With some 350 comments on the weekend post of the Tucson shootings, you’ve all clearly got a lot to say. So here’s the latest:
When the FBI raided Arizona gunman Jared Loughner’s parent’s home, they found an envelope in a safe that had the words “I planned ahead,” “My assassination” and “Giffords” written on it. That evidence bostered the case against Loughner, who was charged on Sunday with five federal counts, including attempted assassination after the disturbed 22-year-old went on a shooting spree on Saturday morning outside an Arizona Safeway, killing six and wounding 14. Investigators uncovered other evidence of Loughner’s plot…
A local law enforcement officer for more than 50 years, Dupnik turns 76 tomorrow and, it seems, no longer feels a need to mince his words. On Saturday he condemned “the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country”. The next day he called Arizona the “Tombstone of the United States” because of its lax gun laws, and berated those who “try to inflame the public 24 hours a day” with “rhetoric about hatred, mistrust, paranoia of how government operates”. On Fox News and ABC today he again claimed “vitriolic rhetoric” had contributed to the tragedy.
It was just over one year ago, at a campaign rally in Tucson, Arizona, that Sarah Palin, bemoaned the “BS” from the media “about us inciting violence”.
“We know violence isn’t the answer,” Ms Palin said at an event for her former running mate, Senator John McCain. “When we take up our arms, we’re talking about our vote.”…
…But on a national level, Ms Palin is under particular pressure to enunciate her views about whether heated political rhetoric is fuelling violence in the community.
There is no evidence that Jared Lee Loughner, the 22-year-old who has been charged with the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords, the congresswoman, was influenced by Ms Palin or ultraconservative Tea Party activists.
But the former Alaska governor has come under intense scrutiny for her frequent use of political language with violent undertones, including a posting on her fundraising website last year that displayed Ms Giffords’ congressional district as a target in the crosshairs of a gun. A spokeswoman for Ms Palin said the icons were never intended to be gun sights.
I am not a Sarah Palin apologist, but casting any blame on her or the Tea Party for the terrible events that happened Saturday in Arizona is foolish. Jared Lee Loughner is a troubled soul and he alone is responsible for the Tucson massacre. The insistence by left-leaning politicians and pundits that “heightened” political rhetoric caused this catastrophe is dishonest, opportunistic, and shallow…
…What is absent from the portrait of Loughner is a man swept up in vitriolic political rhetoric. Regardless of what you think of Sara Palin and the Tea Party, it is highly unlikely that the “reload” and war-laden tone of their political message penetrated the bubble of isolation Loughner created for himself.
Also coming to light is the fact that Loughner had an obsession of Rep. Giffords that predates Sarah Palin’s silly cross hairs map, Sharon Angle’s “second amendment remedies”, and the rest of the “violent” rhetoric used by the Tea Party. It cannot be clearer that rhetoric has nothing to do with this tragedy.
Violent rhetoric had nothing to do with this shooting? Violent rhetoric from the likes of Palin and John Boehner are certainly not the sole cause of this shooting, but to say that they had “nothing” to do with it is naive. But even if that proposition were true — that this violent rhetoric is not to blame — that still doesn’t mean that anyone should be defending this kind of hateful speech. It’s not okay for politicians to say things like “we need to take up arms” against another political party or ideology, and last weekend’s tragic shooting should at least teach us that much.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
BY: harrydoby
IN: BREAKING: Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters Gets 9 Years
BY: Early Worm
IN: BREAKING: Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters Gets 9 Years
BY: Gorky Pulviczek
IN: BREAKING: Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters Gets 9 Years
BY: MartinMark
IN: BREAKING: Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters Gets 9 Years
BY: MartinMark
IN: BREAKING: Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters Gets 9 Years
BY: Ben Folds5
IN: BREAKING: Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters Gets 9 Years
BY: spaceman2021
IN: BREAKING: Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters Gets 9 Years
BY: ParkHill
IN: Thursday Open Thread
BY: ParkHill
IN: BREAKING: Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters Gets 9 Years
BY: ParkHill
IN: BREAKING: Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters Gets 9 Years
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!
Jared Loughner, the accused shooter, is a registered Democrat.
http://answers.yahoo.com/quest…
And a political liberal.
http://www.businessinsider.com…
He had flag burning videos favorited from Youtube. Among his favorite books is the communist manifesto.
You cannot make this left vs. right. You can make it crazy vs. sane, but attempts tp politicize this, or blame ANY political figure for it, reek of desperation.
looks no different than what is here on pols – just someone putting up their opinion and general MSU.
You have any backup or means of verification for your claim ?
http://twitpic.com/3ow1ig
He’s a Democrat. Sorry if that blows your theories of conservative violence, but it does.
Here, I cut and pasted it for you:
“This is bogus: blogbat’s leftwing counterparts circulated a similar picture earlier today with just the affiliation changed to Republican”
would forge a document like this?
http://freerepublic.com/focus/…
It was forged when some claimed he was a registered Republican, and you’ve forged it the other way.
How awful of a human being do you have to be to do something like this? What kind of a monster are you?
I didn’t make this. Stop projecting.
Numerous sites have reported that Loughner is a Dem, you’re in denial.
to the same thing you did–one post that is now being picked up, regenerated and used over and over. Numerous sites were claiming 2 days ago that he was a registered Republican, using the same exact information. Maybe you ought to hold off posting that until there is some definitive proof from AZ’s Secretary of State.
he was registered as an Unaffiliated.
This factual gem of information deserves a more prominent spot than the mis-information above it.
and spam the hell out of every thread with it and then link to payday lenders. 🙂
not only are you wrong, but you manage to totally miss the whole point as well, which is that this type of rhetoric dosen’t help.
Nice Breitbart attempt though.
either you made it or you plagiarized it. Either way, you brought it here and it’s your responsibility, you dumb racist forger.
is about somebody who hasn’t seen or talked to him in 4 years. Unverified by any more recent contacts. A/k/a MSU.
You all sound like Ari the other day, when he accused me of “hyperbole” when I referred to the labor “war.” You look desperate trying to find political (or playground) points somewhere in there.
It’s always a medically f*cked up person who does this sort of thing. Sometimes there are clear political motivations that help to induce the behavior. But nothing I’ve seen yet demonstrates that this is one of those (though something could always come up later to indicate otherwise). Just because his target was a political figure doesn’t make the action political.
This isn’t anyone else’s ‘fault’ but the shooter’s. And I don’t know why there needs to be. He will burn for it. But it’s not necessary to assign blame further and it’s not necessary to pour on more laws just to make people feel better.
These are the conditions in which we live.
And this was actual violence.
Um, do you need me to explain the difference?
The right talks about “war” all the time, like you do, and you’ve seen all the links to various comments from elected Republicans using gun sights on posters, or calling for people to be “armed and dangerous,” or recommending “Second Amendment remedies.”
Why?
Nobody is “blaming” anyone for the shooting. The point here is that violent rhetoric from politicians is at best unhelpful and at worst contributes to the decision-making process of someone like Loughner.
When a politician says something like, “We need to take up arms,” in reference to a political movement, 99% of people will understand that to be just a metaphor. But there are a small number of people who won’t see it that way, and Loughner may have been one of them. Whether that kind of rhetoric contributed to the shooting we may never know, but shouldn’t we at least be thinking about the merits of toning it down? Why is it a bad thing to ask politicians to stop using violent rhetoric while campaigning?
This is the same question I asked about the Columbine killers. Even though he’s now 22, he’s apparently had mental health problems for years. Where are his parents and what culpability do they have?
A kid who gets expelled from college, who has the campus security called on him five times, who fails a drug test and gets rejected from the military–where were they and how can they possibly claim they didn’t see anything unusual in this kid’s behavior which seems to have been on public display for years?
So they were there. They may have done nothing, but they were right there.
That’s kind of my point. We’ve blamed everyone in the universe for his actions and never once asked the question “Where was any family guidance for this kid?” It appears that just about everyone that knew him could see he had some issues but his parents didn’t have a clue? Didn’t try to get him some help?
Maybe there just isn’t enough information out there yet but you don’t find it at least a question that ought to be asked here?
I won’t be surprised if his parents had done a lot.
John Hinkley’s parents had almost impoverished themselves to get their son help and far more was available 30 years ago than now.
that his parents are low-income, tried everything, they live in AZ which has chronically underfunded mental health services for poor/working class. If he was prescribed medication, his parents were unable to force him to take it. Or he was prescribed, and none of them could afford to pay for it.
There are millions of these situations in this bloody medieval country in which we live.
that assumption? It might be nice to think that the parents and shooter here were simply victims of a society that doesn’t take care of its citizens, but it is just as possible that his parents neglected him and his mental problems because they weren’t good parents. Or maybe they tried and he refused because he is not a good person. Or maybe none of the above.
The point I want to make is that accusations and statements of blame with no basis are no better or worse if you are blaming society for a young man’s troubles or (take your pick) liberals/conservatives/apathetics for the country’s problems without good reason and proof. Inflamed, baseless rhetoric goes in all directions and serves no good purpose here.
I speak from my own experience, knowledge of the history of this issues, and know from data that most parents of mentally ill kids live at their wits’ end all the time. Most regular insurance does not cover treatment for mental illness. The ones that do put an incredibly low lifetime cap on coverage. So I spoke of the reality for the vast majority of parents of mentally ill children and youth.
And of course there are always exceptions to the rule. Doesn’t change what the reality is for the majority.
From Phoenix New Times:
I don’t know the pay scale for Pima County employees, but I doubt they eat peanut butter and ramen for dinner. I doubt they don’t have access to health care either.
But I know of plenty of county employees who don’t make good pay, and there are an increasing number of “temporary” hires being made by counties to get around paying benefits.
And health care does not necessarily include mental health coverage. Do you know what Pima County offers its workers?
But that is what I’m beginning to expect from just about everyone on the left here anymore.
All he’s saying is that you “don’t know” and “doubt”. You need to do more research to post something of substance is all that’s being said.
Here’s another “sick comment” from someone proudly on the left. Your comprehension and interpretation skills need improvement.
is that he is inferring that, being a Republican, I want them to be starving and without health care. That’s pretty obvious. And yep, you are very sick Robby.
but I wasn’t inferring anything about you resulting from your being a Republican — it was merely a comment about you being you. Hope that helps straighten things out.
.
as usual, I got no facts.
but I imagine that their son’s troubles were the central issue of that family ever since he was in High School.
Every day, Mom and Dad prayed for Divine assistance.
Every day, they did what they could to get him to try to act like “normal” kids.
Every night, they cried themselves to sleep.
Caro, I’m sure you don’t mean to be cruel, but that really, really hurts.
.
Do you have any close personal friends with mental illness or severe developmental disabilities ? Ever talked to their parents ?
.
Parenting is tough, parenting teenagers is hell. We don’t know the story. Let’s not judge the parents, society, and let’s not judge this guy as “evil” even as we can rightly judge his actions horrendous. And let’s not judge political parties over this incident.
Let us do say that statements about killing your opponents and about resorting to violence are beyond the pale. We are a civil society, and as civil people we don’t throw garbage in the street and we don’t urinate in public and we don’t threaten other people. Our parents taught us better than that (imperfect as they were).
.
http://thechollajumps.wordpres…
The Cholla Jumps
by James Kelley
Jared Loughner is a product of Sheriff Dupnik’s office
.
before commenting on it. But it does appear that, from Sheriff Dupniks own words:
Link here
NPR also has this story. h/t Patterico, who is filing an open records request on this.
So when where these death threats made? Were they before or after he bought the gun? And if Sheriff Department Officers were telling victims of these threats that there was no danger, Loughner was getting treatment, what does that say about that organization? And its leader?
The campaign of threats against Giffords not only had nothing to do with her shooting, but it’s irresponsible even to speculate that antigovernment nut Loughner might be affiliated with other antigovernment right-wing nuts.
But it’s perfectly OK to run with a conspiracy theory that says the liberal sheriff covered up Loughner’s danger because his mom worked for the local government.
You’re a sick asshole.
Those are all in your head, not mine. But I am wondering if there was some incompetency involved. Even the NY Times is reporting that the local law enforcement visited the Loughner home multiple times. So there is reason to ask questions.
I assume you read it. You’re backing it up and asking for an investigation.
Seems clear enough to me.
http://www.breitbart.tv/twitte…
Ignore the Breitbart source – This is frightening stuff.
BTW Jon Stewarts Opening on tonights show (Jan 10)was probably the best thing any TV personality has done since this horror started. I hope one of you with more blogging skills than I have will embed it for others to see.