The Commentariat -- January 10

Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post: "The federal government is poised for the first time to make public thousands of complaints it receives each year about safety problems with various products.... The compilation of consumer complaints [on a database], set to be launched online in March by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, has been hailed by consumer advocates as a resource that will revolutionize the way people make buying decisions."

Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "The military appropriations law signed by President Obama on Friday contains a little-noticed 'Buy American' provision for the Defense Department purchases of solar panels — a provision that is likely to dismay Chinese officials as President Hu Jintao prepares to visit the United States next week.

Jeffrey Smith of the Washington Post: the trial of former Republican House Leader Tom DeLay is going into the sentencing phase, which could be quite a show.

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Obama administration, following a lengthy internal debate, has unexpectedly come down on the side of pharmaceutical companies that are accused of overcharging public hospitals and clinics that care for large numbers of poor people. The administration has told the Supreme Court that the hospitals and clinics should not be permitted to sue drug companies to enforce their right to deep discounts on drugs, or to collect reimbursement from companies that overcharge. It is a classic conflict: a political imperative for the administration — to ensure that inexpensive drugs are available to the poor people who need them — rubbing up against the Justice Department’s fear of an onslaught of lawsuits by clinics and hospitals if the Supreme Court allows them to sue." CW: sorry, this doesn't surprise me; the Obama administration has been so Big Pharma friendly that I would be surprised if there was "a lengthy internal debate."

Noam Cohen of the New York Times: "... the government obtained a secret subpoena from a federal court [for Twitter account details of people associated with WikiLeaks]. Twitter challenged the secrecy, not the subpoena itself, and won the right to inform the people whose records the government was seeking. WikiLeaks says it suspects that other large sites like Google and Facebook have received similar requests and simply went along with the government. This kind of order is far more common than one may think, and in the case of terrorism and espionage investigations the government can issue them without a court order. The government says more than 50,000 of these requests, known as national security letters, are sent each year, but they come with gag orders that prevent those contacted from revealing what the agency has been seeking or even the existence of the gag orders." ...

     ... AP Backstory, January 8: "U.S. officials have issued a subpoena to demand details about WikiLeaks' Twitter account, the group announced Saturday, adding that it suspected other American Internet companies were also being ordered to hand over information about its activities. In a statement, WikiLeaks said U.S. investigators had gone to the San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. to demand the private messages, contact information and other personal details of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and other supporters, including the U.S. Army intelligence analyst suspected of handing classified information to the site and a high-profile Icelandic parliamentarian."

Tucson, Arizona Shootings -- January 9

At least one 911 tape has been released. The AP has a brief story on the call. The 911 operators received 20 calls....

     ... Update: audio of the 911 tapes is here.

FBI Director Mueller & Sheriff Dupnik conducted a press conference that began at about 1:00 pm ET. When I get a print story &/or video covering that event, I'll post it.** In the meantime, the Caucus has some of the details. Go to 1:35 pm; scroll down for more. The segment reported at 1:27 pm ET:

The alleged shooter in Arizona was attempting to reload his weapon when a woman grabbed the gun's magazine and ripped it away from him, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik told reporters Sunday. Mr. Dupnik said the woman was injured as she attempted to stop the suspect, who then tried to put another magazine in the gun, but the spring in the magazine failed. The sheriff said that allowed two men to subdue the suspect until authorities arrived.

... Here the clip of Sheriff Dupnik talking about this incident:

... Update: The Arizona Daily Star has some of the details of the press availability here. ...

... ** Update: C-SPAN video of the full law enforcement press conference:

The doctors at the University of Arizona Hospital trauma center give an update Sunday of Rep. Giffords' condition:

     ... AP Related: "Doctors treating wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords provided an optimistic update Sunday about her chances for survival, saying they are 'very, very encouraged' by her ability to respond to simple commands along with their success in controlling her bleeding." Here's the related New York Times story. ...

... JoNel Aleccia of NBC News interviews Dr. Alex Valadka, a neurosurgeon and spokesman for the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, regarding Giffords' injury & prognosis.

Christina-Taylor Greene. Family photo via the Arizona Daily Star.Joseph Berger of the New York Times profiles Christina Greene, the 9-year-old killed by the shooter. Stephanie Innes of the Arizona Daily Star has more.

Ofelia Madrid of the Arizona Republic profiles Dorwan & Mavy Stoppard, a married couple who were victims of the Tucson shooting. Dorwan died from his wounds, but he dove on top of Mavy, probably saving her life. She suffered gunshot wounds to her legs.

Mary Reinhart & Mary Jo Pitzl of the Arizona Republic: "Gabe Zimmerman..., one of five staffers and two interns at the 'Congress on Your Corner' event, was killed." Zimmerman, 30 years old, was engaged.

Al Hunt of Bloomberg News, in a New York Times opinion piece, on the U.S. obsession with guns -- and the consequences.

New York Times Editors: Arizona's "gun laws are among the most lenient, allowing even a disturbed man like Mr. Loughner to buy a pistol and carry it concealed without a special permit. That was before the Tucson rampage. Now, having seen first-hand the horror of political violence, Arizona should lead the nation in quieting the voices of intolerance, demanding an end to the temptations of bloodshed, and imposing sensible controls on its instruments." CW: fat chance.

News Items

CNN: "Rep. Robert Brady, D-Pennsylvania, said he will introduce legislation making it a federal crime for a person to use language or symbols that could be perceived as threatening or inciting violence against a Member of Congress or federal official.... 'The president is a federal official,' Brady said in a telephone interview with CNN. 'You can't do it to him; you should not be able to do it to a congressman, senator or federal judge.' ... Brady is particularly incensed over a web posting by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin during the 2010 election...."

Here's the New York Times story on the shootings."  ...

... AND at the Washington Post, the headline is, "Rampage Casts Dim Light on U.S. Political Discord."

The Arizona Republic has the names & brief comments about other victims. The Huffington Post reports that the 9-year-old killed was Christina Taylor Greene, who was born on 9/11.

Arizona Daily Star: "Police are seeking a man who was seen at the shopping center where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot and may possibly be associated with the suspect who is in custody. He is described as Caucasian, 40 to 50 years old, dark hair and was wearing blue jeans and a dark blue jacket.... Anyone with information is asked to contact 911, 88-CRIME or the FBI at 791-6974." The surveillance photo is at left. ...

     ... Update: the Pima County sheriff says the person in the photo "may not have been involved at all," but the sheriff's office still needs to locate him to determine whether or not that is the case. No link. ...

     ... Arizona Daily Star Update: "Detectives with the Pima County Sheriff's Department interviewed the 'person of interest' in Saturday's mass shooting and cleared him of any wrongdoing. The man, a cab driver, told detectives he gave Jared Loughner a ride to the Safeway and they entered the store together so Loughner could obtain change to pay his fare, said Bureau Chief Richard Kastigar. Records substantiate the driver dropped Loughner off at 9:59 a.m., Kastigar said."

 AP: "Federal prosecutors charged the suspect in shooting of Arizona congresswoman with attempted assassination and four other charges. Jared Loughner is charged with one count of attempted assassination of member of Congress, two counts of killing an employee of the federal government and two counts of attempting to killing a federal employee.... The ... suspect doesn't yet have a lawyer, but that [the federal public defender's] office is working to get a lawyer appointed for Loughner." ... Arizona Republic story here. A pdf of the 5-count federal complaint against Jared Lee Loughner is here. It states that Loughner will make an initial appearance in court at 3 pm [5 pm ET] Monday. ...

     ... Update: the complaint is now accompanied by an affidavit from Tony M. Taylor, an FBI agent, who attests to some of the evidence collected against Loughner.

CBS News: "President Barack Obama announced Sunday that he will observe a moment of silence with White House staff on the South Lawn on Monday morning to honor the victims of Saturday's shooting in Arizona. In a statement, he has called on the rest of the country to join him in a moment of silence at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. Mr. Obama also ordered all flags on government buildings be flown at half-staff in honor of the victims." You can read the full proclamation at the New York Times Caucus site at the 2:43 pm Sunday posting.

Tucson, Arizona Shootings

When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government -- the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on this country is getting to be outrageous and unfortunately Arizona has become sort of the capital. This may be free speech, but it's not without consequences We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.
-- Clarence W. Dupnik, Pima County Sheriff

There is a need for some reflection here - what is too far now? What was too far when Oklahoma City happened is accepted now. There’s been a desensitizing. These town halls and cable TV and talk radio, everybody’s trying to outdo each other.... Tone matters. And the Republican Party in particular needs to reinforce that.
-- "Senior Republican Senator" speaking to Politico

President Obama's remarks Saturday afternoon:

... Here's President Obama's initial statement. Other politicians react. CW: Sarah Palin & John McCain had a helluva a nerve saying anything.

Dr. Peter Rhee of the University of Arizona hospital trauma center, which received victims of the shooting gives an update:

Jay Newton-Small of Time has a good biographical essay on Giffords. Here's more from Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times.

Alan Boyle of NBC News: "NASA astronaut Mark Kelly..., [Giffords' husband,] flew from Houston ... to be at his wounded wife's side. Kelly is currently in training to command the shuttle Endeavour's crew on a flight to the International Space Station in April.... The space agency had no immediate word about how Kelly's status might change.... Mark Kelly is the only astronaut ... to have a twin brother who's also an spaceflier: Scott Kelly is currently serving as commander of the International Space Station, and sources said he was made aware of the shooting during Earth-to-orbit consultations."

Chief Judge John M. Roll. AP photo.John Schwartz of the New York Times on Chief Judge John Roll. ...

... The AP has more on Chief Judge Roll.

Carl Hulse & Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "While the exact motivations of the suspect in the shootings remained unclear, an Internet site tied to the man, Jared Loughner, contained antigovernment ramblings. And regardless of what led to the episode, it quickly focused attention on the degree to which inflammatory language, threats and implicit instigations to violence have become a steady undercurrent in the nation’s political culture." ...

... From the New York Times story on the Arizona shooting: "During the fall campaign, Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, posted a controversial map on her Facebook page depicting spots where Democrats were running for re-election; those Democrats were noted by crosshairs symbols like those seen through the scope of a gun. Ms. Giffords was among those on Ms. Palin’s map." [emphasis added] Below is a portion of Palin's map, via Gawker:

Rewriting History. Amanda Coyne of Alaska Dispatch Update: "A Palin staffer, Rebecca Mansour told a radio talk show host Saturday that [blaming Palin & the tea party for inciting the Giffords shooting] is 'obscene' and 'appalling.' ... 'We never ever, ever intended it to be gun sights,' she said. 'It's surveyor's symbols,' the interviewer Tammy Bruce suggested. Bruce, a Palin supporter.... Her show is promoted as a 'chick with a gun and a microphone.' Mansour ... said that the graphic was contracted out to a professional. They approved it quickly without thinking about it. 'We never imagined, it never occurred to us that anybody would consider it violent,' she said. Rather, she said, that it was simply 'crosshairs that you would see on a map.' There is 'nothing irresponsible about our graphic.' ...

She did not, however, mention the 'don't retreat, instead- RELOAD!' Palin tweet that went out shortly after the graphic was posted on both her Facebook page and SarahPac's website, directing them to the graphic. The tweet turned quickly into a Palin mantra. Many, even then, urged her to stop using such violent rhetoric. -- Amanda Coyne

Also from Gawker: "Giffords' Tea Party opponent in the 2010 election, Jesse Kelly, went even further with the violent rhetoric. Kelly's campaign held an event called "Get on Target for Victory in November." Description: "Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly." ...

... Nathan Thornburgh of Time on the shootings. Not only was Giffords targeted by Palin & Kelly, according to Thornburgh, Judge John Roll, who was killed by the shooter & may have been his primary target, "had been placed under 24-hour security in 2009 after ruling in favor of illegal immigrants in a high-profile case." Thornburgh notes,

Pundits spoke gravely about a wave of violence, born in Mexico and now flooding Arizona. Arizona's two most famous politicians fueled the fury. Republican Senator John McCain, facing an unexpected reelection challenge from the right, ran a campaign obsessed with crossborder crime. And GOP Governor Jan Brewer, who invited the national spotlight by championing strict anti-illegal immigrant legislation, talked of beheadings in the desert. The only problem with all this talk about a massive crossborder crime wave is that it wasn't true. ...

... Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post on the state of political discourse: "Liberals were quick to blame the tea party movement and the sometimes-militant rhetoric employed by its standard-bearers. On Twitter, activists repeatedly referred to the remarks of Sharron Angle (R), the unsuccessful Senate candidate in Nevada, who last year advocated 'second-amendment remedies' to some of the nation's problems." Tea party activists are claiming "the war has already started." ...

Matt Bai of the New York Times:

... the problem would seem to rest with the political leaders who pander to the margins of the margins..., with little regard for the consequences. Consider the comments of Sharron Angle.... She talked about 'domestic enemies' in the Congress and said, 'I hope we’re not getting to Second Amendment remedies.' Then there’s Rick Barber, a Republican who lost his primary in a Congressional race in Alabama, but not before airing an ad in which someone dressed as George Washington listened to an attack on the Obama agenda and gravely proclaimed, 'Gather your armies.' In fact, much of the message among Republicans last year, as they sought to exploit the Tea Party phenomenon, centered — like the Tea Party moniker itself — on this imagery of armed revolution. Popular spokespeople like Ms. Palin routinely drop words like 'tyranny' and 'socialism' when describing the president and his allies, as if blind to the idea that Americans legitimately faced with either enemy would almost certainly take up arms.

CW: I'm glad to see MSM journalists from the New York Times. WashPo & Time finally getting off the fence & calling out these politicians who incite violence. It's been a long time coming. Here's Keith Olbermann, whose special comment covers the field:

The Huffington Post has information of the alleged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, including words-only YouTube videos he posted recently. Extremely creepy, unhinged, with a tinge of Glenn Beck. ...

... Psychologist Jeff Kaye comments in Firedoglake on the alleged shooter's possible mental illness. ...

... Eric Lipton, Charlie Savage & Scott Shane of the New York Times report on Jared Loughner, the suspected shooter, & find "a sense of his alienation from society, confusion, anger as well as foreboding that his life could soon come to an end." ...

... Tim Steller of the Arizona Daily Star: "The suspected shooter has made death threats before and been contacted by law-enforcement officers, but the threats weren't against Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, [Pima County Sheriff Clarence] Dupnik said. The suspect is unstable, Dupnik said, but the sheriff would not say he is 'insane.' A former classmate of Loughner at Pima Community College said he was 'obviously very disturbed.'" ...

... **The Arizona Republic details Loughner's run-ins with his college that in September 2010 required him to get "a mental-health clearance and prove he wasn't a danger to himself and others" before he could return to the school. Yet two months later, a young man who exhibited behavior that suggested he might be "a danger to himself and others" was able to legally purchase "a 9 mm Glock handgun on Nov. 30 at a Sportsman's Warehouse in Tucson." CW: a message brought to you by the NRA & legislators everywhere who think everyone should have a gun. Loughner reportedly lived with his parents -- where the hell were they? This kid needed institutionalization and help. ...

... Jana Winter of Fox News Update: "A law enforcement memo based on information provided by the Department of Homeland Security and obtained by Fox News suggests that alleged gunman Jared Loughner ... may have ties to the American Renaissance group, though it's unclear if he was directly affiliated with the publication or group. The memo states that there is 'no direct connection' between Loughner and the group, 'but strong suspicion is being directed at AmRen / American Renaissance. Suspect is possibly linked to this group. (through videos posted on his MySpace and YouTube account.). The group's ideology is anti-government, anti-immigration, anti-ZOG (Zionist Occupational Government), anti-Semitic.' The memo also includes information about the suspect's mother, who works for the Pima County Board of Supervisors and notes that Loughner has multiple arrests but no criminal record."

On Thursday, Rep. Giffords read the First Amendment on the House floor. Her emphasis on "peaceably" is haunting:

Rep. Giffords talking to MSNBC in March 2010 about the vandalism to her office & other politically-motivated violence & violent rhetoric. As a friend pointed out to me, that slimeball Chuck Todd tries to walk back Giffords' reference to Sarah Palin's putting Giffords in the crosshairs of a gun sight:

Saturday News Reports

New York Times: "A congresswoman from Arizona was shot on Saturday along with several others during at public event at a grocery store in Tucson, according to her spokesman, C.J. Karamargin. The Tucson Citizen reported that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat, had been shot at close range in the head. The condition of the congresswoman, Ms. Giffords, 40, remained unclear. She was taken to University Medical Center in Tucson, the trauma center for the area, about 10 miles away. CNN quoted a public information officer as saying that 12 people had been injured in all." Note: contra the earlier reports below, this story has been updated to indicate that Rep. Giffords has been operated on & her surgeon is optimistic she will recover. Also, "An official with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said that six people had been killed and 18 wounded in the shooting, including a federal judge, John Roll, who had been involved in immigration cases and had previously received death threats. Among the six dead was a child about 9 years old, the hospital confirmed." ...

     ... Update: "A 22-year-old suspect was in custody, law enforcement officials said. But at a Saturday evening news conference, investigators said they were looking for an accomplice who may have helped the gunman."

     ... Update: President Obama said federal Judge John Roll had been killed. ...

     ... CBS News: "Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991, Federal Judge John McCarthy Roll was shot and killed today when an assailant opened fire in a Safeway parking lot in Ariz., where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. was meeting with constituents. Just two years ago, he was targeted with death threats -- and given a security detail -- after ruling that a group of illegal immigrants could go forward with a multi-million dollar civil rights lawsuit against a state rancher...." ...

     ... The Washington Post has an eyewitness account from Tucson Dr. Steven Rayle who had gone to the event to meet Rep. Giffords. Rayle said he helped subdue the suspect after others stopped him.