U.S. poll: rhetoric not to blame for Giffords shooting

Sarah Palin scores Blood Libel ascribed to her by the press - The Gabrielle Giffords shooting
Sarah Palin’s video response to the Arizona shooting of Gabrielle Giffords Sarah Palin today accused her opponents of Manufacturing a “blood Libel” by suggesting her Rhetoric and campaign tactics had anything to do with the Arizona shootings. Four days after an incident which left six people dead and critically injured the congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Palin released a video statement condemning the attack. She denied that a now infamous campaign map showing Giffords’...

Jared Loughner: Was It the Family's Fault?
​Details on Jared Lee Loughner and what occurred (and what may have occurred) prior to his shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and more than a dozen others, killing six, in a Tucson Safeway Supermarket last Saturday continue to unfold. The questions everyone wants answers to, of course: Could we have stopped him? Should we have known? And...why didn't someone know? Particularly, say, his parents? Inevitably, in situations like these, people seek someone or thing to blame...

Re: Defending the Tea Party
Katrina’s piece on the homepage looks at how Tea Party–backed lawmakers have responded to the whirlwind Rhetoric surrounding the Tucson tragedy. I caught up with Mark Meckler, co-founder and national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, late last night. He confessed to having been bogged down in a “media frenzy” over of the past few days, and said he wasn’t exactly pleased with what he’d been hearing. “What we saw is an example of the depravity of people ...

U.S. majority doesn't blame rhetoric for Giffords shooting
WASHINGTON | Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:18am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of Americans reject the view that heated political Rhetoric was a factor in the weekend shootings in Arizona which killed six and critically wounded a congresswoman, a CBS News said on Tuesday. Since the Saturday incident in which Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot at point-blank range, various politicians and commentators have said a climate in which strong language and ideological polarization is com...

House Pays Tribute To Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona Shooting Victims (LIVE UPDATES, VIDEO)
WASHINGTON -- The House is honoring Victims of Saturday's shootings in Tuscon, including one of its own. Republican Speaker John Boehner opened the session of remembrances and tributes to the 19 people shot, six fatally. (SCROLL DOWN FOR LIVE UPDATES) Later Wednesday, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and other lawmakers are flying with President Barack Obama to Arizona to console the Victims and their families. New information, meanwhile, has surfaced about a confrontation between...

Palin: Journalists incite hatred after AZ shooting
(01-12) 07:19 PST Anchorage, Alaska (AP) -- Sarah Palin posted a nearly eight-minute video on her Facebook page early Wednesday, accusing Journalists and pundits of inciting hatred and violence in the wake of a deadly Arizona shooting that gravely wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Last spring, Palin targeted Giffords' district as one of 20 that should be taken back. Palin has been criticized for marking each district with the cross hairs of a gun sight. In the video, the 2008 GOP vice pres...

How Obama Can Talk About Tolerance without Trivializing a Tragedy
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are joined by government employees on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Jan. 10, 2011, to observe a moment of silence for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and the other Victims of an Assassination attempt against her. (Credit: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) This post originally appeared on Slate. For the second time in his tenure, President Obama will eulogize the Victims of a shooting. In November 2009--it now seems...

Most Americans do not blame political rhetoric for AZ shootings, survey says
Stumble This! WASHINGTON - A majority of Americans reject the view that heated political Rhetoric was a factor in the weekend shootings in Arizona which killed six and critically wounded a congresswoman, a CBS News poll said on Tuesday. Since the Saturday incident in which Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot at point-blank range, various politicians and commentators have said a climate in which strong language and ideological polarization is common may have contributed to the att...

Sharron Angle defends rhetoric in wake of Arizona (The Ticket)
Former Nevada GOP Senate Candidate Sharron Angle is pushing back against critics aiming to link her campaign Rhetoric to the shootings in Arizona. "I condemn all acts of violence. The despicable act in Tucson is a horrifying and senseless tragedy, and should be condemned as a single act of violence, by a single unstable individual," Angle said in a statement, per CNN. "Expanding the context of the attack to blame and to infringe upon the people's Constitutional liberties is both dangerous and ...

Palin: 'Journalists and Pundits Should Not Manufacture a Blood Libel'
Sarah Palin: "America's Enduring Strength" from Sarah Palin on Vimeo. Like millions of Americans I learned of the tragic events in Arizona on Saturday, and my heart broke for the innocent Victims. No words can fill the hole left by the death of an innocent, but we do mourn for the victims’ families as we express our sympathy. I agree with the sentiments shared yesterday at the beautiful Catholic mass held in honor of the Victims. The mass will hopefully help begin a healing process for the...

Gun Sales Surge In Arizona After Shooting
Saturday’s horrific shooting in Tucson has predictably prompted criticism of the lax Gun Laws that allowed a guy with documented mental problems to buy a semiautomatic weapon. So, naturally the state’s gun lovers are frantically arming themselves to the teeth, in case stricter Gun Control (like not letting the mentally ill own assault weapons) is imposed. Bloomberg reporter Michael Riley talked to an Arizona gun store owner who reported that gun sales surged after Saturday’s sh...

Dad pursued Ariz. massacre suspect before shooting
(01-12) 07:41 PST Tucson, Ariz. (AP) -- Mysterious black bag in hand, Jared Loughner ran into the desert from his angry father, who was driving a truck on a futile pursuit. Hours after Randy Loughner's confrontation with his 22-year-old son Saturday morning, six people were shot dead and more than a dozen others wounded — and Jared Loughner was in custody. The sheriff's deputies who swarmed the Loughners' house removed what they describe as evidence Jared Loughner was targeting Rep. Gabr...

Palin: Were above the mindless finger-pointing (Daily Caller)
Read more stories from The Daily Caller Face of evil: Mug Shots of famous assassins [SLIDESHOW] Poll of Conservatives shows support for broad cuts to spending, including Military Spending Washington's top five most ridiculous reactions to the Arizona shooting Jared Loughner and the ins and outs of the insanity defense Mark Sanford exits the stage Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin released a video Wednesday of her first long-form statement on Saturday’s Tucson, Ariz. shooting that left six ...

Majority doesn't blame rhetoric for Giffords shooting
WASHINGTON | Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:46am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of Americans reject the view that heated political Rhetoric was a factor in the weekend shootings in Arizona which killed six and critically wounded a congresswoman, a CBS News said on Tuesday. Since the Saturday incident in which Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot at point-blank range, various politicians and commentators have said a climate in which strong language and ideological polarization is com...

Cantor speaks in favor of resolution honoring Giffords
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, saying "our hearts hang heavy," this morning spoke in favor of a Bipartisan resolution to honor Arizona Rep. Gabielle Giffords and the six people slain in Saturday's attack on the congresswoman. The resolution condemns the attack; offers "heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and loved ones" of those slain; expresses hope that those wounded will recover; honors the memory of those who died; and applauds "the Bravery and quick thinking" of t...

Palin: Journalists Incite Hatred after Arizona Shooting
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 By Staff, Associated Press In a Nov. 30, 2010 file photo, Sarah Palin signs copies of her new book, "America By Heart," in Little Rock, Ark. Palin has posted a nearly eight-minute video on her Facebook page condemning those who blame political Rhetoric for the Arizona shooting that gravely wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. (AP Photo/Brian Chilson, File) Anchorage, Alaska (AP) - Sarah Palin posted a nearly eight-minute video on her Facebook page earl...

Sarah Palin Responds, Slams Media, Pundits for 'Blood Libel' After Tucson Shootings
PALIN: "We must reject the idea that everytime a law is broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker...Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own, they begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state" Sarah Palin has posted a nearly eight-minute video on her Facebook page condemning those who blame political Rhetoric for the Arizona shooting that gravely wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Last spring, Palin targeted Giffords'...

Sarah Palin On Giffords Shooting, Brings Up Blood Libel
After the tragic Saturday Assassination attempt on Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords outside a Tucson, Arizona Supermarket that left six people dead and Giffords and more than a dozen others injured, former Alaska Governor and Republican vice-presidential Candidate Sarah Palin simply left a Facebook note, saying, "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...

No More Mister Nice Blog
THE RIGHT-WING'S NEW BARD OF THE BACKLASH: Glenn Reynolds? I've always thought of Instapundit as tendentious but incredibly superficial -- looking back a decade, it seems to have been a Twitter feed before there was Twitter, and, in the '10s, Glenn Reynolds seemed like yesterday's man. Now, though, he's suddenly hot. The New York Times reports on Sarah Palin's new fireside chat about the Tucson shootings and tells us: Sarah Palin, who had been silent for days, on Wednesday issued a forceful den...

Friend: Shooting suspect embraced chaos
TUCSON, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- The suspect in the weekend rampage at a political event in Tucson, Ariz., was a skilled marksman and "loves causing chaos," a friend said. Jared Lee Loughner, 22, of Tucson faces federal charges in Saturday's shooting, in which Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was critically injured and U.S. District Judge John Roll, his law clerk Matthew Bowman and Giffords' Staffer Gabriel Zimmerman were among the dead. Six people died and 14 were injured. "He was a nihilist and loves causing c...

Loughner In 2007: Die Bitch, Die Cops
From an ever so discreet Washington Post: ‘We don’t understand why this happened,’ parents say By Dana Hedgpeth and David A. Fahrenthold Wednesday, January 12, 2011; A01 TUCSON - Three days after their son allegedly killed six people and left a congresswoman critically wounded, Jared Lee Loughner’s parents issued their first public comments Tuesday night, saying that they, too, cannot comprehend what had motivated the shootings. "There are no words that c...

Calls Mount for Sheriff Dupniks Resignation
Since he first opened his mouth on Saturday night to address the nation about the terrible shootings at a Tucson Safeway, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has been inaccurate, wrong, or completely biased in his handling of the case. Sheriff Clarence Dupnik must resign. Never have we witnessed a prominent public figure so inaccurately and viciously politicize a national tragedy like Sheriff Dupnik did this week. And in all of his statements he has either been wrong or misdirected. This bitter partisan mus...

House Speaking Now on Resolution Mourning Loss of Arizona Victims, Condemning Rampage
The U.S. House of Representatives is speaking right now about the shootings that have shocked the nation. The resolution lists the names of the six Victims killed in the Saturday shooting and states that the House of Representatives “stands firm in its belief in a Democracy in which all can participate and in which intimidation and threats of violence cannot silence the voices of any American.” Some of the members are also saying they must look at the Rhetoric of today and how that m...

Weekly Pulse: Giffords Shooting Reveals Flaws in U.S. Mental Health Services
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was shot in the head at a constituent outreach event in a Supermarket Parking Lot in Tucson on Saturday. In all, the gunman shot 18 people, killing 6, including a Federal Judge and a 9-year-old girl. Jamelle Bouie of TAPPED urges President Obama to take up the issue of Mental Health care in his upcoming Speech on the Mass Shooting. Several people who knew the alleged shooter came forward with stories of bizarre behavior and run-ins with Campus Police at his commu...

Blood Libel? Dangerous Critics? Palin, Angle Doth Protest Too Much
Sigh. So I guess I have to comment on Sarah Palin’s statement on the Tucson shooting, which was actually a statement about Sarah Palin, of course. First of all, the faux sincerity achieved by shaking her head a little bit from side-to-side is grating. But enough of the theater criticism. Second, you have to love the statement, cribbed from Reagan, that “we have to restore the American precept that each person is accountable for his actions” from the woman who sent out her spo...