The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford is a tragedy.  But the bigger tragedy is the predictable irresponsible reaction by the main stream media.  There is the traditional effort to use any high profile shooting to justify more gun control.  In addition there is already a wide spread movement in the main stream media to try and pin this on Sarah Palin.  Once again we are very likely to have the conversation dominated by those most likely to learn the wrong lessons.

We already know the following about this person.  He was a nut job whose writings were incoherent.  He was a loner.  His favorite book was Mein Kampf and he admired Karl Marx.  He had prior run-ins with the law.  His big concern seemed to be with regard to our currency and our grammar.  One person who knew him, described him as a liberal.  Yet the main stream media immediately tried to tie this to excessive rhetoric by the tea party and anyone else who expresses opposition to the usurpation of power by the Democratic Party and the Obama Administration.  There is no evidence he ever attended a tea party event and he does not appear to have any contact with the tea party.  His two big issues appear to be the gold standard and grammar, neither of which is even discussed by the tea party. 

The main stream media ignores genuine hate speech by the liberal left.  It also quickly buried the obvious fact that if this delusional person was influenced by anyone, it was the liberal left.  Perhaps it is just me, but so the vast majority of actual violence has come from the anti-war liberal left and Muslim terrorists.  I am not aware of any violence from people associated with the tea party. 

It was the liberal left who openly rooted for Dick Cheney’s death.  The main stream media saw no problem with anti-war protestors carrying signs hanging Bush in effigy.  They ignored Al Gore’s screaming rage that Bush had disgraced the office after falsely claiming Bush lied about the WMD in Iraq to be a problem.  (Al Gore believed in those WMD when he was with the Clinton Administration.)  They ignored hate speech against the Bush administration because they also hated the Bush administration.

The shooting at Ford Hood was a tragedy.  It was also clearly an act of terrorism by a Muslim extremist.  The main stream media immediately cautioned people to not assume this man was influenced by his Muslim background, just because he was shouting Allahu Ahkbar while shooting everyone.  They show no such restraint in trying to blame this on the tea party movement.

There is no evidence of any increase in violence because of the tea party.  But that does not slow down the rush to judgment by the mainstream media.  The liberal left believes that this country has become an angrier place over the last two years because of irresponsible verbal assaults by people opposed to the Obama administration.  That is utter nonsense. First, those people who oppose the Obama administration are remarkable for the lack of violence.  This is a political movement.  Second, they assume that people are upset because they have been “tricked” by unethical talk show hosts and political opportunists.   This is typical liberal left delusional thinking.  They believe that every educated person agrees with their world view and they automatically assume that anyone who disagrees is either stupid or misinformed.  The simple truth is that conservative talk radio feeds on the discontent, it does not create it.  The real source of the anger is an administration who tried to jam its liberal socialist agenda down the throats of an unwilling populist.  If you want to know why people are so angry, just ask them.    

Sarah Palin is already at risk because of irresponsible assaults by the liberal left.  Even her children are fair game.  Irresponsibly trying to blame this on her, when she had absolutely nothing to do with this situation, puts her and her family in extreme danger.   If anyone needs personal protection as a result of this unfortunately event it is Sarah Palin and her family.  Gerald Rivera, on Fox News, could not resist taking a shot at Sarah Palin.  He started by admitting that this guy had no connection with her or the tea party and seems to be just a nut case.  Then he opined that this would hurt her politically because of her hateful rhetoric.  Obviously, Gerald must have slept through the period from 2000 to 2008 since he seems to have missed the genuine hate speech from the liberal left with regard to the Bush administration.

I have never heard Sarah Palin suggest violence against anyone and in fact she always abhors violence from any source.  On the other hand, some of her opponents have literally suggested someone should assault and rape her.  It is beyond disgusting.

The only thing certain at this point is that the liberal left will exploit this tragedy and use it to try to pass gun control and to silence political opponents.  There are people who are promoting hate speech and inciting violence. Those people must be stopped.   If the main stream media wants to find those people, they should purchase a mirror. 

TDM