Democratic Rep to Offer Legislation That Would Make it a Federal Crime to Threaten Members of Congress

Serious Questions
When politicians start talking about criminalizing Speech I get a bit nervous, but I am willing to listen to the specifics on this: Rep. Robert Brady (D-Pa.) reportedly plans to introduce Legislation that would make it a federal crime to use language or symbols that could be perceived as threatening or inciting violence against a federal official or member of Congress. Brady told CNN that he wants federal lawmakers and officials to have the same protections against threat currently provided to ...

Hate Speech the Rights Magic Bullet (Guest Voice)
Hate Speech the Right’s Magic Bullet by Michael Winship The Russian playwright Anton Chekhov had a rule: if you show a gun in the first act, by the time the curtain falls, it has to go off. For weeks and months, that gun, the weapon of angry Rhetoric and intemperate rabblerousing, has been cocked and loaded in plain view on the American stage; Saturday morning outside a Shopping Mall in Tucson, Arizona, it went off again and again and again. The target, Gabrielle Giffords, a member of the Un...

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...

America's worse sheriff
Image via Wikipedia IBD: It's bad enough that a fine congresswoman is shot down by a crazed assassin. But do those whose job it is to prevent such awful things have to insert their own base politics into the tragedy? As a key Law Enforcement figure in the Assassination attempt against Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, a Democrat, might be expected to show some caution in commenting on the violent swirl of bitter, unsubstantiated and outright false accusation...

Peter King, Leading Republican, To Introduce Strict Gun-Control Legislation
Rep. Peter King, a Republican from New York, is planning to introduce Legislation that would make it illegal to bring a gun within 1,000 feet of a government official, according to a person familiar with the congressman's intentions. King is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of the nation's most outspoken gun-control advocates, is backing King's measure and will put the weight of his pro-gun-control organization behind it. He was scheduled...

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...

Rush Limbaugh: It's 'Insane' to Link Sarah Palin to Tucson Shootings
Don't blame Sarah Palin. Right-wing Talk Show host Rush Limbaugh says media outlets "are unnecessarily stirring up the country" in the wake of the fatal Arizona shootings and attempting to tie the tragedy to the colorful Rhetoric used by him and Sarah Palin, among others. "Reporters are bending over backwards to link this shooting to me, to Sarah Palin, to an entire industry -- Talk Radio," he said Monday on his syndicated program. "Only in these instances is something said in the media, said to...

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...

Why Sarah Palin Won't Be President.
One of the criticisms Progressives often make of Barack Obama is that he spends far too much time trying to make his opponents like him, and not enough time worrying about what his supporters think of him. Sarah Palin , on the other hand, has the opposite problem: she spends all her time speaking to those who are already within her bubble of support, and no time thinking about how she can persuade those who aren't already on her side. Her reaction to the Gabrielle Giffords shooting has cast this...

N.Y. Rep. Carolyn Maloney pushes for control of high-capacity bullet magazines
This report was written by Carolyn Lochhead and Jennifer Dlouhy of the Washington bureau and Bob Egelko of the San Francisco Chronicle. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., who lost her husband in a fatal shooting, is renewing efforts to outlaw the high-capacity bullet magazines such as the one used in the shootings Saturday in Tucson, Ariz. AP photo Surrounded by local leaders, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference about Gun Control in New York. The alleged Arizona gunman, ...

Poll: Americans smarter than Democrat politicos, MSM
Glad to know that the 24-7 hyperventilating, sensationalizing , and demagoguing by MSM outlets and talking point-led Democrats aren’t persuading the American People in the aftermath of the attempted Assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ8), the Murder of 5 others, and injury of 11 others that happened in Tucson, AZ this past Saturday. Via CBS News ( hat tip ): Nearly six in 10 Americans say the country’s heated political Rhetoric is not to blame for the Tucson shooting rampag...

CBS Poll: Nearly Six In Ten Say Heated Rhetoric Unrelated To AZ Shooting
In a CBS poll released this morning, almost 60% of Americans said they don't think strong political Rhetoric is to blame for Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona that left six dead and wounded over a dozen others, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. In the poll, 57% of respondents said that intense political discourse had nothing to do with the attack, versus 32% who said that it was a contributing factor to the shooting. By political demographics, Republicans were less inc...

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 ...

CBS Poll: By 57% to 32% Margin Americans Say Political Rhetoric Had Nothing to do With Giffords Shooting
MSM Propaganda FAIL. (The Hill)- Almost 60 percent of the public believes that heated political Rhetoric has nothing to do with an Arizona Shooting Spree that gravely wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) and killed a Federal Judge. Many pundits and lawmakers have keyed in on political vitriol as a potential contributing factor to the shootings allegedly carried out by Jared Lee Loughner, a 22-year-old Tucson man who faces five federal Felony Charges. Loughner’s writings and videos suggest a...

Slain AZ Judge Remembered as 'Fervent Christian'
The Federal Judge killed in Saturday's Tucson, Ariz. shooting rampage is being remembered by friends and family as a "fervent Christian" who treated everyone with kindness and respect. Judge John M. Roll had stopped by to greet Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., at a constituent meeting being held in her district Saturday when he lost his life to suspected gunman Jared Loughner. On Monday, Bishop Gerald Kicanas of the Roman Catholic Church's Tucson Diosese said the 63-year-old "lived his fait...

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 ...

Should It Be Against the Law for "Perceived" Threats Against Federal Officials?
I think there are going to be constitutional problems with this idea: Rep. Robert Brady (D-Pa.) reportedly plans to introduce Legislation that would make it a federal crime to use language or symbols that could be perceived as threatening or inciting violence against a federal official or member of Congress. Brady told CNN that he wants federal lawmakers and officials to have the same protections against threat currently provided to the president. His call comes one day after Rep. Gabrielle Gif...

Brady to initiate House bill to protect Congress against threats
The Hill reports that Congressman Robert Brady (D-PA), plans to introduce Legislation prohibiting "language or symbols that could be perceived as threatening or inciting violence against a federal official or member of Congress." Brady is quoted as telling CNN that "The president is a federal official. You can't do it to him; you should not be able to do it to a congressman, senator or Federal Judge." A quick search of Google News shows that so far reaction from News Media political pundits has ...

Arizona Rampage Suspect Ordered Held Without Bail
What is this? Jared Loughner has made his first court appearance and has been ordered held without bail as the federal case against him in the killings of six people and wounding of 14 others in Tucson, Ariz., on Saturday gets underway. During a short appearance before federal Magistrate Judge Lawrence Anderson in Phoenix this hour, the 22-year-old Tucson man appeared to "understand everything the judge was telling him," CNN's Ted Rollins just reported. — Attempted Assassination of a membe...

Wounded man, physician among those who stepped up during shooting
A man who'd been grazed with a bullet helped subdue a gunman. An intern tended to the wounded congresswoman whose staff he'd joined just days before. A woman put an extra ammunition clip out of the gunman's reach, and a doctor who'd witnessed the shooting performed CPR on the injured. CNN Heroes salutes the following people who responded to Saturday's shooting at a political event outside a Supermarket in Tucson, Arizona - a shooting that killed six people and wounded 14...

Dems ready gun control legislation regulating ammunition clips
Stumble This! Democrats in the House and Senate are preparing to introduce Legislation that would limit purchases high-capacity gun ammunition clips like the one used Saturday in the tragic shootings of 20 people in Arizona. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), two of the most outspoken Gun Control advocates in Congress, are sponsoring the Legislation in their respective chambers. "The only reason to have 33 bullets loaded in a Handgun is to kill a lot of people very q...

Simmer
Rep. Cooper’s Chief of Staff writes in the CP on Gabby Giffords: Yes, one deranged individual shot Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, killing innocent civilians and wounding many others. But we should be very skeptical of the push-back from conservative media voices that emphasize the “lone gunman” storyline. Conservative Talk Radio, Fox News and Sarah Palin’s completely irresponsible targeting of races last election cycle — complete with visual “crosshairs” thro...

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...

Pawlenty on Duncan, Palin, and 100 years of legislation
Lightning Rounds are always a good time, and that's how the New York Times' Michael Shear finishes up his interview with Tim Pawlenty (watch here). Shear: Which was President Obama's best cabinet pick? Pawlenty: Wow. You know, I've gotten along with a number of them, but I don't know all of his policies, historically, but I really like Arne Duncan's emphasis on teaching reform -- overhauling the teaching profession and holding them accountable. For a Democrat, he's been unusually candid about ...