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Brett Coughlin writes: "Patrick Kennedy, who lost two uncles to assassins' bullets, says there's an obvious connection between the violent rhetoric of today's politics and the massacre in Tucson."

Former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin speaks during the National Rifle Association's 139th annual meeting, 05/14/10. (photo: Reuters)
Former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin speaks during the National Rifle Association's 139th annual meeting, 05/14/10. (photo: Reuters)

Petition: Congressional Action on Political Violence Advocacy

 

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-109 # charsjcca 2011-01-11 10:02
Until now I had no good reason to vote for Sister Sarah Palin. But Patrick Kennedy gave it to me. See you in 2012.
 
 
+59 # Jim Rocket 2011-01-11 11:44
What reason could you possibly get from this article? Are you afraid Patrick Kennedy will succeed in curing mental illness and Sarah won't be the fun person you know and love anymore? Please explain.
 
 
+8 # wisdom 2011-01-11 22:06
charsjcca, do you have any "democrat" in your crosshairs?
 
 
-19 # forparity 2011-01-11 22:45
So.. R's are using cross hairs, and Dems are using bulls eyes?? Are bulls eyes more intended for bombs, or bullets?

What a joke, the national media has made out of that old story, with no legs.

Sitting Democratic Congressmen have called for Republican candidates to be put up against a wall and shot, and were're fixated on the old standard campaign rhetoric and techniques that both sides have long used?
 
 
+17 # George D 2011-01-11 22:26
Quoting
Until now I had no good reason to vote for Sister Sarah Palin. But Patrick Kennedy gave it to me. See you in 2012.


Oh sure you did; You have made comments supporting this murderer and his accomplices in other locations. And as I have stated, Palin has more in common with Charles Manson now than anyone I know.

So vote to get her into the running in 2012. I'll have the bumper stickers ready by then;
"Palin/Manson 2012"

Decent people know right from wrong and will understand perfectly.
 
 
+17 # CL38 2011-01-11 23:30
You're voting for Palin because she succeeded in inciting someone to do her bidding and actually pull the trigger? This says more about you than you seem to realize.

After this, your 'sister' Sarah will never even get to run in 2012, let alone get elected.
 
 
+16 # CL38 2011-01-11 23:36
I think its time to pass legislation that prosecutes any politician, public figure or media representative who incites the public to commit acts of violence or murder.
 
 
+1 # Keith Barrand 2011-01-12 08:54
What???
 
 
+46 # amye 2011-01-11 10:30
I'm still wondering why we are not talking about gun control in addition to the the hatred speech in the media?? The easy access to guns and ammunition in this country is as outrageous as the lack of mental healthcare and basic universal healthcare! Healthcare also includes research for brain diseases (which includes mental illness) and medication to address those diseases. Healthcare and research does not exclude any disease of the body including the brain.
 
 
+12 # Arlene Zide 2011-01-12 10:14
Agree. How is it that NO ONE seems to question the easy, apparently unquestioned access Giffords' assassin had to AUTOMATIC weapons??
Who SOLD him such a weapon at all (and what NEED does anyone have for such a weapon... are there 'hunters' so poor (and unsportsmanlike ) that they need such weapons to bring down e.g., a deer?
 
 
+1 # B gryz 2011-01-14 08:13
Quoting
Agree. How is it that NO ONE seems to question the easy, apparently unquestioned access Giffords' assassin had to AUTOMATIC weapons??
Who SOLD him such a weapon at all (and what NEED does anyone have for such a weapon... are there 'hunters' so poor (and unsportsmanlike ) that they need such weapons to bring down e.g., a deer?

Yes I believe S. Palin used that to gun down wolves from a helicopter!!!!! !!
 
 
+50 # George D 2011-01-11 10:46
After Dr. Tiller and now Congresswoman Gifford, I have to admit that fantasies of doing the same to Palin, and the other right wing a-holes, that caused this, runs through my mind. Then intellect takes over and I begin to think; What's the difference between Palin's calls for using guns to "take back America" and Charles Manson's actions? HE didn't actually kill anyone; He used unstable people, his followers, to do the job. Justice worked in the 60's. What happened since then?
Wikileaks embarrasses the administration but KILLS NOBODY and Eric Holder is doing back flips to try to find a way to prosecute Assange. How about a few back flips to prosecute Palin? It wouldn't take many.
If I pay an assassin to carry out a deed, I will go to jail. Did Palin "pay" this guy? Nope. But did she incite him to do it by convincing him that this was not only the right thing for people of their ilk to do, but that there is even some sort of sick glamour associated with it.
Send a message by prosecuting and convicting Palin and you won't need any new laws. Can't do it? Then you'd better let Charley out of prison.
Palin/Manson in 2012 I can see the bumper stickers now.
 
 
-90 # Tom M 2011-01-11 10:52
Yea Sure lets not stigmatize a vicious murder - it might hurt his feelings...
then the hypocracy //“There are consequences to violent rhetoric,” he said. “Some people can see through TV ratings and right-wing talk show hosts// What about the Left wing vitriol smearing the Tea party as racist? Oh - Left leaning liars are ok.
 
 
+15 # Callie Floor 2011-01-12 14:08
The left wing doesn't target anyone for assassination.

Yes, the tea party has a strong odor of racism.
 
 
+36 # GeorgeNJ 2011-01-11 10:52
Isn't it a shame that in order to help some needy people, like returning soldiers and military veterans, former congressman Kennedy has to to go to giant corporations and to kiss ass in order to get the necessary funding? There are many things wrong with the society we live in today, and that is probably number one.
 
 
+19 # JB 2011-01-11 12:24
It's a bad analogy on many levels. Perhaps the primary one is the disproportional ity of the term. The US spends $5B a year on the "War on Cancer" and has spent over $1 trillion in the Iraqi war.
 
 
+35 # futhark 2011-01-11 10:52
Forget the "war on..." rhetoric! Please! All these wars and so few solutions! War is not a solution to a chronic health problem. My wife suffers from Alzheimer's disease, she lost her father to it, and I lost two parents to Alzheimer's. I don't want a "war" against it. I want research leading to prevention and cure. Right now, with all our wireless technology, especially "SmartPhones" and "SmartMeters", we are only making things worse. Oh, and, yes, I am recovering from intercranial lymphoma ("brain cancer").
 
 
+29 # kswsma 2011-01-11 11:51
I agree with Futhark: no more WARS ON... OK? The WAR on Drugs has not been faintly successful for decades and has cost us almost as much as wars in Iraq and Afganistan. We didn't call our efforts to put a man on the moom 'WAR' on space. Let's drop the bellicose metaphors and just do what we need to do to reduce violence and help people in great need due to no fault of their own, be they mentally ill, retarded, addicted, deaf or blind, or hapless working people who lost jobs and cannot find new ones and as a consequence lost their homes and are on the street. It is the occupations and failing efforts to accomplish I don't know what (it is NOT the immigrants friends) in Iraq and Afganistan which are bankrupting us, divering funds we need at home to fix this country and privide a decent life for its citizens.
 
 
+2 # ChMoore 2011-01-15 11:07
Wars never determine who is right--only who is left.
 
 
+27 # DaveW. 2011-01-11 11:26
Palin is an "obvious" scapegoat for this tragedy. Is she and others who engage in violent bombast at least partially culpable for the heinous act in Arizona? I would say absolutely and unequivocally yes!I would also point out that our entire culture is seeped in violence and it comes from a variety of sources. Movies churned out of Hollywood,many by "left leaning" film makers who revel in the amount of blood and gore they can produce.They endorse Democrats often because of the fear Republicans might inflict censorship issues.Video games played by our nations kids are often an aberration on the still developing mind.
Music is often laced with violent imagery and incendiary language. Palin has the mind of a 3rd grader and the ambition of a Rockefeller and is no doubt one piece of the invasive and maniacal culture we live in. It's already to late to alter the trajectory of some who embrace caustic and coercive "remedies." But a message to those who have kids,especially the young and still highly impressionable.WATCH and LISTEN to what your children are "entertaining" themselves with. Computers are tools. Video "games" originally were about "fun" and TV's don't have ears anymore.
 
 
+44 # signalfire 2011-01-11 11:37
How about a war on wars? A war on Palin-esque hatemongers? A war on Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Rupert Murdock? A war on the corporations and banks that own this country? A war on the 'representatives ' who don't represent US? Sarah Palin said she was against violence... this after she went around shooting things for 'reality teevee'; and lest we forget, there's that nice scene of her in front of the turkey beheading machine.
 
 
+15 # restore2america 2011-01-11 12:25
Yes, all of those wars would work just as well as Prohibition and today's "War on Drugs". They all are wars on people fought over the simple issue of who controls our lives and minds.
 
 
+26 # J D MATTHEWS 2011-01-11 12:17
Oh Well, Another Firestorm and now a
rash of Republicans dodging all responability.
 
 
+24 # BA 2011-01-11 12:19
I am not an American nor do I live there, but I've worked in America for the past 36 years and have been very successful. Through my business, I've employed thousands of Americans, paid millions in taxes and generated over a billion dollars in goods that stayed there. I have American friends from every corner of the country and points in between. All of them, I like, and most of them, I love. Why do you find it so difficult to do the same? You were once so beautiful and vivacious but let yourself go, and now seem bloated and bitter and always angry.

Please...get well soon. xoxo
 
 
+29 # genierae 2011-01-11 13:35
BA: Its easy to "love" others when you and your friends are wealthy and want for nothing. I'm sure that capitalism is one of your favorite things. However, not everyone in America is rich, and in fact, even the little bit that most have is being taken away by...wait for it...the rich!! 95% of us work to benefit the other 5%, while our pay stagnates, and our pensions disappear. Our homes are foreclosed on, our food is tainted, and our health declines, because wealthy conservatives are greedy and want MORE. For them to have more, we must have less, its simply a matter of physics. Next time you visit America look me up, I'll be glad to take you on a tour of the real world. I'm sure that you will find it illuminating. Please, wake up soon. xoxo
 
 
+9 # DaveW. 2011-01-12 11:22
genierae, Very good reply to the "parochial view" of America BA seems to have. Perhaps the only thing I might have added is that greedy Conservatives don't want more...they want it ALL! I, also, would be more than happy to take this person on a tour of the city I live in. The euphemism's expressed would quickly morph into "get me out of here!" Also, the comment BA made "you were once so beautiful and vivacious but let yourself go" well, that would entirely depend on perspective. This country has been neither beautiful or vivacious for a hell of a lot of people for a long, long time. This individual needs to spend some time in someone else's shoes, if you know what I mean.
 
 
+5 # genierae 2011-01-12 14:03
DaveW. Yes they do want it all. BA is oblivious of the fact that there are two Americas, one for the excessively rich, and the other where the rest of us live. He sees only the first, and he needs to see the other to get the true picture of America. But I will tell you the truth; I much prefer living in the second; it is real and alive, and its challenges are opportunities for growth. The wealthy live in an artificial, hot-house world, where nothing is difficult, and so their psyche gets flabby and stagnates. They are missing out on real life. Yes, they seem to have everything, but remember, "He who has everything, has nothing."
 
 
+16 # restore2america 2011-01-11 12:24
"...It’s a terrible thing when people think that in order to get their point across they have to go to the edge of violent rhetoric and attack people personally,” Kennedy said.

I agree. We are in a terrible state when people are so overpowered by government control and corporate greed that violence is their only voice. Isn't this what has happened in the Middle East and Afghanistan? How about South America?

We must change our policies and the operation of both our economy and government, to stop this trend both at home and abroad.

When our policies create wars, violence by corporations and government on the people, and no hope for a better future, we have pointed ourselves straight down the rat hole to social disintegration.
 
 
+31 # historywriter 2011-01-11 13:40
Restore2America :
I have believed for a long time that our society is violent, going beyond physical attacks. I believe it is violent to allow people to die for lack of health care. I believe it is violent to allow human beings to sink into tortured mental illness without giving them help. I think it is violent to allow the top 1% of Americans to own 2/3 of the wealth of this country, while more and more families live in poverty, are homeless, must rely on foodbanks.
I could go on. But we do violence to our country in all these, and more, ways--including senseless wars.
 
 
+8 # genierae 2011-01-11 16:23
Amen, historywriter, amen!
 
 
+12 # DaveM 2011-01-11 13:46
We are also in a terrible state if we genuinely believe that laws will ever make up for a lack of personal responsibility. 100 years ago, the laws of my home state (Minnesota) filled one large book. They would now fill two fair-sized bookcases and the annual updates involve more pages than did the entire legal code of 1910.

Is Minnesota a better place to live than it was in 1910? Yes, in many respects it is--as is every place that benefits from vaccines, indoor plumbing, antibiotics, clean drinking water, electricity, and who knows what else. But how many of these advances came about through the passage of legislation? None, to my knowledge.

Nor, to my knowledge, has any law done much of anything to improve the understanding and perception of people with mental health issues. As with most states, we shut down our state hospitals, leaving homeless shelters to take over the job of "primary care".

The state's crime rate, conversely, has remained more or less constant throughout the past century. And from 1910-1927 any adult could walk into a hardware store and purchase a machine gun without so much as showing a drivers' license.
 
 
+4 # historywriter 2011-01-11 15:50
But laws provided a much safer and more healing environment in our mental health institutions after some investigations started by some in our community (including in my own church) and Governor Youngdahl helped make significant and humane laws that improved that. The governor and many others made it a well-known issue.
 
 
+11 # Tom Camfield 2011-01-11 14:59
My! A lot of knee-jerk response defending Sarah Palin here.

And obviously the short memories in which Republicans so trust as they continue their political rhetoric in all manner of rabble-rousing forms. How quickly fades the memories of the noisy reaction of crazies during Palin campaign rallies--or maybe they just are just conveniently forgotten/repressed.

Palin has appealed to simple-minded gun nuts in a variety of ways--and I'm sure it doesn't bother her when something like this happens.
 
 
+6 # josé wellington 2011-01-11 15:07
In my country, there´s a saying "outer frogs don't cheat". American citizens must cure his wounds, but my sense of brotherhood has no borders and pushes me to talk anything I think it's reasonable. Rage and hate are the worst role to play in politics. Gunfights express death of speech and leads to a conflict that denies civilization status. Only a dictatorship government earns in times of war amidst country citizens. War corporations too.
Concerning Loughner, his lawyer will allege some mental illness to save him from lifetime incarceration or from sentence of death. And, as we says in my country, "all of rest is only rest", and "life goes on"...
Beyond this, it's time to learn some lesson: try to do not harm other people, cause someday somebody looks at you as if yo're 'the other'...
One people unsafe means all people unsafe...
 
 
+10 # historywriter 2011-01-11 15:54
You are completely right. Remember the famous statement by the Reverend Niemoller about the Nazis:
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

You never know when you could be on someone's list.
 
 
-9 # forparity 2011-01-11 22:48
Come on. Palin hunts for dinner. Hillary Clinton goes shooting ducks at the rich white boys lobbyist club for dollars. I'll go with the free spirit, connected to the land - that's my Indian heritage.
 
 
+6 # Jim Rocket 2011-01-12 09:10
Palin's TV show makes it very clear that she has never spent much time at outdoor sports, including hunting.
 
 
+6 # forparity 2011-01-12 10:17
Yea. I watched a few minutes and she was shooting at a Caribu. It appeared, and that was what was probably edited, that she couldn't hit the side of a barn. In other words, she shouldn't be shooting at dinner, until she is a marksman.
 
 
+10 # JenX 2011-01-12 14:02
Free spirit my patootie! Palin hunts for celebrity status on tv, in full make-up and flawless manicure, with an entire film crew and her personal trailer 15 feet off screen. I have an American Indian heritage too buddy and that ain't it!

Palin's reason for publicized hunts is to swindle simple living/common folk into believing that she's one of them and shares their values which is far from the truth (as you can observe by her jet-set lifestyle and endless pimping of herself out to any TV station that'll pay to let her run her vapid mouth.) But I assure you, if you think her royal highness is out there in the snow shooting caribou in order to feed her family and make mukluks out of the hide, then you really have drunk that coyote's Kool-Aid.
 
 
+8 # fredboy 2011-01-11 15:32
Palin's followers could have been expected.

After all, trash attracts flies.

What's also evident is the hypocrisy of the pro-gun legislators. They allow 30 bullet clips to be waved in the presence of our families, yet block them from the legislative galleries. Hey lawmakers, open up your halls to loaded AK-47s and gun-toting nuts. Then, as the sweat beads on your fat necks while you try to conduct business, you'll get a feeling for the nightmare you have created.
 
 
+9 # BA 2011-01-11 16:24
genierae: I understand your frustration. I lived in a crappy one bedroom apartment with 2 kids and $20 net a week for many years, but was happy. Believe it or not, I have no objections to paying the taxes that I do. In my home country, our tax rates are very high but I get it, and capitalism is not what I'm about, and neither was my post. I have a sense of my responsibilitie s as a "haver" and sincerely try to always be aware of the "have nots". I tour plenty as it is and my eyes are wide open. Yes, there is great unfairness in America but sadly, it seems to be in your culture; you really don't want to look after each other. It almost seems like the people that hate Americans the most are the Americans themselves.

I think it might be time for all of you to wake up. xoxo
 
 
+9 # FatCharley 2011-01-12 01:57
When 0.1% of the population has more wealth than the remaining 99.9% of the population (US statistics) the inequalities are staggering. We still uphold the rhetoric of "equality," but the illusion is ever harder to sustain, let alone believe
 
 
+7 # genierae 2011-01-12 15:00
BA: (You need to read my comment above to DaveW.) Waking up is exactly what is needed, but unfortunately the majority are so deeply asleep that no matter how much they are prodded, they refuse to budge. This American culture breeds these kind of sleep-walkers, they have been conditioned all their lives to be conformists, and they attack anyone who tries to enlighten them. You see, America never was a true democracy, it was founded by rich, white (male) land-owners, who practiced slavery and thought it was quite all right to exterminate the native people. White supremacy was their real religion, and manifest destiny gave them a free hand to steal anything they wanted, no matter the cost to others. This democracy thing was just a sop to the masses, in order to keep them docile and obedient. The tragedy is, its still working for most Americans. But good news is on the way. This world is currently going through a transformation in consciousness, and that's why the polarity is so pronounced. The most important thing that we can do is to keep our minds open to what comes. If we do this then we just might be able to leave the old, 20th century ways behind, before this gorgeous earth is completely destroyed. xoxo

I am very thankful to be awake, I wish everyone was. Peace.
 
 
-13 # lnason@umassd.edu 2011-01-11 19:24
I'm no fan of Sarah Palin and would never vote for her but Patrick Kennedy is just as much of an intellectual embarrassment. There is NO evidence that the criminal was a right-wing nut job -- what little evidence there is (favorite reading, comments from friends, religious and drug issue beliefs, etc.) indicate that he was, to the extent that any schizophrenic has political inclinations, left-leaning.

It is seems more likely in this instance that the perpetrator fell into the category of the assassin of John Lennon, the attempted assassin of Ronald Reagan, the Columbine killers, and and the attempted assassin of the Pope.

Lee Nason
New Bedford, Massachusetts
 
 
+7 # George D 2011-01-11 22:34
Quoting
I'm no fan of Sarah Palin and would never vote for her but Patrick Kennedy is just as much of an intellectual embarrassment. There is NO evidence that the criminal was a right-wing nut job -- what little evidence there is (favorite reading, comments from friends, religious and drug issue beliefs, etc.) indicate that he was, to the extent that any schizophrenic has political inclinations, left-leaning.

It is seems more likely in this instance that the perpetrator fell into the category of the assassin of John Lennon, the attempted assassin of Ronald Reagan, the Columbine killers, and and the attempted assassin of the Pope.

Lee Nason
New Bedford, Massachusetts


You may be right, but the facts as we ALL know them don't indicate so. Your "reality" is a bit of a reach compared to Kennedy's; Or mine; Or most people that have paid attention.

Try again; Maybe you can find a way to make all of this Mrs. Gifford's fault.
 
 
-9 # forparity 2011-01-11 22:58
You forgot the assissination of JFK by the wanna be Communist Oswald.
 
 
+10 # bubbiesue 2011-01-11 19:54
Let's just get small arms limited and registered, please, and get rid of anything that can produce 33 shots without a pause. There's no need for it unless you're attacked in warfare. Then maybe my brilliant cousin Seth, who took his own life, would have had to try a slower way and maybe have had a chance of surviving.
 
 
+3 # forparity 2011-01-11 23:00
Indeed - If there is to be a role for the NRA, it should be to help provide the training and the collecting of fees in the licensing process, and in completing the background checks. Otherwise they are in the way of civilization.
 
 
-8 # Bruce Majors 2011-01-11 23:38
Did Patty write this while high on "ambien" again?

And when are the Clintons going to compensate the families of the people they murdered at Waco? Which is the event McVeigh cited as his reason for killing people.
 
 
+9 # rothie 2011-01-12 05:03
I marvel at the way the Repubs. keep saying that the crazy talk is on both sides and they say Palin is not to blame. Let's hear a couple of crazy talk that the Dems. have said then. Can't dig up one? Thought so. Open your eyes, Palin, Beck, Rush etc. are all trouble makers that the dummies on the right hang on to.
 
 
+9 # giraffe 2011-01-12 08:16
When Rush talks or Palin posts on a Web Site (etc) they are trying to CONVEY a message. When they say vote for X because she did this and believes in that etc -it is quite different than sending a message with KILL the other candidate. So what part of the obvious is so difficult to understand? It is the delivery of the Becks, Palins, etc who try to make a point against the opposition including "kill" or "load em up and reload" including statements that denigrade the opposition instead of pumping up their own candidate.

Gun laws won't change much but inciting riots, terror, kill, etc with the words they made clear their intentions are to get "rid" of the opposition by any means. Words are powerful - directly or subliminally.

Boner's agenda to get rid of Obama in 2012 instead of "fixing" things in the House that can help "we the people" is another terrorist act. We the people don't expect the House to get rid of a President unless the President should be impeached.

Besides if I said anything to the opposition in my lawsuit as Palin posted on her Web Site -- I'd be in jail.
 
 
+3 # giraffe 2011-01-12 12:56
When Rush talks or Palin posts on a Web Site (etc) they are trying to CONVEY a message. When their words and messages convey the attributes and beliefs of the one they support the mantra is very different than the negative and violent message against the opposing party. Gun laws may not stop the terroristic acts of AZ but punishing the abuse of Free Speech that COULD incite terror might.

The disconnect between inciting words posted by Palin and her blame on the unstable 22 year old should be attacked. Hitler proved this fact.

The Republicans led by Boehner to rid Obama in 2012 instead of "fixing" our broken economy and help bring our jobs home is as bad because we don't expect Congress to get rid of a President unless by impeaching him.

If I spoke about my opposition in my lawsuit as Palin or Boner does, I would be put in jail.
 
 
+1 # chelsea 2011-01-13 14:46
Will someone please have the decency and sense to IGNORE this megalomaniac monstrousity known as palin??? Why on God's green earth does anyone with an IQ over 80 even pay attention to her? McCain created a PUBLIC NUISANCE when he selected her. My cat has 10 times more intelligence and character than she could ever pretend to have. How come he can't run for president?
 
 
+2 # chelsea 2011-01-13 14:54
Why would anyone with an IQ over 80 even bother to pay attention to the megalomaniac monstrousity known as palin? McCain created a public nuisance when he selected her. My cat has more intelligence and character than she could even pretend to have. I, for one, am not amused with her antics-the 15 minutes are over.
 

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