House Pays Tribute To Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona Shooting Victims (LIVE UPDATES, VIDEO)

Wake Up Call
Good morning! "President Obama urged the nation to come together Wednesday night as he revealed gravely wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had opened her eyes for the first time since the deadly shooting rampage," reports our Lukas Alpert. Four days after she was shot point-blank in the head, Giffords "was making small, purposeful movements on Wednesday - giving doctors hope she will recover fully. Giffords tugged at her Hospital gown and touched her head wounds after doctors at Tucs...

Boehner's role
Seems like he's still figuring it out a bit: Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) turned down an offer by President Barack Obama to travel on Air Force One to Arizona for a memorial service on behalf of the Victims of Saturday’s shooting, a decision that has upset some Democrats. Boehner is instead scheduled to attend a reception on Wednesday night on behalf of Maria Cino, a former top House GOP aide who is seeking the Republican National Committee chairmanship. Boehner is backing Cino’s ...

Filner Tries to Tie Popaditch Supporters to the Giffords Shooting
One of my favorite Candidates of this past cycle is Nick Popaditch; see more about him here, here, and here. He’s been dragged, unwillingly, into the Arizona shooting Controversy; the member of Congress he sought to defeat, California Democrat Bob Filner, has explicitly suggested that Tea Party Rhetoric influenced the Tucson shooter, despite the lack of evidence: “I will tell you that in a society we are not isolated, none of us is isolated. Yes, that guy may have acted alone but h...

Documents detail Ariz. suspect's college outbursts
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — For four years, Jared Loughner was an unremarkable College Student, commuting to classes near his home where he studied Yoga and algebra, business management and poetry. But last year, his classroom conduct began to change. In February, Mr. Loughner stunned a teacher by talking about blowing up babies, a bizarre outburst that marked the start of a rapid unraveling for the 22-year old, who is accused of slaying six people and wounding 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffor...

Obama: We Can Do Better
Seeking to distance himself from the premature opportunism of the Far Left, U.S. President Barack Obama stuck to Centrist themes in addressing the Victims of last weekend’s tragic Tucson shooting - which left six people dead and fourteen (including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords) wounded. “I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us,” Obama told a sellout crowd at ...

Ariz. GOP lawmaker resigns in wake of Giffords shooting, says he recieved threats
A prominent Republican in Arizona resigned in the wake of Saturday's shooting, saying that threats from Tea Party members had him fearing for his life. Anthony Miller, the chairman of Arizona Legislative District 20 and the only black Republican to hold a chairmanship in the state, was reelected to a second one-year term last month. He said he was stepping down due to constant verbal threats against him and his family from people with Tea Party ties, The Arizona Republic reported. "I wasn't go...

Obama offers comfort after Tucson shootings
(01-13) 04:00 PST Tucson -- President Obama comforted a community suffused with grief and summoned the nation to recommit to a more civil public discourse as he delivered a eulogy Wednesday evening urging Americans to talk with each other "in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds." Evoking memories of the six killed on Saturday, Obama seized upon the Mass Shooting at Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' Supermarket meet-and-greet to tackle the subject of the nation's harsh political dialogue...

Boehner Gives Tea Party The Middle Finger With RNC Endorsement
Democrats are criticizing Boehner for skipping Tucson to host an Endorsement party for Maria Cino in the race for the RNC Chair. They have something of a point. He could have gone to Arizona to foster a bi-partisan spirit at the event. But he would have been on the undercard. It was Obama's event, so I'm not certain he had to be there. But what he is doing by backing Cino out of cronyism is even worse. Senior Democrats - who to date had been impressed with Boehner’s response to...

Documents detail Ariz. suspect's college outbursts
(01-13) 06:47 PST Tucson, Ariz. (AP) -- For four years, Jared Loughner was an unremarkable College Student, commuting to classes near his home where he studied Yoga and algebra, business management and poetry. But last year, his classroom conduct began to change. In February, Loughner stunned a teacher by talking about blowing up babies, a bizarre outburst that marked the start of a rapid unraveling for the 22-year old, who is accused of slaying six people and wounding 13, including Rep. Gabri...

House Honors Shooting Victims
The New York Times reports: As President Obama prepared to head to Arizona Wednesday, the House of Representatives convened to consider a resolution honoring the dead and wounded in the shooting rampage in Tucson that left six dead and 14 wounded on Saturday, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords. “These are difficult hours for our country,” said Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio. With his eyes filled with tears, Mr. Boehner described the loss of Gabriel Zimmerman, an aide to Ms. Giffo...

Obama urges nation to honor youngest Ariz. victim
(01-13) 03:50 PST Tucson, Ariz. (AP) -- President Obama exhorted Americans to refrain from partisan bickering and urged the country to embrace the idealistic vision of Democracy held by 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, the youngest Arizona Shooting Victim and an aspiring politician who is set to be buried Thursday in the first of half-a-dozen Funerals. Speaking to an arena audience of about 14,000 and even more in a nearby football stadium and at homes across the country, Obama drew on theme...

Video: John Boehner Tribute to the Arizona Shooting Victims on the House Floor
Speaker John Boehner on the House floor this morning BOEHNER: "“These are difficult hours for our country,” Boehner said as the House opened debate on a resolution denouncing the massacre and honoring its Victims “Our hearts are broken, but our spirit is not, This is a time for the House to lock arms in prayer for the fallen and the wounded and a resolve to carry on a dialogue of Democracy" “We may not have all the final answers, but we already have the answer that matte...

Gillibrand's first hand account of Giffords' 'miracle' awakening
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand witnessed the "miracle" awakening of bullet-injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords -- and may have helped it happen -- she and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz told reporters returning from President Obama's Speech in Tucson. Both Democratic women became friends with the wounded Arizonan before she was elected to the House, and flew on Air Force 1 to see her in her Hospital room before Obama spoke Wednesday. And there the already emotional moment turned to a scene of joy ...

Obama at Arizona Memorial: We Cant Use This Tragedy to Turn on Each Other [VIDEO]
President Obama eulogized the six slain and congreswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the Arizona shooting last weekend at a memorial service in Tucson last night--and he delivered a message to those (Read more...) ...

Using The Giffords Shooting To Destroy Free Speech
Now it is clear that Jared Loughner was stalking Gabrielle Giffords for years, long before Sarah Palin and her supposed “target” electoral map. Now it is clear that Loughner’s classmates were afraid of him months ago. One teacher wrote last summer: “Hopefully he will be out of class very soon, and not come back with an automatic weapon.” A Student wrote: “He frightened the daylights out of me. I kept saying to people, ‘I’m afraid he’s going ...

Giffords opens her eyes for the first time since the shooting
Tuscon, Arizona (CNN) - When President Barack Obama said Wednesday night that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had opened her eyes for the first time since being shot on Saturday, an overflow crowd of nearly 30,000 people at a memorial event erupted into cheers that the congresswoman may have heard in her Hospital room. Obama said he learned of the eye-opening from Giffords' husband, Astronaut Mark Kelly. "She knows we're here, and she knows we love her,and she knows that we will be rooting for her thro...

Gabrielle Giffords Opens Eyes; 46% of Students Attended School Yesterday; and More A.M. Links
​• President Obama addressed the nation in a memorial event for the Tucson Shooting Victims last night with a Speech promoting discourse that heals, not wounds. He also announced that he'd just been to the Hospital with Michelle to see Congresswoman Giffords, and that minutes after he left, "Gabby opened her eyes for the first time." New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was still in the room, as was Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. Giffords remains in critical...

White House transcripts: Wasserman Schultz, Gillibrand, Gibbs on Giffords opening her eye
By far the most dramatic moment of President Obama's Speech at a Tucson memorial service Wednesday night was when he recounted how Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) had opened her unbandaged eye a short time earlier, urged on by her husband, Astronaut Mark Kelly, and close friends Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). Hours later, flying back to Washington on Air Force One, Wasserman Schultz and Gillibrand briefed reporters on their visit with Giffords, an...

Freshman Rep. Grimm: Low-Cost Ways To Make Congress More Secure
Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), a former FBI Special Agent and combat Marine, sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) Tuesday night recommending security training for Members of Congress. Grimm is against knee-jerk Legislation in the aftermath of the attempted Assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) last Saturday, but does suggest Members of Congress be trained to protect themselves. In an exclusive interview with HUMAN EVENTS on his security plan, Grimm said, “Legisl...

Tucson Tea Party Leader Being Flooded With Death Threats Following Giffords Shooting
Nice work, Sheriff Dupnik. (TPM)- Trent Humphries, the leader of the largest Tea Party group in this mourning southern Arizona city, has nothing but praise for the way President Obama has led the nation through the aftermath of Saturday’s Mass Shooting at a constituent event for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). But Humphries won’t be there tonight when Obama speaks at a memorial rally intended to unify Tucson after six people were killed in the tragedy. Humphries says he’s ...

President Challenges Nation
In a moving tribute to the Victims of last Saturday's violence, President Barack Obama challenged Americans to live up to the "expectations of our Children". Using 9-year old Christina Taylor Green's untimely death as an inspiration, Obama bemoaned, "I want to live up to her expectations." The president's 34-minute Speech was delivered to a crowd of nearly 14,000 people at the University of Arizona's McKale Memorial Center. They had gathered for a memorial service dedicated to those who lost the...

Trying to make Haiti's economy grow, among tent cities and despair
Arizona shooting Six people were killed and 14 others wounded, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona. Keeping suppliers interested in giving work to Haiti's large garment industry after the Earthquake was a big goal....

House pays tribute to victims of Arizona shooting (AP)
WASHINGTON – The House is honoring Victims of Saturday's shootings in Tuscon, including one of its own. Republican Speaker John Boehner is opening the session of remembrances and tributes to the 19 people shot, six fatally. The remarks are expected to focus on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona Democrat shot in the head as she spoke to constituents outside a Supermarket. Later Wednesday, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and other lawmakers are flying with President Barack O...

Sarah Palin's not interested in real guns, see it's mephatorical, stoopid
The alleged Arizona gunman Jared Loughner is, his bonkers online postings imply, obsessed with grammar. I think that’s the Chomskyan variety, rather than the Simon Heffer, Telegraph Style Book sort. Anyway, if that’s the case, he’d be delighted to hear the rest of the world struggling to agree on a satisfactory set of labels for him and his supposed actions. Mehdi Hasan, political editor of the New Statesman, has a piece in the Guardian today asking why we’d call a M

House pays emotional tribute to Arizona victims
(01-12) 12:37 PST WASHINGTON, CA (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 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...