Independent Voices

While conservatives have continually and unflinchingly used the word "independent voter" to talk about how the Tea Party is made up of those with little to no political knowledge, experience, or alignment, it seems that this could ultimately pose a problem for the modern conservative movement - even though they are already calling Loughner a "satanic, truther, pot head".

Loughner registered to vote for the first time in 2006, said Chris Roads, Pima County's registrar of voters. He registered as an independent and last voted in the 2008 general election.

While whom Loughner voted for cannot be revealed, the reactionary Right will insist that he was an Obama supporter. That aside, fact remains that the "patriotic" folk at Fox"Nation" have provided a platform for fellow conservatives to distort this information regarding Loughner, and seem to be allowing people to apparently show disappointment that Harry Reid wasn't the victim of Loughner's unchecked rage.

Perhps I'm reading a little too much into this, but the way in which Fox and their easily lead audience are approaching this shows that the conservative/Tea Party message is likely to shift due to what happened this weekend.

Of Conservative Assumptions

I'm wondering if Michelle Malkin is going to update her blog piece about murdered Arizona rancher Robert Krentz now that authorities are no longer focusing on Alejandro Chavez-Vasquez? I'm guessing she's not, as this doesn't fit into her anti-immigrant/anti-hispanic point of view.

The Arizona Daily Star is now reporting that authorities are seeking information on an entirely different person.

The killing of a Southern Arizona rancher that sparked an outcry to secure the border was not random, and investigators are focusing on a suspect in the United States, the Arizona Daily Star has learned.

High-ranking government officials with credible information spoke to the Star, citing a desire to quell the fury over illegal immigration and drug smuggling set off by the shooting death of longtime rancher Robert Krentz on March 27.

They said Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever is investigating a person in the United States, not in Mexico, in connection with the shooting.

It's almost an assurance, should Malkin decided to exercise even a modest amount of journalistic and intellectual integrity to update her smear piece, that she will likely accuse Dever of attempting to politicize this case and the recent Arizona immigration law in order to make some type of statement. This is how conservativism works.

But there's an interesting facet to this story that I had realize until reading this article.

Krentz was found gunned down on his ranch northeast of Douglas a day after his brother reported drug-smuggling activity to the Border Patrol that led to the seizure of 290 pounds of marijuana and the arrest of eight people on the ranch.

Was this killing perpetrated as a form of retribution for Krentz's brother reporting the drug activity or was Krentz providing a corridor for the smugglers to use as safe passage? I don't think the later is outside the realm of possibility and should be investigated.

And while Republican politicians are using this man's death as a talking point to coincide with Arizona's new draconian immigration law, I find it more than a little troubling that people are far too eager to assume that this is simply a case of another illegal immigrant perpetrating a crime. There's likely far more to this story than we are seeing at this point.