Quote of the Day

"Be bold, be courageous, please support background checks."

Gabby Gifford, former congresswoman, at a 2011 anti-gun violence rally.

Florida State Sen. Maria Sachs has filed the "Universal Background Check Act." All sales of guns would have to be conducted through licenced dealers. The gun dealers would require gun owners to sell their guns through a dealer.

"I am not sold on the idea that this bill is going to pass," said Sachs. "What I am looking forward to, and I'm furious about this as many Floridians are, let's have this discussion."

The sad truth is this bill will never get a floor vote.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords First Appearane Back on House Floor

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was welcomed back to the House of Representatives. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi paid tribute to Giffords in a speech. Giffords voted yes on the debt ceiling deal.

John Boehner on Arizona Tragedy

Speaker John Boehner deserves credit for giving a superb speech for Gabrielle Giffords and the victims of the Arizona shooting.

Jared Loughner Was An Independent

The Washington Post reports Jared Loughner registered as an independent in 2006. He did not vote in the 2010 election. I doubt that will put an end to debate of which political side Loughner belongs to.

I have stated there is no evidence Loughner was involved with the Tea Party. There is evidence pointing to Loughner being an anti-Semite. The Department of Homeland Security is investigating whether Loughner is involved with the hate group American Renaissance. Loughner has read "Mein Kampf." Loughner's scary mug shot bears the appearance of a skinhead. None of this is conclusive. Hopefully, the criminal investigation will make matters clearer.

I don't blame Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh for the shooting deaths of six people. I do blame them for their despicable rhetoric. Many people of tired of the violent language used by conservative pundits and Republican politicians. Gabrielle Giffords' being shot was the breaking point for many progressives who tired of conservatives making jokes about killing liberals. Instead of Palin, Limbaugh and Glenn Beck understanding why the Left would be angered at being painted as targets for the Right's crosshairs they either played victim or accused the Left of playing politics. I have yet to hear a person call Palin or Beck the voices of centrist reason.

Palin's Survey Markers Nonsense

Sarah Palin's political team is making the claim that those were not cross-hairs on her PAC web site. (The web page has been taken down.) Gabrielle Giffords one of the Democrats on the map. Take a look at the map and tell me if that doesn't look like cross-hairs.



Palin aide Rebecca Mansour gives a rather original explanation.

" We have nothing whatsoever to do with this," Palin aide. Rebecca Mansour told the talk radio host Tammy Bruce in an interview. "We never ever, ever intended it to be gun sights. It was simply cross-hairs like you'd see on maps," she said, suggesting that it is a "surveyor's symbol."

It seems the Palin team has worked up a talking point. Tammy Bruce delivers the same message.

"It's surveyor's symbols," the interviewer Tammy Bruce suggested. Bruce, a Palin supporter, describes herself as "a gay, pro-choice, gun owning, pro-death penalty, Tea Party Independent Conservative. " Her show is promoted as a "chick with a gun and a microphone."

This is the most unbelievable piece of bullshit spin since Justin Timberlake said "wardrobe malfunction." Even Palin doesn't believe it. Her tweet describe the map having "bullseye" icons. Case closed.



Tina Dupuy has a good op-ed on Palin's op-ed. I share Dupuy's sentiment that Palin has a First Amendment right that allows her to say what she wants. No matter how reprehensible I may find her comments. That doesn't mean Palin can just weasel out of things she says.

Sarah Palin has the courage to delete her convictions and saunter away whistling like nothing happened. All of it is legal. I agree, and I will fight for that: Sarah Palin has the right to be spineless.

Here’s the thing: Palin had an opportunity to have a “bullhorn moment.” She had the opportunity to rise to the occasion and prove all her critics wrong. She could have proven she truly is a leader. That she’s not just a capitalizing catty mean girl who can’t tell the difference between an opponent and an enemy. That she is worthy of all this presidential buzz and not just skating by on some mushy conservative platitudes and good looks. She could have come out strong and expressed regret for demonizing a member of Congress who was shot in the head with a 9mm.

Palin didn't show leadership when she fought with McCain staffers during the 2008 presidential campaign or when she quit her job as Alaska's governor. Palin is the Newt Gingrich of her generation. The only time Palin will pick up a bullhorn is when she has a new book to sell. I do not blame Palin for the murders commited in Arizone. I will hold Palin and others accountable for hateful and inciteful rhetoric.

Side note: It is interesting that Palin is sending out her people to defend her. Palin is in hiding mode. So much for true leadership.

Update: Rep. Bob Brady plans to introduce a bill to ban cross-hairs or bullseyes from... I am not exactly sure what.

"You can't threaten the president with a bullseye or a crosshair," Mr. Brady, a Democrat, said, and his measure would make it a crime to do so to a member of Congress or federal employee, as well.

Asked if he believed the map incited the gunman in Tucson, he replied, "I don't know what's in that nut's head. I would rather be safe than sorry."

He continued, "This is not a wakeup call. This is a major alarm going off. We need to be more civil with each other. We need to tone down this rhetoric."

This bill will not hold up in the courts under previous first amendment rulings. The Republicans will kill Brady's bill. This is the left-wing version of the infamous Freedom Fries legislation.

Update: Palin's people are working overtime to delete negative comments from her Facebook page.

Westboro Baptist Church to Protest At Funerals of Tucson Shooting Victims

It is hard to imagine the Westboro Baptist Church. The group has protested at the funeral of dead soldiers because the religious group is under the delusion that the military condones homosexuality. The Westboro Baptist Church plans to protest the funerals of the six people killed in the Tucson, Arizona shooting. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was injured during the shooting. The Westboro Baptist Church is gloatibng over the death of Judge John Roll.

Your federal judge is dead and your (fag-promoting, baby-killing, proud-sinner) Congresswoman fights for her life. God is avenging Himself on this rebellious house! WBC prays for your destruction--more shooters, more dead carcasses piling up, young, old, leader and commoner--all. Your doom is upon you!

Below is Westboro Baptist Church's flyer. This insane rant is disgusting.

Jared Loughner & American Renaissance

Tea Party Nation is blaming the the Left for alleged shooter Jared Loughner's rampaged that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords wounded and six others dead. The Department of Homeland Security is investigating if Loughner has ties to the anti-semitic group American Renaissance. AR swears it has no ties to Loughner and is not racist. The homepage of American Renaissance's web site reveals a hate group. Here are some of their article descriptions.

Man Attacked By Kids At L’Enfant Metro—Bystanders Watch, Film It (Video),
Black girl attacks white man.

The Profound Problem of Muslim Immigration, EuropeNews;
They come to conquer.

Heroic Media: ‘The Most Dangerous Place for African-American Children Is the Womb’, Black Voices;
Black women 5 times more likely than whites to have abortions.

Did the First Humans Come out of Middle East?, London Telegraph;
Out-of-Africa takes another knock.

Laboring for US Citizenship, China Daily (Beijing);
Chinese want anchor babies, too.

Detroit in Ruins: The Photographs of Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, Guardian (London);
What happens when the whites leave.

State Lawmakers Announce New Law to End Birthright Citizenship and Anchor Babies, Examiner;
Hispanics are livid.

Mayfair Mall Closes Early After Tumult, Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee);
Race unspecified, but we can guess.

They can "guess" the race? What great journalism. They can "guess" the race? What great journalism. No one will mistake for Media Matters.

Loughner is currently in FBI custody and has invoked his fifth amendment rights. The gun Loughner was carrying was legal. Arizona does not require a permit for gun ownership.

Update: Judson Phillips sent this message out to his Tea Party Nation followers. The message is blame the Left for the shooting. Phillips fails to explain why the Left would target one of their own.

The hotheads on the left have been using Twitter, Facebook and other social media to spout off for the last 24 hours. Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas fired off a tweet saying, “Mission accomplished Sarah Palin.” Hotheads like him will fade. Next week we will see a more serious attack from those who are the masters at the dark arts of media and politics.

This attack has already started and you can see the liberal meme forming. They will say the tone and rhetoric from conservatives and the Tea Party is responsible for this crime. In Politico today, first an unnamed “Republican” (read RINO) Senator said, “tone matters.” Politico then quoted an unnamed Democratic operative who followed the same “tone matters” line, blaming the “overheated rhetoric” for the shooting, then saying Obama should “deftly pin this on the Tea Partiers,” just like Clinton placed the blame for the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

In 1995, Clinton then tried to blame conservative talk radio, especially Rush Limbaugh, for the terrorist bombing. The tactic worked then, backing conservatives off and possibly helping to ensure a second Clinton term.

The line we will see for the next few weeks is going to be that rhetoric and tone of the message from the Tea Party is responsible for this attack. Let’s ignore the fact that this guy was not only nuts, but also a card carrying liberal. The hard left is going to try and silence the Tea Party movement by blaming us for this.

In a decent world, we could all take a moment to mourn for those killed by a liberal lunatic. Political civility is long since dead and the left will not let us do this.

So be it.

The left is coming and will hit us hard on this. We need to push back harder with the simple truth. The shooter was a liberal lunatic. Emphasis on both words.

Where does one get their liberal card?

Phillips' proof that Loughner is an Business Insider article quoting a Twitter user saying Loughner smoked a lot of pot and listened to classic rock in high school. The same could be said about filmmaker Kevin Smith. Phillips' evidense proves nothing. There is also no evidence that Loughner was involved in the Tea Party movement. Why Phillips and others on the Right are doing pushback is because violent rhetoric has been used for so long by Sarah Palin, Fox News and the Tea Party movement against the Left. The recent shooting his what reality looks like. Their fantasy world bubble has been popped and they are doing damage control.

The Reality of Second Amendment Rememedies

I wonder how Tom Coburn and Sharron Angle feel about "Second Amendment rememedies" are justifiable expressions of voter anger against the federal government. Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has been shot in the head at a public event.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot outside a grocery store in Tucson while holding a public event, Arizona Public Media reported Saturday.

Giffords, who was re-elected to her third term in November, was hosting her first "Congress on Your Corner" event at the Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.

At least five other people, including members of her staff, were hurt. Giffords was transported to University Medical Center in Tucson. Her condition was not immediately known.

We do not know the shooter's motive or if the person was a Tea Party member. We shouldn't jump to conclusions. However, I can't help of thinking about Angle and Coburn endorsement violence against the federal government. Coburn is a U.S. Senator and Angle ran for the Senate. I doubt they want people shooting at them. What is more likely is Angle and Coburn engagement in demagoguery for political gain. Politicians that weak and debased should not serve in government.

ANGLE:

You know, our Founding Fathers, they puit that Second Amendment in there for a good reason and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. And in fact Thomas Jefferson said it's good for a country to have a revoltion every 20 years.

I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are looking toward those Second Amendment rememedies 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.

Coburn being interviewed by David Gregory on Meet the Press.

"Well, I’m, I’m troubled anytime when we, we stop having confidence in, in our government," Coburn said. "But we’ve earned it."

Coburn was asked about possible threats to Democrats. Coburn said the tea baggers "earned" their anger. Gregory had to stop Coburn.

"I am talking about violence against the government." Gregory said. "That’s what this is synonymous with."

Coburn justified the behavior of tea baggers.

"What, what is the genesis behind people going to such extreme statements?" asked Coburn. "We, we have lost the confidence."

Pathetic.

Update: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and six other people are confirmed dead. This is horrible. I feel really sick in my stomach having to write this. The one small piece of solace is the alleged was captured at the scene fleeing.

Update: Giffords' Republican opponent Jesse Kelly had a "target" Giffords campaign event. A M-16 was part of the event.



Update: Gifford is alive and recovering.

Gun At Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Townhall Meeting

A tea bagger protester dropped a gun at a health care townhall meeting. Staffers for Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords called law enforcement.

“Yelling and screaming is counterproductive,” she told the Sierra Vista Herald at a Congress on Your Corner event last week. There, one visitor dropped a gun at the meet n’ greet held in a Douglas Safeway, her staff says.

That has aides, who called police to the event, concerned for her safety.

“We have never felt the need before to notify law enforcement when we hold these events,” said spokesman C.J. Karamargin.

The tea party protesters are not part of the mainstream. Their behavior is scary and counterproductive. I don't believe President Obama has the political courage to take the tea party movement on. Obama left health care reform up to Congress and that has been a disaster. The President avoided being placed in the political fray and let conservatives spread misinformation about health care.

The protests are getting increasingly violent. Obama hasn't once said, "Enough is enough." Why is he afraid of condemning a movement that seeks his political destruction? If Obama isn't willing to fight for health care then he had no business dragging the Democratic Party into this.