This morning I heard the BBC intone the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords ‘ could not be laid at the door of one lone deranged gunman but as a result of a hostile right wing political discourse’.

Where is this coming from ? Yes it can be laid at the door of one deranged gunman if that is what happened and a Court finds that Loughner is guilty. He may be unfit to plead through insanity.

This is not X factor, this is not the sordid storyline of ‘East Enders’.

I have been waiting all weekend for Libertarianism to be dragged into this, I have been contacted by the media in my capacity of Leader of the UK Libertarian Party, as to whether I thought Loughner was a ‘Right Wing nutter who hated the Government’

A brief explanation that by all accounts Loughner was a ‘Left wing dopehead’ who was into 2012 Mayan prophecy, was pro Obama,Chavez and Castro cut no ice, ‘but he had a gun therefore must right wing’.

I was not sure how this particular connection was made, but I went on to explain that Libertarianism had the axiom of ‘non aggression’ and this certainly included shooting somebody with who you disagreed with. I also explained that Right Wing/Left Wing was a redundant term as far as Libertarians were concerned, because we are not particularly keen on either using big Government to force their views down our throats.

We are this earth for as brief a time ‘as it takes for a bird to fly across a hall and back out into the  of the night’ to paraphrase an Anglo Saxon Chronicler said a thousand years ago, therefore hate is a wasted emotion and we have no right to kill or injure anybody other than in self defence.

‘So you think he was a deranged nutter’- I have no idea. I do not have full possession of the facts, nor was I in Arizona at the time, but if you do want a comment, I think this has far more to do with Loughner wanting his 15 minutes of fame. ‘What do you mean’. I did not bother to explain where this term came from as the excitable young ‘reporter’ was looking for a local angle,drama, excitement etc etc. We both lapsed into a silence. Then she said “I don’t think we can use this”, thought not said I.

As appalling as the shootings were in Arizona, political violence has a long History in the United States, in 1856 at the height of the slavery debates Congressman Preston Brooks crept up behind Congressman Charles Sumner in the near empty Senate chamber and near beat him to death with his walking cane. Sumner fled to England to recover and to stay away from the febrile atmosphere in Washington, when supporters of Brooks sent him canes with notes attached saying ‘hit him again’.

The story that has given me great concern over the weekend is the use of ‘Agent Provocateurs’ by the Met and the Government against the ‘green protesters’ seeking to close down the Radcliffe on Soar power station. There will be a TV report on this tonight, where a Met Policeman ‘Michael Stone’ was in deep cover since 2003 with this group, not only as an inside member gathering human intel, but was actively involved, hiring vehicles, had access to funds etc etc. The case against those charged with the Radcliffe trespass and criminal damage is about to collapse today, when ‘Michael Stone’ who now lives abroad, has resigned from the Police and offered to give evidence on behalf of the defendants. You and I dear reader are going to have to pick up the tab for the defendants costs.

This should be a cause celebre, were it not drowned out by the Arizona shootings and the East Enders baby swap.

Somebody inside the Met and Government authorised this operation, there needs to be a public inquiry into this as the use by the State of Agent Provocateurs as under Common Law this is entrapment. It is also a political act to discredit other organisations.

Which is why I am very careful about media interviews and what I say. Discrediting your political opponents is for the State easier than having to have an open debate. Their use was extensive in the repression brought about by the ‘Six Acts’ after the Napoleonic Wars.

If the case does collapse today, it is another sign along with the expenses scandal that all is not well with our political process.

UPDATE

Nottinghamshire Police have called in the IPCC to investigate the ‘Mark Stone’ affair. Does one detect a spat between the boys in blue in Notts having a spat with the Met operating on their patch without their knowledge ?

Dick the Prick
January 11, 2011 at 02:26

Not sure about the Met thing, seems reasonable enough. I am so glad we
don’t have guns but apparently Sweden has more guns per capita and their
murder rate isn’t mental. It’s odd that this loon targeted such a none entity
politician and 22 years old or something; the kid knows nowt.

This is brilliant:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/10/mark-kennedy-undercover-policeman-activist

Apparently he wrecked lives but as far as I can make out he hired vand and
bought pints – the weasel!

Mik Robertson
January 11, 2011 at 01:02

It is clear that the political implications of this very sad incident have
been horribly distorted and blown all out of proportion. What this highlights
is the depth to which political discourse has sunk in the United States.

Naomi Klein touched on it a bit in her book “Disaster Capitalism”, showing
how changes were implemented in times of catastrophic change, either through a
physical disaster like a hurricane or economic upheaval. She seems to confuse
corporate capitalism with free markets, however.

Saul Alinski may have exhorted people to never let a crisis go to waste,
but this has gone one step further. If there is no crisis, create one. Then
blame it on your political enemies. It has gotten to the point in the US where
no significant initiatives will move unless there is an atmosphere of crisis.
So much effort has been put into vilifying the political opposition that civil
political discourse and debate may soon no longer be possible.

The aftermath of the recent tragedy is but a symptom of a disease that
threatens to destroy civil political discourse in the United States. Once that
is gone, war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is bliss.

Caedmon’s
Cat January 10, 2011 at 20:20

Oh dear me – it looks as if the statist control-freaks are scraping the
bottommost of the bottom of the barrel to apportion blame to a large section
of people whose views they don’t like. But then, facts are usually very
uncomfortable things for fantasists, aren’t they? Like the unpalatable fact
that Sarah Palin and her cronies didn’t actually pull the trigger and kill
those people and seriously injure the congresswoman. And they didn’t even give
the orders for the feckless young inadequate to pull the trigger. It would be
tempting to say that this disgraceful politicising of such a tragedy
demonstrates that the left have lost the argument – but that would be wrong.
They didn’t have one to begin with..

Ian R Thorpe January 10, 2011 at 20:07

A conspiracy theory already doing the rounds sugges5ts the intended victim
was not Congresswoman Giffords but the Judge in her party who was killed by
the gunman. Apparently he was about to rule that one of Obie’s beloved
executive orders (i.e. no debate, no vote) was unconstitutional.

Which proves nothing but shows how FUBAR the good ol’ US of A is.

electro-kevin
January 10, 2011 at 19:50

I wonder if the officer is planning to refund the Met his wages for the
past ten years. Seems he’s gone native – if not a bit prima donna on us.

John Levett January 10, 2011 at 17:38

Lest we forget, six people DIED at the hands of this maniac – including a
child – and yet, they seem to have been forgotten while the politicians and
their supporting chorus in the mainstream media spin their masturbatory,
centre-of-the-universe fantasies over one of their own who, though seriously
injured, is expected to live.

Politicians have brought this on themselves: they’ve spent too long lining
the nests of themselves and their corporate chums while pissing all over those
they are meant to represent. They tax us to death, they spy on our every move,
they nanny us, they feed us fake science and statistics, they sacrifice our
jobs to globalisation, they bully us, they lie to us; but when an incident
like this occurs their focus changes and we little people disappear from their
view.

Instead of worrying about political intrigues, is it too much to hope that
some politicians begin to take responsibility for the social decay over which
they are presiding as well as the suffering visited on the families of the
dead?

Span
Ows January 10, 2011 at 16:00

The way the BBC have been running the Palin connection (when there so
clearly is none whatsoever) on all their phone-ins talk-shows etc begs the
question “What are they trying to hide”?

Pericles January 10, 2011 at 11:06

The matter of the actions of this gunman and that of the declining quality
of political debate are separate.

I too suspect that the accused will be found unfit to plead.  Assuming
he turn out to be nothing more than a box of loose screws, his being
influenced by the ill advised rhetoric &c. of Mrs. Palin and those that
identify themselves as her allies is unrelated.

One might ask oneself however why the vehemence of tax-payers — those that
fund the activities of the state as against those that merely demand them —
has risen to such a pitch.  To this I propose the following
answer :  the socialist body politic — and it must be apparent to
all but the most stupid that every one of to-day’s ‘democratic’ governments is
socialist, however soi-disant — cannot be persuaded from a course
leading inevitably to economic self-destruction by reasoned
argument ;  cannot, for example, be persuaded to follow
real science in the matter of the anthropogenic-global-warming
fraud ;  cannot be dragged from the trough of political
self-interest even by widespread exposure.

It is frustration that has led to the ‘vitriolic rhetoric’ :  a
belief that civilized debate in a normal tone of voice will no longer bring
about policy crafted in the interest of countries and their peoples.

It is extremely sad that a particularly good congresswoman be victim of the
fall-out from this ;  and to be hoped — if for no other reason, then
for the sake her husband and children — that she make a full recovery.  I
enjoin those of you with belief in the power of your prayers to include her in
them.

ΠΞ

Smoking
Hot January 10, 2011 at 10:59

Much the same in USA where the FBI foils it’s own terror plots.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/11/28/fbi/index.html

taken from Schneirer
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/11/

2Mac January 10, 2011 at 10:45

How does the left wing media manage to blame Palin for targeting a state
with a target graphic over the entire area with the shooting of a congress
women by a left wing nutter who is noted for his love of the communist
manifesto.

I am no consiracy theorist but Obama and co. and many Republicans must be
shitting a brick at the success of the Tea Party in the USA. Political types
do not want REAL PEOPLE involved in the political scene.

Is this a False Flag operation? Is this a case of someone pushing an
unstable guy over the edge to pull the trigger.

Back in April 2010 a conspiracy theorist website stated

“Popular talk show host Michael Savage has warned that the
“illegitimate”
Obama regime is planning to use agent provocateurs to stage
violence or
acts of terror in order to frame Tea Party members as violent
extremists and crush free speech in America.”

Who knows but the shooter was not a Right Wing nutter he was firmly on the
Left. The attempts to link him to the Right, White Supremicists, Tea Party,
Paline, etc. Are just the wet dreams of the Left wing media.