Update: Shootings in Arizona -- First update at 2:00 pm, pst.

Please note that I have been more concerned with making the reports in this post "live." As a result, there have been a number of miscues as relates to spelling and grammar . We only took time to make corrections with our noonish update.

1:55 pm pst

Shooter is a Gerald Loughner - 22 years old. May be in military training.
Correction: shooter is Jarred Loughner. Reports of a second shooter, under arrest, is not a part of any cable news reporting.

"No, I won't trust in God" are words that appeared on his Facebook page as reported by Fox. That page has been taken down and CNN reporting does not know who closed down that site.

He came up to an open political form, held at a supermarket, and began shooting at point blank range. Representative Gabrielle Gifford (D-Az) was shot in the head. The bullet passed through and did not explode in the Congresswoman's head. As a result, it appears that she will survive. She remains in extreme critical condition, however.

18 individuals were wounded. 6 have died including a 9 year old girl.

A Federal District Judge was among those who have passed away.

This appears to be an accurate report. We have taken our information from CNN, MSNBC and FoxNews.

The shooting occurred at 10 am this morning Arizona time.

Update II 2:12 pm

A pistol was used in the shootings, not a semi-automatic.
The judges name is John Roll, a GW Bush appointment.

First reports from a moron in the press, tried to tie the TEA party to this tragedy. Hopefully, this will not be a recurring theme in the media's reporting.

The bullet shot at the Congresswoman passed through her head, from the temple and out the opposite side of the head. Again, the bullet did not explode as it passed through. The Congresswoman is responding to commands.

2:22 pst - 5 victims are in critical condition. We do not know if this count includes Rep. Giffords but believe that the count is in addition to the Senator.

At the House reading of the Constitution, she and 52 others read that document. She read the 1st amendment. She is a pro-gun ownership advocate. She is married to an astronaut. , Mark Kelly, who is scheduled to fly on the last US flight sometime near the first of April. She is beginning her third term as a Representative, defeating a TEA Party candidate by 4,000 plus votes. She is identified as a Blue Dog Democrat. At one time, she was a member of the GOP.

Update: 2:31 According to FoxNews, there is no confirmation to first reports that the shooter is or was a member of the military.

Update: 2:52. Rep Giffords is the first Jewish woman elected to office in the House of Representatives. She was very well thought of on both sides of the political aisle. She did not support the Arizona immigration bill, but she also did not support Obama's decision to file suit against the state. She understands 'states rights' and is supportive of same.

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Update: Sunday, 5:05 am . Giffords is a member of the House of Representative and is not a Senator as we have been reporting. She remains in an unconscious state following the operation.

There is a second "person of interest." Apparently, this second person of interest is not a second shooter. From a posted picture, this second person appears to be an older person with gray hair.

The shooting began at 10:10 am. He was taken down to the ground by two people attending the event.

He purchased his gun legally. The gun, a handgun, was a semi-automatic.

Giffords was responsive in the ambulance on the ride to hospital, squeezing the hand of one of her newly hired aides. She remains in extreme critical condition. The operation was successful. Swelling within the brain is the big problem, now. "Pray without ceasing " are words that come to my mind.

DHS believes the young shooter may be associated to a group known as American Renaissance. This group is being reported as an anti-government and anti-Semitic group.

We surveyed the American Renaissance site (lick on http://www.amren.com/) this morning. We found the site have an racial/white theme.

Here is a PDF entitled "The Color of Crime." This is advertised at the American Renaissance site. It features an analysis of crime based on racial demographics. Whites come out looking pretty "good" in such comparisons. This editor believes that such studies are fairly useless. One could just as easily do a similar study based on hair color. The fact of the matter is this: crime is a function of individual moral collapse measured in degrees and/or the impact/influence of wealth. I do not believe that race, per se, has anything to do with the reality of crime. While some can argue that more black youth belong to gangs than whites, that statistical fact is a measure of the impact of wealth or the lack thereof within an specific ethnic demographic.

We are not talking about individual wealth. By and large, we all function within certain ethnic collectives. . . . . . . . . But this is not time for a full on discussion of this particular issue so I will leave it at that, unfinished and without further discussion. Another time.

You can read the PDF here: http://www.colorofcrime.com/colorofcrime2005.pdf . Just don't get carried away with the facts of the racial comparisons. We do not doubt their accuracy, but, again, we do not believe racial surveys such as this PDF have anything to do with cause and effect as relates to crime.

New Century Foundation published the PDF referenced above. This appears to be a white nationalist organization. It was founded by a Jared Taylor in 1994.

Jared Loughner is a 22 year old. He was rejected by the military in Dec. of 2008 and by the local college he was attending [this past year]. The local college was concerned for his mental health according to FOX reporting.

Kieth Olbermann at MSNBC is the only reporter we listened to, yesterday, to make conservative talk the "real culprit." CNN and Fox did not go to this conclusion.

Update: 6:30 am Sunday

In a Fox News interview with a Col Badger who was attending the Tuscon event, Badger told Fox that the shooter had a 9mm semi-automatic handgun. When he stopped to reload, someone hit him from the back with a chair. The shooter went down and members of the crowd held him down and prevented even more killing. Col Badger, himself, was grazed in the head with one of the shooters bullets. He helped in keeping the shooter on the ground.

Two senior citizens are among the dead as is a 9 year old girl, one of Giffords' (Gabe Zimmerman) aides, a Federal judge and a minister from a local Church of Christ.

We reported earlier that the bullet passed from one side of the brain through and out the opposite side of the head. This is not the case. The bullet entered near the temple area and out the front of the head. The bullet only affected one side of the brain.

Update: 7:10 am Sunday

Representative Giffords remains in a medically induced coma. She continues to have brain function and the doctors remain hopeful for her recovery.

The shooter did not graduate from high school. There will be information coming from his "Space book" site which had been taken down. On that site, the shooter rants against the government and against God.


Julie Blanco, now 21 years old, a fellow student with Jared Loughner, talked briefly to Bill Hemmer on Fox News. She was in band with Jared and saw him often. "He was little bit weird . . . . but he wasn't rude or mean. . . . . . I had no idea he was like this . . . . he was a band kid . . "

Update: approx 9:00 am Sunday - UMC Press Conference

1. Cranial swelling is just beginning as a problem. A doctor on Fox told the reporter that the next 72 hours are the most critical as to the issues surrounding swelling.

2. 10 patients from the shooting remain at UMC (hospital)

3. UMC press conference this morning (9 am):

Dr. Rainer Gruessner: Yesterday, we had 6 patients in the operating rooms within an hour. . . .

Dr. Peter Rhee Director of Trauma : we saw 11 patients the nine year old came in dead and we could not resuscitate , we did 6 surgeries, only one patient remains in critical condition only three remain in serious condition.

Dr. Michael Lemole chief of surgery, "let me take you . . . Giffords was able to following commands . . . her bleeding was not server . . . . did not have to remove much dead brain matter . . . . she is able to communicate through following various commands . . . . we remain positive.

Dr. Rhee: regarding Giffords: she was able to following simple commands. We have been very happy with her hospital course . . . we are all very happy [with Giffords' progress] at this stage . . . she cannot open her eyes because of the surgery . . . she is on a ventilator . . . .

Lemole: the primary injury cannot be managed . . . secondary injury can be dealt with . . . . the left side of the brain is the side injured . . . . speech and following commands is effected by the left side of the brain in most people . . . . in neurosurgery, talk of recovery in terms of months and years . . . she may be out of the hospital in a matter of weeks . . .

Rhee : we do not know which direction she is going to go

Lemole: comments to the effect that Giffords brain is not as compromised as is the case in most head shots.
To the left is the 20 year Giffords aide credited with playing a key role in saving the life of Congresswoman Giffords life. He held her up so her breathing was not obstructed by blood; he applied pressure to the wound in an effort to control bleeding; he was telling others what to do to help with the victims they were involved with. Daniel Hernandez is his name. He is a 20 year old junior at the University of Arizona. He reports that Gifford could not talk but was very much conscious while he was offering assistance. This promises to be a great story. There are a number of such accounts.

Rhee: it looked very clear to me that the bullet passed from the back (left temple) to the front. . . . she is in a medially induced coma . . . .

(we post this while the conference is in progress)

We continue:

Rhee: the paramedics got her here quickly. . . . . . luck has a little to do with this . . . no one who should not have died, lived . . . Giffords early arrival and medical attention is part of the reason why she has survived to this time . . . she could not speak when she arrived . . . there is no comparison to a act of war and this event . . . . [war time events are far more involved is Rhee's suggestion]

Tomorrow at 10 am will be another medical conference update.

She got to the ER in 38 minutes; perhaps her 20 year aide played a significant role in saving her life. He was the young Giffords aide who held her up to keep her from choking on her own blood. You will be hearing more about this young, for certain.

The next 24 to 48 hours is the most critical from here on out. They have removed part of the skull bone to allow for swelling management according to Dr. Alvarez of Fox News.

Update: 11:35 am pst

The shooter had to 32 bullet clips for his 9 mm Glock handgun. He used the first clip according to the Pima County Sheriff. The shooter was successful in inserting the second clip but it would not discharge its ammunition.

One of the victims, a woman (wounded by the shooter) tried to take the second clip from the shooter but was refused. At some point in this timeline, the shooter was hit from the behind with a chair, knocked to the pavement and subdued by the two individuals. Quickly, there were four individuals involved in keeping the shooter down according to another wound event attendee, a Col. Badger.

The shooter had hoped to wound or kill and 60 individuals and himself. He had left a "good bye" on his email page.

The Pima County Sheriff is the first individual to politicize this event. He did it yesterday and again, this morning. In time, I, as editor of Midknight Review, will have to jump into the fray, but for now, I will hope that reason and commonsense will prevail. The Sheriff is angry and hurt. Some of these victims were his friends. He gets to speak his mind. Kieth Olbermann over at MSNBC a different story. He loves to hear himself talk. He even pretends that he is saying something of great importance. He did so last night. Let's never forget that the Left as guilty as the Right for saying things that could be taken out of context. Chris Matthews once gloried in the fantasy of Rush Limbaugh being shot and while he (Matthews) watched his (Rush) head "explode." Pretty brutal.

Anyway, lets put all that on the back burner for a few days.

This is a terrible tragedy and surviving loved ones do not need to listen to partisan bickering. Understand that the Marxist Media is already trying to get someone to assess blame by asking questions along this line: "Do you believe that negative political rhetoric has in any way contributed to this event."

I have heard a version of this question asked more than 20 different times , most of which was today. It was asked at the UMC press conference and, again, at the Pima County Sheriff's press conference among other incidences.

There is no doubt in my mind, that there will be a need to put the Left's "high and mighty" critique of the Right into some sort of historical context. Maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. I personally believe that the Left is far more prone to violence than the Right. At the same time, it is clear that "expressed , up front, violence" is the heavy message of a number of "right wing" groups. These groups are "easier" to find and for this reason: [Please forgive me for using this terminology but it really makes the point]

Far Right groups such as para-military, white supremacists and the less radical "good old boys" are "shit kickers" and proud of it. Because they are proud of their willingness to go to the streets, they are easily identified.

The Leftist radicals, on the other hand, pretend to be disgusted with violence. They want y0u to ignore the fact that the Unibomber was a liberal environmentalist and killed people for that reason; Bill Ayers was a young college aged punk who killed people for the sake of Marxist advances; Louis Farrakhan and Jeremiah Wright have both used extremely violent rhetoric; the New Black Panthers are no saints when it comes to violence; Trumpka, the head of the AFL-CIO has cited the need for combative violence in a number of his speeches; the man who tried to kill President Reagan was a liberal and death threats against Bush far exceed those made against Obama for the same period of time in their compared presidencies and on and on.

Anyway, we will document all this in due time. The point will be this --- the Left is no more innocent than the hard Right.

Again, this shooter is a young, messed up kid. It is no more complicated than that but watch the Lefties use this event try retard free political speech out of a feigned concern for civility.
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