to answer your question, It’s beyond me.

Shepard Smith was dutifully alarmed, as was Gretchen Carlson on Fox’s morning show. But otherwise Fox is basically saying it’s the same on both sides.

Carl Cameron actually said that Tea Partiers doing this from the right is EQUAL TO black-hooded anarchists violently protesting the WTO. He did not, however, provide the left equivalent to Dick Armey.

Nice graphic. Scope optic focal target too.

Just harmless gun-related language. And the graphic, that’s harmless? Right?

Sarah, we are quite capable to know the type who cries, “That’s not what I meant (wink),” bull. She should be held criminally responsible.

Sarah Palin is merely the front for these violence prompts. I’ll bet the language was focus-grouped by Frank Luntz before it was written by…say, who is writing her tweets and FBs these days?

If I didn’t know better, I would think this is just another attempt at pushing an uprising for Martial Law.

In all fairness, I cannot count how many times liberal commentators, political leaders, weblog front pagers and thread commentators use “violent” or “militant” metaphors: how many times have we heard and seen “Fight” for change – probably one of the most used allegorical verbs in the activist universe?

And how many different uses of gun metaphors, flamethrower metaphors, and all the rest have been on this site alone?

Do the Dems in Arizona have a candidate this year?

It’s a show people. The corporatist use these threats to make us choose between crazy corporatist and scummy corporatist. The tea party are tiny. Their threats are for cops to deal with, not us. I won’t be forced to choose between two bad options.

Fight, Attack, Target are pretty commonly used terms, I agree.

Reload, salvo, are pretty gun specific.

This is like comparing biden’s Eff bomb expressing positive excitement, to Cheney’s Eff bomb expressing contempt and rage. way way different.

meanwhile, McRage is urging people to “channel their rage” into civil action like registering to vote. hahaha!

You’re exactly right.

Good morning. Gloomy, right? Lots of clouds but no rain.

Yes. Then the justification for armed insurgency against an oppressive government.

Maybe this is why Kucinich changed his mind.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/03/kucinich-in-obamas-crosshairs.html

The image of crosshairs (including red crosshairs) while saying instead of retreat we need to reload, and other gun metaphors are different from the more generic “fight” and “attack.” Even it was all in good political fun, it’s especially stupid considering the death threats, slurs, and vandalism being experienced currently by members of Congress. So it’s either incredibly tone deaf/ignorant or a cry for violence.

Sarah just signed an exclusive endorsement deal with Bazooka Joe bubble gum.

Yes . And I have for years opposed such rhetoric. This whole nation is afflicted with lust for war and bloody games.

However the tea baggers have a definite organized spin. The government is tyrannical. “We must take arms against a tyrannical government.”..

The article is from March 15 and has been discussed. Sheesh.

At first my reaction was to say, ‘show me where’, but then I remembered this Daily Show Episode

Yeah, too much violence in our language and culture, but… some is more directed

But otherwise Fox is basically saying it’s the same on both sides.

yep. Eric Cantor says that someone shot a bullet through his outhouse window.

or something like that.

I didn’t really think Obama was planning on shooting DK. The comment was just good natured fun, sheesh.

A classic move, well played Congressman Skeletor, well played indeed.

Well, I just learned that salvo is gun lingo.

Guess not knowing the language of teabaggerdumb means I’m not part of that subculture. Boohoo.

I can tell you’re really heartbroken about it.

yeah, gloomy is the right word

A little sympathy for the GOP, please. A lot of people keep a crazy aunt in the attic. How would you feel if YOUR crazy aunt got loose and headed toward DC, making speeches all the way?

Boxturtle (and is anybody caring for Sarah’s cats? A lady that crazy must have lots of cats)

Salvo is more of an old term really, there can also be a salvo of arrows, mostly its a coordinated long ranged attack.

Watch it with the cat jokes. :-)

Deeply saddened. No garish flag-inspired sweater and double-knit polyester slacks will ever let me “pass”. Shame.

The Northern Lights, baby Jesus and the thoughts, prayers and guns of hard workin’ American people, whose dedication to those things we hold most dear, protect Sister Sarah’s cats form would be assassins. Oh an flag wrapped cat boxes, food dishes and a bubbling stream of blessed Alaskan water, made holy by His divine providence.

Yeah, I thought it had some military connotation, but I’m not hot on that kind of imagery.

How to make people pay the price for this kind of violent rhetoric? We are so concerned with anything that even hints at limiting people’s speech that we forget that there are other things we can do to make this kind of speech unacceptable.

You all know about my work to push back on the violent rhetoric of right wing radio hosts. It was focused on letting the advertisers know so that they could decide to not associate with these people.

I also developed a program to tie the violent rhetoric from the hosts to the tea parties so that if something violent happened they would be held responsible financially. The way you do that is to make sure that, for example, you alert the radio stations insurance carrier and ask them, “Who will be paying the fine if their is property damage brought about by your rally that gets violent.”
The title of my letter to the CFO was “Will Citadel be Financial Liable for Town Hall Mobs Organized by Their Radio Hosts?”
I also let the local media know about the history of the host’s violent comments and his militant views on guns. (link)

Someone is going to be injured and someone will be killed. We will not ever be able to tie that death or injury to what they say. Groups that are for speech no matter how extreme will protect them, however we can make it financially untenable for them to endorse violence.

This focus takes us away from the “he has the right to say what he wants” and into, “he can say what he wants but if someone is hurt it will cost them.”

how convenient

Let’s see some gun-related links from this site, Mr Friendly.

Spocko, were you the one who linked to Doonesbury’s take on open-carry at Starbucks? great stuff.

Yep that was me.

Geez these assholes just keep getting more batshit crazy.

I swear, we’re all watching, live and living color, the actual movement of that overton window. Supposed to be slow over time but this is a big, jerky move we’re all seeing all at once.

The Democrats have become Republicans, the Republicans have become completely insane, and the middle of that overton window is extreme right wingism.

I don’t have the answer, but we’ve GOT to stop this shit. And even though I don’t have the answer, I do know what’s NOT the answer. Keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is not the answer.

But we’ve gotta do something. Jeebus, what kind of country are our grandchildren going to be living in if this overton window keeps on shifting to the right?

Let me give you all a current example of what I’m talking about.
I heard a right wing radio host agree with someone who encourage violence toward government workers. I found the government entity who was advertising on the radio show and alerted them. I’ve asked them to pull their ads and get a statement from the host condemning violence. The statement will be BS, but the loss of the ad revenue is what hurts.

Here is a pernicious package of associations soooooo softly presented.

Tony Blankley HuffPo

We still have, feeble as it seems, the power of democracy to demand and force its leaders do the right things. Even autocrats can’t stand without the permission of the people. The Corporates have for years been spinning and programing helplessness in the sheep.

I don’t know how you can stand to listen to that garbage that comes from KSFO but I’m glad you do. And that you do something about it. Good for you.

you give Palin an aweful lot of power compared to reality. I don’t think she is responsible for what is going on. The continuing focus on her by my fellow lefties seems really silly to me.
Obama and the congressional dolts have just passed really crappy health care non-reform. Maybe they just p’o'd too many people and THEY are the reason people are acting out. Not that this violence is justified. But looking for someone to pin it on other than those who took the action, is irresponsible. People don’t like it when they not listened to by the pols who they sent to DC.

Thanks. I’m most proud of the fact that I had an impact on their revenue stream. And that is what lead to M elanie M organ and Lee R odgers getting fired. In the corporate world we live in, it’s really about the revenue. Sadly many of the right-wing media have benefactors who don’t need revenue, their ROI is measured in lower corporate taxes, fewer regulations and weakened environmental standards.

Yeah, but we seem unable to agree on how to force them to do the right things. I think we withhold our votes when they don’t and make them earn our vote. Others aren’t going to change my mind on that now. Others think it’s crazy to take any action that might allow Republicans back in. I’m not going to change their minds on that now.

Aren’t there some other acts maybe we can agree on? I’m really thinking it’s about time someone, somewhere, started organizing some non-violent protests of some sort. Start getting a monthly walk on Washington, or something. I don’t know, dammit I don’t know.

We’ve got to do something though. I really do fear for my grandchildren. Not being hyperbolic. I really do. I see the backwards steps we’ve taken since that overton window started moving to the right about 30 years ago, and I really fear what the country will be like then.

I know they also focus a lot on Armey. I personally think New Gingrich has a large hand in all this. It sounds so much like much of what I heard from him for many years.

The fact is the people want order more than anything else. If there is a lot turmoil in 2012 they will vote for the person they think likely to restore order, not civil liberties. Over and over again the people have ignored the real erosion of civil liberties under Bush and now Obama.

But looking for someone to pin it on other than those who took the action, is irresponsible.

I am not “looking for someone to pin it on” — I am arguing that Palin is behaving irresponsibly.

ANd you’re right.

And she’s not the only one.

But somewhere, sometime, we stopped holding folks accountable when they act irresponsibly.

Don’t know why.

But I applaud your efforts to point it out.

Because you’re right.

I agree with the thrust of your thinking. Yes. how?.

The first step is I think gathering folks of like political interests and issues together and convincing each other of our power. I do think non-violent marches and demonstrations are one way of bonding in community as well as making voices audible.Solidarity!

Again we have been so seduced of this individual initiative and the evils of social organization. I also think this worship of free speech (and I am a worshiper) has expanded to impede calling people out for what thy say and do.

We need to exercise the power of social acceptability. I am so tired of the milk toast responses to Limbaugh and now Beck. Call them what they are hate mongers. Tell them they should be ashamed. etc. We can begin with doing it when our individual associates mouth some of this garbage.. I have done it more than once an now the luncheons are much more pleasant.

The word “salvo” is currently military usage to mean “fire/drop as a group”, as opposed to “fire/drop individually”. You can, for example, salvo torpedos (“salvo tubes 1,2,3,4″) or fire each one individually. It is usually used for missiles and bombs.

“Sarah Palin: Why Do People Assume My Gun-Related Language and Imagery is Meant to Incite Violence?”

Perhaps it had something do with that bounty for wolve’s paws and that they could be shot dead from a helicopter.

I wish people would stop reading her Facebook page, stop watching her TV apprearances, stop reading her People magazine articles, etc, etc. Palin is a vicious, hateful, over-sexed, bitch that is in reality irrelevant to anything in the world except her immediate family and surroundings. That she is accorded the status and attention she gets is indicative of the health of this country. What kind of country has millions of it’s citizens consider that someone like Sarah Palin is a serious contender for Pres, much less anything else in life????? It’s really disturbing!

She was a serious contender for vice president, chosen by one of the most esteemed leaders of the Republican party. Just as the psychotic once vice president Cheney does, she reflects the judgement of the leaders of the Republican Party.

I don’t know that anyone assumes she directly incites violence, but the language and subliminal acceptance of gun violence is pervasive in our culture, especially the right wing culture. It has consequences. Such as libertine gun laws that now deprive law enforcement of one of its most useful tools, to keep guns out of the hands of would be murders and insurgents.

I have a strange feeling that the use of the words, and the manner in which these words were used – crosshairs, aim, fire, salvo, reload – are beyond the intellectual capacity of Sarah Palin, and I do believe that she had considerable help in putting this together. I believe that somebody is using her, and that scares me more than Palin herself.

Now, I doubt Palin wrote the words as she is not that articulate. Whoever did, baited the hook carefully and you folks took it.

Whereas I do believe words and language are important, incitement requires provoking strong emotion. I don’t think Palin’s words do that, so at least in that respect I would not be too concerned about what she has to say here doing much in the way of inciting anything.

Well, yeah — she’s obviously not writing this stuff.

But it’s her name on it. She’s responsible.

first, i would agree; this and i suspect most things sister sarah says comes from the first dude; she is his hook.

second, you sound like a reasonable person, the dog whistle words – heard loud and clear – appeal only to those who are prone to violence, racism and lack of education.

bill o’reilly’s constant rant of tiller the baby killer ending with dr. tiller being assassinated. 1990′s right wing conservative pandering to the militia types ended in 1995 with 168 american citizens being killed in oklahoma city by timothy mcveigh. republican reps. mike pence and michelle bachmann’s incitement and riling lead to the rancor and racist slurs being hurled at democratically elected officials. boehner’s violent speech led to the possible explosion and loss of life at the brother’s home of another ohio democratic representative.

while free speech is protected by the 1st amendment, the supreme court has ruled this does not include yelling fire in a crowded theatre. just when does this incitement to violence and/or the use of violent language cross the line – after someone is killed? for those of us old enough to have lived through the 60′s we know in all our being how it feels to see and hear assassinations – JFK, bobby and martin.

Shouldn’t Sarah be barricading herself in her home with granny and Trig. The Death Panel Squads should be gearing up for the big round up right about now. I hope she has plenty of ammo ready for the big stand off. Instead of this being like the Waco stand off, this will be the Whacko Standoff.

Could be one of the people from 1st dudes whacked out group. Weren’t they militia types.

No, I pretty much agree about you regarding the other folk; I just don’t think this Palin hook is particularly compelling to be concerned about, given all the concern generated on this thread.

I knew George Tiller and I gave testimony to the legislature on his behalf; and I do believe the moron who shot him was motivated and inspired by others.

Brief comment regarding adjoining post. The FBI completely blew the Waco deal because they wrote Koresh and the Davidian’s off, especially Koresh, and did not recognize the depth of belief of these folk. (Much like those defending Masada.)

The really scary part is how seriously some of these folk take things.

Now on one level this is humorous, on another level, not. When my ex-wife and I were dating, and she had had some peripheral contact with a militia group, we went to see the Patrick Swayze (sp?, sorry) movie Red Dawn. At the end of it, she was in tears; she really believed this sort of thing was very likely to happen. My son tells me there is going to be a remake of the movie.

yes, but the situation here is that they continue to encourage the crazy auntie …

No one posting here has been a VP candidate, and using occasional militant metaphors is not in the same league as creating a website that puts crosshairs (now enhanced with mushroom clouds) on your political opponents.

You’re comparing apples with grenades.