Intern might have saved Giffords' life

Arizona Shootings and the Gun Debate: How Will The Public Respond?
Tragic and shocking events like the shooting rampage in Arizona inevitably revive the debate over Gun Control laws and no doubt will do so again in the aftermath of the spree in which suspect Jared Lee Loughner used a legally-purchased semi-automatic woman to put a bullet in the brain of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and kill or injure 19 others. But over the last decade, major shooting incidents across the country has not led to a surge in public support for tougher Gun Control laws. There ha...

The Tuscon people were good at stopping a shooting spree that might have gone on much longer.
Remember the Virginia Tech shooting, in which the shooter was allowed to reload several times and roam from room to room until he'd shot 32 persons to death and wounded many others? The culture in Arizona is different: In my district and in my state, we have a very strong gun culture. I own a gun, members of my family own guns.Those are the words of Gabrielle Gifford, interviewed in May 2010. ...

Neighbor says Ariz. suspect's parents blame selves
A neighbor says the parents of the suspect in Saturday's Shooting Spree in Tucson are devastated and guilt-ridden. Jared Loughner (LAWF'-nuhr) appeared in court Monday on federal charges that he tried to assassinate U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed a Federal Judge. He is also accused of killing five others and wounding or injuring 13 others. Wayne Smith, who lives across the street from the family, said Randy and Amy Loughner blame themselves. Smith said he told the couple they didn't fai...

CBS Poll: Nearly Six In Ten Say Heated Rhetoric Unrelated To AZ Shooting
In a CBS poll released this morning, almost 60% of Americans said they don't think strong political Rhetoric is to blame for Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona that left six dead and wounded over a dozen others, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. In the poll, 57% of respondents said that intense political discourse had nothing to do with the attack, versus 32% who said that it was a contributing factor to the shooting. By political demographics, Republicans were less inc...

Sickening Display By Newsweeks Alter
Conservatives like to argue that these are isolated incidents carried out by lunatics and therefore carry no big lessons (unless the perpetrator is Muslim, in which case it's Terrorism); liberals view them as opportunities to address various social ills. Obama is in the latter category and should act accordingly. "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," Rahm Emanuel famously said in 2008. The same goes for a Shooting Spree that gravely wounds a beloved congresswoman. You must login to c...

FRC Hails Daniel Hernandez
From yesterday's dispatch from the Family Research Council.Congresswoman Giffords, who appears to be the shooter's main target, is "holding her own," doctors say. Her survival is thanks, in large part, to the brave response of Giffords's new intern Daniel Hernandez. After just five days on the job, Hernandez--who was trained as a nurse's assistant--rushed to the Congresswoman's side and helped her sit upright, putting pressure on the head wound until the emergency teams arrived. When they did,...

Citing Arizona, Va. delegate proposes banning firearms in State Capitol
A Virginia delegate is introducing a bill to ban Firearms from the State Capitol and General Assembly Building in response to the shooting rampage in Arizona that left a U.S. Congresswoman in critically wounded. Del. Patrick A. Hope (D-Arlington) will propose that the General Assembly consider the ban when it convenes for its annual legislative session Wednesday. "The tragedy this weekend in Tucson should cause all public officials to re-examine the safety and security of themselves, their staf...

U.S. majority doesn't blame rhetoric for Giffords shooting
WASHINGTON | Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:18am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of Americans reject the view that heated political Rhetoric was a factor in the weekend shootings in Arizona which killed six and critically wounded a congresswoman, a CBS News said on Tuesday. Since the Saturday incident in which Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot at point-blank range, various politicians and commentators have said a climate in which strong language and ideological polarization is com...

GOP Rep. Allen West: I Have No Plans to Tone Down My Strong Language in Wake of Giffords Shooting
Stand strong. (Palm Beach Post)-  U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, this morning criticized “political opportunism” in the wake of Saturday’s shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and said he has no plans to tone down his own “stronger language.” Within hours of the shooting that killed six and critically injured Giffords, some commentators placed the massacre in the context of the nation’s heated political climate and blamed the Tea Party...

In They Are Who We Thought They Were News..
I had put this in the replies in yesterday’s Afternoon Open Thread, but I thought about it, and decided to FP it. In an apparent effort to distance themselves from the Mass Shootings in Arizona over the weekend, the Tea Party Express sent out an email to supporters proclaiming that they “won’t be silenced” — and asking for contributions. Earlier today, TPE leader Sal Russo went on Fox News and lamented how “revolting and disgusting the left is for trying to as...

Most Americans Reject Tie Between Political Rhetoric, Arizona Shootings
While the Arizona shootings have triggered a national debate about whether the vitriol in political Rhetoric has gone over the top, 57 percent of Americans do not believe the heated partisan tone of public debate had anything to do with the gun rampage in Tucson, according to a CBS News poll released Tuesday. The connection between the state of political discourse and the shootings that critically wounded Arizon Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, killed six and injured 13 others had perhaps been put most ...

Young intern saved Giffords's life
TUSCON — A heroic young intern for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords - who had been on the job for only five days - quickly rushed to stop the bleeding moments after she had been shot and his quick thinking is being credited with saving the congresswoman’s life. The Arizona Republic published a profile of 20-year-old University of Arizona junior Daniel Hernandez, revealing he was standing 30 feet from Giffords when shots were fired outside a local Safeway — and that he ran toward them....

Is it time for a national debate on the mentally ill?
Give some credit to The New Republic.  For the most part, they have eschewed the evidence-free festival of demonization the past three days after the mass Murder in Tucson that left six dead and fourteen injured, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.  Jonathan Chait scolded those on the Left who exploited the lunacy for their own political agendas in his column yesterday (via Rick Moran), and today William Galston focuses on the actual impetus to the shooting — insanity and society’...

Newspaper Roundup for Tuesday, 1-11-11
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 By Susan Jones Denver Post: Security Breach shadows a major push to digitize patient medical records in Colorado Amid risks, bid to digitize health records continues in new year Providence Journal: R.I. Gov. Chafee says he won't do Talk Radio, and neither will on-duty state workers Refuses to support 'for-profit, Ratings-driven programming' Politico: Ariz. lawmakers introducing a bill Tuesday to create a 'Funeral protection zone' Because the Westboro cult is coming...

U.S. public says Giffords shooting, rhetoric unrelated
Most Americans see no relation between the attempted Assassination of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the political tactic of lacing vitriolic Rhetoric with Firearms analogies. That’s the conclusion of a CBS News poll that found most Republicans (69 pct), most Independents (56 pct) and even a plurality of Democrats (49 pct) believe the two phenomena unrelated. Those numbers add up to 57 percent of Americans overall — a true majority though not quite big enough to break a Se...

Report: Deepwater Horizon disaster 'foreseeable and preventable'
Arizona shooting Six people were killed and 14 others wounded, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona....

Daniel Hernandez, Intern Who Helped Saved Gabrielle Giffords, Visits Today Show
Alex Alvarez | Mediaite ...

'Climate of Hate' to Blame for Ariz Shooting?
Investigators are still trying to find the motive behind Saturday's shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and others in Tucson. Liberals quickly blamed Conservatives for creating the climate that led to the attack and that has sparked a fiery debate about political Rhetoric. Tucson has come together to rally around the Victims of the Shooting Spree and its primary target, who authoritites say was Giffords. "Every day that goes by and we don't see an increase, we're slightly more optimi...

The Note: 2012 Politics Gets Tangled In Arizona Shooting Aftermath
By MICHAEL FALCONE and AMY WALTER The place that Sarah Palin has occupied in the debate about civility in politics in the aftermath of Saturday’s shooting in Arizona that left six people dead has inevitably dragged other potential 2012 contenders into the discussion. One of the first to join the fray is former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, whose long-planned book tour kicks off this week. Pawlenty weighed in on the swirling Controversy about the appropriateness of Palin’s use of rifle cro...

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...

For Rep. Giffords, No News Is Good News Right Now
This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," January 10, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, Fox News HOST: At this hour Congresswoman Giffords is fighting to stay alive. Griff Jenkins spoke to her chief neurosurgeon. GRIFF JENKINS, Fox News CORRESPONDENT: We are with Dr. Michael Lemole, chief of Neurosurgery here at the University Medical Center. Doctor, what can you tell us about the latest with Representative Giffords' state? DR. MICHAEL LEM...

Julian Assange: Gabrielle Giffords Parallels Made Over 'Violent Rhetoric'
Though he came across more strident than sympathetic, Julian Assange joined the ranks of public officials to offer words over the grisly Arizona shooting that left six dead and Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition. In a statement issued ahead of Assange's Tuesday court hearing in London, where he is fighting Extradition to Sweden on Rape charges, the Wikileaks founder drew parallels between his own experience and that of Giffords, whose shooting launched a nationwi...

Loughner an Independent, Didn't Vote in 2010
For what it's worth, the Washington Post reports that 22-year-old alleged Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner is a registered independent. Six people were left dead and 14 injured, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, after a gunman believed to have been Loughner open fired at town hall-style meeting on Saturday at a Grocery Store in Tucson, Ariz. Though the evidence seems to indicate Loughner lacks a fixed ideology (outside of anti-government sentiment) and may be mentally un...

Heroic Giffords Intern Could Be Asked For Papers Under Arizona Immigration Law
WASHINGTON -- When a gunman attacked Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and others on Saturday, 20-year-old intern Daniel Hernandez ran toward the shots to try to save those who were injured. He stopped to check pulses on several Victims before finding Giffords, who had been shot in the head. Hernandez applied pressure to the wound, holding his boss of five days until his clothes were soaked with her blood. Hernandez, trained as a nursing assistant, lifted her head so that she wouldn't choke on...

Gay Latino Intern Credited with Helping Save Rep. Giffords Life
Intern Daniel Hernandez Jr. with Rep. Giffords Photo from Hernandez's Facebook page Here’s an excellent example of why we need the LGBT and alternative media. John Wright at Dallas Voice notes that the young man who stuck by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords immediately after she was shot and is credited with perhaps saving her life - is a gay Latino. Mainstream Media still usually considers Sexual Orientation and gender identity is either a matter of personal Privacy or a topic for sensa...