I set the record straight for my post - period. It was accurate. I do not defend or endorse the Tea Party.Quote:
Originally Posted by Havakasha
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I set the record straight for my post - period. It was accurate. I do not defend or endorse the Tea Party.Quote:
Originally Posted by Havakasha
Joe Wilson 'You Lie' Slogan Etched Onto Line Of Assault Rifle Components
First Posted: 01/11/11 05:52 PM Updated: 01/12/11 10:41 AM
Rep. Joe Wilson's (R-S.C.) health care-era "you lie" interruption of President Obama is now reportedly being commemorated with a place on a new, limited edition line of assault rifle components.
The Columbia Free Times reports that the words are being engraved on a series of lower receivers manufactured for popular AR-15 assault rifles. Lower receivers are one of the primary pieces of the firearms.
"Palmetto State Armory would like to honor our esteemed congressman Joe Wilson with the release of our new 'You Lie' AR-15 lower receiver," the weapon manufacturer's site writes in the product description. "Only 999 of these will be produced, get yours before they are gone!"
Wilson caused a commotion in September of 2009 when he disrupted a key health care speech by Obama in which the president claimed that the impending health care reform legislation wouldn't provide coverage for undocumented immigrants.
The South Carolina Republican later apologized.
Also check out South Carolina blog Fits News for more on the commemorative gun units, as well as how they could play into Obama's planned visit to the Palmetto State later this year.
WATCH Joe Wilson's "You Lie":
Quote:
Originally Posted by SiriuslyLong
I never said anything about the tea party. The right wing claimed a "bullseye
ON congresswoman Giffords" on daily kos. That implies to me it was the same
as Sarah Paliin's. I believe that is false. Words matter.
Analysis: Sarah Palin's use of 'blood libel' sparks new controversy
By Karen Tumulty
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 12, 2011; 11:23 AM
Sarah Palin's Facebook page essay and video in response to the Tucson shootings - a tragedy in which she found herself the centerpiece of a debate over civility in political discourse - was crafted as both a defense of her own actions as part of the grand tradition of "our exceptional nation," and a strike against her critics.
That she waited four days and then issued such a delicately calibrated and polished statement also displayed a trait not normally associated with the former Alaska governor: discipline.
In Palin's version of events, her controversial actions represented common cause with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who a few days before being critically wounded in the mass shooting had read the First Amendment on the House floor.
"Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own," Palin said in the statement. "They begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state, not with those who listen to talk radio, not with maps of swing districts used by both sides of the aisle, not with law-abiding citizens who respectfully exercise their First Amendment rights at campaign rallies, not with those who proudly voted in the last election."
Palin's statement contained an instance of provocative religious imagery that might be missed by more secular voters who read her statement, but which likely will be recognized by the religious conservatives who constitute such an important part of her following.
"Within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn," she wrote. "That is reprehensible."
"Blood libel" is a phrase that refers to a centuries-old anti-Semitic slander - the false charge that Jews use the blood of Christian children for rituals - that has been used as an excuse for persecution. The phrase was first used in connection with response to the Arizona shootings in an opinion piece in Monday's Wall Street Journal and has been picked up by others on the right.
Palin's defensiveness was apparent in the indirect reference to criticism of a map on Palin's Web site during the midterm elections that showed districts of congressional Democrats she had targeted for defeat marked with crosshairs.
Giffords, whose district was one of those 20, had publicly complained that this was an invitation to violence.
"She's her own best spokesperson and she wanted to talk about this," said Tim Crawford, the treasurer for Palin's political action committee. "The reason we did the video was we wanted the statement in total out there. We wanted the video to be seen in its entirety."
Palin's statement comes as President Obama is headed to Tucson to speak at a service for the victims, and guarantees that her perspective will be part of the storyline of the day.
In its careful timing and deliberate language, it also represents a departure from her previous attention-getting Facebook posts and tweets, many of which were reflexive spasms to even small criticisms.
On Thanksgiving, for instance, as most of the nation was still sleepily digesting turkey dinners, she issued an angry blast at Obama and the media, recalling a gaffe the president made during the 2008 campaign. It was an apparent reaction to the fact that she herself had been ridiculed for a slip of the tongue in which she referred to North Korea as South Korea.
"The one-word slip occurred yesterday during one of my seven back-to-back interviews wherein I was privileged to speak to the American public about the important, world-changing issues before us," Palin wrote. "If the media had bothered to actually listen to all of my remarks on Glenn Beck's radio show, they would have noticed that I refer to South Korea as our ally throughout, that I corrected myself seconds after my slip-of-the-tongue, and that I made it abundantly clear that pressure should be put on China to restrict energy exports to the North Korean regime."
Those kinds of outbursts could be fatal in a presidential campaign, and stand as a stark contrast to the statement that Palin released Wednesday.
The new level of political professionalism to her approach - if that indeed is what this represents - also might not be merely a coincidence in its timing.
Republican operatives report that Palin has been calling around in recent weeks to seek advice not only on whether but how she should run for president in 2012. This statement might suggest she is not only seeking that counsel, but taking it as well.
01/12/11 11:04
the more we learn about the young man accused of this horrific tragedy, the more we can temper our judgment; however, for me, the larger question for our country which includes the state of arizona, is what did we think when we first heard about this tragedy?
for many of us who have had to endure the last two years of mostly right-wing/tea party/gop rhetoric calling this president and democrats who supported him, along with fox news pundits, limbaugh, palin, bachmann and others with their gun-filled, hatred and violent imagery, it was not a hard leap to think that which we have feared had come true.
as we have all unfortunately become all to aware the last years since 2001, terrorism works by instilling fear. fear to speak out, fear of one's own personal safety, fear of one's government. from in-your-face confrontation at town hall meetings, to phone threats and objects thrown through legislator's offices; acts of terrorism have been about instilling fear here in our country. vote for this or that, and we will "target" you, if we do not get our way we will take up "second amendment remedies," be "armed and dangerous" if this bill passes.
so we come full circle to this sad tragedy where a beautiful, innocent, young child, along with a federal court judge, a republican grandmother, a pastor saving the life of is wife, a congressional aide,and other innocent citizens who loved their country enough to come talk with their democratically and constitutionally elected representative were killed.
so again, perhaps it is more important to ask ourselves, what did we think when we first heard about this tragedy that says more about our country today.
The Daily Kos article from June 2008 is posted above. Whatever words are there, are there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Havakasha
After Giffords Shooting, Several AZ Republicans Resign Amid Fears of Tea Party Violence
What the Arizona Republic calls a "nasty little battle" has broken out among Republican members of Arizona's Legislative District 20 in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. Several Republicans have resigned, citing fears that local Tea Party supporters will harm them or their families for not being conservative enough.
Now-former Chairman Anthony Miller was among those to resign. A former campaign worker for Sen. John McCain, Miller sent an email to state Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen just hours after Saturday's shooting, saying, "Today my wife of 20 yrs ask (sic) me do I think that my PCs (Precinct Committee members) will shoot at our home? So with this being said I am stepping down from LD20GOP Chairman...I will make a full statement on Monday."
Miller said he faced "constant verbal attacks" from the Tea Party after being elected to his second term last month. Many of those attacks centered around Miller's involvement with McCain's bid last year against Tea Party darling J.D. Hayworth.
The first and only African-American to hold the party's precinct chairmanship, Miller said he has been called "McCain's boy," and during the campaign saw a critic form his hand in the shape of a gun and point it at him.
"I wasn't going to resign but decided to quit after what happened Saturday," Miller said. "I love the Republican Party but I don't want to take a bullet for anyone."
After Miller's announcement, three other District 20 Republicans quit: newly-elected secretary Sophia Johnson, first vice chairman Roger Dickinson and former district spokesman Jeff Kolb, who said in an email, "This singular focus on 'getting' Anthony [Miller] was one of the main reasons I chose to resign."
By Lauren Kelley | Sourced from AlterNet
Posted at January 12, 2011, 9:26 am
From Kos of Daily Kos.
Last October, Glenn Beck was musing on his radio show about the prospect of the government seizing his children if he didn't give them flu vaccines. "You want to take my kids because of that?" he said. "Meet Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson."
Last April, Erick Erickson, the managing editor of the right-wing RedState blog and a CNN commentator, was questioning the legality of the Census Bureau's American Community Survey on a radio show. "We have become, or are becoming, enslaved by the government. . . . I dare 'em to try to come to throw me in jail. I dare 'em to. [I'll] pull out my wife's shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door."
Do right-wing talk show commentators incite violence against the government? Feel free to draw your own conclusions - but to dwell on the rise of violent rhetoric on the right is to miss an even bigger, though connected, problem. Let's focus, rather, on the first part of Beck's and Erickson's observations: The government wants to take away Glenn Beck's (and by extension, your) kids. The government wants to take a census and will throw Erick Erickson (and by extension, you) in jail if he, and you, don't comply.
Can we see the hands of all the kids taken from their parents because they didn't get flu shots? How about all those people rotting in jail because they didn't cooperate in compiling the census?
The primary problem with the political discourse of the right in today's America isn't that it incites violence per se. It's that it implants and reinforces paranoid fears about the government and conservatism's domestic adversaries.
The Fox News culture permits on-air personalities to fantasize about assassination and other forms of violence against deemed enemies.
� Note: This is a re-post of a November 10, 2010 piece from Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) which is particularly relevant to the conversation about the shooting spree in Arizona on Saturday.
Bill O'Reilly's "joke" in November about decapitating Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank was only the latest example of a demented Fox News culture that permits on-air personalities to fantasize about assassination and other forms of violence against those deemed enemies of the station, its personalities or their worldview.
During the cable channel's 2008 election coverage, in what she later called an attempt at humor, Fox News contributor Liz Trotta linked Osama bin Laden to Barack Obama as people who both should be assassinated:
And now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama, uh Obama. Well, both, if we could.
A week before Trotta's "joke," Republican primary candidate Mike Huckabee was apologizing for his own Obama assassination quip. Addressing a gathering of the National Rifle Association, Huckabee joked that a loud thud heard backstage during his address was Barack Obama diving to the floor to avoid gun shots. Months later, Huckabee was given his own Fox News show.
With its biggest new star, Glenn Beck, Fox News hired a host well-known for on-air death fantasies--for instance, chattering about killing filmmaker Michael Moore with his bare hands and hoping out loud that Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D.-Ohio) would burn to death. In a Fox News skit in September 2009, Beck portrayed himself poisoning Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
It's a culture that apparently filters down to Fox News viewers and supporters. Over the years Fox Nation, the Fox News "owned and operated" fan website, has regularly featured comments expressing the desire to see Barack Obama's assassinated.
News Hounds (11/8/10) published a collection of such quotes, some of which can still be read at on the Fox site. Fox Nation purports to be self-policing, to depend on readers to report inappropriate and irresponsible remarks for removal. Apparently presidential assassination fantasies fall short of Fox Nation's standards for inappropriate or irresponsible commentary.
Recent examples of these assassination fantasies on Fox Nation include comments calling for President Obama to "get what Kennedy got," for the CIA to "take this pres down" and a warning to the president that the Koran "ain't thick enough to stop a .308 round."
There is some evidence that Fox's murder fantasy culture has already helped to spark violent action. Reporting for Media Matters, journalist John Hamilton tells the story of Byron Williams, a Beck devotee who engaged in a shootout that injured two California Highway Patrol officers in July. After his apprehension, Williams told police he'd intended to travel Oakland California to kill people at the offices of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU.
In a jailhouse interview in which he described the right-wing media sources that informed his views, Williams returned again and again to Glenn Beck:
I would have never started watching Fox News if it wasn't for the fact that Beck was on there. And it was the things that he did, it was the things he exposed that blew my mind.
Among the things Beck did, according to Hamilton, was attack the Tides Foundation in 29 separate Fox News shows in the 18 months leading up to Williams' foiled mission to Oakland.
Moreover, as the ADL reports, Pittsburgh's Richard Poplawski was so inspired by Beck's anti-government conspiracy theories, he reposted to a neo-Nazi website tape of Beck suggesting the government was building concentration camps for dissidents--before he was arrested after a shootout with police that left three officers dead.
If this all wasn't so deadly serious it would be seriously funny, because O'Reilly has spent years accusing liberal and progressive websites of fomenting hate speech. O'Reilly's crusade largely targets the comment and open forum sections of such websites, highlighting comments that generally pale in comparison to those broadcast on Fox and posted on Fox Nation. To add to the irony, when O'Reilly is called out for failing to make distinctions between the editorial content and comment sections of these websites, he argues that the groups are responsible for everything on their websites:
Open forum is bull.... You can regulate what’s on your website.
When it comes to hypocrisy and Fox News, you really can't make this stuff up.
The hostility behind O'Reilly's creepy Milbank beheading joke was on display when the host appeared to make a veiled threat toward Milbank's boss in an appearance on another Fox show. Apparently angered that Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt permitted Milbank to publish columns critical of Fox News, O'Reilly had Fox host Megyn Kelly put a picture of Hiatt up on the screen, and told her audience:
This is the editor, Milbank's editor, Fred Hiatt. And Fred won't do anything about Milbank lying in his column. I just want everybody in America to know what the Washington Post has come to. All right, you can take Fred's picture off. Fred, have a nice weekend, buddy.
(Later in the same appearance, O'Reilly suggested that the host join him in physically assaulting Milbank: "I think you and I should go and beat him up.")
O'Reilly's veiled threat toward Hiatt recalls one made in a recent interview with an Australian paper by Fox boss Rupert Murdoch (Australian Financial Review, 11/5/10):
People love Fox News.... We said to the cable operators when we put the price up, we said, do you want a monument to yourself.... Cancel us, you might get your house burnt down.
Perhaps the fish does rot from the head.
ABC News' Ashleigh Banfield filed a fascinating report on the Arizona Shooting Tragedy today, but it was unfortunately missed by many in NYC because of snow coverage. And its a shame, because the brief interview with alleged assailant's former "best friend" Zach Osler reveals some insight into the troubled mind of Jared Loughner. "He did not watch TV, he disliked the news" Osler averred, shortly after becoming quite emotional when faced with the unsettling mug shot of his former friend.
Osler continued, "he didn't listen to political radio, he didn't take sides, he wasn't on the left, he wasn't on the right." Instead, Banfield reports that Osler pointed to a web-based documentary called Zeitgeist, that focused on currency based economics that "poured gasoline on his fire" as Banfield reports. "The Zeitgeist documentary had a profound impact on Jared Loughner's mindset" Osler claimed.
Does anyone know anything about the "Zeitgeist" documentary and currency economics?
This is the movie that Jared Loughner was supposedly watching that his friend believes helped send him into a tailspin.
I'm currently watching the Zeitgeist movie now on Youtube. My initial reaction is that it mixes all sorts of conspiracy theories and actual facts with religion thrown in the mix to make it more interesting.
I've watched a similar documentary call "The Money Masters" which traces the history of currency as we know it now, and how finance and the economy are solely in the hands of only a few people in the world.
The few are: the Rothschilds, certain Jewish businessmen, The Federal Reserve, Swiss bankers, and a "shadow government".
Imagine my surprise when they claimed that the US Federal Reserve was NOT a government institution, but a private endeavor: however they control the economy!
Scary!
Posts: 1544
Anyone? You mean, me, you and the other guy (that's an assumption).Quote:
Originally Posted by Havakasha
Well, here's the condensed version. That's all the time Zeitgiest is going to get from me. I'd think you'd agree?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitgeist:_The_Movie
The movie appears to be ~ 2 hours.
I'm telling you that you'd like The Barbarians of Wealth. I think it's very similar to the movie you cite.Quote:
Originally Posted by Havakasha
This is from a Zeitgeist site.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man – John Perkins
Illuminati Banksters Implementing State of Permanent Siege!
Financial Dictatorship of the Federal Reserve and Treasury
Geithner’s ‘Dirty Little Secret’: The Entire Global Financial System is at Risk
Banksters Rule America !
Collapse of America to Lead to New World Order?
UN & IMF Back Agenda For Global Financial Dictatorship
A World Currency Moves Closer After Geithner’s Slip
Ron Paul – I See No Purpose for the Federal Reserve!
Banksters Rule America !
The Federal Reserve: Secretive And Incompetent Organization ! The Creature From Jekyll Island.
History of Money & Fractional Reserve Banking System
How International Bankers Gained Control of America!
Federal Reserve is a Private Company.
Ron Paul – Federal Reserve is the Culprit!
Havakasha, your evaluation looks accurate including the religious reference.
The usual libertarian/conservative baloney. His friend's comments were not really accurate.
Shock alert - I happen to agree with some of the subjects re corporate power and its connections with the Wall Street bunch.
Does that make me a 'follower'?
Thanks Atypical for the Zeitgeist information.
Here is another article on the right wing and violent imagery.
John Dingell Runs Through Litany Of Violent Rhetoric On House Floor (VIDEO)
Brian Beutler | January 12, 2011, 4:37PM
Members of Congress have, by and large, stayed out of the partisan fray over violent rhetoric in the wake of the Arizona shooting spree. But there have been some exceptions. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) took the opportunity to muse that the government may be withholding information about the crime because Jared Loughner is a flag-hating Marxist liberal who might embarrass President Obama.
Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), by contrast, ran through a litany of now-infamous statements by high-profile politicians, leaving blank the names of people and issues under threat.
"Let me read some statements that I have seen to be pretty awful," he said on Wednesday.
Here they are in order:
Quoting Sharron Angle: "People are looking towards the second amendment remedies and saying my goodness, what can we do to turn our country around."
Angle again: "The first thing we need to do is take out blank." The exact quote: "The first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out."
Quoting Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN): "I want people in blank armed and dangerous on this issue [of the energy tax] because we need to fight back."
Quoting Glenn Beck: "I want to kill blank with a shovel." The exact quote: "I want to kill Charlie Rangel with a shovel."
Beck again: "Every night I get down on my knees and pray blank will burst into flames." The exact quote: "Every night I get down on my knees and pray Dennis Kucinich will burst into flames."
Quoting Texas GOP candidate Stephen Broden: ''Our nation was founded on violence. I don't think that we should ever remove anything from the table as it relates to our liberties and our freedoms.' ' The exact quote: ''Our nation was founded on violence. The option is on the table. I don't think that we should ever remove anything from the table as it relates to our liberties and our freedoms.' '
Quoting Sarah Palin: "Don't retreat, reload."
Quoting would-be Alan West chief of staff Joyce Kaufman: "If ballots don't work, bullets will."
Is it as anti-semitic as the Zeitgeist?Quote:
Originally Posted by SiriuslyLong
That's ignorant, But TYPICAL (lol).Quote:
Originally Posted by Havakasha
From what I've read so far, it is railing on the concentration of wealth and banks (i.e. Rothchilds, Morgan, Aldrich, Warburg.....)
What is really interesting is that the book cites that progressives absolutely challenged the concept of the federal reserve. They felt the concentration of power was problematic whereas the "conservative" (i.e rich bankers) pushed for it. It's interesting how little the discourse has moved after nearly 100 years.
I was referring to the comments above (the description from his friend) which seemed to indicate an attempt to place blame on "certain Jewish bankers".
I do worry about anti-semitism because it rears its ugly head especially when it comes to the subject of money and bankers.
Both sides are, in fact, not "just as bad," when it comes to institutionally sanctioned violent and eliminationist rhetoric.
An anonymous commenter at Daily Kos and the last Republican vice presidential nominee are not equivalent, no matter how many ridiculously irresponsible members of the media would have us believe otherwise.
There is, demonstrably, no leftist equivalent to Sarah Palin, former veep candidate and presumed future presidential candidate, who uses gun imagery (rifle sights) and language ("Don't Retreat, RELOAD") to exhort her followers to action.
There is no leftist equivalent to the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a group which was created from the mailing list of the old white supremacist White Citizens Councils and has been noted as becoming increasingly "radical and racist" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which classifies the CCC as a hate group-and is nonetheless considered an acceptable association by prominent members of the Republican Party, including a a former senator and the last Republican presidential nominee.
There is no leftist equivalent to Glenn Beck, host of a long-running nationally syndicated radio show, former host of a show on CNN and current host of a show on Fox, best-selling author, DC rally organizer, and longtime user of eliminationist rhetoric, including equating universal healthcare to rape, joking about victims of forest fires being America-hating liberals, comparing Al Gore to Hitler, condoning the murder of Michael Moore, accusing Holocaust survivor George Soros of being a Nazi collaborator, joking about poisoning Nancy Pelosi, equating immigration reform with burning US citizens alive, publicly endorsing violent revolution, and winkingly telling his viewers not to get violent, all of which amounts to a speck on the tip of a very big iceberg.
There is no leftist equivalent to Ann Coulter, best-selling author and syndicated columnist, who has been a panelist on Fox's Hannity 28 times and was on Hannity & Colmes an additional 18 times, who has been a guest multiple times on The O'Reilly Factor, Geraldo at Large, Larry King Live, Huckabee, Your World with Neil Cavuto, Hardball, and other cable news shows, has made appearances on The Tonight Show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Daily Show, and Real Time with Bill Maher, and has co-hosted The View, and has also said that a baseball bat is "the most effective way" to talk to liberals, as well as: "We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too." And: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building." And: "In [Clinton's] recurring nightmare of a presidency, we have a national debate about whether he 'did it,' even though all sentient people know he did. Otherwise there would be debates only about whether to impeach or assassinate."
There is no leftist equivalent to Bill O'Reilly, Fox News television show host, nationally syndicated radio show host, and best-selling author, who has appeared on The Tonight Show eleven times, The Late Show with David Letterman six times, The Daily Show six times, Live with Regis and Kelly five times, The View four times, Good Morning America three times, and Real Time with Bill Maher twice, among other national shows, and has lied about and stalked his critics, said that progressive bloggers should be dealt with "with a hand grenade," said Air America hosts were traitors and should be "put in chains," as well as: "And if Al Qaeda comes [to San Francisco] and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."
There is no leftist equivalent to Rush "I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus-living fossils-so we will never forget what these people stood for" Limbaugh, nationally syndicated radio show host and invitee to the Bush White House.
There is no leftist equivalent to Pat "Hitler's success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path" Buchanan, a regular MSNBC contributor and syndicated columnist.
There is no leftist equivalent to Michelle "In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror" Malkin, a regular Fox panelist, best-selling author, and prominent conservative blogger.
There is no leftist equivalent to Pat "The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians" Robertson, host of The 700 Club, who was a guest on Fox's Hannity & Colmes five times.
There is no leftist equivalent to Michael "Howard Dean should be arrested and hung for treason or put in a hole until the end of the Iraq war" Reagan, or Michael "Smallpox in a blanket, which the U.S. Army gave to the Cherokee Indians on their long march to the West, was nothing compared to what I'd like to see done to these people" Savage, both nationally syndicated radio show hosts.
There is no leftist equivalent to the Minutemen and other radical and eliminationist-spewing anti-immigration groups, some of whom have been subcontracted to work the border by the US government.
There is no leftist equivalent to radical and eliminationist-spewing anti-choice groups, who openly target doctors and call for their assassinations-and had a success just last year in the murder of Dr. George Tiller-and whose leaders get featured in whitewashing profiles in the Washington Post.
Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
This is not an argument there is no hatred, no inappropriate and even violent rhetoric, among US leftists. There is.
This is evidence that, although violent rhetoric exists among US leftists, it is not remotely on the same scale, and, more importantly, not an institutionally endorsed tactic, as it is among US rightwingers.
This is a fact. It is not debatable.
And there is observably precious little integrity among conservatives in addressing this fact, in the wake of the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
Palin takes the absolute cake for audaciously asserting that her rifle sight imagery was really "a surveyor's symbol," and not even having the decency to sheepishly acquiesce that, even if that were true (and not evident bullshit), it's understandable how a reasonable person could look at her "surveyor's symbol" alongside the word "target" and get the wrong, ahem, idea. No, it's all just a wall of total denial in the Palin camp, when she's not whining about being a victim herself of people who have the temerity to actually hold her accountable for her carelessly casual violent rhetoric. It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. And then it's deny and play the martyr.
But it's not like Palin's ideological allies are covering themselves in glory, either. There's no call for accountability, no call for reflection, not among conservatives. Just the usual game of deflection and projection, as they desperately try to find a way to make this liberals' fault.
Bill Kristol took to the airwaves this morning to call criticism of Palin "a disgrace" and accuse liberals of "McCarthyism." Commentators on Fox News, meanwhile, blame President Obama for not changing the tone in Washington, like he promised. Which would be hilarious, were that redirection of blame not a key part of conservatives' strategy to dodge responsibility for the eliminationist rhetoric that certainly contributed to the tragic events of this weekend.
When, a few months ago, there was a spate of widely-publicized suicides of bullied teens, we had, briefly, a national conversation about the dangers of bullying. But in the wake of an ideologically-motivated assassination attempt of a sitting member of Congress, we aren't having a national conversation about the dangers of violent rhetoric-because the conversation about bullying children was started by adults, and there are seemingly no responsible grown-ups to be found among conservatives anymore.
Faced with the overwhelming evidence of the violent rhetoric absolutely permeating the discourse emanating from their side of the aisle, conservatives adopt the approach of a petulant child-deny, obfuscate, and lash out defensively.
And engage in the most breathtaking disingenuous hypocrisy: Conservatives, who vociferously argue against the language and legislation of social justice, on the basis that it all "normalizes" marginalized people and their lives and cultures (it does!), are suddenly nothing but blinking, wide-eyed naïveté when it comes to their own violent rhetoric.
They have a great grasp of cultural anthropology when they want to complain about progressive ideas, inclusion, diversity, and equality. But when it comes to being accountable for their own ideas, their anthropological prowess magically disappears.
Only progressives "infect" the culture, but conservative hate speech exists in a void.
That's what we're meant to believe, anyway. But we know it is not true. This culture, this habit, of eliminationist rhetoric is not happening in a vacuum. It's happening in a culture of widely-available guns (thanks to conservative policies), of underfunded and unavailable medical care, especially mental health care (thanks to conservative policies), of a widespread belief that government is the enemy of the people (thanks to conservative rhetoric), and of millions of increasingly desperate people (thanks to an economy totally ****ed by conservative governance).
The shooting in Tucson was not an anomaly. It was an inevitability.
And as long as we continue to play this foolish game of "both sides are just as bad," and rely on trusty old ablism to dismiss Jared Lee Loughner as a crackpot-dutifully ignoring that people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators; carefully pretending that the existence of people with mental illness who are potentially dangerous somehow absolves us of responsibility for violent rhetoric, as opposed to serving to underline precisely why it's irresponsible-it will be inevitable again.
Let's get this straight: This shit doesn't happen in a void. It happens in a culture rife with violent political rhetoric, and it's time for conservatives to pull up their goddamn bootstraps and get to work doing the hard business of self-reflection.
This is one problem the invisible hand of the market can't fix for them-unless, perhaps, it's holding a mirror.
Melissa McEwan writes and edits the blog Shakespeare's Sister.