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Subscribe to RSSThe AP on the horrific news from Arizona:
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was shot in the head and an unknown number of others were wounded Saturday when
an assailant opened fire in an area where the lawmaker was meeting with constituents in Tucson, congressional officials said.These officials said one of the victims died soon after the attack, and others were taken to a nearby hospital.
The officials said the wounded included some of Gifford's aides who were with her at the time. One official added the attack was carried out with an automatic weapon.
There's contradictory information about Giffords' status. As of 2:30 pm ET, sources told NBC News that she's in surgery and critical condition. But around 3:00 pm ET, the AP quoted someone from Giffords' office saying the congresswoman passed away.
Giffords first won her congressional seat in the Democratic wave in 2006, and she narrowly won re-election in the GOP wave last November against Tea Party-backed candidate Jesse Kelly, 49%-47%.
Giffords voted for the health-care legislation, as well as the cap-and-trade bill. But she voted against the stimulus.
McCain won her congressional district over Obama in 2008, 52%-46%.
*** UPDATE 4:00 pm ET *** At a press conference, it was revealed that Giffords is not dead. She is in critical condition. out of Surgery.
One patient dead is a child.
Leave a Comment:
Words absolutely fail me. May God bless the Congresswomen, her family, and all the victims of this madness.
My thoughts & prayers are with her and her family...
Today is truly a dark stain on the fabric of our Democracy!
Feisty
How can shooting a politician at point blank range NOT be politically motivated?
Although, the tea baggers and Fox are implicated it is possible for it not to be political. Remember The Columbine High School and Virginia Tech shootings?
I suppose Sarah is remorseful for putting the Congresswoman's name on her target list.
Sarah Palin tweeted here sincere condolences
She also tweeted a link to the statement with the words "On the tragedy in Arizona."
There is no evidence at this time that the shooting of Giffords was politically motivated, but it's grimly ironic that the candidate appeared on a map of House Democrats "targeted" by Palin in 2010.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/08/sarah-palin-statement-shooting_n_806224.html#comments
Then there are the ignited envelopes sent to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
I'll wait for confirmation before making comments of a political nature on this thread. Meanwhile I'll just say that thankfully God feels Congresswoman Giffords isn't finished with her work here on Earth.
Shep Smith has been reading quotes by the suspect put on YouTube. It's starting to look like the work of a right-wing nutjob.
This nutjob is a Bachmann, Limpball, Hannity, and Glenn Becky follower.
It was just a matter of time before their crazy f-ing rant causes something like this.
Any repubs out there who have been silent when we've listened to hate filled drivel; ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?
Poor lady.. may the Lord be with her... and those who got hurt today - by this lone deranged gunman.
Good Luck congresswoman.
God bless Gabrielle Giffords and those injured or killed by sick and manipulated minds today.
May the country resolve to reject and punish politics encouraging "second amendment remedies to elections", "don't retreat, reload" rather than encourage it implicitly by doing little about it or voting in the party and demented beverage-wearing group that uses it without its members condemning and ending such practices with strength
DMFB,
I hope you are not serious. We don't need any more killings or more ideologues with guns. That's exactly what caused this tragedy.
DMFB,
I don't normally insult folks on this board, which is difficult considering some of the inane drivel conservatives post here regularly, but in your case I will make an exception:
You are a pus-filled zit on the backside of humanity.
You idiots blame Palin for today's shooting, yet the killer is a FAR LEFT nut-case.
Thankfully only 3% of the population watched your insane news shows...LOL
What are you stupid - He is an Anarchist - that is extreme right someone who does not beleive in government (sound familiar), wants a return to the gold standars like Beck and some GOP congressmen.
She was on Sarah Palin's target map...Palin should be arrested...or sued in civil court.
DMFB: you should be banned from the VINE. There is no reason to post anything as sick as you posted.
I find it hard to believe that so many people on the Vine are so quick to point to the Right or the left before actually knowing what the heck you are talking about. All you do is make yourselves out to be a bunch of idiots that shouldn't be allowed around a computer key board.
Instead of jumping on the net and try to be the first ones to post and try to run down one side or the other maybe you could have takenthe time to make sure of the H and the 5 Ws. I seen where one person posted he was ex-military so had to be a right winged wacko. Turns out the shooter tried to get in the Army but was not accepted.
Another post has him as a Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity follower and must be a tea partier. If you read anything about him or on his site then you would know he believed almost everything done by our Government is Unconstitutional. He also believed that God should not be a part of anything and that Mein Kampf and the Communist Manifesto were 2 of his favorite books. He also did not believe in god and was busted at least once for possession of marijuana and paraphernalia
In one of his you tube videos he is trying to burn the American Flag. On his My Space he wrote that he was going to be on National TV, he felt like killing a cop, and this morning he posted that a farewell to his friends.
He was kicked out of Pima Community College for several episodes of disruptive behavior. He also posted that he thought that all education should be free and he had a fixation on creating a new currency.
Instead of blaming one side or the other, those that were so quick to make a judgement should go back and detract your statements. This guy is apparently not playing with a whole deck and was looking for one way or another to achieve his minute of fame.
Many of you added to a tragic moment by accusing your fellow citizens of supporting or advocating his behavior. I don't recall anyone thinking Fromme was a left wing wacko when she tried to shoot Ford, and nobody was claiming that Hickley was a left wing wacko when he shot Reagan.
Instead of acting like a bunch of ignorant morons, try gathering a little info before being so quick to accuse. We already have enough of that in the world.
The guy is crazy. Further motive analysis is neither necessary nor appropriate.
Can we all now PLEASE turn off all those talking heads on radio and cable TV?!!!! I may not agree with you but I am sure that neither one of us is a Nazi and I'm also sure we are ALL "real" Americans. Some of these people rant and call names but do NOTHING but give the unbalanced an excuse they need to take actions against the good of all of us.
Thoughts and prayers to the families of the innocent victims. Words matter especially when they are filled with hate and demonization of any person, any legislation, any party, any government. When will the madness stop?
Hopefully, she will survive. Whatever functions she has left may she perform them to the best of her abilities This is a truly sad dad. I feel like I've been shot.
Congresswoman Giffords was included in Sarah Palin's infamous and despicable target map.
I'll reserve other comments until further motivation info is revealed.
Best Wishes to this heroine
The media hs blood on thier hands for this, let by FOX, but CNN and MSNBC are complicit in allowing hate speech to become part of political dialogue. All those who believe words liek 'target', 'shoot', '2nd amendiment remedies' dont have onsequences, there is blood on your hands. It is always those who fight for progress get assasinated. And have no doubt this is an assasination!
Lincoln, J. Kennedy, B. Kennedy, MLK, and now Giffords. Gifford was and i hope is a conservative democrat who fought for HCR, and has now been shot for it.
The Media and GOP need to understand that their hate speech they allow to broadcast has consequences.
America is no better than a bannana republic when these things happen.
Let's wait and see, guys. We don't know the story yet.
So far the police are saying the shooting was not political motivated.
How can shooting a politician at point blank range NOT be politically motivated?
newday
Let's wait and see, guys. We don't know the story yet.
I will I'm glad to her that Dennis says police are saying the shooting was not political. motivated.
President Obama Responds to the Giffords shooting
http://crooksandliars.com/breaking-news/president-obama-responds-giffords-sh
We do not need anymore divisiveness at this dire economic strait we are in.
I really hopes she survives.
Evidently, there was a judge who had received threats in the group who were shot at, who was also wounded. He may have been the actual target.
My thoughts and prayers are with all the victims.
Hi, Beverly: I hope it wasn't politically motivated. But, having said that, I throw this question out for discussion, and I would like some of our right wing friends to answer this as well. What kind of government do you want? Do you want Congresspeople who cannot make personal appearances due to what might happen to them? I don't care what side of the aisle you are on. EVERY TIME SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENS ANOTHER LAYER OF SECURITY MUST BE ADDED, THE END RESULT OF WHICH IS TO SEPARATE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS FROM THE PEOPLE THEY REPRESENT! The farther away people are from their Representation, the less power they have to be heard. The good news is that they are saying that the Congresswoman will survive.
newday
I'm trying to be as objective and hopful as possible. This will hopefully send a message to the militants in the Tea Party and Fox Noise to stop the hate, bigotry, fear, and threats. By, the way Sarah just took the Cross hair target map down from her Sarah pac That's a good sign.
Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, father Spencer Gifford, 75, was rushing to the hospital when asked if his 40-year-old daughter had any enemies.
"Yeah," he told The Post. "The whole tea party."
He added that politicians constantly faced danger.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/ariz_congresswoman_shot_in_head_YFTvsurRHy5OWGSRKnuK8J#ixzz1ATqVmHG3
Here is the link on the judge
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704030704576070010694650214.html
Capital police have increased security for all federal judges. Good lord.
Beverly: I do hope it gives Palin and company cause to reflect on the language that they use. Her dad sounded like he was heartbroken, as he would be. People forget that all of us have families and families love their own.
The shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, is, like the gunman at the Discovery channel building, neither a "righty" nor a "lefty".
He is just plain crazy. Well, that is my take on someone who, in his "last words" video on Youtube, claims that the government is trying to control us by the use of Grammar.
Actually, it kind of begs the question: the man posts a video calling himself a terrorist, among other rantings, which was viewed by some number of people- and no one thought to notify the police?
The fact is, it matters not at all that he was not motivated by politics but by an unhinged view of reality to the people killed and injured by him.
beverly - your diatribe of hatred (post 4.6) of most anyone right of center is truly amazing. What would Martin Luther King think of you?
My condolences goes out to the victims and families of this latest shooting.
Interesting NDD - I see no one has taken you up on your question. Not surprising they're to busy trying to back peddle!
I predicted the summer of 2009 that the right wing hate merchants would 'wash their filthy hands' of the mess WHEN blood was finally spilled...
You don't shoot a politician at POINT BLANK range and claim it wasn't 'politically motivated' PERIOD!
Here's some quarters for you righties... you're going to need them for your 'spin cycle'
I think this is a discussion that we need to have Feisty. How will members of Congress get out and chat with people now?
Not only does it NEED to happen... it is long overdue!!
However, I see the other side appears to not think so!
The silence is deafening!
american't-2051576
beverly - your diatribe of hatred (post 4.6) of most anyone right of center is truly amazing. What would Martin Luther King think of you?
My condolences goes out to the victims and families of this latest shooting.
Wasn't it you who asked do I speak English?
Now, I know why. I said nothing hateful in post 4.6. Unless you consider her father's answers to the police hateful. Or Sarah's remorseful treat hateful. Personally, I consider Sarah's treat to be a good gesture and a good start towards healing as well as toning down her past hate rhetoric.
I stated that sentiment in other posts.
I find it interesting of you to even spin hate at a time like this. Spare others your indiscretions.
Congresswoman Giffords has been a target of "angry" tea baggers in the past. She appeared on MSNBC and spoke about vandalism at her campaign offices, specifically a glass door being "shot out"
She was immediately made ridiculed by pundits on FOX and elsewhere who labeled her a typical liberal claiming "victim" status.
Reflection and Prayer are both in order.
May God be with Congresswoman Giffords, her entire family, all who loved and cared for her, and the same for all the other victims of this heinous act.
If you know someone serving in country write to them.
However, if you know someone living in Arizona pray for them.
Obama, Reid and Pelosi are indirectly culpable for this catastrophe. Like the school yard bully, these three have bullied the average American and forced their ideology down our throats. So some are responding just as other victims of shool yard bullies have responded, in the only way they know how to alleviate the bullying. I remember Pelosi's statement that you have to pass Obamacare in order to know what is in it. This is no way to legislate. When you corner some, they will retaliate. If you don't want to lead this country to more violence, act responsibly when you are given the privilege to hold office. No hubris allowed.
Okolehao: You ought to be ashamed of yourself. And if the Vine has any sense, you will be banned.
So only 1 side has the right to raise hate talk. The other side is to just let it happen.
Why can not legislation be done and those who "loose" accept what has happened. I like the Health Care reform that was passed. Does this mean that I should be shot?? There are many sides to every issue in this country. I personally think ALL guns except those for deer/geese(bird) hunting should be abolished. But I know that will never happen so I have to accept that the law of the land allows people that should not carry guns (nor steak knives even) get to carry their gun. It is the law.
Restraint in everything has to be done!!
Okelehao, that's a despicable thing to say. Your incitement to violence is the sickest kind of pandering. In effect you are saying "stay quiet, do as your told and no one gets hurt."
This is MY country too. This is MY government too. You, on the other hand are no American.
This disgusts me. One of the victims who died was a young child.
Prayers to all the victims. The judge involved, recommended by McCain and appointed by Bush 41, has died.
THe police have SAID it IS politically motiviated, and have provided added security to other democractic repesentatives in AZ.
nadeem, is there any link that you could give?
Sorry no, i saw it on the Arizona local TV station. THere was now a package found in her office. The shooter is a self proclaimed anarchist and beleiver in the gold standard (extreme right wing like Beck)
Thanks nadeem, I'm sure it will be on the News tomorrow.
My thoughts are with all the victims and rarely post here because of some of the nasty comments and not much comes from them but more anger. How dare you justify these actions by calling democrats bullies. Violence doesn't solve anything. In this country were have civil discord and elections, not gun totting freaks who I hope get the chair and rot in hell for what they have done to those families. This is not the country I fought for in the first gulf war. Let me say it one more time there is never a justification for cold blooded murder that and political murder is treasonous and makes that person a domestic terrorist. And anyone supporting or defending their actions are no better than them, so I hope they rot in hell too.
Anyone who would choose to justify, make excuses for or dismiss this heinous and cowardly act of violence as anything but a politically motivated act of terrorism is an enemy of our country and the freedom they claim to love. This woman is a servant of our nation, a wife and patriot. There is no more room for the hate mongering rhetoric and fear tactics used by the right to galvanize supporters for political gain. Is this your idea of taking your country back? Let us all pray for everyone injured and the family of the deceased. Let us hope that this sort of thing does not become a trend for any radical who shares a different ideology from the conservative side.
Thanks to all the Fox radio talk hosts, people like this idiot are so BRAINWASHED that they become EXTREME RADICALS same way MUSLIM RADICALS. FOX IS ATHREAT TO OUR COUNTRY. THEY ARE SCARING PEOPLE SO MUCH THAT THIS WILL SADLY HAPPEN AGAIN.
Okolehao
Obama, Reid and Pelosi are indirectly culpable for this catastrophe. Like the school yard bully, these three have bullied the average American and forced their ideology down our throats. So some are responding just as other victims of shool yard bullies have responded, in the only way they know how to alleviate the bullying. I remember Pelosi's statement that you have to pass Obamacare in order to know what is in it. This is no way to legislate. When you corner some, they will retaliate. If you don't want to lead this country to more violence, act responsibly when you are given the privilege to hold office. No hubris allowed.
You are reveling in this tragedy.
BTW: The CIA may visit you just like the secret service that did fighting champion who said he wanted to knock sense into President Obama. But, Fox Noise's blockhead Sean Hannity did not think so.
Watch @ 2:10 in the video.
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/index.html
fox is guilty for the radicalization of our republican brothers
Pray that all those injured, male and female, black, white, brown, democrat or repbulican fully recover from this horrendous occurence. Violence has no place in this country. We use the ballot box and then should accept the results.
Now days Republicans dont want to even discuss issues, their issue REPUBLICAN is the only issue. SHAME ON YOU FOX NETWORK
yep, george thought the same myself in 2009 and 2010, only then it was obama and the democratically controlled congress saying "my way or the highway"
When Obama was elected THE REPUBLICANS FLIP THE FINGER ON THE PEOPLE they didnt care about the issues that mattered, all they care about was using FOX NETWORK to divide our people and make the Republicans become radical extremist like this idiot that shot our congress woman
Glen Beck you must be happy with what happened to our congress woman uh? TALK TO YOUR TALKSHOW BUDDIES FROM FOX im sure you are enjoying this. SHAME ON YOU FOX NETWORK
I suppose it was bound to happen...and somewhere there are those who are disturbingly proud...the "Second Amendment Remedies" have begun.
We're supposed to be better than this.
A right wing nut whose favorite book among others is Mein Kampf? Frankly, from what little information I have been able to find on him, he sounds more like a Libertarian>
Okolehao, I don't know where this guy sits on the ideological map, but Fascism is a Rightist authoritarian view...the perfect partnership between business and government, to cite Benito Mussolini.
Libertarians are on the right end of the spectrum as well.
"The Gun Is Civilization"
By Anonymous USMC (Ret)
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.
The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat - it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed.
People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.
People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.
The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation... And that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.
So the greatest civilization is one where all citizens are equally armed and can only be persuaded, never forced.
Could you stay with us and find that rational part of your brain, Okolehao? This is no time to write something praising guns. If you had the sense that God gave a goose, you would know that. And the idiocy that you posted, if that is what passes for logical discourse in your world, I hope you are not allowed to carry a gun.
Police need to go see Okolehao, he sounds a bit deranged.
This is a very tactless time to post such a speech but the argument is entirely valid.
To decrease gun violence everyone must be armed or only law enforcement can be armed, going about it in the disorganized way of the US is the worst way to do it. But then you would have to convince pacifists to arm themselves or gun-nuts to give them up and neither one is going to happen any time soon.
P.S.- The NRA fighting laws that keep guns out of the hands of career criminals and the mentally incompitent isn't helping anyone.
It was only a matter of time.....and we all knew it.
I am disgusted about the shooting that occcurred today in Arizona.
Not only was the act beyond words but Republicans have always refused to vote to change the gun law; which in itself is abominable .
Palin, Fox TV and other members of the Republican Party plus the Tea Party, who instigated people to carry arms during the mid term elections, should be disgusted with themselves for trying to put a good face on what they created by even speaking of sending their condolences to all the members of families who have been affected by this insindious act.
The person who goes by the name of "okelehao," and whose comments appear above, should put themselves in the shoes of the parents who now have lost a 9 year old child by the hand of a gunman. The family members of other people who were killed and injured by this gunman would, I am sure, not be impressed with your views.
You should be ashamed of yourself and if I may be so bold to say - LESS people in this world with your views could maybe lead to a good civilization. What gives you the right to even think that carrying a gun is a "civilized act!!!!" You should maybe look back in history ; if you have a working brain; and see what sorrow your so called "civilized act" caused.
America, at the moment, does not look such a great country.