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Report: Tea Party Gifford's Enemy, Father Says
The father of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was shot in the head Saturday, told The New York Post that the "whole tea party" was her enemy.
"They always get threatened," said Spencer Giffords.
Giffords was shot at close range along with several other people at a public event outside a Tucson grocery store. She is reportedly in surgery at a local hospital.
Giffords also reported the door to her Tucson office was smashed by vandals after she voted in favor of healthcare reform in March.
Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips condemned the attacks, but warned supporters that the Tea Party movement would be blamed by political opponents.
"While we need to take a moment to extend our sympathies to the families of those who died, we cannot allow the hard left to do what it tried to do in 1995 after the Oklahoma City bombing," he said.
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Show All'... we cannot allow the hard left to do what it tried to do in 1995 after the Oklahoma City bombing'
I think Mr. Phillips means "We don't want anyone trying to get to the truth behind this."
I think he's referring to the crackdown on rightwing militas following the OKC bombing. But, his rhetoric shows he doesn't care one iota.
As though the "hard left" is a real entity, and not a rhetorical flourish designed to deflect attention from the fact that the ranks of Tea Partiers are composed of racist, armed nutters who are willing to follow Sarah Palin into a religious corporate state.
Thank you, malatesta!
I'm coming late to these threads after a busy day elsewhere, but my first thought was, "There's a 'hard left'? That's the only good news I've heard all day!"
Would that it were so; without overlooking my own predilection for scrabbling sideways and menacingly clacking my claws, it grieves me that the "left", such as it is, may be less like a rabble of unherdable cats than a barrel of crabs.
Are the hard left and professional left the same or just fabricated boogeymen?
After Oklahoma City bombings the media was blaming Moslems before they knew who did it.
You nailed it bud.
The "hard left?" What an idiot. Someone is shot in a senseless act of violence, and the first thing out of this brainless dweeb is a scream about something that doesn't exist in a pathetic attempt to deflect attention from his own culpability.
The only significant piece of legislation enacted in response to Oklahoma City was the Antiterrorism Act of 1996 which, as this moron ("moran") from the Tea Party should know, had huge bipartisan support, and in fact was part of Newt Gingrich and his crew's Contract with Amerika (aka Contract on Amerikkka). But then maybe Mr. Phillips thinks that Newt and his minions are part of the "hard left" -- like anyone this side of Hitler is too far left for the Teabaggers.
So I'm sure we'll be getting plenty of of these right wing talking heads presented by the MSM this weekend and next week, all with the typical "he said, she said" spin. A free soapbox for the wing nuts, spouting the same nonsense they spouted after OKC ( http://articles.sfgate.com/1995-05-21/news/17807230_1_michigan-militia-militia-movement-bombing ) For example:
On April 21, just two days after the bombing, for example, ABC's "20/20" quoted Vietnam veteran and survivalist "Bo" Gritz saying: "The destruction in Oklahoma City of a nine-story government building was a Rembrandt. It was a masterpiece of science and art put together." (Later Gritz complained the quote was taken out of context -- that he was actually arguing the bomb was so advanced that probably no member of the militia movement could have built it.)
Two days later, on CBS' "60 Minutes," the leader of the Michigan Militia suggested to reporter Lesley Stahl -- and 33 million viewers -- that the federal government itself might have been involved in the Oklahoma City bombing as a way of "inciting public outrage and anger toward . . . patriotic movements."
On April 25, radio show host G. Gordon Liddy -- convicted in the Watergate break-in 20 years ago -- said he had been wrong when he earlier advised people to shoot federal agents in the head if the officers enter a person's home with guns blazing. The head, he said, was too hard to hit.
Liddy amended his advice at a news conference: "Shoot twice to the body, center of mass, and if that does not work, then shoot to the groin area. They cannot move their hips fast enough, and you'll probably get a femoral artery."
.....just a few comments from "hard right."
As of 2009, Nevada and South Carolina are the only states that require customers to provide ID when purchasing ammonium nitrate fertilizer, because every time someone gets killed, and someone wants to try to do something to help it not happen again, these idiots go screaming about jack-booted thugs taking away their 2nd amendment rights.
No FBI agents showed up for work that day. And just this year a UTah attorney received videos from three cameras aimed at the building but they all, according to the FBI ran out of tape within minutes prior to the explosion. Plus there have been persistent reports of an additional perpetrator
Commonsense Conservatives & lovers of America: "Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!" Pls see my Facebook page. Sarah Palin
The 'Tea Party' should wake up to reality, their violence filled rhetoric where some Americans because of their political views are portrayed as the enemy and a threat to the nation...has the real potential to incite people and may have in Arizona.
Talk about reversing the blame here. After all this they still want to blame the Left and the Liberals as being the bad people.
This smells like a Tea Party assassination.
Any money on the guess that the shooter is a fox news addict and Glenn Beck junky or studied Palins target map?
Its amazing how quickly the Tea Party assumed and put in print that they would be blamed...
Maybe because they should be.
When you as the Tea Party and the likes of Glen Beck and Rush are continuously fanning the flame of hate and intolerance, there are going to be those who will take it to heart...
Arizona is an angry State. They are the hardest on the Mexicans, they are currently killing their donor pateints in front of the whole country, almost 70% of Arizona belongs to the Tea Party. They have a Sheriff killing Mexicans, by shooting water wells in the deasert, John McCain gave us Sarah Palin, I have been to Arizona several times, it's been a few years, but it looks like something is going on with the "State" of Arizona...
Remember it was also Arizona that gave us Goldwater whose statement: "Extremism in defense of liberty is a virtue." can be used to justify any execution.
Yes, her bio is very Tea Partyish. It fits right in. But the Dem Party is just the second branch of Business Party, along with the Repug Party - it has to be to tolerate those campaign positions.
Sure, Arizona is a state filled with right-wing nativists, with guns, but there's no need to encourage that behavior by amplifying it on the political stage, even if just to get votes.
-TIA
Also supports stem cell and renewables.
But I think we need more facts, if its possible, before concluding this guy came from the right, perhaps he is just generally angry at the gov.
I'll be the bastage who asks...
'how did her support of the second amendment, and her owning of guns, help her when she was attacked?'
Of course that's not a fair question at all. No one can, or should think it's a good idea to, answer the door with a gun in your hand.
Chameleon:
As we saw in the mid terms those things do not matter.. The Tea Party targeted many who you would have thought to be safe.
What she has going against her was that she was a Democrat in a conservative state and that she was on Sarah Palins hitlist regardless of her true beliefs.
I spent the past holiday listening to my 14 year old redneck nephew's solution to the national debt = "nuke China." Time for the Tea Party to wrap it up and go home and stop warping the young.
ap, Didn't you know everything when you were 14 too?
I hear the "Nuke whoever", "bomb 'em into the stoneage" mentality sometimes from relatives who I know do not truly mean what they are saying. I see it written on mainstream news message boards quite frequently as well. I think they are mostly parroting what they have heard on rightwing radio or heard others repeat from such lunatics.
I think we should take the time to remind our family members that there are actual people who live in these countries. We should remind them of the sheer horror of what they are actually saying. This tends to lead to a moment of rational thought and some use of their own conscience.
Fourteen is young. Plant some seeds to counteract the garbage he is getting from other adults.
USA a nation that lost its humanity to materialism
Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and all inciters of violence at the FOX network are accomplices in these murders. If regular law enforcement can't charge them as accomplices, the FCC has a duty to stop their hate speech and constant threats against people who don't adhere to right-wing thuggery. The FCC has long been derelict in its duty to stop these pseudo-patriots from spewing lies and vile rhetoric to encourage killings such as those that happened in Arizona today. Hate speech that leads to the loss of human life is not "free speech" as provided in the Constitution. The right of free speech carries with it a responsibility to refrain from speech that jeopardizes the safety of others. FCC: Please do your job and fine or pull the licenses of these hatemongers.
cnn has posted a couple of the alleged shooter's web posts...
in them... several times... "[my... reading... of the... constitution]"... appears...
hmmm... who is it that we know who've made "reading the constitution" so front and center in recent years...
there was the guy who flew his plane into a government office in texas(?)...
there was the census worker in georgia... found killed...
there was the guy apprehended before he made it to a left leaning think tank in oakland, ca.... with bombs and guns...
now another attack... on left of right government employees...
the message is getting through.
ayn rand planted the seeds...
milton friedman studied... analyzed... and quantified it...
newt gingrich pioneered the personal political attack in the 1980's... even published a how-to hand book for other house representatives...
stage named rush limbaugh... pioneered similarly... after the fairness doctrine in public media was tossed aside... pioneered similarly on broadcast media...
ann coulter had her/his(?) more than 15 minutes of fame...
frank luntz gave them the words to use...
fox corporation set up a whole network dedicated to the art of personal attacks...
glenn beck... well... as chris wallace said on fox "news" sunday... "[i've been in this business a LONG time... and i've never seen anyone like you... don't know who or what you are...]"
sarah palin just packaged the whole schmeal into a trademarked product line...
capitalism run amok.
Terrorism?
As the reports in so far make it appear that the shooting was politically motivated, why isn't the media calling this a terrorist event?
Official United States Government Definition of Terrorism
"[An] act of terrorism, means any activity that (A) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life that is a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State; and (B) appears to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping."
Come now, you know why. It's not terrorism when Republicans (or tea partiers, or whatever the hell this right wing goon was) do it.
Anyone else, yep, that'd be terrorism. Also if the victim is, or can be labeled as, a 'left winger', then it's not terrorism.
Look what happened. They can go to Hell and take their asshole rhetoric with them. And drag Beck in there behind them too.
Sarah Palin might as well have pulled the trigger herself in Arizona today. She is the loudest voice out there encouraging "reloading" and publishing a hunting map with Guiffords in the crosshairs in Arizona.
Are you proud of yourself now, Sarah Palin?
NBC Reports:
A 22-year-old woman in Arizona, Caitie Parker, claimed on her Twitter feed that she went to high school and college with the gunman, and was in a band with him. She described his politics in the past as "left wing, quite liberal, & oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy." She also described him as having a lot of friends "until he got alcohol poisoning in '06" and dropped out of school. "Mainly loner very philosophical."
Report may be correct or not. You are jumping to conclusions and you don't have all the data yet.
Chill
Rep. Gifford was a Republican, once.
Did she see the light or is she another political opportunist?
Was the fact that she a Republican part of the motivation of the attack?
Cong. Gabrielle Giffords last March talking about Sarah Palin's violent rhetoric:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs75zKxJxVY
Courtesy of a comment from a Huffington Post article about Palin aid's spin on this terror attack, from Palin's FB page:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=375184908434
FYI.
Peace, JC
Lets remember that it is Gifford's father who is blaming the Tea Party in this report. If anyone should know who was a threat, directly or indirectly, to congresswoman Gifford it would be her father. I sincerely hope all survivors have a full recovery soon. I send my sympathy to the loved ones of the deceased.