Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) announced on her facebook page Sunday that she will resign from Congress this upcoming week.  On January 8, 2010, Giffords was shot in the head in a Tucson grocery store parking lot while meeting with constituents. Six people were killed and 13 others, including Giffords, were wounded. The man charged in the shooting, Jared Lee Loughner, has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges.

According to officials in Washington, her resignation is expected to take effect on Monday.

Giffords returned to Congress in August of last year to cheers from her colleagues.

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It’s civility week!  Another Twitter montage of #NewTone was just sent our way this afternoon.  Good timing, too, on the heels of Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa Jr.’s warm remarks yesterday.

Lets not forget the lessons in civility that our dutiful media and President Obama conveyed in the wake of the Tucson tragedy. The vitriol does not seem to have died down.  Perhaps this video will help remind people what’s lurking out there on the Twitter public timeline about all you “Sons of Bitches” and “Hobbits” of Terror.

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The recent tragic events in Norway have saddened the world. It has been reported  that a 32 year old man, Anders Behring Brevivik is believed to be the lone assailant responsible for the shootings at a youth camp on an island in Norway; as well as the Oslo bombing.

Many people lie dead. Numbers extending into the nineties. Most of the dead were young people on summer holiday at a camp on Utoeya Island. The youth group for The Labour Party of Norway, gathered together to learn more about the bombing in Oslo. Dressed as a police officer, Breivik commenced to shooting. Leaving the wounded in heaps. He shot the piled bodies repeatedly, hoping to kill more hiding among the dead.

The vicious assault came shortly after a bomb went off in Oslo. The Christian Post reports that the intended target was Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. He was unharmed.

The gunman labeled as a right-wing Christian fundamentalist has been vocal about his dislike for multiculturalism and Islamists. Often, writing about it in blogs.

Initially, reports were made that this was the act of a Middle Eastern terrorist group. Which later turned out to be incorrect. Criticism about fact checking and speculation are starting to surface. The American Muslim was particularily harsh in it’s condemnation of news organizations. Calling for readers to check out other articles with words in the titles such as, Why do they hate us and A shameful day in journalism.

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In 2008, long before a shooting in Tucson where six people died and 19 were injured, candidate Barack Obama did not shy away from violent imagery when explaining how he would counter Republican attacks during the 2008 presidential campaign. Chicago-style Obama warned: “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”

After Tucson, when it came time to assign blame for what amounted to an attempted political assassination, liberals did not squander the opportunity to blame the Sarah Palin PAC website’s depiction of cross-hairs for inciting the type of uncivil discourse that led to the  murders, and Obama didn’t stop them. In fact, the media all but laid the responsibility for Jared Lee Loughner shooting Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ)  in the head at Palin’s feet.

Liberal commentator Keith Olbermann even went so far as to say: “If Sarah Palin … does not repudiate her own part, however tangential, in amplifying violence and violent imagery in American politics, she must be dismissed from politics, she must be repudiated by the members of her party.”

Four short days after the shooting, Barack Obama used the opportunity to sell T-shirts, rebuke the gun lobby, and use the tragedy to partner with the media and call for “civility in public discourse.”  In other words, the memorial in Tucson became a platform for Obama to reprimand his critics and harness the First Amendment by condemning “point scoring and pettiness.”

Barack recited Scripture, offered condolences, and eulogized all the victims before segueing into rhetoric that heaped guilt upon anyone on the right who might employ hyperbole in political discussion. Citing the gallant actions of those who saved lives in a Safeway parking lot, the President said heroism posed a “challenge to each of us,” and raised the question “going forward” of what “beyond the prayers and expressions of concern,” was  required of all Americans, including himself, to “honor the fallen” and “be true to their memory?”

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From the same MoveOn.org rally that brought us video of the now infamous foaming liberal, who proudly “declared war on righties, Teabaggers and Republicans” over at the always sunshine and roses hotspot known as Daily Kos, we bring you yet another performance from an angry liberal.

Just moments after Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) gave a rousing speech at MoveOn.org’s “Solidarity With Wisconsin” rally, urging Americans to preach our principles and values across the country and around the world, this self-professed “Left of Lesbian” progressive took to the microphone to follow the Senator with this his own display of values:

“It’s time for Barack Obama to do what he did in Tucson – show up.”

“If you want to know the difference between Egypt and Madison:   Mubarak is a Tyrant.  Scott Walker’s an Asshole”

(I’m thinkin’ Hyde Park Johnny over at the Daily Kos may want to update his post.  He thought there were “no tea partiers in sight.”)

If this man looks and sounds familiar to you, he should.  This clip of him on Mediaite made the rounds on the day of the Tucson, AZ shooting, when he used an impromptu vigil as an opportunity to push Sarah Palin into the fray, as did so many others on the left that day.

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From LA Times:

Fuller, a disabled veteran and former campaign volunteer for Giffords, was charged with making threats, intimidation and disorderly conduct and was involuntarily committed for a psychiatric evaluation, Ogan said.

In an interview with Democracy Now on Thursday, Fuller linked the shooting to conservative leaders associated with the tea party, including Sarah Palin, Fox News commentator Glenn Beck and Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle. “It looks like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the rest got their first target,” Fuller said.

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The latest dinosaur media meme involves a comparison of two speeches given within hours of one another on the Tucson shootings- Sarah Palin’s video and President Barack Obama’s in a Tucson Basketball stadium.

Obama’s speech is lauded as showing him to be ‘a formidable figure’,'unifying a nation in its grief’, ‘conciliatory’ and ‘calling for anew era of civility in American politics’.

Sarah Palin’s is branded as ‘a missed opportunity’, ‘defiant’, symptomatic of ‘grievance-based’ and ‘urgent and defensive’.

I can appreciate why Sarah Palin’s political enemies would want to compare these two speeches..but it’s an exercise in absurdity.

No one accused President Barack Obama of being directly complicit in mass murder, and no one in Sarah Palin’s camp orchestrated a campaign to do so. If they had, we might have heard a very different speech from one of the most thin-skinned presidents in modern times.

It was not President Obama who was receiving death threats from the right calling for ‘payback’ for the Tucson murders, and no one suggested that the killings were ‘Obama’s fault’.

President Obama was in Tucson to conduct a memorial service for the victims, and he did so.

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As he sits behind bars awaiting trial, Jared Loughner is undoubtedly relishing every moment of the ruckus that he managed to stir up with his deadly rampage in Tucson.  In addition to murdering six innocent human beings and wounding more than a dozen others in an act of sheer evil, the deranged gunman has set off a media and political frenzy that refuses to abate.

By various accounts, this is precisely what Loughner was hoping for. As his close friend Bryce Tierney told Mother Jones, “I think the reason he did it was mainly to just promote chaos. He wanted the media to freak out about this whole thing. He wanted exactly what’s happening.” Ironically enough, then, many of those now engaged in the shameless finger-pointing are inadvertently advancing the goals of the madman, by fulfilling his desire to create an environment of mayhem in society.

Deploying the most acerbic members of its verbal firing squads, the left has launched volley after volley of vitriol in recent days in an effort to score some political points and paint conservatives as extremists.  But in so doing, they are merely extending the damage inflicted by Loughner into the sphere of public discourse, thereby undermining the very same foundations of civilization that the gunman himself was targeting. (more…)

From The Economist blog ‘Democracy in America’:

Still, freakish death is profoundly unnerving and facing its immunity to reason tends to aggravate rather than soothe our cellular fear of disorder and death. Far from leading us to resignation, the inscrutability of a sui generis disaster sets our minds in mad motion. We desperately and pathetically grope for some blameworthy failure of foresight, some forward-looking lesson, some food for prudence. It doesn’t matter if there are none to be found. We’ll make it all up if we have to.

Not every general feature of Saturday’s shootings in Tucson has been seized upon. No one is proposing new rules for supermarkets, young white guys, or sun-baked locales. The things we already fear and already desire more thoroughly to control are most vividly salient to us. We seize on those: guns, crazy people. Did Jared Lee Loughner shoot government officials with a gun? Ban guns within 1,000 feet of government officials! Was Jared Lee Loughner detectably crazy? Make involuntary commitment easier! Did Jared Lee Loughner buy a gun while detectably crazy? Tighten background-screening requirements! Did Jared Lee Loughner’s gun sport an extended magazine? Ban extended magazines!

Some of these proposals may have merit, but no more now than on Friday.

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Unfortunately, those looking for real leadership on the part of Scripps College in the wake of the horrendous shooting of Gabrielle Giffords SC ‘93 will have to look elsewhere than the statements of its president, Lori Bettison-Varga. President Bettison-Varga uses the tragedy of the Tucson shooting to play politics, rather than seek understanding.

President Bettison-Varga does this by trying to connect the perceived rhetoric of some in our country with the actions of a lone psychotic while conveying a false intimacy by referring to Ms. Giffords by her first name, “Gabrielle.” (She went by “Gabby,” as everyone knows.)

Apparently, President Bettison-Varga didn’t take logic, for if she had, she would know that it is a fallacy to assume a rational motive for a non-rational actor.

Let’s go line by line with her piece in Inside Higher Ed, starting with the four paragraph.

From Rasmussen Reports:

Americans have closely followed news stories about the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the killing of six others in Arizona on Saturday, and most don’t feel politics was the cause of it.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 28% of Adults say the shooting in Arizona was the result of political anger in the country. Fifty-eight percent (58%) say instead that it was a random act of violence by an unstable person. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

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To the families of those we’ve lost; to all who called them friends; to the students of this university, the public servants gathered tonight, and the people of Tucson and Arizona:  I have come here tonight as an American who, like all Americans, kneels to pray with you today, and will stand by you tomorrow.

There is nothing I can say that will fill the sudden hole torn in your hearts.  But know this: the hopes of a nation are here tonight.  We mourn with you for the fallen.  We join you in your grief.  And we add our faith to yours that Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the other living victims of this tragedy pull through.

As Scripture tells us:

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

the holy place where the Most High dwells.

God is within her, she will not fall;

God will help her at break of day.

On Saturday morning, Gabby, her staff, and many of her constituents gathered outside a supermarket to exercise their right to peaceful assembly and free speech.  They were fulfilling a central tenet of the democracy envisioned by our founders – representatives of the people answering to their constituents, so as to carry their concerns to our nation’s capital.  Gabby called it “Congress on Your Corner” – just an updated version of government of and by and for the people.

That is the quintessentially American scene that was shattered by a gunman’s bullets.  And the six people who lost their lives on Saturday – they too represented what is best in America. (more…)

From The Hill:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that the Arizona shooter who killed six and injured 14, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D), was motivated by political views.

In an interview with CNN Wednesday Clinton, who had recently referred to the shooter as an “extremist,” doubled down on her comments saying that the shooter was an extremist who acted on his “bizarre” political views.

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Wednesday Sarah Palin responded to the vicious blood libel leveled against her and millions of right-thinking Americans by the army of destroyers. The ferocious, relentless attacks on Sarah Palin are a testament to her greatness, proof of how deathly afraid of her they are, like Dracula to the silver cross.

It’s envy. Ayn Rand said it: “Envy is regarded by most people as a petty, superficial emotion and, therefore, it serves as a semihuman cover for so inhuman an emotion that those who feel it seldom dare admit it even to themselves….That emotion is: hatred of the good for being the good.”

Here’s the thing. The mission, by objective, of the haters, the party of destruction, is to ruin the best, the brightest, the good. The left has, day after day, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, trafficked only in ruin and destruction, focusing on the most effective leaders on the right.

Name one, one, Republican president the voluntary-state-run media has liked. Forget liked, has given a fair shake? Name one Republican they supported. The only Republican the media can cotton to is a RINO (Republican In Name Only) or one who is sure to lose (i.e. old, middle of the road RINO McCain).

I refuse to accept that Palin is unelectable. Says who? Those who wish to destroy her. We, on the right, must learn from our enemies. Not their evil, but in their strategy. They stand by their people no matter how egregious their crime — the Barney Franks, Barney Franks, Bill Clintons blah blah blah.

We, on the other hand, cut and run when the lie about whomever has gone around the world, before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. I cringe when I hear conservatives and Republicans say that Palin is not electable. Why? Because evildoers said so? Who cares? That’s what they want you to think. How wonderful it would be to have a clear thinking, rational, proud patriot for president. Who else could possibly restore America back to her standing and respect in the world? I think Palin would be spectacular, one of the greats.

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Since he first opened his mouth on Saturday night to address the nation about the terrible shootings at a Tucson Safeway, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has been inaccurate, deceptive, and completely biased in his handling of the case.

Sheriff Clarence Dupnik must resign.

Never have we witnessed a prominent public figure so inaccurately and viciously politicize a national tragedy like Sheriff Dupnik did this week. And in all of his statements he has either been wrong or misdirected. This bitter partisan must go.

It’s been more than three days now since the horrible tragedy in Tucson on Saturday.
Within hours after the news broke that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had been shot and Judge John M. Roll had been killed the left was already plotting to blame the tea partyfor the slaughter. Sheriff Dupnik led the charge.

On Saturday night Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik came in front of cameras and gave one of the most disgusting, dishonorable speeches in the history of this great nation.

**Sheriff Dupnik told reporters that shooter Jared Loughner may not have acted alone. It was a group effort. There were others involved.

“We have photos.”

Sheriff Dupnik was wrong. Loughner acted alone.

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I just had forwarded to me an email written by ThirdWay.org calling for more federal intervention in the energy markets, further supporting politically deigned winners from the pool of losers that must petition for aid in order to exist. Which of course doesn’t read all that differently than the old, First Way (post-FDR, that is). But it’s got a Blair-ite marketing panache that’s worth a try, anyway.

This was noteworthy for a couple of reasons, including its acknowledgment that the renewable energy mandate you will soon hear very much about, as the next ‘other way to skin the cat’ of energy rationing, is so far as your wallet is concerned the same as the very cap-and-trade scheme for which it is Plan B:

“China is about to [sic] put a price on carbon. The UK and EU are already there. So how can the U.S. begin to compete for the $2 trillion clean energy market? …We can help do that by establishing a national clean energy standard.”

Windmill mandate equals cap-and-trade. According to its champions. Got it.

More eye-catching was the whole $2 trillion thing. Because also today per Greenwire (subscription required) Sen. John Kerry continued his silly (very silly) advocacy of this agenda — if in less humorous fashion, seeking to take advantage of tragedy for political aims: “Infrastructure, clean energy can unite Congress after Tucson tragedy — Kerry” (noting that, hey, Cong. Giffords was really big on renewable energy supports, so…).

He “call[ed] for renewed support for investment in the energy economy — especially ‘green energy’ — where the United States, he said, is losing its competitive edge in a $6 trillion market to the rest of the world and China in particular “.

Is Sen. Kerry saying, as this reporter implies, that the renewable energy market is $6 trillion? Exaggeration in support of the green agenda? Quelle horreur, Sen. Kerry! (more…)

From the New York Times:

The police were sent to the home where Jared L. Loughner lived with his family on more than one occasion before the attack here on Saturday that left a congresswoman fighting for her life and six others dead, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said on Tuesday.

A spokesman, Jason Ogan, said the details of the calls were being reviewed by legal counsel and would be released as soon as the review was complete. He said he did not know what the calls were about — they could possibly have been minor, even trivial matters — or whether they involved Jared Loughner or another member of the household.

A friend of Mr. Loughner’s also said in an interview on Tuesday that Mr. Loughner, 22, was skilled with a gun — as early as high school — and had talked about a philosophy of fostering chaos.

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For those unfamiliar with “jumping the shark”, I’d strongly suggest looking up this Hollywood idiom. It appears we are witnessing this in epic fashion as the far-left shamelessly exploits violence for the second time in four months: first, the fake explosive executions of climate change doubters in last October’s 1010global.org video; now they agonize over the very real Giffords shooting. Both showcase the far-left’s attempts to marginalize and silence their critics, while spewing the same kind of vitriol they ironically claim should end.

The 1010global.org video was the latest in a long line of vitriolic far-left rants, depicting the explicit execution of people blown up at the push of a button for not complying with an imperative to reduce their carbon footprint. It was titled “No Pressure”, a subtle message for those doubting human activity as a cause of global warming. No pressure to change, after seeing what might happen to those who don’t comply.

But what do such presentations instill in the minds of those believing man-caused global warming must be stopped at all costs? How do they react to Paul Krugman’s 6/28/09 NY Times op-ed “Betraying the Planet“, when he equates global warming skeptics with committing acts of treason? How do they feel when seeing NASA scientist James Hansen’s 2/15/09 UK Guardian op-ed “Coal-fired power stations are death factories. Close them“, in which he says, “The trains carrying coal to power plants are death trains”? Regarding Ross Gelbspan, the anti-skeptic book author I described in my two prior articles here at Breitbart, what must they think of multiple references in his 2004 book to skeptic scientists committing “crimes against humanity“? Would they find some kind of perverse inspiration when seeing IPCC scientist Ben Santer’s infamous ClimateGate email, where he mentions he would like to assault skeptic scientist Pat Michaels?

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This morning, Sarah Palin posted a video, reacting to Saturday’s tragedy in Arizona, to her Facebook page.

Sarah Palin: “America’s Enduring Strength” from Sarah Palin on Vimeo.

A quote:

There are those who claim political rhetoric is to blame for the despicable act of this deranged, apparently apolitical criminal. And they claim political debate has somehow gotten more heated just recently. But when was it less heated? Back in those “calm days” when political figures literally settled their differences with dueling pistols? In an ideal world all discourse would be civil and all disagreements cordial. But our Founding Fathers knew they weren’t designing a system for perfect men and women. If men and women were angels, there would be no need for government. Our Founders’ genius was to design a system that helped settle the inevitable conflicts caused by our imperfect passions in civil ways. So, we must condemn violence if our Republic is to endure.