@okie,
Quote:No. I am only pointing out more obvious flaws in the Democrats first hours accusations. Not only was the guy a mental case, which was apparently the primary cause of the crime, but if there was any political motivation involved at all in this crime, it would have been in the opposite way than some pundits and Democrats seemed to suggest right away. The reason I post this is because those that wanted to go down that road are not telling us where that road led, and so I think it is appropriate that we know where that road led. It did not lead to any evidence that a rightee shot a liberal Democrat. It led to just the opposite, a leftie shot a conservative Democrat that opposed her own party's leadership on many issues.
Okie, I think you are jumping to premature conclusions about Loughner's political leanings and possible political motivations.
We actually know very little about Jared Loughner and the reasons why he wanted to assassinate Rep. Giffords. That his target was a congresswoman, makes the act "political", but that does not mean he was motivated by any political views, either his own, or those held by Rep. Giffords. Perhaps she was merely a symbol of "the government" to him, and the one most easily accessible. Perhaps his feelings about her were personal, based on something she said to him when he had met her on an earlier occasion, or something else about her.
We have no real evidence that Loughner was a "leftie". We have no evidence he even bothered to follow politics closely. He was registered as an Independent, and I don't believe he voted in the last election. We do know he had some gripes against the government, mainly based on his objection to the monetary system, and his opposition to the Iraqi war. He made comments like this one:
Quote:"I can't trust the current government because of fabrications. The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar."
And he referred to the United States as "a terrorist country". But his comments do not appear to be focused on anyone in particular in the government, or directed toward any political party.
Immediately after the shooting, there was speculation that he might have been influenced by the violent rhetoric and specific gun imagery coming from the Tea Party and people like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. We don't know that was the case. We also don't know that wasn't the case. Perhaps such talk did make him think about taking action against a member of the government with a gun--regardless of his own specific reasons for doing so. We just don't know yet.
We do know he appears to be mentally disturbed. He was suspended from his community college, in September 2010, for disruptive and disturbing behaviors, and was told he could return only if he received a mental health evaluation that stated he was not a danger to others. He was also terminated from about 5 jobs and quit another because he "couldn't take it any more". He was turned down by the military because he failed a drug test. So, he had marked difficulties functioning, and was given to making comments that struck others as odd, bizarre, nonsensical, or inappropriate. He posted rambling statements on YouTube, and made odd comments on a gaming site chat board where he also complained about not being able to get a job or a date and he said that his interchanges on that gaming site comprised his social life.
And we know that at the end of November 2010 he bought a gun. On the morning of the shooting, he went to a Walmart and bought more ammunition for the gun. He also picked up photos he had developed which showed him wearing only a red g-string and holding the gun to his crotch and his buttocks.
And we know that Jared Loughner wanted to shoot more people than just Rep. Giffords. He had his pockets filled with ammunition clips for his gun. He was armed for a massacre, and one he probably did not expect to survive. He posted a "goodbye friends" message on his MySpace page hours before the shooting.
And, with all the talk about possible left wing or right wing political motivations, I think most people are missing possibly the most obvious motive for the shooting.
I think the real reason that Jared Loughner shot Rep. Giffords was a desire for notoriety and "fame" of a sort--he literally wanted to make an impact and be a "somebody". He wanted, for once, to have a feeling of power and control. He wanted to be noticed and remembered. And he was willing to die for that.
This was a 22 year old man, with apparent psychiatric problems, and possible drug problems, who, from all descriptions and current evidence, was an aliented misfit who sustained nothing but constant rejection trying to get a life going for himself--he got booted out of his community college, was fired from about 5 jobs, was turned down by the military, was frustrated about submitting 65 job applications with no responses, was upset that his previous minor arrest might be held against him, and apparently couldn't find a woman willing to date him. The man felt like a complete loser with no vision of a future for himself. And it is certainly not a stretch to surmise that, given the circumstances of his life, Jared Loughner was probably very depressed and possibly suicidal.
So, I think this disturbed, frustrated, depressed young man, with no immediate future ahead of him, and harboring various paranoid and angry feelings about the government, decided to end his life in a blaze of glory, by shooting an accessible member of congress and as many other people as he could take down with him. He even had prepared his own publicity photos--those pictures of himself in a red g-string holding his gun. He wanted to be known, to be remembered. He wanted to leave his mark on the Congress of the United States and on Tuscon. He wanted people to know that Jared Loughner could accomplish something. And just thinking about this plan may have lifted his depression and energized him. His plan helped to focus him on something definite and important and channeled his feelings of anger and frustration.
And, if my hypothesis about him is correct, he has accomplished part of what he set out to do. I, and other people all over the world, now know the name Jared Loughner. He is no longer an insignificant unknown loser. He will be remembered as a mass murderer and as the person who tried to assassinate a member of Congress. He even got the President to come to Tucson. The media has been hanging on every scrap of information about him, and his picture has been in every newspaper. He's definitely a somebody now.
And that's why I think Jared Loughner had that crazy grin on his face in his mug shot.
Anyway, that's my theory for now, given what little we know about him. It makes as much sense to me as anything else I've heard.
