Fighting Words: In Tucson Massacre Debate, The Shooter Becomes Irrelevant

Emotional House pays tribute to Arizona victims
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama walk toward the Marine One Helicopter as they leave the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011, as they travel to Tucson, Ariz., for a memorial service where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. and others were shot in a shooting rampage that left six people dead. Grief-stricken members of Congress paid tribute Wednesday to the Victims of the Tucson shooting rampage amid consultations with security advisers on how they can protect th...

The Political Consequences of Violence
I believe that The New Yorker’s George Packer has mistaken the meaning of a line in my column this week. He writes: Douthat wrote, in the spirit of phony equivalence, “If overheated Rhetoric and martial imagery really led inexorably to Murder, then both parties would belong in the dock,” but also this: “the Attempted Murder of a Democratic congresswoman is a potential gift to Liberalism.” In other words, everyone goes over the line now and then, no one actually want...

Gun Owners of America Fights To Preserve The Next Jared Lee Loughner's Right To Purchase Firearms
If any consensus has emerged about the tragic shootings in Tucson last weekend, it is that Jared Lee Loughner, or anyone with a similar history of dangerous Mental Illness, should not have been able to purchase a gun. But that consensus would have to exclude the right-wing gun Lobbyist organization Gun Owners of America (GOA), which continues to fight any measure aimed at preventing the dangerously mentally ill from purchasing Firearms. Since the Gun Control Act of 1968, there have been legal m...

Disruptive Arizona suspect axed from online group
By John Goh Singapore | Wed Jan 12, 2011 2:01pm EST Singapore (Reuters) - The Arizona man accused of a Killing Spree that targeted a U.S. congresswoman was kicked out of an Internet gaming group last year in part due to statements that other members found disruptive and disturbing. "Wondering why i feel hate," Jared Loughner wrote in an Internet chatroom. "You know like when you sit there and you feel tingles of hate. ... like you did something wrong." His online chat sessions were available ...

Officers stopped suspect on day of Ariz. shooting
(01-12) 10:55 PST Tucson, Ariz. (AP) -- In the hours before the Assassination attempt against Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Jared Loughner went to Walmart, was pulled over for running a red light and ran from his father after an angry confrontation. Investigators are piecing together the timeline of Loughner's frenzied morning before the attack that killed six. "What he did and the morning before the shooting, we're just trying to find all that out," said sheriff's Capt. Chris Nanos. Nanos wouldn't...

Giffords, Loughner, and Palin
Gabrielle Giffords’s office released a photo, from her Hospital room, of her husband, Captain Mark Kelly, holding her hand. (Doing so, as I wrote earlier this week, is often the crucial thing.) One of her doctors, Peter Rhee, told reporters that he’s now certain she will survive, in the short run, though “I can’t tell whether she’s going to be in a vegetative state.” It’s her left hand you see in the picture, the one that wore the Wedding Ring that Kelly...

Friend: Loughner wasn't political, not left or right (two years out of date; Zeitgeist)
On Good Morning America, Zach Osler - a former friend of Gabrielle Giffords shooter Jared Lee Loughner - said the following about Loughner (video below): He did not watch TV. He disliked the news. He didn’t listen to political radio. He didn’t take sides. He wasn’t on the left. He wasn’t on the right. However, in the same interview, Osler admits not having seen Loughner for two years. Obviously, a lot can happen in two years, but don't expect partisan hacks to acknowledge that or i

Loughner Was Stopped, Warned About Running Red Light Saturday Morning
What is this? Neighbors watch the media outside the Loughner home in Tucson. Neighbors watch the media outside the Loughner home in Tucson. "A wildlife officer pulled over the suspect in the Assassination attempt against an Arizona congresswoman less than three hours before the deadly attack," the Associated Press writes. "Jared Loughner ran a red light but was let off with a warning at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, the Arizona Game and Fish Department said. The officer took Loughner's driver's license an...

Loughner Was Stopped, Warned About Running Red Light Saturday Morning
What is this? Neighbors watch the media outside the Loughner home in Tucson. Neighbors watch the media outside the Loughner home in Tucson. "A wildlife officer pulled over the suspect in the Assassination attempt against an Arizona congresswoman less than three hours before the deadly attack," the Associated Press writes. "Jared Loughner ran a red light but was let off with a warning at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, the Arizona Game and Fish Department said. The officer took Loughner's driver's license an...

Loughner's Father Chased Alleged Shooter Into Desert On Saturday
In the hours before Jared Lee Loughner allegedly tried to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and killed six others, his father chased him into the desert as he carried a mysterious black bag in his hand, the Associated Press reported. Police also said that at 7:30 a.m. that same morning, Loughner was stopped by a wildlife officer after he ran a red light but was let off with a warning, according to the AP. The officer, the Arizona Game and Fish Department said, looked at Loughner's dri...

Officers Stopped Suspect on Day of Ariz. Shooting
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP)-- The suspect in a deadly Arizona shooting ran a red light and was stopped by a wildlife officer less than three hours before the attack that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The Arizona Game and Fish Department says an officer stopped Jared Loughner at about 7:30 a.m. Saturday. You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for those opposed to intolerance, excessive government control of our lives, and attempts to monopolize opinion or suppress freedom of thought, expression, ...

Palin denounces critics over shootings
In a forceful and unapologetic statement released early Wednesday, Sarah Palin dismissed critics who had suggested that the former Alaska Governor's Firearms-infused Rhetoric contributed to the shootings in Tucson that killed six and wounded 14, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, contending they "incite the hatred and violence they purport to condemn." "Like many, I've spent the past few days reflecting on what happened and praying for guidance," Palin said. "After this shocking tragedy, I...

Judson Phillips On Tucson Massacre: The Left Benefits From This
Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips organized the national Tea Party Convention in 2010 where Keynote Speaker Sarah Palin cried, “America is ready for another revolution!” Phillips now argues that the Tucson massacre is part of the “war” between the left and the Tea Party. Managing the online forum at Tea Party Nation, he has encouraged his members to argue that accused killer Jared Loughner is a “liberal lunatic” in order to fight against “the ma...

Rush Limbaugh Doubles Down On Yesterdays Comments: Put Yourself In My Shoes
Like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh is taking that whole “being connected to a mass murderer” thing pretty personally. You’d think, at this point, he’d be old hat at it but, instead, he seems to think the fact that this has been happening since the 90s makes it even worse. So, today on his Radio Show, he passionately defended himself against heat for comments he made yesterday. You see, some people took that whole “Democrats are fully supporting the guy w...

Police Uncover More Unnerving Details About Loughner
Suspect Jared Lee Loughner After a prolonged silence, the parents of Jared Lee Loughner, the 22-year-old who is accused of killing six people and injuring 14 others during an apparent Assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson on Saturday, released a statement yesterday regarding their son and the tragic shooting: "There are no words that can possibly express how we feel. We wish that there were so we could make you feel better. We don't understand why this happened. It may not...

Gillibrand Flies to Tucson with Obama
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has just flown for Tucson with President Obama to remember the Victims and pray for the survivors of Saturday's attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). Gillibrand is one of the legislators close to Giffords, and created the model for the "Congress on Your Corner" event Giffords was holding when Jared Loughner allegedly opened fire, killing six. “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that only in moments of darkness, can we see the stars. I hope...

Gabrielle Giffords Shooting: Jared Loughner May Have Been Influenced by Occult
© Splash A macabre 'altar' in the backyard of Tucson shooter Jared Loughner In messages left on the Internet before the shooting Loughner, 22, revealed himself to be a social outcast with paranoid, nihilistic beliefs and a fixation with grammar. At a public meeting with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords three years ago he asked: "What is government if it doesn't exist?" It left the politician baffled. According to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, a US Civil Rights group, Loughner's lang...

Pawlenty says 05 Minnesota government shutdown should have lasted longer
There wasn’t a great deal of fanfare last week when U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley released a three-year-long committee staff review of the financial activities of several media-based ministries and churches, but that is likely because the paper offers no concrete steps forward. In the wake of the shooting in Arizona this weekend that critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and that killed and injured more than 20 people, many pundits and politicians are pointing fingers. Others are hoping th...

Americans Split on Stricter Gun Control Laws, Continuing a Longtime Trend
Most Americans don't believe that stricter Gun Control laws would have prevented the shootings in Arizona on Saturday and the public is split on the question of toughening the laws regulating who can own Firearms, according to a CBS News poll conducted Dec. 17-20. (Story; Poll Data) The lack of a public mandate for stricter laws reflects the same finding of a Gallup analysis released Tuesday, which shows that support for stricter Gun Laws has declined over the last two decades even though that p...

Idiocy Repeated
Rep. Peter King (R-NY) is set to propose Legislation that will make it illegal for any mere mortal to carry a firearm within 1,000 feet of our betters Congressman and other high ranking officials. King says “It would give Law Enforcement the weapon they need to protect federal officials, and just as importantly, it would provide a large measure of security for those who want to meet with their federal elected officials”. Of course, it’s just a shame others hadn’t thought ...

Remedies that go too far, Part II
The things we already fear and already desire more thoroughly to control are most vividly salient to us. We seize on those: guns, crazy people. Did Jared Lee Loughner shoot government officials with a gun? Ban guns within 1,000 feet of government officials! Was Jared Lee Loughner detectably crazy? Make involuntary commitment easier! Did Jared Lee Loughner buy a gun while detectably crazy? Tighten background-screening requirements! Did Jared Lee Loughner's gun sport an extended magazine? Ban exte...

GOPers feeling the heat from the right too
Gopers Feeling The Heat by digby Gosh, who would have ever dreamed this could happen. Rightwing Watch reports: In 2007, conservative Activist Mark DeMoss launched something called The Civility Project, seeking to get governors and members of Congress to sign on to a short pledge vowing to conduct themselves civilly: I will be civil in my public discourse and behavior. I will be respectful of others whether or not I agree with them. I will stand against Incivility when I see it. Four years and...

Climate-blaming Sheriff with departmental climate to hide?
Climate-blaming Sheriff with departmental climate to hide? Speaking of television, according to a post linked by Michelle Malkin, it turns out that Jared Loughner did not watch TV. Nor did he listen to the Talk Radio said to have created a "climate" which was responsible for his actions. Friend says Loughner "did not watch TV. He disliked the news. He didn't listen to political radio. He didn't take sides. He wasn't on the left. He wasn't on the right." Over to you, Sheriff Dupnik... Dupnik, o...

Giffords "making more spontaneous movements," doctor says
TUCSON (Reuters) - Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, gravely injured in a shooting rampage, is "making more spontaneous movements" and is able to feel her bullet wounds with her hands, a doctor treating her said on Wednesday. Giffords was shot through the head by a gunman who raked a meeting with semi-automatic pistol fire in Tucson on Saturday, killing six people including a Federal Judge, a 9 year-old girl and one of Giffords' aides. "She is making more and more spontaneous movements ... she ...

Friend of Alleged Tucson Shooter Says Loughner did not Listen to News or Talk Radio Video 1/12/11
Here is a Video Interview with alleged Tucson Mass Shooter Jared Loughner’s best friend, who gives an inside view of what Loughner was like. The friend at the 2:04 mark of the video states unequivocally that Loughner did not listen to the news, and he did not listen to Talk Radio. “He did not watch TV. He disliked the news. He didn’t listen to political radio. He didn’t take sides. He wasn’t on the Left. He wasn’t on the Right.” I wonder when Tucson Sh...