Posts tagged ‘Vitriol’
The ‘You Lie’ rifle part
Here’s another bridge of Republican politics and weapons. A South Carolina weapons maker was selling semi-automatic rifle parts with the inscription “You Lie”. The phrase was made famous when Republican congressman Joe Wilson attempted, in Conservative fashion, to shout down the President during presidential address. High school children have more decorum and class than Joe Wilson. And from the party that railed on how saying you’re embarrassed by Bush is unforgiveable and means that you hate America…it’s hypocrisy of the highest order. Had a Democrat done that during a Bush speech the reaction from Conservatives would…well that’s another story.
So since it was a Conservative doing the complaining, and not being done to a Conservative, it was of course heroic (and not hypocritical). And in another example of anti-Democrat views tied to guns or threats…it was immediately inscribed on semi-automatic parts.
Last night on MSNBC’s Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said, “what other message could we take from having ‘you lie’ on a weapon, a statement that was thrown at President Obama.”
Boxer went on to mention a sticker for sale, that has already been sold out, depicting a donkey — the symbol of the Democratic party — shot five times. The sticker has the words “Liberal Hunting License” written above the donkey and “No Bag Limit” below.
Ultimately, while conservatives frantically defend their hateful rhetoric in the aftermath of the Arizona shooting, Wilson’s “you lie” assault rifle is a good reminder of how low they’ve sunk.
Joe Wilson at Palmetto Armory
A civil nation of laws
On the violent political rhetoric, I read a quote today that sums it very concisely:
“A civil nation of laws cannot have prominent members of society constantly calling for the murder and assassination of other individuals or groups.”
I’d say that this is fairly accurate. If this rhetoric came from mainstrem voices on the left, those voices would no longer be “prominent members of society”, they would be ostracised by mainstream liberals (and reduced back to “normal” members of society). The quote above is from Julian Assange. Here is a snippet of a statement from today:
The WikiLeaks founder said that although his organization is a devoted advocate of free speech, “when senior politicians and attention-seeking media commentators call for specific individuals or groups of people to be killed, they should be charged with incitement — to murder.”
He added, “Those who call for an act of murder deserve as significant share of the guilt as those raising a gun to pull the trigger.”
The statement listed several high-profile U.S. figures who have called for Assange and his supporters to be attacked, killed or executed. It noted that Sarah Palin has said the U.S. should pursue Assange as if he was an al-Qaida or Taliban leader, while Fox News commentator Bob Beckel has publicly called for people to “illegally shoot the son of a bitch [Assange].”
The 39-year-old Australian said his organization had now implemented “extreme security measures” to protect its staff and called on U.S. authorities to “protect the rule of law by aggressively investigating these and similar incitements to kill. A civil nation of laws cannot have prominent members of society constantly calling for the murder and assassination of other individuals or groups.”
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/11/julian-assange-violent-rhetoric-will-spark-more-shooting-spre/
Tea, the new Kool Aid
So, this is the Tea Party…
If we don’t have a majority, if we can’t win an election fairly and legally…then let’s shoot everyone! Kidding? Nope. Some spare at a rally? Nope. This is GOP pundit Joyce Kaufman at a 2010 Tea Party rally saying “If ballots don’t work, bullets will!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UpwXHtCXBro
Tea! It’s the new Kool-Aid! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid
The #1 Name in Murder Fantasy
Let’s face the facts. The incinidiary language, the anger, the talk of violence, the talk of assanination – it comes almost completely from the right. Not that you can’t find an example or two, but it’s hard to imagine a mainstream voice from the left saying these things and not being ostracised by the left. What’s worse: The anger, hatred, and overtones of violence…or the spineless hypocrisy they show when they won’t acknowledge it. Conservatives: Embrace your hatred, violence, and bigotry. At least then you won’t be hypocrites.
Fox News: The #1 Name in Murder Fantasy
Bill O’Reilly’s recent “joke” about decapitating Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank was only the latest example of a demented Fox News culture that permits on-air personalities to fantasize about assassination and other forms of violence against those deemed enemies of the station, its personalities or their worldview.
During the cable channel’s 2008 election coverage, in what she later called an attempt at humor, Fox News contributor Liz Trotta linked Osama bin Laden to Barack Obama as people who both should be assassinated:
And now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama, uh Obama. Well, both, if we could.
A week before Trotta’s “joke,” Republican primary candidate Mike Huckabee was apologizing for his own Obama assassination quip. Addressing a gathering of the National Rifle Association, Huckabee joked that a loud thud heard backstage during his address was Barack Obama diving to the floor to avoid gun shots. Months later, Huckabee was given his own Fox News show.
http://www.truth-out.org/fox-news-the-no-1-name-murder-fantasies66707
Limbaugh knows whose fault this is
You couldn’t make this up. How big of a moron is Rush Limbaugh? And more importantly, what kind of idiot are you if you’re listening to Rush Limbaugh?
Continue reading on Examiner.com: Rush Limbaugh blames Sheriff Clarence Dupnik for Tucson shootings (Audio) – National Political Buzz | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/rush-limbaugh-goes-on-long-angry-rant-against-sheriff-charles-dupnik-audio#ixzz1AggIfjzw
