That was fast: Detroit Free Press links Sarah Palin to Arizona Shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ)

Blood was still drying at the scene of the crime in Arizona where US Rep Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head and several other were killed. What's the Detroit Free Press to do? Link Sarah Palin to the shooting of course. Little did they know at 5:35pm when the story posted that the Man who shot AZ Congresswoman in the head is a left-wing lunatic. His favorite book? The communist manifesto. This is what the front page of th efreep looked like yesterday evening:

Featured prominently on the front page: Sarah Palin had Giffords in figurative crosshairs over health care vote

The Web is abuzz this afternoon with the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and the fact that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin had once placed the Congresswoman in figurative crosshairs to raise political funds.

...An image posted on Palin's Facebook page showed a U.S. map with 20 crosshairs representing districts for House Democrats who voted for the health care bill last year and faced tough reelection bids in the November midterm elections. One of those crosshairs was in Arizona's 8th district, to which Giffords was reelected in November.

The map, which has been removed from Palin's page, can still be seen in a posting from last March on the Huffington Post.

This was the map that Sarah Palin drew upon (via Verum Serum):

What 'technology columnist' Mark W. Smith of course fails to mention is that the Democrats had a map with bullseyes on them well before the Palin map, a fact I mentioned in a post from last year (theblogprof on "Off The Record" with Tim Skubick, April 9, 2010). Here's one that appears on this page of the Democratic Leadership Committee website (dated 2004 during the Bush years):

Note the bullseyes as I specifically recalled in the discussion and that the liberal blogger immediately deflected/denied. Now for even more via Verum Serum:

When Palin’s map became an issue, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, leader of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), rushed on MSNBC to denounce it, telling Chris Matthews:

I really think that that is crossing a line…In this particular environment I think it’s really dangerous to try and make your point in that particular way because there are people who are taking that kind of thing seriously.

Really, Chris? So what do you think about this map?

Each one of those red targets represents a “Targeted Republican” like this one:

There’s even a helpful legend that makes it clear that’s precisely what the little red targets represent:

You’ll never guess where I found this map. That’s right, it’s on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) website. They launched the site and the map on February 23rd of this last year, making it just over a month year old. And yet Van Hollen was quoted by Politico just today denouncing Republicans for “pouring more and more gasoline on the flames.” Right back at you, pal.

...Paul Krugman used the megaphone of the NY Times to state that Palin’s Facebook map went “far beyond politics as usual.” He further claimed, “you will search in vain for anything comparably menacing…from members of Congress.” Notice he didn’t say it was hard to find or rare. He said, in effect, that it didn’t exist. But since my search was not in vain, the Times should issue a correction noting that Krugman got it wrong.

Addendum: Big Jim at Gateway Pundit has dug up the ladies of the view discussing Palin’s map. Joy Behar says it looks like an “Al Qaeda Christmas card…” Will she have any similar comments for the DCCC?

Will Mark W Smith? The Detroit Free Press owes Sarah Palin an apology.

UPDATE: The liberal Daily Kos put a bullseye on Giffords in 2008 (via HillBuzz):

What say you, Mark W Smith?

Posted by The blogprof