Giffords environmental advocacy

Mourners to hold 'community healing' Mass after Arizona shooting
Mourners will gather at a memorial Mass Tuesday for Victims of the weekend shooting outside an Arizona Supermarket that killed 6 people and wounded 14 others. The Mass will be held at 7 p.m. (9 p.m. ET) at St. Odiilia Church in Tucson, Arizona - where 9-year-old shooting victim Christina Green had her First Communion a year ago. "Right now it is important as a community to pull together and to reach out in care and concern to all who have been affected by this tragedy," Bishop Gera...

What do you do when you think government is fucking you over?
By Michael J.W. Stickings For some interesting background on Jared Lee Loughner, the 22-year old charged in the Arizona shooting, see this piece at Mother Jones, based on an interview with a close friend. Key passage (emphasis added): [Bryce] Tierney, who's also 22, recalls Loughner complaining about a Giffords event he attended during that period [2007]. He's unsure whether it was the same one mentioned in the charges ...

The Tragedy of the Arizona Shooting.
This weekend’s tragic shooting at a Safeway district meeting in which United States Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was seriously hurt and a dozen more injured and a District Court judge John Roll, a nine-year-old girl born on September 11th, and a congressional aide were killed has left us all stunned. Nick Baumann has an interview with a friend of the alleged shooter, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner. The friend describes Loughner’s obsession with Gifford as starting when she d...

CBS Poll: American Public Not Buying Democrat, Media Spin on Arizona Shooting
From CBS News: Nearly six in 10 Americans say the country’s heated political Rhetoric is not to blame for the Tucson shooting rampage that left six dead and critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to a CBS News poll. In the wake of the shooting, much focus has been put on the harsh tone of politics in Washington and around the country, particularly after a contentious Midterm Election. Rhetoric and imagery from both Republicans and Democrats have included gun-related ...

Oregon Rep. Schrader holds Beck, Limbaugh responsible for Arizona tragedy
 Oregon Rep. Kurt Schrader, Democrat, is holding Right Wing commentators Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck responsible for the tragic Shooting Spree in Arizona. Saturday, outside of a strip mall in Tucson Arizona, Jared Lee Loughner killed six people, including Federal Judge John Roll, and wounded more than a dozen, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords, a Democrat who supported Health Care reform, was Loughner's target. Giffords was...

Absurd fingerpointing continues in wake of Arizona shooting
As more become clear about Jared Loughner, the facts seem to mean less and less for those seeking to turn this tragedy into a political witch hunt. It appears that Loughner, had an obsession with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) dating back to 2007 - before Sarah Palin or the Tea Party movement came on the national scene, and the warning signs that Loughner was an unstable person had been ignored; even by police. And while the debate on Loughner’s political leanings is still raging, Chris Ci...

A Nice New York Times Editorial
NYT: Bloodshed and Invective in Arizona: She read the First Amendment on the House floor — including the guarantee of “the right of the people peaceably to assemble” — and then flew home to Arizona to put those words into practice. But when Gabrielle Giffords tried to meet with her constituents in a Tucson Parking Lot on Saturday, she came face to face with an environment wholly at odds with that constitutional ideal, and she nearly paid for it with her life. Jared Loug...

Gabrielle Giffords a tireless advocate for solar energy
I don’t tend to think you can draw any broader conclusions from the acts of one demented, violent individual — as I’ve said before. Giffords is, however, beloved of the Solar Energy community, who sent out a note about her Sunday, and that deserves a post.  Perhaps the best thing is to reprint what the inside-the-beltway center-right mavens at Politico wrote about her today.  Let’s start with their Morning Energy update: Gabrielle Giffords - “Gabby is not only

Holder calls shootings unspeakably tragic (AP)
WASHINGTON – The killing of a Federal Judge and attempted Assassination of an Arizona congresswoman are an "unspeakable tragedy" that serve as a reminder that violence and cruelty persist more than 40 years after the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Attorney General Holder said Tuesday. Threats against public officials "continue to be cause for concern and vigilance," Holder told a Justice Department memorial for the slain Civil Rights leader in advance of the holiday commemorati...

Poll: Most Say Rhetoric, Killings Unrelated
From a deeply saddened CBS News: Poll: Most Americans Feel Rhetoric, Tucson Shooting Unrelated Posted by Daniel Carty January 11, 2011 Nearly six in 10 Americans say the country’s heated political rhetoric is not to blame for the Tucson shooting rampage that left six dead and critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to a CBS News poll. So either our media master has better ratchet up their efforts or move on to their fall back position - Gun Control. In the wake ...

Is Sheriff Dupnik Distracting Public From Looking at His Contacts With Killer?
“I’d like to make one additional point on Sheriff Dupnik. I think we’re missing the point when we’re talking about his political agenda. This man and this suspect has had previous contact with the sheriff’s office. It looks to me, we don’t have many details on this, but it looks as though he slipped between the cracks. I think what we really need to look into is what happened when he had previous contact with the sheriff’s office with their negligence he...

Shot US lawmaker 'breathing on her own': doctor
The Arizona lawmaker shot in the head in an attack that killed six in Tucson remains in critical condition but is now capable of breathing on her own, doctors said Tuesday. "She's holding her own," said Michael Lemole, the head neurosurgeon who operated on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, adding that she was still responding to simple commands, a key sign for her recovery prospects. "She's breathing on her own," added the doctor at University Medical Center, saying they had reduced the sedati...

The 2nd Amendment helped end Arizona Shooting, it didnt cause it
Twenty-four year old Joe Zamudio quietly stood at the Safeway counter waiting to buy a pack of Cigarettes as shots rang out in Tucson Arizona Saturday.  As most followed their natural instinct to run to safety, Zamudio put his hand on his gun and ran towards the chaos.   Zamudio was not an off-duty Police Officer nor did he possess Military training, he was merely an Arizona resident who was legally carrying a Concealed Weapon who believed he could stop the carnage.  In an in...

Politics: Gabrielle Giffords Is a Green Patriot
But Giffords also took some heat from right-wing opponents over her support of carbon cap-and-trade Legislation, which passed the House in June 2009 before dying in the Senate, although Climate Change legislation has never quite reached the partisan pitch that the battle over Health Care did—in part because energy and Climate Change isn't a high priority on most voters' minds. Those issues did matter to Giffords, however, who not only voted in favor of cap-and-trade—not a popular pos...

Poll: Most Americans see no connection between Ariz. shooting and political rhetoric (Daily Caller)
Read more stories from The Daily Caller We're probably alone in the universe, or else they're out to get us Mark Halperin: Conservatives should turn the other cheek when scapegoated for Murder Could Jon Huntsman really be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012? Auburn wins it all: Sights from the BCS National Championship [SLIDESHOW] Pucker up: Celebrities recall their first kiss [SLIDESHOW] A majority of Americans don’t see a connection between vitriolic Rhetoric and Jared Loughner...

Arizona's Fixation On Immigration And Guns: A Recent History
The Mass Shootings in Arizona over the weekend that killed six and left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) in critical condition after being shot in the head hardly marks the first time the state has been under scrutiny for its tense political atmosphere and somewhat off-the-rails policies. In April, TPM took a microscope to the state in the wake of its incredibly Controversial Immigration policy. So it's time to ask again, what's the matter with Arizona? As TPM reported back in April: What happene...

Goldberg to mainstream media--'shut the hell up!'
Goldberg made the comment last evening on Bill O'Reilly's show on Fox. O'Reilly had already castigated the Mainstream Media for joining in the Leftwing chorus of blaming Conservatives for the massacre that killed a Federal Judge and wounded a U.S. Congresswoman, among others. As a nightly guest on The O'Reilly Factor, Goldberg exposes bias inherent in the news reporting of the media.  Goldberg had been part of CBS News under former anchor Dan Rather, and subsequently became a Whistleblower ...

Poll: Most Americans dont blame heated rhetoric for Tucson shooting
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 the incident will serve to ratchet down rancor. Yet emerging details make it clear the More… The remaining members of the Iowa Supreme Court have proven they are immoral and “open enemies of God” by choosing Mark Cady as Chief Justice, and thus, all deserve to be ...

Loughner Thought Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Criminal?
Volokh Conspiracy has dug through Internet forum postings by an individual with the handle Erad3, thought to be Jared Lee Loughner since a good deal of content posted under that moniker at a forum called Above Top Secret is posted elsewhere under his actual name. Article 33 of the Geneva Convention is the prohibit of pillage. All Military invasions with Armed Forces into a foreign country are War Crimes in the Geneva Convention articles of 1949. The Iraq and Afghanistan war of 2010 is a mi...

Sanitizing Extremism: Palin and Beck on Violence and War
Politico: Sarah Palin reached out to Glenn Beck over the weekend, and Beck read some of their email exchange on his Radio Show this morning. “Sarah, as you know, peace is always the answer. I know you are felling the same heat, if not much more on this,” Beck wrote. Beck expressed concern about Palin’s safety, and urged her to hire the same Los Angeles-based security firm that he uses. The Rhetoric of both Beck and Palin has been cited by both liberals and some of the mainstre...

Words Matter.
( - promoted by Rob Kailey) Right-wing radio personality/shock jock(and former GOP Staffer) Aaron Flint is taking, according to him, a "tongue in cheek" look at the tragedy in Arizona on Twitter. But what this reminded me of was Flint's earlier mockery of the presence of Law Enforcement at congressional events here in Montana. From his blog: No mention, of course, by the New York Times during their "he's a well grounded man" piece of the fact that the Senator felt he couldn't even hold an in...

Commentary: Kentucky gets low marks on Brady Campaign score
It would be just as easy for a mentally troubled young person, someone who had been rejected by The Army and banned from his community college, to walk out of a gun store with a semi-automatic Handgun and a 30-round clip of bullets in Kentucky as it was in Arizona. Both Kentucky and Arizona scored 2 out of 100 possible points on the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence's scorecard in 2009. Since then, Arizona outdid Kentucky by becoming the third state to allow the carrying of concealed weap...

The Left Wont Drop the Blame Game
A CBS News poll has found that 6 in 10 Americans do not attribute the massacre in Arizona to divisive political Rhetoric. Two thoughts. First, the CBS writeup includes a classic Nixonian use of the passive voice. The poll, we are told, comes in spite of the fact that “much focus has been put on the harsh tone of politics in Washington and around the country, particularly after a contentious Midterm Election.” Put there by whom? A liberal Press Corps eager to lay this crime at the f...

The War on Sarah Palin
I've never seen anyone who inspires such fear and hatred on the left as Sarah Palin. The Arizona shooting has led to a whole new round of anti-Palin hysteria. David Brooks addresses the issue and the media's complicity: Other themes from Loughner’s life fit the rampage-killer profile. He saw himself in world historical terms. He appeared to have a poor sense of his own illness (part of a condition known as anosognosia). He had increasingly frequent run-ins with the police. In short, the e...

Why Arizonans Can Buy Guns Made In-State Free of Background Checks, and Other Issues in Gun Control
ProPublica, Jan. 11, 2011, 11:30 a.m. The shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and more than a dozen of her constituents in Tucson this weekend has sparked criticism of Arizona’s lax Gun Control laws and renewed calls from some to tighten those restrictions. Six individuals were confirmed dead. Here’s our attempt to briefly break down a few of the issues at play: In the Arizona case, the gun used by accused shooter Jared Lee Loughner was a Glock 19—a semiautomatic weapon with a ...