Open Thread: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shot in Arizona

Submitted by usna77 on Sat, 01/08/2011 - 3:03pm

Multiple news sources are reporting now the shooting in Tucson this morning involving Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). Reports are 12 persons injured, and the shooter is apparently in custody. Condition of the Congresswoman and others is not known, although one newspaper is reporting that she was shot in the head at close range.

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NPR

Submitted by usna77 on Sat, 01/08/2011 - 3:09pm.

NPR is reporting that Rep. Giffords has died as a result of a gunshot wound.

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Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. -- sign on Einstein's office wall.

first assassination since 1978

Submitted by Jerimee on Sat, 01/08/2011 - 3:18pm.

I don't really know what to feel.

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made this an open thread

Submitted by Jerimee on Sat, 01/08/2011 - 3:24pm.

usna77 I changed your title to make this an open thread for discussion. I am speechless, and I look forward to what others have to say.

Prayers for her family and for our nation. Prayers for the alleged murderer as well, he is only 20, and this act of domestic terrorism didn't happen in a vacuum.

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Prior threats

Submitted by usna77 on Sat, 01/08/2011 - 3:27pm.

Apparently there are reports that Rep. Giffords was targeted in threats during the health care debate. She was married to an astronaut, Navy Capt. Mark Kelly.

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Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. -- sign on Einstein's office wall.

yeah

Submitted by Jerimee on Sat, 01/08/2011 - 3:52pm.

here are the images of sarah palin and jesse kelly violent rhetoric:

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another example of palin imagery

Submitted by Jerimee on Sat, 01/08/2011 - 4:07pm.

http://twitpic.com/3o7uoy

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Updates continue

Submitted by usna77 on Sat, 01/08/2011 - 5:23pm.

Apparently Rep. Giffords survived the shooting and is in critical condition in a Tuscon hospital. US District Court Judge John Roll, the chief judge for the District of Arizona, was killed in the shooting.

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Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. -- sign on Einstein's office wall.

Jared Laughner Shooter?

Submitted by Connie Mack Berry Jr on Sat, 01/08/2011 - 5:35pm.

The alledged person of interest is Jared Laughner! The Congresswoman was consider a Blue Dog Democrat and thinking of running for the Senate in 2012

Some rantings have been collected

Submitted by scharrison on Sat, 01/08/2011 - 8:07pm.

here, including this one that's very telling:

No! I won't pay debt with a currency that's not backed by gold and silver!

Sound familiar?

Giffords own statement on the targets

Submitted by Jake Gellar-Goad on Sat, 01/08/2011 - 8:09pm.

She commented about the rhetoric and the target on her district after her office was vandalized:

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Wise words

Submitted by LiberalNC on Sat, 01/08/2011 - 11:52pm.

‎"All the vitriol we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living off of doing that. That may be free speech, but that vitriol and political rhetoric is not without consequence. It's time to do a little soul searching about the rhetoric we hear on the radio and some TV, how our children are being raised." - Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, Tucson, AZ.

more

Submitted by Jerimee on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 12:12am.

"The anger, the hatred the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous and unfortunately, Arizona has become the capitol. We have become the mecca of prejudice and bigotry." - Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik, Pima County, Arizona.

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speech

Submitted by Jerimee on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 12:39am.

We shouldn't diminish her commitment to the founding principles of this nation by punishing free speech, or demonizing people whose rhetoric led to violence. But neither should we restrict our own speech opposing violent rhetoric, nor should we silence demands for accountability where appropriate.

http://scienceblogs.com/tfk/2011/01/a_tragic_afternoon_in_tucson.php

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How one tea bagger responds

Submitted by James on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 12:09pm.

It's easy to see how things have gotten to today's level of evil. This from a right wing lunatic at Ed Cone's place:

Either way, six people are dead and that is something Giffords' will have to answer when she faces her maker, whether that is in the direct or distant future. Now if only she would stop fighting for her life, after all it is so hard to do things "in the memory of" someone who is still alive.

Do good. Be nice. Have fun.

sarah palin had Giffords on a target list with crosshairs

Submitted by persondem on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 8:52pm.

Palin needs to be counted as an accessory. I do not know if I have ever been aware of a "person" who was a bigger waste of skin.

Article here.

Environmental Defense Fund

Cell phones will be to the 21st century what tobacco was to the 20th.

violent imagery

Submitted by Jerimee on Mon, 01/10/2011 - 12:52pm.

You're not trying to suggest that a circle with a cross could possibly be misconstrued as violent imagery are you?

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A good piece by Tim Wise

Submitted by southernstudies on Mon, 01/10/2011 - 12:15pm.

In a culture where Glenn Beck plays “Six Degrees of Chairman Mao” every night on his chalkboard, uncannily managing to convince his flock that even the most moderate of Democrats likely hums the Internationale to his or her children rather than regaling them with bedtime stories, we can truly say that paranoia has become not only the prelude to something deadly, but sadly a form of pedantry so everyday in its appearance that we write it off as entertainment, rather than the poison it truly is.

In a culture where political rallies attended by thousands of people feature prominent speakers who suggest the President might well be Satan in the flesh, and marchers who carry signs suggesting “Taxpayers are the Jews for Obama’s Ovens,” or that the President intends to put whites into slavery, nothing should surprise us anymore.

More: http://www.timwise.org/2011/01/paranoia-as-prelude-conspiracism-and-the-...

yelling fire in a crowded theater

Submitted by Jerimee on Mon, 01/10/2011 - 1:38pm.

"Let's not underestimate the giant hole this would create," said Fox spokesperson Carol Foyler. "Fox without violent rhetoric would be like The Weather Channel without maps."

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In contrast with Ms. Foyler's alarmed comments, Fox host Glenn Beck took the news of a possible programming change in stride: "If I’m kicked off the air, I'll return to my first love: standing in the back of crowded theaters and yelling, 'Fire.'"

http://www.borowitzreport.com/2011/01/10/fox-news-warns-that-without-ang...

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Danville Tea Party responds

Submitted by Jerimee on Mon, 01/10/2011 - 10:34pm.

This is from the Virginia GOP activist suspected of cutting Rep. Perriello's gas line:

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