Was Violent Political Rhetoric Responsible for Arizona Shooting?

U.S. public says Giffords shooting, rhetoric unrelated
Most Americans see no relation between the attempted Assassination of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the political tactic of lacing vitriolic Rhetoric with Firearms analogies. That’s the conclusion of a CBS News poll that found most Republicans (69 pct), most Independents (56 pct) and even a plurality of Democrats (49 pct) believe the two phenomena unrelated. Those numbers add up to 57 percent of Americans overall — a true majority though not quite big enough to break a Se...

Political Rhetoric and Political Violence: Are Conservatives to Blame for the Arizona Shooting?
In the wake of Saturday’s deadly shooting in Arizona, the Assassination attempt on Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, with fingers being pointed (justifiably, I think) at the likes of Sarah Palin (and the Tea Party, as well as much of the Republican Party), much of the talk today is about Political Speech: Do Palin and others deserve any of the blame for what happened yesterday? More broadly, what is appropriate and what isn’t? At Slate, Jack Shafer defends “inflammatory rhet...

The Teabaggers are Responsible for the Tuscon Shooting!: Poll Shows Americans Know Better
by the Left Coast Rebel The establishment, legacy, Democrat far-left media establishment/personalities just don't get it. No matter how much they huff and puff and scream, "the tea-baggers did it, they shot Congresswoman Giffords and those people!" with nil evidence in sight, the more Americans -- for the most part -- see right through the charade. The leftist progressive agenda is dying and after the November 2 election, leftists have never been more angry about it. And since they can't take ...

Poll: Americans smarter than Democrat politicos, MSM
Glad to know that the 24-7 hyperventilating, sensationalizing , and demagoguing by MSM outlets and talking point-led Democrats aren’t persuading the American People in the aftermath of the attempted Assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ8), the Murder of 5 others, and injury of 11 others that happened in Tucson, AZ this past Saturday. Via CBS News ( hat tip ): Nearly six in 10 Americans say the country’s heated political Rhetoric is not to blame for the Tucson shooting rampag...

Serious Questions
When politicians start talking about criminalizing Speech I get a bit nervous, but I am willing to listen to the specifics on this: Rep. Robert Brady (D-Pa.) reportedly plans to introduce Legislation that would make it a federal crime to use language or symbols that could be perceived as threatening or inciting violence against a federal official or member of Congress. Brady told CNN that he wants federal lawmakers and officials to have the same protections against threat currently provided to ...

Majority in U.S. don't blame violent political rhetoric for Tucson shooting: poll
The American public is not convinced that violent political Rhetoric led to the recent act of violence in Tucson, Ariz. A majority of Americans -- 57% -- believe Rhetoric is unrelated to the shootings over the weekend, according to a new CBS poll. Saturday's massacre by alleged gunman Jared Lee Loughner left Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords critically wounded, six dead and more than a dozen injured.  Only 32% of those polled said they believe there's a connection between the heated political ...

U.S. majority doesn't blame rhetoric for Giffords shooting
WASHINGTON | Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:18am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of Americans reject the view that heated political Rhetoric was a factor in the weekend shootings in Arizona which killed six and critically wounded a congresswoman, a CBS News said on Tuesday. Since the Saturday incident in which Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot at point-blank range, various politicians and commentators have said a climate in which strong language and ideological polarization is com...

Hey Sarah, At Least Stand By Your Free Speech (Guest Voice)
Hey Sarah, At Least Stand By Your Free Speech by Tina Dupuy Last Saturday morning 20 people were shot in a Tucson Safeway Parking Lot by a 22-year-old who stated on YouTube he “won’t pay Debt with a currency that’s not backed by gold and silver.” Fifteen minutes after the news broke, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin tweeted, “The price of gold today is at $1,368.90 an ounce.” Coincidence? Yes. None of us want to live in a society where hyperbole, exaggeration, satire,

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...

Most Americans Reject Tie Between Political Rhetoric, Arizona Shootings
While the Arizona shootings have triggered a national debate about whether the vitriol in political Rhetoric has gone over the top, 57 percent of Americans do not believe the heated partisan tone of public debate had anything to do with the gun rampage in Tucson, according to a CBS News poll released Tuesday. The connection between the state of political discourse and the shootings that critically wounded Arizon Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, killed six and injured 13 others had perhaps been put most ...

What good does this do Brian Terry and Gabrielle Giffords?
Brian Terry was the Border Patrol agent who was killed by Mexican bandits a few weeks ago on the Arizona-Mexico border. Gabrielle Giffords is the congresswoman who was seriously shot Saturday in Tucson by a gunman. Not much was made of Brian Terry’s Murder. There was a Funeral. Janet Napolitano came to the funeral and chided Terry’s family for complaining that their son was not kept safe enough and that was the end of it. When it surfaced that the reason Terry was killed was that Nap...

Most Americans Dont Blame Political Rhetoric For Arizona Tragedy
A new CBS poll shows that six in ten Americans don’t believe heated political Rhetoric is to blame for the shootings in Arizona. 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 issue - 49 percent saw no connection; 4...

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

Julian Assange: Gabrielle Giffords Parallels Made Over 'Violent Rhetoric'
Though he came across more strident than sympathetic, Julian Assange joined the ranks of public officials to offer words over the grisly Arizona shooting that left six dead and Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition. In a statement issued ahead of Assange's Tuesday court hearing in London, where he is fighting Extradition to Sweden on Rape charges, the Wikileaks founder drew parallels between his own experience and that of Giffords, whose shooting launched a nationwi...

Beck claims 'I don't use [violent rhetoric] on or off the air': Oh really?
Beck claims 'I don't use [violent Rhetoric] on or off the air': Oh really? It sure seemed that everyone -- and I mean EVERYONE -- at Fox News was focused yesterday on beating down the horrifying idea that somehow Fox News' incendiary rhetoric might have played a significant role in fomenting Saturday's horrifying tragedy in Arizona. Of course, Glenn Beck -- being one of the chief purveyors of said incendiary rhetoric -- was out there leading the attack, devoting his entire hour to...

Pawlenty on Palin's Political Map: Crosshairs Not My Style
Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty said that Sarah Palin's decision to put crosshairs on districts of vulnerable Democrats - including Rep. Giffords' - wasn’t what he would have done, but he doesn’t think it contributed to the terrible tragedy in Tucson on Saturday. “It wouldn’t have been my style to put the crosshairs on there. But again there is no evidence to suggest that it had anything to do with this mentally unstable person’s rage and ...

CBS Poll: Nearly Six In Ten Say Heated Rhetoric Unrelated To AZ Shooting
In a CBS poll released this morning, almost 60% of Americans said they don't think strong political Rhetoric is to blame for Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona that left six dead and wounded over a dozen others, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. In the poll, 57% of respondents said that intense political discourse had nothing to do with the attack, versus 32% who said that it was a contributing factor to the shooting. By political demographics, Republicans were less inc...

Obama Will Attend Tucson Memorial Service
President Obama will attend the memorial service on Wednesday in Tucson for those killed in Saturday’s shootings. Expect a lecture. President Obama will travel to Arizona on Wednesday to attend a memorial service for those killed in Saturday’s shootings that targeted Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) for Assassination, according to a White House official. The news that Obama would visit Tucson, where six people were killed and more than a dozen others were wounded by a gunmen on Sat...

Hate Speech the Rights Magic Bullet (Guest Voice)
Hate Speech the Right’s Magic Bullet by Michael Winship The Russian playwright Anton Chekhov had a rule: if you show a gun in the first act, by the time the curtain falls, it has to go off. For weeks and months, that gun, the weapon of angry Rhetoric and intemperate rabblerousing, has been cocked and loaded in plain view on the American stage; Saturday morning outside a Shopping Mall in Tucson, Arizona, it went off again and again and again. The target, Gabrielle Giffords, a member of the Un...

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 ...

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...

Publicist Offers Kooky Pitch to Discuss Sanity
We get pitches for just about anything here in the Fishbowl. But this morning we got one that is nearly irresistible. It’s for a sanity expert — and get this, she’s lucid. Paul Krupin , Publicist for author and “Communications Expert” Meryl Runion writes: “Ms. Meryl Runion is available for emergency interview via telephone or satellite uplink from Colorado Springs, Colorado by arrangement, over the weekend or beyond. She is a savvy and highly lucid expert who ...

The Morning Plum
* Obama steps up: The President is set to travel to Arizona tomorrow to attend the Funeral service of the Shooting Victims, and he is expected to give a Speech about tolerance, a theme he may reprise in the State of the Union address. But Obama's advisers are uncertain about the exact message he should send: It is not clear whether ideology motivated the alleged shooter, Jared Loughner, and Obama's advisers may conclude it unwise for the president to lecture the nation on mutual respect -- whi...

The assault on ethnic studies is unwise and undemocratic
As a Professor of Ethnic Studies, I feel under assault. At the beginning of this year, Arizona’s HB 2281 targeting ethnic studies in Tucson’s Public School system went into effect. For those of us who teach ethnic studies — for all educators — this ban represents a call to arms. Of course, I mean that figuratively. HB 2281 apparently does not. The bill prohibits K-12 classes that “promote the overthrow of the United States government.” Seriously? Without such a law, I sup

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...