Lawmakers debate whether more security is answer

Congress Looks at Upping Security
Politico reports: Lawmakers are already engaged in vigorous debate over their security, with several pushing for dramatic measures and more money and others saying the actions of a single deranged gunman shouldn’t shut them off from the public. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) told Politico in an e-mail that he plans to propose a reversal of the 5 percent cut Republicans made in members’ office budgets, and he wants a 10 percent increase to cover more security measures in the wake of the sh...

Lawmakers discuss additional security measures after shooting of congresswoman
Lawmakers have begun discussing ways to improve their own security after an Arizona congresswoman was shot in the head on Saturday. Ideas have ranged from increasing police presence at district events, having additional Airport Security for members, installing a bombproof shield around the House of Representatives gallery to doing nothing more than what lawmakers already do. San Bernardino County Democratic Rep. Joe Baca of Rialto said in an interview with The Press-Enterprise that he would...

Security review rises to top of congressional agenda after attack
An increased police presence at district events, stepped-up Airport Security for members and even a bomb-proof shield around the House gallery are under discussion in the wake of a recent Assassination attempt on a lawmaker.  The shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) on Saturday has shaken staff and members and left them pushing for a comprehensive review of the Capitol Police’s security procedures even as they strive to remain accessible to constituents.  U.S. Capitol Police offic

GOP Representative Wants To Erect Plexiglas Shield Around Congress
Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) recently announced plans in the wake of the Arizona shooting to reintroduce a piece of Legislation that would provide for the creation of plexiglas-like wall that would enclose the House gallery, preventing visitors from being able to throw explosives onto the floor. "The Architect of the Capitol shall enclose the visitors' galleries of the House of Representatives with a transparent and substantial material, and shall install equipment so that the proceedings on the f...

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...

House members want added security after Giffords shooting
House members will return to the Capitol on Wednesday for the first time since the Tucson, Ariz., shooting rampage that nearly killed colleague Gabrielle Giffords, and they are demanding improved protection ranging from office security cameras to the installation of a plexiglass barrier over the House floor. Members will meet Wednesday with the U.S. Capitol Police and the sergeant-at-arms to discuss security issues in the Capitol and at home in their own districts, which is where Giffords, a De...

GOP Rep Wants to Enclose Congress in Plexiglass
(CBS News) — An aide to Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) tells CBS News that the Indiana Republican plans to introduce Legislation next week that would encase the House Gallery in “a transparent and substantial material” such as Plexiglas that would keep members of the public from being able to throw explosives or make other attacks on members on the House floor. Burton has introduced similar Legislation in the past. It reads in part, “The Architect of the Capitol shall enclose t...

Protecting lawmakers: Arm them? Install shields?
(01-11) 16:18 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Several lawmakers defiantly vowed Tuesday to arm themselves after the shooting rampage in Arizona despite the Senate's top Law Enforcement officer's admonition that more guns would not be the answer. "It's not that I'm going to be like Wyatt Earp," declared Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., who said he was re-applying for a state permit to carry a Concealed Weapon even if he didn't necessarily plan to carry the pistol to public events. In a Capitol already ringed...

A Trust Betrayed
G.I. Wood Shop Inc. Mrs. Peel Oh…My Valve! V The K’s Caption This! An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later. I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the ...

POLITICAL HOT TOPICS: Wednesday, January 12, 2011
The CNN Washington Bureau’s morning speed read of the top stories making news from around the country and the world. Click on the headlines for more. President Obama began working Monday night on the Speech he will deliver during a memorial service Wednesday for the Victims of Saturday's Mass Shooting in Tucson, Arizona. White House officials say Obama has determined the broad idea of what he wants to say and is working with his team of Speechwriters on drafting his remarks. According to ...

Why Are They Doing This?
It’s a rhetorical question, to be sure, that I pose at the end of the post below: why the fact-free blood Libel, from the L.A. Times or any other lefty? Again, I won’t insult your intelligence by answering the question — but just to confirm that you’re on the right track, I commend to you these Quotes of the Day from Hot Air. Every single one is about how the Republicans really need to tone it down — especially when seeking to Repeal Health Care. When they turn back...

Should We Shut Down Debate About Arizona Rampage? A Tucson Paper Says "No"
Hyper-defensive conservative talk-radio and talk-television hosts are attacking anyone who tries to suggests that angry political Rhetoric, weak Gun Laws or inadequate programs to address Mental Illness might offer an explanation for the Tucson shooting rampage that left Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords wounded and six Arizonans dead. They are even condemning the local sheriff for daring to offer his perspective -- as a lawman with more than five decades of experience -- on how Arizona's toxic p...

Arizona shooting: Is Sarah Palin's silence an admission of guilt?
 Where is Sarah Palin? Why is she hiding? Sarah Palin is a major player in the aftermath of Saturday's tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona, whether she likes it or not. Six were killed and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and 13 others were injured. And yet Palin is no where to be found. After expressing her "sincere condolences" to the shooting's Victims and their families via Facebook on Saturday, Palin has made only one other statement to the press: a rather unimpressive e-mail to Glenn ...

Congresswoman Giffords' office releases first photos from hospital room
Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford's office released the first photos from her Hospital room a the University of Arizona Medical Center.  Both pictures do not show Congresswoman Gifford's face for good reason.  Instead, the pictures show her husband, Mark Kelly, holding her hand as she fights to recover.  The photos can be seen in the slideshow to the left.  I have included other pictures from the story after the Hospital photos. Doctors continue to be very optimistic about Giff...

Bill seeks to wrap Congress in actual bubble
Stumble This! In the wake of a Mass Shooting in Arizona that left six dead and one congresswoman in the Hospital, some Republican lawmakers seem to be most worried about finding ways to protect themselves. Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) wants to enclose the House Gallery in "a transparent and substantial material" such as Plexiglas, an aide told CBS News. His Legislation aims to keep the public from being able to throw explosives or other materials at members while they are on the House floor. It's no...

GOP Rep. Wants to Enclose Congress in Plexiglas
Capitol police remove Medea Benjamin from the House gallery after she disrupted a Speech by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Capitol Hill in Washington Wednesday, July 26, 2006, as the prime minister addressed a joint meeting of Congress. An aide to Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) tells CBS News that the Indiana Republican plans to introduce Legislation next week that would encase the House Gallery in "a transparent and substantial material" such as Plexiglas that would keep members of the publi...

GOP Rep. Wants to Enclose Congress in Plexiglas
Source: CBS News An aide to Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) tells CBS News that the Indiana Republican plans to introduce Legislation next week that would encase the House Gallery in "a transparent and substantial material" such as Plexiglas that would keep members of the public from being able to throw explosives or make other attacks on members on the House floor. Burton has introduced similar Legislation in the past. It reads in part, "The Architect of the Capitol shall enclose the visitors' galleri...

Five House Dems lose seats on Appropriations Committee
Five current House Democratic congressmen, including Chief Deputy Whip Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.), Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y), have lost their seats on the powerful Appropriations committee, a Democratic aide said Monday. As a result of the loss of their majority, Demcratic membership on the committee is shrinking from 37 members to 21. Reps. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio),  C.A. Ruppersburger (D-Md), and Ben Chandler (D-Ky.) also lost their places o...

Obamas Achilles Heel
The dreaded ghost of high Unemployment haunts President Obama and his prospects for Reelection in 2012. The Obama Administration is hanging its hopes on Consumer Spending, which makes up about 70 percent of economic activity, and the approximately $2 Trillion in assets the industrial community has been sitting on. But despite recent stronger Economic Growth, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke forecasts as much as five more years of high unemployment. Obama has brought the Unemployment disaster on himself...

On Capitol Hill, Lawmakers Talk About Security
Yahoo! Buzz As the U.S. House observed the moment of silence today for the Victims of the shooting in Tucson, the new realities facing lawmakers and their staffs were on display. Capitol Police checked staff identification cards of those walking onto the East Steps. For the few lawmakers at the Capitol this morning, the focus was on security, particularly when they are in their districts. House members have a long tradition of being easily accessible to constituents. They visit schools, county f...

Is Sarah Palin Retreating, or Reloading?
In the days following the massacre in Tucson, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has become a focal point in the media conversation about the shootings. The confluence of her March posting of an electoral map that featured crosshairs over Shooting Victim Gabrielle Giffords ‘ Congressional District, Giffords’ own denunciation of the image at the time, and Giffords’ current struggle to survive that shooting has linked Palin to the shooting, despite a lack of any evidence of a cau...

The Real Victim Is Always David Frum
Posted by Melissa Clouthier on Jan 11 2011 Filed under Featured, Media Bias, News & Opinion, Politics, Tea Party. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry How could poor moderate pundit David Frum so continually be misunderstood? Why can’t we just get him, man? The fact that he amplified what was to become the leftist meme, that Sarah Palin’s cross-hairs on an electoral map was somehow related to the mu...

Jon Stewart keeps hope alive for Americans robustness
Stumble This! The Cable Television comedian who led a rally inside the Beltway to advocate for a more temperate public discourse last fall gave a mixed message on the effects of political Rhetoric in the wake of a recent shooting in Arizona. Yet, in the end, Jon Stewart refused to give up hope on the robustness of Americans' spirit. "I do think it's important to watch our rhetoric," Stewart, host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, said Monday night. "I think it's a worthwhile goal not to conf...

Obama to Arizona as shot lawmaker fights for life (AFP)
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama will lead Americans in national mourning Wednesday after an Arizona shooting tragedy unleashed a polarizing national debate about the violent Rhetoric rocking US politics. Obama will fly to the southwestern state to lead a tribute service for the six people who were killed and the 14 wounded in the Assassination attempt on congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who is fighting for her life in a Hospital. His trip will take place after the family of th...

After the Arizona Murders, Politics As Usual
I thought the shootings in Arizona might cause a brief moment of unity. Twenty shot; six dead, including a little girl; an attempted political Assassination, an attack on Democracy itself. Was I naive to think that the instant reaction might be an uncomplicated desire to unite--in sympathy for the Victims and in deploring a crime against us all? Of course I was. It takes more than this to bridge the divide in American politics. One strand of commentary implicated the political right in the cri...