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United States News Title: SHERIFF BLASTS RIGHT WING RADIO TALKER AS “IRRESPONSIBLE” (TUCSON, AZ.) -- The Arizona sheriff, upon whose turf U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head over the weekend, had strong words Monday for the right wing radio talker who has often been described as the defcato head of the Republican Party. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik told ABC News Monday that the often-incendiary right wing radio personality Rush Limbaugh was "irresponsible" for continuing his vitriolic talk on the airwaves. “The kind of rhetoric that flows from people like Rush Limbaugh, in my judgment he is irresponsible, uses partial information, sometimes wrong information…attacks people, angers them against government, angers them against elected officials and that kind of behavior in my opinion is not without consequences," Dupniuk told ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer. Limbaugh is well known for his incendiary and at times racist and quasi-racist comments such as, “Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?” Regarding black Americans as a whole Limbaugh once quipped, “They’re 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?” Limbaugh played a song on his radio show called ‘Barack the Magic Negro’ using an antiquated Jim Crow era term for a black man – highly offensive to black Americans - to mock then presidential candidate Barack Obama. CONSEQUENCES OF WORDS It was the consequences of words, deeds and imagery that Giffords, now clinging to life after brain surgery due to a would be assassin’s gun, was discussing shortly after former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin placed a map on her website with several congressional district’s – including Gifford’s district - targeted with shooter’s "crosshairs" icons, as in crosshairs contained within a hunting "scope" mounted atop a hunting rifle. "We're on Sarah Palin's targeted list, but the thing is that the way she has it depicted has the cross hairs of a gun sight over our district," Giffords told MSNBC at the time. "When people do that, they've got to realize there's consequences to that action." So far there has been no direct connection made between the Tucson shooting suspect – described as a young man with mental issues - who wounded Giffords and 13 others and killed six including a small child and any particular political philosophy or writings. But the sheer horror and brutality of the mass shooting has sparked a nationwide outrage over the fevered pitch of what has been described as “hate speech” in our nation’s politics and on the airwaves of radio and TV and on Internet websites. Many see such talk – which has risen to a level many find offensive and dangerous - as contributing to an over all climate in the nation where those predisposed to aberrant behavior may be consciously or unconsciously fueled to act out by the overarching effects of the climate itself, if not specific words and deeds. THE SHOOTING SUSPECT: FROM NIHILISM TO LUCID DREAMING A new report in the Christian Science Monitor says early reports suggest that the philosophies of shooting suspect Jared Loughner are “tangled and largely incoherent – ranging from nihilism to 'lucid dreaming.' So far, the report says, “there does not appear to be clear link to talk radio or hyper partisanship, though that could change.” The report says what is known to date about the suspect is that it paints a picture of a person inspired by a “tangled and in some ways nonsensical web of philosophies” more than any one person, political movement, or line of thought. Some have blamed Arizona’s gun laws for the easy access the shooter had to obtaining a gun and an extended 30-round ammunition magazine, which allowed for extended rapid fire by the shooter in a very short time span. However Dupnik said it was Loughner's own internal demons, not his state's relatively lenient gun control laws that caused the tragic shooting on Saturday. "He could have purchased this gun in any state. It's not just Arizona," said Dupnik. There are too many people who have temper problems who have troubled personalities. This isn't an unusual individual. There are hundreds just like him in our community. And in every other community."
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#1. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
Colin Ferguson was Rush Limbaugh's fault too. /sarc
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