Once again, there was a mass killing performed by a mentally ill, and unstable citizen of the United States, and more specifically, Arizona, which has one of the weakest gun laws in the nation. In Arizona, a person with mental instability can buy a semi-automatic glock, and conceal it because the law restricting their sale expired in 2004 and Congress would not go up against the National Rifle Association lobby and extend it; therefore, a young gunman took the lives of several and wounded many others. He almost killed Representative Giffords, a Jew, and killed a few other Jews that worked on her staff, along with a nine-year-old child.
Texas Representative Ron Paul has said repeated, “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” Yes Ron, guns kill people, and Jared Loughner’s gun, owned by this mentally unstable resident of Arizona, unveiled his concealed weapon, killing people because he was allowed to own a semi-automatic under Arizona law.
Fingers have been pointing at the bull’s eye target map that was created by Sarah Palin “aiming” her sights at vulnerable Democrats that she wanted to see targeted for defeat. Palin has consistently used vile and militant-style language as her political monogram. It appeared from her speeches that her narcissistic self-depiction as the Grand Poohbear of the Grizzly Mama crowd, within the extreme Reich-wing of the Republican party, might have gruesomely caught up with her.
Rabbi Michael Lerner’s op-ed, on Truthout.com, pointed out the following:
“When right-wingers create a climate of hate against liberal government, and then individuals act on that hate as they did in blowing up a Federal Building in Oklahoma City and now this premeditated murder of several people (we are still praying for the survival of Congresswoman Giffords) in hate-filled Arizona (where she had been attacked viciously but not physically for her support of health care reform), the state whose racism has made it famous around the world for profiling Mexican immigrants, there is no call to investigate and protect ourselves from these right-wing hate mongers.”
We consistently hear from the Reich-wing part of the Republican party that the United States is a Christian nation, although nowhere in the Constitution does it declare Christianity as the nation’s sole and predominant religion; but, people like Palin, and other Brownshirt dressing haters on the radio and television believe this should be so.
Sarah Palin’s Facebook page clearly painted a picture of herself as a political figure who was out to get Democrats, and some Republicans, who did not agree with her political views. Her now infamous map, which she had taken down from her website and Facebook page, had 20 cross-haired bull’s eye targets on it. She has since come out defensively downplaying those bull’s eye cross-hair symbols. There is no getting around it -- Sarah, they were there, and that was your focus—to “aim”, to “reload” and “to target” those more liberal and more progressive than you will ever be.
This is from the Arizona Daily Wildcat of 9-24-10, written by Nyles Kendall, “Palin reloads, aims for Giffords”:
“Earlier this year, Palin drew sharp criticism for featuring a map on her web page riddled with crosshairs targeting Democrats in vulnerable congressional districts. Tucson's Gabrielle Giffords is among the 20 Democratic incumbents whom Palin intends to use for target practice.”
In the same article, Giffords’ opponent, Republican Jesse Kelly said, "We are honored to have the support of Governor Sarah Palin,"
And, this from Firedoglake.com, “Giffords Opponent, Jesse Kelly, Held June [6-12-10] Event to “Shoot a Fully Automatic M16″ to “Get on Target” and “Remove Gabrielle Giffords”.” Here is more:
“Kelly’s website has apparently scrubbed the event, but here is the account from the Arizona Daily Star---------Jesse Kelly, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to be bothered in the least by the Sarah Palin controversy earlier this year, when she released a list of targeted races in crosshairs, urging followers to “reload” and “aim” for Democrats. Critics said she was inciting violence.
He seems to be embracing his fellow tea partier’s idea. Kelly’s campaign event website has a stern-looking photo of the former Marine in military garb holding his weapon. It includes the headline: “Get on Target for Victory in November. Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly.” The event costs $50.”
The Arizona Daily Wildcat went on to say:
"Kelly's photo is now prominently displayed on Palin's "Take Back the 20" website, just below the crosshair-covered map titled "We've diagnosed the problem. Help us prescribe the solution," a chilling innuendo.
Like the rest of the Republican Party, Kelly knows better than to be on the wrong side of a Palin endorsement.
If Palin truly cared about rectifying the problems inherent to this country's for-profit health care system, one that she and the Republican Party seem intent on preserving, she would dedicate her time and money to lending a helping hand to the estimated 50.7 million uninsured Americans rather than using her celebrity status to ensure the nomination of a handful of Republican nobodies.”
Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters.org wrote, “MSNBC's Ed Schultz on Wednesday called Republicans bastards that want to destroy the American dream [Ed apologized, four minutes later, for the harsh comment].” Mr. Schultz’ rant was this—“It’s all about taking down President Obama. They don’t want to create jobs. They’re not about that at all. And I’ll guarantee you, if you do see the numbers change, which I believe they will, you won’t hear Boehner or any of these new righties give one ounce of credit to the last Congress for fighting like hell for a jobs bill. This is an ideological war. I say it on camera tonight here on MSNBC. I will fight these bastards every night at 6 o’clock because I know what they’re up against. I know what they want to do. They want to take down American workers. They want to outsource jobs. They want to destroy the American dream. Concentrate the wealth to the top, and control minorities. That’s what they’re about.”
What Ed Schultz said about the GOP and his calling them out as “bastards” was minor compared to the message of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin (called for the killing of Julian Assange) when they have called out to their listeners to aim, reload and target Democrats, liberals and progressives over the last couple of years. Such angry haters, racists, and vitriolic ‘vile-ators’ on the Right have called for killing (Michael Moore), as well as performing harm upon persons just because they have a different ideology and political viewpoint.
Another Congressional Crazy Kook D’jour “speaking on a right-wing talk radio show in Minnesota on Saturday [March 21, 2010], [Republican Representative from Minnesota, Michele] Bachmann said:
"I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us ‘having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,’ and the people – we the people – are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country. And I think this has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States.” (Politico.com, “Bachmann urges "armed" revolt over climate plan”.]
Why hasn’t she been expelled from her Congressional seat for calling up an armed revolt over a mere energy tax? Or, arrested as an enemy non-combatant? If that were you or me, we would have been taken in for question, at the very least!
We have heard from Charles Heller, the founder of the Arizona Citizens Defense League saying, “The reason the perpetrator was caught was because of rapid action of the citizen militia.” How wrong that statement was!! There was no drawing of concealed weapons upon the shooter taking him down, but brave souls in the crowd, one wounded and others valiant who came to Ms. Giffords defense, risking their own lives, to disarm this killer!!! Heller needs to speak honestly about the crime scene and not over-inflate the roll of those associated with his local militia group in regards to this event.
There is no place for venomous, and toxic people to be allowed to contribute to the political debate without massive accountability, or be granted a license to “perform” in the public’s media, yet it has continued and been permitted; and now, it is clear that our long time civility has given way to rudeness, disrespect, and intimidation in our social and political discourse. Unfortunately, that ceiling of social and political norms has been turned into a vile battlefield resulting in the killing of others for their beliefs, and viewpoints. This is nothing more than an Ayatollah-like calling out for the elimination of the opposition, as was with the fatwa issued to kill Salman Rushdie for his writings and viewpoints.
And, Sarah Palin had made it a form of political strategy by taking “aim”, to “reload” if defeated, and to “target” those who disagree.
What is extremely clear is that Sarah Palin is culpable in this shooting spree. Individuals who are mentally unstable, dangerous and/or psychologically ill very likely have difficulty holding back their impulses, which are triggered by people, for instance, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly, who ask their psychologically weak listeners and supporters to perform actions on their behalf, such as “aiming” at a personal target, or “targeting” a place or location, need to held 100% culpable in the resultant crime.
Thanks for reading, jerry
http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com
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