Some of us want climate change

Paul Krugman: Climate of Hate
Whether the shooting in Arizona is the beginning or the end depends upon how leaders within the GOP respond: Climate of Hate, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times: ...I’ve had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach ever since the final stages of the 2008 campaign. I remembered the upsurge in political hatred after Bill Clinton’s election in 1992 — an upsurge that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing. And you could see, just by watching the crowds at McCain-Palin rallies, that it was

Monday Big Blue Smuf Blogging: What They Said
Today's honoree: None other than the Shrill One himself, Paul Krugman, on the Right Wing Climate of Hate. The point is that there’s room in a Democracy for people who ridicule and denounce those who disagree with them; there isn’t any place for eliminationist Rhetoric, for suggestions that those on the other side of a debate must be removed from that debate by whatever means necessary. And it’s the saturation of our political discourse — and especially our airwaves —...

Krugman: Hate Comes Mainly from the Right
You really have to admire Paul Krugman for having the courage to engage in his latest bit of hackery. He didn’t want to do it, you see. He was duty-bound: Column meta: I hated, hated, hated writing tomorrow’s column. . . . But nobody would read a piece about health-care Accounting or Eurozone adjustment problems if I put it out tomorrow, and there are some things I fear won’t be said if I don’t do it (just as there were during the runup to the Iraq War); so Arizona it is....

Conservatives push back against liberal attacks
On the day of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting, liberals went on the offensive, suggesting that overheated conservative Rhetoric contributed to the Arizona attack. On Sunday, Conservatives pushed back – arguing that attempts to politicize the event were unfair, crass and therefore likely to backfire. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset “It should not be, but the media, under the guise of ‘a full exposition’ of the evil in Arizona, is back to subtly and not so s...

Tucson tragedy, exploited by main stream media?
Moments after the tragic shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the main stream media, in a rush to cast blame, chose the conservative Talk Shows and the Tea Party movement as the main instigator to today’s tragedy. They claimed that it was the “Rhetoric” spewed by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and other conservative media that led Jared Loughner to commit such a cold blooded attack. Commentator Keith Olbermann of MSNBC called out Sarah Palin, Allen West, Sharron Angle, Glenn Beck, B...

Dont blame the tea parties or talk radio for senseless violence
Less than 24 hours after the mass Murder and suspected Assassination attempt allegedly perpetrated by Jared Loughner, some were immediately attempting to pace the blame for this horrific tragedy, not on the perpetrator, but on the level of “Hate Speech” which has supposedly entered our mainstream discourse.  Had hate Speech truly gone mainstream I would be willing to at least entertain the suggestion, though the blame would still lie with the person who commits the act regardles...

What should Ian do with his life? - He wants advice on what an individual can do to help humanity now
A 25-year-old reader of ClimateProgress is at a turning point in his life, and he is asking CP readers for advice. He posted the comment below in the Open Thread here, inspiring a few good responses, but I wanted more people to see this, so I’m pulling it up into a separate post: Hey everyone, My name is Ian and I’ve posted on CP a few times so maybe some of you will recognize me. Since its an open thread I’ll throw in my personal dilemma and hopefully its not too off-topic. I may di...

What Palin Needed to Say After Giffords Shooting
The shooting in Arizona shocked the nation into grief - and presented Sarah Palin with an immediate political problem: her now-notorious gunsight map. Palin scrubbed the map from her Palin PAC website, and then issued the following statement on her Facebook page: My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other Victims of today’s tragic shooting in Arizona.    On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the Victims and their families

Tea party's message: Don't blame us
Across the political spectrum, the first reactions to the news of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting Saturday were horror and grief. For many in the Tea Party movement, another reaction quickly followed: Don’t try blaming this on us, too. The Populist Conservative Movement – which exploded across the political landscape in 2009 in angry opposition to what Activists saw as the overreaching Big Government agenda pushed by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats &ndash...;

The Arizona Shooting and the Blame Game
Posted by Mike Finch on Jan 10th, 2011 and filed under Daily Mailer, FrontPage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. What a relief!  President Obama can pull FBI Director Mueller back from Arizona and call off the investigation into the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords.  The smoking gun has been found. It is obvious after listening to the Sunday morning news shows that the shoot...

Prayers for The Tucson Victims and Their Families
My heart goes out to the families of the deceased and wounded following a horrific Shooting Spree Saturday at a Safeway store in Tuscon, Ariz.  Federal Judge John Roll was killed, and U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was seriously wounded by a gunshot to the head. The shooter, 22-year-old Jared Loughner, apparently has a reputation as an oddball loner.  He shot Giffords at point blank range, so it is possible he had major disagreements with her stances on the issues, or Legislation she h...

Howard Kurtz Denounces Media for Blaming Giffords Shooting on Palin
As NewsBusters has been reporting since Saturday's tragic Shooting Spree happened in Tucson, liberal media members have predictably blamed the incident on prominent Conservatives, in particular former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. One of the first to be dragged into this sickening ritual of guilt by association: Sarah Palin. Last March, the former Alaska Governor posted a map on her Facebook page with crosshair targets representing 20 Democratic lawmakers she was singling out for defeat after...

Palin, Beck, Tea Party are not responsible for Giffords shooting
Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and the Tea Party are not responsible for the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. In fact, the only person responsible is the nut who allegedly pulled the trigger.  "Alleged", because that person is now in police custody awaiting trial, and in this country a person is Innocent Until Proven Guilty. Unless you happen to be a conservative who disagrees with Barack Obama. Liberal media pundits are turning themselves inside out b...

Even As Arizona Shooting Story Unfolds, Some Media Already Blaming Tea Party/Sarah Palin
Even as the early, sketchy details of the shooting incident in Arizona were still emerging some members of the left-leaning media were already trying to tie the killer to Tea Party Activism in general and Sarah Palin in particular. Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic.com was early to attempt to link lunatic killer Jared Loughner to the Tea Party, but he wasn’t the only one. The Washington Post’s Sandhya Somashekhar immediately attempted to color the story as an example of the “mil...

Sometimes A Tragedy Is Just A Tragedy
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. Even before anything at all was known about Jared Lee Loughner, who went on a deadly Shooting Spree outside a Safeway in Tuscon, Arizona, on Saturday, a narrative was beginning to take shape. Partisans on the left immediately blamed the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, “Talk Radio,” and Republicans more generally. That’s regrettable but probably inevitable. Agitators like Markos Moulitsas, whose Twitter feed on Saturday is ...

Will the Democrats Get Away With It?
Posted by John at 4:33 PM Not too many years ago, a horrific crime like the one perpetrated by Jared Loughner would have been the occasion for liberals to call for Gun Control Legislation. This time they are aiming higher, trying to delegitimize, with at least some sectors of the electorate, opposition to their policy preferences. The Democrats are taking a flyer on this because they think it worked for them in the case of the Oklahoma City bombing. Is there any chance, this time, that they can...

WaPo Publishes Sociologist Who Compares 'Low-Income' Supporters of Bush Tax Cuts with Poor Southerners Who Backed Slavery
A recurring feature in the Washington Post's weekly Outlook section is a column devoted to "Five myths about" a particular topic. The feature for January 9 -- "5 myths about why the South seceded" -- happened to address a timely historical topic considering this year marks the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the U.S. Civil War. Yet the author, sociologist James W. Loewen, couldn't resist the opportunity to lump modern-day Republicans and Conservatives with non-sl...

Rep. Trent Franks tries to bury his own right wing vitrolic behavior on CNN
Rep Trent Franks of Arizona made the rounds on the Sunday Talk Show circuit today and he did his best to make believe he's really a very civil guy. The right is frantically trying to silence the criticism of the over the top Rhetoric and violent activities during president Obama's brief time in office that has emanated from the RWNM. I watched him on Meet the Press and then CNN. He certainly wasn't too happy with Sheriff Dupnik's comments about the hate that has filled our country and he cited A...

First They Came for the Surveyors Symbols
And here we go: Representative Bob Brady of Pennsylvania told The Caucus he plans to introduce a bill that would ban symbols like that now-infamous campaign crosshair map. “You can’t threaten the president with a bullseye or a crosshair,” Mr. Brady, a Democrat, said, and his measure would make it a crime to do so to a member of Congress or federal employee, as well. Asked if he believed the map incited the gunman in Tucson, he replied, “I don’t know what’s i...

Jared Lee Loughner a 9/11 truther and atheist
Jared Lee Loughner - a 9/11 Truther and atheist Well lookie what we have here! Not only is the this whole Jared Lee Loughner story being a Tea Party member and a big Sarah Palin fan, crumbling on the lame stream media and Progressives, it’s turning out to sound like the guy was in fact a Far Left nut job after all. I don’t know of too many Atheist 9/11 truthers who are right wingers do you? I know Van Jones is a 9/11 truther. Wasn’t he a big Right Wing teabagging extrem...

Jonah Knox Interviews John Hawkins On Social Issues / GOProud
RWN later published, "Why Right Wing News Is Sponsoring Homocon" (August 23, 2010). What I got out of reading that column is that Mr. Hawkins is morally against the agenda that GOProud pushes (which is different from disagreeing or merely being opposed) but that he still welcomes GOProud and does not believe it right for anyone to reject the group for its moral beliefs. This I do not understand and I asked him for an email interview. Mr. Hawkins agreed and I sent him a series of questions relati...

Al Gore, Gary Neville or Cheryl Cole: who would you trust on climate change? | Leo Hickman
We are often told that we are living in the "age of celebrity". Yes, it's an utterly depressing thought, but some believe we should exploit this collective obsession by putting to good use the mighty influence many celebrities wield. Charities have long latched on to the idea that for their message to be heard in the media mêlée it must have a "face" attached. And, of course, the media is heavily complicit in this "game", too. Environmental campaigners, like everyone else, have activel...

CLIMATE CHANGE: New stigma for incendiary rhetoric Conservatives: Suspect is deranged, not one of us -- House delays repeal vot
BREAKING : Rep. Giffords is still in critical condition, according to the Hospital in Tucson where she's being treated. Giffords is sedated, and as of 6:20 a.m. ET, her condition hadn't changed much since Saturday night, according to Darci Slaten, a spokeswoman at University Medical Center in Tucson. The Hospital has scheduled a news conference for noon ET. --Matt Negrin --“Speaker of the House John Boehner will address the media … at 8:30 a.m. EST at the West Chester, Ohio, Townshi...

No Political Message, Just Madness
There are people who harbor strong political beliefs. Then there are nuts. Insanity and delusion are not in the realm of political discourse. They should stay in the domain of Mental Illness and perverse criminality from whence they originate. Period. To try and wring out from this terrible tragedy a political message is to deny that we live in a world of whackos who sometimes lash out with horrific violence against the innocents of the world. Yet that explanation does n

San Francisco Conservative Scolds Roger Simon for Connecting Sarah Palin to Giffords Shooting
A conservative writer likely unknown to most NewsBusters readers scolded Politico's Roger Simon Sunday for trying to connect Sarah Palin to yesterday's shootings in Tucson, Arizona. DEBRA SAUNDERS, San Francisco Chronicle: But I also -- as an opinion person, I could just see myself getting sucked into this thing where a bunch of people -- and there were some people. There were people in the media with no impulse control. People like Keith Olbermann and Paul Krugman, who just, boom, start...