Keith Olbermann Special Comment on Tucson Shooting: 'Violence Has No Place in Democracy'

Keith Olbermann on Arizona Shooting: ‘Violence Has No Place in Democracy’
From Olby: "Violence, or the threat of violence, has no place in our Democracy, and I apologize for and repudiate any act or any thing in my past that may have even inadvertently encouraged violence. Because for whatever else each of us may be, we all are Americans." Good try, I must say, although the overwhelming bulk of the "special comment" blamed the right, despite the fact that the shooter was a Conspiracy theorist and atheist progressive and that Giffords was targeted by Democrats and Dai...

Slighting Progressive Defense Analysts
Bernard Finel suggests that my rant last week about progressive thought on defense slighted existing progressive defense analysts.  I partially agree, but only partially.  The essay that I wrote was intended as an exhortation for Progressives to give more thought to defense policy, rather than a review essay about progressive defense policy thought.  Accordingly, the focus was on what more there could be, rather than on what we already have. Finel also suggests that I’ve misidentified t

Slighting Progressive Defense Analysts
Bernard Finel suggests that my rant last week about progressive thought on defense slighted existing progressive defense analysts.  I partially agree, but only partially.  The essay that I wrote was intended as an exhortation for Progressives to give more thought to defense policy, rather than a review essay about progressive defense policy thought.  Accordingly, the focus was on what more there could be, rather than on what we already have. Finel also suggests that I’ve mis...

Florida Delegation Weighs In on Arizona Tragedy
While Gov. Rick Scott issued an order Monday for all flags at state buildings to fly at half-staff this week in remembrance of Victims of the Mass Shooting in Arizona, members of Florida’s congressional delegation weighed in on the tragic events. The shooting resulted in the death of six people, and others -- including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. -- were wounded. Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz took to the airwaves, appearing on NBC’s Meet the Pre...

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords/AZ Shooting: Malloy, Lieberman React
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords remains in critical condition at an Arizona Hospital following Saturday's shootings at a Supermarket in Tucson. Jared Loughner is scheduled to make a court appearance in Phoenix today on 5 federal charges stemming from the attempted Assassination of the Congresswoman, and the Murder of 6 others and the shooting of 13 others who were injured, and have survived thus far. Doctors remained "cautiously optimistic" regarding Gabby's prospects for recovery in a briefing...

Could Anything Have Stopped Loughner?
The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the killing of six and wounding of 13 others in Tucson is one of those American tragedies that threatens to be interpreted according to what one wants to believe. The shootings will be argued over and debated as more information comes forward, but what seems unavoidable is that the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was a nutbar through and through, and there was no way he could have been deterred. Arizona’s curious (to Canadians) Gun Laws that ...

Russ Belville: Arizona Shooter Loughner Used Marijuana... So What?
As you may know by now, in a tragic act of insane violence, Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords was targeted for Assassination, but survived the point-blank gunshot allegedly fired by Jared Lee Loughner, a 22-year-old man whose rambling Internet paranoia calls his sanity into question.  Loughner also allegedly fired into the crowd, killing a 9-year-old girl (born on 9/11/2001, incidentally), a federal Circuit Court judge, a Giffords Staffer, and three others, and wounding several more.  All of us at...

Silence Is Complicity & Defensiveness Is Endorsement
I've just finished up 3 hours of the most difficult radio I've ever had to do. The topic, of course, was the horrific shooting in Tucson, which has deeply affected me, as it has many others. As someone who had to flee the Capitol on 9/11, was warned of Anthrax contamination in the congressional office I was working in, and has faced various threats of violence during my media career, I was shaken by the scenes in Arizona more so than by any other news imagery in a long time. The reason the ra...

The Tragedy of the Arizona Shooting
The Tragedy of the Arizona Shooting Monday, 01/10/2011 - 1:47 pm by Mike Konczal | Post a Comment There are many ways to look at it, but all say disturbing things about the country. This weekend’s tragic shooting at a Safeway district meeting in which United States Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was seriously hurt and a dozen more injured and a District Court judge John Roll, a nine-year-old girl born on September 11th, and a congressional aide were killed has left us all stunned. Her...

Keith Olbermann's Special Comment
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Paul "Hang Joe Lieberman in Effigy" Krugman Blames Tucson Shooting on Rise of "Eliminationist Rhetoric"
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. it’s the saturation of our political discourse — and especially our airwaves — with eliminationist Rhetoric that lies behind the rising tide of violence. Where’s that toxic Rhetoric coming from? Let’s not make a false pretense of balance: it’s coming, overwhelmingly, from the right. It’s hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to be “armed and dangerous̶...

The shootings in Tucson and Tea Party Derangement Syndrome
Scarcely an hour had elapsed following the senseless, tragic shootings in Tucson on Saturday before liberal commentators were providing in-depth analyses of the then-yet-to-be-named gunman’s motives. The drumbeat was as predictable as it was familiar. It was the Tea Party’s fault as well as that of its nominative leader Sarah Palin. You don't have to believe that alleged shooter, Jared Loughner, is a card-carrying Tea Party member (he evidently is not) to see some kind of connection ...

Massacre, Made in America
Truthseeker, have you ever seen a website run by a Democrat that is ripe with incendiary "don't retreat -- reload!" Rhetoric while displaying a national map peppered with gun-sight crosshairs and shooting targets hovering over the districts governed by their opponents? Giffords was a literal target of Sarah Palin and the Teabaggers and she knew it, as Giffords herself remarked on MSNBC before the last election, "We're on Sarah Palin's 'targeted' list, but the thing is, the way she has it depic...

Liberal website Daily Kos put bullseye on 'dead to me' Giffords
Some are wondering if incendiary Rhetoric on progressive website Daily Kos is responsible for the weekend shooting that left six dead and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) critically injured. Just days ago, the Far Left website posted a column -- since removed -- slamming the conservative Democrat. The author said Giffords was “dead to me” in the post’s title and comments. Giffords’s offense in the eyes of the Daily Kos Left Wing community was her relative...

Shooting Victim Died Saving Wife
Huffington Post reports: The longtime pastor of 76-year-old Dorwan Stoddard, one of the six Victims of Saturday’s Arizona shooting, says he had a conversation with Stoddard’s wife in the Hospital that leads him to believe Stoddard died trying to protect her from the spraying bullets. “According to Mavy when I talked to her in the hospital, when the gunshots went off Dorwan pulled her down and ended up on top of her,” Michael Nowak, pastor of the Mountain Avenue Church o...

MSNBC Denies Report That Keith Olbermann Will End Worst Person Segment
The tragic shooting in a Tuscon area Safeway that killed 6 individuals and put Rep.  Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition has caused significant ripples in the political media. Amid fingerpointing about “violent Rhetoric,” Countdown host  Keith Olbermann led the charge with a “Special Comment” calling for an end to such discourse. According to one report, it appears that Olbermann is putting his money where his mouth is, and permanently ending his “Worst Pers

Humor writer names Olbermann a target after Giffords shooting
Stumble This! A self-described humorist named a liberal Cable News host a "target" on her blog the day after he denounced incendiary political Rhetoric in response to an Arizona shooting that claimed the lives of six people, including a Federal Judge, a congressperson's aide, and a child. Andrea Rouda's post entitled “Speaking of Target Practice” listed several historical figures who were murdered "by a crazy person" before naming MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, whom she referred...

Olbermann blames Palin for Giffords shooting
Immediately following the tragic shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gifford and killing of several others, including a child, what are the first words out of Keith Olbermann’s mouth about the deranged psychotic who did the shooting?  That it is Sarah Palin’s fault!  That her party should “repudiate her” and “dismiss her from politics.”  And if they don’t, they are as guilty as she. His reasoning for this?  Because Palin had a chart wit...

Arizona shooting: Barack Obama leads a minute's silence
President Barack Obama has led a minute of silence across the United States for Gabrielle Giffords, the critically-injured Congresswoman, and the other Victims of the Tucson shooting....

Huffington Post: Tucson Shooting: HuffPost Bloggers React
This past Saturday's tragedy in Tucson, Arizona, which left 6 dead and 14 injured, has predictably set off a storm of commentary. Who is Jared Lee Loughner? Does his violent act tell us something about how we deal with Mental Health in America; or, what role, if any, has the political atmosphere of late played in encouraging such violence? Do inadequate Gun Control laws enable it? How has the media performed in covering this story? Below is a slideshow of HuffPost blogger reactions to the shoo...

McConnell: 'Violence Has No Place in the Democratic Process'
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell addressed Students at Martha Layne Collins High School in Shelbyville, Ky. this morning. Here are his remarks about the tragedy in Tucson, obtained by National Review Online: “We are all still shaken by the shooting that took place in Tucson on Saturday, and we are thinking especially today about the six people whose lives were taken so senselessly. So I would again like to extend my heartfelt sympathy to all the families of those who died. “Congress...

Rush Limbaugh Goes After The Media For Shooting Coverage/Spin
With the weekend over, we are now hearing many media figures’ reactions to this weekends’ tragedy for the first time. Rush Limbaugh spent a fair amount of time on his Radio Show today dealing with the issue. He railed against the media and the Left for their “predictable” attempt to blame someone (in this case, he claimed, the Tea Party or “the majority of the country”) for the act of one disturbed individual. Limbaugh is correct in saying that this was unsurp...

Dem leader: Alleged shooter sought 'Second Amendment remedy'
Rep. James Clyburn said it is impossible not to connect fiery campaign Rhetoric to the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).  The number three-ranking House Democrat invoked the Rhetoric of a Tea Party Senate Candidate in describing the actions of the man accused of shooting Giffords (D-Ariz.).  "He saw a Second Amendment remedy and that's what occurred here and there is no way not to make that connection," Clyburn said during an interview with the Charleston Post and Courier. 

Im going to make a political point now
For those still attacking Sarah Palin for daring to use the word “targets” and maps against Democrats, including Gabrielle Giffords, please note that the DLC and DCCC, the D is for “Democratic”, also had maps with targets in earlier years. Likewise Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos targetted Gabrielle Giffords himself. The self-serving attack over the use of maps and the word “target” is both dumb and hypocritical. But for those of us on the right, we have ...

Bloodshed Puts New Focus on Vitriol in Politics
"I think it's fair to say that if a Republican had been shot we'd have likely seen a similar burst of partisan finger-pointing from the right. What's surprising to me is that Progressives started laying blame before even a fraction of the facts were known."...