Leave it to the liberal loons for the politicalization of murder

Was a Tea Partier (and I’m an Atheist River Dancer Who Hates Hunting)
Doug Giles:

Do you know whom I believe is responsible for this catastrophe in Tucson? ... more
What Makes Brown Think He Can Get a Tax Increase?
Debra J. Saunders:

When he unveiled his budget, the California governor boasted that he was delivering a spending plan without "gimmicks, tricks and unrealistic expectations." ... more
A Birthright, and a Mess of Pottage
Steve Chapman:

If two foreigners come here illegally and bear a child, the child automatically gains American citizenship. ... more
Why Waste A Good Tragedy?
Ken Connor:

Fueled by the relentless nature of the 24-hour cable news cycle and the modern impulse to derive a sociological lesson from even the most inexplicable and senseless acts of violence, there is already talk of a need for laws regulating the use of "inflammatory" imagery and rhetoric. ... more
A Bright Idea: Bring Back Incandescents
Ken Blackwell:

Why is Paris known as the City of Lights ? Is it because the U.S. Congress banned Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulbs, so he had to take his invention offshore? ... more
Journey to Remember
Salena Zito:

Stepping onto the platform of a Victorian-era train station here, you wouldn’t know you are standing over the foundation of Harpers Ferry’s original armory and arsenal buildings. ... more
Is It Time To Crack Down On Media Personalities That Get Paid "Too Much?"
Austin Hill:

Should our government regulate the earnings of talk show hosts? Would limiting the annual incomes of media personalities set our nation on a pathway to peace, and prosperity, and "fairness?" ... more

Insolvent Democracy—A Warning From History
David Stokes:

Anyone having the opportunity to interact with someone who is, say, more than eighty years old—and therefore remembers the Great Depression—knows that people back in those days thought differently about money and material things than most of us do today. ... more
Thinking of the children
Paul Jacob:

Today's youth have nothing to worry about. Politicians are bending over backward to help them. ... more
                                  

 

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Sunday Edition

Video Of The Day
RINO Giuliani Says Conservatives Rushed to Judgment -- by Defending Themselves

                                              

A top official in the Pima County sheriff's office said Sunday that his department did not begin an investigation or take earlier action regarding Jared Lee Loughner despite his history of erratic behavior because his contacts with police were "relatively benign" and did "not rise to the level of causing us to be necessarily concerned about him committing a violent act."

Richard J. Kastigar, chief of the sheriff's Operations Bureau, acknowledged the controversy over the question of whether authorities should have moved earlier to look into the case of Loughner, who gunned down 20 people Sept. 8 outside a Tucson supermarket, killing six and critically wounding Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

"A lot of folks have suggested that there were clues to his mental stability," Kastigar said on ABC's "This Week. "But we're governed by laws. And the laws allow us to do certain things and restrict us from doing other things."

Kastigar said that each of the contacts with Loughner over the last few years – most of which involved the police at Pima Community College where he was attending classes from 2005 until he was suspended in 2010 – were "relatively benign. In their totality, as viewed by law enforcement, they would not rise to the level of causing us to be necessarily concerned about him committing a violent act, because none of the acts were necessarily violent."

"He was disruptive in a Pima College classroom," Kastigar said. "And I personally don't want a police state where anybody who perhaps has an opinion, or stands out in their classroom, or does something goofy in their classroom gets arrested and then put in some kind of a mental rehab system."

Kastigar admitted feeling "defensive" about "criticisms that say, 'Why didn't cops arrest this guy before?'" But he said, "The totality of those issues didn't rise to the level that would allow law enforcement to take action."

That view drew some support from Steven Cates who had attended a poetry class with Loughner.

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Asked on ABC if there were warning signs about Loughner that were missed, Cates said, "Warning signs for violence? No. ... In the class that I had with him, he made people uncomfortable ... the way he carried himself. People felt eerie around that, but ... he didn't behave aggressively. I mean, even his poems were far from aggressive. And so, it's hard to draw a line between someone being weird and standing out ... and ... anything that would merit police action or any kind of institutional intervention."

The contacts with Loughner documented in college police reports (see them here) included:

- A February 5, 2010 report to police from Division Dean Patricia Houston saying that Loughner had "reacted strangely" to a fellow student's reading of a poem by making "a huge leap from the context of the poem and [saying] things about abortion, wars, killing people, and 'why don't we just strap bombs to babies.'" Houston said he had a "dark personality." The officer who responded said he had "Dispatch run [Loughner] for warrants and history" and found "some prior drug involvement but no warrants or anything of immediate concern. For now, this report documents the faculty's concerns but does not in my opinion justify making contact with Loughner by police."

- An April 6, 2010 incident when the library staff at Pima contacted campus police because Loughner would sometimes make noises loud enough for the staff to hear. Loughner, who was at a computer listening to music with earbuds, told police he was "really into music" and would sometimes "excitedly utter phrases and words from the songs." He promised he would not do it again.

- A May 17, 2010 incident when an instructor told police that Loughner had become "very hostile" when she gave him a final grade of "B" for the semester and he called it "unacceptable" and "threw his work down."

- A June 3, 2010 incident when Loughner disrupted a class to argue with an instructor over a math question. The officer who responded to the complaint said "Houston [the division dean] has advised that the instructor and students in the class are uncomfortable with Loughner inside their class and are afraid of any repercussions that could exist from Loughner being unstable in his actions."

- A September 29, 2010 visit by college police to Loughner's house to serve a "Notice of Immediate Suspension" from the institution. The officer filing the report requested two other officers to be in the area as backup. After the officer read the entire letter out loud, Loughner said, "I realize now that this is all a scam."

The postmortems on whether and how Loughner should have been handled earlier given his behavior have included not only whether police should have acted earlier, but whether authorities should have seen to it that he got further attention rather than allowing him to drift further and further into isolation, especially after his suspension from Pima.

Dr. Lisa Dixon, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland and a specialist on people with severe mental illnesses, said on CNN's "State of the Union" that "it is impossible to predict with 100 percent certainty" whether a disturbed person will become dangerous.

"What one needs to do in addition to recognizing risk factors is talk to the person, if you can, and communicate and try to get a fuller understanding of how they see things and what their intent might be," she said.

"The mistake that people make is to think that they have to know that this person is dangerous," she said. "Our obligation to ourselves and to our community is to ask, and to seek help. And our obligation as, say, a mental health system and as school teachers and as heads of institutions is to try to make it safe to ask."

Interviewed on the same program, research psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey said, "I think the system failed miserably on it and I think Arizona has among the worst mental health services in the United States. There's only one state that has fewer public beds and that's Nevada on it. "

"So even if someone tried to get treatment for this fellow, it may or may not have succeeded in Arizona because they have cut many of their outpatient services," he added. "This is true all over the United States. There's not a single state in the United States that I would say people could go to today and are likely to get decent care in the public sector for schizophrenia."

Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said, "This man [Loughner] was crying out for someone who needed to be treated. He was being told to be treated. People were saying he was bizarre. People were saying he was frightening. A teacher wouldn't be with him without a guard being there. Gosh, you would think, at some point along the way, he'd have been evaluated."

New York Sen. Charles Schumer, raising a different angle about steps that might have averted the Tucson massacre, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Loughner should not have been able to legally buy a gun, as he was able to do, because he had a record of "excessive drug use" that caused him to be rejected by the military.

But Schumer said "the law doesn't require the military to notify the FBI about that" and that he was going to ask the Obama administration to make sure that, in the future, the military provides such information to the FBI database.

Appearing on the same program, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, an opponent of gun control laws, said Loughner was a "mentally deranged person" who should not have had access to a gun and that he was "willing to work with Senator Schumer or anybody else that wants to make sure people who are mentally ill cannot get and use a gun."

Sen. John McCain lost a bitter campaign against Barack Obama in 2008 and has been at loggerheads with him for much of Obama's first two years in office. But the Arizona Republican this weekend called Obama a "patriot" intent on using his presidency to "advance our country's cause" and rejected accusations – many coming from members of his own party and the tea party movement – "that his policies and beliefs make him unworthy to lead America."

McCain made his comments in an article he wrote for the Washington Post opinion page, posted on Saturday, in which he praised Obama for giving a "terrific speech" in Tucson at a tribute for victims of the shooting spree that took place there a week ago.

McCain said that Obama had "comforted and inspired the country" and performed an important service by encouraging "every American who participates in our political debates - whether we are on the left or right or in the media - to aspire to a more generous appreciation of one another and a more modest one of ourselves."

"Our political discourse should be more civil than it currently is, and we all, myself included, bear some responsibility for it not being so," McCain said.

The shootings in Arizona have prompted much introspection about the tone and tenor of American politics even though the reasons why the suspected gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, carried out the massacre remain obscured by his history of bizarre behavior.

But the fact that his victims included a congresswoman holding a community meeting and the constituents who came to speak with her was likely a factor in connecting the violent incident to the political debate, along with suggestions and accusations that the rhetoric of political partisans had contributed to what had happened.

Obama has been one target of harsh political rhetoric since running for and becoming President. Some of it has questioned whether he really shares the values of most Americans; accused him of pushing the country in a socialist direction; and, suggested that he does not have an appreciation for the U.S. as an "exceptional" nation.

Related Stories

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• Sarah Palin Blamed by Bloggers for Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords
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On the other side of the spectrum, some critics have implied or outrightly suggested that the rhetoric of McCain's former running mate, Sarah Palin, and some in the tea party movement, was responsible for what occurred in Arizona by using inflammatory imagery, ranging from Palin's now-famous map putting gunsights over congressional districts she was targeting, to Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's 2009 quote in which she said she wanted people "armed and dangerous" on the issue of the Democrats' energy proposal.

McCain wrote that Obama had "appropriately disputed the injurious suggestion that some participants in our political debates were responsible for a depraved man's inhumanity."

While not specifically mentioning Palin, McCain appeared to be referring to her, in saying, "Imagine how it must feel to have watched one week ago the incomprehensible massacre of innocents committed by someone who had lost some essential part of his humanity, to have shared in the heartache for its victims and in the admiration for those who acted heroically to save the lives of others - and to have heard in the coverage of that tragedy voices accusing you of complicity in it."

But as the former GOP standard-bearer, McCain also spoke out against those who have sought to paint Obama's views as inimical to American ideals.

"I disagree with many of the president's policies, but I believe he is a patriot sincerely intent on using his time in office to advance our country's cause," McCain said. "I reject accusations that his policies and beliefs make him unworthy to lead America or opposed to its founding ideals. And I reject accusations that Americans who vigorously oppose his policies are less intelligent, compassionate or just than those who support them."

During the 2008 campaign, Palin had said of Obama, "This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America ...Our opponent though, is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country?" (She was referring to onetime left wing radical William Ayers who participated in some Chicago educational projects with which Obama had been involved).

"His worldview is dramatically different than any president, Republican or Democrat, we've had," Mike Huckabee told Politico last August.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a possible GOP presidential contender in 2012, said to the National Review in September, ""What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]? That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior."

While there is no way to tell whether those particular statements had an impact, a USA Today/Gallup poll in December found that while 80 percent of Americans thought that America "has a unique character that makes it the greatest country in the world," more than a third said Obama does not share that belief.

McCain said in his article, "It probably asks too much of human nature to expect any of us to be restrained at all times by persistent modesty and empathy from committing rhetorical excesses that exaggerate our differences and ignore our similarities. But I do not think it is beyond our ability and virtue to refrain from substituting character assassination for spirited and respectful debate."

McCain's sentiments were echoed on CBS' "Face the Nation" by former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, "In the first moments after this, there was a rush to judgment on both sides, you know, left-wingers trying to blame it on right-wing Tea Party, Sarah Palin; right-wingers trying to fight back and defend themselves against what was really an outrageous charge...And I thought the president's speech put it on a different tone. And I think we have a chance, even though a couple of days later; I think we have a chance to do the same thing that we did after September 11."

Chairman Priebus may be in the Driver's Seat but We are the GOP's Ms. Daisy!

• Posted by Darla, ADMIN / National Director on January 15, 2011 at 8:30pm
• View Darla, ADMIN / National Director's blog

I have been reading the comments from the Tea Party movement on new RNC Chairman Priebus. It appears many in the movement are cautious and apprehensive about throwing their support behind the new chairman, especially in light of all that we have experienced at the hands of the GOP/RNC. To those who are concerned, I recommend the review of the comments written by the people who live in Chairman Priebus' own state of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin comments are positive about both the man and his ability to handle the job of chairman.

I have stated in the past, and I continue to believe, that the GOP is the best conservative vehicle available to us right now.  The first equitable and prudent step is to send the vehicle (the GOP) to the body shop!
 
Why the body shop you ask? In its current condition the RNC/GOP is not sufficient for our purposes. The GOP does not represent our movement's values.  You could say the RINOs in the party confiscated our vehicle and rammed it into a ditch! So, to the body shop it goes for RESTORATION OF THE PARTY.  The engine/Constitution and GOP party principles are in pristine condition.  The real obstacle has been the Rinos behind the wheel. The RINOs battered our vehicle causing it to be stripped of its original pristine condition. The RINOs caused our car to lose its value and endangered the engine.
 
What is the meaning behind taking the vehicle/GOP to the body shop? It means 'We the People' are the best hope for restoring the Party. We don't simply accept the current condition of the GOP and move forward...we take a stand that states clearly that the Tea Party/ Conservative movement will restore our vehicle to the CLASSIC constitutional principles status the GOP once hailed. The restoring process will require beating out the dents incurred by the Rinos followed by primer and paint. Then we encourage Chairman Priebus and the true conservative elects to take it for a spin at our direction!  

Personally, I refuse to walk away and start over. We cannot build a better mousetrap; other 3rd parties have tried for over 40 years and have not succeeded. I believe WE CAN restore the vehicle and appreciate the value. If we want to win in 2012 and replace Obama and many Senators then we need to become the NEW Conscience of the party. Our last election results where very telling about the power we have to restore this government. We gave the Republicans/GOP power in the House that they have not had for over 80 years.  THE MOVEMENT DID THAT!
 
After reviewing Chairman Priebus's past experience and all his accomplishments, I truly believe he is someone with whom we can work. We can become HIS CONSCIENCE.  I believe he is sincere in his desire to work with the grassroots movement. Only time will tell if he is strong enough to stand up to the major establishment RINOs and that brings me back to our Precinct strategy. If you want to see major change then YOU need to become Precinct Committeeman. The PC position will enable you to wield the power and influence you need to restore the GOP/vehicle
 
I am willing to support Chairman Priebus until he gives me a reason to change my decision. I will support the new Congress the same way. This is 2011, the year of accountability and I expect all of you to join me in holding their feet to the fire. I’m a positive person and therefore always hopeful. I still believe we are innocent until proven guilty. I believe everyone makes mistake, however, real character is developed or proven by the way ones handles the errors and how they grow from adversity. I do not believe all Republicans are bad people. I believe there are some really great people in the system trying to do what we have voted them in to do. Up until recently they had little, if any support from the sleeping giant.

Just remember how difficult it is to continue doing the 'right thing' if no one ever notices. It’s even harder if everything you hear is negativity from progressive special interest groups and their media buddies. We are all human and we all need a little kudos from time to time. I recommend that we remember that as we move forward.
 
Go here to learn more: 
Precinct Strategy 2012 http://www.patriotactionnetwork.com/group/invadethegop

                                                   

The test for the Tea Partiers by Laurence Lewis Sun Jan 16, 2011 at 05:00:06 PM PST

The Tea Partiers object to being characterized by hatred. Now would be a good time for them to prove their principles. Because many long have suspected that the level of vitriol from the right toward a centrist Democrat might be based on something other than policy. And many long have suspected that the level of vitriol from the right, in general, might be based on something less than rational. It would be nice to have such suspicions laid to rest.
If the Tea Partiers do have principles based on genuine political disagreements, this will be the year to reveal them. The Tea Partiers know that the Democrats are not going to enact their agenda, but they certainly should expect the Republican majority that they helped install in the House to do everything possible to try. The rhetoric of the Tea Partiers was not compromising. Their criticism of the Democrats was not compromising. Will they sit idly by if the Republicans now try to force them to accept what they have claimed was unacceptable? To what degree are they paying attention to the doings of the newly empowered Republicans?  
In just their few months of political ascendance, Republicans have been playing the same old Washington game of cronyism and sucking up to lobbyists and more lobbyists, and they have violated the Constitution and House rules by fundraising rather than showing up for their jobs. Does the Constitution mean something to the Republicans, or do they parade it just for show? Will the Tea Partiers continue to support and enable a Republican Party that proves hypocritical on deficits and fiscal responsibility and spending cuts and balanced budgets? Will they accept a Republican Party that proves hypocritical on rules and openness and transparency and proper procedures?
The Tea Party movement wants to be taken seriously as something other than an emergence from the bowels of our body politic. Tea Partiers said they wanted to "take" "their" country "back." Did that mean handing it to Wall Street and other corporate special interests? Does that mean taking Democracy itself away from the people and handing full control of government to but the landed gentry? As previously noted, Frank Rich in August identified the secret behind the Tea Party:

There’s just one element missing from these snapshots of America’s ostensibly spontaneous and leaderless populist uprising: the sugar daddies who are bankrolling it, and have been doing so since well before the “death panel” warm-up acts of last summer. Three heavy hitters rule. You’ve heard of one of them, Rupert Murdoch. The other two, the brothers David and Charles Koch, are even richer, with a combined wealth exceeded only by that of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett among Americans. But even those carrying the Kochs’ banner may not know who these brothers are.

Their self-interested and at times radical agendas, like Murdoch’s, go well beyond, and sometimes counter to, the interests of those who serve as spear carriers in the political pageants hawked on Fox News. The country will be in for quite a ride should these potentates gain power, and given the recession-battered electorate’s unchecked anger and the Obama White House’s unfocused political strategy, they might.

All three tycoons are the latest incarnation of what the historian Kim Phillips-Fein labeled “Invisible Hands” in her prescient 2009 book of that title: those corporate players who have financed the far right ever since the du Pont brothers spawned the American Liberty League in 1934 to bring down F.D.R. You can draw a straight line from the Liberty League’s crusade against the New Deal “socialism” of Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission and child labor laws to the John Birch Society-Barry Goldwater assault on J.F.K. and Medicare to the Koch-Murdoch-backed juggernaut against our “socialist” president.

And Rich drew on the essential work of Jane Mayer, who explicated the true intent of these billionaire brothers. The Tea Partiers might not care that the Republicans they have helped empower are clueless and dishonest and just plain embarrassing, but do they care if these Republicans offer but politicized lies and lip service, with even their circus acts but deliberately deceptive political games?

There already have been reports that some Tea Party activists are growing restive, while some already are questioning the direction of their effort. The questions are about their principles and their integrity. Were they motivated primarily by hatred of this nation's first black president? Was it just more political partisanship? Do they actually care about the issues, or did they just need to rant? The coming months and the coming years will prove whether they were but pawns in the schemes of manipulative billionaires. The coming months will prove whether they were just irrationally angry or actually believed their own rhetoric. The coming months will prove whether or not the critics who call them extremists and hate-mongers are right, or whether they truly care about improving the direction of this nation.

Will the Tea Partiers allow their Republican Party to continue to play the political games the Washington Republicans already are playing, or will they instead take political stands against a Republican Party that already is betraying what they claimed as their core principles? If they do, indeed, believe in America and the U.S. Constitution and their espoused principles, they will use the democratic process to pursue and promote those principles. And they will be as passionate and intense in taking the democratic process to a Republican Party that is turning its back on their espoused principles that they took to a Democratic Party that they knew from the start was their political opposition. And by their stands on the issues and their support of or opposition to politicians who don't stand up for their issues, we will soon find out if the Tea Party is for real or just emotional hype

Today's Headlines: Monday, January 17, 2011
Conservative Group Launches ‘Draft Pence for President’ Movement (CNSNews.com) Moody’s, S&P Warn U.S. Debt Will Harm Credit Rating 
(CNSNews.com) 

- A grassroots movement launched Monday is pushing Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) to run for president in 2012. America’s President Committee, led by former Congressman Jim Ryun (R-Kan.), launched its online effort at TheConservativeChampion.org.

– The credit rating agencies Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s have warned that record levels of federal debt eventually will damage the government’s AAA credit rating, a move that would make further borrowing more difficult. Moody’s report said that for the four AAA-rated countries – America, Britain, Germany, and France – reforming their rapidly ballooning entitlement commitments was key to keeping market confidence in place.

MLK Helped ‘Plant the Seeds’ for ‘Environmental Justice Movement,’ Says Attorney General Holder 
(CNSNews.com) - Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. helped “plant the seeds” of the “environmental justice movement,” which Holder called a “civil rights issue” that is a “top priority” for the Justice Department.

Abortion Lobby Dedicates Its Annual Report to DHS Secretary Napolitano 
(CNSNews.com) – NARAL Pro-Choice America, a pro-abortion advocacy group, has dedicated its annual report to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for "her courage, principled stance, and commitment" to legalized abortion in America. The dedication credits Napolitano with vetoing "no fewer than eight anti-choice bills.”

Abortion Lobby Gives America a ‘D’ Grade for ‘Reproductive Rights’ 
(CNSNews.com) – The United States earned a “D” grade for women’s “reproductive rights” by the pro-abortion advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice America in its annual report, released on Friday. States receiving the highest grades include an “A+” for California, which has a pro-choice governor, senate and assembly. California also was lauded for giving low-income women access to abortion.

Rep. Andrews: 'Stop the Harsh Rhetoric' Whether It’s Linked to AZ Shooter or Not 
(CNSNews.com) – Regardless of whether there is a link between “harsh” political “rhetoric” and the motives of the Tucson gunman, Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) says “we should stop the harsh rhetoric, just for stopping the harsh rhetoric.” Rep. Andrews added that the “harsh rhetoric” does “violence to the political community” and the country.

OTHER CNSNEWS.COM HEADLINES