Has the shooter been confirmed as a teabagger?

[jmowreader]

The teabaggers are attempting to distance themselves from him because he's not a Christian and liked the Communist Manifesto, but has he been confirmed by the left as a teabagger? (We know he's got teabagger sensibilities--for instance, he calls his community college "unconstitutional" because they send him bills that are payable in money not backed by 'gold or silver coin.' Which of course is a bullshit argument--the clause "states will not coin their own money or accept payment in anything but gold or silver coin" was to prevent the states from using agricultural commodities as de facto currencies, not to mandate the gold standard.)

[bbinacan]

1. No. n/t

[Bluebear]

26. lol

[Canuckistanian]

29. Short and sweet

:rofl:

[Ruby the Liberal]

2. If nothing else, he seems to fit an anarchist profile.

That is one group/ideology I have never figured out.

[Barack_America]

13. More likely on the libertarian side of that wedge...

Given his issues with illegal immigrants. Libertarians believe in a strong national defense and immigration control, anarchists, not so much.

[Ruby the Liberal]

27. Yeah - I can see that based on what we know so far...

The eclectic reading list suggested to me that he is just against anything and everything.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Statistical]

4. Many on DU want him to be. Isn't that enough?

[elocs]

25. True and because of that they also do not want to admit that he could be mentally ill.

I wonder how DU would feel about him had he shot up a Republican gathering and killed people and if they were labeling him a Democrat? I wonder if we would read the claim here that he was clearly mentally ill in that case.

[Texasgal]

5. I honestly don't think that matters.

The teabaggers rhetoric toward our government and government officials is enough for me to put the blame where blame belongs. Words have consequences. Yes they do.

[freshwest]

9. I agree. Notice he didn't randomly pick a teabagger to shoot, did he?

If he was insane, would it matter?

[seabeyond]

12. youa re right. teabaggers went for a theme, not a party. a lot of different people were a part.

he spouted off the stuff that the teabaggers rant about

[jmowreader]

31. That's what really makes me think he is

Someone posted a transcript he put up on line a while back, saying (among other things) that his community college is an unconstitutional institution because, under the provisions of Section 10, clause 1, they are not allowed to accept anything but gold or silver coin in payment of debts. Because they accept what he probably refers to as "fiat currency"--dollars--as payment, they are an unconstitutional institution.

There are a lot of teabaggers who believe this nation should return to a precious-metal currency standard, specifically the "gold standard."

This passage shows the pitfalls of reading the Constitution without context. Notice Section 10 is titled, "Powers Prohibited of States." The States--you know, like Arizona--are neither allowed to produce their own currency, nor are allowed to declare something like Tobacco or Cotton a defacto currency for their states. (Which they WOULD have done had the Constitution not stopped them.) Roll back to Section 8--Powers of Congress, and one can see the Congress is allowed not only to coin money but to regulate its value and to set the value of foreign currencies in relation to the dollar. (This last has become a function of the private sector, though.) Under these provisions of the Constitution, not only is the Congress allowed to coin money but also to declare what money shall be--neatly negating the teabaggers' argument that US Dollars aren't constitutional because they're not gold or silver coin.

[Raine]

16. Yes inspired by Palin and teabaggers and

their hate speech whether he ever attended a meeting or rally no matter. What he saw and heard from them on the airwaves was more than enough.

[Texasgal]

21. Yup.

It's akin to yelling "FIRE " in a crowded theatre.

That's my take anyway. :shrug:

[IDemo]

6. On NBC just now, the FBI says he had interest in "some" RW groups

But didn't specify which ones.

[maritimer]

10. This one (link). And they are on full defense mode.

http://www.amren.com/

[bluestate10]

24. This is the post there that has me wetting my shorts laughing.

23 — Anonymous wrote at 3:42 PM on January 9:
"As a citizen we need to exercise our power. We need to vote. And we need to boycott all products advertised on biased and fear based media on both the right and the left. Those who portray the world as a fearful place are in business ONLY because we pay for it through the purchases of their advertiser’s products.

For example, FOX NEWS reaches 1% of the country. If the rest of us boycotted them and the other’s advertisers they would be out of business.

Would someone start a website to kick this off? I want a list of the advertisers."



That crowd boycott Fox News? Isn't that like asking one of us to cut off a hand?

[emulatorloo]

7. obsessed with gold standard, the constitution, thinks govt is brainwashing us

upset about people in his district who don't know English.

[kpominville]

30. His choice of target says enough

The rest is just gravy.

[onehandle]

8. You don't have to be a Nazi to be inspired by them. nt

[IDemo]

18. That would be a good T-shirt to sell at Teabagger rallies

[LuvNewcastle]

11. From what I've read here, I believe that

Sharon Angle gave him the gun and Sarah Palin drove him down to the Safeway.

[seabeyond]

15. there ya go.... nt

[The Magistrate]

20. And That Ought To Be The 'Take-Away' From This, Sir

Never give your opponents an even break, and above all do not imagine facts determine the narrative.

The right in this country talks murder against its political foes, talks it daily, routinely: when a political figure not of the right is killed, the right is responsible. Period.

[LuvNewcastle]

22. I have been duly chastened, Sir.

[Rex]

32. I doubt you read that here on DU.

Just drives you crazy liberals were right about some crazy RWinger shooting someone over ideology. Deal with it! :eyes:

[bluestate10]

14. There was a report from a news organization earlier today that the FBI

has found connections to right-wing and anti-semitic groups, but not a tea party group.

[DCKit]

17. If he isn't, they're expending an awful lot of time and energy trying to convince the world..

that he isn't what he isn't.

Methinks they dost protest too much. After all, as we learned in first grade, it takes one to know one.

[Barack_America]

19. Teabaggers are generally content to bitch from their armchairs or scooters...

...this guy was likely more extreme right.

The question is less what political group he most identifies with and more who gave him the idea that it's acceptable to assassinate public officials.

[randr]

23. Conspiracy theorist mental case

Yep, a teabagger!

[obama14]

28. No... Seems to be just a mental case.

[Overseas]

33. Hey golly, he's just a fan.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/09/jared-lee-loughner-rightwing-rants

Jared Lee Loughner, the 22-year-old resident of Tucson identified by police as the gunman in Saturday's rampage, left a series of indications revealing the mentally unstable state of his mind and the extreme rightwing causes he supported in the run up to the tragedy.

Just hours before he embarked on the shooting, he posted a message on his MySpace page saying: "Goodbye friends. Dear friends, please don't be mad at me." He also posted a YouTube video of written slides called My Final Thoughts. In it, he wrote: "Jared Loughner is in need of sleep."

In a series of videos, he gave a rambling account of obsessions and paranoias that appeared to be troubling him with increasing intensity up to the catastrophe. They included references to conscious dreaming, or "conscience dreaming" as he called it, a process of directing one's own dreams that he is thought to have practised. Another was a belief in the gold and silver standard of currency – a favourite topic of the rightwing of American politics that is regularly propounded by the Fox News commentator Glenn Beck.