Representative Gabrielle Giffords has survived having a bullet pass through her brain and the ensuing neurosurgery. A doctor at the hospital said he was optimistic about her survival. If so, she is extremely fortunate. At least six people have died
This is supposedly from the shooter.
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Check out the guy’s YouTube channel and profile here.
He put all the videos there knowing people would look to them for answers. If he is at all sane he is a nihilist possibly? He is no Tea Party lunatic he just lost it. I don’t think he could believe in anything. It all seemed contrived to him.
Trying to understand this guys motivation will be very hard.
Sickening.
“conscience dreaming” ??? does he mean conscious dreaming?
This is your Tea Party Treason Morons at work.
This is the NRA and its idiots.
This is not America. This is fascist tyranny.
Actually, looking at the guy’s video and YouTube profile, he seems more like a nutter than a Teahadist per se. Among other signs: he lists both the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf as among his favorite books. That’s one confused mofo.
His actions still could have been inspired by the current political climate and rhetoric, but his ideology (a new currency? “conscience dreaming”?) seems way out there.
The comments for his videos have now been disabled. But before that occurred, one comment I read for his Introduction:Jared Loughner video pretty much summed it up.
dude, you’re fuckin’ nuts
The point here is to establish the narrative. Blame the Tea Party NOW, and let’s get them on record as being responsible. This is a golden opportunity, and should not be ignored.
I’d like and hope to see “Pour out the tea for Gabrielle” bumper stickers available by monday.
I find myself, against my heart, saying that we must demand more information about the shooter and his motives before passing judgment.
Having said that, if it turns out this guy was taking up “Second Amendment solutions” to a politician he disagreed with, the Tea Party is in real trouble.
Well, he ain’t the first. There is a small number of these. In CA last summer, some NRA lunatic was heading out to get the ACLU and the Tides Foundation (Glen Beck targets) and had a shootout with the cops.
This is right wing lunacy. But it is MAINSTREAM right wing lunacy. This is right wing politics.
This event is making me think about fascism. There has been some discussion of this issue recently on liberal blogs.
Fascism seems to develop in a set way. An agrarian, no-nothing, Palinesque “country first” party develops that blames liberal, urban elites, and some scapegoat minority group (Moslems, Hispanics) for national disunity. Then the corporate power structure, for whatever reason, decides to co-opt this party for their own purposes, to provide the rhetorical and physical muscle for undemocratic rule.
A key turning point is the willingness of the elites to use the threat of force provided by the right-wing “rabble”. Up till now, I have been of the thought that this threat of force was possible, but unlikely. But when we see left wing politicians assassinated by right-wing goons, one has to wonder whether we are now passing this critical check point.
A key question for me will be to see how the right wing authority figures react. Will they show true abhorrence of this act of violence? Or will they quickly begin to dismiss it, showing that they are more concerned with protecting their political position vis-a-vis the left than they are with the threat to democracy that this political violence represents? Will they say, in effect, “well, she had it coming”- thus implicitly endorsing the use of violence and threats?
(I think we know the answer here.)
Figures like Boehner and Palin were very quick to condemn the shooting. They had to be. They’re not stupid.
And from early indications this guy’s motivations should be pretty easily disowned by the right, and perhaps rightfully so. What’s been public of the guy thus far doesn’t fit neatly into left or right camps and is pretty bizarre. If that holds, the more likely outcome is that elected officials (especially Congresspeople) will be much more cautious about exposing themselves to open public events, which is a real shame. They’re in enough of a bubble already.
I don’t give a shit about what “right wing authority figures” do. They will do what they always do, which is deny the connection between their political statements and the actions that these statements inspire. When the rightwing nuts blew up the OK City building, they did that. Whenever right wing violence occurs, they say that they are not responsible.
Well, they are responsible, and I for one am tired of giving them a pass. Time to pin this tail on the elephant.
WTF? Who is this guy?
There are a number of things to pay attention to:
Regardless of ideology or policy or point of view, this was a politically motivated shooting.
The shooter was at a minimum very confused and most likely mentally disturbed by something that transcended politics.
The YouTubes are incoherent.
The political ideas are a hodgepodge of anti-government, gold standard, anti-flag rhetoric that don’t make a lot of sense.
The political culture that keeps pushing envelope is certainly a contributing cause to this young man’s actions and the media figures and politicians who have created this in your face culture and justifications for gun violence bear some responsibility for these consequences. “We are horrified…” comes off too much as “Nobody could have guessed…” that an unstable young man would seize on a political drama to act out his suicide (if that indeed is what it was, and it is likely it was).
Most likely this incident will result in the imposition on additional restrictions on the freedom of law-abiding citizens.
It is unlikely that stronger gun laws would have prevented this event. Metal detectors could have, but is American society going to become imprisoned in metal detectors because our culture and political culture have gone down the rabbit hole?
How many rounds did he get off from his “pistol”? He shot and killed at least 2, wounded at least 5, probably fired a dozen rounds.
Why do we allow high-volume magazines?
Remember VA Tech? The shooter killed 30, wounded more. How? High-volume quick change magazines.
Why do we allow high-volume quick change magazines? Exactly what do these have to do with the RKBA? NOTHING.
Time to ban those at least.
Extended magazine.
What-fucking-ever.
Why are such magazines legal? There is no reason.
Extended magazines, instant-change magazines (note: these were used in VA Tech to kill 32 by that other lunatic), high-velocity bullets, all of this has NOTHING to do with the RKBA.
You can own whatever guns you want. The magazines should be heavily regulated and eliminated.
You can make an argument that Arizona’s hyped-up gun culture is a factor but the gun laws themselves are a minor issue in this.
What’s the stuff about RKBA about? I agree with some opinions of those diarists and disagree with others.
To change the law, you have to change the culture. That’s where it is right now. And I don’t see how to change the culture except that the entire political culture changes. Pulling the plug on Rush and FoxNews would go a long way to changing the culture (once the dittoheads got over their withdrawal symptoms).
We allow high-volume quick change magazines and extended magazines because no one was paying attention when the Republicans were packing the courts in the 1980s and 1990s. And because in the Waco Wacko incident, the media decided to be sympathetic to David Koresh because he was oh, so religious.
And because we have a media industry that glorifies guns (do they get product placement for guns like they used to for cigarettes?).
What makes you think this was a suicide attempt? There are no reports of any such thing. Seems pretty clear that this shithead thought he was being some kind of hero. He’d seen Palin’s gunsight on Giffords’s district and heard all the rhetoric about “targeting”, “taking out”, ad nauseum. As to his own rhetoric, it’s pretty standard Beck/Palin/Bachmann/Limbaugh as filtered through the marginal mind of a crazy person of the teabagger kind.
As to guns, of course decent gun laws over the years would have prevented this. They might not have spared Giffords, but they would have saved the kid who was mowed down and the rest of the 18 others who were injured or killed. You can’t bullet-spray a crowd with a .22 six-shooter. The NRA, with its sociopathic drive to allow everybody to have assault weapons and other machine guns of the kind this ass used, is as responsible for this as Palin and the rest, and the shooter himself.
Well, except this whole shooting is just another liberal lie: it couldn’t possibly have happened, because Guns Don’t Kill People.
Nothing’s “pretty clear” about this situation except a 22-year-old fired off rounds from a 9mm Glock at a meeting and killed some people including a judge and a 10-year-old kid.
And that the guy is in police custody. So he will go to trial.
And that the Republicans have been pushing the envelope on threatened violence ever since Obama was elected.
And no doubt the Southern Poverty Law Center will be checking their files for this guy to see if he had connections with any violence-prone groups.
It’s very easy to hit on the gun issue. But until the Supreme Court changes, it’s a settled issue.
The more proximate reason is that the political culture in Arizona has gone stark-raving insane. Check out the Ray Steven video that digby put up. With that kind of inflammatory rhetoric, some jerk would have been likely to try to strangle someone with their bare hands. Guns are incidental. The hyped up gun culture, however, is not.
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"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."If the media does its job, this is an opportunity to exact a price for the rhetoric of violence that permeates Republican politics and media outlets. I’m not holding my breath, but a positive sign tonight was the CBS Evening News showing Palin’s map and then playing an extraordinary MSNBC clip of Giffords responding directly. She condemned Palin and argued that her rhetoric could inspire an unbalanced person to violence. She all but predicted it–chilling.
The violent rhetoric has been pervasive since Obama took office (unless you include Hillary’s chilling assassination commentary in justifying remaining in the race).
The clip should be played and replayed on every “news” program in the country. So far the media is going out of its way to suggest that the agitprop of Palin, Beck, Limbaugh, Bachmann, and the rest of that teabagger crowd has any possible connection to the murders. They, and the NRA are as responsible for this latest atrocity any anyone.
Absolutely. This is a RIGHT-WING LUNACY TRAGEDY.
What we on the left MUST NOT DO is allow them to evade responsibility for this.
This is the TEABAGGER TREASON TRAGEDY.
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"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."they have been fomenting this atmosphere since DAY ONE.
how is anyone surprised that it has come to this?
I’m disappointed – not shocked.
and, they need to be held accountable for the atmosphere which they pimped nonstop.
Absolutely.
Remember the last important right-wing atrocity, when McVeigh killed 169 in OK City? Limbaugh was on the hot seat, and got off.
No excuses this time. Hold the right wing responsible.
This is the TEABAGGER TREASON TRAGEDY.
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My Space Screenshot
“Goodbye friends. Please don’t be mad at me.”
Jared Loughner Well, the fucking pigs are genociding … no public property for housing, and no jobs for me. Die you fucking pig! I know your brainwashed to love then fuckin’ cops – fuck you. [30 dec.]
Jared Loughner .. Dear reader, … I’m searching. Today! With every concern, my shot is now ready for aim. The hunt, a mighty hunt of mine, for everyone t… [30 dec.]
Jared Loughner Wow! With every day of torture, the hours are my painful isolation; these dreams, which are realistic, vehemence feeling of greatness – finally! [30 dec.]
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Chilling stuff in that screenshot, but only in retrospect; in real time, it’d just seem like countless other guys off their meds. Think his chances of getting a date are better now?
Howard Fineman in Shooting means the end of access has gotten the political implications of this incident correct.
And makes one ask whether the whole GOP hyping up the rhetoric was intended to do this, causing folks to have to rely on the media reports of the opinions of members of Congress instead of being able to question them in town hall meetings.
Remember Arizona was one of the places at which open carry folks showed up when Obama was pitching the health care bill at town hall meetings. And the Tea Party first appeared in the disruption of town hall meetings.
You cannot write your members of Congress letters anymore because if the length of time it takes the USPS to screen them for anthrax or other substances. You cannot email the member of Congress because the Congressional websites have forced choice topics that automatically generate form letters; there is no evidence than anyone actually reads the contents of the messages left there. You cannot call a member of Congress and have a substantive conversation unless you have the access that is bought by major contributions.
Ordinary people are being cut off from communicating with their representatives by a culture of political terrorism. And political expediency.
And it is likely to get worse as members of Congress are surrounded by more security.
I remember when you could write members of Congress and get responses to what you actually said instead of talking points. Even Strom Thurmond’s office used to reply politely and on point–until Ronald Reagan was elected President. Then Strom started telling his constituents what they ought to think about an issue.
The communication between constituents and representatives that is basic to democracy is being eroded away by a hyped-up political culture.