Redeye's Tuesday Must Reads

FALSE EQUIVALENCY WATCH, CONT'D

the drive continues to insist that "both sides" are equally to blame for rhetorical excesses and the toxicity of our discourse. Ross Douthat offers the latest evidence, arguing, "If overheated rhetoric and martial imagery really led inexorably to murder, then both parties would belong in the dock."
This isn't surprising, given that the media establishment appears obligated to always blame "both sides" for everything at all times. But as Paul Krugman reminded folks, "Where's that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let's not make a false pretense of balance: it's coming, overwhelmingly, from the right."

The AZ Shooter Has All the Ingredients of a Tea Party Member

Jared Loughner may not have attended a Tea Party rally or registered with any Tea Party groups, but he shares several similarities with the Tea Party movement.

Move along, nothing to see here says the gop infused, media enabled Tea Party

Let's recap: A sprawling media infrastructure, including an entire television network, whips up prejudice, fear and outrage on the part of "good" or "real" (or "great" in the case of Hannity) Americans against everyone else, relentlessly spreading breathless paranoia from coast to coast 24 hours a day, day after day, year after year after year. Limbaugh, Beck and the rest of the carnival barkers, who care more about how many rubes they can attract to their medicine shows than they ever did about the country they profess to be protecting from icky liberals, have bullied their suggestible audiences, virtually every Republican politician, and not a few Democrats into lock-step fealty to malicious public policies based on a failed ideology.

Under the radar, something sad and weird.

A lobbyist for the energy industry was found dead in her sport utility vehicle early Monday. The lobbyist, Ashley Turton, 37, a regulatory affairs analyst for Progress Energy, which is based in North Carolina, appeared to have been backing out of her garage when her car hit it and caught fire. She is the wife of Daniel Turton, White House deputy director for legislative affairs for the House of Representatives.