by NPR Staff, National Public Radio
January 8, 2011
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot outside a grocery store in Tucson while holding a public event, Arizona Public Media reported Saturday.
Giffords, who was re-elected to her third term in November, was hosting her first “Congress on Your Corner” event at the Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.
At least five other people, including members of her staff, were hurt. Giffords was transported to University Medical Center in Tucson. Her condition was not immediately known.
Giffords was talking to a couple when the man ran up firing indiscriminately, and then ran off, Michaels said. According to other witnesses, the was tackled by a bystander and taken into custody.
Fox News reported that she was shot at point blank range in the head by a gunman who was firing indiscriminately.
According to Wikipedia:
She is the only member of the U.S. Congress whose spouse, astronaut Mark E. Kelly, is an active duty member of the U.S. military.
Giffords is known as a strong proponent of solar energy as well as for her work to secure the border with Mexico
This is the third time she has met at this type of community event in Tucson. She is 40 years old. 11 others, including local staff members, were also shot. Our thoughts and prayers are with Rep. Giffords.
Fox News is reporting that there are multiple fatalities and that the congressman has died. They are trying to get official confirmation.
The above information was incorrect. Gabrielle Giffords is out of surgery. She is alive, in critical condition, but the doctor who just spoke said he was optomistic about her recovery.
No Slowpoke, Elena is not crazy fro thinking that it could be connected to the crazed reaction to Obama’s election. Everyone probably thought it immediately. It’s clear after all, that even right wingers thought to jump on a blog and run interference for their political idols. There are eerie connections, quite possibly coincidental, between campaign rhetoric and the murderous action taken today. I’d compare the conjecture here to when the Oklahoma bombing occurred, and all of us assumed for a time that Muslim terrorists were to blame. It was because of the tactics, because tactics were all we knew at the time.
So, while I don’t think it’s fair to blame someone like Sarah Palin who, I’m certain, did not intend for violence to occur when she chose that particular rhetoric, I also don’t think it’s fair or in any way effective to come on a blog and attack people who honestly express their fear that it is connected to something in particular, based on tactics that match particular rhetoric.
Ken’s right…..the speed and ferocity with which this is being turned into a political game is really shocking (and I don’t think I’m easily shocked). I’d be lying, though, if I didn’t admit that I find the foulness of the left’s behavior a little attractive. Could we be closer to open left vs. right war than I ever imagined possible?
@Ken Anderson
I know, never let a good crisis go to waste!
Latest news is a second gunman is being sought.
I am not a believer in historical revisionism ( we are all biased of course, but I try) so here is what I remember: ” In proposing a plan to cut the deficit, Clinton submitted a budget that would cut the deficit by $500 billion over five years by reducing $255 billion of spending and raising taxes on the wealthiest 1.2% of Americans.[45] It also imposed a new energy tax on all Americans and subjected about a quarter of those receiving Social Security payments to higher taxes on their benefits.[46]
Republican Congressional leaders launched an aggressive opposition against the bill, claiming that the tax increase would only make matters worse. Republicans were united in this opposition, as it were, and every Republican in both houses of Congress voted against the proposal. In fact, it took Vice President Gore’s tie-breaking vote in the Senate to pass the bill.[47] After extensive lobbying by the Clinton Administration, the House narrowly voted in favor of the bill by a vote of 218 to 216.[48] The budget package expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as relief to low-income families. It reduced the amount they paid in federal income and Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax (FICA), providing $21 billion in relief for 15 million low-income families. Improved economic conditions and policies served to encourage investors in the bond market, leading to a decline in long-term interest rates. The bill contributed to dramatic decline of the budget deficit in the years following its enactment–in 1998, for the first time since 1969, the nation achieved a budget surplus.[49] The surplus money was used to pay down the national debt[{http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/new/html/Fri_Dec_29_151111_2000.html}], which had risen to $5.4 trillion by 1997. The economy continued to grow, and in February 2000 it broke the record for the longest uninterrupted economic expansion in U.S. history—lasting ten years.[50] In the year 2000, the nation was on track to be DEBT FREE for the FIRST time since 1835.”
This is the type of story one might expect to find in Mexico, Congo or Afghanistan, not the United States.
Latest news is a second gunman is being sought.
http://firedoglake.com/2011/01/08/giffords-opponent-jesse-kelly-held-june-event-to-shoot-a-fully-automatic-m16-to-get-on-target-and-remove-gabrielle-giffords/
Looks like Kelly got what he wanted. This was an act of political terrorism.
@Cargosquid
I want to know who the keeper of those websites with Jerod on them are. It looks like someone put it together after he became a killer.
I will find your missing comment. I haven’t checked moderation for a while. Sometimes things slither into spam also.
Ken, I totally agree with you. You are totally correct. No one knows the motivation.
Information is pouring in still ….collected and released during the night. I certainly think it is premature to assign cause/effect.
I feel we will all be watching our political language a bit more carefully.
From the NY Times”
Starry,
before we can declare political terrorism, there has to be an established cause/effect. The fact that one person, her opponent, made unwide choices in his use of language and events, doesn’t prove anything about this shooting.
For right now, I think we need to go with the Ken Anderson school of thought quoted above.
@Moon-howler
One is You Tube. Another is Twitter. Atlas Shrugs just collected a compilation of what was being reported around the web.
As fior Starry’s continuing trolling: Look! A squirrel!
Speaking of instigation and inciting of violence, does anyone recall the 2006 movie “Death of a President”? Yeah, that classic about the murder of George W. Bush that was released WHILE HE WAS STILL THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
I can just imagine the fallout if a similar movie came out this year fantasizing about life after the death of Barack Obama. Hoo-boy, those violent conservatives!
“I can just imagine the fallout if a similar movie came out this year fantasizing about life after the death of Barack Obama. Hoo-boy, those violent conservatives!”
This is exactly what shouldn’t happen. Well, then again, it’s almost been 24 hours. Makes me sick.
Can we beat the ever-lovin you know what out of them THIS TIME?
http://gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/2011/01/sick-westboro-cult-plans-to-protest-9-year-old-victims-funeral/
I would say yes. Totally sick and objectionable. What is wrong with these people!!!
Stern glare at Cargo….Starry is not a squirrel nor a troll. He is someone with who you disagree politically.
@Emma
That movie was unacceptable as would be any film showing the death of a sitting president. I refused to watch it on netflix for that reason.
However to imply that it would be more or less acceptable to have a film involving Pres. Obama makes no sense.
Translation: Don’t pick on the “special” kids!
I’m serious…I would have the Mongols motorcycle gang arrange a meeting with the WBC folks before the funeral.
@e
So what’s the big deal about gasoline costing 5 bucks/gallon?
We’ll never be free until we can cut ties with Saudi Arabia, etal.
no big deal at all. our lives are totally divorced from the reality of economics
Starry likes to come by, drop a nut, and run off, causing controversy. He acts as a troll many times. And when he does, I call him on it. Wolverine described Starry quite well in a long ago post, when he commented about certain people running up and down the tree causing trouble.
#9 is a perfect example: Looks like Kelly got what he wanted. This was an act of political terrorism.
Almost everybody else here will contribute to the discussion. Starry does sometimes, too. But many times, just wants to start trouble. Its not even worth debating the statements anymore, so I just write, “Look! A squrrel!” when he’s acting as a troll.
Cargo, if Starry is directly
ignoringaddressing you you, please ignore him. The name calling makes me ill at ease. Starry, please ignore Cargo.I would have preferred that I not have to have these kinds of discussion today.
Unfortunately, I just blamed Slowpoke.
This pissing contest needs to be over. Until something definitive comes out of the investigation, we are dealing with a nut. Period.
[sorry, I was multi-tasking which I do well.]
Exactly. The shooter was a nut. No more, no less. Try him. Hang him.
@Moon-howler
I will now ignore any trolling, as best I can.
Thank you Cargo. I can always count on you.
It way to early to blame anyone but the shooter but it is interesting to note that Palin’s crosshairs map has been taken down. And her staff is claiming they were not crosshairs as in a rifle scope, but “Surveyors’ Marks”. Hmmmm…must be a certain amount of guilty conscience in the Palin camp at least. And in the NYT this morning, it appears there was some planning on the part of the shooter–crazy or not.
I don’t think its a guilty conscience so much as CYA or just being polite. Some liberal sites also took down their “targets” too.