South Carolina residents have been riveted by the unstable behavior of their Governor Mark Sanford, but they have other things to be very nervous about and they should be.

Terrified residents canceled Fourth of July plans and holed up in their homes Friday as investigators hunted a serial killer believed to have shot four people to death.

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Plenty of evidence links the killings, though officials have not yet determined how the victims are connected or if they knew whoever shot them, said Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton.

"Yes, we have a serial killer," he said at a news conference in this rural community 50 miles south of Charlotte, N.C.

So far, all investigators have to go on is a sketch of a suspect and a description of a possible getaway vehicle, though police would not say who provided that information.

The latest victims were found in their family's small furniture and appliance shop near downtown Gaffney around closing time Thursday. Stephen Tyler, 45, was killed, and his 15-year-old daughter was shot and seriously injured. Tyler's wife, his older daughter and an employee found them in Tyler Home Center, County Coroner Dennis Fowler said.

A day earlier and about seven miles away, family members found the bodies of 83-year-old Hazel Linder and her 50-year-old daughter, Gena Linder Parker, bound and shot in Linder's home. Blanton would not say if Tyler and his daughter were also bound. The killing spree began last Saturday about 10 miles from Tyler Home Center, where peach farmer Kline Cash, 63, was found shot in his living room. Blanton said the killer may have first spoken with Cash's wife about buying hay. She left and came home a few hours later to find her husband's body. Investigators said it appears he was robbed, but they have not determined if anything was taken in the other killings.

The John Douglas book called Mind Hunter, is a pretty fascinating look (it gets interesting about 80 pages in) at how the FBI developed the profiling methods we see used today. Robert Ressler coined the term "Serial Killer," and also wrote a book about his experiences: Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI. He interviewed many of these killers in jail to better understand their behavior. He was interviewed by Thomas Harris, who then wrote two of the greatest novels on the subject, Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs. Both were made into excellent movies, (Who can forget Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter or SOTL's?) but South Carolina hopes that's not the case here. Let's hope he's caught quickly.

It started with Edwards' haircut, then Hillary's neck line and now Obama's lapel pin. The media is insane, ladies and gentleman. I expect and understand that Drudge will pass the slime down the food line to Limbaugh and then to FOX NEWS. It's infuriating to see it instantly end up on the MSM. Christy explains...

Right wing Conservative, John Cole is shrill:

Seriously- what does the current Republican party stand for? Permanent war, fear, the nanny state, big spending, torture, execution on demand, complete paranoia regarding the media, control over your body, denial of evolution and outright rejection of science...Hillarycare doesn’t scare me as much as Frank Gaffney having a line to the person with the nuclear football or Dobson and company crafting domestic policy.

That is why the Republican party is in shambles. The majority of us have decided that the movers and shakers in the GOP and the blogospheric right are certified lunatics who, in a decent and sane society, we would have in controlled environments in rocking chairs under shade trees for most of the day, wheeled in at night for tapioca pudding and some karaoke.

Nieman Watchdog: Lieutenant General William E. Odom, who was director of the National Security Agency under President Reagan, spanked Hugh Hewitt in a wideranging and lusty interview.  All democrats should study the way Odom handled this neocon groupie

The Orstrahyun: Dick Cheney to flaunt his boyish charm Down Under...Part 2

Editor & Publisher: Frank Gaffney is back, claiming that while his bogus "Lincoln" quote was not real, it was a “paraphrase” of Lincoln’s actual views on dissent in wartime.  Just another jackal in a pack of craven demagogues.

netZoo: This 19-year veteran isn't getting full benefits, despite losing her leg when a tank crashed into her tent in Baghdad

Horses Mouth: GOP pollster says 'poll' showing war support is bogus

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Let's Try Democracy...Make Them Accountable...Breaking News USA...Hardliner Blog

As we've noted on two occasions this week, there has been a fabricated and widely-discredited quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln floating around among the pro-war (anti-liberty) conservatives. Well, now it's part of the official Congressional record. In his opposition speech on the House floor Wednesday, Alaska's lone Congressman, Rep. Don Young, opened his remarks with a fake quote that could not be more historically inaccurate.

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As Greenwald reminded Frank Gaffney on Colmes' radio show last night (.mp3), Abraham Lincoln spoke out fiercely against President Polk during the Mexican-America War, saying "show me the spot [where American blood was spilled]" because he believed the war was based on false pretenses. In other words, Abraham Lincoln acted in the exact opposite way as the right-wing historical revisionists are saying he did. Furthermore, although he was elected as a Republican, Lincoln was a staunch Whig who believed in the supremacy of Congress over the Executive. Polar opposite of the situation we see today.

(Nicole: Ironically, the quote in question came not from Lincoln, but from the Moonie Times, who has since issued a retraction. Atrios figures as long as Young refuses to retract his fabricated quote, he'll cite some other fabricated quotes attributed to Young.)