The Tucson shooting has consumed me all this past week. I’ve wrestled with whether or not
Sarah Palin and the army of right-wing, propagandists are responsible in some way for the tragedy. After thinking about it for a week I’ve concluded that, though they are not directly responsible in a legal sense, I believe they are indirectly responsible in a spiritual sense. Their wreckless rhetoric has contributed to the atmosphere of hate and distrust for anyone who disagrees with them.

In the same way that they make connections with Karl Marx to Barack Obama over socialism, we can make the same kinds of connections from Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck to Jared Loughner over hate speech. Can you imagine who Rush Limbaugh would blame for the shooting if the victim would have been a Republican?

They have stoked the fires of hate for Democrats, liberals of all stripes and the Government with their inflammatory, over-the-top rhetoric on a thousand radio stations all across the nation.

Sarah Palin said in print and at a live appearance "Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!" She posted on her Facebook page a "target" map showing the districts of Gabrielle Giffords and other House Democrats in a rifle's cross hairs. Then, she appears on her tv show/campaign commercial looking through the crosshairs of a rifle, shooting a caribou. Just a few months earlier Congresswoman Gifford’s office doors were shot out after her vote for the Healthcare Bill. Giffords was clearly targeted and the animus was out there, boiling in a black cauldron of hate with fires stoked by right-wing leaders, talkers and commenters. Many of whom, talked of “Second Amendment Remedies”.

Just a few weeks ago I truly believed that Sarah Palin could become our next President. If they could put George W. Bush in the Whitehouse they could certainly put Sarah Palin in there. Now, I think it would be impossible because of political ads that could connect her to the Tucson shootings through the gun sight images she has so proudly used. Connect that to the carnage in Tucson and her own words and you have a biased, but effective ad campaign. She couldn’t get elected dog-catcher now.

At a rally a few months ago in Washington DC they carried signs that said, “I came unarmed...THIS TIME!” and “Where’s my gun?”. On Glenn Beck’s website comments are so over-the-top with hateful rhetoric I won’t quote them here for fear they would target me, too.

And, what has the Left done? They certainly have not tried to inspire people to take up arms and shoot people. The worst of the far left are the Anarchists. They have burned cars in a car dealership, they have set animals free in an animal research laboratory and they have rioted so they can loot. It’s just not the same as encouraging people to violence because our President has a “Deep-seated hatred of white people” and is destroying our nation as Beck has said.

Even, though they deny any responsibility for the tragedy in Tucson, they have indeed dialed back the rhetoric. Palin took down the map with the crosshairs on it and every conservative pundit from Pat Buchanan to Charles Krauthammer approved of Obama’s speech at the memorial service for the victims.

So, they have done what I have always wanted them to do: dial back the rhetoric a little bit so as not to inspire some loony-tune to go out and shoot someone.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/10/AR201101...

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/who-is-jared-lee-loughner

http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/01/17/2236224/eugene-robinson-palins-egoce...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/sarah-palin-fumbles-and-f_b_8083...

Here’s a 1919 Fresno Morning Republican newspaper I’ve had in my collection for several years.
It’s amazing these 90-year old pieces of newsprint are still in tact. Though yellowed with age, it's still readable and big. It was a different size, 22 inches tall, same as today’s Bee but much wider at 16 inches as opposed to only 11 inches in today’s paper. Every story was completed on the page it started and not continued on another page. Very little photography and most of it from far away like world leaders in Europe and national movie stars. A couple of local photos were of two boxers who were going to fight at the American Legion Hall. Johnnie Hayes of Auberry was to fight Roy Fain of Fresno for the San Joaquin Valley Bantamweight (118 pounds) Championship.

The Gottschalks ad was interesting with summer dresses from $4 each and 'dainty undermuslins' at $1.75.

Another difference was the relative lack of coverage of local stories on the front page. I had to dig into the middle of the 22 page paper to find local stories. Although, it is ironic that there was one local story on the front page about Fresno Mayor, W.F. Toomey announcing an anonymous donation of $40k to buy food to feed the hungry. It wasn’t going to be given away, but sold at cost at a special sale in the Municipal Auditorium. Some things never change. There’s always poor folks going hungry.

90 years ago there were 45,000 people here, now over half a million.

The Fresno Morning Republican newspaper was founded in 1876 by Dr. Chester Rowell the elder, who’s statue rests on the southwest corner of Fresno’s Courthouse Park and was mayor of Fresno from 1909-1912, the year he died. Perhaps, the ghost of Dr. Rowell walks the lanes of courthouse park late at night? The paper continued on, changing hands several times until it’s demise in 1932.

There were two Chester Rowells. The younger was Chester Harvey Rowell, nephew of the elder Rowell and was brought in to edit and manage the Fresno Morning Republican in 1898 and continued in that position till 1920. So, by the time of this 1919 volume he had been here for over 20 years and was coming to the end of his tenure as editor.

From his editorials, Chester Harvey seemed quite the liberal, favoring nationalization of the railroads and sympathetic to unions. He spoke in a language and tone that, to me was very intellectual but sounded like a public speech and felt stiff and made me wonder if conversation was also stiff in that time.

Chester H. Rowell was also a lecturer in journalism at UC, Berkeley (1911) and in political science at Stanford (1927-1934). He was also editor of the San Francisco Chronicle from 1932 to 1939. He was a member of the University of California Board of Regents from 1914 until shortly before his death in 1948.

Here is an excerpt from the History of the Fresno Republican that explains the two Chester Rowells - fresnorepublican.com:

"Dr. Rowell's brother was a congressman in Washington whose son was Dr. Rowell's namesake. The younger Chester H. Rowell served as a Committee Clerk in Congress for his father after graduating the University of Michigan. He then took two years of post graduate studies at the University of Berlin before teaching college Latin, German, and French, in Baxter, Kansas.
On October 12, 1885, the Fresno City Township was incorporated. In 1895 young Rowell was hired by C. L. McLane, Fresno City School Superintendent for a teaching position at the 115 student, Fresno High School. Young Rowell was among its first five teachers.
Three years later, the younger Chester Rowell accepted the job as Editor of the Republican from his Uncle Chester Rowell. The name on the masthead was soon modified as the Fresno Morning Republican . The younger Rowell soon became well-known throughout the Nation as a crusading young journalist-editor attempting to cleanup Fresno's image of political graft and crime. He went after a change in the General Law for Cities of the Fifth Class.
Fresno operated without a Mayor under that law. Town government had been weak and run by five trustees. The Fresno Morning Republican campaigned for election of literate community leaders with commitment to limited government, clean streets and a responsible business community."

Sometimes the backstory of a band is so good it's better than the music they make.

Toxic Shock started playing in 1980. That was 30 years ago! You could pay off a mortgage on a house in 30 years! Or, you could build up a following for a cool hc punk band.

Lead singer, Gary Bufkin, told me they were all buddies at Roosevelt High when they started the band, playing their first gigs on campus during lunchtime. He was a punk rocker and became class president. That was back when just being a punk rocker could get you in trouble. "These guys helped me get class president", he said backstage after their set. And they're still friends after all these years.

TS had a Farewell gig a few months ago, but this gig came up and now they're thinking about continuing on with some more gigs in the future. Nothing wrong with that. As long as they're able to play and people want to see them, more power to them. Buf said they have a gig tentatively set for April.

They have the coolest vintage gear. Being a musician myself, it's something I notice. And they know how to play well. Your chops can get mighty honed after such a long time. They had a great mix in the club last night from that monster PA at the Starline.

One of the highlights of their set was a punk version of Jingle Bell Rock. During the lead solo, Buf lept off the stage, into the audience and distributed candy canes!

They seemed so happy just to be there.

http://www.facebook.com/toxicshockfresnoCA

http://www.stagedive-records.com/toxicshock.html