WAYNE ROOT: The Gabrielle Giffords Tragedy

Don't Blame the Gabrielle Giffords Attack on Overheated Rhetoric
A lunatic opens fire in public, and even before the cable-news air-fillers do their thing, a sort of involuntary political reflex occurs. The right worries: “I hope he wasn’t one of ours.” And the left chomps: “I bet he was one of theirs.” As now seems abundantly clear, Jared Loughner, the alleged shooter, was not on anyone’s “team.” Aside from revealing Conservatives’ newfound oversensitivity and defensiveness, as well as liberals’ s...

Silence Is Complicity & Defensiveness Is Endorsement
I've just finished up 3 hours of the most difficult radio I've ever had to do. The topic, of course, was the horrific shooting in Tucson, which has deeply affected me, as it has many others. As someone who had to flee the Capitol on 9/11, was warned of Anthrax contamination in the congressional office I was working in, and has faced various threats of violence during my media career, I was shaken by the scenes in Arizona more so than by any other news imagery in a long time. The reason the ra...

Tucson Shooting Update
With some 350 comments on the weekend post of the Tucson shootings, you've all clearly got a lot to say. So here's the latest: The Arizona gunman alleged to have pulled the trigger planned to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to his own words. From The Slatest blog: When the FBI raided Arizona gunman Jared Loughner's parent's home, they found an envelope in a safe that had the words "I planned ahead," "My Assassination" and "Giffords" written on it. That evidence bostered the case...

'Political Spin': Conservatives Pile On Pima County Sheriff Dupnik (VIDEO)
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik thrust himself into the spotlight in the aftermath of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and 19 other people in Arizona on Saturday, decrying the heated political atmosphere and calling for more civility. "It's not unusual for all public officials to get threats constantly, myself included," he said on Saturday. "That's the sad thing about what's going on in America: pretty soon we're not going to be able to find reasonable, decent people willin...

ABC chief: Giffords coverage shows lack of unity
The new president of ABC News says his organization needs to work with more unity, and its weekend coverage of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' shooting proved it. Unlike rivals CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox News Channel, ABC did not broadcast Saturday's false report that Gifford had died, which originated with National Public Radio. But for 10 minutes, the ABC.com website used an incorrect headline in a banner. ABC News President Ben Sherwood says he still hasn't figured out who was responsible. He says "it wa...

The rapid slide of Palin
Since the Right Wing, and especially the Tea Party, have been the Epicenter of political anger, they can expect much tougher coverage--even though Loughner had no apparent connection to the Tea Party and had a reading list (Communist Manifesto, Mein Kampf [my bad, wrote that pre-coffee]) as far to the left as other of his positions (gold standard, hatred of government) were to the right. And of course it's pointless to try and read too much into a lunatic's politics, anyway. It will b...

Arizona Shootings: Full Coverage
Where Have All the Sperm Gone? 1 in 5 Men Are 'Subfertile' Is the Unemployment Report Good News? Opinion: Was Health Care on the Mend Before Reform? Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' husband, a top Astronaut, asks for prayers for his wife in a statement. Doctors are "cautiously optimistic" about Giffords' condition after she was shot in the head Saturday. A program to control the weather has seen more than 50 artificially created storms rain down on a Middle Eastern desert. American scientists remain ...

Tucson Gunman Jared Loughner Who Shot Gabrielle Giffords Described by Classmate as Left-Wing Pothead
Hmm, the Tea Party gunman as inaccuratly described by the liberal MSM is described as a LEFT-WING POT HEAD by former classmates. That seems to be a much different profile than the NY Times, liberal media and left-wing political agenda propagandists want America to believe. This punk, was a loner, a deranged individual, with no real political affiliation who appears by all accounts to have been fixated on this Assassination attempt long ago. This kid was a delusional loner who was hell bent o...

Did Fox News Blow It? DHS Source Says NO Loughner Tie With "American Renaissance" Hate Group
Yesterday I began to see blog posts spring up declaring that Jarrod Laughner may have attacked Gabrielle Giffords because she was Jewish. Those posts were based on a Fox News report saying that they had seen a DHS memo saying that Laughner was associated with an Antisemitic, anti-Black group called the American Renaissance. Besides the hatred this Renaissance group has similar positions to Laughtner in terms of currency and gold. According to a Law Enforcement memo based on information provid...

Giffords shooting leads nation to introspection and political finger wagging
In the wake of the shooting in Arizona this weekend that critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and that killed and injured more than 20 people, many pundits and politicians are pointing fingers. Others are hoping the incident will serve to ratchet down rancor. Yet emerging details make it clear the shooter wasn’t primarily motivated by politics, right or left. Jared Lee Loughner seems mainly to have been struggling with Mental Illness and was angry at being thrown out of Pima Communi...

Could Anything Have Stopped Loughner?
The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the killing of six and wounding of 13 others in Tucson is one of those American tragedies that threatens to be interpreted according to what one wants to believe. The shootings will be argued over and debated as more information comes forward, but what seems unavoidable is that the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was a nutbar through and through, and there was no way he could have been deterred. Arizona’s curious (to Canadians) Gun Laws that ...

Is al Qaeda the Greater Assassination Threat?
I'm with Joe in thinking that the tragic Tucson shootings are being over-politicized, and likewise Jon Chait has wise words on the subject. (I think Jon understates the influence that inflammatory Rhetoric can have on the mentally unstable, but then I'm no psychologist.) That said, the most explicit political talk of things like "Second Amendment remedies" is wildly irresponsible and hopefully this tragedy can serve as an opportunity to stamp out that sort of conversation, whether or not there's...

"The Vitriol Vitriol"
Martin Kaplan of USC's Norman Lear Center writes at the Jewish Journal of what he fears will be lost in the aftermath of the Arizona shootings. He writes, "If this tragedy is going to be a teachable moment, the lesson won’t be found by determining whose vitriol is warranted.  It will be found instead in what the vitriol is actually about.  And that, as Sheriff Dupnik nailed it, is “tearing down the government.”" As attention turned over the weekend to ...

Mixed reaction to Sheriff Dupniks comments about Arizona as a mecca for prejudice (Daily Caller)
Read more stories from The Daily Caller Justin Bieber: 7th most popular woman on the web Pollster Frank Luntz goes after 'violent' remarks on Huffington Post, MoveOn and Daily Kos Fanatical Fans: Professional sports team's finest [SLIDESHOW] Hinojosa voices support for bill that curbs 'threatening' Speech against lawmakers Politico’s Ben Smith gives credence to baseless SPLC comments on Tea Party connection in Arizona shooting Sheriff Clarence Dupnik’s comments about the root cause of ...

Rush Bails Water In Wake Of Arizona Shooting
WASHINGTON -- Rush Limbaugh lashed out Monday at critics who linked the Tucson shootings to the confrontational, gun-themed Rhetoric of Conservatives such as Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. Limbaugh's talking points are a guide to the ways in which the political right -- from establishment Republicans in Washington to the Tea Party at the Grassroots level -- will fight back against attempts to tie them to Jared Lee Loughner. The political coverage of the Loughner story is "childish and immature...

Giffords Intern Talks Tucson Tragedy
College junior Daniel Hernandez was just days on the job when the shooting took place. He rushed in to help Victims including Democratic Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. See photos of the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting in Arizona. Take the poll: Is Political Rhetoric to Blame for Arizona Shooting? Follow the money in Congress. ...

Media Matters For America Calls Out Rupert Murdoch, Fox News, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin
David Brock (r) and friends. (Hey, is that Bawney Fwank I see?) Oh please. Now David Brock has his panties in a bunch because Beck used vampire imagery and compared him to a “smelly kid in third grade.” (Media Matters) — Today, in response to the tragic shooting in Arizona and the increasing focus on the tone of political discourse, Media Matters for America founder and CEO David Brock issued an Open Letter to News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch asking him to rein in Fox News persona...

Ariz. Shooter Loughner Not Linked to Hate Groups
Like this Story? Share it: As Rep. Gabrielle Giffords remains in a Tucson Hospital after being shot in the head, investigators find evidence at the main suspect Jared Lee Loughner's house. Ben Tracy reports on the attempted Assassination. Bob Schieffer spoke with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Nancy Cordes, Jan Crawford, and Bob Orr on Jared Loughner's past, the gunman who killed six people in Tucson, Ariz. and injuring congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. This March 2010 pho...

Remembering Arizona's Victims
The US Capitol dome is shown in the background as flags fly at half staff in honor of the Victims of the shooting in Arizona that injured US Representative Gabrielle Giffords, at the Washington Monument in Washington January 9, 2011. You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for those opposed to intolerance, excessive government control of our lives, and attempts to monopolize opinion or suppress freedom of thought, expression, and worship. Read more... We invite all Americans who share these...

Berkley plans meeting in response to shooting
Rep. Shelley Berkley is planning her own meeting with constituents as a response to the shooting of an Arizona congresswoman and 19 others in Tucson on Saturday. "The best tribute I could make to my friend Gabby is to hold my own Congress on the Corner event, and that will take place this coming Friday, 9 to 11, right here in this office," the Las Vegas Democrat said Monday morning, referring to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. "I think to do less than that, to hide behind these office walls, would be a...

Hundreds of congressional staffers observe moment of silence for those killed and injured in Giffords attack (Daily Caller)
Read more stories from The Daily Caller Fanatical Fans: Professional sports team's finest [SLIDESHOW] Hinojosa voices support for bill that curbs 'threatening' Speech against lawmakers Politico’s Ben Smith gives credence to baseless SPLC comments on Tea Party connection in Arizona shooting Hundreds of congressional Staffers observe moment of silence for those killed and injured in Giffords attack Marco Rubio: I want to be a senator, not president or vice president Hundreds of congressional s...

"Both sides do it!"--Oh, really?
The most popular trope to excuse the right of all rresponsibility for decades of demonizing, violent and eliminationist Rhetoric: "Both sides do it!" Not so much: This has been out there for a very long time for everyone to see. A tremendous tolerance for violent rightwing rhetoric has been built up--particularly by so-called political "moderates", "Centrists" and the "objective Journalists" of the so-called "Mainstream Media". This is what they've all grown accustomed to--and devoted themse...

A moment of silence
The talking heads started in right away after the shooting. Once again they had no idea what they were talking about. This article will not be seen by many because it doesn’t cover Cleveland, Oh politics. The real reason is the truth. The truth is powerful and national politics affect everyone otherwise you would not pay federal Income Tax. The examiner review team obviously doesn’t understand that. The talking heads, the same people who are always asked when it comes to politics, ar...

Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly
Here is a sweet story about the real lives of Giffords and Kelly who fell in love and married in 2007: “Frank Capra would have had a field day with the life of Gabrielle Giffords,” Robert B. Reich mused as guests began to gather for the Wedding on Nov. 10 of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and Cmdr. Mark E. Kelly. Mr. Reich, the former Labor secretary, saw parallels in the breezy down-home sincerity of the films Capra directed and the lives of Ms. Giffords, 38, a Democratic cong...

Factbox: Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shot in Arizona
Sat Jan 8, 2011 4:02pm EST n">(Reuters) - Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot and gravely wounded on Saturday by a man who opened fire at a meeting she was holding in Tucson. Here are some facts about Giffords. -- Giffords, 40, first took office in January 2007 and was re-elected to represent the U.S.-Mexico border-area district last year. In the House of Representatives, she has worked on issues such as Immigration Reform, embryonic stem-cell research, alternativ...