Pima County Sheriff Sets Off Debate on Price of Free Speech

Sheriff: Loughner targeted Giffords, but not over politics
TUCSON, Ariz. — There's mounting evidence that the attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords wasn't a political act but a plan by a disturbed High School dropout who had few friends and no clear agenda. But Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said in an interview Monday that Jared Lee Loughner "targeted the congresswoman specifically; there's considerable evidence to substantiate that." As more details surface about the background of 22-year-old Loughner, who made his initi...

Fox News abruptly cuts away from Tucson vigil after mourner mentions Sarah Palin
© Fox News The Fox News Channel abruptly cut to commercial after a mourner attending a Tuscon, Arizona vigil for those killed in Saturday's shootings mentioned Fox employee Sarah Palin as one of the culprits behind a rising tide of violent Rhetoric in US politics and media. As they awaited the beginning of a Pima County Sheriff's Department Press Conference, Fox News host Shep Smith cued a live video from the vigil for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), who sustained a bullet wound to the h...

MORE ON THAT PIMA COUNTY SHERIFF: Did Dupnik Dismiss Loughner Threat?
MORE ON THAT PIMA County Sheriff: Did Dupnik Dismiss Loughner Threat? ...

Networks Tout Democratic Sheriff's Warnings That 'Climate of Political Vitriol' Created Shooting
ABC, NBC and MSNBC on Monday all eagerly hyped the complaints by an Arizona sheriff that the "anger and Bigotry" of everyday Americans contributed to Saturday's shooting. None of the Journalists interviewing Clarence Dupnik identified as an elected Democratic official. (ABC's Jake Tapper did in a separate piece.) Former Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe and lauded Dupnik: "I think in part a lot of public officials are timid. The Pima County...

Loughner makes his first public appearance after being charged over Tucson rampage
A mugshot of Jared Loughner released by Pima County Sheriff's Office. Jared Lee Loughner, accused of Murder and Attempted Murder of federal employees including US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, has appeared  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 hospitalised in critical condition after Saturday's...

Georgia rep. criticizes Arizona sheriff's remarks
WASHINGTON—A Georgia Republican is criticizing Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik (DOOP'-nik) for linking Saturday's shooting in Arizona with overheated political Rhetoric. Rep. Jack Kingston said in an interview Monday there is no evidence the shooting was politically motivated. He says it simply looks like the work of a deranged gunman. He called the sheriff's comments "irresponsible." Kingston also questions whether Dupnik might have missed signs that Jared Loughner would engage in vi...

Arizona Rep. Giffirds shot; What is Next for America
In incidents such as this, the lesser first seek to find blame.  This from Pima County Sheriff who quickly exploited the tragedy to advance an agenda against the Tea Party which the perpetrator had no affiliation.  National politicians who blamed the blogosphere and even Sarah Palin.  Politicians who blamed the Internet.  So few in this first 24 hours blame the perpetrator himself.  In a culture of entitlement and the absolution of personal responsibility, it is not a ma...

Well, Well, Well. Jared Loughner Is A Registered Independent.
As pundits and politicians on both sides of the political spectrum call for everyone to “just get along!” while taking aim at one another, news has come out that Jared Loughner , the 22-year-old who opened fire on a crowd outside a Tucson, Arizona Safeway while Rep. Gabrielle Giffords met with her constituents, is a registered Independent who did not vote in the 2010 election. The Washington Post reports that, according to the Pima County Registrar of Voters, Loughner has been regis...

Arizona Sheriff Dubnik Was Aware of Loughners Mental Illness, Did Nothing
From Reuters: The suspect in Saturday’s shooting rampage in which a U.S. congresswoman was critically wounded was unstable and had been known to make Death Threats in the past, the local sheriff said. The FBI is investigating whether the man is the same person who posted a rambling Internet manifesto accusing the government of mind control and demanding a new currency. Jared Lee Loughner, 22, of Tucson, was taken into Custody moments after the shooting at a political meeting held by Dem...

Dem plans bill banning use of threatening imagery against politicians
© unknown In the wake of the tragic Arizona shooting, Rep. Bob Brady (D-PA) says he plans to introduce a bill criminalizing the use of certain forms of threatening imagery against lawmakers and judges. "You can't threaten the president with a bullseye or a crosshair," Brady told the New York Times. He explained to CNN that his bill would also ban symbols or language that threaten "a congressman, senator or Federal Judge." He was referring to a map published last year by Sarah Palin in w...

Arizona US Rep. Trent Franks Calls Out Sheriff Dupnik For Politicizing Shootings (Video)
Arizona Republican US House Representative Trent Franks not only called out Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik after his irresponsible comments blaming others as the reason why the gunman Jared Loughner went tried to assassinate Gabby Giffords (AZ-D).   Trent Franks also went on to say that we cannot be deterred change our lives or continue in with liberty and freedom. Click HERE to watchVideo “We cannot let a mindless, heartless murderer change our way of life. we cannot

Report: Sheriff Knew About Loughners Actions & Previous Threats Failed to Act
There are now accusations that Dupnik knew about the previous threats by leftwing pothead Jared Loughner and did nothing to protect the Tucson community from this homicidal young man. The sheriff has been editorializing and politicizing the event since he took the podium to report on the incident. His blaming of radio personalities and Bloggers is a pre-emptive strike because Mr. Dupnik knows this tragedy lays at his feet and his office. Six people died on his watch and he could have prevented i...

Randall Amster: First Amendment Remedies: Hey Sarah, Refudiate This
Despite the temptation to join the grief-stricken chorus of blame, I do not believe that flame-fanners and spleen-suppliers like Sarah Palin, et al., are responsible for the tragic events in Tucson. Rather, the incendiary rhetorical devices they've used -- from gun sights over Congressional Districts to the invocation of "Second Amendment remedies" as viable tactics for change -- make these demagogues irresponsible about the consequences of their allusions. Words do have power, and thus should...

Pima County Dem Chair: Time Will Prove Loughner To Be A Right-Winger
TUCSON, AZ -- Conservatives gloating about the biography of the suspected shooter of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) will eat their words in the end, according to the chair of the Pima County Democratic Party. "Here's what I think you're going to find," Jeff Rogers told me in an interview today. "I think you're going to find that he was [a conservative]." [TPM SLIDESHOW: Dem Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Shot In Arizona] I met with Rogers in his downtown Tucson office this afternoon to discuss the ...

Gunman in Arizona Shooting Held Without Bail, Assigned Lawyer Who Defended McVeigh
PHOENIX -- The nation got its first look on Monday at the 22-year-old loner accused of trying to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Jared Loughner, head shaved, a cut above the right temple and his hands cuffed, scanned a packed courtroom and sat down. His attorney, who defended Oklahoma City bomber Timothy Mcveigh and "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, whispered to him. The judge asked Loughner if he understood that he could get life in Prison -- or the death penalty -- for killing Federal Judge John...

Harper blames Dupnik for Giffords shooting
Source: AzCentral.com While her doctors sounded an optimistic tone on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' recovery, the political discourse is growing harsher. State Rep. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, partly blamed the shooting on Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, who has himself blamed caustic political Rhetoric and lax gun-control as contributing to the massacre. "If he would have done his job, maybe this doesn't happen," Harper told USA Today on Monday. "Sheriff Dupnik did not provide for the securit...

Infidel Bloggers Alliance
Pima County Sheriff Dupnik Blamed Right Wing for Slaughter But Details Emerge of Multiple Contacts between Jared Loughner and the Sheriffs office over Multiple Death Threats Really, what more needs to be said. This guy decided to shoot his mouth off on a national stage, and look what he is going to reap; exactly what he sowed. Game over, freak. Go crawl back in your hole, you pathetic excuse for a Sheriff. Click on the title to get the whole story at Atlas Shrugs. Nice nose ...

Did Dupnik miss the red flags on Loughner?
Any cop can tell you whodunnit but it takes a supercop to tell you What It All Means about our political culture. A nagging question: Should supercop maybe have figured out that Loughner was a menace before he gunned down six people outside a Safeway? Remember, this is a guy who was so palpably disturbed that more than one of his classmates told their Professor that they feared for their lives. He had five separate run-ins with the Campus Police at his community college, and as Moe Lane helpfu...

Sheriff Dupnik: People In Media Make Money Off 'Keeping The Public Very Angry'
Source: Talking Points Memo Sheriff Dupnik: People IN Media Make Money Off 'Keeping The Public Very Angry' Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik continued criticizing political Rhetoric on MSNBC today, saying that "millions of people in this country are upset with the tenor and the attitude of our people. I think America has become very angry." He also had some thoughts on the media, telling host Chuck Todd: "There are people in the industry that you're in who make a pretty good living off of keep...

Leftist?: Tucsons Sheriff Opposes Arizona Immigration Law
As the Pima County Sheriff, he’s Tucson’s sheriff. ...

U.S. cites evidence of assassination plot
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Piece by piece, details of the weekend rampage in Tucson are beginning to emerge: The heartbreaking tales of people slain on a sun-splashed morning, the courage of those who overpowered the gunman and the state of mind of the suspect, a young man who the authorities say had plotted for weeks, and perhaps longer, to assassinate a member of Congress. As the full scope of the tragedy sank in Sunday, it also had rekindled a national conversation, sparked by the outspoken sheriff of...

YIKES!
Dude looks like a deranged Uncle Fester Pima County Sheriff Mugshot of Jared Lee Loughton (info here ) Labels: MR ...

Criminalizing Politics Delay Sentenced to Three Years for Money Laundering
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has been sentenced to three years in Prison for a Money Laundering conviction. Ralph Reed explained last week how this is a case of criminalizing politics. The facts surrounding DeLay’s conviction are a yawner for those operating in the world of political Fundraising. Texas, like 22 other states, prohibits corporate contributions to state Candidates, though political committees can use those funds (known by the shorthand of “soft money”) for adminis

Buchanan wont stop public events
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, said Saturday’s shooting in Arizona won’t stop him from holding public events like the one U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was holding when she was shot. Buchanan on Monday night went ahead with a planned open house for his new offices in Sarasota. More than 300 people attended the event at 111 S. Orange Ave, in Sarasota. Buchanan said he won’t be intimidated because of one isolated event. “I don’t see ch...

Free speech and bullets
First, let me say I believe absolutely in the First Amendment to the Constitution, which says “Congress shall make no law … abridging the Freedom of Speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” Don’t wait for a “but,” or an “except,” or “in some cases.” I don’t have one. Second, at least one idea arising from the tragic, despicable and appar...