Poll: Shooting spree not due to rhetoric

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...

AZ sheriff knew in advance about Loughner
Even as Arizona Sheriff Clarence Dupnik launched into yet another rampage against Rush Limbaugh yesterday, new information has emerged showing that the sheriff knew in advance about Jared Lee Loughner and the danger he posed.  According to a special report, Pima County Sheriff's Office records indicate that deputies had been called numerous times to the Loughner residence to address complaints by neighbors and others who were clearly frightened by Jared Loughner's growing anti-social, psych...

Rush Limbaugh: Jared Lee Loughner has the "Full Support" of Democrats
(Credit: AP Photo/Gary He) Controversial, conservative Talk Radio host Rush Limbaugh is stepping up his assault against the Democratic Party in the wake of the Mass Shooting in Tucson, Ariz., claiming the Democrats fully "support" the alleged shooter. On his Radio Show Tuesday, Limbaugh said, "What Mr. Loughner knows is that he has the full support of a major political party in this country. He's sitting there in jail. He knows what's going on, he knows that... the Democrat party is attemptin...

Reaction to Tucson Shooting: Defining Moment for Left
In the immediate aftermath of the attempt on the life of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), many (but fortunately not all) on the left were quick to blame conservative Rhetoric.  They thought hoped this shooting would prove to be their silver bullet in their war on the right, proof of their creed that conservative rhetoric breeds violence. They intended to use it as a defining moment of the currently re-ascendant Conservative Movement.  Instead, their reaction has made it a defining momen

Sarah Palin Invokes Anti-Semitic Term Blood Libel in Reaction to Arizona Shootings
There has been extensive discussion about whether intensified hateful Rhetoric used in partisan debate may have incited accused Arizona shooter Jared Loughner to try to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at her Congress on the Corner event Saturday, wounding 13 others and killing six.  Loughner himself has not yet explicitly expressed a motive, though Law Enforcement has uncovered evidence indicating an extreme political dislike for Giffords. Journalists such as Keith Olbermann and others ...

Poll: Most Say Rhetoric, Killings Unrelated
From a deeply saddened CBS News: Poll: Most Americans Feel Rhetoric, Tucson Shooting Unrelated Posted by Daniel Carty January 11, 2011 Nearly six in 10 Americans say the country’s heated political rhetoric is not to blame for the Tucson shooting rampage that left six dead and critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to a CBS News poll. So either our media master has better ratchet up their efforts or move on to their fall back position - Gun Control. In the wake ...

U.S. majority doesn't blame rhetoric for Giffords shooting
WASHINGTON | Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:18am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of Americans reject the view that heated political Rhetoric was a factor in the weekend shootings in Arizona which killed six and critically wounded a congresswoman, a CBS News said on Tuesday. Since the Saturday incident in which Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot at point-blank range, various politicians and commentators have said a climate in which strong language and ideological polarization is com...

Sarah Palin proves -- again -- that she is a terrible politician
Sarah Palin didn't retreat. She reloaded. And she proved, again, that she is a ruinously incompetent politician. Over the weekend, liberal pundits overeagerly speculated that she may have inspired the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). After learning more about alleged shooter Jared Loughner, many of those same commentators restrained their criticism of the former Alaska Governor, and polls showed that Americans are skeptical of any connection. People recognized Palin had been unfair...

Officers Stopped Suspect on Day of Ariz. Shooting
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP)-- The suspect in a deadly Arizona shooting ran a red light and was stopped by a wildlife officer less than three hours before the attack that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The Arizona Game and Fish Department says an officer stopped Jared Loughner at about 7:30 a.m. Saturday. You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for those opposed to intolerance, excessive government control of our lives, and attempts to monopolize opinion or suppress freedom of thought, expression, ...

Accused Arizona gunman stopped for running red light
TUCSON, Arizona | Wed Jan 12, 2011 2:21pm EST TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) - Arizona shooting rampage suspect Jared Loughner was pulled over for running a stoplight about two hours before he shot six people dead and wounded 13 others at a Tucson shopping center, authorities said on Wednesday. A state Game and Fish Department officer made the Traffic Stop at around 7:30 a.m. local time on Saturday and issued Loughner a verbal warning after conducting a check of his driver's license and registrati...

Arizona shootings won't isolate lawmakers, John Boehner tells House
The House of Representatives on Wednesday memorialized the 19 Victims of the weekend Shooting Spree in Tucson as the nation prepared for a day of mourning capped by a Speech by President Obama in Arizona. "We are called here to mourn an unspeakable act of violence," Speaker John Boehner said as the House began its debate over a resolution honoring the six slain and 13 injured, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who remains in critical condition after Saturday's attack outside a Supermarket in T...

House honors Giffords; touches on guns, rhetoric, individual responsibility
During the first speeches in Congress since the Mass Shooting in Arizona, Gun Control, the role of Rhetoric, and individual responsibility were brought up. Members, introducing a resolution honoring Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (R-AZ), largely stuck to honoring the Victims. But there were some notable moments of speeches that strayed from that. California Democrat and Veteran Member, Jane Harman, after praising Giffords and recognizing the victims, was the first to bring up gun control. "Finally, we ...

Obama, Gillibrand en route to Tucson for memorial
President Obama and a delegation of lawmakers jetted off to Arizona Wednesday afternoon for a memorial service for the Victims killed during the Assassination attempt of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a close Capitol Hill pal of Giffords, joined Obama aboard Air Force One. The groups of lawmakers, which included Giffords' friends and her fellow Arizona reps, planned to first visit her at the Hospital, where she's being treated for a gunshot wound to the head. "We ma...

Tim Pawlenty's hypocritical criticism of Sarah Palin
Tim Pawlenty thinks Sarah Palin shouldn't have used gunsight crosshairs imagery and says he would never have done anything like it: “It would not have been my style to put the cross hairs on there,” he said Tuesday on “Good Morning America,” referring to a map like the one posted last year on SarahPAC’s website showing gunsights on the Congressional Districts represented by Giffords and a select group of lawmakers who supported Health Care reform. “But then a...

UC Berkeley Chancellor Blames Ariz. Shooting on Hateful Speech
Yesterday morning, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau emailed the campus community with regard to the horrendous Mass Shooting in Arizona that killed a Federal Judge, a 9-year-old girl, and several others while gravely injuring Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the apparent target of the attack. You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for those opposed to intolerance, excessive government control of our lives, and attempts to monopolize opinion or suppress freedom of thought, expres...

Obama to be nation's consoler at memorial service
WASHINGTON—Searching for unity out of tragedy, President Barack Obama will honor the Victims of the Arizona Mass Shooting in personal terms and remind those in grief that an entire nation is with them. The president is again stepping into his role as national consoler, a test of leadership that comes with the job. His mission at Wednesday's memorial is to uplift and rally, not to examine political Incivility. Set to speak during an evening gathering in Tucson, Ariz., Obama will remember t...

Report: Loughner's Online Musings Bizarre, Sad
With all the evidence against the suspected Tucson shooter Jared Loughner, a Guilty verdict could still prove very difficult. Jan Crawford reports on the latest details of the case. Though Jared Lee Loughner's parents were "completely surprised" by the news of the Tucson shooting, former friends and classmates of Loughner's were not. Ben Tracy reports on the troubled past of Jared Lee Loughner. Doctors at Tucson's University Medical Center are increasingly optimistic about Ariz. Democratic Rep. ...

Infidel Bloggers Alliance
The Hill: Poll: Rhetoric, Arizona shooting unrelated By Jordan Fabian - 01/11/11 08:13 AM ET Almost 60 percent of the public believes that heated political rhetoric has nothing to do with an Arizona Shooting Spree that gravely wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) and killed a Federal Judge. Fifty-seven percent of respondents in a new CBS News poll said rhetoric is unrelated to the shooting, while 32 percent said they believe the two are connected. Many pundits and lawmakers have keyed in on ...

Most Americans do not blame political rhetoric for AZ shootings, survey says
Stumble This! WASHINGTON - A majority of Americans reject the view that heated political Rhetoric was a factor in the weekend shootings in Arizona which killed six and critically wounded a congresswoman, a CBS News poll said on Tuesday. Since the Saturday incident in which Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot at point-blank range, various politicians and commentators have said a climate in which strong language and ideological polarization is common may have contributed to the att...

Is Tucson Sheriff Dupnik covering something up?
Sheriff's Department and community-college officials in Pima County are refusing to release a wide range of public documents about the man charged in Saturday's shooting rampage that left six dead and more than a dozen wounded. The Pima County Sheriff's Department and Pima Community College have declined to release documents that could shed light on run-ins they had with 22-year-old Jared Loughner in the months prior to the shooting. The Arizona Public Records Law requires that records be "open ...

Some historical perspective on political civility
In the aftermath of the attempted Assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), there has been near-hysteria about the tenor of our political culture. Has the inflammatory Rhetoric gone too far? Is there too much vitriol in American politics? Is the Tea Party movement to blame? This entire pointed conversation about our current state of political affairs — spearheaded largely by the American left —reveals a serious lack of self-reflection or historical perspective. For those who feel...

Update: Westboro vultures will leave Green family alone, but
The evil Westboro ghouls will stay away from 9-year-old Christina Green’s Funeral in Arizona, but as a result of a “deal,” they will get increased exposure of their vile views — and they still plan on protesting other Tucson massacre Victims’ memorial services. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports: Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church won’t picket the Funeral of a 9-year-old girl killed in Saturday’s shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., in exchange for g...

The Political Consequences of Violence
I believe that The New Yorker’s George Packer has mistaken the meaning of a line in my column this week. He writes: Douthat wrote, in the spirit of phony equivalence, “If overheated Rhetoric and martial imagery really led inexorably to Murder, then both parties would belong in the dock,” but also this: “the Attempted Murder of a Democratic congresswoman is a potential gift to Liberalism.” In other words, everyone goes over the line now and then, no one actually want...

Majority doesn't blame rhetoric for Giffords shooting
WASHINGTON | Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:46am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of Americans reject the view that heated political Rhetoric was a factor in the weekend shootings in Arizona which killed six and critically wounded a congresswoman, a CBS News said on Tuesday. Since the Saturday incident in which Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot at point-blank range, various politicians and commentators have said a climate in which strong language and ideological polarization is com...

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...