"where people do that, they have to realize there are consequences to that action..."
Congressman Gabby Giffords, who now lays in a medical induced coma with a perforating contact gunshot wound to her brain.
Rumpole's analysis: The reason why anti-intellectual thugs like Sara Palin appeal to a large minority of the American public is that, having none of the experience and common sense of responsible politicians, they say and do things that other politicians realize are dangerous and inappropriate. When Palin and her right wing crowd of gun toting thugs do things like target politicians of the opposite party with ads with crosshairs, or when Tea-Party gal Sharon Angle shockingly threatens that their party followers will seek a "second amendment solution" (read-gun violence) if their needs are not met at the polls, they stand out precisely because responsible politicians do not engage in such terrorist-like behavior and dialogue.
Angle and Palin are the shock-jocks of the politic.
They distinguish themselves initially by what is perceived to be "bold new behavior" and ideas. They distinguish themselves in the end when the chickens of such rhetoric comes home to roost and someone dies or is injured. Or a building is blown up. Such words and acts by the Palins and Angles of the American political scene appeal mostly to the Timothy McVeighs of our country and not so subtly suggest to the most disturbed of our citizens that an act of violence will be rewarded.
This is not about politics. There is nothing Speaker Boehner or 97% of other Republicans said or did in the past election that would cause a result like the tragedy in Arizona. But make no mistake about it- the blood of six dead Americans (one dear child) and Congresswoman Giffords is on the hands of Sara Palin and Sharon Angle.
This is what happens when any credibility is bestowed upon self appointed leaders who are proud of their ignorance and limited intelligence. We reap what we sow.
See You In Court.
Florida, LSU, Florida, Alabama, Auburn. (Oh yeah, Florida, Tennessee, and LSU earlier). SEC 8-0 in Championship games including last five years in a row.
ReplyDeleteNicely stated, Rumpole.
ReplyDeleteSo who do we vote for in the next election; Palin who is a loon, or Obama who has been a major let down
ReplyDeleteRump,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the tone of discourse needs to change. But, the one-sided, left-leaning blame mongering that has come out in the last few days, like yours, doesn't help. I'm a committed Dem, but I recognize that the Dems are at fault, too, in terms of incendiary speech. See Keith Olberman.
Blaming one side merely perpetuates the conduct you seek to eliminate.
If you want an example of the consequences of our political discourse, your efforts to use the Tucson tragedy to demonize the Tea Party and Sara Palin are a perfect fit.
ReplyDeleteThe investigation is not complete, but acquaintances and criminologists are pointing to Loughner's incoherent world view stemming from the Communist Manifesto and his comments that the "Iraq and Afghanistan war of 2010 is a war crime from the Geneva Convention articles of 1949" and "Crap on God."
He ain't exactly a Tea Partier or a Palin follower.
Bravo RUmp couldn't have said it better.
ReplyDeleteTHE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
ReplyDeleteRump, don't know if you caught this in the news about Dick Winters:
"Richard “Dick" Winters, the Easy Company commander whose World War II exploits were made famous by the book and TV miniseries Band of Brothers, died last week in central Pennsylvania. He was 92."
Cap Out ....
A pre-emptive rebuttal:
ReplyDeletePalin and Angle do not have a lock on violent imagery targeting individuals and groups. But, the fact that others are guilty ignores the culpability of all who engage in such rhetoric.
I take exception to your posting of this one-sided article in order to spew your propaganda. Sarah Palin is no more responsible for the murder spree than the Democratic Leadership Conference was when it posted the target map on Congressional districts. No more than Obama was responsible when he described the republicans as "enemies" or when he said we should bring a gun instead of a knife to a battle with republicans. If I took the time, I could find hundreds more references like this by Obama and other democrats. People's opinions, no matter how firmly stated, do not kill people or play into a madman's deranged behavior. Where was the rush to blame muslims for the Ft. Hood shootings? Sarah Palin happens to be right that the size of government is too big. I'm tired of people politicizing tragedies in this way. And you have the nerve to hide behind someone's else's video. Rump, you are wrong, and Sarah Palin and the other republicans are right.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you rump, but remember who sarah palin is: a complete moron when it comes to politics. dont expect her to ever say anyting smart. id trust her to help me salmon fishing in alaska, but g-d help us if she is ever re elected to another office.
ReplyDeletemore importantly, the nations collective prayers are with those in Arizona dealing first hand with this senseless tragedy and devastating loss of life.
RIP Maj. Winters
ReplyDeleteIt's now:
ReplyDelete1-11-11-1:11.
Have a great day.
Cap Out .....
well, I tried.
ReplyDeleteI am sick of these cops parking in our lot. We pay almost $100 a month for the lot and I can't find a parking space because every department in South Florida (including Highway Patrol)park their marked and unmarked vehicles in my lot! What can we do about this Rump? I may bring my baseball bat to work tomorrow.
ReplyDelete11 seconds too late...
ReplyDeleteWell said Rump.
ReplyDeleteThank you Rump for saying what the pussies who run our country have been beating around for days. It is not the public discourse that is the problem it is that the ranting rabble of the right. It is not a coincidence that the target of the attack was a democrat, a defender of the immigrants and a Jew. When someone attacks Beck or Angle then we can talk about the discourse, in the meantime, the blood of the children, the judiciary and the congresswoman are permantly on the hands of Palin and her pathetic ilk.
ReplyDeletePalin may be an idiot, but your blog post is irresponsibly premature given that we now know that Loughner is a complete wackjob and anything but a Tea Party Palin follower.
ReplyDeleteThen I guess Obama is equally culpable with his, "if they come with a knife, we'll come with a gun" comment.
ReplyDeleteThe shooter was a paranoid schziophrenic loner. This was not political. This guy was a nutjob conspiracy theorist with no connection to the far left or far right.
There is no evidence that this had ever listened to any of Sarah Palin's or Sharon Angle's speeches or read any of their works. He likely had no idea who they were.
over da top rumpole
ReplyDeleteI know that the quote is all over right wing websites and blogs as a way to divert the attention from Palin and her thugs. However the point is that it has been the right wing that has used the not too subtle analogy of firearms and assassinations (second amendment solutions) to political discourse. This is of course a 180 degree change from the leftist radicals of the 60's and 70's who used actual terrorist acts and bombings to make their points.
ReplyDeleteThe point is you cannot ignore what Palin and her gang have been doing and saying. And now we see the result of her words. For shame.
You are a complete, left wing moron. It is because of people like you that this country is so polarized. I find your nonsenical football crap easier to swallow than your pathetic philosophical attempts.
ReplyDeleteWe really need to develop a blog for people who wish to discuss that impact our practice, our courts, and our clients. You must be ancient because you are acting like a senior judge, who writes for what he or she thinks is posterity.
Rumpole said:
ReplyDelete"But make no mistake about it- the blood of six dead Americans (one dear child) and Congresswoman Giffords is on the hands of Sara Palin and Sharon Angle."
That statement is not only irresponsible, premature and intellectually-lacking, but is also non-causal and just as much inflammatory as what you are criticizing.
None of this blame is even remotely productive, and, in fact, it contributes to the usual conflict entrepreneurs that dominate our radio and television programs.
ReplyDeleteI'm a liberal Democrat, that only means that I have a certain view intellectually and, in some respects viscerally, of economics and our Constitution.
So what? It doesn't say very much about who I am; my hopes for my family; my aspirations for myself. Economics and the Constitution are certainly open to reasoned discourse about differing views. But we don't need to shout; we don't need to give quasi-threats, we don't need to reduce every argument to absurd cant.
But we do. And who benefits? The same usual suspects. If you are sympathetic to the conservative view, you might turn to Beck, et al, to see what he or they have to say about what a few liberal bloggers or posters have to say. It all amounts to an echo of poorly reasoned and all too quickly assumed theories and deductions.
Honestly, we feel we have to seek some sort of logic in tragedies. It is part of our culture. We study the classic tragedies and the protagonist's own flaw leads to his destruction. But in life, perhaps unlike literature, madness is erratic and chaotic without any significance. It is destructive and sad, but it is ultimately not understandable. And this inscrutable nature of madness leaves us to fill in what we can't understand.
Sometimes, in life there is not cause and effect, or the cause and effect is not what we think it is.
Sarah Palin is one of the biggest conflict entrepreneurs of our lifetime. She has gotten rich off throwing bombs at a diffuse and fictionally monolithic group known as "progressives." Honestly, no one ont he right could even tell you what a progressive is. The progressive is simply the latest bete noir that people can rant against. Before progressives, there were liberals, before liberals, there were pinkos, before pinkos, there were commies, and before that, , , you get the idea. And the left? Before wing nuts, there were Birchers, and before Birchers there were jackboots, and just as the with the right, ad infinatum.
So how do we fight this all this noise. I have no idea. But I have started looking only for the answers to questions that I formulate myself. For example, how did this kid, who was too crazy for a community college, where everyone is a little off the beam, got a gun. why this gun, and is anyone to trying to fight the NRA to get this people engine of death off the market? And various other questions, like why wasn't he receiving help?
That's all we can do in a case like this.
In answer to 7:36 a.m. -- why would one vote for a 'loon'? Will that somehow make our nation better?
ReplyDeleteI admit that Obama has not been the vibrant leader that I had hoped he would become -- but a caribou hunting loon?????
Palin is not the cause of the problems, she is the symptom of the general decline of America. American voters have decided that Palin matters, that she has a place in out politcal discourse. If Americans can be swayed by Palin it is because our intellegence does not demand more.
ReplyDeleteNote the Pam Bondi candidacy. We deserve what we allow to snake in.... eat it America, our economy is in decline, our politics are diminished, our (your) place in the world is no longer central.
Your sat by and now you will be servants to the next powers...
the trialmaster agrees totally. the SEC rules college football. the winner of the SEC every year should receive the automatic bid to play for the bcs title. always take the SEC team in the bowl games and you will be a rich man......
ReplyDelete10:14 p.m. is smart.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who would be stupid enough to think Americans would side with wacko lefties because of a false association of Loughner with Palin is himself deranged. I would say that Keith Olbermann is more dangerous in our society than Loughner because he reaches more people. The reason the left is in decline is because of atheist, humanist nutballs like Paul Krugman, Sheriff Dupnik, Ed Schultz, and Al Sharpton. You didn't actually think Al Sharpton was a Christian Reverend, did you?
ReplyDelete"We stand between the power of the state and the individual, and in doing so defend the core values that make this country great," (Judy) Clarke said. "None of us, including those accused of a crime, wants to be defined by the worst moment, or the worst day of our lives."
ReplyDeleteName the lawyer who represented: Susan Smith, Ted Kaczynski,Buford O. Furrow, Eric Rudolph, and Zacarias Moussaoui.
ReplyDeleteSara Palin is a complete idiot. The fact that ANYONE, regardless of party affiliation, would view her as a serious candidate for the presidency is an incredibly frightening thought. That said, I am not sure that we can lay the blame for the actions of this lunatic at her feet. But if blaming her helps to ensure that she never sees the inside of the White House, then........IT IS ALL HER FAULT!!!!!
ReplyDeleteFor one of the few times in my life I am almost at a loss for words over the venom that continues to be spewed by radicals on both sides of our political debate in the aftermath of this despicable act. How Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and their proxy Sarah Palin can ignore the affect their rabble rousing and vitriolic discourse has on those to whom they preach boggles the mind.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that the person guilty of this dastardly act clearly has significant mental issues. However, who do these demigods think they are listening to them? Don't they understand that those lunatic fringe elements revere them and pray at the alter of their philosophy?
That is not to say that infringement of freedom of speech should take their place. But don't yell fire in a crowded room (in this case calling anyone with whom you disagree unpatriotic) and not think some idiot with a gun won't take you seriously and believe he is doing something patriotic by ridding the world of the target of your attack.
In her speech Palin attacks those who attack her comments as left wing radicals who want to infringe "her" freedom of speech and continues the discourse of anger that is a 24/7 item on Fox news. She refers to criticism of her acts as "blood libel" and tries to identify hereself with the "founding fathers" as if she has anywhere near the intelligence, insight and vision of those great men.
Our leaders must set aside the politics of hate, anger and confrontation. They must learn and understand that just because you disagree does not make the other person less of a loyal American than they are.
As an aside one can only be astounded by the thought process of people who want to picket the funeral of a 9 year old girl and do so claiming to praise the shooter as being a messenger of God sent to punish the people of this country for not repenting for its "sins". Kudos to the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties of Arizona for joining together to pass legislation preventing this distasteful act and going even further by joining in an action to create a human barricade to prevent the family from having to see or hear any of this idiot's ranting.
The " Woodstock " generation who lived the summer of love and peace need now to step forward and reinvigorate our politics with the attitude of civility. We should be the leaders and the voice of reason. It is time to take a deep breath, reinstall the filter between our brains and our mouths and try to move forward, not retreat into the battles of the past.
Rump, you and this blog have definitely jumped the shark. Over the course of the last few months you have shown yourself to be delusional, intolerant, hypocritical and paranoid. I know you think highly of yourself because you read the NYT, which incidentally employs Paul Krugman the biggest political bomb thrower around, but you are just a sad sack that lies about your life and your vacation destinations.
ReplyDeleteYou suck,
CK
What the man is saying sounds to me like the same crap that Beck speaks. We all know that he will not be insane enough for the court. May I suggest a visit to the works of Hannah Arendt who suggested that the dehumanization of enemies is a prelude to large scale political murder. The emergence of Obama has inspired propaganda by the right suggesting he is a foreign communist who stole "our country" and is a threat to the children and the nation. Add to that the constant gun imagery and war terminology in political propaganda and you can see how people would get violent.
ReplyDeleteThere really seems to be no limit to the narcissism, and and self-pity of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, is there:
ReplyDelete"We're Arizona shooting victims too, says Tea Party co-founder"
Very nicely said Rump. We are going down a bad road. This politically angry environment has got to change.
ReplyDeleteDiscourse, in any side of an argument, is good and healthy and the cornerstone of our government. But this violence and hatred each party has for the other has got to end; or, there will be more terror.
Rump: You must be smoking the same crack that my clients are. Sarah Palin responsible for the horrible shootings!? So when Chris Matthews says he would like to shove a bomb and explode Rush Limbaughs mouth - if that were to happen Chris Matthews would be at fault.
ReplyDeleteThis so-called "Batman" is an example of the hypocrisy that has been in the media lately. Everybody starts out saying that both sides need to tone down the rhetoric, but then they focus on Palin, Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and other reasonable conservatives as examples of the problem. They give no examples of people on the left who need to tone down their own rhetoric. We live in a big world. A radio personality is not responsible for the actions of the people listening to him. We are not children here. Each adult is his own person and acts as an individual. It seems like this should go without saying, but these days, liberals will look for any opportunity to attack the other side, even using a horrible tragedy to seek political gain. Liberals enjoy what happened to Giffords and the dead victims because it allows them to quickly get off of the subject of the tragedy to attack Palin instead. I wonder whether today's liberals even have a soul. They gave the victims less than one hour to mourn before playing political football with the tragedy, before even knowing whether Giffords would live and who the perpetrator was. How despicable!!!
ReplyDelete12:16 p.m. - You must know you are truly an idiot. "Liberals enjoy what happened to Giffords and the dead victims because it allows them to quickly get off of the subject of the tragedy to attack Palin.." Does that include enjoying what happened to a 9 year old girl so they have a reson to attack conservatives?
ReplyDeleteYou have to be a product of the public school system of Florida. In the words of any good lawyer: "and with that Your Honor, I rest my case."
This is not a left or right issue. The issue is us - as Americans. We love guns. We love violence. It is an inescapable part of us - and our culture.
ReplyDelete"You have to be a product of the public school system of Florida"
ReplyDeleteHey Batman-- somewhat offensive?
Okay I will amend to say "a recent product of the public school system of Florida." We all know that the public schools of this state rank 49th in the country. Offended by the truth?
ReplyDelete