Gabby Giffords Stepping Down from Congress

Congresswoman Giffords announced today that she will be resigning her congressional seat this week.  It has been more than year since she was shot in the head and suffered traumatic brain injuries from the bullet.  She has made a remarkable recovery so far, and every American wishes her Godspeed in her recovery.

She is correct, her district should have their voices heard in congress, this is the right thing to do for everyone concerned.

Best of luck to you Gabby.

Welcome Back Gabby

Gabby Giffords made her return to Congress today to place her vote on the debt ceiling.  She received a much deserved standing O. 

I don't agree with her on much, but I am so glad to see she is healing everyday and looks great. 

Tucson Shooting Victim Arrested for Threatening Tea Party Spokesman

J. Eric Fuller who was shot last Saturday along with Congresswoman Giffords, was arrested today after making threats to a Tucson Tea Party spokesperson.  Fuller who said:

“It looks like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the rest got their first target,”  “Their wish for Second Amendment activism has been fulfilled."

to Democracy Now, a progressive news service and website. 

There was a townhall of sorts today by ABC.  There were people there from all stripes including a spokesman from the local Tea Party.  Fuller was unhappy with a comment made and proceded to take a picture of Trent Humphries and told him "You're Dead".  The police escorted him out of the room and did arrest him and charged him with threats and intimidation along with disorderly conduct. 

Mr. Fuller has every right to be upset as he was victimized, but he doesn't have the right to his own facts.  There is no evidence whatsoever that political thought was to blame for the shootings last week. 

Mr. Fuller seems to have an interesting past and is a believer in social justice.  See here

Looks like those violent tea partiers are at it again.

Cross posted at PotLuck

Quote of the Day - Democratic Opertative Edition

“They need to deftly pin this on the tea partiers,” said the Democrat. “Just like the Clinton White House deftly pinned the Oklahoma City bombing on the militia and anti-government people.”

 This is truly disgusting.  Anyone that uses the shooting for political gain is simply a horrible human being.  There is no other way to look at it.  Congresswoman Giffords is fighting for her life as I write this, a very bright 9 old is dead, an aide to the congresswoman has a fiance that is in total shock at the death of the man she planned to spend the rest of her with, a well respected judge went to say hello to someone he was friendly with and got killed.  These are the stories we should be telling, these are the issues that we should be dealing with. 

The Politics of a Tragedy - Tea Party Must Be Guilty

Gabrielle Giffords, a congresswoman from Arizona, was shot today while having a townhall of sorts at a local Safeway.  Luckily it seems that the congresswoman will survive the shooting even though she was shot through the head.  According to reports she was even talking before being sedated to reduce the pressure on her brain.  Sadly, many others were not so fortunate and at least five have died, including a federal judge and a nine year old child. My deepest sympathies to the families of all the victims for this senseless loss of life.

Before anything was known about the shooter many automatically decided that somehow the Tea Party is to blame for this tragedy.  Both Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck's name came up on some comments I saw when I was looking up to see if the congresswoman was still alive.  The reports about this shooting have been fuzzy at best and conflicting reports about if Ms. Giffords survived were all over the internet and television news. 

Jane Fonda and Paul Krugman couldn't even bothered to wait until more information was known before they decided to weigh in and blame the right for this horrifying act of violence.  Krugman came out with his statement before the name of the shooter was known and what the press was reporting was that he was a war vet.  There is enough information about the shooter now for Krugman to realize that this is a matter of a very delusional young man who didn't seem to have grip on reality.  In one you tube video he is burning the American flag, in other he has a diatribe about the constitution and mind control. 

His favorite books according to his you tube page are as follows:

I had favorite books: Animal Farm, Brave New World, The Wizard Of OZ, Aesop Fables, The Odyssey, Alice Adventures Into Wonderland, Fahrenheit 451, Peter Pan, To Kill A Mockingbird, We The Living, Phantom Toll Booth, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Pulp,Through The Looking Glass, The Communist Manifesto, Siddhartha, The Old Man And The Sea, Gulliver's Travels, Mein Kampf, The Republic, and Meno

Not exactly the books you would find in the library of any tea party member.  But so far Krugman has yet to make a retraction of his statement.  After all, why let facts get in the way of the narrative that he has been creating since the beginning of the tea party movement. 

Politicizing the murder of five people and the injury of at least 10 others before the facts are known is irresponsible as well as being intellectually lazy.  This young man seems to have many problems and may very well be delusional.  There are reports that he had met the congresswoman before.  But this seems to be a statement from a woman who says she knew him in high school.  So, we have to wait and see if that actually pans out.  

While it is understandable for some of the reporting to be incorrect during the fog of the incident, this is not about the fog.  This is about wanting to blame your political enemies for a horrid act simply because you are trying to prove that your belief system is superior.  But, all these two have proven is that they are lazy and wrong.  This woman wasn't gunned down by some crazed right winger because Glenn Beck told him to, or by some graphic that Sarah Palin released about a year ago.  This was a sad and sick man who had no real core or any sense of compassion to fellow human beings.  Comment on that Paul and Jane, maybe then you can get back some of your creditability.