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The Palin “Target Map” Lie Has Traveled Far

The Palin “Target Map” Lie Has Traveled Far

It is said that a lie travels halfway around the world before the truth can put on its shoes.

This weekend, a lie traveled several times around the world, and the truth still is nowhere to be found in the mainstream media.

That lie is that a political target map posted on a Sarah Palin PAC website 10 months ago had anything to do with the shooting by Jared Loughner.

As of this writing, there is not a scintilla of evidence that Loughner ever saw the map, much less was motivated by it.  Connecting the map to the shooting was a monstrous lie.

The lie started with bloggers at DailyKos and Think Progress, then spread throughout the left-blogosphere and then into the mainstream media, which has taken up the theme that “right-wing vitriol” contributed to the shooting.  One of the purveyors of this theory, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, finally admitted late yesterday afternoon that he had no evidence to support the theory and that it was just his opinion.

The shooting in Arizona brought together the worst instincts of the mainstream media, a desire to get Republicans and Palin Derangement Syndrome.  If it means peddling a ghoulish lie, it’s all in a day’s work.

Before the shooting, I warned that anyone who thought the mainstream media was not still 100% in the tank for Obama needed to think again.  The peddling of lies about the cause of the shooting has proved me to be right, albeit sooner than I thought.

Update:  Must read – Michelle Malkin, The Progressive Primer of Hate, 2000-2010, and Tim Blair, Allahu Palin, documenting a history the mainstream media willingly ignores.

It is becoming clear that Loughner had a longstanding delusional hatred of Congresswoman Giffords, as this interview with Loughner’s close friend in Mother Jones reveals (emphasis mine):

Tierney tells Mother Jones in an exclusive interview that Loughner held a years-long grudge against Giffords and had repeatedly derided her as a “fake.” Loughner’s animus toward Giffords intensified after he attended one of her campaign events and she did not, in his view, sufficiently answer a question he had posed, Tierney says. He also describes Loughner as being obsessed with “lucid dreaming”—that is, the idea that conscious dreams are an alternative reality that a person can inhabit and control—and says Loughner became “more interested in this world than our reality.” Tierney adds, “I saw his dream journal once. That’s the golden piece of evidence. You want to know what goes on in Jared Loughner’s mind, there’s a dream journal that will tell you everything.” ….

Tierney, who’s also 22, recalls Loughner complaining about a Giffords event he attended during that period [2007]. He’s unsure whether it was the same one mentioned in the charges—Loughner “might have gone to some other rallies,” he says—but Tierney notes it was a significant moment for Loughner: “He told me that she opened up the floor for questions and he asked a question. The question was, ‘What is government if words have no meaning?'”

Many are dating the grudge back to the 2007 campaign event, as evidenced by a letter found in Loughner’s safe, which means the hatred of Giffords pre-dated not only Sarah Palin’s appearance on the national stage, but the health care debate and other issues the media falsely is portraying as the cause.

Our mainstream media is so corrupt and biased it almost is beyond belief.

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Comments

Stilton Jarlsberg over at Hope N' Change cartoons did an excellent paraphrasing take on Loughner's You Tube rantings.

Vulture Culture

As per his post:

By the way, the use of "therefore" and "thus" appear a lot in the tortured writings of Jared Lee Loughner. By following any two oxymoronic and unrelated statements with the word "thus," he thought he was achieving some sort of logical truism. But logic doesn't work that way – even if the Leftwing media does.

For instance, should we believe: "Liberals hate George Bush. Judge Moll was appointed by George Bush. Thus Judge Moll's killer was a liberal."

Or: "Liberals hated Ronald Reagan. John Hinckley shot Reagan to impress a Hollywood actress. Thus liberals will attempt to kill because they think Hollywood wants them to."

Or maybe: "Squeaky Fromme tried to kill a conservative President. Squeaky Fromme was a member of the Manson family. Thus anti-conservatives share the murderous beliefs of the Manson family."

It is not almost beyond belief….it is WAY past belief.
I am sickened by it all. Praying that you will continue to be strong and determined to educate your readers on what is really happening in our country.
Your posts always are filled with such COMMON SENSE, I can't imagine those who read them still don't get it!
Thanks for what you do.

Yesterday, on Slate, I read how a representative for Sarah Palin said that the marks used on the map were not crosshairs but were in fact surveyor's marks (crop marks). The representative then went on to say that the map was not done in house, but they had a outside graphics company do the map.

Slate went on to state they thought the whole "excuse" was lame and continued to lay the blame for the carnage in Tucson Saturday at Sarah Palin's feet.

Is there any surprise that all this broo-ha-ha over the "marks" on the Sarah Palin map was started by none other than John Podesta's Think Progress, a group the MSM obviously takes its marching orders from? Is there any surprise that DailyKos tried to wipe out (after it had already been screen captured by many others) a raving, ranting diatribe by someone who calls himself "Blueboy" about how Congresswoman Giffords was "dead" to him? Is there any surprise that the left wing Lamestream media fails to mention that the DNC had put out a similar map with bull's eyes on whole states that were (yes, gasp) Red States?

What has become clear in the last two days is that no tragedy is too severe that cannot be made political if it serves someone's agenda. In all the vitriol I have read on the left, NOT ONE OF THEM asked for prayers for the families whose lives have been torn asunder. Nor listed any memorials, prayer services, et al, to help those grieving families. NOT ONE OF THEM mentioned the heroism of a 20 year old aide to Congresswoman Giffords as he held her head while waiting on the medics.

Fourteen months ago, as my entire state mourned over the deaths of 13 Americans at the hands of a radical Islamic terrorist, I remember being warned by these very same people to not "jump to any conclusions before all the facts are in." How differently the mantra is today when the carnage was created by a "white" guy.

The sadness at the loss of life in Tucson is now exacerbated with the loss of honest journalism in America. We have known, for decades, that honest journalism was dying, and had in fact, during the 2008 campaign season, died but Saturday its very soul descended into Hell. We Americans deserve better.

There has always been contentious political "rhetoric" in this nation. It is part of who we are. Anyone who thinks differently doesn't know history. Burr/Hamilton, anyone? But now we are being told that this is a new phenomenon by certain "journalists" and "op-ed authors" who have gone into an abolute frenzy over their political party choice loss of power last November.

Will it end? That is up to you, the American people. Benjamin Franklin believed that the press was the eyes, ears and voice of the people. It was the "free" press that would safeguard the people against an oppressive government and that would prevent the government from becoming oppressive. The only way for it to end is for all Americans to shun, YES, SHUN, those who would stoop to such low tactics such as using the deaths of Americans for no other reason than political hackery.

We have reach a point where those who employ such tactics need to be relegated to the dust bin of history. And the way is simple; do not watch their TV shows, do not but their print publications. If they have no viewers/readers, they have no advertisers and then they have no outlet for their hate and vitriol.

Perhaps then I will loose the stomach wrenching disgust I have for the MSM in the last few days.

Beyond belief? You must be new to this planet!

I'd say, "mission accomplished" to the educational system of public schools, and the enslavement of college kids that have to pay back exorbitant loans so that their indoctrinators can live comfortably into their golden years. It's all too neat and perfect. The only real degree worth having is one in journalism, actual "reporting" being a thing of the past.

Why we have not cast our gaze upon the media outlets and structures as a recipient of our strong objections, instead of picketing government buildings is beyond me.

I think it's interesting to note that this already-slanderous meme has metastasized: the map that Palin published merely showed crosshairs on states, with a list of names below. But I've noticed that now it's being repeated that Palin "put gun sights on Democrats she's targeting" (per a HuffPo headline). A commenter to Jonah Goldberg's Corner post implied the same: that Palin had actually put crosshairs on people's faces.

It's a distinction that will be swept away in the flood of misinformation flowing by, but I think it's a good example of how these things work.

Let's see if this Palin/Loughner link has as many legs as the Obama birther issue Fox news was pushing for years.

Because let's face it: All we're seeing with this nonexistent link between the shooter and Palin is the nonsensical links that have been pushed for years, particularly–in my mind–from the right. Rove masters this. The push poll. The innuendo.

And by the way: Did they ever figure out how the Clintons killed Vince Foster? Or who fathered McCain's black baby?

The right gets so irritated when their techniques are turned against them. Man up guys. Get over it. Jeez.

The right-wingnut running in circles to defend the teabagggers and Palin would be amusing if not so misplaced.

Plain called for her supporters to "Don't retreat… RELOAD" accompanied by cross heais over districts and a list of the "targets.

Is that not violent rhetoric? IT IS!

Are you people capable of admitting a wrong? Apparently not.

I can't help but feel this DOES have something to do with healthcare….like stopping the attempted repeal. just my two cent conspiracy theory. feel free to tear me down and rip me to shreds, trolls!

>> Tierney tells Mother Jones in an exclusive interview that Loughner held a years-long grudge against Giffords and had repeatedly derided her as a "fake."

He was mostly correct in that assessment. Giffords' presented a public persona of someone who rose up from the lower middle classes to achieve success, which was entirely fictional. She was, in fact, a child of privilege born with a silver spoon in her mouth as a product of her family's tire business.

As a politician Giffords deliberately and persuasively presented herself to her constituents as a Washington outsider and a moderate to win election, but her voting record reveals her as a typical limousine liberal leftist. She rarely broke with Democratic leadership, and even then did so only when she got a "by" from the Whip because they did not need her vote.

Giffords traded extensively in public deceit of her own constituents to further her political career. She didn't deserve a bullet to the head but her blatant duplicity may have provided fodder for the mind of a madman.

A lone, disgruntled nutcase on the one hand. A delusionally paranoid group of people who jump the shark in jumping to conclusions, editors and layers and layers of fact checkers notwithstanding. Journalism seems to suffer a massacre with each one of these tragedies.

My comments refer to the Michelle Malkins link that you posted (incidentally, she must be afraid of comments, as her comment registration is closed):

Clearly this incident has hit a nerve with the right–look at the lengths Malkin went to (feebly) demonstrate some kind of equivalency.

Of course there are crazies on all sides of the political spectrum–exactly the people that Malkin documents so exhaustively. And it's true that 40 years ago violent rhetoric was common amongst the left.

However, the current party of violent imagery is the Republican party. No matter how strongly you'd all like to to deny the Palin map, she herself referred to the "bullseye icons." Perhaps even more dangerously, she also urged her followers to "RELOAD!"

And there's the difference–the people that Malkin hours documenting are essentially nobodies with internet access, whereas Sarah Palin and Sharron Angle (to name just two) are in the mainstream of your party.

Shame on all of you for indulging in this rhetoric, when you ought to know better. Didn't you learn anything when the government census worker was killed? Perhaps the leaders of your party will learn something, but I'm not holding my breath.

Quirk, when you have to take to lying, it becomes clear you have no argument. Fox never promoted the "birth" movement. As a matter of fact, many MANY Fox personalities have said it is just stuff made out of pure crazy. Then, to add to your own delusional mind, you have to throw in a "Rove" conspiracy.

Wassa matter? Did you get booted at DailyKos or HuffingtonPost so you come over here to troll?

@sky … you meant " … when the government census worker was killed [by himself, followed by a similar media crow eatin' contest].

@ Timothy … you just can't resist the derogatory "teabagger" in your disingenuous lecture on rhetoric. So predictable.

Sky naively writes: "My comments refer to the Michelle Malkins link that you posted (incidentally, she must be afraid of comments, as her comment registration is closed):

Clearly this incident has hit a nerve with the right–look at the lengths Malkin went to (feebly) demonstrate some kind of equivalency."

Malkin is the target of threats and insults of the most vile and extreme nature. Yeah, it hits a nerve that MSM distorts these public tragedies as events made possible by right wing advocacy. We went through the same smear on the Oklahoma City bombing.

Uh oh, the left is starting to get VERY nervous. The trolls are everywhere …. and in overdrive.

I'm down with the flu so I've been surfing the web since yesterday afternoon. All I keep seeing are trolls repeating their mantra of "crosshairs" & "lock & load".

Sky: Sarah Palin is a private citizen living in a remote state who currently holds no elected political office. She is a thorn in the side of the Republican Party establishment because she opposed so many of the establishment GOP candidates. She has almost no influence with the GOP establishment.

That's relevant background before discussing the Democrat Leadership Council. The DLC is a well funded organization dedicated to getting Democrats elected. It is part and parcel of the Democratic establishment. The DLC published a report in 2004 outlining its strategy to get more Democrats elected. The document contained a map using "bullseyes" to highlight vulnerable Republican districts. The title is "Targeting Strategy". The caption below it begins: "Behind Enemy Lines…"

Take a look here:

http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=253055&kaid;=127&subid;=171

If you are idiotic enough to take Sarah Palin's map literally, you must be equally idiotic and frightend by the "violent imagery" and warfare rhetoric of the DLC, right?

To recap, on the one hand, we have the PAC of a private unelected citizen who is a thorn in the side of the Republican establishment using a map with "crosshairs" to identify Democrats who are espcially vulnerable to electoral defeat. And on the other hand we have the Democrat Leadership Council, a well funded organiztion consisting of establishment Democrats dedicated to getting Democrats elected, using a nearly identical map with "bullseyes" rather than "crosshairs" to identify Repubicans vulnerable to electoral defeat. And the DLC uses the violent warfare terminology "Targeting" and "Behind Enemy Lines". Do you really want to talk about false equivalencies?

The readers of this blog are fairly well informed. The stuff you're peddling won't sell here.

Maggot…,

The DLC map marks STATES with an icon that looks like what you'd see on a dart board. Palin's map marks PEOPLE, including Gabrielle Giffords, with an icon like what you'd see through the sights of a gun. In a tweet that linked to this map, she told her followers to "RELOAD!" To claim that these two maps are remotely the same in their implications is an extraordinary stretch. One is a stock political strategic map, the other is incendiary.

And yes, since she quit the governorship Palin is currently a private citizen. However, as the most recent GOP VP candidate, regardless of her purported relationship with the GOP establishment, she is currently one of the most prominent voices in the GOP.

You guys are apparently in denial about the climate of violence your party is creating. No one should be surprised when the folks who talk about "2nd amendment solutions," and that bring AK-47s to political rallies, actually incite fringe lunatics into real acts of violence.

All this insane talk of "bullseyes" and "targets" etc., means the game is being played on the left's playing field. Every single mention of such I've seen in the "mainstream" media only refers to Palin. I haven't seen one mentioning the DLC or Daily Kos. This is madness. Yeah, Palin's map was so obviously incendiary, not a single journalist/blogger/pundit warned of the danger at the time. A map. A map!! Yet the left was okay with a movie about the assasination of President Bush. Madness. Let me say it one more time … madness.

sky obviously gets his "facts" from MSNBC. Take a look, look takers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jwg-f3dqN4

LukeHandCool,

Casual googling will reveal that plenty of people objected strongly to the gunsights map at the time it was posted.

Thought experiment: an unstable person on the fringe of political discourse is more likely to commit actual acts of gun violence if they follow A) Sarah Palin and Glen Beck, or B) Barack Obama and Paul Krugman? Which line of discourse has more influence on gun-bearing extremists?

I can see how GOP/Tea Party folks would argue that there isn't a casual relationship between the actions of crazy people and the incendiary rhetoric that has become commonplace within the movement. I disagree–I think that it is creating an environment where incidents like this are much more likely. But the argument that there is no casual link is at least semi-plausible, and can be made with a straight face.

But you are really, really stretching when you try to claim some kind of equivalency. When Rachel Maddow mocks Boehner's orange skin tone, what are people going to do, storm bad tanning salons? Did you ever hear her joke about murdering members of congress (like Glenn Beck did)? The eliminationist rhetoric peddled by the right wing (especially Fox news, which you site) goes far beyond mockery…http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/we-can-see-why-bernie-goldbergs-book

@sky. Yeah, I guess we have to be careful what we say or some left-wing lunatic will start shooting people. Thanks for pointing that out. Now crawl back into your hole, you moron.

@sky

"Casual googling will reveal that plenty of people objected strongly to the gunsights map at the time it was posted."

–Hah!! Casual googling (or just casual truth telling) will reveal that plenty of people object strongly to absolutely everything Sarah Palin does. Funny, I’m a news junkie and I’d never heard of nor seen that map before today. Did these “plenty of people” you cite also object strongly to the DNC map and Daily Kos putting a bullseye on the congresswoman? Yes or no?

"Thought experiment: an unstable person on the fringe of political discourse is more likely to commit actual acts of gun violence if they follow A) Sarah Palin and Glen Beck, or B) Barack Obama and Paul Krugman? Which line of discourse has more influence on gun-bearing extremists?"

–You mean, for example, an unstable person like the professor at U of Alabama who was enamored with Obama and shot up and killed her fellow professors?

"But you are really, really stretching when you try to claim some kind of equivalency. When Rachel Maddow mocks Boehner's orange skin tone, what are people going to do, storm bad tanning salons?"

–Any stretching I may attempt is an insult to your rubbery tactics … mocking orange skin tone? That’s as far as the left goes? You've stretched things well beyond the breaking point. You should apply immediately at MSNBC for a job in the Department of Selective Editing.

The map was immediately called out throughout the left-wing blogosphere, as is well-documented. I heard about it almost as soon as it was posted, and shared the same concerns I've expressed here.

Regarding the professor who was denied tenure: again, it seems like a pretty big stretch to regard Obama's rhetoric (a single ill-advised comment about bringing a gun to a knife-fight aside) as on par with the daily onslaught of Fox News eliminationists (even Roger Ailes is telling them to tone it down). It's a losing argument. Obama talks about reaching consensus. Palin talks about getting gunned up.

I wonder how you would feel if, instead of Sarah Palin making a gun-sight map targeting specific individuals, and urging her followers to reload, it was instead a group of Muslim extremists? Still harmless and of no consequence?

Let your elected representatives know this is smoke and mirrors. Five other people died and that does not include the list who die every day from violent crime. Tell them to stop posturing. Start reading the legislation they pass……….actually they should write it.

@sky: "Thought experiment: an unstable person on the fringe of political discourse is more likely to commit actual acts of gun violence if they follow A) Sarah Palin and Glen Beck, or B) Barack Obama and Paul Krugman? Which line of discourse has more influence on gun-bearing extremists?"

It's clear to you that the answer is (A). You are probably correct, because left-wing lunatics are much more likely to go around shooting people than right-wingers. Again, thanks for pointing that out.

How come all these moronic leftist trolls refuse to acknowledge that ALL of the violence has been perpetrated by leftists.

There are hundreds of examples of left wing violence, murder and mayhem.

A good example is the mayhem of the G-20 meetings. This is when the anarchists see fit to set fire to cars and buildings, smash windows and do other vicious acts.

There is the unsolved crime in LA where an aide to Governor Jindal had her leg broken in several places. It is believed that the perpetrators were left wing anarchists who had been loitering in the vicinity.

JFK was killed by a Marxist by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Robert Kennedy was killed by the Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan.

As for the part time census worker, Sparkman, he committed an elaborate suicide.

oh noes….Eric Holder is here and posting as "Sky" again!

Sky has new catch phrase
it's "casual googling"
do you need consent?

@Janelle….my sentiments exactly! How is this heinous act any different than the multitude of drive-by shootings, gang-related execution-style murders and cold-blooded killings that take place EACH DAY? Oh, duh…silly me! This has political implications. Never let a crisis go to waste!

don't take my gun, bub
it was my Grandaddy's Colt
pearl handle and all

It's good to know there are people like you in the movement to take back our country and stand up for Sarah Palin. I'm motivated by the quality of people we have on our side and am damn proud to be a fellow foot soldier in the Palin army. Keep up the great work.

"The map was immediately called out throughout the left-wing blogosphere, as is well-documented. I heard about it almost as soon as it was posted, and shared the same concerns I've expressed here."

–Again, I expect such silliness from the left-wing blogosphere concerning anything Palin does. You didn't answer my question: Did these same people express equal outrage about the DNC map and Daily Kos's bullseyes? Yes or no?

"Regarding the professor who was denied tenure: again, it seems like a pretty big stretch to regard Obama's rhetoric (a single ill-advised comment about bringing a gun to a knife-fight aside) as on par with the daily onslaught of Fox News eliminationists (even Roger Ailes is telling them to tone it down). It's a losing argument. Obama talks about reaching consensus. Palin talks about getting gunned up."

What % of responsibility would you assign to Palin in this case? … give me a number (I would assign 0%). Obama in the U of Alabama case? What % blame? (I would again assign 0%). That's the difference between you and me. "Obama talks about reaching consensus." –That's a laugh … "talks about" is the key … and then turns around and calls the people he strikes a deal with "hostage takers."

"I wonder how you would feel if, instead of Sarah Palin making a gun-sight map targeting specific individuals, and urging her followers to reload, it was instead a group of Muslim extremists? Still harmless and of no consequence?"

–Muslim extremists? Extremists? Of course I'd feel different. But if you were talking about average, non-extremist muslim Americans doing so in the context of targeting certain vulnerable politicians for defeat by ballot? Are you kidding me? 0% problem with that.

I'll take the next silly question …

@LukeHandCool

Regarding your statements that the map was obscure, and that no one had a problem with it at the time: first of all, how obscure is anything that Sarah Palin says or does? Second, Elizabeth Hasselbeck–a Republican media star–had seen the map and commented upon it on national television. Shockingly, she actually had the common sense to call it despicable: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/26/elizabeth-hasselbeck-sara_n_514561.html

In fact, she said what virtually everyone on the left said at the time, and is saying now. (Of course, in the past few days she has changed her tune.)

The "Daily Kos bullseye" is just silly. If some anonymous poster puts an image up on this site is it therefore a "Legal Insurrection" image? Regarding the DNC map, see my prior comments for why I don't think they are even vaguely equivalent.

While I strongly agree with the sentiment that Obama was expressing regarding "hostage takers," I would agree with you that it was a poor choice of words. However, in no way do I consider this equivalent with the kind of speech that is common on the right, as it is not a "call to arms." This piece makes a reasonable attempt at defining "violent rhetoric:" http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2011/01/what-is-violent-rhetoric#more-18397

What percentage is Palin responsible in this particular instance? It's hard to say at this juncture. Clearly the guy is nuts, and probably never saw the map, etc. Perhaps we'll learn more one way or the other as time goes by. Regardless of the outcome of that question, I would still put Palin's responsibility level at significantly higher than 0%, as I would with all purveyors of violent, gun-themed incitement, including Beck, O'Reilly, etc. They are needlessly creating a culture with a strong undercurrent of violence.

Did the anti-government literature and gun-show culture that Timothy McVeigh devoured have an effect on his actions? You betcha!

Let's face it: all political parties have a bunch of lunatics on the fringes, and all have, umm, stupid people as well (though, judging from the "Moran" signs, the Tea Party seems to have an unusually high number). When Palin tells her followers to "RELOAD!," she is needlessly and recklessly playing with fire. Who knows when the next "moran" is going to connect the dots?

Giffords IS NAMED AND HIGHLIGHTED on the hit list posted by Kos himself, that is still up at the liberal Daily Kos: http://tinyurl.com/2aqxaxf
A bulls eye is more definitive than crosshairs