Many updates and a new post (Jan. 9). Keep scrolling.
Any decent human being would wish Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her family all the best. As of this writing (7:37 PM) her surgeon is "optimistic" she will pull through this shooting in Tucson. That's a silver lining, considering several people, including a child, are already confirmed dead.
But it's amazing how before all the facts are in, the left immediately blames the right -- the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, right-wing talk radio, take your pick -- on violent crimes like this. And when I say "the left," I don't mean no-name amateurs at their bloggers. I'm talking Paul Krugman at the New York freaking Times.
This afternoon, a post I wrote back on March 31, 2010 was hit several hundred times. It was about a picture Sarah Palin had of the U.S. with some "cross hairs" on certain states. The reason this post was being hit all day is because the leftosphere is blaming today's shooting on the violence supposedly instigated by Palin and the violent right. The completely worthless leftist propaganda machine Huffington Post was among those who dredged up this nine-month-old story to pin the blame squarely on her.
Even the aforementioned Krugman blamed today's shooting on Palin and the Tea Party right:
January 8, 2011, 3:22 PM
Assassination Attempt In Arizona
A Democratic Congresswoman has been shot in the head; another dozen were also shot.
We don’t have proof yet that this was political, but the odds are that it was. She’s been the target of violence before. And for those wondering why a Blue Dog Democrat, the kind Republicans might be able to work with, might be a target, the answer is that she’s a Democrat who survived what was otherwise a GOP sweep in Arizona, precisely because the Republicans nominated a Tea Party activist. (Her father says that “the whole Tea Party” was her enemy.) And yes, she was on Sarah Palin’s infamous “crosshairs” list.
Just yesterday, Ezra Klein remarked that opposition to health reform wasgetting scary. Actually, it’s been scary for quite a while, in a way that already reminded many of us of the climate that preceded the Oklahoma City bombing.
You know that Republicans will yell about the evils of partisanship whenever anyone tries to make a connection between the rhetoric of Beck, Limbaugh, etc. and the violence I fear we’re going to see in the months and years ahead. But violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate. And it’s long past time for the GOP’s leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers.
Update: I see that Sarah Palin has called the shooting “tragic”. OK, a bit of history: right-wingers went wild over anyone who called 9/11 a tragedy, insisting that it wasn’t a tragedy, it was an atrocity.
Update: I’m going to take down comments on this one; they would need a lot of moderating, because the crazies are coming out in force, and it’s all too likely to turn into a flame war.
If Paul Krugman is looking for hateful rhetoric he need to look no further than his own mirror. He is the poster boy for hate-mongering "journalism." Climate of hate? Violent acts? Please.
Because it seems every time that happens, the perpetrator ends up being a Palin-hating, Bush-hating, capitalism-hating left-leaning nut-job.
And so it seems to be with Jared Loughner, the 22-year-old currently in custody for this heinous act. Always one step ahead of things, Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit has the skinny on this cretin:
His favorite books: Communist Manifesto, Mein Kampf
Just for starters.
Disgusting. Loathsome. Detestable. None of these words are enough to describe the mud that Paul Krugman has slung on his website. If the New York Times had one last iota of integrity and credibility, they would fire this hack immediately.
And all you lefties who have been pinning this atrocious act on Sarah Palin, the Tea Party movement, right-wing radio, etc., etc., etc.: Go @%^#$ yourselves.
UPDATED 11:30PM: World Net Daily has more on that supposedly right-wing Palin- and Limbaugh-influenced shooter:
On his now deleted MySpace page, Lougher wrote a series of disjointed rants, including:
- "If there's no flag in the Constitution, then the flag in the film is unknown. There's no flag in the Constitution. Therefore, the flag in the film is unknown. Burn every new and old flag that you see. Burn your flag!"
- "I bet you can imagine this in your mind with a faster speed. Watch this protest in reverse! Ask the local police, 'What's your illegal activity on duty?'"
- "If you protest the government, then there's a new government from protesting. There's not a new government from protesting. Thus, you aren't protesting the government."
Three months ago, Lougher made a YouTubevideoin which he proclaimed, "I know you're illiterate! This is the greatest protest for exposure into a wrongful act. The school is breaking the Constitution. If youwatch the videothen you'll understand. The teachers are taking advantage of you in the First and Fifth Amendment.The United States Constitution, which is the law, can be broken at this school." ...
Oh yeah, this guy was a right-winger all right.
NOT.
And Paul Krugman, whatever rock he's hiding under, presumably still has his job. And the Huffington Post is still running.
That's a tragedy.
The righty blogosphere is now writing about a now-deleted post at Daily Kos writer "BoyBlue" whose title read "My CongressWOMAN Voted Against Nancy Pelosi. And is now DEAD to me!"
The date of this scrubbed post? January 6, 2011. (That's two days ago, for those of you in Rio Linda.) Yet leftyville from Keith Olbermann to Paul Krugman to the Huffington-Puffington Post is still pinning the blame on an obscure U.S. election map of Sarah Palin's dating back to March, 2010!
Curiouser and curiouser ...
(And why was WOMAN in all caps? Oh, I get it. All women have to think, act, believe, vote, and abort fetuses exactly like every other woman. Otherwise they're not real women. (Just ask Sarah "she's not a real woman" Palin.)
But here's something the Daily Kos forgot to scrub. Hillbuzz contributor "kevindujan01" reports that in June 2008, Giffords was among a list of politicians given a "bulls-eye":
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