BREAKING: Rep Gabrielle Giffords; Several Others Shot

[BlueHen86]

TTBF, a voice of reason and intelligence. Right now the focus of all our concerns should be on Mrs. Giffords and the families of the victims. Is it true about the nine year old girl? OMFG. My daughter just turned ten. That could have been her. What kind of **** world do we live in that people get so upset and angry over such unimportant ****? I'm not a believer, but those of you who are should be on your knees praying for these people. I know I will be doing some pretty hard self examination over the next day or two. Those poor people.

Yes.......praying will do so much good! It will save us all!!!

It can't hurt. I also think we could all benefit from occasional self examination .

[BlueHen86]

So are you. And the bored coffee thing just doesn't do you justice.

Do you really think I give an eff what YOU think of my coffee thing?

Dude, you aren't going to sleep for a week.

[Cap'n Cat]

Anonymous comment on MSNBC:

"Tea Baggers, Rush, Hannity, Beck and Fox Network contribute to this type of behavior. The have helped to promote hate. They are as guilty as the shooter."


Amen.

Real cool. Hope you're all proud as peacocks, Conks.

[TwinTownBisonFan]

TTBF, a voice of reason and intelligence. Right now the focus of all our concerns should be on Mrs. Giffords and the families of the victims. Is it true about the nine year old girl? OMFG. My daughter just turned ten. That could have been her. What kind of **** world do we live in that people get so upset and angry over such unimportant ****? I'm not a believer, but those of you who are should be on your knees praying for these people. I know I will be doing some pretty hard self examination over the next day or two. Those poor people.

Yes.......praying will do so much good! It will save us all!!!

In honesty MJ - it'll do a hell of a lot more than groping around and casting blame on the day of the attack...

the time for making potential political connections may come, but today isn't that day - hyper partisan acrimony seems to be the likely culprit here - engaging in it yourself serves only to make things worse.

[death dealer]

Don't be so sensitive Travis. Take a break from your self indulgent tendencies and just refrain from making political fodder out of this for at least 48 hours, OK? That's all I'm asking. Damn.

Why are you taking this so personally??? We all feel bad for these victims.......but there is a larger story here, and if we want to discuss it, we will.

I take it personally because I should. We all should. This is tragic and we should stop the rhetoric that has led to it from both sides. John Stewart is right. Stop with the hate. How can we ever find a middle ground and work together if both side thinks the other is the spawn of Satan? This should transcend partisanism. But the rancid nature of our system drags the absolute scum to the surface where they can't help but start hurling their crap at the other side while a nine year old girl lays dead in Arizona, and a set of parents wonder how this fucking shit happened? Yet you want to talk about some larger story?

[death dealer]

Yes.......praying will do so much good! It will save us all!!!

In honesty MJ - it'll do a hell of a lot more than groping around and casting blame on the day of the attack...

the time for making potential political connections may come, but today isn't that day - hyper partisan acrimony seems to be the likely culprit here - engaging in it yourself serves only to make things worse.

You say it so much better.

[UNHWildCats]

From a conservative blog under the post headline of "1 down, 434 to go"

It is absolutely, absolutely unacceptable to shoot “indiscriminately”.

Target only politicians and their staff, and leave regular citizens alone.

Please!





http://tjic.com/?p=19638" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[GSUAlumniEagle]

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Proceed to the 2:15 mark.

[Cap'n Cat]

Lots of embarrassed Conks today.......................

[Chemhen]

I watched his videos, and he just seems like a disturbed guy; I couldn't tell his political leanings. No one knows yet what inspired his acts, but for me, at least, the first thing I thought of was a right wing fringe guy killing a democratic congresswoman. I think its tragic that in our society the possibility that political feelings could motivate indiscriminate killing is the first thing that leaps to mind in a case like this.

One thing this does call attention to, regardless of why he did it, is the frequent use of violence and intimidation against liberal politicians. Both the congresswoman and the judge who was killed were subjected to (presumably unrelated) threats. I think conservative commentators should rethink their use of gun imagery to make their point. I don't think the vast majority mean anything by it, its just where they're coming from. But some people take these things literally.

[Bronco]

Every shooter since the tea party started has been from the left but I got to hand it to ya you always get out front in these stories and make statements true or not and many people remember what they heard first not the truth that comes out later.

[mebison]

Probably a good idea to avoid casting too much partisan blame right now...wouldn't be the first time someone initially assumed to be a [one-side] extremist actually turned out to be an [other side] extremist.

Sad story, though, for sure. Hope the congresswoman recovers well beyond just surviving, and my thoughts and prayers to the family of those who have died. The kid, especially.

[Bronco]

It's a giant leap that Palin prompted a lefty to shoot a blue dog democrat and a Bush appointed federal judge.

Looks like some left sites may have influenced him.

From the HillBuzz a site that supports Hillary

[death dealer]

Every shooter since the tea party started has been from the left but I got to hand it to ya you always get out front in these stories and make statements true or not and many people remember what they heard first not the truth that comes out later.

Left, right, up, down, blah, blah, blah. People are dead because of some stupid political debate over meaningless crap! Meaningless drivel!! Fuck the constitution and the left and the right! Fuck conservatives and liberals! Fuck all that shit! It's nothing in the end but a piece of paper full of worthless words if it can result in the death of a nine year old little girl. I just don't understand how someone could do something like this. I mean, I'm a pretty hard dude. I don't let much get to me really, but this kind of thing just fucking tears me up inside. Politics be-damned!

[TwinTownBisonFan]

Giffords staffer Gabe Zimmerman, 30 among those killed...

Rest in peace, Gabe.

[death dealer]

Giffords staffer Gabe Zimmerman, 30 among those killed...

Rest in peace, Gabe.

30. Life just beginning. Damn shame.

[Skjellyfetti]

Good dose of sanity:

After this horrible news from Tucson....

... let me amplify something I said half-coherently in a live conversation with Guy Raz on All Things Considered a little while ago. My intended point was:

Shootings of political figures are by definition "political." That's how the target came to public notice; it is why we say "assassination" rather than plain murder.

But it is striking how rarely the "politics" of an assassination (or attempt) match up cleanly with the main issues for which a public figure has stood. Some killings reflect "pure" politics: John Wilkes Booth shooting Abraham Lincoln, the German officers who tried to kill Hitler and derail his war plans. We don't know exactly why James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King, but it must have had a lot to do with civil rights.

There is a longer list of odder or murkier motives:
- Leo Ryan, the first (and, we hope, still the only) Representative to be killed in the line of duty, was gunned down in Guyana in 1978 for an investigation of the Jim Jones/Jonestown cult, not any "normal" political issue.

- Sirhan Sirhan horribly transformed American politics by killing Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, but Sirhan's political causes had little or nothing to do with what RFK stood to most Americans.

- So too with Arthur Bremer, who tried to kill George C. Wallace in 1972 and left him paralyzed.

- The only known reason for John Hinckley's shooting of Ronald Reagan involves Jodie Foster.

- It's not often remembered now, but Manson family member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme tried to shoot Gerald Ford, again for reasons that would mean nothing to most Americans of that time.

- When Harry Truman was shot at (and a policeman was killed) on the sidewalk outside the White House, the attackers were concerned not about Cold War policies or Truman's strategy in Korea but Puerto Rican independence.

- The assassinations of William McKinley and James Garfield were also "political" but not in a way that matched the main politics of that time. The list could go on.

So the train of logic is:
1) anything that can be called an "assassination" is inherently political;
2) very often the "politics" are obscure, personal, or reflecting mental disorders rather than "normal" political disagreements. But now a further step,
3) the political tone of an era can have some bearing on violent events. The Jonestown/Ryan and Fromme/Ford shootings had no detectable source in deeper political disagreements of that era. But the anti-JFK hate-rhetoric in Dallas before his visit was so intense that for decades some people debated whether the city was somehow "responsible" for the killing. (Even given that Oswald was an outlier in all ways.)

That's the further political ramification here. We don't know why the killer did what he did. If he is like Sirhan, we'll never "understand." But we know that it has been a time of extreme, implicitly violent political rhetoric and imagery, including SarahPac's famous bulls-eye map of 20 Congressional targets to be removed -- including Rep. Giffords. It is legitimate to discuss whether there is a connection between that tone and actual outbursts of violence, whatever the motivations of this killer turn out to be. At a minimum, it will be harder to anyone to talk -- on rallies, on cable TV, in ads -- about "eliminating" opponents, or to bring rifles to political meetings, or to say "don't retreat, reload."

Meanwhile condolences on this tragedy, and deepest hopes for the recovery of all who still have a chance.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc ... ngs/69147/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Cap'n Cat]

Post of the Year, Skelli.



Killer was a McVeigh-Reagan-Cheney Conk.

[Skjellyfetti]

Every shooter since the tea party started has been from the left

What about the guy that crashed his plane into the IRS building, leaving an anti-IRS rant suicide note? What about the guy that shot up the Holocaust Museum? What about the murder of George Tiller?

[Col Hogan]

Post of the Year, Skelli.



Killer was a McVeigh-Reagan-Cheney Conk.

Obviously you didn't read the post...

We don't know why the killer did what he did

Or did you just miss that key element of the post...

[Cap'n Cat]

Post of the Year, Skelli.



Killer was a McVeigh-Reagan-Cheney Conk.

Obviously you didn't read the post...

We don't know why the killer did what he did

Or did you just miss that key element of the post...

Hoagie, I will NOT be surprised if this killer is a relative of yours or 89Hen's.

No sh*t.

[Col Hogan]

Obviously you didn't read the post...



Or did you just miss that key element of the post...

Hoagie, I will NOT be surprised if this killer is a relative of yours or 89Hen's.

No sh*t.

So, you DID'NT read the post....typical...

[Cap'n Cat]

Hoagie, I will NOT be surprised if this killer is a relative of yours or 89Hen's.

No sh*t.

So, you DID'NT read the post....typical...

Read it...............??

I INHALED IT, Hoagenfvck. You and your terrorist-fvck party can go die.

Love,

Cappy

[GSUAlumniEagle]

From this fuckhead's Youtube:

"The majority of citizens in the United States of America have never read the United States of America's Constitution.

You don't have to accept the federalist laws.

Nonetheless, read the United States of America's Constitution to apprehend all of the current treasonous laws.

You're literate, listener? "

-- December 15

__________________________________________________

All of this rhetoric about how this law was somehow not just bad policy, not just unconstitutional -- but somehow the socialist dream of some liberal agenda who hates this country and wants to get YOU! out of it. I'm not saying the Right forced this guy to do it. I'm not saying they wanted him to do it. But it was exactly what this lunatic needed to hear, and Sarah and Beck were more than happy to do it to earn a few bucks. So now this guy thinks his line of thinking isn't idiotic -- powerful people are saying the same thing.

[Skjellyfetti]

Pima Count Arizona Sheriff Clarence Dupnik:

But again I’d just like to say that when you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain people’s mouths about tearing down the government, the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And, unfortunately, Arizona I believe has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.