The top story in yesterday's news was the horrific shooting spree by the obviously unhinged 22-year old Jared Loughner, which left over a dozen people wounded and six dead, including a federal judge and a 9 year old girl. It was shocking, but what shocked me even more was the response of the lunatic left in Canada as well as the U.S. - leaping to blame "right wing rhetoric", the Tea Party and Sarah Palin, and immediately calling for restrictions on speech. It is disgusting enough to use this tragedy to advance a political agenda, but to try to portray this psycho as being motivated by listening to the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh is beyond ridiculous. I doubt this person had ever listened to either of them, especially Glenn whose main message is non-violent resistance. The action of one deranged individual is now being used to justify speech control by opportunistic vultures who will jump on anything to stifle dissent.
This guy was not affiliated with any political party. According to papers found in his home, he had held a grudge against Congresswoman Giffords ever since 2007 (before the rise of the Tea Party) when he had asked her a question and didn't like the answer she gave him. He is being portrayed as a Tea Party sympathizer but he is a fan of flag-burning, drug use and heavy metal music. One of his favorite books is the Communist Manifesto. He is also an atheist who does not like the Constitution. If he is a Tea Party member, he is a piss-poor excuse for one since he pretty much embraces everything they stand against.
The leftists are acting like she was targeted because she was a Democrat, but Ms. Giffords was about as conservative a Democrat as you're ever likely to meet - in fact, she started out as a Republican. She criticized Obama for suing Arizona over its immigration law. She voted against auto bailouts. She was against gun control and had recently voted against Nancy Pelosi as minority leader, prompting a bizarre diatribe from the Daily Kos titled "My congresswoman voted against Nancy Pelosi and is now dead to me". Of course they scrubbed that now, but many bloggers had the foresight to save it - fortunately you can't ever "unwrite" the Internet so it can still be viewed. Ms. Giffords track record hardly makes her the ideal target for a crazed right-wing extremist.
Much is being made of Palin's website map showing "crosshairs" on political "targets". Are we to believe that any normal person would take this literally? The Democratic Leadership Committee had the exact same map on their website in the past, only with bullseyes instead of crosshairs and the caption "behind enemy lines". If some lunatic had attacked one of the targeted people with a crossbow, would we blame the Democrats because they showed bullseye targets? The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also had a map on their website featuring "targeted Republicans". How is Sarah Palin responsible for a nutbar's response to a political strategy used by both sides? There is no evidence whatsoever that he was even aware of her views or visited her website - this is just another pathetic attempt by the left to discredit someone they are afraid of.
The American left have lost the support of the people and they know it. The voters are fighting back as the new congress prepares to initiate repeal proceedings against the unpopular health-care legislation. There is opposition to politically-driven environmental regulations and to the government extending its tentacles into the Internet. People are even seeing such personal freedoms as food choices being limited by government and they want no part of it. The statists know the only way they will have the remotest chance of getting their agenda back on track is to silence dissent and shut down opposition - this is why they are targeting the loudest voices who point out what they are doing. Fair political comment is now labeled "vitriol", "inflammatory rhetoric" or "hatemongering". Unless a leftist is doing it, in which case it's no big deal. It's okay for Obama to talk about taking a gun to a knife fight, to call Republicans the "enemy" and to say he is going to kick ass while Salazar talks about keeping boots on people's necks. Chris Matthews can fantasize on air about how he would like to see Rush Limbaugh get murdered. Heck it's even okay to make a movie about assassinating George Bush. Apparently that's acceptable.
This is the last desperate gasp of the left as they see their prize slipping away. How many times have we seen the MSM go yapping in full cry after some "right-wing extremist", only to find out later that he was a committed leftist, a jihadist, or just your apolitical garden-variety nutcase? Or, as in the case of the Discovery Channel gunman, a rabid eco-loon? When these inconvenient facts surface, the silence from the media is deafening - as it was when no swine flu pandemic emerged after months of manufactured hysteria from the news outlets. Now there is some idiot sheriff in Arizona saying this is Rush Limbaugh's fault for "angering people against the government". How so? By telling them the truth? Should no one express a political opinion for fear of setting off a sociopath? Nice try.
The shooting of Ms. Giffords is being shamelessly pimped by the leftists in the cause of suppressing free speech. They keep blathering on about "toning down the rhetoric" and "polite discourse" while they themselves have spent every hour since the incident blaming the right and ginning up animosity toward conservatives in general and conservative media in particular. They are a shining example of what they profess to oppose. Meanwhile less is said about the victims who actually died, perhaps because there is no political mileage to be had by mentioning them. They are: John Roll (federal judge - 63 years old), Gabe Zimmerman (30), Dorwin Stoddard (76), Phyllis Schneck (79), Dorothy Morris (76) and, saddest of all, Christina Green (9). All in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nothing more. Taking away people's freedom to criticize government would not have saved them, nor would it stop future random acts of violence by unstable individuals with unfathomable motives. For all we know, he got his inspiration from "kill the ho" lyrics in some stupid rap song. This person was driven by his own demons, not by Rush Limbaugh's political commentary, and, despite the bests efforts of the leftist media to play connect-the-dots with Sarah Palin, she did not pull the trigger.
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