CBS Poll: Nearly Six In Ten Say Heated Rhetoric Unrelated To AZ Shooting
In a CBS poll released this morning, almost 60% of Americans said they don't think strong political Rhetoric is to blame for Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona that left six dead and wounded over a dozen others, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. In the poll, 57% of respondents said that intense political discourse had nothing to do with the attack, versus 32% who said that it was a contributing factor to the shooting. By political demographics, Republicans were less inc...

Tragedy And Rhetoric
I’ve been slow to post on this, for a variety of reasons.  First and foremost, I just haven’t felt like posting much since Thursday.  But today, I’ve been walking around without crutches most of the day (except for stairs), and I took the bandage off without incident.  The hydrocodone has helped, although it’s contributed to an excess of sleep.  Speaking of hydrocodone, I’ll be right back. All better now. Now, onto the topic at hand.  I̵...