Tucson, Arizona Shootings

When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government -- the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on this country is getting to be outrageous and unfortunately Arizona has become sort of the capital. This may be free speech, but it's not without consequences We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.
-- Clarence W. Dupnik, Pima County Sheriff

There is a need for some reflection here - what is too far now? What was too far when Oklahoma City happened is accepted now. There’s been a desensitizing. These town halls and cable TV and talk radio, everybody’s trying to outdo each other.... Tone matters. And the Republican Party in particular needs to reinforce that.
-- "Senior Republican Senator" speaking to Politico

President Obama's remarks Saturday afternoon:

... Here's President Obama's initial statement. Other politicians react. CW: Sarah Palin & John McCain had a helluva a nerve saying anything.

Dr. Peter Rhee of the University of Arizona hospital trauma center, which received victims of the shooting gives an update:

Jay Newton-Small of Time has a good biographical essay on Giffords. Here's more from Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times.

Alan Boyle of NBC News: "NASA astronaut Mark Kelly..., [Giffords' husband,] flew from Houston ... to be at his wounded wife's side. Kelly is currently in training to command the shuttle Endeavour's crew on a flight to the International Space Station in April.... The space agency had no immediate word about how Kelly's status might change.... Mark Kelly is the only astronaut ... to have a twin brother who's also an spaceflier: Scott Kelly is currently serving as commander of the International Space Station, and sources said he was made aware of the shooting during Earth-to-orbit consultations."

Chief Judge John M. Roll. AP photo.John Schwartz of the New York Times on Chief Judge John Roll. ...

... The AP has more on Chief Judge Roll.

Carl Hulse & Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "While the exact motivations of the suspect in the shootings remained unclear, an Internet site tied to the man, Jared Loughner, contained antigovernment ramblings. And regardless of what led to the episode, it quickly focused attention on the degree to which inflammatory language, threats and implicit instigations to violence have become a steady undercurrent in the nation’s political culture." ...

... From the New York Times story on the Arizona shooting: "During the fall campaign, Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, posted a controversial map on her Facebook page depicting spots where Democrats were running for re-election; those Democrats were noted by crosshairs symbols like those seen through the scope of a gun. Ms. Giffords was among those on Ms. Palin’s map." [emphasis added] Below is a portion of Palin's map, via Gawker:

Rewriting History. Amanda Coyne of Alaska Dispatch Update: "A Palin staffer, Rebecca Mansour told a radio talk show host Saturday that [blaming Palin & the tea party for inciting the Giffords shooting] is 'obscene' and 'appalling.' ... 'We never ever, ever intended it to be gun sights,' she said. 'It's surveyor's symbols,' the interviewer Tammy Bruce suggested. Bruce, a Palin supporter.... Her show is promoted as a 'chick with a gun and a microphone.' Mansour ... said that the graphic was contracted out to a professional. They approved it quickly without thinking about it. 'We never imagined, it never occurred to us that anybody would consider it violent,' she said. Rather, she said, that it was simply 'crosshairs that you would see on a map.' There is 'nothing irresponsible about our graphic.' ...

She did not, however, mention the 'don't retreat, instead- RELOAD!' Palin tweet that went out shortly after the graphic was posted on both her Facebook page and SarahPac's website, directing them to the graphic. The tweet turned quickly into a Palin mantra. Many, even then, urged her to stop using such violent rhetoric. -- Amanda Coyne

Also from Gawker: "Giffords' Tea Party opponent in the 2010 election, Jesse Kelly, went even further with the violent rhetoric. Kelly's campaign held an event called "Get on Target for Victory in November." Description: "Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly." ...

... Nathan Thornburgh of Time on the shootings. Not only was Giffords targeted by Palin & Kelly, according to Thornburgh, Judge John Roll, who was killed by the shooter & may have been his primary target, "had been placed under 24-hour security in 2009 after ruling in favor of illegal immigrants in a high-profile case." Thornburgh notes,

Pundits spoke gravely about a wave of violence, born in Mexico and now flooding Arizona. Arizona's two most famous politicians fueled the fury. Republican Senator John McCain, facing an unexpected reelection challenge from the right, ran a campaign obsessed with crossborder crime. And GOP Governor Jan Brewer, who invited the national spotlight by championing strict anti-illegal immigrant legislation, talked of beheadings in the desert. The only problem with all this talk about a massive crossborder crime wave is that it wasn't true. ...

... Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post on the state of political discourse: "Liberals were quick to blame the tea party movement and the sometimes-militant rhetoric employed by its standard-bearers. On Twitter, activists repeatedly referred to the remarks of Sharron Angle (R), the unsuccessful Senate candidate in Nevada, who last year advocated 'second-amendment remedies' to some of the nation's problems." Tea party activists are claiming "the war has already started." ...

Matt Bai of the New York Times:

... the problem would seem to rest with the political leaders who pander to the margins of the margins..., with little regard for the consequences. Consider the comments of Sharron Angle.... She talked about 'domestic enemies' in the Congress and said, 'I hope we’re not getting to Second Amendment remedies.' Then there’s Rick Barber, a Republican who lost his primary in a Congressional race in Alabama, but not before airing an ad in which someone dressed as George Washington listened to an attack on the Obama agenda and gravely proclaimed, 'Gather your armies.' In fact, much of the message among Republicans last year, as they sought to exploit the Tea Party phenomenon, centered — like the Tea Party moniker itself — on this imagery of armed revolution. Popular spokespeople like Ms. Palin routinely drop words like 'tyranny' and 'socialism' when describing the president and his allies, as if blind to the idea that Americans legitimately faced with either enemy would almost certainly take up arms.

CW: I'm glad to see MSM journalists from the New York Times. WashPo & Time finally getting off the fence & calling out these politicians who incite violence. It's been a long time coming. Here's Keith Olbermann, whose special comment covers the field:

The Huffington Post has information of the alleged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, including words-only YouTube videos he posted recently. Extremely creepy, unhinged, with a tinge of Glenn Beck. ...

... Psychologist Jeff Kaye comments in Firedoglake on the alleged shooter's possible mental illness. ...

... Eric Lipton, Charlie Savage & Scott Shane of the New York Times report on Jared Loughner, the suspected shooter, & find "a sense of his alienation from society, confusion, anger as well as foreboding that his life could soon come to an end." ...

... Tim Steller of the Arizona Daily Star: "The suspected shooter has made death threats before and been contacted by law-enforcement officers, but the threats weren't against Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, [Pima County Sheriff Clarence] Dupnik said. The suspect is unstable, Dupnik said, but the sheriff would not say he is 'insane.' A former classmate of Loughner at Pima Community College said he was 'obviously very disturbed.'" ...

... **The Arizona Republic details Loughner's run-ins with his college that in September 2010 required him to get "a mental-health clearance and prove he wasn't a danger to himself and others" before he could return to the school. Yet two months later, a young man who exhibited behavior that suggested he might be "a danger to himself and others" was able to legally purchase "a 9 mm Glock handgun on Nov. 30 at a Sportsman's Warehouse in Tucson." CW: a message brought to you by the NRA & legislators everywhere who think everyone should have a gun. Loughner reportedly lived with his parents -- where the hell were they? This kid needed institutionalization and help. ...

... Jana Winter of Fox News Update: "A law enforcement memo based on information provided by the Department of Homeland Security and obtained by Fox News suggests that alleged gunman Jared Loughner ... may have ties to the American Renaissance group, though it's unclear if he was directly affiliated with the publication or group. The memo states that there is 'no direct connection' between Loughner and the group, 'but strong suspicion is being directed at AmRen / American Renaissance. Suspect is possibly linked to this group. (through videos posted on his MySpace and YouTube account.). The group's ideology is anti-government, anti-immigration, anti-ZOG (Zionist Occupational Government), anti-Semitic.' The memo also includes information about the suspect's mother, who works for the Pima County Board of Supervisors and notes that Loughner has multiple arrests but no criminal record."

On Thursday, Rep. Giffords read the First Amendment on the House floor. Her emphasis on "peaceably" is haunting:

Rep. Giffords talking to MSNBC in March 2010 about the vandalism to her office & other politically-motivated violence & violent rhetoric. As a friend pointed out to me, that slimeball Chuck Todd tries to walk back Giffords' reference to Sarah Palin's putting Giffords in the crosshairs of a gun sight:

Saturday News Reports

New York Times: "A congresswoman from Arizona was shot on Saturday along with several others during at public event at a grocery store in Tucson, according to her spokesman, C.J. Karamargin. The Tucson Citizen reported that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat, had been shot at close range in the head. The condition of the congresswoman, Ms. Giffords, 40, remained unclear. She was taken to University Medical Center in Tucson, the trauma center for the area, about 10 miles away. CNN quoted a public information officer as saying that 12 people had been injured in all." Note: contra the earlier reports below, this story has been updated to indicate that Rep. Giffords has been operated on & her surgeon is optimistic she will recover. Also, "An official with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said that six people had been killed and 18 wounded in the shooting, including a federal judge, John Roll, who had been involved in immigration cases and had previously received death threats. Among the six dead was a child about 9 years old, the hospital confirmed." ...

     ... Update: "A 22-year-old suspect was in custody, law enforcement officials said. But at a Saturday evening news conference, investigators said they were looking for an accomplice who may have helped the gunman."

     ... Update: President Obama said federal Judge John Roll had been killed. ...

     ... CBS News: "Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991, Federal Judge John McCarthy Roll was shot and killed today when an assailant opened fire in a Safeway parking lot in Ariz., where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. was meeting with constituents. Just two years ago, he was targeted with death threats -- and given a security detail -- after ruling that a group of illegal immigrants could go forward with a multi-million dollar civil rights lawsuit against a state rancher...." ...

     ... The Washington Post has an eyewitness account from Tucson Dr. Steven Rayle who had gone to the event to meet Rep. Giffords. Rayle said he helped subdue the suspect after others stopped him.