Pointing Fingers and Violent Rhetoric

Sarah Palin To Headline Gun Rights Convention
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin recently announced plans to deliver a Keynote Speech later this month at a marquee Gun Rights event in Reno, Nevada. Palin is set to speak at a Safari Club International convention on January 29, a gathering put on by a group that calls itself "the leader in protecting the freedom to hunt and promoting Wildlife Conservation worldwide." Politico reports that Palin will address a sold-out crowd of 20,000 attendees from around the world with a Speech based on "h...

The Other Dodge
In addition to what Mistermix said about civility, the other (and I think more important) dodge that is going on is the attempt to pretend that everyone is blaming Palin and only Palin for the tragedy. It’s just nonsense. Yes, there was some lashing out at Sarah Palin over the crosshairs surveyor’s symbols, which is to be expected, but no one thinks that Sarah Palin is directly responsible for the Murders. What is reasonable to discus...

Mark Levin Threatens to Sue Matthews, Olbermann, Schultz and Anyone Tying Him to Tucscon Shootings
For going on six days, dishonest media members have blamed prominent Conservatives for inciting last Saturday's tragedy in Tucson. Mark Levin: Now I’m going to tell you something. Maybe I shouldn’t, but I will. I’m waiting for an allegation that is very specific against me because I’m going to sue. I don’t care if they’re Bloggers, I don’t care if they’re television hosts, I don’t care if they’re radio hosts. I’m going to drag...

Kirsten Powers: Why did Healer-In-Chief blame America for Tucson tragedy?
Liberal pundit Kirsten Powers, writing in today’s Daily Beast, makes some interesting points I didn’t think of in the aftermath of Obama’s Speech at Wednesday night’s “Together We Thrive” memorial service for the Victims of last Saturday’s shooting rampage in Tucson. I guess I was so wrapped up in just making sure that he didn’t turn it into a campaign rally a la the Wellstone “memorial service” - and I was also tuning in to see ...

Memorial service = free t-shirt?
We really, really try to stick to all-things local and all-situations Philadelphia-related here at the Philadelphia Libertarian Examiner. However, sometimes, things just happen on the national scale that are so angering and downright stupid that we just can't go another day without mentioning them. Something told us on Wednesday night to not watch Obama's Speech and we're thankful that we didn't. President Obama did what we assumed he would do: he used last Saturday's tragedy in Tucson to begin ...

Barrel-Fishing With Adam And Andrew
We are once again marveling at the utter brain-lock displayed when Andrew Sullivan and Adam Serwer team up to share their enlightement.  From Serwer, who naturally is bashing Sarah Palin, comes his deeply considered ruling on the appropriate use of "blood Libel" as a metaphor: Over at Greg 's place, I explain why Sarah Palin 's use of blood libel in the context of people accusing her of being responsible for the incident in Tucson is wrong, even if the accusations are u...

Mike's Blog Roundup
Corrente: What is money? Comments are restricted to Registered Users only. Joe Lieberman will support McCain's choice for judges. Ignores his own vote against Alito Glenn Beck and Jared Loughner: Separated at birth? What violent Rhetoric? Another right-wing nutcase arrested for threatening congressman. Was O'Reilly the inspiration? Glenn Beck and Jared Loughner: Separated at birth? Anderson Cooper Brings on 'Left Behind' Actor Cameron to Discuss Bird and Fish Deaths in Arkansas -- Ser...

New Poll Finds Only 15% Believe Giffords Shooting Was Result of Overheated Political Rhetoric
You mean it wasn’t Sarah Palin’s fault? (The Hill)- A minority of Americans believe the Arizona shooting last Saturday was because of heated political Rhetoric, according to a poll released Friday. The poll, conducted by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, found that just 15 percent of Americans believe the shooting was because of unusually angry and aggressive political rhetoric. Forty percent of the Americans poll believe the shooting was unavoidable and another 23 pe...

Video: Jon Stewart Doesnt Blame Toxic Political Discourse For Arizona Shooting Tragedy. Barbara Walters cant shake the feeling t
The irony once again of a liberal who has used inflammatory Rhetoric himself in the past many times now lamenting such Rhetoric and what it supposedly has done to our political discourse: Plus this: Barbara Walters: I can’t shake the feeling that this isn’t Sarah Palin’s fault ...

Mark Levin Never Promoted Murder
Jeffrey Lord writes: Conservative Radio Talk Show host Mark Levin has put out a stunning challenge to those left-wing media personalities accusing conservative Talk Radio stars and Sarah Palin of encouraging Murder. First, he offered $100,000 to Chris Matthews to find any example where Sarah Palin or Levin himself had "promoted the murder of anybody." Here's an exchange Mark Levin had with a liberal caller to his Radio Show in May 2009: Mark Levin: Answer me this, are you a married woman? Yes ...

Radio Host Mark Levin To MSNBC: Im Going To Drag Your Asses To Federal Court.
Radio host Mark Levin is fed up with claims that heated political rhetoric of the sort found on talk radio shows like his are in some way to blame for the shooting in Arizona that left six dead and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords injured. And Levin is putting his money where his mouth is by threatening to take MSNBC hosts and contributors like Chris Matthews , Ed Shutlz, Keith Olbermann , Rachel Maddow , Joe Scarborough and David Frumm (“you little weasel”) to federal court for accu...

Sarah Palin got it right
I've stayed out of the argument over whether Sarah Palin's use of the term 'blood Libel' was justified with respect to the accusations against her and other Conservatives of being the cause of the mass Murder and attempted Assassination in Tucson last Saturday. It's not directly an Israel-related topic. But I think that Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has got it right in Friday's Wall Street Journal (Hat Tip: Memeorandum) and that Sarah Palin was entitled to use the term. Despite the strong association ...

Tucson Tea Party Co-Founder Blames Giffords For Getting Shot; Says Tea Party Is Also Shooting Victim
Trent Humphries, co-founder of the Tucson Tea Party, says if Gabrielle had security concerns she should have protected herself and not appeared without better security at an open event. (via Raw Story) The Arizona congresswoman shouldn’t have attended an event “in full view of the public” if she had security concerns, according to Tucson Tea Party co-founder Trent Humphries. Humphries told The Guardian, “We’re Victims, too,” worried that the fall-out from the ...

New York Times wrongly suggests Tucson shooter is a pro-life
Ann Coulter, of all people, makes a heck of a catch in her latest column. So here's what ABC News reported about Loughner's time in community college: One Pima Community College Student, who had a poetry class with Loughner later in his college career, said he would often act "wildly inappropriate." "One day [Loughner] started making comments about Terrorism and laughing about killing the baby," classmate Don Coorough told ABC News, referring to a discussion about Abortions. "The rest of us were...

MSNBC Marches Ahead With Its Own Set of Facts
Those facts? The intimation, through a graphic featuring Jared Loughner, that vitriolic Rhetoric from the right-wing is the proximate cause of the Tucson Murder spree — and will be the cause of future violence, as well. Radley Balko: It’s a powerful image. I saw it at the gym on a number of muted televisions, and it stuck with me. It’s also complete bullshit. [...] This is just an egregious assault on reality. Scarier: It seems to be working. Manufacturing consent. How wonderfully po...

As I Was Saying...
Kirsten Powers has the long, coherent takedown of Obama's Speech that I only managed to hint at yesterday.  The lead: Sure, the president provided his usual inspiration, but he failed to shut down the ridiculous media meme that right-wing Talk Radio was responsible for the Arizona shootings. And how are ordinary Americans to blame? My soundbite from yesterday would be this: So Krugman et al are wrong to blame the Tea Party and Sarah Palin but right that we all need to be more civil.&...

Texas Rep. Leo Berman Revives Fear Of Sharia With Bill That Would Ban 'Religious Or Cultural Law'
Texas state Rep. Leo Berman (R), a lawmaker best known for his anti-Obama Rhetoric and legislative proposal, has turned his eyes on a new risk -- the creeping threat of "religious or cultural law," and perhaps most importantly, Sharia. Berman's Legislation would mandate that "A court of this state may not enforce, consider, or apply any religious or cultural law." Though it includes no direct mention of "Sharia," a subsequent interview would suggest that Berman, like other Republicans such as ...

Say What?
In discussing a House resolution on Thursday to condemn the shooting in Arizona, Minority Leader Nancy "We have to pass the bill to find out what's in it" Pelosi referred to the shooting as a "tragic accident." First the Left blamed the violent, evil, act of a lunatic on the "vitriolic Rhetoric" of the Right ... now we have the queen of the Left calling it a "tragic accident." Clearly, wrong on both accounts, and clearly clueless. Charles Krauthammer: 'The origins of Jared Loughner's delusions ...

Republicans aim to bring Choose Life license plates to Minnesota
During Tim Pawlenty’s interview on The Daily Show last night, Jon Stewart pressed the former Governor to defend or reject government-as-tyranny language — particularly regarding President Obama’s policies — that has come to dominate the Right Wing of the Republican party through the tea party movement. In a unanimous vote by outgoing Board Members Tuesday evening, the Minneapolis School Board passed a resolution that significantly beefs up its LGBT Curriculum and anti-bul...

Elephant Dung #9: Christie challenges Palin to go unscripted
Tracking the GOP Civil War By Michael J.W. Stickings (For an explanation of this ongoing series, see here. For previous entries, see here.) Given that so many Republicans are trying to distance themselves from the half-term Alaska ex-governor, it makes sense that many of our Elephant Dungs will be about Palin. Of course, given her significant popularity with the GOP base, including the Tea Party, these Republicans need to be very careful, and so their criticism tends to be indirect. Often, th...

"Right now, each side in that debate passionately believes that the other side is wrong."
"And it’s all right for them to say that. What’s not acceptable is the kind of violence and eliminationist Rhetoric encouraging violence that has become all too common these past two years." Writes Paul Krugman, Manufacturing a phony problem. It’s not enough to appeal to the better angels of our nature. We need to have leaders of both parties — or Mr. Obama alone if necessary — declare that both violence and any language hinting at the acceptability of violence ar...

Out, out, damned spot
By Capt. Fogg I saw this clip on The Impolitic this morning: Sharron Angle having a bit of a smugfest about how Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and Ben Franklin really wanted us to have the uninfringable right to own Firearms, not to facilitate raising a Militia, as was stated, or to put food on the table or keep the fox out of the henhouse, but to protect us against tyrannical despots demanding to provide us with affordable Health Care. To be fair, I'd like to know the rest of the sentence...

Sharron Angle is Miss Manners
Former Senate Candidate Sharron Angle is firing back at critics — including a U.S. congressman — who have blamed her and her infamous “Second Amendment remedies” quote for fueling the Saturday shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others in Tucson, Ariz. In a statement reported today on the website Politico, Angle had harsh words for her critics, including U.S. Rep. James Clyburn , who said on Monday that accused Tucson shooting Jared Loughner “…saw a S...

Angle: Don't blame me for Tucson shooting rampage
Former U.S. Senate Candidate Sharron Angle says she's not to blame for the Arizona shooting that left six people dead and 14 injured. The former Nevada assemblywoman who tried to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday she condemns all violence. The Tea Party politician calls the killings Saturday senseless and horrifying. Police say 22-year-old Jared Loughner fired at a crowd gathered at an event hosted by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords was shot in the head but survived. L...

Sharron Angle: Don't blame me for Tucson shooting rampage
Former U.S. Senate Candidate Sharron Angle says she's not to blame for the Arizona shooting that left six people dead and 14 injured. The former Nevada assemblywoman who tried to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday she condemns all violence. The Tea Party politician calls the killings Saturday senseless and horrifying. Police say 22-year-old Jared Loughner fired at a crowd gathered at an event hosted by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords was shot in the head but survived. L...