Obviously not intended to be funny. Media will blame everyone but the bastard who pulled the trigger. If politics were less important, then the rhetoric would be less vitriolic. Downsizing government and removing it from most aspects of our lives is the key to restoring a level of calm. But nuts like this will always be with us, and the government will ignore the warning signs, because it is too busy spying on everyone.

Ah, how well I recall Racquel Welch performing TOS on Dean Martin's TV show. But I digress.
Quick work on a sensitive topic! You got it right that he's a nutjob, not a tool of any organized political movement. 5s. But "never let a crisis go to waste" lefties will promote gun control or suppression of talk radio or airport-like security at political rallies and town halls. Let's not let any of that succeed because of one isolated incident.

JAB - Better you than me when it comes to addressing this. While John Boehner might disagree (lol), you have the gift of fairness and it shows here. ;D

Like Barry said..touchy subject, well executed

SirSweaty, Colonel uberSchlong,'tis time to re`Treat . . . und reRoll . . .

Thanks, all. Manifestly idiotic pronouncements from Palin, Angle, Beck, Limbaugh, Olbermann, et al., have the potential to drive the unhinged to violence, but it appears that the Tucson loon was motivated by a petty grudge.

I want to give John Boehner and Arizona's own John McCain credit for saying the right things about this. But the right-wing talking heads, including Sarah "Hit List" Palin, have been unable to say the right things. If I were the Attorney General, she would be arrested for incitement to murder. I'd set bail at a billion dollars. And if she wanted to jump bail and flee the country... I'd let her. And never let her back in.

I agree with what this parody says and what Michael Pacholek says. I also commend John Boehner and John McCain for their moderate positions on this. Still, however we have these media demagogues bashing everyone who thinks differently from them. They allow no room for other ideas - they are right and you are wrong. They can't have a conversation and they WON'T compromise. This creates an air of intolerance and division and polarization. Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Tip O'Neil were party opposites but they had an honest respect for each other. Now you have loudmouth cretins setting crosshairs on their rivals. Free speech comes with a responsibility. When you degrade other people like Sarah, Glenn, Rush and others do you are not only being intolerant but you encourage violence because you're portraying others as being less than human. I'm against censorship of all kinds but inducing panic and inciting murder is wrong. Obama and McCain ran and debated in 2008 in a civilized manner and that's good. Is it too much for everyone else to follow their example and accept each other and their ideas like mature adults? All you need is love, and respect. The U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. buried the Cold War hatchet in 1989. We have too many problems today, there's no time for hate and intolerance.

FF: This parody clearly said that the shooter was mentally disturbed, while MP said that Sarah Palin was to blame. How can you agree with both? BTW, if you want an example of hateful rhetoric, MP's comment is it -- and he's not in any Tea Party..

A lot of people spotted this guy for a threat long before anyone ever heard of Sarah Palin or the Tea Party. But, do we want to live in a world where the government can haul you in on the basis of someone's anonymous tip. Would you arrest Al Gore because Ted Kaczinsky (The Unibomber) read his books. Or the Beatles because Charlie Manson named his planned race war after their song about an amusement park ride? Admittedly, I don't listen to Limbaugh or Beck very often, but I see them primarily as entertainers and I have never heard them advocate violence. To predict, that in a depleted economy, a lot of people with nothing to lose, will resort to violence, is not to promote or encourage it, it's just to report what has always happened, historically. By the way, Michael, there is a whole genre of anti-government literature that does deal in fantasies of of violence. I'm not sure most liberals are even aware of it, but their commitment to free speech and freedom of the press would be sorely tried if they knew about some of these titles. If you're ever in the mood to get your blood pressure up, let me know and I'll suggest some titles that are a lot easier to plow through than "Mein Kampf" or "The Communist Manifesto".

Michael Pacholek and Venezuelan murderer/dictator Hugo Chavez are cut from the same cloth. Thankfully, MP has no power to persecute the innocent and reward evil like actual dictators.

This guy is deranged, here's hoping he won't be freed anytime soon.

This is to try to clear things up. I'm simply stating that we need to respect each others' views and get along. We haven't had that for many years. There's been too much labeling and misinformation going on for too long. Hate and ego and personality cults have no place in a democracy. Not every GOP member is an ultra-conservative neo-fascist and not every Dem is a do-nothing "liberal" elitist PC type. I wish the respect for diversity in opinions was back but the media is clogged with brainwash slants and name-calling with "slam label" words drawn out of a hat. I wish the shouting and belittlering would stop, it precipates nothing good.

The hate speech has been ramping up ever since the government began its campaign to micromanage every aspect of everyone's life. We have far fewer freedoms now than we did say 10 years ago. The feds can't keep pushing and not expect someone to push back. This is America. As far as placing blame on talk radio, remember, that no one is obliged to follow anything Rush, or Beck, or Sarah Palin says. Unlike Nancy Pelosi or Barack Obama, their word is not binding, and they have no armies of amoral goons with guns to enforce their thoughts. The libs may not be able to grasp this concept either, but perhaps this nutball came up with his ideas on his own. He didn't need a leader or guru or Führer to dictate his thoughts. The idea that people are autonomous and can think individually frightens them far more than a few lunatics with high capacity magazines.

About 10 years ago (after 9/11) it was "You're either for us or against us". People who read or loaned out certain books were watched and put on a list. One of those books, The Anarchist Cookbook, I have looked thru myself. It details how-tos for methods of violent acts performed by left-wing AND right-wing terror units (the preface says this). Certain songs were shunned by the radio (see list on Wikipedia) - the list included songs banned for various reasons - protest songs (ALL by RATM), songs about love, peace, flying, whatever. Newspapers told outright fibs to discourage protests. TV coverage made war look like a drama or a circus. Freedom has been dying for a very long time. Remember the 1991 Gulf War sanitized media circus? How about Somalia or Haiti? It ain't a "liberal" or "conservative" evil. Read 1984, Brave New World and similar sci-fi books. Their totalitarian societies are neither "left" or "right". Such regimes exist in real life, like Myanmar, for instance. Still, there's been a climate of hate and intolerance for too long. Some things you can't put a label on. Observe and free yourself. Have a nice day.