Politically charged fundraising e-mail on Arizona shootings draws scrutiny

Insiders Disagree On Member Security, Tone Of Rhetoric
Do you think security should be heightened for members of Congress when they're in their districts? In the wake of the Arizona shooting that gravely wounded one of their own, Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D), members of Congress in both parties are closely divided on whether or not security should be heightened for members when they are back in their districts, according to the latest National Journal Congressional Insiders Poll. Democratic Congressional Insiders were marginally more likel...

Systematic Assassinations Not Part of Our Politics
The steam seems to be going out of the move to "deftly pin this" -- the shooting of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 13 others -- "on the tea partiers," as one unidentified senior Democratic operative put it to Politico. It has become obvious that the murderer was crazy, the follower of no political movement, motivated only by the bizarre ideas ricocheting through his head. If any blame attaches to others, it is to authorities who had notice of his madness and did not do enough to confine h...

Obama takes opportunity Palin missed
In the span of a single news cycle, Republicans got a jarring reminder of two forces that could prevent them from retaking the presidency next year. At sunrise in the east on Wednesday, Sarah Palin demonstrated that she has little interest—or capacity—in moving beyond her brand of grievance-based politics. And at sundown in the west, Barack Obama reminded even his critics of his ability to rally disparate Americans around a message of Reconciliation. Continue Reading Text Size - +...

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

President Obama Offers Healing: Gabrielle Giffords "Has Opened Her Eyes"
In remarks to a crowd of 14,000 at the University of Arizona, President Barack Obama announced, with authorization from Astronaut Mark Giffords, the husband of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, that following his visit to her in the Hospital where she lay attempting to recuperate from a point-blank gunshot wound to the head last Saturday that "Gabby has opened her eyes" for the first time since being shot, he delightedly repeated that "Gabby opened her eyes!" The address was over 30 mi...

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...

Obama and Palin: A Tale Of Two Speakers
The contrasts, both in style and in tone, were undeniable. Perhaps more telling though are the apparent motivations behind the two public statements made by Barack Obama and Sarah Palin yesterday, in response to the Assassination attempt on the life of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Obama, speaking at the Arizona memorial service for the other Victims of Saturday's shooting, did what presidents do. Looking and sounding more presidential then he has at any other point during his tenu...

Palin: Attacks over shooting are 'blood libel'
Sarah Palin today accused her opponents of Manufacturing a "blood Libel" by suggesting her Rhetoric and campaign tactics had anything to do with the Arizona shootings. Four days after an incident which left six people dead and critically injured the congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Palin released a video statement condemning the attack. She denied that a now infamous campaign map showing Giffords's electoral district in the cross hairs of a gun had influenced the shooter Jared Lee Loughner. In ...

Some Democrats seek to dial back overheated rhetoric on shootings
ANALYSIS: Some Democrats are calling for a cease-fire in a heated liberal campaign to pin blame for the Tucson, Ariz., massacre on conservative Speech and specifically on former Republican vice-presidential Candidate Sarah Palin. No evidence has surfaced that the shooting suspect, Jared Lee Loughner, was motivated by any Political Speech, left or right. News reports tell of a deeply troubled man who thinks the government orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, hates The Bible and was thrown out of coll...

Never Forgive, Never Forget
I had a piece about half worked out in my head. It would have been a good piece, on inflammatory Rhetoric in politics. I was going to make a suggestion: that those most concerned with "calling out" those who use violent language start with their own sides first. I'd even set an example, by choosing some right-winger who I thought had gone too far and chewing them out -- then ask someone to point out a leftist going after one of their own. If they needed help, I'd point to any of a number of com...

Heal This
Speaker John Boehner will host a cocktail party for the Republican National Committee at the same time that President Barack Obama will be addressing the nation at the memorial service for Victims of the Tucson shooting. - Roll Call I honestly don’t know what to say, when in a moment of national mourning the Speaker of the House chooses a Washington, D.C. Fundraiser instead of attending the memorial in Tuscon, Arizona. After a pitch perfect address to the House, the quieting of the c...

Most Voters View Arizona Shootings As Random Act of Violence, Not Politics
Americans have closely followed news stories about the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the killing of six others in Arizona on Saturday, and most don't feel politics was the cause of it. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 28% of Adults say the shooting in Arizona was the result of political anger in the country. Fifty-eight percent (58%) say instead that it was a random act of violence by an unstable person. Fourteen percent (14%) are Undecided. (T...

Inflammatory speech causing violence
Sarah Palin and her supporters along with the right-wing media are crying foul to suggestions that their inflammatory Rhetoric had any role in the horrendous assault in Arizona. Listening to the debate I could not help but think of the times I have stood by Eisenhower Lock on the Seaway and watched a ship go through with a load of Gasoline. Before the ship entered the lock, red lights came on and announcements were made to ensure that no one was smoking. In the presence of volatiles, the respo...

Slime has no compassion, no honor, no respect
Posted by Guest Blogger Locutisprime. No, slime has no compassion or honor or respect for anything. Certainly not when it concerns the opportunity to raise money for political gain. How could anyone see the tragedy in Arizona as an opportunity to raise money for their own political gains? A democrat could and a democrat has. There has been no shortage of individuals and institutions that have sought to capitalize on the shootings in Tucson. Add Vermont senator Bernie Sanders to that list. This a...

Rhetoric as comfort food: The mac-and-cheese instinct
If only we could go back to Monday. Discussions about Saturday's shootings in Tucson, which killed six and wounded 13, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, were so much simpler then: inflamed, righteous and deliciously partisan in a comfort-food kind of way. The fallout from the tragedy took a neat and predictable course: the left blaming the right for its association with incendiary Rhetoric, and the right mounting a tough defense against such accusations, arguing that liberal elites f...

Bernie Sanders Uses Tucson in Fundraising Pitch
Stephen Hayes at The Weekly Standard points to a Fundraising letter sent out by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Democratic Socialist of Vermont, that uses the Tucson shootings in a pitch for political contributions to help fight off  ”the Republican Party, big money Corporate Interests and right-wing organizations.” What should be understood is that the violence, and threats of violence against Democrats in Arizona, was not limited to Gabrielle Giffords.  Raul Grijalva, an old friend ...

Sanders fundraising e-mail: Is Ariz. safe for non-Republicans?
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is sharing his thoughts on the tragedy in Arizona through a Fundraising e-mail, skating on a thin political line. The self-described Socialist even goes as far as to question whether Arizona welcomes political dialogue from those outside the Republican Party. "Given the recent tragedy in Arizona, as well as the start of the new Congress, I wanted to take this opportunity to share a few words with political friends in Vermont and throughout the count...

Vt. senator cites shootings in fundraising letter
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — An independent U.S. senator from Vermont is being criticized by national Republicans for citing this past weekend’s shootings in Arizona in a Fundraising letter. The letter that Sen. Bernie Sanders sent out on Tuesday begins by mentioning the Shooting Spree in Tucson that killed six people and left Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 13 others wounded. The letter also mentions issues such as health care, Social Security and taxes. Sanders is up for re-e...

Sen. Sanders uses Arizona massacre in fundraising pitch
There has been no shortage of individuals and institutions that have sought to capitalize on the shootings in Tucson. Add Vermont senator Bernie Sanders to that list. This afternoon Sanders sent out a Fundraising appeal, seeking to raise money to fight Republicans and other “right-wing reactionaries” responsible for the climate that led to the shooting. Given the recent tragedy in Arizona, as well as the start of the new Congress, I wanted to take this opportunity to share a few word...

Megyn Kelly Upset Over Sen. Sanders Mention Of Arizona Shooting While Fundraising
Democratic Strategist Richard Socarides visited America Live today to discuss Vermont senator Bernie Sanders ‘ decision to discuss the weekend’s shooting in Arizona in a newsletter wherein the Independent Senator also appealed for campaign donations. Was it in poor taste? Host Megyn Kelly certainly thinks so. Socarides opined that Sanders’ letter was first and foremost “a political newsletter, not a Fundraising appeal, not a request for funds.” Kelly then pointed o...

Vt. senator cites shootings in fundraising letter
An independent U.S. senator from Vermont is being criticized by national Republicans for citing this past weekend's shootings in Arizona in a Fundraising letter. The letter that Sen. Bernie Sanders sent out on Tuesday begins by mentioning the Shooting Spree in Tucson that killed six people and left Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 13 others wounded. The letter also mentions issues such as Health Care, Social Security and taxes. Sanders is up for re-election in 2012. Brian Walsh of the...

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' shooter Jared Loughner was once 'sweet, caring' says ex-girlfriend
Jared Lee Loughner will go down in history as the crazed gunman who opened fire in Tucson on Jan. 8, wounding Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killing six. But his ex-girlfriend says the man in the headlines bears no resemblance to the shy, kind teenager she once knew. "I've always known him as the sweet, caring Jared," Kelsey Hawkes, 21 told USA Today this week. Hawkes is now a junior at the University of Arizona where Obama gave an emotional address in memory of the Shooting Victims on We...

Church backs down on Tucson funeral picket
A fundamentalist Kansas church has agreed not to Protest outside the Funerals of two Victims of a Mass Shooting in Arizona in exchange for air time on two Radio Stations. Margie Phelps, an attorney for the Westboro Baptist Church, said the decision not to picket the Funerals of nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green and Federal Judge John Roll was not based on outside pressure, but rather on how much publicity the church can receive. "It's how many ears we can reach," she said. "That is our job, t...

The President's remarks at the Memorial Service for Victims of the Arizona Shooting
THE White House Office of the Press Secretary ___________________________________________________ January 12, 2011 Remarks of President Barack Obama At a Memorial Service for the Victims of the Shooting in Tucson, Arizona University of Arizona, McKale Memorial Center Tucson, Arizona January 12, 2011 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Please, please be seated. (Applause.) To the families of those we've lost; to all who called them friends; to the Students of th...

Obama at Tucson memorial: "Gabby opened her eyes" Speech transcript
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Please, please be seated. (Applause.) To the families of those we've lost; to all who called them friends; to the Students of this university, the public servants who are gathered here, the people of Tucson and the people of Arizona: I have come here tonight as an American who, like all Americans, kneels to pray with you today and will stand by you tomorrow. (Applause.) There is nothing I can say that will fill the sudden hole torn in yo...