Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) in critical condition, 6 others killed in Arizona

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

What people forget is that Giffords was targeted in the past by tea party members anyways, she could have just as easily been shot by one of them as this deranged lunatic. Remember how one of her congressional offices was shot? Remember when a gun was found on the floor after one of her events? Remember that how she was constantly subjected to threatening rhetoric from loons constantly? While she wasn't shot by a tea party member, she was the subject of all of their deranged vitriol which could have just as easily led to this outcome by their hand. Remember that we are the ones who actually had an attachment to Giffords and liked her as a Congresswoman and person before this event happened. Do you really think that all of spin is all a big Machiavellian move to gain one percent in a poll for a week? We're actually outraged because the things we've been saying for years actually came true. Whether or not it came from a tea party member is besides the point, people should have been outraged by the past two years of absurdity, anyways. I think why you're seeing so much left wing outrage now is because this is the last ing straw.

Giffords said herself that being targeted by Palin's crosshairs was just the wrong message to send and that it could have consequences. So I suppose if you want to disagree with her then, go ahead...

(yeah I went there. normally i hate bollocks like this and the spin that always, always, always goes on after tragedies but there's been one side acting like fascists for the past two years and i feel no sympathy for them because the news coverage towards them has been slanted with regards to this news story)

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

You people just do not let up, do you?

The way that people in this thread, and elsewhere, have exploited this tragedy from the very beginning to score cheap (and increasingly nonsensical) political points is sickening.  Do you cretins not have any sense of respect or decency?  Or, for that matter, perspective?  I cannot believe this.  You might recall that after 9/11 the Ann Coulter types at least had the common decency to wait a couple months before saying it was all the fault of liberal surrender monkeys in the media.  The asswipes in this thread are making me ashamed to be a human being.

It's called the internet. People are free to be asshats here and reveal veiled opinions that they wouldn't show off in public. Well at least views that most people wouldn't show off in public.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

If she pulls this out, it'll be pretty impressive, although perhaps not as impressive as Jackie Spieier's incident.

Anyways, is there any chance that the judge was targeted too, or was he just the wrong place at the wrong time? That would be an interesting coincidence since he had a large number of death threats.

They're still looking for the accomplice, maybe there's some wider conspiracy or something. Really doubtful but who knows.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

I think the nature of the Democratic Party has changed in recent years to make it so that inflammatory/populist rhetoric coming from it is going to be rare. Think about it: the Democrats are now the bland party of granola suburbanites and yuppies in a coalition with hispanics and blacks with some students and remnants of the white working class thrown in the mix, the party's base will almost never crave speech that's absurdly hyperbolic and falsehoods used by party members will always be frowned upon. It's kind of the nature of a party that has a huge base in the highly educated class of society.

Kind of random thoughts but I think this is the main reason why the disparities between the parties has grown when it comes to hyperbole and the kind of inflammatory anger speech that nearly everyone in this thread is decrying. Democrats are pretty much the sole party of the intelligentsia at this point. I know it sounds like I'm saying that the Democrats are smarter, what I'm really saying is that certain classes of society are more prone to like politicians using gun metaphors while others aren't and certain classes of society will prefer bland policy wonk stuff over hyperbole over death pannels. The class of society that likes wonky numbers the most is now disproportionately in a certain party.

I think rhetoric of certain parties reflects the preferences of the base. Obama/the Democrats have a very optimistic tone when it comes to the direction of the country because their base has that belief. Remember that Obama was essentially using the same rhetoric long before his presidential run. Minorities, crunchy suburbanites, yuppies and the youth eat that up. If you don't believe me, look at the polls that rank optimism by ethnicity, age etc.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

At least I'm not trolling in an obtuse way like half the people in this thread.