I have to open thread the deplorable and disturbing Arizona shooting. [The Captain has lots.]
However, no matter the darkness, the contemptible Paul Krugman can deliver a smile even while blaming the Tea Party and Sarah Palin for the violence - in an UPDATE to his post politicizing the shooting he delivers this insight:
Update: I see that Sarah Palin has called the shooting “tragic”. OK, a bit of history: right-wingers went wild over anyone who called 9/11 a tragedy, insisting that it wasn’t a tragedy, it was an atrocity.
Well, then, let's have a bit more history - this was President George Bush, addressing Congress and the nation on Sept 20, 2001:
I thank the Congress for its leadership at such an important time. All of America was touched on the evening of the tragedy to see Republicans and Democrats joined together on the steps of this Capitol, singing "God Bless America."
Now, that took me roughly one minute to find with Google (it is currently the third hit on the search for " 'George Bush' 9/11 tragedy". So how much time did Krugman spend preparing his UPDATE and history lesson? My guess - he moved at the speed of reflexive hate.
As a bonus, the NY Times reporting is not going Krugman's way (but the night is young):
Another former high school classmate said that Mr. Loughner may have met Representative Giffords, who was shot in the head outside the Safeway supermarket, several years ago.
“As I knew him he was left wing, quite liberal. & oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy,” the former classmate, Caitie Parker, wrote in a series of Twitter feeds Saturday. “I haven’t seen him since ’07 though. He became very reclusive.”
“He was a political radical & met Giffords once before in ’07, asked her a question & he told me she was ‘stupid & unintelligent,’ ” she wrote.
Well, the shooter was kicked out of school for being crazy, so evaluating his politics is really relevant only to the reflexive haters such as Krugman.
BONUS LEADERSHIP: Is Krugman really writing in the Times that "it’s long past time for the GOP’s leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers"? Isn't this the same NY Times that just last week delivered a big wet kiss to outgoing House Democrat Alan Grayson, who (we were told) wore steel toed boots "the better to kick Republicans with, he jokes". Ha ha! Kicking funny, shooting tragic - I get it, but do the crazies?
Chaco-someone whose dog is bringing him messages from Sirius. My dog died, but I've been getting messages from Sirius. Sirius/XM that is. Can't get it off channel 74, B B King's Bluesville. I went looking for the few I knew I liked (Stevie Ray, B B, Clapton, Hooker, etc) and found literally hundreds of high quality blues players that keep me occupied all day.
Posted by: larry | January 09, 2011 at 03:11 PM
The second person being sought turned out to be the cabbie that drove the shooter there. He's been cleared.
FoxNews: A federal law enforcement source tells Fox News that it is the first time in their memory that the FBI director has been dispatched to a crime scene by the president.
Does this mean the first time by Obama or by any president? Obama has now called for a national moment of silence tomorrow at 11 a.m.. His silence will occur with his aides and too many cameras to count on the south lawn of the WH. How many people died in the Nashville floods last year that Obama never mentioned?
Posted by: DebinNC | January 09, 2011 at 03:13 PM
"I have had very successful moderate Dems tell me that Rush engaged in such hateful speech only to have them confess they never actually listened to him."
Ditto's that Clarice.
My NPR mom always dumped on Rush as a bigot and buffoon etc. So on a visit we are driving down the road and Rush is on and doing a wonderful fun 4-5 minute rant. She is laughing and agreeing, and at the break she asks "Who is that?"
I answer "Rush Limbaugh."
Immediately Mom got stony faced and I was smiling like a Cheshire Cat. Didn't have to say anything else:)
Posted by: daddy | January 09, 2011 at 03:15 PM
Wow, if Chiefs don't wake up, they can wait till next year.
Posted by: larry | January 09, 2011 at 03:17 PM
The Chiefs look like garbage today.
Posted by: Captain Hate | January 09, 2011 at 03:49 PM
Immediately Mom got stony faced and I was smiling like a Cheshire Cat. Didn't have to say anything else:)
Heh. Good for you for not saying anything until she asked.
Posted by: Porchlight | January 09, 2011 at 04:15 PM
The Mighty MUGGS:)
Posted by: Jack is Back! | January 09, 2011 at 04:16 PM
Bravo, DebinNC. Those last two comments were so good I read them aloud to my husband.
Ditto with yours daddy. LOL, I get so much grief for sticking up for RUSH it has become amusing to repeat his "Pearls of Wisdom".
Like: "As I was watching a little bit of the Constitution being read today on the floor of the House, I said, 'This has to be like waterboarding to these Democrats.'" :)
Posted by: Ann | January 09, 2011 at 04:22 PM
Trying to remember, did we have a moment of national silence for Ft. Hood?
Also, the NY Times has started the narrative that will be further embellished by every tin horn journalist and politician regarding vitriol in our politics. Yet there is not one scintilla of evidence that Jared Loughner listened to anything except the high frequency white noise emanating out of his tangled and damaged thoughts. But hey, lets make this Obama's Oklahoma City event and see how well he fares. My money is that he will be a 60 second leader on this and fade into his usual lethargy and laziness if the subject isn't about him.
Posted by: Jack is Back! | January 09, 2011 at 04:22 PM
If either (a) or (b) is correct, one wonders why he forgot to leave his manifesto where we could find it. What, he was motivated enough to kill a judge and a Congresswoman but not motivated enough to say why? Not even a tweet, or a final Facebook away message?
Which pushes me to (c).
The Judge was collateral damage. He was there to shop, saw the Congresswoman and decided to come over to say hello. Jared stood in line to shake the Giffords' hand and waited until he was almost to her to open fire.
All these political motives are pure speculation. We could just as easily say he hated the Dodgers or the Phila. Phillies as that beautiful little girl's father is a scout for the Dodgers and her Grandfather is Dallas Greene, former pitcher/manager of the Phillies.
The liberal left is projecting. Everyone knows that the left constantly advocates violence and goes out of its way to foment violence and hate and their favorite pastime is projecting their own hate-filled lust for violence onto their enemies and everyone who doesn't agree with their warped views is "the enemy."
________________________________
As to 9/11. It was a typical cowardly act that caused unspeakable tragedy for the individuals involved but politically, it was an act of war by deranged totalitarian extremists.
Posted by: Sara (Pal2Pal) | January 09, 2011 at 04:34 PM
BYRON YORK VIA POWER LINE:
Posted by: Sara (Pal2Pal) | January 09, 2011 at 04:53 PM
Just imagine the line-up of vitriolic incitements to violence that Rush will tee up tomorrow, starting and ending with Obama's calls to bring a gun, get in our face, and punish us.
Posted by: Extraneus | January 09, 2011 at 04:59 PM
Sara, that was not Byron York but Greg Farrell.
Posted by: PaulL | January 09, 2011 at 05:12 PM
'Who is Jared Loughner?'
Many more details of Loughner's odd behavior, especially in school.
Posted by: Sara (Pal2Pal) | January 09, 2011 at 05:15 PM
PaulL: Thanks. You are right, of course. I picked the link up at another site and didn't read the intro. My bad.
Posted by: Sara (Pal2Pal) | January 09, 2011 at 05:17 PM
Breaking: American Renaissaince Denies Knowing Loughner: “We Have Never Heard of Him” (Video) …Updated
Posted by: Sara (Pal2Pal) | January 09, 2011 at 05:27 PM
From reading the comments @ AoS on Sheriff Dumbass's comments on Megyn, does it seem like he's deep in a CYA mode as more comes out about this nutjob Jared's multiple arresta and record of threats but no criminal record? And mommsy poo works for the County Board of Supervisors? Hmmmmmm
Posted by: Captain Hate | January 09, 2011 at 05:29 PM
Amazing how most of Troll's "list" has been debunked - Carnahan's "coffin" being the most ridiculously obvious.
You want to see incitement? Here's the "smoking gun" (pun intended) from...
Drumroll please!...
The Daily Kos!
Only 2 days before the shooting, they posted a rant by "boy blue" TITLED: ""My CongressWOMAN voted against Nancy Pelosi! And is now DEAD to me!"
Read more: Look who else put 'bull's-eye' on Giffords http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=249273
NATURALLY they scrubbed the post, but snaps are available all over...
Wanna make this REALLY interesting? We've heard about his "obsession" with the "2012 prophecy" -- well, there's a user named "boy blue" who posts an awful lot of crap on sites related... See http://www.december212012.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10031
Posted by: Dedicated_Dad | January 09, 2011 at 06:37 PM
Given the assassin’s obvious mental illness, why are identity conservatives at such great pains to barf up denial and misdirection about his politics? The rational rebuttal to claims that the killer is a PRODUCT of right-wing politics is both simple and conclusive and requires none of the denial, misrepresentation and “hey, look over there’’ comprising the JOM contribution so far. All you have to point out is that, while the assassin may indeed have claimed right-wing sympathies and while some right-wing rhetoric does celebrate political violence, the killer is one in many millions, utterly exceptional and, on that basis alone, represents nothing about right-wing ideology.
It’s telling that this defense doesn’t occur to most wingnuts. They don’t see it because they are childlike essentialists. They can only define people, ideas, movements and ideologies by their essence. They can’t see that the killer could claim right-wing politics, yet still act in a way that reflects nothing about the actual ideas and practice of rightism. To identity conservatives, everything is defined by its essence, so that evil is the exclusively the province of evil people and evil ideas, and good the province of good people and good ideas. The idea that someone would do something evil in the name of a good idea falls too far outside their habits of mind. Typically, and confusingly they label the idea that good people can do evil and vice versa "moral relativism." This also explains their inability to acknowledge that the while bin Ladenists claim Islam, they don’t represent it. Children have the same intellectual limit. They consider essence definitive in exactly the same way identity conservatives do.
Posted by: bunkerbuster | January 09, 2011 at 09:51 PM
When you've got a favorite list of books bookended by Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto with some of the others tossed in the middle, I'd say you have a taste for the grandiloquent which kind of goes along with the 'My Assassination' note. In a more perfect world, the community college, after his behavior there, would have sent him a note saying that, subject to further judicial review, for a period of time, it was asking for impairment of his right to buy or possess a gun. This was going to be part of police database, with something like HIPAA medical release protections, not accessible by the public so shouldn't interfere with his job applications etc.
Posted by: Michael | January 09, 2011 at 10:54 PM
Michael, it now appears that folks at the college DID try to do that. They notified authorities, who didn't do anything.
We have this whole background check, waiting period, etc. to get a gun permit precisely to keep nutcases from getting guns (remember it was John Hinkley who shot Brady). It might have actually worked -- if this guy had needed an illegal gun, would he have mentally been up to the task of organizing it? Well, he didn't have to, because the authorities (including Sheriff Barney) didn't make sure that he had a criminal record.
Posted by: cathyf | January 10, 2011 at 02:41 PM