US: Calls to tone down fighting talk

Calls for softer tone in politics gets cool reception
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. The Saturday shooting in Tucson killed six people and...

Calls for softer tone in politics gets cool reception
By Ed Stoddard DALLAS | Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:22pm 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....

GOP senator urges media not to talk about Palin's violent rhetoric
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) urged CNN's Candy Crowley Sunday not to mention Fox News' Sarah Palin in connection with the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). In a Sunday interview, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) noted that public figures have used violent Rhetoric against Giffords, something Palin has done. "Those of us in public life and the Journalists who cover this should be thoughtful in response to this and try to bring down the rhetoric, which I'm afraid has become pervasive in the dis...

The Right and the Shooting in Tucson
It appears that Arizona is Ground Zero in a right-wing war against the democratic process. Rep. Giffords was on Sarah Palin's "target list" of twenty 2010 Incumbents, a list which featured a graphic showing the crosshairs of a gun. Giffords' office was was one of those vandalized by the right-wing in March 2009 in a Protest against national Health Care bill. [Judge John Roll, killed in the incident, also was subject to significant threats due to his positions on Immigration.] As recently as Ju...

Bristol Palin poseur pokes fun at mom on Twitter using fake acount
Calm down folks, Bristol Palin isn't going rogue, a poseur has set up a fake Twitter account under the name @Bristol_Palin and is pretending to be the Dancing with the Stars finalist. The imposter posted a phony and unkind tweet about her mom, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on Sunday saying, “You are a paid member of the "lame stream media" you're always referring to, mom. Fire all of your ghost writers and tweet for yourself :(” but the folks over at SarahPAC told Yeas & Nay...

Sarah Palin's TLC show ends planned 8-episode run
The Palin clan is off the air, at least on TLC, at least for now. "Sarah Palin's Alaska" concluded Sunday with the final episode of the eight-part documentary series showing the former Governor and her family having assorted adventures in their home state. The show appeared ripe for a second season after attracting an average of more than 3 million viewers per episode, so the end of the cable TV show is generating online buzz about the reason it won't continue. The general consensus: The 2008 Re...

Dem plans bill banning use of threatening imagery against politicians
© unknown In the wake of the tragic Arizona shooting, Rep. Bob Brady (D-PA) says he plans to introduce a bill criminalizing the use of certain forms of threatening imagery against lawmakers and judges. "You can't threaten the president with a bullseye or a crosshair," Brady told the New York Times. He explained to CNN that his bill would also ban symbols or language that threaten "a congressman, senator or Federal Judge." He was referring to a map published last year by Sarah Palin in w...

'Humor writer' names Olbermann a 'target' after Giffords shooting
© unknown A self-described humorist named a liberal cable news host a "target" on her blog the day after he denounced incendiary political Rhetoric in response to an Arizona shooting that claimed the lives of six people, including a Federal Judge, a congressperson's aide, and a child. Andrea Rouda's post entitled "Speaking of Target Practice" listed several historical figures who were murdered "by a crazy person" before naming MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, whom she referred to as "The Devil."...

Steve Hynd Making Sense Again
Steve Hynd, whom I linked to a bit earlier, contributes a little more sense on the subject of the Arizona shooting from the Left Blogosphere: I said I’d wait until I knew more before I wrote more about the Arizona shootings. Well, here it is. […] Note that Loughner’s obsession with Rep. Giffords began at least as early as 2007, long before Sarah Palin or the Tea Party - but note too that there’s not a lot of difference between paranoid politics and the worst exces...

Tea Party Activist/VA Sen. Candidate Jamie Radtke on Arizona Tragedy: its really about needing to get our arms around mental hea
ABC News' Amy Walter reports: In the wake of Saturday’s tragic shootings in Tucson, Arizona there’s been an increased focus on the role that political Rhetoric and imagery may have played in encouraging such behavior. Virginia Republican Senate Candidate Jamie Radtke tells ABC’s Top Line , however,  that “instead of it being about the political part, it’s really about needing to get our arms around our Health Care, the Mental Health policy here.” Radtke, the

What Sarah Palin Should Have Said
Coming from David Frum, this advice carries a lot more force than if it were coming from, oh say, Firedoglake or Crooks and Liars, e.g. (emphasis is mine): 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 an...

Alaska oil pipeline operator works on bypass
The company that operates the trans-Alaska Pipeline is working on a plan to install a bypass line so the flow of oil can be restarted despite a leak. The Pipeline that transports crude from the nation's largest Oil Field was shut down Saturday after a leak was discovered in a pipe near a pump station. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. operates the Pipeline from the North Slope to the Valdez tanker terminal. It is working on the bypass plan Monday. Tom DeRuyter, the on-scene coordinator for the Alaska...