Democrats and a climate of hate

The Climate of Hate

Shortly after November's electoral defeat for the Democrats, pollster MARK PENN appeared on Chris Matthews's TV show and remarked that WHAT PRESIDENT OBAMA NEEDED TO RECONNECT WITH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WAS ANOTHER OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING. To judge from the reaction to Saturday's tragic shootings in Arizona, many on the left (and in the press) agree, and for a while hoped that Jared Lee Loughner's killing spree might fill the bill.

With only the barest outline of events available, PUNDITS AND REPORTERS SEEMED TO AGREE THAT THE MASSACRE HAD TO BE THE FAULT OF THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT IN GENERAL, AND OF SARAH PALIN IN PARTICULAR. Why? Because they had created, in New York Times columnist Paul Krugman's words, a "climate of hate."

THE CRITICS WERE A BIT SHORT ON PARTICULARS AS TO WHAT THAT MEANT. Mrs. Palin has used some martial metaphors—"lock and load"—and talked about "targeting" opponents. But as media writer Howard Kurtz noted in The Daily Beast, such metaphors are common in politics. PALIN CRITIC MARKOS MOULITSAS, ON HIS DAILY KOS BLOG, HAD EVEN INCLUDED REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS'S DISTRICT ON A LIST OF CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS "BULLSEYED" FOR PRIMARY CHALLENGES. When Democrats use language like this—or even harsher language like Mr. Obama's famous remark, in Philadelphia during the 2008 campaign, "IF THEY BRING A KNIFE TO THE FIGHT, WE BRING A GUN"—it's just evidence of high spirits, apparently. But if Republicans do it, it somehow creates a climate of hate.

There's a climate of hate out there, all right, but it doesn't derive from the innocuous use of political clichés. And FORMER GOV. PALIN AND THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT ARE MORE THE TARGETS THAN THE SOURCE.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703667904576071913818696964.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop


Glenn Reynolds is right on target on this one. Oops, I mean he hits the bulls eye. Oops that doesn’t work either. He nails this one cold (better, but a left winger could still accuse me of inciting violence)



The charlatans' response to the Tucson tragedy

Let us hope that DEAN IS THE LAST GASP OF THE GENERATION OF LIBERALS WHOSE DEFAULT POSITION IN ANY ARGUMENT IS TO INDICT OPPONENTS AS RACISTS. This McCarthyism of the left - DEVOID OF INTELLECTUAL CONTENT, unsupported by data - is a mental tic, not an idea but a tactic for avoiding engagement with ideas. It expresses LIMITLESS CONTEMPT FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, who have reciprocated by reducing liberalism to its current characteristics of electoral weakness and bad sociology.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/10/AR2011011003685.html


George Will zero’s in on what the left is doing with this tragedy.

Arizona's New Star Sheriff

Dupnik, a Texas native who joined the Tucson Police Department in 1958, became AN OVERNIGHT INTERNET SENSATION after taking over the probe into Saturday’s bloodbath. PROMINENT LIBERAL BLOGS HAILED HIM AS A PARAGON OF VIRTUE, and urged readers to email their thanks for announcing that hate speech can have dangerous consequences. Fans set up a new Facebook page, dubbed “Clarence Dupnik is my Hero,” after he denounced his home state as a “Mecca for prejudice and bigotry” and BLAMED POLITICAL “VITRIOL” FOR THE ACTIONS OF THE GUNMAN who left Rep. Giffords on the operating table, shot through the brain and fighting for survival, still in critical condition more than 24 hours after the incident. He’s even scheduling press interviews as early as 4 a.m.

On Sunday, Dupnik, looking tired and angry, really played against type, BLASTING ARIZONA’S LAX GUN LAWS—including a new measure aimed at allowing anyone over 21 to carry guns on college campuses—and confessing, in a rare personal moment, “extreme sadness, sorrow, and shock” over the shooting of the congresswoman, a friend and political ally.

. http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/11766_gabriellegiffordsshootingsheriffclarencedupniksprobewinsliberalraves;_ylt=AkGWh0gcSJkcf1HOoyalX4eOoswF;_ylu=X3oDMTRyM2txNzUzBGFzc2V0Ay9zL2RhaWx5YmVhc3QvMTE3NjZfZ2FicmllbGxlZ2lmZm9yZHNzaG9vdGluZ3NoZXJpZmZjbGFyZW5jZWR1cG5pa3Nwcm9iZXdpbnNsaWJlcmFscmF2ZXMEY2NvZGUDcmRuYmUEY3BvcwMzBHBvcwMzBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDYXJpem9uYXNuZXdz


If you want to see a good interview of the Sheriff, watch this one with Megyn Kelly. The sheriff like many liberals can basically say, don’t confuse the issue with facts (or the lack of them), “I have my opinion.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/256732/megyn-kelly-calls-sheriffs-bluff-politicizing-shooting-shannen-coffin



Redstate: Outspoken Sheriff Accused Of Dismissing Loughner Death Threats

Reportedly, LOUGHNER HAD A HISTORY OF MAKING PUBLIC DEATH THREATS THAT BEEN IGNORED BY THE PIMA COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT...

What the The Cholla Jumps site is alleging - and which has not yet been confirmed- is the following:
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.
The question is, is this true?

http://nation.foxnews.com/arizona-shooting-rampage/2011/01/10/redstate-outspoken-sheriff-accused-dismissing-loughner-death-thr



I normally wouldn’t post something like this that is not confirmed. But in view of Sheriff Dupnik’s speculation on the case it seems fair.



Dupnik was asked by the Democrats to apologize for remarks in the past

(Dupnik) ONCE BLAMED POLICYMAKERS FOR VIOLENCE IN HIS COUNTY BECAUSE THEY HAD STOPPED INSTITUTIONALIZING MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE.
Dupnik also suggested that local SCHOOLS SHOULD CHECK THE IMMIGRATION STATUS of students and that many of the social problems in his county were attributable to illegal immigration--remarks that some fellow Democrats cited as “inflammatory” while demanding an apology from the sheriff.

Additionally, Dupnik once TOLD RESIDENTS IN PART OF HIS COUNTY TO BUY GUNS TO PROTECT THEMSELVES because he did not believe his department, given its limited resources, could adequately do the job themselves.
Dupnik expressed his views about mentally ill people not being institutionalized to the Tucson Citizen newspaper in September 1999 after four people had been shot by local law enforcement officers in the course of a single week. The Citizen published the sheriff’s remarks in its Sept. 21, 1999 edition in a story by staff writer Michael R. Graham that ran under the headline “Dupnik: guns, drink making streets unsafe.”

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/sheriff-dupnik-blamed-mentally-ill-and-i


His new view that talk radio etc. was the cause of the current shooting reeks political self interest.



Gabrielle Giffords shooting: Jared Loughner 'believed he could fly'

A schoolfriend of Jared Loughner, the main suspect in the shooting of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, has spoken about his friend's OBSESSIONS WITH DREAMS, CHAOS AND GOVERNMENT.

Mr Tierney said: "I SAW HIS DREAM JOURNAL ONCE. That's the golden piece of evidence. You want to know what goes on in Jared Loughner's mind, there's a dream journal that will tell you everything."

He said that Loughner sometimes approached strangers and would say "weird" things.

"He would do it because he thought people were below him and he knew they wouldn't know what he was talking about."

By the beginning of 2010, Loughner's imaginary world was taking precedence over his everyday life, Mr Tierney said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/us-politics/8251472/Gabrielle-Giffords-shooting-Jared-Loughner-believed-he-could-fly.html


SNL skit parallels what happened in Tuscan

TED KOPPEL: (voice-over)

John David Stutts spent his childhood here, in this modest home in Lima, Ohio. Everyone who knew him called him a loner, a quiet young man. Stutts attended Sunday school at the Mercy Seat Baptist Church.

MERCY SEAT BAPTIST CHURCH PASTOR:

He was a loner, and a quiet young man. He attended church, and Sunday school. I remember he was always very polite.

TED KOPPEL: (off camera)

Do you believe he killed Buckwheat?

MERCY SEAT BAPTIST CHURCH PASTOR: (without hesitation)

Oh, yes. Definitely. That’s all he talked about.

http://www.angelfire.com/mo/stewie/thingy/buckwheat2.html


Of course the skit was from 1983, but it parallels what happened in Tuscan this past weekend.  Do you think this skit could have caused Loughner to shoot all those people?  That makes as much sense as do the Liberal trying to blame the Republicans for the shooting.