Sarah Palin's 'blood libel' comment overshadows a calibrated message

Sarah Palin and the "blood libel"
Posted by Paul at 8:30 PM Sarah Palin is coming in for criticism for using the term "blood Libel" to describe accusations that she and other outspoken Conservatives somehow have blood on their hands in connection with the Tucson shootings. Palin's remarks on the shootings are also being compared unfavorably to President Obama's Speech at the University of Arizona. Obama's Speech was healing and uplifting, while Palin's, some say, was divisive and defensive. I find both criticisms of Palin unfai...

How We Enable Crimes of Insanity
The deranged expression on the face of Jared Lee Loughner in the Mug Shot released by the police—taken within hours after he allegedly killed six innocent people and wounded 14 more, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords—suggests that we may never fully understand whatever illness afflicts him. The law requires us to assess his mental state and motivations, but we might do better to analyze our own craziness. That doesn’t mean trying to determine whether events like the Tucson mas...

Sarah Palin compares criticisms of her to a belief that led to the Holocaust
   In the wake of the shooting by Jared Loughner in Tucson last week, there was criticism directed against the harsh Rhetoric of those on the right-wing. Jared Loughner did not shoot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Murder a number of other individuals because Talk Radio or Sarah Palin told him to do so.  A few individuals though have committed violence or attempted to do so because of their hatred of the left. Byron Williams, a man who was going to commit violence a...

Sarah Palin's Jewish Problem
When Sarah Palin shot back at critics who proposed that her severe -- and perhaps violence-suggesting -- Rhetoric and campaigning helped inspire Jared Lee Loughner's massacre in Tuscon, she accused those critics of blood Libel -- and started an entirely new firestorm in the process. Palin's invoking of Blood libel, which in its proper use refers to a centuries old lie that was used to justify mass Anti-Semitism and Jewish persecution, immediately drew angry responses from politicians and Jewis...

Mayor Bloomberg says he doesn't blame Sarah Palin for Tuscon shooting
The tragic shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has led to a lot of finger pointing, including from New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, but one person who the mayor doesn’t blame is former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. On Tuesday Bloomberg, who serves as co-chair of the nearly 600 member Mayors Against Illegal Guns blamed government officials for selling a gun to a man who was rejected from the Military due to drug use and outlined five simple measures that could preve...

Youngest victim of US shooting buried
The youngest Victim of the Tucson shootings was laid to rest Thursday, a day after President Barack Obama hailed the 9-year-old girl as an inspiration to US politicians to heal their poisonous divisions. Christina Taylor Green, who was among six people killed by a misfit gunman last Saturday, has become the heart-breaking public face of the attacks which unleashed a wave of soul-searching about America's political culture. Hundreds of people lined the streets as her small coffin was borne into t...

Finding the Forgotten Majority
“There is a need for some reflection here—what is too far now? What was too far when Oklahoma City happened is accepted now. There’s been a desensitizing. These town halls and cable TV and Talk Radio, everybody’s trying to outdo each other.” Those were the words of an unnamed Republican senator after America’s latest shooting rampage, this one a political Assassination attempt in Tucson, Ariz. How sad—and telling—that the lawmaker refused to attach...

Sarah Palin Is No Longer Reloading: Die Zeit, Germany
It may be the greatest challenge in Sarah Palin’s Political Career: how to respond to accusations that her words contributed to the Tucson massacre? According to columnist Christoph von Marschall of Germany’s Die Zeit, while most agree she bears no direct responsibility for the attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Palin’s entire future hangs in the balance. For Die Zeit, Christoph von Marschall writes in part: Only a very small number of people still believe that Sarah...

Obama's call for civility seen as striking right tone
WASHINGTON — President Obama's warmly received plea for tolerance and temperance in the wake of last weekend's massacre in Tucson has created an opportunity for him to change the tone of political debate in Washington — and possibly advance his overall agenda. Former White House officials and experts in government and communications said Obama's healing words at Wednesday night's memorial service conveyed a message the country needed to hear. By not pointing fingers or seeking to scor...

Will the Tucson Shooting Alter the Gun Control Debate?
Photo: Getty Images As the Green family buried their 9-year-old daughter Christina-Taylor today, one group has remained surprisingly silent: The National Rifle Association. Out of respect for Saturday's Shooting Victims, the NRA has said it will stay mum until all of the Victim's funerals have passed, noting that “at this time, anything other than prayers for the victims and their families would be inappropriate.” But Gun Control advocates have openly expressed their hopes that thi...

Caller Tells Al Sharpton The Left is is Going After Sarah Palin because They are Afraid of Her Audio 1/12/11
Here is audio of a caller to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s Radio Show who really took to task those who have been attacking Sarah Palin - trying to tie Palin to inciting the Tucson Mass Shooting. The caller said the Left is afraid of Palin and are going after her as a result. Via Radio Equalizer ...

Thursday Open Thread
Below the fold, I have news on the edict that Roger Ailes issued to all the employees of Fox News. It’s quite a story and reveals that Ailes is as astute as ever and has an uncanny ability to sense the nation’s shifting moods. His edict was evident in last night’s exceptional and respectful coverage of Obama’s Speech by Fox News’s Bret Baier, Brit Hume, Charles Krauthammer, et al. (But do check out my side note on Obama’s Speech — it’s at the end ...

Healer in Chief
The powerful elegy that President Obama delivered in Tucson was a big step toward his long-held goal of transforming the nation’s choleric and dysfunctional political culture. Subsequent steps will be harder—but no longer seem impossible. Listening to Obama’s Speech brought back memories of Obama the Candidate, a mesmerizing orator with the power to summon visions of a better America. He seemed almost to transcend politics. If you listened to what candidate Obama was saying, h...

Youngest US shooting victim laid to rest
The youngest Victim of the Arizona shootings has been laid to rest, a day after President Barack Obama hailed the nine-year-old girl as an inspiration to US politicians to heal their poisonous divisions. Christina Taylor Green, who was among six people killed by a lone gunman in Tucson last Saturday, has become the heart-breaking public face of the attacks which unleashed a wave of soul-searching about America's political culture. Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, 40, was left fightin...

Arizona shooting survivors may face emotional trauma
TUCSON — Bill Badger, a retired Army colonel, had a flashback of dead and injured people on the ground a day after he was shot along with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 17 others Saturday. Giffords aide Pam Simon, who was shot twice while lining up people to meet her boss, is afraid to close her eyes because she sees scenes of carnage. Susan Hileman, wounded while Holding Hands with her now-dead 9-year-old neighbor, can't help blaming herself for bringing the child there. Doctors say the physi...

Sarah Palin: Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel
Early Wednesday morning, Sarah Palin issued a statement and a video addressing the Arizona shootings.  She specifically targeted the mainstream press who tried to blame her, Glenn Beck and the Tea Party for what is now being called the "Tucson massacre." Vigorous and spirited public debates during Elections are among our most cherished traditions. And after the election, we shake hands and get back to work, and often both sides find common ground back in D.C. and elsewhere. If you don’...

Limbaugh's 'Straight Shooter' Tucson Billboard is Removed
Even gun metaphors need a rest now and again. In the wake of the Tucson, Ariz., shooting at an event hosted by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Talk Radio host Rush Limbaugh has been emphatic in his assertion that he and other right-wing political figures in no way contributed to the mindset of suspected gunman Jared Loughner. But an unfortunate billboard advertising Limbaugh's show has given his critics some ammunition of their own. You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for those opposed to into...

'Follow the Example of President Obama. Now There a Real Leader'
After being accused of Murder and mayhem, Sarah Palin defends herself and the media blames her for injecting politics and Controversy into the Tucson shootings. Now she plans a Monday interview with Sean Hannity and the new Age of Civility rears its ugly head. Sarah Palin is scheduled to sit for her first extended interview since the Tucson shooting rampage on Monday night, on the Fox News Channel. An executive at Fox News Channel said that Ms. Palin would appear on the program of the conservati...

Investigators look over bag suspect may have carried
TUCSON — Authorities are examining a black bag containing 9mm ammunition they believe was discarded by the suspect in the Assassination attempt on a congresswoman. Pima County Sheriff's deputies, working with the FBI to gather evidence from the shooting Saturday, said they believe a black diaper bag found Thursday morning by someone walking a dog was used by Jared Loughner, 22, who faces federal Murder and assault charges. The bag was found near the Loughners' suburban home, Sheriff's Deput...

Sarah Palin says blaming rhetoric for shooting is 'a blood libel'
Sarah Palin ended her near silence on the Arizona shootings yesterday, saying that critics had manufactured a "blood Libel" by blaming her Rhetoric for contributing to the shooting rampage in Tucson in which six people died and 14 were wounded, including Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords. • In her video message, Sarah Palin said she and her supporters would not change their Rhetoric because of the Arizona shooting In an eight-minute address posted online, the prominent Republican...

Sarah Palin Refudiates Sarah Palin
Everyone's all aflush with talk of Sarah Palin's invocation of "blood Libel," so this section of her prepared statement probably isn't getting the attention it deserves: President Reagan said, "We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions." Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them, ...

Obama Rising
Barack Obama's soothing words after the Tucson shootings contrast sharply with Sarah Palin's harsh Rhetoric. That may be one reason Obama is on the rise in recent polling. The morning after President Barack Obama delivered a well-received eulogy for the Victims of the Tucson, Arizona, Mass Shooting, he got some good news from a Quinnipiac University poll. Obama’s Approval Rating increased to 48 percent, his highest number in more than a year. More importantly, Americans view Obama much mor...

Palin Claims 'Blood Libel' by Critics After Shootings
(Adds history of "blood Libel" in ninth paragraph.) Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Calling it a "blood libel," Sarah Palin condemned people who have criticized her for heated political Rhetoric and the role it may have played in the shootings in Tucson, Arizona. Palin, 46, the former Republican Governor of Alaska, her party's 2008 nominee for vice president and a potential 2012 Presidential Candidate, made her statement in an Internet video. "Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own," she said...

Palin lashes out at blood libel critics over Arizona shooting
TUCSON,Arizona — Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on Wednesday lashed out at critics for Manufacturing “blood Libel” with claims she bore some responsibility for the attempted Assassination of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. In a lengthy video posted on her Facebook page, Ms. Palin rejected charges she has stoked political anger to dangerous levels and urged Americans to reject calls from those “seeking to muzzle dissent with shrill cries of imagined insults....

9-11 Flag Raised in Tucson to Honor Young Christina Green (Video)
The Funeral for the youngest Victim of the Mass Shooting in Arizona began with the raising of the largest flag recovered from Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The 9-11 Flag was raised today in her honor. Christina Taylor Green, 9, was among six people shot and killed Saturday outside a Grocery Store in Tucson, Arizona. (ESPN) Christina Taylor Green was born on Sept. 11, 2001. She was murdered on Saturday at a Tucson Safeway. The family of the youngest Victim of the m...