Talk Radio Hosts Reject Blame in Shooting

Sheriff in Giffords case lashes out about politics
(01-10) 15:25 PST Tucson, Ariz. (AP) -- Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik was thrust into the spotlight to face a nation demanding answers in the aftermath of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. He didn't mince words. The rampage, he said, grew in part from extreme political Rhetoric, Bigotry and hatred, especially in his home state of Arizona. Dupnik said he was angry and heartbroken over the tragedy, and was simply speaking his mind as an American, not a Law Enforcement official. But ...

Surprise! Harry Reid Once Used Senate Floor to Heap Praise on AZ Sheriff Dupnik as a Man of Integrity
“Clarence Dupnik is known as a man of action, integrity and innovation,” Reid said. “These skills have been invaluable to his 50 years of service to Arizona, and the nation.” A number of media figures and lawmakers, including conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh, have criticized Dupnik for saying that a high level of political “vitriol” was connected to the incident that ended with Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (Ariz.) being shot in the head at clos...

Gabrielle Giffords shooting: Rhetoric not to blame, says the right
Gabrielle Giffords shooting points to a 'mindless rage,' but not to a suspect who was moved to violence by heated political Rhetoric, say a growing number of voices on the right....

Rush Limbaugh: Its insane to fault Sarah Palin for Ariz. shooting (Daily Caller)
Read more stories from The Daily Caller Rep. Peter King to introduce bill making it illegal to carry a gun within 1,000 feet of 'high-profile' government official Fellow commenters at UFO Conspiracy website questioned Jared Lee Loughner's sanity in threads We're probably alone in the universe, or else they're out to get us Mark Halperin: Conservatives should turn the other cheek when scapegoated for Murder Could Jon Huntsman really be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012? Talk Radio ma...

TALK RADIO HOSTS: We wont back down.
Talk Radio HOSTS: We won’t back down. ...

The Arizona Republic Chastises Sheriff Dupnik For His Partisan, Vitriolic, Comments
It appears that The Arizona Republic is appropriately embarrassed by Tucson's liberal, highly partisan Democratic sheriff, Clarence Dupnik: ... Dupnik used the opportunities to blame Arizona's lax, new Gun Laws and, again, the angry "Rhetoric" of Talk Radio. The shootings were spurred, he suggested, by "the rhetoric about hatred, about mistrust of government, about paranoia of how government operates." Dupnik took up his cause again on Monday. And, in response, we have to say at last . . . enoug...

Jon Stewart doesn't blame political rhetoric for shooting
“Did the toxic political environment cause this? A graphic image here and ill-timed comment, violent Rhetoric, those sort of things? I have no f**king idea. We live in a complex ecosystem of influences and motivations and I wouldn’t blame our political rhetoric any more than I would blame heavy metal music for Columbine.” - Jon Stewart While I don’t always agree with Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, in the wake of the tragedy in Arizona, but las...

Giffords condition improves after shooting
TUCSON, Ariz - U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords is breathing on her own and doctors Tuesday were hopeful about her recovery from a head wound suffered in an Arizona Shooting Spree that killed six people. Giffords, a popular 40-year-old Democrat, remained in critical condition at a Tucson Hospital but is “holding her own,” responding to simple commands and breathing without aid of a tube although a bullet passed through her brain, doctors said. “She has no right to look th...

Bay Area to Honor Tucson Tragedy
This weekend's Mass Shooting in Tuscon, Arizona happened hundreds of miles away, but seemed to hit home to many in the Bay Area. The gunman is alleged to have targeted Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. She was shot in the head and remains in critical condition at a Tuscon Hospital. Six other people were killed and more than a dozen others were hurt. Now, a group of Young People have found a way for the Bay Area to respond to the violence. The East Bay Young Democrats will hold a candlel...

ARIZONA REPUBLIC blasts Sheriff Dupnik...
On Saturday afternoon, with his friend Gabby Giffords in surgery fighting for her life, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik railed against the tense partisan politics - "the anger, the hatred, the Bigotry" - that prompted the mass Murders outside Tucson, in his view. And, jarring as such claims may be, we understood. Or tried to understand, despite the spectacle of a lawman - an official whose very job it is to dispassionately gather facts and to maintain order and calm - tying the attack on Rep...

The Unstable Sheriff of Pima County, AZ
Jim Geraghty in his Morning Jolt email takes on Sheriff Clarence Dupnik (pronounced "Dumbsh....") who has managed both to neglect his duties AND try and dismantle the First Amendment: Say this for Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. He may have dropped the ball on numerous red flags and other signs of a potential threat from the Tucson gunman, and he certainly didn't bother to assign any deputies or other police personnel to the "Congress on Your Corner" event that turned into a massacre, des...

Gabrielle Giffords Shooting Coverage Becomes Media Navel Gazing
The Tucson shootings, three days removed, have reached the predictable place in the story arc in which media analysis turns into a meta-narrative about the nature of the coverage rather than the event itself. The Victims, intermittently remembered, first were props for an analysis of political Rhetoric, then a playing field for accusations of partisan opportunism and, finally, now are an excuse for media navel-gazing. The coverage and meta-discussion have laid bare this essential truth: There ...

Rhode Island Governor Bans State Workers from Appearing on Talk Radio
Chafee doesn't plan to spend his own time on Talk Radio, and he intends to ban State Employees from spending their state work time talking on Talk Radio, which was Carcieri's favorite medium and an integral part of his communications operation. 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, and worship. Read more... We invite all Americans who ...

Lincoln Chafee To Enforce Talk Radio Silence For Rhode Island State Officials
Political Talk Radio enthusiasts who were looking forward to hearing the dulcet tones of Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee (I) easing them through their daily commutes are going to be disappointed Tuesday, as Chafee has decided to eschew the format altogether, and will direct State Employees to do the same. The Providence Journal reports: Chafee doesn't plan to spend his own time on talk radio, and he intends to ban State Employees from spending their state work time talking on talk radio, whic...

No Talk Radio for Chafee
Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee (I) will not appear on Talk Radio and intends to ban State Employees from spending their state work time talking on talk radio, the Providence Journal reports. A spokesman said the new policy emanates from a belief that Talk Radio is essentially "Ratings-driven, for-profit programming," and "we don't think it is appropriate to use Taxpayer resources" in the form of state employee work time to "support for-profit, ratings-driven programming." ...

Chafee will ban talk radio
He's not exactly reaching out to Rhode Island's Conservatives, who never liked him much: [Governor Lincoln] Chafee doesn’t plan to spend his own time on Talk Radio, and he intends to ban State Employees from spending their state work time talking on Talk Radio, which was [former Governor Don] Carcieri’s favorite medium and an integral part of his communications operation. Spokesma...

Slaughter Recalls Mob Battles, Rails Against Talk Radio
Rep. Louise Slaughter told reporters yesterday that elected officials “know the risk” their jobs carry, and then launched into a recollection of periods in her own Political Career when she was the target of threats. The WNY Democrat remembered back when she was chairing the Public Safety Committee as a county legislator and dealing with what she called “mob battles” (she didn’t go into detail). “They gave me a mirror and a stick to show me how to check unde...

Tuscon Rorschach Test
Verbal reactions should be almost as spent now as the bullets on the Safeway Parking Lot, but the fusillade of shooting mouths is heavier than ever. As families go about burying Victims, their deaths are translated from horrendous personal loss to political posturing that denies them the humanity they deserve. Reading from Left to Right, start with mouthy Sheriff Clarence Dupnik who only hours afterward, instead of relaying facts, insisted on turning his grief into a screed against the "anger, ...

On Petard Hoisted: Sheriff Dupnicks Hypocrisy on Inflammatory Rhetoric
Arizona’s Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, who on Saturday suggested radio and television Talk Shows were somehow responsible for inciting a man who may be mentally disturbed to kill six people and wound 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), once blamed policymakers for violence in his county because they had stopped institutionalizing mentally ill people. Dupnik also suggested that local schools should check the Immigration status of Students and that ...

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 ...

The media tries to pin the Arizona shooting on the Tea Party and talk radio
  Before I get to the main topic of this post I would like to offer my condolences, thoughts, and heartfelt sympathy to all of the Victims and the families and friends, as well as everyone else who was affected by the shooting in Arizona over the weekend. There is nothing that I can say to make anyone feel better, but please know that the nation is with you.   Having said that, this is a post that I was hoping I wouldn’t have to write, but it has become obvious that I m...

Glock pistol sales surge in aftermath of Arizona shootings
After a Glock-wielding gunman killed six people at a Tucson shopping center on Jan. 8, Greg Wolff, the owner of two Arizona gun shops, told his manager to get ready for a stampede of new customers. Wolff was right. Instead of hurting sales, the massacre had the $499 semi-automatic pistols -- popular with police, sport shooters and gangsters -- flying out the doors of his Glockmeister stores in Mesa and Phoenix. “We’re at double our volume over what we usually do,” Wolff said tw...

Gabrielle Giffords now breathing on her own, doctors say
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' condition is "the same as yesterday," physicians at the University of Arizona College of Medicine's University Medical Center in Tucson said in a Tuesday news conference, but she is now breathing on her own. "She is able to generate her own breaths," said Dr. Peter Lemole, the neurosurgeon who operated on her following the shooting on Saturday morning. Nonetheless, Giffords' doctors have left a breathing tube in place in an effort to prevent her from developing pneumon...

Nearly Six in Ten Americans Say The Country's Heated Political Rhetoric is Not To Blame For Tuscon Shooting
32 percent say it was cbsnews 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. In the wake of the shooting, much focus has been put on the harsh tone of politics in Washington and around the country, particularly after a contentious Midterm Election. Rhetoric and imagery from both Republicans and Democrats have included gun-...

TOP ARIZONA PAPER Blasts Sheriff Dupnik: Get a Grip!
A top Arizona paper today blasted Far Left Sheriff Clarence Dupnik for his continued attacks on the law-abiding people of Arizona. Dupnik was on with Keith Olbermann last night. On Saturday afternoon, with his friend Gabby Giffords in surgery fighting for her life, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik railed against the tense partisan politics - “the anger, the hatred, the Bigotry” - that prompted the mass Murders outside Tucson, in his view. And, jarring as such claims ma...