Photo of the perp at the link. This article from ABC News begins to make clear that the man has had some long-standing problems.
The FBI has joined the investigation into the shooting as authorities are poring over an online trail of bizarre, anti-government rants apparently left by Loughner. On a Myspace page in Loughner's name, he said goodbye to friends just hours before the shooting and said, "Please don't be mad at me... I cannot rest."
Prima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, who only identified the shooter as a 22-year-old white male, said the evidence online and information they've received from two schools that Loughner attended led him to believe the gunman was "unstable."
"There's reason to believe that this individual may have a mental issue," Dupnik told reporters today. "I'm not a psychiatrist so I have no reason to believe the person was insane. Was he unstable? I would agree with that."
Dupnik said the shooter had previous run-ins with the law and had threatened to kill someone before. There had been "difficulties" at Pima Community College where Loughner attended, Dupnik said. One student, who had a poetry class with Loughner, said he would often act "wildly inappropriate."
"One day he started making comments about terrorism and laughing about killing the baby," classmate Don Coorough told ABC News, referring to a discussion about abortions. "The rest of us were looking at him in shock I thought this young man was troubled."
Another classmate, Lydian Ali, recalled the incident as well.
"A girl had written a poem about an abortion. It was very emotional and she was teary eyed and he said something about strapping a bomb to the fetus and making a baby bomber," Ali told ABC News.
Loughner reportedly recently made several YouTube videos with walls of text protesting the government and ranting against low literacy rates and illegitimate currency.
"Hello, my name is Jared Lee Loughner. This video is my introduction to you!" one video, uploaded Dec. 15, says. "My favorite activity is conscience dreaming; the greatest inspiration for my political business information. Some of you don't dream -- sadly... My ambition -- is for informing literate dreamers about a new currency; in a few days, you know I'm conscience dreaming! Thank you!"
In another video, he accuses the government of mind control via grammar.
In another video posted on YouTube, Loughner uses repetitive, convoluted logic when defining terrorism.
I'm snipping the specifics of the videos, but it's clear he's rather disturbed.
In the YouTube profile, the account holder, identified as Loughner, lists "The Communist Manifesto" and "Mein Kampf" among his favorite books.
A senior military official told ABC News Loughner attempted to join the Army but "never made it past the urinalysis."
A high school classmate of Loughner's said he was extremely political in high school, but not radical. The classmate said Loughner once met Giffords in 2007 and said he thought the congresswoman was "unintelligent."
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/09/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I think of this guy. In turn, I think of folks like Ted Kaczinsky, Sirhan sirhan, and Lee Harvey Oswald. All radicalized lefty loons.
What names are out there for radicalized righty loons?
#4
I listened to Prima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik's press conference. While he stopped just short of blaming Rush Linbaugh and Fox, his lips were dripping with anti-cable news innuendo and rhetoric. He was rather snappy as well about the absence of police security afforded the Giffords event. I was not at all impressed with this old fellow.
#5
Interesting how ABC News goes over and over about how radical and political he was. But never mention that he was a liberal. A new twist to 'Name That Party'....
#6
One can hope that some day some cowboys rope Fred Phelps and his evil brood and drag them for miles through Texas Sandburrs and Cactus....
Posted by: Water Modem ||
01/09/2011 2:20 Comments ||
Top||
#7
One can hope that some day some cowboys rope Fred Phelps and his evil brood and drag them for miles through Texas Sandburrs and Cactus...
Just a dab of black oilfield pipe dope or lithium grease hidden underneath their car door handles and uploaded youtube videos enough times showing their reaction, they'll get the message. Much gentler and funnier way of dealing with them...
#10
Stopped watching coverage on FOX yesterday after Shepard Smith announced three times that shooter was a veteran, although saying they didn't have other facts about anything else. The press gives vultures a bad name.
#11
So, Westboro "Baptist Church" intends to protest the 9 year old's funeral in direct violation of the Christian faith and Baptist doctrine. ALL corners of the liberal sphere is a very nasty, debased, treacherous, landscape to behold.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/09/2011 10:26 Comments ||
Top||
#14
Politico has a story that says Tea Party advertises on the site of American Rennaisance.
The ad is for a manufacturer of a version of the Gadsen flag out of Ohio. There are no, as in zero ads from any Tea Party organizations.
Here is the relevant text from the Politico article:
The feds are reportedly probing whether shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner has ties to an anti-Semitic, anti-government hate group that has ads for Tea Party organizations on its website.
The groupâs website features what appear to be paid advertisements for tea party versions of the âdonât tread on meâ flag.
Terrible, abysmal, abusive and manipulative reportage.
#17
The more i read about the guy, the more i'm convinced that he is not inspired by any political leaning (other than ron paul) but is heavily influenced by the so-called "conspiracy-websites" like Godlike-productions etc, having visited these type of page's i fear that there are many more like him out there.
#18
Sounds to me like a very carefully
crafted-in-advance Insanity plea. I do NOT believe he's nuts, just smart.
After all an insanity conviction means he can be Miraculosely "Cured" and released, where a Murder conviction warrants either Life-without-Parole or the death penalty.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/09/2011 12:07 Comments ||
Top||
#19
This should NOT happen. Why have these people not been jailed and fined previosuly?
Because they're Dem agent provocateurs (former Gore funderaisers, no less) pretending to be conservative for propaganda purposes.
#23
Sounds to me like they are stalking the Greene family.
Again, it is not a church, and he is not a priest. It is a tax shelter, they are lawyers with many links to liberal lawyers and lawfarers. TFSM is right that they likely do Rabble for Rubles. Their act is parody, like Colbert Report.
I suspect that the shooter was already mentally ill when he possibly experienced oxygen deprivation during an alcohol overdose in 06 that put some brain damage icing on his mental illness cake.
Damage to the Brocas area and the Wernickes area of the brain (left side) typically causes problems with speech and language. Damage to the right side of the brain may interfere with the ability to express emotions or interpret what one sees.
This sounds a lot like what some of his YouTube ramblings were about, why he thought other people were illiterate or stupidhe had difficulty processing what they were saying.
In any event, I suspect that he will or already has talked to a psychiatrist, and if this is the case, such symptoms would be red flags for diagnosis.
Its a good question whether they would put him in a general prison population, or if he would make the elite crew at the Arizona State Hospital (for the insane). Neither are particularly pleasant.
Since he popped a federal judge, the feds own him. If insane, this means he will go to one of the five Federal Medical Centers, prisons for the insane.
FMC Carswell -- Fort Worth, Texas
FMC Devens -- Devens, Massachusetts
FMC Fort Worth -- Fort Worth, Texas
FMC Lexington -- Lexington, Kentucky
FMC Rochester -- Rochester, Minnesota
#26
screw jailing and fining fred phelps or any of his brood. It's time someone do away with this whole cult. The goovernment had no problem going after the Branch Davidians or the ppl at Ruby Ridge so why not start a case on these idiots? Or maybe a few cops need too turn their eyes while they get what they deserve at their next protest then maybe they just might shut the fuck up.
Posted by: chris ||
01/09/2011 15:51 Comments ||
Top||
#27
Media outlets are always trying to be the first got get the story out. They always will put thing out with out vetting them to be the first to put it out. Like durning the 9-11 attacks when one of the news outlets put out that newark airport caused the first aircraft to fly into the WTC to only recant after the second on hit. It is all about the reviews.
Look, I am not trying to make lite of this tragedy in Arizona but the Lefty Loons pilling on the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, etc., is like they are just falling out of the sky. That aspect is almost getting to be a bit comical. DEFINITLY over board!
In the mean time God Bless the victims. (from the Right)
#29
Kos gets a pass but Sarah Palin gets blamed? Figures.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/09/2011 16:42 Comments ||
Top||
#30
As to the shot itself, according to the medical report it was limited to just her left hemisphere, which is relatively better than if it crosses hemispheres, according to the surgeons.
So she was probably looking directly at the shooter when he fired.
#31
The bullet entered the back of her head. Since the shooter was about 4' away, it suggests to me she probably wasn't running, but had turned away or was jostled away.
#33
Comment from Karl Denninger: why was the Pima County Sheriff talking trash yesterday - he knows he's got himself a bit of 'splaining to do once people figure out that they had Jared Loughner in custody at least once, knew he was potentially unstable and that he was a threat to others. If they had done their job perhaps this wouldn't have happened - you see, it is already illegal for someone who is mentally ill to purchase and/or own a firearm, which begs the question: did every opportunity exist to interdict this individual at some point in the last couple of years, including direct contact with law enforcement who were aware of homicidal threats and his behavior at his college, and yet either the procedures were not in place to refer him for evaluation or they were not followed?
#34
The best group to welcome the Westboro Baptist Church to the 9 year old's funeral would be a group of other children who would show them the three gteatest things associated with the Christian faith ...faith, hope, love; these three things; and the greater of these is love.
#35
I was thinking a Cartel hit team. Terrorism redux
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/09/2011 20:24 Comments ||
Top||
#36
And they will show you 9 year olds stick figures sodomizing each other and call the parents names the children will remember when they are old and gray. You don't understand - they picket events which grade school kids attend like museums and plays. It is their goal to get in the kids' heads - liberals hate them because they stand for everything they hate about conservatives, and conservatives hate them because they know they are fakes playing an emotion game. I hate him because he is a slander to culture and Kansas, Phuck Phelps that leftist support lawyer in collar and tax shelter, whose only explanation for continued pushing of his madness and lawsuits is that he has friends or dirt in high places.
I will have to dig for weeks to free myself of the sinktrap if I tell you what I really think, but y'all should get the point. There is a pattern to his protests - only cities with enough police presence to secure his mob of stalkers.
Radicalized right wing loons - Osama bin Laden? Muqtada al Sadr? Mahmood Achmadinnajad?
Reuters has the basic story here, current at the rollover.
A gunman shot a congresswoman in the head, seriously wounding her, and killed six other people in a shooting rampage at a public meeting in Tucson on Saturday.
The attack by a suspect authorities described as having a "troubled past" took place outside a supermarket where Gabrielle Giffords, a 40-year-old Democrat, was meeting with constituents. Among the dead were a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl. Officials said 12 people were wounded.
The suspected gunman, identified by a federal law enforcement official as Jared Lee Loughner, 22, opened fire with a semi-automatic pistol at point-blank range. The suspect was tackled to the ground by two bystanders after the shooting and was in custody.
Giffords, beginning her third term in the House of Representatives, was in critical condition after surgery at Tucson University Medical Center and doctors said they were cautiously optimistic about her prospects for recovery.
Thank goodness for that, and prayers for the victims and their families.
It was not known if the shooting was connected to any political stance, although Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said he believed that Giffords was the intended target of the shooting.
"(The suspect) has kind of a troubled past and we're not convinced that he acted alone," Dupnik told a news conference. Authorities were seeking a second man in connection with the shooting, he said.
Dupnik said the suspect had made threats to kill in the past but not against Giffords. "All I can tell you is that this person may have a mental issue," Dupnik said.
Dr. Steven Rayle, who helped restrain the gunman, told CNN he was dressed in a shabby manner but looked focused as he fired indiscriminately into the crowd.
President Barack Obama sent FBI Director Robert Mueller to Arizona to oversee the investigation, telling reporters, "We don't yet know what provoked this unspeakable act."
"The surgeons I spoke to are cautiously optimistic (that Giffords will survive)," Richard Carmona, a former U.S. surgeon general and family friend, told the Tucson news conference. "With guarded optimism I hope she will survive."
Giffords was hosting a "Congress on Your Corner" event -- public gatherings to give her constituents a chance to talk directly with her -- when the gunman attacked from about 4 feet away, National Public Radio said. He approached Giffords from behind, firing at least 20 shots at her and others in the crowd, MSNBC said, citing law enforcement officials and witnesses.
Queston about a potential second suspect, from WaPo:
Authorities are seeking a second person in connection with the shooting in Tucson Saturday that killed six people and wounded a dozen others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).
Police have one suspect in custody, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, whom they believe was the gunman. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said authorities believe another individual may have been involved.
"We're not convinced he acted alone," Dupnik said of the suspect in custody. "There's some reason to believe that he came to this location with another individual."
He declined to offer details.
More details from the eyewitness, and details of the weapon used:
Eyewitness Steven Rayle, a Tucson doctor, said he saw a young man wearing sneakers and what appeared to be navy blue sweats approach Gifford with a semi-automatic handgun raised. The man shot Giffords once in the face, he said.
After Giffords fell, he said, a number of people near Giffords sought to flee but were trapped--hemmed in by the table and a concrete post. The gunman fired into the crowd, he said.
"It was so close, and sort of a tight thing, there was nowhere easy to run," Rayle said. "So most of the crowd got it, you know."
"People that were there were just sitting ducks," Rayle said. "I don't think he was even aiming. He was just firing at whatever."
After a few seconds, Rayle said, the man stopped shooting and tried to flee.
According to law enforcement sources, the gun used in the shooting was purchased legally on Nov. 30 at Sportman's Warehouse, 3945 W. Cosco Dr. in Tucson. Store manager Reese Widmier said the store has been in business for five years. "It' a horrible incident," he said. "This stuff should never happen. We're cooperating with the ATF and all the federal agencies to help with this tragic incident."
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/09/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
He must have used the wrong type of ammo and/or too powerful a gun if the bullet passed clear through her head and out the other side, or maybe he just grazed her brain.
[Asharq al-Aswat] Two people were killed and 400 injured, 300 of them police, in riots in Algeria linked to rising food costs and unemployment, Interior Minister Dahou Oul Kablia said Saturday as the government scrambled to defuse the crisis.
One was rubbed out on Friday in Ain Lahdjel in the M'Sila region, 300 kilometres (180 miles) southeast of Algiers, the minister said on national radio.
"He died in an attempt to break into a cop shoppe," he added, confirming a report in the Arab-language daily El Khabar, which named the victim as 18-year-old, Azzedine Lebza.
A second demonstrator was killed on Friday in Bou Smail, a small town 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Algiers, he said.
"He was picked up in the street, maimed. A pathologist said he had died from wounds to the head, but the cause of death has not yet been established."
A medical official said earlier that the man, 32-year-old Akriche Abdelfattah, had been hit in the face by a tear gas canister.
Kablia said that police had been ordered to show restraint in containing the demonstrations and had been paid for it.
"More than 300 police and gendarmes have been maimed, while on the other side there are fewer than 100 hurt," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/09/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Jazeera] Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister, has said that civil war may break out in Cote d'Ivoire, "unless there is a negotiated settlement".
Speaking to Al Jizz's David Frost on Friday, Odinga said he was disappointed that incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo broke an earlier promise he had made to lift the blockade on Alassane Ouattara, the man who is internationally recognised as the winner of Cote d'Ivoire's recent election.
"Ouattara and his team are still locked up in the Golf hotel in Abidjan. That of course shows that president Gbagbo does not intend to honour his words," he said.
Odinga visited Cote d'Ivoire on Monday and is working as the African Union representative in the country.
He also told Frost that the country is highly polarised.
"There is the north-south divide then there is the issue of the indigenous Ivoirians vis-a-vis the immigrant population which is more than two thirds the population, and there are the Mohammedans and Christians so I think this requires some kind of unity,
"We need to have reconciliation in order to unite the country so that the game of exclusion, which has been played for far too long is resolved and the people are fully united. I think that Gbagbo has some fanatical support among his people and unless there is a negotiated settlement there may be civil war in the event that Gbagbo is just driven out of power."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/09/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Attackers targeted a rally for a prominent politician in Nigeria's oil-producing region, killing several people and wounding scores of others, a military front man and witness said today.
An AFP correspondent who was at the scene said it appeared around four people were killed, while some local media reported six dead. Authorities confirmed two fatalities.
The attack on Friday occurred as Timi Alaibe returned to his home in Bayelsa state from the capital Abuja after resigning from his post as President Goodluck Jonathan's adviser on the oil-rich Niger Delta region.
Alaibe resigned to run for governor in Bayelsa in April elections, and a crowd of supporters welcomed him at the airport on Friday before following him to his home in a convoy. A rally then took place at his home and compound in the town of Opokuma.
The attackers may have infiltrated the crowd at the airport, Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Antigha told AFP. They are believed to have worn Alaibe shirts being passed out to disguise themselves, he said, adding that some people were attacked inside Alaibe's compound and others outside.
It appeared most of the attackers used machetes and knives, while a gun is believed to have been stolen from a police officer and also used, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/09/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Google Translate This is a big deal. PRI and and their longtime rival, Partido Accion Nacional (PAN), are both reloaded with new leadership, making Mexican 2011 state and 2012 national elections even more interesting
Former Coahuila governor Humberto Moreira and Cristina Diaz Salazar, a Nuevo Leon federal deputy, have been confirmed elected to leadership positions within the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), is has been confirmed.
Senator Pedro Joaquin Coldwell, chairman of the PRI's Comision Nacional de Procesos Internos (CNPI), confirmed the two were elected after a brief campaign.
Moreira is considered a populist within the PRI, and he succeeds Beatriz Parades Rangel, who stepped down after her four year term riding a stunning wave of state level electoral victories last summer.
Moreira's victory is seen as a unity selection given the requirement he had to get the approval of several constituent groups within the PRI, including campesino and workers groups.
"After an epic seven years in the making, the Kittiwake, the former US submarine rescue vessel, has finally made it to her new home: The seabed off Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman where she has become the newest artificial reef in the Caribbean. Yesterday, the USS Kittiwake met her final resting place in the warm, clear water off Grand Cayman."
#1
As sad as it is to see such a ship scuttled, in short order it will produce a profusion of sea life and fish, encouraging both fishing and diving, which in turn makes sailors.
Google Translate
Mexican president Felipe Calderon has announced changes to his cabinet Friday, replacing his Minster of Energy and Minister of Communications and Transport, according to Mexican news reports.
Jose Antonio Meade Kuribreña, who had been serving under Calderon as an undersecretary in the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, now assumes the post of Minister of Energy replacing Georgina Kessel, who is stepping down to become CEO of Mexico's National Bank of Public Works and Services (BANOBRAS). BANOBRAS' old boss, Alonso Garcia Tamez, left Calderon's government to enter the private sector.
Dionisio Perez-Jacome Friscione becomes Mexico's Minister of Communications and Transport, replacing Juan Molinar, who resigned to assist newly elected Partido Accion National (PAN) leader Gustavo Madero in the upcoming elections in 2011 and the national elections in 2012.
Perez-Jacome Friscione, who formerly held an undersecretary position in the Minstry of Finance, was part of the Mexican team that negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Perez-Jacome Friscione is an economist by trade educated at Harvard.
There seems to be no end to Zainab Sulaiman's woes despite several attempts by paranormal experts to rid her of spirits believed to be behind over 200 mysterious fires which have broken out in her home.
On Wednesday night, a group of local Muslim ghostbusters called Darul Shifaq spent half the night in her house at Kampung Penambang Bunga Emas (M'Asia) here chanting Quranic verses.
They also used blessed water to cleanse her ancient collection of keris, swords, and brasswares where the spirits are believed to be staying.
Darul Shifaq leader Zakaria Ya said djinn or spirits rarely possess human beings.
"We have come across this sort of paranormal activity before, and her ancient belongings may be the cause of the fires.
"Zainab could have inherited ancient keris or swords from her forefathers who could have practised black magic," he said.
Zainab says that the number of fires have increased.
"I counted at least 46 new fires appearing on anything made from cloth at all corners of the house since Wednesday.
"Despite the attempts of Darul Shifaq, the spirits are still here,'' she said.
Zainab, 73, who lives in the wooden house with her daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, said an American couple visited her recently and offered to help rid the house of the spirits.
"They came here with tour guides at about 7pm, but I politely turned them down because of language problems.
"Furthermore, I am afraid anything I do now may anger the spirits further," she said.
Earlier, a Siamese medium had attempted to chase away the spirits but was unsuccessful.
The fires have destroyed 200 items of clothing as well as prayer mats and two mattresses.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/09/2011 19:49 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Where she lives has a lot of precipitation, and I bet that it also has a lot of industrial pollution, especially of nitrogen dioxide. Dissolved in water NO2 becomes nitric acid.
When nitric acid is put through a fiber like cellulose or cotton it turns it into gun cotton.
#4
concur w/ crosspatch and swksvolFF opinions, compination of icing conditions and a second go around, indicating bad visibility along with the bad wx, although the aircraft broke up, the fact that several people were able to walk out (according to the article) sort of confirms that fuel was low or gone. All them 727's are getting old, and maintenance headaches, even for good wrenches.
No 727's have been made since the mid 80s and this one probably was purchased before the Shah fell in 1979.
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/09/2011 21:08 Comments ||
Top||
#6
hmmm there's a simple way to stop the blockades. Quit being assholes, supporting terrorism, and developing nuke weapons for genocide. But that's too tough...
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/09/2011 21:50 Comments ||
Top||
An Iranian Boeing 727 passenger plane has crashed in bad weather in northwestern Iran on Sunday, killing at least 70 people and injuring 35.
Mahmoud Mozafar, chief of the Iranian Red Crescent, said that many of the wounded were are in bad condition. He said 106 people total were on board the plane when it crashed. Another Red Crescent official, Heidar Heidari, told IRNA, that the "death toll is expected to increase."
Mozafar told state television "the plane was smashed into pieces but did not explode."
Earlier, Iranian sources gave other accounts of the number of people on board, which some have said crashed just before landing at the airport in the city of Urumiyeh. State television said the plane had been heading from Tehran to Urumiyeh.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
