Leftist Lies and the Arizona Shooting

Where will Obama go from Tucson?
President Obama is receiving uniform praise for his memorial remarks in Tucson, Ariz. Even Conservatives are saying he hit the right notes, substantively and tonally. I agree, with a few qualifiers and gentle cautions. Obama was eloquent in his tribute to the Victims and appropriately acknowledged that "none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack ... or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man's mind." More importantly, he said: "But what we cannot do is...

The madness of cross hairs, shots in the foot and the civility of blame
Does Sarah Palin have blood on her hands? Does she? Answer the question! Or the Tea Party for that matter? Care to blame someone not already mentioned? If, God forbid, Sarah Palin is ever put in the cross hairs of some perverted assassin’s weapon will the Left accept her blood on their own hands? Will you accept the responsibility of your own complicity in that act by virtue of the incontinent words with which you have chosen to condemn her? You were all so quick to assign the blame for th...

The GOP Needs Solidarity
From True North GOP Men and Selling out Sarah by Sheila Kihne What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! I was just talking the other day about Conservatives who are foolish enough to let the media use them and lo and behold, one of my favorites, NJ Governor Chris Christie did just that this morning on Good Morning America and in the New York Times when he sold out Sarah Palin.  He wants to give her speaking ad...

Mayor Bloomberg says he doesn't blame Sarah Palin for Tuscon shooting
The tragic shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has led to a lot of finger pointing, including from New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, but one person who the mayor doesn’t blame is former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. On Tuesday Bloomberg, who serves as co-chair of the nearly 600 member Mayors Against Illegal Guns blamed government officials for selling a gun to a man who was rejected from the Military due to drug use and outlined five simple measures that could preve...

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...

More on Violence And Right Wing Rhetoric
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Conservatives who fail to understand the arguments from liberals about Right Wing Hate Speech act as if Jared Loughner lived in a vacuum and acted with absolutely no external influences. This is despite multiple reports indicating Loughner’s interest in fringe politics. NewsOne reports on yet another connection, alleging that Loughner is a fan of right winger Alex Jones. I find it curious that Conservatives have been attacking liberals this week ...

LIBERALS SEEK BAN ON METAPHORS IN WAKE OF ARIZONA SHOOTING (Ann Coulter)
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, ...

Stephanopoulos, NYT, CNN, WaPo decline to correct erroneous Giffords reporting (Daily Caller)
Read more stories from The Daily Caller 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 Pollsters say Obama's Approval Ratings will have modest bump Woman behind Va. 'Repeal Amendment' effort running for Senate ABC News host George Stephanopoulos refuses to admit fault or issue a corre...

Cheap Unity
In 1937, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer published a book called "The Cost of Discipleship." In that book, Bonhoeffer wrote about the dangers of what he called 'cheap grace,' which he defined as "the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession..." Bonhoeffer's point was that while forgiveness, baptism and Communion are a wonderful part of church life, they cannot be truly experienced without paying a cost. Bonhoeff...

Sarah Palin compares criticisms of her to a belief that led to the Holocaust
   In the wake of the shooting by Jared Loughner in Tucson last week, there was criticism directed against the harsh Rhetoric of those on the right-wing. Jared Loughner did not shoot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Murder a number of other individuals because Talk Radio or Sarah Palin told him to do so.  A few individuals though have committed violence or attempted to do so because of their hatred of the left. Byron Williams, a man who was going to commit violence a...

Franklin Graham denounces outrageous accusations hurled at Palin the left and media
- Jennifer of Cubachi Reverend Franklin Graham had enough of the media and the left. He lambasted them for using the Murders in Arizona to falsely accuse Palin and the Tea Party for their political purposes. Frankly, he has more guts than those in the republican party. ...

Arizona Shooting -- Jared Loughner No Different Than Any Other Defendant In Eyes of Law
An undated photograph of Jared Lee Loughner released by the Pima County Sheriff's Office. Even though he might be stealing headlines because he’s charged with murdering a Federal Judge and attempting to Murder a U.S. Congresswoman (among others) Jared Loughner is no different than any other defendant in a criminal prosecution. Who will represent such a despised and high profile defendant? All indigent criminal defendants have a Sixth Amendment right to assigned counsel. Since Arizona publi...

Arizonas Mental Health Budget Crunch
National Review has a fine editorial on the Tucson massacre and Mental Health: The tragic irony is that Arizona boasts some of the strongest [involuntary commitment] laws in America. Had Jared Lee Loughner been referred to mental-health professionals, there is a chance that his bloody rampage could have been prevented. Think of all the people and institutions — his parents, his neighbors, his fellow Pima Community College (PCC) Students, PCC administrators, the Campus Police, the Pima County...

Per GOP spinmeister Frank Luntz, saying your opponent wants to kill you is just as bad as saying you want to kill your opponent
by Ken No, boys and girls, saying unkind things about someone is really and truly not "violent Rhetoric." Even saying that the Right is made up entirely of ignoramuses, lunatics, liars, criminals, and economic predators isn't "violent Rhetoric." It may be unkind, but then, what are you supposed to say when it's the honest-to-gosh truth? Just not say anything? Well, that seems pretty much what the Right has in mind: freedom to spread its psychotic lies without any answer at all. Here are some t...

Liberals now seekban on metaphors
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 cas...

Arizona on My Mind (Guest Voice)
The tragedy in Arizona this weekend has generated an ocean of comment on both sides of the border. In The New York Times, Paul Krugman wrote: 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 dangerous” without being ostracized; but Representative Michelle Bachmann, who did just that, is a risi...

Sarah Palin's Jewish Problem
When Sarah Palin shot back at critics who proposed that her severe -- and perhaps violence-suggesting -- Rhetoric and campaigning helped inspire Jared Lee Loughner's massacre in Tuscon, she accused those critics of blood Libel -- and started an entirely new firestorm in the process. Palin's invoking of Blood libel, which in its proper use refers to a centuries old lie that was used to justify mass Anti-Semitism and Jewish persecution, immediately drew angry responses from politicians and Jewis...

Obamacare repeal rescheduled; GOP not scared off by left-wing attacks (Daily Caller)
Read more stories from The Daily Caller 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 Pollsters say Obama's Approval Ratings will have modest bump Woman behind Va. 'Repeal Amendment' effort running for Senate The House heads back to work next week, and Republicans plan to move forwar...

Right Wing Rage and Right Wing Populism
Lambert suggested I turn this comment on votermom's excellent distinction between anger and hate, into a regular post. For a very long time, the right-wing rage which we see now being turned against immigrants, “Socialists”, Obama etc was channeled into anti-communist feeling during the Cold War. Then the wall fell and for a while the same rage was turned in a number of directions, but did not really have a similar unifying focus. Or maybe it would be more accurate that for a while i...

Obama Rising
Barack Obama's soothing words after the Tucson shootings contrast sharply with Sarah Palin's harsh Rhetoric. That may be one reason Obama is on the rise in recent polling. The morning after President Barack Obama delivered a well-received eulogy for the Victims of the Tucson, Arizona, Mass Shooting, he got some good news from a Quinnipiac University poll. Obama’s Approval Rating increased to 48 percent, his highest number in more than a year. More importantly, Americans view Obama much mor...

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Mecca): Palin Should Have Said Sorry For Overblown Rhetoric
You heard Farrakhan’s Jew-hating buddy, you’re all done, Sarah. (Huff Po) - Sarah Palin took a lot of heat on Wednesday for her seven-minute-long statement on the shootings in Arizona, in which she mourned the tragedy and accused her critics of “blood Libel.” And it appears that the president’s Speech last night — in which he adopted a far more civil, reconciliatory, and emotional tone — has made matters only worse. “I think that the presiden...

Thursday Open Thread
Below the fold, I have news on the edict that Roger Ailes issued to all the employees of Fox News. It’s quite a story and reveals that Ailes is as astute as ever and has an uncanny ability to sense the nation’s shifting moods. His edict was evident in last night’s exceptional and respectful coverage of Obama’s Speech by Fox News’s Bret Baier, Brit Hume, Charles Krauthammer, et al. (But do check out my side note on Obama’s Speech — it’s at the end ...

Mark Levin Challenges Chris Matthews, Threatens To Sue (Audio)
Levin: “I challenge Chris Matthews, I’ll put $100,000 on the table, to find any example where Sarah Palin has promoted the Murder of anybody.” And the same offer exists if Matthews can find an example where Levin himself advocated for the Murder of a politician or of anyone who disagrees with him politically. "Anybody who accuses me of inciting mass Murder in Tucson Arizona is gonna be sued, period"..."You think I'm kidding, try me" ...

Id like to try to understand this
As I’ve said before, my feelings about the impact of right-wing Rhetoric on Jared Loughner are that (1) we don’t know enough yet to say much of anything specific yet and (2) it seems like an awfully big coincidence that the first time an American Congressperson was shot on American soil, it happened to a Congressperson in a particularly contentious district after two years of unprecedented levels of vitriol were aimed at Democratic federal officials. In Politico’s normally dr...

Sarah Palin and the "blood libel"
Posted by Paul at 8:30 PM Sarah Palin is coming in for criticism for using the term "blood Libel" to describe accusations that she and other outspoken Conservatives somehow have blood on their hands in connection with the Tucson shootings. Palin's remarks on the shootings are also being compared unfavorably to President Obama's Speech at the University of Arizona. Obama's Speech was healing and uplifting, while Palin's, some say, was divisive and defensive. I find both criticisms of Palin unfai...