New Jersey Representatives weigh in on Giffords Shooting

Michael B. Keegan: Denouncing Violent Rhetoric, the Sheriff Gets It Right
The massacre in Tucson on Saturday rightfully shook all of us -- regardless of our political leanings -- to the core. When faced with an Assassination attempt and a mass Murder, political affiliations don't and shouldn't matter. In the aftermath of the Shooting Spree that left six dead, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords critically injured, and 13 others wounded, Republicans and Democrats alike have stated clearly and repeatedly that violence has no place in our Democracy. Unfortunately, not all have bee...

Fox News CEO Roger Ailes: Ive Told All Our Guys, Shut Up, Tone It Down
Fox News CEO Roger Ailes says he put the word out at Fox to “tone it down” and make arguments “intellectually” with less heated Rhetoric. “You don’t have to do it with bombast. I hope the other side does that.” But Ailes draws the line at any suggestion the passion of Fox News hosts had anything to do with the Shooting Spree in Arizona that left six dead and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords critically wounded: “That is just bullsh-,” he told Ru...

Obama urges U.S. to pull together after Arizona shooting rampage
Steve Holland, Reuters · Monday, Jan. 10, 2011 WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama mourned Victims of an Arizona gunman on Monday and steered clear of a debate on whether harsh U.S. political Rhetoric inspired the attack on a U.S. congresswoman. Meanwhile in Arizona, Jared Lee Loughner, the suspect in Saturday's shooting made his first court appearance. As many members of his own Democratic Party decried the often rabid level of political discourse in the country, Mr. Obama said he is...

Sheriff emerges as spokesman on political climate
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The Arizona sheriff helping to lead the investigation into the shooting rampage in Tucson has been thrust into the national political debate over his candid remarks about the shooting. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik on Saturday blamed the rampage in part on extreme political Rhetoric, Bigotry and hatred, especially in his home state of Arizona. Dupnik tells The Associated Press on Monday he was angry and heartbroken over the tragedy, and was simply speaking his mi...

Giffords shooting suspect held without bail
Jared Lee Loughner, the man accused of shooting Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D), was orderd to be held without bail by a Federal Judge on Monday. Judge Lawrence Anderson also set Loughner's preliminary hearing for Jan. 24 at 1:30 p.m. Arizona time. According to the Associated Press, Loughner appeared in a federal courtroom in Phoenix donning a tan inmate jumpsuit and a shaved head. Loughner, 22, is accused of killing six and wounding 14 in a Shooting Spree at a meet-and-greet for Giffor...

Shooter's Motive Sparks Debate on Political Rhetoric
As more information is released about the man suspected to be behind the deadly shooting rampage that injured Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, many are blaming growing political anger for his actions. Online posts by suspect Jared Loughner, and accounts by former friends and classmates portray the young man as consumed with Conspiracy theories and obsessed with government control. Some liberals said the right's angry Rhetoric is partly to blame fore Loughner's behavior. But Family Research Cou...

Arizona gov. focuses on Saturday shooting in State of State
In a somber opening address of the new session of the Arizona legislature  Gov. Jan Brewer (R-Ariz.) said that the Saturday shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was an assault on American Democracy. "Saturday's events were not just an attack on those individuals we loved and lost but an assault on our constitutional republic, on our democracy," Brewer said "Arizona is in pain. Yes, our grief is profound. We are yet in the first hours of our sorrows but we have not been brought down....

Barbara Walters: Unfair To Blame Sarah Palin As Some Are Doing
Not surprisingly the topic of conversation on today episode of The View was the tragic events of this weekend in Arizona that saw six innocent civilians killed and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords put into critical condition. Almost immediately after the news broke of this event, many on the left pointed to an image put fort by Sarah Palin’s PAC that included Controversial cross-hair imagery on a number of Congressional Districts in play (including Giffords’.) Today Barbara Walters defended P...

Alleged Arizona gunman appears in court
The alleged gunman behind a shooting that killed six and wounded 14 others in Tucson, Arizona appeared in court Monday, head shaven and saying little, an AFP reporter said. Jared Loughner, who was overpowered by heroic bystanders after allegedly trying to assassinate a US lawmaker on Saturday, said little beyond answering "yes" to questions from the judge in the state capital Phoenix. The Federal Judge agreed to the assignment of Judy Clarke, who represented the Unabomber and 9/11 conspirator ...

ARIZONA District Attorney PUTS ON THE BRAKES when it comes to accusations of prejudice and bigotry
"The tragic shootings in Tucson this past weekend have prompted understandable outrage and strong emotions. Nonetheless, it is a gross disservice to the citizens of Arizona for public officials to characterize our citizens as prejudiced, bigoted or in any way intolerant based on the violent actions of one individual whose motivations and state of mind are still under investigation. For my part, as an elected Law Enforcement official for the largest county in Arizona, I believe the heroic actions...

Gabrielle Giffords shooting: Jared Loughner 'believed he could fly'
A schoolfriend of Jared Loughner, the main suspect in the shooting of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, has spoken about his friend's obsessions with dreams, chaos and government....

Terror in Arizona: Just another 'isolated incident'? Funny how that list keeps mounting
It's fundamental to their Psychology, as Digby often observes, for right-wingers to constantly portray themselves as Victims -- indeed, the American Right long ago mastered the art of flipping reality on its head and turning attempts to hold them accountable for their predilection for violence into a vicious and unfair attack on their honor -- of turning the perpetrators into Victims and the Victims into perpetrators. In 1870, it was the "bloody shirt". Today, in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffor...

Gabrielle Giffords shooting: Jared Loughner may have been influenced by occult
FBI investigators delving into the warped mind of Tucson massacre suspect Jared Loughner are exploring whether he was influenced by the occult and a Right-wing Conspiracy theorist....

L.I. Rep. To Introduce Gun Legislation In House
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (FILE-Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Long Island Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, one of the strongest gun-control advocates on Capitol Hill, said she has been offered federal protection in the aftermath of Saturday’s shooting that left Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords fighting for her life. McCarthy said the FBI and Capitol Police asked her if she wanted body guards in light of shootings. The congresswoman said her first instinct was to reject it, ...

Barbara Walters: 'I'm Feeling Bad for Sarah Palin'
“I’m feeling bad for Sarah Palin because I don’t think that’s what she should have said, and certainly crosshairs are very scary,” Barbara Walters said on "The View." “This is a deranged young man. This is a Timothy Mcveigh. Whether this happened because there is violence - too much commentary, too much violence as you say we’ve talked about. Sometimes we do it here we get so angry.” You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for those oppo...

The Left's McCarthyism
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. It would be merciful if, when tragedies such as Tucson's occur, there were a Moratorium on sociology. But respites from half-baked explanations, often serving political opportunism, are impossible because of a timeless human craving and a characteristic of many modern minds. The craving is for banishing randomness and the inexplicable from human experience. Time was, the gods were useful. What is thunder? The gods are angry. Polythe...

5 Strangest Explanations for Jared Loughner's Attack (The Atlantic Wire)
WASHINGTON, DC – There's no shortage of media speculation as to why Jared Loughner chose to attack Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Commentators have suggested possible roles for overheated political Rhetoric, mental illness, and even Sarah Palin's Controversial "crosshairs" map. But some explanations have been less conventional. Here are the five most unusual arguments so far about what led Loughner to his awful act. 'Did Pot Trigger Giffords Shooting?' That's the headline on a much-mocked rece...

Jared Lee Loughner, Arizona shooting suspect, appears in court
Jared Lee Loughner, accused of Murder and Attempted Murder of federal employees including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, appeared on Monday in Federal Court in Phoenix and will continue to be held for future hearings. Loughner, 22, appeared before Magistrate Judge Lawrence Anderson on a five-count complaint that alleged he attempted to assassinate Giffords, who remains hospitalized in critical condition after Saturday's Shooting Spree. Two of the counts allege that Lougner killed a Federal Judge...

Suspect in Arizona shootings appears in court
A troubled 22-year-old College Dropout made his first court appearance on Monday on five federal charges, including the attempted Assassination of US Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who remained in critical condition. His hands manacled together, Jared Lee Loughner leaned toward a microphone and told a judge in Phoenix he understood the charges against him that stem from a Shooting Spree in Tucson on Saturday that left six people dead and 14 wounded. ...

Steve Hynd Making Sense Again
Steve Hynd, whom I linked to a bit earlier, contributes a little more sense on the subject of the Arizona shooting from the Left Blogosphere: I said I’d wait until I knew more before I wrote more about the Arizona shootings. Well, here it is. […] Note that Loughner’s obsession with Rep. Giffords began at least as early as 2007, long before Sarah Palin or the Tea Party - but note too that there’s not a lot of difference between paranoid politics and the worst exces...

The Right Wing Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks
Andrew Sullivan has a compilation of some of the more prominent -- and vitriolic -- responses to the requests from just about everyone to take it down a notch.A survey of the bloggy scene suggests a rigid, uniform, passionate position that this Assassination has nothing whatsoever to do with violent Rhetoric and political polarization. It is as if some loony had just randomly shot some schoolkids or ran into a mall killing strangers. If you are looking for reflectiveness, you won't find it, in ...

Fox News Prez Roger Ailes: I Told 'Our Guys' To 'Tone It Down'
Fox News President Roger Ailes -- who is no stranger to making incendiary comments -- recently told globalgrind.com's Russel Simmons that both the right and the left are wrong in their response to the Mass Shooting in Arizona. "This is just bullshit.  This goes on ... both sides are wrong, but they both do it," Ailes said on the media's using maps that target Congressional Districts in their coverage. Ailes cited the map former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) used that put targets over Democratic...

Jim Wallis: An Attack on the Soul of the Nation
The shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, the young congresswoman from Arizona, must speak to the soul of this nation. The shooter raised his gun to her head, and then he kept shooting until 13 others were wounded and six people killed, including a District Court judge and a nine-year-old girl who was president of her Student council. Gabby, as everyone calls her, is one of the most beloved political leaders in the Congress and back in her home state of Arizona. Everyone likes her on both sides of t...

Loughner: 'Social Outcast' With 'Indecipherable Beliefs'
What is this? As Jared Loughner's scheduled 4 p.m. ET court appearance draws near, here's some more of what's being reported about the 22-year-old community College Dropout who is accused of killing six people and wounding 14 others Saturday in a shooting rampage at a meet-and-greet in Tucson, Ariz., with Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords: Also, the magazine writes, Tierney "describes Loughner as being obsessed with 'lucid dreaming' — that is, the idea that conscious dreams are an al...

Obama: US grieving, shocked over Ariz. rampage
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama said Monday the nation is still in shock over the shooting rampage in Arizona that left a Democratic congresswoman fighting for her life, but he commended the courage of the people on the scene who rushed to help, saying their actions reflect the "best of America." The president told reporters that Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others injured on Saturday are still fighting to recover. He said he anticipated some type of national memorial that wou...