More Tumblr Truth

“The congresswoman’s father Spencer Gifford, 75, was rushing to the hospital when asked if his 40-year-old daughter had any enemies. ‘Yeah,’ he told The Post. ‘The whole tea party.’”

From the Salon live-blog.


Why go on a rant myself when there are plenty of people on Tumblr saying what I believe only they are saying it much better than I could express right now. I am just too upset over the whole event. I make no apologies for losing my shit over this event. This kind of evil makes me crazy enough to kill BUT I DON'T.

"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."


"Those with a megaphone, whether provided by public office or a media outlet, have responsibilities. They cannot avoid the consequences of their blatant efforts to inflame, anger, and outrage. We all know that there are unstable and potentially dangerous people among us. To repeatedly appeal to their basest instincts is to invite and welcome their predictable violence.

So long as we all tolerate this kind of irresponsible and dangerous rhetoric or, in the case of some commentators, treat it with delight, reward it, and consider it cute, so long will we place all those in public life, whom the provocateurs dislike, in the crosshairs of danger…That this is carried out…in the name of the Constitution, democratic rights and liberties, and patriotism is a mockery of all this nation claims to believe and almost all of us continue to struggle to preserve." - Gary Hart


“I think it’s important for all leaders, not just leaders of the Republican Party or the Democratic Party … community leaders, figures in our community to say, ‘Look, we can’t stand for this.’ I mean, this is a situation where people really need to realize that this rhetoric, and firing people up, and even things … For example, we’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list, but the way she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gunsight over our district. And when people do that, they’ve gotta realize that there’s consequences to that action.”


“If we are to have freedom to speak, freedom to assemble, and, yes, the freedom to bear arms, we must have responsibility as well. And to those of us who do not agree with the purveyors of hatred and division, with the promoters of paranoia, I remind you that we have freedom of speech, too, and we have responsibilities, too. And some of us have not discharged our responsibilities. It is time we all stood up and spoke against that kind of reckless speech and behavior. If they insist on being irresponsible with our common liberties, then we must be all the more responsible with our liberties. When they talk of hatred, we must stand against them. When they talk of violence, we must stand against them. When they say things that are irresponsible, that may have egregious consequences, we must call them on it. The exercise of their freedom of speech makes our silence all the more unforgivable. So exercise yours, my fellow Americans. Our country, our future, our way of life is at stake. I never want to look into the faces of another set of family members like I saw yesterday, and you can help to stop it.” - Bill Clinton


"[When] you stoke these flames, and you go to public meetings and you scream at the elected officials, you threaten them—you make us expendable you make us part of the cannon fodder. For a while, you’ve been feeding this hatred, this division…you feed it, you encourage it….Something’s going to happen. People are feeding this monster….Some of the extreme right wing has made demonization of elected officials their priority.

He concluded:

“The Palin express better look at their tone and their tenor. - Rep. Grijalva”"


Just yesterday, Ezra Klein remarked that opposition to health reform was getting scary. Actually, it’s been scary for quite a while, in a way that already reminded many of us of the climate that preceded the Oklahoma City bombing.

You know that Republicans will yell about the evils of partisanship whenever anyone tries to make a connection between the rhetoric of Beck, Limbaugh, etc. and the violence I fear we’re going to see in the months and years ahead. But violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate. And it’s long past time for the GOP’s leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers.

Update: I see that Sarah Palin has called the shooting “tragic”. OK, a bit of history: right-wingers went wild over anyone who called 9/11 a tragedy, insisting that it wasn’t a tragedy, it was an atrocity - Paul Krugman


"We are well past using violence to get votes. It’s time for accountability, and some responsibility to be reasonable, and not just on the part of people who make their careers in the public spotlight. We need to not vote for candidates who are willing to equate their opponents with hunting fodder. We need to stop watching the shows that espouse hostility toward our fellow citizens and residents, and tell their sponsors that we’re not going to purchase their products. We need to put ourselves out there for our neighbors even and especially when we disagree with their political values, because above all, we need to start acting like we all put congeniality and respect for each other at our highest priority.

Hate destroys. Love builds. I don’t care if I sound trite. It’s freaking true."


“So, this gunman has been identified and from his Youtube page it appears he a schizophrenic young man who’s been under the influence of extremist right wing rhetoric. Political assassins are often mentally ill —- history’s full of them. So let’s not kid ourselves — it’s not a coincidence that he shot a congresswoman. His videos are full of right wing political gibberish and from what he said in his bizarre videos, it’s clear that all the looney tunes anti-government talk flying around the ether and an excessive gun culture fed into his paranoia.”