Amen to that.

You are a moron of the highest order.

Really, people. Did you READ the blog or just respond to the cartoon? The problem we have in our country right now is that the rhetoric is so violent. Do you really want a return to the 60s and the bombings and such, the riots in the cities? People, think. Clay, you’ve given me lots of good stuff for my Civics class. It sparks discussions. If we can get the kids talking, and looking at the Constitution, and understanding what it means to be a democracy, then we will be OK. Keep up the good work. You make my job easier!

While you cannot say Palin, the tea party, or republicans are directly responsible for this tragedy, John Stewart has made the most sense by saying “You cannot outsmart crazy. You don’t know what a troubled mind would get caught on.”

Violent rhetoric of any kind has no place in the political arena. period.

Annette…..

Simple question:

Did the current tenor of the countries political rhetoric have anything to do with the senseless actions of the madman in question or not?

Been there, Done That:

“Your depth and maturity are far beyond most” Are you serious?

I think I threw up just a little!

“As I look out the window, I see a very beautiful planet that seems very inviting and peaceful. Unfortunately, it is not,”

“These days, we are constantly reminded of the unspeakable acts of violence and damage we can inflict upon one another, not just with our actions, but also with our irresponsible words,”

“We’re better than this. We must do better.”International Space Station Commander Scott Kelly .
We have to be careful what we say, because we don’t know who is listening.There are people out there that are not in the right mind and are going to take everything politicians say literally. We live in a Free Country so please keep it like this. And if we want the goverment to change we have to do it in a peaceful way . Go and vote in the next election!!

Your retort, Clay, is spectacularly disingenuous. You give examples of “hateful” rhetoric from the right, and completely (and conveniently) ignore examples from the left. And they are numerous.

Far-left blogger Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos used bullseye graphics to target – you guessed it – Gabrielle Giffords for a primary effort because she wasn’t liberal enough.

Obama famously said during his campaign “If they bring a knife, you bring a gun”.

Rahm Emanuel once sent a dead fish wrapped in newspaper to a pollster who’d annoyed him. He also during a meeting once took out a knife and while reciting a list of political enemies pounded the knife into a table yelling “Dead!” after each name.

And then there’s the entire eight years of Bush’s presidency with some of the absolute worst vitriol I’ve seen in my 50 years directed at a sitting president.

Sure, the left wants more civil political discourse, by which they mean they want the right to just shut up.

I cant imagine a world where free speech is restricted because of what some warped mind might do if they hear it. We limt Christian speech because it might offend someone, and now we think by limiting political speech we can prevent such tragedies as happened in Arizona.It is strange that we defend the rights of crude and profane music, and pornography which inflames weak minds to commit rape and such, but we dont want free political discourse.

I believe that Clay’s “cartoon” is awful and in very poor taste. I also believe that the Free-Lance Star has now proven to me that they cannot honestly say that they are a balanced news source. It’s time to find another source for my local news.

Cyan Banister has provided better comments on this matter than I could write.

“I do not believe for a second that Palin wanted anyone on that list dead. I also do not believe she supports violence. Also, I don’t like most anything she says and do not support her, but to accuse her of ‘getting her wish’ is just cruel. It makes you look like a sick person. Don’t wag your finger at people and accuse them of wishing others dead. It was a poor use of art, but by no means the cause. The shooter is the cause. Do not imply that words cause people to kill. Words can not kill people.

THE SHOOTER IS THE CAUSE. Blame him. Stop blaming everyone else. He created this tragedy. Two heroes took him down. Lets focus on that. Lets not turn this into a way to take away freedom. Lets not turn this into an attack on our constitutional rights.”

http://cyan.posterous.com/tragedy

Margi,

I assume your comment was directed at me, not Josh. I didn’t say true democracy… which is technically called a direct democracy, I said representative democracy. If you don’t think that’s what we have now, don’t take my word for it, I’d encourage you to read Hamilton and Madison’s Federalist Papers #9 and #10, respectively. I’d also encourage you to read the actual US Constitution. The term “republican” is used once (and only once) in Article IV which guarantee each state a republican form of government. It doesn’t label the Federal government one way or the other. The different labels “republic, democracy, etc” have been implied and applied after the fact based on the methods of the system in place at the time.

I have an undergraduate degree in Government and Politics and worked for the White House for 10 years so I think I’ve done enough research to tell you that you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Clay Jones and others of his ilk have shown their true colors. The poster above is correct when he cites numerous examples of violent rhetoric on the left. I, too have desired to cancel my subscription to the FLS because it chooses stories that fit their political bent and virtually ignore important national stories engaging in cover ups of facts their readers need to know. But I need the ads and the information for my business. Leaving important stories out of the news is just another way the FLS attempts to silence Those who disagree with them. Accusations of violent statements and the deliberate omission of worse statements on the left is another way. But in the end they and other echo chamber “journalists” lose because few have respect for them anymore. They believe the Internet is why newspapers are dying but that is not the reason. It is just the means. Americans have found that they no longer have to rely on outlets like the FLS for their news and they are voting with their feet. We need not put up with leftists like Clay Jones and the editors of the FLS. Not anymore. Bhu Bye.

Sounds like you have a stalker! By the way, I love how people want to be mad if you don’t share their opinion and call you a terrible person for just asking them to think about something.

Suddenly, comments are being monitored? Hope there are some who return to this thread. Please see:

http://www.newscopy.org/?p=640

This is a map from a now scrubbed Democratic National Committee page showing actual targets placed on states where the DNC planned to increase their election efforts. Cartoonist Jones last year uttered not a peep about it. But now all the violence is Sarah Palin’s fault.

But the bigger question is “Did the left contribute to this?” but that is not a question Jones is interested in because he does not wish to place that thought in the minds of readers. He only wishes to suggest the issue of right wing contribution which he has succeeded in doing. A bit of a dishonest and prejudiced “journalism.” Today’s news has a shooting victim from Tucson making a death threat against a Tea Party co-founder. He did so at a taping of an ABC News Sunday program hosted by that well known leftist/Communist Christine Amanpour. But the details of the threat and the subsequent arrest of the formerly cited hero who had condemned the right and blamed it for the shootings has “oddly” been left out of the ABC program as I am sure will be left out of news reports about the incident in our beloved FLS. This cover-up and biased left wing reporting has got to stop. But it will not because of the lack of professional ethics on the part of our news media.

Clay,

I hardly know where to start with this — and I’ve held off for several days on purpose. If I responded to all your points, this reply would get even longer than it already is. Perhaps I will respond more fully at The Heartland Institute’s home blog, Somewhat Reasonable.

But I strongly suspect that the “conservative friend” of yours who perhaps spawned this cartoon — or at least inspired part of your explanation — was me. And I presume it was from a Facebook post I wrote more than 24 hours after the massacre in Tucson. You have, my friend, horribly misread (and mischaracterized here) the plain meaning of what I quite clearly wrote. For the benefit of you and your readers, I will reproduce it here:

“I’ve been monitoring my Twitter feed after the shooting in Arizona. And I HATE that after feeling shocked and sad, my first get-that-out-of-my-mind thought came true: The crass politicization of the tragic event. Prayers for the fallen and injured, and for our country.”

As is quite clear from the text above, the “first thoughts upon hearing of this massacre” was not to worry that “the blame that would be attributed to the right wing.” Far from it, and perhaps I could have made it more clear by using the word “next” instead of “first” — but the PRELUDE should have made that apparent. Not only was it NOT my first thought, but (as is clear from that Facebook post) my frustration was that I couldn’t get out of my mind a fear that the left would seize upon this incident to libel the right (and, as it turned out, Palin herself). I felt sadness and regret over THAT fact — and not for me, but for our country. Alas, despite HATING the thought that our current political climate made it come too quickly to mind, it came true anyway. I’d have loved to be wrong. So, thanks for skipping over those parts of my abbreviated (but clear) Facebook status update thought process.

Your inability, Clay, to NOT take the bait the “mainstream media” set is depressing enough. But your “explanation” of this cartoon that loops in me (and people who also regretted the politicization of this event) makes me even sadder.

In this post, you say that “They stage actual shooting rallies as campaign events.” But you fail to mention that a Democratic, non-Tea-Party candidate in West Virginia ACTUALLY SHOT the Obama-pushed cap-and-trade bill in a campaign ad.

Then you say this: “Did Sarah Palin incite Jared Loughner to shoot a U.S. Representative and kill six people? Did Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh or the Tea Party contribute? I don’t think so. I think it’s far fetched to believe this guy followed anyone on today’s political radar.”

Well, yes, Clay. You did say that. And you should stand up for what you drew: A dead body in a pool of blood with Palin barking something blithely inane while standing over it. One is hard-pressed to see the “nuance” in such a cartoon. You blame Palin. Don’t run away from it.

Yet it’s hard to run away from the fact — though, even now, you still seem to reject it — that me, or “the right,” or Palin, or Beck, or Limbaugh, or the Tea Party had NOTHING AT ALL to do with the tragic incident in Tucson. By all accounts, Loughner didn’t even watch TV news or listen to talk radio or even know anything about Palin — let alone be “inspired” by her routine political tactic of “targeting” key Congressional districts in an upcoming election in which Loughner didn’t even vote.

Loughner is a severely mentally disturbed individual who obsessed about Gabby Giffords before anyone outside Alaska knew who Sarah Palin was. Yet that didn’t affect your decision — days later — to pin a blood stain to Palin and “the right.” Perhaps you should have waited a few more days before drawing this one, buddy.

Sometimes, when the facts don’t fit your narrative, you should reconsider your narrative. And if you want to make a legitimate and biting commentary on the irresponsible rhetoric of the right, you might be more thoughtful about the news hooks upon which you place them.

Monty, considering the foolishness I see coming out of universities anymore, that degree does not impress me.

Notericinva, only a truly brain dead progressive statist could consider people who are for smaller government, fiscal responsibility, personal responsibility, states’ rights, and secure borders to be members of a “radical regime.” You may now reinsert your head back up your bum.

Wow, so much stupid concentrated in so tiny a space.

Hail America! Land of the free and the ignorant!

Did any of you *read* the blog post?