The graphic above has appeared on Sarah Palin’s PAC website, as well as her Facebook page for many months now — until today. Palin’s people scrambled to take it down after one of the 20 members of Congress (literally) targeted on it was shot point-blank in the head at an outdoor meeting with constituents in Tucson, Arizona today.
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is miraculously still alive. But at least six – including a federal judge and a 9 year old child – are dead.
All we know for sure is that the killer is 22-year old Jared Loughner. If the YouTube and MySpace pages floating around the internet are truly his, we do know that the man is crazy. Then again, anyone who shows up at a Safeway supermarket with a 9mm Glock ready to shoot at least 20 rounds before “reloading” is crazy. We don’t need to see his internet ramblings to know that.
The other thing I know is that violent rhetoric like the graphic from SarahPAC above, Sharron Angles’ “2nd Amendment remedies,” and Michelle Bachmann’s calls for “armed & dangerous” resistance to Waxman-Markey” can only lead to more of these very sad events.
It’s time for Republican leaders to tell their followers that violence and blood-shed is NOT the answer.
