This post by EarlG deserves an OP of its own. Peddlers of False Equivalence -- read this.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

...and...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=161331#161479 (Emphasis mine)

This is a RW red herring that they're using to confuse the issue.

It is and always has been extremely common to use language like "targeting" in politics. That's not what sensible people are objecting to.

The first difference between this map and Palin's is that this map targets states whereas Palin's targets individuals. But even that isn't the issue. The issue is that Palin's map was presented in the context of dozens of other comments by her and other RW luminaries talking about politics in terms of violence, war, and revolution. "Don't retreat, RELOAD," for example. "Second amendment remedies." "If ballots don't work, bullets will."

How many times did you hear people at Obama rallies in 2008 shouting "Kill him" about John McCain? Because that's what they were yelling about Obama at McCain rallies. How many liberals turned up at GOP town hall meetings in the summer of 2009 carrying signs that said things like "We came unarmed -- this time"?

It's not JUST Palin's map that's the issue here -- her map is merely one high-profile chapter taken from the volumes of eliminationist rhetoric that RW leaders and followers have been spouting since Barack Obama became the Democratic nominee.

[seabeyond]

1. i think a HUGE difference. a target is non harmful. holding rifle looking thru scope is DEATH

i cant believe that the obvious is being ignored. if it was looking down a crossbow and using target, that would be bad. but a target is not implying death. a rifle scope implies death

[XanaDUer]

2. Putting a rifle scope over a person is sort of like

strongly suggesting to crazies to shoot that person. Sort of like that meddlesome priest business.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. delete

post bug

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

6. I think when Ms. Giffords recovers, she should adopt the nickname "Meddlesome Priest".

You read it here first.

[XanaDUer]

7. Well, I hear she's Jewish

so she may not want that particular moniker.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. Isn't "priest" a generic term?

[XanaDUer]

11. Dunno. Like catholic, lowercase?

Ya got me.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

12. Wikipedia sez:

A priest or priestess is one authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities. Their office or position is the priesthood, a term which also may apply to such persons collectively.

Priests and priestesses have been known since the earliest of times and in the simplest societies. They exist in all or some branches of Judaism, Christianity, Shintoism, Hinduism, and many other religions as well, and are generally regarded as having good contact with the deity or deities of the religion to which they subscribe, often interpreting the meaning of events, performing the rituals of the religion, and are leaders to whom other believers often will turn for advice on spiritual matters.

[XanaDUer]

13. Thnx.

nt.

[Common Sense Party]

20. And it's equally disgusting when entertainers do similar crap, even against someone

we don't like:



From Craig Kilborn's show in August 2000

There's no excuse for this kind of stuff in a violent age.

[kestrel91316]

3. Oh, but Queen Sarah Crosshairs didn't say all the OTHER stuff.

Somebody ELSE did. She's not respoonsible.

Oh, but Rushbo didn't post anything with targets on it - somebody ELSE did that. He's not responsible.

Oh, but so-and-so didn't do such-and-such, but only said such-and-such. (S)he's not responsible.

They all bear responsibility for fueling the fire. That makes them ALL arsonists.

[damntexdem]

5. And the issue isn't poor manners or a climate of vituperation.

The issue is death threats and suggestions of death threats. Call your opponents evil, enemies, scum of the earth; but don't threaten to kill them nor encourage others to do so. And that is what is meant by "recourse to the 2nd Amendment" and by rifle scopes. Sarah Palin, among others, effectively encouraged violence, in fact assassination.

And the mental status of the perpetrator is not the issue. The climate of encouragement of violence, of actual death threats, can be seen in several stages:
1) Weak-minded individuals who act out on the basis of such encouragement -- we have seen it often, as in the murder of Dr. Tiller. So it is no surprise that we got a replay this weekend.
2) Nutcases that have pulled back from going over the edge into actual assassinations are encouraged to edge ever-so-closer to that edge. And
3) The climate is created in which any later development of death squads will be much-more likely.

[freshwest]

10. Expressed better than I could and thanks.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

16. Imagine a bunch of lemmings being pushed off a cliff by a bulldozer.

The ones with the least sense of self-preservation will fall first.

[WingDinger]

9. If this guy turns out to have targetted liberals, I will wear a Tshirt with a target, and encourage

all of us to do so.

Maybe something like a caption Democratic Mushroom.

[fascisthunter]

14. Kick (nt)

[lpbk2713]

15. It's the 2008 election all over again.

Their spin generator is in overdrive.

They can't even tell which lie takes precedence over any other.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

17. Only this time one loon caugh the bait.

I was worried about Obama, but he has SS protection.

[Erose999]

18. If liberals did come armed... to anything... the RW media would be shitting their britches. Witness

the "controversy" over the New Black Panthers. Two African American males are seen at a HEAVILY democratic district. ONE of them was holding a police baton, and was escorted away by the police. No one complained, no one there said they were threatened or intimidated. They belong to a fringe organization that probably has a couple dozen members worldwide and is not affiliated with the DNC or any Democratic candidates for public office in any way.

The hate talkers have gone on and on about this ONE guy with a CLUB for two years. Meanwhile they have organized rallies where dozens of people show up armed to the teeth. They think its OK for them to show up armed to political events, but not for the Left.

Guns for me, but not for thee.

[mzmolly]

19. Very well

stated. K and R.

[Rex]

21. I was told in the Army, never point a weapon at someone unless you

intend to kill them. Putting the cross-hairs from a scope onto human 'targets' is sending out, if nothing else, a sublime message that an image of shooting your opponents is just like winning an election (I guess because your opponent is dead). That is not a healthy message.

[wiggs]

22. THIS IS TYPICAL RW STRATEGY. Reduce a more complex, damning issue down to

one narrow aspect that can be twisted into a gray debatable point. You are exactly correct that it is not just about Palin's map...it is about dozens of events and dozens more irresponsible statements. It is about a calculated, reprehensible strategy to employ hate, fear, and violence to fundraise and galvanize political support. The overall pattern is the issue...

We saw the same thing wrt torture. A complex, wide-ranging issue of illegal prisoner abuse was allowed to be reduced down to whether or not waterboarding two guys was really torture.

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. The rhetoric goes beyond Obama

it is when it became damn obvious.

[BarryMeNot]

24. That nice man is saying he "Shot the fat hub."

But, why does he look angry about it, and what does it have to do with the OP? :shrug: