Blue Dog Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, whose Arizons District includes the O.K. Corral and Tombstone, was shot in the head today while hosting an event outside a Tucson grocery store. Six others, including a U.S. District Court judge, are deed. LV Congressman Charlie Dent has issued this statement:
"I am deeply shocked by the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords. Gabby is a remarkable woman and an exemplary public servant. My thoughts and prayers are with the Congresswoman and her family, as well as the members of her staff and local residents who were harmed in this terrible attack.
“I am appalled this attack occurred at an event where Congresswoman Giffords was conducting one of the most vital aspects of her job as a Representative -- interacting with members of the community she had been elected to serve. American democracy is exceptional because of our steadfast commitment to preserving free and open debate. Actions like those taken today in Tucson have no place in our society.”
Other reactions to this senseless tragedy are here.
Update, 2:50 PM, Obama Calls For Monday Moment of Silence: President Obama Calls for Moment of Silence for Victims of Shooting in Tucson, Arizona. “Tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern standard time, I call on Americans to observe a moment of silence to honor the innocent victims of the senseless tragedy in Tucson, Arizona, including those still fighting for their lives. It will be a time for us to come together as a nation in prayer or reflection, keeping the victims and their families closely at heart.”
45 comments:
Sadly, rude and crude behavior is seen by some nuts as being American. All our prayers and thoughts with those affected.
I hope we can all agree that this is not acceptable in any way shape or form.
"Blue dog", seriously O'Hare you had to qualify this? Who gives a crap of she was a flaming liberal or a frothing conservative.
I can't believe you had to make sure to mention "Blue Dog". Was that code to let the bagggers know Charlies statement was OK.
I guess I am just amazed.
I mention what she was bc it casts some light on the motivations of her assailant. The WP and numerous other publications had described her this way as well. Will you now attack them?
Give it a rest. It amazed me that you would use this tragedy as an excuse to continue an attack against me. Get some help.
A Blue Dog who voted for health care and was put on Palin's gunsite target list
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/palin-uses-crosshairs-to-identify-dems-who-voted-for-health-care-reform.php
Our political discourse is shameful. Palin's reload allusions and gunsite map should have been universally condemned but instead she was given a Fox news gig
The only thing more disgraceful than our political discourse is the 14 trillion dollar debt incurred by the self serving politicians on both sides of the aisle, who will now take this opportunity to make hay with their official proclaimations of outrage and indignation, and then continue to rape the future of our children, buy votes with wealth that will never be produced within a generation of when its respective currency float is printed.
Here's McStain's quote:
"Whoever did this; whatever their reason, they are a disgrace to Arizona, this country and the human race, and they deserve and will receive the contempt of all decent people and the strongest punishment of the law."
Johnny got the words right, but the object of "the contempt of all decent people" should also include be Government officials like him. Those who serve for life and enrich themselves at the expense of the wealth creators (rich and poor), whose epic fail is cloaked in the big lie of compromise and bipartisanship while they endanger this nation's sovereignty.
Charlie hopping on the bandwagon. Hey, look at me, I'm outraged too!
Typical political bullshit.
lets all pray she survives ~
Excuse me? It's "typical political bullshit" to be outraged that an elected representative of the United States was sadistically shot in the head? That a U.S. District Court Judge was murdered at the same time, along with 9 year old innocent and staffers? Anybody who wants to dump on a member of Congress for condemning that is just condemning basic decency. You should be ashamed of yourself for such a horrible remark at another human being. Drop the political posturing and McStain references for once and treat these people as what they are - human beings. I am very disappointed that you would post such an insensitive remark.
Sorry to disappoint you.
Is this women's life any more precious than the innocent life taken in a drive by in any American city on any given day? I want Charlie and his pals to give this effort for every citizen that slaves to furnish them their platform to be outraged.
They are falling all over themselves to see who can be more outraged. KOS on the left and his counterparts on the right seeking to gain the political highground, and politicos rushing to get their statements of outrage read for political gain.
I say, they do their jobs for the people and not for themselves, there is less divide between left and right, and the levers that drive the extreme on either side are never thrown.
But the pols will learn nothing from this, and one side or the other, depending on what comes out about the whack job, will be only too happy to gain from it. That you place more faith in the motives of the takers is certainly your right. I see them for what they are.
I am disappointed in your unwillingness to recognize the humanity of others and to take this occasion to slam Dent and McCain.
When is someone going to open fire with an AK-47 at an NRA rally or convention? That's what I'm waiting for. Right to bear arms!
This is the sate of political discourse in this country. Clem exemplifies the pure hatred engendered by the new level of discourse.
As to throwing stones Bernie. Your blog has and does contribute to the hate.
This is a god time for self evaluation by everyone. Will we let the extremists at either end of the body politic chart the course or will we realize in a large complex society people will never agree on everything and , yes! there is a need for people to be in charge. This isn't the OK corral.
Don't let FOX or MSNBC drive the political discussion as they are both less than credible news outlets.
Pray for Sanity
Sounds like just some deranged nut. At the end of the day its hard to come up with the reasons why some people do what they do.
Pray for all involved and realize that in a Nation of 300 million people there are some very seriously deranged people. Fortunately, they are very few.
Words don't kill people. Words merely inflame and point people:
"Giffords expressed similar concern, even before the shooting. In an interview after her office was vandalized, she referred to the animosity against her by conservatives, including Sarah Palin's decision to list Giffords' seat as one of the top "targets" in the midterm elections.
"For example, we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list, but the thing is, that the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they have to realize that there are consequences to that action," Giffords said in an interview with MSNBC."
from
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110109/ap_on_re_us/us_congresswoman_shot;_ylt=AlWP_k478THzTRui_HGj5xp34T0D;_ylu=X3oDMTJtbDVqcDdtBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwMTA5L3VzX2NvbmdyZXNzd29tYW5fc2hvdARjcG9zAzEEcG9zAzIEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDYXpzaG9vdGluZ3Rh
People act like politics is a game, but it is a game with lethal outcomes. Mostly, it's just the pawns (servicemen and women whose lives are sacrificed during times of war). I think the reason that this scares people in authority is because this time it was someone in leadership. Mostly, people in leadership positions act like they are untouchable.
All life is precious and it is a shame that this happened. The combination of a lack of services for the mentally unstable and wholesale right to bear arms is deadly. Maybe the answer is to provide more services for the mentally ill.
I think people should wait till the psych evaluation comes back from the shooter. He was kicked out of school in September. His application to join the US Military was rejected, and he has bizzare videos on youtube discussing grammar being used to brainwash people and talks of creating a new currency. He also has listed Mein Kampf and the communist manifesto as favorite books, an odd combination in his youtube profile.
I agree political discourse has been very rough the past couple years, but people should wait till information comes out of on the background and motivation of the shooter before trying to make political arguments.
Where the guy was said to have political leanings, they leaned left and he claimed to be an atheist.
Where he mostly leaned was plain crazy. A dear friend fell to paranoid schizophrenia in his mid twenties, a classic onset. The rest is very sad history. This guy's youtube nonsense is like listening to my brilliant friend babble when not knocked out and shaking from Haldol.
This has nothing to do with politics. It's not about blue dogs and immigration. It's not about gun laws. The killer violated nearly 200 state and federal of those.
It SHOULD compel us to look at how our approach to mental illness has not changed in 100 years.
First, prayers for the victims and those who care for them.
Well if we better gun control, the chances of this tragic event happening would have been minimized and may not have occured. Semi automatic weapons have no place or need in today's society. That is the truth. Our founders had no clue that is no clue we would have firearms like we have today. They were using flintlocks when the Constitution was drafted. Percussion and ball was not even in play. It is now time to put some serious controls on who can possess firearms, what kind of firearms can be possessed by the public.
Anon 5:11 is a disengenuous m'er f'er for trying to put a political slant on the shooting. Quite frankly, only the police who have questioned the shooter know his motivations. What was the reasoning behind shooting a 9 yr. old at point blank range? Her position on the health care bill?
Anon 5:11, I hope you have a crummy weekend, you g-d- jerk.
Palin's reload allusions and gunsite map should have been universally condemned
.
Several stabbings that have taken place in Allentown, did the victims suffer from a website with sight markings on the neighborhood they lived in?
To looking to escape. Yes. It is called grafitti.
Ty Webb sounds angry.
Was Charlie on record stating how appalled he was when she was targeted on momma grizzly's cross hairs map? Or when Sharon angle reserved her 2nd Amendment remedy? Of course not. Its all harmless speech. Lets reload and identify the targets. Does she have the balls to do that?
Say what you will, this is what all that tea bag rhetoric lead to.
Don't use a tragedy to score political points.
This is twisted. Get a life sickos.
Ty Webb does sound very irritated.
What a tragedy..senseless. Unfortuantely however somewhere down the line this will cost all of us..somehow...in some way.
First, no one is to blame for the deranged killer's actions but him.
Perhaps local authorities could have intervened when his actions frightened his classmates and his math teacher was afraid of him, but no one but the twisted young man is responsible for pulling the trigger.
It's ironic that leftwing pundits and even elected officials are screaming "foul" about the target map that appeared on Sarah Palin's website when the Democratic congressional committee has used identical maps to target Republican districts.
This is simple, folks - they're "targeting" those districts for electoral purposes, and to suggest that the use of a target in an election campaign can somehow incite someone to kill is a BIG stretch.
Of course, it was only a couple of minutes until someone brought the tea party movement into it - like they did when the nut flew his plane into the IRS office. It's an indication of the impotence of leftwing commentators and elected officials against a movement which represents millions of Americans from all political ideologies and walks of life that they seek any opportunity to try to damage the movement's growing power.
Funny, though, how very few people mentioned Muslim terrorists when Major Hassan killed 13 people at Fort Hood, even though there WAS evidence of Islamic radical ties in that case, and there is NO evidence of the 22 year old's ties to the tea party movement.
People conveniently forget the vitriol and actual death wishes and threats that were leveled against President Bush, and publicly stated desires for the deaths of conservative leaders.
Following are some particularly egregious examples. I admit that I didn't create the following list myself - I copied and pasted it from another site. But I did visit every link to make sure they are live and real, and they are.
So while people on this site and other places spout nonsense about blaming Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck for what happened on Saturday, take a few minutes to check out some REAL hate speech:
Remember Chris Matthews fantasizing on air about seeing Rush Limbaugh shot in the head?
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/10/13/video-matthews-muses-on-killi...
The Craig Kilborn Show superimposing the words "Snipers Wanted" over the face of President George W. Bush.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/kilborn-cbs-target-bush-0
Nobel "Peace Prize" winner Betty Williams publicly stating her desire to murder President George W. Bush.
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/07/25/give-murder-a-chance/
British film makers Gabriel Range and Simon Finch making a 2006 movie fantasizing about assassinating President George W. Bush.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0853096/
Alec Baldwin urging the murder of Henry Hyde, his family, and ALL Congressional Republicans and their families on national television.....
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5991332/alec_baldwin_for_c...
David Guy McKay and Bradley Neil Crowder, two America-hating left-wing terrorists, were arrested by the FBI after conspiring to firebomb Republicans at the 2008 GOP Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The American Media refused to report the story.
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-194812.html
NPR commentator and ABC News reporter Nina Totenberg wishes death by AIDS on Senator Jesse Helms and/or his grandchildren.
http://www.mrc.org/notablequotables/dishonor1999/welcomeaward6.asp
Julianne Malveaux publicly wishes death on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
http://www.holeinthehull.com/2010/07/julianne-malveaux-wishes-clare...
Dnna, I thank you for a well-considered comment. I'll be posting it as a separate blog.
When someone comes out and say if you don't like the results of an election go out and shoot the winner (Sharon Angle) regardless if that person was political it gives them license in their mind to do something they were just thinking about doing
Donna denial.
Sharron Angle's reference to "second amendment remedies" was in reference to an out-of-control Congress, not elections results. As Americans, we have always endorsed the use of force against an overreaching government. That's why we had a Revolutionary War. But she certainly was not advocating specific instances of violence, to say nothing of the tragedy that did occur. I do think Sharron Angle is correct, but some things are better left unspoken.
It is becoming increasingly clear that this troubled young man is just that, and our partisan political rhetoric played no role in what happened.
I am very sad, particularly that a 9 yo girl lost her life. But I'm not prepared to pint fingers at anyone except the person who pulled the trigger. This attempt to lay the blame is itself just an extension of the very rhetoric being condemned.
Ah, a sane comment at last. Sometimes a nut is just a nut.
I'm sorry yes she was she said "Lets take out Harry Reid"
as part of that comment
Political rhetoric had nothing to do with this. Mental illness did. Using the deaths of innocents for political argument before they're even buried is ghastly.
I'm sorry after looking at him i doubt he was anything more than a run of the mill skinhead
Are the reports true that Gabrielle Giffords opponent held a fundraiser at a shooting range in which he invited supporters to "help remove Gabrielle"
Do we really consider Second Ammendment Remedies, target practice fundraiser to oust an opponent, and a campaign targeting candidates with cross-hairs an appropriate and acceptable campaign strategy.
Pardon the punctuation.
Bernie, I blame this incident on the actions of a deranged individual, period. But let us take a moment to reflect on "words", you as a trained attorney know words have meaning, words have power.
When Sharon Angle talks about "second amendment" solutions to congress, that statement has nothing to do with protecting the second amendment. It has everything to do with a less than subtle injection of "potential" need for violence if Washington doesn't listen, or the inherent right to use vilence if necessary. The Sarah Palin "target" distrcits in the "crosshair". Seriously, you want to play all innocent. As a gun pwning hunter I knwo the power of those terms and why they were used. Peddle the lame bullshit meanings to the dummies who buy it. When someone says to me time to "reload" and "lock and load", I know exactly the heartstrings they are playing on.
Excuse me, but we still have elections. That type of rhetoric has one purpose, to rile up and inflame.
Spin, spin, spin away but that is all that it can be seen as by any intelligent person with common sense.
Stop the crazy talk. Do I blame Sharon Angle or any political movement for the actions of this nut, no; do I blame Sharon Angle and others for bringing violent straw dog arguments into the political discourse, yes. Most definitely yes.
Enough with all the gun, references. If you can't make your arguments without them, you are in the words of Ron Angle, "a mental midget".
This is truely very sad,Totally innocent people gunned down.Families disrupted thoughts go out to all . Only issue I have is that it appears the media is speaking on gifford the most because she is a congress woman . That is not the important issue , They are all human beings and all have family and loved ones .
The point is the other people were shot as and excuse the term by-standers in a political assassination attempt. The problem is this person was believe things that were no crazier than the millions of people in this country that believed that an Advance directive written with the help of your dr was somehow a death panel, and people were willing to kill about that. This happened not in isolation last week someone tried to bomb the Head of Homeland securities office Janet Napolitano and there were several other threats and assignation attempts no one ever heard of but were stopped prior to the shooting of this congresswoman. Which happen each and every week but have gotten worse since 2009
".....an Advance directive written with the help of your dr was somehow a death panel, and people were willing to kill about that. This happened not in isolation last week someone tried to bomb the Head of Homeland securities office Janet Napolitano and there were several other threats and assignation attempts no one ever heard of but were stopped prior to the shooting of this congresswoman...."
Ummmm....Anon 8:38 a.m......if no one ever HEARD of the "assignation" threats (wait a minute, isn't "assignation" a quaint term for an illicit love affair?), then how do you know of them? Or that people were willing to "kill about that" with "that" being death panels? WHO was "willing to kill about that?" Were they arrested? Is there an arrest record? Or did you read about it on the Daily KOS?
"Targeting" members of Congress in elections is a time-honored political process. Candidates have campaign "war chests." They meet with their advisors in a "war room." They conduct "opposition research" and, yes, they talk about "targeting" their opponents - for electoral defeat, not murder.
And BOTH parties use the exact same campaign rhetoric - hell, it was a DEMOCRATIC candidate for governor who did a commercial featuring HIM shooting a rifle at the Cap and Trade Bill. Should Al Gore and other supporters of Cap and Trade have feared that now-Gov. Manchin's commercial would incite some crazy to kill them?
Although, if we're worried about the potential murder of candidates or public officials, I'm surprised that the New York Times didn't have a problem with the "Targeting Strategy" graphic in a 2004 edition of the DNC website, in which detailed instructions for winning back the House and Senate were laid out for all party officials to read.
The map looks almost identical to the SarahPAC map everyone is screaming about right now, but the targets are even cooler - those multi-color sets of blue, red and yellow rings we most associate with targets. Here's a link to it:
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=253055&kaid=127&subid=171
It starts out by noting "The heartland strategy begins by choosing likely targets...." You'll note, if you go to the link, that I've eliminated the words "for Democratic gains" from that above sentence - much like the pundits who are foaming at the mouth over Sarah Palin's map have done.
It further notes, under the headline "Behind Enemy Lines" (catch the military lingo there?) that "President Bush won several states by single-digit margins. Those states should be ripe targets...." I've taken a page from the anti-Sarah crowd here and removed the words "for Democrats" in order to make it all sound more scary and militaristic and potentially dangerous, get it? See, now I've made it sound like those evil Democrats were targeting those states for nuclear holocaust or something, instead of the election in 2006.
Or that they were sneakily reaching out to closet nutcases in order to give them secret instructions into their tin hat amplifiers that they were REALLY supposed to go out and KILL the opponents who'd been targeted.
See, it's easy and fun to make the other side look evil and crazy!
Seriously, though, nutcases will always be with us, and I don't think it's worth giving up ALL our freedoms in order to be completely insulated from them. After all, isn't one of the cities that bans guns ENTIRELY the murder capital of the country?
in that statement did I at any point say anything about Sarah Palin? No As to death threats during the Health care debate and about advanced directives there certainly were.
(CNN) - Police arrested a 64-year-old Washington state resident for allegedly making death threats against Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
A department statement said the suspect, identified as Charles Alan Wilson of Selah, Washington, made the threats in phone messages to Murray's office between March 22 and April 4.
Wilson allegedly stated that Murray "had a target on her back" and that he wanted to kill her, according to the statement, which said the threats were in response to congressional passage of the new health care bill.
FBI agents arrested the North Carolina man who threatened Shuler, and prosecutors charged him with threatening to kill a federal official — a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Court records show that the case was dropped after he was found incompetent to stand trial.
In February 2009, a man left voice mail messages for Stabenow in several of her Michigan offices.
“We’re gonna [expletive] get you,” he said in one message. “We’re gonna get you with a lot of [expletive] bolt action. Like we did RFK; like we did MLK. We know who you are. We’ll get you.”
FBI agents tracked the calls to a 54-year-old Texas man who lived alone — and who at one time had owned a 20-gun arsenal of handguns, shotguns and rifles. According to the documents, he told officers that he was “really, really drunk” when he made the calls. He said he was just “venting” — taking out his frustrations after hearing a discussion of the Fairness Doctrine and becoming concerned that the government would attempt to abolish the radio shows of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.
Thursday 25 March 2010 19.30 GMT
In Virginia someone cut a propane line leading to a grill at the Charlottesville home of Democrat congressman Tom Perriello's brother after the address was posted online by activists angry about the healthcare overhaul. Perriello said a threatening letter was sent to his brother's house. The FBI and local authorities were investigating.
Activists in the conservative Tea Party movement had posted the brother's address online thinking it was the congressman's home. The post urged opponents to drop by and "express their thanks" for the Democrat's vote in favour of healthcare reform.
Today's arrest of a California man named Gregory Giusti, who is accused of making numerous threatening phone calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her support of the recently passed health care reform legislation, comes after a string of similar incidents that have resulted in criminal charges.
and on and on and on
Donna - Denial.
1:47 Well stated.
Donna defends the nuts in the bagger movement by showing there are nuts on the left. Interesting tactic. Donna, I think you just made the entire point!
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