Gabrielle Giffords Shooting: Gunman Linked to Grammar 'Judge'

Nihilism or Sarah Palin: What motivated Arizona shooting suspect? (The Christian Science Monitor)
Atlanta – Initial reports about Jared Loughner, the 22-year-old College Dropout charged with killing six and gravely wounding Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Ariz., Saturday, so far present a picture of a person inspired by a tangled and in some ways nonsensical web of philosophies more than any one person, political movement, or line of thought. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik suggested Saturday that the shootings might have been influenced by "vitriolic Rhetoric" in t...

Democrats move to limit guns, threatening language in shooting's wake
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., plans to introduce a bill that would ban high-capacity ammunition clips. Reacting to the assasination attempt on one of their own, two House members on Monday said they will introduce Legislation that would ban certain amunition clips and make it illegal to threaten a federal official, both of which they say contributed to the mass casualties in a shooting rampage in Tuscson over the weekend. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., plans to introduce a bill that would ban h...

Call it what it was: An Act of Domestic Terrorism
Good editorial cartoons rip the heart from the moment and always piss people off. … But even some Republicans sympathetic to Ms. Palin suggested that she needed to find a more substantive and nuanced means of addressing the criticism to avert any risk to her political standing and to maintain control of her political narrative. … But other Republicans said that if she was serious about becoming president, the shootings in Tucson might require Ms. Palin to step out of the political co...

ADL's Jared Loughner Report: Mental Illness, Not Ideology Likely Led To Tragedy
Mental Illness, rather than Tea Baggery's likely to blame for Loughner's rampage, says the ADL Since Saturday's massacre in Tucson, both the left and the right have parsed alleged killer Jared Lee Loughner's YouTube videos, the statements of his supposed school chums, his favorite books (everything from To Kill a Mockingbird to Mein Kampf), and any other scraps of info out there on the guy. The left has surmised he's your classic anti-government, Wingnut Teabagger. The right's labeled him an a...

Bill Maher says Glenn Beck's nutty and like the Giffords shooter, Jared Loughner
 Bill Maher says Glenn Beck’s nutty and like the Giffords shooter, Jared Loughner. It is now open season beyond the shadow of a doubt on all Conservatives, at least from the standpoint of many liberals. Each day after the Gabrielle Giffords shooting has brought with it increasingly shocking Defamation by liberals looking to turn the murderous tragedy of Giffords’ shooting into a poorly calculated political opportunity. The latest shameless liberal to jump on the desperate attack...

Neighbor: Loughner's parents in shock
TUCSON, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- The parents of a Tucson man accused of killing six people and wounding 14 others are in deep shock and have secluded themselves in their home, a neighbor said. Randy and Amy Loughner returned home from grocery shopping Saturday to learn their only child, Jared Lee Loughner, 22, had been arrested for the Shooting Spree at a political event for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday. Neighbor Wayne Smith told the newspaper he broke the new...

Pawlenty jabs Palin over 'crosshairs'
Possible Republican presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty took a jab at Sarah Palin, saying he wouldn’t have used gun crosshairs to target Rep Gabrielle Giffords and others. “I wouldn’t have done it,” the former Minnesota Governor told The New York Times on Monday when asked if he would have created a map like the one posted last year on Sarah PAC’s website showing crosshairs on lawmakers who supported Health Care reform. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico...

Arizona gunman in court as Obama leads mourning
The man accused of trying to assassinate a congresswoman in an Arizona Shooting Spree that left six dead appeared in court Monday but said nothing to shed light on his motive. President Barack Obama led the Americans in a somber minute of silence to honor the 20 people gunned down in Tucson -- where he will attend a memorial service on Wednesday, the White House announced. Flags were at half-staff at the Capitol in Washington, where hundreds of aides and lawmakers crammed the storied steps of Co...

The Lefts Script of Hate
“Just the facts, ma’am,” Dragnet’s Joe Friday famously informed witnesses he interviewed. Oft-interviewed Pima County Sherriff Clarence Dupnik might adopt the catchphrase: “Save the facts, ma’am. Just the narrative.” The narrative of right-wing Rhetoric fueling accused mass-murderer Jared Lee Loughner proved so seductive to partisans that they didn’t wait for the compilation of facts, or burial of the dead, to advance their politically opportunisti...

Poll: Despite Left's Lust to Pin Blame on Right, Only 32% Believe AZ Shootings Were Politically Motivated
After a 48-hour orgy of venom and hatred directed at the right in the wake of the massacre in Arizona Saturday, a CBS poll reveals only 32% of Americans actually believe the ludicrous accusations. This suggests a couple of possibilities: Either the next poll will show 100 of Americans accept the truth or the media and kook left will double down with the wild conjecture. Sadly, I think it's too late for these people to regain any credibility, so I learn toward the latter.Nearly six in 10 American...

The heroesof Arizona
It's an ancient warfare tactic, and one Terrorists of every stripe employ to wreak violence on the innocent: The element of surprise. Once the attacker ambushes presumably unarmed civilians, in a peaceful setting, the Victims are usually paralyzed through shock and cannot defend themselves. It takes remarkable presence of mind to survive – much less mount a unified offensive against the attacker and save other innocents. In the Arizona attack Saturday that killed six and injured 14, the...

Loughner Could Receive Death Penalty
MSNBC reports: PHOENIX, Ariz. — Jared Loughner, head shaved, a cut on his right temple and his hands cuffed, stared vacantly at a packed courtroom Monday and sat down. His attorney, who defended “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, whispered to him. It was the nation’s first look at the 22-year-old loner accused of trying to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The three-term Democrat lay about a 100 miles away in a Tucson intensive care unit, gravely wounded after being shot throug...

No More Mister Nice Blog
A LEFT-WING Terrorist? YES. A RIGHT-WING Terrorist? YES. OK, I give up. I've been arguing that Jared Loughner is a guy with a severe Mental Disorder whose rampage on Saturday seems to have been inspired by that Mental Disorder far more than by any ideas or attitudes picked up from the left-right political debate in this country ... but I feel pressured to call him a righty terrorist, and I also feel pressured to call him a lefty terrorist. So, fine: I'll call him both. Here's Tucson Victim "Outraged" Giffords Was Shot
Eric Fuller, wounded during attack in Tucson on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, on "The Early Show" Jan. 11, 2011 (CBS) (CBS) Eric Fuller was shot in Tucson Ariz. Saturday during the rampage Jared Loughner is accused of carrying out. It left six people dead and 13 wounded. Fuller, 63, a Military Veteran, former limo driver and avid Tennis player, is a strong supporter of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot through the brain. He cut a Tennis game short Saturday so he could hear her speak, only to ...

Insanity defense harder now than for Hinckley
WASHINGTON—In an earlier time, the deeply troubled past of Jared Loughner might have led his lawyers to mount an insanity defense. But that would be harder now, because Congress raised the bar for that claim after a jury found John Hinckley innocent by reason of insanity for shooting President Ronald Reagan. And the federal system is not alone in posing high hurdles to insanity defenses. State officials plan to charge Loughner as well, and Arizona law does not allow a verdict of not guilt...

The Note's Must-Reads for Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The Note's Must-Reads are a round-up of today's political headlines and stories from ABC News and the top U.S. Newspapers. Posted Monday through Friday right here at www.abcnews.com Compiled by ABC News Digital News Associates and Desk Assistants JAYCE HENDERSON, JACQUELINE FERNANDEZ, CLAUDIA MORALES, MOLLY HUNTER and KATY CONRAD Arizona SHOOTING / Gun Control: ABC News’ Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller: “Obama Phones Sheriff Dupnik, Families of the Victims, The Heroes, and Giffor...

Top lawyer to represent accused Arizona gunman
FILE - In a Dec. 3, 2007 file photo, attorney Judy Clarke leaves the federal building in downtown Boise, Idaho. Public defenders are asking that Clarke, the attorney who defended Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Timothy Mcveigh and "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, defend Jared Loughner. Loughner is charged with one count of attempted Assassination of a member of Congress, two counts of killing an employee of the Federal Government and two counts of attempting to kill a federal employee. He is schedu ...

Poisonous Politics (Pat Buchanan)
Creators Syndicate – On Feb. 15, 1933, Giuseppe Zangara, delusional and a loner, fired his .32-caliber pistol at FDR in the Bayfront Park area of Miami. Five feet tall, Zangara could not aim over the crowd. So, he stood on a folding chair and was piled on after the first of five shots. He wounded four people, including Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago. In two weeks, Zangara, who pled guilty, had been sentenced to 80 years. When Cermak died on March 6, Zangara was retried for Murder and se...

Poll: Most Feel Rhetoric, Shooting Unrelated
Nearly six in 10 Americans say the country's heated political Rhetoric is not to blame for the Tucson shooting rampage that left six dead and critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to a CBS News poll. In the wake of the shooting, much focus has been put on the harsh tone of politics in Washington and around the country, particularly after a contentious Midterm Election. Rhetoric and imagery from both Republicans and Democrats have included gun-related metaphors, but the major...

Gunman's Grammar Conspiracy Connection
(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - A nation is trying to understand the shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz. that left 14 wounded, including a congresswoman in critical condition, and six others dead, including a Federal Judge, a congressional aide and a 9-year-old girl. As investigators look into the life of alleged gunman Jared Lee Loughner they are noticing his strange obsession with grammar and its ties to a Milwaukee man's Conspiracy Theory website. In early coverage of Saturday's shooting of Rep. Gabri...

Senate sergeant-at-arms: Lawmakers carrying guns not a good idea
It's not a good idea for lawmakers to carry guns for personal protection in the wake of Saturday's shooting in Arizona, the Senate's sergeant at arms said Tuesday. Terrance Gainer, the Senate's top Law Enforcement official and the former chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, urged lawmakers to leave their security to professionals following the shooting on Saturday of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). "I don't think that's a good idea," Gainer said on "Good Morning America" on ABC. "I think we ...

One wonders what we will learn from these senseless shootings
The moment of silence came and went Monday, and I tried to set aside my own anger and heed President Barack Obama's call "for us to come together as a nation in prayer or reflection, keeping the Victims and their families closely at heart." The quiet passed, and I was revisited by the uneasy sense we are unlikely to learn anything from Saturday's tragedy in Tucson. Is the lesson of the deadly shooting destined to be buried with the dead in a country that day by day watches its ability to reason ...

AZ Sheriff Dever: Killer Alone Responsible for Shooting, Frightening To Try To Lay Blame On Anyone Elses Doorstep
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 By Penny Starr Sheriff Larry Dever of Cochise County, Ariz. (Cochise County Sheriff's Department photo) (CNSNews.com) - Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said he does not understand why his friend and colleague, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, would suggest at a news conference following Saturday's shooting in Tucson that political ideology played a role in the tragedy. At a Press Conference on Saturday, Dupnik said Arizona had become the “mecc

Doc: 'Hopefully she'll live to be 95'
Physicians at the University of Arizona Medical Center issued their most optimistic assessment yet of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s condition, with trauma specialist Dr. Peter Rhee telling a British Television Station that she was “100 percent likely to survive” the gunshot wound she sustained Saturday. “As a physician I’m going to get into a lot of trouble for this, but her prognosis for survival is 100 percent, as far as it being short term,” he said. “H...

More than mentally ill
I'm having a real problem watching the usual process of creating a palatable narrative about the Arizona shootings.  The most recent "tragedy" isn't, after all, unique.  It's really just one more violent act in a trail of damage that's part of our culture and our history.  These events end up being tucked away as the act of someone who is "disturbed" or "a political nutcase influenced by Extremists" or, as in the case of "Wac...