The following is an Op-Ed written by Michael Daly in todays NY Daily News:
Here is what Sarah Palin said on the Facebook page where she depicted Gabrielle Giffords in the cross hairs of a rifle scope: “Don’t retreat! Instead – RELOAD!”
Well, the guy who shot Giffords yesterday managed to keep firing until he killed six, including a child, and wounded 13 .
Palin would no doubt say that she was only speaking in metaphor, that she only meant her followers should work to unseat Giffords and 19 other Democrats who had roused her ire by voting for health care.
But anyone with any sense at all knows that violent language can incite actual violence, that metaphor can incite murder. At the very least, Palin added to a climate of violence.
Palin should have taken it as a warning of what might happen when a Tea Party hothead dropped a gun while heckling Giffords at an earlier Congress On Your Corner event, more than a year ago.
That did not stop Palin from declaring Giffords a “target.” Giffords’ district office was subsequently vandalized, and the congresswoman noted that Palin had put “the cross hairs of a gun sight over our district.”
“When people do that, they have to realize that there are consequences to that action,” Giffords said.
Giffords herself at least publicly failed to appreciate the full magnitude of the danger. She said at the time of the dropped gun incident that “at no point did I ever feel in danger and at no point did I ever feel there was a problem.”
“When you represent a district that includes the home of the O.K. Corral and Tombstone, ‘the Town Too Tough to Die,’ nothing’s a surprise out in Cochise County,” Giffords was quoted saying.
In citing the famous shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Giffords did not note that the gunplay was sparked when the Earp brothers sought to enforce town ordinance No. 9.
That law was promulgated on April 19, 1881, by the Earps themselves. It prohibited carrying “deadly weapons, concealed or otherwise” including “firearms of every description.”
For Giffords to have cited Ordinance No. 9 could have meant political ruin in a district that romanticizes the O.K. Corral as part of its “gun culture.”
Either out of political expediency or actual belief, Giffords herself spoke fondly of this supposed legacy of the Wild West.
“In my district and in my state, we have a very strong gun culture,” she said in May when asked for her position regarding a renewed ban on assault weapons.
She had been one of the members of Congress who added their support to the effort to overturn the gun ban in Washington.
She also noted in interviews that she herself owned a Glock 9 mm. The NRA still branded her as an opponent because she had dared to suggest that guns should not be carried in bars.
Even if Giffords had been carrying her Glock at her latest Congress On Your Corner event yesterday, she would have had no time to reach for it and defend herself. Unlike in all those westerns, gunmen bent on homicide almost never give you a chance to draw.
And, unlike in the real Arizona of old, there was no Ordinance No. 9, no Earp brothers in the crowd yesterday to enforce it, to maybe spot the killer with the gun before he had a chance to use it.
The result was exactly the kind of carnage the Earps had sought to prevent with their attempt at instilling gun-control culture.
And, now that Palin may have the blood of more than some poor caribou on her hands, I wonder if she will continue putting people in cross hairs and calling on folks to RELOAD!
(Source: NY Daily News)
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21 Responses
Sarah Palin may be stupid & unthinking, but she’s not to blame. Try blaming Obama’s policies, his hatred of America & his attempts to Muslimize this country. It seems this man was sick of them all.
But I think the reality is this nutcase is an anarchist & def mentally deranged. Meanwhile, Daly should be fired for incitement to more hatred, this time of Republicans.
Oh, wait, that’s OK. Free speech. Gee….isn’t that what Sarah Palin used? But it is clear there’s one law for Dems & another for Republicans.
Pathetic. This insane, unstable individual was no Teapartyer and no Palin fan. Furthermore, according to his classmates he was liberal leaning. It’s horrendous to see the “mainstream media” spinning the news once again to portray the right as radical. When a terrorist screaming Allah Akbar shoots, he’s a lone, unstable individual. However, when it’s someone ranting about mind control along with outbursts against government along with suggestions of burning the American Flag, it’s a right-wing conspiracy. Why would a right-winger, inspired by Palin’s “crosshairs” suggest Marxism? Why would someone ranting against the Government choose a Congresswoman that is against a budget deficit? This is why I have absolutely no trust in the “mainstream media.” I see a climate of hate in those pundits and journolists. I see those that mention Obama while getting chills up their legs as angry individuals spewing hate when they mention Palin. I’m not a Palin fan, but this spin and inaccuracy gotta stop!
shame on YWN! the blood is clearly in the hands of the popular liberal website “The Daily Kos”. On thursday they posted a article headlined: “The congressWOMAN voted against Nancy Pelosi! now DEAD on me” the article is now scraped from their website..!
Moderators Response: “Shame on YWN?!”
in fact! among his top reading books were real leftist ones like communist books & hitler’s book, but of course its palin’s fault… this is what our media is good all about, almost sounds like bloomenberg by the times square bomber which he said “ITS NOT A TERORIST, COULD BE SOMEONE WHO IS ANGRY ABOUT HCR…” but everyone buys it!!!
Dave Hirsch,
The suspect listed both the Communist Manifesto and Main Kampf as favorite reading. He isn’t a liberal or a conservative, he is a dangerous nut. And it is nuts like that who get nutty ideas and take dangerous actions when politicians like Palin and Angle use terms like “Reload” and “Second Amendment Solution”.
Lets lower the tone of the rhetoric before more nuts copy his horrible actions.
#3,
Your statement is incorrect. It was a single comment, not an article. Here is its entire text:
“Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is dead to me now. I won’t lift a finger, make one phone call, nor will i EVER vote for her in the future. …”
Kos himself has promoted Giffords as a possible US Senate candidate and even paid for an independent poll to judge her chances in 2012 against Kyl. The policy of the dailykos site is that insinuations of violence get removed. I’ve seen it happen and this may have been an example of that.
Corection, it was a “diary” which is a user-contributed essay, not something written by the site owners. And it advocates no violence at all. The essay concludes by saying: “I won’t lift a finger, make one phone call, nor will i EVER vote for her in the future. And why did she do this? Giffords never told me she was conservative Democrat. And her voting record is okay. Damn.”
The cached article can be found by a Google search of “My CongressWOMAN voted against Nancy Pelosi! And is now DEAD to me”.
(I’m not sure where the author of the essay in question ever got the idea that Giffords was not a conservative Democrat. She has made a big deal of increasing border security and was very pro-gun. She was also one of the few “Blue Dog” Democrats to survive this past election.)
Search dailykos.com itself and you will find an essay from late October that contains the results of a kos-commissioned poll of Giffords’ chances against Kyl in 2012.
I regret the error.
What a jerk. The American Nazi party endorsed Reagan for president. Does that make Reagan a nazi? The only thing that parallels a politician for stupidity is possibly a columnist – and the most “challanged” are uber-leftists.
It was reported his favorite book was “Mein Kampf”. Was Sarah Palin or anyone else responsible for that? Leftists always blame others. People are responsible for their actions. That’s all.
Charlie Hall I’m getting more and more disgusted with you. Your a liberal leftist, you support the daily kos, which is a vial hateful web site, supported by the self hating jew Soros y”ms. You should be ashamed how low you have fallen. And this has come from your support for radical obama and your reading the ober left NY times, and the main stream media. This guy went on a killing rampage, nothing to do with talk radio or Palin that’s hateful and stupid to say. The guy did it because he was a nut case anarchist & def mentally deranged, (and by the way friends said was a liberal). So liberal should just stop all this stupidity.
I am sick of these leftist loonies even though there are rightist loons also. Van Jones should be happy because he wants a revolution in America and let the communist take over. Bottom up, top down, inside out.; his theme. The point he is sitting in the White House. Every one of these loons leads us one step further to obama’s world of communism. Any break down in society is a call for the “troops” to take over America. People must come together and demand the republicans get rid of the UNGOVERNMENT CZARS IN the White HOuse now. If the Congress did not put them there then they are not there. Just last week obama under his dictatorship appointed an ambassor to Syrian behind congress’s back. Enough of his
ruling by his decrees
I heard it said on local radio that Congresswoman Giffords is Jewish. If this is the case, please dont take her cheshbon, just say tehillim for her. Thanks….
Dead judge = death penalty.
Good.
frdm,
Do you actually read kos? Frankly, you have no idea what you are talking about. I’m sticking to facts.
YITZCHOKY,
Obama made a recess appointment of Robert Ford as Ambassador to Syria. This was perfectly permissible under the Constitution. Ford is a career diplomant who has won several awards. He had been submitted to the Senate for confirmation but the Republicans had refused to allow a vote even though the nomination was made almost a year ago. Bush had sent Ambassadors to Syria. And Bush made over 170 recess appointments “behind Congress’s back” as you say.
More on the dailykos diary: The author of the offensive diary has put a public apology on the site. And he himself removed the original diary. I await the apologies of others who have used far more offensive rhetoric.
WHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTT? Sarah palin to blame???????? Obama try again!!!!!
Charlie the daily kos is a despicable web site you shouldn’t even allowed to post that name on YWN. And you should be banded from this web site that says it about Yeshiva people, you are sure not one.
Hard-ball politics is one thing, cross-hairs another.
Gun-sights, “reload,” “target” are all powerful images and words the evoke certain, specific feelings. These are the same images and the same wording that the anti-abortion groups were using and then were “shocked!” that doctors were assassinated. It is the same outrage that followed the Rabin assassination at Rabbis who had paskined him as a “rodef.”
I don’t care whether you are blue or red, liberal or conservative, republican or democrat, or whatever: words are powerful. When we demonize our opponents, when we suggest that they should be “targeted” then we have to live with the consequences that there are “true believers” who will take that message to heart.
Can we be responsible for all of the crazy people out there? No.
Should we be responsible for our words? Yes.
Interesting. The media never comes up with these analyses when a muslim commits an act of terrorism.
The left is blaming Palin as if she was the rosha who pulled the trigger. Oh how typical of the left to look for a scapegoat instead of putting the blame DIRECTLY where it belongs, ON THE SHOOTER.
I find it completely not surprising that the Socialist Liberal media won’t talk about the favorite books of this kook, namely Karl Marx ym”sh & Hitler ym”sh. Socialism is just about where the modern day democrat party is holding. Thus it would make sense that this kook would NOT have tried bumping off a liberal democrat!!!
Also, where are the almighty libs when it comes to Obama’s street talk? No one said “boo” when Obama publicly threatened Sean Hannity during the campaign. Remember, the Street Thug In Charge was gonna have “Burgess” tear him up (go find it on youtube if you don’t believe it).
Obama also said to his peeps, that the Republicans are the enemy & they should beat them up.
Of course daily kooks like charliehall will find excuses but what else do you expect from a socialist. Hey Charles go announce to your socialist daily kook creeps that they need to defend you because from what I see the people are quite sick of your hard left attitude.
The shooter should die a slow PAINFULL death!
What the left is doing is the same mind manipulation that the left did after Rabin’s murder. They used it as political weapon. It eventually backfired. Right now, Israel is under conservative leadership. The left is pulling any dirty trick they can to gain political advantage. S. Palin is their new scapegoat. The reason is because they are scared of her. The libs have been pushing for years that only they support women and their rights. Along comes S. Palin and rises to the higher ecshelons of political conservatives. They don’t want the “american woman” to realize all the lies that they have been fed by liberalism. A lot of posters here have been misled by the libs too. The only despicable acts are those by liberal rags like the Daily News trying to blame this bloodshed on Palin. You won’t be able to quiet the dissent against liberalism and the President who is their most prestigious member, even if you remove conservative talk shows and enact other unconstitutional rules and laws! BTW, all you libs who say Palin & other conservatives are against health care for everyone, fail to mention the reason. It’s not because we aren’t human -it just that the country can’t afford it!
#19, ym”sm on Karl Marx? Are you kidding me? Why? Explain why you would attach such an extreme statement on Karl Marx.
He was right, you know. Dialectic debate, and the fact that the greed factor and need for every increasing profit in Capitalism will end up making the economic system like a snake who consumes it’s own tail.
And how many workers do NOT feel exploited as individuals based on their placement in the job market????
Explain. You are a knowledgeable man, although I dont agree with you, but explain the ym’sm on Marx, please.