"I blame the individual for the first 10 bullets, I blame the law for the next 21 bullets that he fired"

Compare and Contrast

I believe we can be better. Those who died here, those who saved lives here – they help me believe. We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us. I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us.

That’s what I believe, in part because that’s what a child like Christina Taylor Green believed. Imagine: here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just starting to glimpse the fact that someday she too might play a part in shaping her nation’s future. She had been elected to her student council; she saw public service as something exciting, something hopeful. She was off to meet her congresswoman, someone she was sure was good and important and might be a role model. She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted.

I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us – we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.

- President Barack Obama, 1/12/11

Compare and contrast.
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Sarah Palin: America's Enduring Victim

In a seven minute and 43 second video today, Sarah Palin addressed the massacre in Arizona last Saturday. Well, actually, she spent only the first minute and a half addressing the people who were killed and injured. She spent the rest of the time explaining how the violent language and images that she used against Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (and all the violent rhetoric used by Republicans this past year) not only had nothing whatsoever to do with Giffords being shot in the head, but was the height of patriotism:

Vigorous and spirited public debates during elections are among our most cherished traditions. And after the election, we shake hands and get back to work, and often both sides find common ground back in D.C. and elsewhere. If you don’t like a person’s vision for the country, you’re free to debate that vision. If you don’t like their ideas, you’re free to propose better ideas. But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.

"Blood libel"?!?

Does she even know what that phrase means?? (Even uber conservative Jonah Goldberg has a problem with it.)

And, then there's her idea that when she and other Republicans use violent rhetoric ("crosshairs," "reload," "Second Amendment remedies," "armed and dangerous," "Our nation was founded on violence," "a bloody war," "the tree of freedom is occasionally watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots," "Put anything in my scope and I will shoot it," "And if ballots don’t work, bullets will") that is merely engaging in "spirited public debates," but when anyone dares to criticize the violent rhetoric that is inciting hatred and violence.

Yes, Sarah, you are the true victim in all this and people who object to violent language are the true perpetrators of violence. It all makes so much perfect fucking sense that I need to rush right out and buy your books. You have slain me with your logic. Please, please run for President so that I may vote for you.

In case you missed it, here's poor, little Sarah huddled by the hearth in her hovel in the shetl trying to get her words out before the Cossacks come:


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STFU with the eliminationist rhetoric

"Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!"
- VP Candidate & Gov. Sarah Palin, Republican

"I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out."
- Senate Candidate Sharron Angle, Republican

“We have become, or are becoming, enslaved by the government ... I dare ‘em to try to come throw me in jail. I dare ‘em to. [I’ll] pull out my wife’s shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door. They’re not going on my property.”
- CNN Commentator Erick Erickson, Republican

"I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax, because we need to fight back."
- US Rep. Michele Bachmann, Republican

"Our nation was founded on violence. I don't think that we should ever remove anything from the table as it relates to our liberties and our freedoms."
- Texas Candidate for U.S. Rep. Stephen Broden, Republican

"We are aware that stepping off into secession may in fact be a bloody war. We are aware. We understand that the tree of freedom is occasionally watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.”
- Texas Gubernatorial Candidate Debra Medina, Republican

"Does sharia law say we can behead Dana Milbank?...I think you and I should go and beat him up."
- Fox News Host Bill O'Reilly, Republican

"Put anything in my scope and I will shoot it."
- U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, Republican

"Meet Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson."
- Conservative Radio Show Host Glenn Beck, Republican

(More here)

While most Republicans seem to take their cue from their patron saint Ronald Reagan that government is the problem, a current segment of that party takes it one step further by not just constantly disparaging government, but calling for its violent overthrow -- or at the very least using eliminationist rhetoric against Democrats.

And, I'm calling BULLSHIT right now on anyone who tries to paint some false equivalency. There simply isn't this level of violent language by politicians, political candidates and cable hosts coming from the Democratic side.

I'm also calling BULLSHIT on anyone who would try to say that when Jared Lee Loughner killed six people and wounded 13 others yesterday including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at her own event that this was just some "crazy person" acting out and that it was not a political act. Loughner could have just as easily gone to a mall or a McDonald's or a school. But he didn't. He targeted a politician -- and a Democratic politician. He clearly had problems with the government as seen by his now deleted MySpace page:

He was anti-government, anti-federalist, pro gold standard, and he compared a young woman to a “terrorist for killing the baby” so he sure as hell wasn't a liberal.

What he seems to be is a mentally disturbed individual living in a time of historic vitriolic rhetoric and in a place where threats and violence had already been directed towards Giffords as noted by Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik:


What had been aimed already at Giffords? Sarah Palin had her in her crosshairs:


We have this from her Tea Party opponent:


And, we have the Congresswoman's own words on the issue:


We also have six dead and 13 wounded, including:

A Congresswoman fighting for her life:

Gabrielle Giffords

A slain chief judge for the United States District Court:

John M. Roll

And, a little girl cut down in her ninth year of life:

Christina Taylor Greene
Christina was born on 9/11. She was a member of her student council who was brought to the event to meet a role model.

Shortly after the massacre, Sarah Palin deleted the "crosshairs" from the web. Would that she and her ilk delete any more violent garbage from coming out of their mouths.
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