Palin Issues ‘Sincere Condolences’ on Facebook After Rep on Her ‘Target’ List Was Shot in Head, Scrubs Website

map-palin-target-list-2008

Sarah Palin reacted to the passage of the health-care reform last year by issuing a Unites States map showing districts of 20 Democratic House members who’d voted for the law and who she was targeting for defeat in the midterm elections last November. On the map, the targeted districts were indicated by icons that resembled gun sights — crosshairs.

In announcing her campaign to unseat these 20 Dems, she created a little controversy by using violent rhetoric. “Don’t Retreat,” Palin urged her followers. “Instead — RELOAD!”

One of those crosshairs was on the district of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Democrat from Tucson, Ariz., who was shot through the head at an event in her district today.

Six people were killed, including a nine-year-old girl, a Giffords staffer and U.S. District Judge John Roll. Twelve people, including Giffords, were wounded.

The alleged shooter Jared Loughner, 22, has been arrested. As of late this afternoon, Giffords was recovering from emergency surgery.

Soon after Rep. Giffords was shot, Palin’s people issued a statement on Facebook. Via Glynnis MacNicol at Business Insider’s The Wire:

“Get on Target for Victory in November. Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly.”

On the tragedy in Arizona

My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today’s tragic shooting in Arizona.

On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice.

– Sarah Palin

Because of Team Palin’s rush to get out in front of the story, it appears they issued “condolences” to the congresswoman’s family based on very early reports that the Giffords had died.

Meanwhile, apparently, other members of Palin’s staff were busy scrubbing the website that had featured the “target” map, according to Rob Warmowski at Huffington Post:

In the minutes following the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and members of her staff, the website operated by Sarah Palin that illustrated Gifford’s 8th district with gun crosshairs drawn on a map was scrubbed from the internet.

The site, TakeBackThe20.com, was operating normally at 1:07 CST when I connected to obtain an image of the crosshairs map:

[1] View image

When I connected approximately one hour later at 2:10 PM, the site had been replaced with a webserver error, meaning that the webserver was answering but that the content upon it an hour earlier was not being served

[2] View image

Later, at approximately 2:45 PM, the server could no longer be reached at all. Clicks to it met with a DNS error, meaning that any clicks to TakeBackThe20.com would not find an underlying IP address.

[3] View image

While material on the site including the aformementioned map can be found elsewhere on Facebook and Twitter and other web sites, at press time, no image of the site was found in The Internet Archive at archive.org.

During the campaign, the campaign of Jesse Kelly, the Republican endorsed by Palin to run against Gifford, released this blurb inviting voters to an event:

“Get on Target for Victory in November. Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly.”

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28 thoughts on “Palin Issues ‘Sincere Condolences’ on Facebook After Rep on Her ‘Target’ List Was Shot in Head, Scrubs Website”

  1. The hate that is pointed at Sarah Palin is ridiculous. What does she have to do with this tragedy? Ignoring the facts of what made this nutcase tick and blaming someone who had absolutely nothing to do with this makes zero sense. Have we become so obsessive to those who disagree with our political views that we will blame them for matters that they have nothing to do with it?

  2. When will these people (religious instigators, fearmongers, violent extremists; of all color race and creed) learn that if you use violent and provocative language in your rhetoric, attempting to pander to the fear-needing peoples of the world it generally comes back to bite you?

  3. a) http://www.takebackthe19.com

    b) Yeah this dude was batshit (first hint: he killed a 9 year-old)– However, he has a real obsession with the “constitutionality” of things in those videos.

    c) The fact that his idea of the constitution is completely detached from reality in those videos forces me to align him with Mrs. Palin.

  4. What about Daily Kos causing this? Please see what has been ‘scrubbed’ from one of the favorite liberal sites.
    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/01/is_daily_kos_to_blame_for_giff.html
    By ignoring the facts, such as this nucking futjobs favorite books, one throws their idealogy ahead of logic. I am sure that people will atill ignore the Daily Kos post and still exploit the Palin post so they can continue living in their little bubble. Also, people calling me names b/c I find it ludicrous to blame Palin shows your true colors.

  5. Oh yeah, Andrew, funny comic. Daily Kos and the DNC can now share the blame under the logic being accepted here. Dang darkness….

  6. Although Justice may be blind apparently it can still feel the weight of money and political influence. It is this same money and influence which allows Sarah Palin to avoid prosecution with the aid of the Republican party (recall the number of Tea Party candidates picked up by the Republican Party in the last congressional election) for her posting of cross-hairs on political districts, Congressional Representatives, and Senators. By using this symbol (cross-hairs), Sarah Palin was in effect encouraging violence and attempting to stifle free speech and political debate through encouraging her followers to use force against those opposing her and the Tea Party/Republican agenda.

    This is not the first time that violence has erupted due to her and her party’s inflammatory rhetoric. Recall that Mike Troxell, a Tea Party organizer in Lynchburg Virginia, attempted to post the address of Tom Periello, a U.S. Representative from Virginia’s 5th Congressional District. However, Mr Troxell had obtained the wrong address and inadvertantly posted the address of Periello’s brother, which resulted in this father of four children (Periello’s brother) having the gas line to his propane tank cut. This was not a singular instance either as there were several other reports of violence, vandalism, and death threats as well. Now it would appear that her actions have resulted in the loss of 5 lives, three of which appear to be non-political, and the critical wounding of Congresswoman Gifford from Arizona.

    In the end the tragedy with this situation is that Sarah Palin and others were not prosecuted for their crimes against a fundamental tenet of democratic society (free speech) last spring. By allowing people like Palin and Mike Troxell to avoid prosecution, the government effectively condoned the use of threats and violence against those that carry opposing viewpoints with regard to politics. In addition to this, society is guilty of condoning her actions as well by conferring upon Ms Palin a celebrity status and awarding her with a television program on TLC “Sarah Palin’s Alaska”. This is the real tragedy of the situation.

  7. Jethrow, nice to see you again. It has been awhile since our time at Bellevue.

    Still funny how people ignore the Daily Kos post.

    Bamboo Harvester = Tool

  8. sarah palin has 9 year old Christina Green’s

    BLOOD on her Fucking Money Grubbing Gold Digging Hands

  9. Other examples of hate speech:

    “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,”— Obama in July 2008

    “I want you to argue with them and get in their face!”— Barack Obama, September 2008

    “We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.”— Obama to Latinos, October 2010

    “I don’t want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry! I’m angry!” Obama on ACORN Mobs, March 2010 “We talk to these folks… so I know whose *** to kick.“ — Obama on the private sector, June 2010

    “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” – President Barack Obama”

    “Argue with neighbors, Get in their face!,” – President Barack Obama”

    “If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard,” – President Barack Obama”

    “I don’t want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry.” – President Barack Obama”

    “Punish your enemies”- President Barack Obama”

    “We talk to these folks… so I know whose *** to kick.“ – President Barack Obama”

    “I’m itching for a fight.” – President Barack Obama”

    “Hand-to-hand combat” – President Barack Obama”

  10. Really Olsen? That’s what you’ve got? The world’s oldest political trope – an elected official claiming he will “fight” for you? Really? I got a campaign piece last fall that contained the cliche “fight,” “fought,” “fighting,” etc. 20 times – I counted because it’s on my “Most Overused” list of phrases I try to avoid. If you can show me any candidate or official that has not promised to “fight for you” or “fight the politicians” in Washington or your state capitol, I will be greatly surprised.

    And what exactly is an “ACORN mob?” I don’t remember mobs of social workers taking to the streets last March. I think you’re slicing and dicing your quotes and that one in fact came after Obama received criticism from the media and the right that he wasn’t showing enough emotion about the BP oil spill.

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