Saturday, January 08, 2011

A Word Or Two About Gabby Giffords

We now know that police have some life form named Jared Loughner in custody for the shooting of Dem U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the murder of Federal Judge John Roll, a nine-year-old child and four others at this point (more here). Based on the MSNBC story, it looks like Loughner is another one of these anti-government nuts who paid too much attention to the whacked voices in his head instead of seeking counseling, but this is still very early in the process of trying to analyze and digest this horrific story.

Giffords herself notes, at about 2:30 in the clip below, that Sarah Palin marked Giffords' district as one to be "targeted" in 2010 with a gun sight on a map (Think Progress shows it here), though Palin took that down from her Facebook page apparently before she offered condolences to Giffords' family; try toning down your nutty rhetoric first, you lunatic - you should have done that long ago anyway (and by the way, the hairdo appearing here with Chuck Todd asks a truly outrageous question about the Democrats milking the Republican-leaning extremism, with no basis in actual fact of course).

Again, this is early in the story, and there is much to learn about this Loughner character and if there was a particular political motivation at work here. But for now, let us offer our sympathies, not only to the family and friends of Congresswoman Giffords, but to Judge Roll and the other victims.

Update: The very latest on this is here, with an appropriate cautionary note from Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, and here is a touching remembrance from Alan Grayson (and "Countdown" is airing a special episode tonight that I will tune in to shortly).

No comments: