Arizona Shooting Suspect Set For Court Appearance

Giffords still in critical state
Will US Gun Laws change? The US congresswoman shot in a gun attack in Arizona is still in a critical condition in Hospital but showing good signs, her doctor says. A Mass for the six dead and Ms Giffords and more than a dozen others wounded in Saturday's attack was planned for Tuesday in Tuscon, Arizona. Jared Loughner, 22, is charged with the attack. He waived bail on Monday. On Tuesday Morning, Dr Lemole told NBC Ms Giffords's brain was "working at a higher level" and she ...

Judges no strangers to balancing security
WASHINGTON — As Americans grapple with the Tucson shootings and congressional lawmakers reexamine changes in their personal security measures, members of the judiciary branch are also mourning the loss of one of their own — a dreaded occurrence for a community that has faced mounting threats of violence in recent years. U.S. District Judge John M. Roll was among the six people killed Saturday when he dropped by a community event held by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shortly before 22...

Most Americans Reject Tie Between Political Rhetoric, Arizona Shootings
While the Arizona shootings have triggered a national debate about whether the vitriol in political Rhetoric has gone over the top, 57 percent of Americans do not believe the heated partisan tone of public debate had anything to do with the gun rampage in Tucson, according to a CBS News poll released Tuesday. The connection between the state of political discourse and the shootings that critically wounded Arizon Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, killed six and injured 13 others had perhaps been put most ...

Right Wingers Defend Hate Speech While Tea Party Takes Advantage of Arizona Shooting To Raise Money
While Jared Loughner’s Extremist views differ from those of the Tea Party, many have raised concerns that the anti-government and hate-filled Rhetoric coming from the Tea Party movement, along with leaders such as Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, contribute to an atmosphere of hate which promotes violence among disturbed individuals such as Loughner. There is a fine line between extremists on both ends of the political spectrum, and I was not at all surprised to see that Loughner’s view...

Arizona shooting suspect appears in court
PHOENIX, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- A federal magistrate in Phoenix Monday ordered the man accused of shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and 19 others during the weekend held without bond. Jared Loughner, dressed in a tan detention uniform and shackled, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Lawrence Anderson, who appointed federal public defender Judy Clark as Loughner's attorney, The Arizona Republic reported. Anderson ordered Loughner held without bond, the Arizona Daily Star reported. Loughner is acc...

Judges Purpose in Seeing Giffords Could Be Legally Significant
Was U.S. District Court Judge John M. Roll just being sociable when he dropped by an appearance by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in Tucson on Saturday, or was he planning to discuss official business? Does it even matter, given the horror of that morning? Yes, it could matter, legally speaking. At first glance, Roll’s state of mind might appear irrelevant, given the tragedy that unfolded on Saturday morning, when Roll was shot dead and Giffords gravely wounded in a rampage that killed ...

Giffords shooting suspect held without bail
Jared Lee Loughner, the man accused of shooting Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D), was orderd to be held without bail by a Federal Judge on Monday. Judge Lawrence Anderson also set Loughner's preliminary hearing for Jan. 24 at 1:30 p.m. Arizona time. According to the Associated Press, Loughner appeared in a federal courtroom in Phoenix donning a tan inmate jumpsuit and a shaved head. Loughner, 22, is accused of killing six and wounding 14 in a Shooting Spree at a meet-and-greet for Giffor...

Publicist Offers Kooky Pitch to Discuss Sanity
We get pitches for just about anything here in the Fishbowl. But this morning we got one that is nearly irresistible. It’s for a sanity expert — and get this, she’s lucid. Paul Krupin , Publicist for author and “Communications Expert” Meryl Runion writes: “Ms. Meryl Runion is available for emergency interview via telephone or satellite uplink from Colorado Springs, Colorado by arrangement, over the weekend or beyond. She is a savvy and highly lucid expert who ...

U.S. public says Giffords shooting, rhetoric unrelated
Most Americans see no relation between the attempted Assassination of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the political tactic of lacing vitriolic Rhetoric with Firearms analogies. That’s the conclusion of a CBS News poll that found most Republicans (69 pct), most Independents (56 pct) and even a plurality of Democrats (49 pct) believe the two phenomena unrelated. Those numbers add up to 57 percent of Americans overall — a true majority though not quite big enough to break a Se...

U.S. majority doesn't blame rhetoric for Giffords shooting
WASHINGTON | Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:18am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of Americans reject the view that heated political Rhetoric was a factor in the weekend shootings in Arizona which killed six and critically wounded a congresswoman, a CBS News said on Tuesday. Since the Saturday incident in which Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot at point-blank range, various politicians and commentators have said a climate in which strong language and ideological polarization is com...

Hate, violence, extremism: Krugman on the Arizona shooting
By Michael J.W. Stickings Just to drive the point home, allow me to quote Paul Krugman, who yesterday made the case that many of us have been making the past few days: When you heard the terrible news from Arizona, were you completely surprised? Or were you, at some level, expecting something like this atrocity to happen? Put me in the latter category. I've had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach ever since the fina...

Citing Arizona, Va. delegate proposes banning firearms in State Capitol
A Virginia delegate is introducing a bill to ban Firearms from the State Capitol and General Assembly Building in response to the shooting rampage in Arizona that left a U.S. Congresswoman in critically wounded. Del. Patrick A. Hope (D-Arlington) will propose that the General Assembly consider the ban when it convenes for its annual legislative session Wednesday. "The tragedy this weekend in Tucson should cause all public officials to re-examine the safety and security of themselves, their staf...

What good does this do Brian Terry and Gabrielle Giffords?
Brian Terry was the Border Patrol agent who was killed by Mexican bandits a few weeks ago on the Arizona-Mexico border. Gabrielle Giffords is the congresswoman who was seriously shot Saturday in Tucson by a gunman. Not much was made of Brian Terry’s Murder. There was a Funeral. Janet Napolitano came to the funeral and chided Terry’s family for complaining that their son was not kept safe enough and that was the end of it. When it surfaced that the reason Terry was killed was that Nap...

Right Wing Media Vitriol Haunts Us In Arizona Shooting
We all had a finger on the trigger—I.F. Stone wrote those words about the Assassination of John F. Kennedy in the cruel fall of 1963. Now we come to the bleak winter of 2011, and how much has changed? Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords lay near dying in her own blood after a shooting rampage in Arizona left six dead, from a Federal Judge to a girl of nine, and 14 others injured. It all happened in the most American of places: a strip mall Parking Lot on a Saturday morning. That's what th...

Senate sergeant-at-arms: Lawmakers carrying guns not a good idea
It's not a good idea for lawmakers to carry guns for personal protection in the wake of Saturday's shooting in Arizona, the Senate's sergeant at arms said Tuesday. Terrance Gainer, the Senate's top Law Enforcement official and the former chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, urged lawmakers to leave their security to professionals following the shooting on Saturday of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). "I don't think that's a good idea," Gainer said on "Good Morning America" on ABC. "I think we ...

Left-wing Nutbag Kills Bush-Appointed Judge
Now there is a headline you won’t see in the lamestream media, blogs on the left or MSNBC. Instead, Chris Matthews is sure that a guy whose favorite book was the Communist Manifesto was inspired by… Sharron Angle.  More on that, later. Also basically unmentioned is the name of Federal Judge John Roll who was killed in the attack.  Judge Roll was appointed to the bench by George H.W. Bush.  I had to Google search today to remind myself of his name, to write this.  (The Los A

In They Are Who We Thought They Were News..
I had put this in the replies in yesterday’s Afternoon Open Thread, but I thought about it, and decided to FP it. In an apparent effort to distance themselves from the Mass Shootings in Arizona over the weekend, the Tea Party Express sent out an email to supporters proclaiming that they “won’t be silenced” — and asking for contributions. Earlier today, TPE leader Sal Russo went on Fox News and lamented how “revolting and disgusting the left is for trying to as...

Is it time for a national debate on the mentally ill?
Give some credit to The New Republic.  For the most part, they have eschewed the evidence-free festival of demonization the past three days after the mass Murder in Tucson that left six dead and fourteen injured, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.  Jonathan Chait scolded those on the Left who exploited the lunacy for their own political agendas in his column yesterday (via Rick Moran), and today William Galston focuses on the actual impetus to the shooting — insanity and society’...

The tragic shooting of Congresswoman Giffords affects all of us
The gunman is Jared Loughner. He is sick and deranged.  Unfortunately, liberal pundits attempted to tie Loughner as a conservative and blamed Talk Radio for this shooting.  He had been stalking Congresswoman Giffords for years. Their observations were unfounded and completely false.  Loughner was a Lone Wolf; a term liberals often use to categorize criminals.  People who knew Loughner said he was unstable and prone to violence.  He is an atheist.  He listened to hea...

In Arizona case, experts say planning undermines insanity plea
The alleged shooter in Saturday's deadly Tucson massacre may have difficulty making the case for a successful insanity plea, experts said Tuesday. Jared Lee Loughner, 22, who authorities say shot up a gathering held by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, outside a Supermarket, has been anecdotally regarded as very troubled and perhaps mentally unbalanced because of his ramblings spotted on the Internet and the ways he has been described by acquaintances. But Paul Callan, a criminal def...

Obama Will Attend Tucson Memorial Service
President Obama will attend the memorial service on Wednesday in Tucson for those killed in Saturday’s shootings. Expect a lecture. President Obama will travel to Arizona on Wednesday to attend a memorial service for those killed in Saturday’s shootings that targeted Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) for Assassination, according to a White House official. The news that Obama would visit Tucson, where six people were killed and more than a dozen others were wounded by a gunmen on Sat...

Suspect in Arizona shootings appears in court
By David Schwartz PHOENIX, Arizona | Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:42pm EST PHOENIX, Arizona (Reuters) - A troubled 22-year-old College Dropout made his first court appearance on Monday on five federal charges, including the attempted Assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who remained in critical condition with a bullet wound to the head. His hands manacled together, Jared Lee Loughner said understood the charges against him that stem from a Shooting Spree in Tucson on Saturday that left s...

Suspect in Arizona shootings appears in court
By David Schwartz PHOENIX, Arizona | Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:42pm EST PHOENIX, Arizona (Reuters) - A troubled 22-year-old College Dropout made his first court appearance on Monday on five federal charges, including the attempted Assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who remained in critical condition with a bullet wound to the head. His hands manacled together, Jared Lee Loughner said understood the charges against him that stem from a Shooting Spree in Tucson on Saturday that left s...

Loughner Could Receive Death Penalty
MSNBC reports: PHOENIX, Ariz. — Jared Loughner, head shaved, a cut on his right temple and his hands cuffed, stared vacantly at a packed courtroom Monday and sat down. His attorney, who defended “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, whispered to him. It was the nation’s first look at the 22-year-old loner accused of trying to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The three-term Democrat lay about a 100 miles away in a Tucson intensive care unit, gravely wounded after being shot throug...

Neighbor says Ariz. suspect's parents blame selves
A neighbor says the parents of the suspect in Saturday's Shooting Spree in Tucson are devastated and guilt-ridden. Jared Loughner (LAWF'-nuhr) appeared in court Monday on federal charges that he tried to assassinate U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed a Federal Judge. He is also accused of killing five others and wounding or injuring 13 others. Wayne Smith, who lives across the street from the family, said Randy and Amy Loughner blame themselves. Smith said he told the couple they didn't fai...