Cenk Uygur: Was Jared Loughner's Act Political?

[Hissyspit]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/was-jared-loughners-act-p_b_807178.html

Cenk Uygur
Host of The Young Turks

Was Jared Loughner's Act Political

Posted: January 11, 2011 03:27 AM

- snip -

But why does the act have to be either psychotic or political? It's obviously both. It was a psychotic act driven by his political beliefs. What's so hard to understand about that?

Then, the next question is whether both sides are equally at fault. Again, I'm confused by this question. What the hell did the Democrats or liberals do here? Nothing, except get shot. How can the media possibly attach false equivalency to this? Are the Democrats equally culpable for getting shot as the conservatives are for shooting them?

- snip -

Come on, this is all a smoke screen to make sure people don't see what's going on here. In the last two years, there have been dozens of attacks and shootings aimed at government officials and political organizations. Every single one of them was directed at liberals, Democrats or the government. Now we're to believe that's the world's largest coincidence?

The conservative hate-mongers don't create psychos. We get that there will always be disturbed individuals out there. But the right-wing directs these lunatics to a source. They channel their fear, anger and paranoia -- and they point them toward the Democrats. They use them as hate-seeking missiles.

- snip -

How the hell are we supposed to point out the problem if we can't mention the issue for fear of being charged with political exploitation? Would it be exploiting the tragedy of the BP oil spill to point out that maybe we should be a little careful about oil drilling? Or are we not supposed to make the most obvious points so that we don't offend the other political side's delicate sensibilities?

MORE

[baldguy]

1. Targeting a politician at a political event makes it political.

Loughner is a RW wacko. And if Palin & the other RW wackos didn't set up Giffords as a target, 6 people might be alive today.

[Hissyspit]

2. kick nt

[CherylK]

3. Bump!

:kick:

[upi402]

4. He didn't kill a cashier at the Safeway

Yep he was nuts. Many Teabaggers are simple minded in some way. The media talking heads know exactly what is possible from their hate speech.

They fart in the air we all have to breath. They shout 'fire' in the movie theater that we have no choice but to be in.

[Hippo_Tron]

5. This goes back to the definition of "political" in the other thread

It was an assassination of a politician. Unless he was so mentally disturbed that he didn't know what he was doing, it was political.

What we don't know was whether it was political in the sense that it was somebody on the right assassinating a Democrat because she was a Democrat.

[Arrowhead2k1]

6. Democrats are the only ones not allowed to state the obvious when it hurts the other sides feelings.

nt

[cali]

7. cenk is demonstrating how little he knows about psychosis/

[EFerrari]

8. This profile was posted yesterday but sank. Worth a look:

Background Information: Far-Right Attacks on U.S. Law Enforcement

The murder last week of 3 Pittsburgh police officers by far-right extremist Richard Poplawski is the most recent incident of violent activity in the United States by a far-right extremist against a police target.

Research led by Dr. Joshua D. Freilich (John Jay College, CUNY) and Dr. Steven Chermak (Michigan State University) and funded by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) has revealed a violent history of fatal attacks against law enforcement officers in the United States by individuals who adhere to far-right ideology.

* In the United States, 42 law enforcement officers have been killed in 32 incidents in which at least one of the suspects was a far-rightist since 1990.

* 94% of these incidents involved local or state law enforcement. Only two events—high-profile attacks at Ruby Ridge and at the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City—involved federal agents. Much more common are events like the tragic Pittsburgh triple slayings.

* Attacks on police by far-rightists tend to occur during routine law enforcement activities. 34% of the officers killed by far-rightists were slain during a traffic stop, and a number of law enforcement officers have been killed while responding to calls for service similar to the domestic violence call that precipitated the Pittsburgh murders.

* Firearms were the most common type of weapon used during these fatal anti-police attacks. 88% of the incidents involved guns, while only 6% involved explosives and 6% involved knives. 81% of the victims were killed by guns.

* Only 12% of the suspects in these attacks were members of formal groups with far-right ideologies. The vast majority—like Poplawski—acted alone. This greatly complicates law-enforcement efforts to anticipate which individuals might pose a threat to police officers.

* Beyond these law enforcement murders, far-right violence presents a broader threat to national security and American citizens. Since 1990, far-rightists have been linked to more than 275 homicide incidents in 36 states. These crimes have resulted in the more than 530 fatalities, including the 168 victims murdered by Timothy McVeigh when he bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The vast majority of these suspects are white and male, with almost 70% being 30 years old or younger.

http://www.start.umd.edu/start/announcements/announcement.asp?id=140

[Kurovski]

9. The article is gone now.

"Editor's Note: This post is no longer available on the Huffington Post"

[Kurovski]

10. NEW LINK

http://www.theyoungturks.com/story/2011/1/11/121621/205/Diary/Was-Jared-Loughner-s-Act-Political-


And some stuff about the removal:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x177128

[wiggs]

11. Agree with article...disappointed it was pulled from HuffPo. nt

[Hissyspit]

12. Kick nt

[Raine]

13. EXACTLY on point! nt

:thumbsup: