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| Image found at Democratic Underground |
I'm not linking to any stories, because at this point--for some reason--the news agencies can't get their story straight. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot, along with a dozen or so other people today at a Safeway grocery store appearance. Some sources say she's
dead, some say she's alive and in surgery, and some have reported
both. It's bad no matter how you look at it, and the shooter could be of any political stripe, given Giffords position as a blue dog Democrat. No political position is deserving of an assassination attempt. One more thing. Even if it has nothing to do with what happened today, Sarah Palin should be ashamed of her "SarahPAC" graphic with a
bullseye on Giffords' location in Arizona. She should make a public statement to that effect, and without her standard defensive, snarky gotchas.
Is this not a smoking gun for concealed carry?
ReplyDeleteNot sure I follow you. Do you think the assailant had a concealed weapon, or that others in the crowd ought to have had them? Every time I see an argument that says an armed populace could prevent things like this, I really get exasperated. The world is not an action movie. Not every person who knows how to shoot a gun would be good in a crisis, or counted on to be a dead shot. Half a dozen armed citizens brandishing their weapons would probably have meant even more mayhem.
ReplyDeleteHopefully this will finally get the nation to be united against the Palins and her ilk. Only last week the media was used to advocate the execution of Michael Vick for killing dogs. Last April Republican Congressman Paul Broun used the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing: "Fellow patriots, we have a lot of domestic enemies of the constitution, and they're right down the Mall, in the Congress of the United States – and right down Independence Avenue in the White House that belongs to us. It's not about my ability to hunt, which I love to do. It's not about the ability for me to protect my family and property against criminals, which we have the right to do. But it's all about us protecting ourselves from a tyrannical government." The year before, this same Broun singled out then-Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, as one such "domestic enemy of the constitution". He was re-elected last November with 67% of the vote. As a teacher of 20th century history here about 7 miles from Dachau in Germany, I know all about how self-serving demagogues like Palin will sacrifice people's lives for their own ends and use God and patriotism to justify it.
ReplyDeleteAs Keith Olbermann acknowledged--and he did not exclude himself--the language of hostility is pervasive, with words like "target" and "bullseye." English is filled with allegory, metaphor and simile. So, the right is trying feverishly to find examples from the left to counter this blatant one from Sarah Palin. They've found a couple, though nothing quite as blatant.
ReplyDeleteThey got Markos from Daily Kos saying the words I quoted, but no imagery. And they fail to see that not only did Palin use the language AND imagery of guns, she's got the resume to solidify the connection. She's known to be a gun advocate, a far-right ideologue and all the rest. Her "reload" comment could EASILY be taken by unstable individuals to be literal. Markos--even though he was in the military--hasn't got that image. It is VERY unlikely that people read "target" and "bullseye" from the Daily Kos article and took them literally, or even thought twice about it.