Skip to main content

Vitriol and bile have their consequences

For those living outside America, it has been hard to comprehend the bile, vitriol, sheer nastiness and downright lies peddled by some politicians and many so-called commentators, a la the Glenn Beck types on Fox News, or Rush Limbaugh on radio, directed at Obama and some politicians. Name-calling of Obama, and others, has also in the last years been a characteristic of American politics and the general populaces' attitude to elected leaders.

Now the consequences are in - with the tragic shooting of a Congresswoman. Toxic atmospheres lead to cause and effect. Stand up Sarah Palin for having bulls-eyes on the faces of certain politicians. Why have them there? What can that suggest, especially to the weak-minded, other than violence? And if they weren't designed to engender something bad, why has Palin now removed the images from her web site post the shooting?

The media is already full dissecting the shooting and possible causes. This piece on The Daily Beast provides a background portrait by one person who knows the Congresswoman.

"She talked about how ugly her last campaign was with ads that said, "Her husband won't even vote for her—why should we?" Those spots referred to the fact that Captain Kelly is active duty military assigned to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and as such has a legal address that is not in his wife’s district. Plus, he has children from a former marriage that requires his residency where they are. In recounting the ads, she seemed stung by the unfairness of the attack and its personal nature, considering the supposed reverence of her opponent for the military."

And then there is Keith Olbermann's blunt and very direct message to his fellow Americans - here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Video: Israel demolishing a Bedouin village

From Mondoweiss - Israel's supposed "most moral army in the world", the IDF, engaged in immoral, and according to international law, illegal action.... "Israeli forces have demolished every home in the Bedouin village of Khirbet Taha in the northern West Bank district of Nablus during three separate demolitions since the start of the year. Unlike most Bedouin villages, the residents in Khirbet Taha own their own land. However that land falls in Area C, territory in the occupied West Bank under full Israeli control. The village’s only school was also destroyed, leaving children to study in a dilapidated 100-year-old mosque — the only structure left standing in the village. According the United Nations, Israel has demolished half as many Palestinian buildings in the first few months of 2016, as they had in all of 2015. In February alone, the UN found that more Palestinians homes were destroyed than any other month since 2009, when the organization began its docum...
Post a Comment
Read more

Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives?  In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Palestinian children in irons. UK to investigate

Not for the first time does MPS wonder what sort of country it is when Israel so flagrently allows what can only be described as barbaric and inhuman behaviour to be undertaken by, amongst others, its IDF. No one has seemingly challenged Israel's actions. However, perhaps it's gone a bridge too far - as The Independent reports. The Foreign Office revealed last night that it would be challenging the Israelis over their treatment of Palestinian children after a report by a delegation of senior British lawyers revealed unconscionable practices, such as hooding and the use of leg irons. In the first investigation of its kind, a team of nine senior legal figures examined how Palestinians as young as 12 were treated when arrested. Their shocking report Children in Military Custody details claims that youngsters are dragged from their beds in the middle of the night, have their wrists bound behind their backs, and are blindfolded and made to kneel or lie face down in military vehi...
Post a Comment
Read more