She was full of it - this was pure political rhetoric trying to score points against Republicans. If she was genuinely afraid of such an improbable outcome, she is too chickenshit to be in national politics, and her shooting would be more of a Darwin Award sort of thing (How about some security precautions? Maybe don't go out in public rallies if you are genuinely afraid of your life, until or unless you get some better security. A few years ago, back before 9-11, I read in an article somewhere that all Congressmen are entitled to at least a bodyguard from some federal agency or other (FBI or Marshall service maybe) but almost none of them take advantage of it. The anticipated threat was kidnapping and holding a Congressman for ransom, but I find it hard to believe that a Democrat with genuine security concerns could not obtain protection from a Democratic administration.

The fact that her baselss rhetorical chicken-little act intended to score political points coincided with a result in no way implicates Palin et al, or spreads any of the blame from a man who gives absolutely no evidence of being influenced by her.

Unlike Gabby's accusaitons, Palin's complaint is justified. Giffords WAS maligning her, and her unrelated shooting neither makes her right, nor Palin wrong. Palin had nothing to do with this, but you don't like her and you find the fact that she refuses to be silenced by the injury to someone this country is, lets's face it, better off without her in Congress annoying, so you have strung together this absurd and fuzzy line of reasoning why Palin should shut up. It doesn't matter how many people are dead or injured (and why is all the attention being paid to Giffords whom we are constantly being reassured of how well she is recuperating, when an actual federal judge is DEAD? Because he was a Bush appointee, and there is no stick with which to beat Palin, Beck and company in his murder), it is still wrong to falsely accuse anyone in their deaths, and it is cowardly to attemtpt to silence political speech, especially political dissent, in the name of an unrelated victim.