Michael Winship: Hate Speech the Right's Magic Bullet

Hate Speech the Rights Magic Bullet (Guest Voice)
Hate Speech the Right’s Magic Bullet by Michael Winship The Russian playwright Anton Chekhov had a rule: if you show a gun in the first act, by the time the curtain falls, it has to go off. For weeks and months, that gun, the weapon of angry Rhetoric and intemperate rabblerousing, has been cocked and loaded in plain view on the American stage; Saturday morning outside a Shopping Mall in Tucson, Arizona, it went off again and again and again. The target, Gabrielle Giffords, a member of the Un...

Absurd fingerpointing continues in wake of Arizona shooting
As more become clear about Jared Loughner, the facts seem to mean less and less for those seeking to turn this tragedy into a political witch hunt. It appears that Loughner, had an obsession with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) dating back to 2007 - before Sarah Palin or the Tea Party movement came on the national scene, and the warning signs that Loughner was an unstable person had been ignored; even by police. And while the debate on Loughner’s political leanings is still raging, Chris Ci...

Mourners to hold 'community healing' Mass after Arizona shooting
Mourners will gather at a memorial Mass Tuesday for Victims of the weekend shooting outside an Arizona Supermarket that killed 6 people and wounded 14 others. The Mass will be held at 7 p.m. (9 p.m. ET) at St. Odiilia Church in Tucson, Arizona - where 9-year-old shooting victim Christina Green had her First Communion a year ago. "Right now it is important as a community to pull together and to reach out in care and concern to all who have been affected by this tragedy," Bishop Gera...

Poll: Most Say Rhetoric, Killings Unrelated
From a deeply saddened CBS News: Poll: Most Americans Feel Rhetoric, Tucson Shooting Unrelated Posted by Daniel Carty January 11, 2011 Nearly six in 10 Americans say the country’s heated political rhetoric is not to blame for the Tucson shooting rampage that left six dead and critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to a CBS News poll. So either our media master has better ratchet up their efforts or move on to their fall back position - Gun Control. In the wake ...

CBS Poll: American Public Not Buying Democrat, Media Spin on Arizona Shooting
From CBS News: Nearly six in 10 Americans say the country’s heated political Rhetoric is not to blame for the Tucson shooting rampage that left six dead and critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to a CBS News poll. In the wake of the shooting, much focus has been put on the harsh tone of politics in Washington and around the country, particularly after a contentious Midterm Election. Rhetoric and imagery from both Republicans and Democrats have included gun-related ...

Missing From Loughner Debate: Soul Searching
Jared Loughner (Credit: Personal Photo) There's been quite a bit of back and forth this week about who should share the blame for the actions of alleged Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner. Some on the left have pointed to incendiary Rhetoric from Sarah Palin and others on the right, while some on the right have sought to tie Loughner to the beliefs of the left. Palin was blamed in part for using of a bullseye icon to identify political targets - including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords - before the ...

Missing From Loughner Debate: Soul Searching
Jared Loughner (Credit: Personal Photo) There's been quite a bit of back and forth this week about who should share the blame for the actions of alleged Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner. Some on the left have pointed to incendiary Rhetoric from Sarah Palin and others on the right, while some on the right have sought to tie Loughner to the beliefs of the left. Palin was blamed in part for using of a bullseye icon to identify political targets - including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords - before the ...

The Tragedy of the Arizona Shooting.
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. Nick Baumann has an interview with a friend of the alleged shooter, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner. The friend describes Loughner’s obsession with Gifford as starting when she d...

The War on Sarah Palin
I've never seen anyone who inspires such fear and hatred on the left as Sarah Palin. The Arizona shooting has led to a whole new round of anti-Palin hysteria. David Brooks addresses the issue and the media's complicity: Other themes from Loughner’s life fit the rampage-killer profile. He saw himself in world historical terms. He appeared to have a poor sense of his own illness (part of a condition known as anosognosia). He had increasingly frequent run-ins with the police. In short, the e...

Oregon Rep. Schrader holds Beck, Limbaugh responsible for Arizona tragedy
 Oregon Rep. Kurt Schrader, Democrat, is holding Right Wing commentators Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck responsible for the tragic Shooting Spree in Arizona. Saturday, outside of a strip mall in Tucson Arizona, Jared Lee Loughner killed six people, including Federal Judge John Roll, and wounded more than a dozen, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords, a Democrat who supported Health Care reform, was Loughner's target. Giffords was...

One wonders what we will learn from these senseless shootings
The moment of silence came and went Monday, and I tried to set aside my own anger and heed President Barack Obama's call "for us to come together as a nation in prayer or reflection, keeping the Victims and their families closely at heart." The quiet passed, and I was revisited by the uneasy sense we are unlikely to learn anything from Saturday's tragedy in Tucson. Is the lesson of the deadly shooting destined to be buried with the dead in a country that day by day watches its ability to reason ...

CBS News Poll: Most Americans Feel Rhetoric, Tucson Shooting Unrelated
A new CBS News poll shows that Americans are not falling for the Left’s attempts to exploit on the Tucson tragedy for political purposes: Most Americans Feel Rhetoric, Tucson Shooting Unrelated Nearly six in 10 Americans say the country’s heated political rhetoric is not to blame for the Tucson shooting rampage that left six dead and critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to a CBS News poll. In the wake of the shooting, much focus has been put on the harsh tone...

Poll: Most Americans see no connection between Ariz. shooting and political rhetoric (Daily Caller)
Read more stories from The Daily Caller We're probably alone in the universe, or else they're out to get us Mark Halperin: Conservatives should turn the other cheek when scapegoated for Murder Could Jon Huntsman really be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012? Auburn wins it all: Sights from the BCS National Championship [SLIDESHOW] Pucker up: Celebrities recall their first kiss [SLIDESHOW] A majority of Americans don’t see a connection between vitriolic Rhetoric and Jared Loughner...

Sanitizing Extremism: Palin and Beck on Violence and War
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 Rhetoric of both Beck and Palin has been cited by both liberals and some of the mainstre...

Fox News Website Continues Partisan Attack On Sheriff Dupnik's "Vitriol" Comments
If Propaganda is to be believed, it should be repeated. Yesterday, in both an interview on "Fox & Friends" and an article on the Fox News website, Fox News featured critical commentary about Pima County Sheriff's remarks about the vitriol in our society - vitriol that, as he stated, is promulgated by the media. Obviously needing to deflect and divert from the appropriate substance of Dupnik's comments, Fox is maintaining its seeming scapegoating of the sheriff. Today's headline (first under the ...

Media whitewashes ultra-right in Arizona massacre
Here the central role was played by the ultra-right media campaign mounted by Fox News, Talk Show hosts like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, including one Republican Senate Candidate who called for a "Second Amendment solution" to political issues -- i.e., the use of Firearms. As the World Socialist Web Site explained yesterday (See "Arizona Assassination spree tied to political right"), the political conceptions in Loughner's Internet postings are...

Krauthammer: Lefts Attempts to Blame Right for Tucson Shooting is Truly Scurrilous Video 1/10/11
Charles Krauthammer condemned the Left’s attempts to blame the Tucson Mass Shooting on political Rhetoric from the Right - calling the attacks “scurrilous.” Krauthammer, who in addition to being a syndicated columnist is also a trained psychologist, said it is clear that alleged shooter Jared Loughner is “psychotic,” exhibiting signs of “schizophrenia,” and “severe thought disorder.” ...

Tucson spells trouble for Palin's presidential hopes
After a Palin-produced gunsight map went viral, the former Governor was immediately dragged into the debate. The Internet lit up with criticism linking her camp to the shooting of Gabby Giffords (the Arizona congresswoman's district was targeted as one to "take back" in 2010). Palin posted a brief condolence on Facebook but then, she promptly went into self-defense mode --a move that didn't win her any fans, and caused her political stock to plummet in an online futures market. (Yes, t...

Hijacking A Massacre
Best headline of the day, via The Daily Mail in Britain: How America's elite hijacked a massacre to take revenge on Sarah PalinThe substance of the article makes points you have heard before regarding the murderous rampage by Jared Loughner: Rahm Emanuel, Mr Obama’s former Chief of Staff and a ­figure compared to Labour’s Alastair Campbell, once said: ‘You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.’ And those on his side of the political divide have clearly seen t...

The 2nd Amendment helped end Arizona Shooting, it didnt cause it
Twenty-four year old Joe Zamudio quietly stood at the Safeway counter waiting to buy a pack of Cigarettes as shots rang out in Tucson Arizona Saturday.  As most followed their natural instinct to run to safety, Zamudio put his hand on his gun and ran towards the chaos.   Zamudio was not an off-duty Police Officer nor did he possess Military training, he was merely an Arizona resident who was legally carrying a Concealed Weapon who believed he could stop the carnage.  In an in...

A Nice New York Times Editorial
NYT: Bloodshed and Invective in Arizona: She read the First Amendment on the House floor — including the guarantee of “the right of the people peaceably to assemble” — and then flew home to Arizona to put those words into practice. But when Gabrielle Giffords tried to meet with her constituents in a Tucson Parking Lot on Saturday, she came face to face with an environment wholly at odds with that constitutional ideal, and she nearly paid for it with her life. Jared Loug...

Toxic rhetoric: Twitter users want Sarah Palin dead, media yawns
Ever since the tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, liberals have sought to blame Sarah Palin and the Tea Party for the attack. Shortly after the shooting, Jane Fonda sent out tweets blaming Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and the Tea Party. Encouraged by irresponsible and shameful reporting, a number of Twitter users have expressed their desire to see Sarah Palin dead, and some tweets actually call for her Assassination. “So…will everyone be satisfied then when Palin is assa...

Commentary: Take the political rhetoric down a notch
Those searching for easy answers after a 22-year-old shot 20 people, killing six, during U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' meeting with constituents in Tucson, Ariz., on Saturday won't find any. Yes, guns are easily accessible in this country. Yes, in the past two years we have seen Political Speech ratcheted up with gun-toting participants at some Tea Party events, and some Democrats in Congress faced angry voters at town hall meetings during debate on Healthcare Reform. And, yes, the Internet a...

Shot US lawmaker 'breathing on her own': doctor
The Arizona lawmaker shot in the head in an attack that killed six in Tucson remains in critical condition but is now capable of breathing on her own, doctors said Tuesday. "She's holding her own," said Michael Lemole, the head neurosurgeon who operated on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, adding that she was still responding to simple commands, a key sign for her recovery prospects. "She's breathing on her own," added the doctor at University Medical Center, saying they had reduced the sedati...

Holder calls shootings unspeakably tragic (AP)
WASHINGTON – The killing of a Federal Judge and attempted Assassination of an Arizona congresswoman are an "unspeakable tragedy" that serve as a reminder that violence and cruelty persist more than 40 years after the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Attorney General Holder said Tuesday. Threats against public officials "continue to be cause for concern and vigilance," Holder told a Justice Department memorial for the slain Civil Rights leader in advance of the holiday commemorati...