Palin Aide's Inane Bullseye Map Defense

Palin counters pols trying to tie her to shooting (AP)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Sarah Palin indirectly countered politicians trying to tie her political material to the weekend shooting in Arizona that left six people dead and critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Conservative Talk Show host Glenn Beck on Monday read what he said was the Tea Party favorite's e-mail to him in which she said she hates violence and war. According to Beck, Palin said: "Our Children will not have peace if politicos just capitalize on this to succeed in portrayin...

Palin on 'Crosshairs' Controversy: 'I Hate Violence'
"I hate violence." Those are the latest words from Sarah Palin on the tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others that has once again placed the former Alaska Governor in the middle of the national political discussion. More Video ...

Giffords Was Concerned with Rhetoric
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin remained a focus of the debate about the tone of the country's political discourse in the wake of Saturday's killing rampage in Arizona that left six dead and 14 others wounded. More Video ...

Palin narrative disintegrates: Arizona shooter obsessed with Giffirds since at least 2007
The meme that Palin is somehow responsible for the Arizona shooting was a totally false canard from the getgo, and those whose first response to the shooting was to even think of Sarah Palin are in need of serious psychological intervention. Besides, shooter Jared Loughner is a left-wing wacko who's favorite book is Communist Manifesto. His favorite YouTube video is of the American Flag being burned. But facts, of course, never stop the momentum of liberal derangement. But the 'Palin is respon...

It's time to cool the rhetoric
Saturday's shootings in Tucson, in which six people were killed, including U.S. District Court Judge John Roll and nine-year-old Christina Green, and 14 wounded, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), tells us that we desperately need to cool down an overheated atmosphere of violent and hateful political Rhetoric. Contentious political issues bring out strong feelings on all sides, but civilized people in a Democracy can disagree about things without resorting to threats of violence or d...

So what is America going to do about this tragedy (other than shout)?
I don't have too much to add to the Giffords debate, but in case these points haven't been made (probably unlikely) or haven't been made prominently enough, let me raise three issues about the Arizona massacre: Implicit versus explicit eliminationist Rhetoric. There has been much justifiable focus on various forms of explicit, or even slightly veiled but still Militant/aggressive rhetoric in the political discourse. I think more attention needs to go the implicit calls for violence, usually i...

Polls suggest gun control unlikely to be a campaign issue
With some Democratic lawmakers calling for stricter gun-control measures in the wake of Saturday's shooting in Arizona, polling suggests it's unlikely to morph into a campaign issue for 2012.  Across the board, polling from the past several years shows that support for stricter gun-control laws has declined, even after Mass Shootings like the one that occurred on the campus of Virginia Tech in the spring of 2007, which killed 32 people. Saturday's shooting killed at least six people and criti...

The Left Never Wastes a Tragedy
Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com The Left never stands so tall as when it stands upon dead bodies. Whether it is Bill Clinton blaming the Oklahoma City bombing on Rush Limbaugh, Democratic mayors suing gun manufacturers after school shootings in Arkansas and Colorado, Democrats turning Senator Paul Wellstone’s memorial into a campaign rally, or Cindy Sheehan vastly overstaying her 15 minutes of fame, the Left never lets a tragedy pass without blaming it on its political enemies and pushing ...

Mary Fallin becomes Oklahoma's 1st female governor
Oklahoma Gov.-elect Mary Fallin waves to the crowd as she arrives for her inauguration at the State Capitol in Oklahoma City, Monday, Jan. 10, 2011. Fallin took her oath of office to become the first female Governor of Okahoma. Republican Mary Fallin (FAY-lihn) has taken her oath of office to become Oklahoma's first female governor. During her inauguration on Monday, Fallin recognized the historic nature of the day, but she stressed that she is foremost an Oklahoma conservative and vowed to imp...

Shooting opens divide on inflamed rhetoric
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a town where politics never rests, the shooting of U.S. congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords quickly opened a sharp divide on the role of inflamed Rhetoric in the assault and on the proper response to its growth. The Arizona attack ignited a flood of finger-pointing and pontificating on the sometimes overheated state of U.S. political discourse, even as politicians largely vowed at least a temporary halt to the battle of words in Washington. The motives of suspect Jared Lee...

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...

Sarah Palin Equates Musk Oxen with Family Values
Amid a flurry of politically charged finger-pointing and the perhaps surprising announcement that this might be the show's only season, the visually rich, family-oriented, fish-abusive Sarah Palin’s Alaska came to a close last night. Palin seemed to make peace with the fauna of Alaska in the show's final episode. She doesn't gun down a wild caribou, but instead spends another episode with Piper exploring the Alaskan wilderness. From kayaking along a melting Glacier ("Don't hit the iceber...

Randall Amster: First Amendment Remedies: Hey Sarah, Refudiate This
Despite the temptation to join the grief-stricken chorus of blame, I do not believe that flame-fanners and spleen-suppliers like Sarah Palin, et al., are responsible for the tragic events in Tucson. Rather, the incendiary rhetorical devices they've used -- from gun sights over Congressional Districts to the invocation of "Second Amendment remedies" as viable tactics for change -- make these demagogues irresponsible about the consequences of their allusions. Words do have power, and thus should...

Heed the Prophetic Words of Whoopi Goldberg
Every now and then, the staged ladies’ coffee klatch known as “The View” produces some useful commentary on Our Life and Times, and in this instance, taken from a show that aired last year, the discussion seems downright prescient. Whoopi Goldberg kicks it off by critiquing Sarah Palin’s notorious cross-hair-peppered map of the U.S., Joy Behar chirps in agreement and Dame Edna sits in sparkly resplendence while conservative show regulars Sherri Shepherd and Elizabeth Has...

Democrats Scramble To Exploit the AZ Shooting With Anti-Gun And Anti-Speech Legislation
The nation is still reeling after the horrific Mass Shooting in Arizona this weekend, which left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords fighting for her life, multiple bystanders injured, and six dead, including a nine-year-old girl and a Federal Judge. People were clamoring for answers, and the left wasted no time blaming the tragedy on Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. Once the shooter was identified, it quickly became clear that Jared Lee Loughner was an anti-government, anti-religion nut with no discernible t...

In the wake of the Arizona shootings, would you support tighter gun control? | Poll
A man walks by the Glock Handgun billboard at a 2003 NRA meeting in Orlando, Florida. The shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, in the attempted Assassination of Gabrielle Giffords and the Murder of six others in Tucson used a Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistol bought in Arizona. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters Yes, absolutely, and if the tea baggers demand to have their rifles taken from their cold dead hands, then I would hope the government would oblige them....

After attack, a leadership test for Obama, Boehner (AP)
WASHINGTON – On opposite sides of the political spectrum, President Barack Obama and new House Speaker John Boehner suddenly face the same challenge: rise above the anger, suspicion and hostility of their liberal and conservative bases to help a rattled nation deal with the deadly outburst of violence in Arizona. But what comes after the easy moment of silence? For now, both men are stepping past the question of what role, if any, the vitriol of the past election campaign played in Satur...

Anti-Saul Anuzis site surfaces
Via Liz Mair, a site opposed to the candidacy for Republican National Committee chair of former Michigan GOP chair Saul Anuzis has emerged, called thatsallsaul.com. The site has no author, and it isn’t immediately clear who created it; however, a Domain Name lookup shows that the domain was registered Friday. The opposition research site — run-of-the-mill for general Elections but somewhat odd for a closed election for party chairman — claims that Anuzis managed the ’06 ...

Manchin Defends 'Dead Aim' Ad
Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) on Monday fought back against suggestions that a Controversial campaign ad he aired last October may have contributed to an overheated political culture that is being reexamined in light of the Assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) that left her critically wounded and six dead in Tucson, Arizona, on Saturday. After finding himself unexpectedly trailing his Republican opponent John Raese as the campaign entered its final month, Manchin released a 30-...

How SCOTUS Handcuffed the Gun Rights Debate
The Murder of six, including a Federal Judge and a nine-year old girl, in the attempted Assassination of a talented young Congresswoman is a startling reminder of why the Supreme Court ought to, and usually does, avoid so called “political questions.”  If ever an event will spur a thoughtful and productive debate on the costs and virtues of Firearms, this event is it.  Yet the Supreme Court’s decision in DC v. Heller denies society the ability to think and rethink the way that

Roger Ailes
Triumph of the Hacks The Giffords Assassination attempt is making morons out of many a political reporter. Dancin' David Weigel writes on Slate:Politico quotes "Veteran Democratic operative" [sic] today: One veteran Democratic operative, who blames overheated Rhetoric for the shooting, said President Barack Obama should carefully but forcefully do what his predecessor did. "They need to deftly pin this on the tea partiers," said the Democrat. "Just like the Clinton White House deftly pinned th...

Colorado's Call for Civility
ABC's Clayton Sandell Reports: At least one sign that the call for cooling toxic political Rhetoric is stretching beyond Washington: Today the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce—along with more than 50 business organizations, unions and non-profits-- sent an Open Letter to every elected leader in Colorado asking them to pledge for “renewed civility in both the state and federal legislative process.” “We understand that the challenges faced by our state and nation are many

Splinter Group of Senate Dems Want MTA Payroll Tax on Chopping Block
The fate of the Payroll mobility tax, which brings in $1.34 billion a year to the MTA, just grew a little shakier. The four members of the State Senate’s new Independent Democratic Conference, who split off from the minority Democrats last week, have come out with their agenda and included in it is a call to “reform” the tax and even consider eliminating it. Any cut to the mobility tax would spell disaster for transit riders. When the Payroll Tax originally passed in 2009, the ...

Tea Party Express defends Palin
The Tea Party Express leaps to Sarah Palin's defense: The Tea Party Express blasted liberal criticism of the movement on Monday in a fund-raising email to members, saying the left is trying to "smear" them and Sarah Palin. The email defends Palin, who has taken heat from some liberals who say her PAC went too far in using a graphic with crosshairs on specific Congressional Districts, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Some have said the Rhetoric is at least partially to blame for the...

Fox News Head Tells Hosts 'Shut Up, Tone It Down' After Giffords Shooting
Roger Ailes, the conservative who heads the Fox News Channel, has told his traditionally outspoken hosts to "shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually" in the wake of the massacre in Tuscon that is putting overheated right-wing Rhetoric under intense scrutiny. After the Arizona Massacre, Will Congress Ever Be the Same? "I told all of our guys, shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually," Ailes said in an interview with Russell Simmons, the global hip-hop impresario, ...