How Georgia congressmen view security in wake of Arizona shooting

The costs of protecting our elected officials against an assassins bullet
In light of last Saturday’s tragedy, the U.S. Congress is working an abbreviated schedule this week. Legislative action has been suspended through Wednesday of next week so that our elected leaders can join the rest of the nation in mourning a senseless tragedy. Once work resumes, the House is expected to entertain a proposal to extend armed security protection to all 535 members of Congress at all times. The idea, which is understandable in the light of recent events, has its roots in the...

In Wake of Giffords Shooting, Congress on High Alert but Intent to Carry On
Shaken by this weekend's shooting rampage in Arizona that critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, killed six people and wounded 13 others, Congress was on high alert Monday morning. Some representatives canceled events and others, including Reps. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), said that they would carry Firearms for protection. Rep. Robert Brady (D-Pa.) told Politics Daily that he would introduce Legislation Wednesday making it a federal crime for a person to use language...

Arizona Shooting: The Pen is Still Mightier Than The Sword, as Long as The Pen H
It`s hard for me to write my comments today and not write them in Snooki Fashion; you know like they wrote in her recent book (A Shore Thing,) - In 4 letter words. I will tell my readers today; I will NOT Be mincing words, beating around the bush, no it`s straightforward talk and as Detective Sergeant Joe Friday on Dragnet used to say, "Nothing But the Facts!" , but it will be hard; for today my heart hurts. So again, although I am at a loss of words, the words I do pick will be my own. No one w...

Reports Downplayed of Loughner's Extremist Ties
Like this Story? Share it: Only On The Web: CBS News digital Journalist Arden Farhi spoke to Tucson-area residents as they reflect on Saturday's shooting and the impact it's had on their community. Chris Wragge speaks with Tucson shooting survivor Eric Fuller about the gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, and his thoughts on Rep. Gabrielle Gifford's recovery. New details about Tuscon gunman Jared Lee Loughner are being revealed as investigators search his home. Ben Tracy reports. Evidence is continuing t...

Bogus Fox claim that DHS tied shooter to white supremacists is debunked
I reported yesterday that the Department of Homeland Security was denying a Fox story claiming the agency had established possible links between the shooter and a white supremacist organization. Now Ken Vogel debunks the story completely: An Arizona Law Enforcement agency is backing away from a document it produced in the aftermath of Saturday's shootings in Tucson -- and which was leaked to Fox News -- that linked the man accused with carrying out the Crimes to a white nationalist publication...

ABC News Boss On Medias Role In Tucson Shootings: Blaming Media Is A Giant Leap
Recently-named ABC News president Ben Sherwood says “it’s premature to leap in and examine what may or may not have been the media’s role” in the Shooting Spree in Arizona. In an interview with Broadcasting & Cable, Sherwood calls the lure to blame the media a “giant leap.” B&C’s Ben Grossman and Andrea Morabito surveyed news chiefs at ABC, NBC, CNN and Fox, asking each about the charges of vitriolic Rhetoric ahead of the Tucson shootings and ...

Jeff Kass: Jared Loughner, Columbine and Diversion
Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner shared an unusual legal background, known as diversion, with the Columbine killers, as recounted in the New York Times. It may also be a window into the character trait of these mass shooters. "In September, Mr. Loughner filled out paperwork to have his record expunged on a 2007 drug paraphernalia charge," the Times reported. "Although he did not need to bother -- he had completed a diversion program so the charge was never actually on his record -- the i...

Bill Clinton Says Political Tone Must Change
Former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday waded into the debate about America’s political Rhetoric in the wake of last weekend’s shootings in Arizona, saying the tone of the national conversation must change. Speaking from Haiti on the one-year anniversary of the Earthquake there, Mr. Clinton suggested that passionate Political Speech should not be directly blamed for the kind of violence that occurred in Tucson. But he said the angry back-and-forth of modern debate is not healthy. &...

Jon Stewart, Voice of Reason for the Left?
It truly is a sad day for politics and a terrible indictment of the Left and Liberal media in the United States, when the voice of reason seems to be a comedian, Jon Stewart.  Discussing the shooting rampage that took place in Arizona on Saturday, January 8, 2011, by Jared Lee Loughner, Stewart refrained from his usual funny take on current events to share his personal thoughts.  As BuddyTV says of Stewart's comments, "His reaction was, for the most part, serious, often ra...

Rush Limbaugh Poetry: Democrats Helping Jared Loughner Avoid Jail
Let’s throw it to our top Arizona legal analyst, Rush Limbaugh, Esq., sitting in a hole of Excellent Broadcasting on the other side of the country: “This guy clearly understands he’s getting all the attention and he understands he’s got a political party doing everything it can, plus a local sheriff doing everything that they can to make sure he’s not convicted of Murder.” Poetic! Rush Limbaugh is using this opportunity of pundits’ examining their rhetor...

A New Kennedy
"On the 50th anniversary of one of President Kennedy's most famous speeches, his great-nephew, Joseph P. Kennedy III, stood in the same spot in the Massachusetts House today and delivered his own address, decrying the vituperative political Rhetoric that he said is tearing at the nation's fabric," the Boston Globe reports. Said Senate President Therese Murray: "Pretty amazing. I think we have a new Kennedy. He hit it out of the park." "Afterward, Kennedy demurred about his own political future,...

Adam Kissel: UC Berkeley Chancellor Blames Arizona Shooting on 'Hateful Speech'
Yesterday morning, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau e-mailed the campus community with regard to the horrendous Mass Shooting in Arizona that killed a Federal Judge, a 9-year-old girl, and several others while gravely injuring Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the apparent target of the attack. Like many others in the News Media and on blogs and Twitter, Birgeneau chose to put the blame for the shooting on the "climate" of Speech in Arizona, while lamenting what he sees as similar problems at...

House Resolution Honors Heroes, Victims of Tucson Tragedy
ABC News' John R. Parkinson reports: A resolution to be read on the House floor Wednesday will honor the Victims of Saturday's Mass Shooting in Tucson, Arizona, and will also single out a number of individuals for heroic action on the scene of Saturday's bloody rampage. The text of the measure reads that "Representative Gabrielle Giffords was a target of this attack, and remains in critical condition at an Arizona Hospital" and "condemns in the strongest...

The Post 1/11/2011
While South Carolina prepares for an icy inauguration and the start of the 2011 legislative session, the focus of the nation continues to be absorbed by the Shooting Spree in Tucson, Arizona on Saturday that killed six people and left U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords seriously wounded. The Giffords’ story has dominated all facets of national news, the 2012 presidential discussion and has even reached into South Carolina politics given the asinine, anti-First Amendment comments made in response...

House Resolution Would Condemn Giffords Attack (Full Text)
Members of Congress and staff members observe a moment of silence for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and other Shooting Victims, Monday, Jan. 10, 2011, on the East Steps of the Capitol on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Credit: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) The House of Representatives on Wednesday will vote on a resolution declaring that the House "condemns in the strongest possible terms the horrific attack" in Tucson, Arizona that left six dead, a congresswoman in critical condition and 13 ot...

Lawmakers Differ Over Security in Wake of Arizona Shooting
If one lawmaker has his way NHL stars Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom won't be the only folks in Washington doing their work surrounded by Plexiglass. Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., intends to introduce Legislation similar to a measure he presented in 2007 to enclose the House Chamber in a "transparent and substantial material" to prevent people from tossing explosives or shooting onto the floor. Such an occurrence wouldn't be unprecedented. On March 1, 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists en...

Repeal vote postponed, but will Giffords shooting change debate?
House Republican leadership immediately postponed the vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act after Saturday's shootings that killed six and left Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords critically injured. Congressional Quarterly's Congress.org is hopeful that the Rhetoric in the debate once Congress takes it back up will "settle down." “There will be a time of introspection,” said Rep. Michael C. Burgess of Texas, a physician and vice chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on ...

Sanders fundraising e-mail: Is Ariz. safe for non-Republicans?
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is sharing his thoughts on the tragedy in Arizona through a Fundraising e-mail, skating on a thin political line. The self-described Socialist even goes as far as to question whether Arizona welcomes political dialogue from those outside the Republican Party. "Given the recent tragedy in Arizona, as well as the start of the new Congress, I wanted to take this opportunity to share a few words with political friends in Vermont and throughout the count...

Families Speak as Tucson Preps for Memorial
The collection of candles and flowers grows outside the Tucson Hospital where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and those wounded in the Jan 8 shooting rampage in Arizona are being treated. Mourners will gather Tuesday night for mass to remember the six killed in the shooting. President Obama will arrive in Tucson Wednesday for a memorial service for the Victims. Meanwhile, Rep. Giffords's miraculous survival is being trumped by news of her amazing recovery. Doctors report that the he biggest danger to ...

Mayor Mike Bloomberg Asks What Could Have Prevented Arizona Shooting, Talks Gun Control
New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg called lawmakers on the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition together for a City Hall meeting to discuss the Arizona shooting that left six dead and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords recovering from a bullet to the head. Among the issues discussed was Gun Control, a topic which inspired an impassioned Speech from the Mayor on what, exactly, we should be taking away from the weekend’s events: The more we learn the more it becomes clear that this case is fu...

The Vitriol Will Likely Return
With any disturbing event, like the tragic and horrifying shooting in Tucson last Saturday, there is a natural tendency to extrapolate the impact of it for months or even years to come. The unspeakable event cost people from such varying walks of life as a 9-year-old girl and a Federal Judge their lives and has left Rep.Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., fighting for her life. Something like this creates a memory that is certain to be burned into the consciousness of current and former elected offici...

Analysis: How free can a society be when elected officials are walled off? (Exclusive to Yahoo! News)
By Yochi J. Dreazen National Journal It's hard to remember, but Washington wasn't always a city of walls. Thomas Jefferson held a public reception at the White House after his second inaugural, and citizens were able to freely wander through the building to personally ask presidents like Abraham Lincoln for jobs and other favors. Harry Truman took long walks around Washington each morning protected by just a handful of Secret Service agents. Capitol Hill had no roadblocks or barricades, and ca...

Mutual Respect: What America Owes Itself and the World (Berliner Morganpost, Germany)
After the attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, what can the American People do to bring their politics back to a place where differences don’t devolve into a veritable war against the opposition? According to columnist Peter Craven from Germany’s Berliner Morganpost, “it’s time to revive the rules of civilized coexistence and fair political discourse.” Even if the background of the bloodbath in Arizona remains unclear, parallels can be noted with Oklahoma. ...

Church Helping with Tucson's 'Psychological Wounds'
Tucson, Ariz. - The community of Tucson is still in shock as many struggling emotionally to deal with the tragedy. Crisis and stress management centers are being set-up around the city. Some of the counselors belong to a group sponsored by one local church whose members are trained to help in times of crisis. A candlelight vigil was held Monday night at the Tucson medical center where Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was undergoing surgery to try and save her life. Most stood in reverent silenc...

Gun sales soar 60 percent in Ariz.
Gun sales soared in Arizona and several other states on Monday after the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to FBI figures provided to Politico. Gun sales skyrocketed 60 percent in Arizona on Monday Jan. 10, compared to the corresponding Monday last year. Giffords was shot on Saturday, Jan 8 and six others were killed. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset POLITICO 44 Nationwide, sales were 5 percent higher on Monday than they were a year ago. Gun sales spiked after the 2007 sho...