Arizona Congresswoman Shot In The Head At Event UPDATED

Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head today at an event at a grocery store in her home district in Tuscon.  NPR is reporting she has been taken to nearby University Medical Center.

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 nine other people, including members of her staff, were hurt. 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.

The suspect ran off and was tackled by a bystander. He was taken into custody. Witnesses described him as in his late teens or early 20s.

More on this tragedy as it unfolds.  Hopefully the Congresswoman and all injured will recover.

[UPDATE]:  AP is reporting that Gabrielle Giffords did not survive her injuries.

[UPDATE 2]:  NPR is reporting that six others were also killed in the shooting.

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.

A terrible day for America.

[UPDATE 3]:  Hotline On-Call's Reid Wilson:

I did a story once on Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, a NASA astronaut who is scheduled to captain the next shuttle flight.

This is an absolute travesty. 

[UPDATE 4]  Dave Weigel reminds us that the last Member of Congress to be assassinated was Democratic Rep. Leo Ryan of California, in Jonestown in 1978.

[UPDATE 5]  Gawker is reporting an eyewitness account identifies one of the victims in the shooting as a ten-year old child.  Jesus, Mary, Sikkar and the Flying Spaghetti Monster.  A ten-year old kid.

[UPDATE 6]  MSNBC reporting now that Giffords is not dead, but in critical condition. 

[UPDATE 7]  Congresswoman Giffords remains in very critical condition at Tuscon's University Medical Center, in surgery now to try to save her life.  President Obama calls the assassination attempt "a senseless and terrible act that has no place in a free society."   Once again, at this time, Rep. Giffords is alive and in surgery.

[UPDATE 8]  Talking Points Memo is reporting that one of the victims shot at the event was a federal judge. 

[UPDATE 9]  The federal judge, Chief Judge John Roll, appointed by Bush Sr., has died. 

[UPDATE 10]  US Capitol Police are putting the toll at 18 shot in total, 6 dead so far including Judge Roll.  Congresswoman Giffords remains in critical condition. 

[UPDATE 11]  AP reports the shooter as one Jared Laughner. 

[UPDATE 12]  Press conference at the medical center, 11 brought in including Giffords, one dead, 5 critical, 5 in surgery, docs "optimistic" Giffords will recover.  The person who died in surgery was the 9-year old girl.  My God.

[UPDATE 13]  President Obama speaking now at the Oval Office, says he's sending FBI Director Mueller to Arizona to assist Gov. Brewer in the investigation.  Confirms that Judge Roll and the 9-year old girl were among the 5 dead so far.  "What Americans do in a time of tragedy is come together."

[UPDATE 14]  Arizona's GOP Gov. Jan Brewer speaking, says "We have disturbed people in our communities who do terrible things" and urges the country to "move on" from this disaster. Very bizarre speech.

Food For Thought

In another troubling sign the global recession is far from over, rising food prices in Algeria has sparked another round of riots in the north African country.

Rioting broke out across Algeria again yesterday, with police deployed around mosques in the capital after days of violent protests against high food prices and unemployment. 

Riot police armed with tear gas and batons maintained a strong presence around mosques in Algiers, while unrest spread outside the capital. The official APS news agency said protesters ransacked government buildings, banks and post offices in several eastern cities overnight, including Constantine, Jijel, Setif and Bouira. In the Belcourt district of the capital, rioting resumed after Friday prayers. Young protesters pelted police with stones and blocked roads.

Hundreds of youths clashed with police in several Algerian cities earlier this week. On Wednesday, riot police used tear gas to disperse youths in the Algiers neighbourhood of Bab el-Oued, where the most violent of the protests occurred. 

The cost of flour and cooking oil has doubled in the past few months.

Unemployment stands at about 10 per cent, the government says. Independent organisations put it closer to 25 per cent. Official data put inflation at 4.2 per cent in November.

Not every country has a Federal Reserve willing to tinker with the margins to kill inflation, either.  The reality is while prices on big ticket items are falling, basic staples and simple commodities are rising worldwide.  It's not going to be pretty, either.

More of this will be coming.  And soon.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Republicans have been irresponsibly characterizing the Affordable Care Act as evil and un-American and despotic for so long now that a group of Wyoming Republican state legislators have come full circle into the abyss and taken the evil, un-American, and despotic act of trying to criminalize implementation of the law as a felony worth up to 5 years in jail.  Ezra Klein:

In the Wyoming state legislature, 10 congressmen and three senators have co-sponsored "The Health Care Choice and Protection Act." The intent? To make it a felony to implement the health-care reform law -- which is, you'll remember, the official law of the land. Here's the relevant bit:

Enforcement of federal laws prohibited; offenses and penalties.
Any official, agent, employee or public servant of the state of Wyoming as defined in W.S. 6-5-101, who enforces or attempts to enforce an act, order, law, statute, rule or regulation of the government of the United States in violation of this article shall be guilty of a felony punishable by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars ($5,000.00), imprisonment in the county jail for not more than two (2) years, or both.

Any official, agent or employee of the United States government or any employee of a corporation providing services to the United States government that enforces or attempts to enforce an act, order, law, statute, rule or regulation of the government of the United States in violation of this article shall be guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than five (5) years, a fine of not more than five thousand dollars ($5,000.00), or both.

Ezra goes on to point out the legislation wouldn't last any longer than a popsicle in a blast furnace in front of a judge of any stripe.  The larger point, and I agree with him, is that Republican rhetoric on what the Democrats have done over the last two years -- basically classifying everything they don't agree with as something that Americans should rise up against, and that a country governed by Democrats is unconstitutional bordering on tyranny -- has now resulted in the attempted criminalization of representative democracy itself.

This legislation here?  This really is the government trying to throw people in jail for the "crime" of disagreeing with somebody in a democratic state.

That's the difference between the rhetoric and the action.  And Republicans own this idiocy, lock, stock, and barrel.

Don't Throw Me In The Mandate Briar Patch

Slate's Adam Chandler and Luke Norris argue that if the insurance mandate part of the HCRA is struck down as unconstitutional, it should be replaced by the public option.

Conservatives argue that for Congress to require all Americans to buy private health insurance exceeds its regulatory powers under the Constitution's Commerce Clause. Before Judge Hudson, they distinguished the health care law's individual mandate from government programs like Social Security. The Social Security program is designed so that Americans pay taxes directly to the government, which pools the money and disburses future Social Security benefits. In contrast, the novelty of the health care law is that it requires Americans not to pay a tax, but rather to buy their health care insurance privately. The government's involvement is a step removed, and this is what Judge Hudson found to be constitutionally defective.

But here's the catch: If the part of the health care law that's unconstitutional is the part telling people to buy private insurance, an obvious solution is to pass a health care law including a public health plan, which would operate like Social Security and Medicare. In other words, the public option. With a public option as part of the law, people who don't want to buy insurance from a private health care company would pay into a government fund in exchange for an insurance benefit, just as they do with Social Security and Medicare.

Opponents could still argue that any law requiring universal coverage is beyond Congress' reach. But they'd run into a big wall: Supreme Court decisions that place Social Security and Medicare, along with a list of other entitlements, squarely within the constitutional ambit of Congress. Like we said, the public option and Social Security and other entitlements are structurally quite similar—indeed, the public option is essentially a form of Medicare. So to strike down the public option would require reversing a lot of well-established precedent. Courts would have to return to the laissez-faire ideology of a century ago, epitomized by the 1905 Supreme Court case Lochner v. New York. That ruling infamously limited the extent to which the government could intervene in the private sphere, leaving legislatures unable even to set minimum-wage laws, for example. And courts long ago repudiated it.

Now suppose that conservatives succeed with their current, safer legal strategy, and knock out the individual mandate. Because the private-only mandate had been the middle, compromise position, Congress would be left with the two more extreme options on health care—either a plan that includes something like the public option, or the status quo. As costs rise and more Americans go uninsured, will the public really want to roll back reform? When Americans are asked about the current health care law, a majority say they either favor it or wish it were even stronger. Making the public option the only option would fulfill the wish of those wanting a stronger bill. 

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It's a solid argument and one I agree with.  I think the mandate should be dropped and the public option instituted because the public option is a far better solution, not because the mandate is unconstitutional, I don't believe it is and I don't believe it will be found as such.

But hey, hell of a reason to implement a Medicare for all option for all Americans to pay into, yes?

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Oil continues to wash up on the Louisiana coast some nine months after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.
• The US Army is revising and revisiting its policy on women in combat, according to the Army's top General.
• Pakistan's ruling coalition managed to entice back a former member to keep a slim majority, but the government is on shaky ground.
• A package that ignited inside a Washington post office was addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
• The Justice Department has delivered a subpoena to Twitter asking for information on an ex-WikiLeaks volunteer in Iceland.

Last Call

Rep. Anthony Weiner goes up against the Bachmanniac on Social Security, and utterly decimates her.

In one characteristic exchange about Social Security, Bachmann said that "all the surplus in Social Security is a big vault stuffed with IOU notes, there's not one dime sitting in there."

Weiner shot back: "Are you surprised to learn, Congresswoman Bachmann, that we don't have a room filled with dimes?"

And it only gets worse for Bachmann from there.  Keep in mind this is Weiner going on Hannity the Manatee's show on FOX News and making her look exactly as foolish has she needs to be portrayed as.

More of this, please.

Turn On The Lights, Watch The Roaches Scatter, Part 57

An avalanche begins with a few small pebbles.

US Bancorp and Wells Fargo & Co. lost a foreclosure case in Massachusetts’s highest court that will guide lower courts in that state and may influence others in the clash between bank practices and state real estate law. The ruling drove down bank stocks.

The state Supreme Judicial Court today upheld a judge’s decision saying two foreclosures were invalid because the banks didn’t prove they owned the mortgages, which he said were improperly transferred into two mortgage-backed trusts.

“We agree with the judge that the plaintiffs, who were not the original mortgagees, failed to make the required showing that they were the holders of the mortgages at the time of foreclosure,” Justice Ralph D. Gants wrote.

Foreclosuregate has now officially become a Major Problem for the banks, ladies and gentlemen.  Bank stocks got hammered today as a result. 

Now things get ugly.

The Mask Slips Again

And Republicans show their bigotry towards Latinos, this time in Missouri.

One of the five planks of House Speaker Steve Tilley’s Show Me Solutions Initiative priorities list is to end new driver testing in languages other than English.

In the section of his speech to the House calling for more accountability in government yesterday, Tilley said the state had the duty to require anyone wanting a Missouri driver’s license to pass it in the state’s official language.

You'd think you want people to fully understand the driving laws of the land so that they don't hurt people while driving, but apparently that's not the public safety issue here.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol conducts written tests of would-be drivers in 12 languages, including English, said Capt. Tim Hull, director of the public education and information office. The languages include major European languages such as Spanish, French, Italian and German, as well as Chinese, Greek, Korean, Russian, Vietnamese, Japanese and Bosnian.

If a driver cannot pass the road test, they may hire, at their expense, an interpreter from a state-approved list, Hull said.

With road sign colors and symbols based on an international standard, Hull said, the patrol sees no safety issues for drivers who are not well-versed in English.

So even the Missouri state troopers agree with this.  They want people informed of the laws, and the whole point of shapes and colors on road signs is to make them recognizable without having to read them.  In fact, part of the written test in just about any state is to recognize the signs without lettering on them, so Tilley's legislation is a moot point from a public safety issue.  And let's not pretend everybody driving a car in Missouri (or any state for that matter) is 100% literate, either.  That's why the signs are shaped and colored like they are.

Again, this is a moot point.  So what's Tilley's real game here?  The mask slips again thanks to a fellow Republican:

Rep. John Cauthorn, R-Mexico, said he likes the idea and thinks his constituents will, too.

“The average guy on the street hates Spanish, and it is everywhere,” Cauthorn said. “To the average guy, that is important. We are almost to the point of losing our identity as a nation.

“If folks are going to come here and work, they need to work toward learning the English language,” he said.

Ding ding ding!

In State Rep. Cauthorn's world, the average guy "hates Spanish" and presumably hates those who speak it, too.  Those who speak other languages than English are robbing America of its identity, according to him.  They're not American.  They don't count.

Cauthorn seems to think the average Missourian is a nationalist racist asshole...and he's proud of this.  Fascinating.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

If this is the new normal for the Tea Party right (and every indication that these inmates are indeed well ensconced in administration and day-to-day affairs of the asylum) then the next two years are going to be awesome.

An apparent member of the birther movement seated in the gallery of the House of Representatives on Thursday interrupted a reading of the Constitution. The woman yelled out "Except Obama, except Obama, help us Jesus!" as Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) read the "natural born citizen" clause of the Constitution.

The woman screamed out from the House Gallery as Pallone read Section 1 of Article Two of the United States Constitution, which reads that "No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." 

Steve M. has much more on this particular World Nut Daily all-star, Theresa Cao, Professional Birther.

The monster the wingers created is now quite loose in DC.

Bon's List Of Things To Track In 2011

Everyone has their favorite topics and points of view.  I plan to do some lengthy follow-ups on a few things, and some patterns have emerged.  I see a lot of things going on, but they all come back to civil rights and the way fear is being used to coerce citizens into giving up their rights.  For this, I am going to introduce a new tag: Civil Stupidity.

Here are some things you may see referenced under this tag:

Privacy -  We are losing our right to privacy and our freedom to make decisions for ourselves.  Some of this started with Bush's failures by allowing calls to be tapped without a warrant, and has continued with Obama.  Internet privacy is going to become a hot topic while ISPs fight for customers.

Women's rights - Over the past few years, women have had some successes with equal treatment, but they are the exception to the rule.  Equal pay in the workforce was killed by Republicans, and recently it was suggested that women may not be guaranteed protection and equality in the Constitution.  The latter was in contradiction to a unanimous ruling, but the fact that it was even uttered is cause for alarm.

LGBT issues - Dont Ask Don't Tell, gay marriage, the ability for two consenting adults to live how they please.  Why is this anyone's business?  Why does anyone feel they have the right to dictate how others should live?  I proudly performed my first same-sex wedding ceremony, and I hope to report some breakthroughs on this front in 2011.

On Facebook and in the comments, readers are always welcome to throw in their two cents.  Please feel free to chip in your opinions, and if you see an article that you think is of interest to to Civil Stupidity, please drop me a line here, or at my site (www.bonthegeek.com).

Rudy Awakening For 2012

Here's my question about this:

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) denied on Friday reports he is rounding up staff to explore a run for president in 2012.

Giuliani, the former 2008 presidential candidate, denied a New York Post report that he was gearing up to run again in 2012. 

"I haven't done that. I haven't rounded up my political advisers," Giuliani said on MSNBC.

He said that a coming trip to New Hampshire, a key primary state, came without political intentions, too.

"I go to New Hampshire a lot; I don't have anything scheduled right now," he said.

Why would anyone even consider that Giuliani, after his complete freakin' disaster of a run in 2008, would ever try again in 2012? Exactly what has changed between now and then for Rudy in particular to be even remotely considered a viable candidate for President?

Nothing.  The guy's a joke.  I actually consider him a rung down the 2012 GOP list from people like Gingrich and John Bolton's mustache, for crying out loud.

Go away Rudy, nobody cares.  I don't even have a tag for your useless ass.

Environment For Deconstructing An Agency

House Republicans are wasting little time in immediately going after the EPA's energy company pollution rules.

That didn't take long. On the first day of the 112th Congress, a group of Republican members—and one Democrat—offered a bill to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating planet-warming gases under the Clean Air Act.

E2 Wire flagged a note in the Congressional Register that Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) yesterday introduced a bill to amend the Clean Air Act, though the description didn't include much detail. A spokesman for the representative confirmed to Mother Jones that the new bill is exactly the same as HR 391, which Blackburn and others filed in January 2009. She's introduced a measure just like it, though the new text isn't posted yet.

The measure is just over one page in length, and would alter the Clean Air Act to specifically exclude greenhouse gases from regulation. It goes so far as to specify that carbon dioxide should not be considered pollution at all. "The term 'air pollutant' shall not include carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, or sulfur hexafluoride," the bill states.

In case that wasn't enough, it goes on: "Nothing in the Clean Air Act shall be treated as authorizing or requiring the regulation of climate change or global warming." The measure has 45 Republican co-sponsors and one Democrat, Rep. Dan Boren of Oklahoma.

Once again, any legislation that the House passes here has to get by a Presidential veto.  I'd also like every co-sponsor of this bill to submit themselves and their families to one hour per day in a room filled with carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride since these aren't pollutants.

Let's see how long that lasts.  Both the judicial and the executive are on the side of the environment here, and that the EPA has the authority.  This question is settled law.

Jobapalooza

October and November job gains revised upward 70K and a 103K job gain in December dropped the unemployment rate to 9.4% last month, but of course Helicopter Ben will keep his hands on the throttle.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks on the economic outlook before the Senate Budget Committee at 9:30 a.m.

Analysts say the Fed's focus is on unemployment and expect it to complete the bond-buying plan.

"Gains in payrolls won't be enough to spark a change in Fed policy until the gains either accumulate for many, many months or are accompanied by gains in inflation expectations," said Tony Crescenzi, a strategist at bond fund PIMCO.

The economy usually needs to create at least 125,000 jobs a month to keep the unemployment rate from rising, but a faster pace might be needed now since so many discouraged workers are sitting on the sidelines. As job growth picks up, these workers could re-enter the labor force, keeping upward pressure on the jobless rate.

Employment gains in December were led by the private services sector, which saw payrolls rising 115,000 after gaining 84,000 in November. Retail jobs increased 12,000 after a surprise 19,400 slump in November when retailers reported their best sales in years.

Temporary hiring, seen as a harbinger of permanent employment, increased 15,900 after 31,100 in November.

The U-6 number is down to 16.7%, and we're headed in the right direction, but that just means we're breaking even instead of losing jobs.  We'll need a almost a decade of 250K job growth months just to get back to 2007 employment highs, let alone to improve on them.

The Price Of Moral Hazard: $450 Million And Counting

Simon Johnson has an excellent point:  why are taxpayers backstopping Goldman Sachs' $450 million investment in Facebook?

On the face of it, this might seem just like what the financial sector is supposed to be doing – channeling money into productive enterprise. The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly looking at the way private investors will be involved, but there are more deeply unsettling factors at work here.

Remember that Goldman Sachs is now a bank-holding company – a status it received in September 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, in order to avoid collapse (see Andrew Ross Sorkin’s blow-by-blow account in “Too Big to Fail” for the details.)

This means that it has essentially unfettered access to the Federal Reserve’s discount window – that is, it can borrow against all kinds of assets in its portfolio, effectively ensuring it has government-provided liquidity at any time.

Any financial institution with such access to such government support is likely to take on excessive risk – this is the heart of what is commonly referred to as the problem of “moral hazard.” If you are fully insured against adverse events, you will be less careful.

Goldman Sachs is undoubtedly too big to fail – in the sense that if it were on the brink of failure now or in the near future, it would receive extraordinary government support and its creditors (at the very least) would be fully protected.

In all likelihood, under the current administration and its foreseeable successors, shareholders, executives, and traders would also receive generous help at the moment of duress. No one wants to experience another “Lehman moment.”

In other words, because Goldman is too big to fail, and can borrow as much money as it wants to in order to play Big Casino games, it's busy creating the next bubble to try to profit from:  Dot-Com, Part 2.

Take a look at stocks like Netflix and Apple.  Apple stock has nearly quadrupled since its March 2009 lows, from $85 to almost $340.  Netflix has gone from $20 a share two years ago to nearly $200 in the last month or so.  Now Goldman Sachs may make a nearly $2 billion investment in Facebook in order to keep the social networking's potential profits all to itself as a private company.

It's the biggest Big Casino game in the world, and Goldman just bought the high rollers room all to itself.  And in case this new rush in internet companies goes south again, guess who's picking up the check?

Gotta love it.

StupidiNews!

• An Ohio man has plead guilty to murdering and dismembering two women and one of the women's 11 year old son, receiving life without parole.
• The Earth's population will cross the 7 billion mark sometime in 2011.
• Despite talk of tens of billions of dollars in cuts in the Pentagon budget, overall defense spending will rise in 2011.
• US corporations appear to be headed for the most profitable quarter on record for Q4 2010.
• Over 30 teams are set to compete for the $30 million Google Lunar X prize for putting a private spacecraft on the moon.