Sunday, January 9, 2011

About the Vitriol....


 Last March, Giffords raised concerns about inflammatory rhetoric after her office was vandalized, and she cited how her name appeared on a website titled "Take back the 20" as part of a list originally issued by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in March 2010 against vulnerable House Democrats.

Sarah Palin's "Crosshairs Map"
 The list, which named 20 House members who voted for health care reform, showed crosshairs over the contested Democratic districts. Rep. Giffords' name is on the hit list. 
 At the time, Giffords responded to the map by saying on MSNBC that her long-serving colleagues had "never seen anything like it." "The thing is, the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district," Giffords said in March. "When people do that, they've got to realize there's consequences to that action."
 A day after Giffords voted in favor of health care reform, a glass panel at her Tucson office was shattered.
So you see this kind of inflammatory rhetoric, which Palin said was "harmless" is just the kind of thing that incites acts of violence. Putting crosshairs on a map was certainly not subtle, now we have 6 people dead & 10 who had surgery & in critical condition, 3 who sustained lessor injuries. 
Nine year olds should not be dying in grocery store parking lots because someone disagrees with a political point of view.  There are civilized ways to deal with opposing viewpoints, including running for office yourself. 
 Giffords’ 75-yr old father, at her side in the hospital, was asked by a local newsperson if his daughter had any enemies.   “Yep”, he said, “every damn person in the tea party”.    


Sympathies to all involved. This is a needless tragedy. 

6 comments:

lisahgolden said...

It's so very tragic. This should not be who we are.

nonnie9999 said...

i want to see if any of the media step up and admit their role in all of this. they give microphones to extremists who advocate violence. rushbo, palin, and beck, directly and indirectly inspire and encourage violence. how much do you want to bet that profits will trump lives? they'll continue their hateful rhetoric, and rethugs will continue to endorse their bullshit.

D.K. Raed said...

Palin kept that crosshairs map up on her website/facebook pg even after she took heat for it. After the shootings Saturday, it is no longer there. She reloaded?

Nonnie, in a special comment last night, Keith O apologized for any of his own rhetoric. Have not heard any other media figure do that today.

Did anyone else even have a nanosecond of a thought that this type of action was related to some "extreme liberal" cause?

I don't like the tilt I'm seeing on cable news today that paints the shooter as just some wacko who wanted 15-minutes of fame.

There is much to learn about the shooter, true, but there is no doubt he was of the far right mindset.

Fran said...

Right on Lisa

Nonnie~ You are probably right... whatever gives them the ratings, gets the coverage... no journalistic integrity needed. Sane people talking rationally are the PBS crowd, otherwise it's showtime & they lap up the whack jobs.
How much press did the Tea Party get?
What was their platform anyway? They were mad as hell & demand the for profit health care model?
Come on!
Less government because deregulation- in banking & oil drilling went so well?
I don;t get it. Still people can argue till the cows come home... just do it without guns, and violence, and inciting violence, because as you see those words can turn into action.

DK~ It sure was inflammatory what Palin said-- now her camp is backtracking--
"But SarahPAC staffer Rebecca Mansour, who has been tweeting in defense of her boss since the tragedy took place, is stating that the crosshairs were never intended to be gun sights.

"We never ever, ever intended it to be gun sights," she said in an interview with talk radio host Tammy Bruce Saturday. "It was simply crosshairs like you'd see on maps." Bruce suggested that they could, in fact, be seen as "surveyor's symbols." Mansour added that "it never occurred to us that anybody would consider it violent" and called any attempts to politicize the Arizona tragedy "repulsive."

Crosshairs like you see on maps??
I've never crosshairs on maps. But her map named 20 members of Congress to "target", and then she went on to say 'Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!'
Now come on the woman is a gun enthusiast, if not a full blown gun abuser (helicopter hunting of wolves). Using crosshairs & gun lingo make the connection.

You asked:
Did anyone else even have a nanosecond of a thought that this type of action was related to some "extreme liberal" cause?

I answer:
No!
All the extreme liberals & progressives who put up with 8 years of Bush-- shredding the constitution & literally getting away with murder....
but yet the protests went on non violently.

Far right mindset AND mentally unstable (saw his you tube channel stuff.... out there for sure).

We have to be honest that the hate & venom flowing has reached a toxic level.
If what just happened is not a wake up call....
then what will be?

Lulu Maude said...

Cross hairs as surveyors' symbols... what a crock... as if surveyor symbols were even part of our common iconography.

I have never seen a group of people with a looser relationship to the truth than Republicans.

I've no doubt that this kid is a hurtin' unit, a sick puppy. He's the kind of person to be set off by all this "lock and load" rhetoric (Sharon Angle's pet phrase.)

Get lost, Mama Bears. Your across the aisle counterparts don't stoop to the violence that you do.

Mauigirl said...

It is all so sad and tragic. And I'm sure that the rightwing hate mongering had some kind of effect on the assassin, who is obviously a mentally disturbed person.