Left Lays Seige After Arizona Shootings

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...

Partisan Finger-Pointing Is Hypocrisy
The drumbeat continues blaming Conservatives exclusively (or at least disproportionately) for overheated, violent Rhetoric. But it is not that simple.  In fact, some of the exact same people now posturing about a need for “civility” have themselves been guilty of the exact same overheated, violent rhetoric that they now (with no evidence) think is responsible for the Tucson attacks. The fact is that we have a general problem with abusive, dehumanizing political Rhetoric.  It didn

Happy 60th Birthday Rush Limbaugh!
One of my favorite, most surreal phone calls ever was from my friend Abbey in Cleveland back in October 2008. I answered the phone and heard Abbey, in shock, try to explain to me how she thought she’d driven her car through some tear in the fabric of reality, careening into a BizarroWorld where up was down, cats chased dogs, and rain was never wet. “Rush Limbaugh is on the radio right now.  He’s talking about you.  He’s reading things you’ve written.  ...

Talk radio under siege
As I reported on the main site today, conservative media figures’ fears that the left will use Tucson to clamp down on them are not entirely unfounded. Rep. Jim Clyburn wants to bring back the Fairness Doctrine – a move aimed directly at Talk Radio – while Media Matters CEO David Brock asked Rupert Murdoch to rein in or possibly even fire Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. It’s hard not to read today’s news that Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee plans to ban state em...

The Arizona Shooting and the Left
The Deployment of power isn't always necessarily illegitimate, of course, but when that power is used, as the left unfailingly uses it, to compel autonomous individuals to pursue ends that are not of their own choosing, then violence has been done. Can we not, with good cause, claim that the left's governance has promoted a culture of violence? The recent Mass Shooting at a Democratic event in Arizona is nothing less than a massacre. Any remotely decent human being can only be overwhelme...

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...

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...

WFP Targets Right-Wing Talking Heads
In the wake of the Arizona shooting, the Working Families Party is asking supporters to send an e-mail to “Right Wing talking heads and the advertisers who pay for their shows” to condemn what the labor-backed party’s leaders deemed “violent Rhetoric” and ask them to stop “playing with fire.” “No, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Rupert Murdoch didn’t put the gun in the deranged shooter’s hands.” “But they and their politician...

Sarah Palin Responds, Slams Media, Pundits for 'Blood Libel' After Tucson Shootings
PALIN: "We must reject the idea that everytime a law is broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker...Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own, they begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state" Sarah Palin has posted a nearly eight-minute video on her Facebook page condemning those who blame political Rhetoric for the Arizona shooting that gravely wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Last spring, Palin targeted Giffords'...

Arizona Sheriff, College Refusing To Release Public Records About Tucson Shooter
In response to Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, among others, blaming Conservatives and Talk Radio for creating an “atmosphere” that inspired Jarred Loughner to his Saturday Shooting Spree many have questioned whether or not Law Enforcement and other government officials in the Tucson area might not have had enough information on Loughner to have identified him as a threat before he hurt anyone. It’s a valid question worth asking (certainly more valid than blaming Rush Limb...

Rush Limbaugh: Jared Lee Loughner has the "Full Support" of Democrats
(Credit: AP Photo/Gary He) Controversial, conservative Talk Radio host Rush Limbaugh is stepping up his assault against the Democratic Party in the wake of the Mass Shooting in Tucson, Ariz., claiming the Democrats fully "support" the alleged shooter. On his Radio Show Tuesday, Limbaugh said, "What Mr. Loughner knows is that he has the full support of a major political party in this country. He's sitting there in jail. He knows what's going on, he knows that... the Democrat party is attemptin...

Conservative pundit launches presidential exploratory committee
Conservative Talk Radio host Herman Cain on Wednesday announced the creation of a presidential Exploratory Committee. The former Godfather's Pizza CEO created a website with a message to potential supporters and links to donate money. "Fellow patriots, now more than ever, we must come together to take a stand for the future of America," he writes. "I make this promise to you as I deliberate the ways in which I can do my part to restore and protect the American Dream: I would be the voice of ...

Rush Limbaugh Blasts Critics Linking Talk Radio to Shootings...
Yahoo! Buzz Rush Limbaugh defended himself against suggestions that the heated Rhetoric sometimes found on political programs influenced the shootings in Arizona. Since the violent incident last weekend, a debate has erupted in the media about whether political Talk Shows influenced Jared Lee Loughner, the man accused of killing six people in Arizona and critically wounding Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Talking about Loughner on his radio program, Limbaugh said, “We know he listened to heavy me...

Arizona, Where the American Dream Went to Die
In 2011, the state is coming to represent a violent revolution of rising, and failed expectations. For much of the last generation, Arizona was held out as a promised land -- for Retirees looking to write the closing chapters of life under heavenly skies, for immigrants who would meet the bottomless demand for hard work, for families looking to raise their kids into this thriving and up-and-coming economy, buoyed by boundless Real Estate and low taxes. It seemed too good to be true, and it was...

Friend claims that Jared Loughner didnt watch television or listen to talk radio
  Shortly after Jared Loughner shot and killed six people while wounding dozens of others in Arizona the media went on a witch-hunt to see where they could lay the blame for Loughner’s actions. Personally, I would have blamed Jared Loughner and I suppose the media would have also if they weren’t being driven by their agenda.   It didn’t take long for the media to find their target and set their sights on Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, conservative t...

Palin talks "accountability," doesn't take any
It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. -- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Sarah Palin is a Daisy Buchanan for our time -- a careless person, indeed, who tosses around words or images with nary a thought as to their effect, before she retreat...

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...

Chris Matthews Asks: What Is the Cause-Effect Relationship Between Derangement and "Right-Wing Crazy Talk"?
Despite the fact that we now know quite a bit about Jared Loughner's twisted background, the nincompoops over at MSNBC continue to feign ignorance, holding out hope it would seem for some shred of evidence showing that the Tea Party, Sarah Palin "target" maps, and conservative Talk Radio made Loughner go on a murderous rampage, or something. It is reprehensible beyond words. And yet, not surprising at all given what we know about the Left and their shamelessly dishonest cohorts in the media. So ...

It Isn't The Rhetoric They Fear, It's The Passion
This via Instapundit, from an extended series of links on the Tucson massacre.  The biggest worry after the November Elections was that a lot of people on the right would declare victory and go home. The shameless attempt to politicize the Tucson shootings and scapegoat people on the right has generated a huge amount of anger. Tea Party folks being who they are, I suspect this will mostly manifest itself as grunt-level political work in preparation for 2012 — precisely the opposite of ...

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...

Beck claims 'I don't use [violent rhetoric] on or off the air': Oh really?
Beck claims 'I don't use [violent Rhetoric] on or off the air': Oh really? It sure seemed that everyone -- and I mean EVERYONE -- at Fox News was focused yesterday on beating down the horrifying idea that somehow Fox News' incendiary rhetoric might have played a significant role in fomenting Saturday's horrifying tragedy in Arizona. Of course, Glenn Beck -- being one of the chief purveyors of said incendiary rhetoric -- was out there leading the attack, devoting his entire hour to...

Media Matters Calls On Murdoch To Rein In Beck, Palin
In a letter delivered to News Corp.CEO Rupert Murdoch Monday afternoon, and obtained by TPM, Media Matters founder David Brock says the time has come for Fox News to take responsibility for its programming. Specifically, Brock is calling on Murdoch to make Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck tone down their Rhetoric on threat of termination -- or to be complicit in acts of political violence. "Beck and Palin are two of Fox's most recognizable figures," Brock writes. "Before this heartbreaking tragedy i...

Media Matters For America Calls Out Rupert Murdoch, Fox News, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin
David Brock (r) and friends. (Hey, is that Bawney Fwank I see?) Oh please. Now David Brock has his panties in a bunch because Beck used vampire imagery and compared him to a “smelly kid in third grade.” (Media Matters) — Today, in response to the tragic shooting in Arizona and the increasing focus on the tone of political discourse, Media Matters for America founder and CEO David Brock issued an Open Letter to News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch asking him to rein in Fox News persona...

Cain Launches Exploratory Committee
Pizza mogul and conservative Talk Radio host Herman Cain (R) formed an Exploratory Committee to run for president in 2012. Cain made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate from Georgia in 2004. ...

Clyburn: Bring back the Fairness Doctrine
The search continues for a scapegoat for Saturday’s tragic shooting in Tucson. The latest target is free Speech as Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) is proposing bringing back the Fairness Doctrine to censor Talk Radio: U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in Congress, said Sunday the deadly shooting in Arizona should get the country thinking about what’s acceptable to say publicly and when people should keep their mouths shut. Clyburn said he thinks vitriol in public discourse ...