Debra Saunders Slaps Down Liberal Roger Simon for Criticizing Sarah Palin in Relation to Tucson Shooting Video

CBS Poll: 57% of Americans Don''t Blame Political Tone for Tucson Shooting
Philip Klein points to a new CBS news poll (again, it's a CBS poll ... I'd be interested in what Rasmussen would find) showing that nearly six in ten Americans don't think the political tone had anyting to do with the Tucson shooting:Overall, 57 percent of respondents said the harsh political tone had nothing to do with the shooting, compared to 32 percent who felt it did. Republicans were more likely to feel the two were unrelated - 69 percent said Rhetoric was not to blame; 19 percent said it ...

Times Mark Halperin: Fox News, Conservatives Using Tucson Shooting For Fodder
Almost immediately after the shootings in Tucson over the weekend the left was in full spin mode, blaming (despite not having any evidence) Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement for creating an “atmosphere of hate” that inspired the attack. As you might expect, Conservatives pushed back against this notion. Now Time’s Mark Halperin is claiming that the media “behaved” in the wake of the Tucson shootings and that it’s really Conservatives who made this politic...

Glenn Beck Defends Sarah Palin With New Pledge Scam
It was a no-brainer that Glenn Beck would jump on the hastily gerrymandered “FOX ‘News’ Protect Palin” bandwagon after the Tucson massacre. Beck has a lot invested emotionally in the Half-Governor. Not only is she his BFF—she was his first guest on Fox “News”—but he is also knew that an attack on Sarah Palin for her “target maps” would quickly spread to the Beckinator himself. As offensive as the bulls eyes might have been—and the...

In Wake of Tucson Shooting, Joe Manchin Says He'd Reconsider Gun Ad
(Credit: CBS/AP) In the wake of Saturday's tragic shooting in Tucson, many have been quick to lay blame on Sarah Palin for using the image of crosshairs during Midterm Elections to "target" lawmakers. Plenty of other politicians, however, used gun imagery during the 2010 midterms, including West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D). The new senator said Monday that, in light of the Tucson shooting, he doubts his future campaigns would use such imagery again. "I can't say that we would, I really ca...

Palin Gets That Tucson Wasnt About Politics, Obama Doesnt
In the New York Times today Sarah Palin is being criticized for not being more out-front in her defense of herself in the wake of the Tucson shootings over the weekend. The paper suggests that Palin is staying “in her digital comfort zone” choosing to react primarily through Facebook and Twitter. But maybe Palin understands that this isn’t political, and that even though many of her political enemies have absurdly attempted to tie her to the attack, I think she also realizes th...

No sale on the hateful rhetoric/Tucson shooting connection
According to a CBS New poll It appears the American public isn’t buying the attempt to connect what is termed “hateful” Rhetoric and the Tucson shooting of Rep. Giffords: Overall, 57 percent of respondents said the harsh political tone had nothing to do with the shooting, compared to 32 percent who felt it did. Republicans were more likely to feel the two were unrelated - 69 percent said Rhetoric was not to blame; 19 percent said it played a part. Democrats were more split on the iss

"Sarah Palin made him do it!" means Narrative failure
"Sarah Palin made him do it!" means Narrative failure While it's still too early to say this conclusively, I think that people who want to read their various political narratives into Jared Lee Loughner are ultimately in for a disappointment. The man's mind is so messed up that he's the political equivalent of schizophrenic word salad (schizophasia): Judging from Mr. Loughner's own website, his mind was a mess of Conspiracy theories, influenced by tracts like "Mein Kampf" and the "Communist Ma...

On Jared Loughner: The politicized mind
Before he allegedly went off on his shooting rampage in Tucson, Jared Loughner listed some of his favorite books on his YouTube page. These included: “Animal Farm,” “Brave New World,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Through the Looking Glass” and “The Communist Manifesto.” Many of these books share a common theme: individuals trying to control their own thoughts and government or some other f...

Pawlenty, Kennedy Knock Palin for Gun Imagery
Former Minnesota Gov. (and likely 2012 GOP presidential contender) Tim Pawlenty took a swipe at former Governor Sarah Palin on Tuesday for her use of crosshairs imagery on a map showing the Democrats that Palin wanted to see lose in the Midterm Elections. "I think Governor Palin is a remarkable leader; I think she brings a lot to the debate and the table, both nationally and within the Republican Party as well," Pawlenty said on ABC's "Good Morning America." But, he continued, "You know, it woul...

In They Are Who We Thought They Were News..
I had put this in the replies in yesterday’s Afternoon Open Thread, but I thought about it, and decided to FP it. In an apparent effort to distance themselves from the Mass Shootings in Arizona over the weekend, the Tea Party Express sent out an email to supporters proclaiming that they “won’t be silenced” — and asking for contributions. Earlier today, TPE leader Sal Russo went on Fox News and lamented how “revolting and disgusting the left is for trying to as...

Megyn Kelly confronts Liberal Sheriff Clarence Dupnik over his attempts to politicize the mass shooting in Arizona
Sheriff Clarence Dupnik is a real 'tool'. Sheriff Dupnik is a democrat and was a very outspoken opponent of Arizona's Immigration Reform. ...

Twitter roundup
BrendanNyhan Jan 11, 2011 at 2:37pm Matthew Dowd: "If the jobs #s don't improve... the president could locate his HQ on Mars & it wouldn't make a difference" https://j.mp/fpEz8S The Over/Under for 2012 - Matthew Dowd - Politics - The Atlantic Obama will need better numbers to win BrendanNyhan Jan 11, 2011 at 2:21pm Much credit to @ezraklein for retracting his attack on Joe Lieberman's motives https://j.mp/dE7rmx (original post on it: https://j.mp/gp9Qpa) Ezra Klein - A good...

Tomorrow's speech in Arizona is a big test for Barack Obama
We will find out a great deal about Barack Obama’s character tomorrow - or at least about the wisdom of his advisers. If his Speech at the Memorial service for the Victims of the Tucson shooting is spotlessly apolitical - if it manages to avoid any hint of support for the quite astonishing smear campaign which has explicitly attributed responsibility for this crime to his electoral opponents - then it may help to revive his original 

Tucson Sheriff sticks foot in mouth over Rush Limbaugh comment!
Having an opinion is one thing, but making your opinion public can have Unintended Consequences.  And yes, even for Pima Count, AZ Sheriff, Clarence Dupnik, that rule applies.  Yesterday, he may have inadvertently stuck his foot in his mouth with his Rhetoric about Rush Limbaugh.  Take for instance, the comments made by Dupnik.  Yesterday in an interview, he told Diane Sawyer of ABCNews  that; Really?!  Do you really think he listens to Limbaugh's program, or is he ...

Is there a foreign-policy angle to the Tucson shooting? Not really.
The tragic shooting in Tucson is a signal event in recent U.S. history and could well have implications for domestic politics. But the implications for U.S. Foreign Policy (this blog's bailiwick) are likely minimal. Indeed, from a parochial foreign-policy perspective, the truly consequential act of violence against a politician last week occurred halfway around the world: the Assassination of the Pakistani reformer and the Governor of the Punjab region, Salman Taseer. So far there is no evidenc...

ACTION ITEM: Create debate team style flashcards to help people better counter the Lefts talking points when surrogate speaking
How can you help people better debate the Left? Here’s something else you can do to help counter the media and Left’s (redundancy alert!) talking points against the Tea Party and Conservatives:  if you ever took debate in school, are a teacher, or are just great at organizing information, you can help collect all the instances of the Left’s hypocrisy you are seeing emerge right now into debate team style flashcards that people can use to better counter any Leftists they en...

Personally, Tim Pawlenty Would Not Have Made a Map That Targets Congressmen With Crosshairs
Photo: Allison Shelley/Getty Images Do Sarah Palin's potential Republican rivals sense an opening to ever-so slightly and subtly undermine her with the Tucson shooting? In an interview Monday with reporters at The New York Times, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, considered another contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, defended Ms. Palin, if only to a point. “There’s no indication at present that those cross hairs, Fox News, any particular commentator ...

Paul Krugmans totalitarian temptation
Washington Examiner: Jared Loughner, the gunman charged with wounding Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and murdering six others in Tucson on Saturday, held bizarre beliefs about “conscious dreaming” and government mind control imposed through English grammar. No serious person would connect his belief system to a mainstream political ideology. But then there’s New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. He places the blood Libel of blame for the Tucson Murders squarely on the sho...

PAPER: America's elite hijacked massacre to take revenge on Sarah Palin...
On a sunny Saturday morning outside the local Safeway in Tucson,­ Arizona, a man pulls out a powerful Handgun, opens fire - and engulfs the U.S. in a political ­firestorm. Six people were killed on ­Saturday, including a nine-year-old girl. But it was the fact that the target was a ­Democratic congresswoman - who is fighting for her life - which has sparked such a furious row, not, as one might expect, over the nature of America’s Gun Laws, but over the vitriolic nature...

Rachel Maddow Reacts To Arizona Shooting: Gun Massacres Happen Too Often To Be 'Unimaginable' (VIDEO)
Rachel Maddow began her first show after the shooting in Arizona by raising a tough question: how will the next one be prevented? She started by running through a long, painful list of some of the Mass Shootings that have occurred in America since the alleged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was born 22 years ago. After reeling off over a dozen different incidents, Maddow turned to the words that are often used to describe them, such as "unimaginable." "It is hard for anybody to find the words to...

The Note: 2012 Politics Gets Tangled In Arizona Shooting Aftermath
By MICHAEL FALCONE and AMY WALTER The place that Sarah Palin has occupied in the debate about civility in politics in the aftermath of Saturday’s shooting in Arizona that left six people dead has inevitably dragged other potential 2012 contenders into the discussion. One of the first to join the fray is former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, whose long-planned book tour kicks off this week. Pawlenty weighed in on the swirling Controversy about the appropriateness of Palin’s use of rifle cro...

Tucson Shooting Suspect's Family "Hurting Real Bad"
NEXT » Yesterday, when the man suspected of shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, as well as over a dozen others (leaving six dead), in an apparent Assassination attempt appeared in court, not a single relative of Jared Lee Loughner was spotted in the courtroom. Now details are emerging about the 22-year-old's family, who initially blocked the FBI from entering their home. And a neighbor told the NY Post that Loughner's dad is "pretty much the neighborhood prick." The neighbor, who also said...

Halperin to Conservatives: Lie Back And Take It
Via Mary Katharine Ham, Mark Halperin agrees that Conservatives are right to be offended that the media has blamed them for the Tucson shooting. But if they keep pointing out that the facts are on their side they will only worsen the political discourse. Shame on them. Liberals are so smart. They're always telling the poor dumb Conservatives what to do. Just imagine how much better off we would be if we took their advice. "Halperin: “And, I already made that criticism, as well. they’...

The blame conservatives first 'progressives'
Image by Getty Images via @daylife George Will: ... A characteristic of many contemporary minds is susceptibility to the superstition that all behavior can be traced to some diagnosable frame of mind that is a product of promptings from the social environment. From which flows a political doctrine: Given clever social engineering, society and people can be perfected. This supposedly is the path to progress. It actually is the crux of progressivism. And it is why there is a reflex to blame cons...

Mo Elleithee: "We should have had this discussion long before the Tucson tragedy"
I DON'T think the right had anything to do with the Tucson tragedy. But I AM discouraged & disgusted by those on the right who refuse to acknowledge their role in our toxic political environment. Why can't we all agree to drop hateful or violent Rhetoric or imagery? Do you REALLY feel the need to defend it? If Keith Olbermann can apologize for his past hateful words, why can't offenders on the right do the same? There's nothing complex about it. You're right about one thing -- we should have ha...