We don't know

18 people shot; six dead... including a child. 

Pundits taking sides. 

Rightists are covering butt by pointing to the shooter's list of favorite books, which includes  The Communist Manifesto. They conveniently ignore that Mein Kamph is on the same list (I recognize that many on the right claim Hitler was a leftist.) The Wizard of Oz and Fahrenheit 451 are on that list as well, so hard to judge from any of this.

Leftists are pointing to some of the shooter's Internet posts (including various You Tube videos) that indicate he may have been influenced by rightist political rhetoric; specifically the rhetoric of Sarah Palin. Palin fanned these flames by quickly taking down those controversial "gunsight maps" that were posted on her site when she was targeting certain Democrats for election defeat. Her "reload" tweet is still there.

I'd like to blame this sort of thing on something as well, but at this time there appears to be insufficient evidence for anyone to make any judgement regarding if the shooter is a leftist lunatic or a rightist lunatic. There seems to be little doubt, however, that the guy is a lunatic of some sort.

Pundits should hold fire until we actually know something. There is plenty of time for recrimination later.

The target of this assassination attempt, while a Democrat, is one of the most centrist politicians in Congress. She is an example of the kind of politician this country needs if we ever want to solve our problems and get back on track. Even when attacked, Gabby takes the high road.



UPDATE: Now some idiot pundits are blaming the pot smoking... using this tragic circumstance as lever to promote a badly flawed prohibition on drugs.

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