Bradley Smith of Politico calls DU comments today "vile"...

[cascadiance]

From:

http://www.politico.com/arena/perm/Bradley_A__Smith_74D7037A-63C7-4057-867E-5E396FFB3246.html

Politicizing the tragedy in Arizona?

Bradley A. Smith

I was not going to post anything on this tragic mass murder, seeing this as a time for reflection and mourning. And I appreciate that most members here have refrained from the desire to immediately politicize this horrible event. But by my latest count, the number of Arena members who have attempted to blame Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, or conservatives generally for this, with no reference at all to heated leftist rhetoric, is now into double figures and climbing.

If we truly think that heated political discourse is responsible for this, or even if we just think generally that that discourse should be toned down a bit, we all need to look at ourselves, not just the other guy. Keith Olbermann rants regularly about "fascists" taking over the country, and each day for years has named one or more conservatives "the worst person in the world." Other liberal talk hosts are scarcely more restrained.

While serving as Chairman of the DNC, Howard Dean merely noted that he "hate(d) Republicans and everything they stand for." His predecessor, Terry McAuliffe, thought words weren't enough - one entering his office was expected to wipe his feet on a picture of George W. Bush. The comments sections of the Daily Kos, Democratic Underground, and other lefty sites are full of the most vile comments and death wishes for Republicans on a regular basis, but such crazed talk is not limited to the nutty rank and file - prominent liberals and Democratic officeholders have in recent years publicly wished for the death of Rush Limbaugh, Clarence Thomas, Chris Christie, and yes, Sarah Palin. Rep. Alan Grayson said that Republicans wanted Americans to die, and to "die quickly."

Loughner appears to have been a complete nut job, who liked flag burning and listed the Communist Manifesto as a favorite book. There is no evidence that he ever saw Palin's "target map," or that if he did it motivated him in any way, or that he considered himself a conservative or a tea partier. He gunned down a moderate Democrat who has called for increased border control, and a conservative Republican judge, plus a batch of innocents whose political affiliation he couldn't possibly know.

...

[spanone]

1. just what i expect from politico

that all you got bradley....?

[leftstreet]

2. Eat The Columnists! n/t

[sadbear]

3. Republicans lie

It's what they do best.

[GoCubsGo]

17. They like to project alot, too.

Which is what little Bradley is doing here.

[hobbit709]

4. In that case, the feeling is mutual.

[Dappleganger]

5. You do realize they are grasping at straws?

This is a voice of a truly desperate person who refuses to face the reality of his own party.

[EFerrari]

6. So we can safely assume a fax went out today naming DU and DKos.

So predictable.

[AspenRose]

8. Yep.

Tired and predictable.

[Tatiana]

32. +1 The only question is who drafted the memo.

Kos recently addressed this issue and if the right-wingers continue to spread these lies, perhaps the admins need to draft a response as well.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2011/1/10/935006/-Manufacturing-false-equivalencies-in-the-wake-of-the-Giffords-assassination-attempt

[Tsiyu]

38. We were the only ones discussing it this weekend

They were hoping and praying that people would ignore the massacre.

But googling was going to bring them here, since we were on top of the story all weekend.


So now they have to demonize us for talking about it.

Like murdering people isn't vile - our anger at being targets of the nuts politico encourages is the vile thing. What a frickin obvious hack...

[EFerrari]

39. It was all over twitter and FB. But DU is generally out ahead

with news and piecing things together, so it may be true in that way.

[Tsiyu]

45. Ah, of course you are correct

The tweets and Facebook updates were on it as well, but like DU and KOS, their messages can't be contained or controlled either.

And we put a particular slant on the news, politically.

So MSM was silent, but independent media were not, is what I should have said!

[eleny]

7. The disinformation campaign gets into gear

[EFerrari]

10. They can't stop being hateful long enough to refudiate their hatefulness.

[gratuitous]

9. Oh noes! Pearls need clutching, couches yawn widely for fainters!

Yes, those e-e-e-evil "lefty sites" are all calling for violence and other craziness!

But somehow, when it comes time for a trigger to be pulled or a bomb to be detonated, the hands on the triggers all belong to the Repressive and Reactionary Right. I note that for all of Bradley A. Smith's exhaustive research, he can't come up with even one instance at Daily Kos or Democratic Underground where anyone specifically targeted Rep. Giffords. Unlike, say, a certain failed vice presidential candidate's political action committee website.

[Matariki]

11. They want to redirect the dialog. DON'T FALL FOR IT.

If we start answering this and changing the discussion to whether or not the left engages in inciting violence - or worse, defending ourselves against that nonsense, then they successfully shut down a discussion that NEEDS to happen.

[Jamastiene]

12. Lol, they are flailing, trying to find any way to turn the heat down and failing big time.

They need to own the blood on their hands. Trying to shift attention away from themselves is a classic distraction tactic. Transparent. Not gonna work this time.

[AspenRose]

13. Wow, has he ever been to Free Republic or Stormfront?

Pale in comparison!

[malaise]

14. Tell Politico to quote Palin, Boehner, Bachmann

Kelly et al and stop looking for meat at DU.
Fuck those ReTHUGhacks.

No cross hair maps here.

[Tom Rinaldo]

15. Mods should keep an eye out

Seems to me their next logical step will be to plant death wish type posts here against Republicans that they can later use to back up their claims. But even this hack (Oooooh, I used a derogatory word) can't bring himself to claim there are routine death threats made here or calls for violence against opponents.

[RufusTFirefly]

25. +1 n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

27. Yes. Or perhaps posts expressing sadness that the shooter wasn't Palin's campaign manager.

Oh. Nevermind.

[Ganja Ninja]

16. "full of the most vile comments and death wishes for Republicans on a regular basis"

Really Bradley? Got any links or screen shots? If it happens on a daily basis they shouldn't be hard to produce.

Fuck you and the worthless hack website you work for.

[truebrit71]

36. Saw that too. Hey Bradley, how about you find us just ONE to back up your bullshit assertion?

Just one will do....we'll wait....................................................................

What a tosser...

[DainBramaged]

18. Hey BRADLEY, fuck you DOUCHE BAG. mouthpiece of the Reich-wing

FUCK YOU. We want links asshole, lying sack of shit.

[bemildred]

19. Let the frantic butt-covering begin. nt

[nc4bo]

20. The piggies are squealing. nt

[seabeyond]

21. where's vile, looking around. i havent seen vile. have any of you seen vile? nt

[Art_from_Ark]

46. I've seen vile, but it usually gets deleted in a big hurry

The mods and admins don't have a lot of tolerance for that sort of thing.

[Hannah Bell]

22. lol. notes the manifesto but not the selections by hitler & ayn rand.

[ck4829]

23. Also loved Mein Kampf, hated government, was obsessed with gold

But he was a liberal? Seriously?

This is not much different that the Iraqi propagandist saying that troops would never reach Baghdad while American tanks were rolling down the street behind him.

[myrna minx]

24. How silly. Could he provide some evidence to back up this assertions?

It appears that DU and Kos are on the right wing 'hit list' today.

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. What a bunch of wussies and liars.

Let's compare apples to apples. We now have the technology to go back and pick up the sound bites. Let the proof show which party is the most violent.

[Urban Prairie]

28. Wishing for someone considered to be despicable to pass away is harmless

Uploading an image that was INTENTIONALLY created with rifle-scope cross-hairs upon their names and locations and then asking for everyones' assistance in "taking them out" is quite a different story.

[Waiting For Everyman]

29. Citing DU/Dkos could be the RW's Waterloo banana peel...

Their minions could come here to check it out and catch some actual INFORMATION. OMG! Then what will the politicos do?

And I double-dog-dare little Bradley there to quote these so-called "vile comments", "death wishes", and "crazed talk" he's so concerned about. He won't, because the majority are funny rather than intimidating. Or at least colorful.

Here's a death wish for ya, Li'l Brad... May the fleas of a thousand camels nest in your eyebrows. I know, wasn't that just "vile"? Go ahead, run with it - I give that one to you for free.

Dipstick.

[EFerrari]

35. May he be forced to read

his own bad writing for the rest of his life.

:rofl:

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

30. Death threats on DU? What death threats? I haven't seen any!!!

[mmonk]

31. Out damned spot!

[DirkGently]

33. Dishonest. Loughner shot a Democrat the rightwing had already threatened.

They smashed up her office and made threats when she supported healthcare reform. That wasn't the Democrats and the liberals. We are NOT the same as you.

I think Sarah Palin has been overplayed in the whole discussion, but my early reading indicated the assassin listed her and "Tea Party Patriots" as "friends."

It's a complete perversion to list Grayson's characterization of the Republican position on healthcare as a parallel to rightwing rhetoric. Grayson was at worst hyperbolic. And he had a point. He did not suggest Republicans were evil anti-Americans best dealt with through "The Second Amendment." The reasonable response to anyone taking Grayson seriously would be to ... reform healthcare.

Sen. Grassley, on the other hand, quite seriously discussed the "Death Panels" Republicans suggested would come about if healthcare was reformed. He knew that wasn't true when he said it. But the reasonable response to government "Death Panels" would be to take up arms.

Likewise Michelle Bachmann called for investigation of "anti-American" members of Congress, then hinted around and below and between the idea that the U.S. Census might somehow be a plot to round up Americans for "interment camps."

What would the rational reaction be if someone believed that Bachmann might be right about that? Voting Republican? Hiding from a Census worker? Picking up a gun?

There's a reason we have this unbroken string of "lone nuts" targeting only liberal causes and people. Abortion doctors assassinated. Clinics bombed. A Unitarian church massacre, because the gunman couldn't locate the "Worst Liberals" on a list broadcast by a rightwing pundit. A woman stalking a government base with a car full of rifles looking for Glenn Beck's "FEMA deathcamps." A convict shooting it out with cops, on his way to attack the ACLU and the Tides Foundation. A young female protestor kicked in the head.

This isn't "our" blood on the ground. It's the blood of the political opponents of the American rightwing, which consistently drapes itself in the flag and urges its followers to stock up on ammo and be ready for the Revolution. That is what followed the "Tea Party," wasn't it?

"Bradley Smith" and the other rightwing apologists are fooling no one. You threaten and hint and encourage bloodlust at every turn, and now you want to pretend you didn't mean it?

WHICH is it, rightwingers? Are you fighting a deadly battle for the soul of America with heartless liberal fiends, in which case, everyone DOES need to pick up a weapon, or are you cowards and liars, threatening and hinting at violence because you just want to WIN, at any cost, over ordinary political issues like healthcare and tax breaks, and don't mind waving guns and appealing to madmen to do it?

You can't have it both ways.

[mzmolly]

34. Mr. Smith, there is a difference between we NUTS here, and POLITICAL LEADERS on the right.

Joe Biden did not use gun analogies to fire up a gun toting base. Democratic Senate candidates did not ratchet up the "Second Amendment" meme. And no one here, is seeking the office of the Vice Presidency.

You sir, are vile for suggesting that a political discussion board, is akin to rhetoric promoted by your political leaders.

[Pathwalker]

37. Never heard of him, and don't care to. Asshole.

[jillan]

40. Wow - the RW Wackos are really feeling defensive today, aren't they?

[Supersedeas]

41. How dare you call a political assassination attempt political...says Politico

Should we be outraged by assassination attempts?

Laughner wasn't a fruitcake targeting his place of work or a random restaurant -- he directed his terrorism toward a Democratic representative of Congress.

ARE WE SUPPOSE TO JUST IGNORE THAT -- so the sensitive little boys at Politico don't get their feelings hurt?

[Ikonoklast]

42. Bite Me.

Bradley, those that assert, must first prove.


You cannot get away with the old Republican chilling tactics of trying to control the debate by lying.

[OneGrassRoot]

43. In all sincerity, I'd love to see the examples of this:

"...prominent liberals and Democratic officeholders have in recent years publicly wished for the death of Rush Limbaugh, Clarence Thomas, Chris Christie, and yes, Sarah Palin."

I was presented with examples of left-wing radio hosts that I've never heard of (except for one quote by Randi Rhodes) that was on the level of Limbaugh & Company, but I don't know of any Democratic officeholders who have in recent years publicly wished for the death of Limbaugh, etc. Certainly no one on the national stage.

Seriously, does anyone know what he is referring to, or is he pulling it out of his ass?

I want both sides to take responsibility for any hate speech, and we know good and well there's no comparison in number or intensity of such statements between the left and right in recent years. Still, if there are examples, I'd like to know about them.

Thanks in advance if you guys know what they are -- you can even PM me.

:hi:

[alsame]

44. Hey Bradley, link please? Especially for the comments of

Dem officeholders who wished death on RWers.