This is the rather bizarre mugshot of Jared Loughner that was released yesterday afternoon. He has been assigned lawyer Judy Clarke, who defended the Unabomber.
One of the more interesting facts to emerge is that Loughner was expelled from his community college after complaints from classmates that he seemed on the edge of violence.
In the meantime, the Sheriff is being attacked for criticizing right-wing commentators for their over-the-top rhetoric, including conservative icon, Rush Limbaugh. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik stated “The kind of rhetoric that flows from people like Rush Limbaugh, in my judgment he is irresponsible, uses partial information, sometimes wrong information. . . [Limbaugh] attacks people, angers them against government, angers them against elected officials and that kind of behavior in my opinion is not without consequences.” [Update: Limbaugh has reportedly fired back by saying that the Democratic Party supports Loughner and is “attempting to find anybody but him to blame.” Wasn’t he supposed to be Costa Rica?] Reportedly near the scene of the shooting is this billboard:
Sarah Palin is also being criticized for putting a bullseye over Giffords’s district as someone she has “set her sights on” for defeat:
Notably, Palin was previously associated with threats against the President by the Secret Service, here.
Gifford’s husband has also blamed inflammatory rhetoric for the shooting.
For its part, the Brady Campaign, may the following point in a statement from Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence:
“The 22 year-old shooter in Tucson was not allowed to enlist in the military, was asked to leave school, and was considered “very disturbed” (according to former classmates), but that’s not enough to keep someone from legally buying as many guns as they want in America.” For the full statement, click here
One of the more worrisome (and predictable) developments is the proposal of legislation to further criminalize speech, here.
The Beatles Inspired Manson
Jodi Foster Inspired Hinckley
Al Gore Inspired James Lee
anybody care to add to the list.
Buddha,
“…yet the history of violence here in the United States on the political side of things comes from the left side of the political spectrum.”
So, they’re finally going to admit that the founders were liberals?
That’s as far as I made it, and as far as I WANT to make it.
Where’s the time cube guy when you need him?
ROLFMAO!
That’s some comedy bit there, Mikey.
Anon Nurse how are you? I have to ask because it was asked of me when I posted something from the Blaze. Isn’t that Glen Becks site?
He often quotes them in his shows so I hear. Not that it matters other than the fact someone asked me the same question so I figured I would ask you.
anon nurse,
I wish the press would ignore that hateful group of people. They just do this to get attention.
This is beyond despicable:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/westboro-baptists-vow-to-picket-funerals-of-az-shooting-victims/
(CNSNews.com) – Arizona’s Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, who on Saturday suggested radio and television talk shows were somehow responsible for inciting a man who may be mentally disturbed to kill six people and wound 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), 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://cnsnews.com/news/article/sheriff-dupnik-blamed-mentally-ill-and-i
45% Worry That Obama Opponents Will Turn To Violence
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/january_2011/45_worry_that_obama_opponents_will_turn_to_violence
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/11/arizona-rightwing-extremism-immigrants-judge-roll/print When President Obama took office, the anti-immigrant right “fused” with the extreme religious right under the banner of the tea party.
maybe he was watching Chris Mathews and wanted Obama to reconnect with the American people by giving Obama anothe OK City Bombing moment.
Listen to the fat hatemonger/gasbag spout off on his radio program.
Limbaugh: The Democratic Party Supports Alleged AZ Shooter And Is “Attempting To Find Anybody But Him To Blame”
From the January 11 edition of Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201101110027
Excerpts from “What Does Jared Lee Loughner Believe?” (CBS News, 1/10/2011)
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20028022-503544.html?tag=stack
It seems clear based on Loughner’s YouTube videos and MySpace page that he held a grudge against the U.S. government – and that he had had become obsessed with Giffords, the local embodiment of that government. Start with his reading list: As Mark Potok of the Souther Poverty Law Center notes, the central theme running through the books – Mein Kampf, The Communist Manifesto, George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm, Ayn Rand’s We The Living – is “the individual versus the totalitarian state.”
*****
He seemingly harbored a grudge against Giffords dating back to 2007, when he did not like how he was treated at an event held by the congresswoman. The Wall Street Journal reports that Loughner apparently asked Giffords at the 2007 event, “How do you know words mean anything?” Giffords responded to Loughner in Spanish, prompting him to complain to a friend over how he had been treated. A note to Giffords was found in Loughner’s apartment expressing hatred to the congresswoman and making threatening comments, according to MSNBC.
The differences between the anti-government rhetoric on this web site and anti-government web sites elsewhere are in the solutions proposed (when they are proposed, unfortunately not often enough).
Can a disturbed individual tell the difference? Probably not. They simply absorb it all and eventually react. This is what Chris Matthews has been concerned about – the National Zeitgeist.
Some of them attack some entities percieved as being on the “Right” and some entities percieved as being on the “Left”. And some simply attack the nearest politician regardless of political leanings. Ms. Gifford may have been simply the most convenient. Had her opponent won, this fellow might have found as much to dislike about him/her as with Ms. Gifford. And the result may have been the same at a later date.
The problem in this case is the seeming inability to deter obviously disturbed individuals from purchasing firearms and ammunition.
Just sayin’.
Buddha Is Laughing to Slug: “Get back to us when Olbermann shoots somebody.
Any panic the Right is feeling now is well earned and justified. When the Teabaggers run off at the mouth about “Second Amendment remedies”? You bet this is the inevitable outcome. When you incite violence often enough, some crazy bastard will eventually take you up on the offer.”
—-
An article I read this morning pointed one to the Newt Gingrich GOPAC memo of 1996- 1996 that lays out the use of language to advance the conservative agenda. I found the memo on line and here are excerpts. The memo is actually not much longer than this, I left out the rah, rah, for our side paragraphs.
There are people out there that are too young to remember when this was not the sop for our political dialogue. Their political education has been poisoned by the deliberate attempt to demonize an entire political viewpoint.
Jared Loughner may have pulled the trigger but GOPAC told him to do it.
**
A bit about GOPAC:
“GOPAC is a Republican (GOP) state and local political training organization. Although often thought of as a PAC, or Political Action Committee, it is actually a 527. It describes itself as “the premier training organization for Republican candidates in elected office on the state and local levels.”
GOPAC was founded by Delaware Governor Pierre S. du Pont, IV in 1978 in “an effort to build a farm team of Republican officeholders who could then run for congress or higher state offices later.” [1] On February 1, 2007, former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele became the chairman and served until his election as chairman of the Republican National Committee in January, 2009. The current chairman on GOPAC is Frank Donatelli.”(Wikipedia)
**
GOPAC memo 1996:
As you know, one of the key points in the GOPAC tapes is that “language matters.” In the video “We are a Majority,” Language is listed as a key mechanism of control used by a majority party, along with Agenda, Rules, Attitude and Learning. As the tapes have been used in training sessions across the country and mailed to candidates we have heard a plaintive plea: “I wish I could speak like Newt.” …
This list is prepared so that you might have a directory of words to use in writing literature and mail, in preparing speeches, and in producing electronic media. The words and phrases are powerful. Read them. Memorize as many as possible. And remember that like any tool, these words will not help if they are not used. …
and Contrasting words to help you clearly define the policies and record of your opponent and the Democratic party.”
“Contrasting Words
Often we search hard for words to define our opponents. Sometimes we are hesitant to use contrast. Remember that creating a difference helps you. These are powerful words that can create a clear and easily understood contrast. Apply these to the opponent, their record, proposals and their party.”
decay, failure (fail), collapse(ing), deeper, crisis, urgent(cy), destructive, destroy, sick, pathetic, lie, liberal, they/them, unionized bureaucracy, “compassion” is not enough, betray, consequences, limit(s), shallow, traitors, sensationalists, endanger, coercion, hypocrisy, radical, threaten, devour, waste, corruption, incompetent, permissive attitudes, destructive, impose, self-serving, greed, ideological, insecure, anti-(issue): flag, family, child, jobs, pessimistic, excuses, intolerant, stagnation, welfare, corrupt, selfish, insensitive, status quo, mandate(s), taxes, spend(ing), shame, disgrace, punish (poor…), bizarre, cynicism, cheat, steal, abuse of power, machine, bosses, obsolete, criminal rights, red tape, patronage
When a whole country ,like Germany f.ex., goes crazy, the sane are calle insane.
Ahem:
The guy was a nut.
There are more spectra to political thought then “American left to American Right.”
In fact both of those are made up of different spectra: individualism vs collectivism; authoritarian vs anarchist; Controlled economy vs. Free economy; Theocratic vs. Secular; ect.
Now, two differing political philosophies (say Stalinism and Nazism) can share similar views on one of those spectra and different views on others.
Stop acting like everyone views the world in the exact same terms as you, and stop trying to act like a crazy guy’s actions are anything but crazy.
Which brings up the real issue: how on earth did this guy not get help back before people were dead?
Giffords’ dad said the entire Tea Party was her enemy?
Ohhhh…so her Dad interjected politics into his daughter’s tragedy.
Okay. That’s where it all started.
Now I understand.
Such thinking is why we don’t allow lynching or citizens taking the law into their own hands in America.
I trust he didn’t know what he was saying as he spoke these words out of fear and overwhelming anguish.
“Prof. McGAHEE: I mean, it was challenging. You know, you didn’t know the next day at class if he was going to bring a weapon, and he was going to try to end everybody’s lives. One of the students, she was scared for her life after her first day, and she told me that personally after class. It got me concerned that every time I looked at him with a stern look and even when I wrote on the whiteboard, I would keep a lookout the corner of my eye just to keep close surveillance on him and make sure he was not doing anything unusual or pulling out a weapon out of his bag or anything to hurt anyone. ”
Twas fear.
He was feared, and then ostracized….talk about a negative feedback loop. It is a horrible way to open a disussion but perhaps it’s time to revisit the disservice being done to those with psychological problems. I remember when Reagan changed the law regarding how mental illness must be treated…the ranks of the homeless on the street swelled overnight. As society becomes more homogenous there will be more and more who do not adapt well. Stigma and lack of intelligent response needs to be addressed.
Before anyone starts blaming this on violence in videogames and movies, gangster rap or Marilyn Manson, I’m giving you the wise words Chris Rock, bigger and blacker:
“Whatever happened to crazy?! What, you can’t be crazy no mo’? Did we eliminate crazy from the dictionary? Fuck the record, fuck the movie,… cray-zy!”
“What about the PARENTS?! The parents need to go to jail for some of this shit, man, yes. Yeah, go take care of them kids. Go take care of them kids before they kill me in ten years.”