It Isn't The Rhetoric They Fear, It's The Passion

Overheated Rhetoric on Overheated Rhetoric
If the pundit class were merely seeking to use the Tucson shootings as an opportunity to open a debate on civility in American life, that would simply be a case of misguided opportunism. There is a time and a place for such a debate. A better time would be when the dead are buried and the wounded have recovered, and when cooler heads can prevail in such a debate. Overheated Rhetoric is misplaced in a debate about overheated rhetoric. I have not heard anyone on these pages suggest that our public...

Thoughtful, On-Target Palin Responds To Attacks; Left Loses Last Grip On Reality
Follow Lori on Twitter and read more of her work at Snark and Boobs , iOwntheWorld , Right Wing News and Red State. I know, my use of the term on-target makes me a vitriolic, hateful Rhetoric espouser in the eyes of some. It’s not conducive to the “new tone” we are all supposed to embrace for some unfathomable and delusional reason. Of course, this new tone doesn’t apply if one is speaking about Sarah Palin, who is apparently the cause of All Bad Things Ever, in perpetuit...

Mike Lee Defends Tea Party
Freshman Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) helped spur the Tea Party’s rise to national prominence by unseating three-term Sen. Bob Bennett (R., Utah) in a GOP primary last June. He told National Review Online in an interview that he was absolutely repulsed to hear liberal commentators attempting to pin blame for the Tucson tragedy on the movement that propelled him to office. “Anyone who would blame this horrible, atrocious act on a movement that is all about peaceful change that occurs thro...

Video of Dem Congressman Brad Sherman: If Violent Rhetoric Didnt Cause This Shooting, It Will Cause Next One
Let's just refresh Sherman's memory: “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama in July 2008 “We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.” Obama to Latinos, October 2010 "I think it's tempting not to negotiate with hostage takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. In this case the hostage is the...

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...

Obama Calls for Civility in Wake of Tragedy
For the most part, the response to the Tucson tragedy has been a dispiriting spectacle. Within hours of the shooting, some on the left were pinning the blame in part on Sarah Palin, despite the lack of evidence that alleged shooter Jared Loughner had been inspired by her Rhetoric. Then some on the other side began attacking the left for politicizing the tragedy - accusations, of course, that were themselves a politicization of the tragedy. Instead of remembering the Victims of the attack, many ...

Thousands flock to Obama's Tucson memorial address (Reuters)
Tucson, Arizona (Reuters) – Thousands of people sang, clapped and cheered as they swamped a sports stadium in Tucson on Wednesday to hear President Barack Obama address a city devastated by a shooting rampage. "This is a tragedy that happened in our backyard, to people we know, to people who are us," said local water company manager Warren Penney, 49, as he stood in an overflow stadium set up for the memorial event. A 22-year-old College Dropout, Jared Lee Loughner, opened fire...

Obama leads memorial for Tucson shooting
President Barack Obama led a national outpouring of grief while calling for unity at an emotional memorial after a shooting that unleashed fierce debate about inflammatory political Rhetoric. In a Speech repeatedly interrupted by applause for those who tackled the gunman -- and the announcement that a US lawmaker who was shot in the head had opened her eyes -- Obama said the attack must not lead to new divisions. "At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized -- at a time when w...

Violent Rhetoric: What They Wont Say and Why
I know an awful lot has been said, and more will be said about the shootings in Tucson last Saturday. While details continue to be compiled, it seems clear that Jared Loughner was mentally ill, fully engaged within a surreal world, leaving him devoid of the ability to comprehend himself or others, according to a remarks gleaned from a friend published in Mother Jones. The simplest affirmative thing we can do is recognize that when Rhetoric states violence is a valid answer to something, it has g...

Thoughtful, On-Target Palin Responds To Attacks; Left Loses Last Grip On Reality
I know, my use of the term on-target makes me a vitriolic, hateful Rhetoric espouser in the eyes of some. It’s not conducive with the “new tone” we are all supposed to embrace for some unfathomable and delusional reason. Of course, this new tone doesn’t apply if one is speaking about Sarah Palin, who is apparently the cause of All Bad Things Ever, in perpetuity. Even here, we are on day three of no school due to snow. In South Carolina. Does Palin’s evil reach have ...

Obama: 'None of us can know' why Loughner killed
After days in which some Democrats and their supporters in the press assigned blame for the violence in Tucson on Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, Rush Limbaugh, and Republicans in general, President Obama says "none of us can know exactly" why accused killer Jared Loughner attacked Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others last Saturday. "None of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack," Obama said in prepared remarks. "None of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped those ...

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...

Left Lays Seige After Arizona Shootings
Sheriff Dupnik’s comments immediately after the horrific weekend shootings wherelaid the blame on conservative Talk Radio have caused the American left and right even further apart. Though there is no proof that the suspect Jared Loughner ever listened to talk radio, and in fact may actually have leftist beliefs, Sheriff Dupnik continued to pound the airwaves and lengthened his fifteen minutes of fame into a fifth day. Despite the fact that he’s responsible for the investigation of ...

Three Cheers for the Red White and Blue.
Three Cheers for the Red White and Blue. That was the theme of tonight’s memorial service in Tuscon, Arizona. The pundits from both sides on television have pretty favorable comments about it, but something was off. I found the cheering to be a bit odd. But Michelle Malkin noticed something even odder. President Obama used to preach that there was no “Red America” and no “Blue America,” just one America. But tonight at the memorial...

Congressional Voices Speak Out About Tucson
Like this Story? Share it: Katie Couric speaks to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Rep. Jim Clyburn (D - SC), Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D - FL), Rep. Michael McCaul (R - TX), Rep. Frank Guinta (R - NH) and Rep. Bill Huizenga (R - MI) about the Tucson shootings. Katie Couric speaks to members of Congress about their reaction the video released by Sarah Palin regarding the shooting in Tucson and the media surrounding it. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D - FL) talks about the impact of the Tucs...

Obama leads memorial for Tucson shooting
President Barack Obama led a national outpouring of grief while calling for unity at an emotional memorial after a shooting that unleashed fierce debate about inflammatory political Rhetoric. In a Speech repeatedly interrupted by applause for those who tackled the gunman -- and the announcement that a US lawmaker who was shot in the head had opened her eyes -- Obama said the attack must not lead to new divisions. "At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized -- at a time when we ...

The Tucson memorial service | Michael Tomasky
Barack Obama's Speech was one of his best in some time, I thought. He sounded a little more like Candidate Obama than President Obama, which is to say, he returned to some of the inspirational language and themes of old. It was almost as if he was relieved not to have to be talking about The Economy or Afghanistan. The ideas that were appropriate for tonight, about civility and the need to be better, are ones he's more comfortable with. I gather from the television that some Conservatives are ap...

Obamas speech: [T]he truth is that none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack
Normally I’d wait for video to post but that could take an hour or more, so here are his remarks as prepared for delivery. He did an excellent job, actually, much better than I expected. Some righties will dislike it just because it’s him and some lefties will dislike it because, unlike them, he wasn’t in the mood for voodoo, but most everyone else will think it’s lovely. Read the full Speech and enjoy it now because tomorrow’s political insta-analysis — ...

The desperation of the left
Image by Getty Images via @daylife Daniel Henninger: ... They expected to take losses in November. What they got instead was Armageddon. Suddenly an authentic reform movement, linked to the Republican Party, whose goal simply is to stop the public spending curve, had come to life. This poses a mortal threat to the financial oxygen in the economic ecosystem that the public wing of the Democratic Party has inhabited all these years. The stakes for the American left in 2012 couldn't possibly be h...

Palin's Video: What Is "Blood Libel"?
Sarah Palin must have hoped that her Jan. 12 video statement would silence her critics, who, in the wake of the Tuscon shootings, have accused the Controversial politician of contributing to the vitriolic Rhetoric that plagues U.S. politics. But then Palin decided to describe the attacks leveled against her as a "blood Libel." The phrase has a long, grim legacy tied to centuries of European persecution of Jews. Bigoted superstition had it that Jews needed the blood of heathens for various ritu...

Liberal Seek Ban on Metaphors In Wake of Arizona Shooting
After the monstrous shooting in Arizona last week, surely we can all agree that we've got to pass Obama's agenda immediately and stop using metaphors. At least I think that's what the Mainstream Media are trying to tell me. Liberals instantly leapt on the sickening massacre at a Tucson political event over the weekend to accuse tea partiers, Sarah Palin and all Conservatives who talk out loud of being complicit in Murder by inspiring the shooter, Jared Loughner. Of course, to make their case...

This time, the people stood up
Now that we're all worked up, let me tell you about a Tea Party type up in Washington County, doing something radical. Mike Bassill is circulating a petition. He doesn't sound very angry, either, defying the narrative that's blossomed since Jared Loughner allegedly shot 20 people, including a Democratic congresswoman, in Arizona. There was swift stab at finding some right-wing link in Loughner, who seems simply to be disturbed. Since then, some progressive commentators have tried tying the gun...

Palin's Arizona defense fuels 2012 speculation (AFP)
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Sarah Palin fanned speculation about her presidential ambitions when she cast herself as chief defender of arch-conservatives accused of inspiring a horrific act of violence with their fiery political Rhetoric. Palin accused those linking bellicose politicking by the right-wing Tea Party movement to the attempted Assassination of a US lawmaker of spreading a "blood Libel" in a slickly produced video on Wednesday. "Acts of monstrous criminality stand on t...

Palin's Arizona defense fuels 2012 speculation
Sarah Palin fanned speculation about her presidential ambitions when she cast herself as chief defender of arch-conservatives accused of inspiring a horrific act of violence with their fiery political Rhetoric. Palin accused those linking bellicose politicking by the right-wing Tea Party movement to the attempted Assassination of a US lawmaker of spreading a "blood Libel" in a slickly produced video on Wednesday. "Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the cr...

Move Over, Mother Teresa
Rep. Giffords knew she was a literal target of Sarah Palin, and stated this fact on MSNBC after her Tucson office was attacked last March by rabid Palin-inspired Teabaggers who, in typical knuckle-dragging Fashion, smashed in her office window. Camp Palin never decried Ms. Gifford's very valid concerns about such violent targeting then, and never removed the crosshairs hovering over her district until after the tragedy last Saturday. Now Palin, Inc. is making the ludicrous claim that their map...