Did Sarah Palin Put Gabrielle Giffords At Risk?

January 9, 2011

- See all 34 of my articles

I like many others of both sides of the political spectrum are saddened by the events Saturday in Tucson, AZ, where thirteen people were wounded and six were killed at a political event for Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. While I do truly believe their sentiment at the results of this incident, the deaths of Gabe Zimmerman, John Roll, Dorthy Murray, Dorwin Stoddard, Phyllis Scheck and nine year old Christina Greene are clearly blood on the hands of the the political atmosphere created by the teabaggers, nurtured and encouraged by the Republican Party, publicized on its own “news” network and carried out by nutcases like 22 year old Jared Loughner.

Sarah Palin didn’t pull the trigger but she did put Giffords in her cross hairs as a target that her supporters needed to take out. (WINK)

Jesse Kelly, Giffords opponent in this past election didn’t pull the trigger. However he did have his supporters taking aim and shooting at pictures of her to help them practice taking her out. Kelly said Saturday that you can’t make any possible connection between the two things. Nope can’t find any connection at all between you wanting people to practice shooting at the Congresswoman to take her out and someone shooting her not in practice. Nah, no way at all. Give me a break. 

Is this the kind of Second Amendment remedy you were looking for Sharon Angle? The tea party candidate did lose the election to Giffords after all.

Isn’t a little revolution every now and then a good thing and we need to fight to take our country back. Michelle Bachman, that is what you wanted right?

The examples of the incitement and nurturing of the rhetoric by the politicians on the right as well as their supporters, that would lead to this are endless. Outside of her opponent literally having people practice shooting at her, the examples I give here are pretty anecdotal. They do prove a point though, hatred breeds violence and your followers will practice what you preach so you might want to tone it down a notch. This was stated by many over and over again during this past election cycle. To bad it took an event like this happening for the right to finally wake up and realize that maybe they might just be a smart idea.

Guess it seems to be working, Republicans have suspended the vote on their pointless vote on repealing that Job Killing Healthcare (that those evil, socialist, want to kill your grandma, gonna take your guns and religion Democrats brought upon you) Bill, that just the day before was too important to allow for any debate or amendments to. Guess its better late than never to decide to return sanity to the party.

15 Comments (+add yours?)

  1. kosmo
    Jan 09, 2011 @ 08:28:23

    I’m actually a bit relieved that this sort of thing doesn’t happen more frequently. Politicians are sitting ducks at these sort of events. A supermarket isn’t exactly designed with high security in mind, and there’s always a trade-off between security and allowing constituents to get close to you.

    I hope Rep. Giffords a speedy and complete recover and offer my condolences to the families of those who were killed.

    Reply

  2. Martin Kelly
    Jan 09, 2011 @ 22:38:41

    I also hope for a full recovery of all the injured people. My heart goes out to the families of those who have died. This event is terrible for all Americans since, as an elected person, she represents her whole district, well over 150,000 people. The attack was on all of them.

    I must take exception to you squirrel. Let us allow law enforcement to investigate and the court system to punish the CRIMINAL. The rhetoric that has been spewed all weekend is sickening. We have no idea if Loughner has any political motivation at all. We are told that he was mentally unstable by a news media that brags about being first, not being correct. We are told that he has been previously convicted of violent crimes as well.

    When peace protesters held up signs with a gun held to then President Bush’s head, I saw no outrage from the left. If someone had tried to attack the President, would the organizers of the rally be held responsible for “instigating” this behavior? This type of venting and the loud cries from both sides of the political spectrum occur all of the time. If he turns out to be a lefty mad because she use to be a Republican who switched to be a Democrat but remained a conservative, will there be a rash of apologies for suggesting that Sarah Palin is a murderer or at least a cult leader calling for murders?

    As Americans, we all have to recognize the rule of law. If you political views are defeated at the polls you have to peacefully try to overturn that result. If a terrible act is committed, punish the criminal. It is far to easy to blame any bad event on your political opponents.

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  3. kosmo
    Jan 10, 2011 @ 08:32:10

    I hold politicians to a slightly higher standard than protestors, simply because many mainstream Americans look to polticians for a rational approach to solving the nation’s problems – something that probably can’t be said of protestors, who often veer into irrational thought (which is not to say that they aren’t often driving at good points).

    Although I feel than entertainers (including fiction authors) are a group that rational people would not look to for ideas on how to behave, I’m actually pulled a couple of really good plot ideas off the table, for fear that they might give bad ideas to some nut jobs. (Think about that for a moment … a lot of my stories have disturbing thoughts, but even I have my limits).

    I wouldn’t say that Palin was directly responsible, but I also think that it wasn’t a great idea to use the gun sights.

    Reply

  4. The Angry Squirrel
    Jan 10, 2011 @ 21:06:48

    Now Martin I never said that Palin was a murderr and Kosmo is the one who came up with the title for the post. Of course you punish the criminal, but here in my thoughts I merely wanted to show the rhetoric can posssibly be led to blame. I would say the rhetoric of her opponent during the election more of a damaging thing than Palin’s, which is why i said the others I used were more anectotal in nature. Actually inviting people to come shoot weapons at an image of your opponent with the tag line of training you to take her out seems more disturbing to me than Palin’s cross hairs thing. This post was merely to express my views on the sitution and not to try to try Palin as a murderer.

    Reply

  5. Martin Kelly
    Jan 10, 2011 @ 23:20:58

    Squirrel, sorry, I guess I was venting about the coverage that is being broadcast night and day. I get so fed up with americans wanting the definative answer right now, and a press corp that is willing to drop to the level of just spouting oppinion rather than actually investigating and finding the truth (at least part of it).

    Reply

  6. The Angry Squirrel
    Jan 10, 2011 @ 23:52:58

    No problem Martin. I can get the fed up with direct link, to say that there is no possible way any connection could ever be made between the rhetoric and the event, like El Rushbo the Drug Addict, Beck, Palin, etc etc, fill in you figure on the right seem to be doing. The Tea Party even has had the audacity to try to fundraise out of this tragedy. Then again when many of their candidates around the nation (not just Sharon Angle) had a we need to use bullets if ballots don’t work mantra in their rhetoric during the campaign, it is not very surprising.

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  7. kosmo
    Jan 11, 2011 @ 08:21:18

    One of the things I find interesting about our political environment is how candidates amplify relatively small differences in candidates and philosophies. Certainly Gabrielle Giffords and Jesse Kelly have differences of opinion … but not a Hitler/Gandhi sort of difference. Yet, there is often an attempt to demonize the other candidate of party (and both parties do this).

    Sometimes, I think our legislators lose track of the fact that their job is to govern, and not to engage in pissing matches.

    One thing that might help this a bit (gasp) is a cutback on advertising. Currently, radio and TV stations must make political avertising available at their lowest rate – a concession for the right to use public airwaves to broadcast. In the pre-internet era, this made some sense – how else could you get the word out?

    But today – with the internet available to such a large portion of the population, is this still necessary? I personally ignore most of the political advertising on TV. I’ll jump on the internet, where I can easily investigate claims being made on the politician’s web site.

    I’m not saying to stop political advertising entirely … but why not allow the stations to charge a market rate for the ads?

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  8. Britney
    Jan 12, 2011 @ 06:49:53

    Not to offend, but I find it strange that many Americans are so quick to put everything on one particular party or another instead of looking at the facts.

    The shooter was no more a democrat than he was a tea party member, or a republican. From where I come from we just call it what it is: Crazy. He’s just a lunatic that picked up various sound bites and news stories as he roamed around the internet. Look at his Youtube channel. The guy is completely out of his mind and only latches on to causes to shield his insanity.

    The only thing that doesn’t make sense to me is how he could shoot so accurately in that kind of situation. I’ve seen gun battles before where, unless the shooters were at point blank range with a shotgun or a semi-automatic weapon, the vast majority of bullets were all over the place. Yet not only was he ready to die but he managed to hit his target.

    Maybe law enforcement types can educate me here since, again, I’ve seen people start shooting and I’ve been trained in firearms, and the odds of someone doing what he did without a cocktail of serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a downer like marijuana, and probably other drugs not to mention considerable shooting experience seems very slim to me.

    What is also suspicious is that politicians are quick to use this on top of your media and their so-called watchdogs to crack down on whoever dissents. The funniest and most ridiculous thing of all was when the Southern Poverty Law Center called David Ike, the former head of the UK Green Party a radical right winger. Bleeding hearts don’t come bigger than David Ike, so obviously the SPLC had something else in mind when they tried to put the blame on him.

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  9. Squeaky
    Jan 12, 2011 @ 07:26:44

    I’m a few days behind on everything right now because of work…work, work, work. Ugggggg.

    Let me start by agreeing with everyone that this was a tragic event and I wish that it had never happened. I feel for all of the families involved.

    Squirrel, you make my head explode every time I read something you spew. I’m running out of duct tape, so….Kosmo, work that into the 2011 budget, the stapler hurts too much.

    Jumping on the MSNBC bandwagon of blaming the tea party, Republicans, or even the evil, bleeding heart dems is ridiculous. The only thing I didn’t hear you say is that guns kill people which I’m sure you thought.

    Regarding the crosshairs—I grew up with shooting targets of the Ayatollah Khomeini, Jimmy Carter, etc. To think this is new is completely naive. No one mentions the Obama targets that are out there. If simply mentioning “taking out” someone is enough to drive another person to kill them….I know hundreds of people that are guilty and Obama should be dead thousands of times over. Seriously?

    This nut job is just that: a nut job. He’s even described by one of his classmates as a left wing pot head…sounds like a tea party member to me. BTW, how many people do you know that build shrines in their backyard for politicians?

    @Britney, you hit that directly on the head. The accuracy with his shooting is amazing. Studies show that even highly skilled/trained shooters normally can’t shoot with that accuracy in an actual shoot/no shoot situation. The adrenalin is just too much for the body to compensate for. If the allegations of being a pot head are accurate, that could help to explain this.

    I’m suprised that no one has mentioned Sheriff Dupnik. How reckless can a law enforcement officer be to mention politics just hours after a tragedy like this? The worst part is that his comments were in his own words, “opinions only”…nothing based on fact. I could see this coming from a new commentator, but not a news reporter and especially not a LEO. I’m beyond disappointed at his reckless assertion. At a time when an entire nation was grieving this was completely uncalled for. A LEO’s job is to uncover facts. The fact finding had hardly begun when he made these politically spun statements. These are the type of statements that can come back to haunt a law enforcement department during a trial. He should have used better judgment, regardless of his opinions.

    It will be interesting to see what else comes out about Loughner in the coming days, but none of it will probably be good. We’ll probably learn more about his obsession with the Congresswoman and the warning signs that are obvious now. There is nothing good that can come of this.

    Squeaky…

    Reply

  10. The Angry Squirrel
    Jan 12, 2011 @ 12:46:30

    Well Squeaky if you cared to read the post more than just seeing the headline and then blocking it out because it wasn’t in tune with your opinion and than attacking the part that you did read you would see that I did not label the right Palin or anyone as murderers, I merely expressed my opinion that when you have a violent message in your campaigning, you can’t just come out and laugh, who me? when someone questions whether it has anything to lead to an event like this. Even after this event has happened some of the tea parties are still clamoring and clinging to their if ballots don’t work bullets will advocacy. Once again I said some, not all the anecdotal ones like Palin and her cross hairs have seem to have shut up temporarily and went into hiding (Thank God)

    Honestly though now I am more appalled at that cult leader from my hometown who is going to picket the nine year old’s funeral. I don’t know about you, but as a status update I made on facebook said that I hope the father there has more restraint than I, because I have an eight year old daughter and if she died innocently and needlessly and you are gonna come in my moment of grief and say that her death is God’s punishment for anything, then I am gonna have to bring “God’s punishment” down upon you

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  11. The Angry Squirrel
    Jan 12, 2011 @ 12:48:53

    As far as the LEO officer part, I agree fully with you. So if you get them to take the neighboring right wing nutcase law enforcement official in the neighboring county out of office I will glady agree for this less vocal and insane liberal leaning official to get the boot.

    Reply

  12. Squeaky
    Jan 12, 2011 @ 13:15:56

    “the deaths of …… are clearly blood on the hands of the the political atmosphere created by the teabaggers, nurtured and encouraged by the Republican Party, publicized on its own “news” network…..”

    Remove the first paragraph portion and I would come close to agreeing with most of your post. However, that paragraph sets the momentum to interpret everything that follows.

    I agree with the picketing of funerals. It sucks and it shouldn’t happen.

    LEO part…agree to that too. Politics doesn’t belong in those statements either way. I’ve seen too many (even innocent) statements go south whether they’re twisted by an attorney, taken out of context or just plain stupid.

    However, a little revolution every now and then is good. This was not a revolution; this was an act of lunacy. I still think Michelle Bachman is correct.

    Squeaky…

    Reply

  13. The Angry Squirrel
    Jan 12, 2011 @ 13:38:44

    Well maybe delete clearly, but the rest of the opening paragraph made more sense to me in stating that the tragedy is blood on the hands of their rhetoric. When you invite people to come unload an automatic weapon into the image of your opponent and say come help me take here out. When you call upon people to take the second amendment to make solution for you political disagreeances or say that ballots are not working so we need to use bullets, then an event like this is in my opinion gonna be attributed in some way to what you say, nutcase or not, because in the end that is exactly who is gonna be the one to actually carry out what you call for in that instance.

    On the other hand, the liberal media as you call it brings up the question of whether the toxic environment has reason to blame for an event like this. I wish they would have focused more on the legitimate rhetoric concerns that a comical reference to the easiest and biggest public figure to attibute things to in Palin’s cross hairs thing. As it just gave her a platform to spout her mouth off again in a nonsensical way and talk about things she has no idea what they actually mean. I know some on the right refer to the media as a bunch of Jews all the time, but I didn’t know the media was killing children for their blood or religious ceremonies the past few days. I thought they were questioning whether the rhetoric to be blamed.

    At least there is one thing that all sides of the aisle can agree on, that Fred Phelps is a lunatic.

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  14. kosmo
    Jan 12, 2011 @ 13:53:35

    The sports fans in our midst may know the grandfather of the little girl, longtime baseball general manager Dallas Green.

    I’m anxiously awaiting the Supreme Court ruling on Syder vs. Phelps. I’m hoping they decided to apply the precedent established in Chaplinsky vs. New Hampshire – if anything, Phelps is a better test case for that ruling than Chaplinsky himself was.

    I firmly believe that the right to express yourself is different than the “right” to antagonize others.

    Reply

  15. Onij
    Jan 19, 2011 @ 20:43:42

    @angrysquirrel – great post.

    Reply

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