Confusion at Daily Kos today in the swirling aftermath of the Giffords shooting – the right-wing commenters at Palin’s Facebook page, on Twitter, and on many, many blogs have pounced on the curious case of a Daily Kos diary that criticized Rep Giffords was deleted earlier today. They were quick to howl that the diarist, a low-level member named BlueBoy whose diary didn’t get very many comments or “recs,” must be the same person as Jared Lee Loughner, the accused shooter.
Well, it appears he’s not, as he’s been posting in comments threads on Daily Kos tonight. He took the diary down out of respect for the Giffords family, but also because… it’s his diary and he has the right to delete it. It would have been better if he’d UPDATED it with an apology and an explanation, as this way, the moderators and indeed @Markos himself had no way to know who deleted it, or why.
No such respect from La Palin; she’s posted a rather stilted “hold her in our prayers” post on Facebook but made no apology for the now-infamous graphic showing crosshairs over Gifford’s district that was also taken down today. It’s likely it was removed out of respect, but more likely, it was removed because it had become an embarassing liability. In related news today, FOXNews covered a vigil for Giffords on the state capitol steps in Phoenix, but cut away suddenly when the young man on camera said “And I say to you, Sarah Palin…”
Yes, they cut away, the cowards, to that creepy scary clown commercial from the US Postal Service.
I checked in with friends online, where we sat around a virtual campfire and sang Kum-Bah-Yah… okay, yes, we did, but it was a punk version and then there was a lot of other great music while people talked quietly about the events of the day. It was a lot less accusatory than you might think; the general agreement there and at Daily Kos was that we needed to get away from constantly assigning a right/left stance to every crazy person that flips out and shoots someone. We were just decompressing from the day’s events and trying to relax together with music.
Sometimes a nut is just a nut — but it’s likely to be a right-wing nut most of the time (at least since the 70’s).
Daily Kos is a very active, very big group blog/diary site, and it’s characterized by a system of “tipping” and “reccing” to get posts (known as diaries) promoted to the front page so that they remain visible longer rather than scrolling off with every refresh. This Boy Blue’s post, in which he declared Rep. Giffords was “dead to me” was deleted, but not before screenshots made their way onto every social media site where conservatives gather on the Internet.
Twitter exploded earlier; not long after the shooter was identified, someone claiming to be a former high school classmate of his insisted that he was gay, “left-wing, quite liberal,” you name it. Meanwhile, the kid’s own reading list is kind of a mixed bag – but two of his favorite authors are Hitler and Ayn Rand, along with Karl Marx and some other more conventional “AP Senior English” reading list writers.
The fans of Sarah Palin on Facebook are flagging critics as fast as they post, and also making the same claims that the shooter, Loughlin, is the “radical leftist,” Boy Blue. So’s the UK’s Daily Telegraph, calling it an “unseemly rush” to blame Palin and the Tea Party.
Everybody’s making false equivalencies while simultaneously removing pages and graphics that either implicate their “side,” or would hurt the Giffords family by remaining visible, or both. Meanwhile, the right-wing partisan hordes are screaming: “They’re both from Arizona! They’re both gay! They either shot Giffords, or said she was “dead to me.” They must be the same guy! The shooter can’t be a good real American conservative, he MUST THEREFORE be a BAD UNREAL unAmerican LIBERAL.”
Well, no, not if this “Blue Boy” you identify as “Jared Lee Loughner” is actively posting at Daily Kos tonight while the shooter is most definitely in custody – unless you want to holler “Conspiracy!” and wank-merrily-ho to your heart’s content.
A later diarist at dKos posted quickly, before all the facts started to sort themselves out, and updated as below after being given better info (some from Blue Boy himself) in the comments. It was pointed out that the diary wasn’t all that popular, got very little attention when it was posted, and even that the cliche “dead to me” is kind of how you say you’re going to ignore someone forever, rather than threaten them with murder.
UPDATED Thanks to all for their information about what really happened. It seems that a diary was posted in the past week by someone who was upset at Rep. Giffords for voting for Rep. Lewis for Speaker of the House. The person entitled their diary: My Congresswoman voted against Nancy Pelosi! And is Now Dead to Me! The diary contained no threats of violence, no gun sites, no Sarah Palin-like ‘reload’ language. Other than the title, the harshest remarks were something to the effect of no longer being a volunteer for Rep. Giffords. Hardly the stuff of rousing vitriol. When Rep. Giffords was shot today, the diarist out of respect for Rep. Giffords and after apologizing for causing any distress, deleted the diary of his/her own free will. There is no equivalency between what the diarist wrote in the title and what Sarah Palin posted on her web page or wrote in her twitter remarks about reloading. There is no equivalence between what the diarist wrote and what so many extreme right wing politicians, TV commentators or radio hosts say each and every day. Bai’s brand of journalism is dishonest and shoddy. Shame on him.
via Daily Kos: UPDATED! NYT’s Matt Bai accuse Dkos of scrubbing comment about Rep. Giffords..
“The diary wasn’t all that popularâ€
At the time no, however 2 days after the “dead to me post†the subject of the “dead to me post†is shot in a murder attempt the “dead to me post†must be looked at a little more closely.
You also have to note the guy who wrote the “dead to me post†also stated that he attempted suicide when his spouse left him by trying to blow his head off with a gun.
Attempted suicide is a little extreme ya think?
And that makes the “dead to me†cliché not so cliché, ya think?
Did BlueBoy’s post 2 days before the shooting inspired this Jared Lee Loughner nut to go off?
What would set this Jared Lee Loughner nut off?
A vague map with “bulls eye†on it, specifically targeting Giffords “by name†with a “bulls eye�
Opps sorry, that’s the wrong map. That map I just described is from the Kos himself
A vague map with “Cross-hairs†on it NOT specifically targeting anyone. A map that is 9 months old?
BTW be it “Cross-hairs†or “bulls eye†on a political map is so cliché, ya think?
“unless you want to holler “Conspiracy!†and wank-merrily-ho to your heart’s content.â€
Oh, the cops ARE looking for a 2nd suspect in this shooting, a white male who is about 50 years old.
How old is BlueBoy?
“Hardly the stuff of rousing vitriol.â€
Excuse me but this BlueBoy is seriously pissed at Giffords.
From BlueBoy
Today, just a little while ago, I saw on Andrea Mitchell Reports (out of the one eye in can still see out of) that Giffords voted AGAINST Nancy Pelosi as our Minority Leader.
Rhetorical question: Â I fought back from my condition and jumped in with both feet to help Gabrielle Giffords for THIS shit???
Considering this was written by a guy who attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head, what vitriol is needed?
He has a lot of motivation to kill Giffords.
“There is no equivalency between what the diarist wrote in the title and what Sarah Palin posted on her web page or wrote in her twitter remarks about reloading.â€
I agree.
There is no equivalency between Palin’s “remarks about reloading†from march 2010 that named no one specifically and BlueBoy’s “dead to me post†that is specifically targeted at Representative Giffords 2 day’s ago expressing his anger that Giffords basically rejected him, just like his spouse did, causing him to put a gun to his own head and pulled the trigger!
I agree, there is no equivalency between the 2.
The “vague map” is the graphic from Palin’s “take back the twenty” with a “Sarah Palin” signature in the lower right-hand corner. The red crosshairs show the districts of Democrats who announced they were retiring. Gifford is listed, and knew she was targeted for defeat in the election. Palin supporters came up with their own takes after being inspired by the SarahPac.com/Take Back the Twenty/Facebook pages to take the metaphor further, like the Target ID: Gabrielle Giffords page I screenshotted yesterday.
Although the graphic was taken down yesterday from the “twenty” website, her “note” with the same copy is still up at Facebook, with the graphic and live comments defending her freedom of expression, and so on.
The fact remains that if Sarah Palin had stuck to sports metephors instead of switching to gun, hunting, and war motifs in her political statements, none of this criticism would be coming down on her. Same goes for Bachmann, Beck, Limbaugh, O’Reilly, and all the other lower-tier pundits on the Right.
The entire right wing commentator/commented community needs to own up to the fact that violent words and images often beget violent deeds, especially when mentally ill people can legally access guns and carry them in concealment without a background check, as was the case in Arizona.
In the end, it may not matter what political views this kid has; his disordered rants point to a kind of libertarian atheism with his references to gold and silver based currency, but rejection of religion. Not all conservatives are religious, a source of much tension between fiscal and social conservatives.
He was yet another nut with a gun, exercising his Second Amendment rights. Do we really need to defend HIS right to bear arms?
[Quote]: Same goes for Bachmann, Beck, Limbaugh, O’Reilly, and all the other lower-tier pundits on the Right. [Quote]
As the Harry Potter character, Hermoine Granger, said to your brother, Ron Weasley, “And, you are?”
Oh, I would be a no-tier blogger on the reality-based Left. Most of my readers are spambots and my sister.
I still think the Right should drop the war metaphors and accusations of treason when attacking liberals, though they probably won’t sell as many books. Scroll down to the bottom of this Orcinus post for a list of book titles, if you can get past the vitriol Weinert documents to see what I’m getting at.