Obama: Time to tackle nation's challenges again

Obama pledges to turn the page, work with GOP and Democrats
WASHINGTON — Citing “great challenges for us to solve,’’ President Obama pledged to work with Democrats and Republicans in the aftermath of the Arizona shooting that killed six, grievously wounded a member of Congress, and brought legislative debate to a virtual standstill. In his weekly radio and Internet address, the president moved to turn the page from the week of solemn observance for the dead and the Victims to the governing business ahead. “We carry on becau...

Obama urges bipartisanship after Arizona shootings (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama urged Americans on Saturday to maintain the "spirit of common cause" that arose from grieving over the Arizona shootings and use it to solve the nation's problems. Legislative work in Washington came to a halt this week while lawmakers and citizens from both parties mourned the Victims of a gunman who went on a rampage in Arizona on January 8, killing six people and wounding 13, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Obama...

Obama: Time to tackle nation's challenges again (AP)
WASHINGTON – Citing "great challenges for us to solve," President Barack Obama is pledging to work with Democrats and Republicans in the aftermath of the Arizona shooting that killed six, grievously wounded a member of Congress and brought legislative debate to a virtual standstill. In his weekly radio and Internet address, the president moved to turn the page from the week of solemn observance for the dead and the Victims to the governing business ahead. "We carry on because we have to,...

Talk that heals, not wounds
Below are excerpts from remarks by President Barack Obama at the Jan. 12 memorial service for the Victims of the shooting in Tucson, Arizona. 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 who, like all Americans, kneels to pray with you today, and will stand by you tomorrow. There is nothing I can say that will fill the sud...

Obama urges bipartisanship after Arizona shootings
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged Americans on Saturday to maintain the "spirit of common cause" that arose from grieving over the Arizona shootings and use it to solve the nation's problems. Legislative work in Washington came to a halt this week while lawmakers and citizens from both parties mourned the Victims of a gunman who went on a rampage in Arizona on January 8, killing six people and wounding 13, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Obama gave a well-received...

Obama calls for civility between parties in weekly radio address
President Barack Obama once again called on both parties to work together and discuss issues in a civil manner during his weekly radio address on Saturday. His address seemed to be a continuation of the Speech he gave at a memorial service in Tucson during the week where he also pleaded for Civil Discourse. He said the nation’s reaction to last weekend’s shooting should be a reminder that “we are one American family, 300 million strong.” The president urged lawmakers to c...

Dismembering what is left of health care monstrosity
Image via Wikipedia Washington Post: With the House preparing to vote this week on whether to Repeal the Health Care law, the chamber's new Republican majority already confronts a far more delicate task: forging its own path to expand health coverage and curb medical costs. The House's GOP leaders have made clear that they regard the Repeal vote, scheduled to begin Tuesday, as the prelude to a two-prong strategy that is likely to last throughout the year, or longer. They intend to dismember th...

Obama: We Must Carry On, Solve Great Challenges
Like this Story? Share it: (AP) WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama says he's ready to work with lawmakers in both parties in a "spirit of common cause" to address major issues as Congress gets back to business after the Arizona shooting that brought legislative debate to a virtual standstill. "We carry on because we have to," Mr. Obama said in his radio and Internet address Saturday. "After all, this is still a time of great challenges for us to solve." He cited the need to create more jobs, ...

LI Congressman Holds First Event After Tucson Shooting
DEER PARK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) — A Long Island representative held the first “Congress on Your Corner” event since the tragic shootings in Tuscon that left an Arizona congresswoman fighting for her life. Before residents even walked into the event at the Deer Park Fire Department, they were greeted by a Police Officer outside the front door. Congressman Steve Israel told WCBS 880’s Sophia Hall that he felt it was very important to have a “Congress in Your Corner...

Redux: Why I blew off the Obama spectacle part trois: It was an Obama Campaign event.
I don't know what you thought while watching the memorial service in Tucson, but the raucous crowd's cheers, shrieks and crowing struck me as wildly inappropriate and -- at worst -- borderline disrespectful. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he was surprised at the crowd's behavior as well. I will say that I read the Speech several times and thought that there wouldn't be a lot of applause if any. I think many of us thought that. But impacted. Not just at that grocery store but throughou...

A busy week as freshman Rep. Cicilline settles in
U.S. Rep. David N. Cicilline, shown on Jan. 5, is ready to participate in his committee assignments. WASHINGTON — It was a quiet week in the House of Representatives, overshadowed by grief over the Arizona shooting rampage that left a well-liked congresswoman gravely injured. But it was a busy time nonetheless for freshman Rep. David N. Cicilline, who has made progress on securing committee assignments and hiring staff, spoken of the Tucson rampage in his maiden Speech on the House floor, ...

Officials: Tucson Victim Threatened Tea Party Leader
Authorities say one of the Victims of the shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., last weekend has been arrested after he threatened a Tea Party Leader during a town hall meeting for a television show. James Eric Fuller, who was shot in the knee and back, objected to something Trent Humphries said during the forum Saturday. Authorities say the 63-year-old Fuller took a picture of Humphries and yelled, "You're dead.'' Pima County Sheriff's spokesman Jason Ogan says Fuller has been arrested on disorder...

Tucson shooting spree victim arrested
TUCSON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- One of those wounded in the Tucson Shooting Spree that left six people dead was arrested Saturday after making a verbal threat, authorities and witnesses said. Jason Ogan, a spokesman for the Pima County Sheriff's office, said J. Eric Fuller, 63, was "involuntarily committed for Mental Health evaluation," The New York Times reported. Fuller, a Military Veteran who was shot in the Left Knee and the back at U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' Jan. 8 constituency gathering, atten...

Ventilator removed as Giffords continues recovery
US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords no longer needs a ventilator after doctors replaced her breathing tube with a different one. Hospital officials say that Giffords underwent a procedure on Saturday to have a tracheotomy tube inserted in her windpipe to protect her airways, freeing her from the ventilator. She had been breathing on her own since she was shot in the head on January 8. Doctors said Giffords remains in critical condition, but is recovering well. Giffords was gravely wounded in a m...

Cheryl Allen Charged With Making Threats
Indianapolis — An Indiana woman who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Congress last year was being held Saturday on charges she made threats against judges and other officials on her Facebook account. Morgan County Prosecutor Steve Sonnega – who said he was among those targeted – said he decided to move quickly after discovering the threats in part due to last week's shootings in Arizona that wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed six others. "I think the Arizona situation...

Mission accomplished, Markos Moulitsas.
The Left gets its violent responder to Hate Speech, after all: the only problem is, from their point of view he’s aimed the wrong way. I started following the saga of J. Eric Fuller a couple of days ago: the short version is that he was one of the Victims of the Tucson attack of last week that killed six people and nearly killed Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.  Despite the fact that the consensus is, from the President on down, that harsh political Rhetoric had nothing to do with the ...

On Arizona Shooting, Jon Stewart Skirts the Edge of Reason
Walter Hudson is a political commentator and co-founder of Minnesota's North Star Tea Party Patriots, a statewide educational organization. He runs a blog entitled Fightin Words. He also contributes to True North, a hub of Minnesotan conservative commentary. Follow his work via Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. This popular post was originally published January 12, 2011. Most of us know a disingenuous Apology when we hear one. The sincerity of a mea culpa is generally revealed by whether it is fo...

California student arrest may have averted disaster
Stumble This! Los Angeles (Reuters) - Police at a Los Angeles university campus may have prevented a tragedy when they detained a deranged Student later found to have a shotgun and bomb-making ingredients in his dorm room, the school's Police Chief said on Saturday. California State University, Northridge, Police Chief Anne Glavin spoke to Reuters a day after a judge increased bail to $1 million for the Student arrested in the case, David Everson, 22. Bail had previously been set at $150,000. "...

Tucson Shooting Victim Arrested For Saying "You're Dead" To Guns Advocate
One of the Victims in last Saturday's shooting in Tucson was arrested today after saying, "You're dead," to a man advocating for Gun Ownership. The arrest of Eric Fuller, 63, came at a taping of ABC's Town Hall, which was being moderated by Christiane Amanpour. Toward the end of the taping, Amanpour brought up the issues of gun safety and Mental Health. As one member of the audience stood up and expressed his support for gun ownership, Fuller, seated near the front in an area reserved for vict...

US shooting victim arrested after threat
A man who was shot in the knee during last week's Tuscon shooting rampage was arrested on Saturday after threatening a local conservative leader during an emotional town hall event, ABC News reported. During taping for a Sunday special on the US shooting, witnesses told ABC affiliate KGUN9 News that James Eric Fuller grew agitated when Tucson Tea Party founder Trent Humphries suggested that any conversation about Gun Control should be put off until after the funerals for all the Victims. Fuller ...

Arizona Shooting Scene Described By Paramedics
TUCSON, Ariz. — Veteran paramedic Tony Compagno stepped off Engine 30 and into hell: Panicked people rushed his crew, trying to pull them toward the injured, while three men desperately gave chest compressions to a 9-year-old girl. Others cried out "Giffords! Giffords!" and pointed to a woman lying unconscious with a gunshot wound to the head. Several other bodies were already covered with sheets. Compagno and other Paramedics on the first three engine trucks to respond to the mass shoot...

Shooting Victim Arrested
Listening to Tucson Tea Party co-founder Trent Humphries complain to The Guardian about how his organization was being portrayed, I almost felt bad for him. He's right that a lot of people jumped to conclusions about the motivations of the shooter and overstated the case against the Tea Party. The local sheriff, Clarence Dupnik, quickly pointed the finger at the growing vitriol, hate and anger directed against the government on Talk Radio and by Tea Party supporters in Arizona, where Democrats...

VA Tech and Tucson -- The Ties That Bind
What a week of political buzz surrounding Jared Lee Loughner’s (22) allegedly killing six people and injuring 13 others with a Handgun last Saturday (January 8, 2011) at a political event outside a Safeway store in Tucson, AZ.  Among the injured, with a shot to the head, was the event sponsor and apparent primary target, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). In 2007, Loughner attended a Giffords event that his friends said left him upset. He apparently didn’t like her response to h...

More Good News on the Congresswoman's Recovery
Mark Kelly holds the hand of his wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, wife's hand at her bedside Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011, in the congresswoman's room at University Medical Center. (Credit: Office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords) We continue to hear about hopeful signs of recovery from Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. On Saturday morning, doctors removed her breathing tube, freeing the Congresswoman from the ventilator. At the same time, they inserted a tracheotomy tube into her windpipe to protect her airwa...

The New Normal
The New Normal by digby From Esquire Magazine comes a sad, but true analysis of the events of the past week --- and the past decade and a half: [T]he most remarkable thing about what happened in Oklahoma City is how little it matters today. The president of the United States gave a fine Speech Wednesday night in Tucson at the memorial for the people Jared Loughner shot. The only mention of Oklahoma City in connection with the president’s Speech was to compare it with the Speech that another...