This is what happens when rhetoric gets out of control

[The Esteemed Gentleman]

I am sorry, but the arrogant smugness and hypocritical/delusional position that somehow the Left is not to blame, or is at least less to blame, than the Right for the "rhetoric" in this country is too much to stomach. I like most of the Left-wingers on this board, and from what I see generally on this board, none of them (to my knowledge) have engaged in the type of rhetoric shown below - but this post is in part directed toward them, because some of them seem to be laboring under the impression that somehow, their shit stinks just a little bit less than mine does.

Many of my left-of-center friends here at LL and elsewhere continually imply Republicans are more to blame for the rhetoric in the Republic because they use "gun imagery" and allude to "Second Amendment remedies." But I think they'd be interested to learn that some public officials of the Left do not simply allude to such things, but just outright call for Republicans to be shot in the streets (while at the same time pleading for "civility").

For example, let us be introduced to Ex-Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa, who said this in October:

"That Scott down there that's running for governor of Florida," Mr. Kanjorski said. "Instead of running for governor of Florida, they ought to have him and shoot him. Put him against the wall and shoot him. He stole billions of dollars from the United States government and he's running for governor of Florida. He's a millionaire and a billionaire. He's no hero. He's a damn crook. It's just we don't prosecute big crooks."

How touching.

And then there is the outrage regarding Sarah Palin's infamous "cross hair map" - but I didn't hear any outrage regarding inflammatory rhetoric when the Dems used a similar map and referred to "targeting" "enemy" Republicans:

vid

And then there is this lovely montage of Twitter posts about Sarah Palin from our Leftie friends:

SP tweets

And I guess the Left has forgotten the 8 years of threats and hate speech hurled against George W. Bush and others. A little refresher is in order:

And lest we forget that the Left made an actual movie fantasizing about Bush being assassinated.

Then there were people like the Columbia professor who wished death to our troops overseas:

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Columbia University said an assistant professor who made statements indicating he wanted to see U.S. soldiers killed, evidently to boost antiwar sentiment, was "exercising his right to free speech" and did not represent the university.

Assistant anthropology professor Nicholas De Genova said at an antiwar teach-in Wednesday night that he would like to see "a million more Mogadishus," according to one of the event's organizers.

How "civil." Honestly, can the Left really say with a straight face they have not contributed equally to the madness?

I highly doubt I need go on. So enough with the delusional idea that somehow this is "a direct result of the right's bullshit" and that "there's been an obvious difference between the {the Right and the Left} since the Tea Baggers came about"; that "This isn't the first time an incident has happened," and that "it's mostly {the Right}"; that "the right has been worse than the left"; that "it is undeniable that the right wing has in recent years been engaging in a great deal of this violent rhetoric and invoking a significant amount of gun imagery" and that "the right wing appears to be engaging in this type of firearm imagery and violent rhetoric far more than comparable figures on the left"; that the Right's use of "Cross hairs, 'second amendment remedies', take them out, blah blah blah is disgusting and dangerous"; that "conservative representatives, conservative candidates, and conservative political commentators repeatedly engage in violent rhetoric and use gun imagery" as though the Left didn't make it a common, every day anti-Bush staple of hippie rallies in the streets, covered live on national television (yet mostly ignored by the media).

Indeed, the fact that you heard absolutely no outrage regarding the Left's "civil discourse" during the entire Bush administration "confirms everything that I had suspected about the intelligence and honesty about most of the {liberal left progressive Democrats} on this forum."

Repugnant barely begins to describe it. So save your crocodile tears, my liberal friends; if the Republic falls, you are more than equally to blame.

UPDATE: Bernie Sanders wonders if Arizona is "safe for non-Republicans" - in a fundraising email to supporters. I think this speaks for itself. Says Mr. Sanders:

"As the elder statesman of Arizona politics McCain needs to stand up and denounce the increasingly violent rhetoric coming from the right-wing and exert his influence to create a civil political environment in his state."

Again, I wonder where Sanders was when his allies were pumping out posters and websites like the ones I show above? Curiously silent, was he.

[The Great Catpiss]

Why are we even discussing the rhetoric? We should be ashamed of individuals in the media who are taking advantage of this tragedy.


It doesn't matter if Republicans or Democrats have such rhetoric. It is pretty insulting to the families of the victims to use this event to bash either party or any individual other than the shooter without knowing the facts first.

[gipper]

And these jewels from the radical Left.

President Obama, "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." ■ “I’m waiting for the day when I pick it up, pick up a newspaper or click on the Internet and find out he’s choked to death on his own throat fat or a great big wad of saliva or something, you know, whatever. Go away, Rush, you make me sick!” — Left-wing radio host Mike Malloy on the January 4, 2010 Mike Malloy Show, talking about Rush Limbaugh going to the hospital after suffering chest pains.
■ MSNBC’s Chris Matthews in 2009 fantasized about the death of Rush Limbaugh: “Somebody’s going to jam a CO2 pellet into his head and he’s going to explode like a giant blimp”
■ Author/humorist P.J. O’Rourke: “It’s the twilight of the radio loud-mouth, you know? I knew it from the moment the fat guy-”
Host Bill Maher: “You mean Rush Limbaugh and Sean-”
O’Rourke: “-from the moment the fat guy refused to share his drugs....”
Maher: “You mean the OxyContin that he was on?...Why couldn’t he have croaked from it instead of Heath Ledger?” — HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, February 8, 2008.
■ MSNBC’s Amy Robach in 2006 mildly wondered if “Death of a President” movie depicting the imagined assassination of President Bush was “poor taste or, as some say, thought-provoking?”
■ On his radio show in 2009, Ed Schultz wished for Dick Cheney’s death: “He is an enemy of the country, in my opinion, Dick Cheney is, he is an enemy of the country … Lord, take him to the Promised Land, will you?”
■ Also on his radio show, in 2010, Schultz shouted: “Dick Cheney’s heart’s a political football. We ought to rip it out and kick it around and stuff it back in him!”
■ Then-Air America host Montel Williams in 2009 urged Congresswoman Michele Bachmann to kill herself: “Slit your wrist! Go ahead! I mean, you know, why not? I mean, if you want to – or, you know, do us all a better thing. Move that knife up about two feet. I mean, start right at the collarbone.”
■ Writing on the Huffington Post in 2007, radio host Charles Karel Bouley mocked: “I hear about Tony Snow and I say to myself, well, stand up every day, lie to the American people at the behest of your dictator-esque boss and well, how could a cancer NOT grow in you? Work for Fox News, spinning the truth in to a billion knots and how can your gut not rot?”
■ “I’m just saying if he did die, other people, more people would live. That’s a fact.” — Host Bill Maher on his HBO show Real Time, March 2, 2007, discussing how a few commenters at a left-wing blog were upset that an attempt to kill Vice President Cheney in Afghanistan had failed.
■ “Earlier today, a rental truck carried a half a million ballots from Palm Beach to the Florida Supreme Court there in Tallahassee. CNN had live helicopter coverage from the truck making its way up the Florida highway, and for a few brief moments, America held the hope that O.J. Simpson had murdered Katherine Harris.” — Bill Maher on ABC’s Politically Incorrect, November 30, 2000.
■ Host Tina Gulland: “I don’t think I have any Jesse Helms defenders here. Nina?”
NPR’s Nina Totenberg: “Not me. I think he ought to be worried about what’s going on in the Good Lord’s mind, because if there is retributive justice, he’ll get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it.” — Exchange on the July 8, 1995 Inside Washington, after Helms said the government spends too much on AIDS.
■ “I hope his wife feeds him lots of eggs and butter and he dies early like many black men do, of heart disease....He is an absolutely reprehensible person.” — USA Today columnist and Pacifica Radio talk show host Julianne Malveaux on Justice Clarence Thomas, November 4, 1994 PBS To the Contrary.

Read more: NewsBusters Publisher Bozell Condemns Death Wishes Against Conservatives from Liberals in the Media | NewsBusters.org

It is only out of control when Rs or conservatives use such rhetoric. All is cool when Ds and libs do it.

HYPOCRITES!!!

[The Great Catpiss]

[illavbill]

I agree that the left can say and do stupid and dumb stuff but the right has as of recent been blabing out dangerous stuff like clock work. If you can't see that then you have blinders on. You see NOWHERE the amount of left wing politicians saying the stuff in the amount that you get with the right. This is stupid to try to post more damning stuff for each side but the right like it or not has been using extremely divisive language and imagery way too much. They may not think they're doing it to incite violence but it happens. Remember the guys that loaded their car with guns and drove to CA to shoot up the tides institute? The guys quotes were something to the effect of, "if Glenn Beck hadn't opened my eyes to the craziness I wouldn't have done it." I happen to have come across a list of right-wing violence in the last two years that I had no idea really happened. Its pointless to post it because no matter what the right's rhetoric has no effect on crazy people, right?

Remember Bill O'Reilly doing the "Tiller Tiller the Baby Killer" segments all the time and dude ended up being murdered, hmmm.

[illavbill]

-- July 2008: A gunman named Jim David Adkisson, agitated at how "liberals" are "destroying America," walks into a Unitarian Church and opens fire, killing two churchgoers and wounding four others.

-- October 2008: Two neo-Nazis are arrested in Tennessee in a plot to murder dozens of African-Americans, culminating in the assassination of President Obama.

-- December 2008: A pair of "Patriot" movement radicals -- the father-son team of Bruce and Joshua Turnidge, who wanted "to attack the political infrastructure" -- threaten a bank in Woodburn, Oregon, with a bomb in the hopes of extorting money that would end their financial difficulties, for which they blamed the government. Instead, the bomb goes off and kills two police officers. The men eventually are convicted and sentenced to death for the crime.

-- December 2008: In Belfast, Maine, police discover the makings of a nuclear "dirty bomb" in the basement of a white supremacist shot dead by his wife. The man, who was independently wealthy, reportedly was agitated about the election of President Obama and was crafting a plan to set off the bomb.

-- January 2009: A white supremacist named Keith Luke embarks on a killing rampage in Brockton, Mass., raping and wounding a black woman and killing her sister, then killing a homeless man before being captured by police as he is en route to a Jewish community center.

-- February 2009: A Marine named Kody Brittingham is arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate President Obama. Brittingham also collected white-supremacist material.

-- April 2009: A white supremacist named Richard Poplawski opens fire on three Pittsburgh police officers who come to his house on a domestic-violence call and kills all three, because he believed President Obama intended to take away the guns of white citizens like himself. Poplawski is currently awaiting trial.

-- April 2009: Another gunman in Okaloosa County, Florida, similarly fearful of Obama's purported gun-grabbing plans, kills two deputies when they come to arrest him in a domestic-violence matter, then is killed himself in a shootout with police.

-- May 2009: A "sovereign citizen" named Scott Roeder walks into a church in Wichita, Kansas, and assassinates abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.

-- June 2009: A Holocaust denier and right-wing tax protester named James Von Brunn opens fire at the Holocaust Museum, killing a security guard.

-- February 2010: An angry tax protester named Joseph Ray Stack flies an airplane into the building housing IRS offices in Austin, Texas. (Media are reluctant to label this one "domestic terrorism" too.)

-- March 2010: Seven militiamen from the Hutaree Militia in Michigan and Ohio are arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate local police officers with the intent of sparking a new civil war.

-- March 2010: An anti-government extremist named John Patrick Bedell walks into the Pentagon and opens fire, wounding two officers before he is himself shot dead.

-- May 2010: A "sovereign citizen" from Georgia is arrested in Tennessee and charged with plotting the violent takeover of a local county courthouse.

-- May 2010: A still-unidentified white man walks into a Jacksonville, Fla., mosque and sets it afire, simultaneously setting off a pipe bomb.

-- May 2010: Two "sovereign citizens" named Jerry and Joe Kane gun down two police officers who pull them over for a traffic violation, and then wound two more officers in a shootout in which both of them are eventually killed.

-- July 2010: An agitated right-winger and convict named Byron Williams loads up on weapons and drives to the Bay Area intent on attacking the offices of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU, but is intercepted by state patrolmen and engages them in a shootout and armed standoff in which two officers and Williams are wounded.

-- September 2010: A Concord, N.C., man is arrested and charged with plotting to blow up a North Carolina abortion clinic. The man, 26-year--old Justin Carl Moose, referred to himself as the "Christian counterpart to (Osama) bin Laden” in a taped undercover meeting with a federal informant.



NOPE, nothing negative can come from labeling your political opponents as literal enemies and villains.

[kinggovernor]

Originally Posted by illavbill

This is stupid to try to post more damning stuff for each side

so why did you just post that nonsense from Summary of Domestic Terrorism Inspired by Right-Wing Extremists (with Links) - Democratic Underground?

[kinggovernor]

Originally Posted by illavbill

NOPE, nothing negative can come from labeling your political opponents as literal enemies and villains.

so why did the Left so quickly label their political opponents responsible for the shooting, thus making those opponents enemies and villians?

[WickedLou9]

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

[illavbill]

Originally Posted by kinggovernor

so why did the Left so quickly label their political opponents responsible for the shooting, thus making those opponents enemies and villians?

I think its stupid for anybody to label anyone "responsible" other than the kid but the political climate in the country is just begging for more crazies to have their ideas reinforced every night on tv / radio.

This is a good time for everybody on both sides to step back and cool the hell down. The left isn't doing nearly as much violent rhetoric as the right but both are guilty. When one side starts and the other responds and it goes back and forth and never lets up or cools down you get shit like what is being spewed by our current group of politicians. I don't know how you can listen to what is being said by both sides and honestly see nothing wrong or even see it as equal. Or I guess the "he did it too" excuse is good enough.

The internet and blogs REALLY aren't helping at all. Hell, just look at this site in the last few weeks.

[The Great Catpiss]

Don't get me wrong, the rhetoric is a good topic for debate. I just think it is idiotic, inappropriate, inconsiderate and insensitive to debate it when discussing this tragedy.

We should discuss the idiots who pubished articles linking this incident to the rhetoric in this topic, and put everything else in another topic.

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by illavbill

I think its stupid for anybody to label anyone "responsible" other than the kid but the political climate in the country is just begging for more crazies to have their ideas reinforced every night on tv / radio.

This is a good time for everybody on both sides to step back and cool the hell down. The left isn't doing nearly as much violent rhetoric as the right but both are guilty. When one side starts and the other responds and it goes back and forth and never lets up or cools down you get shit like what is being spewed by our current group of politicians. I don't know how you can listen to what is being said by both sides and honestly see nothing wrong or even see it as equal. Or I guess the "he did it too" excuse is good enough.

The internet and blogs REALLY aren't helping at all. Hell, just look at this site in the last few weeks.

The minority party (or the party not getting their way) is always the party that steps up the vitriol. It has always been this way. Both parties engage in it. Both parties will continue to engage in it. In any event, it is not related to the tragedy and anyone trying to make a connection or point blame on a party is abusing this event for cheap political gain.

[kinggovernor]

We have seen this all before

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER
Talk Radio, Ghoul Politics
From the Krauthammer archives: April 28, 1995.

Fewer than half the dead had been recovered from their bombed-out tomb in Oklahoma City before the political exploitation of their tragedy had begun. It began perhaps with my Inside Washington colleague Carl Rowan attributing the bombing to “the angriest of the angry white men” inflamed by opponents of affirmative action. He later specifically named Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole as public figures whose rhetoric “creates a climate of violence in America.”

Now, if we are going to attribute outrageous murders to “climates” created by legitimate political speech, then why not attribute last year’s murder of six white Long Island rail passengers by a crazed black man to the “climate” created by those who, like Rowan, incessantly (and quite legitimately) highlight the racism and injustice of contemporary America? If Timothy McVeigh is Bob Dole’s triggerman, then Colin Ferguson is Carl Rowan’s.

Absurd as Rowan’s claim is, it is politically potent — too potent to be passed up by a weak president looking for an opening. Accordingly, Clinton pounced. Using Oklahoma for his attack, Clinton went from consoler of the nation to cheap politician in less than 24 hours. In a speech in Milwaukee on Monday, the day after a moving memorial service in Oklahoma City, he denounced the “purveyors of hatred and division, the promoters of paranoia.”

“They spread hate,” he charged. “They leave the impression, by their very words, that violence is acceptable. You ought to see . . . the reports of some things that are regularly said over the airwaves in America today.” His obvious target was conservative talk radio, his nemesis throughout his presidency and the object of sputtering presidential attacks in the past.

No more sputtering. Clinton has found his weapon: the dead of Oklahoma. He refused, however, to admit the point openly. Indeed, his aides denied that the president was even referring to talk radio, though the implication was so obvious that practically every major news broadcast went directly from Clinton’s “purveyors of hate” speech to reports on talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Oliver North.

Rowan had the courage to name names. Clinton repeatedly charged dark and unseen forces, a shadowy and unnamed “they” with spreading paranoia — a classic of the very paranoid style of politics Clinton is ostensibly decrying. He did everything but pull out a list of people — not State Department traitors but talk-radio agitators — who are undermining the nation.

Having divided the country between the nefarious “them” and us, Clinton proceeded to charge “them” with dividing the country, keeping “some people as paranoid as possible and the rest of us all torn up and upset with each other.”

What makes this all the more cynical is that when the most deeply paranoid views of America have come from the Left, we have not heard Clinton decrying them for creating a climate of hatred. The single most malignant — and widely disseminated — portrayal of the federal government in our time is, easily, Oliver Stone’s movie JFK. Has Clinton ever denounced Stone, either publicly or when he shook his hand at the White House after a Saturday morning radio address?

Has Clinton ever denounced those members of his own congressional party who two years ago proclaimed a “sacred covenant” with the Nation of Islam, the No. 1 purveyor of anti-Semitism in this country? Had he done so, his current attack on “purveyors of hate” would have less the look of rank opportunism.

Given Clinton’s charges, and the frenzied media follow-up on the theme, it is now conventional wisdom that ours is an era of unusual extremism — rhetorical and actual — in America. On the contrary. Extremist political groups are more marginal today than perhaps at any time since World War I.

In the 1920s, historians estimate, the Ku Klux Klan had between 1.5 million and 5 million members. Its 1925 march on Washington attracted 50,000 people. The ’60s, with its bombings and riots, Panthers and Weathermen, were a time of generalized madness. Even in the placid ’50s and early ’60s, the John Birch Society — which held, among other lunacies, that President Eisenhower was a Communist agent — was a political force to be reckoned with. Its tattered descendants now run around the wilds of Michigan playing soldier.

The difference today is that technology enables even the smallest, most marginalized group to do great damage. The truck bomb, perfected abroad during the past 25 years, gives the Charlie Mansons of the ’90s a weapon of unmatched mobility, camouflage, and destructive power. This power is not a reflection of a sick society but a baleful byproduct of accelerated technological advance.

Yet the greatest difference between the America of today and the America of 25 or 75 years ago is a newly acquired level not of extremism but of tolerance. As Pat Moynihan has famously written, our tolerance for deviancy of all types — from mental illness to criminality — has increased to a point that would shock previous generations.

That spirit of excessive tolerance extends now to the politically deviant, the armed wackos who threaten insurrection and commit terror. In reaction to FBI excesses against the left in the ’60s and ’70s, we have relaxed surveillance and infiltration of all fringe groups, left and right.

It is the very openness of America that makes Oklahoma possible. The correct response is a calibrated closing: a closing in on the freedom of terrorists and criminals, not — as the president has so cynically implied — on the legitimate speech of the political opposition.

— Charles Krauthammer is a nationally syndicated columnist. This column first appeared on April 28, 1995, and is reprinted here with the author’s permission.

Talk Radio, Ghoul Politics - Charles Krauthammer - National Review Online

Carl Rowan was the dumbass who spoke out trying to get ban private citizens from legally owning handguns....then he shot an intruder with an illegal handgun.

[Salty Dog]

Originally Posted by JaJae

The minority party (or the party not getting their way) is always the party that steps up the vitriol. It has always been this way. Both parties engage in it. Both parties will continue to engage in it.

I completely agree.

My take is the unpopularity of W Bush and the sourness he left in nearly everyone's mouths alienated alot of people, which lead to America electing an inexperienced African-American liberal, which naturally set off a fire storm of rhetoric from a disgruntled base who, without a leader, could not brand themselves as a unified party. Instead, they turned to talking points by soap box media stars who fanned the flames of a socialist takeover and dooms day propaganda, whether it was true or not.

I never meant the discussion of rhetoric to overshadow the tragedy in Tucson and I don't necessarily believe anything said by political hacks/pundits/formerGovs had anything to do with this particular incident.

But just as the left is propaganding to point fingers about the right's supposed views, the right is lampooning itself by acting as if they underestimated any rhetoric it has preached since Jan. 20, 2009 would or could cause an act of violence, regardless if it had anything to do with this tragedy. That in my mind makes them look guilty, of something.

Did Palin's "crosshairs" targeting this Congresswoman actually lead this kid to want to kill her? Most likely, not. He was suffering severe mental instability and would have gone off on his own. I find it highly disgusting though that Ms. Palin doesn't however see the potential consequences in her bid for "tongue-and-cheek" political messages in her campaigns and such. That goes for ALL politicians. Left, right, center, up, down, backspace..Contra?

That's all I've got to say about that.

[The Esteemed Gentleman]

Originally Posted by kinggovernor

Carl Rowan was the dumbass who spoke out trying to get ban private citizens from legally owning handguns....then he shot an intruder with an illegal handgun.

The person he shot was not even an intruder; it was a kid trespassing on his lawn.

Rowan gained public notoriety on June 14, 1988, when he shot a teenage trespasser, Neil Smith, who was on his property illegally. He was charged for firing a gun that he did not legally own. Rowan was arrested and tried. During the trial, he argued that he had the right to use whatever means necessary to protect himself and his family. Critics charged hypocrisy, since Rowan was a strict gun control advocate. In a 1981 column, he advocated "a law that says anyone found in possession of a handgun except a legitimate officer of the law goes to jail—period." In 1985, he called for "A complete and universal federal ban on the sale, manufacture, importation and possession of handguns (except for authorized police and military personnel)."

What a loser. He later said "he still favors gun control, but admits being vulnerable to a charge of hypocrisy." Really, ya think?!

[Donkey®]

Gabrielle Giffords' Arizona shooting prompts resignations

Originally Posted by article

Gabrielle Giffords' Arizona shooting prompts resignations

by Edythe Jensen - Jan. 11, 2011 06:29 PM
The Arizona Republic

A nasty battle between factions of Legislative District 20 Republicans and fears that it could turn violent in the wake of what happened in Tucson on Saturday prompted District Chairman Anthony Miller and several others to resign.

Miller, a 43-year-old Ahwatukee Foothills resident and former campaign worker for U.S. Sen. John McCain, was re-elected to a second one-year term last month. He said constant verbal attacks after that election and Internet blog posts by some local members with Tea Party ties made him worry about his family's safety.

In an e-mail sent a few hours after Saturday's massacre in Tucson that killed six and injured 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Miller told state Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen he was quitting: "Today my wife of 20 yrs ask (sic) me do I think that my PCs (Precinct Committee members) will shoot at our home? So with this being said I am stepping down from LD20GOP Chairman...I will make a full statement on Monday."

Pullen was in Washington, D.C. and not available for comment, an employee in his office said. State party spokesman Matt Roberts said he could not discuss details of the district's disputes but, "Anthony has been a good Republican and was really involved in LD20."

The newly-elected Dist. 20 Republican secretary, Sophia Johnson of Ahwatukee, first vice chairman Roger Dickinson of Tempe and Jeff Kolb, the former district spokesman from Ahwatukee, also quit. "This singular focus on 'getting' Anthony (Miller) was one of the main reasons I chose to resign," Kolb said in an e-mail to another party activist. Kolb confirmed the contents of the e-mail to the Republic.

District 20 includes parts of Chandler, south Tempe and Ahwatukee Foothills. Republican state Rep. Bob Robson of Chandler and Sen. John McComish of Ahwatukee said they had supported Miller as chairman and were sorry to see him go. "It's too bad," McComish said. "He didn't deserve to be hounded out of office."

A longtime Republican activist, McComish said contentious battles for local party leadership posts are nothing new, but this one appears to be more extreme, especially since there are no partisan elections in 2011 and by next year district boundaries will change.

Kolb said the Tea Party and associated conservative groups ran their slate of candidates for seven Dist. 20 leadership positions, winning three -- the treasurer's post and two vice-chairmanships. However, Miller beat challenger Thomas Morrissey for the top post after Sheriff Joe Arpaio made a personal appearance for Morrissey. Phone messages left for Morrissey were not returned.

After the election and around the December holiday season, some of Miller's detractors made an issue of the residency of Dickinson, the first vice-chairman. Dickinson, who did not return phone messages, was a supporter of Miller's and allegedly moved to a different precinct within Dist. 20 last year, making him ineligible for the leadership post. Miller said he told the critics he would handle the matter after the holidays. In the meantime, a series of accusatory e-mails was exchanged among party members. Some blasted Miller's support of McCain, called him a "McCainiac with a penchant for violating the rules" and a "McCain hack."

Members of the Ahwatukee Tea Party group did not respond to e-mails seeking comment.

Miller said when he was a member of McCain's campaign staff last year has been criticized by the more conservative party members who supported Republican opponent J.D. Hayworth. The first and only African-American to hold the party's precinct chairmanship, Miller said he has been called "McCain's boy," and during the campaign saw a critic form his hand in the shape of a gun and point it at him.

"I wasn't going to resign but decided to quit after what happened Saturday," Miller said. "I love the Republican Party but I don't want to take a bullet for anyone."

I am sure this will be dismissed.

[gipper]

Originally Posted by Salty Dog

I completely agree.

My take is the unpopularity of W Bush and the sourness he left in nearly everyone's mouths alienated alot of people, which lead to America electing an inexperienced African-American liberal, which naturally set off a fire storm of rhetoric from a disgruntled base who, without a leader, could not brand themselves as a unified party. Instead, they turned to talking points by soap box media stars who fanned the flames of a socialist takeover and dooms day propaganda, whether it was true or not.

I never meant the discussion of rhetoric to overshadow the tragedy in Tucson and I don't necessarily believe anything said by political hacks/pundits/formerGovs had anything to do with this particular incident.

But just as the left is propaganding to point fingers about the right's supposed views, the right is lampooning itself by acting as if they underestimated any rhetoric it has preached since Jan. 20, 2009 would or could cause an act of violence, regardless if it had anything to do with this tragedy. That in my mind makes them look guilty, of something.

Did Palin's "crosshairs" targeting this Congresswoman actually lead this kid to want to kill her? Most likely, not. He was suffering severe mental instability and would have gone off on his own. I find it highly disgusting though that Ms. Palin doesn't however see the potential consequences in her bid for "tongue-and-cheek" political messages in her campaigns and such. That goes for ALL politicians. Left, right, center, up, down, backspace..Contra?

That's all I've got to say about that.

Okay Forest Gump, your post is most moderate. Congrats! Played it right down the left side missing the target completely...ops...violent rhetoric...

I do agree with only one point. That is that many Americans were unhappy with the PROGRESSIVE W and voted in the SOCIALIST Obama. They did so without ever knowing his Marxist past and socialist intentions...which to anyone paying attention, were clearly visible. Moderates, independents, non-liberal Dems voted in a big way for BO. SUCKERS!

You jump on Palin for the crosshairs thing accepting completely the lib media spin. You got fooled again....

References to violent images and rhetoric are used all the time. But, no sane person thinks this leads people to commit violent acts. If this were true, why are you not condemning Hollywood for the violence they have depicted for decades???

But, if Sarah Palin puts out a crosshairs pic...SCREAM....the sky in falling. You got fooled again...do you see a pattern yet???

Could it be that much of the "fire storm" and "talking points" by the "disgruntled" are actually true? But, moderates being moderates can't see anything. They get push around by whoever has the biggest voice in the media. And, we know who controls most of the media...well do you?

The fire storm you apparently miss is the constant unwarranted and politically motivated attacks by libs and their media against Sarah Palin, Tea Party, Talk Radio, etc....and you got fooled again...

No doubt you thought all the criticism of W was cool, but the attacks on BO are so uncalled for....you got fooled again.

Moderates...will they ever learn?

The BLOOD of millions of unemployed, a bankrupt nation, a destroyed HC system, and all the other damaging consequences...are on the hands of moderates....

ops that damn violent rhetoric again

[The Esteemed Gentleman]

Originally Posted by Donkey®

Gabrielle Giffords' Arizona shooting prompts resignations -- I am sure this will be dismissed.

Maybe not, Donk; have faith that Sen. Sanders will use it in his next fundraising email in an attempt to further capitalize financially from the tragedy.

[wanna be drummer]

This thread just reminds me of one giant

followed by
which precedes the next



And now it's ending with a bunch of and




would be disappointed

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by Obama

For the truth is that none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack. None of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped those shots from being fired, or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man’s mind.

So yes, we must examine all the facts behind this tragedy. We cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence. We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of violence in the future.

But what we can’t do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on one another. As we discuss these issues, let each of us do so with a good dose of humility. Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together…

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/us...l?pagewanted=2