Breaking News: Democratic Congresswoman Shot by Gunman in Arizona
January 08, 2011
By: admin
Category: Current Events, Politics
Pro-solar, Gay Rights Supporter Gabrielle Giffords in Critical Condition
Editor’s Note: While remaining committed to
finding the positive news in the daily cycle, reality nonetheless
intrudes and at times demands our attention. Today’s shooting of Democratic
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords
and a Federal Judge who had previously been the target of
anti-immigrant protesters, among other victims, is a sobering reminder
of the political “climate of fear” that has been fostered here in Arizona.
“Even before the
shooting of a U.S. congresswoman on Saturday, the state of Arizona was
in the throes of a convulsive political year that had come to symbolize
a bitter partisan divide across much of America,” writes David Schwartz in
Reuters. “I
feel huge sorrow, that’s just been building in southern Arizona for
some time, this hate, hate, fear, somewhat around SB 1070, somewhat
around healthcare reform. It definitely heated up when President Obama
was elected,” said Molly McKasson Morgan, 63, who participated in
Tucson politics and knew Giffords. “It’s never been this angry, it’s
never been this divisive,” said Alfredo Gutierrez, a former state
lawmaker. As Matt Bai has written in the New York Times,
“the question is whether Saturday’s shooting marks the logical end
point of such a moment of rhetorical recklessness — or rather the
beginning of a terrifying new one.”
This report attempts to synthesize the details of today’s shooting
and place it in a context framed by Arizona politics. In addition to
the fact that the gunman was apparently preoccupied by “literacy”
issues, he also listed Mein Kampf as among his favorite books and claimed to be
a recent Army recruit. Giffords previously has had her office vandalized, and
notably was listed among the 20 congresspersons on Sarah Palin‘s infamous “gun
sight” chart that targeted Democratic politicians in a provocative manner. The
Tucson Citizen‘s “Three Sonorans” blog is reporting that also today the Ethnic
Studies department at the University of Arizona was
vandalized, and that alleged Tea Party members were observed taunting
supporters holding a vigil at Giffords’ office. Her Republican opponent
in the November 2010 congressional race, Jesse Kelly, was also criticized for a
campaign event at a shooting range, advertised
with the words “Get on Target for Victory in November,” “Help remove
Gabriel Giffords from office” and “Shoot a fully automatic M16.”
We want to express our deepest condolences to all of the families
affected by this tragedy, and also to all Arizonans struggling to find
cause for hope in these very trying times….
>From wire services (Jan. 8, 2011): Rep.
Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was shot in the head at point-blank range
outside a grocery store in Tucson while holding a public event there,
according to several reports. There are conflicting reports about
Giffords’ condition, but Reuters is reporting
that doctors are “optimistic” about her recovery. NPR has reported that
six others were killed and at least nine other people were injured,
although this has not been confirmed. CBS News reports
that among those killed was U.S. District Judge John Roll, the U.S.
Marshal for Arizona David Gonzales confirmed. A young child
approximately 9 years old was also killed, according to a hospital
spokesperson. The shooting happened around 10 a.m. local
time as Giffords was speaking at her first “Congress on Your Corner”
event at a Safeway in Tucson. Moments before the event, she posted to
Twitter: “My 1st Congress on Your Corner starts now. Please stop by to
let me know what is on your mind or tweet me later.”
John M. Roll, the federal judge killed in the shooting, has been at
the center of the state’s complicated political battle over immigration.
In February 2009, Roll received hundreds of threats after he allowed a
lawsuit filed by illegal immigrants against a rancher to go forward.
“They cursed him out, threatened to kill his family, said they’d come
and take care of him. They really wanted him dead,” a law enforcement
official told The Washington Post
in May 2009. More than a year after the threats against Roll, Arizona
passed what is considered the nation’s toughest immigration law,
triggering a fierce national debate over illegal immigration and a
lawsuit against the state by the Justice Department. There is no
indication that Roll was the gunman’s target, and witness accounts
describe the shooter as firing at Giffords first.
MSNBC reports that the gunman ran into a “crowded area” and began
“firing indiscriminately” as Giffords was talking to a couple. An
eyewitness told ABC News he heard 15 to 20 gunshots and saw people
running and screaming. Andrea Gooden, a witness who was working across
the road from the scene, said: “I heard about 15 shots. Then there were
people racing across the parking lot.” Another witness, Steven Rayle,
who was on the scene at the time of the shooting and helped pin the
suspect down until the police arrived, said: “The event was very
informal. Giffords had set up a table outside the Safeway and about 20
or 30 people were gathered to talk to her. The gunman, who may have
come from inside the Safeway, walked up and shot Giffords in the head
first.”
The suspect, identified
by the Associated Press as 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner of Tucson,
had an apparent preoccupation with “literacy” rates, and in online
profiles lists among his favorite books Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto,
among others. In a recent YouTube video, Loughner describes himself as a
U.S. military recruit who had recently filled out an application to
join the Army. In a message posted on his MySpace account, titled
“Goodbye friends,” Loughner said: “Dear friends…please don’t be mad at
me. The literacy rate is below 5%. I haven’t talked to one person who is
literate.” In a rambling YouTube message referring to a new currency,
Loughner said: “I know who’s listening: Government Officials, and the
People. Nearly all the people, who don’t know this accurate information
of a new currency, aren’t aware of mind control and brainwash methods.
If I have my civil rights, then this message wouldn’t have happen.”
There are conflicting reports about whether the suspect acted alone,
although Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has stated that
investigators are “not convinced” that he did when he allegedly shot
Giffords and killed six others outside a Tucson Safeway this morning,
according to a report by the New York Post.
Dupnik says officials believe a suspect in custody may have come to
the grocery store parking lot with another person, and that person was
in some way involved, but he would not elaborate.
Giffords’ Tuscon office was vandalized last March after she voted in
favor of President Obama’s controversial health bill, which has been bitterly
opposed by the political right. Giffords had been named as a political
campaign target for conservatives in November’s elections by former
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for her strong support of Obama’s reforms.
Palin had published a “target map” on her website using images of gun
sights to identify 20 House Democrats, including Giffords, for backing
the new health care law. The map controversially used
actual target markers on locations where these Democrats lived and
listed their names. “We’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list, but the thing
is, that the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun
sight over our district. When people do that, they have to realize that
there are consequences to that action,” Giffords said in a previous
interview with MSNBC last fall.
At an event in 2009 which was similar to the one Giffords was
holding today, a protester was removed by police when his pistol fell
to the supermarket floor. Giffords’ Republican opponent in the November
2010 congressional race, Tea Party candidate Jesse Kelly, was also criticized
for a campaign event at a shooting range, advertised
with the words “Get on Target for Victory in November,” “Help remove
Gabriel Giffords from office” and “Shoot a fully automatic M16.”
Giffords narrowly won reelection to her third term in the House of
Representatives — and during the course of the campaign it was revealed
that she was one of three Democrats in the nation to receive
contributions from MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, resulting in the
newscaster’s temporary suspension from the network.
Giffords’ father told The New York Post,
when asked if his daughter had enemies, “Yeah, the whole Tea Party.” He
added that politicians constantly faced danger. “They always get
threatened,” he said, sobbing. According to a report by The Hill,
Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips condemned the attacks, but
warned supporters that the Tea Party movement would be blamed by
political opponents. “While we need to take a moment to extend our
sympathies to the families of those who died, we cannot allow the hard
left to do what it tried to do in 1995 after the Oklahoma City
bombing,” he said. The Tucson Citizen‘s “Three Sonorans”
blog is reporting that also today the Ethnic Studies department at the
University of Arizona was vandalized, and that alleged Tea Party members
were observed taunting supporters holding a vigil at Giffords’ office.
Authorities were also called this evening to that office, where a
suspicious package was removed and secured by the bomb squad, according
to an AP report.
Giffords has been a strong proponent of solar energy, and has
generally been known as a moderate to conservative Democrat among
Arizona’s Republican-dominated congressional delegation. Giffords was
first sworn in as a congresswoman on January 3, 2007. She is the first
Jewish woman and third woman overall in Arizona’s history to be elected
to serve in the U.S. Congress. In her first month in office,
Congresswoman Giffords voted to support increased federal funding for
embryonic stem-cell research, raising the minimum wage, endorsing the
recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, and supporting new rules for the
House of Representatives targeting ethical issues. Giffords also voted
to repeal subsidies to big oil companies and invest the savings in
renewable energy. She is a member of the House LGBT Equality Caucus and has
been noted as “a strong supporter of gay rights.”
“We put our national security at risk by relying on oil from unstable
regimes in the Middle East and Latin America,” Giffords told her
colleagues in a speech on the House floor during debate on the Clean
Energy Act. The act would
repeal $14 billion in subsidies given to oil companies and establish a
Strategic Renewable Energy Reserve to increase research in clean
renewable energy, to develop greater energy efficiency, and to improve
energy conservation. Giffords also supported stronger border enforcement
and comprehensive immigration reform. 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.
“I am a third generation southern Arizonan and I went off to school,
was working for Price Waterhouse in New York City, and was asked to
come home to run my family’s tire and automotive business,” said
Giffords in a C-SPAN interview. “I first got involved with politics
because I was frustrated when I was opening up my newspaper every
single morning and seeing my great state of Arizona continuing to be at
the bottom, whether it be poor-people funding, or mental health
funding, or making sure that we could preserve our beautiful open
spaces and in life you can either complain about something or you can
try to fix it so I decided to run for political office.”
More on this breaking story from wire services can be found here,
and we will continue to provide updates in this space as events unfold.
We want to express our deepest condolences to all of the families
affected by this tragedy, and also to all Arizonans struggling to find
cause for hope in these very trying times.
http://www.newclearvision.com/2011/01/08/breaking-news-democratic-congresswoman-shot-by-gunman-in-arizona/
--- On Sat, 1/8/11, Justin Ruben, MoveOn.org Political Action
<[email protected]> wrote:
From: Justin Ruben, MoveOn.org Political Action <[email protected]>
Subject: Prayers for Gabrielle Giffords
To: "Romi Elnagar" <[email protected]>
Date: Saturday, January 8, 2011, 8:18 PM
#yiv501339154 , #yiv501339154 td, #yiv501339154 font {font-size:10pt;}
#yiv501339154
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Dear MoveOn member,
This is a tragic day for America.
As you may have already heard, Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 17
other people were shot today at an event near
Tucson.
Right now, Rep. Giffords is in critical condition, and there are reports are
that at least five people have been killed,
including a young child of about nine years old and Justice John M. Roll, the
chief judge of the United States District Court
for the District of Arizona.
Our hearts go out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy. We've created
a Facebook
page where we can all post prayers and thoughts for Rep. Giffords, the other
victims and their families. You can find it
here:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=205705&id=25753-3339930-B_a1Oux&t=1
Gabrielle Giffords is an up-and-coming, shining star in Congress. Anyone who's
been around her will tell you that she's smart,
passionate, and one of the hardest working members of Congress. Robert Reich,
one of her mentors, once said, "I wouldn't
be surprised if she's the first or second female president of the United
States."1
Judge Roll started his legal career as a bailiff in the Pima County
Superior Court and worked his way all the way to the federal bench. He was
appointed by President George H. W. Bush
in 1991 and began serving as presiding judge in 2006.
This is such a terrible, confusing, awful thing. Please join us in sending your
prayers and wishes to those who are suffering
tonight. Here again is the link:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=205705&id=25753-3339930-B_a1Oux&t=2–Justin,
Adam, Amy, Anna, Annie, Carrie, Christopher, Daniel, David, Duncan, Eli, Emily,
Gail, Ian, Ilya, Ilyse, Kat, Laura, Lenore,
Mariana, Marika, Matthew, Melanie, Michael, Milan, Nita, Peter, Robin, Ryan,
Susannah, Stephen, Steven, and Tim
Sources:
1. "Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona," Almanac of American
Politics, January 8, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=205704&id=25753-3339930-B_a1Oux&t=3
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized
by any candidate or candidate's committee. This email was sent to Romi Elnagar
on January 8, 2011.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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