Overheated Rhetoric on Overheated Rhetoric

Barack Obama Reconnects
Has there ever been a bigger contrast between crass and class than former Governor Sarah Palin’s video statement and Pres. Obama’s address at the Tucson memorial? Pres. Barack Obama gave the Speech he wanted to give to the nation last night, conjuring up memories of his 2004 Speech at the Democratic convention, as well as the reason Republicans crossed over to vote for him and Young People engaged to elect him. The atmosphere was a bit odd, the raucous, almost never ending applause m...

Politicizing the Tucson Tragedy Not Without Precedent
Within minutes of the revelation that Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona had been shot while attending a public event in Tucson, political partisans and their media counterparts began to assign blame for the tragedy to the supposedly dangerous Rhetoric fomented by Tea Party groups and their ideological brethren. Although without facts in hand, partisans were unable to restrain themselves from leaping to conclusions that ostensibly validated their preconceived notions of cause and eff...

Krugman Distorted Michele Bachmann Quote in Controversial Column
Of all the pundits trying to pin the Tucson massacre on Conservatives, perhaps none has been more nakedly partisan and ignorant of the facts than Paul Krugman. Putting aside the sheer comedy of calls for Civil Discourse from a columnist who, when he didn't get his way, encouraged readers to hang a sitting senator in effigy. All hypocrisy aside, Krugman has now taken it one step further and begun quoting conservatives out of context in order to make his case - and completely distorting what t...

A Frum, Sullivan, Friedersdorf Spree-Killer Nexus?
David Frum seems to be engaged in a bit of lucid dreaming in trying to guess what's in the minds of others. I have something of a Controversial theory to advance in this regard. But I do actually believe it may have merit. Or maybe … some nervous awareness that they have been thrust into a vulnerable position by the Tucson shooting? The killer proved deranged. But you have to wonder if something did not turn over in the pit of the stomachs of people like Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, ...

Flashback Video 2007: Bill Maher Says Cheneys Death Would Save Lives
Nobody complained of overheated Rhetoric leading to real or potential violence when this happened: Transcript via NewsBusters: Wake up, HBO: one of your hosts said the world would be a safer place if the Vice President of the United States of America had been assassinated. … Bill Maher: But I have zero doubt that if Dick Cheney was not in power, people wouldn’t be dying needlessly tomorrow. (applause) Joe Scarborough: If someone on this panel said that they...

Obamas Speech
Human minds, much less the varied sicknesses of the mind, are too complex, too mysterious for psychologists and novelists, much less political pundits on a deadline, to map with any certainty. It’s hard to imagine that any columnist can do what even Freud and Dostoevsky could not—which is why I am with those who, despite a deep concern about the most poisonous depths our political debate, are wary of trying to measure with any precision the influences—chemical, familial, or pol...

Left really hates it when people respond to their attack narrative
Image via Wikipedia Lori Ziganto: ... A pitch perfect response, both from the heart and smart. Naturally, that then caused the Left to lose whatever tenuous grip they had left on reality. See, Sarah Palin was bad for being “silent and on the lam” last night. But, today, she is super icky for responding and not remaining silent. After being accused for days of having “blood on her hands” and of being responsible for the acts of a madman. Who, incidentally, apparently did...

The Politics of Insinuation
David Warren: While it did not quite rise to a blood Libel, the headline in Monday's Guardian (U. K.) did not fail for want of trying: "Gabrielle Giffords shooting reignites row over right-wing Rhetoric in U.S." Elsewhere in the Guardian, the distance was bridged. Consider this heading (over a piece by Michael Tomasky): "In the U.S., where hate rules at the Ballot Box, this tragedy has been coming for a long time: The shooting of Gabrielle Giffords may lead to the temporary hibernation of right...

Darin Murphy: Obama's Live Performance vs Palin's Taped Audition
Sarah Palin really, really wants to be your president. She wants it so badly, in fact, that she elected herself to submit the Republican response to President Obama's Speech in Arizona before he even delivered it. This preemptive move basically amounted to a taped audition for the role of President In A Time Of Crisis, offered up just in time for the start of the 2012 Campaign. What is confusing is who Palin's intended audience was. Was it the production team (the government) or the underwrit...

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...

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 ...

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...

Rand Paul: Democrats Trying To 'Manufacture' Controversy From Shooting In Arizona
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) accused Democrats Wednesday of attempting to "manufacture" the Controversy that has arisen over "vitriol" and political Rhetoric in the wake of the shooting in Tucson over the weekend. "Well, these are the kind of things that I think some on the left decided to manufacture even before the events occur. I mean, this is part of the playbook of Rahm Emanuel where they say any crisis should be used to their advantage to further their agenda," Paul said Wednesday on the FOX B...

An Utter Disregard For All Truth And Decency
An Utter Disregard For All Truth And Decency Ace catches the media doing... well, what the media does. The shamelessness is breathtaking. James Taranto has, I think, the best take on all this. Burning an effigy, like burning an American Flag, is constitutionally protected symbolic Speech. It is also about as eliminationist as speech can get, short of a true threat or incitement. To Krugman, it is a fun party activity. It is shockingly hypocritical for such a man to deliver a pious lecture abou...

Obama's Bullseye
Last night, for his first time in office, Barack Obama sounded like the president of all Americans. Obama famously burst onto the national scene in 2004 with an address to the Democratic Convention in which he declared, “there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America.” During his own run for the presidency four years later, he would echo this post-partisan theme. But the first two years of Obama’s presidency have been contentions ones. Wh

God Never Apologizes. ... But Don't You Think It's About Time He Did?
BEYOND WESTBORO The instance of Jared Lee Laughner's horrendous Assassination attempt of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has prompted the MSM to analyze just how much politicians and pundits exacerbate violence with their Speech and actions. Notice, however, that not one commentator mentioned anyone within the Religious Right communities: Giffords has weighed in as a pro-choice, pro- ENDA and pro-Health Care Reform. There are over 500 churches in the Tucson metropolitan area, with Baptist (approx. 80...

Patriot Act up for renewal and no one notices
On January 5th, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) introduced a bill to add yet another year to the soon to be expiring Patriot Act.  This would extend it until February of 2012, and passage is likely to happen with little debate or contention.  If passed, this would be the second time the Obama Administration has punted on campaign promises to roll back excessive Surveillance measures allowed under the act passed in the wake of 9/11. When the Patriot Act was first signed in 2001, it was billed a...

Udall wants parties together at SOTU
Can’t we all just get along? Sen. Mark Udall wants Republicans and Democrats to sit next to each other at President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Speech - rather than on opposite sides of the chamber as it the usual practice - in “a symbolic gesture of unity rather than division.” Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 The Colorado Democrat said the traditional partisan seating in the House chamber is “an arrangement that has become a negative symbo...

We need a true leader
“If they bring a knife to the fight, we’ll bring a gun.” Do you know just who said these words?  One of those terrible persons on the right, you may think?  Think again.  President Barack Hussein Obama said these things as he led his Democrats through his election campaign and the recent Elections.  As I have written in the past, many see this inexperienced President as an empty suit, and recent events once again provide proof.  I have no interest in ou...

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...

Left Lays Seige After Arizona Shootings
Sheriff Dupnik’s comments immediately after the horrific weekend shootings wherelaid the blame on conservative Talk Radio have caused the American left and right even further apart. Though there is no proof that the suspect Jared Loughner ever listened to talk radio, and in fact may actually have leftist beliefs, Sheriff Dupnik continued to pound the airwaves and lengthened his fifteen minutes of fame into a fifth day. Despite the fact that he’s responsible for the investigation of ...

The Uneasiness of Talk Radio
Interesting experience listening to Talk Radio these past days. The tone? Extra Militant and - in the case of Rush Limbaugh especially - extra provocative. Sarah Palin’s video address seems to have been composed under the influence of this mood, and with an audience in mind of those who share the mood. Question: why? Genuine indignation at the thought that anybody might attribute violence to people who did nothing more than exercise, day after day, night after night, their co...

Tea Party Foes Smell Blood, Shanghai Children Into Their Cause
In the wake of the Tucson shooting tragedy, leftists are decrying all the violence. Yet they are clearly out for blood.  Sound contradictory? Of course it does, but there it is.  Those who hate on the citizen movement for smaller government, as exemplified by the Tea Party, really smell blood now. The shots from Jared Loughner’s gun truly have been heard around the world.  An article in Sunday’s Guardian online describes the sort of feel-good event

The perfect law that gives freedom
COMMENTARY   Once again Sarah Palin is the Lightning Rod for the wrath of the Left, her only crime, upholding traditional American values.  No one in modern times has received more threats, condemnation, criticism, false accusations, and outright slander and vicious verbal assault, and as the perpetrators continue, in the same breath they complain about Hate Speech.   In truth she is the prime example of what happens to anyone in this country who contradicts the religion of the L...

Thoughtful, On-Target Palin Responds To Attacks; Left Loses Last Grip On Reality
I know, my use of the term on-target makes me a vitriolic, hateful Rhetoric espouser in the eyes of some. It’s not conducive to the “new tone” we are all supposed to embrace for some unfathomable and delusional reason. Of course, this new tone doesn’t apply if one is speaking about Sarah Palin, who is apparently the cause of All Bad Things Ever, in perpetuity. Even here, we are on day three of no school due to snow. In South Carolina. Does Palin’s evil reach have no...