Damn!

[rabidsamfan]

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/08/132764367/congresswoman-shot-in-arizona

Now we've got another assassination. And when people point out that the rhetoric has been leading to this, the Glenn Becks and Sarah Palins and Rush Limbaughs will all pretend that they can't possibly understand how using the language of murder and elimination when you're talking about political difference might ever be misconstrued.

Comments

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

oh my God.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

[daylyn.livejournal.com]

I'm too sick for words.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I can't find a single silver lining.

[janeturenne.livejournal.com]

Thank you for calling attention to this.

I...god. I can't even.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Me neither. I got nothing done today.

[sayhello.livejournal.com]

This is just horrible. And the gunman is young. Where do you think these kinds of ideas come from?

*shakes head*
Hewene

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

He got fed them by a non-stop hammering of rhetoric which made things like the "second amendment solution" sound reasonable.

[lame-pegasus.livejournal.com]

Exactly what I thought when I heard the news. Damn Sarah Palin and the malevolent vermin surrounding her - I knew someday there would be an idiot, foolish enough to listen. *deep sigh*

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

And they won't own up to their responsibility, I promise you. They won't admit that words have power, if it means having to accept their complicity in the results of those words.

And the comment sections on some of the websites are making me feel even worse.

[lame-pegasus.livejournal.com]

Of course. The firebug never starts the fire, even if he or she verbally strikes the match and offers it to practically everyone passing by.

[belleferret.livejournal.com]

No one can convince me that the hate-filled rhetoric of SP and people like her was not an influence here. Thank god it looks like Congresswoman Giffords will survive. But a child was killed, and at least 4 others. Such a senseless preventable tragedy.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

From what I can tell, the young man who did this wasn't the stablest personality. But that is no excuse for anyone who created an environment where he felt that his violence would be acceptable.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

You have said precisely what I was thinking.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

The rhetoric of assassination and murder has no place in political speech. On either end of the spectrum.

[shirebound]

Good heavens. I've been out all day and obviously need to turn on CNN.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

It looks like Congresswoman Gifford is going to survive, but there were six deaths, including a Judge John Roll and a little girl. Appalling.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

And isn't it odd that the same people who are firmly convinced that the rhetoric of pornography invariably ends in violence and abuse of women and children...just don't see any connection at all between their own violent rhetoric and their followers' violent behavior.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

And they keep promoting false equivalences. Yes, there are some bozos on the left who make violent statements. But they aren't given TV shows, and aren't usually joined by a chorus of agreement.

[clevertoad.livejournal.com]

A 9-year-old girl who was born on 9/11. Was interested in politics, had recently been elected student president at her elementary school. Went to the rally because she wanted to learn more about how her country and her government works.

There is no silver lining.

The bastards are already twisting in the wind, shrieking that it's unfair and so terribly inappropriate to leap to the conclusion that this had Anything To Do with the violent rhetoric that's been encouraged for the last two years. Can't be their fault, when there are leftwing nutjobs spewing vitriol on the internet too. But the lefties aren't doing it on national TV, and they're not the ones who've been packing heat to town meetings.

No silver. Just prayers.

[lame-pegasus.livejournal.com]

Oh yes... the whole thing has nothing to do with the poison they spit, and yet the website with the crosshairs on Clifford's state was hurriedly removed from the net, plus all the nasty, violent remarks Palin made on Twitter.

That woman and her political cronies make me sick.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Actions speak louder than words. Sarah Palin knows she's complicit, she just doesn't have the decency or courage to admit she made a mistake.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

They leapt to the conclusion before anyone else did. Started whining about how unfair it would be that the left would blame this on them before we even knew what the gunman looked like and some of them were hoping it would be an illegal immigrant.

Hell, Sarah Palin made the connection or she wouldn't have scrubbed her website before she offered her condolences.