Palin: 'I hate violence'

Palin's ups and downs
The New York Times zeroes in on Sarah Palin's communications, absence of significant communication, and political future. Under criticism that her political Rhetoric had helped create a climate for political violence, Sarah Palin addressed the issue in Trademark Fashion: via e-mail to the conservative commentator Glenn Beck. “Our Children will not have peace if politicos just capitalize on this to succeed in portraying anyone as inciting terror and violence,” Ms. Palin wrote to Mr. B...

Does Beck Think Americans Are Weak?
Tue Jan. 11, 2011 8:37 AM PST Why doesn't Glenn Beck have confidence in America? During his Monday Radio Show—when the subject was the Tucson tragedy—Beck came to the rescue of his friend Sarah Palin, who had come under criticism for a map her political action group had created last year that placed cross-hairs over the districts of 20 Democratic legislators it had targeted—including the one represented by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). Beck read to his audience an email f...

Most Americans don't see link between Arizona shootings, political rhetoric, poll finds
A sizable majority of Americans said they did not believe that harsh political Rhetoric was the reason a gunman opened fire over the weekend in Tucson, killing six and wounding 14, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to a CBS News poll released Tuesday. The finding comes as Republicans and Democrats have sparred over whether recent heated political Rhetoric may have been a factor in the shootings. Giffords was among 20 lawmakers targeted in campaign literature by Sarah Palin, the conse...

Palin Gets That Tucson Wasnt About Politics, Obama Doesnt
In the New York Times today Sarah Palin is being criticized for not being more out-front in her defense of herself in the wake of the Tucson shootings over the weekend. The paper suggests that Palin is staying “in her digital comfort zone” choosing to react primarily through Facebook and Twitter. But maybe Palin understands that this isn’t political, and that even though many of her political enemies have absurdly attempted to tie her to the attack, I think she also realizes th...

ACTION ITEM: Create debate team style flashcards to help people better counter the Lefts talking points when surrogate speaking
How can you help people better debate the Left? Here’s something else you can do to help counter the media and Left’s (redundancy alert!) talking points against the Tea Party and Conservatives:  if you ever took debate in school, are a teacher, or are just great at organizing information, you can help collect all the instances of the Left’s hypocrisy you are seeing emerge right now into debate team style flashcards that people can use to better counter any Leftists they en...

Twitter roundup
BrendanNyhan Jan 11, 2011 at 2:37pm Matthew Dowd: "If the jobs #s don't improve... the president could locate his HQ on Mars & it wouldn't make a difference" https://j.mp/fpEz8S The Over/Under for 2012 - Matthew Dowd - Politics - The Atlantic Obama will need better numbers to win BrendanNyhan Jan 11, 2011 at 2:21pm Much credit to @ezraklein for retracting his attack on Joe Lieberman's motives https://j.mp/dE7rmx (original post on it: https://j.mp/gp9Qpa) Ezra Klein - A good...

The question a few months from now
Wolf Blitzer on CNN asked a question about the Arizona shootings: the question is, is there any evidence that the suspected shooter in this particular case was a Sarah Palin fan, read Sarah Palin’s website, was a member on Facebook, watched her tweets, or anything like that? Mr. Blitzer is not alone. NYDN: “Giffords’ blood is on Sarah Palin’s hands.” So the question a few months down the road is this: will all this ridiculous hyperventilating in the media tarnish ...

Fox News chief tells GOP employees to tone it down
Stumble This! It appears that even the president of Fox News knows when rhetorical attacks have gone too far. In a wide-ranging interview with Russell Simmons, Fox News's Roger Ailes remarked that he'd told his employees to "shut up, tone it down" and "make your argument intellectually." You don't have to do it with bombast," he reportedly said. In spite of the call for moderation, Ailes also defended Fox News employee Sarah Palin and her use of gun terminology in political discourse. Prior to...

Treat the Mentally Ill
While everyone is arguing about a map on Sarah Palin’s Facebook page, we should be talking about better ways to get treatment for the mentally ill. From the website of the Treatment Advocacy Center: Ten years ago Monday, January 10, the shooting death of College Student Laura Wilcox, 19, by a man with untreated Mental Illness made headlines in California and inspired passage of “Laura’s Law ” in California. The law authorizes court-ordered treatment for individuals with s...

Times Suggests Toxic Political Stew Contributed to Climate of Violence in AZ
The Times threw in all the potentially combustible ingredients of Arizona politics - guns, border control, Health Care - and tried to make it add up to a stew of violence, in Tuesday’s front-page story from Tucson, the sight of Saturday's shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords: “In Giffords’s District, a Long History of Tension.” The text box: “Area Deeply Divided Over Immigration and Health Care.” The story was reported by Adam Nagourney, Sam Dol...

Mahers Offensive Rant About Loughner Sets New Low
Anderson Cooper took a very different tack last night in trying to make sense of the Arizona shooting tragedy from the weekend. While many on Cable News were turning down the partisan Rhetoric, AC360 producers booked comedian Bill Maher, who was unafraid to compare the imagined mindset of alleged assailant Jared Loughner with Fox News host Glenn Beck, while at the same time calling for responsibility in the media. You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for those opposed to intolerance, exc...

Gentlemen, You Cant Blog Here, This is the War Room!
Jim Geraghty spots this howler: “I understand the idea that, even if Loughner had no idea who Sharron Angle is and even if he never saw Palin’s infamous cross-hairs map, it still makes sense to encourage political leaders to ditch violent Rhetoric,” writes Salon news editor Steve Kornacki at the site’s War Room blog. The first step in encouraging political leaders to ditch violent rhetoric? Stop calling your blog the WAR ROOM. “Oh, the sweet sweet irony…” Bryan Pr

ABC News Chief: We're Going To 'Fix' 'This Week'
PASADENA, Calif. — The new president of ABC News said Monday that his organization needs to work with more unity, and its weekend coverage of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' shooting proved it. Unlike rivals CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox News Channel, ABC did not broadcast Saturday's false report that Gifford had died in Tucson, Ariz., which originated with National Public Radio. But for 10 minutes, the ABC.com website used an incorrect headline in a banner. "It really hit me in the heart when I liste...

Rush Limbaugh: It's 'Insane' to Link Sarah Palin to Tucson Shootings
Don't blame Sarah Palin. Right-wing Talk Show host Rush Limbaugh says media outlets "are unnecessarily stirring up the country" in the wake of the fatal Arizona shootings and attempting to tie the tragedy to the colorful Rhetoric used by him and Sarah Palin, among others. "Reporters are bending over backwards to link this shooting to me, to Sarah Palin, to an entire industry -- Talk Radio," he said Monday on his syndicated program. "Only in these instances is something said in the media, said to...

Aid and Comfort. [JHoward]
Below this post, Jeff asks who’s granting aid and comfort: I got fifty bucks that says this is McCain. Or maybe Lindsay Graham. Maybe it’s this fellow: Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty this morning added to the political debate about the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords by taking exception to Sarah Palin’s use of cross hairs on a 2010 election map. [...] Pawlenty, who could find himself running against Palin in the 2012 GOP presidential primaries, said “it woul...

Pawlenty, Kennedy Knock Palin for Gun Imagery
Former Minnesota Gov. (and likely 2012 GOP presidential contender) Tim Pawlenty took a swipe at former Governor Sarah Palin on Tuesday for her use of crosshairs imagery on a map showing the Democrats that Palin wanted to see lose in the Midterm Elections. "I think Governor Palin is a remarkable leader; I think she brings a lot to the debate and the table, both nationally and within the Republican Party as well," Pawlenty said on ABC's "Good Morning America." But, he continued, "You know, it woul...

Hate, violence, extremism: Krugman on the Arizona shooting
By Michael J.W. Stickings Just to drive the point home, allow me to quote Paul Krugman, who yesterday made the case that many of us have been making the past few days: When you heard the terrible news from Arizona, were you completely surprised? Or were you, at some level, expecting something like this atrocity to happen? Put me in the latter category. I've had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach ever since the fina...

Sarah Palin's TV show ends planned 8-episode run
What happens if I lose power? AP Interview: Howard K. Stern says case vindicates him and Anna Nicole Smith. Judge dismisses drug Conspiracy convictions of Anna Nicole Smith boyfriend, Psychiatrist. Ex-VP Candidate John Edwards not named in wife Elizabeth's will, which leaves items to kids. Overnight Sensation: Ohio Homeless man with golden radio voice overwhelmed by job offers. Second Chance: Sports job offers pouring in for Ohio Homeless man with the golden radio voice. Brad Womack says he&...

Slight jab at Palin from Pawlenty in wide ranging interview with NYT
As he turns to focusing on the national stage shortly after leaving Minnesota’s Governor’s office, Tim Pawlenty is making his way through numerous high-profile interviews. He appeared on both Good Morning America and The View on Tuesday Morning, and on Monday he sat down with The New York Times for an interview addressing a wide number of topics, ranging from Afghanistan to Health Care reform. The Times’ Michael Shear opened the interview by asking Pawlenty about the attempted ...

Arizona sheriff condemns Limbaughs irresponsible rhetoric
Stumble This! An Arizona sheriff responsible for investigating the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) confronted conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh Tuesday for the "irresponsible" Rhetoric he uses on his Radio Show. "The kind of Rhetoric that flows from people like Rush Limbaugh, in my judgment he is irresponsible, uses partial information, sometimes wrong information," Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik told ABC News. "[Limbaugh] attacks people, angers them against governm...

'Loughner was crazy' argument misses the point in the Arizona shootings case
Last Saturday Jared Lee Loughner alleged shot and  killed six people and injured another fourteen at public event hosted by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).  Since that time some have claimed that Loughner behavior was caused, at least in part, by the heated political of the past two years.  Others have essentially argued that Loughner was a "nutjob" or "a crazed Lone Wolf", that society had no control over.  Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck both argued that Lougher was s...

2012 Candidates Weekly Update 1/11/10
PAC: Vast majority of MICHELE PAC money went to Iowa politicians or PACs (National Journal, 1/10). Religious Right: Potential 2012 bid wins plaudits from Religious Right Activists (RWW, 1/10). Indiana: Makes 7th State of the State address with emphasis on education (South Bend Tribune, 1/11). Religious Right: Invited to speak at the Freedom Federation’s Awakening 2011 along with other potential 2012 Candidates (RWW, 1/10). Iowa: Listed to address Iowa Renewable Fuels Association in Des Moi...

Serious Questions
When politicians start talking about criminalizing Speech I get a bit nervous, but I am willing to listen to the specifics on this: Rep. Robert Brady (D-Pa.) reportedly plans to introduce Legislation that would make it a federal crime to use language or symbols that could be perceived as threatening or inciting violence against a federal official or member of Congress. Brady told CNN that he wants federal lawmakers and officials to have the same protections against threat currently provided to ...

In Wake of Tucson Shooting, Joe Manchin Says He'd Reconsider Gun Ad
(Credit: CBS/AP) In the wake of Saturday's tragic shooting in Tucson, many have been quick to lay blame on Sarah Palin for using the image of crosshairs during Midterm Elections to "target" lawmakers. Plenty of other politicians, however, used gun imagery during the 2010 midterms, including West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D). The new senator said Monday that, in light of the Tucson shooting, he doubts his future campaigns would use such imagery again. "I can't say that we would, I really ca...

Halperin: Hey, why did conservatives defend themselves from being smeared?
Say, isn’t the phrase “war stations” a use of violent imagery?  I’m just sayin’ …. “I think the media and the politicians have behaved pretty well so far”? The normally sensible Mark Halperin from Time runs off the rails in this segment from today’s Morning Joe, and that was hardly the worst of it. He blamed the “anger of the right-wing commentariat,” including George Will, for the Controversy started when CNN and other media o...