WND was first to report that Caitie Parker, who went to high school, college and was in a band with the gunman, labeled Loughner as "quite liberal" and "more left" on her Twitter account.
It was that Twitter posting that first prompted ABC News' Jack Tapper to send out a Twitter message of his own, asking publicly how he can get in touch with Parker.
ABC News online today quoted a "high school classmate" of Loughner's, apparently Parker, as saying "he was extremely political in high school, but not radical."
The ABC News online article does not state which kind of politics Loughner ascribes to.
In her Twitter postings, Parker wrote of Loughner: "As I knew him he was left wing, quite liberal and oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy."
She also described him as "more left."
As noted by Newsbusters, Parker was interviewed Sunday on ABC's "This Week," yet the network did not even ask Parker about Loughner's political leanings.
Meanwhile, scores of news outlets are implying former Governor Sarah Palin may have helped to create an environment that contributed to the shooting.
An Associated Press article, for example, notes that Palin's Facebook page had posted a U.S. map with the crosshairs of a gun scope imposed over Giffords' district as a "targeted" seat in the 2010 mid-term elections.
The article then quotes Giffords as saying, "The way that [Palin] has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they've got to realize there are consequences to that action."
In an MSNBC column, Keith Olbermann took it further: "If Sarah Palin, whose website put and today scrubbed bull's-eye targets on 20 Representatives including Gabby Giffords, does not repudiate her own part in amplifying violence and violent imagery in politics, she must be dismissed from politics."
Olbermann also criticized Giffords' former political opponent Jesse Kelly, Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., former Senate candidate Sharon Angle and talk hosts Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly for supposedly encouraging violence.
Olbermann's blame did not, however, extend to the men actually listed by Loughner as among his favorite authors, Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler.
Read more at WND
17 comments:
We have to look no further than these media outlets, including this blog, to see what is wrong with this country. At a time where someone decided that it was ok to attack and kill innocent civilians as well as a freely democratically elected official, both sides want to use the incident to score political points instead of standing up together to nip this crap right now before it becomes widespread. THis was a terrorists attack against Americans, plain and simple. Who cares what party this guy supported. Whether it is a Tea Party or the Dem national convention, I don't want to see anyone be shot for speaking their views.
Facts are crazy people are crazy. The crazy killers, kill those that they are are currently phocused/obsessed with. Politics was just the excuse of the day. Tomorrow it would have been something else. Case in point, killers of children are NOT sane.
What idiot keeps promoting Adolph Hitler as a "leftist"?
Hitler fought AGAINST the Soviets.
Both are totalitarian regimes, but Hitler's was Fascist (far right) and Stalin's was Communist (far left).
Both were extremists and were examples of what Loughner professed to be fighting against, while both were "among his favorite authors."
In the wake of this terrible tragedy, this distorted sick debate is just more of what's wrong with our country.
Thank you , 9:54!
Does it really matter what his political status was? The man was obviously insane, and that's all there is to it!
I love how right wing wackos are trying to distance themselves from this guy. he was a member of the American Resistance Movement- a radical militia hate group who's members have actually posted on here more than once.
BOO to Palin and the other fear mongers who incite those weaker then them to commit acts like these.
exactly- being a member of the ARM forums like this guy was and members of this very blog currently are means you are about as right-wing as McCarthy.
I think we should all boycott the ARM. CLEARLY it serves to radicalize the weaker members of out country.
"..a member of the American Resistance Movement.."
Prove it, 10:27.
Says who?
10:27 Read ALL of the media accounts....this guy was NOT a right winger...he was a NUT!!! Crazy people do crazy things!
Anon 10:18, thank you for pointing that out. It drives me crazy when people lump fascists, communists and socialists all together as if they are interchangeable and all the same. All it does when they lump them together is tell me the author doesn't know what he/she is talking about.
10:18
You got your facts wrong slick!
Hitler was a Nazi. Nazi is an acronym for National Socialist Party
Hitler was very far left!
10:18 Your facts are wrong Hitler was a leftist socialist you have to look at which party in our own politics aligns more with government control. The brown shirts that preceded the SS were a homosexual extremist group...again leftist.
Hitler rose to power through the Nazi party, but I would not suggest that any of his ideas or actions while serving as chancellor align with the socialist party
12:02 and 12:30, you are both wrong. The name of the party that Hitler and the Nazis took over is different from their political platform. Originally the party was the German Worker's Party (DAP) The original members wanted to add Socialist to their name but did not because their middle-class, Nationalist supporters (right leaning) would object, being as Socialism (left leaning) was the step before Communism and people after 1917 were freaked out about Communists taking over countries in Europe. The DAP was pro-nationalism (the interests of the State are greater than the interests of the individual, also a characteristic of fascist governments and the far right). They were against the Social Democratic Party of Germany (the real Socialists, left leaning) and the Communist Party of Germany, left leaning. Leftists governments put the interests (in theory) of the individual ahead of the interests of the State. So when Hitler and his like-minded followers joined the DAP, they would eventually change the name and the structure of the DAP. They would add "Socialist" to their name only to gain supporters from the Socialist party, however, the Nazi party was anti-Semitic (against Jews), anti-capitalist (a leftist economic structure), anti-democratic (a leftist structure where individuals participate in the operation of their government), anti-Marxist (left-leaning Communists), and anti-liberal (also left leaning). Their goal was to say whatever and do whatever to garner enough support to take over Germany, so even though they put Socialist (left leaning) in their name, they believed and acted in the exact opposite way, they were fascist, right leaning.
Wow. Once and for all, Hitler and the Nazis were far right wing. That is why they attacked the leftists in Russia and in Germany and elsewhere. There is no disputing that, so move on. Seriously, it is ridiculous that anyone does not comprehend this basic fact of history.
10:27 how can anything one says incite a sane person to do something like this. I get frustrated and p/0ff at the govt as well but I would never think of doing somethn like this degenerite did. He is a sick sadistic waste of human life and I really do not want him breathing the same air I do. The thing is any one can say as they wish but it takes a weak minded person to act out like this maniac did. He deserves the chair and that is actually to humane for him!!! There are other ways to go about expressing your feelings and I dont think any sane person would lash out like he did. No one can ever say anything to incite me to act like that. Palin or any other political person did not make him do this, his weak stupid mind made him do it.
Not alleged... He's the shooter! Were he not, he wouldn't have been arrested. He's NOT innocent until proved guilty. He's by God GUILTY. Call a spade a spade...at least until some idiot defense lawyer gets him off because "he's been abused" or some other BS reason.
I'm really getting sick of blaming this on Palin's crosshairs!
Idiots! the man is a NUT!
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