President Obama appealed to our better angels and delivered a brilliant speech last night: "And if, as has been discussed in recent days, their deaths help usher in more civility in our public discourse, let's remember that it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy, but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation, in a way that would make them proud." He set the perfect tone for the occasion. Your Jennifer Rubin link would have us believe lefty bloggers and pundits directly blamed Sarah Palin and right wing bloviators for the Tuscon shooting. No one ever said that. The fact is, Palin's cross hairs on AZ-8, Giffords' having said such things have consequences and vitriolic right wing rhetoric rampant in the country automatically brought the *possibility of a connection* to everyone's mind, and especially that of the right wing. It threw the righties into to a defensive crouch that they immediately scrubbed websites or any taint of blame and argued Loughner was a lefty. As if they owned it, they twisted themselves into pretzels over the shooting without anyone saying they were directly to blame. More to the point:
"We do not yet know whether the Arizona massacre was directly fueled by rightwing rhetoric. But we do know this: one of the most dangerous myths promulgated by the media and political establishment is that there is a comparable level of extremism among conservatives and liberals, that left and right are mirror images. Even the most cursory perusal of rightwing radio, television, blogs and assorted punditry illustrates a profound distinction: in large measure, the right's overarching purpose is to stoke hatred of the left, of liberalism. The right's messaging infrastructure, meticulously constructed and refined over decades, promotes an image of liberals as traitors and America-haters, unworthy of their country and bent on destroying it. There is simply no comparable propaganda effort on the left." Read more: Gabrielle Giffords and the rightwing hate machine (on the bogus equivalence between right/left extremism) Peter Daou, January 9, 2011 http://peterdaou.com/2011/01/gabrielle-giffords-and-the-rightwing-hate-machine/ --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "WillyTex" <willytex@...> wrote: > > > > Mike Dixon: > > let's not rush to judgement... > > > "The final lesson for the left is this: for the > sake of a second term, the president is willing > to throw liberals under the bus. > > He's going to undo their economic mantra (by > supporting the Bush tax cuts). He is going to > undermine their approach to their war on terror > (with drones, a long-term commitment to > Afghanistan). > > And he is even going to make the liberal icons > Krugman, the New York Times editorial board, > Keith Olbermann and the rest look like fools..." > > Washington Post, January 12, 2011 > http://tinyurl.com/4rkqf4x > I don't disagree that Obama is a corporate tool, but then again, so are the right wing plutocrats. Same zebra, different stripes.
