Gabrielle Giffords staffers, volunteers carry on in face of tragedy

Speaker Boehner recognizes the "embrace of brothers, sisters and countrymen"
ABC News’ Mary Compton reports: "Joining together in prayer can be a source of solace,” Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-OH, said at a Bipartisan prayer service held this afternoon at the U.S. Capitol. In his prepared remarks Boehner recognized the loss of congressional Staffer Gabe Zimmerman, as well as the five others killed by a gunman in Tucson, Arizona, Saturday. “The senseless assault claimed the lives of six of our fellow citizens - including that of Gabe Zimmerman

House tribute to Giffords: 'Violence cannot silence'
House Speaker John Boehner has formally introduced a resolution paying tribute to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords that "condemns in the strongest possible terms" the Arizona Shooting Spree that left her gravely wounded and six others dead. The four-page resolution is simply written, with sections honoring Giffords, each of the deceased, the wounded, and people such as Giffords intern Daniel Hernandez and event attendee Patricia Maisch who tried to save lives and apprehend the shooter. The first of the d...

Rep. Burton: Secure Congress From Undetected Explosives
Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ill.) will introduce Legislation next week to have a glass shield put around the House gallery to prevent an Explosive Device being thrown onto the House floor. Burton has been trying for 25 years to get Congress to pass his legislation. But in the wake of the Assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), he hopes the Leadership will now see the need for the shield. “We have State of the Union in a couple weeks,” said Burton of the January 25 Speech ...

Come Together: Senator Wants Both Parties To Sit Together at SOTU
ABC News’ Matthew Jaffe reports: In the wake of the Arizona shooting, members of Congress should sit together at President Obama’s upcoming State of the Union address, rather than divided by party as tradition dictates, a senator suggested today. “What Americans see when they watch it on TV is a Congress that is bitterly divided by party,” Sen. Mark Udall, D-CO, said in a statement. “It sets a negative tone that only per

Colorado senator calls for Republicans and Democrats to sit together at SOTU
Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) proposed that the Speaker of the House as well as the majority and Minority Leaders of both houses of Congress sit together during President Obama's State of the Union Speech later this month, in a letter dated Wednesday. Udall, the senior senator from Colorado, writes in the letter — addressed to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)...

Officer stopped suspect on day of Ariz. shooting
WASHINGTON (AP) — Leading the nation in mourning, President Barack Obama flew to Arizona Wednesday to pay tribute to the six people killed in the weekend shootings and to the fighting spirit of wounded lawmaker Gabrielle Giffords, the target of the first Assassination attempt on a member of Congress in decades. Searching for the right tone, Obama sought to console the country, not dissect its politics. Obama and his wife, Michelle, headed for a nighttime service in Tucson with a Bipartisan...

House pays emotional tribute to Arizona victims
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 themselves and their aides against such savage attacks. Still deeply shaken from Saturday's violence half a continent away, House Speaker John A. Boehner fought tears as he spoke of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' battle to recover from a gunshot wound to the head. "Our hearts are broken, but our spirit is not,"...

John Boehner AZ tribute: 'Holy & uplifting strength' Full transcript & video
We are called here to mourn. An unspeakable act of violence has taken six innocent lives, left several more, including our colleague, Gabrielle Giffords, battling for theirs. These are difficult hours for our country. Among the fallen is Gabe Zimmerman, a member of Congresswoman's Giffords staff, a public servant of the highest caliber - one of our own. And even in our shock, we are composed and determined to fulfill our colleagues and represent our constituents. This is the great cause for whic...

Colleagues Pay Tribute to Rep. Giffords
Yahoo! Buzz Rep. Gabrielle Giffords likes chocolate, especially peanut M&Ms and those little Hershey’s nuggets with almonds and toffee. That might be the most personal detail House members have shared about the Arizona Democrat during the nearly four-hour tribute to Ms. Giffords and the other Victims of the weekend shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz. And it came from a Republican. Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert , who’s known for his occasionally outlandish partisan barbs, told the chamber...

House honors Giffords, shooting victims
The House is paying tribute today to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the Victims and heroes of the Arizona Shooting Spree with a resolution expressing its grief and outrage. "What this institution needs right now is strength -- holy, uplifting strength," House Speaker John Boehner said, at times weeping openly. "Today it is not ceremony, but tragedy that stirs us to renew our commitment to full our oaths of office. Let us not let this inhuman act frighten us into doing otherwise." Boehner, as he clo...

House Puts Partisanship Aside After Giffords Shooting
This week, Congress was set for a rhetorical battle over Healthcare Reform and federal spending. But Partisanship, at least within the Capital, has taken a back seat to national grieving. In response to the shooting in Tuscon, Arizona, which left six people dead and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition, Congressional leaders have delayed all major votes until at least next week. [Photo Gallery: Gabrielle Giffords Shooting in Arizona.] On Wednesday, Congress didn't debate a bill to rep...

Most from Mass. refuse more security
WASHINGTON — The “Congress on Your Corner’’ meeting for Representative Niki Tsongas and about 40 constituents was just beginning at the Chelmsford Library Saturday when the horrific news came. Her good friend and colleague Gabrielle Giffords had just been shot at an event of the same type in Tucson. “We asked if [an officer] could come and stay with us, because you just don’t know,’’ said Tsongas, who normally doesn’t arrange for police at h...

House to condemn 'horrific attack' in Arizona
WASHINGTON | Wed Jan 12, 2011 11:56am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A saddened House of Representatives on Wednesday observed the Arizona shooting that left one of its members gravely wounded as it discussed a resolution condemning the "horrific attack" and honoring the six people killed. House Speaker John Boehner, struggling to hold back tears, opened a day of speeches on the resolution saying: "We are called here to mourn an unspeakable act of violence ... these are difficult hours for our co...

Honoring Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (Speaker John Boehner)
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) gave these remarks Wednesday morning on the House floor. Today, we are called here to mourn.  An unspeakable act of violence has taken six innocent lives, and left several more - including our colleague, Gabrielle Giffords - battling for theirs.  These are difficult hours for our country. Among the fallen is Gabe Zimmerman, a member of Congresswoman Giffords’ staff … a public servant of the highest caliber … one of our own.   Even

Next on the AZ Target List: Rep. Raul Grijalva?
I have some concern right now (in addition to the Victims of Sat’s shooting) for Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ). He had to close his local offices in Yuma and Tucson back in April 2010 because of threats arising from Racists over Immigration and the infamous S.B. 1070 law. From HuffPo: Grijalva Staffer Ruben Reyes said the office has been flooded with calls all week about Senate Bill 1070. About 25 percent are “very racist” in nature, Reyes said, characterizing some as “t...

'No assailant's bullet no twisted act of violence or cruelty can silence the sacred dialogue of democracy.'
Leading and joining his fellow members of Congress in prayer, House Speaker John Boehner taps into the best of our shared civil religious tradition. In the prepared remarks for this afternoon’s prayer service in the Capitol, John Boehner says: On the morning of January 8, 2011, an act of unspeakable violence rocked the morning air in Tucson, Arizona, where our colleague, Gabby Giffords, was busy with her staff conducting the business of the people. The senseless assault claimed the lives o...

House Pays Emotional Tribute to Arizona Victims
A tearful Speaker John Boehner kicked off Wednesday’s House tribute to the Victims of the Arizona shooting, calling for “strength” in what he described as “difficult hours for our country.” The Ohio Republican’s remarks were part of the House consideration of a resolution condemning the violence and honoring those who were injured and killed. Members will devote six hours to the resolution. “We are called here to mourn a despicable act of violence. ... T...

Boehner: Bipartisan prayer service can be 'source of solace'
Washington (CNN) - Congress has responded to the Saturday shootings of 19 people, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, with a "collective embrace" rather than a "torrent of accusations," House Speaker John Boehner said at a Bipartisan congressional prayer service Wednesday. "Our nation mourns for the Victims. It yearns for peace. And it thirsts for answers," the Ohio representative said in his welcome statement at the service, according to a transcript of his remarks. The service, held for me...

Arizona fed. judges off shooter case
All Arizona’s Federal Judges have been ordered to recuse themsleves from themselves from hearing alleged gunman Jared Lee Loughner’s case, it was announced Wednesday. In an order, U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver said that because District Judge John Roll was among those killed in the failed attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s (D-Ariz.) life, all the state’s Federal Judges would not be permitted to sit in judgment on the case. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset POL...

Palin Hits Media for Manufacture of Blood Libel; Calls Their Attacks Mindless Finger-pointing Facebook Video 1/12/11
Sarah Palin: “America’s Enduring Strength” from Sarah Palin on Vimeo. Here is video of Gov. Sarah Palin - released on Facebook - in which she responds to the Tucson Mass Shooting that took place this past Saturday. Palin said it is “incomprehensible” that a “single bitter man” took the lives of six people, and wounded so many others - including Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Palin said she has listened with “sadness” to...

Former Bush speech writer blames marijuana for mass shooting in Tucson
Stumble This! Marijuana has been used as a scapegoat for many awful events in US history, with the political class blaming the drug for driving Mexican immigrants insane, filling black men with a bloodlust for white women and driving good girls into dens of iniquity. In the year 2011, such claims ring no more true than any event depicted in the 1936 anti-drug Propaganda film "Reefer Madness." Yet still, echoes of that madness remain. David Frum, a former Speechwriter for President George W. Bu...

The Left Attacks Sarah Palins Use of Blood Libel; Liberal Alan Dershowitz Says Nothing Improper About It Video 1/12/11
The Left is now attacking Sarah Palin for her use of the term “blood Libel” to describe their unfounded attacks against her, suggesting that she and other Conservatives bear some responsibility for the Tucson Mass Shooting. In this video, liberal “Journalist” Jonathan Capeheart says “she should have been more careful” in her use of words, saying the use of the term “blood Libel” is an anti-semitic term, even though he said Palin is not anti-semit...

Image is Everything
from LibertyPundits President Obama and his plucky team of brand managers created a new logo for the memorial service of the Victims of the Arizona shooting: President Obama will speak at a memorial event at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 12 to support and remember Victims of the Mass Shooting in Tucson, and to lift the spirits of those who have been personally affected by this tragedy. “Together We Thrive: Tucson and America,” will take place at McKale Center and is free and open to the campus an...

Gun Owner Who Showed Restraint, Good Judgment Is Apparently an Argument Against Gun Ownership
That seems to be the takeaway from this Will Saletan piece. Does the Tucson, Ariz., massacre justify tighter Gun Control? Don't be silly. Second Amendment advocates never look at Mass Shootings that way. For every nut job wreaking mayhem with a semiautomatic weapon, there's a citizen with a firearm who could have stopped him... The new poster boy for this agenda is Joe Zamudio, a hero in the Tucson incident. Zamudio was in a nearby drug store when the shooting began, and he was armed... But bef...

Gabrielle Giffords Makes Progress (Photos)
The office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) on Tuesday night released new photographs of the congresswoman, who remains in critical condition after Saturday's Mass Shooting in Tucson, Ariz. The photos were taken Sunday in the congresswoman's room at University Medical Center. They show her husband Mark Kelly holding her hand. U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' husband Mark Kelly holds her hand in her room at University Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz., Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011. (Credit: Office...