On 01-11-11, JOHN MASSEY said to ALL:   
      
      
   JM>While Paul Krugman and other liberal commentators continue to exploit this   
   JM>weekend's tragedy by making hay out of supposedly extreme rhetoric on the   
   JM>right, perhaps they would do well to examine some of the rhetoric that has   
   JM>come from the left. On October 23, The Scranton Times reported that Rep.   
   JM>Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., said this about Florida's new Republican Governor   
      
      
   JM>Rick Scott: "That Scott down there that's running for governor of   
   JM>Florida," Mr. Kanjorski said. "Instead of running for governor of Florida,   
   JM>they ought to have him and shoot him. Put him against the wall and shoot   
   JM>him. He stole billions of dollars from the United States government and   
   JM>he's running for governor of Florida. He's a millionaire and a   
   JM>billionaire. He's no hero. He's a damn crook. It's just we don't prosecute   
      
      
   JM>big crooks." Read more at the Washington Examiner:   
   JM>http://washingtonexaminthe   
   JM>"hate"er.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/01/ex-rep-paul-kanjorski-d-pa   
      
      
   JM>fla- gov-rick-scott-they-ought-put-him-#ixzz1AkCjVYbc And to hear some   
   JM>people spin it, you would think all hate speech comes from the right.   
      
      
   Here's an interesting article along those lines:   
      
      
   Tucson Aftermath: Not the Left's First Political Witch Hunt   
      
      
   Posted by Michael Freund Jan 14th 2011 at 9:42 am in Israel   
      
      
   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.On a certain level, it is   
   perhaps to be expected that the attempted murder of a popular Congresswoman   
   would conjure a very human need in some quarters to pin responsibility on a   
   larger collective.   
      
      
   After all, none of us wish to believe that it is within the power of one   
   scoundrel to set off such bedlam. Surely, there must be larger forces at work,   
   we tell ourselves.   
      
      
   But that is little more than an illusion, a somewhat comforting tale we cling   
   to in order to try and make sense of the otherwise inexplicable. Like it or   
   not, one individual can, and frequently does, alter the course of history.   
      
      
   Nonetheless, however predictable that deep-seated need to find larger forces   
   at work may be, that does not give people license to engage in an irrational   
   blame-game, which is precisely what the left is now doing.   
      
      
   Despite a gaping absence of even a shred of evidence, liberal commentators and   
   pundits have sought to link Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News, among   
   others, to the noxious carnage. Among the most egregious examples was Paul   
   Krugman of the New York Times, who invoked what he described as the   
   "eliminationist rhetoric" of the right. Others went further still, with   
   Michael Russnow asserting at the Huffington Post, "With all the terrorism   
   happening in our country and around the world, isn't most of it coming from   
   the right?"   
      
      
   Tossing logic to the wind, these critics have attempted to identity   
   conservative fingerprints at the scene of the crime where none can, or will,   
   be found.   
      
      
   Watching these events unfold from afar, I was reminded of the aftermath of   
   another shooting, one which also brought in its wake a chilling amount of   
   political bile. In November 1995, a lone gunman assassinated Israeli Prime   
   Minister Yitzhak Rabin after a rally in Tel Aviv, sending shockwaves   
   throughout the young country. It did not take long for the mourning to turn   
   into acrimony, as Israel's left took aim at then-opposition leader Binyamin   
   Netanyahu, who instantly became a lightning rod for some of the most hateful   
   rhetoric imaginable. I remember walking in the streets of Jerusalem at the   
   time, seeing graffiti scrawled on walls saying, "Bibi is a murderer."   
      
   �   
   Shortly thereafter Rabin's widow went so far as to declare that she would   
   prefer to shake PLO Chief Yasser Arafat's hand rather than that of Netanyahu.   
      
   It made little difference that the Likud Chairman was not linked in any way   
   with the perpetrator and had vigorously condemned the assassination. Even the   
   fact that Rabin's own Attorney-General, Michael Ben-Yair, said, "The person   
   who killed the prime minister did not do so under the influence of   
   incitement," had no effect.   
      
      
   Quite simply, the opportunity to take political pot-shots at Netanyahu and   
   Israel's right was one that the left simply could not pass up. They accused   
   the Likud of creating an atmosphere that led inevitably to the shooting, just   
   as America's liberals are claiming about conservatives today. And they sought   
   to tar Netanyahu with the brush of extremism, much in the way that Palin and   
   others are now being unfairly maligned.   
      
      
   However infuriating the slurs may be, the targets of today's post-Tucson   
   witch-hunt should not despair. Despite months of withering assaults on his   
   character, Netanyahu went on to win the 1996 Israeli elections. The public was   
   shrewd enough to see through the muck, recognizing a falsehood for what it   
   was.   
      
      
   And there is no reason to think that the American people are any less   
   discerning. A CBS poll found that just 32 percent thought that the political   
   tone in the country had anything to do with the Tucson shooting, while 57   
   percent did not.   
      
      
   There's a lesson in here for those on the left, one they ignore at their   
   political peril: when you start playing with mud, the only one you end up   
   dirtying is yourself.   
      
   ---   
   *Durango b301 #PE*    
    * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)