BLOODIED HANDS

In the Old Wild West, U.S. Marshalls could round-up a posse and ride off to track down a band of stagecoach robbers or apprehend a cold-blooded killer, or they could post "Wanted – Dead or Alive" posters around the territory and offer a reward, knowing full-well that bounty hunters would accomplish the task for them. The latter method worked perfectly well in the mostly lawless regions of the Old West – that's why they called it Wild – because U.S. Marshall could accomplish their goal (capturing the suspect) without risking their necks, because suspects in the Old Wild West tended to return gunfire whenever chased. That made the task a dangerous proposition. U.S. Marshalls could also wash their hands of an incident if a bounty hunter was involved in the apprehension of a suspect and innocent people got killed in the process.

Yesterday, Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was the victim of an assassination attempt on a street corner in Tucson, Arizona as she was in the midst of holding an event outside a grocery store in her district.

The event Congresswoman Giffords was holding at the time of the shooting was a town meeting of sorts; one where constituents in her district could meet with their Congressional representative in person, share their concerns, ask questions and engage in a face-to-face discussion about national and local issues of concern to them. It was Gifford's way of bringing the government in Washington into direct contact with the people it exists to represent.

Gifford's would-be assassin interrupted that meeting with a hail of gunfire that left the Congresswoman seriously injured with a gunshot wound to the head, a federal judge, a 9-year old girl, plus four other adults (including a congressional aide) dead and several others seriously wounded.

Here is where the "Wanted – Dead or Alive" poster comes into play. Last week, Tea Party leader Sarah Palin launched a PAC (political action committee) website dedicated to killing President Obama's Health Care Reform Law. On Palin's website, she placed a bull's-eye on twenty U.S. House of Representative Congressional Districts, including Giffords', with the accompanying headline that read, "We've diagnosed the problem…Help us prescribe the solution."

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize that posting such an invitation would encourage a crack-pot somewhere to take up Palin's challenge to get rid of Giffords with a gun. Now, Giffords battles for her life and six other, including a 9-year old girl and a federal judge, are dead. No matter how you look at it, the blood of every last one of them is on Sarah Palin's hands!