You'll Never See a Cartoon of Muhammed but...

This despicable cartoon ran in the Washington Post two days after the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona. In the meantime, almost every mainstream news source reluctantly reported there was no connection between Jared Lee Loughner and the Tea Party. Oh well. Who needs facts when you can portray a whole group you disagree with politically as dangerous nuts?

Reason Magazine has further details of the double standard and these "wise words" from the cartoonist who drew it (along w/ some other irresponsible depictions of conservatives as killers):

"In a larger sense there is a link between anti-government rhetoric and the actions of this obviously deranged man. He is not "troubled", he is crazed. But he knows that the larger enemy is the "government", even though I suspect he has no idea, other than the police, what the government is. So in my experience, there is plenty of linkage, the linkage of a constant steady pressure, constant yammering on right wing radio, and constant political advertising to strike at the government, linking to a weak and distracted mind, inured to the real cost of violence by video games and super-violent films. And to this the easy availability of Glocks in a state like Arizona, and the result is more than predictable. Only willful political opportunism could blind anyone [sic] to it. This same connection drove Timothy McVeigh and others. This won't, I regret to say, be the last incident, not as long as the self-hatred in this country goes unanswered. [...]

The disgusting part is the lack of inclination to blame the people ultimately [sic] responsible. They are again being given a pass for the viciousness they have engendered, at least in part."

Remember, with Nadal Hasan we were told not to jump to conclusions - not even days or weeks after the Islamo-fascist took out his wrath at Fort Hood. But there appears to be a coordinated effort to connect Loughner (a white male) to any and all conservatives - despite evidence to the contrary. When the narrative being painted by the powers that be differs so starkly from the facts on the ground, you know a nation is at a crossroads. With all due respect to the victims, there is more to fear from the environment the Left has intentionally created since the shooting than there is from the type of random act of violence that took place Saturday.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has put together a page of more of the Left's "civility" (really, it's quite a collection) that obviously no mainstream media is concerned might contribute to a "climate of hate." And you may remember this video from last year: When Democrats Attack Free Speech.