Shooting spotlights 'toxic' US politics

Obama Will Be in Arizona for Memorial
(NewsCore) - President Barack Obama will head to Arizona Wednesday for a memorial service being held in honor of the Victims of a shooting rampage that killed six and wounded more than a dozen Saturday, including US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Fox News Channel reported. Obama earlier Monday thanked Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik for his department’s efforts in the aftermath of the shooting. The president also rang two heroes from the scene of the shooting, Patricia Maisch and Ro...

Daniel Hernandez: The face of what's right in America
LatinaLista.net -- A lot is being made about the fact that the young intern credited with saving Congresswoman Giffords' life, Daniel Hernandez, is gay and Latino. As the sub headline of a Salon article stated: "Daniel Hernandez helped save the congresswoman's life -- and yes, his Sexuality and Ethnicity matter." Though he didn't ask for all this adulation, 20-year-old Hernandez has illustrated grace, eloquence and maturity that underscore the very reasons why it is such an injustice to vilify...

Palinistas furious over "surveyor's symbols"
The news was barely out today when social networks were erupting, blaming Sarah Palin and the Tea Party for inciting the 22-year-old alleged gunman who shot U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat from Arizona, and 16 others in a Grocery Store in Tucson, Ariz. Giffords was one of those 20 moderate Republicans and Democrats that were on Palin's now infamous "target list" that Palin compiled early last year. The graphic that went with the list features rifle scope-like cross hairs on certain legi...

Tragedy in Arizona
Gabrielle Giffords was doing what members of Congress do every week: She was home in Tucson to meet with her constituents. Today, Giffords lies in critical condition in a Tucson Hospital after one of those constituents opened fire with a semiautomatic Handgun. Six people died in the attack; 14 were injured. The madness at the Tucson shopping center Saturday morning raises old and troubling questions about gun violence in America and threatens a treasured American tradition: the right of the pe...

Threats, Violence and the Language We Should Remove From Civil Political Discourse
Jane Hamsher of HuffPo and FireDogLake posted this Mar 2010 timeline to show the connection between certain types of inflammatory Tea Party-inspired Rhetoric and actual violence. People are arguing about whether Palin influenced the Arizona shooter or not, but my point is that her actions are indefensible completely aside from that. Friday, March 19: Mike Vanderboegh of Pinson, Alabama, the former leader of the Alabama Constitutional Militia, puts out a call for modern “Sons of LibertyR...

Redstate: Outspoken Sheriff Accused Of Dismissing Loughner Death Threats
Jared Loughner has been making death threats by phone to many people in Pima County including staff of Pima Community College, radio personalities and local Bloggers. When Pima County Sheriff's Office was informed, his deputies assured the Victims that he was being well managed by the Mental Health system. It was also suggested that further pressing of charges would be unnecessary and probably cause more problems than it solved as Jared Loughner has a family member that works for Pima County. Th...

Redstate: Outspoken Sheriff Accused Of Dismissing Loughner Death Threats
Jared Loughner has been making death threats by phone to many people in Pima County including staff of Pima Community College, radio personalities and local Bloggers. When Pima County Sheriff's Office was informed, his deputies assured the Victims that he was being well managed by the Mental Health system. It was also suggested that further pressing of charges would be unnecessary and probably cause more problems than it solved as Jared Loughner has a family member that works for Pima County. Th...

Suspect in Arizona shootings appears in court
By David Schwartz PHOENIX, Arizona | Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:42pm EST PHOENIX, Arizona (Reuters) - A troubled 22-year-old College Dropout made his first court appearance on Monday on five federal charges, including the attempted Assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who remained in critical condition with a bullet wound to the head. His hands manacled together, Jared Lee Loughner said understood the charges against him that stem from a Shooting Spree in Tucson on Saturday that left s...

Suspect in Arizona shootings appears in court
By David Schwartz PHOENIX, Arizona | Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:42pm EST PHOENIX, Arizona (Reuters) - A troubled 22-year-old College Dropout made his first court appearance on Monday on five federal charges, including the attempted Assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who remained in critical condition with a bullet wound to the head. His hands manacled together, Jared Lee Loughner said understood the charges against him that stem from a Shooting Spree in Tucson on Saturday that left s...

Obama, Boehner Face Leadership Test In Wake Of Arizona Tragedy
WASHINGTON — On opposite sides of the political spectrum, President Barack Obama and new House Speaker John Boehner suddenly face the same challenge: rise above the anger, suspicion and hostility of their liberal and conservative bases to help a rattled nation deal with the deadly outburst of violence in Arizona. But what comes after the easy moment of silence? For now, both men are stepping past the question of what role, if any, the vitriol of the past election campaign played in Satur...

Arizona Sheriff Dupnik Was Aware of Loughners Mental Illness, Did Nothing
From Reuters: The suspect in Saturday’s shooting rampage in which a U.S. congresswoman was critically wounded was unstable and had been known to make Death Threats in the past, the local sheriff said. The FBI is investigating whether the man is the same person who posted a rambling Internet manifesto accusing the government of mind control and demanding a new currency. Jared Lee Loughner, 22, of Tucson, was taken into Custody moments after the shooting at a political meeting held by Dem...

Searching for answers to Tuscon tragedy
Image via CrunchBase IBD: From New York newspaper columnists to an Illinois senator, the liberal left is blaming the Tea Party and conservative stars for the shooting of an Arizona congresswoman. How about blaming the Communist and Nazi-loving shooter? It didn't take long for New York Times columnist Paul Krugman to blame the Tea Party and Sarah Palin for the shooting outside a Tucson Supermarket that seriously injured Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords and left six others, including a 9-year-old,...

Arizona shootings: Left and right at odds over effects of toxic politics
Glenn Beck with Sarah Palin at Time's 100 most influential people in the world gala on May 4, 2010. Photograph: Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Time Inc On his Radio Show this morning, Glenn Beck, the sometimes incendiary talkshow host, was all sympathy for Sarah Palin. "I know you are feeling the same heat on this," he said, reading out his exchange of email with the firebrand leader who has been accused of helping to create the toxic environment of current American politics. Forty-eight ho...

Your Opinions
On Saturday, Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was targeted and shot in the head during a mass meeting with voters. During the contentious Elections last fall, her opponent, Jesse Kelly, held fund-raisers where he urged supporters to help remove Giffords from office by joining him to shoot a fully loaded M-16 rifle (Page 1A, Jan. 9). Hate Speech proclaimed by politicians and political pundits riles up the violent to violence. Those politicians and pundits can't escape charges of complicity. Ther...

Yes, There is a Political Climate of Hate
While millions of Americans are privately praying for Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the rest of the Victims of a crazed gunman and their grieving families, those on the left have been repeatedly calling for an end to the politics of hate. Not the hate filled heart of a lunatic. No, they want to shut up those with whom they disagree. So they classify anyone with a differing point a view a hate-monger. It’s appalling and I don’t even want to link to any of it because I’...

Hardball: Tea Party Under Fire Over Arizona Tragedy (Huffington Post)
Read Chris Matthews's other articles on HuffingtonPost.com Below is the video and transcript of my interview with Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation. "If people on the right and Sarah Palin and so forth are responsible for all of this and this vitriolic Rhetoric is so pitched, how come this isn't happening every day? Why is it the vast exception to the rule? There's no logic in any of the assertions they're making. None." Chris Matthews: That was Rush Limbau...

Calls for softer tone in politics gets cool reception
By Ed Stoddard DALLAS | Mon Jan 10, 2011 7:21pm EST DALLAS (Reuters) - Calls to reset the tone of politics in the aftermath of Saturday's shooting rampage in Arizona got short shrift on Talk Radio and elsewhere as left and right traded blame for the massacre. From the right, Bloggers and pundits labeled suspected shooter Jared Lee Loughner a "leftist" while critics of conservative super-star Sarah Palin accused her of creating a combustible political atmosphere with her behavior and Rhetoric....

A tale of two shootings
Some good news is emanating tonight from University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona, where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ neurosurgeon, Dr. G. Michael Lemole, reports that the congresswoman is showing no signs of further brain swelling, which is a positive indicator. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the six Victims of Jared Lee Loughner who perished on Saturday. Or for the twelve Victims who died at Ft. Hood on November 5, 2009, when Major Nidal Malik Hasan shouted “Allah akbar” ...

Judges Purpose in Seeing Giffords Could Be Legally Significant
Was U.S. District Court Judge John M. Roll just being sociable when he dropped by an appearance by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in Tucson on Saturday, or was he planning to discuss official business? Does it even matter, given the horror of that morning? Yes, it could matter, legally speaking. At first glance, Roll’s state of mind might appear irrelevant, given the tragedy that unfolded on Saturday morning, when Roll was shot dead and Giffords gravely wounded in a rampage that killed ...

Had Arizona shooter made death threats by phone?
Image via Wikipedia The Cholla Jump: ... Jared Loughner has been making death threats by phone to many people in Pima County including staff of Pima Community College, radio personalities and local Bloggers. When Pima County Sheriff’s Office was informed, his deputies assured the Victims that he was being well managed by the Mental Health system. It was also suggested that further pressing of charges would be unnecessary and probably cause more problems than it solved as Jared Loughner h...

The narrative of the hateful left
The Murder of six people, the shooting of twelve more, including Congresswoman Giffords, and the politization of the incident: Andrew Klavan writes about The Hateful Left Where incendiary political Rhetoric truly resides in America Indeed, the Left’s hysterical response to all who disagree with it—that they are Racist or sexist or “phobic” or somehow reminiscent of Hitler—has become so predictable that satirists, from the Libertarian Greg Gutfeld to the liberal Jon Stewart, h

Ex-House leader DeLay gets 3-year prison term...
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- A judge ordered former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to serve three years in Prison Monday for his role in a scheme to illegally funnel corporate money to Texas Candidates in 2002. The sentence comes after a jury in November convicted DeLay on charges of Money Laundering and Conspiracy to commit money laundering. DeLay was once one of the Most Powerful men in U.S. politics, ascending to the No. 2 job in the House of Representatives. Senior Judge Pat Priest sentenced ...

Dem Congresswoman Says GOP Shouldnt Use Job Killing in Name of ObamaCare Repeal Bill
asdfjldfskjlsdf dfskl;asDF;K…sorry about that, I was banging my head off the keyboard. (Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) via Huff Po)-As I write this, the motivation behind the shooting of my friend Gabby Giffords and eleven others isn’t clear. We don’t know what prompted the shooter to show up at Gabby’s Congress on Your Corner at a Tucson Grocery Store with a semiautomatic pistol and the motivation to kill innocent people. We don’t know if it was unmitigated hatred and...

Speaker Boehner And Republican Rhetoric
Let me start by saying that the new Speaker’s comments after the Arizona shooting were absolutely perfect.  However in the wake of Matt Taibbi’s portrait of Speaker Boehner in Rolling Stone, Boehner should be scrutinizing his own recent actions.  Most revealing are comments Boehner made about former Rep. Steve Dreihaus. After Boehner suggested that by voting for ObamaCare, Driehaus “may be a dead man” and “can’t go home to the west side of Cincinnati...

Michael Roth: Sowing the Rage
In the wake of the killings in Arizona we should not be talking about Sarah Palin, or about media elites and who should apologize to whom. We should be talking about the ease with which a very disturbed young man was able to plug his demons into a culture of rage cultivated by the Right. And then why he was able to buy an automatic weapon to turn his personal eccentricities into a public nightmare. "Energizing the base" has become just a euphemism for demonization, the glorification of macho ...