Too many to blame for Loughner

UPDATE
It looks like Sarah Palin is "locked and loaded" with regrets now.

Palin: 'I hate violence'
By: CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
(CNN) – Sarah Palin is responding to heat from some commentators that her at-times charged rhetoric during the 2010 campaign may have helped inspire attacks against government officials similar to that which occurred in Tucson, Arizona over the weekend.
"I hate violence," Palin told Fox News' Glenn Beck in an e-mail, which Beck relayed on his radio program Monday morning. "I hate war. Our children will not have peace if politicos just capitalize on this." Palin's response was first reported by Politico.

Is it because all the people who kept shooting off hatred now understand that what they say is dangerous? Do they feel to blame or do they fear it could have been them? What is really going on behind all of these regrets when it is too late for all these people? Will any of this really change anything? Will Palin among others stop saying things like "locked and loaded" or will they stop putting gun targets over their political enemies? When does this end?

"News" stations reported that Congresswoman Giffords was dead but that turned out to not be true. Were they so eager to report the death first that no one thought of waiting until they knew for sure? Some bloggers had their fingers flying as fast as the "reporter" talked posting about it.


On FOX it was reported that Jared Loughner was an Afghanistan veteran.

Veterans Demand an Apology From Arizona Rep. Linda Lopez
Posted by Mr. Wolf Jan 9th 2011
Yesterday was a HORRIBLE day.
We’ve seen an obviously unstable and deranged individual, Jared Loughner, shoot and kill innocents; we’ve seen a US Congresswoman declared dead, then not-dead, and we vets have been accused of being the shooter by none other than a state Congresswoman from Arizona.

While listening and watching all of the activity and coverage of this horrific event, one thing has become even more clear- the MFM has come unglued on the Right, on Veterans, and on grass roots organizations. This vitriol has GOT to stop, in both directions. But blaming Veterans just because it involved a gun is over the top. Especially for someone who should know better than to spread rumors.
The topper statement is from State Congressional Representative Linda Lopez, who is about as far-Left as you can get. Not that that’s a particular issue, but, given her next statement, we’ve got a HUGE problem …
”the shooter is likely, from what I’ve heard, an Afghan vet..”
During an interview with Shep Smith (please, do NOT get me started on him) she made these statements- you can hear them about 5 minutes into this interview:

Ms Lopez, on behalf of ALL veterans, and especially the Afghanistan veterans you have repeatedly defaced, I would like to ask this-
WE DEMAND AN APOLOGY
read more here
Veterans Demand an Apology From Arizona Rep. Linda Lopez

Shep Smith just let it go never once asking where she "heard" the shooter was a veteran. This kind of thing is part of the problem in this country. If people are on what is called a news station, they are thought of as being reputable and knowing the facts so that when they are lied to, they know how to respond.

The above article added fuel to the fire by the comment that Lopez is "as far left as you can get" as if that is the blame veterans attitude is rampant among Democrats. What happened to people being responsible for their own actions and what they say? This country has turned everything into a political war and there are no reporters on TV to stop any of it.

People like Sarah Palin were created by the media. What she had to say was taken as truth by the "right" and made fun of by the "left" but there were very few people with no political motivation to tell the truth and stop any of it. When Palin thought it was good to put a target over districts with Democrats, she was allowed to inflame the hatred. Too many others were allowed to say what they wanted just as they were allowed to make any claim they wanted to while the political ads were taking up most of the air time across the country.

Loughner was allowed to get his hands on a gun legally when even the college he attended thought he was dangerous. The list of what went wrong goes on and now the media and politicians seem to want to stop it? It is all a bit too late to be wondering and asking what part they played in all of this. They may have wanted to increase ratings by feeding the divide but what they did was make it impossible for American citizens to just be Americans. Everything has turned into a political war.

The fact that the troops can be in real wars serving side by side with others with a different political view, willing to die for them, is one of the biggest factors that is missed by everyone. When veterans get together, there may be debates about political views but they are not all so important that they forget what really matters and the brotherhood is firm. The bond they share as veterans matters more than anything else.

We as Americans need to stop allowing all the hatred on both sides. We are not stronger when lies are allowed to live on. We are not united in the common good of this nation when hatred replaces a difference of political opinion.

When you listen to the comments made on both sides now, each side points the finger at the other wanting to blame someone and score some points. The point is, no one won anything but too many lost everything.

Members of congress no longer will feel safe to hold an event in their communities. People going to the political events will not feel safe. Shoppers at the grocery store will not feel safe even though they were not part of the small group meeting the Congresswoman. The families of the people killed including a 9 year old girl will not feel safe and their lives are changed forever. The survivors and their families will not feel safe again. While a political war may seem harmless it destroys everything.

If you know the truth and do not speak up when you hear a lie, you are a liar. This is what many in the media have forgotten so whatever political opinion viewers have, they hear what they want to by the station they watch and this is all they need to know. If you watch FOX cable news, you get support if you are on the "right" and if you are on the "left" you get support from MSNBC. If you are in the middle, you can count on CNN to feed into both sides but they seem to try harder to be fair. What happened to just reporting the news with no opinion or agenda?

What happened to being a member of congress and wanting what is best for the nation instead of what is best for your political side? When politicians say their number one job is to defeat Obama, elected by a majority of the nation, they should have been forced to be too ashamed to admit it but they were cheered no matter what problems this nation had going on that needed to be foremost in their thoughts. When Bush was president there was a war going on from the other side and no matter what he did, he was attacked for it. All of us suffered and will keep suffering as long as this goes on without anyone doing anything about any of it.