Palin counters pols trying to tie her to shooting (AP)

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...

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...

Sarah Palin blamed for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shooting
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords may be the Victim of more than bullet. Two years of mean-spirited conservative Rhetoric may have sparked the assignation attempt, according to reports. On Sarah Palin’s website, there was a map of the United States with gun targets placed over democratic lawmakers. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was one of the targets. Since the shooting on Saturday, the SarahPAC target map has been removed. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann said, “if there are crosshairs ...

Palinistas furious over "surveyor's symbols"
The news was barely out today when social networks were erupting, blaming Sarah Palin and the Tea Party for inciting the 22-year-old alleged gunman who shot U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat from Arizona, and 16 others in a Grocery Store in Tucson, Ariz. Giffords was one of those 20 moderate Republicans and Democrats that were on Palin's now infamous "target list" that Palin compiled early last year. The graphic that went with the list features rifle scope-like cross hairs on certain legi...

Calls for softer tone in politics gets cool reception
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 Saturday shooting in Tucson killed six people and...

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...

Bonnie Fuller: Sarah Palin's Alaska Should NOT Be Cancelled -- It's Great TV & Brilliant Marketing!
Palin may be taking hits after the tragic Tuscon shooting, but that's no reason her original and highly entertaining reality show shouldn't be put back on the air. Whether you agree with Sarah Palin's politics or not, if you watched the shows a religiously as I did, you had to hand it to Sarah -- she made for gripping television. The former Vice-Presidential Candidate was impossible NOT to watch for multiple reasons. Number one, she IS gorgeous, so whether she was huddling in rain gear next to...

I Haven't Stopped Thinking About Sarah Palin's Complicity
in the Giffords shooting. There is the offensive cross-hairs campaign map to consider first. The Palin supporters have now claimed that these are surveyor symbols, not cross-hairs. You can try to run away from your part in the violence that you have incited, but if those are survey symbols, tell me the next big whopper: what did Sarah Palin really mean when she said, Don't retreat, reload. ??? Was she thinking of her stapler or the vending machines at the office? All the gun Rhetoric, all the v...

Giffords promoted softer political discourse in email to GOP colleague day before shooting
Stumble This! Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) on the eve of the shooting that left her in critical condition and six others dead wrote an email to a Republican colleague promoting a softer public political discourse. "After you get settled, I would love to talk about what we can do to promote centrism and moderation," Giffords wrote to Trey Grayson, Kentucky Secretary of State who resigned to take a position as director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University. Giffords wrote the congr...

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...

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...

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...

Pima County Sheriff Dupnik Jeopardizes Justice and Must Resign Now
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has blathered in radio, television, and newspaper interviews non-stop since Saturday’s massacre in his county.  He cannot possibly be doing his job to properly and thoroughly investigate the tragic loss of life on his watch in Pima County, Arizona. Monday , Dupnik even went so far as to blame Talk Show host Rush Limbaugh PERSONALLY for the Murders in Tucson.  See report here on Real Clear Politics.  On Sunday, Dupnik admitted in his interv...

Beck and co-host called Giffords a 'moron' for Patreaus question in 2010 (Video)
Today Glenn Beck defended his coverage of Democrats and liberals in the aftermath of the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).  Beck claimed that his Rhetoric has never been over-the-top, and strongly rejected any suggestion that he promoted violence.  Beck's critics tend to disagree, pointing to some comments Beck has made about Progressives as a "Cancer" and on fantasy Beck had about strangling Michael Moore.  In his own defense, Beck said that he had only had pos...

Right rejects lefts charges on Palin
Prominent Conservatives like Bill Kristol, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are defending Sarah Palin, who was subjected to criticism from Liberal Bloggers after Saturday’s shootings in Arizona. The Bloggers suggested Palin’s use of inflammatory Rhetoric during the 2010 campaign helped create a climate conducive to the type of violence that shook the nation over the weekend.  Several sought to link Palin’s use of a crosshairs symbol on her website and Facebook page to the Tucson shootin

Calls for softer tone in politics gets cool reception
By Ed Stoddard DALLAS | Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:22pm 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....

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....

Glenn Beck Worried Other Left-Wing Nuts Like Loughner May Kill Palin
Dangerous left-wing Activists such as Jared Laughner are trying to Murder all of our Republican officials, such as Gabriel Giffords and Sarah Palin, according to Glenn Beck. You can find his call against violence on his website, conveniently located next to the publicity photo of him brandishing a Handgun of his own. The real tragedy of all of this is that people are being mean to Sarah Palin, the real Victim of this whole shooting thing, as Pareene notes. You should never blame the victim, but...

Jared Loughner Charged
Jan.  10, 2011  Jared Lee Loughner Charged with 5 Counts of Murder, Attempted Murder and murder involving a member of Congress.  He indicated he understood the charges in court and his lawyer spoke to him offering her guidance.  The same lawyer Judy Clarke who has defended another mass murderer the Unabomer Ted Kaczinski has seen insanity defenses before. Loughner has said nothing about why he did the murders and what drove him to trying to assassinate a US congresswoman in...

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shooting won't change local Tea Party
Here in Greensboro, the Tea Party is now localizing - instead of just focusing on Washington issues.    Rep. Gabrielle Giffords being shot in Tucson won't change the area Tea Party.  If conversations with two leading area Tea Party Activists are any guide, the Tea Party here will stay the same as what it was before Saturday's attempted Assassination - if not get even angrier.    In many ways, Kim Oliver and Steve Carter have little in common - other than anger agai...

Pols' security getting closer look in wake of Ariz. shootings
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush said Monday he would move his district office to a safer neighborhood, and Sen. Mark Kirk planned to attend a town hall meeting with extra protection in the wake of the weekend shooting of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. But some other members of Illinois' congressional delegation did not anticipate security changes. "In terms of curtailing my activities or having protection, that wouldn't work," Rep. Mike Quigley said. Quigley, a Democrat from the North Si...

Second Congressional Shooting Staved Off With Arrest
After the traumatic shooting in Arizona that left Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition and left six others dead, including a nine-year-old girl, authorities are saying that a similar event nearly took place in Colorado. A 44-year-old man who authorities said was schizophrenic reportedly called Incumbent Senator Michael Bennet's office and threatened to shoot up the entire office. He allegedly had been complaining about difficulties in receiving Social Security Disability payments, a fact that he re-i

Spaceman leads US shooting tribute
Scott Kelly, a crew member of the mission to the International Space Station, left, and his brother, Mark Kelly, also an Astronaut and husband of Gabrielle Giffords. Photo: AP Space station commander Scott Kelly led NASA in a moment of silence as he struggled with the shooting of his US congresswoman sister-in-law as well as six people who were killed. It was part of the national observance on Monday for all the Victims of Saturday's shooting in Arizona. His identical twin brother, Mark Kelly, i...

AZ shootings: McConnell, Yarmuth talk rhetoric and security
Related: Suspect in attack on congresswoman to appear in court McConnell speaks to Students about Tucson shootings Obama: US grieving, shocked over Ariz. rampage Military: alleged Giffords gunman failed Drug Test McConnell calls for review of congressional security (WHAS11) - The Assassination attempt of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords that killed six and injured 14 others has sparked a national debate about whether inflammatory political Rhetoric was a factor in the attack. After Pim...

Jared Loughner Is a Tragedy, Not a Nut Job or the Embodiment of Evil
I'm haunted by last week's episode of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," in which a disturbed young man opens fire on dozens of people on a college campus. Several doctors are put to the ultimate test when they realize the man they are trying desperately to save is the shooter. Back in the waiting room, relatives of the many Victims are comforting one another – except for a tearful woman sitting alone in a corner. Dr. Jackson Avery walked out of the operating room rather than help save the perpetrato...