Regarding the shooter's recently discovered library - Savage, Hannity, & O'Reilly clearly have...

[Divine Discontent]

They 'preach' such hateful and putrid garbage about progressives. If their employers had ANY decency they would fire them for breeding contempt and animosity towards those who have a different view than they do, through the use of false logic, propaganda, and outright lies. This nutbag was clearly influenced by their acrid opinions.



http://www.newshounds.us/2008/07/28/fox_news_hosts_books_read_by_knoxville_church_shooter.php#more

On Sunday, Jim Adkisson entered the Knoxville Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee and opened fire killing two people and injuring seven more who were watching a children's production of Annie. A report from the Knoxville News Sentinel states that when police entered Jim Adkisson's home they found books by Michael Savage, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly.

"Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly."
h/t to CM

The article goes on to explain Adkisson's motivation for the attack which he revealed to Steve Sills, a Knoxville Police Officer.

"Adkisson targeted the church, Still wrote in the document obtained by WBIR-TV, Channel 10, "because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets."



More at --- www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable

[Captain Angry]

1. The only color they, or their owners see is green.

They produce a form of entertainment that can be sold to a particular segment of the population. Some advertisers are willing to pay for access to their eyes and ears.



It will be very interesting to see if any of the people he listened to are willing to make a statement condemning the violence.

[Divine Discontent]

2. excellent point - let's seem them state any violence against another person is not only illegal

but an act of cowardice - esp. when you take a gun into a church trying to slaughter dozens of men, women, and little kids! I believe they'll be repulsive in their comments about this, that it was clearly just a mentally ill man. Bullshit.

The hero, Mr. Greg McKendry, saved so many lives that day. He literally saved a bunch of people & little ones. That could have been me or any of us who have ever attended a church who is welcoming to GLBT people.

[Captain Angry]

6. This could have happened anywhere

If he had acted out against the people really keeping him from finding work, he could have gone into a Wal-Mart, or a bank, etc.

That is why, above all else, the right wing media needs to come out against this hard. They need to see that it could happen anywhere.

[Indenturedebtor]

29. No I really believe that Rush and co are American Facists

Our personal home grown breed of Nazi. If they could get away with it they would have us all rounded up and shot.

[blue sky at night]

3. and to think that bartenders can be held liable..........

for the actions of their patrons, but these filthy assholes make money spewing garbage that inflames weak minded gun nuts to think this way....my question is; will any recourse come of it? ya, fucking right! How do you spell lawsuit?

[Divine Discontent]

4. hi BSAN!

that's an excellent point - civil lawsuit - I hope they all (everyone there) gets involved in one and all the hateful things these 3 have said (esp. Savage) are brought up... these people deserve it for the hell they were put through from that coward...

[blue sky at night]

7. Hey martyred!

is it just me, or has the news taken on an especially nasty bent over the last few weeks???...man, things are getting weird.

[Divine Discontent]

12. yep! you're correct. not sure the reason, but...

as a Christian spiritualist (I guess I'd call myself), both me and my remaining parent have been receiving grave visions about things getting worse, and my how they have been getting worse. My 'radar' that I believe GOD gave me, has been going off the hook the past 2 years. There is a great fear among these bigots of Obama getting in - they literally blame us (as this shooting proves) for their own sufferings, when they're in denial about how their false heroes, Cheney & B*sh, have been screwing them over the past 8 years.

I am as close to a full 9/11 conspiracy believer as you can get - I believe they knew it was going to happen, and let it happen to promote their plan to make themselves filthy rich, and finish the overthrowing of the govt that Grandpa Bush tried to do in the 30's. They used 9/11 as a pretext to wipe away our Constitutional protections, and have been destroying our country from within for years - when you do that, great spiritual upheaval is going to happen... we're witnessing it... my prayers for all my fellow DUers and of course, Barack Obama.

[blue sky at night]

15. right there with you...........

it is the worst thing...well the way they treat veterans is the worst thing these fascists do.

[Divine Discontent]

17. oh yeah - definitely the worst thing!

how ANY military personnel can back them is beyond me, it's like loving to be tortured, as it's clear from their actions (5, 6, 7 tours of duty, Reserves being forced into regular service for a pointless war, bad medical care) that they don't give a crap about the forces that they see as simply collateral damage to pursue their sick PNAC crap...

[DaveJ]

5. They say the U.S. has peaceful changes of government

This proves that idea wrong. Although Republican politicians will never verbally condone these type of actions, killing is their approach toward solving problems. As long as there is a Republican party, we can expect more behavior like this from their followers. We need to make the Republican party obsolete for the sake of this country's future.

[Divine Discontent]

9. these type of events sure give argument to your point

I don't see liberals going out and doing this crap... this goes along with all the other crap they do, from shouting down progressive protestors, striking them, tearing apart or stealing their signs, and of course the killing of those who don't share their views.

So saddening, that the big gentleman that jumped in front of the shooter to block shot from hitting others, his widow was already suffering from congestive heart failure... that sick sadistic killer is a product of the right-wing media's repeated jokes of killing Democrats. Remember that ignorant woman on Faux News saying assassinating (instead of Osama) "Obama", accidentally? And they LAUGH about it!

[bluestateguy]

8. I'll await their apologies

Of course, I'm still awaiting Limbaugh's apology for the "phony soldiers" crack, and making fun of Michael J. Fox's Parkinsons Disease.

[Divine Discontent]

13. I would have trouble not spitting on that creature...

he's the one I detest the most. I'm sure he'll be disappointed to see from what we know, that the nutjob shooter didn't have a Limpball book in his possession... He surely listened to him though, I would think he's like a god to these loons.

[DaveJ]

10. Another thought... I blame the Republican Party, not these Neocons.

Hannity, Savage, O'Reilly, etc., are all a bunch of stupid airheads. The issue is that the Republican Party should have denounced them years ago. These simpletons just do whatever they can to make money, like most people do. If the Republican Party had denounced them immediately for spreading hate, they would have faded into obscurity a long time ago. But they will do anything to stay in power. Any decent group would not allow them to speak on their behalf.

[Divine Discontent]

14. yep, and thus - the GOP is heavily associated WITH them, which is disgusting for a major party. eom

[DaveJ]

18. It's no way for any government to behave

Yeah it is disgusting that any political leaders, even if we didn't vote for them, would support propaganda of hate.

The GOP is doing it right now, just look at GOP.org which has more hatred toward Obama on it than any mention of their own candidate. They've got more pictures of Barack than McCain all over their homepage with the obvious intent of making folks afraid of his skin color.

They will do anything for power, including taking advantage of radio wingnuts who will do anything for money. In my opinion they coerce folks into doing immoral things like spreading hate. These airheads are too dumb to know the consequences of their actions, but the Republican Party knows exactly what they are doing.

It's a very direct and thuggish approach. If they can't make us scared of other ethnicities, they will resort to trying to make us scared of THEM, with these type of murderers on their side. I hope the U.S. realizes how important the next election is, and that this is why we need serious and lasting change.

[Divine Discontent]

25. very well worded points, dj...

thank you for writing them. I agree, they know they can effect their base by pointing out his skin tone, and my oh my are they! I wonder if I should start making "Yep, I'm voting for, dare I say it - a BLACK man!", I'm being facetious I guess, but in the right area it's perfect to slap them in the face for their bigotry that is really rampant with the fear a smart AA brings against their closed-minded upbringings...

We need the change, I think that's what's going to prevail - simply change - because Americans get it, I think, as a majority, that B*sh has done us all very very wrong.

later

[ladjf]

30. Republican political strategy has "morphed" into "Republicanism",

a fanatical cult based on greed, cruelty and a subjective, ego-centric orientation. It is a highly dangerous set of values that has already imposed terrible results for life on Earth.

[old mark]

34. The GOP goes out of its way to encourage and offer

support to these scum - look at Newt and at Robertson, Buchanan -past PRESIDENTIAL candidates -and at Ron Paul, who some are hoping will actually be the Repub candidate instead of McC.
They wanted the support of the extreme right at the expenst of the centerist Repubs, and they have been feeding these monsters since the '80s at least.

Of course they will deny any connection with this sick bastard, when they have groomed this guy to kill for many years.

Yes, it is all about money and power.

mark

[MrSlayer]

11. So, are the RW talk radio guys praising this fool?

Or does that happen tommorrow?

[Divine Discontent]

16. I cannot imagine how they'll react to this beyond calling him a nut, but...

Savage has a desire to be totally removed from the airwaves with the nasty sh*t he says - so expect some near applause out of that loser. Hannity will say the guy is a nutjob and he doesn't condone it, probably the same from O'Lielly... I cannot stomach them to 'keep an eye on them' as some do, but I'm sure we'll be hearing their response in one day...

[alphafemale]

21. The spin o' da day will be. "He's a nut job....but" then on to blame the Libruls again.

You have to know that people are at the end of their rope because of those nasty Libruls.

:sarcasm:

[pinto]

19. It all speaks to the lack of a comprehensive mental healthcare system, imho.

Don't know how or when this guy could have gotten some help before he did what he did. But help surely seemed needed, in hindsight. It's sad.

[DaveJ]

22. Some people will avoid mental healthcare even if it's free

A peaceful and law abiding person who checks himself into a mental hospital would be denied a gun permit, but psychopaths who refuse treatment will still be able to get ahold of guns because they refuse treatment.

Anyway, I've heard Limbaugh talk about how much he hates psychologists. After all if everyone were mentally healthy he'd have no audience.

[pinto]

24. Yeah. My point, his library *probably* didn't make him do it. That's a red herring.

And a made-for-TV type simplicity, imho. It's always odd how TV, and the internet can, at times, distill a thing down to a couple of facts, while missing the big picture. The nature of the medium, I guess.

Life is a lot more than that. There was probably more to this story as well.

[Prophet 451]

27. Well said

I learned this during the Benoit murder/suicide last year. Instantly, everyone screamed "steroids" and then it came out that Benoit was taking steroids but was also seriously mentally ill, extensively brain damaged and his marriage was falling apart.

I suspect it's human nature to gravitate to the simplest possible explanation.

[Divine Discontent]

28. I don't like letting them off as just being 'mentally ill'

I understand, and even alluded to what I believe they each would say (that he was clearly mentally ill), but are you saying, and others, that being Republican is a mental illness? Because we keep seeing close-minded bigots who gravitate to the GOP, as the perpetrators in one of these instances after another - they hate gays, they hate women, they hate free thought, they hate sensibilities and art - they are quite NAZI like... So I guess they're all just mentally ill! Goes along with the mental illness of Larry Craig being 'not gay', and that FL GOP ignoring that little rule about trying to seduce people underage - perhaps this murderous nut was a closet-case, too.

Usually the simplest possible explanation is a huge portion of the truth.

[TexasObserver]

32. Some people see "mental illness" as the cause of such problems ...

... because that's how they see the world. We see what we look for, and anyone who has those "one size fits all" answers does so because they're captive to their own paradigm. They see mental illness because they have come to see "mental illness" in human behaviors most of us consider not mental illness, but simply being a bad person.

"Mental illness" is a catch all, and it's a phrase that means one thing to people who use it a lot, and another thing to everyone else. The majority of Americans think of mental illness as considerably more severe than the level of the minority of Americans, who think of it as the cause of vicious attacks such as the one in Tennessee.

This hate filled killer in Tennessee may be a few bricks short of a load, but he's a very common personality type in America, and the difference between him and the guys who beat up homosexuals or immigrants is slight. That's not mental illness. That's being a criminal. When you regularly engage in violence against others, if you finally kill one of your victims, it's not mental illness, unless you then eat their liver with some fava beans.

[krispos42]

20. I'd like to see more of his library before making that judgement

Although is is probable that he was in fact a right-wing loon hopped on too little cognitive thinking and too much authoritarian personality.


I imagine that a fair number of liberals have copies of right-wing books if for no other reason than "know thy enemy".

[DaveJ]

23. Several articles confirm he's a Right Wing extremist

Like this one: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/28/church.shooting/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail

"Jim Adkisson said liberals should be killed because they're ruining the nation, according to an affidavit."

You can't seriously think a progressive liberal would go on a murder spree?

[pinto]

26. Perhaps he was mentally ill before he was some political something.

You know what I mean?

[TexasObserver]

33. You see what you expect to see.

You have an opinion based upon your life experiences, and those experiences cause you to "see" mental illness as the cause. Those with similar mental frameworks as you will agree with you. Those who have learned to process information differently will find other conclusions.

He will be found competent to stand trial. He will not be found by a jury to have been mentally ill at the time of this crime, and he will be found guilty of pre meditated murder as a volitional act of a sane man. His motives will be examined, and they will be reveal his lifelong hatred of the people he attacked, a hatred shared by the bulk of those people in America who listen to and support Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Michael Savage.

[krispos42]

35. Okay, looks good

I just didn't know if they're in an echo chamber regurgitating what everybody else is saying. On the weekends I'm usually out of touch because I have my kid here and it makes keeping up on current events problematic.

[populistdriven]

37. I'd like to know what his radio stations were set to in his car

[TexasObserver]

40. had to be that station that has Savage, Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck, et al.

there's one in every town

[TexasObserver]

31. The hatemongers are morally, but not legally, responsible.

They ply hatred every day, and it appeals to a certain mindset in America. Most of those who hear it merely get steamed, talk shit about the targets, and hold entrenched prejudices. But make no mistake, some of those people will be violent with vulnerable liberals, gays, or minorities.

The RW hatemongers are the fertilizer in which this hatred grows and flourishes.

Every day in America, there are hundreds of incidents in which some hatemonger engages in some level of violence against the targeted. It might be cutting off the driver with the NARAL bumper sticker and almost running her off the road. It might be beating up the immigrant in the park with his girlfriend. It might be beating up the gay guy in the bar. It rears its ugly head daily, and we only hear about those which end in death to some poor victim. The difference between an incident we never about and one that ends tragically is mainly the outcome, not the heinous nature.

This guy is the leading edge of the hate mongering. He's an example of the worst of it, but his life has been a march to this point for decades.

[Divine Discontent]

38. two great posts for 5am!

I liked your point that this stuff goes on all day, every single day, it just doesn't boil over to murder (when we finally all hear about it) until one of these vicious hate-filled murderers 'gets an idea' to go make the libs pay. His life has been a march to this point is a great comment...

[TexasObserver]

41. Thanks. We know that if we teach people to hate, they will hate.

We know this. We know that if we put thoughts of diversity and caring in our minds, we behave one way. We know if we fill our heads with jingoism, racism, and the like, we will be sour, angry, vengeful people.

This man was grown. He didn't simply go off his beam one day because some STD had eaten half his brain. He didn't have tumor pressing on some key point in his brain. He isn't afflicted with some ailment. He is a man who has hated the same people all his life, and for the past 15 years, he's heard every day on the radio from dawn to dusk hate speeches which joke in an unfunny manner about killing liberals or carting them off to political prisons.

[kwolf68]

36. Very difficult conundrum

On one hand I dont believe Flush, the Savage Weiner, Calamity, et.al are no more to blame for this clown shooting up a church any more than Ozzy Osbourne is for some kid killing himself while listening to his music.

I am for 100%, completely free speech. NO government regs on that.

That said, there is no doubt people can be influenced with words, with images, with symbols; lest Nazi Germany would have never risen and corporations wouldn't spend billions on advertising. So to suggest these right-wing carnival barkers had NO culpubility in this case is probably not accurate. Trouble is, nothing can be done about them, nor should anything be done about them (much as I loathe them).

[1776Forever]

39. How many more people like this will be pushed to the brink of no return by these hate mongers?

And yet they will tell you they are the ones who are patriotic. They and they alone are the ones who love this country. They don't care who they hurt or who they influence to hurt others with their hate message. It is these hypocrites who truly must answer for this and other hate crimes when they spew their filthy hateful message paid for by people like Rupter Murdoch who is an atheist and could care less who his henchmen trounce on for in the end he sees no higher being that will put his life on trial after his death. Perhaps it is prejudiced of me to say that being an atheist makes Murdoch unethical, but in his case I think it does have a lot to do with his actions. I am sure there are moral atheists in the world, but Murdoch is not one of them, for if he was he would stop this hate filled propaganda from being broadcast daily from his networks and papers!