This Week: In Memoriam

Tucson Shooting Suspect Loughner Held Without Bail
Jared Lee Loughner's mugshot The suspect in the Saturday shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and many others, which left six dead, appeared in court today. Jared Lee Loughner, 20, was held without bail and apparently smirked in court. His mugshot was also released, and it showed the young man with a big smile. Giffords was apparently the target of the shooting outside a Safeway in Tucson, AZ, where she was holding a constituent event. Among of those who died were Federal Judge John Roll and G...

Today in Gratifyingly Acute Criticism
Iran Cameron with a wonderful dismantling of Caitlin Flanagan. Of course, “unproven gender essentialism and barely-disguised contempt for a woman with whom she purports to be empathizing” is an accurate summary of virtually all of Flanagan’s past and no doubt future writings. MZS on Californication. Roy on the real Victims of the Tucson shooting, conservative white men. Duss on Max Boot....

Did Jared Loughner's Family Barricade Their Arizona Home During His Court Appearance?
​Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged Arizona shooter, was in court this morning for a preliminary trial and is being described by CNN as "very polite." He wore a tan Prison jumpsuit and was chained at the feet and ankles. The judge engaged Loughner and asked him to confirm his identity and he responded, "Yes. I am Jared Lee Loughner." The preliminary hearing took about 15 minutes. When the judge talked about the Murder of John McCarthy Roll, the Federal Judge that was shot, Loughner took a c...

House GOP postpones votes for this week
In light of the tragedy that took place in Tucson on Saturday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has postponed votes on Legislation for the week, including an planned vote to Repeal the Health Care reform Legislation passed last March: “In consultation with the Speaker and the Democratic Leadership, I have postponed all previously-scheduled Legislation for the coming week to accommodate any action needed in light of yesterday’s tragic events in Arizona. “The House will meet...

This Week to broadcast from Tucson
ABC has announced that “This Week with Christiane Amanpour” will broadcast a special edition Sunday live from the scene of the shooting in Tuscon. ...

Quote of the Day
"Until we have more definitive information about the shooter, pointing fingers at who might bear responsibility for the Tucson, Arizona, massacre only contributes to what we must end in America: a toxic political environment."—CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen, who adds that "this is not a moment to point fingers and make accusations [but] to pray for the Victims." Embedded within Gergen's admonishment is the damnable lie that pointing out this act of violence does not exist in a v...

PAPER: America's elite hijacked massacre to take revenge on Sarah Palin...
On a sunny Saturday morning outside the local Safeway in Tucson,­ Arizona, a man pulls out a powerful Handgun, opens fire - and engulfs the U.S. in a political ­firestorm. Six people were killed on ­Saturday, including a nine-year-old girl. But it was the fact that the target was a ­Democratic congresswoman - who is fighting for her life - which has sparked such a furious row, not, as one might expect, over the nature of America’s Gun Laws, but over the vitriolic nature...

Look who else put 'bull's-eye' on Giffords
Shortly after news broke of the Attempted Murder of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., the left-leaning blog Daily Kos was swift to scrub its post from a Tucson writer explaining how the congresswoman was now "dead to me." One of the blog's diary writers, identifying himself as BoyBlue, had written a post only two days before the shooting titled "My CongressWOMAN voted against Nancy Pelosi! And is now DEAD to me!" "I am from the Tucson area and live in Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' district...

Friends mourn 9-year-old shooting victim
TUCSON, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Classmates of Arizona Shooting Spree Victim Christina-Taylor Green observed a moment of silence Monday for their friend and the other victims. The Arizona Daily Star reported the Mesa Verde Elementary School Students walked into the schoolyard and stood in a circle for the memorial event. A nearby fence was adorned with teddy bears and roses in memory of the 9-year-old Shooting Victim who was one of six people killed when a gunman opened fire at a meet-and-greet event Sa...

Loughner Mug Shot Released
From ABC15: The suspect in a deadly Tucson shooting is being held without bail and has been assigned a lawyer who defended Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Timothy Mcveigh. Jared Loughner entered the courtroom Monday handcuffed and wearing a tan inmate uniform. His head is shaved and he has a cut on his right temple. Loughner made his initial court appearance in Federal Court at 2 p.m. at the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse, while state charges have yet to be filed. The court set Lou...

A Tale of Two Matthews: How MSNBCs Host Handled Tucson Shooting vs. Ft. Hood Shooting
After the Ft. Hood shooting, Chris Matthews went out of his way to find reasons other than Radical Islam for the shooting. And he had a representative of CAIR on his show for the express purpose of keeping people from jumping to conclusions about the Muslims. Today, in stark contrast, Mr. Matthews assigned motive and direct cause for the Tucson shooting....

SPJ panel recommends retiring Helen Thomas Award
by Jim Romenesko Published Jan. 10, 2011 3:48 pm Updated Jan. 10, 2011 3:55 pm The Society of Professional Journalists Executive Committee will send its recommendation — retire the Helen Thomas Award for Lifetime Achievement with Thomas’ name attached — to the full SPJ board within the next 10 days for a vote. Help! for Writers Who broke the Tucson shooting news to you? We have made it easy to comment on posts, however we require civility and encourage full names to that e...

More to read
by Jim Romenesko Published Jan. 10, 2011 12:47 pm Updated Jan. 10, 2011 1:55 pm > Was Huffington escorted off a plane for unsafe BlackBerry-ing? Help! for Writers Who broke the Tucson shooting news to you? We have made it easy to comment on posts, however we require civility and encourage full names to that end (first initial, last name is OK). Please read our guidelines here before commenting....

Absolutely Everyone Thought This Kid Was Going On a Shooting Spree
The old cliche when a young man does a shooting ramapage is that nobody saw it coming. Nobody thought the kid they knew could do such a thing. Not the case with Jared Loughner. “Oh, finally. Was wondering when he was going to shoot a bunch of people.”—This is what the people who knew this kid the past few years are saying. But while this concerned some people, Arizona was never going to try to help him or anything. Personal responsibility! Fix your own Mental Health! Pew pew pe...

Ex-Ebony editor Monroe named editor of CNNPolitics.com
by Jim Romenesko Published Jan. 10, 2011 3:30 pm Updated Jan. 10, 2011 3:33 pm In this newly created position, Bryan Monroe will lead the editorial planning and content strategy for CNN’s online and mobile political coverage, says a release. Kelly named to new position of Time Inc. managing editor Help! for Writers Who broke the Tucson shooting news to you? We have made it easy to comment on posts, however we require civility and encourage full names to that end (first initial, last ...

Rubio in Washington; Heroes in AZ
In his remarks, Rubio echoed a campaign theme of his: “It’s not about me.” People supported his candidacy, the new senator contended, because they worried about the fate of their nation. Relaying some of the touristy things he had done with his wife and Children since arriving in our nation’s capital, Rubio recalled — with a savvy “Señor Smith Goes to Washington” appeal — visiting some of the Founders’ memorials in and around town. They ...

Wikipedia celebrates 10th anniversary on Saturday
by Jim Romenesko Published Jan. 10, 2011 5:39 pm Updated Jan. 10, 2011 5:41 pm Founder Jimmy Wales tells Robert Siegel there are expansion plans in the works. “We’re going to open our first office outside of the U.S. in India to help further the growth of Wikipedia in the Indian languages,” he says. “The main thing that we’re focused on going forward is the expansion of Wikipedia into the languages of the developing world.” Help! for Writers Who broke the...

Shooting in Tucson: the Real Answer
The state of Arizona is deeply divided over Immigration and how to secure the Mexico-US border. Fear of Illegal Immigrants, often incited by some political organizers to mobilize voters, is another element of the complex web that constitutes the context. This is a heated issue on which Congresswoman Giffords differed with many of her constituents. Another Controversial issue was Health Care reform, which she supported. The polarized Political Speech around this issue is especially inflammatory...

Happy Hour Links
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. A rare dose of sanity from the left on the Arizona shooting. Mitt Romney visits Afghanistan. Miss England ready to deploy to Afghanistan. The Atlantic profiles Nikki Haley. Peaceful voting in South Sudan. And on and on until the reader wants to howl. From the Scrapbook. The Military Obama wants us to have. Barack Obama, supply-sider? The media try--and fail--to make sense of the Tucson massacre. Paul Ryan and Bob Corker are unusua...

Law, Order, and Counterinsurgency
Noah Millman doubts that an organized gendarme force would have been helpful in Afghanistan or Iraq (with the hypothetical “suppose Saddam had been involved in 9/11″ so the invasion is properly motivated): Would a massive gendarmie have helped? Only if you believe that the problems we ran into in Iraq were primarily a matter of maintaining public order rather than a problem of political conflict . And I think the preponderance of evidence points to the latter rather than the former...

Even Lost Wars Make Corporations Rich
"When Obama was elected in 2008 the majority of the country had turned against the Iraq War," he said. "You could not be a Democrat running for office without giving lip service to being against the Iraq War. The reason people were against the war is because there was a constant, senseless death of U.S. Troops and Iraqi civilians. It was a squandering of our resources. This has not changed, despite the rebranding of the occupation. U.S. Soldiers are still being killed, wounded and psychologica...

In the company of heroes: Dick Winters
When people asked him if he was a hero, he liked to answer the way his World War II buddy, Mike Ranney, did. "No," Ranney said. "But I served in a company of heroes." Following the miniseries, Winters turned down most requests for interviews because he said he didn't want to appear like he was bragging. There's a project in the works to honor Maj Winters, stories here , here and here . The web site for that effort seems to be unavailable at this time. (I hope because of heavy traffic, will see w...

Predictions?
Right now we are in the "Making Sense of the Senseless" phase of the Arizona shooting. As sure as it is going to snow as soon as you get done shovelling, we are going to soon transition into the "What Now?" phase, followed by the "Legislative Action" phase. So what are your thoughts on the what is going to be put forth in the "What Now?" and "Legislative Action" phases? Here's one I didn't quite think would happen so fast: Abridging free Speech rights to get rid of any language which could remo...

"History"
Fans of Ice Road Truckers, Ax Men, Stan Lee's Superhumans, and a host of other programs can breathe easy: your shows won't pre-empted for this :A Controversial miniseries on the Kennedy family will not air on the History Channel because the completed Multimillion Dollar project does not fit the "History brand," the network said. Maybe MTV will pick it up. (After all, they don't do music videos.) I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin b...

Former Miss England To Deploy For Second Tour In Afghanistan
The award for coolest iconoclast of the week goes to Katrina Hodge , the most recent Miss England, who’s currently training for the possibility of going back to defending Britain in the Middle East. That’s right — back. Hodge served a seven-month tour of duty in Iraq before winning the title of Miss England, and now that she’s done with being a Beauty Queen, she may well be headed back to Afghanistan. Hodge says becoming Corporal Katrina after a year of living in luxe hot...