Obama to those at service: 'We can be better'

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...

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...

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

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 ...

Obama Calls For Civility, Despite Having a Stupid Face
President Barack Obama, who is the president of the United States (you know the guy we’re talking about here, right?), braved the hellish desert hate rays of the people of Arizona last night to speak at a memorial service at the University of Arizona Basketball arena. Apparently the assembled Students didn’t realize the purpose of the event, because they treated it like an actual back game, shouting “AIRBALL” when a speaker misspoke and chanting and jumping up and down in...

Darin Murphy: Obama's Live Performance vs Palin's Taped Audition
Sarah Palin really, really wants to be your president. She wants it so badly, in fact, that she elected herself to submit the Republican response to President Obama's Speech in Arizona before he even delivered it. This preemptive move basically amounted to a taped audition for the role of President In A Time Of Crisis, offered up just in time for the start of the 2012 Campaign. What is confusing is who Palin's intended audience was. Was it the production team (the government) or the underwrit...

Obama takes opportunity Palin missed (Politico)
In the span of a single news cycle, Republicans got a jarring reminder of two forces that could prevent them from retaking the presidency next year. At sunrise in the east on Wednesday, Sarah Palin demonstrated that she has little interest—or capacity—in moving beyond her brand of grievance-based politics. And at sundown in the west, Barack Obama reminded even his critics of his ability to rally disparate Americans around a message of Reconciliation. Palin was defiant, making the c...

T-shirts Handed Out at Tucson Memorial
Some Conservatives are upset over t-shirts bearing the logo "Together We Thrive: Tucson & America" that were handed out to attendees at tonight's memorial service in the McKale Center on the campus of the University Of Arizona here. The shirts, which bear the same logo that adorns other items from the event -- including press passes, signage and volunteer t-shirts -- were placed on many of the seats in the lower sections of the arena when tonight's capacity crowd walked in. You must login to...

Giffords condition: Inside report from Wasserman Schultz, Gillibrand on "miracle" Transcript
WASHINGTON--Two close friends of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords provided a remarkable condition report following their visit with her at her Tuscon Hospital room. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand offer a detailed account of Giffords first movements--opening an eye and moving limbs--while talking to reporters on Air Force One returning with President Obama following the Tucson memorial service for the Victims of Saturday's massacre. Excerpt, from Gillibrand: Debbie and I start...

Documents detail Ariz. suspect's college outbursts
(01-13) 06:47 PST 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, 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. Gabri...

Husband of Tucson victim: Service was therapeutic
(01-13) 04:43 PST Tucson, Ariz. (AP) -- The husband of one of the people wounded Saturday in the Tucson shooting says Wednesday's memorial service was therapeutic for him. Bill Hileman's wife, Susan Hileman, is the neighbor who took 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green to the public event held by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was one of 13 wounded. Christina and five others were killed. Bill Hileman spoke Thursday on CBS's "The Early Show." He noted the swing of "polar extremes" — from the d...

Would stricter gun control help?
As the country recovers from the shooting rampage in Arizona on January 8th, 2011, we all wonder about our safety and the safety of our elected officials. Some blame the "dont retreat, reload" Tea Party culture. Some are questioning the lenient Gun Laws in Arizona. Here in Massachusetts, the Gun Control laws are extremely stringent. According to former Boston police lieutenant Thomas Nolan, Arizona gun law has no waiting period, and does not require licensing or registration ...

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...

Obama tells polarized nation: 'We can be better' (AP)
TUCSON, Ariz. – Summoning the soul of a nation, President Barack Obama on Wednesday implored Americans to honor those slain and injured in the Arizona shootings by becoming better people, telling a polarized citizenry that it is time to talk with each other "in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds." Following a Hospital bedside visit with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the target of the Assassination, he said: "She knows we're here, and she knows we love her." In an electrifying moment, ...

Obama to those at service: 'We can be better' (AP)
TUCSON, Ariz. – President Barack Obama is telling Americans shocked by the killings in Arizona that, in his words, "we can be better." Obama told listeners at a memorial service in Tucson on Wednesday evening that "the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us." For all our imperfections, the president says, "we are full of decency and goodness." He says that the Victims and heroes of Saturday's shootings helped convince him of that. Six people died and 13 others wer...

Obama to those at service: We can be better
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — President Barack Obama is telling Americans shocked by the killings in Arizona that, in his words, “we can be better.” For all our imperfections, the president says, “we are full of decency and goodness.” He says that the Victims and heroes of Saturday’s shootings helped convince him of that. Six people died and 13 others were wounded in the shooting, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head and critically wound...

Wake Up Call
Good morning! "President Obama urged the nation to come together Wednesday night as he revealed gravely wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had opened her eyes for the first time since the deadly shooting rampage," reports our Lukas Alpert. Four days after she was shot point-blank in the head, Giffords "was making small, purposeful movements on Wednesday - giving doctors hope she will recover fully. Giffords tugged at her Hospital gown and touched her head wounds after doctors at Tucs...

Obama Arizona Memorial Speech: We Must Communicate 'In A Way That Heals,' Not 'Wounds'
TUCSON, Ariz. — Summoning the soul of a nation, President Barack Obama on Wednesday implored Americans to honor those slain and injured in the Arizona shootings by becoming better people, telling a polarized citizenry that it is time to talk with each other "in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds." Following a Hospital bedside visit with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the target of the Assassination, he said: "She knows we're here, and she knows we love her." In an electrifying moment, ...

The perfect law that gives freedom
COMMENTARY   Once again Sarah Palin is the Lightning Rod for the wrath of the Left, her only crime, upholding traditional American values.  No one in modern times has received more threats, condemnation, criticism, false accusations, and outright slander and vicious verbal assault, and as the perpetrators continue, in the same breath they complain about Hate Speech.   In truth she is the prime example of what happens to anyone in this country who contradicts the religion of the L...

The contrast couldn't be clearer | Michael Tomasky
Expat Scotsman wondered last night why I bothered to throw in to my post on Obama's Speech a seemingly (to him) gratuitous mention of the former half-term Governor. I didn't think it was gratuitous, that's why. On the very day that was designated the official day of mourning and remembrance, she made a Speech that was about her. Now her defenders can say well, it was just those two words, but that's a non-defense. Those two words always generate screaming headlines. Always. It'd be like stringi...

Tacky branding done in poor taste (Memorial service or political event?)
As AJStrata rather appropriately quips, what is it with liberals and their tacky 'Memorials.' Who's tje sicko that decided to handout T-Shirts at a memorial service? Michelle Malkin describes the event as the right Speech, given too late, in a boneheaded venue (WOOT!): ... the University of Arizona announced the Together We Thrive event -- and a few readers write in to say that the campus initiated the logo/campaign. Given U of A president Robert Shelton's embarrassing, thinly-veiled partisan ch...

Filner Tries to Tie Popaditch Supporters to the Giffords Shooting
One of my favorite Candidates of this past cycle is Nick Popaditch; see more about him here, here, and here. He’s been dragged, unwillingly, into the Arizona shooting Controversy; the member of Congress he sought to defeat, California Democrat Bob Filner, has explicitly suggested that Tea Party Rhetoric influenced the Tucson shooter, despite the lack of evidence: “I will tell you that in a society we are not isolated, none of us is isolated. Yes, that guy may have acted alone but h...

Obama offers comfort after Tucson shootings
(01-13) 04:00 PST Tucson -- President Obama comforted a community suffused with grief and summoned the nation to recommit to a more civil public discourse as he delivered a eulogy Wednesday evening urging Americans to talk with each other "in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds." Evoking memories of the six killed on Saturday, Obama seized upon the Mass Shooting at Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' Supermarket meet-and-greet to tackle the subject of the nation's harsh political dialogue...