Lots of updates on Giffords assassination attempt

Great NYT editorial.

Flashback: Conservatives mocked DHS report warning of ‘antigovernment’ violence.

First Read sees similarities between the climate surrounding the Oklahoma City Bombing and the assassination attempt.

[T]the similarities between the political climate of the mid 1990s and now seem plain.

The Oklahoma City bombing - the 15th anniversary of which was commemorated last spring -- occurred not long after a wave election during which midterm voters rewarded Republicans who advocated for shrinking the role of the federal government. The bombing's chief architect, former soldier McVeigh, railed against government intrusion in American life but was spurred to violence after the federal government's siege of a white supremacist's cabin in northern Idaho and a subsequent fatal raid of the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, TX.

First Read then tries to blame both sides, right and left, but can only find one Democrat it thought crosses the line during the 2010 elections versus numerous Republicans it quotes. Uh huh. It's the old "Michael Moore is as bad as Limbaugh," or "Keith Olbermann is as bad as Glenn Beck" argument, but they can never quite tell us what Moore or Olbermann have said that comes anywhere near the garbage that comes out of Limbaugh and Beck on a daily basis.

Peter Daou on the GOP's "Hate Inc." (my term, not his)

A seriously scary timeline of right-wing hate over the past two years. Read the rest of this post...

'Hate is the right's ring of power'

This isn't about the Arizona shootings, but about the response. Needless to say, it's a garden of delights, with each flower throwing off its special flavor.

Via the inestimable James Wolcott, we have this evaluation by Driftglass on the local event du jour (my intrusive emphasis):

I for one would be genuinely delighted if tonight's heartfelt pleas from Keith Olbermann for everyone to beat their verbal spears into pruning hooks blossomed into an actual movement, but the sad truth is that he could have said exactly the same thing about almost exactly the same people following the Oklahoma City bombing back in the Conservative rage-drunk, Hate-Radio-fueled militia-movements/ black helicopter/ Clinton-is-a-depraved-murderer/ government-workers-are-parasites 1990s.

Rachel Maddow could and did say almost exactly the same thing about almost exactly the same people following the assassination of Dr. George Tiller.

The sad truth is that Hate is the Right's Ring of Power. They're never going to give it up, because they know the minute they do -- the minute they're no longer allowed to pretend that Liberals are evil, freedom-hating fifth-columnist monsters who are dragging America into a Marxist abyss on the secret orders of our Kenyan Usurper Overlord -- their whole ideology would implode...

...they would never win another election...

...and tens of thousands of powerful, well-remunerated insiders from Rush Limbaugh to David Gregory who depend on that hate for their daily bread would suddenly have to go out and find honest work.

Can't say I disagree on the merits.

There's more in this post, including comments on the (entirely predictable) reaction from the right and center, all nicely phrased. Something to consider as we navigate these weedy ways.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Daily Dish vs Howie Kurtz on Palin and the assassination attempt on Giffords

Howie Kurtz, CNN media critic and the Daily Beast DC bureau chief, expressed concern today that many on the left were casting aspersions on conservatives, particularly on Sarah Palin, following yesterday's assassination of a federal judge, and the attempted assassination of a Democratic member of Congress. The Daily Dish responds:

I have yet to read or hear anyone who has both decried the violent rhetoric of the Palinite right and who doesn't also feel sympathy for the victims of this mass murder - so one of Kurtz's straw men disintegrates upon even momentary reflection. But here's the important point: when public officials are gunned down in public, it is deeply relevant to figure out why, and to ask questions and seek answers immediately. Those questions and answers will inevitably involve politics. To describe this process as "sickening" is a bizarre view for a journalist.

And then there's the second straw man. No one is saying Sarah Palin should be viewed as an accomplice to murder. Many are merely saying that her recklessly violent and inflammatory rhetoric has poisoned the discourse and has long run the risk of empowering the deranged. We are saying it's about time someone took responsibility for this kind of rhetorical extremism, because it can and has led to violence and murder.

The facts, moreover, are these: Palin singles out Giffords as a "target" for attack, illustrated by cross-hairs in gun sights, and urges supporters to "reload". This is pointed out at the time and Giffords herself worries that it took things over the edge. Palin had a chance to apologize or retract or soften the rhetoric. She did nothing of the kind. An individual subsequently guns Giffords down. What more, in many relevant respects, do we need to know than this? Any humane person who had published the kind of material Palin published and used the langage she did would surely now regret it. Well: does she?

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Geraldo on FOX says Gifford assassination attempt will affect Sarah Palin's future

Interesting that anyone on FOX would say this, and not have their mic cut. Read the rest of this post...

Meet an American Hero: Daniel Hernandez

Just posted this video at AMERICAblog Gay.

As noted below, Daniel Hernandez, a 20-year old gay intern may have saved the life of his boss, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

Today, CNN interviewed Hernandez. Daniel doesn't think he's a hero. He is:
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Michael Moore on Sarah Palin and the shooting

RT @MMFlint: If a Detroit Muslim put a map on the web w/crosshairs on 20 pols, then 1 of them got shot, where would he b sitting right now? Just asking.

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HuffPost: Loughner may have ties to hate group American Renaissance

According to Elise Foley, reporting at Huffington Post, the alleged shooter of Congresswoman Giffords and several others, may have ties to the hate group American Renaissance. The source is a leaked memo from DHS. Huff Post:

Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged shooter of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others on Saturday, may have ties to anti-Semitic, anti-immigration hate group American Renaissance, according to a leaked memo from the Department of Homeland Security.

It's unclear whether Loughner maintains a direct connection to the group, however, "strong suspicion is being directed" at American Renaissance in the wake of the group being referenced in Loughner's Myspace and YouTube videos, according to the memo, which was obtained by Fox News. [!]

American Renaissance is a white nationalist group that operates under a pseudo think tank called the New Century Foundation. The group runs a magazine and conferences based on eugenics and the superiority of whites, according to Southern Poverty Law Center.

The group considers its members to be "racial-realists," according to an "About Us" section on the American Renaissance magazine website. "Attempts to gloss over the significance of race or even to deny its reality only make problems worse," the group writes. "Progress requires the study of all aspects of race, whether historical, cultural, or biological. This approach is known as race realism." ... American Renaissance is opposed to the entry of non-whites into the United States and supports Arizona's SB 1070 immigration law[.]

Among other intriguing bits, the article notes that American Renaissance has some (rather complicated) anti-Semitic ties, that Giffords was a standard Blue Dog with respect to immigration (supports DREAM, supports "comprehensive immigration reform, including increased border security") and is herself Jewish.

Lots to digest.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Republican Senator warns GOP over Giffords shooting - no longer just Dems pointing fingers at GOP

It's not just the left anymore making a connection between Republicans and the assassination attempt on a Democratic congresswoman, and the assassination of a federal judge. Now it's a GOP Senator:

Others acknowledged what they called an unavoidable reality—flamboyant or incendiary anti-government rhetoric of the sort used by many conservative politicians, commentators and tea party activists for the time being will carry a stigma.

A senior Republican senator, speaking anonymously in order to freely discuss the tragedy, told POLITICO that the Giffords shooting should be taken as a “cautionary tale” by Republicans.

“There is a need for some reflection here - what is too far now?” said the senator. “What was too far when Oklahoma City happened is accepted now. There’s been a desensitizing. These town halls and cable TV and talk radio, everybody’s trying to outdo each other.”

Let it be noted that the Republicans control the majority of talk radio and cable TV shows that try outdo each other. The GOP controls talk radio. From Dr. Laura to Limbaugh to Hannity, O'Reilly, Beck, Savage and the rest. As for cable TV shows that try to outdo each other, CNN doesn't even try to do shows like that, MSNBC is new to the game (and in any case, shows left and right), whereas FOX News has given the GOP an entire network all to itself and has been broadcasting vitriol, with incendiary hosts and guests, for 15 years. There is no equivalence. And finally, the town halls. Who has been using angry mobs to disrupt town halls in a manner that is one hair away from violent? Republicans. Not Democrats, but Republicans. Read the rest of this post...

20 year old gay intern may have saved Giffords' life

Arizona Republic:

When the shots began that morning, he saw many people lying on the ground, including a young girl. Some were bleeding. Hernandez said he moved from person to person checking pulses.

"First the neck, then the wrist," he said. One man was already dead. Then he saw Giffords. She had fallen and was lying contorted on the sidewalk. She was bleeding.

Using his hand, Hernandez applied pressure to the entry wound on her forehead. He pulled her into his lap, holding her upright against him so she wouldn't choke on her own blood. Giffords was conscious, but quiet.

Ron Barber, Giffords' district director, was next to her. Hernandez told a bystander how to apply pressure to one of Barber's wounds.

The fact that Hernandez was nearby and able to react quickly probably saved Giffords' life, said state Rep. Matt Heinz, D-Tucson, and a hospital physician.

Joe.My.God reports, via the Dallas Voice (which is down right now), that Hernandez is openly gay.

According to his Facebook page, Hernandez serves as a Commissioner on the Tucson Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues (GLBT). Read the rest of this post...

The right's relentlessly hostile rhetoric and the assassination attempt (and assassination)

George Packer in the New Yorker:

[F]or the past two years, many conservative leaders, activists, and media figures have made a habit of trying to delegitimize their political opponents. Not just arguing against their opponents, but doing everything possible to turn them into enemies of the country and cast them out beyond the pale. Instead of “soft on defense,” one routinely hears the words “treason” and “traitor.” The President isn't a big-government liberal—he's a socialist who wants to impose tyranny. He's also, according to a minority of Republicans, including elected officials, an impostor. Even the reading of the Constitution on the first day of the 112th Congress was conceived as an assault on the legitimacy of the Democratic Administration and Congress.

This relentlessly hostile rhetoric has become standard issue on the right. (On the left it appears in anonymous comment threads, not congressional speeches and national T.V. programs.) And it has gone almost entirely uncriticized by Republican leaders. Partisan media encourages it, while the mainstream media finds it titillating and airs it, often without comment, so that the gradual effect is to desensitize even people to whom the rhetoric is repellent. We’ve all grown so used to it over the past couple of years that it took the shock of an assassination attempt to show us the ugliness to which our politics has sunk.

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Olbermann on shooting

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Boehner speaks on shooting rampage, says job 'comes with a risk'

The new Speaker gave remarks on the shooting rampage this morning:

Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said Sunday morning that the “inhuman” shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others outside a Tucson, Ariz., supermarket this weekend “should not and will not deter us from our calling to represent our constituents and fulfill our oaths of office.”

“No act . . . must be allowed to stop us from our duty,” Mr. Boehner said during brief remarks at the West Chester, Ohio, Township Hall and Administration Offices. He echoed the sentiment he first expressed after the Saturday shooting that “an attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve.” He also said the shooting reminds lawmakers that their job “comes with a risk.”

It shouldn't come with the risk of being shot.

Speaking of risk, The Washington Post noted Boehner's past incendiary rhetoric:

The shootings have reignited debate over the increasing use of incendiary and often violent language in U.S. politics. Boehner faced criticism last year for saying that then-Rep. Steve Dreihaus (D-Ohio) "may be a dead man" because he voted in favor of President Obama's health-care overhaul. "He can't go home to the west side of Cincinnati," Boehner told The National Review.

Boehner later said the comments were meant figuratively to describe the political peril facing Dreihaus because of his health-care vote. But Dreihaus, who was defeated in November, sharply criticized Boehner and other Republican lawmakers for using stark and violent imagery in reference to their opponents.

"These comments that have been made by Republican leaders can serve as--I don't know if I want to say an excuse or perhaps permission for people who may be unbalanced, who may be calling with these threats," Dreihaus said in March 2010, adding: "It doesn't really matter the way you meant it, nor the way I accept it. It's how the least sane person in my district accepts it."

Exactly. Read the rest of this post...

AZ authorities release photo of individual 'possibly associated with the suspect'

From the Pima County Sheriff's Department:

Another individual was seen at the location, possibly associated with the suspect. He is described as a Caucasian male, approximately 40-50 years old, dark hair and was last seen wearing blue jeans and a dark blue jacket.

The Sheriff's office released this photo:
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Among the victims: 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green and Giffords' Aide Gabe Zimmerman

The Pima County Sheriff's Office released the names of the victims who were killed in the shooting rampage:

The Sheriff confirmed 5 were pronounced deceased at the scene and a 9 year old was later pronounced at the hospital. The deceased have been identified as: John Roll (63), Dorothy Morris (76), Dorwin Stoddard (76), Christina Greene (9), Phyllis Schneck (79) and Gabriel Zimmerman (30).

John Roll was the Federal Judge.

Christina Taylor-Green, the 9-year-old:

Aspiring politician Christina-Taylor Green was born in the midst of tragedy on Sept. 11, 2001, and died Saturday morning while trying to meet Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

The strong-willed 9-year-old third-grader had gone to meet Giffords with a neighbor when she was shot. She died later at University Medical Center.

Her neighbor was shot four times and was recovering from surgery Saturday evening.

Christina-Taylor had just been elected to the student council at Mesa Verde Elementary School and had been interested in politics from a young age, her father, John Green, said Saturday night.

"She was a good speaker. I could have easily seen her as a politician," her father said.

Gabe Zimmerman, the Congressionial aide:

Gabe Zimmerman organized the event in Tucson on Saturday where he was shot to death.

As Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' community outreach director, Zimmerman was a key organizer for all the "Congresswoman on the Corner" events over the years that were aimed at bringing his boss closer to constituents. This work was a natural fit, said friends and fellow politicos, who described Zimmerman as a tireless organizer and gentle man uniquely gifted at working with average folk.

"He was at Gabrielle's side at these 'Congresswoman on the Corner' events," recalled a longtime colleague, Tom Zoellner, an author and a volunteer in Giffords' campaigns. "He would take down their names and their information, and he would pledge to get to work on it. This stuff matters. The 'Congresswoman on the Corner' thing was Gabrielle's idea, but it was Gabe's bailiwick."

Zimmerman, 30 and a Tucson native, worked for Giffords since her first congressional campaign in 2006. He started as a field organizer, became constituent services director when Giffords took office and later took on outreach duties. That job put him in charge of logistics for all of Giffords' public district events. He helped constituents with day-to-day details such as Social Security checks.

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Fox News feed cuts from Tucson when Sarah Palin mentioned

We don't know if there's any direct link to Sarah Palin and her "crosshairs" ad, but Fox News seems to be extra protective of their big money star. Read the rest of this post...

Sheriff on 'vitriol that comes out of certain mouths'

It's idealistic for the right wing extremists to think their talk can't have an impact. The Tuscon sheriff could easily be referring to RedState blogger and CNN contributor Erik Erickson who wrote the following:

At what point do the people tell the politicians to go to hell? At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?

Obviously bad, but then this:

Were I in Washington State, I’d be cleaning my gun right about now waiting to protect my property from the coming riots or the government apparatchiks coming to enforce nonsensical legislation.

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Elvis Costello - Man out of time

We're both still absorbing what happened yesterday in Arizona. Between the violent rhetoric and the obsession with guns among some people, it's not a complete surprise though. Times like this I think about how much the country has changed since I last lived there permanently. There are a lot of great things about the US but the gun culture that grows every year is not one of them. How does a mentally unstable person get weapons so easily? This macho obsession with violence really has to end. Read the rest of this post...

Russian government to go 'open source' by 2015

Good luck with that transition. Ditching old applications can take years and writing them from scratch is not a quick process either. It may be even more difficult (or at least, more expensive) since many of the brightest software engineers in Russia are already employed by foreign software vendors who are building products for global businesses and governments. Putin may have a point about the privacy issues though open source offers no guarantees either. WSJ:

At the end of 2010, the "open-source" software movement, whose activists tend to be fringe academics and ponytailed computer geeks, found an unusual ally: the Russian government. Vladimir Putin signed a 20-page executive order requiring all public institutions in Russia to replace proprietary software, developed by companies like Microsoft and Adobe, with free open-source alternatives by 2015.

The move will save billions of dollars in licensing fees, but Mr. Putin's motives are not strictly economic. In all likelihood, his real fear is that Russia's growing dependence on proprietary software, especially programs sold by foreign vendors, has immense implications for the country's national security. Free open-source software, by its nature, is unlikely to feature secret back doors that lead directly to Langley, Va.

Nor is Russia alone in its distrust of commercial software from abroad. Just two weeks after Mr. Putin's executive order, Iran's minister of information technology, citing security concerns, announced plans for a national open-source operating system. China has also expressed a growing interest. When state-owned China Mobile recently joined the Linux Foundation, the nonprofit entity behind the most famous open-source project, one of the company's executives announced—ominously to the ears of some—that the company was "looking forward to contributing to Linux on a global scale."

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