Let's not make this something it isn't

Searching for answers to Tuscon tragedy
Image via CrunchBase IBD: From New York newspaper columnists to an Illinois senator, the liberal left is blaming the Tea Party and conservative stars for the shooting of an Arizona congresswoman. How about blaming the Communist and Nazi-loving shooter? It didn't take long for New York Times columnist Paul Krugman to blame the Tea Party and Sarah Palin for the shooting outside a Tucson Supermarket that seriously injured Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords and left six others, including a 9-year-old,...

Tucson Tragedy Link Round-up: Pushing Back Left-Wing Lies
G.I. Wood Shop Inc. Mrs. Peel Oh…My Valve! V The K’s Caption This! An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later. The first reaction of normal Americans upon hearing the news of the horrific Tucson massacre was shock and sadness. Six people are dead, including a Federal Judge and a nine year old girl. A United States congresswoman was shot in the head at point blank range, and is struggling to recover after being initially reported dead. Eighteen people were injur...

Talk Radio, Blamed For Shooting, Blames Others
Conservative commentators and the liberal Media who tried to indict them seem to have created a Gordian knot of fingers, as they attempt to point at each other and find blame after the shooting in Arizona of a Congresswoman and more than a dozen others. Jared Lee Loughner, based on postings on the Internet, is mentally unstable. But, according to Reuters, that hasn't stopped both ultra-left-wing and Right-wing Media from blaming each other, trying to put the tragedy at the other's doorstep. It's diffi

Pima County GOP Chair Calls On Obama To 'Stop The Blame'
TUCSON, AZ -- With President Obama reportedly set to visit this divided and mourning Arizona city Wednesday, the chair of the county Republican party is calling on the president to help put an end to what he calls "assigning blame" in the wake of Saturday's shooting at a constituent event for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) that left six dead and the congresswoman gravely wounded. Brian Miller called on Obama to "lead the effort to stop the blame" after the shooting, responsibility for which he...

Palin e-mails Beck claiming to hate violence, war
By Michael J.W. Stickings Politico: Sarah Palin reached out to Glenn Beck over the weekend, and Beck read some of their email exchange on his Radio Show this morning. "Sarah, as you know, peace is always the answer. I know you are felling the same heat, if not much more on this," Beck wrote. Beck expressed concern about Palin's safety, and urged her to hire the same Los Angeles-based security firm that he uses. The rhet...

Late Night: Not the Best Day to Be Sarah Palin
As Jane noted earlier today, Sarah Palin awoke on Sunday to find herself at the fiery center of the debate about increased violent political Rhetoric in this country. And as usual, Palin — scratch that — Palin’s handlers paint her as the real Victim of the Arizona tragedy. Everyone makes mistakes. But anyone waiting for Sarah Palin to acknowledge she might have made one here is going to have some time on their hands.  Following the Tucson shooting, Palin’s aide disingenuou...

Yes, There is a Political Climate of Hate
While millions of Americans are privately praying for Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the rest of the Victims of a crazed gunman and their grieving families, those on the left have been repeatedly calling for an end to the politics of hate. Not the hate filled heart of a lunatic. No, they want to shut up those with whom they disagree. So they classify anyone with a differing point a view a hate-monger. It’s appalling and I don’t even want to link to any of it because I’...

Sarah (Reload) Palin and Rush Limbaugh Condemned For Their Hate Speech; Beck Takes Stand Against Violence By Holding Gun
While we don’t know for certain what  Jared Loughner’s motivation was in the attempted Assassination of Gabrielle Giffords, there is an increasing consensus among reasonable people that the hate-speech which has been common on the right is dangerous to Civil Discourse and our Democracy. This has become a turning point in the career of Sarah Palin, who prefers to pander to the Far Right than to speak to the concerns of mainstream Americans. Most likely this week will mark the end o...

Calls for softer tone in politics gets cool reception
By Ed Stoddard DALLAS | Mon Jan 10, 2011 7:21pm EST DALLAS (Reuters) - Calls to reset the tone of politics in the aftermath of Saturday's shooting rampage in Arizona got short shrift on Talk Radio and elsewhere as left and right traded blame for the massacre. From the right, Bloggers and pundits labeled suspected shooter Jared Lee Loughner a "leftist" while critics of conservative super-star Sarah Palin accused her of creating a combustible political atmosphere with her behavior and Rhetoric....

The left use tragedy to attack conservatives
 On January 8, 2011 a tragic shooting near Tucson, Arizona occurred at a political Town Meeting held by United States Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Twenty people were shot, six of them fatally including a nine year old girl and a Federal Judge. This was a senseless massacre by a mad man. This should be a time for prayers and mourning for the Victims and families. Rather what we are getting are attacks on Conservatives, the Tea Party, guns, Fox News, Talk Radio and even Sarah Palin. Even...

Arizona Sheriff Dupnik Was Aware of Loughners Mental Illness, Did Nothing
From Reuters: The suspect in Saturday’s shooting rampage in which a U.S. congresswoman was critically wounded was unstable and had been known to make Death Threats in the past, the local sheriff said. The FBI is investigating whether the man is the same person who posted a rambling Internet manifesto accusing the government of mind control and demanding a new currency. Jared Lee Loughner, 22, of Tucson, was taken into Custody moments after the shooting at a political meeting held by Dem...

Here, In Reality
A lot of memes are dying a bitter death as more information comes about about Jared Loughner's rampage at Gabrielle Giffords' townhall. Despite dishonest attempts by a corrupt media and their Left Wing allies to blame Conservatives and the Tea Party movement for the shootings, the truth has emerged. Loughner—according to those who knew him in High School and college—was very liberal when he was younger, but began displaying behavior that became increasingly erratic, and his obsess...

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 conne...

Big News Events Make Blatherers of Us All
The New Yorker, reputedly one of America's smartest magazines, exemplifies (and not always in a bad way) some of the incoherence created amongst the chattering (and, alas, governing) classes with big news events that seems to DEMAND REACTION!! and yet are at the same time either too impossibly overdetermined or too obvious--like the decision by one deluded ass to open fire on a crowd--for there to be much fresh, interesting, or relevant to say, or do. First, George Packer takes one tack. Of cou...

Suspect in Arizona shootings appears in court
By David Schwartz PHOENIX, Arizona | Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:42pm EST PHOENIX, Arizona (Reuters) - A troubled 22-year-old College Dropout made his first court appearance on Monday on five federal charges, including the attempted Assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who remained in critical condition with a bullet wound to the head. His hands manacled together, Jared Lee Loughner said understood the charges against him that stem from a Shooting Spree in Tucson on Saturday that left s...

Suspect in Arizona shootings appears in court
By David Schwartz PHOENIX, Arizona | Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:42pm EST PHOENIX, Arizona (Reuters) - A troubled 22-year-old College Dropout made his first court appearance on Monday on five federal charges, including the attempted Assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who remained in critical condition with a bullet wound to the head. His hands manacled together, Jared Lee Loughner said understood the charges against him that stem from a Shooting Spree in Tucson on Saturday that left s...

Arizona gunman in court as Obama leads mourning
The man accused of trying to assassinate a congresswoman in an Arizona Shooting Spree that left six dead appeared in court but said nothing to shed light on his motive. President Barack Obama led the American nation in a somber minute of silence to honor the 20 people gunned down in Tucson -- where he will attend a memorial service on Wednesday, the White House announced. Flags were at half-staff at the Capitol in Washington, where hundreds of aides and lawmakers crammed the storied steps of Con...

A tale of two shootings
Some good news is emanating tonight from University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona, where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ neurosurgeon, Dr. G. Michael Lemole, reports that the congresswoman is showing no signs of further brain swelling, which is a positive indicator. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the six Victims of Jared Lee Loughner who perished on Saturday. Or for the twelve Victims who died at Ft. Hood on November 5, 2009, when Major Nidal Malik Hasan shouted “Allah akbar” ...

About Tucson: Stupid people and crazy people may not know they are, but dishonest people sure do
According to today's Borowitz Report (see below), "Calls for a reduction in violent political Rhetoric have plunged the Fox News Channel into chaos, with a Fox spokesperson warning today that such a move 'would leave us with 24 hours to fill.'” by Ken I thought Paul Krugman said what needed to be said about the political climate that made Tucson ineviteable very well indeed in the NYT column today, "Climate of Hate," from which Howie quoted extensively this morning. As a footnote, I'd like t...

Tragedy in Arizona
Gabrielle Giffords was doing what members of Congress do every week: She was home in Tucson to meet with her constituents. Today, Giffords lies in critical condition in a Tucson Hospital after one of those constituents opened fire with a semiautomatic Handgun. Six people died in the attack; 14 were injured. The madness at the Tucson shopping center Saturday morning raises old and troubling questions about gun violence in America and threatens a treasured American tradition: the right of the pe...

Arizona gunman must have been a right-winger says Paulding liberals
(Paulding County, Georgia) - If the national tragedy shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle  Gifford by lone gunman Jared Loughner isn’t enough of a concern, you can always count on liberals in Paulding to impute anything and everything on those who are Republican, Conservative, and Tea Party Patriots in Paulding…and then state that those on the right cause violence or at least, encourage it. Then another liberal hack on the same Paulding blog has the gall to state th...

Redstate: Outspoken Sheriff Accused Of Dismissing Loughner Death Threats
Jared Loughner has been making death threats by phone to many people in Pima County including staff of Pima Community College, radio personalities and local Bloggers. When Pima County Sheriff's Office was informed, his deputies assured the Victims that he was being well managed by the Mental Health system. It was also suggested that further pressing of charges would be unnecessary and probably cause more problems than it solved as Jared Loughner has a family member that works for Pima County. Th...

JTA: Is Loughner's mother Jewish?
Is Jared Loughner's mother Jewish, JTA's Ron Kampeas wonders, based on the statement that she is by Loughner's friend Bryce Tierney in an interview with Mother Jones Monday. Ron writes: "Now we get this from Mother Jones. Nick Baumann interviews Bryce Tierney a friend of Jared's who recalls the alleged shooter's first encounter with Giffords, in 2007 -- and then explains why Jared might have listed Mein Kampf as a 'favorite book': Tierney ...

Loughner in court over attempted assassination
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 January 2011 03.04 GMT Jared Loughner has appeared in court where he was formally charged with two counts of Murder and three of Attempted Murder. Photograph: Mamta Popat/AP Jared Lee Loughner, the man accused of shooting six people and wounding 14 others in Saturday's Assassination attempt against the Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, has appeared in court, charged with Murder and Attempted Murder. Loughner, 22, who arrived in leg chains and handcuffs and...

Angry words about angry words -- is the Giffords debate helping?
The debate on overheated political Rhetoric is becoming overheated. The Post's George F. Will and other Conservatives denounce any implication that the right bears any kind of responsibility for the violence in Arizona. Liberals such as Paul Krugman, they argue, simply don't have any evidence connecting Jared Loughner's alleged decision to kill Giffords with anything any conservative politician or commentator has ever said. Therefore, politicizing the shootings is cynical. But now Krugman isn't ...