Few US voters blame toxic politics for shooting

It Did Not'
Jan 24, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 18 • By WILLIAM KRISTOL Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. After a depressing week—a horrible shooting that killed 6 people and wounded 14 others, followed by days of demagoguery and idiocy surpassing even the normal standards of our power-without-responsibility punditocracy—recent days have brought encouraging news. The medical prognosis for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords seems more hopeful than had been thought likely. And the A...

There's a New Sheriff in Politics
The Thread is an in-depth look at how major news and controversies are being debated across the online spectrum. Tags: blogs, Internet, Media, tuscon shooting In his Speech in Tucson Wednesday night, President Obama called on Americans to expand their “moral imaginations” and “remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together.” Well, never hurts to aim high. For now, at least, the president seems to have put an end to the...

A Climate of Slander
Jan 24, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 18 • By THE SCRAPBOOK Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. Liberal pundits suffered a psychotic break last week, metaphorically speaking, of course. When a gunman opened fire on Representative -Gabrielle Giffords and a crowd that had gathered to hear her speak in Tucson, they were certain that Conservatives must, somehow, be to blame. So the liberal intelligentsia rushed to erect a gallows in the public square (metaphorically speaking, a...

John Dingell (D-MI) blames Palin, GOP for rhetoric leading to AZ shooting. Flashback: Dingell links tea party to KKK, called rad
Curiously, Dingell said:"I saw the district of Gabrielle Giffords has a crosshairs put on it. As a lifetime rifleman and shooter, I know what crosshairs signify when you put them on somebody and I know what happened.Is he talking about Palin or Daily Kos? The liberal Daily Kos put a bullseye on Giffords in 2008 (via HillBuzz): More from Henry Payne at The Michigan View: Dingell just accused Palin as an accessory to Murder? Yawn.Dingell had previewed his comments Monday when he toured the Detroit...

Epic Fail
Posted by John at 7:17 PM This Quinnipiac Poll provides more evidence that hardly anyone buys the Democratic Party's spin on the Tucson murders. When asked "What do you think is the main reason for the Arizona shooting; failure of the Mental Health system, lax Gun Control laws, overheated political Rhetoric, or do you think this is a situation that could not have been prevented?" respondents answered: * Mental health system: 23% * Gun control laws: 9% * Political rhetoric: 15% * Couldn't have b...

The Arizona Tragedy and the American Reaction
The story dominating American conversation this week is the tragedy in Tucson, Arizona. In shock, after a mentally troubled assassin named Jared Lee Loughner shoots a round from his 9mm Glock through the brain of beloved Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and then turns his weapon on the crowd and kills 6 bystanders while wounding 13 others — America mourns. Giffords is alive today and fighting for her life, the extent of the damage caused by her wound still unknown. There are positive signs...

Poll Finds Americans Rejecting the Blame Game Over Arizona Shooting
Friday, January 14, 2011 By Matt Cover Law Enforcement officers near the scene of the shooting attack that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed five others. (AP Photo/Kelly Presnell) (CNSNews.com) - A poll from Quinnipiac University finds that Americans are not buying the efforts to blame the shooting of an Arizona congresswoman, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), on political metaphors or Gun Control laws. “Americans seem to be rejecting the blame game for the Arizona shooting. B...

The Lefty Talking Points Fell Flat
Powerline has the details from a recent poll in the aftermath of the Arizona shooting: This Quinnipiac Poll provides more evidence that hardly anyone buys the Democratic Party's spin on the Tucson murders. When asked "What do you think is the main reason for the Arizona shooting; failure of the Mental Health system, lax Gun Control laws, overheated political Rhetoric, or do you think this is a situation that could not have been prevented?" respondents answered: * Mental health system: 23% * Gu...

Bouncing Back
Halfway through his First Term, President Barack Obama has a 48 - 44 percent Approval Rating, rebounding almost to the magic 50 percent threshold for the first time since October of 2009.  American voters split 47 - 45 percent on whether his presidency is a success or a failure, according to a Quinnipiac University National Poll released today. In an open-ended question, allowing for any answer, 26 percent of American voters tell the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh pe-ack) Unive...

Obama approval rating rebounds: poll (AFP)
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama's Approval Rating has enjoyed a bump up in recent weeks, while Americans see his Health Care overhaul as both the best and worst thing about his presidency, a new poll released Thursday found. "Halfway through his First Term, President Barack Obama has a 48 to 44 percent approval rating, rebounding almost to the magic 50 percent threshold for the first time since October of 2009," according to the latest survey from respected pol...

Poll: Very few Americans blame Arizona shooting on political rhetoric (Daily Caller)
Read more stories from The Daily Caller Poll: Very few Americans blame Arizona shooting on 'political Rhetoric' Obama's positioning for spending fights benefits from careful planning, but unforeseen events play major role Congressmen want increased security for themselves — but are they in more danger than teachers and doctors? Stephanopoulos, NYT, CNN, WaPo decline to correct erroneous Giffords reporting ObamaCare Repeal rescheduled; GOP not scared off by left-wing attacks Almost a full wee...

Holy Hatefest! Only 15% Agree With Libs That Heated Rhetoric Caused Tucson Shootings
Despite the constant media smears this week - only 15% of Americans believe heated Rhetoric caused the Tucson shootings. Far Left Sheriff Dupnik was wrong. Only 15% of Americans believe that heated Rhetoric had anything to do with the shootings Saturday by a leftwing pothead that killed 6 people in Tucson. Maybe the state-run media will remember this next time before they start smearing Conservatives after a mass Murder. Saturday’s shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford...

Poll: Health law Obama's best, worst
It’s the best thing he’s done and it’s the worst thing he’s done. Americans are so evenly divided over Health Care that nearly identical percentages say reform is President Barack Obama’s greatest accomplishment and his worst one since taking office, according to a new poll. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 Asked what they considered the best thing Obama’s done, 26 percent of Registered Voters surveyed by the Quinnipiac University Polling In...

Party peace
Republican members of the US House of Representatives, dressed casually in jeans and sweaters, have been meeting this weekend in Baltimore for their annual policy retreat. Topics under discussion include the Budget, the Deficit and their plans to Repeal President Obama's Health Care package. But after suspending Congress for a week in the wake of the tragic shootings in Tucson in Arizona, they are also using the opportunity to reflect on the state of politics in Washington. The shooting ...

Mortal Recoil
Consider the following reactions to the tragic shooting in Tucson: First, President Barack Obama’s Speech got rave reviews (“magic,” New York Times columnist Gail Collins called it), even though, by the standards, say, of Bill Clinton’s Oklahoma City address, it was pretty humdrum, especially during those times when the president was trying to draw lessons from the tragedy rather than eulogizing its Victims. Second, Obama’s Approval Rating, taken after the killings...

I Can See Quinnipiac From My House
Bummer: Saturday's shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in which six people were killed, could not have been prevented, 40 percent of American voters say in a Quinnipiac University National Poll released today. Another 23 percent blame the Mental Health system, while 15 percent say it was due to heated political Rhetoric and 9 percent attribute the tragedy to lax Gun Control. American voters say 52 - 41 percent that "heated political Rhetoric drives unstable people to commit ...

Metaphors Don't Kill People; People Kill People
metaphor: a figure of Speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our god.” Sticks and stones might break my bones but words will never hurt me. ~Nursery rhyme The recent tragedy in Arizona managed to unleash the pundits on both sides of the aisle. In this world where there must be a root cause for every wrinkle in the landscape and every calamity that befalls us, eve...

Build-up to shooting spree
TUCSON: The suspect in the Mass Shooting in Arizona posed for photos with a gun, dressed only in a bright red G-string, and had the film developed on the eve of the rampage that killed six people and gravely injured Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, authorities said yesterday. The most detailed timeline of Jared Loughner's, busy 11 hours before the shooting was released yesterday by the Pima County Sheriff's Office. It began with Loughner, 22, dropping off the 35mm film at a pharmacy ...

Identity Crisis
The other day, I commented on how quite a few observers -- mainly liberal -- had expressed relief that the Tucson shooter was a white man. They didn't couch it quite so blatantly; rather, they were glad that the shooter wasn't Latino or Muslim. I explored that a little, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I had only talked about half the story. So let's correct that. Imagine, for a moment, that the shooter had not been a white man. Say the shooter had been a L...

The Tucson Massacres The Hall Of Shame: Liberals Who Used Tragedy To Smear The Right
G.I. Wood Shop Inc. Mrs. Peel Oh…My Valve! V The K’s Caption This! An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later. The massacre in Tucson was a horrendous tragedy. Everyone in the country, of every ideological stripe, should have been allowed to mourn the Victims’ deaths and injuries without the imposition of having to defend people who had nothing at all to do with it. But where normal people saw tragedy, the Far Left saw opportunity. They  jumped at th...

Obama approval on the rise
(CNN) - At the start of President Obama's third year in office, a new poll indicates that the president's Approval Rating is on the rise. A Quinnipiac Poll released Thursday showed Obama's Approval Rating at 48 percent - nearing the 50 percent Approval Rating he has not held since October 2009. Obama continued to receive high marks from his own party with an 85 percent Approval Rating among Democratic voters in the poll. Across the aisle, 84 percent of Republican voters disapprove of the j...

Guns In U.S. Politics: 10 Recent Examples
In the wake of the Saturday shooting of in Tucson, Ariz., Rep. Peter King (D-N.Y) announced he will introduce Legislation to make it illegal to bring a gun within 1,000 feet of a government official -- but if recent political events are any indication, there's been little interest in separating guns and U.S. politics. Just last year, Giffords's Republican opponent Jesse Kelly encouraged voters to join him in rallying to oust Giffords from office by shooting a fully-loaded Assault Rifle: "Get o...

Judge John Roll, killed in Tucson rampage, remembered as man of integrity
Tucson - At the U.S. Courthouse here Friday afternoon, the doors to the fifth-floor courtroom of Arizona Chief U.S. District Judge John M. Roll were locked. No one answered a buzzer to his office suite. The computer screens that ordinarily list cases were blank, and the hallways, usually bustling, were empty. This Story Police depict a busy, focused Loughner on morning of shooting The Tucson shooting timeline An ex-Weather Underground radical on the Tucson shootings and political violence The...

Is Help On the Way?
There’s still a lot we don’t know about the massacre in Arizona, but by now it’s quite clear that the alleged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was mentally disturbed. In college, he was prone to surreal rants that unnerved classmates and teachers. While working at an Animal Shelter, he didn’t see why sick dogs needed to be kept away from healthy ones. Loughner’s friends were even aware of his weird obsession with Representative Gabrielle Giffords. (At one 2007 event, h...

Arizona gun sales jump 60% following Gabrielle Giffords shooting
Another American Mass Shooting. Another rush to buy more guns. On the Monday after the latest of the bloody rampages that are part of American life, gun sales in Arizona shot up by more than 60 percent and rose by an average of five percent across the entire country. The figures come from the FBI and speak volumes about a gun culture that has long baffled much of the world. The Federal Bureau of Investigation compared January 10, 2011, with the corresponding Monday a year ago. So what would prom...