A trip in the wayback machine, thanks to MemeORandum -- 1/9/11, 1:10 pm:
Sarah Palin Blamed by Bloggers for Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords
First, it is sad to see folks immediately politicize such a tragedy. If your first response to such an event is to think of Sarah Palin, something is wrong.
Embedded in Sheriff Dupnik's ad hoc wisdom were several assumptions. First, that strident, anti-government political views can be easily categorized as vitriolic, bigoted, and prejudicial. Second, that those voicing strident political views are guilty of issuing Manchurian Candidate-style instructions to commit murder and mayhem to the "unbalanced." Third, that the Tucson shooter was inspired to kill by political debate or by Sarah Palin's "target" map or other inflammatory outbursts. Fourth, that we should calibrate our political speech in such a manner that we do not awaken the Manchurian candidates among us.
New York Daily News: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' blood is on Sarah Palin's hands after putting cross hair over district
The Daily Beast: Should We Blame Sarah Palin for Gabrielle Giffords' Shooting?
Politico: Tucson shooting marks turning point for Sarah Palin
So far, the former Alaska governor has said little, posting only a brief message on her Facebook page Saturday offering condolences to those affected by the shootings. But the rush on the left to affix some of the blame on her for the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has suddenly turned the tragedy into a defining moment in Palin’s meteoric political career.
Reason "Hit and Run" blog: The Giffords Shooting, The Instant Politicization of Everything, & Why Americans Increasingly Hate Dems & Reps
How do you take one of the most shocking and revolting murder sprees in memory and make it even more disturbing? By immediately pouncing on its supposed root causes for the most transparently partisan of gains.
Instantaneous bitch-tweeting online (within moments of the shooting, it seems, messages such as "Sarah Palin has blood on her hands" were all over the place) is one thing. Stories filled with actual Democratic Party players such as Paul Begala going on about what an "opportunity" the shooting presents Obama politically aren't going to help the Dems or anyone else in the long run.
Andrew Klavan at City Journal: The Hateful Left
But while little useful can be said about the murders themselves, the rush to narrative of our dishonest and increasingly desperate leftist media does have to be addressed. The Left—which has been unable to discover any common feature uniting acts of Islamist violence worldwide—nonetheless instantly noticed a bridge between the Tucson shooting and its own political opponents. The Chicago Sun-Times ran a slavering editorial blaming “the right.” MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson suggested that the killings were inspired by right-wing rhetoric. Politico’s Roger Simon did the same.
But the New York Times was perhaps the worst offender. On its front page, and in its patented smarmily suggestive style, it also implied that Loughner was somehow set off by conservative rhetoric and the Tea Party. “The original health care legislation stirred strong feelings that flared at angry town hall meetings held by many Democratic lawmakers during the summer of 2009,” said the Times, stroking its figurative chin over possible motives for the atrocity. “And there has been broader anger and suspicion rising about the government, its finances and its goals, with the discourse partially fueled by talk shows and Web sites. Tea Party activists also condemned the shooting.”
The Wrath of Fools: An Open Letter to the Far Right
I just thought you should know a few things about the people you helped into their graves and hospital beds this weekend.
Yes, you.
You false patriots who bring assault rifles to political rallies, you hack politicians and media personalities who lied through your stinking teeth about "death panels" and "Obama is coming for your guns" and "He isn't a citizen" and "He's a secret Muslim" and "Sharia Law is coming to America," you who spread this bastard gospel and you who swallowed it whole, I am talking to you, because this was your doing just as surely as it was the doing of the deranged damned soul who pulled the trigger. The poison you injected into our culture is deeply culpable for this carnage.
Patrick Kennedy Points finger at Sarah Palin
Patrick Kennedy, who lost two uncles to assassins’ bullets, says there’s an obvious connection between the violent rhetoric of today’s politics and the massacre in Tucson.
“When Sarah Palin puts targets on people’s districts? Or you have 10,000 signs on the mall during the healthcare battle saying ‘Bury Obamacare with Kennedy’? When the vitriol and the rhetoric is so violent, we have to connect consequences to that.” said Kennedy, who left congress two weeks ago after serving eight terms representing Rhode Island.
Clyburn: Palin intellectually unable 'to understand what's going on here'
Palin broke her relative silence since the shooting, which some Democrats have attributed to an environment that allowed such an attack on a member of Congress. Democrats have homed in on the map Palin's political action committee had released, depicting targeted lawmakers in the election with crosshairs over their districts.
"Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own," Palin wrote. "They begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state, not with those who listen to talk radio, not with maps of swing districts used by both sides of the aisle, not with law-abiding citizens who respectfully exercise their First Amendment rights at campaign rallies, not with those who proudly voted in the last election."
Clyburn said that Palin didn't grasp why such rhetoric was so troubling, regardless of the motivations of the alleged shooter. The No. 3 House Democrat referenced the civil rights era and said that some of the shrill rhetoric in modern politics is reminiscent of that time.
AllahPundit: Palin aide: She’s getting death threats at unprecedented levels
I almost wish that this wasn’t being reported as it’ll only inflame things further among fringe types, but after four days of screeching about Palin the murderer, who can blame her staff for wanting to show the world the ironic outcome?
1 comment:
I really hate to see us fighting among each other over this - this only serves the Wall Street interests who have taken over our country.
Instead of fighting over Palin - who in my view would have major difficulty getting mainstream Republican support, we could be trying to find common ground in doing something really worthwhile:
1. Ending the war in Afghanistan and Iraq and closing 900+ military bases around the world
2. Abolishing the Federal Reserve (and getting rid of the banking/Wall Street crisis in the process).
How do we do this? By getting behind Ron Paul for the Republican nomination (and making sure no nutter shoots him in the mean time). I believe there are enough Republicans left who remember when the grassroots ran the Republican Party at the precinct level - before corporations took it over. Anyone remember Phyllis Schafly (A Choice Not an Echo)?
I know many of my progressive and liberals friends would want to shoot me for saying this - but fortunately they don't believe in 2nd amendment remedies.
In case people don't recall, Ron Paul was the first Republican to correctly label Obama as a "corporatist," rather than a socialist. See http://stuartbramhall.aegauthorblogs.com/2010/04/13/ron-paul-my-kind-of-gadfly/
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