Repugs Will Wonder How This Kind Of Thing Could Happen

[lame54]

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/eliminationist-rhetoric-and-shooting

There will be a lot of hand-wringing in the coming days over the shooting of Rep. Giffords this morning at a constituent event -- some of it, almost certainly, from the folks at Fox, who will wonder aloud how this kind of thing could happen.

It can happen, in fact, because conservatives so thoughtlessly and readily use violent eliminationist rhetoric when talking about "liberals" (to wit: anyone who is not a conservative). They will adamantly deny it, of course, but the cold reality is that this kind of talk creates permission for angry and violent people to act it out.

Example A: This summer, Pima County Republicans held a "target shoot" event in support of her teabagging opponent, as David Safier at Blogs for Arizona noted at the time:

There's nothing wrong with having a gun-themed event, if that's what you want to do. Count me out, but if you want to meet at a shooting range instead of a bowling alley or a baseball stadium, that's your right and your privilege.

There's also nothing wrong with having a "Help remove Gabrielle Giffords" event. That's what the R candidates in CD-8 are trying to do.

But to put it all together, starting with "Get on Target," moving to "remove Gabrielle Giffords," then finishing with "Shoot a fully automatic M16" . . .

That goes way beyond cute and clever and moves into a frightening linkage between shooting guns and removing Giffords.

[DCKit]

1. The Shirley Temple school of acting - wide eyes and wilfull ignorance. nt

[DJ13]

2. .... and a lot of dancing

[AspenRose]

7. I'm so sick of their shit.

Sick and tired of it.

People DIED today.

They have no conscience and no soul.

[Lifelong Protester]

3. Yes, I have to say that regardless of which end of the

political spectrum they finally peg the shooter as, this entire use of "violent eliminiationist rhetoric" has obviously gone too far, and even without empirical evidence, I'd be willing to bet that more violent eliminationist rhetoric has been used by the right than the left.

[1776Forever]

4. Least we forget: Cenk Uygar 2009 - Glenn Beck Clown Antics Turn Dangerous

You only need to watch this on YouTube:

Glenn Beck Clown Antics Turn Dangerous

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiLppliFzbs&feature=related

[gratuitous]

5. Pump up the rage, 24-7; frustration and anger stoked; easy access to firearms

Golly, who could have ever predicted?

Oh, and as long as we're connecting some dots, here's another one that folks might have forgotten about:

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/gop-candidate-shoots-at-target-with-wasserman-schultzs-initials.php

A Republican candidate for Congress went campaigning by shooting a gun at a target with the incumbent Dem Congresswoman's initials written next to it.

Robert Lowry, a businessman running against Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), stopped by a local Republican event that was held at a shooting range. Lowry stepped up to show his marksmanship, and fired at a human silhouette target -- with the letters "DWS" written next to the head.

Questioned closely about it, Lowry finally admitted that it might have been a "mistake" to do this. Or at least to let it be known publicly that he did this.

[Kievan Rus]

6. The same thing was brought up in April 2009 after 3 cops in Pittsburgh were killed by a wingnut...

and Beck and company were rather evasive and rarely, if ever mentioned the tragedy. As usual, the MSM never digged on how Poplawski (the shooter) was an avowed right-wing racist nut that had been going on for months and months about a nonexistant "Obama gun ban"; something the right-wing media had been going on about for months.

The wingnut media is going to get evasive again, OxyRush will try to brand the shooter a liberal, Beck will avoid the issue altogether, and the rest of the MSM won't connect the dots. It happened then and it will probably be this way this time, too.

[lame54]

8. .