U S Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat, shot at public appearance!!

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I understand the need for freedom of speech and all that, but... fuck, can't you guys just jail those worthless fucks?

As for the shooting itself, I just don't really know what to say. It's just awful. GAF put it well. Guns are stupid. This should just never happen. God speed to Gabrielle and the other victims.
 
And kudos to Sheriff Dupnik for not backing down, reiterating tonight what he said last night, that the violent imagery and rhetoric from members of the media, while maybe not directly responsible for this, contributed to the climate that led to this event.

Agreed. We shouldn't so easily place people into "us" versus "them" camps. To summarize an entire person (their life, dreams, thoughts, training, setbacks, pain, joy...etc) by such a simple label as "conservative" or "liberal" seems to stand against everything the best of either side has ever preached.
 
Indeed, AEON. I'd love to think this will be a massive wake-up call for people to chill out. I'm not holding my breath on that happening, but it sure would be nice to see.

I understand the need for freedom of speech and all that, but... fuck, can't you guys just jail those worthless fucks?

I think that's a fantastic idea. I just want them to go away and never, ever come back. Ever.

Angela
 
Agreed about the racheting up of rhetoric as a general point, but using that relatively innocuous poster is a piss poor example, TBH.

relatively innocuous?

I don't know what kind of visual tropes you respond to....but as soon as I saw that poster back in the '08 campaign... i was disgusted!

thhose are very simple easily-identifed cross-hair icons.

Plus the color they use for those retired-- a deep blood red.

That red is not your typical
red of the red, white and blue American flag.
American Flag Red this is much closer to our flag's red, not what is in that poster.
 
Anyone who believes that was to be taken literally is an idiot.

In today's environment, when the D or R next to your name is becoming increasingly irrelevant, why is there no thought being entertained that the shooter was a liberal? In today's Democratic Party, Giffords is a moderate, and the extreme left is just as guilty in using violent rhetoric and calls for revolution as is the right.

America in some ways has moved more to the right since Reaan's time; so that liberals to certain people now look like far, left-wing extremists.

There used to be many more moderate-liberal Republicans in Congress. Not any more, most are now right to very right wing conservatives who want to take us back to the 1920's.

there's still a hell of a lot of difference in basic philospophic differnce in the Democratic vs Republican party
 
I think this guy definitely seems mentally ill, so I don't know if he was even capable of having any real and/or intellectual political motivations. But the truth remains that it has gotten out of hand in this country, so much so that who knows who could have those and take them to a violent extreme on a daily basis. She was targeted and threatened over her vote for health care. Look at how some people behaved during that time.

It won't change though, when the story fades it will go back to business as usual. But it sure is a damn shame that that beautiful little girl never will again, nor will any of the other people who died. Looking at that picture of her breaks my heart.

you are usually very thoughtful in your FYM comment Ms S, but this is a vey out-dated model/perception of people living with mental illness.

There is a broad spectrum of various conditoins, and within each condition a range of levels and a list of syptoms. From that each indiviudal will almost never quite manifest in exactly the same way, due to personal biochemstry factors, environmental: familial, friends an larger circles of the area/society they live in.

They have a range of intrlectual and creative abilities, just as the general populous has, and are often quite capable of using them when thier single or multiple illlness(s) are under control in a rangle of levels of equilibrium/balance.

------------------

as to the other part...as cori and anitram have also pointed out...the atmosphere of political talk chiefly from the right has reached quite a vitriolic pitch over the last several years.

Being part news & political junkie i know this.
 
Off the top of my head...


I don't want to drag this discussion back into the trenches, but it needs to be emphasized that this happens on both sides. Trying to emphatically state which party traffics in that more is pointless and impossible to know, and I echo the sentiments that a tragedy like this should simply not happen in America, as if that even needs to be said.

at this time of "night" for me(not gone to sleep yet , catching up with this whole story) it was much easier to grab the comparison of President Obama than Congress people...as the example


A CNN source with very close to the U.S. Secret Service confirmed to me today that threats on the life of the president of the United States have now risen by as much as 400 percent since his inauguration, 400 percent death threats against Barack Obama — quote — “in this environment” go far beyond anything the Secret Service has seen with any other president.

there are definitely more real extreme right wing people inthis country than far extreme left wing people then there have been in decades.

Even back in the days of Vietnam there weren't that mnay. The Weathermen were fairly small bunches of people.
 
America in some ways has moved more to the right since Reaan's time; so that liberals to certain people now look like far, left-wing extremists.

I hope you're not trying to dismiss the idea that there are prominent FAR-LEFT people in Washington, journalism, the media, society, etc...

There used to be many more moderate-liberal Republicans in Congress.

Actually, there are now a hell of a lot more moderate Republicans in Congress than moderate Democrats. This is a fact.

who want to take us back to the 1920's.

Oh please. That's just pathetic.
 
Off the top of my head...

Barack Obama saying something along the lines of "If they bring a knife, you bring a gun"... The beating of Kenneth Gladney by SEIU members.... A Democrat challenging GOP Congressman JD Hayworth in 2006 using a campaign ad in which Hayworth is featured in the crosshairs of a rifle... Multiple guests on MSNBC in the past few months making calls for violent revolutions... The fact that Olbermann references "the worst people in the world" (99.9% of them being conservatives, and largely prominent people like politicians and media figures)... The fact that Olby begins said segment with "get out your pitchforks and torches".... DailyKos kook Markos Moulitsas naming his book "American Taliban"... NPR's Nina Totenberg wishing AIDS on Jesse Helms... And if we're saying that the word "target" is off limits now, I can cite countless press releases and postings from Media Matters, Kos, DCCC, etc, referencing politicians that are "targets" and have "bullseyes" on them. I haven't even brought up the violent threats and attacks made against President Bush over the past decade, and I hope you won't make me. Should I start, I could go on for days.



this is so, so weak. none of this even compares to the specificity of the Palin camp, and her repeated use of violent "lock and load" imagery combined with her gleeful obliteration of animals on her TLC show. the worship of gun violence has long, long been a conservative trait, and we've seen this from references to federal judges where Cronyn expressed sympathy and understanding for those who would wish to shoot "activist judges" to Sharon Angle musing about "2nd Amendment" solutions to Harry Reid. there is no equivalent on the Left

comparing these things to what you've teased out above shows just how nervous the right wing is and how quickly they are circling the wagons.

i don't think anyone is responsible for this violence, but the fact that you can't regret the use of such language and instead are trying to justify it and make equivocations is indicative of defensiveness.

or, maybe, retribution through gun violence is just no big deal, and you think that's the equivalent of "worst person in the world" because, in your mind, when you name someone the "worst person in the world" your instinct is to automatically shoot that person?

absolutely, charged, hyperbolic, emotional political speech comes out of the Left. but it does not come close to matching the violent specificity of that on the Right, and the very mainstream Right.

after all, Ms. Palin was the nominee for VP in 2008. that's not some fringe Congressperson or Senator or commentator on MSNBC. Giffords herself worried about the kind of language that Sarah Palin used, people objected to it at the time worrying about an incident such as this at some point in the future. i don't think that the suspect in this case was even thinking about Sarah Palin's words when he shot all those people. but the point we're making -- that seems to be sailing over the heads, perhaps willfully, of the right wing blogosphere, and of Sarah Palin, who as ever, sees herself as the true victim in this incident -- is that that while correlation does not prove causation, the atmosphere has been poisoned to a disturbing degree and mostly and most violently by the Right.

so let's all try to stop acting surprised, America.
 
I understand the need for freedom of speech and all that, but... fuck, can't you guys just jail those worthless fucks?

As for the shooting itself, I just don't really know what to say. It's just awful. GAF put it well. Guns are stupid. This should just never happen. God speed to Gabrielle and the other victims.


I agree. With freedom of speech comes a certain responsibility. WBC is a cult and a dangerous one at that. They are in no way affiated with the Baptist Church or any other denomination of Christianity. Quite frankly, the rest of us think they are insane and there are issues of child abuse. Teaching children that "God Hates Fags" ( I hate that word) is mentally damaging to children. I follow the Christ Path and personally believe that God loves all of his children. No one is excluded. It sickens me to no end that WBC refers to themselves as Christians. They obviously have never read the New Testiment or The Greatest Commandment. Jesus made it perfectly clear. "Love all others, as I have loved you."

My heart is breaking for all of the people who were killed and injured. It is absolutely horrible what their families are going through and to shoot a precious little girl, killing her. Is beyond me. My prayers are with them. I heard an interview with Christina's mom and I couldn't stop crying. I still cry when I see her picture. I have a grand daughter who is only a couple of years younger than her and would be out of my mind if something like this happened. We need to ban guns.
 
I hope you're not trying to dismiss the idea that there are prominent FAR-LEFT people in Washington, journalism, the media, society, etc...
Far left in reality, or far left in your perspective?



Actually, there are now a hell of a lot more moderate Republicans in Congress than moderate Democrats. This is a fact.

Really? Where are they? The party that fillibustered more than anyone in history, the party that voted no for 9/11 responders, the party that stood for... 'NO'? Where are the moderates?
 
Man what a fruit cake:

Gabrielle Giffords shooting: Frightening, twisted shrine in Arizona killer Jared Lee Loughner's yard

A sinister shrine reveals a chilling occult dimension in the mind of the deranged gunman accused of shooting a member of Congress and 19 others.

Hidden within a camouflage tent behind Jared Lee Loughner's home sits an alarming altar with a skull sitting atop a pot filled with shriveled oranges.

A row of ceremonial candles and a bag of potting soil lay nearby, photos reveal.

Experts on Sunday said the elements are featured in the ceremonies of a number of occult groups.

Investigators have focused on Loughner's online anti-government ramblings as the chief motivation for the shooting Saturday of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

The discovery of the shrine raises the possibility that Loughner, 22, may have been driven by other forces. Students and faculty at Pima Community College, which he attended until his suspension last summer, said Loughner was clearly at odds with the world.


"He was one of the last kids tocome in, and he sat down and almost immediately started laughing to himself in a way that was just kind of creepy," a classmate, Alex Kotonias, 20, told USA Today.

"As soon as the teacher started going over the syllabus, he had this outburst out of nowhere, didn't even raise his hand, and started asking the teacher some sort of weird questions about whether he believed in mind control."

Adjunct Prof. Ben McGahee, 28, worried about violence. "I remember going home and thinking to myself, 'Is he going to bring a weapon to class?'" he told USA Today.

Lynda Sorenson, 52, who was in McGahee's basic algebra class with Loughner, expressed similar fears in emails to friends, The Washington Post reports.


Adjunct Prof. Ben McGahee, 28, worried about violence. "I remember going home and thinking to myself, 'Is he going to bring a weapon to class?'" he told USA Today.

Lynda Sorenson, 52, who was in McGahee's basic algebra class with Loughner, expressed similar fears in emails to friends, The Washington Post reports.

On June 14, she wrote: "We have a mentally unstable person in the class that scares the living crap out of me. He is one of those whose picture you see on the news, after he has come into class with an automatic weapon. Everyone interviewed would say, 'Yeah, he was in my math class and he was really weird.' I sit by the door with my purse handy."

In September, college officials sent campus police officers to Loughner's home, where he lives with his parents, with a letter informing him he could not return without a mental health professional's written assurance that hispresence at college would "notpresent a danger to himself or others."

"It was obvious to everyone that Jared wasn't a normal guy,"said neighbor Anthony Woods, 19.

Loughner worked as a volunteer at the Pima Animal Care Center, where he walked dogs and cleaned cages. "He loved animals and was a good worker," said another volunteer.
Loughner had once tried to join the military but was deemed unsuitable, officials said.

He loved animals? That's different than the usual psychopaths.

Jared Loughner, Alleged Shooter in Gabrielle Giffords Attack, Described by Classmate as "Left-Wing Pothead" - Phoenix News - Valley Fever

A classmate of the man accused of shooting Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords this morning describes him as "left wing" and a "pot head" in a series of posts on Twitter this afternoon.

Caitie Parker did not immediately respond to our request for an interview, but her "tweets" in the hours after the shooting paint a picture of Jared Loughner as a substance-abusing loner who had met Giffords before the shooting. She says, Loughner described the congresswoman as "stupid and unintelligent."

We've confirmed that Parker and Loughner went to school together at Mountain View High School in Tucson and that both attended Pima Community College, so her claims of knowing Loughner seem to be legit.

Parker "tweets" that she and Loughner were in the band together and were friends until 2007 when he became "reclusive" after getting alcohol poisoning and dropping out of college.

She describes him as "quite liberal" and as a "political radical."

44 - Jared Loughner's behavior recorded by college classmate in e-mails

From June 1, the first day of class:
"One day down and nineteen to go. We do have one student in the class who was disruptive today, I'm not certain yet if he was on drugs (as one person surmised) or disturbed. He scares me a bit. The teacher tried to throw him out and he refused to go, so I talked to the teacher afterward. Hopefully he will be out of class very soon, and not come back with an automatic weapon."

From June 10:
"As for me, Thursday means the end to week two of algebra class. It seems to be going by quickly, but then I do have three weeks to go so we'll see how I feel by then. Class isn't dull as we have a seriously disturbed student in the class, and they are trying to figure out how to get rid of him before he does something bad, but on the other hand, until he does something bad, you can't do anything about him. Needless to say, I sit by
the door."

From June 14:
"We have a mentally unstable person in the class that scares the living crap out of me. He is one of those whose picture you see on the news, after he has come into class with an automatic weapon. Everyone interviewed would say, Yeah, he was in my math class and he was really weird. I sit by the door with my purse handy. If you see it on the news one night, know that I got out fast..."

The class's instructor, Ben McGahee, said in an interview Sunday that Loughner had been removed from class in its third or fourth week, because of repeated disruptions.
 
this is so, so weak.

Whatever, Irvine. I can and will acknowledge that the Palin image was uncalled for. Clearly you're unwilling to do the same when it comes to the examples I've cited. That's fine, and frankly, not surprising. How many do you want? Mark Penn saying that Obama needs another OK bombing? The environmental terrorist at the Discovery Channel building last year? Montel Williams telling Michelle Bachmann to kill herself? Randi Rhodes calling for violence against President Bush on a regular basis? John Kerry saying he could go to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and kill Bush? Craig Kilborn showing a photo of Bush with "Snipers Wanted" beneath it? Chris Matthews fantasizing about someone shooting Rush Limbaugh? Nobel winner Betty Williams saying she'd love to kill President Bush? The countless images of a dead President Bush at various kook rallies? (Death Threats Against Bush at Protests Ignored for Years) What about the man that shot his family over the reckless global warming rhetoric? Do you think the alarmist left deserves blame for that?

All it takes is one crazy person to hear and act on any of this stuff. Is all this merely "charged" and passionate to you? To deny that there is violent rhetoric coming from prominent members of the Democratic Party and liberal persuasion in the United States (which is truly what it sounds like you are doing) is shameful and sick.

If any good can come of this, it's that hopefully we can all grow up. Some probably will, and some will merely tell other people to but not do it themselves. I'm in the former camp. I really hope Sarah Palin is, too. Where are you?
 
It is hard to put a label on him. I would not put much value on a book list on some internet site. Who know why one puts them up.

i will put a label on him.

this was a sick, disturbed kid who only thought in his fucked up mind that he was politically aware.

there were plenty of warning signs that this was a kid who needed help. who needed to be institutionalized. as far as we know, none of these steps were taken.

college prof's said they complained to administration about him... the administration did nothing. they were probably afraid of being sued or something. welcome to america.

44 - Jared Loughner's behavior recorded by college classmate in e-mails

sarah palin is an idiotic, dipshit fucknut whom should leave the political landscape as fast as humanly possible. that said? this fucked up kid had issues with giffords dating back long, long before palin ever put crosshairs on her. his sick fixation and problems with giffords began in 2007, before most americans even knew who sarah palin was. palin's use of crosshairs on districts she wanted "targeted" was a classless, sick move. it's also a terrible coincidence, in this matter.


to see how quickly the media and politicians alike have manipulated this awful tragedy by a sick, deranged individual to fall in line with their own political ideology is absolutely disgusting.
 
That's what they want. Like 20% of the WBC is made up of lawyers who sue the shit out of anyone who does something like that.

A few months ago my friend Chuckie was killed in Afghanistan, and the WBC was planning to come protest his funeral. We were worried because there was a lot of talk about "beating the living shit outta them" if they showed up. Luckily the WBC pussied out and didn't show. :up:




Back on the issue at hand however, I find it sick how politicized this has already become, even here on FYM. This morning I heard commentators on the news blaming Sarah Palin for this, and right now I hear Rush Limbagh on the radio my grandma listens to accusing Obama of using this to reconnect with the American people.


What the fuck. I just wish it would all stop.
 
sarah palin is an idiotic, dipshit fucknut whom should leave the political landscape as fast as humanly possible. that said? this fucked up kid had issues with giffords dating back long, long before palin ever put crosshairs on her. his sick fixation and problems with giffords began in 2007, before most americans even knew who sarah palin was. palin's use of crosshairs on districts she wanted "targeted" was a classless, sick move. it's also a terrible coincidence, in this matter.


to see how quickly the media and politicians alike have manipulated this awful tragedy by a sick, deranged individual to fall in line with their own political ideology is absolutely disgusting.

The problem with the left is their Palin-derangement syndrome. The more they pile-on the more it's proven. Also the more they talk about vitriol the more the right will go back and find left-wing examples.

Sarah Palin is not to blame for shooting of Gabrielle Giffords; left-wing rhetoric just as vicious

But worst of all, this is the same group of people who levied some of the most vicious imaginable attacks against Palin during and after her campaign for the vice presidency. A panoply of oh-so-tolerant-and-enlightened liberal institutions - the media, the econuts, Hollywood - turned Palin into their virtual punching bag.

Should we blame them for inciting violence?

Why can't we, for example, blame CNN's Roland Martin, for suggesting that "Maybe someone should kick Sarah Palin so she can understand how devastating obesity is to the future of the United States"?

Why can't we blame Gawker's Adrian Chen, who called Jeremy Paul Olson a "hero" for throwing tomatoes at Sarah Palin at a rally? "Although he missed Palin's face, Jeremy struck a chord strung through the center of our heart: Who are you, brave tomato-thrower?"

Why can't we blame comedian Sandra Bernhard, for warning Palin that she'd be "gang-raped by my big black brothers" if she dared set foot in Manhattan?

Or Bernhard's famous frenemy Madonna, who chanted at a concert, "Kick Sarah Palin's ass"?

Why can't we blame all of West Hollywood, for allowing a Halloween display of a hanging Sarah Palin to sway in effigy?

Why can't we blame PETA, which posted a holiday video game on its site allowing users to hurl snowballs at "a certain bikini-clad, gun-toting maverick"?

Or Hollywood darling Aaron Sorkin, who wrote on Huffington Post in a rant about Palin's hunting hobby that he gets "happy every time one of you faux-macho s--theads accidentally shoots another one of you in the face"? Sweet stuff, really.

If rhetoric vilifying one's political opponents is to blame, then self-righteous lunatics in fragile, ecofriendly houses shouldn't throw stones.

Again and Again - By Jay Nordlinger - The Corner - National Review Online

One of the depressing things about hanging out in journalism for a long time, or simply reading the newspapers for a long time, is that nothing changes. Stories repeat themselves. I have made that point before. So even that is a repetition, and depressing.

McVeigh and his helpers blew up the Oklahoma City building, killing more than 150. President Clinton strongly suggested that Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio were responsible. Do you remember his repulsive address at Michigan State University?

An extremist killed Yitzhak Rabin. People delighted in saying that this was all the fault of Likud, all the fault of conservatives, who had created the “atmosphere.” That was the big buzzword: “atmosphere,” alternatively “environment” or “climate.” In fact, now that I think about it, “climate” was the main word. “Atmosphere” and “environment” were close behind. Conservatives tried to point out that it was okay to criticize the Oslo Accords. It didn’t mean that we were murderers. (It meant that we were wary of murderers.)

When Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans with deadly force, many liberals pinned the blame on Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Don’t believe me? Relive those horrible, nutty days in this piece (“All the Uglier: What Katrina whipped up”).

After the Kennedy assassination, John Tower and his family had to evacuate to a safe place. The early word was that right-wingers had killed the president. Tower was associated with Goldwater for President. There were death threats against his family. It transpired, of course, that a left-wing nutjob who had “defected,” briefly, to the Soviet Union was the killer. A liberal was quoted as saying, “Now our grief can be pure.”

When Reagan was shot, there were not many political recriminations, or any. Just a lot of Jodie Foster jokes.

A few months ago, an eco-extremist took hostages at the Discovery Channel building, threatening to kill them and blow up the building. He was shot by the police before he could kill anyone. I don’t recall any comments from the right-wing peanut gallery. There was some snarkiness over the Unabomber. For example, conservatives would put two swatches of text side by side, and say, “Which is the Unabomber’s manifesto and which is Al Gore’s Earth in the Balance?”

If an Islamist blows up or guns down 50 people, shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he does it, you’re not supposed to say that the act has any broad implications at all. It is simply an individual act, end of story. But if a young psychotic in Arizona kills a lot of people, we’re supposed to examine the state of Sarah Palin’s soul.

I don’t say that it ought to be this way, Lord knows. But it always has been, at least for as long as I can remember. And I fear it always will be. The DCCC can put targets on a map. We cannot. Barack Obama can say, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” We cannot. Those are the rules. It’s just the way it is, and we can gripe about it all we want, but . . .

If a Democratic congressman is threatened, there are countless treatises on the sickness of American conservatism. If Eric Cantor is threatened — there’s no news.

One more thing: Events like the Arizona massacre — if the Boston Massacre can be a massacre (five died), the Arizona shooting qualifies — can have serious political effects. I think the Oklahoma City bombing did. And I remember something from college days — from graduate school, actually. A professor of mine, the late political scientist Nelson Polsby, was asked how the Reagan program got passed in 1981. He lifted his hand and made a shooting motion: the assassination attempt. It garnered sympathy for the president, Polsby was saying. I didn’t like that very much. But there was still a point.

And so on and so forth.....:doh: Oh well everyone is getting more ratings. :sexywink:
 
This is in regards to all the anti-gun comments I'm reading, calling for an all-out ban on guns...

When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the handgun ban in the nation's capital in 2008, Representative Gabrielle Giffords applauded the ruling, calling gun ownership "an Arizona tradition." That she had co-signed a congressional amicus brief against the ban came as no surprise: she has always been pro-gun, and she represents a state with a history of proud gun ownership and lax gun laws.

So there is at least a touch of irony to the fact that her name is being invoked, following her attempted assassination on Saturday, in calls for tighter gun control. Paul Helmke, head of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, offered prayers for Giffords and decried "easy access to high-powered guns." New York Representative Carolyn McCarthy called the shooting "an illustration of why we must all work together to fight gun violence in America and keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of the wrong people." (See one survivor's account of the Tucson massacre.)

Gun-rights supporters see a different moral to the shooting. "It shows more than ever why people need to have the tools of defense," says Charles Heller, founder of the Arizona Citizens Defense League. As for additional gun-control laws, Heller says, "It doesn't need to be any more illegal than it already is to shoot a Congresswoman in the head."

The real question in Tucson, though, is why the alleged shooter, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, was allowed to buy the murder weapon in the first place. Beyond the clearly delusional nature of online videos ascribed to him, Loughner was suspended last year from Pima Community College apparently because of mental problems. According to the college, he was told he could return only if he obtained "a mental health clearance indicating, in the opinion of a mental health professional, his presence at the College does not present a danger to himself or others." The Army also denied Loughner's application for unspecified reasons. It's unclear what other organizations or agencies might have been aware of Loughner's dangerous mental state. Still, he passed a background check, and late last year legally bought the 9-mm Glock 19 semiautomatic handgun allegedly used in the shootings. (Read "What Motivated Giffords' Shooter?")

As far back as the Gun Control Act of 1968, there have been federal laws against selling weapons to mentally ill individuals. But the Virginia Tech tragedy in 2007, in which the shooter Cho Seung-Hui was able to pass two federal gun background checks even after a state court ruled that he was dangerously mentally ill, highlighted the need for better record-keeping and interagency communication to enforce those laws. (More than 30 people died in the incident.) Saying that unstable individuals are disqualified from buying firearms is meaningless if the national background-check system, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), has no record of their illness. That's why the Brady organization was proud to announce on Friday, just a day before the Tucson shootings, that the number of records of mental illness in the NICS database had more than doubled since Virginia Tech, to more than 1 million records.

But there's a problem with that: there should be more than 2 million records in that database, if all the states cooperated fully. According to the Brady organization's records, Arizona was not even the worst offender - at least the state ramped up its reporting somewhat in the wake of Virginia Tech. But still, Arizona's own estimate is that the state has 121,700 records of disqualifying mental illness that should go into the NICS database. From the beginning of 2008 to October 2010, however, it submitted only 4,465 records. Worse than Arizona were states like Louisiana, which submitted only one record during that time frame, and Nebraska and Pennsylvania, which didn't submit any. (Did violent rhetoric contribute to the Giffords attack?)

The battle over gun control is not often fought in the bureaucracy, however. It's fought in the public square. Saturday's shooting comes after several years of increasingly high-profile appearances by armed Second Amendment supporters at political events. In August 2009, at the height of the health care reform furor, a man showed up at a speech President Obama gave to veterans in Phoenix with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle slung around his shoulder. That same month, a protester outside an Obama town-hall meeting in New Hampshire wore a handgun strapped to his leg and carried a sign that said, "It's time to water the tree of liberty," a reference to Thomas Jefferson, who suggested that particular tree should be watered with blood.

In the end, however, what those protesters demonstrated - safely, as it turned out - was that they could bring properly licensed weapons to political events without endangering the public. Gun-control advocates may see the Tea Party protesters as the face of provocation, but it's the quiet, grim paranoiacs like Loughner who represent the real danger. (Comment on this story.)

Loughner, according to eyewitnesses, hid his weapon until the moment before he opened fire. But his mental illness had been on display for many to see in the weeks and months before the shooting. So Giffords' gun politics are not relevant at the moment, nor are the larger questions of liberty or societal violence. The most pressing questions now: Who else knew of Loughner's mental illness? What obligations did his college have, and which ones did they fulfill, to report Loughner to other agencies? Most of all: Why is Arizona (along with other states) so far behind in reporting disqualifying mental illness to the federal background-check system? If there is anything that both sides should be able to agree on, it's that unstable individuals should not have access to any kind of weapon, much less the so-called fourth-generation semiautomatic Glock 19 that Loughner bought. This time, the price for bureaucratic torpor was too high.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599204144800

Every time theres a mass shooting, it seems it could have been prevented if the background-check system wasn't messed up. :down: THAT'S what we need to fix. A complete ban on guns would never fly with the rest of the country, not to mention it's totally unconstitutional.
 
Whatever, Irvine. I can and will acknowledge that the Palin image was uncalled for. Clearly you're unwilling to do the same when it comes to the examples I've cited. That's fine, and frankly, not surprising. How many do you want? Mark Penn saying that Obama needs another OK bombing? The environmental terrorist at the Discovery Channel building last year? Montel Williams telling Michelle Bachmann to kill herself? Randi Rhodes calling for violence against President Bush on a regular basis? John Kerry saying he could go to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and kill Bush? Craig Kilborn showing a photo of Bush with "Snipers Wanted" beneath it? Chris Matthews fantasizing about someone shooting Rush Limbaugh? Nobel winner Betty Williams saying she'd love to kill President Bush? The countless images of a dead President Bush at various kook rallies? (Death Threats Against Bush at Protests Ignored for Years) What about the man that shot his family over the reckless global warming rhetoric? Do you think the alarmist left deserves blame for that?


If any good can come of this, it's that hopefully we can all grow up. Some probably will, and some will merely tell other people to but not do it themselves. I'm in the former camp. I really hope Sarah Palin is, too. Where are you?


Context isn't your forte...

But I have to agree with you on the last point :up: There's a lot of growing up needed on all sides.
 
Whatever, Irvine. I can and will acknowledge that the Palin image was uncalled for.Clearly you're unwilling to do the same when it comes to the examples I've cited. That's fine, and frankly, not surprising.

yes. you're right. i'm not going to equivocate between certain thuggish elements on the left and ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES or CANDIDATES on the Right. look at your own list:



Mark Penn
The environmental terrorist at the Discovery Channel building
Montel Williams
Randi Rhodes
Craig Kilborn
Chris Matthews
Betty Williams


your John Kerry example was incredibly weak -- it was a bad joke on a Bill Maher episode from 2006 that was entirely understood as a bad joke, it was not a political call to arms. it was a variation on "kill 2 birds with one stone." this is where mindless equivocation gets you, and it demonstrates, perfectly, that none of these are even close to the regular use of violent rhetoric employed by the Palins, Angles, and Cronyn's of the world.
 
The problem with the left is their Palin-derangement syndrome. The more they pile-on the more it's proven. Also the more they talk about vitriol the more the right will go back and find left-wing examples.



for the love of God. i guess the real victim here is Sarah Palin, isn't it?

no one is blaming Sarah Palin for this. what are are saying is that she is perhaps the biggest contributor to violent political rhetoric in the current political atmosphere.
 
no one is blaming Sarah Palin for this. what are are saying is that she is perhaps the biggest contributor to violent political rhetoric in the current political atmosphere.

The problem is these two sentences are a contradiction (how is indirect association not almost as bad?) and secondly who are you fooling? Every story on the news just after the shooting (including leftists in Canada) were glee with bashing the Tea Party and Sarah Palin and laying the blame on them. All of them showed the target map not as a metaphor but as the main incitement. Do we see any examples of the left showing their vitriol in these stories? Look at the articles I posted. There's plenty on the left and if the left doesn't change how would the right? The left has used vitriol in the past but they don't police themselves. The reason why there is a right-wing media is because the left report about the right in a left-wing way.

Personally I would like the debate to be like Buckley Jr. but there aren't any shows like that. Each side wants their talking points because if they let the other side have a chance to cover both sides it will end up biased as per usual. If you want a clear representation of a conservative point of view you will need a Foxnews because the MSM, academia, and Hollywood will always twist it or ignore it.

BTW there is a reason for some anger amongst the public:

-high unemployment
-energy taxes
-inflation
-illegal immigration
-pointless stimulus spending (Remember the 1.1 trillion F-you Reid wanted passed before the new house was sworn in?)

The left yesterday tried to take this shooting and in one fell swoop invalidate the conservative point of view. Sorry but the media will have to do better than that.
 
If you want a clear representation of a conservative point of view you will need a Foxnews because the MSM, academia, and Hollywood will always twist it or ignore it.

That you consider Foxnews a "clear representation of a conservative point of view" is what's wrong with the conservative movement these days. FoxNews is an echo chamber and a chief propagator of the overblown rhetoric that passes for political discourse these days, and wields entirely too much influence within that party. I can't think of a single so-called "liberal media" organization that wields so much power that Democratic candidates fear crossing it. When's the last time a prominent Republican politician disagreed with FoxNews or Rush Limbaugh without issuing a public apology days later for daring to part from the groupthink?

The left yesterday tried to take this shooting and in one fell swoop invalidate the conservative point of view.

Speaking of overblown rhetoric...
 
BTW there is a reason for some anger amongst the public:

-high unemployment
-energy taxes
-inflation
-illegal immigration
-pointless stimulus spending (Remember the 1.1 trillion F-you Reid wanted passed before the new house was sworn in?)

The left yesterday tried to take this shooting and in one fell swoop invalidate the conservative point of view. Sorry but the media will have to do better than that.

I guess we are digressing from the topic a bit,
but that happens in here

I don't know where you live, I am in very conservation Orange County CA.

And I don't see your examples holding up as very legit.

-high unemployment, yes it is a problem and may have some very upset.
But, in the last year it is consistently trending down. 6/10

-energy taxes, really? I have not heard any individual ranting about this. Even the oil companies seem to be having some windfall profits, gasoline has gone up, but the cost is related to oil at $100 a barrel. 2/10

-inflation, check the rate, it is very low 2/10

-illegal immigration, again check the stats, this is way down, due to no construction jobs, etc. also, with most States running deficits, there is really little aid available for them. Here in CA our new Governor just announce huge Gov cuts, immigration, 4/10

-pointless stimulus spending, this may have some people agitated, but is it legit? most of the TARP has been paid back. Government Motors, really is just a fabrication. 4/10



I don't see where your examples add up to an average of a 7 or 8 for anger.
They are more like a 4. :shrug:

So if some people are real angry about those things, perhaps they have been mislead by the right-wing radio talkers and/or Tea-Party agitators.
 
I members of the Westborough Baptist "Church" show up to any of the funerals, they will be blocked by over 400 of us who have agreed to peacefully stand in front of them so that the mourners may mourn in peace. I plan on bringing earplugs.
 
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