The "very disturbed" and the political are 100% overlapping here. Beyond any rational doubt.

From the AP story today:

"Giffords has drawn the ire of the right in the last year, especially from politicians like Sarah Palin over her support of the health care bill."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...MNET1H6AEP.DTL

Sharron Angle, last year's Tea Party Queen in the Senatorial elections, babbled about "Second Amendment remedies" for her opponents.

That's the environment in which this occurred. The sequellae includes the SarahPac ad with rifle sites, naming Giffords as a functional target.

Giffords' tea party opponent in the 2010 election had "shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly" in his internet and print ads. Scrubbed now from the web page.

Who responds to material like that?

The manifest mental illness of the perp obviously highlights the political content. Both at the macro level, and at the individual candidate level, the right wing pursued explicit behavior which would agitate the unstable.

The more you focus on "disturbed", the more you have to examine what is likely to trigger a disturbed person.

Tort definition of intent: you INTEND the likely consequences of your acts.