Irresponsible Statements made by Political Figures based on Opinions not Facts

Immediately after the Arizona shooting Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik, without knowing the facts gave his opinion blaming talk radio and the vitriolic political climate of today for it. He stated “But again I’d just like to say that when you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain people’s mouths about tearing down the government, the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And, unfortunately, Arizona I believe has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”

Diane Sawyer asked Sheriff Dupnik if he thought it was appropriate to theorize and draw conclusions without any facts and he replied, “Well that’s my opinion, people can have their own opinion.” Dupnik is a political figure, therefore when he makes a statement it should be based on facts.

Some other political figures who made asinine statements without knowing the facts are Mayor (King) Michael Bloomberg regarding the Times Square bomber he said, “If I had to guess, twenty five cents, this would be exactly that,” Bloomberg said. “Homegrown maybe a mentally deranged person or someone with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill or something. It could be anything.”

Another one would be President Barack Hussein Obama regarding the Cambridge Police.

President Obama addressed the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his Cambridge home during a news conference saying that "anyone would be angry" and "the Cambridge police acted stupidly."

Obama prefaced his reply by saying that "I might be a little biased here" because "Skip Gates" is a friend, and by acknowledging that "I don't know all the facts."

He then recited what has been reported, and joked that if he tried to jimmy the lock at his current residence -- the White House -- "I'd get shot."

"Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact."

Suggestion, if you are in a position of POWER, get the facts first before making a statement.