House pays tribute to victims of Arizona shooting

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 ...

Rand Paul: Democrats Trying To 'Manufacture' Controversy From Shooting In Arizona
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) accused Democrats Wednesday of attempting to "manufacture" the Controversy that has arisen over "vitriol" and political Rhetoric in the wake of the shooting in Tucson over the weekend. "Well, these are the kind of things that I think some on the left decided to manufacture even before the events occur. I mean, this is part of the playbook of Rahm Emanuel where they say any crisis should be used to their advantage to further their agenda," Paul said Wednesday on the FOX B...

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 ...

Giffords Eye Opens As Pelosi, Dem Colleagues Look On (VIDEO)
ABOARD Air Force ONE — Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' friends say it's nothing short of a miracle: Days after being shot in the head point-blank, the injured congresswoman opened an eye Wednesday for the first time. Two of her closest friends from Congress, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., were in Giffords' Tucson, Ariz., Hospital room at the time. Both had traveled to Arizona on Air Force One with President Barack Obama to attend a memorial service f...

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...

A Space For Democracy
The losses suffered Saturday at a Tucson, Arizona, Safeway Supermarket are numerous and nefarious. As our ravenous news cycle has already reported in devastating detail, suspected gunman, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, opened fire on a small crowd gathered for a meet and greet, wounding 14 people and killing six -- including Federal Judge John M. Roll. As of this writing, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords -- who was shot at point-blank range in the head and appears to be the primary target of the attack...

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...

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...

Paging Dr. Krauthammer
I love Charles Krauthammer. A Harvard-trained physician and Psychiatrist, he knows what true Mental Illness is, and he lends his measured perspicuity to our understanding of Jared Lee Loughner: “His [Loughner's] own writings are confused, incoherent, punctuated with private numerology and inscrutable taxonomy. He warns of government brainwashing and thought control through “grammar.” He was obsessed with “conscious dreaming,” a fairly good synonym for hallucinatio...

Phoenix residents gather to hear Obamas speech
The Phoenix Public Library and local bars will broadcast Barack Obama’s Speech tonight at 6 p.m. People are expecting this to be one of the most important speeches ever made in Arizona. Cecelia Maldonado of Chicanos Unidos Arizona says, “Obama has always been a hero to the Latino community. He will now be a hero to other residents as well. This Speech will do to Obama’s career what Clinton’s Speech in Oklahoma did in 1995 after the terrible bombings. Obama met Jan Brewer ...

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...

Senate President David Williams, Rick Rand talk to WHAS11
(WHAS11) - From the neighborhood schools bill to a crackdown on Illegal Immigrants, Kentucky lawmakers have their work cut out for them. The session starts back up again in Frankfort but Wednesday WHAS11 talked to Senate President David Williams and democrat Rick Rand. WHAS11’s Political Editor Joe Arnold has the story, click on the video player above for more. ...

Dim prospects for bills approved by Kentucky Senate
Related: Senate president takes aim at opponents of bill that would end Student assignment plan (WHAS11) - Four days after spearheading a cavalcade of votes on the Kentucky Senate floor, Senate President David Williams made the case for his agenda on Wednesday before a noontime gathering at the Louisville Forum. The luncheon discussion also included Kentucky Representative Rick Rand (D-Bedford), the Chairman of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. While Rand suggested that the House...

Some Politicians Want Their Own Guns
While some politicians want to limit Gun Ownership after the Arizona massacre, not all feel the same way.  Many are worried about their protection: Rep. Jason Chaffetz , R-Utah , had a permit for a Concealed Weapon before the Arizona incident that killed six and wounded 14, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Chaffetz Press Secretary Alisia Essig told Fox News that Chaffetz has carried his gun to different events back in his district and plans to do so more often in the future....

SARAH PALIN: America's Enduring Strength
Like millions of Americans I learned of the tragic events in Arizona on Saturday, and my heart broke for the innocent Victims. No words can fill the hole left by the death of an innocent, but we do mourn for the victims’ families as we express our sympathy. I agree with the sentiments shared yesterday at the beautiful Catholic mass held in honor of the Victims. The mass will hopefully help begin a healing process for the families touched by this tragedy and for our country. Our exceptional...

Palin getting death threats after libs attack
ABC News: An aide close to Sarah Palin says death threats and security threats have increased to an unprecedented level since the shooting in Arizona, and the former Alaska Governor's team has been talking to security professionals. Since the shooting in Tucson, Palin has taken much heat for her "crosshairs" map that targeted 20 congressional Democrats in the 2010 mid-term election, including that of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was the main target of Saturday's attack. Friends say Palin, a po...

Do We Have to Politicize Murder?
Susan Stamper Brown, FloydReports.com Once upon a time in America, civility inspired citizens to pause from Partisanship long enough to acknowledge horrific tragedies like the Tucson, Arizona, massacre for what they are rather than use the tragedy as an opportunity to twist, spin, distort, pervert, and misrepresent facts and hurl unfounded accusations in a feeble attempt to gain political ground. For The Progressive pundit “Journalists,” civility is a faint memory - if it ever existed at

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...

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...

Eddie Reeves: President Obama in Tucson: Yes, He (Still) Can
President Obama's address at the University of Arizona in Tucson will go down as a signature moment of presidential oratory. Just as in his electrifying maiden Speech at the 2004 Democratic convention and in the March, 2008 Philadelphia allocution on race that saved his severely wounded Presidential Campaign, Barack Obama once again stepped into the breach and demonstrated the best single aspect of his leadership persona. And once again, at a time when we seem at greatest peril of ripping our...

Teary-eyed Boehner pays tribute to Arizona victims
(01-12) 07:39 PST Washington, CA (AP) -- House Speaker John Boehner has opened a session of the House by honoring Victims of Saturday's shooting in Arizona, speaking in a halting voice, his eyes welled up with tears. Boehner (BAY'-nur) told House members that "our hearts are broken but our spirit is not." Wednesday's six-hour session is a remembrance for the 19 people shot, six fatally. Many of the remarks are expected to focus on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona Democrat shot in the head ...

San Diego Judge Chosen to Handle Loughner Trial
Yahoo! Buzz Well, that didn’t take long. Shortly after all of the federal trial judges in Arizona were recused from presiding over the trial of Jared Loughner, the accused Tucson shooter, the chief judge of the Ninth Circuit, Alex Kozinski, selected the judge who will. The duties will fall to San Diego Federal Judge Larry A. Burns. Click here for the Los Angeles Times article; here for the Arizona Republic article; here for Judge Kozinski’s one-page order. According to the LAT, Burns...

President Obama addresses memorial service honoring Arizona shooting victims
President Barack Obama spoke before an audience of more than 14,000 people Wednesday night at the University of Arizona in Tucson for a memorial event honoring the Victims of the Saturday attack that killed six and left a congresswoman fighting for her life. "To the families of those we’ve lost; to all who called them friends; to the Students of this university, the public servants gathered tonight, and the people of Tucson and Arizona:  I have come here tonight as an American wh...

Westboro Baptist Says It Will Not Protest Funerals of Any of the Victims of the Arizona Shooting
kold.com Kansas CITY, Mo. - A Kansas church that pickets the Funerals of Soldiers and blames their deaths on the country's tolerance of Homosexuality now says it won't Protest the Funerals of any Victims of Arizona's Mass Shooting . Shirley Phelps-Roper, of Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church, says her church has agreed to avoid Thursday's funeral of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green in exchange for live Radio Interviews in Canada and Arizona . The church also promised to not Protest the funeral ...

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...