Sarah Palin Accuses Journalists Of 'Blood Libel,' Calls Loughner 'Apolitical' (VIDEO)

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...

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 ...

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 - +...

Sarah Palin receiving unprecedented level of death threats
(ABC News)- An aide close to Sarah Palin says death threats and security threats have increased to an unprecedented level since the shooting in Arizona, and the former Alaska Governor’s team has been talking to security professionals. Palin has taken much heat for her “crosshairs” map that targeted 20 congressional Democrats in the 2010 mid-term election, including that of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was the main target of Saturday’s attack. ...

Backlash Grows Over Palin's 'Blood Libel' Claim
Sarah Palin's use of the loaded phrase "blood Libel" is attracting more attention and condemnation as the day goes on. The former Alaska Governor used the words to describe the claims of critics who said Palin deserved some of the blame for the Arizona shootings because of her fiery Rhetoric and her target-marked election map that put the sights on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), among others. But the phrase most often refers to an anti-Semitic myth that's been used to justi...

Death threats against Palin increase
Death threats against Sarah Palin have reached an unprecedented level in recent days, an aide says. In the wake of Saturday’s shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others, the aide said that threats against Palin have spiked, ABC News reported. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset The aide did not offer further details on the threats or whether Palin has taken additional security precautions. Palin’s use of gun-related language and imagery, including a map that marked Giffords&r...;

A Brief Remark On Sarah Palin
Jon Chait is defending her: Okay, it’s a little over the top for Sarah Palin to accuse her critics of “blood Libel.” But she does have a basic point. She had nothing to do with Jared Loughner. He was not an Extremist who embraced some radical version of her ideas. And her use of targets to identify districts Republicans were, um, targeting is not exceptional or prone to incite anybody. What’s happening is that Palin has come to represent unhinged Grassroots Conservatism...

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

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...

Krauthammer: Palin’s Statement on Tucson ‘Unfortunate and Unnecessary’
He mainly laments that Palin gave the Speech at all. Sure, it might be a sensitive issue given that Gabrielle Giffords is Jewish, and she's fighting for her life while the rest of the nation debates allegations of "blood Libel"? I'm personally not bothered by the use of the term as it's applied to the libelous attacks on Palin and Tea Party Conservatives. Frankly, Glenn Reynolds' essay at WSJ the other day has been one of the most penetrating: "The Arizona Tragedy and the Politics of Blood Libel...

"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 ...

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 ...

Atmosphere Of Hate: Death Threats Against Sarah Palin At An Unprecedented Level
Which is kind of ironic given that Palin herself has been targeted for creating an “atmosphere of hate” that led to the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords: An aide close to Sarah Palin says death threats and security threats have increased to an unprecedented level since the shooting in Arizona, and the former Alaska Governor’s team has been talking to security professionals. Since the shooting in Tucson, Palin has taken much heat for her “crosshairs” map that targ...

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...

"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: ...

Olbermann Attacks Palin and Breitbart on Blood Libel Reference
It's amusing to hear this guy lecture about vitriolic political Rhetoric....

The Presidents Speech and Killing Sarah Palin
What was billed as a “memorial service” in Arizona last night was more of a pep-rally and celebration of life. It was complete with sloganeering, Bumper Stickers, and t-shirts. It is what was needed. What’s more, Mr. Obama gave a stunning rebuke to his own base who’ve engaged in a horrific blame game all week. But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized - at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of...

Palin e-mail intruder imprisoned
A man who broke into Sarah Palin's e-mail has been imprisoned - despite being told he might be spared jail. David Kernell, 23, was found Guilty last year of illegally accessing Mrs Palin's e-mail during the 2008 Presidential Campaign. At the time, a judge suggested he should serve his year-long sentence in a halfway house. But after intervention from US government officials he is now in federal Prison, the BBC has learned. Officials confirmed that Mr Kernell reported on 10 January to b...

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...

Video: Palin's 'Right To Rage'; Hillary Clinton Takes A Trip
Stephen Colbert defends former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin 's, "right to rage" and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gets tripped up during her visit to Yemen. Jay Leno , on Sarah Palin's Alaska not returning for a second season: "That's a commitment for you. When a Candidate walks away from a reality show, that's when you know their serious about being President of the United States." Take today's Late Night Poll after the jump....

Michael Russnow: Media Pundit Sarah Palin Says She's Not Responsible: Oh, Yeah? I Don't Think So
The subject of the tragedy in Tucson has perhaps been talked to death on the major networks, but having watched the give and take on both sides of the political spectrum, as well as those who preach moderation, it's my view regarding Sarah Palin and her ilk, that they doth Protest too much. I'll let slide Sarah Palin's use of anti-Semitic terms such as "blood Libel" in her desperate attempt to cast aside aspersions to her integrity, because I honestly don't believe she has the intellectual dep...

Palin grabs spotlight with video
On a day that political leaders in Washington and Arizona devoted to honoring Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and other Victims of Saturday’s Mass Shooting in Tucson, Sarah Palin proved once again that her bully pulpit is second to none in commanding the attention and passions of the political world. As Democratic and Republican lawmakers filed into the well of the House to offer prayers for the severely wounded Giffords and the six people who were killed, Palin’s eight-minute Facebook vid...

Sarah Palin Fires Back; New Yorkers Also Scramble for Guns
​Apparently fearing an invasion by crazed Arizonans packing heat, New Yorkers are scrambling to buy guns, the Post reports this morning. At least we're back to reality, instead of the platitudes from President Barack Obama about how we need more "civility." He packed little heat in his Speech last night, "carefully inject[ing]" himself into the standoff between Sarah Palin and humanism. There's even less chance of civility breaking out than there is of Gun Laws across the entire country bei...

News links: Obama calls for civility, saying We can be better
In a Speech at the University of Arizona, where he was to commemorate the Victims of Saturday’s attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, President Obama asked Americans to put aside sharp political Rhetoric and talk to each other “in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.” AP>>> A total of 34,612 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico in the four years since Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war against the country’s powerful Drug Cartels....

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...