Richard Holbrooke Remembered

President Obama & Clinton & Secretary of State Clinton speak at a memorial service at the Kennedy Center for Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who died last month:

Tucson Shootings -- January 14

Joel Pett, Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader. Thanks to Jeanne B.Adam Nagourney & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "... gun rights advocates and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said Thursday that there was little chance the attack would produce significant new legislation or a change in a national culture that has long been accepting of guns. If anything, they said, lawmakers are less receptive than ever to new gun restrictions." ...

... The Times has a graphics page which contains maps loosely describing the laws of each state regarding carry permits & large-capacity ammo. It includes a good graphic of the Glock 19: "The gun is a semiautomatic weapon, and each pull loads the next round into the firing chamber. It is not difficult to fire more than once per second."

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "First Lady Michelle Obama on Thursday urged parents to hold up the lives of Christina Taylor Green and other victims of the Tucson shooting as examples for their children, and to speak with their children about tolerance in wake of the tragedy." The letter from Mrs. Obama is here.

Laura Meckler & Jonathan Weisman of the Wall Street Journal: "On Thursday, the speech won praise from a vast swath of the political spectrum, including Democrats who have criticized Mr. Obama as insufficiently liberal and possible Republican challengers in 2012, among them former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Some commentators who have spent two years criticizing the president were lavish with their praise. Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer said he 'wouldn't underestimate how this is going to affect the perception of the president.'" ...

... Michael Shear of the New York Times contrasts President Obama's speech with Sarah Palin's "blood libel" video: "Where Ms. Palin was direct and forceful, Mr. Obama was soft and restrained. Where Ms. Palin was accusatory, Mr. Obama appeared to go out of his way to avoid pointing fingers or assigning blame. Where she stressed the importance of fighting for our different beliefs, he emphasized our need for unity, referring to the 'American family — 300 million strong.'” ...

This probably ended Sarah Palin's political career.
-- Joe Scarborough, former Republican Congressman

Marc Lacey, et al., of the New York Times: "Law enforcement officials said Friday they have multiple photos of Jared L. Loughner posing with a Glock 9mm pistol next to his naked buttocks and dressed in a bright red g-string.... The photos were turned over to the police by Walgreens, where Mr. Loughner had taken the 35-mm film to be developed on Jan. 7, the day before the shooting." ...

Sarah Wheaton of the New York Times: "Logs of Jared L. Loughner’s conversations with fellow players in an online game of strategy show a young man who has become frustrated by his inability to find a job, who views his early education as tantamount to slavery, and who has frequent run-ins with his college professors." You can read Loughner's conversations at this Earth Empires site. I'm going to pass.

Andrew Longstreth of Reuters: "... it's increasingly clear that Arizona authorities could legally have detained [Jared Loughner] for psychiatric evaluation and treatment -- and potentially have been able to avert the tragedy.... Arizona has one of the least restrictive laws when it comes to detaining apparently mentally ill people against their will. Under the state's broad involuntary-commitment statute, the government can mandate in-patient treatment for anyone determined to be 'persistently or acutely disabled.' That could include a broad range of seemingly troubled individuals.... In Arizona, virtually anyone who had suspected that Loughner had mental problems and needed help could have filed an application to a state-licensed healthcare agency for a court-ordered evaluation." CW: not the first time I've linked to a story that draws the same conclusion, but it bears repeating.

A Fox "News" reporter at its Tucson affiliate K-GUN (anybody see anything wrong with those call letters?) speaks to Ashley Figueroa, who says she is Jared Loughner's former high school girlfriend. I'm posting this with reservations, because I don't think it has much value:

Oh, no. Another ex-girlfriend. I didn't even listen to this one, but here ya go:

News Stories:

AP: "Security was tight Friday morning as the hearse entered the church parking lot and U.S. marshals checked the IDs of everyone entering the lot. Four big coach buses brought dozens of judges who knew [Chief Judge] Roll over the years. Dignitaries including former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl, and former Vice President Dan Quayle will attend...." More from the Arizona Daily Star.

New York Times: "Five days after she was shot in the head at close range, Representative Gabrielle Giffords is able to keep her eyes open for as long as 15 minutes and can move her legs and hands, although her right hand has only slight movement, doctors at University Medical Center here said on Thursday." ...

     ... Arizona Daily Star Update: "Doctors said Friday morning that U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords continues to make 'confident' progress.... Dr. Peter Rhee said out of the 11 people who arrived at University Medical Center after Saturday's shooting, four remain hospitalized and one, Ron Barber, an aide to Giffords, will be released today."

A Tale of Two Tea Parties

In a column titled "A Tale of Two Moralities," Paul Krugman writes, "Today’s G.O.P. sees much of what the modern federal government does as illegitimate; today’s Democratic Party does not.... What we’re talking about here is a fundamental disagreement about the proper role of government."

My comment is buried again today, so I've reproduced it here:

If you want to eliminate violent and incendiary language, you have to eliminate the modern tea party movement itself, which has as its model a violent act of vandalism, sponsored by the merchant class & carried out by ruffians. The Boston Tea Party -- to one extent or another -- precipitated the American Revolution, which was the ultimate act of civil disobedience.

Any language that attempts to delegitimize the other side would have to go if "civil discourse" is the goal. I don't mean just the birther narrative; I mean language that characterizes the other side or government employees as enemies of the country or of the Constitution. Last week, Rep. Darrell Issa said, "The enemy is the bureaucracy." Who do you think the bureaucracy is? It's people like those Census workers CNN commentator Erik Erikson said he would shoo off his property with "his wife's shotgun" & Rep. Michele Bachmann said she would refuse to answer.

Erikson's reaction to the census, a Constitutional requirement, brings to mind my next taboo. Erikson said of the census, "The servants are becoming the masters. We are working for the government. We are becoming enslaved by the government."

So ditto for language that suggests the "government" or the other side is going to "take away our freedoms" or "enslave us." In the midst of his call for civility (ha!) on ABC's "This Week," former House Majority Leader Dick Armey urged tea party members to "continue to do their duty and defend our liberties." Defend our liberties? Parse that tea party code & what have you got? "Defend" = take up arms; "Our" = "It's US (WE) against THEM; "Liberties" = our natural and/or Constitutional freedoms, of which THEY want to deprive us.

Other euphemisms for acts of violence are just as bad. Sharron Angle's "Second Amendment remedies" comes to mind; she is providing a "Constitutional" rationale for violent acts against the government.

Whichever side of the national debate is correct, the side that believes the government is illegitimate, that it is attempting to "take away our freedoms," that taxation amounts to "tyranny" and that "revolution" may be the only remedy -- cannot tone down the rhetoric & speak with civility. Civility is antithetical to a movement that proposes revolution.