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Do I detest it? Yes, ever since the nineties when I became aware of it. The right wing was ratcheting it against Bill Clinton then.
I would very much want for it to stop.
But is there any connection between hate speech and the recent tragedy?
Apparently not. The shooter was a mentally ill man with a fixation on Gifford dating since 2007. It was more the celebrity element that led to the killing of John Lennon than any political coherent thought.
I tend to agree with this point of view from Slate which considers
The awesome stupidity of the calls to tamp down political speech in the wake of the Giffords shooting.
The article goes to tackle the inflammatory pronouncements of the sheriff in the case
Embedded in Sheriff Dupnik’s ad hoc wisdom were several assumptions. First, that strident, anti-government political views can be easily categorized as vitriolic, bigoted, and prejudicial. Second, that those voicing strident political views are guilty of issuing Manchurian Candidate-style instructions to commit murder and mayhem to the “unbalanced.” Third, that the Tucson shooter was inspired to kill by political debate or by Sarah Palin’s “target” map or other inflammatory outbursts. Fourth, that we should calibrate our political speech in such a manner that we do not awaken the Manchurian candidates among us.
And, fifth, that it’s a cop’s role to set the proper dimensions of our political debate. Hey, Dupnik, if you’ve got spare time on your hands, go write somebody a ticket.
Indeed, it was what sent this in the stratosphere of recriminations and excitement over political opportunity to score points.
Hardly the right response to this tragedy.
Again, a madman shot into a crowd – aiming at a woman he was obsessed with. She happened to be a Congresswoman.
One can take it in as the tragedy that it is, or use it to escalate the atmosphere of vitriol in politics today.
I say, look at the facts. It was not about politics.
Now go home put the pitchforks and torches down and chill out.
The WTF was brought on by this tweet
Following the link, I got to actually enjoy some of the Will snark
Often in the year before the year before the year divisible by four, a few political people theatrically recoil from partisanship. Recently, this ritual has involved speculation about whether New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg might squander a few of his billions to improve America by failing to be elected president.
But Bloomberg, addressing the No Labels confabulation, spoke truth to powerlessness:
Well, any time someone will take on Bloomberg is going to make my day – and with the amount of media he owns, it’s not happening to often. But this is the first time I write about the No Labels idiocy – if you discount their attempt to derail Hillary in 2008 (“If Ds nominate her, Bloomberg will run).
I find it ironic that I am so annoyed by this effort in a time when the two traditional parties have erased all difference between them and some alternative is needed. But not this. Back to George Will
The perpetrators of this mush purport to speak for people who want to instruct everyone else about how to speak about politics. Granted, there always are people who speak extravagantly, and modern technologies – television, the Internet – have multiplied their megaphones. But blowhards, although unattractive, are easy to avoid. And speaking of the unattractive:
Although the people promising to make No Labels into a national scold are dissatisfied with the tone of politics, they are pleased as punch with themselves.
Well, if this generic party ever gets of the ground, they’d be able to legitimately claim Obama as their first President. Remember “postpartisanship”? It’s what he ran on.
In fact, the thick hypocrisy has been rammed in our heads by the media for decades now.
Especially when there is a legitimate public interest (such as defending social security, opposing tax cuts to the rich or the war), pollsters and the media always pulled out the mythical center to paper all over the subversive ideas – most recently with Obama’s heinous tax deal. George Will again
If self-approval were butter, they could spread it across America, if it were bread. They might cover the country with sanctimony as they “overthrow the tyranny of hyper-partisanship.”
To think Obama called the progressives “sanctimonious”.
No Labels is nothing but a bunch of plutocrats layering a new talking point over the realities of the country.
The only truth in what they say – there is no longer a D party, so only one talking point should be propagandized.
So maybe I don’t buy Will’s title
The political fantasyland of the ‘No Labels’ movement
If there’s money behind it, it will spread.
In the vacuum of representation for anyone on the left, they’ll eventually gravitate towards the new lesser evil after the clear demise of the Ds. In the illustration by Ted Rall, No Labels will be the “moderate Right Wing Rs”. The black part will just get a little larger.
And many of the Os who are already hailing Obama’s trickle down will fit in perfectly.
I was going to write about Gallup’s new poll on the democratic image
Americans’ favorable rating of the Democratic Party dropped to 41% in a late March USA Today/Gallup poll, the lowest point in the 18-year history of this measure. Favorable impressions of the Republican Party are now at 42%, thus closing the gap between the two parties’ images that has prevailed for the past four years.
It certainly belies the belief of the Obama operative in B0botland
This country is too stupid for its president.That’s all
It seems that despite the thick propaganda, people finally saw that democrats in power behave no better than Republicans did when they had their turn. But there is a remarkable piece of news in the timeline – h/t Hotair for noticing it.
Yes, the Dems are usually on top, but they were roughly even during Clinton’s first term and Bush’s first term. ‘Twas impeachment and Bush’s second term that drove the GOP down. .
I don’t ever remember polls, articles – anything in the media informing us that the GOP lost credibility with their
Arkansas project efforts. All I ever heard was about Clinton being “disgraced”, divisive and Democrats being angry, ashamed that he damaged the party. That it was his fault that Gore was robbed er “lost” and Bush “won”
Look at the 31% approval of the GOP in 1999. GOP hurt itself more than it could hurt Clinton or the Democrats. This was never reported. People were smarter than the whole media then – and they are now too.
WaPo is in full cheerleading mode today – on the HCR as well as unveiling the election strategy to get back the base: campaign against SCOTUS:
Washington Time is the mirror of that, revealing the GOP strategy on HCR and earmarks (pork)
The LA Times is revealing that Obama is slow to appoint judges
In New York, Paterson had to be replaced by the big rainstorm this weekend.
I know it will get little coverage, so I’ll underline the mentions
the cost of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will continue to skyrocket. That’s why I’ve called for a bipartisan fiscal commission, modeled on a proposal by Republican Judd Gregg and Democrat Kent Conrad. (Applause.) This can’t be one of those Washington gimmicks that lets us pretend we solved a problem. The commission will have to provide a specific set of solutions by a certain deadline.Now, yesterday, the Senate blocked a bill that would have created this commission. So I’ll issue an executive order that will allow us to go forward, because I refuse to pass this problem on to another generation of Americans.
Yup. Someone has to pay for this
Also, interesting from Reagan’s admirer – when he mentions budget surplus, Clinton’s name is missing
At the beginning of the last decade, the year 2000, America had a budget surplus of over $200 billion. (Applause.) By the time I took office, we had a one-year deficit of over $1 trillion and
The guy who “didn’t change the directi0n of the country”
by anonymously creating a surplus
Not Your Sweetie 
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