Morality is not determined by the church you attend nor the faith you embrace. It is determined by the quality of your character and the positive impact you have on those you meet along your journey
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Leave it to Rachel Maddow to separate the facts from the fallacies in the Arizona shooting incident.
Well in other news it appears that Palin has called Bonnie Fuller from Hollywood Life to write a love story on her and her show SPA. The article is on Huff Post and is absolutely sickening, its on the blog side.
Guess Palin paid her a big check to write how gorgeous she is.
I watched Fox News for a while this morning. Man oh man are they spinning over there...
I had missed this segment on Rachel last night - thank you for posting it. It was... palate cleansing for my brain after the hour or so of Fox mis-spin-formation I subjected myself to this morning.
Thank you for this video, Gryphen, which I'd not seen before. Maddox always brings sense, calm, and a command of the facts to any situation, and it's particularly appreciated now.
I'm afraid I don't agree with the folks that say this shooting marks the end of Palin's career. I WANT them to be right, mind you, but I fear that they're not. Already Palins media enablers (the Murdochs of the world) are positioning her to sail right through this; you can see it in the way various papers are spinning, spinning, spinning.
I have some questions about what will happen when this goes to trial.
He is going to have a very high-profile lawyer and this could involve the death penalty.
Wonder if Sarah Palin and her paid spokesperson Rebecca Monsour will be called to testify about the map with crosshair targets on this elected woman. Won't there be questions to them about their scrubbing their websites?
After all, this was an assination attempt on an elected official and a federal judge was killed.
Everything that Palin and Monsour does will be investigated by this lawyer and his investigative staff.
Shouldn't Palin and her political paid hacks quit trying to spin this and just sit back and remain silent?
I have a feeling this is really going to be ratched up by the victim's families and they are going to start pointing fingers at someone with a map. The victims and their families are going to be really hurting and this is going to be a really tipping point for Palin. Any good lawyer is going to tell her to fade away into the shadows.
I LOVE Rachel Maddow because of her thorough research and refusal to be sucked down the rabbit hole with the rest of us. However, she lost me with her take on Sharon Engle. If you Google "rhetoric," you will find a variety of definitions for it depending on which source you use. The point of the public conversation at the moment isn't the definitive meaning of "rhetoric"; it is that words matter and can move people, especially, the lunatic fringe, to act on those words which are often delivered with passion. Whether the words are literal or metaphoric is irrelevant. If they incite violence of thought or action, they are inappropriate. We should be using our powers as individuals and as a nation to be peacemakers.
Thank god for Rachel. I always feel better after watching her show because I know she is telling the truth and sifting through to get to the real issues. I have been very curious about what the right has been saying on c4p and they are worse than ever. It hurts my brain to try to comprehend the logic those people do not possess. Based on the comments and spin, they have totally missed the point and I fear that someone over there is going to kill again. Billo was practically foaming at the mouth last night. He did NOT listen to his boss.
Rachel is so spot on.She has an amazing ability to get the truth out of a situation.We ned more people in media like her.I feel I can trust her like I used to trust Walter Cronkite.
Rachel's the best. I can't understand why she gets labeled as extreme left. Her arguments always are sound and reasonable, never angry or hysterical. Anyway, here's a good article from the conservative Politico.com:
They seem to sway daily from one slant to another, but at least different views are being presented. Although media personalities whose livelihoods rely on heated rhetoric are fighting tooth and nail to keep their audiences believing that they are not part of the problem, it's encouraging to see that the majority of people are sick of it and want it to go away. Of course, time and upcoming political contests will ease us back into the fray, but let's hope that it will not escalate to the levels that we have seen in the last 2 years.
Thats not careful reporting. What she's saying is common sense and most Americans haven't laid blame or determined their own facts.
Rachel is a perfect example of why you were sooo in the wrong to automatically attack Sarah for being an instigator for Jared. Shame. I hope it stays with you forever if some moron attacks her.
Anon 5:01 It may be disagreeable to you that putting a rifle scope target on individulas, directing people to "reload" and that one of those people put in crosshairs is lying in a hospital with part of her skull removed and others murdered is insignificant.
Fact is that many people myself included were outraged to finding the map with crosshairs inappropriate. After a mass shooting to assassinate the congresswoman it is indispuatable people recall Sarah Palin choosing to target, eliminate and muster people using crosshairs.
You need to suck it up and think twice in the future and remain open this may or may not have influenced this massacre.
To date there is no public regret nor remorse to have put a rifle scope crosshair on Gifford and that in cold blood she was shot in the head. This spesaks volumes about you, Sarah Palin and her supporters that even in mass murder she has no shame, regrets nor conssscience for her words, terminology, gun language nor any introspection people have not forgotten how she chose to galvinize people.
If someone turns up dead and at some time a person was herd to say "I wish he was ded" that person will be invetigated. Palin is not exempt to put a death mark to most people on someone's head and then absolve herself when the person is shot in the head and others murdered.
I understand the right has one goal to sanctify P and condone utilizing extremes..inclusive of putting a rifle scope mark on people then LIE it was not a crosshair. You need to accept I and the majority are not like you and found her map horrifying and disliked her even more.
Got this from WC and took the liberty to substitute the name and share.............. I’ve always believed that cluelessness evolved as an adaptation to allow the truly appalling to live with themselves. Imagine, for example, looking into the mirror one day and seeing Sarah Palin staring back at you. Only Sarah Palin could stand the shock.
- G. B. Trudeau, A Doonesbury Retrospective, p. 385.
Anon 5:01, thank God most Americans do not think like you do. We would be living in a country where it's perfectly ok to encourage the fringe to hate and kill those who have different opinions. I don't know a single person, on the left or right who didn't immediately think of Sarahs map and also the hatred she has stirred up the past few years. You do know that a very large majority of the country think Sarah is not capable of being in higher office. Why do they feel that way. It's so sad that you are trying to act like Sarah is some kind of victim in this whole thing. Like her, you don't even have the grace to mention the real victims and to admit that perhaps all the gun imagery in politics is inappropriate. I will pray for you and Sarah because you are in denial and have cold hearts.
Those who make A LOT of $$$ by being loud and angry are working hard to convince people that there is nothing wrong with that, no harm done. Of course they are going to say that, otherwise they are out of a job.
I would like to be proven wrong on this, but if the defense can argue, convincingly, that Loughner had it in for Gabby before SP's map was published, then SP will shrug this off the same way she did the Branchflower report, and her subjects will continue to bow and scrape before her.
At 6:56 - you will be proven wrong on that. The facts show that Sarah Palin's rhetoric & map spurred him to buy a gun & shoot; he may have thought of the Congresswoman before but Palin incited him to act. Gifford's own words on TV tell the story of the crosshairs...& she blames Palin in that footage.
If Jared Loughner survives there will be both Federal and State trials. Homeland Security and the FBI are challenged by the hate speech. There is no way to know what can be linked to the homegrown Arizona assassin. Arizona in general is very anti-government. Senator McCain and Governor Brewer have alot of influence with state matters. The FBI has also been working on the arson at Sarah's Bible Church in Wasilla. Wasilla also wants to be left alone and has the same anti-government attitudes. If heads don't roll in the FBI and they don't bring in new blood, especially in these anti-government outposts it is hard to have much faith in the FBI. They certainly have all the forensics.
The public and the families must push for answers and results. The state of Arizona is reckless and abandons the mentally sick people and families in the state. The state is also careless in regard to their gun laws.
Judy Clarke is a veteran Federal Public Defender. She is Loughner's attorney. She was not hired by the Loughner family.
I watched Rachel last night and while I agree with her on just about everything, she says it is not rhetoric, I say it is. Since Sarah will not be charged with a crime, the best way to fight her is to call her out on her actions and words, do not donate to her PAC, and speak out against her, peacefully of course. http://sarahpalinhasaserpentsheart.blogspot.com/
Sign at anti-health care rally: IF BROWN CAN'T DO IT - A BROWNING CAN (Referring to Senator Brown from Mass. who campaigned on the vow to vote against health care.) The professionally printed poster(s) included a drawing of a semi-automatic pistol. How much more blatant can that be? This is the kind of stuff that inflames the ignorant, the loners, the wannabes, and the insane. Regardless of which side of the political landscape this is coming from, it is wrong. At this time, it is coming from the far right. This should be addressed and stern warnings should be given to all people who have influence and their followers that these types of statements and images are no longer acceptable.
Read Write Web, an influential tech industry blog, reported that WikiLeaks' official Twitter account had posted an update linking to a press release that called for Palin's arrest and that authorities "aggressively pursue justice" for those killed.
Palin published a note on Facebook urging that he be "hunted down ... like the Taliban," according to the press release, available here.
When I watch Rachel on the web I often will go pick up Bill Wolf's segment about what is upcoming on the show. He's about as sharp as she is. On this issue he said he really struggled with how to cover the story on his way in to work. He sat down with Rachel to talk about it and she already had it formatted in her head..... Whatever they are paying her, it isn't enough.
I agree with you completely, and I also like Rachel Maddow's show. But when she got into the semantics of the definition of "rhetoric" it was confusing. You hit the mark when you said, "The point of the public conversation at the moment isn't the definitive meaning of 'rhetoric'; it is that words matter and can move people, especially, the lunatic fringe, to act on those words which are often delivered with passion."
Last night I sent the following comment to Maddow's show--not to be nitpick but in hopes of keeping the focus where it should be.
Dear Ms. Maddow,
I want to comment on your use of the word “rhetoric” when you wanted to illustrate the difference between metaphorical and literal meaning in a quote about “Second Amendment solutions, which you then said was not “rhetoric.” The point you were making, and I agree with, is that some on the Right have exhorted people to do literal violence.
The word “rhetoric” describes a broad range of language and discourse—I won’t go into specifics-- suffice to say that both metaphorical and literal meaning can fall under the rubric "rhetoric." (“Rhetor” simply means “orator” in Greek.) The word “rhetoric” has a range of meanings in modern English. You meant to say Ms. Angle was speaking literally not metaphorically when she called for “second amendment solutions.” That’s a very important observation and I don’t want to see it diluted by linguistic parsing or confusion about what constitutes a “rhetorical” statement.
The GOP spin machine is in overdrive trying to rewrite recent history. It's too damn bad for them that they live in a post Google world. It seems as if the chickens have come home to roost. Really, since Nixon's Southern Strategy, the GOP has consciously courted the racists, nativists, and anti government conspiracy theory loons to be their foot soldiers. Now, they act surprised when things go awry. Didn't they have a similar reaction after the Oklahoma City bombing?
While there may not be a direct cause and effect relationship between the GOP and the shooting, these hyperbolic claims, the vitriol, the ad hominem insults, the invective, and threats of violence DO have a cumulative effect. They provoke fear, they speak to prejudice, and they inflame. When those who are already deranged and unstable are immersed in such an environment, how can anyone credibly claim that there will not be a deleterious effect?
I, and MANY others predicted just such an event would occur. I even specifically thought that an assassination attempt of a sitting member of Congress would result in the death of a Representative or Senator, or a member of their staff. How unfortunately prescient my words have been proven.
I'm not clairvoyant, but merely an observer of what should be painfully obvious to all: no good can come from an environment where incivility, extremist rhetoric, dehumanization of opponents, questions of opponents' citizenship, and threats of violence are considered merely the lingua franca for political speech within the GOP.
The only question that remains is whether or not our leaders on both sides of the aisle are willing to recognize the symptoms and the cause of our present condition. That means pointing fingers, assigning blame, accepting responsibility and pledging to effect change. If not, I fear that the Tucson shooting will be but prelude to even more such horrific acts of violence.
Bruce Palmer @9:20 "He sat down with Rachel to talk about it and she already had it formatted in her head....."
Damn, that woman has a lot of smart stuff going on in her head! It never ceases to amaze me how she can take any issue and dissect it, examine it and explain it to the rest of us so that we understand it. Ohhh, to have even a small amount of the smarts that she has...!
Thats not careful reporting. What she's saying is common sense and most Americans haven't laid blame or determined their own facts.
Rachel is a perfect example of why you were sooo in the wrong to automatically attack Sarah for being an instigator for Jared. Shame. I hope it stays with you forever if some moron attacks her.
5:01 AM
Giffords was the one put in the cross hairs ad she had been attacked.
Sarah has not been threatened. In any case she is too much of a coward to meet people in the open as Giffords did.
Sarah is cowardly, she is hold up these days, too afraid to even walk the streets of Wasilla. A true sign of a great leader. "Don't reload, run and hide."
That quote shows what ass wipes they are. Sure they can say that Democrats use gun imagery because Tammy Bruce is Democrat, a feminist, a progressive.
The same old Bruce and O'Reilly routine has been going on for years. They change names and circumstances and a few minor details but it is the same old pattern. Their arguments today are what they've been constructing over the years for anything like this that comes up. If you want to know how they will respond to this latest situation, study their history. They keep repeating it. Learn from history.
This is exactly what she wanted to happen. She has deliberately used violent language to stir her followers up, and this is the first salvo in their "revolution." Her handlers are keeping her off the air because they know if she appears anywhere, she won't be able to conceal her glee and gloating.
I hope to God I'm wrong. But I grew up in a Dominionist semi-cult, and unfortunately, what I wrote above is exactly the way these people think.
Well in other news it appears that Palin has called Bonnie Fuller from Hollywood Life to write a love story on her and her show SPA. The article is on Huff Post and is absolutely sickening, its on the blog side.
ReplyDeleteGuess Palin paid her a big check to write how gorgeous she is.
Gryphen, is there any legal reason why Rachel's clear and concise telling of the facts cannot be broadcast on all of the major TV stations?
ReplyDeleteI watched Fox News for a while this morning. Man oh man are they spinning over there...
ReplyDeleteI had missed this segment on Rachel last night - thank you for posting it. It was... palate cleansing for my brain after the hour or so of Fox mis-spin-formation I subjected myself to this morning.
Thanks again.
Thank you for this video, Gryphen, which I'd not seen before. Maddox always brings sense, calm, and a command of the facts to any situation, and it's particularly appreciated now.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I don't agree with the folks that say this shooting marks the end of Palin's career. I WANT them to be right, mind you, but I fear that they're not. Already Palins media enablers (the Murdochs of the world) are positioning her to sail right through this; you can see it in the way various papers are spinning, spinning, spinning.
Damn.
Gryph
ReplyDeleteI have some questions about what will happen when this goes to trial.
He is going to have a very high-profile lawyer and this could involve the death penalty.
Wonder if Sarah Palin and her paid spokesperson Rebecca Monsour will be called to testify about the map with crosshair targets on this elected woman. Won't there be questions to them about their scrubbing their websites?
After all, this was an assination attempt on an elected official and a federal judge was killed.
Everything that Palin and Monsour does will be investigated by this lawyer and his investigative staff.
Shouldn't Palin and her political paid hacks quit trying to spin this and just sit back and remain silent?
I have a feeling this is really going to be ratched up by the victim's families and they are going to start pointing fingers at someone with a map. The victims and their families are going to be really hurting and this is going to be a really tipping point for Palin. Any good lawyer is going to tell her to fade away into the shadows.
I LOVE Rachel Maddow because of her thorough research and refusal to be sucked down the rabbit hole with the rest of us. However, she lost me with her take on Sharon Engle. If you Google "rhetoric," you will find a variety of definitions for it depending on which source you use. The point of the public conversation at the moment isn't the definitive meaning of "rhetoric"; it is that words matter and can move people, especially, the lunatic fringe, to act on those words which are often delivered with passion. Whether the words are literal or metaphoric is irrelevant. If they incite violence of thought or action, they are inappropriate. We should be using our powers as individuals and as a nation to be peacemakers.
ReplyDeleteThank god for Rachel. I always feel better after watching her show because I know she is telling the truth and sifting through to get to the real issues. I have been very curious about what the right has been saying on c4p and they are worse than ever. It hurts my brain to try to comprehend the logic those people do not possess. Based on the comments and spin, they have totally missed the point and I fear that someone over there is going to kill again. Billo was practically foaming at the mouth last night. He did NOT listen to his boss.
ReplyDeleteRachel is so spot on.She has an amazing ability to get the truth out of a situation.We ned more people in media like her.I feel I can trust her like I used to trust Walter Cronkite.
ReplyDeleteRachel's the best. I can't understand why she gets labeled as extreme left. Her arguments always are sound and reasonable, never angry or hysterical. Anyway, here's a good article from the conservative Politico.com:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47410.html
They seem to sway daily from one slant to another, but at least different views are being presented. Although media personalities whose livelihoods rely on heated rhetoric are fighting tooth and nail to keep their audiences believing that they are not part of the problem, it's encouraging to see that the majority of people are sick of it and want it to go away. Of course, time and upcoming political contests will ease us back into the fray, but let's hope that it will not escalate to the levels that we have seen in the last 2 years.
Thats not careful reporting. What she's saying is common sense and most Americans haven't laid blame or determined their own facts.
ReplyDeleteRachel is a perfect example of why you were sooo in the wrong to automatically attack Sarah for being an instigator for Jared. Shame. I hope it stays with you forever if some moron attacks her.
Oh, me too! Rachel and Jon Stewart were my saving grace last night, after a week and of trembling fury and helpless tears.
ReplyDeleteAgreed (and she looked beat too!) Rachel is the best investigative journalist out there. I really wish other journalists would catch on....
ReplyDeleteAnon 5:01
ReplyDeleteIt may be disagreeable to you that putting a rifle scope target on individulas, directing people to "reload" and that one of those people put in crosshairs is lying in a hospital with part of her skull removed and others murdered is insignificant.
Fact is that many people myself included were outraged to finding the map with crosshairs inappropriate. After a mass shooting to assassinate the congresswoman it is indispuatable people recall Sarah Palin choosing to target, eliminate and muster people using crosshairs.
You need to suck it up and think twice in the future and remain open this may or may not have influenced this massacre.
To date there is no public regret nor remorse to have put a rifle scope crosshair on Gifford and that in cold blood she was shot in the head. This spesaks volumes about you, Sarah Palin and her supporters that even in mass murder she has no shame, regrets nor conssscience for her words, terminology, gun language nor any introspection people have not forgotten how she chose to galvinize people.
If someone turns up dead and at some time a person was herd to say "I wish he was ded" that person will be invetigated. Palin is not exempt to put a death mark to most people on someone's head and then absolve herself when the person is shot in the head and others murdered.
I understand the right has one goal to sanctify P and condone utilizing extremes..inclusive of putting a rifle scope mark on people then LIE it was not a crosshair. You need to accept I and the majority are not like you and found her map horrifying and disliked her even more.
Got this from WC and took the liberty to substitute the name and share..............
ReplyDeleteI’ve always believed that cluelessness evolved as an adaptation to allow the truly appalling to live with themselves. Imagine, for example, looking into the mirror one day and seeing Sarah Palin staring back at you. Only Sarah Palin could stand the shock.
- G. B. Trudeau, A Doonesbury Retrospective, p. 385.
after watching Rachel, follow up with another National Treasure: Jon Stewart
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-10-2011/arizona-shootings-reaction
- kellygrrrl
Anon 5:01, thank God most Americans do not think like you do. We would be living in a country where it's perfectly ok to encourage the fringe to hate and kill those who have different opinions. I don't know a single person, on the left or right who didn't immediately think of Sarahs map and also the hatred she has stirred up the past few years. You do know that a very large majority of the country think Sarah is not capable of being in higher office. Why do they feel that way.
ReplyDeleteIt's so sad that you are trying to act like Sarah is some kind of victim in this whole thing. Like her, you don't even have the grace to mention the real victims and to admit that perhaps all the gun imagery in politics is inappropriate. I will pray for you and Sarah because you are in denial and have cold hearts.
This is not a end to Sarah Palin. Bill O'rielly is still going strong even after his Tillar the baby killer comments.
ReplyDeleteThose who make A LOT of $$$ by being loud and angry are working hard to convince people that there is nothing wrong with that, no harm done. Of course they are going to say that, otherwise they are out of a job.
ReplyDeleteI would like to be proven wrong on this, but if the defense can argue, convincingly, that Loughner had it in for Gabby before SP's map was published, then SP will shrug this off the same way she did the Branchflower report, and her subjects will continue to bow and scrape before her.
ReplyDeleteI keep thinking about the terrorizing year Congresswoman Giffords had to go through, before the grand finale of being shot at close range.
ReplyDeleteHer office was vandalized.
She received death threats.
Her upcoming election was depicted as a race targeted through rifle crosshairs.
She got on national TV to express her fears.
Palin's response: put up a sarcastic Facebook post that used even more violent wording (remember her "Politically Correct Language Police" post?)
Giffords' opponent's response: throw a fundraiser that promises attendees will be able to fire a real machine gun.
At 6:56 - you will be proven wrong on that. The facts show that Sarah Palin's rhetoric & map spurred him to buy a gun & shoot; he may have thought of the Congresswoman before but Palin incited him to act. Gifford's own words on TV tell the story of the crosshairs...& she blames Palin in that footage.
ReplyDelete3:52 AM
ReplyDeleteIf Jared Loughner survives there will be both Federal and State trials. Homeland Security and the FBI are challenged by the hate speech. There is no way to know what can be linked to the homegrown Arizona assassin. Arizona in general is very anti-government. Senator McCain and Governor Brewer have alot of influence with state matters. The FBI has also been working on the arson at Sarah's Bible Church in Wasilla. Wasilla also wants to be left alone and has the same anti-government attitudes. If heads don't roll in the FBI and they don't bring in new blood, especially in these anti-government outposts it is hard to have much faith in the FBI. They certainly have all the forensics.
The public and the families must push for answers and results. The state of Arizona is reckless and abandons the mentally sick people and families in the state. The state is also careless in regard to their gun laws.
Judy Clarke is a veteran Federal Public Defender. She is Loughner's attorney. She was not hired by the Loughner family.
I watched Rachel last night and while I agree with her on just about everything, she says it is not rhetoric, I say it is. Since Sarah will not be charged with a crime, the best way to fight her is to call her out on her actions and words, do not donate to her PAC, and speak out against her, peacefully of course.
ReplyDeletehttp://sarahpalinhasaserpentsheart.blogspot.com/
Sign at anti-health care rally:
ReplyDeleteIF BROWN CAN'T DO IT - A BROWNING CAN (Referring to Senator Brown from Mass. who campaigned on the vow to vote against health care.) The professionally printed poster(s) included a drawing of a semi-automatic pistol. How much more blatant can that be? This is the kind of stuff that inflames the ignorant, the loners, the wannabes, and the insane. Regardless of which side of the political landscape this is coming from, it is wrong. At this time, it is coming from the far right. This should be addressed and stern warnings should be given to all people who have influence and their followers that these types of statements and images are no longer acceptable.
Read Write Web, an influential tech industry blog, reported that WikiLeaks' official Twitter account had posted an update linking to a press release that called for Palin's arrest and that authorities "aggressively pursue justice" for those killed.
ReplyDeletePalin published a note on Facebook urging that he be "hunted down ... like the Taliban," according to the press release, available here.
When I watch Rachel on the web I often will go pick up Bill Wolf's segment about what is upcoming on the show. He's about as sharp as she is.
ReplyDeleteOn this issue he said he really struggled with how to cover the story on his way in to work. He sat down with Rachel to talk about it and she already had it formatted in her head..... Whatever they are paying her, it isn't enough.
I wonder what the liability would be to SarahPAC donors in a civil suit.
ReplyDeleteTo WakeUpAmerica@4:07 AM
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely, and I also like Rachel Maddow's show. But when she got into the semantics of the definition of "rhetoric" it was confusing. You hit the mark when you said, "The point of the public conversation at the moment isn't the definitive meaning of 'rhetoric'; it is that words matter and can move people, especially, the lunatic fringe, to act on those words which are often delivered with passion."
Last night I sent the following comment to Maddow's show--not to be nitpick but in hopes of keeping the focus where it should be.
Dear Ms. Maddow,
I want to comment on your use of the word “rhetoric” when you wanted to illustrate the difference between metaphorical and literal meaning in a quote about “Second Amendment solutions, which you then said was not “rhetoric.” The point you were making, and I agree with, is that some on the Right have exhorted people to do literal violence.
The word “rhetoric” describes a broad range of language and discourse—I won’t go into specifics-- suffice to say that both metaphorical and literal meaning can fall under the rubric "rhetoric." (“Rhetor” simply means “orator” in Greek.) The word “rhetoric” has a range of meanings in modern English. You meant to say Ms. Angle was speaking literally not metaphorically when she called for “second amendment solutions.” That’s a very important observation and I don’t want to see it diluted by linguistic parsing or confusion about what constitutes a “rhetorical” statement.
Keep up the good work.
Best to you.
The GOP spin machine is in overdrive trying to rewrite recent history. It's too damn bad for them that they live in a post Google world. It seems as if the chickens have come home to roost. Really, since Nixon's Southern Strategy, the GOP has consciously courted the racists, nativists, and anti government conspiracy theory loons to be their foot soldiers. Now, they act surprised when things go awry. Didn't they have a similar reaction after the Oklahoma City bombing?
ReplyDeleteWhile there may not be a direct cause and effect relationship between the GOP and the shooting, these hyperbolic claims, the vitriol, the ad hominem insults, the invective, and threats of violence DO have a cumulative effect. They provoke fear, they speak to prejudice, and they inflame. When those who are already deranged and unstable are immersed in such an environment, how can anyone credibly claim that there will not be a deleterious effect?
I, and MANY others predicted just such an event would occur. I even specifically thought that an assassination attempt of a sitting member of Congress would result in the death of a Representative or Senator, or a member of their staff. How unfortunately prescient my words have been proven.
I'm not clairvoyant, but merely an observer of what should be painfully obvious to all: no good can come from an environment where incivility, extremist rhetoric, dehumanization of opponents, questions of opponents' citizenship, and threats of violence are considered merely the lingua franca for political speech within the GOP.
The only question that remains is whether or not our leaders on both sides of the aisle are willing to recognize the symptoms and the cause of our present condition. That means pointing fingers, assigning blame, accepting responsibility and pledging to effect change. If not, I fear that the Tucson shooting will be but prelude to even more such horrific acts of violence.
@9:32 - Tammy Bruce is in love with RAM & SP. Why are you quoting her here? That's like quoting GLenn Beck as a defense.
ReplyDeleteBruce Palmer @9:20
ReplyDelete"He sat down with Rachel to talk about it and she already had it formatted in her head....."
Damn, that woman has a lot of smart stuff going on in her head! It never ceases to amaze me how she can take any issue and dissect it, examine it and explain it to the rest of us so that we understand it. Ohhh, to have even a small amount of the smarts that she has...!
Anonymous Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThats not careful reporting. What she's saying is common sense and most Americans haven't laid blame or determined their own facts.
Rachel is a perfect example of why you were sooo in the wrong to automatically attack Sarah for being an instigator for Jared. Shame. I hope it stays with you forever if some moron attacks her.
5:01 AM
Giffords was the one put in the cross hairs ad she had been attacked.
Sarah has not been threatened. In any case she is too much of a coward to meet people in the open as Giffords did.
Sarah is cowardly, she is hold up these days, too afraid to even walk the streets of Wasilla.
A true sign of a great leader. "Don't reload, run and hide."
@10:13
ReplyDeleteThat quote shows what ass wipes they are. Sure they can say that Democrats use gun imagery because Tammy Bruce is Democrat, a feminist, a progressive.
The same old Bruce and O'Reilly routine has been going on for years. They change names and circumstances and a few minor details but it is the same old pattern. Their arguments today are what they've been constructing over the years for anything like this that comes up. If you want to know how they will respond to this latest situation, study their history. They keep repeating it. Learn from history.
9:32
At home with Jared Lee Loughner.
ReplyDeleteRead more about his home here.
Judy Clarke was not fired by the Bush Administration DoJ.
Biographical information on Judy Clarke
My theory on why SP is in hiding:
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly what she wanted to happen. She has deliberately used violent language to stir her followers up, and this is the first salvo in their "revolution." Her handlers are keeping her off the air because they know if she appears anywhere, she won't be able to conceal her glee and gloating.
I hope to God I'm wrong. But I grew up in a Dominionist semi-cult, and unfortunately, what I wrote above is exactly the way these people think.