Palin Calls Criticism 'Blood Libel'

Palin, "blood libel", Krauthammer and the lefthave we completely lost our minds?
What a mess. Watching the political world in the light of the Tucson tragedy has been disheartening and disgusting. While the President’s Speech last night was fine, the venue was awful. And T-shirts? Really? It wasn’t a pep rally, but it seemed like one (I’m primarily talking about crowd reaction). What a more somber Oval Office Speech wasn’t proper enough? And this Sarah Palin thing. Am I ever tired of Sarah Palin. That said, I’m even more tired of the left̵...

New York Times: Salving a National Wound Is Presidents Responsibility
Thursday, January 13, 2011 By Susan Jones (CNSNews.com) - "It is a president’s responsibility to salve a national wound. President Obama did that on Wednesday evening at the memorial service in Tucson for the six people who died in last weekend’s terrible shooting," said a New York Times editorial. The newspaper pronounced it one of Obama's "Most Powerful and uplifting speeches" -- then contrasted Obama's words "to the ugliness that continues to swirl in some parts of the country." Sara...

Palin Seeks to Evoke Presidential Aura in Video Message
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin released a lengthy video statement on Wednesday morning in which she discussed her reaction to the tragic Shooting Spree in Tucson on Saturday and the political discourse that has developed in its aftermath. Released on the day when President Obama is scheduled to travel to Arizona to pay his respects to the Shooting Victims and deliver remarks near the scene of the carnage, Palin's video message appeared designed to present a measured tone and to conjure up a st...

Palin: Attacks over shooting are 'blood libel'
Sarah Palin today accused her opponents of Manufacturing a "blood Libel" by suggesting her Rhetoric and campaign tactics had anything to do with the Arizona shootings. Four days after an incident which left six people dead and critically injured the congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Palin released a video statement condemning the attack. She denied that a now infamous campaign map showing Giffords's electoral district in the cross hairs of a gun had influenced the shooter Jared Lee Loughner. In ...

Sarah Palin says blaming rhetoric for shooting is 'a blood libel'
Sarah Palin ended her near silence on the Arizona shootings yesterday, saying that critics had manufactured a "blood Libel" by blaming her Rhetoric for contributing to the shooting rampage in Tucson in which six people died and 14 were wounded, including Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords. • In her video message, Sarah Palin said she and her supporters would not change their Rhetoric because of the Arizona shooting In an eight-minute address posted online, the prominent Republican...

My reaction to the Presidents Tucson memorial speech
…was noted here last night in the comments: [...] you’d think Lowry would’ve known exactly how this was going to play out. Obama and his handlers essentially orchestrated a minor Sister Soldjah moment. It was planned this way. We know this because yesterday Obama was on the phone with Sheriff Dufus commending him for his fine (dirty) work, which in castigating the Tea Party (YAY!) and right-wing radio (YAY!) set Obama up for tonight, allowing him to appear above the fray even as he w...

Mourner-in-Chief's Eulogy Puts Palin to Shame (The Daily Beast)
NEW YORK – The president got an arena; Sarah Palin was stuck at home—and the comparisons of the two speeches Wednesday on the Arizona tragedy get worse from there. Lloyd Grove on the Obama-Palin disparity. Plus, more commentary on Obama's Tucson Speech. Sarah Palin was the reigning queen of Wednesday’s Cable News cycle for most of the day—the object of adoration or opprobrium, depending on which talking head had the microphone. And then Barack Obama went and ruined it ...

Newspaper Roundup for Thursday, January 13, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011 By Susan Jones Politico: Court okays EPA plan to regulate emissions from Texas Power Plants The Hill: Gun-control advocates disappointed with White House silence Providence Journal: R.I. Governor defends his Talk Radio ban; says may be temporary Denver Post: Sen. Udall urges Republicans and Dems to sit with each other at State of the Union Politico: 'One of the most passionate, if hard-to-define speeches of his presidency' 'Obama walked a rhetorical tightrope in ...

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer Speaks Movingly at Tucson Memorial
While President Obama ’s Speech at Wednesday night’s “Together We Thrive” memorial to the Victims of Saturday’s Mass Shooting is justly receiving a lot of attention, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer also delivered stirring remarks at the event. While the contrast between the President’s Speech and that of Sarah Palin will likely be the topic of the day, Brewer’s brief remarks displayed the hope for a more civil relationship between rivals embodied in the Pres...

Tucson memorial service turns into pep rally by raucous students
In what had been expected to be a solemn memorial service for those who had died during the shooting instead was turned into something resembling a pep rally before a football game by Students from the University of Arizona. Perhaps the setting, the music that was more appropriate for a marching parade, and the rows of politicians, confused the students. Apparently they thought that shouting, whistling, and high-fiving was appropriate behavior in remembering those who had died on that tragic Sat...

MSNBCs Ed Schultz Claims Palin Used Term Blood Libel to Appeal to Extremist Conservative Christian Base Video 1/12/11
Here is video of MSNBC’s Ed Schultz continuing the attacks on Sarah Palin. Here, he imagines that Palin’s use of the term “Blood Libel” to describe the Left’s manufacture of the idea that she helped inspire the Tucson Mass Shooting, is because she is trying to appeal to an “Extremist conservative Christian base.” I guess Schultz missed the memo that liberal attorney Alan Dershowitz said yesterday that there is absolutely nothing wrong with Palin’...

Krauthammer: Palin’s Statement on Tucson ‘Unfortunate and Unnecessary’
He mainly laments that Palin gave the Speech at all. Sure, it might be a sensitive issue given that Gabrielle Giffords is Jewish, and she's fighting for her life while the rest of the nation debates allegations of "blood Libel"? I'm personally not bothered by the use of the term as it's applied to the libelous attacks on Palin and Tea Party Conservatives. Frankly, Glenn Reynolds' essay at WSJ the other day has been one of the most penetrating: "The Arizona Tragedy and the Politics of Blood Libel...

"their acid burns them from within"
That from the comments at an Anchoress post rightly giving hell for the madness engaged in by the Mainstream Media: Yesterday, they were complaining that she was "hiding" from the media, who insisted on making her part of a story to which she had no connection. And so, today, Sarah Palin-probably aware that she was damned if she did, and damned if she didn't-made a statement. It was actually a very good, if a trifle long, statement. Immediately upon her delivering it, the media, like jackals ...

Abbreviated pundit round-up
New York Times: It is a president’s responsibility to salve a national wound. President Obama did that on Wednesday evening at the memorial service in Tucson for the six people who died in last weekend’s terrible shooting. It was one of his Most Powerful and uplifting speeches. Mr. Obama called on ideological campaigners to stop vilifying their opponents. The only way to move forward after such a tragedy, he said, is to cast aside "point-scoring and pettiness." He rightly focused pr...

Backlash Grows Over Palin's 'Blood Libel' Claim
Sarah Palin's use of the loaded phrase "blood Libel" is attracting more attention and condemnation as the day goes on. The former Alaska Governor used the words to describe the claims of critics who said Palin deserved some of the blame for the Arizona shootings because of her fiery Rhetoric and her target-marked election map that put the sights on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), among others. But the phrase most often refers to an anti-Semitic myth that's been used to justi...

Early Morning Swim
Civility?! But words had nothing to do with Arizona! Wingnuts following their Paul Wellstone script. Way to look petty and small, there, Quitter. The wages of Fiscal Conservatism. But…but…it snowed in New York last month. Teabaggers: still not all all Racist. No Comments Spotlight Tags: Early Morning Swim Related Posts Early Morning Swim October 25, 2010 Early Morning Swim: Sherrod Brown and Rachel Maddow Discuss Violence in Our Politics January 11, 2011 Early Morning Sw...

The Big Questions: After Arizona
Arizona shooting so far? More than the nation might have hoped, given recent history. Extreme voices on the left and politics without limiting free Speech. occasion? Those liberals (particularly on the into sweeping generalizations. Most prominently, Sarah Palin, who talk of “reloading” in political battle. Palin eventually released chances. What should an optimist hope for next? That politicians will move from denouncing of their own clan. Bipartisan cooperation on real issues like ...

An Utter Disregard For All Truth And Decency
An Utter Disregard For All Truth And Decency Ace catches the media doing... well, what the media does. The shamelessness is breathtaking. James Taranto has, I think, the best take on all this. Burning an effigy, like burning an American Flag, is constitutionally protected symbolic Speech. It is also about as eliminationist as speech can get, short of a true threat or incitement. To Krugman, it is a fun party activity. It is shockingly hypocritical for such a man to deliver a pious lecture abou...

A Tale of Two Speeches: Sarah Palin and Barack Obama on the Tragedy in Tucson
The tragic events in Tucson this past weekend left the nation shaken, and sparked a divisive debate over the tone of our politics. On Wednesday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin released a video address on the Mass Shooting, many hours in advance of President Obama ’s Speech at a memorial service in Tucson. In a guest column, John Ziegler , radio host, Palin confidante, and the filmmaker behind Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted, offers his unique perspective...

"their acid burns them from within"
Yesterday, they were complaining that she was “hiding” from the media, who insisted on making her part of a story to which she had no connection. And so, today, Sarah Palin-probably aware that she was damned if she did, and damned if she didn’t-made a statement. It was actually a very good, if a trifle long, statement. Immediately upon her delivering it, the media, like jackals went on the attack. ABC News, in a breathtaking example of Cognitive Dissonance, wrote: ...

Obama strives to comfort mourners and unite a nation
"We can be better," he said, striking a familiar refrain. "What we cannot do," he said, "is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other." What's required now, he said, is that we "expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy." Obama, interrupted repeatedly by cheers from the crowd, eulogized those who died and praised the people who rushed to the scene of the shooting --the two men who wrestled suspect Jared Loug...

Death threats against Palin increase
Death threats against Sarah Palin have reached an unprecedented level in recent days, an aide says. In the wake of Saturday’s shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others, the aide said that threats against Palin have spiked, ABC News reported. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset The aide did not offer further details on the threats or whether Palin has taken additional security precautions. Palin’s use of gun-related language and imagery, including a map that marked Giffords&r...;

Palin Claims 'Blood Libel' by Critics After Shootings
(Adds history of "blood Libel" in ninth paragraph.) Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Calling it a "blood libel," Sarah Palin condemned people who have criticized her for heated political Rhetoric and the role it may have played in the shootings in Tucson, Arizona. Palin, 46, the former Republican Governor of Alaska, her party's 2008 nominee for vice president and a potential 2012 Presidential Candidate, made her statement in an Internet video. "Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own," she said...

Sarah Palin and `blood libel'
I didn't have a chance to put together a morning roundup today, so let's just lead off with Sarah Palin's video response to critics who alleged that her crosshairs map and no-holds-barred Rhetoric contributed to a political climate that may have helped lead to the Arizona massacre: Sarah Palin: "America's Enduring Strength" from Sarah Palin on Vimeo. A few quick things to note. First, the obvious care that went into making this video -- the pre-written script is over seven minutes long; she cl...

Sarah Palin's 'blood libel' comment overshadows a calibrated message
Sarah Palin's statement Wednesday in response to the Tucson shootings, in which she has found herself at the center of a debate over civility in political discourse, was crafted as both a defense of her own actions and a strike against her critics - but reaction to the statement was dominated by a fresh Controversy over her use of the phrase "blood Libel." This Story Sarah Palin's 'blood libel' comment overshadows a calibrated message Gabrielle Giffords, congresswoman from Arizona, ...