Comment

Comment by Jim Dees on January 21, 2011 at 7:51am

Hanging in there with the left media, still blamming the Republicans and Palin by saying,  "I call on my Republican friends".  How about calling on his Democratic friends??  Apparently, all the rehetoric from the Democrats is acceptable and NOT offensive!  He is SO out of touch, not realizing the blame game is from the LEFT!

Comment by Joel Killion on January 21, 2011 at 12:12am

Here's another response from another Wilsonian who is disappointed with the hypocrisy on the Left regarding these allegations against Palin, Beck, Fox, the Tea Party, regarding this apparent tone of hate, violence, anger, etc. that "caused" the Tucson shooting, which has Butterfield so concerned that he has to increase his security against us Tea Partiers.

 

Cartoon wasn't civil discourse

 

Your staff apparently did not listen to President Obama's Tucson Memorial speech the evening of Jan 12. They may have watched, but I question effective listening.

The political cartoon, depicting Sarah Palin and a representation of the GOP while somewhat correct is a glaring example the unbalanced views your paper presents to the Wilson County audience. Additionally, since there is no direct evidence that Jared Lee Loughner even listened to cable news, the gun and spent casings at the foot of the GOP is highly disingenuous.

Where is the cartoon of Barack Obama saying you bring a knife, we will bring a gun? Where is the left wing columnist's quote regarding Rep. Gifford's health care vote "... She is dead to me...?" Where is the 2004 Democratic strategy map showing bull's eyes on Republican districts stating they are behind "enemy lines." Where is the Obama quote regarding the Dream Act legislation where he jaw-boned for support saying if you are not with us on this in defeating our enemies you have no reason to complain.

Civil discourse begins in the home and then outward through our daily interactions with others in our families, neighborhoods, schools, work places and broader society. Your publishing of such material without providing balance is shameful.

Please notice that I am not yelling (using upper case letters) or using terms to insult the dignity of others - this is civil discourse.

Please apply this principle to your content.

Eugene Hoover, Wilson

Comment by Joel Killion on January 21, 2011 at 12:05am

Here is a Column in the WDT by Edward Styles (A local Wilson resident) regarding the violent, hateful, threatening tone that Butterfield is so scared of from the Right:

 

Don't give into the climate of hate

 

When a Muslim at Fort Hood killed 13 persons and wounded 30 others, we were told that above all else, we must not to rush to judgment.

But when a mentally disturbed registered Independent in Tucson killed six persons and wounded 13 others for no discernible reason, blame is heaped on Sarah Palin and the Republican Party, as in Thursday's Wilson Times cartoon.

Rushing to judgment the day after the shooting, the Nobel laureate Paul Krugman under the headline "Climate of Hate" placed the blame entirely on those who disagree with him. We hear a lot about that so-called climate of hate. Even the local Arizona sheriff, a Democrat, referred to it as a factor in the atrocity even though defense attorneys can use that statement to plead for exoneration of the killer.

Why is there no mention of a climate of hate when it's the Democrats who are doing the hating and a Republican politician is shot? When President Reagan and others were shot by a disturbed young man, there was no mention of the vast climate of hate surrounding him. Nor was there any such speculation when the highly disturbed Squeaky Fromme tried to kill President Gerald Ford.

Somehow Republican-generated climate of hate is said to be a factor even when the shooter is at the opposite extreme of the political spectrum. Lee Harvey Oswald loved the Left so much that he worked for Fidel Castro and defected to Communist Russia. But when he shot John F. Kennedy, we were told that the Republican climate of hate during the president's visit to Dallas was what made Oswald shoot him.

Conversely, how little righteous indignation was expressed over the 2006 movie "Death of a President," which showed how President Bush was going to be assassinated on Oct. 19, 2007. If crosshairs on Sarah Palin's electoral map caused the shooting of the Arizona congresswoman, as we are told, what do you suppose a film of a dying Republican president could cause? If a similar movie were made about President Obama, wouldn't the media accuse Sarah Palin and the Republican party of creating a how-to manual for potential assassins?

Maybe the nation has less to fear from Sarah Palin and the Republican Party than from the climate of hatred of them generated by the Left. An overwhelming majority of reporters and pundits in the mainstream media, of teachers in our schools and colleges, of lawyers, and probably of cartoonists as well are knee-jerk Democrats. What if all that intelligence and talent were devoted to a rational debate of the issues rather than hate-mongering of the other party?

When I have asked this, Democratic partisans usually laugh and ask in return whether such a preponderance of brains and talent on their side shouldn't give pause to anyone who doesn't conform.

The sorry records of Republicans and Democrats should give anyone pause before aligning with either party. That's why I too am a registered Independent. Let's look at the presidents the brains-and-talent party has recommended to us?

The jury is still out on Barack Obama, but Jimmy Carter's record speaks for itself. The media now heap praise on Bill Clinton, but for measures that were enacted only after Republicans won control of Congress in 1994 - welfare reform in 1996 and the Balanced budget Act in 1997. Some of us remember him as the president who disgraced his office by choosing to address the nation in prime time for the sole purpose of lying to us about his personal misbehavior - "I did not have sex with that woman."

Let's hope that a majority of Americans continue to hold out against climates of hate generated by both parties.

Edward Styles is a resident of Wilson

Comment by Joel Killion on January 20, 2011 at 11:58pm

Here's a copy of Letter to the Editor by J.D. Howell, of Elm City, printed in the Wilson Daily Times today:

 

Another excuse to attack conservatives?

After reading the article on Jan. 18 by Times staffer Janet Conner-Knox about Rep. G.K. Butterfield's heightened security concerns after the Tucson shootings, I am still trying to make sense of it and numerous other recent articles and news reports.

From day one of the shooting a large portion of the news media has made a concerted effort to blame Conservative Talk Radio and Conservative TV shows and their hosts, along with the Tea Party and Sarah Palin for the shooting.

From all the information made available about the shooter there is nothing that indicates that he was influenced by any of the aforementioned. On the contrary, what it shows is that he was an unstable, mentally deranged person that did not think rationally.

I think we need to know why there is such a concerted effort to silence conservatives and try and blame them for events like the Tucson shooting. Who's agenda is being threatened by them?

I find it ironic that Mr. Butterfield, a Democrat, found the cross-hair targeting method used by Sarah Palin's Political Action Committee to identify politicians to be defeated inappropriate, unacceptable and offensive when Bob Beckel, a Democrat, said on Fox News that he was the one who started that form of targeting politicians when he used the bull's eye years ago.

I guess it's tolerable when done by a liberal Democrat but repugnant when done by a conservative Republican. This form of targeting politicians by political action groups has been used by both Democrats and Republicans for years. Is this now going in the "politically incorrect" column because someone is offended by it or is it just another excuse to attack conservatives?

Comment by G Gary Giles on January 20, 2011 at 11:34pm

Representative Butterfield continues to be tied to Representative Pelosi imaginary apron string.  He may have reason to be concerned about his safety, and he can ask for assistance with that through our local law enforcement.  His contribution to the debate appears to be fairly lame: "

2:05 p.m. And we're off. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., kicks off the House session by echoing the "civility" that NJ's Billy House predicted: "Today we begin the debate on the Republicans' unfortunate effort to repeal health care reform. I pray that this debate today is civil and it is respectful."

He continues: "As... many of our colleagues know, I served as the judge in my state for many years and I understand what it means to be objective and to have a fair debate. And I know that there are usually two sides to every issue. But when it comes to repealing the reform the Democrats have passed, I just can't figure it out."

And no surprise since he was a supporter of doing all this in closed sessions with only his party in attendance.  Already he is trying to use the tragedy in Arizona to deflect attention from the real business.  Since he served as "the judge" here in NC, you would think he could separate the baloney from the facts, where a nut job shoots people from a political statement.

Comment by Stephen J. Robb on January 20, 2011 at 10:30pm

If anything would ever happen to him...it would be his own ilk who would do it.

Tea Partiers don't get involved with that crap.