Don't Blame the Gabrielle Giffords Attack on Overheated Rhetoric

We're Arizona shooting victims too, says Tea Party co-founder
Source: The Guardian A nine-year-old girl lies in the morgue. A member of Congress faces a lifetime of struggle to recover from a bullet in the brain. A city is bracing itself for a string of funerals as it tries to fathom the carnage. But Trent Humphries says there is another innocent Victim left by Jared Lee Loughner's killing of six people and wounding of 14 others in his Assassination attempt against Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. It is his Tea Party movement and, more particularly, his f...

Rush Limbaugh: Its insane to fault Sarah Palin for Ariz. shooting (Daily Caller)
Read more stories from The Daily Caller Rep. Peter King to introduce bill making it illegal to carry a gun within 1,000 feet of 'high-profile' government official Fellow commenters at UFO Conspiracy website questioned Jared Lee Loughner's sanity in threads We're probably alone in the universe, or else they're out to get us Mark Halperin: Conservatives should turn the other cheek when scapegoated for Murder Could Jon Huntsman really be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012? Talk Radio ma...

Infidel Bloggers Alliance
The Hill: Poll: Rhetoric, Arizona shooting unrelated By Jordan Fabian - 01/11/11 08:13 AM ET 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 ...

The shooter was sent by God says Westboro minister- rhetoric continues
Controversial nut-job minister, Fred Phelps from Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas told anyone who would listen to his disturbing rant on YouTube that “the shooter was sent by God.” These Westboro Church leaders are equally as guilty as the “shooter” who took his anger out on innocent folks gathering to meet their Congresswoman last Saturday. The facts first, Jared Loughner was a lone shooter operating on a limited mental capacity who killed six and injured 11 others. His...

Giffords condition improves after shooting
TUCSON, Ariz - U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords is breathing on her own and doctors Tuesday were hopeful about her recovery from a head wound suffered in an Arizona Shooting Spree that killed six people. Giffords, a popular 40-year-old Democrat, remained in critical condition at a Tucson Hospital but is “holding her own,” responding to simple commands and breathing without aid of a tube although a bullet passed through her brain, doctors said. “She has no right to look th...

Beck, Limbaugh respond to shooting
Conservative media figures like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are raising fears that liberals could use the Tucson shootings as an excuse to clamp down on their voices, even as two prominent liberals made public statements urging that the FCC and Fox News do just that. Limbaugh and Beck, along with other conservative voices like Sarah Palin and Bill O’Reilly, had come under fire in the hours after the shooting from liberals such as Keith Olbermann and Paul Krugman, who accused them of us...

Why Did The GOP Think It Had To Delay The Health Reform Repeal Vote?
As Republicans prepared to take over the House, they announced one of their first bills would be the Repeal of health reform because "that's what the American People want." If that's true, and repealing health reform is simply a sound policy decision called upon by the public, then why would Republicans have to indefinitely delay a vote that was scheduled for Wednesday in response to Saturday's attempted Assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords? Yes, a memorial service is scheduled for Wednes...

Surprise! Harry Reid Once Used Senate Floor to Heap Praise on AZ Sheriff Dupnik as a Man of Integrity
“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 to Arizona, and the nation.” A number of media figures and lawmakers, including conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh, have criticized Dupnik for saying that a high level of political “vitriol” was connected to the incident that ended with Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (Ariz.) being shot in the head at clos...

Is Jared Lee Loughner linked to Tea Party, conservatives, or libertarians? (Gabrielle Giffords shooting)
Q. Is Jared Lee Loughner linked to the Tea Party, conservative, or Libertarian movements? A. At this time, there's no indication that Loughner was a member of any organized political movement. He was a registered independent who hadn't voted in 2010 (link). The DHS claim that he was linked to the white racial separatist group AmRen is false. Given what we know now, the chances of him being welcomed as a member of any group outside the far fringe is remote [1]. Given his history, the chances th...

The Gabrielle Giffords shooting in Arizona and Jared Lee Loughner prosecution.
Peter King proposing law banning guns within 1,000 feet of President, VP, members of Congress, and judges. https://slate.me/enyX8B What did you think of all those crazy trick plays in last night's BCS National Championship Game? https://slate.me/hkyR0s 10 Percent Unemployment Forever?...

Gabrielle Giffords shooting: Rhetoric not to blame, says the right
Gabrielle Giffords shooting points to a 'mindless rage,' but not to a suspect who was moved to violence by heated political Rhetoric, say a growing number of voices on the right....

Turning Insanity Into Politics
. Like most of us I was shocked by the Murders in Tucson and I hope for a speedy recovery for Gabrielle Giffords. When our politicians are targeted it disturbs our sense of security and we question what kind of a society we are. That's only natural. Next to 911, the most shocking public event in my life was the Assassination of John Kennedy. Like 911 the memories are vivid. But, not every insane act by a "Lone Wolf" is a political event. A tragedy to be sure, but in this case even if Jared Lee L...

Poll: Shooting spree not due to rhetoric
WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Most Americans don't blame the shooting rampage in which Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was wounded on violent political language, a poll released Tuesday indicated. While 57 percent said the Mass Shooting in Tucson, Ariz., was not related to political Rhetoric, 32 percent said the two are linked, CBS News reported. The poll was conducted by the CBS News Polling Unit. GALLERY: The aftermath of the Rep. Giffords shooting There was a partisan divide with 69 percent of Republ...

Congresswoman Giffords breathing on her own, doctors say
Arizonans leave offerings at a shrine to Victims of Saturday's shooting in Tucson, Arizona. Brad Poole, Reuters · Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2011 TUCSON, Ariz. — U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords is breathing on her own and doctors on Tuesday were hopeful about her recovery from a head wound suffered in an Arizona Shooting Spree that killed six people. Ms. Giffords, a popular 40-year-old Democrat, remained in critical condition at a Tucson Hospital but is “holding her own,” re...

House to honor Rep. Giffords as debate over rhetoric continues
The House on Wednesday will consider a resolution that honors Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) for her “service and leadership” and reaffirms the First Amendment rights of assembly and petition as “bedrock principles” of American Democracy.   In a four-page document to be posted online later Tuesday, the resolution “condemns in the strongest possible terms the horrific attack” on Saturday in Tucson, Ariz. It also recognizes each of the Victims of the shooting and

The Arizona Republic Chastises Sheriff Dupnik For His Partisan, Vitriolic, Comments
It appears that The Arizona Republic is appropriately embarrassed by Tucson's liberal, highly partisan Democratic sheriff, Clarence Dupnik: ... Dupnik used the opportunities to blame Arizona's lax, new Gun Laws and, again, the angry "Rhetoric" of Talk Radio. The shootings were spurred, he suggested, by "the rhetoric about hatred, about mistrust of government, about paranoia of how government operates." Dupnik took up his cause again on Monday. And, in response, we have to say at last . . . enoug...

Jon Stewart doesn't blame political rhetoric for shooting
“Did the toxic political environment cause this? A graphic image here and ill-timed comment, violent Rhetoric, those sort of things? I have no f**king idea. We live in a complex ecosystem of influences and motivations and I wouldn’t blame our political rhetoric any more than I would blame heavy metal music for Columbine.” - Jon Stewart While I don’t always agree with Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, in the wake of the tragedy in Arizona, but las...

Lawyers: Insanity Defense Wont Work
CNN reports: The alleged shooter in Saturday’s deadly Tucson massacre may have difficulty making the case for a successful insanity plea, experts said Tuesday. Jared Lee Loughner, 22, who authorities say shot up a gathering held by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, outside a Supermarket, has been anecdotally regarded as very troubled and perhaps mentally unbalanced because of his ramblings spotted on the Internet and the ways he has been described by acquaintances. But Paul Callan...

Mental illness expert: Yes, ask whether political climate was a trigger for shooter
Dr. Marvin Swartz, a Professor of psychiatry and leading expert in Mental Illness, told Greg Sargent today that yes, the nation's political climate should be considered in the Jared Lee Loughner case. "It's a reasonable question to ask," Dr. Marvin Swartz, a psychiatry Professor at Duke University who specializes in how environment impacts the behavior of the mentally ill, said in an interview this morning. "The nature of someone's delusions is effected by culture. It's a reasonable line of inq...

Sen. Leahy: 'Seething Rhetoric' in Media 'Has Gone Too Far'
You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for those opposed to intolerance, excessive government control of our lives, and attempts to monopolize opinion or suppress freedom of thought, expression, and worship. Read more... We invite all Americans who share these values to join us here at Fox Nation. Investigators today released this Mug Shot of Jared Lee Loughner, the guman accused of killing six individuals and gravely wounding Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Saturday's bloody spree outside a .....

Gabrielle Giffords, Christina Green & The Place The American Dream Went To Die
Like flies to feces, the Extremists who have so debased the American political system in recent years are feasting mightily on the latest watershed event out Arizona — the place where the American Dream went to die. The irony, of course, is that this debasement continues apace because the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to free Speech, no matter how vile, while Congress and Obama Administration, cowed by the NRA, all but assure the kind of violence that leaves a congresswoman with ...

Media misses a good opportunity to keep quiet
In my latest column for The Week, I recall the observation made by Jacques Chirac in February 2003 that the eastern European nations “missed a good opportunity to keep quiet.”  The remark drew immediate scorn for its arrogance at the time, but perhaps it applies better to the fact-free free-for-all we’ve seen in the media the last three days in response to the shootings in Tucson.  In the column, I sum up a few of the arguments I’ve made in the pushback to the blame-c...

Antidotes to political alienation
It seemed to start slowly, the feeling of alienation. First it was simply exasperation and amusement at the unhinged rantings of Glenn Beck. Then Sarah Palin’s polarizing campaign. But it slowly turned into something more sinister, with violent Rhetoric and calls to revolution — on both the left and the right — being a common occurrence. After the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords this weekend, I began to feel like I didn’t recognize my country anymore. Whatever the motives fo...

Arizona Weighs Ban on Funeral Protests
Like this Story? Share it: Chris Wragge speaks with Tucson shooting survivor Eric Fuller about the gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, and his thoughts on Rep. Gabrielle Gifford's recovery. (CBS/AP) Phoenix - Arizona legislators are planning to head off any Protests by a Topeka, Kan., church at the Funeral services for the Victims of Saturday's shooting that killed six people. Lawmakers are drafting emergency Legislation for consideration by the full Legislature on Tuesday to prohibit Protests at or ne...

Whats Missing
I am tired of talking about the Arizona shooting. The left has done its best to try to pin it on the right. We know now that not only was Loughner of the left before he went nuts, but that, in fact, Loughner was nuts. His actions can be pinned on neither the left nor the right. All of the media handwringing over the “tone” in the country and the “Extremist Rhetoric” distracts from and implies that the tone and rhetoric had something to do with Jared Loughner’s rampa...