Of course ONLY the angry RIGHT retoric is to blame.
Until Saturday's rampage against Rep. Gabrielle Giffords left her battling for her life and ended the lives of six others, Clarence Dupnik was not the most famous sheriff in Arizona.
But after a pull-no-punches news conference in which he linked the shooting in Tucson to a poisonous underlying political atmosphere, the Pima County sheriff may soon become known nationally as the anti-Joe Arpaio.
"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous," said Dupnik, referring to the troubled suspect, 22-year-old Jared Loughner.
Dupnik said Arizona, embroiled over the last year by bitter divisions over illegal immigration and health care reform, has "become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."
Many officials have been threatened, including Giffords, the federal judge killed by her side and Dupnik himself. The sheriff called that a "sad thing," and said, "Pretty soon, we're not going to be able to find reasonable, decent people who are willing to subject themselves to serve in public office."
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6 comments:
Do you have any promotional materials from national Democratic candidates showing a list of Republican names with cross-hairs scored over their districts?
I wonder why not.
Maybe you should be ashamed and embarrassed instead of indignant, for once.
Are the events of yesterday the full responsibility of the Republicans and the Tea Partiers? Of course not. They do not get the Oscar for Best Actor, but they surely deserve the award for Best Supporting Role. Mental illness gets top billing, but the stage was set by our irrationally outraged friends on the right. Gunsight posters and paranoid rhetoric have consequences.
Perhaps, this will be Obama's Oklahoma City. In 1995, Bill Clinton faced a ginned up right wing, excited with newfound power and led by extremist hotheads, angry over tax hikes and the assault weapons ban. The actions of Timothy McVeigh seemed to reset the public psyche and petulant pique was quickly out of fashion. Hopefully, this tragedy will be the catalyst for a similar change in tone and temperament.
To read what The Guardian (UK) says, please cut and paste to your browser:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/09/gabrielle-giffords-shooting-rightwing-rhetoric
Baxter:
I don't want to hear that voice of reason crap. Of course the gunman thinks he is protecting Jodie Foster.
There is always some washed up jerk waiting to be inspired to become infamous for 30 minutes.
Sarah Palin made a wanted poster with this woman's name on it. The talking heads on TV all say; "terrible tragedy, prayers all around, the guy was nuts, lets move on, we are going to need some more tax cuts."
Bullshit! Shame on them!
Of course we all need a Glock 19 with the extended magazine, just in case we look out the front window and see Zombies walking up the driveway! And what if you are out on the golf course and birds start attacking like in the Alfred Hitchcock movie? What if some hippie runs out of gas and knocks on your front door; by all means shoot him as a trespasser.
Babbitts. Quacks. NItwits all.
No, I like indignant better.
This young man had a mental illness (at least it very much looks like so) so rather that say...we can't be critical of President Obama and protest the Socialism inherent in his policies that we strongly do not want to occur in our country...we can't because such retoric might upset and propel to action a crazed looney?
Your sides default position is more government, some proest.
This is a tragedy, to "blame" the right, as is alwaysd the case...silly.
And BTW, if someone had shot General Petraeus after the General Betrayus, would you have been protesting the left and asking for their ashamed and embarrassed apology?
Its not just what the right is saying, Jim, it's how they are saying it as well. As you might be aware, CD-8 was hotly contested last year and her opponent was a gun-toting, Tea Party, Minuteman, Republican. Her district is one of few included in Palin's poster in the cross hairs of a gunsight. It is rather obvious that contributed to Saturday's tragedy.
Don't try to create a false sense of moral equivalence between the parties. It isn't true. The former lunatic fringe of the right is now in charge, led by Fox News. The lunatic fringe of the left hasn't held purchase since the '60's.
I know you are of the defensive right now and rightfully so. You guys own a piece of this one.
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