Posts Tagged ‘shooting in tuson’

Sad to say they sound alike

Posted: January 10, 2011 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I took an unexpectedly long nap and ended up awake at midnight, looking around the net I saw this via Lisa Graas:

Is it just me, or is there an incredible lack of reason on the Left?

Incidentally, the way I found out about the shooting was through an avalanche of tweets calling Sarah Palin a ‘murderer’. I was even called a murderer for asking people not to point fingers of blame. There is certainly ‘vitriol’…..but it’s not coming from the direction the Left claims.

For two days I’ve been seeing people hurling the vilest accusations at the Tea party in general and Sarah Palin in particular without any factual basis. And if that isn’t enough everyone’s favorite Democratic Pastor Fred Phelps plans on jumping into the fray..

Phelps praises Loughner’s violent acts in this video, where he announces he will be taking his sick protest to the funerals of the victims of the Arizona shooting spree. He also refers to Loughner as an Afghanistan war veteran, even though initial reports of Loughner being a veteran turned out to be false.

It’s pretty bad, almost as bad as this reaction to the murder of another poll half a world away:

Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in Pakistan’s largest city on Sunday to oppose any change to national blasphemy laws and to praise a man charged with murdering a provincial governor who had campaigned against the divisive legislation.

The rally of up to 50,000 people in downtown Karachi was one of the largest demonstrations of support for the laws, which make insulting Islam a capital offense. It was organized before the governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was shot dead on Tuesday in Islamabad by a bodyguard who told a court he considered Taseer a blasphemer.

Muslim groups have praised the bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, and have used Taseer’s death to warn others not to speak out against the much-derided laws.

Now what does a group of religions fanatics Pious Muslims marching have to do with the left?

Simply this. The Governor of Punjab by challenging his fellow Muslim’s belief was a threat to their mind-set. It’s much easier to eliminate people who challenge your religious beliefs than to defend those beliefs, much less thinking involved.

When I look at the left willing to blame Sarah Palin, Andrew Breitbart, the Tea Party and even Lisa Graas for inciting violence while both using violent rhetoric and ignoring their own violent rhetoric in the past the pieces fit together.

The left secular political beliefs have essentially morphed into a religion. The right feelings and opinions are the sacraments (much easier than having to follow actual commandments like traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs) if you have them you are considered righteous.

Conversely if you don’t share those beliefs you are outside, you are the devil and evil, and since you are evil any level of vitriolic rhetoric or action is permissible. Rather than praying for your enemies as Christianity commands one can hate them openly and feel good about it.

This is why above all Sarah Palin is their Anti-Christ. She symbolizes all that they hate, she is a person of action who lives her beliefs and does so publicly and unabashedly. She is a reminder of a reality that their religion needs to suppress. Screwtape 13 had it pegged:

The characteristic of Pains and Pleasures is that they are unmistakably real, and therefore, as far as they go, give the man who feels them a touchstone of reality. Thus if you had been trying to damn your man by the Romantic method—by making him a kind of Childe Harold or Werther submerged in self-pity for imaginary distresses—you would try to protect him at all costs from any real pain; because, of course, five minutes’ genuine toothache would reveal the romantic sorrows for the nonsense they were and unmask your whole stratagem.
But you were trying to damn your patient by the World, that is by palming off vanity, bustle, irony, and expensive tedium as pleasures. How can you have
failed to see that a real pleasure was the last thing you ought to have let him meet? Didn’t you foresee that it would just kill by contrast all the trumpery which you have been so laboriously teaching him to value?

This is why the right in general and Sarah Palin in particular must be attacked here. Every moment that she is not brings the possibility that realization might strike, that the superficial might be replaced by a foundation in reality and that reality is anathema to all that has come before.

Today Elizabeth Scalia asks the question what is wrong with the world. Chesterton’s spectacular Catholic Answer was “I am” and thus stove to change and improve himself. A great example to all Christians in general and Catholics in particular but self-realization is a tough and painful process and many don’t want to face it. Much easier to carry on confident in one perfection.

Until those on the left can come to Chesterton’s answer and work to correct it we will see more of the same. Remember screwtapes final warning:

The great thing is to prevent his doing anything. As long as he does not convert it into action, it does not matter how much he thinks about this new repentance. Let the little brute wallow in it. Let him, if he has any bent that way, write a book about it; that is often an excellent way of sterilizing the seeds which the Enemy plants in a human soul. Let him do anything but act. No amount of piety in his imagination and affections will harm us if we can keep it out of his will. As one of the humans has said, active habits are strengthened by repetition but passive ones are weakened. The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel,

Morning Joe and the ricochet theory

Posted: January 10, 2011 by datechguy in media, opinion/news, politics
Tags: , , , , , , ,

I didn’t hit the sack till 3 so I missed most of the first hour and a half of Morning Joe but the line I heard was similar to a couple of liberal hosts I heard on the radio this morning.

The gist was: We aren’t saying Sarah Palin is responsible but look at this cross hairs and the rhetoric being used. Politico was particularly not covering itself with glory and Mika seemed to egg on Tom Brokaw in the imagery business.

If Byron York was watching doubtless he would be feeling nostalgic because today he notes what Bill Clinton did to turn the attack in Oklahoma City to his political advantage:

Later, under the heading “How to use extremism as issue against Republicans,” Morris told Clinton that “direct accusations” of extremism wouldn’t work because the Republicans were not, in fact, extremists. Rather, Morris recommended what he called the “ricochet theory.” Clinton would “stimulate national concern over extremism and terror,” and then, “when issue is at top of national agenda, suspicion naturally gravitates to Republicans.”

As York notes this morning this is exactly the line Democrats in a political hole right now are trying to play.

One veteran Democratic operative, who blames overheated rhetoric for the shooting, said President Barack Obama should carefully but forcefully do what his predecessor did.

“They need to deftly pin this on the tea partiers,” said the Democrat. “Just like the Clinton White House deftly pinned the Oklahoma City bombing on the militia and anti-government people.”

Another Democratic strategist said the similarity is that Tucson and Oklahoma City both “take place in a climate of bitter and virulent rhetoric against the government and Democrats.”

Lets cut to the chase, tough talk has been the political rule in the US since 1789 and before. Nuts are going to be nuts no matter what. The idea of watching out for “inflammatory” rhetoric is yet another attempt to suppress speech. No amount of speech restriction is going to make a dangerous nut any less dangerous.

Who decides what rhetoric is “inflammatory”? The eastern elites? The same media that had nothing to say about the nasty Anti-Bush stuff until he was out of office? The same media who didn’t say boo when we see signs in marches that say. “Behead those who oppose Islam” or “We support our troops when they shoot their officers?“. For some reason until the Bush years were over this was not a topic the media (other than fox) choose to bring up.

Look for the passive aggressive business for a while. It’s the left and the media best chance to put conservatives on the defensive without actually doing anything to actually earn support by positive action. Watch for it also be used to attempt to restrict 1st and 2nd amendment rights.

Football, Elections and narratives

Posted: January 10, 2011 by datechguy in media, opinion/news, politics, Sports
Tags: , , , , , , ,

This weekends NFL games are an excellent metaphor on the more tragic events of this past weekend.


Looking at the Wild card games 3 times out of 4 the home team (the actual division winner) lost. The one exception was when the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks, after a week of breast beating concerning their presence in the postseason , defeated the defending Superbowl champion New Orleans Saints.

All of the predictions and punditry meant nothing, when the actual game was played the only things relevant were the facts on the ground. (Fans of teams like New England should take this to heart)

Likewise in the last election cycle. People claimed that opposition to the health care plan would not work, that opposing a president who was wildly popular would hurt Republicans. That conservatives needed to compromise. As the polls failed to back up those views pundits instead talked about how the John Stewart Rally, the Coffee Party and the idea that the president’s healthcare plan were not as unpopular as people claimed yet when the dust had settled a net gain of 63 seats in the house was the result.

One again prognostications were useless when compared to the actual facts on the ground.

Now we see the violence in Arizona and once again we see an incredible array of pundits making statements concerning the motivations of the shooter. It’s Palin’s fault because of a map icon, it’s the tea party’s fault because of their support of the 2nd amendment, On twitter this morning (1 a.m EST) an incredible array of people are trying to blame Andrew Breitbart.

All of these have in common a complete lack of evidence or objective facts to support their claims, in fact as time progresses the facts tend to show exactly the opposite.

As Glenn Reynolds has pointed out the narrative has been written long before this event and no quantity of facts on the ground is going to change it.

For example an Arizona state senator when faced with the anger and objections of supporters of the US Military after falsely stating the shooter was an Afghan vet (when in fact the Army rejected him) rather than retracting and apologizing (an easy thing, it was early and all the facts weren’t in) instead removed her contact information from her site.

This morning I suspect we will see the usual suspects continue this narrative, unfortunately unlike a football game or an election this isn’t a question of an actual result that is scored. This is all about massaging the ground for political gain. The goal is to influence those who normally don’t pay attention in the hopes that they will dismiss any arguments to the contrary.

With the race card gone the way of the dodo the violent tea party card is about to be played, facts be damned.

It will be up to the American people to decide if this rhetoric will be rewarded or not.

Speculation and wisdom: an Gabrielle Giffords roundup

Posted: January 9, 2011 by datechguy in internet/free speech, media, opinion/news
Tags: , , , , ,

The single most significant bit of news today on the Giffords situation is this tweet by Melissa Clouthier:

the one thing you need to know of the case as of today

Now le’ts see what people are saying. I suspect is doesn’t match that news.

The Daley Gator is not shocked:

The Left, however, once more have displayed their complete lack of character, moral fortitude, and common decency by seeking to blame anyone and everyone on the right for this heinous act. Here is a roundup of the despicable behavior of the usual suspects.

His round-up is pretty strong but lets continue on.

Barnaby Lane plays the passive aggressive “Yes But”

To assign specific cause to Palin is, I think, a mistake, but there can be no doubt that the culture of inflammatory language used by the far right in America acts as a catalyst for unbalanced and dangerous individuals to act in ways detrimental to the very foundations of the democracy they claim to fight for.

Barnaby is going for the passive aggressive plan to give himself plausible deniability, rather pathetic.

Obi’s sister wants to pray but comments on the nonsense:

Right on cue, the left starts shouting incoherently, looking for an angle to smear their enemies. Get over yourselves. What is needed now is cooler heads, not partisan sniping. These are real people, and real families whose lives have been changed forever. They deserve our compassion, respect and most of all, our prayers.

Hey what are the lives of a few innocents when there are political points to be made?

But it’s not as bad as it could be, at least people aren’t fundraising over this: Oh wait:

We also know that Sarah Palin and Rep. Giffords’ opponent used violent imagery last year urging her opponents to “target” her. Last spring, after she voted to expand health insurance coverage to working families and cut drug costs for senior citizens her office was violently attacked.

Members of 21st Century Democrats helped elect Rep. Giffords in 2006 and re-elect her 2010 because she wasn’t afraid to fight for working people — or listen to them at the neighborhood supermarket. She voted for health care; Wall Street reform, job creation, and much more.

As Josh Tervino has the screen cap building a mailing list off Giffords blood. I wish I was amazed. Classic fedora wearer Walter Todd Huston notes that this group, whose actions he calls “a crime against decency” isn’t exactly a fringe group of the left:

21st Century Democrats is no unheard of fringe group, either. Styling itself as one that is “building a progressive majority from the grassroots up,” it is interesting to note that some major top-down players in the Democrat Party founded the group. The group was created in 1986 by Senator Tom Harkin, a powerful Democrat from Iowa, and was co-founded by left-wing pundit Jim Hightower and former Illinois Congressman Lane Evans. These folks are hardly “grassroots” sort of folks.

Worse, even as this email blast accuses Sarah Palin and former candidate Jesse Kelly for using “violent imagery” and for “targeting” Giffords, this group is associated directly with The Daily Kos run by Markos Moulitsas who used precisely that same sort of “targeting” rhetoric last year during the campaign for the midterm elections.

In 2009 21st Century Democrats joined the Service Employees International Union, The Daily Kos and others in a new political action committee (PAC) called Accountability Now PAC.

I’m sure we’ll hear Harkin denounce this group sometime after US astronauts land on Mars

And Gateway Pundit, who has been more demonstrative that I would be points out this is part of the plan:

A democratic operative admitted this to The Politico. Of course, Politico buried it in their story.

One veteran Democratic operative, who blames overheated rhetoric for the shooting, said President Barack Obama should carefully but forcefully do what his predecessor did.

“They need to deftly pin this on the tea partiers,” said the Democrat. “Just like the Clinton White House deftly pinned the Oklahoma City bombing on the militia and anti-government people.”

Considering how many times we have seen it I’m a little shocked at the level of outrage. Then again maybe he didn’t expect it admitted openly.

Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post gives credit where it is due:

To his credit, Howard Kurtz blasted the blame game. He wrote, “This isn’t about a nearly year-old Sarah Palin map [targeting Giffords’s seat]; it’s about a lone nutjob who doesn’t value human life. It would be nice if we briefly put aside partisan differences and came together with sympathy and support for Gabby Giffords and the other victims, rather than opening rhetorical fire ourselves.”

And like Kurtz the left is going after her in comments as if she was responsible.

Hillbuzz has incredible coverage (keep clicking) but also says something that really speaks well of him:

Please find it in your hearts to pray for Amy Joanne Loughner and Randy L. Loughner, the parents of mass murderer Jared Lee Loughner.

These two people raised a troubled, mentally unstable son who committed a horrific act today…but I don’t see any evidence these two are bad people who had any knowledge of what their son was planning. There is no way they could have known what he intended to do and I doubt there is anything they could have done to stop him.

But, think about this: the two of them will live in horror the rest of their natural lives knowing what their child did.

They will be haunted by this. They will become pariahs in their community. They will have to endure the anguish of their son’s multiple murder trials and the agony of watching their son face the death penalty, of which he will surely be convicted. They will have to witness his execution.

Amy Joanne Loughner and Randy L. Loughner are two more of their son’s victims today — and I bet they will not get any sympathy or charity from the world.

Please, include them in your prayers.

I would include the shooter too. One must pray for enemies and those who persecute you.

At Big Journalism Dana Louch reminds Arizona rep Grijalva and Mother Jones of some other rethoric that apparently isn’t considered inflammatory:

Enemies?

If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We’re going to punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,’ if they don’t see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it’s going to be harder and that’s why I think it’s so important that people focus on voting on November 2. [my emphasis]

Guns and knives?

Mobster wisdom tells us never to bring a knife to a gun fight. But what does political wisdom say about bringing a gun to a knife fight?

That’s exactly what Barack Obama said he would do to counter Republican attacks “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”

When one is angry one should take a deep breath before speaking, granted a friend of his was just shot so he might be talking without thinking but in such a case Mother Jones should know better.

At PJMedia Rand Simberg after noting the agenda driven reporting does the math:

But suppose that, instead of being hit by a bullet, Representative Giffords had been struck by a rock falling from space. It does happen occasionally, after all. And you know what? It happens about as often as an American politician is shot by a crazy person.

But that wouldn’t be anywhere near as interesting, because anyone who proposed that politicians never again have public meetings outdoors, or that a crash project be undertaken to sweep the sky clean of meteoroids to make sure that one was never again hit by one, wouldn’t be taken seriously, or have op-eds published, or bills introduced to implement their ideas. They would instead be treated as the lunatics they would be. People with any sense would understand that life carries risk and uncertainties, and that we have to accept them, and get on with it in the face of them.

Under the logic of those wanting rules we would outlaw driving due to the annual casualties.

Pejman Yousefzadeh has a long memory:

Who are these people to be lecturing the rest of us about political civility?

And he produces the quotes to back the question up.

Founding Bloggers notices an interesting dichotomy:

Yes, that’s right. The very same people who cannot figure out what animated Major Hasan al Jihad, have swiftly concluded that the lunatic who murdered 6 people today was motivated by the Tea Party.

Funny how that works. Once again, the Tea Party is afforded less benefit of the doubt than radical Islam!

And Byron York goes into detail and asks?

And it wasn’t just CNN. Other media outlets were also filled with speculation about the attack and pronouncements on the state of American political rhetoric. What a markedly different situation from 15 months earlier when, in the face of actual evidence that Maj. Hasan was inspired by Islamist convictions, many media commentators sought to be voices of caution. Where was that caution after the shootings in Arizona?

I actually think it is because they actually know there is much less danger in attacking tea party members than radical members of a certain religion of peace.

Ann Althouse thinks we should ignore the lefts attempt to distract the public:

Liberals have an interest in creating a big distraction that might undercut the prevailing conservative momentum. To conservatives, I would say: Don’t help them.

I’m not so sure, If their narrative isn’t challenged it will become the narrative.

Now what do we actually know? Gretta has a DHS memo while Conservatives for Palin weighs in:

The sad thing is that the person who knew the shooter initially blamed on Palin if you look at her twitter feed. It was only when the shooter was identified that she disclosed that he was a far-left liberal.

Among this scumbag’s favorite books are the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf.

All the available evidence we have of the shooter suggests that he was a political opponent of Governor Palin and the Tea Party.

Yeah but that’s a Palin site, let’s ask a supporter of Herman Cain who is an actual reporter:

In his recent online activity — including a series of YouTube video texts transcribed by conservative blogger Warner Todd Huston — Loughner unloaded paranoid gibberish about brainwashing and “mind control.” Loughner listed Mein Kampf and the Communist Manifesto among his favorite books. At one point in his ravings, apparently in reference to the “In God We Trust” motto on U.S. currency, he exclaimed: “No! I won’t trust in God!”

None of this lines up with the early reporting on the Tucson shooting which heavily implied that Gabrielle Giffords and 17 others were shot because of political activity of Palin and the Tea Party. And yet none of the news organizations that fed that frenzy of speculation has apologized for their irresponsible reporting.

Anyone who know Robert Stacy would be shocked to see him as the voice of reason but when it comes to reporting he is certainly the voice of wisdom:

…after 25 years in the news business, I’m content to wait for the police to do their work before I write anything that might encourage baseless speculation. The reason I’m explaining this to you is because so many other people have demonstrated a willingness to engage in speculative reporting without waiting for the facts to be established.

It’s good advice if you are looking for facts, not so much if you want to push an agenda.

Older Entries
Newer Entries