Open thread:

STATE POLICE SHOCK!

SECRET 18% PAY HIKES GIVEN TO 28 STATE POLICE LAST MONTH, COMPARED TO 2% FOR CSEA EMPLOYEES WHO DO THE WORK, WHO HAVE THE STATE POLICE ON THEIR BACK FOR A MONEY GRAB FOR THE STATE FOR ANYTHING.

Twenty-eight top officials of the scandal-scarred State Police were secretly given pay hikes as high as 18 ("EIGHTEEN") percent last month, even as then Governor David Paterson warned of a $9 billion budget gap and prepared to fire 900 workers. (The New York Post)

The raises cost taxpayers $600,000 and were authorized by acting State Police Superintendent John Melville, who--HIMSELF--received a $20,495 A YEAR, HIKE TO %179,756 ANNUALLY!

THE BIGGEST RAISE, A $28,077 RAISE, BOOSTED THE PAY OF THE FIRST DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT TO $182,756 A YEAR!

AND, BELIEVE THIS OR NOT--MANY TOP STAE OFFICIALS - COMMISSIONERS AND OTHER HEADS OF AGENCIES MAKE LESS THAN THEIR DEPUTIES!

A REMINDER: THE STATE POLICE'S REPUTATION HAS SUFFERED IN RECENT YEARS BECAUSE OF SCANDALS RANGING FROM TROOPERGATE--FORMER GOVERNOR ELIOT SPITZER'S USE OF POLICE INVESTIGATORS TO GATHER DAMAGING INFORMATION ON A POLITICAL OPPONENT--THE THE DAVID JOHNSON/SHERR-UNA BOOKER AFFAIR, WHEN THE CHIEF OF PATERSON'S SECURITY DETAIL WAS ACCUSED OF TRYING TO PREVENT A BRONX HOSPITAL WORKER FROM FILING ASSAULT CHARGES AGAINST A TOP PATERSON AIDE--ETCETERA! (ACCORDING TO THE NEW YHORK POST!

Sure, Othello did the deed. But four centuries of playgoers know that Iago was at least as guilty, for inciting him to violence. Codes of laws punish instigators of CROWDS: Incitement to mutiny, at sea; incitement to riot, on land. The frustration this play causes lies in the sly coward getting away with murder, relying on the more mature version of the six-year-old’s “But I didn’t DO anything! HE did it!” This argument doesn’t work on most mothers of six-year-olds, but seems to have traction in legislatures.

How could a prosecuting attorney make a case against a provocateur who practically says “Jared, get a gun and shoot that damned Democrat!” when there are no or few clear laws about this, when not all Jareds responded to the voices, and when the law treats crowds as unblameworthy dupes and individual actors as the scapegoat? When too many people say “Am I my brother’s keeper,” or some corollary of that, such as “Don’t tread on me,” then society is atomized, dysfunctional, at war with itself.

It takes a community to raise a child. Deny that, and it then becomes easy to blame schools and unions and social services and teachers and commie proselytizers and every kind of agendist, usually imaginary ones, for any disappointments in how kids turn out. Rejecting our need for mutual communal support and our responsibility to do our part, and instead declaring ourselves free individuals, free of the ties that bind,-frees us also from having to care, frees us to demonize others, scapegoat them, frees us to hate.

We can’t be free without hating because being “free” distinguishes US from THEM, free from non-free, instead of keeping us all part of a common cause.

We can’t WANT to be free without first turning away from community.

We can’t turn away from community without first becoming selfish.

We can’t become selfish without first becoming fearful and distrustful.

We can’t become fearful and distrustful without first being betrayed by others who had earlier been betrayed.

We can’t let ourselves respond to betrayal in this way without being responsible in part for the destruction of society. We’re all of us “passing it on” all the time. If we do something nurturing, it spreads far and wide. If we do something cruel and betray someone, the poison of that spreads far and wide, too.

The old saw that says a Republican is a Democrat who’s been mugged, is quite so. Brain scans show that conservatives/Republicans feel stronger fear more of the time than do progressives/Democrats. Written tests of perceptions and biases show that the right-leaning tend to be more distrustful and more apt to be hostile to perceived threats. This can’t help but drive rhetoric and action in dramatic ways, violent ways sometimes. It’s playing six-year-old lawyer to say that instigators of the susceptible have no responsibility for what they have wrought. It’s feigning stupidity to escape responsibility: “How could I know that someone would shoot people because of something I said? It’s not my fault. The guy’s a nut. I can’t be responsible for what a nut does.” But Jared didn’t shower the crowd with salamanders and silly putty in response to the voices in his head (that sound suspiciously like people we know), something that we might imagine a nut would do. No, he drew the sorta-logical conclusion from what he heard, that he should shoot a targeted Democrat, pulling the trigger for someone else, we have to believe, else why would the rabble-rousers say the hateful things they do, in such explicitly violent terms? The actor is the convenient scapegoat for the schemes and betrayals of others.

A hive is a complete and balanced society. We’re not bees, so we like to call our complete and balanced and healthy organism of mutually supportive members “community.” Shared resources are “the commons.” What benefits the members is “the common good.” The conceit of some, who benefit from the common good while seeming to despise it, is so like the solipsism of the six-year-old. Those who think and act like children should maybe not be driving our rhetoric.

We need to talk more about this.

Open thread:

STATE POLICE SHOCK!

SECRET 18% ("EIGHTEEN PERCENT") PAY HIKES GIVEN TO 28 STATE POLICE LAST MONTH, COMPARED TO 2% (was it that and for how many years?) FOR CSEA EMPLOYEES WHO DO THE WORK, WHO HAVE THE STATE POLICE ON THEIR BACK FOR A MONEY GRAB FOR THE STATE FOR ANYTHING.

EVEN A KOREAN WAR VETERAN WHO WORKS FOR PEANUITS AT A FEDERAL PARK AS A JANITOR CAN'T HAVE TWO DRINKS--BEEERS--AT THE VFW IN THEE UNITED STATES--2 MILES FROM HOME--AND NEEDS A BABY SITTER TO DRIVE HIM HOME!

BUT twenty-eight top officials of the scandal-scarred State Police were secretly given pay hikes as high as 18 ("EIGHTEEN") percent last month, even as then Governor David Paterson warned of a $9 billion budget gap and prepared to fire 900 workers. (The New YHork Post)

The raises cost taxpayers $600,000 and were authorized by acting State Police Superintendent John Melville, who--HIMSELF--received a $20,495 A YEAR, HIKE--TO %179,756 ANNUALLY!

THE BIGGEST RAISE, A $28,077 RAISE--A RAISE--BOOSTED THE PAY OF THE FIRST DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT TO $182,756 A YEAR!

AND, BELIEVE THIS OR NOT--MANY TOP STAE OFFICIALS - COMMISSIONERS AND OTHER HEADS OF AGENCIES MAKE LESS THAN THEIR DEPUTIES! AHHH!

A REMINDER: THE STATE POLICE'S REPUTATION HAS SUFFERED IN RECENT YEARS BECAUSE OF SCANDALS RANGING FROM TROOPERGATE--FORMER GOVERNOR ELIOT SPITZER'S USE OF POLICE INVESTIGATORS TO GATHER DAMAGING INFORMATION ON A POLITICAL OPPONENT--THE THE DAVID JOHNSON/SHERR-UNA BOOKER AFFAIR, WHEN THE CHIEF OF PATERSON'S SECURITY DETAIL WAS ACCUSED OF TRYING TO PREVENT A BRONX HOSPITAL WORKER FROM FILING ASSAULT CHARGES AGAINST A TOP PATERSON AIDE--ETCETERA! (ACCORDING TO THE NEW YHORK POST!

p.S. PUBLIC SERVICE IS AN HONOR AND A PRIVILEGE. IF YOU WANT TO MAKE MONEY, STAY IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR!

The Palins’ un-American activities
Imagine if the Obamas had hooked up with a violently anti-American group in league with the government of Iran. / http://tinyurl.com/3rdlhk
Oct. 7, 2008 | “My government is my worst enemy. I’m going to fight them with any means at hand.”
This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right? Imagine what Sarah Palin is going to do with this incendiary quote as she tears into Barack Obama this week.
Only one problem. The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that’s the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. (“Keep up the good work,” Palin told AIP members. “And God bless you.”)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/10/07/palins_unamerican/

This shooting tragedy had NOTHING to do with Sarah Palin, Talk radio, etc, etc, anyone trying to connect the dots has a agenda - it had zero-zilch-nada with the shooting

The left and media ATTACKED the teaparty, talk radio, Palin INSTANTLY without knowing the facts! Paul Krugman had a article in the NYTimes blaming the right within 4 hours of the shootings and he knew nothing -- WHAT A SHAMEFULL DISPLAY yet again. Its double standards and hypocracy 101

Maybe Sarah Palin should have not used the term blood libel but her response was appropriate and well spoken, we need to all take a step back and take a deep breath. Instead of focusing on 1 word we should look at the big picture

"THE STATE POLICE'S REPUTATION.......ETCETERA!"

HOW ABOUT THE RETIRED TROOPER ON A DISABILITY PENSION DOUBLE DIPPING ON PATTERSON'S PAYROLL R-E-A-D-I-N-G TO THE THEN GOVERNOR AT THE TUNE OF $80,000,000-- WHATEVER--READING TO THE GOVERNOR! SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS READ FOR FREE!

AND,

THE COP(s) PIMPING FOR ELIOT SPITZER SETTING UP THE TETE-A-TETES! WAS THAT COP(S) RETIRED? PROMOTED? WHILE THE MADAM OF THE HOUSE WAS CHARGED!

NEXT, THE COPS WILL ALL BE WRITING BOOKS AND THE MOVIES.

Yes, criticism of Conservative rhetoric is fair BUT for the some in the media to connect it to violence with no evidence, is a much worse kind of rhetoric.

For the Left to use tunnel vision by only picking and choosing who should be criticized based on political reasons, reveals their true bias.

For those who don't qualify the fact that most members of a particular group being criticized are very decent people, is to falsely accuse innocent people.

Certainly, these types of attacks incite much more anger, then anything a fringe element of any group itself could ever muster up on their own.

Extreme comments will certainly cause extreme reactions. Ms. Palin should be able to think: "Maybe I have overdone it", and thus she should feel enough remorse to apologize if anything she has said or done may have caused an individual to have an extreme reaction. Though she is not directly responsible for this action, she may have been indirectly responsible by issuing a "target map" and naming the targets. Blaming the media for what she has done will not get her off the hook. Some humility on her part and remorse for having issued this "target map" in view of the dead, which include an innocent dead child, would be welcome. If she is not humbled by the events and if she is not able to feel any responsibility for her actions and the reactions that they may have caused, who can feel any sympathy towards her ?

Those unfamiliar with history can learn from an agenda and the rhetoric of the not too distant past when a certain faction of ultras tried to enlist former war veterens in a coup against FDR. Some of you might be quite familiar with this by now but here it is again for those new to the political arena. THIS IS NOT THE SPEECH GENERAL BROWN ADDRESSED BUT, IS AN UPDATE MATCHING KEY FIGURES PAST AND PRESENT ATTEMPTING TO USE THE SAME MODUS OPERANDI. PLEASE NOTE *BROWN BROS HARRIMAN ETAL.
AS MUCH AS THINGS APPEAR TO HAVE CHANGED ITS THE SAME ORCHESTRATORS RUNNING THE KIBUKI THEATRE FROM BEHIND THE SCENES. SOME DRAINING OUR ECONOMY, SOME REFUSING TO LEND... ALL BLAMING THE PRESIDENT AND THOSE ALIGNED WITH ANY AGENDA THAT CALLS FOR FAIRNESS OR REMOVAL OF THE POWER ELITIST STATUS QUOS.
http://bleiersdoc.blogspot.com/2008/10/alan-nasser-george-w-bushs-coup.html

"Perhaps the most alarming slice of twentieth-century U.S. political history is virtually unknown to the general public, including most scholars of American history.

In 1934 a special Congressional committee was appointed to conduct an investigation of a possible planned coup intended to topple the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and replace it with a government modelled on the policies of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. The shocking results of the investigation were promptly scotched and stashed in the National Archives. While the coup attempt was reported at the time in a few newspapers, including The New York Times, the story disappeared from public memory shortly after the Congressional findings were made available to president Roosevelt. It was the recent release from the Archives of the Congressional report that prompted the BBC and Horton commentaries.

The Congressional committee had discovered that some of the foremost members of the economic elite, many of them household names at the time, had indeed hatched a meticulously detailed and massively funded plot to effect a fascist coup in America. The plotters represented prominent families - Rockefeller, Mellon, Pew, enterprises like Morgan, Dupont, Pew, Remington, Anaconda, Bethlehem and Goodyear, along with the owners of Bird’s Eye, Maxwell House and Heinz. Totaling about twenty four major businessmen and Wall Street financiers, they planned to assemble a private army of half a million men, composed largely of unemployed veterans. These troops would both constitute the armed force behind the coup and defeat any resistance this in-house revolution might generate. The economic elite would provide the material resources required to sustain the new government.

The plotters hoped that widespread working-class discouragement at the stubborn persistence of the Great Depression would have sufficiently disenchanted the masses with FDR’s policies to make the coup an easy ride. And they were appalled at Roosevelt’s willingness after 1933 to initiate economic policies that economists and businessmen considered dangerously Leftist departures from economic orthodoxy. Only a fascist-style government, they thought, could enforce the kind of economic “discipline” that would reverse the Great Depression and restore profits.

Interestingly, it was a military man, Major General Smedley D. Butler*, assigned the task of raising the 500,000-man army, who blew the whistle after uncovering the details of the operation he was asked to lead. FDR was thus able to nip the plot in the bud." [CONTINUES]

NOW CAN ANYBODY HERE STATE THAT THEY WHOLEHEARTLY AND UNQUESTIONABLY CAN DENY OR REFUTE THE PRECISENESS OF THE RESEMBLENCE OF THE PARALLELS THAT EXIST TODAY WHEN THE PLAYERS AND METHODS THAT HAVE LAID OUR ECONOMY INTO SUCH DISASTEROUS DISTRESS ARE SO EXACT?

Have a nice day. Think hard before you respond. Do you really need to wait to see the smoking gun, MikeG?

Damon- You seem to like big pictures, How's that for a real eye opener?

John: The wealthy learned their lesson. Instead of using armies, these days they've been buying control of the government. Those rightists still using guns are the uncoordinated militias, that are getting lots of TV exposure, so they're not going to be able to pull off a surprise coup. The third group of anti-government radicals are those who use rhetoric to whip up an army of jihadists. This third group is what causes most of the tragedy in this country today, but I believe they'll fail to have their way. We'll learn from these times, but in the meantime, too many people will be shot down for the most unworthy reasons.

Alan Dershowitz Defends Palin on ‘Blood Libel’

January 12, 2011


Noted Jewish academic and Harvard Law professor Allan Dershowitz defended Sarah Palin's "blood libel" remark today. Though many Jewish groups have expressed dismay over Palin's use of the term, in a statement to Big Government, Dershowitz said "there is nothing improper and certainly nothing anti-Semitic" about Palin's comments. Originally, the term was most often used (in a European context) to falsely accuse Jews of murdering children and using their blood for religious rituals. Dershowitz argues that the term has since evolved:

The term “blood libel” has taken on a broad metaphorical meaning in public discourse. Although its historical origins were in theologically based false accusations against the Jews and the Jewish People,its current usage is far broader. I myself have used it to describe false accusations against the State of Israel by the Goldstone Report. There is nothing improper and certainly nothing anti-Semitic in Sarah Palin using the term to characterize what she reasonably believes are false accusations that her words or images may have caused a mentally disturbed individual to kill and maim. The fact that two of the victims are Jewish is utterly irrelevant to the propriety of using this widely used term.

Massacre, Followed by Libel :

The origins of Jared Loughner’s delusions are clear: mental illness. What are the origins of Paul Krugman’s?

January 12, 2011

The charge: The Tucson massacre is a consequence of the “climate of hate” created by Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, Obamacare opponents, and sundry other liberal bêtes noires.

The verdict: Rarely in American political discourse has there been a charge so reckless, so scurrilous, and so unsupported by evidence.

As killers go, Jared Loughner is not reticent. Yet among all his writings, postings, videos, and other ravings — and in all the testimony from people who knew him — there is not a single reference to any of these supposed accessories to murder.

Not only is there no evidence that Loughner was impelled to violence by any of those upon whom Paul Krugman, Keith Olbermann, the New York Times, the Tucson sheriff, and other rabid partisans are fixated. There is no evidence that he was responding to anything, political or otherwise, outside of his own head.

A climate of hate? This man lived within his very own private climate. “His thoughts were unrelated to anything in our world,” said the teacher of Loughner’s philosophy class at Pima Community College.

“He was very disconnected from reality,” said classmate Lydian Ali.

“You know how it is when you talk to someone who’s mentally ill and they’re just not there?” said neighbor Jason Johnson. “It was like he was in his own world.”

His ravings, said one high-school classmate, were interspersed with “unnerving, long stupors of silence” during which he would “stare fixedly at his buddies,” reported the Wall Street Journal. His own writings are confused, incoherent, punctuated with private numerology and inscrutable taxonomy. He warned of government brainwashing and thought control through “grammar.” He was obsessed with “conscious dreaming,” a fairly good synonym for hallucinations.

This is not political behavior. These are the signs of a clinical thought disorder — ideas disconnected from one another, incoherent, delusional, detached from reality.

These are all the hallmarks of a paranoid schizophrenic. And a dangerous one. A classmate found him so terrifyingly mentally disturbed that — as she e-mailed friends and family — she expected to see his picture on TV after he had perpetrated a mass murder. This was no idle speculation: In class, “I sit by the door with my purse handy,” she wrote, so that she could get out fast when the shooting began.

Furthermore, the available evidence dates Loughner’s fixation on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords back to at least 2007, when he attended a townhall of hers and felt slighted by her response. In 2007, no one had heard of Sarah Palin. Glenn Beck was still toiling on Headline News. There was no Tea Party or health-care reform. The only climate of hate was the pervasive post-Iraq campaign of vilification of George W. Bush, nicely captured by a New Republic editor who began an article thus: “I hate President George W. Bush. There, I said it.”

Finally, the charge that the metaphors used by Palin and others were inciting violence is ridiculous. Everyone uses warlike metaphors in describing politics. When Barack Obama said at a 2008 fundraiser in Philadelphia, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” he was hardly inciting violence.

Why? Because fighting and warfare are the most routine of political metaphors. And for obvious reasons. Historically speaking, all democratic politics is a sublimation of the ancient route to power — military conquest. That’s why the language persists. That’s why we speak without any self-consciousness of such things as “battleground states” and “targeting” opponents. Indeed, the very word for an electoral contest — “campaign” — is an appropriation from warfare.

When profiles of Obama’s first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, noted that he once sent a dead fish to a pollster who displeased him, a characteristically subtle statement carrying more than a whiff of malice and murder, it was considered a charming example of excessive — and creative — political enthusiasm. When Senate candidate Joe Manchin dispensed with metaphor and simply fired a bullet through the cap-and-trade bill — while intoning, “I’ll take dead aim at [it]” — he was hardly assailed with complaints about violations of civil discourse or invitations to murder.

Did Manchin push Loughner over the top? Did Emanuel’s little Mafia imitation create a climate for political violence? The very questions are absurd — unless you’re the New York Times and you substitute the name Sarah Palin.

The origins of Loughner’s delusions are clear: mental illness. What are the origins of Krugman’s?

Franklin Graham Defends Palin on Arizona Shootings:

January 11, 2011

Internationally respected evangelist Franklin Graham, the son of the great preacher Billy Graham, jumped into the political fray Tuesday by denouncing “outrageous” attempts by the political left to blame Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for the Tucson rampage that left six dead and 14 wounded.

“This is a time for mourning and prayer for the victims and their families,” Graham reminded those who appear to be trying to exploit the shooting spree for political gain.

That Graham would come to Palin’s defense suggests the backlash to liberal attempts to lay the murderous rampage at the feet of conservatives may be expanding.

“I have been shocked at the reports from those suggesting that former Governor Sarah Palin has some level of responsibility for the horrific shooting in Arizona,” Graham said in the statement posted Tuesday on the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) website.

“I got to know Governor Palin when she served as governor of Alaska,” stated the younger Graham, who is BGEA’s president and CEO.

“She was extremely helpful to Samaritan’s Purse in providing relief to remote villages throughout the state. Most recently, she and members of her family traveled with me to Haiti where we visited cholera clinics, temporary shelter communities, and participated in an Operation Christmas Child distribution.”

Samaritan’s Purse is the ministry organization Graham founded that conducts various international relief operations.

Graham went on to praise Palin as “a kind and compassionate, God-fearing woman who believes with all her heart that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

Graham’s statement strongly suggested that he views political attacks based on the tragedy to be highly inappropriate.

“Whether you agree with her politics or not, it is outrageous to suggest that her political opinions encourage violence toward anyone,” Graham declared.

Prominent Democrats, including former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, and columnist Paul Krugman of The New York Times have been leading the charge to blame Palin and grass-roots conservatives for the massacre.

Several pundits associated with progressive politics, however, have denounced left-wing attempts to pin the cold-blooded murders on heated conservative rhetoric.

Those mainstream commentators include: Jonathan Chait of The New Republic, James Fallows of The Atlantic, Howard Kurtz of the Daily Beast, and Juan Williams of Fox News. They point out that there is no evidence the 22-year-old suspect was motivated by politics.

The Christian broadcasting group CBN reported Tuesday in a separate statement that Graham issued, urging Americans to be "measured and cautious before they place blame."

Speculation continues as the investigation continues into what touched off the shootings at a Tucson-area Safeway supermarket that critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The FBI has turned up evidence indicating the suspect have fixated on the Democratic congresswoman as early as 2007, long before the rise of Palin and the tea party movement to national prominence.

According to CBN, Graham warned in the second statement that rushing to blame anyone for the shooting before the full story is known might actually contribute to an atmosphere of angry intolerance.

"Hasty accusations have already been made before much information is known and an investigation has occurred,” he stated. “I believe this is counterproductive and could in itself incite hatred.

“This is not a time for political opportunism," he added. "Just because we disagree with someone from another political party does not mean we wish them harm."

CBN also reported that Graham is alarmed by the acceptance of “murder, violence, and rape as entertainment” in U.S. culture, as reflected in television, movies, and videogames.

Graham advised the nation to do “serious soul searching.” Otherwise, he warned, America "could see the destruction of the foundation upon which this nation was built if we are not careful."

Graham's father, the Rev. Billy Graham, is now 92. By some accounts, he has preached to more people in person than anyone else in history.

Billy Graham’s staff says the evangelist has led more than 2.5 million people worldwide to faith in Jesus Christ.

There comes a time
When we head a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
And it's time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all

We can't go on
Pretneding day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We are all a part of
God's great big family
And the truth, you know love is all we need

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

Send them your heart
So they'll know that someone cares
And their lives will be stronger and free
As God has shown us by turning stone to bread
So we all must lend a helping hand

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

When you're down and out
There seems no hope at all
But if you just believe
There's no way we can fall
Well, well, well, well, let us realize
That a change will only come
When we stand together as one

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

As the Left continues to attack and throw daggers at the Right based on fear and hatred, an amazing thing has happened.

Fred,(if that is the same Fred we know) of all people, sings Kumbaya.

Bill F, backs up his strictly right wing political posts with words from Billy Grahman's son, a well respected Christian preacher.

A normally divisive president has become a uniter with these words:

"I believe we can be better," Obama said to a capacity crowd in the university's basketball arena and to countless others watching around the country. Those who died here, those who saved lives here — they help me believe," the president said. "We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us."

"As finger-pointing emerged in Washington and beyond over whether harsh political rhetoric played a role in creating motivation for the attack, Obama sought to calm the rhetoric.
"Bad things happen," he said, "and we must guard against simple explanations in the aftermath."

John, Mike Q, Caspian, I beseech you to come aboard this love train before it's is too late. Leave you bias at the train station and join the peace makers.

John, Mike Q, Caspian, I beseech you to come aboard this love train before it's is too late. Leave you bias at the train station and join the peace makers.

=================

Mike G. A leopard cannot change his spots.

Fox News toned down the hate yesterday and maybe today.

They will be back with the hate 24/7 as usual.

Obama is a Muslim.

Obama is a Socialist/Communist.

Obama is not American.

Obama was born in Kenya.

Obama is going to take away our guns.

Obama is a racist.

Well i watched RNN last night again to see Richard Frenchs take and its amazing how he blames the right without any evidence


He showed some of the most PARTISON clips you could ever see, he NEVER-EVER showed any of the LEFTS "hate speech" or any of the signs and rhetoric during the Bush years


This is EXACTLY what people are tired of, a supposed "news show' showing its true colors and bias yet again - Did he mention Eric Cantors windows being shot out? how about mayor bloombergs 'reckless comments' about the times sq bomber and it being a healthcare/anti govt nut?


The double standards and hypocracy is amazing. There was a eldery gentleman who called from LI and he just blamed Palin and talk radio, this kind of insane sanity has to stop!


I watch RNN less and less with every passing week, its becuase of its bias and cheerleading and if doesnt end soon i will not watch anymore. He is just as partison as those he chastizes, how sad, how very sad of the news media

"Mike G. A leopard cannot change his spots.Fox News toned down the hate yesterday and maybe today.They will be back with the hate 24/7 as usual." - Caspian

Caspian, you are making my point with your statements.

Do you watch Fox news? Then how do you know they toned anything down? Any fair minded person will admit they are bias but no more so then MSNBC or RNN is on the left. But 24/7 hate? Don't you see how bias and untrue a statement like that is? You often put down the Tea Party but have you ever been to a rally?

My point is you are being mis-lead by a media with an agenda, which is often the case for many on the right as well. Instead of examining all the facts thoroughly you are reacting to what you are being told. It is the same mindset that tried to link Palin to the shooter only hours after it took place. BTW, a friend of the shooter just spoke out that this madman, never paid attention to the news or politics.

Well said Mike G, well said bravo


There is bias in and everywhere in the newsmedia, from the major networks, to the major big city newspapers, to the liberal college campus professors to NPR clear left leanings!

but they pretend that their is no bias, just FOX news, also rant about the teaparty when the teaparty is a cross-culture of America with people from all backgrounds at the rallies! the teaparty nominted over a dozen candidates for congress/senate this past year but you NEVER EVER EVER HEAR THAT ON THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA, NEVER!!!!!


WONDER WHY? MAYBE THERE IS A "AGENDA-BIAS" AFTERALL!!

kinda sad whenu think about it

I meant to say the teaparty nominated over a dozen MINORITY candidates (blacks, women, latinos) this past fall (2010) i think the actual number was 18 or so minority candidates


but you NEVER EVER hear about this from the media, NEVER!!


CLEARLY a agenda for the media

Do you watch Fox news? Then how do you know they toned anything down?

My point is you are being mis-lead by a media with an agenda, which is often the case for many on the right as well

------------

Mike G. usually after an Obama speech or some other Democrat policy Fox News rips it apart piece by piece.

Yesterday all the rightwing talking air heads were saying the same things, Love, Love, Love.

The people on the Right always confuse corporate mainstream media with liberals.

This is a wrong perception because there is no such thing as liberal mainstream media in America.

It is all corporate/Wall Street owned and has nothing to do with liberalism.


--------------

False Equivalencies and Right-Wing Buzzwords
January 13, 2011 / http://tinyurl.com/4afg5vf
"They are goading people into feeling like their country has been stolen from them," says FAIR's Peter Hart of Glenn Beck and other right-wing media personalities with what he terms a "conspiratorial worldview." It's not just using violent metaphors, in other words, it's creating a paranoid mindset that something dangerous is happening to the U.S. that can appeal to those already inclined toward paranoid thinking, like Jared Loughner. Peter joins us in studio to discuss the media narratives of the last few days following the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and others in Tuscon this week, from the fantasies of Glenn Beck to the mainstream idea that the left somehow has an equivalent to Beck and Limbaugh.
http://www.freespeech.org/video/grittv-peter-hart-false-equivalencies-and-right-wing-buzzwords

In study, evidence of liberal-bias bias
Cable talking heads accuse broadcast networks of liberal bias -- but a think tank finds that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Barack Obama than on John McCain in recent weeks. July 27, 2008 / http://tinyurl.com/66syt4
Haters of the mainstream media reheated a bit of conventional wisdom last week.

Barack Obama, they said, was getting a free ride from those insufferable liberals.

Such pronouncements, sorry to say, tend to be wrong since they describe a monolithic media that no longer exists. Information today cascades from countless outlets and channels, from the Huffington Post to Politico.com to CBS News and beyond.

But now there's additional evidence that casts doubt on the bias claims aimed -- with particular venom -- at three broadcast networks.

The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-onthemedia27-2008jul27,0,712999.story

The U.S. establishment media in a nutshell
April 5, 2008 / http://tinyurl.com/8xp26v
In the past two weeks, the following events transpired. A Department of Justice memo, authored by John Yoo, was released which authorized torture and presidential lawbreaking. It was revealed that the Bush administration declared the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights to be inapplicable to "domestic military operations" within the U.S. The U.S. Attorney General appears to have fabricated a key event leading to the 9/11 attacks and made patently false statements about surveillance laws and related lawsuits. Barack Obama went bowling in Pennsylvania and had a low score.
Here are the number of times, according to NEXIS, that various topics have been mentioned in the media over the past thirty days:

"Yoo and torture" - 102
"Mukasey and 9/11" -- 73
"Yoo and Fourth Amendment" -- 16
"Obama and bowling" -- 1,043
"Obama and Wright" -- More than 3,000 (too many to be counted)
"Obama and patriotism" - 1,607
"Clinton and Lewinsky" -- 1,079
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/04/05/media/

American corrupt corporate media filter 101:
Clear Channel is hardwired into the Bush political machine. The company co-chair is Tom Hicks, who purchased the Texas Rangers baseball team in 1998 from Bush Jr. That deal made Bush Junior a multi-millionaire. Michael Powell is a neo-confederate of the worst kind. He tried to hijack the FCC to deregulate and give away the public airwaves to his corporate cronies. Expecting Fox News to report real news is about as silly as waiting for Dick Cheney and George Bush to tell the truth. Clinton / Gore Telecommunications Act of 1996 sponsored giveaway of our public airwaves removed long-standing restrictions. Rupert Murdoch owns Fox. General Electric owns NBC, MSNBC, CNBC. Time Warner AOL owns CNN. Disney owns ABC. Viacom owns CBS. All Corporate Media doing $Billions with the Pentagon for over 60 years.
================================================================

Silvio Berlusconi was the prime minister of Italy and owns state television networks, radio stations, three of Italy’s four commercial television networks, two big publishing houses, two national newspapers, fifty magazines, Italy’s largest movie and distribution company. Rupert Murdoch just happens to be Silvio Berlusconi’s best friend and as of July 31, all of Italy’s satellite hookups were switched automatically to Murdoch’s Sky Italia.

Cable news isnt free. If you are seeing it on your home tv or internet its because you $$ bought access to it through cable subscription or internet service provider.

Ironic?

MikeG- Exactly how much earnesty did you attach to that gimmick yesterday? What I saw sadly yesterday, was largely an immature disassociated younger audience lacking any appreciation for the solemnity and utter sadness of the moment, more attuned to making certain that they applauded and hooted at the appropriate time.
The speaker as leader, did himself no favor by pausing, causing the event to seem at least from my vintage point to meander aimlessly into alternating crosses between moderating a pubescent pep rally punctuated by impromptu last minute readings from a child written 4th grade newspaper- that required further clarification after reading from it aloud.

Sadly, this president lost me 10minutes into this politically correct extravaganza.
I won't pretend to be mesmerized, nor loose any perspective when it comes to the actual overview and protections needed for all innocents in this world, our environment, nature and all the good people in it for gods sake.
=========
In case you didn't notice in the passage which was left regarding the FDR plot and the fiscally depressed settings that surrounded it, some of those same industrialists still were neither defused nor deterred by General Butler revealing their plot. Some as you know from the Brown Brothers Harriman contingent went on to provide Hitler's Germany with the funding and the war materials to fight against our own nations troops long after we under FDR[their proclaimed socialist adversary] had entered the battle. So until I see otherwise in action and in deed, I fully expect the same underhanded crap out of them today.

Having an idea of who were the original plotters against our people, during the first depression, under similar circumstances allows us all to be able to track whether any of them have evolved away from their own irrational behaviors in both their thinking and methodology or whether they are dead set on keeping on the same track with a different train.

PS: As for that train you've boarded, please be apprised and aware knowing that gun and extended gun clip purchases are uo 300% and 500% respectively since the shooting incident.
So whats the deal on this train? Cut down on the evilspeak and cut right to the lead volleys.
Wow! As I forewarned a long time ago this all wreaks of more bad medicine seeking new victims. Have you ever heard of circular firing squads? I'll skip that train, and wait for one guided by the ways of the peace oriented enlightened one, thank you.

The media does not have to tell the truth.

There are no laws that state the media has to be honest.

------------

Media Corruption & The "Big Six"

"Mike G. usually after an Obama speech or some other Democrat policy Fox News rips it apart piece by piece. Yesterday all the rightwing talking air heads were saying the same things, Love, Love, Love."- Caspian

Yeah well, today they ripped it apart piece by piece but I don't subscribe to what "they" think. I have a mind of my own. BOTH the Rightwing and Leftwing ideologues have an agenda. That agenda is more important then the truth.

So for example, it would be a legitimate criticism if someone said, "I don't like Palin, I think she is an insincere gun loving opportunist” but the MOMENT she came on the scene, the Left wing Media attacked her. Why? For the same reason they hate minorities that are conservative or have conservative values. Because it is a threat to their false propaganda that only “they” are all inclusive and conservatives are not. It is the same with the Tea Party. As Tom stated so accurately, "the teaparty is a cross-culture of America with people from all backgrounds at the rallies" This concerns the Left ideologues so much, that they falsely try to paint the group as racist or radical.

Of Course, if we examine ANYBODY close enough we will always find some fault, that’s human nature. The answer is for BOTH Left and Right Ideologues to take a long hard look at themselves. The fair minded and the honest don’t need them to admit their faults, because WE ALREADY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE. What is needed, is that they admit it to themselves.

I have a mind of my own. BOTH the Rightwing and Leftwing ideologues have an agenda. That agenda is more important then the truth.

Mike G.

--------------------

One little tweak.

Corporate Republicans and Corporate Democrats have to divide and conquer.

The left wing has zero power in Washington DC.

The left had only three presidents in history.

Lincoln, FDR & LBJ. policies did more good for more people.

Carter, Clinton and Obama is not on that list of three.

Washington DC is corporate owned and that is why "We The People" are in a big mess.

The Tea Party rank and file are in for a rude awaking.

The liberals were thrown under the Bus by Clinton and now with Obama.

The Tea Bags will get the same medicine from the Corporate Republicans who are in charge.

Michele Bachmann: Welfare Queen
Dec 22, 2009 / http://tinyurl.com/ydrlen7
Michele Bachmann has become well known for her anti-government tea-bagger antics, protesting health care reform and every other government “handout” as socialism. What her followers probably don’t know is that Rep. Bachmann is, to use that anti-government slur, something of a welfare queen. That’s right, the anti-government insurrectionist has taken more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts thanks to corrupt farming subsidies she has been collecting for at least a decade.
And she’s not the only one who has been padding her bank account with taxpayer money.
Bachmann, of Minnesota, has spent much of this year agitating against health care reform, whipping up the so-called tea-baggers with stories of death panels and rationed health care. She has called for a revolution against what she sees as Barack Obama’s attempted socialist takeover of America, saying presidential policy is “reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom.”
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/michelle_bachman_welfare_queen_20091221/

"MikeG- Exactly how much earnesty did you attach to that gimmick yesterday?" - John

John, I did not watch it at all just copied a few words I read that seemed to be on target and not divisive.

I'd love to comment on that FDR conspiracy thing but I am admittedly ignorant to that whole story. This is the first I am hearing. It seems too much to digest and so long ago. I know we should know history, so it does not repeat itself but it's just not my thing to delve that deeply. Besides, you are the expert with those kinds of subjects.

"PS: As for that train you've boarded, please be apprised and aware knowing that gun and extended gun clip purchases are uo 300% and 500% respectively since the shooting incident." -John

John, the simple truth is that gun enthusiasts are "afraid" they will not be able to purchase that gun any longer as a result of this tragic incident. Or you could subscribe to the "Q" left ideology, who thinks that rhetoric whipped people into a buying frenzy.

"So whats the deal on this train? Cut down on the evilspeak and cut right to the lead volleys...Have you ever heard of circular firing squads?- John

Comments based on "fear" with no evidence, the train is a peace train.
Wasn't it FDR that said, "The only thing you have to fear is fear itself?"
You let me know when you are ready. I will see to it you arrive safely.

'The Tea Party rank and file are in for a rude awaking.The liberals were thrown under the Bus by Clinton and now with Obama.The Tea Bags will get the same medicine from the Corporate Republicans who are in charge." Casp

A little tweek back..The Liberals were expecting a leader that would push forward a particular agenda but it did not happen as expected because of too much resistance by the non-liberal majority.

The Tea Party is not looking for a leader or a party to facilitate change. The group itself is a way to pressure our leaders to stay on course or change course. Whether or not our leaders listen to the people, is never a sure thing but the Tea Party will continue to remind them that they should. So there are no rude awakenings or expectations.

MikeQ: re: Permalink 01/12/11 @ 16:20

Absolutely, a dead on 100% perfect evaluation worthy of everyone's careful introspection.

MikeQ: re: Permalink 01/12/11 @ 16:20

Absolutely, a dead on 100% perfect evaluation worthy of everyone's careful introspection heading into this very uncertain future.

MikeQ: re: Permalink 01/12/11 @ 16:20

"Absolutely, a dead on 100% perfect evaluation worthy of everyone's careful introspection heading into this very uncertain future."- John

It would make sense in principle, IF someone intentionally tried to incite a riot or provoke an attack. However, there is zero evidence that any of that is true in the Arizona shooting.
So when MQ states, "How could a prosecuting attorney make a case against a provocateur who practically says “Jared, get a gun and shoot that damned Democrat!” We know it is a fabrication. And why are fabrications necessary? Because the truth is not powerful enough to effect whatever change or agenda one is trying to bring about.

You may be thinking. It does not matter if it was intentional or not that the mere suggestion alone subconsciously influences weak minded people. The truth to that is that "anything" can set off weak minded people. Manson was influenced by Beatles music, should we ban Beatles music? Berkowitz influenced by talking dogs, should we ban dogs? Hinckley influenced by Jodi Foster should we blame her? Should we ban guns from every law biding citizen because somebody bought one that should not have been allowed to?

Do I have to answer all these questions? I'm getting tired.

A little tweek back..The Liberals were expecting a leader that would push forward a particular agenda but it did not happen as expected because of too much resistance by the non-liberal majority.
Mike G.
===================

I really think Obama did not want to bail out the homeowners who were foreclosed.

Obama did not want to help the millions who lost pensions, 401k, IRAs, etc. because of the crooks on Wall Street.

Obama bailed out Wall Street just like Bush and Cheney did.

Obama is continuing two plus wars and spying on all Americans.

Gitmo, Torture, are still being used.

Obama and Congress always have Billions and Trillions for wars but not for anyone else. ( Lower Prescription Drugs and more affordable college cost ).

10 years of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest only benefited the few, not the many.


====================

Government Bailouts: A U.S. Tradition Dating to Hamilton
SEPTEMBER 20, 2008 / http://tinyurl.com/ygk788s
The bubble pops. Lenders freeze. Depositors lose faith. Panic spreads. And the government steps in because nobody else will.
Today it is Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke putting together the rescue package for a financial system rocked by falling home prices and a wave of defaults on subprime mortgages.
But a short walk through U.S. history demonstrates the point made by Alex J. Pollock of the American Enterprise Institute: "If you would like an empirical law of government behavior, it is that in a panic or threatened financial collapse, governments intervene -- every government, every party, every country, every time."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122186662036058787.html

FBI: 80% of Fraud Attributed To Insiders Not Homeowners
The increased reliance by both financial institutions and non-financial institution lenders on third party brokers has created opportunities for organized fraud groups, particularly where mortgage industry professionals are involved. Combating significant fraud in this area is a priority, because mortgage lending and the housing market have a significant overall effect on the nation's economy. All mortgage fraud programs were recently consolidated within the Financial Institution Fraud Unit, even where the targeted
lender is not a financial institution. This consolidation provides a more effective and efficient management over mortgage fraud investigations, the ability to identify and respond more rapidly to emerging mortgage fraud problems, and a better picture of the overall mortgage fraud problem./ http://www.lvamerica.com/USApdfs/FBI.pdf

"Manson was influenced by Beatles music, should we ban Beatles music? Berkowitz influenced by talking dogs, should we ban dogs? Hinckley influenced by Jodi Foster should we blame her?"

Jodi did not say "Come on, big boy, shoot the president for me." He had a crush on her and wanted to impress her. No possibility of attaching any intent onto her. No dog talked to Berkowitz, so no dog could have influenced him. Manson put his own meaning to a song title, and put it to use, along with the murders, to touch off a race riot. Where did the Beatles say to kill anyone? These are not examples of lefties inciting people to violence, or unintentional incitements, and they don't cancel out the incitements by some on the right.

I feel from some comments of yours that you want to believe that people hearing a speaker calmly and rationally evaluate the facts as presented, to come to a conclusion. Motivational speakers excite crowds all the time. Preachers get people swaying and wailing and tearful. And all this is done without a fact in sight, or a logically coherent argument, just manipulation of emotions. Sorry, but that's not something to be in denial about.

Thing is, if some highly suggestible person acts on what the preacher said, perhaps to love thy neighbor, this person does no harm. He doesn't love his neighbor to bloody death. But with the Michael Savage crowd saying that so and so's a traitor, so and so should be shot, so and so's a commie radical, so and so's scum, the suggestible listener is not going to love so and so, but kill him. This is part of the complaint about lefties making everything so PC; some on the right want to be able to rouse the rabble using emotion, and not be inhibited by PC limitations.

We can go back and forth on this. You want the freedom to say anything and I feel we have to use sense and watch that we don't hurt people even indirectly with our words.

"We can go back and forth on this. You want the freedom to say anything and I feel we have to use sense and watch that we don't hurt people even indirectly with our words." - Mike Q

Mike Q, I don't agree with your assessment.

Common decency demands we respect one another and with our speech, but not something government should be enforcing.

Inciting a riot is something government should enforce but vague references to guns or calling someone a scum is not inciting a riot. Which is my point with the Beatles music. These people who are going on a murderous rampage are not doing it because of something Savage said but because of the demons in their head, which can originate from anything.

Frankly, you seem to have this fear that somehow these entertainers have the wisdom and power to rial up their listeners into a frenzy, much like a preacher inspires. However, it simply does not carry the power that you think, evidenced by the fact that none of these people who have committed these heinous acts have done so because of Palin, Fox News, Talk Radio or Savage. So it sounds like you are looking for a way to silence the voices, you don't agree with.

Here is some simple reasoning to consider. It is not the mean spirited Media personality that tells you to rise up or speak up, that stirs up the anger. It is the ones that tell you that you must shut up, that rials and angers the crowd. Think about it, really.

"These people who are going on a murderous rampage are not doing it because of something Savage said but because of the demons in their head"

You might be able to argue that if it weren't for those shooters who said to police that they were acting on an implied call to action by one or another specific radio or TV personality, or to assist in some hate-those-damned-liberals effort with no specific action called out. I used to have something of a list, but can only remember Jonah Goldbergh (?) being named by a shooter as his inspiration. That's why I'm saying this is not really something theoretical that is wide open to debate, but something more or less shown to be real, though not consistent. And again, no one is harmed by a preacher saying Love your neighbor, damn it! And no one is helped by nasty talk. When Palin was running for VP, people in her crowds often shouted "Kill him!" (Obama) That's free speech for hooligans. It's not in aid of anything decent.

Blame Righty: A Condensed History

Fri Jan 14

I agree with President Obama. When it comes to politicizing random violence, he and his supporters have been "far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than" they do. Recognition is the first step toward reconciliation. It's time to recognize the poisonous pervasiveness of the Blame Righty meme.

For the past two years, Democratic officials, liberal activists and journalists have jumped to libelous conclusions about individual shooting sprees committed by mentally unstable loners with incoherent delusions all over the ideological map. The White House now pledges to swear off "pointing fingers or assigning blame." Alas, the Obama administration's political and media foot soldiers have proved themselves incapable of such restraint.

In April 2009, a disgruntled, unemployed loser shot and killed three Pittsburgh police officers in a horrifying bloodbath. The gunman, Richard Poplawski, was a dropout from the Marines who threw a food tray at a drill sergeant and had beaten his girlfriend. Was this deranged shooter who pulled the trigger to blame? Nope. Despite evidence that Poplawski's homicidal, racist tendencies manifested themselves years before Obama took office, lefty publications asserted that the real culprit of the spree was the "heated, apocalyptic rhetoric of the anti-Obama forces" (according to mainstream liberal Atlantic Monthly pundit Andrew Sullivan), along with Fox News and Glenn Beck (according to mainstream liberal journalist Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly online).

That same month, a sick, evil man named Jiverly Voong ambushed an immigration center in Binghamton, N.Y. Recently fired from his job, Voong murdered 13 people, critically wounded four others and then committed suicide. The instant psychologists of the left knew nothing about the disgruntled man of Vietnamese descent and undetermined political affiliation. But within hours of the shooting, liberal mega-website Huffington Post commenters had overwhelmingly convicted GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, the National Rifle Association, Fox News, Lou Dobbs and yours truly. Liberal radio host Alan Colmes pointed his finger at the "huge anti-immigrant backlash in this country" — never mind that tens of millions of legal immigrants and naturalized citizens have coped with hardship, overcome racism and embraced assimilation without going bloody bonkers.

In June 2009, a depraved, elderly anti-Semite named James von Brunn gunned down a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in D.C. Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent and lefty Center for American Progress think-tank fellow Matthew Yglesias immediately invoked the Obama administration's report on right-wing extremism, leading to a wider chorus of condemnations against the tea party, talk radio and the entire GOP. The truth? Von Brunn was an unstable, equal-opportunity hater and 9/11 Truther conspiracy loon who bashed Jews and Christians, George W. Bush and Fox News, and had also threatened the conservative Weekly Standard magazine.

In late August 2009, as lawmakers faced citizen revolts at health care town halls nationwide, the Colorado Democratic Party decried a window-smashing vandalism attack at its Denver headquarters. State Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak singled out tea party activists and blamed "people opposed to health care" for the attack. The perpetrator, Maurice Schwenkler, turned out to be a far-left transgender activist/single-payer anarchist who had worked for a labor union-tied political committee and canvassed for a Democratic candidate.

In September 2009, Bill Sparkman, a federal U.S. Census worker, was found dead in a secluded rural Kentucky cemetery with the word "Fed" scrawled on his chest with a rope around his neck. The Atlantic Monthly's Andrew Sullivan rushed to indict "Southern populist terrorism, whipped up by the GOP and its Fox and talk radio cohorts" in an online magazine post titled "No Suicide," which decried the "Kentucky lynching." Liberal author Richard Benjamin blamed "anti-government" bile. New York magazine fingered conservative talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh, "conservative media personalities, websites and even members of Congress." So, who killed Bill Sparkman? Bill Sparkman. He killed himself and deliberately manufactured a hate crime hoax as part of an insurance scam to benefit his surviving son.

In February 2010, ticking time-bomb professor Amy Bishop gunned down three of her colleagues at University of Alabama-Huntsville, and suicide pilot Joseph Andrew Stack flew a stolen small plane into an Austin, Texas, office complex that contained an Internal Revenue Service office. Mainstream journalists from Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart to Time magazine reporter Hilary Hylton leaped forward to tie the crimes to tea party rhetoric. Never mind that Bishop was an Obama-worshiping academic with a lifelong history of violence or that Stack was another Bush-hater outraged about everything from George W. Bush to the American medical system to the evils of capitalism to the city of Austin, the Catholic Church and airlines.

In May 2010, liberal New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to preemptively pin the Times Square bombing attempt on "someone with a political agenda that doesn't like the health care bill or something." The culprit was unrepentant Muslim jihadist Faisal Shahzad.

In August 2010, Democratic supporters of Missouri Rep. Russ Carnahan blamed a "firebombing" at the congressman's St. Louis office on tea party suspects. The real perpetrator? Disgruntled progressive activist Chris Powers, who was enraged over a paycheck dispute.

President Obama wisely counseled the nation this week at the Tucson massacre memorial that "bad things happen, and we must guard against simple explanations in the aftermath." But as the progressive left's smear-stained recent history shows, criminalizing conservatism is a hard habit to break.

"That's why I'm saying this is not really something theoretical that is wide open to debate, but something more or less shown to be real, though not consistent. And again, no one is harmed by a preacher saying Love your neighbor, damn it! And no one is helped by nasty talk." - MQ

Mike, as I said, "anything" can set some people off. Not particularly a preacher saying love thy neighbor but there has been religious cults (Jim Jones) that caused a lot of deaths. So I am quite sure you can scrape some names together of people influenced by talk radio and the like but their are probably a lot more influenced by certain literature, certain movies, certain rap, rock and so on. I don't believe we should use government to ban everything we "think" might somehow influence a small number of very unstable people or blame certain people with no evidence.

That being said, I agree with you whole hardheartedly that nasty talk helps nobody. I don't like nasty rhetoric just like I don't like nasty art. My objection is your bias, that somehow conservative rhetoric is linked to some real threat and nothing else is mentioned, especially rhetoric from the left side of the room. That is why I said Obama's speech was a uniting one. He did not somehow point fingers at one side but said, "We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us." I respect that.

Is Polluter Billionaire David Koch just an average person?
Rightwing Republican David Koch put the Tea Bags in Congress!
http://tinyurl.com/45os89z
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aosGC50rPkQ

"I don't believe we should use government to ban everything we 'think' might somehow influence a small number of very unstable people or blame certain people with no evidence."

Except it's been for ages settled law that it's not acceptable to shout "fire" in a crowded theater, precisely because those words could hurt or potentially kill people. This is for the small number of people who might do this. People are held for saying things deemed treasonous or libelous (sued, anyway) or obscene or threatening. What father would consider paramount the free speech rights of the drunk on the street shouting sexually explicit obscenities within earshot of his young daughters? Would he consider the possibility that those words might not hurt? Not all expression is protected, and any protections only restrict Congress, not anyone else. Not all expression should be considered more important than their potential consequences.

Besides, I don't know what I said that had you thinking I proposed specificaly targeted laws. Maybe it's your bias that a non-conservative must want to inhibit speech. Obama can play centrist, you can play conservative, then, for balance, I play liberal.

Do I detect the tell-tale odor of a topic beaten to death?

Gabrielle Giffords' Arizona shooting prompts resignations


A nasty battle between factions of Legislative District 20 Republicans and fears that it could turn violent in the wake of what happened in Tucson on Saturday prompted District Chairman Anthony Miller and several others to resign.

Miller, a 43-year-old Ahwatukee Foothills resident and former campaign worker for U.S. Sen. John McCain, was re-elected to a second one-year term last month. He said constant verbal attacks after that election and Internet blog posts by some local members with Tea Party ties made him worry about his family's safety.

In an e-mail sent a few hours after Saturday's massacre in Tucson that killed six and injured 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Miller told state Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen he was quitting: "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."

“Do I detect the tell-tale odor of a topic beaten to death?” MQ

No, I think it’s more the odor of frustration. For some reason we are just not connecting and repeating it is not working either, one last try from a different angle.

“Except it's been for ages settled law that it's not acceptable to shout "fire" in a crowded theater, precisely because those words could hurt or potentially kill people.” MQ

Yes, those words can hurt or kill because of the mass panic that would logically ensue when people believe they are in immediate danger and fear for their lives. However, right wing media rhetoric is a lot closer to someone yelling over and over again, “This movie stinks!” It is not polite or proper, it can even create a disturbance but to try and compare that to “Jared, get a gun and shoot that damned Democrat!” which never was shouted out, is a fabrication or at very least a complete exaggeration. There is no mass hysteria and there is no logical link to someone going into a panic over what some in the media say.

The only thing I can think of is you hear much of the Right wing media put down the Left, see people angry and riled and assume that this media is responsible for this anger. The best answer to this is with a question. What was / is responsible for Left wing anger and vitriol at George W Bush, was it the Left wing media stirring the pot or policies and actions by Bush that they simply did not agree with?

You could definitely see your enthusiasm in the work you write. The world hopes for more passionate writers like you who aren't afraid to say how they believe. Always go after your heart.

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