Palin bypasses media, slams journalists

Palin, "blood libel", Krauthammer and the lefthave we completely lost our minds?
What a mess. Watching the political world in the light of the Tucson tragedy has been disheartening and disgusting. While the President’s Speech last night was fine, the venue was awful. And T-shirts? Really? It wasn’t a pep rally, but it seemed like one (I’m primarily talking about crowd reaction). What a more somber Oval Office Speech wasn’t proper enough? And this Sarah Palin thing. Am I ever tired of Sarah Palin. That said, I’m even more tired of the left̵...

Abbreviated pundit round-up
New York Times: It is a president’s responsibility to salve a national wound. President Obama did that on Wednesday evening at the memorial service in Tucson for the six people who died in last weekend’s terrible shooting. It was one of his Most Powerful and uplifting speeches. Mr. Obama called on ideological campaigners to stop vilifying their opponents. The only way to move forward after such a tragedy, he said, is to cast aside "point-scoring and pettiness." He rightly focused pr...

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...

Words Do County
President Barack Obama delivered a magnificent Speech at the memorial to honor the Victims of the shooting in Tucson.  His words brought healing and comfort by celebrating their lives and poignantly reminding us of the people they left behind.  His Speech reminds us that words do count. We are blessed to live in a country which allows us to express words freely - no matter how they make us free. However, we take our Freedom of Speech for granted thus forgetting the responsibility which...

Obama and Palin, a Tale of Two Speeches
David Becker/Getty Images President Obama gives his Speech honoring the January 8 Shooting Victims at McKale Memorial Center. Wednesday was bookended by two remarkable — and remarkably different — political performances that demonstrated the vast expanse of America’s political landscape. The day opened at 5 a.m. with Sarah Palin, whose seven-and-a-half minute video statement captured with precision the bubbling anger and resentment that is an undercurrent of the national conversatio

Gun control? Civility? My Predictions
Nothing will happen. I anticipate we will see reduced restrictions on Gun Control actually, as the NRA and its allies push back against the Tucson tragedy. That means no laws requiring gun registration, closing private sale and gun show Loopholes, reinstating the ban on extended clips, eliminating open carry laws, better Background Checks, etc. That's just not the way gun proponents roll, regardless of the tragedy. After all Columbine had no effect, nor did the Virginia Tech shooter. Why shoul...

A Tale of Two Speeches: Sarah Palin and Barack Obama on the Tragedy in Tucson
The tragic events in Tucson this past weekend left the nation shaken, and sparked a divisive debate over the tone of our politics. On Wednesday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin released a video address on the Mass Shooting, many hours in advance of President Obama ’s Speech at a memorial service in Tucson. In a guest column, John Ziegler , radio host, Palin confidante, and the filmmaker behind Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted, offers his unique perspective...

MSNBCs Ed Schultz Claims Palin Used Term Blood Libel to Appeal to Extremist Conservative Christian Base Video 1/12/11
Here is video of MSNBC’s Ed Schultz continuing the attacks on Sarah Palin. Here, he imagines that Palin’s use of the term “Blood Libel” to describe the Left’s manufacture of the idea that she helped inspire the Tucson Mass Shooting, is because she is trying to appeal to an “Extremist conservative Christian base.” I guess Schultz missed the memo that liberal attorney Alan Dershowitz said yesterday that there is absolutely nothing wrong with Palin’...

Palin Seeks to Evoke Presidential Aura in Video Message
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin released a lengthy video statement on Wednesday morning in which she discussed her reaction to the tragic Shooting Spree in Tucson on Saturday and the political discourse that has developed in its aftermath. Released on the day when President Obama is scheduled to travel to Arizona to pay his respects to the Shooting Victims and deliver remarks near the scene of the carnage, Palin's video message appeared designed to present a measured tone and to conjure up a st...

"their acid burns them from within"
That from the comments at an Anchoress post rightly giving hell for the madness engaged in by the Mainstream Media: Yesterday, they were complaining that she was "hiding" from the media, who insisted on making her part of a story to which she had no connection. And so, today, Sarah Palin-probably aware that she was damned if she did, and damned if she didn't-made a statement. It was actually a very good, if a trifle long, statement. Immediately upon her delivering it, the media, like jackals ...

"their acid burns them from within"
Yesterday, they were complaining that she was “hiding” from the media, who insisted on making her part of a story to which she had no connection. And so, today, Sarah Palin-probably aware that she was damned if she did, and damned if she didn’t-made a statement. It was actually a very good, if a trifle long, statement. Immediately upon her delivering it, the media, like jackals went on the attack. ABC News, in a breathtaking example of Cognitive Dissonance, wrote: ...

Let's Go to the Confrontational
The videotaped confessional (or these days, it might be better to call it a "confrontational") is all the rage among those who believe they've been aggrieved. What better way to defend yourself uninterrupted or go after designated critics without fear of having your message diluted? The tactic is big on the political front. Exhibit A is Sarah Palin's nearly eight-minute commentary on Saturday's shooting in Tucson that injured Representative Gabrielle Giffords and killed six people. Palin spends ...

My reaction to the Presidents Tucson memorial speech
…was noted here last night in the comments: [...] you’d think Lowry would’ve known exactly how this was going to play out. Obama and his handlers essentially orchestrated a minor Sister Soldjah moment. It was planned this way. We know this because yesterday Obama was on the phone with Sheriff Dufus commending him for his fine (dirty) work, which in castigating the Tea Party (YAY!) and right-wing radio (YAY!) set Obama up for tonight, allowing him to appear above the fray even as he w...

First thoughts on President Obama's Tucson speech
President Obama delivered a stirring address Wednesday night at a memorial service for the Victims of the Tucson shooting, calling on the country to collectively gather itself and move forward together in hopes of living up to the ideals represented by those who lost their lives. Our initial thoughts on the Speech are after the jump. * Obama went big : As we wrote Tuesday, most presidential speeches in the wake of tragedies like this one tend to be brief. Obama's wasn't -- he spoke for 33 minute...

The Big Questions: After Arizona
Arizona shooting so far? More than the nation might have hoped, given recent history. Extreme voices on the left and politics without limiting free Speech. occasion? Those liberals (particularly on the into sweeping generalizations. Most prominently, Sarah Palin, who talk of “reloading” in political battle. Palin eventually released chances. What should an optimist hope for next? That politicians will move from denouncing of their own clan. Bipartisan cooperation on real issues like ...

Demonizing opponents for supposed "hate speech" is itself a form a hate speech
We pray for the families of those who were gunned down indiscriminately in Tucson last week. Some will survive their wounds and we are grateful for that. I am grateful for the heroes we've heard about as the story of what happened trickle out. Dorwan Stoddard protected his wife Mavy by throwing himself over her as the bullets flew. She survived. He did not. The intern Daniel Hernandez used his medical training to support Congresswoman Giffords in the crucial few minutes after she was shot an...

Jared Loughner Terrified Everyone At His Old Community College
Email Sent! You have successfully emailed the post. Since the Arizona massacre on Saturday there have been some very pointless debates about the role of Rhetoric in American politics, and whether Sarah Palin used an inappropriate phrase in a video she posted on Vimeo. But the debate that will emerge have some actual impact is whether society ought to get even more aggressive about pro-actively protecting itself against psychos, which is exactly what everyone who came into contact with shooter J...

Obama strives to comfort mourners and unite a nation
"We can be better," he said, striking a familiar refrain. "What we cannot do," he said, "is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other." What's required now, he said, is that we "expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy." Obama, interrupted repeatedly by cheers from the crowd, eulogized those who died and praised the people who rushed to the scene of the shooting --the two men who wrestled suspect Jared Loug...

Words and deeds
28% of Republicans, but only 11% of Democrats and Independents, think that violence against the government is sometimes justified. But of course Republican politicians’ Rhetoric has nothing to do with that, and pointing out that violent words sometimes lead to violent deeds is a “blood Libel.” Footnote Yeah, yeah, Lockean right of revolution, French resistance, blah blah blah. “The government” here means the American government. We’re still a republic, last t...

Tucson memorial service turns into pep rally by raucous students
In what had been expected to be a solemn memorial service for those who had died during the shooting instead was turned into something resembling a pep rally before a football game by Students from the University of Arizona. Perhaps the setting, the music that was more appropriate for a marching parade, and the rows of politicians, confused the students. Apparently they thought that shouting, whistling, and high-fiving was appropriate behavior in remembering those who had died on that tragic Sat...

Dupnik Denounces 'Vitriolic Rhetoric' -- With Left-Wing Vitriolic Rhetoric (Larry Elder)
Creators Syndicate – Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik took time from gathering the facts about the Tucson, Ariz., shooting to denounce the "vitriolic Rhetoric" that he claims played a role in the carnage. He insisted, without any evidence, that Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' support for ObamaCare helped trigger the shooter's wrath, resulting in six dead and 13 wounded, including Rep. Giffords, who was shot point-blank in the head. "I think it's time as ...

Mourner-in-Chief's Eulogy Puts Palin to Shame (The Daily Beast)
NEW YORK – The president got an arena; Sarah Palin was stuck at home—and the comparisons of the two speeches Wednesday on the Arizona tragedy get worse from there. Lloyd Grove on the Obama-Palin disparity. Plus, more commentary on Obama's Tucson Speech. Sarah Palin was the reigning queen of Wednesday’s Cable News cycle for most of the day—the object of adoration or opprobrium, depending on which talking head had the microphone. And then Barack Obama went and ruined it ...

America united? It was a raucous, joyful, uplifting, powerful, spiritual, celebratory moment in Tucson
President Obama’s Speech in Tucson tonight seems to have won nearly universal praise. I suspect it will be remembered as one of his best moments, almost regardless of what else takes place during the remainder of his presidency. ...Certain types of contingencies suit the temperaments of certain types of presidents especially well, and this seems to have been one such case for President Obama. ...Nate Silver, NYT ___ It was one of the more powerful addresses that Mr. Obama has delivered as...

Obama: We CannotUse this Tragedy As One More Occasion to Turn on Each Other
Thursday, January 13, 2011 By Susan Jones President Barack Obama speaks at a memorial service for the Victims of the Tucson shootings at McKale Center on the University of Arizona campus Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) (CNSNews.com) - In his Speech to Tucson and the nation Wednesday night, President Barack Obama  reminded Americans that “bad things happen,” but he warned against “simple explanations in the aftermath.” The pres

Matt Wilstein: The Top 10 Biggest Sarah Palin FAILS (VIDEO)
Sarah Palin tried so hard yesterday with her seven minute-long video response to the Arizona shooting, but she just had to slip the antiquated, anti-Semitic term "blood Libel" into her statement. Can we all agree that this latest gaffe is the final nail in the coffin of her downward spiral of a Political Career? Below are five of her biggest FAILS over the past couple of years. There are literally hundreds more, so please share your own in the comments below. More comedy videos at: GotchaMedia...