{"id":28262,"date":"2011-01-08T18:55:36","date_gmt":"2011-01-09T02:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=28262"},"modified":"2011-01-09T08:01:28","modified_gmt":"2011-01-09T16:01:28","slug":"jewish-congresswoman-gabrielle-giffords-critical-after-shot-in-the-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=28262","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Jewish Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords critical after shot in the head"},"content":{"rendered":"

As soon as the news broke from Tucson, the New York Times began reporting that the shooting might have been politically motivated by right-wingers such as Sarah Palin.<\/p>\n

This was in its news reports (since deleted).<\/p>\n

It turns out the shooter was into left-wing conspiracies.<\/p>\n

JTA reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\nGiffords was elected to Congress in the Democratic sweep in 2006. The first Jewish woman elected to Congress from the state, she made her Jewish identity part of her campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want something done, your best bet is to ask a Jewish woman to do it,\u201d said Giffords, a former state senator, said at the time. \u201cJewish women \u2014 by our tradition and by the way we were raised \u2014 have an ability to cut through all the reasons why something should, shouldn\u2019t or can\u2019t be done and pull people together to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giffords, 40, was raised “mixed” by a Christian Scientist mother and Jewish father, but said that after a visit to Israel in 2001, she had decided she was Jewish only. She attended services at a local Reform synagogue.<\/p>\n

In one of her last photos, she posed with the new U.S. House of Representatives speaker, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) at her swearing in; her hand is on the “Five Books of Moses.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Instapundit reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

And judging from the comments to this post,<\/a> people are already trying to score political points. Well, they kind of telegraphed<\/a> this strategy, didn\u2019t they? Remember Bloomberg making a fool of himself by blaming the Times Square bombing on the Tea Party? How about waiting until we actually know something, this time? That\u2019s likely to be soon enough.<\/p>\n

MORE: KOLD reports Giffords is alive and in surgery.<\/a> Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

MORE STILL: A blogger-email from Speaker Boehner\u2019s office: \u201cI am horrified by the senseless attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and members of her staff. An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve. Acts and threats of violence against public officials have no place in our society. Our prayers are with Congresswoman Giffords, her staff, all who were injured, and their families. This is a sad day for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ed Driscoll is updating with news.<\/a> Kos is airbrushing.<\/a><\/p>\n

EVEN MORE: His name\u2019s Jared Lee Loughner and he seems like a garden variety nut:<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

Among his long list of favorite books in his YouTube profile are Mein Kampf, The Communist Manifesto, Siddhartha.<\/p>\n

Loughner also \u201cfavorited\u201d just one video on YouTube, which shows the burning of an American flag and is accompanied by an anti-government screed. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Doesn\u2019t sound much like a Tea Partier. And what the hell is \u201cconscience dreaming?\u201d<\/p>\n

Media Matters: Don\u2019t Score Political Points.<\/a> Oh, wait . . . .<\/p>\n

MORE: High School Friend: \u201cAs I knew him he was left wing, quite liberal. & oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy.\u201d<\/a> More here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Also: Man linked to Giffords shooting called \u2018very disturbed.\u2019<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n
\n

BARACK OBAMA: \u201cIf they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

UPDATE: Reader Ron Hardin emails: \u201cIt\u2019s time to stamp out violent figures of speech.\u201d Heh.<\/p>\n

ANOTHER UPDATE: Pejman Yousefzadeh rounds up statements by Ezra Klein, Markos Moulitsas, and Paul Krugman and asks: \u201cWho<\/em> are these people to be lecturing the rest of us about political civility?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

MORE: In 2008, Markos Moulitsas put a \u201cbullseye\u201d on Gabrielle Giffords\u2019 district.<\/a> While we\u2019re tracking those violent figures of speech . . . .<\/p>\n

Give it up guys. Your efforts to politicize this tragedy have been pathetic.<\/p>\n

To be clear, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything wrong with Markos\u2019s post, which is about primary challenges. But I do think there\u2019s something wrong with pretending that this sort of language is to blame for nuts. And if you\u2019re going to claim that, well, sauce for the goose. . . .<\/p>\n

Related: Democrat Harry Mitchell Places Opponent in Crosshairs.<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

A ROUNDUP OF VIOLENT POLITICAL RHETORIC FROM THE LEFT.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Paul Krugman writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have proof yet that this was political, but the odds are that it was. She\u2019s been the target of violence before<\/a>. And for those wondering why a Blue Dog Democrat, the kind Republicans might be able to work with, might be a target, the answer is that she\u2019s a Democrat who survived what was otherwise a GOP sweep in Arizona, precisely because the Republicans nominated a Tea Party activist. (Her father says that \u201cthe whole Tea Party<\/a>\u201d was her enemy.) And yes, she was on Sarah Palin\u2019s infamous \u201ccrosshairs\u201d list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just yesterday, Ezra Klein remarked that opposition to health reform was getting scary<\/a>. Actually, it\u2019s been scary for quite a while, in a way that already reminded many of us of the climate that preceded the Oklahoma City bombing.<\/p>\n

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\u2019re going to see in the months and years ahead. But violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate. And it\u2019s long past time for the GOP\u2019s leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers.<\/p>\n

Update<\/strong>: I see that Sarah Palin has called the shooting \u201ctragic\u201d. OK, a bit of history: right-wingers went wild over anyone who called 9\/11 a tragedy, insisting that it wasn\u2019t a tragedy, it was an atrocity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As soon as the news broke from Tucson, the New York Times began reporting that the shooting might have been politically motivated by right-wingers such as Sarah Palin. This was in its news reports (since deleted). It turns out the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,24],"tags":[24977,20441,3345,38356,24925,13140,24978],"class_list":["post-28262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jews","category-politics","tag-congresswoman-gabrielle-giffords","tag-ezra-klein","tag-five-books-of-moses","tag-gabrielle-giffords","tag-john-boehner","tag-reform-synagogue","tag-rep-john-boehner"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t