Around the Blogroll Elsewhere: America Gone Mad Edition

Democrat hate machine politicizes Arizona tragedy
Cover of Rush Limbaugh James Rosen, Fox News: When Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords collapsed outside the Safeway in Tucson Saturday morning, felled by a hail of bullets that killed six and wounded another 13 innocent people that had come to see her, some were quick to claim that the carnage was the product not merely of the tortured mind and trigger-happy fingers of the alleged shooter, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner. Rather, many on the American Left said the horror could be traced to the mal...

Palin to blame for an obsession that started before she was ever on the national scene [Darleen Click]
… and long before the first Tea Party was ever formed. William Jacobson lists the charges filed against Jared Lee Loughner and something interesting appears … On January 8, 2011, a search warrant was executed at 7741 N. Soledad Avenue in Tucson, Arizona, where LOUGHNER resides. Some of the evidence seized from that location included a letter in a safe, addressed to “Mr. Jared Loughney” at 7741 N. Soledad Avenue, from Congresswoman Giffords, on Congressional stationary, ...

Arizona Shooting Suspect Jared Lee Loughner Not Cooperating, Sheriff Says
Phoenix — An Arizona sheriff says a 22-year-old man accused of killing six people and trying to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson is not cooperating with investigators. Pima (PEE'-muh) County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik told ABC's "Good Morning America" Monday that Jared Loughner (LAWF'-nuhr) had said "not a word." He's scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday afternoon. Dupnik said investigators were all but certain Loughner acted alone, saying "he's a typical trouble...

Blame, Censorship and Personal Responsibility
My lack of comment with regards to the shootings over the weekend was partly the result of an inability to successfully connect to the tubes. But even if I hadn't been tubes-impaired, I didn't want to jump into the debate before I really had an opportunity to digest all of the hydra-like arms of this disaster -- who's to blame and how to properly peg this thing. But mainly, I haven't really been able to determine what to say here that's any different from my reaction to previous eliminationist...

Sheriff Dupnik names Angle and Palin as two responsible for 'vitriol' (Video)
Yesterday Pima County Sheriff Charles Dupnik took the bold step of naming Sharon Angle and Sarah Palin as two individuals responsible for the kind of toxic 'political vitriol' which he believes must end in light of the recent shooting in Tucson, Arizona.  Dupnik's comments came in an interview with Geraldo Rivera of Fox News.  Earlier in the day Dupnik had been interview by Megyn Kelly of Fox News, who accused the Sheriff of inserting politics where it did not belong.  In the Rive...

New York Times insinuates Sarah Palin responsibility in Tucson massacre
It is fair to ask, as New York Times reporters Carl Hulse and Kate Zernike do in a front-page story Sunday (“Bloodshed Puts New Focus on Vitriol in Politics”), “whether Extremism, antigovernment sentiment and even simple political passion at both ends of the ideological spectrum have created a climate promoting violence.” And for the Times, even though the “exact motivations of the suspect in the shootings remain u...

FBI shows Palin had nothing to do with it
Attention liberals, if you mentioned Sarah Palin in any commentary over the weekend or today about the shooting in Arizona, you owe her an Apology. You are wring. Plain and simple. No ifs, ands, or buts. Political Rhetoric and hyperbole had nothing to do with this national tragedy. Obsession did. And that obsession began long before Sarah Palin was selected as a vice Presidential Candidate. From the Wall Street Journal: TUCSON, Ariz. — Accused gunman Jared Lee Loughner appeared to have been ...

Putting the blame where it belongs [Reader Post]
On November 5, 2009, Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire at a troop readiness center in Ft. Hood, Texas, killing 13 people. Within hours of the killings, the world knew that Hasan reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar!” before he began shooting, visited websites associated with Islamist violence, wrote Internet postings justifying Muslim Suicide bombings, considered U.S. forces his enemy, opposed American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as wars on Islam, and told a neighbor shortly before th...

Geraldo: People Are In Denial To Suggest Irrelevance Of Political Climate In Gifford Shooting
Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has quickly become an important character in the developing narrative surrounding the tragic shooting in a Tuscon area Safeway that killed 6 individuals and put Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition. His comments made shortly after the tragedy were seen by some as unnecessarily political. Last night he appeared with Geraldo Rivera to further explore the role of the media in this story, and found some measure of support from the Fox News host. Almost immediately af...

From super-predators to ACORN & public employee unions--the evolution of conservative demons today
The conservative panic over super-predators and an out-of-control underclass crime-wavetrunami turned out to be a False Alarm. Instead, it was super-rich criminals on Wall Street who brought America down. But the underlying conservative narrative did not die, which is why the "recovery" is doing more to destroy America than even the horrendous crash did. Just after Christmas, I wrote a diary spinning off from a piece by Mike Konczal, "The Conservative World View and Prison Populations, ...

Pension crisis introduces unions to new realities
By Robert Holland and Don Soifer Brother, can you spare $3.6 Trillion? Currently in the United States, state and Local Government employees' Pension and Retiree health-benefit plans are under water to the tune of some $3.6 trillion, according to researchers at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. With government workers now comprising more than half of labor union membership in the United States, the priorities of current union leadership may be more at odds with those of aver...

Understanding The Attacks On Public Employees
You can barely open a newspaper or turn on a radio without hearing about states and local governments bankrupted by high-paid Public Employees, their pensions and their Unions. How much of what you are hearing is really true, and how much is just one more Wall Street-funded campaign to turn people against each other and our government? What do we see if we look around at the state of The Economy? Stocks are soaring, corporate profits are way up, Wall Street gets Trillions in Bailouts and pays...

Speaking of Envy
To follow up on Enoch’s post from yesterday, let’s consider a couple of different points of view. And I mean really different. First, from Clinton crony Robert Reich, a bit of complaining about the demonization of Public Employee Unions. By the way, Mr. Reich, those “higher degrees” in education circles are bullshit. Wonder why so many diploma mills are giving masters in education? Because public School Teachers get a bump up in Salary by how many degrees they have. Ther...

Conservative pundit says criticism of Palin like 'McCarthyism'
A conservative pundit on Monday ripped liberals who have suggested that Sarah Palin is to blame for the shooting tragedy in Arizona. During an appearance on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal," Bill Kristol of the conservative-leaning Weekly Standard magazine called the criticism of the former Alaska Governor "a disgrace." He said there is no proof that Jared Loughner, the suspect, was a fan of Palin nor went to her website, which had labeled Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and other Democrats a p...

The Climate of Krugman
Within hours of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting, lunatic “Economist” Paul Krugman raced to put up a blog post blaming Sarah Palin and the Tea Party for the attack. “For those wondering why a Blue Dog Democrat, the kind Republicans might be able to work with, might be a target,” said Krugman, “the answer is that she’s a Democrat who survived what was otherwise a GOP sweep in Arizona, precisely because the Republicans nominated a Tea Party Activist. (Her father...

The Morning Plum
* What did Jared Loughner believe? He was a 9/11 Truther who believed that global elites, hell bent on world domination, are in the process of creating a one-world currency. * Did he draw his ideas from the fringe right? So argues the Southern Poverty Law Center, pointing to his views on currency and related matters, though it's worth emphasizing again that the shooter seems so disturbed that it's pretty much impossible to locate his views anywhere on a recognizable political spectrum. * Left ...

Predicting the Left-Wing Spin on Jared Loughners Occult Skull Shrine
However, much of the left pretends to remain unconvinced due to the fact that there’s much political ground to be gained and funds to be raised by shamelessly exploiting the Murder of innocent people and lying about who’s responsible (here’s a novel concept: start by blaming the killer). Will that be enough to convince the left that “political Rhetoric” had nothing to do with this lunatic going unhinged? Oh hell no — if anything, the left-wing spin on the abov...

For A Little Perspective On Those Violent Images And The Language In Politics Az Sheriff Dupnik Spoke Of ...
As for Az Sheriff Clarence Dupnik's rant blaming the Rhetoric on conservative Talk Radio and television for the recent shooting in Arizona, and Conservatives in general, it is indeed time for politicians to stop using violent imagery in their political rhetoric, holding guns and proclaiming, "I'll take on Washington and this administration and get the Federal Government off of our backs!" The man firing the gun, of course, is West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat . This ad is credited with ...

Abbreviated Pundit Round-up
Monday morning punditry. President Obama calls for a moment of silence Monday at 11 a.m. EST. Paul Krugman: When you heard the terrible news from Arizona, were you completely surprised? Or were you, at some level, expecting something like this atrocity to happen? Matt Bai: The problem here doesn’t lie with the Activists like most of those who populate the Tea Parties, ordinary citizens who are doing what citizens are supposed to do — engaging in a conversation about the direction...

Police clear "person of interest" in Tucson rampage
PHOENIX | Mon Jan 10, 2011 7:14am EST PHOENIX (Reuters) - Authorities cleared a man they had sought in connection with Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson in which a U.S. congresswoman was seriously wounded and six people were slain, the FBI said on Sunday. The Pima County Sheriff's Department had said on Saturday that it was seeking to identify a white man wearing Blue Jeans and a dark blue jacket who was at the scene of the shooting. But the FBI said they have since cleared the man. Polic...

Something to renew faith
by Greg Prince It's been an interesting weekend, following an exhausting week on many fronts. Here's a story from Egypt that brings a smile to my face, and goes far toward reminding us that humanity really is worth saving. Remember this story next time a Wingnut tries to tell you there is no such thing as moderate Muslims. Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of M...

Palin and the surveyors cross-hairs
The claim made by Sarah Palin’s staff that the cross-hairs in her now-notorious “reload” ad targeting 20 Democratic Representatives were intended as surveyors’ symbols ought to go down in history as one of the dumbest defenses ever offered. Of course, since the Right Wing takes Nineteen Eighty-Four as an instruction manual rather than a warning, Palin has dropped the offending ad down the memory hole. Note that Rep. Giffords complained about the ad at the time; if the for...

Sheriff: Loughner 'specifically targeted the congresswoman'
Congress convenes Rep. John Boehner of Ohio inherits Speaker’s gavel as 112th session of Congress convenes Officials work the scene at the Safeway where suspsect Jared Lee Loughner is accused of opening fire on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Gi...

NJ Woman, 79, Among 6 Killed in Arizona Attack
A woman who once called New Jersey home was among the half a dozen people slain when an erratic 22-year-old gunman opened fire during a public event for Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords outside a Tucson Grocery Store over the weekend. Phyllis Schneck, 79, a Retiree living in Tucson, lost her life in the fusillade of gunfire discharged from a weapon in an alleged Assassination attempt on the 40-year-old Democratic representative. Giffords, who remains in critical condition in the intensiv...

"He Is One Of Those Whose Picture You See On The News, After He Has Come Into Class With An Automatic Weapon"
Email Sent! You have successfully emailed the post. One thing that seems clear about Jared Lee Loughner, the apparent shooter behind the Arizona massacre, is that he is not one of those people where people can say "nobody saw this coming." A classmate of his explicitly saw this coming. "We have a mentally unstable person in the class that scares the living crap out of me. He is one of those whose picture you see on the news, after he has come into class with an automatic weapon. Everyone interv...