FBI: Family of suspect in Giffords shooting blocking access to house

Shooting Suspect's Family Blockades House
AzCentral.com reports that the family of Jared Lee Loughner has blockaded their house with 4-by-4 double-thick plywood. FBI agents working on the Gabrielle Giffords shooting encountered trouble gaining entry to the suspect’s family home Monday morning. Family members of Jared Loughner apparently had put on 4-by-4 double-thick plywood that blocked access to the front porch of their north Tucson home. At about 12:25 p.m., agents began banging on the Blockade, yelling, “This is the FBI....

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...

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 ...

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...

Story Blaming Acquaintances for Not Committing Loughner Underplays AZ Cuts in Mental Health Services
According to the Washington Post, Arizona has a law on the books that enables anyone to identify a potential Victim of Mental Illness, and remand them for treatment: Under Arizona law, any one of Jared Lee Loughner’s classmates or teachers at Pima Community College so concerned about his increasingly bizarre behavior could have contacted local officials and asked that he be evaluated for mental illness and potentially committed for psychiatric treatment. That, according to local mental h...

Poll: 57% of Americans dont buy media spin on Tucson massacre
CBS polled almost 700 adults in the wake of the mass Murder in Tucson committed by Jared Lee Loughner to determine whether the media spin that the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the murders of six others was a political act had resonated with the public.  Perhaps surprisingly, the spin machine seems to have failed.  A majority of 57% say that politics had nothing to do with the shooting, and even a plurality of 49% of Democrats agree (via Dan Spencer): Nearly six in 10 Americans say...

Nation gets first look at suspect, Tucson grieves
A woman prays at the memorial located in front of the University Medical Center, Monday, Jan. 10, 2011, in Tucson, Ariz. The memorial has been set up for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who is in critical condition at the Hospital, and other Victims who were shot on Saturday, leaving six dead and more injured. When Jared Loughner walked into the courtroom, everything fell silent. Law clerks, courtroom artists and reporters alike turned from the wooden benches to look at the vacant-e...

Loughner an Independent, Didn't Vote in 2010
For what it's worth, the Washington Post reports that 22-year-old alleged Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner is a registered independent. Six people were left dead and 14 injured, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, after a gunman believed to have been Loughner open fired at town hall-style meeting on Saturday at a Grocery Store in Tucson, Ariz. Though the evidence seems to indicate Loughner lacks a fixed ideology (outside of anti-government sentiment) and may be mentally un...

57% of Americans Think "Tone" of Politics Had Nothing to do with Tucson Shooting
From a CBS News poll: 57 percent of respondents said the harsh political tone had nothing to do with the shooting, compared to 32 percent who felt it did. Republicans were more likely to feel the two were unrelated - 69 percent said Rhetoric was not to blame; 19 percent said it played a part. Democrats were more split on the issue - 49 percent saw no connection; 42 percent said there was. Independents more closely reflected the overall breakdown - 56 percent said Rhetoric had nothing to do with...

Pawlenty On Palins Crosshairs: I Wouldnt Have Done It
Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a contender for the  2012 Republican nomination for president, took a swipe at Sarah Palin when the New York Times asked him about her map with members of Congress, including Gabrielle Giffords, in crosshairs. Pawlenty did stop short of ascribing blame. In the past, Pawlenty has been defensive of Palin, including his book, “Courage to Stand,” which is being released Tuesday. Pawlenty, who left office earlier this month, stopped well short ...

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...

Stop the Blame Game
I'm not a media critic and never will be, but this has not been a shining 48 hours for my profession. Following the shooting that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., gravely wounded and six bystanders murdered at a Tucson shopping center, the media have spent as much time trying to assign political blame for the cause of the shooting as they have trying to unearth facts. As it turns out, the murderer is a mentally unstable individual, with no coherent political ideology. For all the blame pl...

MSNBCs Non Sequitur Marathon
Stacy McCain writes: It is an established fact that the man who killed six people and wounded 12 other people in Tucson was not a Republican. Or a conservative. He didn’t even vote in 2010.Jared Loughner is a psychotic who bore an irrational grudge against Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Why, then, is MSNBC treating its viewers to hour after hour of discussions today about how Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Sharron Angle and others engaged in irresponsible Rhetoric that allegedly could incite pe

Newspaper Roundup for Tuesday, 1-11-11
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 By Susan Jones Denver Post: Security Breach shadows a major push to digitize patient medical records in Colorado Amid risks, bid to digitize health records continues in new year Providence Journal: R.I. Gov. Chafee says he won't do Talk Radio, and neither will on-duty state workers Refuses to support 'for-profit, Ratings-driven programming' Politico: Ariz. lawmakers introducing a bill Tuesday to create a 'Funeral protection zone' Because the Westboro cult is coming...

Ariz. survivor: 'It was like a bad crime drama'
Eric Fuller said Tuesday on the CBS "The Early Show" that he felt the bullet that hit his knee but didn't know he had also been hit in the back. Jared Loughner (LAWF'-nuhr) is being held on federal charges. He's accused of killing six people and wounding or injuring 14 others, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Fuller says he was lucky and feels fine physically but is outraged that Giffords was attacked. Ariz. survivor: 'It was like a bad crime drama' Why hasn't Obama warned...

Eric Fuller, Arizona Victim, Describes Shooting (VIDEO)
NEW YORK — One of the survivors of Saturday's Shooting Spree in Arizona says "it was like a bad crime drama." Eric Fuller said Tuesday on the CBS "The Early Show" that he felt the bullet that hit his knee but didn't know he had also been hit in the back. He says he didn't know how to react and felt the Victims "were in for more." Jared Loughner (LAWF'-nuhr) is being held on federal charges. He's accused of killing six people and wounding or injuring 14 others, including U.S. Rep. Gabriel...

Gabrielle Giffords' Condition Unchanged, Feeling Pain, Doctor Says (VIDEO)
NEW YORK — One of the doctors treating Arizona U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords says there was no change in her condition overnight. Dr. Michael Lemole with the University of Arizona was interviewed Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show. When asked about swelling in her brain on the third day, which is when it often reaches its peak, Lemole said a CAT Scan early Tuesday showed no increase in swelling. But he cautioned that it can sometimes take longer for swelling to peak. Lemole said the fact that ...

UC Berkeley Chancellor Says Arizonas Immigration Law to Blame For Giffords Shooting
So what’s he saying, it wasn’t Palin’s map? Doesn’t he know that’s the official leftist line? In an official e-mail to the University of California at Berkeley campus community, chancellor Robert Birgeneau said that it was no “coincidence” that Saturday’s tragic shooting of Ariz. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others at a public event in Tucson occurred in a state that recently enacted what he suggested was a discriminatory Immigration law. ̶...

The Vitriol Will Likely Return
With any disturbing event, like the tragic and horrifying shooting in Tucson last Saturday, there is a natural tendency to extrapolate the impact of it for months or even years to come. The unspeakable event cost people from such varying walks of life as a 9-year-old girl and a Federal Judge their lives and has left Rep.Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., fighting for her life. Something like this creates a memory that is certain to be burned into the consciousness of current and former elected offici...

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 ...

Poll: Rhetoric, Arizona shooting unrelated
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. Fifty-seven percent of respondents in a new CBS News poll said Rhetoric is unrelated to the shooting, while 32 percent said they believe the two are connected. Many pundits and lawmakers have keyed in on political vitriol as a potential contributing factor to the shootings allegedly carried out by...

The gun consensus
Molly Ball and Shira Toeplitz write: A Bipartisan truce is in effect on Gun Control issues in Washington — a truce on the National Rifle Association’s terms. The NRA’s recognition of this is evident in the group’s response to the Arizona tragedy. It hasn’t bothered to mount a major Lobbying push to make sure lawmakers have their guns-don’t-kill-people talki...

Group leader says 'God sent' Ariz. shooter
TUCSON, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- The leader of a Kansas sect of self-proclaimed Baptists says "God sent" the man accused of shooting 20 people in Arizona, killing six of them. In a telephone interview with the New Times in Phoenix, Shirley Phelps-Roper, a leader of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, said 22-year-old Jared Loughner acted on God's instructions. "God sent the shooter -- that guy's bat-[expletive] crazy -- but God sent him," she said. The congregation that publicizes Protests at U.S. s...

Apparently, The Real Culprit In The Giffords Shooting Was…..Guns!
Now that we are a few days from the shooting of Representative Giffords, and the cold blooded Murder of many others, including a judge and a 9 year old, the media and Democrats are slowly ratcheting up the meme that guns are to blame. They haven't dropped their fixation on "vitriolic Speech".......you know, all the blamestorming coming from the mostly liberal media, elected Democrats, and liberal talking heads could be considered "vitriolic speech." You also have Joe Scarborough, RINO, complaini...

Jared Lee Loughner, Arizona shooting suspect, appears in court
Jared Lee Loughner, accused of Murder and Attempted Murder of federal employees including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, appeared on Monday in Federal Court in Phoenix and will continue to be held for future hearings. Loughner, 22, appeared before Magistrate Judge Lawrence Anderson on a five-count complaint that alleged he attempted to assassinate Giffords, who remains hospitalized in critical condition after Saturday's Shooting Spree. Two of the counts allege that Lougner killed a Federal Judge...