Paul Krugman on Toxic Discourse

Bill O'Reilly's 'Bloody Shirt' Factor: How to turn perpetrators into victims
Bill O'Reilly was in rare form last night as he was simply outraged from all the criticism that was heaped on the RWNM after the Giffords shootings. And the extreme Right Wing Rhetoric that Paul Krugman talked about in his piece was directed at poor l'il BillO. So Paul, be afraid -- you'll never be forgiven for writing this: And there’s a huge contrast in the media. Listen to Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann, and you’ll hear a lot of caustic remarks and mockery aimed at Republicans....

Some of us want climate change
I’ve had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach ever since the final stages of the 2008 campaign. I remembered the upsurge in political hatred after Bill Clinton’s election in 1992 — an upsurge that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing. And you could see, just by watching the crowds at McCain-Palin rallies, that it was ready to happen again. There are defensive sounds coming from the right that you can't blame "society" and the social climate for the shooting in Arizo

The Both Sides Meme Returns in Force
Paul Krugman debunks the Both Sides bullshit: Where's that toxic Rhetoric coming from? Let's not make a false pretense of balance: it's coming, overwhelmingly, from the right. It's hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to be "armed and dangerous" without being ostracized; but Representative Michele Bachmann, who did just that, is a rising star in the G.O.P. And there's a huge contrast in the media. Listen to Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann, and you'll hear a lot...

Hate, violence, extremism: Krugman on the Arizona shooting
By Michael J.W. Stickings Just to drive the point home, allow me to quote Paul Krugman, who yesterday made the case that many of us have been making the past few days: 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? Put me in the latter category. I've had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach ever since the fina...

False Equivalency Watch, Cont'd
FALSE EQUIVALENCY WATCH, CONT'D.... Following up on an item from yesterday, the drive continues to insist that "both sides" are equally to blame for rhetorical excesses and the Toxicity of our discourse. Ross Douthat offers the latest evidence, arguing, "If overheated Rhetoric and martial imagery really led inexorably to Murder, then both parties would belong in the dock." This isn't surprising, given that the media establishment appears obligated to always blame "both sides" for everything at...

Let's go after the real perps: the NRA and their supporters
Jared Loughner is in custody and I'd put money on his conviction and Incarceration.  But the rest of the perps are still out there, still armed, still certain of their rights, and still ready to shoot or help you shoot. Letter writers to the New York Times have, for the most part, agreed that the right has something to answer for. From Denver:  "Opposed to the perception disseminated by the G.O.P., it’s not the liberal elite exploiting the insecurities of the masses to g...

Sen. Kerry addresses 'divisive political rhetoric', report says Loughner was Kerry supporter in '04
Nearly a year ago, the Examiner's David Freddoso received a ridiculous Fundraising email from Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., decrying Republicans' political Rhetoric in an effort to make some green whilst delegitimizing the opposition. And Freddoso noted at the time, Kerry is not the most credible advocate for restrained political rhetoric, mentioning this incident from 2004, among other things: Kerry was asked whether he couldn't have "killed two birds with one stone" by visiting New Hampshire. He r...

Arizona shooting of Rep. Giffords brings gun control laws under scrutiny
Seven years ago, former President George W. Bush responded to Gun Rights special groups, and in 2004, allowed the 1994 assault weapons laws to expire. Critics of the gun law roll back suggest that it allowed Jared Loughner, 22, to kill six people at a political rally in Arizona on January 8, 2011. Sixteen others were wounded, including Arizona Democrat, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head. Out of tragedy often comes progress. But will Tea Party Republicans surrender their ...

It was inevitable: gun rights in the crosshairs, again
In the 72 hours after the attempted Assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the Murder of several others in Tucson, our moral betters on the liberal left were shouting in (coordinated?) that it had to be due to the angry, overheated Rhetoric from the Right, and most particularly from Sarah Palin . Even the Sheriff of Pima County couldn’t resist getting in on the act. Though the Left is still pushing the “dangerous rhetoric” idea, even to the point of introducing a...

Media whitewashes ultra-right in Arizona massacre
Here the central role was played by the ultra-right media campaign mounted by Fox News, Talk Show hosts like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, including one Republican Senate Candidate who called for a "Second Amendment solution" to political issues -- i.e., the use of Firearms. As the World Socialist Web Site explained yesterday (See "Arizona Assassination spree tied to political right"), the political conceptions in Loughner's Internet postings are...

Brave Woman Who Grabbed Clip from Shooter Blames Right-Wing Media and Rhetoric In Fox News Interview
Patricia Maisch, 61, was the brave woman who kept alleged shooter Jared Loughner from unloading a second clip into a Tuscon crowd on Saturday. Wounded herself from a bullet, she saw him attempting to equip his gun with another magazine, grabbed him and knelt on his ankle, delaying the reload and potentially saving many more lives.  So when Fox News interviewed her on Sunday, they clearly wanted to know if her strength could translate to psychic healing as Americans grappled with the tragedy...

Accountability and Victimization
Accountability and Victimization by digby Adam Serwer has a good post up today about Clinton's Oklahoma City Speech (which I excerpted earlier, here.) I hadn't realized until this incident that it was an article of faith on the right that this Speech was considered a case of political opportunism which wrongly attributed the bombing to the Right Wing Extremism of the time. I should have known. If they don't feel any responsibility for Tim McVeigh, then they can say and do anything and will ne...

The Tragedy of the Arizona Shooting.
This weekend’s tragic shooting at a Safeway district meeting in which United States Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was seriously hurt and a dozen more injured and a District Court judge John Roll, a nine-year-old girl born on September 11th, and a congressional aide were killed has left us all stunned. Nick Baumann has an interview with a friend of the alleged shooter, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner. The friend describes Loughner’s obsession with Gifford as starting when she d...

'Loughner was crazy' argument misses the point in the Arizona shootings case
Last Saturday Jared Lee Loughner alleged shot and  killed six people and injured another fourteen at public event hosted by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).  Since that time some have claimed that Loughner behavior was caused, at least in part, by the heated political of the past two years.  Others have essentially argued that Loughner was a "nutjob" or "a crazed Lone Wolf", that society had no control over.  Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck both argued that Lougher was s...

The Lefts Script of Hate
“Just the facts, ma’am,” Dragnet’s Joe Friday famously informed witnesses he interviewed. Oft-interviewed Pima County Sherriff Clarence Dupnik might adopt the catchphrase: “Save the facts, ma’am. Just the narrative.” The narrative of right-wing Rhetoric fueling accused mass-murderer Jared Lee Loughner proved so seductive to partisans that they didn’t wait for the compilation of facts, or burial of the dead, to advance their politically opportunisti...

Paul Krugman: Climate of Hate
Whether the shooting in Arizona is the beginning or the end depends upon how leaders within the GOP respond: Climate of Hate, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times: ...I’ve had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach ever since the final stages of the 2008 campaign. I remembered the upsurge in political hatred after Bill Clinton’s election in 1992 — an upsurge that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing. And you could see, just by watching the crowds at McCain-Palin rallies, that it was

Sanitizing Extremism: Palin and Beck on Violence and War
Politico: Sarah Palin reached out to Glenn Beck over the weekend, and Beck read some of their email exchange on his Radio Show this morning. “Sarah, as you know, peace is always the answer. I know you are felling the same heat, if not much more on this,” Beck wrote. Beck expressed concern about Palin’s safety, and urged her to hire the same Los Angeles-based security firm that he uses. The Rhetoric of both Beck and Palin has been cited by both liberals and some of the mainstre...

Keep rampage blame where it belongs
We add our thoughts and prayers to the many for critically wounded Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the six people killed, including a senior Federal Judge, a 9-year-old girl fascinated by politics, a congressional aide and three other innocents, as well as the 13 people wounded, in the attack Saturday in Tucson. The accused, Jared Loughner, is a deeply disturbed young man whose violent proclivities had frightened several acquaintances but who had not yet done anything overt enough to bring h...

Words Matter.
( - promoted by Rob Kailey) Right-wing radio personality/shock jock(and former GOP Staffer) Aaron Flint is taking, according to him, a "tongue in cheek" look at the tragedy in Arizona on Twitter. But what this reminded me of was Flint's earlier mockery of the presence of Law Enforcement at congressional events here in Montana. From his blog: No mention, of course, by the New York Times during their "he's a well grounded man" piece of the fact that the Senator felt he couldn't even hold an in...

Poll: Most Americans see no connection between Ariz. shooting and political rhetoric (Daily Caller)
Read more stories from The Daily Caller We're probably alone in the universe, or else they're out to get us Mark Halperin: Conservatives should turn the other cheek when scapegoated for Murder Could Jon Huntsman really be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012? Auburn wins it all: Sights from the BCS National Championship [SLIDESHOW] Pucker up: Celebrities recall their first kiss [SLIDESHOW] A majority of Americans don’t see a connection between vitriolic Rhetoric and Jared Loughner...

Tucson and the Left's Online Orgy of Accusation
The Left's effort to link Jared Loughner's actions to conservative Talk Radio, Hate Speech, Sarah Palin's targets, etc. had nothing to do with urging us all to consider the consequences of political statements and symbols. Rather, it's part of a constant campaign to use the Web organize and energize its base around sensational narratives consistent with an ideological or cultural view as substitute for facts or events as they really unfold. The deliberate use of the Web to create instant mobs or...

Story Blaming Acquaintances for Not Committing Loughner Underplays AZ Cuts in Mental Health Services
According to the Washington Post, Arizona has a law on the books that enables anyone to identify a potential Victim of Mental Illness, and remand them for treatment: Under Arizona law, any one of Jared Lee Loughner’s classmates or teachers at Pima Community College so concerned about his increasingly bizarre behavior could have contacted local officials and asked that he be evaluated for mental illness and potentially committed for psychiatric treatment. That, according to local mental h...

Novelist: Homeland Security recruited me to 'attack' USA...
Author Brad Meltzer will speak about his experiences being recruited by the Department of Homeland Security's Red Cell program at a book reading Tuesday. Abe Lincoln still No. 1 I was a real-life Secret Agent. I didn't have the hand-grenade cuff links or the poison-dart pen, but in 2004 I was recruited by the Department of Homeland Security for its Red Cell program. As they described it - and as The Washington Post later reported - Red Cell was the government's way of trying to antici...

Separation of Journalism and Politics
A question that I have been asking for quite some time was brought to the fore once again with the pervasive and obnoxious liberal bias in the so-called news reporting of the Assassination attempt on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Why does anyone continue to purchase and read the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time Magazine, and other mainstream publications which have replaced accurate reporting with faux news accounts rising to the level of outright lies? And why does anyone waste tim...

Fox News Website Continues Partisan Attack On Sheriff Dupnik's "Vitriol" Comments
If Propaganda is to be believed, it should be repeated. Yesterday, in both an interview on "Fox & Friends" and an article on the Fox News website, Fox News featured critical commentary about Pima County Sheriff's remarks about the vitriol in our society - vitriol that, as he stated, is promulgated by the media. Obviously needing to deflect and divert from the appropriate substance of Dupnik's comments, Fox is maintaining its seeming scapegoating of the sheriff. Today's headline (first under the ...