rep gabrielle giffords, d-az, shot in the head in tucson

[kalmn]

violent rhetoric breeds violent acts.

here's a screenshot of sarahpac's website with crosshairs over giffords' district.

http://instagr.am/p/68p0/

federal judge john roll killed by same shooter who shot giffords.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/tpm_confirms_federal_judge_shot_at_incident_in_ari.php

when this happens in other countries, we call it what it is, a politically motivated assassination or assassination attempt.

when it happens here in the us, it's always the act of one deranged loner, acting alone, entirely his own motives, not influenced by anyone or if he was, it was all an accident and whoever said that surely never meant for it to be taken that way.

wake up.

reasonable people can in fact disagree on the issues.

that's not the situation we're in here in the united states.

Comments

[bifemmefatale]

Also, her Tea Party opponent Jesse Kelly held an event where participants could shoot an M-16 *and* talk about removing Giffords from office. He is also partly to blame for this tragedy.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/photo.php?fbid=183907728293735&set=a.173460612671780.38981.173343349350173

[guppiecat]

It seems to me that analyzing the situation based on limited data and within a short period of time is just as bad as the inflammatory rhetoric that you mention. This is the sort of response that, on September 11th caused much of a nation to rise up against Muslims. Kneejerk reactions seldom seem to be in a group's best interest. Painting either side with a wide brush just serves to increase the isolation between them.

Violent rhetoric makes me uncomfortable, but it is protected as free speech and I think that the benefits of free speech outweigh the drawbacks... even when the drawback is the occasional crazy person hurting or killing others. I also believe in the principle of "innocent until proven guilty", and while I dislike violent rhetoric, I have yet to see the hate-spewers proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Fundamentally, you and I disagree as to whether or not intent matters, so I'm not surprised to find us taking different perspectives of this incident.

I do think that this was politically-motivated, and that it was likely inflamed by violent rhetoric... but I think it's a far cry from the beginning of an armed revolt within the US. I believe that that would look extremely different from what we're seeing.