Hold bad political actors accountable (Politico)

Obama to participate in Ariz. memorial
WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- President Obama travels to Arizona Wednesday to attend a memorial event to support and honor Victims of the Mass Shooting in Tucson, the White House said. Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will attend the "Together We Thrive: Tucson and America" event at the University of Arizona, along with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and U.S. Justice Anthony Kennedy, the daily schedule indicated. GALLERY: The aftermath of the...

Obama's oratory faces test as Tucson mourns its dead
Goodwill ... tributes accumulate at the Hospital where Gabrielle Giffords is being treated. Photo: Simon Mann TUCSON: Two scenes, kilometres apart in Arizona's southernmost metropolis, spoke volumes of a city coming to grips with the trauma of mass Murder. Outside a Safeway Supermarket in Casas Adobes, an FBI forensic team continued annotating the scene of Saturday's shootings as a handful of shoppers passed warily. ''This was hell,'' said a local cafe worker, three days after 20 people were str...

Palin Accuses Media of "Blood Libel" After Tucson
Sarah Palin giving a statement Jan. 12, 2011 about the shooting in Tucson. Saturday's shooting in Arizona had nothing to do with political Rhetoric, and media figures who invoked a map featuring gun sights on Congressional Districts are guilty of "blood Libel," Sarah Palin said in a video statement Wednesday. The former vice Presidential Candidate has remained mostly silent since the attack that killed six people and critically wounded Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at a meet-and-greet event...

Job approval of Congress jumps sharply as Republicans take over the House: Gallup
With so much national attention focused on the keen criminology insights of Arizona's Clarence the Talking Sheriff, a stunning new Gallup Poll on Congress almost flew right by. The new national survey finds that within only five days of Republicans taking majority control of the House of Representatives on Jan. 4, Americans' approval of the bicameral body's job shot up more than 50%, from its record low of 13% to 20%. The spurt in support came despite the candidly ominous opening s...

Whence Krugmania?
Posted by Scott at 6:26 AM Charles Krauthammer draws on his training as a Psychiatrist to review the evidence regarding attempted assassin Jared Loughner. He concludes that Loughner is a paranoid schizophrenic. Krauthammer notes that Lougner's obsession with Rep. Giffords dates from 2007, a fact that New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and his ilk have found it convenient to overlook: [T]he available evidence dates Loughner's fixation on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to at least 2007, when he atten...

Jared Loughner's hate came before the Tea Party
[T]wo Law Enforcement sources said that FBI agents had found a 2007 letter from Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) to the shooting suspect, with the words "Die, bitch" and "Die, cops" scrawled on it. The letter, which thanked [Jared] Loughner for attending an event of hers, was found in a safe in his Tuscon home, the sources said. In 2007, there was no Tea Party movement and Sarah Palin was the obscure, recently elected Governor of Alaska. If anything, the overhead heated political Rhetoric at t...

The Dismissal of Sarah Palin
Liberals are pathologically fixated on Sarah Palin. I am neither shocked nor surprised that this nation's most prominent liberals see fit to blame Sarah Palin for causing the shooting in Tucson which severely injured Democrat Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and claimed six lives. But it does sadden me. Yet perhaps the most insightful of these denunciations of Palin was that of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. Now when I use the word insightful I am not referring to the merits of his arguments. ...

Sarah Palin: Critics Blaming Political Right for Shootings Commit 'Blood Libel'
The former Alaska Governor, in a seven-minute video, mourned the tragic shootings that took the lives of six people and wounded 14 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). But she said the rampage was the act of a "single evil man" who gunned down peaceful citizens. She said she moved from puzzlement to "concern" as reaction to the incident in some quarters blamed conservative Rhetoric for provoking the violence caused by "this deranged, apparently apolitical criminal.". Violent act...

Jealous Liberal Radio Hosts Join Chris Matthews in Blaming Conservative Talk Radio for Giffords Shooting
Chris Matthews, joined by two liberal Talk Radio hosts on Tuesday's Hardball, essentially blamed the likes of conservative hosts like Mark Levin for creating the climate of hate that led to the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords as the envious MSNBC host proclaimed: "People like Mark Levin, Michael Savage...every time you listen to them are furious, furious at the left with anger that's just builds and builds in their voice and by the time they go to commercial, they're just in some...

Commentary: Take the political rhetoric down a notch
Those searching for easy answers after a 22-year-old shot 20 people, killing six, during U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' meeting with constituents in Tucson, Ariz., on Saturday won't find any. Yes, guns are easily accessible in this country. Yes, in the past two years we have seen Political Speech ratcheted up with gun-toting participants at some Tea Party events, and some Democrats in Congress faced angry voters at town hall meetings during debate on Healthcare Reform. And, yes, the Internet a...

Photos of Giffords released
The first photos of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) since she was critically injured in a Shooting Spree last weekend were released late Tuesday. Giffords's office released two photos of her husband Mark Kelly holding her hand in her room at the University Medical Center in Tucson. The photos were taken on Sunday, a day after Jared Lee Loughner, 22, allegedly opened fire on a crowd at Giffords's "Congress on Your Corner" event outside a Supermarket. The congresswoman, 40, was shot in the h...

Oh. No. He. Didn't. Chris Matthews blames the Tucson shootings on... the strident tone of Mark Levin's voice
Not that you needed more proof that Chris Matthews has lost all command of his faculties, but tonight's diatribe should confirm what we all knew. The Tingle-Master -- which is the term he prefers, I hear -- assailed constitutional attorney and radio host Mark Levin this evening in what must be an all-time record for IQ mismatch. I liken it to a toy poodle attempting to mount Marmaduke. Chris Matthews, joined by two liberal Talk Radio hosts on Tuesday's Hardball, essentially blamed...Mark Levin f...

Prince George's Co. marks 10th homicide in 10 days
Authorities say another person has been killed in Prince George's County, marking the 10th homicide in the first 10 days of the year. Police say a man was stabbed and killed during a fight in a Supermarket Parking Lot in the 2400 block of University Boulevard in the Adelphi area about 6:15 p.m. Monday. Police spokesman Maj. Andy Ellis says the Victim and a second man were attacked by three or four males while walking in the area. The second man was expected to survive. Police have stepped up eff...

Speaker Boehner Rejects New Gun-Control Laws
Speaker Boehner said he will oppose the gun-control Legislation offered by Rep. Pater King (R-NY) following the Tucson shooting on Saturday. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is rejecting gun-control Legislation offered by the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee in response to the weekend shootings of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and 19 others in Arizona. Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) announced plans Tuesday to introduce Legislation prohibiting people from carrying guns within 1,000 feet of ...

NY Times: More Gun Control! John Boehner: “No”
Why, yes, the NY Times editorial board is still beating the anti-gun drum, in an attempt to make sure a good tragedy does not go to waste. After discussing Rep Peter King's silly notion of not allowing guns within 1,000 feet of politicians, something which criminals and wacko's would surely ignore, because they are criminals and wacko's, we are treated toRepresentative James Clyburn, a Democrat of South Carolina, said that lawmakers should no longer be treated like everyone else at airport secur...

Loughner/Supremacist Link Thoroughly Debunked
I noted yesterday the unavoidable non-existence of any link between Jared Loughner and either mainstream-right or far-right groups. Today, Ken Vogel at Politico thoroughly debunks the juciest of those claims — that Loughner was aligned with the white supremacist group American Renaissance: An Arizona Law Enforcement agency is backing away from a document it produced in the aftermath of Saturday’s shootings in Tucson – and which was leaked to Fox News – that linked the man...

Democrats denounced the rhetoric, Republicans denounced the violence
My weekly column in the Charleston Daily Mail: Saturday’s snow in Poca was a reminder of why I like December snow but hate snow in January and February. The novelty has worn off. That afternoon, I drove into the cold to fill the tank of my wife’s car. Coming back, I could not make it up the hill, so I parked the car and walked home. “You know all those dumb things I have done over the years?” I asked my wife when I made it home. “Well, you can add this to the list...

Palin Accuses Media of Blood Libel
Sarah Palin: “America’s Enduring Strength” from Sarah Palin on Vimeo. Politico reports: Sarah Palin released a video statement Wednesday calling the rush to pin blame on Conservatives for the Tucson shooting “reprehensible” and a “blood Libel.” “Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own,” she said in a web video. “They begin and end with the criminals who commit them.” Palin has faced criticism for images that look like gun crosshair

Tea party financier says the rank and file are like him
Stumble This! The American Billionaire who inherited his father's oil wealth seems to believe that the followers of the movement that he self-financed are people just like him. "There are some Extremists there, but the Rank and File are just normal people like us," David Koch of Koch Industries told Lee Fang of ThinkProgress in a recent interview. He continued, "And I admire them. It’s probably the best Grassroots uprising since 1776 in my opinion." The event that launched the so-called "...

Your Words Do Hurt Me
In the aftermath of the Arizona shooting, which left six dead, 14 others injured, and a critically wounded federal public defender Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) in ICU (UPI News), there has been a lot made about the motives of Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged shooter. There are concerns that recent political Rhetoric of violent imagery from the Right might have been a motive for the seriously disturbed young man.  A recent article in Talking Points Memo reports that back in June 2010, Repub...

POLITICAL HOT TOPICS: Wednesday, January 12, 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 Obama began working Monday night on the Speech he will deliver during a memorial service Wednesday for the Victims of Saturday's Mass Shooting in Tucson, Arizona. White House officials say Obama has determined the broad idea of what he wants to say and is working with his team of Speechwriters on drafting his remarks. According to ...

Obama's State of the Union address set for Jan. 25
WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner has formally invited President Barack Obama to deliver his State of the Union address to Congress on Jan. 25. "As many great challenges lie ahead for our nation, we welcome an opportunity to hear your proposals," the Ohio Republican wrote in a letter released Tuesday afternoon. The Speech will be Obama's second State of the Union address and his fourth Speech to a joint session of Congress. But it will be his first speaking time to a Republican-major...

Gabrielle Giffords staffers, volunteers carry on in face of tragedy
As the House reconvened for the first time since Saturday's rampage in Tucson, Staffers and volunteers in Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' (D-Ariz.) Washington office did what they have done since the Mass Shooting -- persevere in the face of tragedy. Of the 20 or so Staffers in the office, eight have remained in Washington; the others returned to Arizona following the attack. Those currently in Washington are expected to travel to Tucson for Wednesday's memorial service and may stay in Arizona through ...

Incitement to Tyranny
The left-wing radicals are at it again, folks. They're revving up their engines on the revolutionary wings of national mourning -- and sparking the now very familiar incitement-to-tyranny fires among an anxiety-ridden populace. Arizona families have not even buried their dead yet, and already a big-government Democrat has said he will introduce a bill making it illegal to "threaten" or "incite violence" against a federal official. First Amendment and personal accountability ...

NC Congressman Heath Shuler says he will carry a gun at future events
In response to the Arizona shooting rampage, NC Congressman Heath Shuler has confirmed that he will carry a gun himself for protection at state public events. “I, like many of my constituents and staff in Western North Carolina, strongly support the Second Amendment and do exercise our right to legally and safely carry a firearm,” Shuler (Democrat-Waynesville) said in a statement to the Times-News. Shuler was first quoted by The Politico newspaper on Monday as saying he would be arme...