Matthew of Canberra

That’s basically how AB’s playing it too. Last night I noticed a long line of youtube videos about every time somebody said something mean about a conservative.

Today he’s linking to this:

http://thechollajumps.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/jared-loughner-is-a-product-of-sheriff-dupniks-office/

That’s an interesting claim. I look at the guy’s profile doesn’t show any reason to dismiss him as a nutter, and he might even be right. But right now it hasn’t been echoed by any mainstream news source – everyone who’s quoting the story is linking to that one blog post. So … dunno. Might be true, might be BS.

Meanwhile, the media’s playing the story like this attack came out of the blue as an isolated event. That’s not how it seesms to me. It’s the worst incident (by far), but not the only one. The three blue dogs in AZ are used to death threats and vandalism. They also complained, and nothing happened.

I reckon the wedge I commented on yesterday is tracking nicely. The right is focusing on everyone being mean to poor queen sarah (while beck and bachmann are getting a free pass, IMHO). I think the left is ACTUALLY focused on the vitriolic level of mainstream rhetoric, and the fact that this is leading to threats and attacks on democratically-elected leaders. It appears that it doesn’t matter how much the left tries to emphasize that it’s the hyperbole, conservatives will just keep hearing “sarah palin did it”.

Here’s an excellent example. AB links to it (honestly – does he just get his information on some sort of RSS feed?). I see a sheriff talking about heated rhetoric taking the place of constructive dialog. And he’s right. He’s NOT swinging at one party or another – he’s extremely careful to avoid doing that. To any old-school conservatives, I reckon what he’s saying has got to be making sense. But how do the wingnuts hear it? “it’s sarah palin’s fault”. He doesn’t say it’s sarah palin’s fault. To the best of my knowledge, he hasn’t said it’s any one person or party’s fault. He’s about the most reasonable voice in this entire story.

Sheriff says “we need to cool it a bit”
Wingnuts say “how DARE you blame us?”

It’s going to keep happening, I think. It doesn’t matter how conciliatory and reasonable the left is about this, the right is just going to keep saying “it’s not our fault”. His comments are being described elsewhere as “lashing out”, bizarrely.

Here’s the video. I think the sheriff actually does well. AB says megyn’s “mocking” him, I’m not so sure that’s the direction the mocking goes – see his face at the end when she returns to her “stirring the pot on either side of the aisle” talking point. He’s trying to make a point about civility, she doesn’t get it and just sticks to her “how dare you blame us” talking points. He knows she doesn’t get it, but is too kind to point out that she’s a stooge. He clearly looks to the guy on his right, and thinks “We’re done here”. And andrew thinks it’s a victory. I don’t think so. If he sticks to his guns, and doesn’t get suckered into any tangents, that sheriff is going to come out of this looking like the most sensible man in america.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/megyn-kelly-takes-on-az-sheriff-clarence-dupnik-over-his-political-spin-on-shooting/

Unfortunately, the right wing revenge machine is going to target that guy at the next election. Don’t be surprised when it happens.

As long as conservatives keep hearing “let’s take it down a notch” as “it’s all sarah palin’s fault”, this isn’t going anywhere.

Maybe if liberals hadn’t spent the last year trying to warn everyone that heated rhetoric was going to lead to something unpleasant, conservatives might be able to feel they can own the solution as well.

Even rational dialog is now a partisan issue.

Matthew of Canberra

CG @11

I think the most important thing is to not interpret these harmless symbols as anything that could be related to violence against democrats. That would be jumping to conclusions.

http://www.cafepress.com/sk/rightwingstuff/s_Crosshair_100001

http://www.cafepress.com/+peace_symbol_sticker,339005552

Matthew of Canberra

Ailes is at least pretending to get it:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/01/10/2011-01-10_roger_ailes_promises_russell_brand_fox_news_will_tone_down_fiery_rhetoric_defend.html

Now … olbermann, I think the ball is on your side of the net.

Matthew of Canberra

The most important thing, obviously, is NOT to politicize a catastrophe … right?

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/now_30_believed_dead/

What I cannot understand is this: how was the possibility of such a danger not forseen, when climate experts and the Government claim they can predict the climate 100 years from now? How did this week’s rain come as such a surprise, when we now spend billions more on computer models predicting the future?

If he was a car, I bet the gearbox wouldn’t last very long.

Matthew of Canberra

Never let a crisis go to waste:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/weigel/archive/2011/01/11/tea-party-express-calls-jared-lee-loughner-liberal-fundraises-off-of-media-slander.aspx

This is allegedly a circular sent subscribers to “tea party express”

The attack on conservatives and the tea party movement has continued over the past 24 hours. Media figures and liberal activists continue to falsely suggest that Rush Limbaugh, Gov. Sarah Palin and the tea party movement had anything to do with the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
They’ve launched this attack even though they know it is a total and complete lie.

…

We want to have our largest fundraising day in the history of our organization and we need your help to achieve this success. Please, make a contribution online right now to the Tea Party Express – CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE.

Matthew of Canberra

oldskool

I respected Jon Stewart’s comment on the Daily SHow last night, but I have to disagree.

I was a bit surprised he didn’t go in harder. I think he’s being cautious, because nobody actually knows what motivated the perp. It’s one thing for us to anonymously pontificate, but he’s a guy who knows the power of a tivo, and he’s a prime target.

The talk that you cannot blame one side or the other is pure ‘argument to moderation’ fallacy.

The left is not entirely devoid of people willing to use violent rhetoric, but I think it’s the likes of beck and coulter who’ve taken the shrieking insanity mainstream and made it acceptable enough that a (democratic) congressman would happily say that a florida gubernatorial candidate should be put against a wall and shot, or a (republican) senator would say that the president is the enemy of humanity, or (incorrectly) call the president a liar in the middle of a speech to congress.

Certainly true causation can never be proven but it is insanely rich of the Tea Baggers to cry shock, horror when it is their Reps calling for “2nd Ammendment Soluitions’ and ‘taking matters into our own hands’.

The way it seems to me these days, the left accuses the right of bloodshed, and the right jokes about the threat of bloodshed.

I think that sheriff is getting a bad rap. I think it was imprudent to stray from the objective facts of the case, but the judge was a personal friend and he’s seen the impact of aggro in arizona over time. But there’s one thing he HASN’T done that the right tries to claim he did … and that’s blame the right. He didn’t say that, but that’s how it’s being almost universally reported on the right. That’s interesting.

The wingnuts also want to take this event in isolation, but that’s not how the other side sees it. Democrats have been under attack for some time, and they believe the rhetoric is partly to blame. They’ve had their gear smashed, found the odd bullet or two in their window and received death threats – apparently over health care and immigration. If you put it in that context, this last incident is part of a process that’s been going on for a while. Conservatives obviously don’t want to see it in that context. That doesn’t suit their case.

I’m surprised that people who bang on so much about the constitution and liberty and democracy are so unconcerned about an environment that makes democrat congressmen regularly fear for their safety.

Matthew of Canberra

Aurgh @39

I thought that was a fairly carefully written speech. It’s entirely meant for her supporters – people who think she’s been responsible for whipping up fear and anger aren’t going to buy a word of it. It’s not “respectful” disagreement that everyone other than the right is concerned about.

But the blood-libel claim is interesting. That’s going to annoy a lot of people but, again, they’ll be people who don’t like palin anyway.

I can’t be stuffed fisking it. Not today. I will just say this, though – it’s rich for somebody who accused obama of wanting to create “death panels” to decide whether people like her son would live … to accuse somebody else of blood libel. It’s also an interesting variation on the “pity, praise and promise” formula – I guess it’s more like “pity, praise and p1ss off”.

Meanwhile, someone might want to have a look at whether this claim is credible:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/sarah-palin/3405336/Sarah-Palin-blamed-by-the-US-Secret-Service-for-death-threats-against-Barack-Obama.html

I also have to conclude that palin’s not too fussed about hate-preachers of the muslim variety. After all, osama bin laden wasn’t actually on those planes. Responsibility for heinous crimes begins and ends with the perpetrators. Bin laden’s just some guy exercising his right to free speech. And yes, know the comparison is stretched, I’m just illustrating where that reasoning leads to.

Matthew of Canberra

Aurgh:

“Is anyone else smelling desperation in Bolt’s recent posts?”

He’s stretched credibility this far before. Go back and read his attack-pieces on richard dawkins. I’m sure even that’s not his most impressive rhetorical high-wire act, it’s just the one that springs to mind first.

Is anyone else wondering if the comments will ever be re-enabled?

Meanwhile, I wonder whether these guys will get a response:

http://www.jstreet.org/blog/?p=1374

When Governor Palin learns that many Jews are pained by and take offense at the use of the term, we are sure that she will choose to retract her comment, apologize and make a less inflammatory choice of words.

http://www.adl.org/PresRele/Mise_00/5962_00.htm

While the term “blood-libel” has become part of the English parlance to refer to someone being falsely accused, we wish that Palin had used another phrase, instead of one so fraught with pain in Jewish history.

http://www.njdc.org/blog/post/palinrelease011210

Perhaps Sarah Palin honestly does not know what a blood libel is, or does not know of their horrific history; that is perhaps the most charitable explanation we can arrive at in explaining her rhetoric today.

Like hell, is what I’m thinking.

Matthew of Canberra

Some might remember this flotsam:

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/no_wonder_sheriff_dupnik_wants_to_blame_a_politician_instead/

But it’s not just inappropriate for an investigator to leap to such conclusions, but also against all the evidence. What could be his motive for doing something so extraordinarily unprofessional?

Blogger The Cholla Jumps suggests the sheriff needs a scapegoat:

Mr. Dupnik knows this tragedy lays at his feet and his office. Six people died on his watch and he could have prevented it. …

Jared Loughner, pronounced by the Sheriff as Lock-ner, saying it was the Polish pronunciation. Of course he meant Scott or Irish but that isn’t the point. The point is he and his office have had previous contact with the alleged assailant in the past and that is how he knows how to pronounce the name.

Jared Loughner has been making death threats by phone to many people in Pima County including staff of Pima Community College, radio personalities and local bloggers. When Pima County Sheriff’s Office was informed, his deputies assured the victims that he was being well managed by the mental health system. It was also suggested that further pressing of charges would be unnecessary and probably cause more problems than it solved as Jared Loughner has a family member that works for Pima County. Amy Loughner is a Natural Resource specialist for the Pima County Parks and Recreation…

I’m not sure this man should be in charge of this investigation.

Okay, that’s interesting. I commented here at the time that nobody seemed to be independently verifying that cholla jumps claim. And, I guess, this might suggest why:

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/011111_loughner_threats

No threats made by accused mass shooter Jared Lee Loughner before Saturday’s shooting were reported to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Prior to the shooting that left 6 dead and 13 wounded, the department was not aware of any threats made to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, any other government official, or to any member of the public, said Deputy Jason Ogan.

Ok. So somebody’s wrong. Hmm.

Matthew of Canberra

David Brock takes it to the queen bee:

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201101120039

(too long to quote)

Matthew of Canberra

Yeah, see, THIS guy deserves some props. And not just because he could pull my arms off:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/12/jacob-volkmann-regrets-obama-comment_n_808064.html

He gets it. He understood, ate humble and apologized. But that really tough outdoor chick from alaska with the guns just won’t. Is that really how real americans behave?