Wednesday punditry. Snow, anyone? I'm looking at 1.5 - 2 feet today. I wonder if Bloomberg and Christie are out shoveling their driveways?
Kevin Baker:
Major public figures aside, though, many others have borne the cost of thuggish prattle about resorting to arms. Dozens of civil rights workers were murdered in the 1960s as a direct result of hate speech. Since 1995, we’ve witnessed the mass slaughter at Oklahoma City, along with the killings of abortion providers, police officers and others at the hands of those who were just doing what the voices on the radio — not in their heads — told them to do. Isn’t that enough?
Robert Wright:
People on the left and right have been wrestling over the legacy of Jared Loughner, arguing about whether his shooting spree proves that the Sarah Palins and Glenn Becks of the world are fomenting violence. But it’s not as if this is the only data point we have. Here’s another one:
Six months ago, police in California pulled over a truck that turned out to contain a rifle, a handgun, a shotgun and body armor. Police learned from the driver — sometime after he opened fire on them — that he was heading for San Francisco, where he planned to kill people at the Tides Foundation. You’ve probably never heard of the Tides Foundation — unless you watch Glenn Beck, who had mentioned it more than two dozen times in the preceding six months, depicting it as part of a communist plot to "infiltrate" our society and seize control of big business.
Ruth Marcus:
"High Capacity Magazines . . . When ten rounds isn't enough," the Internet site offers.
When, exactly, would that be? Enough for what?
George Will was covered yesterday on APR, and Greg Sargent responds:
In other words, Dean explicitly didn't call Tea Partyers racist. Rather, he was arguing that demographic change and economic uncertainty are among the factors creating the unease in Tea Party ranks. That's a blunt point, to be sure, but even those who strongly disagree with it would have to agree -- if they're being intellectually honest -- that Will's depiction of it has no basis in reality. I'd say Will's casual misrepresentation of Dean's words does far more to lower the "tone of public discourse" than anything Dean said.
Jacob Weisberg:
At the core of the far right's culpability is its ongoing attack on the legitimacy of U.S. government—a venomous campaign not so different from the backdrop to the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Then it was focused on "government bureaucrats" and the ATF. This time it has been more about Obama's birth certificate and health care reform. In either case, it expresses the dangerous idea that the federal government lacks valid authority. It is this, rather than violent rhetoric per se, that is the most dangerous aspect of right-wing extremism.
NY Times on Jan Brewer:
She is eagerly trying to defend a state whose reputation has been battered in recent years, particularly since the massacre here on Saturday.
But fairly or not, Arizona’s image has been forged in part because of Ms. Brewer herself, who has been identified with the tough law aimed at illegal immigrants, budget cuts that include denying aid to people who need life-saving transplants and laws permitting people to take concealed guns into bars and banning the teaching of ethnic studies in public schools...
More of an obstacle might be some of the incendiary remarks she has made as governor, such as claiming, without foundation, that headless bodies had been found in the desert. She made that statement in signing the bill that gave the police wide authority to demand proof of citizenship from people suspected of being illegal immigrants.
"She really did get caught up in a lot of this rhetoric that we are now concerned about as it relates to Gabby," said Bruce Merrill, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University.
Those are things we talk about here at Daily Kos And yes, that's mainstream stuff.
Gallup:
Republicans' approval of Congress is up since December, and the 22% currently approving is the highest in nearly two years. Approval also improved among Democrats, from 16% to 24%. Still, Democrats' approval remains significantly lower than what it was for most of 2010, clearly reflecting those partisans' diminished approval now that Republicans have majority control of the 112th Congress. Independents' approval today is similar to December and to their ratings all of last year.
And in Brisbane, Australia, not snow, floods:
Authorities said they could not predict how high the water would rise in Brisbane but the peak, expected midafternoon Thursday, would surpass all records.
Meanwhile, in the town of Toowoomba, where a flash flood surged through the central shopping strip Monday, the official death toll rose to 14, with unofficial reports putting the number as high as 30. Ninety people remained missing in the community, less than 100 miles from Brisbane.
In Toowoomba on Monday, nearly 6 inches of rain fell in 30 minutes on already saturated land, causing the Lockyer Creek to overflow its banks.