Well, one thing about the shooting in Arizona is it sure pushed Wikileaks off the front page for a day or two. I’m not sure that that’s a good thing. With all due respect to the indisputable verity of old sayings, sometimes the silver lining is just not big enough to justify that dark cloud. Here are some random thoughts:
Gabrielle Giffords. Of course, our hearts go out to her and we all wish her a speedy recovery, but how miraculous is this? The bullet goes straight through her brain and she survives. Kudos to the doctors in Tucson.
Not many people outside Arizona had heard of Gabrielle Giffords before yesterday. But her 2nd cousin is Gwyneth Paltrow and she’s
Surveyor's Symbol's, My Ass
married to an astronaut. If the scriptwriters aren’t at work on this already, they are asleep at the switch.
Today, in Washington, D.C., a high profile lobbyist whose husband works in the White House was burned to death in her car. Now, in movies, this kind of stuff happens all the time. In real life, if a car catches fire and burns, somebody wanted it to catch fire and burn. I’m not saying the two events are connected, it’s just a hell of a lot of political violence at one time.
Sarah Palin’s explanation of the crosshairs map is absolute bullshit. To summarize: before the 2010 elections, Sarah issued a map, put it up on the internet, with gunsight icons in 20 congressional districts, and urged voters to “take aim” at those candidates. Giffords was one of those candidates. The tea party crowd hated her extra special because she voted for health care.
Now, Sarah (or Sarah’s spokespeople) are saying no, no, no, those weren’t crosshairs, those were just like surveyor’s symbols. Bullshit. A 2 second look at the map and you’ll see the firearms implication right away. And she was called on it when she put up the map and defended it proudly.
For somebody who made a big point out of words having meanings and grammar being important, Jared Loughner had a limited vocabulary and hideous grammar. Conscience dreaming, indeed.
Here’s the part that weirds me out, and I certainly hope the FBI are checking this out diligently (dear FBI guys – maybe take a week or two off hassling the potheads and do some actual work). Jared Loughner had written on an envelope, which police found in his room, “My assassination” and “Gabrielle Giffords.” If I were watching Criminal Minds or NCIS, this is the point where I would start screaming at the screen while they’re all scratching their heads wondering what it means. It means this was HIS assassination, he is a soldier in the cause, he thought he had fulfilled his obligation, crossed one off Sarah’s list. Passing the torch to one of his comrade in arms for THEIR assassination.
Seriously, the FBI should spend a whole lot of time talking with anybody who exchanged e-mails with Jared Loughner.
www.gurukalehuru.com 
Palin herself called it a bullseye.
So let’s see….
1. “Lock & Load”
2. “2nd amendment solution”
3. “Target List”
4. “Don’t retreat, Reload”
5. Bullseye over Tucson and Other Congressional districts.
It’s all Sarah’s. She should own up to it.
http://rjw-progressive.blogspot.com/Gee, are they gun sights? Tough one. Ahhhhh :http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&gbv=2&tbs=isch:1&&sa=X&ei=C5krTaO_J8qFnAfbv8HjDQ&ved=0CDIQBSgA&q=clipart+gun+sight&spell=1&biw=836&bih=450
All of this is predicated on the notion that this man was a follower of Sarah Palin… which there is absolutely no evidence. If anything, his family and friends who knew him have described him as an anarcho-anti-establishmentarian… in the mold of World Trade Organization protestors… listening to progressive punk like Anti-Flag and being an ardent hater of George W. Bush.
I am no fan of Sarah Palin’s… but this is just jumping to conclusions with no basis in fact.
Matthew – I believe that 9/11 was an inside job. That does not mean I am insane or an advocate of violence.
Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle and many others on the right have directly advocated the use of gun violence to solve political problems, see Bliss-infinite’s comments above.
He doesn’t need to be a registered Republican to have heard those statements, which he apparently took to heart.
While Loughner may not have officially belonged to any organization, I see him as a teabagger type because he loved guns, his ideas about an alternate currency make no sense (Ironically, my last post before the shit hit the fan was on the subject of an alternative currency. All I can say is that not all alternative currency ideas are the same and not all 9/11 conspiracy theories are the same) and he didn’t know the difference between conscious and conscience, which is the kind of thing teabaggers screw up all the time.
Brilliant linkage, RJ
I agree with your post. Your explanation of the meaning of the words “His Assassination” clarified this for me….this was his ‘contribution’ to the party….this candidate was in one of the ‘cross hairs’ on the map and so he ‘took care of her’. A brainwashed, devout follower would think like that…and he wanted the credit for what he had done !!! TV said he was registered as an ‘independent’…that means nothing. Many people switched from Republican to Independent due to Bush, and many switched from Democrat to Independent due to Obama…indicating the presidents were not far Right or far Left enough for extremists…so they registered Independent. Also, TV and candidates here are now courting the ‘Independent Vote’ more than any group other than perhaps Hispanic. This Egocentric crazy man would want to be ‘courted’ and noticed….so he did what he did. He was raised by his aged father…who never worked. His mother was away all the time working….I am not surprised at this outcome.