Gunman attacks political event in Tucson, 12 wounded.

[Omega18]

Now that's a truly scary thought. If Giffords dies, or her career in Congress is otherwise ended today; Jan Brewer will be the one to appoint her replacement.

A special election is required to be held in that situation reasonably soon so an appointment would be pretty temporary. While theoretically Brewer could wait until the legal deadline to hold it, that's highly unlikely due to the public reaction from appearing to so clearly take advantage of an assassination.

[bobalot]

Has the "revolution" begun then?

Seriously though, until the facts are in, no judgement can be made. However, with all the quite frankly nutty far right-wing rhetoric that has been in the public discourse over the last few years, if this is some nutjob teabagger, I won't be surprised.

[Patrick Degan]

Lone Wolf terrorism. That is the only classification for this, no matter how the wingnuts howl otherwise.

[FSTargetDrone]

Fox News reporting Federal Judge John M. Roll (native of Pennsylvania) is dead.

Lone Wolf terrorism. That is the only classification for this, no matter how the wingnuts howl otherwise.

Quite. This is not something to get bent out of shape about in general.

[kouchpotato]

There is a press conference on CNN right now with one of the Surgeons. A young child was one of the people killed, Giffords was shot through the head and was operated on, the doctor's are optimistic about her recovery. There are five others in critical condition and five in surgery.

[Omega18]

AP is reporting the shooter is a 22 year old man named Jared Laughner.

[SCRawl]

Now that's a truly scary thought. If Giffords dies, or her career in Congress is otherwise ended today; Jan Brewer will be the one to appoint her replacement.

It isn't as though the balance of power would change -- the Republicans would have a slightly larger majority, assuming she were to appoint someone more sympathetic to her own way of thinking. I would hope that if the unfortunate were to happen, Governor Brewer would do the right thing and appoint someone from the left side of the political spectrum, but let's face it, she's batshit crazy, I have no idea what she would do.

[MKSheppard]

Possibly the guy's youtube channel:

Link

[FSTargetDrone]

Possibly the guy's youtube channel:

Link

Hm, maybe, given that everything in the "Profile" section is written in the past tense. The MySpace link he's got there is now gone and if this is really his, expect this channel to be gone soon, as well.

[kouchpotato]

Could this be him? Jared Lee Loughner, from Tuscon... apparently his favorite books include both Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto. Also, his myspace has been deleted. His youtube. Has some weird anti-gov't videos, including one where he said he could be defined as a terrorist. He goes on about the constitution and federalism and such, so it's possible this is the same guy.

edit - damn, shep beat me to it.

[MKSheppard]

In case the Youtube channel goes bye.

[MKSheppard]

From his former myspace page. God bless PRINTSCRN

[Ritterin Sophia]

So she was shot in the temple and it passed through the skull. So brain damage is a concern. What happens if a congressional politician suffers major brain damage, do they keep their seat?

[MKSheppard]

Discount the facebook page floating around. It was recently added.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Lone Wolf terrorism. That is the only classification for this, no matter how the wingnuts howl otherwise.

As said, she's been threatened and shot at before and there's been more right wing violence and threats of right wing violence. How many "lone wolves" do there need to be to qualify as a pack?

Calling incidents like this "lone wolf terrorism" is often right wing propaganda designed to deflect responsibility from the higher ups, the people who encourage violence.

[FSTargetDrone]

At a press conference a short time ago, an attending surgeon said he is "very optimistic about her recovery" with respect to Griffords. She is also talking according to Fox News.

[MKSheppard]

Link to a twitter for someone who went to school with the nut.

Short version: Left wing liberal who met Giffords once and didn't like her. Pothead, loner, etc.

[SirNitram]

This is probably gonna piss people off, but since when have I let that stop me?

The political enviroment is one full of guns, targets, and fearmongering. The Revolution. Ballot box or the bullet box. 'Take aim'.. Remember Palin's map with crosshairs? Guess where one was? Gifford's opponent? Posted this Link to pic advertising 'Get on target' to 'remove Gifford'. How? Fire an m-16!

They're destroying America. They want to kill your grandparents. They're taking away your liberty. Lock and load. Once we get rid of the liberals, we'll have solved our problems.

Eliminationism, even if just hot air from pampered Fox hosts and party members, enables the whole thinking of 'It's OK to see the other side as targets'.

[weemadando]

Palin's team has already started scrubbing all the pics with crosshairs, references to second amendment solutions and all their other murder cheerleading from the web. Keep it mirrored and circulating folks because the "just a lone wolf"cover up is on.

[Darth Raptor]

His list of favorite books doesn't say much, since it's basically every 22 year old's "please take me seriously as a literary person" copypasta. Since they actually have his stupid ass, alive and well, I'm guessing he'll have every opportunity to enlighten us as to why he had to murder some random moms and babies.

[Thanas]

Link to a twitter for someone who went to school with the nut.

Short version: Left wing liberal who met Giffords once and didn't like her. Pothead, loner, etc.

"left wing liberal"? Really? you base this on a twitter feed from someone who had not seen him since several years? Yeah, I don't believe that.

Especially as his favorite books are the usual mix of right-wing + lolbertarian nonsense.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

At a press conference a short time ago, an attending surgeon said he is "very optimistic about her recovery" with respect to Griffords. She is also talking according to Fox News.

If she's still alive this time tomorrow, I'll start to be optimistic. Head injuries are nasty, nasty things, since the brain's response to trauma frequently does it more harm than whatever the original trauma was.

[Aaron]

Link to a twitter for someone who went to school with the nut.

Short version: Left wing liberal who met Giffords once and didn't like her. Pothead, loner, etc.

I seem to recall that once upon a time, you where a left wing liberal as well. People change.

This is probably gonna piss people off, but since when have I let that stop me?

The political enviroment is one full of guns, targets, and fearmongering. The Revolution. Ballot box or the bullet box. 'Take aim'.. Remember Palin's map with crosshairs? Guess where one was? Gifford's opponent? Posted this Link to pic advertising 'Get on target' to 'remove Gifford'. How? Fire an m-16!

They're destroying America. They want to kill your grandparents. They're taking away your liberty. Lock and load. Once we get rid of the liberals, we'll have solved our problems.

Eliminationism, even if just hot air from pampered Fox hosts and party members, enables the whole thinking of 'It's OK to see the other side as targets'.

I don't see how thats going to piss many off. Its been obvious for a good while that Americas political discourse has become "us VS them." The only folks that are going to take offence are guys like Chocula.

[ThomasP]

Link to a twitter for someone who went to school with the nut.

Short version: Left wing liberal who met Giffords once and didn't like her. Pothead, loner, etc.

"left wing liberal"? Really? you base this on a twitter feed from someone who had not seen him since several years? Yeah, I don't believe that.

Especially as his favorite books are the usual mix of right-wing + lolbertarian nonsense.

Several of the videos on his account are pretty out there. At first glance he looks to be one of the fringe wing-nut conspiracy types, worried about "the revolution" taking over the country. There's also ranting about the gold standard, mind control, and other such lunacy.

[Talhe]

Latest word is that she's in critical condition. Twelve wounded and six dead, including a nine-year old: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/08/se ... cial-says/