US Representative Shot in Arizona + Fantasies/Falsehoods about Dreadnt and Guns

[Dreadnaught]

Congresswoman Giffords Shot in Tucson

By J. DAVID GOODMAN
Published: January 8, 2011

A congresswoman from Arizona was shot point blank in the head on Saturday in a shooting at a public event at a grocery store in Tucson, according to her spokesman, C. J. Karamargin, and news reports. Twelve others were injured in the shooting and several had died of their wounds, according to news reports.

Her condition was unknown. She was taken to University Medical Center in Tucson, the trauma center for the area, about 10 miles away, but NPR and CNN reported that she had been killed. NPR said that six others had been killed in the shooting.

CNN quoted a public information officer for the sheriff’s office as saying that 12 people had been injured in all and that the shooting had occurred around 10 a.m. local time.

An employee at a nearby store told CNN that he heard a steady stream of gun fire that appeared sustained “random.” Shortly after, emergency vehicles filled the parking lot around the grocery story and cordoned off the area.

The shooting occurred at a Safeway supermarket in northwest Tucson as Ms. Giffords hosted an event, called “Congress on Your Corner, to allow members of the 8th Congressional District to meet her individually. She has held several events since first taking office in January 2007. At one such event in 2009, a protester was removed by police when his pistol fell on the supermarket floor.

Last March, her Tucson office was vandalized a few hours after the House vote overhauling the nation’s health care system, the authorities said. Earlier events in Tucson, Oro Valley, Green Valley, Sierra Vista, and Douglas had attracted between 75 and 150 people, according to a statement announcing the event. This was her first event since her re-election to a third term in November.

Ms. Giffords, 40, was interviewed on Fox news on Friday to talk about a bill to cut to congressional salaries by 5 percent.

She married Cmdr. Mark E. Kelly, 46, a NASA astronaut and Navy pilot from New Jersey, in December 2007 at a wedding attended by Robert B. Reich, the former Labor secretary.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/us...9giffords.html

Bad. Really bad.

[Dreadnaught]

We spoke to an eyewitness, Steven Rayle, who was on the scene at the time of the shooting and helped to hold the suspect down while waiting for police. Here's what he said:

The event was very informal: Gifford had set up a table outside the Safeway and about 20-30 people were gathered to talk to her. The gunman, who may have come from inside the Safeway, walked up and shot Gifford in the head first, "point blank". According to Rayle, who is a former ER doctor, Gifford was able to move her hands after being shot.

After shooting Gifford, the gunman opened fire indiscriminately for a few seconds, firing 20-30 rounds and hitting a number of people, including a kid no older than 10 years old. Rayle hid behind a concrete pole and pretended to be dead. When the gunman apparently ran out of ammunition he attempted to flee, but a member of Gifford's staff tackled him. Rayle helped hold the gunman down while waiting for the sheriff to arrive, about 15-to-20 minutes later. The EMS came about 30 minutes later. Rayle said he was "stunned" by how long it took medical help to arrive.

The gunman was young, mid-to-late 20s, white, clean-shaven with short hair and wearing dark clothing and said nothing during the shooting or while being held down, although he struggled at first. He was "not particularly well-dressed"; he didn't look like a businessman, but more of a "fringe character," Rayle said. The sheriff's department arrived, arrested the gunman and cordoned off the parking lot.

CNN is reporting that at least 12 were wounded.

http://gawker.com/5728501/arizona-co...-grocery-store

This will not help the dynamic of political rhetoric. But more importantly, someone was likely just killed.

[littlelolligagged]

Fuck...

[Being]

30 minutes to respond?

[Ominous Gamer]

Gotta watch out for those crazies. They latch onto anything.

[Dreadnaught]

Maybe this will finally at least get Palin out of the conversation. God damn, that's a fucking terrible way to have communicated information. Hopefully it's fake.

But I'm willing to bet this will be sort of a lone extremist. Possibly even someone with a different agenda like abortion.

[Ominous Gamer]

Hopefully it's fake.

nope.

[Dreadnaught]

Ah well, there goes that ray of hope. She's really toast on this.

But that's honestly besides the point for now. Really curious what the alleged motivation is going to be.

[NGS]

According to CNN she's actually in surgery at the hospital right now, undead.

[Steely Glint]

I hope the human refuse who were making barely veiled threats about "second amendment solutions" because the election didn't go their way are pleased with themselves.

[GGT]

Sad and disgusting. Palin (don't retreat, reload! and using gun scopes as targets) and Angle (we'll use Second Amendment solutions) are cavalier with their "speech".

[EyeKhan]

Ah well, there goes that ray of hope. She's really toast on this.

First, I will be shocked if she lost any suppourt or had any serious fallout. Second, why were you hoping it was a fake? Palin has been inflaming and inciting since she was a vp candidate, this is nothing new and probably not the worst she's done. She deserves to get the full measure of spanking for the seeds she's been sewing.

[EyeKhan]

I hope the human refuse who were making barely veiled threats about "second amendment solutions" because the election didn't go their way are pleased with themselves.

They probably are.

[GGT]

She was shot in her head, "through and through" at point blank range.

And six people are dead.

[EyeKhan]

It's all because of that job killing health care law!

[Dreadnaught]

First, I will be shocked if she lost any suppourt or had any serious fallout. Second, why were you hoping it was a fake? Palin has been inflaming and inciting since she was a vp candidate, this is nothing new and probably not the worst she's done. She deserves to get the full measure of spanking for the seeds she's been sewing.

Because there's a difference between being loud and provocative and "incitement". That image pretty much crosses the line for me. I haven't seen her do anything else that crosses the line.

But frankly everyone is really jumping the gun. It took maybe an hour after this hit the news for people to blame Palin. That's not appropriate.

[GGT]

The shooting was not the first time the congresswoman has had brushes with violence. Following the health care overhaul vote this year, her district office was vandalized.

"The rhetoric has gotten incredibly heated," she told MSNBC in March. "Not just the calls, the emails, the slurs. Things have really gotten spun up."

She also specifically called out a "targets" website created by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for the 2010 midterm elections that featured a crosshair over hers and other districts. Republicans campaigned heavily against Ms. Giffords, a moderate Democrat in a Republican-leaning district, this year.

"We can't' stand for this, we do really need to realize that the rhetoric and firing people up, and you know things for example we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list, the thing is the way she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gunsight over our district," she told MSNBC.

Rep. Giffords earned a reputation as a strong fundraiser and campaigner who was deeply engaged in Arizona's bitter immigration debate.

A member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, she won a tough reelection battle last fall against a Republican, Jesse Kelly, who was championed by many tea-party groups. She won the race by fewer than 4,000 votes.

Tea Party Nation, the group started by Tennessee lawyer Judson Phillips, put out a statement to its supporters decrying the shooting. "Congressman Giffords was a liberal, but that does not matter now. No one should be the victim of violence because of their political beliefs."

The statement went on to say that "no matter what the shooter's motivations where, the left is going to blame this on the Tea Party Movement."

The 8th District shares a 100-mile-long border with Mexico.

Ms. Giffords' district is overall politically moderate, represented for years by an openly gay, moderate Republican, Jim Kolbe, then by Ms. Giffords. But the GOP in southeastern Arizona is deeply divided. A moderate Republican hand-picked by Mr. Kolbe to succeed him after he retired in 2006 was beaten badly by Randy Graf, a staunch conservative who ran a strong, anti-immigration platform. He was in turn beaten badly by Ms. Giffords.

The pattern repeated itself in 2010. While Arizona Democrats were swamped in November, Ms. Giffords survived in large part because Republican primary voters picked the most conservative candidate to challenge her.

The district includes part of Tucson, but also large stretches of ranch lands stretching to the Mexico border, where anti-illegal-immigration sentiment runs strong. During the runup to the November election, the other Tucson representative, liberal Democrat Raul Grijalva, had his office vandalized.

Ms. Giffords' family owns tire stories in the area.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...LEFTTopStories


Remember the violent threats and candidates' smashed windows during the campaign?


One of the killed bystanders is a child.

[Hazir]

Shocking, only word I have for it. And Palin should be ashamed of that poster.

[Ominous Gamer]

blame Palin. That's not appropriate

Haven't seen anyone directly blame Palin yet, but I do see this hitlist as a question asking what else were we expecting to happen? People put their own children at risk because talking heads celebutards want to claim vaccines are evil. Is this current event really a stretch from that?

[EyeKhan]

Because there's a difference between being loud and provocative and "incitement". That image pretty much crosses the line for me. I haven't seen her do anything else that crosses the line.

But frankly everyone is really jumping the gun. It took maybe an hour after this hit the news for people to blame Palin. That's not appropriate.

First, I agree it's jumping the gun. Second, there were a number of rallies in the presidential election where Palin was severely criticized for inciting violence. Surely you didn't miss that?

[GGT]

Because there's a difference between being loud and provocative and "incitement". That image pretty much crosses the line for me. I haven't seen her do anything else that crosses the line.

But frankly everyone is really jumping the gun. It took maybe an hour after this hit the news for people to blame Palin. That's not appropriate.

Irony noted. People have been saying Palin, Angle, Brewer, Beck, Limbaugh, Tea Party, et al have been incendiary in their political speech far too long. They know exactly which groups they're trying to stir up (incite?). We could see it with people showing up at public rallies openly wearing their rifles and side arms, followed by threats on web sites and phone machines.

I can't really call this a coincidence, but just a matter of time.....unfortunately.

[Dreadnaught]

First, I agree it's jumping the gun. Second, there were a number of rallies in the presidential election where Palin was severely criticized for inciting violence. Surely you didn't miss that?

I never heard that during the Presidential election, I think you're mixing things up. She was criticized only when she used that "don't retreat, reload" thing she said a while ago when the healthcare bill was first passed. All the other complaints about her have mostly sounded like the usual Palin Derangement Syndrome.

It's very clear that Palin is being set up as the "ideological" mother of murdering politicians and I think that's way too far. She hasn't brought the rhetoric down any worse than anyone else.

[Ominous Gamer]

To be clear, Dread hasn't seen Palin do anything else that crosses the line besides the poster. This poster, that he only today learned was real. This poster, which she put out almost a year ago. I think someone is little jaded in what he is looking for....

Also, the shooter is a class A nutjob

[RandBlade]

Sad event

Sounds like a crazy from what I just heard on the BBC, not politically motivated.

[RandBlade]

Sad event

Sounds like a crazy from what I just heard on the BBC, not politically motivated.

[Enoch the Red]

What terrible and tragic event. My heart goes out to the families of those who were hurt or killed.

[LittleFuzzy]

First, I will be shocked if she lost any suppourt or had any serious fallout. Second, why were you hoping it was a fake? Palin has been inflaming and inciting since she was a vp candidate, this is nothing new and probably not the worst she's done. She deserves to get the full measure of spanking for the seeds she's been sewing.

It's not even particularly inflammatory. These are commonly understood phrases and symbols which are constantly used in non-violent contexts. Objecting to "targeting" symbology is moronic. It would be tasteless if it came out right after this shooting, but it didn't, it's at least a year old.

[Dreadnaught]

To be clear, Dread hasn't seen Palin do anything else that crosses the line besides the poster. This poster, that he only today learned was real. This poster, which she put out almost a year ago. I think someone is little jaded in what he is looking for....

Also, the shooter is a class A nutjob

Yes, I don't believe Sarah Palin is the anti-Christ.

Has the shooter been identified? I haven't seen any real confirmation

[Loki]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_congresswoman_shot

Looks like the Congresswoman will make it. If the article is accurate, the murderer seems to be more inspired by Glenn Beck than by Palin.

[Steely Glint]

It's not even particularly inflammatory. These are commonly understood phrases and symbols which are constantly used in non-violent contexts. Objecting to "targeting" symbology is moronic. It would be tasteless if it came out right after this shooting, but it didn't, it's at least a year old.

Yeah.

This is far worse: