Showing posts with label political-discourse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label political-discourse. Show all posts

Monday, January 17, 2011

37 Tucson Shooting Cartoons

Check out how cartoonists drew their opinions about the Tucson tragedy that occurred only last weekend.


From Denny: The Tucson tragedy is a lot to process. So much violence happened at once. How anyone in the media can say that toxic political discourse for the past 30 years in America had nothing to do with helping to unhinge a mentally unstable young man are foolish to say so. This young man has never known civil political discourse in his life time. Every day conservative radio talk show hosts issue threats "calling for those liberals, those Democrats to die" and "put 'em in the cross hairs, yeah, put a bulls eye target on their faces." At some point these vociferous political profiteers - who are nothing but toxic entertainment - must accept their roles and responsibility here.

The good things that have come out of this tragedy are quite something to behold. Courage was displayed by those under fire. Forgiveness was given to the parents by the wounded. The life of a child was held up to us to raise our sights to do as well with our lives. Politicians held public meetings with their constituents to honor fallen Rep. Giffords still in the hospital, now upgraded from critical condition to serious. The town of Tucson is pulling together to mourn and remember and be one voice of choosing to now argue their politics in a civil manner while disagreeing. A lot of good has come out of all this evil for one reason: Because so very many people chose to rise above this wrong and chose to honor and respect one another.

The President has been criticized by the conservatives for taking advantage of this situation. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I have no qualms about criticizing this White House when they require it but in this situation the critics are wrong. President Obama struck the right tone with his speech and he and the First Lady did right by visiting the wounded in the hospital right before the memorial service. Obama is correct about dealing with toxic political discourse and it's high time the country listen to his plea for America to do better.



Tucson shooting:


Rob Rogers




Rob Rogers






Bill Day




Nick Anderson




Steve Benson




Gary Varvel




Bruce Beattie




Jerry Holbert




Bruce Beattie




Ed Stein




Gary Varvel




Chip Bok




Chip Bok




Nick Anderson




Clay Bennett



When the President and First Lady came to comfort Arizona:


Steve Benson




Sarah Palin who started this violent mess by placing bullseye targets on various Democrat politicians like Giffords. Palin now claims she is the real victim here because of the public outrage and backlash against her. That is some twisted perverted thinking from Palin:


Steve Benson




Mike Luckovich




Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords who survived a shot to the brain while meeting with her constituents in a public parking lot:


Steve Benson




Steve Benson




Jeff Stahler



Republican poisonous rhetoric politics. They refuse to own their lies. It's one thing to press your case vociferously if it's true, quite another if you are pushing lies and propaganda:


Bill Day




Steve Sack




Steve Sack




Lisa Benson




Dan Wasserman




Steve Kelley




Clay Bennett





Lisa Benson




Ed Stein




Robert Ariail



And then there is the media's responsibility not to incite violence of which Fox News in particular is so very fond of doing:


Lisa Benson




(Th)ink




And where is Congress in all this business about violence, rhetoric and gun control issues?


Mike Luckovich




Mike Luckovich




Jeff Stahler





And the thought for the day:


Graffiti


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Thursday, January 13, 2011

News Analysis: Giffords Shooting Flips Paradigm Shift In America

How the politics of violence has become the national conversation. Political cartoons too.




From Denny: With the outrageous heinous shooting this week of Democratic Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, has come some serious soul-searching in America. It's about time and past due for about three decades now - ever since the rise to power of vitriol-rhetoric spewing Republicans.

Father of hate speech Newt Gingrich 

It all began with the rise to power of conservative former GOP Speaker Newt Gingrich when he came from Ohio into Georgia and was elected in a very conservative district in 1978. I remember, while living in Atlanta, his rise to power and commented how this would not bode well for America for decades to come. Hate speech-fear promoters and insincere morality screamers always prove destructive to a nation. And now that famous mathematical exponential curve has reached its peak when it reveals that violent political discourse leads to violent acts of assassination.


Signe Wilkinson




Conservative media, GOP strategists, Tea Party share collective responsibility for violence 

At the moment the Republicans, the Tea Party, all the conservative talk show people like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh. GOP political strategists, conservative media and the Fox News crowd are working hard to run as fast as they can away from their messy collective responsibility. GOP political strategists spew out constant poisonous political rhetoric to stir up the angry emotions of their base so they will go out and vote regularly for Republicans.

Bulls-eyes tagets and guns aimed against liberals

All of them have promoted hate speech and fear of loss as well as promoted violent acts against any Democrats and liberals. As the conservatives see it no one but "their kind" deserves to live in this country or breathe the same air. While we liberals tolerate the conservatives to live and breathe in America it is clear they do not look as tolerantly or as kindly upon "us."

They consider us beneath their feet and subhuman. At some point decent people just have to stand up and yell, "Enough!" Maybe now, after this vile shooting of so many innocent bystanders at the Giffords meeting, America will wake up and finally agree to dial back the garbage rhetoric. Maybe now politicians will fire their idiot strategists and get serious about governing this country properly.

Why our politics are so violent - political vitriol

As is typical of the American mindset, everyone is trying to play "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" for just one reason why this political assassination happened. It's a confluence of reasons. For one thing, the shooter is a 22-year-old man who grew up in an atmosphere of political hate. He does not remember a time when people who voted on opposite sides of the aisle could carry on a civil political discourse. We have an entire generation of young people who have never experienced such decency and mutual respect.

Mental illness causing violence 

Another reason is the shooter is mentally ill. There were many warning signs along the way and no one did anything about it. The college that kicked him out did not pass it along to authorities. Did they contact his parents? Where are his parents and family members in all this? When someone is slowly descending into insanity there are plenty of family, friends and co-workers who are aware something is definitely wrong - yet no one did anything?

How Congress and the President can solve the problem

The American people won't be violent if they have jobs, don't have to worry about home foreclosure so they don't end up homeless, will still be able to retire by age 65 and not worry about getting shot when they go to the polls to vote.

 Reinstate the balanced and fair news controls by the FCC that were abolished back in 1987 by the Republicans who wanted free rein to create today's mess.  Legislate  cable, network TV and radio to conform to a national standard that does not incite the population to commit violent acts.

Wake up, Congress and Mr. President, you have a lot of work to do - on yourselves.


Cartoonist opinions of where the metaphor of literally shooting our politicians becomes a dying  reality:


Ed Stein




Nick Anderson




Chip Bok




Jeff Stahler




Gary Varvel




Signe Wilkinson




Paul Szep




Lisa Benson




Steve Kelley





Steve Benson




Congresswoman Giffords survived a point blank range shot to her head and is still responding well to her doctors:


Steve Benson



How good is our aim at becoming a better society, a better nation?






Has America become a nation of violent fools?












*** THANKS for visiting, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

*** Come by for a visit and check out my other blogs:

*** Check out Holiday Recipes From Dennys Food and Recipes

The Social Poets - news, politics
The Soul Calendar - science, astronomy, psychology
Visual Insights - photos, art, music
Beautiful Illustrated Quotations - spiritual quotes, philosophy
Best Spiritual Posts - my own best as well as links to other spiritual posts from all viewpoints
Poems From A Spiritual Heart - poetry
The Healing Waters - health news
Dennys People Watching - people in the news
Dennys Food and Recipes
Dennys Funny Quotes - humor
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