January 8, 2011 archive

AZ Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Has Been Shot in Tuscon This Am at Constituent Event

Saturday, January 8, 2011   Representative Gabrielle Giffords, (D, AZ-08 ) was shot this morning at a “Congress on Your Corner” constituent event in a Safeway grocery store at around 10am local mountain time.

http://my.firedoglake.com/tedd…

At 11:07 am PST her condition is unknown, she has been hospitalized at the University Medical Center in Tuscon, along with other staffers, people and bystanders who were wounded. (at least 6 others wounded )

The attempted assassin ran up to her and fired at point blank range, hitting her in the head, and then ran off, but he was tackled by witnesses and brought down and taken into custody. (per what I am hearing now on MSNBC as they are talking to a sheriff on a phone line)

Rep. Giffords, 40 years old, was elected to a 3rd term on Nov 2. http://www.npr.org/2011/01/08/…

Oh, my God, a witness on the phone to MSNBC says there are bodies laying all over the place, at least 3 killed.  Sheriff says 5 killed, 6 wounded.

Arizona has been a hotbed of hostility towards Democrats since Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed the racial profiling law targeting Latinos and Indigenous peoples,  and both Giffords and Rep. Raul Grijalva have previously received death threats from the extreme right wing.

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UPDATED According to a spokesperson for the hospital at a recent news conference on MSNBC, the Congresswoman remains in critical condition, but he is optimistic that she will survive her wound.  She is said to be out of surgery.  The bullet is said to have gone completely through her head.

A Federal Judge died in the attack.

A nine year old child taken to the hospital did not survive.

5 people are in surgery, 5 people are in critical condition.

The name of the suspected shooter is Jared Laughner, and it is unknown at this time if he was acting alone or in concert with others.

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Updated #2 spelling correction. suspect Jared Lee Loughner.  Age 22, Tuscon, AZ

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…  (see creepy youtubes at link, the last one is “my final thoughts” )

excerpts:


I’m a sleepwalker – who turns off the alarm clock

All conscious dreaming at this moment is asleep

Jared Loughner is conscious dreaming at this moment

Thus Jared Loughner is asleep

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If I define terrorist then a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism,

especially as a political weapon

I define terrorist

Thus, a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon

If you call me a terrorist then the argument to call me a terrorist is Ad hominem

you call me a terrorist

thus the argument to call me a terrorist is Ad Hominem

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you don’t have to accept the federalist laws

nonetheless, read the United States of America’s Constitution to apprehend all of the current treasonous laws

You’re literate, listener ?

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the property owners and government officials are no longer in ownership of their land and laws from a revolution.

thus, the revolutionary’s from the revolution are in control of the land and laws

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In conclusion, reading the second United States Constitution, I can’t trust the current government because of the ratifications: The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar.

No !  I won’t pay debt with a currency that’s not backed by gold and silver !

No !  I won’t trust in God !

What’s government if words have no meaning ?

-Jared Loughner 3

The above quotes were from the #3 video of a youtube account of a “Jared Loughner” which is at the HuffPo link.

This is Tea Party – Libertarian theme babbling.

The Federal Judge who was murdered, along with 5 others so far, was US District Court Judge John Roll.

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Update #3.  Law enforcement are looking for a second suspect, who is believed to have come to the store with the shooter, a white male in his 50’s, whom they are not otherwise releasing any news on, other than they have pictures they are not releasing.  http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.c…

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik says Rep. Giffords was the intended target of the shooting, and was “not convinced” that the suspect had acted alone.  http://www.13wmaz.com/news/bre…

Dem Rep Shot (to death?) in Arizona

RawStory: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords among ‘at least 12’ shot outside Tucson grocery store

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and six others died after a gunman opened fire at a public event on Saturday, the Pima County, Ariz., sheriff’s office confirms.

The 40-year-old Democrat, who was re-elected to her third term in November, was hosting a “Congress on Your Corner” event at a Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.

At least three other people, including members of her staff, were injured. Giffords was transported to University Medical Center in Tucson. Her condition was not immediately known.

Giffords was talking to a couple when the suspect ran up and fired indiscriminately from about four feet away, Michaels said.

[snip]

The suspect was described by witnesses as a young man in his late teens or early 20s. He has been taken into custody.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said that up to 12 people were injured in the incident, and a witness told CNN they heard up to 20 gunshots.

NPR: Congresswoman, 6 Others, Killed By Gunman

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and six others died after a gunman opened fire at a public event on Saturday, the Pima County, Ariz., sheriff’s office confirms.

The 40-year-old Democrat, who was re-elected to her third term in November, was hosting a “Congress on Your Corner” event at a Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.

At least three other people, including members of her staff, were injured. Giffords was transported to University Medical Center in Tucson. Her condition was not immediately known.

Giffords was talking to a couple when the suspect ran up and fired indiscriminately from about four feet away, Michaels said.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona Shot After Controversial Legislation Passes

(Cross-posted from The Free Speech Zone)

TUCSON – The class began with a Mayan-inspired chant and a vigorous round of coordinated hand clapping. The classroom walls featured protest signs, including one that said “United Together in La Lucha!” – the struggle. Although open to any student at Tucson High Magnet School, nearly all of those attending Curtis Acosta’s Latino literature class on a recent morning were Mexican-American.

For all of that and more, Mr. Acosta’s class and others in the Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican-American program have been declared illegal by the State of Arizona – even while similar programs for black, Asian and American Indian students have been left untouched.

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In Mr. Acosta’s literature class, students were clearly concerned. They asked if their graduation was at risk. They asked if they were considered terrorists because Mr. Horne described them as wanting to topple the government. They asked how they could protest the decision.

Then, one young woman asked Mr. Acosta how he was holding up.

“They wrote a state law to snuff this program out, just us little Chicanitos,” he said, wiping away tears. “The idea of losing this is emotional.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01…

And then…

Hot Water

“Honey, we don’t have any hot water.”

Ok, so how does this relate to “your” local fire department being and extension of the insurance industry?

How about all them birds dropping out of the sky, huh.

Six In The Morning

He’s Back And No It’s Not Arnold  



Iraqi cleric urges resistance to U.S., Israel after return from exile

NAJAF, Iraq – A powerful cleric whose fearsome militia once battled Americans urged followers Saturday to resist the United States “with all means” in his first public address in Iraq after four years in exile.

Addressing an adoring crowd of thousands, Muqtada al-Sadr also called on the newly formed government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to make sure all U.S. forces leave Iraq by the end of the year as planned.

And he warned that “we have the political means” to reject that governmentif it does not provide security and services to its citizens.

Late Night Karaoke

Random Japan

OFFICIAL OVERSIGHT

A woman in Fukuoka sued Google after she discovered that the company’s Street View service showed a photo of her underwear hanging on the veranda.

LDP lawmaker Hiroshi Nagai found himself in hot water after ordering Prince Akishino and his wife to sit down during a ceremony marking the 120th anniversary of the opening of the Diet.

It was reported that a fire sergeant in Hiroshima had been driving emergency vehicles for the past 14 years even though he didn’t have a driver’s license.

The mayor of Utazu in Kagawa Prefecture was rebuffed in his plan to work for the entire year without a salary. Instead, the city council offered to halve his pay for the next two years.

A junior high school teacher in Aomori Prefecture was in trouble with the education board after posting a list of “foolish” students in the school corridor. Then doing it again.

If you’ve ever wondered where the inspiration  for the Matrix came from Ghost In The Shell is it.  

Multiple Activists and Members of the Pirate Party Arrested In Tunisia

(Crossposted from The Free Speech Zone)

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Anonymous, the loosely-knit group of international web activists that drew world attention for their “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) attacks on the servers of companies that blocked payments and server access to the whistle-blowing website, WikiLeaks, joined the fray, in solidarity with the Tunisian uprising.

Most international news organisations have no presence in the country (and, some say, a lack of interest in the protests). Media posted online by Tunisian web activists has been some of the only material that has slipped through the blackout, even if their videos and photos haven’t generated quite the same enthusiastic coverage by Western media as the Iranian protest movement did in 2009.

http://english.aljazeera.net/i…

Original v. Cover — #59 in a Series

Beautiful Pictures, Images and Photos

Ah, the joys of early January.  Less than three weeks after the winter solstice, the days are still short and the nights long.  The ubiquitous cacophony and overwrought glitter of the winter holiday season are now past. Some of us dread going to the mailbox, only to be greeted by bloated credit card and utility bills.  The doldrums of this time of year are marked by the great travel bargains to be found until later in the month, as exhausted December revelers go into their brief hibernation. In many parts of the country, the trees are bare and the landscape buried in snowdrifts, at first fresh and bright, but after a few days, grayed and dull. The desire for sun and warmth can be overpowering.

Indeed, the lyrics for this week’s selection, which became a hit almost exactly forty-five years ago, describe the sentiments of a man, mired in the depths of winter, longing for the sunny warmth of that great and now even bluer state of California.  Home to one in seven U. S. citizens, one can only hope that despite its current economic malaise, it may lead the way to ground-breaking progressive reforms that might eventually spread to the rest of the country.  One might recall that the U.K. launched their system of socialized medicine while reeling from the crushing debts and destruction left in the wake of World War II. One can only hope that California, in addition to serving as a winter haven from the snow and cold gripping much of this country, will reassert its leadership and become a new beacon of hope for the remainder of the nation.

Medical News

Part of this will be personal, for those who may be interested in that, and part of this will concern some medical news in the transgender arena in general.

First up, my surgery, which was postponed on December 27 due to blizzard, was rescheduled for January 3, and apparently had no complications, since I was allowed to come home yesterday…although I am still on a clear liquid diet and am very hungry.  I have an appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday and will learn more about how things went…as well as possibly upgrading what I can eat.

Possible complications involved not having enough esophagus free to move my stomach back from my thorax into my abdomen, possible infection, and the possibility of developing pneumonia since my stomach has been sharing space with my left lung for over a year.  But I have a breathing “toy” to play with in order to expand my breathing capacity and I seem to be doing okay in that regard.