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| Sarah Palin's Crosshairs Map and Hit List |
As you all know by now, a gunman opened fire at an outdoor political Meet and Greet in Tuscon Arizona on Saturday, resulting in the death of a nine-year-old girl, a federal judge and four others. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords remains in critical condition after being shot in the head. Eleven others were wounded by the shooter, Jared Loughner, who was tackled at the scene and taken into custody.
In the immediate aftermath, news agencies and bloggers everywhere desperately scrambled to be first with breaking news, alternately reporting that Giffords had died or was in surgery. Within a matter of minutes, the web was inundated with lists of right-wing politicians and pundits to blame for the incident.
The graphic you see here is from Sara Palin's FaceBook page. The half-term, half-baked Alaska ex-governor turned reality TV star removed the graphic, but not until after it was copied, pasted and used by every liberal with internet access to point the finger of blame directly at her and those in her party who use the language of wild west violence to motivate the weak-minded to vote for them.
For the last two years we've seen stories and news video of Tea Party activists attending rallies with guns shouting racist and homophobic slurs while their leaderless party leaders brush it off as nothing more than the actions of the lunatic fringe, but simultaneously attempt to justify those actions with the excuse that "Americans are angry". How much of a loony do you have to be in an organization made up of nothing but loonies, to qualify as the lunatic fringe?
Violence is the last resort of the desperate. People turn to violence when they lack the communication skills to express what they want. When Sarah Palins says
"Don't retreat, reload" and uses the Mamma Grizzly metaphor to plant the suggestion in the empty heads of her sheeple that desperate times call for desperate
~ and violent ~ methods, it should surprise no one when the weakest of the weak-minded act on that suggestion.
But Palin is not alone in fanning the flames of violence. There is a laundry list of the who's who of the right wing who also have blood on their hands this morning. No matter how hard they attempt to back away from their own statements, Michelle Bachman, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the rest all share in fanning the flames of intolerence and violence. Keith Olberman said it best last night on his special broadcast,
"Violence and threats have no place in democracy."
The tragedy in Tuscon once again brings the issue of gun control to the forefront. Gun owners everywhere are ramping up the paranoia about "the guv'mint takin' muh guns". Some Arizona gun shops are reporting that their sales have doubled since the rampage. It's like some moonshine-induced hallucination featuring a mash-up of Chicken Little and Full Metal Jacket. Because you know, if Jesus was alive today, he'd own a buttload of guns.
