Now there are reports that Chief Judge John Roll of the US District Court in AZ was also shot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCarthy_Roll

He was included in Janet Napolitano's condolences.

UMC press conference is currently going on. The neurosurgeon reported that Gabrielle Giffords is out of surgery, and he is optimistic about her recovery because she was shot "through and through on one side of her head" and is following commands. That is great! Unfortunately, at UMC they had one patient die, a 9 year old child.

I'm glad that she responded well to surgery. One thing that pops to mind though is how this happened. Both a Federal Judge and a Member of Congress were attacked and badly wounded. Where were the Capitol Police and the Marshals?

It happened in a supermarket parking lot in Tucson.

The alleged shooter was arrested. His name is Jared Loughner. If you google him, some really freaky YouTube videos pop up that provide insight into his motive.

This one is particularly scary: http://www.casttv.com/video/pu4epa8/...loughner-video

He's clearly mentally unstable.

But hey, let's blame Sarah Palin and the Tea Party (the gist of facebook feed currently).

Uhh..yeah...WTF?

I agree that he is mentally unstable. The argument can be made, though, that mentally unstable people can be swayed by hyperbolic arguments made by people like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. Reasonable people can see through their theatrics, but some people cannot. We've already had someone attempt to gun down people at The Tides Foundation because of the rhetoric he heard on Glenn Beck's show. I think we just ALL need to tone it down quite a bit. We've had more than one Tea Party political favorite suggest a "2nd Amendment remedy" if they don't get their way. Well, they didn't get their way and unseat Congresswoman Giffords. The majority of Tea Party members/believers are normal people who just have a different political viewpoint, but these kinds of vitriolic statements can push a mentally unstable person to exercise that remedy.

This is really unnecessary. I belive most level-headed people are simply waiting for the facts.

^^^I wholeheartedly agree. Apologies if my sarcasm did not come across.

I do believe Sarah Palin would be truly remorseful if the shooter said he did it because of anything she said. I don't think anyone believes that she wanted someone to put Congresswoman Giffords in real crosshairs.

No, your sarcasm did come across. I just think it would be wise to refrain from making any political statements right now. This includes complaining about those who are complaining.

Well then color me unwise. It's completely inappropriate that people are placing direct blame on politics instead of the perpetrator, which is exactly what some people are doing.