A 22 year old man in Arizona is probably a fan of Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and others who preach of the inevitable government takeover. The poster above comes from Palin's website. It has cross hairs to pinpoint where they should focus removing Democrats that voted for HCR. It seems this young man took the poster seriously.
Since the incident, Palin's staff has scrubbed the site of all mention of "taking out" their opposition through violence. I expect Congressmen who shared the poster hit list have beefed up their protection today. I would urge our own Congressman Hinchey to take extra precaution as well.
They are still investigating the killer's motives as I post this. It's going to consume the news for weeks. I am feeling a mixture of anguish and anger as well as sorrow for those who died. With this and the mail room bombings in recent days, my hopes for a better 2011 are tenuous at best.
25 comments:
It seems clear from his Jared's youtube channel that he suffered some form of mental disease. I suspect he was whipped into action by hate speech and this is the reason that I support hate speech legislation. Every time the free speech vs. hate speech debate comes up around here I get attacked for voicing my support. This should spark new dialog on this issue. Rush, Sean and Glenn better think on this.
When I first saw this poster with the 'gun sights' on it, something didn't sit right with me. I've been around guns since I was a kid, and I just didn't see 'gun sight' when I first saw the symbol.
It didn't dawn on me until last night when I was cleaning up some stuff from my desk and I ran across a welcome packet I received a while back from Southern Poverty Law Center after I had joined. In the packet is a map of hate groups and in one of the sidebars, there is an area discussing different hate groups.
My mouth fell open when I looked at it THIS time. Right there, in the section on white nationalists was the 'gun sight'. It's the logo for Stormfront!
I'd never seen this logo before I saw it on the SPLC map. I did a quick search at http://images.google.com/ on the terms 'white nationalist' and found out the 'gun sight' is the logo for Stormfront, a white supremacist site and forum. Look for yourself. Search Google images on the terms 'stormfront logo'.
Careful Mike where you tread. The man has ramblings of a person with delusions and severe mental health issues. To lay the blame on a republican website is inflaming and dividing. There have been wackos who prescribed to a liberal democrat ideology, the left wing environmentalists who torched buildings of supposed environmental polluters is one example. People who have attacked individuals for wearing fur is another one. Just a thought to ruminate on.
I would be very interested to know how you think that this guy is a fan of Sarah Palin and Glen Beck.
I have seen his Youtube channel of which the only coherent thing is that he apparently hates god and thinks people are illiterate. The rest is a bunch of gibberish about dreaming and sleep walking.
I have seen the cached version of his Myspace where he lists his favorite books as The Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampft.
So please enlighten us because I am seriously questioning how I could have voted for you based on this stupid statement and your apparent ignorance. How do you know that this guy was a Sarah Palin Supporter?
5:59; I know what you mean about being careful. It is early in the investigstion, but I have followed incidents over the years where radical anti-gay sites have advocated foe violence that resulted in harm or death. This is nothing new except it's an elected official, child and a judge.
If anything, it may cause people to think about the harmful actions that weak minded followers may take up as thier cause. It's already altered Sarah's website hasn't it?
I just had to double check the top of the site. Factless based accusations and pitiful attempts at using tradegy for political gain. I thought I was on Blaber News for a minute.
Mr. Madsen you have got to be kidding me.
It's completely understandable that Te Party advocates would take issue with being called out on this. Sarah and Glenn represent a vigilante movement that is fun to follow, but Mike makes the point that groups that call for harm to others share responsibility when someone finally Dodd just that. Mail bombs, abortion clinic and PETA activists are no different.
Sharon Angle has her part too. How Rush, Glenn and the others modify thier rhetoric this day forward will be something to watch.
What about Pelosi supporters. The Congresswoman had recently broke ranks to go against Pelosi's run for majority leader. There has already been one interview with a "friend" of the gunman that characterized the gunman as a "liberal kind of guy who was worried about 2012". Maybe he didn't like her stances on Gun Rights and Illegal Immigration both of which weren't exactly liberal.
Or maybe we can take this for what it really is, some nut job who should have been removed from the gene pool a long time ago. Like the college professor...oh wait she was a liberal too. That is why that story disappeared from the news so quickly.
6:37 Reports have already gone out about the multiple fake pages and websites pretending to be a Librul Jared Loughner to cast doubt of his far right fanaticism. It's not working.
6:55
Just as such, I have been reading for several hours on the message board "Democratic Underground" instructions on how supporters can use ads just like Mike has above to control and point the public discourse towards far right fanaticism in this case. Including to call statements and websites to the otherwise as "fakes". So apparently you are doing your part too. My comment was meant to point out the propaganda fight that is going on, not to identify it as the truth.
So I guess rather than the truth, it is more important for people such as yourself, both sides of the political spectrum and others to fire accusations back and forth rather than to wait and look for the truth. Which will probably tell us that this guy is some mentally ill scum bag who didn't have a clue that politics existed on earth, if he even knew he lived on earth.
That might be true Mike and I am aware of the sensitivity you feel towards anti-gay sites.I am not a devotee of Palin, Beck or Rush but someone who sees and fears rash reactions when generalizations abound. As an elected representative of us you have to be extra careful on your blog in case someone with an altered state of mind decides to make his thoughts and actions known in a violent way. Lets wait until the investigation plays out before accusations of certain parties are voiced. More than likely he was just one messed up Dude who was influenced by nobody other than the voices in his mind.
It is a sad situation for all involved.
signed 5:59
5:59...I so want Jared to be just a delusional loner with a gun. I hate the reality that weak minds are everywhere and just waiting for a reason to step up to their calling.
I'm just highlighting the recent history of violence and the increased volume of hate speech on tv and radio.
But as we step away from this one incident, we have to continue to seek and difuse the potential timebombs out there.
You have to also understand in today's world, Glenn, Sarah, Sean and Rush are easy targets when we look for vigilante rhetoric. I'm sorry I gave in so easily.
Looks like this girl will be on the news soon.
http://mobile.twitter.com/caitieparker#22979901883682816
More propaganda. She says he was a liberal, pothead.
Apology accepted.
You and I can agree on that. I have always said that the internet and cable news with their spin doctors can be a double edge sword. Great for quick and mass communication but bad for the individual who sits alone with grudges and mental health issues plotting his sick revenge and redemption. Violence, unfortunately, has been allowed due to the Right of Free speech. I don't think the founding fathers had this is mind when writing the constitution and Bill of Rights. Violence, in my opinion, gets in the way of my Pursuit of Happiness.!
5:59
The point is, it is entirely irresponsible of any political leader to use violent campaign marketing graphics &/or language. Our political leaders are supposed to lead by example... what example is being set by Sarah Palin's campaign?
Whether this young man has or has not seen this particular poster, there are many other violent messages out there, and in particular, in Arizona he could have seen or heard. As a matter of fact, Gifford's opponent held "shoot out" rally's in his attempt to get her out of Congress.
It has to stop! Thank you Michael for speaking out. Anyone who does not protest this type of campaigning is allowing it to occur. Along with ignorance, tolerance is not bliss.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/flashback-giffords-opponent-had-m16-shooting-event-help-remove-gabrielle-giffords-from-office.php
This may have had something to do with it too.
Back in June 2010, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords's (D-AZ) Republican opponent Jesse Kelly had an event at which voters could shoot an assault rifle with the candidate, promoted as thus:
Get on Target for Victory in November Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/flashback-giffords-opponent-had-m16-shooting-event-help-remove-gabrielle-giffords-from-office.php
Jeremiah,
What is wrong with highlighting what is surely the cause for lunatics like this wacko's actions? No one will ever convince me that the type of hate speech that people like Palin soak themselves in does not have repercussions.
If you think otherwise, you are naive and living in a cave.
Right on Mike!
You hateful SOB. You are actually blaming the Tea Party for the actions of a lunatic?
You are an opportunistic and political piece of trash. Anyone who would try to score political points off this terrible tragedy is nothing more than garbage.
Palin is not the only one. Just as you can cite a million things that Palin and other inciting figures on the right have said you can do the same for figures on the left. It accomplishes nothing, and in most cases contains little or no truth in the matter at hand other than try to further your own cause. I am not naive to the disgusting statements by both sides and can probably show you some new sites from both sides that do it worse than Palin and Beck ever thought, but my point is that I would not expect to see it here on the blog of someone I think to be a responsible and down to earth community leader.
This reminded me of a certain post regarding a candidate for County Clerk, fake driver licenses and illegal aliens murdering children.
Jeremiah, you are missing the point.
Show me one instance where the Left used a visual of gun sight or likened defeating someone for public office by shooting them with an automatic weapon.
The rhetoric has to stop, but when someone like Palin and Jesse Kelly use the analogy of shooting and killing people to achieve their political objective, they incite violence. If you do not see that, you are not as much the common man as you portray yourself to be.
Yeah! Jeremiah you show him! You won't find many because Liberals don't threaten to shoot people since they don't like guns. Now fire bombing, that's another thing.
But here is a good collection of the left's peaceful discourse. http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=621
Funny thing is, a lot of the Bush "Wanted Dead or Alive" Poster's have disappeared in the last 24hours off of many liberal websites archives. Must be that they got the same web designer as Sarah Palin.
That website that has all of the wacko's with the kill Bush stuff is NOT affiliated with a candidate for office. Nor were they used as campaigning tools.
Although not at the same time, Kelly and Palin were both candidates for Federal offices. They both used an analogy of a violent death as a means of removing a Democrat from office.
Huge difference there buddy.
Please do not justify that. It is wrong.
One thing people are missing is that maybe violent programming on TV,video games and in the movies can sometimes be a cause of violent behavior in impressionable individuals and people who are teetering on the edge of sanity. A lot of that comes from Hollywood who is known to have a liberal agenda.
So to blame one party or another is just useless speculation.
It is sad that you (and others) would use such a tradgedy for political fodder. Why are you (and everyone else) focussed on Sarah Palin? And ignore the political adds showing guns and violence by democratic candidates like West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin? He used a high powered rifle in one of his adds to shoot at the cap and trade bills. You can see the video here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIJORBRpOPM&feature=player_embedded
And Palin and Manchin were only 2 of several candidates who used gun imagery in their adds during election season. There is no proof that any political add lead to the shooting. The person who did the shooting has not uttered one word since his arrest. So rather than jump to conclusions and use this tragecy for political gain lets wait for the facts to come out and then see where that leads us.
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