thisgingersnapsback:

In the wake of tragic gun violence, most politicians realize the decent, responsible thing to do is send sympathies to those affected while leaving politics out of it. Others aren’t as sensible.

After the Columbine massacre, for example, then-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) blamed science textbooks for the murders: “Our school systems teach the children that they are nothing but glorified apes who are evolutionized [sic] out of some primordial soup.”

In 2007, after the Virginia Tech massacre, Newt Gingrich blamed liberals for supporting “situation ethics,” adding, “Yes, I think the fact is, if you look at the amount of violence we have in games that young people play at 7, 8, 10, 12, 15 years of age, if you look at the dehumanization, if you look at the fact that we refuse to say that we are, in fact, endowed by our creator, that our rights come from God, that if you kill somebody, you’re committing an act of evil.” Gingrich, explaining the VT tragedy, went on to condemn Halloween costumes and the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law.

And this morning, after the slayings in Aurora, Louie Gohmert weighed in with some stupidity of his own.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said Friday that the shootings that took place in an Aurora, Colo. movie theater hours earlier were a result of “ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs” and questioned why nobody else in the theater had a gun to take down the shooter.

During a radio interview on The Heritage Foundation’s “Istook Live!” show, Gohmert was asked why he believes such senseless acts of violence take place. Gohmert responded by talking about the weakening of Christian values in the country.

“Some of us happen to believe that when our founders talked about guarding our virtue and freedom, that that was important,” he said. “Whether it’s John Adams saying our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people … Ben Franklin, only a virtuous people are capable of freedom, as nations become corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters. We have been at war with the very pillars, the very foundation of this country.”

“You know what really gets me, as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and then some senseless crazy act of a derelict takes place.”

I see. So, in the mind of this strange Republican congressman, a madman killed 12 people because of … the separation of church and State? The First Amendment is to blame for a shooting spree in a movie theater?

If decency had any place in American politics, this would be an immediate career-ender for the ridiculous congressman from Texas. Some political missteps are simply unforgivable.

Update: Gohmert also wondered aloud why no one else in the theater was armed, complaining that the victims should have shot back.

[x]

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sageoflogic:

Rachel Maddow lit into controversial fact-checking outfit PolitiFact with notable fury on her Wednesday show, hammering the organization for a series of statements it made about President Obama’s State of the Union address.

During the speech, Obama said: “In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than three million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005.”

PolitiFact found both statements to be true. But, itinitially said, “he went too far when he implicitly credited his administration policies. So we rate the statement Half True.”

Maddow has tussled with PolitiFact over her own statements before, and the group attracted atorrent of criticism from progressives when it dubbed Democratic talking points about Republican plans for Medicare as its “Lie of the Year” for 2011. But she did not address either of those things on Wednesday. Instead, she looked agog at PolitiFact’s latest choice.

“PolitiFact, what is wrong with you?!” she cried. “You think the president calls himself ‘Businesses’ like it’s a nickname for himself? … what are you talking about?”

As she noted, PolitiFact later changed its rating of the statement after an outcry of, as she put it, “half of the English-speaking Internet.” PolitiFact’s new rating, though, failed to mollify the MSNBC host, since the group revised its assessment to just “Mostly True.”

This prompted what is surely the most impassioned rant heard on “The Rachel Maddow Show” for some time:

“PolitiFact, you are fired. You are a mess! You are fired! You are undermining the definition of the word fact in the English language by pretending to it in your name. The English language wants its word back. You are an embarrassment. You sully the reputation of anyone who cites you as an authority on fact-ishness, let alone fact. You are fired.”

Sage’s addition: She also mentioned another statement about oil dependency being down 50% being rated as “half-true”…when Politi-fact’s CITED SOURCE says EXACTLY THAT!