Washington DC: WASHINGTON, DC – There's no shortage of media speculation as to why Jared Loughner chose to attack Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
PHOTOS: Jared Loughner in pictures
Commentators have suggested possible roles for overheated political Rhetoric, mental illness, and even Sarah Palin's Controversial "crosshairs" map.
VIDEOS: Jared Loughner in videos
But some explanations have been less conventional. Here are the five most unusual arguments so far about what led Loughner to his awful act. 'Did Pot Trigger Giffords Shooting?' That's the headline on a much-mocked rece...
Rush Limbaugh Poetry: Democrats Helping Jared Loughner Avoid Jail
Let’s throw it to our top Arizona legal analyst, Rush Limbaugh, Esq., sitting in a hole of Excellent Broadcasting on the other side of the country: “This guy clearly understands he’s getting all the attention and he understands he’s got a political party doing everything it can, plus a local sheriff doing everything that they can to make sure he’s not convicted of Murder.” Poetic! Rush Limbaugh is using this opportunity of pundits’ examining their rhetor...
Jeff Kass: Jared Loughner, Columbine and Diversion
Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner shared an unusual legal background, known as diversion, with the Columbine killers, as recounted in the New York Times. It may also be a window into the character trait of these mass shooters.
"In September, Mr. Loughner filled out paperwork to have his record expunged on a 2007 drug paraphernalia charge," the Times reported. "Although he did not need to bother -- he had completed a diversion program so the charge was never actually on his record -- the i...
New Theory for Tucson Tragedy: Blame the Atheists
I hadn't wanted to weigh in on the political debate over accused killer Jared Loughner's motives in Tucson. Mainly, because I don't know what those motives are. For now, only this young man and the demons haunting his brain know for sure what provoked him, as he is charged, to shoot 20 people, killing six. In the length of time that it took to get Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to the Hospital, I had hoped that amid this tragedy, common sense and decency might prevail. Then the tweets started. And once...
Christina Green: A Face of Hope
Video posted on YouTube of Neda Agha-Soltan, shot and killed during election Protests in Tehran on Saturday, June 20, 2009.
(Credit: YouTube)
Neda Agha-Soltan died of a gunshot wound to the chest on June 20, 2009, in the streets of Tehran during the Iranian election protests.
Her violent death was graphically depicted in video and pictures, and she become a worldwide icon, representing the struggle of Iranian Dissidents to bring about changes in the country as the Incumbent President Mahmoud...
Gun bans won't work
Every time a person goes on a Killing Spree politicians start pointing fingers at each other. Liberals claim that the killings represent the need for better Gun Control. Conservatives usually want stiffer punishment, claiming that it’s the people ant not the guns responsible for this tragedy. Already we are seeing signs that the shooter of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arozona, Jared Lee Loughner, had serious mental problems. That is our problem with the present Gun Laws. We can’t keep ...
Reports Downplayed of Loughner's Extremist Ties
Like this Story? Share it: Only On The Web: CBS News digital Journalist Arden Farhi spoke to Tucson-area residents as they reflect on Saturday's shooting and the impact it's had on their community. Chris Wragge speaks with Tucson shooting survivor Eric Fuller about the gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, and his thoughts on Rep. Gabrielle Gifford's recovery. New details about Tuscon gunman Jared Lee Loughner are being revealed as investigators search his home. Ben Tracy reports. Evidence is continuing t...
Arizona DHS: Loughner not influenced by extremist group
The Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center, a division of the Arizona Department of Homeland Security, acknowledges to my colleague Ken Vogel that it produced a memo reported on by Fox News over the weekend that suggested the suspect in the Tucson attacks may have been influenced by American Renaissance -- a theory it now says the evidence does not support:
David Denlinger, commander of the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center ack...
Jared Loughner's AboveTopSecret postings (Gabrielle Giffords shooter)
Jared Lee Loughner - shooter of Gabrielle Giffords - allegedly posted to the Conspiracy forum AboveTopSecret.com using the handle erad3, and they've published the comments here. He created four threads and posted an additional 126 comments; none of them give an accurate picture of his political leanings or hint at what was to come. In almost all of the comments it's difficult to tell whether he was being completely sincere or whether he was engaging in some form of trolling, mind games, or jus...
Jon Stewart, Voice of Reason for the Left?
It truly is a sad day for politics and a terrible indictment of the Left and Liberal media in the United States, when the voice of reason seems to be a comedian, Jon Stewart. Discussing the shooting rampage that took place in Arizona on Saturday, January 8, 2011, by Jared Lee Loughner, Stewart refrained from his usual funny take on current events to share his personal thoughts. As BuddyTV says of Stewart's comments, "His reaction was, for the most part, serious, often ra...
Repeal vote postponed, but will Giffords shooting change debate?
House Republican leadership immediately postponed the vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act after Saturday's shootings that killed six and left Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords critically injured. Congressional Quarterly's Congress.org is hopeful that the Rhetoric in the debate once Congress takes it back up will "settle down."
“There will be a time of introspection,” said Rep. Michael C. Burgess of Texas, a physician and vice chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on ...
Newsmax Still Hiding Facts About Loughner's Book List
Newsmax Still Hiding Facts About Loughner's Book List
Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax has its story on Arizona shooter Jared Loughner, and it's sticking to it. Two more Newsmax articles persist in incompletely reporting the contents of Loughner's book list.
Davd Patten and Kathleen Walter wrote in a Jan. 10 article that "Loughner’s bizarre rants mention Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto and Hitler’s Mein Kampf, but do not mention Palin, Fox News, the Tea Party, or other high...
Huck: Blaming tea party 'reprehensible'
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee lashed out at “left-wing politicians” and the media for their handling of Saturday’s Mass Shooting in Arizona, saying the rush to blame right-wingers for a Shooting Spree committed by a “whack job nut maggot” was “reprehensible.”
Speaking on his radio show, “The Huckabee Report,” Monday and Tuesday, Huckabee, a top potential 2012 presidential contender, took up one of the right’s favorite themes in t...
CBS Attacks 'Permissive Gun Laws' And Gun-Toting Tea Partiers in Wake of Shooting
On Monday's CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric used the Tucson shooting to go after Gun Ownership: "As we reported, Jared Loughner purchased his gun legally....Saturday's attack is now putting the state's Gun Laws under a magnifying glass." In the report that followed, correspondent Dean Reynolds declared: "Arizona has among the most permissive Gun Laws in the nation." Reynolds portrayed Arizona's commitment to Gun Rights as a danger: "The right to ke...
Tucson suspect's troubles didn't keep him from gun
This undated photo obtained from MySpace shows Jarad L. Loughner. At an event roughly three years ago, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords took a question from Jared Loughner, the man accused of trying to assassinate her and killing six other people. According to two of his High School friends the question was essentially this: "What is government if words have no meaning?" Loughner was angry about her response _ she read the question and didn't have much to say. On Sunday, Loughner was charged in the shoot...
Shootings show need to boost mental health system
Perhaps the saddest thing about last Saturday's Tucson shootings is that they might have been prevented were a more robust Mental Health system in place to deal with suspected shooter Jared Loughner. Loughner certainly displayed plenty of warning signs of serious Mental Illness while a Student at Pima Community College in Tucson. His strange, disturbed and frightening behavior included disorganized thoughts and Speech, an inability to function in social situations, and signs of paranoia....
Detroit Free Press, Detroit News blame 2nd amendment for Arizona shooting
Deranged lunatics hell-bent on killing people will always be able to procure a weapon no matter the Gun Laws. All gun restrictions do is take weapons away from law-abiding citizens. When seconds count to save your life, the police are only minutes away. The liberal MSM just don't get the simple fact that the Founding Fathers wanted us to have the right to Bear Arms for a very good reason. The Detroit Free Press - the same outfit that predicted unprecedented violence when Michigan adopted far l...
GOP Rep: Loughner's Beliefs 'The Liberal Of Liberals'
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) says political Rhetoric doesn't really incite violent behavior at all -- but not before describing Arizona shooting suspect Jared Loughner as a "Communist" and "the liberal of liberals."
"This guy appears to be a communist," Foxx told the Winston-Salem Journal. "His beliefs are the liberal of the liberals [sic]. There is no evidence whatsoever that this man was influenced by Sarah Palin or anybody in the Republican Party. This man is not a conservative; he's a fan of ...
ABC News Boss On Medias Role In Tucson Shootings: Blaming Media Is A Giant Leap
Recently-named ABC News president Ben Sherwood says “it’s premature to leap in and examine what may or may not have been the media’s role” in the Shooting Spree in Arizona. In an interview with Broadcasting & Cable, Sherwood calls the lure to blame the media a “giant leap.”
B&C’s Ben Grossman and Andrea Morabito surveyed news chiefs at ABC, NBC, CNN and Fox, asking each about the charges of vitriolic Rhetoric ahead of the Tucson shootings and ...
Arizona Shooting: The Pen is Still Mightier Than The Sword, as Long as The Pen H
It`s hard for me to write my comments today and not write them in Snooki Fashion; you know like they wrote in her recent book (A Shore Thing,) - In 4 letter words. I will tell my readers today; I will NOT Be mincing words, beating around the bush, no it`s straightforward talk and as Detective Sergeant Joe Friday on Dragnet used to say, "Nothing But the Facts!" , but it will be hard; for today my heart hurts. So again, although I am at a loss of words, the words I do pick will be my own. No one w...
In Wake of Tucson Tragedy, What's Sarah Palin's Next Move?
Sarah Palin and her campaign website targeting Congressional Democrats.
(Credit: CBS/AP)
In the wake of Saturday's tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona - in which six were killed and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and 13 others were injured - Sarah Palin has maintained a relatively low profile.
After expressing her "sincere condolences" to the shooting's Victims and their families via Facebook on Saturday, Palin has made only one other statement to the press: an e-mail to Glenn Beck, which ...
Extremist Rhetoric, Violence and American History
The massacre in Tucson has generated a major and intense debate across the country about whether the overheated political climate—the Rhetoric, the “vitriol, “Extremist Speech”—has influenced or motivated the Tucson shooter to commit his dastardly crime.
Just as reflected in the commentary on this site, the national opinion runs the gamut, from holding the shooter solely and 100 percent responsible, to holding personalities such as Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh solely and 100
Progressive liberal and media failure! Only 32 PERCENT of those polled by CBS think Giffords shooting was politically motivated
Progressive liberal and media failure! Only 32 PERCENT of those polled by CBS think Giffords shooting was politically motivated
As if the American Media hadn’t done enough damage to it’s own reputations over the last two years Cheerleading for Obama, Cheerleading for Democrats in the November Elections, and mocking John Boehner for his crying, the lame stream media may have finally jumped the shark “officially” in the minds of many Americans. According to a poll release...
NYC Tea Partier Thinks the Rhetoric is Coming from the Left
Manhattan Tea Party Leader David Webb said that left-leaning media organizations and polticians have been "irresponsible and despicable" in attempting to connect the Arizona shooter to the Tea Party even though they have no evidence.
"[The shooting] had absolutely nothing to do with the Tea Parties or Sarah Palin's map," Webb said, referring to the well publicized map of 'target' districts released by Sarah Palin's political action fund during last year's Midterm Elections. Contrary to initial...
The costs of protecting our elected officials against an assassins bullet
In light of last Saturday’s tragedy, the U.S. Congress is working an abbreviated schedule this week. Legislative action has been suspended through Wednesday of next week so that our elected leaders can join the rest of the nation in mourning a senseless tragedy. Once work resumes, the House is expected to entertain a proposal to extend armed security protection to all 535 members of Congress at all times. The idea, which is understandable in the light of recent events, has its roots in the...
Lawmaker calls for briefing on mental health danger signs
A leading lawmaker on Mental Health issues is calling for a Bipartisan debate on how to keep lawmakers and their staff and families safe in the wake of Saturday's deadly shooting in Tucson. Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus along with Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Penn.), wants the group to hold a briefing focusing on the behaviors and threats that raise red flags.
"Police agencies already do that," Napolitano told The Hill. "I want to make sure some of ...
Richard Holbrooke Remembered For China, Bosnia, Afghanistan
Top Priority For Republicans: Cutting Federal Spending
Sarah Palin Follows Own Advice In Media Dealings
Tracheotomy Lets Surgeons Remove Giffords' Feeding Tube
Reince Priebus Gets To Find $22 Million For RNC
Governor Pat Quinn Signs Off On Massive Tax Hike
Want A Republican President? How About Herman Cain
Kay Bailey Hutchison Promises To Call It Quits
Christina Green, Youngest Tucson Victim, Laid To Rest
Glenn Beck Supports Barack Obama. Seriously.
If you are commenting as a guest, enter your personal information in the form provided. Don't worry, your privacy is safe.