₦airaland Forum

You're not going to take their guns.  Fuggedaboutit!

Shoot!  I want a gun sometimes.  And, I'm no right-winger NRA supporter.  You're not going to convince people to disarm when they believe criminals are armed to the hilt.  And no legislator or governor will champion it.  You see how this Giffords woman took a drastic turn to the right when her liberal-moderate records were challenged.

Omofat.  May I call you "Fatty"?  I like that name.   Anyway, I don't see any correlation between this nutjob's action and "the witch."  (There is information that he has hated Giffords since 2007, before Palin and the pissy tea party folk started beating their wardrum.) There is so much more to hang on her and her band of malcontents.  You can have at it too.  I am so in the mood for an anti-Palin rant right about now. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_congresswoman_shot;_ylt=AkPMeCAf5bSqmKeu_SzZpras0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNnZGxxYWtjBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwMTEyL3VzX2Nvbmdy
ZXNzd29tYW5fc2hvdARjY29kZQNyYW5kb20EY3BvcwMxBHBvcwMyBHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNhcG5ld3NicmVha20-

APNewsBreak: More warning signs on day of shooting
By AMANDA LEE MYERS and JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press – 4 mins ago

TUCSON, Ariz. – Investigators revealed more disturbing details about the events leading up to the assassination attempt against U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, including a menacing handwritten note in the suspect's home with the words "Die, naughty woman."

And on the day of the shooting, a mumbling Jared Loughner ran into the desert near his home after his father asked him why he was removing a black bag from the trunk of a family car, sheriff's officials said. Loughner resurfaced later Saturday when authorities say he showed up at a grocery store in a taxi and shot 19 people, killing six, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl.

Investigators provided the new details to The Associated Press and said they're still searching for the bag. They suspect it could contain clues into Loughner's motives.

"The bag is very important to us," said Capt. Chris Nanos, head of the Pima County Sheriff's Department's criminal investigations division. "What was in that bag and is there any relevance?"

"What if he wrote a note that says, 'Hey, I'm going to go do these things and I know it's wrong but I'm still going to do them,'" Nanos said. "That'd be a pretty good piece of evidence."

Authorities previously said they found handwritten notes in Loughner's safe reading "I planned ahead," "My assassination" and the name "Giffords." Pima County Chief Rick Kastigar and Nanos told the AP they also found notes with the words "Die, naughty woman", which they believe referenced Giffords, and "Die, cops."

All the writings were either in an envelope or on an actual form letter Giffords' office sent him in 2007 after he attended one of her political events, Nanos said.

Sheriff's deputies had been to the Loughner home at least once before the attack, spokesman said Jason Ogan said. He didn't know why or when the visit occurred, and said department lawyers were reviewing the paperwork and expected to release it Wednesday.

Loughner's parents, silent and holed up in their home since the shooting spree, apologized publicly Tuesday.

"There are no words that can possibly express how we feel," Randy and Amy Loughner wrote in a statement handed to reporters waiting outside their house. "We wish that there were, so we could make you feel better. We don't understand why this happened.

"We care very deeply about the victims and their families. We are so very sorry for their loss."

The apparent target of the attack, Giffords, 40, was able to breathe on her own Tuesday at an intensive care unit here, another hopeful sign of her progress, doctors said.

                                   - - - - - - - - - - -

In addition the new details about the hours before the shooting, interviews with those who knew Loughner or his family painted a picture of a young loner who did try to fit in.

Before everything fell apart, he went through the motions as many young men do nowadays: Living at home with his parents, working low-wage jobs at big brand stores and volunteering time doing things he liked.

None of it worked. His relationship with his parents was strained. He clashed with co-workers and police. And he couldn't follow the rules at an animal shelter where he spent some time.

One close high school friend who requested anonymity to avoid the publicity surrounding the case said he would wait outside 10 minutes for Jared to leave the house when they were going out.

When Jared would get into the car, he'd say that it took so long because his parents were hassling him.

The parents of another close friend recalled how Loughner's parents showed up at their doorstep in 2008 looking for their son, who had left home about a week before and broken off contact.

While the friend, Zach Osler, didn't want to talk with the AP, his parents Roxanne and George Osler IV did.

With the Loughners at their house, Zach Osler told them the name of the local hotel where their only child was staying, Zach's father said. Jared moved back in, he said.

After that, Osler's dad sometimes would see Mrs. Loughner at the local supermarket, though they didn't chat much. He recalled that every time he saw her she had at least one 30-pack of beer in her cart.

Loughner, now 22, would come over several times a week from 2007 to 2008, the Oslers said.

The boys listened to the heavy metal band Slipknot and progressive rockers The Mars Volta, studied the form of meditative movement called tai chi, and watched and discussed movies.

Loughner's favorites included little-known conspiracy theory documentaries such as "Zeitgeist" and "Loose Change" as well as bigger studio productions with cult followings and themes of brainwashing, science fiction and altered states of consciousness, including "Donnie Darko" and "A Scanner Darkly."

Even in small talk, he struck the Oslers as unusual.

"He always said, 'Hi, Mrs. Osler. How are you today?' When he left he made a point of coming over and saying, 'Thank you for having me over,'" said Roxanne Osler, noting that was not typical for Zach's friends. "Jared struck me as a young man who craved attention and acceptance."

Once he shared with the Oslers a short story he had written about a reporter meeting an angel during the apocalypse.

George Osler IV read it, thought it was well written, but couldn't identify the point.

"He seemed like he was kind of offended that I didn't get the message," George Osler said.

Meanwhile, the unfailingly polite kid they knew was getting into trouble.

Loughner was arrested in October 2008 on a vandalism charge near Tucson after admitting that he vandalized a road sign with a magic marker, scrawling the letters "C" and "X" in a reference to what he said was Christianity.

The case was ultimately dismissed after he paid a $500 fine and completed a diversion program.

Even when Loughner tried to do good, it didn't work out.

A year ago, he volunteered walking adoptable dogs at the county animal shelter, said Kim Janes, manager of the Pima Animal Care Center. He liked dogs; neighbors remember him as the kid they would see walking his own.

At the shelter, staff became concerned: He was allowing dogs to play in an area that was being disinfected after one had contracted a potentially deadly disease, the parvovirus.

"He didn't think the disease was that threatening and when we tried to explain how dangerous some of the diseases are. He didn't get it," Janes said.

He wouldn't agree to keep dogs from the restricted area, and was asked to come back when he would. He never returned.

Loughner also jumped from paid job to job because he couldn't get along with co-workers, according to the close high school friend who requested anonymity. Employers included a Quiznos sandwich shop and Banana Republic, the friend said.

On his application at the animal shelter, he listed customer service work at Eddie Bauer.

Loughner grew up on an unremarkable Tucson block of low-slung homes with palm trees and cactus gardens out front. Fittingly, it's called Soledad Avenue — Spanish for solitude.

Solitude found Loughner, even when he tried to escape it. He had buddies but always fell out of touch, typically severing the friendship with a text message. Zach Osler was one such friend.

Loughner's father moved into the house as a bachelor, and eventually got married, longtime next-door neighbor George Gayan said. Property records show Randy Loughner has lived there since 1977.

Gayan said he and Randy Loughner had "differences of opinion but nothing where it was radical or violent." He declined to provide specifics. "As time went on, they indicated they wanted privacy," Gayan said.

Unlike other homes on the block, the Loughners' is obscured by plants. It was assessed in 2010 at $137,842.

Randy Loughner apparently has not worked for years — at least outside his home. He did fix up cars. Gayan said he had three "show cars" and two of Jared Loughner's friends said he bought a junker 1969 orange Chevrolet Nova and made it pristine.

Amy Loughner got a job with the county parks and recreation department just before Jared was born, and since at least 2002 has been the supervisor for Roy P. Drachman Agua Caliente Park on the outskirts of the city. She earns $25.70 an hour, according to Gwyn Hatcher, Pima County's human resources director.

"She's worked hard, done a good job of keeping it looking good," said Charles Ford, a former Tucson City Council member who is a board member of Friends of Agua Caliente Park.

Linda McKinley, 62, has lived down the street from the Loughner family for decades and said the parents could not be nicer — but that she had misgivings about Jared as he got older.

"As a parent, my heart aches for them," she said.

She added that when she was outside watering her plants she would see Jared riding down the street on his bike, often talking to himself or yelling out randomly to no one.

Once he yelled to some children on the street: "I'm coming to get you!" McKinley said.

Police Say They Visited Tucson Suspect’s Home Even Before Rampage
By JO BECKER, SERGE F. KOVALESKI, and KIRK JOHNSON
Published: January 11, 2011
New York Times

TUCSON — The police were sent to the home where Jared L. Loughner lived with his family on more than one occasion before the attack here on Saturday that left a congresswoman fighting for her life and six others dead, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said on Tuesday.

A spokesman, Jason Ogan, said the details of the calls were being reviewed by legal counsel and would be released as soon as the review was complete. He said he did not know what the calls were about — they could possibly have been minor, even trivial matters — or whether they involved Jared Loughner or another member of the household.

A friend of Mr. Loughner’s also said in an interview on Tuesday that Mr. Loughner, 22, was skilled with a gun — as early as high school — and had talked about a philosophy of fostering chaos.

The news of police involvement with the Loughners suggests that county sheriff’s deputies were at least familiar with the family, even if the reason for their visits was unclear as of Tuesday night.

The account by Mr. Loughner’s friend, a rare extended interview with someone close to Mr. Loughner in recent years, added some details to the emerging portrait of the suspect and his family.

“He was a nihilist and loves causing chaos, and that is probably why he did the shooting, along with the fact he was sick in the head,” said Zane Gutierrez, 21, who was living in a trailer outside Tucson and met Mr. Loughner sometimes to shoot at cans for target practice.

The Loughner family released a statement on Tuesday, its first since the attacks, expressing — in a six-line document handed to reporters outside their house — sorrow for the losses experienced by the victims and their families.

“It may not make any difference, but we wish that we could change the heinous events of Saturday,” the statement said. “There are no words that can possibly express how we feel. We wish that there were, so we could make you feel better.”

The new details from Mr. Gutierrez about Mr. Loughner — including his philosophy of anarchy and his expertise with a handgun, suggest that the earliest signs of behavior that may have ultimately led to the attacks started several years ago.

Mr. Gutierrez said his friend had become obsessed with the meaning of dreams and their importance. He talked about reading Friedrich Nietzsche’s book “The Will To Power” and embraced ideas about the corrosive, destructive effects of nihilism — a belief in nothing. And every day, his friend said, Mr. Loughner would get up and write in his dream journal, recording the world he experienced in sleep and its possible meanings.

“Jared felt nothing existed but his subconscious,” Mr. Gutierrez said. “The dream world was what was real to Jared, not the day-to-day of our lives.”

And that dream world, his friend said, could be downright strange.

“He would ask me constantly, ‘Do you see that blue tree over there?’ He would admit to seeing the sky as orange and the grass as blue,” Mr. Gutierrez said. “Normal people don’t talk about that stuff.”

He added that Mr. Loughner “used the word hollow to describe how fake the real world was to him.”

As his behavior grew more puzzling to his friends, he was getting better with a pistol. Starting in high school, Mr. Loughner honed his marksmanship with a 9-millimeter pistol, the same caliber weapon used in the attack Saturday, until he became proficient at handling the weapon and firing it quickly.

“If he had a gun pointed at me, there is nothing I could do because he would make it count,” Mr. Gutierrez said. “He was quick.”

He also said that Mr. Loughner had increasing trouble interacting in social settings — during one party, for instance, Mr. Loughner retreated upstairs alone to a room and was found reading a dictionary.

Jared Loughner’s retreat — whether into the desert with his gun, or into the recesses of his dreams — coincided with a broader retreat by the Loughner family that left them increasingly isolated from their community, neighbors said.

His father, Randy, once more of a presence in their mostly working-class neighborhood in northwest Tucson as he went off to work as a carpet-layer and pool-deck installer, became a silent and often sullen presence.

One neighbor, George Gayan, who said he had known the family for 30 years, described a kind of a gradual “pulling back” by the family.

“People do this for different reasons,” said Mr. Gayan, 82. “I don’t know why.”

Some years ago, Randy Loughner built a wall to shield the side porch of the family’s home. Because of his often bellicose attitude, neighbors sometimes kept their distance.

Leslie Cooper owns the house next door, where her son and his family live. She recounted a time when her grandchildren would not chase after a ball that landed in the Loughners’ backyard.

“They had to buy a new one,” said Ms. Cooper, who was told of the incident by her son. “I’d tell my son, those are not normal people over there — there’s a reason why they stick to themselves,” she said, adding that she had warned him to steer clear of Randy Loughner.

“I said, be careful around that guy — don’t get him angry,” she added.

Other people in the neighborhood, though, said they saw glimpses of compassion in the Loughner family, and an ability to reach out to others, sometimes unexpectedly.

Richard Mckinley, 41, whose mother lives down the street from the Loughners, said his mother appreciated how Randy and Amy Loughner were among the first people to visit when her husband died two years ago.

“They were some of the first people to pay respects,” he said.

In contrast to the reputation of his father, Jared Loughner’s mother, Amy, is considered pleasant but reserved by those who know her.

She commuted about an hour each day to her job managing Agua Caliente Park, an area of spring-fed ponds surrounded by giant palm trees in the desert on the outskirts of Tucson. The impeccably maintained park was quiet Tuesday, but for the chirping of the dozens of species of birds that call it home and the occasional crunch of a birder’s hiking boots along the trails.

Donna DeHaan, a former board member of the nonprofit group that helps support the park, said Ms. Loughner was a reliable manager with a good background in environmental issues. Ms. DeHaan said she never spoke about her family but was always pleasant, if a tad quiet and shy.

Mr. Gutierrez said he sensed very little communication within the family when he was among them.

“Every time I met his parents they were kind of quiet and estranged,” he said. Jared Loughner did not complain about his parents, Mr. Gutierrez said, and seemed to simply accept the lack of interaction as a fact of life.

“Jared really did not talk to his parents or talk about them,” Mr. Gutierrez said. “I felt they were not really good reaching out and he was not good at reaching out to his parents.”

After his arrest for possession of drug paraphernalia in 2007, Mr. Loughner was ordered to attend a diversion program run by the county attorney’s office. The chief deputy county attorney, Amelia Craig Cramer, said the program is intended for first-time offenders who have no history of violence or serious mental illness.

Mr. Loughner was referred to an approved drug education program, and completed the required sessions in 30 days.

But the program is primarily educational, Ms. Cramer said, focused on “the dangers of drugs and the dangers of substance abuse,” rather than the kind of in-depth counseling that friends, including Mr. Gutierrez, strongly felt that Mr. Loughner needed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/us/12loughner.html?hp

-

Loughner’s Parents Plead for Privacy, and Express Sorrow
By SERGE F. KOVALESKI, MARC LACEY AND TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
Published: January 11, 2011
New York Times
       
The parents of Jared L. Loughner broke their silence Tuesday, asking the media to protect their privacy as their son stands accused of trying to kill a congresswoman in a rampage that killed six people and left 14 others injured.

“This is a very difficult time for us,” said the statement, issued Tuesday afternoon by Randy and Amy Loughner. “We ask the media to respect our privacy. There are no words that can possibly express how we feel. We wish that there were, so we could make you feel better. We don’t understand why this happened. It may not make any difference, but we wish that we could change the heinous events of Saturday. We care very deeply about the victims and their families. We are so sorry for their loss.”

                                                  - - - - - - - - - -
     
The statement came as friends of Jared Loughner said Tuesday that his behavior had become increasingly erratic over the last year, underscored by his fear that two of his closest friends were planning to kill him, one of those friends said Tuesday. “He did not have many friends,” said Zane Gutierrez, 21, who met Mr. Loughner in high school. “We stopped talking to him in March of 2010. He started getting weird.”

Mr. Loughner has been charged with opening fire at a Tucson supermarket on Saturday as Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, was meeting constituents. Six people were killed in the shooting and 14 were injured, including Ms. Giffords, the apparent main target of the attack.

Mr. Gutierrez’s descriptions of Mr. Loughner’s behavior provide new insight into his mental state.

Mr. Gutierrez said Mr. Loughner would call at 2 a.m. and ask, “Are you hanging out in front of the house, stalking me?”

“He started to get really paranoid, and said he did not want to see us anymore and did not trust us,” Mr. Gutierrez said.

“He thought we were plotting to kill him or steal his car or something,” Mr. Gutierrez added. “It got worse over time.”

Mr. Gutierrez said Mr. Loughner had mentioned Ms. Giffords only once, saying that he had been unhappy with how she had responded to a question he asked at a public appearance about the nature of government. Mr. Gutierrez said Mr. Loughner had shown little interest in politics.

“He was a nihilist and loves causing chaos, and that is probably why he did the shooting, along with the fact he was sick in the head,” he said.

Mr. Gutierrez said one of their favorite activities was to shoot cans in the desert. “He was a damn great shot,” he said, adding: “If he had a gun pointed at me, there is nothing I could do because he would make it count. He was quick with a gun.”

“I go to a psychiatrist, and he should have been seeing one back in high school,” Mr. Gutierrez said. “He had the most incredible thoughts, but he could not handle them.”

                                              - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Bill Hileman, whose wife, Susan, was shot three times, said that when he visited her bedside, she asked him, “What about Christina?” Ms. Hileman had been holding hands outside the supermarket with her 9-year-old neighbor, Christina Greene, when the shots rang out; the girl was also hit and later died of her wounds.

Mr. Hileman said that though his wife had been in a morphine-induced haze, she was clearly devastated when he told her that the girl had died. “We’re going to have that as an ongoing issue that we’ll be dealing with,” Mr. Hileman said about his wife’s feelings of guilt. Ms. Hileman had invited Christina to accompany her to the event at the supermarket that morning because of the girl’s interest in politics .

                                            - - - - - - -  - - - - - - - -

Mr. Loughner (pronounced LOF-ner) faces two federal murder charges and three attempted murder charges in an attack that prosecutors described as an attempt to assassinate Ms. Giffords.

In September, Mr. Loughner filled out paperwork to have his record expunged on a 2007 drug paraphernalia charge. Although he did not need to bother — he had completed a diversion program so the charge was never actually on his record — the incident stuck in the mind of Judge José Luis Castillo of Pima County Consolidated Justice Court.

It was unusual, for one thing, the judge said, that anyone knew how to go about filling out such forms. And the judge’s review of the court record showed that Mr. Loughner had completed the diversion program in 2007 in almost record time and had been very polite, with nothing to indicate the kind of behavior that he is now accused of.

“It definitely crossed my mind,” the judge said, that Mr. Loughner was making the request only because he was worried that the drug paraphernalia charge would prevent him from buying a weapon.

                                                 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kim Janes, manager of the Pima Animal Care Center in Tucson, said in an interview that Mr. Loughner volunteered at the facility in January and February last year as a dog walker. In his application, Mr. Loughner wrote that he was interested in volunteering at the center for “community service, fun, reference and experience.” But after about two months, Mr. Janes said, even though Mr. Loughner had been told not to walk any dogs in an area of the kennel where parvovirus had been detected, he did not appear to appreciate the seriousness of the situation.

“He did not seem to understand why this was important and how deadly the virus could be for dogs. He never really acknowledged our concerns,” Mr. Janes said. “We were concerned about him not following the rules that the supervisor had passed on to him, and we told him not to return until he was willing to abide by our rules.” That was the last the center saw of him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/us/12giffords.html?hp

ELDERLAGON:
. . .Some people were very brilliant when they were growing UP,but never had an opportunity to go to the universities(may be because of financial constraint or lack of exposure to financial aid/scholarship.

. . .My dad was never awarded a university degree,but he was the brain behind most of the government building projects in the Old western Region,later Oyo state,then Osun state.He passed the Ministry of Labour /productivity trade test 1,2,3 and City and Guilds exams at once sitting. He has an excellent understanding of all aspects of building technology(including Architecture).Records show that he attended management courses in the Uk,UI and Russia(sponsored by Nigerian government).In 1993,he retired from the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources as an Assistant Director,after serving for 37 years.if you meet him ,you will know that he is very intelligent and skilled in his profession.

Don't mind them, o jare.  Your dad sounds awesome.  He reminds me of my beloved grandad (RIP). 

You're right.  Not everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential.  There are many people with no certificates attesting to their "genius," that are actually very smart and very effective people and lord know what they could have done for our country if given the opportunity.

I still don't like Atiku though, but yes, I hate the idea of looking down on people because they don't have one degree or the other.

That word "illiterate" sould be removed from our lexicon.  At least the way we use it in Nigeria.  It is so offensive.

The stupidest person (White American too) I know has a doctorate.  From an American University.  True story.

So any news for citizens abroad?

[Quote]
Voter registration under threat, three days to go 
By Dayo Oketola   
Tuesday, 11 Jan 2011
Punch Newspaper

Three days to the commencement of the long-awaited registration of voters, about 46,000 units of the 132,000 Direct Data Capturing machines ordered by the Independent National Electoral Commission are yet to arrive the country.

The contracts were awarded to three companies — Avante Technology, Haier Electrical Appliances Corporation of China, and Zinox Technologies.

While Zinox, an indigenous information technology company, has supplied 77, 000 units out of the 80,000 awarded to it by INEC, Haier is said to have supplied only 9,000 units out of 30,000.

Avante, a United States technology company, is to supply 22, 000 units of the electronic equipment but had as at Monday not delivered even one.
Under the terms of contract, the companies are to deliver the machines on or before the commencement of the registration on Saturday.

A very senior INEC official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, made this known to our correspondent on Monday.
The INEC official, in a telephone interview from Abuja, said that the commission was worried about the development.
He said, “We are worried that all the DDC machines have not arrived in the country. With only three days to the registration of voters how do we send the equipment to the states that have not received the number that they are supposed to use for the exercise. We are disturbed because of the difficult terrain in many of the states.
“As I talk to you today (Monday), Avante has not delivered even one machine. Hair has done only about 30 per cent of the quantity awarded to it while Zinox has been able to deliver 77,000 pieces.”

But another senior source in INEC, who corroborated his colleague, however, said there was no cause for alarm as the commission would be able to conduct the exercise with just 120,000 DDC machines.
He said, “Despite the challenges we are facing with one of the contractors, who is yet to make good its promise to deliver the DDC machines before the commencement of the registration, INEC is better prepared for the process than it was in 2006.
“The commission will be able to commence the registration with 120,000 DDC machines if Avante does not supply before Saturday. I am saying 120,000 units because I am very optimistic that before Friday, more of them would arrive in the country.”
Our correspondent could not contact Avante on why it has not supplied the 22,000 units of DDC machines.

When contacted, the Head, Corporate Affairs, Zinox Technologies, Mr. Echika Ezuka, confirmed that the indigenous IT company had delivered 77,000 units.
He said, “Zinox is 100 per cent in-country as far as the DDC machines are concerned. We have delivered about 97 per cent with three per cent more to go due to logistics reasons. With Zinox equipment, INEC was able to train people for the registration exercise.”
Zinox had on December 7, 2010 brought in 14,000 units of the electronic equipment out of which some were stolen the following day at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.

The theft generated so much controversy that the commission repeatedly assured that the voter registration would not be affected by the development.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201101114473462
[/Quote]

fstranger1:
At asalatu?

No, silly!  At the workplace.  They said Obama was a bum, and that Palin would make a great president.    Let's get 'em! 

Actually, I only disagree with one of those sentiments.

I don't have a problem discussing it, or even proferring a reason for his action.  We all speculate.  It doesn't bother me.

Yes, there was a jump to blame it on right wing rhetoric.  But that's politics in America.  My opinion, of course. 

I have met "tea party" people though.  The less said the better.

I just posted it because it interests me. The human behavior part of it. Also, the story of he poor taxi driver that was initially described as "a person of interest."

Have you seen the shooter's most recent picture? If you looked up "Crazy" in the dictionary, that's what you expect to see. The earlier pictures of him with the big bouncy "afro" hair is like a totally different person!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/us/11taxi.html?_r=1&hp

Shooting Suspect Was Calm During Cab Ride to Supermarket, His Driver Reports
By KIRK JOHNSON and ANISSA TANWEER
Published: January 10, 2011
New York Times

TUCSON — Jared L. Loughner wanted change back from a $20 bill that he used to pay for a taxi ride to a Safeway store here, according to the manager of the taxi company.

His demeanor was so unremarkable that the driver thought nothing of walking into the store with Mr. Loughner to get change, and did not know that a shooting rampage occurred at the scene until many hours later.

“No red flags went up,” said Joe Acosta, the general manager of the taxi company, AAA Full Transportation. “The customer got his change, our driver got his fare and left, and that’s it.”

That account of the taxi ride provides small but telling new details on what preceded the shooting.

It might suggest, for example, that Mr. Loughner, 22, planned or hoped to escape, and would need the money, after what police said was a deliberate attack on Representative Gabrielle Giffords.

Or it could be one more element of his unsettled mental state on the morning of the attack — that getting his change was somehow important before, as police say, he opened fire with a 9 millimeter Glock pistol at a constituents meeting.

Mr. Acosta said the driver, John Marino, who was questioned by the F.B.I. and Pima County sheriff’s officers at the taxi company on Sunday morning, was not taken into custody and has declined to speak to any reporters.

“He was like, ‘I really don’t need this,’ ” Mr. Acosta said.

Mr. Loughner’s state of mind, in the weeks and months before the shootings and perhaps especially on Saturday morning itself, has emerged as a major subtext of the investigation here, as the authorities try to understand his motive and mental state.

But the environment of Tucson — the light traffic on a Saturday morning, and the volume of taxi calls — perhaps played a role as well in what, according to Mr. Acosta’s secondhand account, seemed at the time to be nothing more than a young man’s calm ride to the grocery store.

“Since the volume wasn’t that heavy on Saturday, he was picked up moments after the call was placed,” Mr. Acosta said. “And a few minutes later he was at the Safeway.”

The driver, Mr. Acosta added, “treated it like it was a normal run — nothing out of the ordinary.”

Mr. Acosta said that Mr. Marino noticed sirens coming in the opposite direction as he was heading to pick up his next fare on Saturday morning, but thought nothing of it until the next day, when security camera images showing him walking into the store with Mr. Loughner became part of the police investigation.

fstranger1:
It seems you have a crush on me, innit?

Whatever helps you get through the day.  I will harass you for as long as I want anytime I want until I am vindicated.  You should think long and hard the next time you decide to abuse someone for no reason. 

Seriously though, eeewwww! 

There is nothing like an emancipated muminat!

We're all emancipated.  You just don't get it.   

Edited cos I don't want to make Stranger cry.  Plus, I'm only kidding.  Maybe. 

sbeezy8:
1) Most if not all indignes Lagosians are MUSLIMS or theyre families were Originally muslims . . .

The truth shall set (them) free. 

For example- the young christian Lady that interrupted Muslim prayers at UI,

Stranger in his Sunday best.

ajayij:
Moslems domination of Lagos State/Yoruba politics is a recent phenomenon. The earlier politicians from the SW were xtians like Awolowo, Akintola, TOS Benson, Akinjide, Bola Ige Abraham Adesanya etc. Infact in the first republic I think every Yoruba politician was a xtian probably because the christians were more educated and embraced western education quicker.

We're talking about Lagos specifically.

In the SW, I notice that xtians tend to gravitate away from politics towards career professions. Its the general belief that Politics is dirty and most monogamous xtian families wont even allow their children to vote never mind contest

Wonderful monogamous christian families like the Obasanjos.

[quote author=isale_gan2 link=topic=582073.msg7492507#msg7492507 date=1294541875]Keith Olberman (MSNBC) can be such a blowhard, I swear.    I can take only so much of him.  But he is totally in his element, putting the "right-wingers" on the defensive.  He just mentioned O'Reilly by name.  Crazy Irishman will be out for blood come Monday.[/quote]O'Reilly is on, since the shooting.  He is really trying to keep his temper.  It's all bubbling under though.  Just watch him work himself up into thermonuclear condition.  Hehehehehe.  In 30 minutes, he'll be at his redfaced firebreathing best!  There better be a meltdown.  Otherwise I've watched Fox News for nothing.

Update: O'Reilly was fine. He must be more sad than mad.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/us/10shooter.html?hp
Page 3:

But even as Mr. Loughner was exploring the outer boundaries of extremist philosophy, his life at school, which some acquaintances said was very important to him, was unraveling.

Through the fall, administrators at Pima Community College became increasingly concerned as reports involving Mr. Loughner, like that day in algebra class, continued to come in.

Most of the reports, according to Paul Schwalbach, a college spokesman, were about how Mr. Loughner was “acting out” in disruptive or inappropriate ways. By last fall, officials at the college had learned about an Internet video that Mr. Loughner had prepared citing Pima College and claiming that it was in some way illegal or unconstitutional.

The college had its lawyers review the video and decided at that point to take action, drafting a letter suspending Mr. Loughner, which was delivered to his parents’ home in northwest Tucson by two police officers on Sept. 29.

At a meeting in early October at the college’s northwest campus, where he attended classes, Mr. Loughner said he would withdraw. Three days later, the college sent him a letter telling him that if he wanted to return, he would need to undergo a mental health evaluation. “After this event, there was no further college contact with Loughner,” the college said in a statement.

Mr. Cates, the former classmate, said he thought that leaving Pima was probably a major blow to Mr. Loughner.

“He was really into school. He really loved the acquisition of knowledge. He was all about that,” Mr. Cates said. “It would make sense that losing that outlet would be a negative thing for him psychologically.”

But this was just the latest in a series of blows. Mr. Loughner also tried to enlist in the Army in 2008, but failed a drug-screening test, Pentagon officials confirmed.

Some people who knew, or at least glimpsed, Mr. Loughner’s life at home with his parents, Randy and Amy Loughner, said they found the family inscrutable sometimes, and downright unpleasant at other times, especially the behavior of Randy Loughner.

“Sometimes our trash would be out, and he would come up and yell that the trash stinks,” said a next-door neighbor, Anthony Woods, 19. “He’s very aggressive.”

Mrs. Loughner has worked for the city’s Parks Department for many years, Tucson officials confirmed. Mr. Loughner’s employment, if any, was not known. Mr. Woods and his father, Stephen, 46, said they rarely saw the older Mr. Loughner go anywhere.

No one was home, or came to the door, at the Loughners’ house on Sunday morning. The house itself was mostly obscured by a tree and a huge intertwined cactus in the front.

JeSoul:
Some people think Pelosi is Palin

OMG! 

Oh, No, JeSoul.  Say it ain't so!  I was just going to say let's agree to disagree.

Then . . . you had to ruin the thread with pictures of The Worm.

The 6 victims:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/01/09/us/20110109-arizona-shooting-victims.html?hp

Talk Radio Hosts Reject Blame in Shooting:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/us/11radio.html?_r=1&hp

Suspect’s Odd Behavior Caused Growing Alarm:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/us/10shooter.html?hp
TUCSON — In a community college classroom here last June, on the first day of the term, the instructor in Jared L. Loughner’s basic algebra class, Ben McGahee, posed what he thought was a simple arithmetic question to his students. He was not prepared for the explosive response.
“How can you deny math instead of accepting it?” Mr. Loughner asked, after blurting out a random number, according to Mr. McGahee.

Mr. McGahee, for one, was disturbed enough by the experience to complain to school authorities, who as early as last June were apparently concerned enough themselves to have a campus officer visit the classroom. And what Mr. McGahee described as a pattern of behavior by Mr. Loughner, marked by hysterical laughter, bizarre non sequiturs and aggressive outbursts, only continued.

“I was getting concerned about the safety of the students and the school,” said Mr. McGahee, who took to glancing out of the corner of his eye when he was writing on the board for fear that Mr. Loughner might do something. “I was afraid he was going to pull out a weapon.”

A student in the class, Lynda Sorenson, 52, wrote an e-mail to a friend expressing her concerns.

“We do have one student in the class who was disruptive today, I’m not certain yet if he was on drugs (as one person surmised) or disturbed. He scares me a bit,” Ms. Sorenson wrote in an e-mail in June that was forwarded Sunday to The New York Times.

“The teacher tried to throw him out and he refused to go, so I talked to the teacher afterward. Hopefully he will be out of class very soon, and not come back with an automatic weapon.”

Mr. Loughner’s behavior grew so troubling that he was told he could no longer attend the school, and he appeared, given his various Internet postings, to find a sense of community in some of the more paranoid corners of the Internet.

Mr. Loughner seems at some point to have crossed a border. From being a young man whom acquaintances described as odd, he became the sole suspect in the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat from Arizona’s Eighth District. The police say he bought a 9-millimeter Glock handgun in November, and devised a plan to kill the congresswoman.

Robert S. Mueller III, the F.B.I. director, who has taken charge of the investigation here, said at a news conference that possible links to extremist groups would be a continued focus.

“The ubiquitous nature of the Internet means that not only threats but also hate speech and other inciteful speech is much more readily available to individuals than quite clearly it was 8 or 10 or 15 years ago,” Mr. Mueller said. “That absolutely presents a challenge for us, particularly when it results in what would be lone wolves or lone offenders undertaking attacks.”

The words echoed comments by Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik, who said Saturday at a news conference that “unbalanced people” could be affected by the vitriol, anger and hatred of antigovernment rhetoric.

Mr. Loughner’s friends and acquaintances said he was left isolated by his increasingly erratic behavior, apparently exacerbated by drug use. A military official said Sunday that Mr. Loughner had failed a drug screening when he tried to enlist in the Army. . . .

JeSoul:
You wanna see true vitriol? ask Ahmedinejad.

Nuh, he's alright.

Ask the clerics in Somalia.

What?

Ask the KKK in the deep south.

Yup, I can see that.  They don't have much power anymore, though.  Racism is more subtle now.  Not so much cross-burning anymore.

Ask the Black Liberationists that want to wipe out all caucasians.  That is vitriol to me. . . .

Girl, are you okay? 

But a moose-hunting woman simply stating her albeit extreme right views does not amount to inciting her followers to violence against the opposition. A nut job is already a nut job, and would've committed whatever crime - without the "help" of Sarah Palin.

Okaaaaayyyyy. 

Again, I think her imagery choice in hindsight was under poor judgement, but to levy grave charges of a 'vitriolic' crusade . . .    I dunno. You can extend these same charges to >90% of the heads on Capitol Hill, its just that they have a smaller audience than SP.

But as Negro would say . . . what isn't colored with politics these days?

JeSoul, meet FStranger.  FStranger, meet JeSoul.

Beaf:
Give the North half of whose oil? I wish it was posssible to post slaps on NL, the OP would have been as thoroughly slapped as Charles Okah in his SSS cell.

Beaf is back!  Dude, Becomerich has missed you.  Your subjects await:

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-579703.32.html

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-581439.256.html

fstranger1:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA

Wanna join me in my psychiatry practice?

How'd you like me now?

No apologies needed. I respect the passion. I just wasn't bothered by his post, and I didn't want to be the object of your ire. No worries.

fstranger1:
I have nothing personal against you. You seem like a nice person. I only attack what you say. Remember, if you cant stand the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen.

You're very contradictory.  I suspect you post to get a reaction, and you yourself are very reactionary.  Do you know what an "agitprop" is?  An Agitator-Propagandist.  Except, I don't think you are propagandizing for any particular ideology.  You just revel in a little bit of shock value.  More like a rebel without a cause.    You're smart, I'll give you that.

I think we will get along fine.

I'm not ready.

[quote author=omo~fat link=topic=582073.msg7502249#msg7502249 date=1294675062]^^^ What has the murder of a congresswoman and innocent other people got to do with Abortion ?

Bloody right wingers! Only seem to be pro-life until you are actually born and then they all suddenly pro-death.

Attempting to link this event to abortion is VILE, OFFENSIVE and downright EVIL.[/quote][quote author=omo~fat link=topic=582073.msg7502264#msg7502264 date=1294675164]----------- and then to suggest that people have to prove that the gunman visited Sarah Palin's website?

Why has Palin removed the offensive material from her site since the shooting

Call a spade a spade. These people are Evil. I'm sorry if it offends you[/quote]All right, Omofat.  Take it easy.  I didn't say I was offended by anything.  

His post didn't jump out at me as being the most vile and most offensive stuff ever seen on the internet.  I thought maybe you had history.  

fstranger1:
Messing with you how?

Because of things you've said to me recently.  You probably don't remember.  Never mind.  Friends?  Let's shake on that!  Yeah, right!

[quote author=omo~fat link=topic=582073.msg7502157#msg7502157 date=1294674526]The vilest, most offensive comment I've read on the internet in a long long time.

Well done sir.[/quote]I ask that you please highlight which part of his comment is "vilest" and "most offensive"?  

I am no fan of Palin, and am not familiar with the poster.  I just respectfully ask thsat you elaborate on your statement.  Thanks.

fstranger1:
Captain Nidal Malik Hassan!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood_shooting

Oh.  I hadn't followed up on that since it happened.  Didn't realize he's paralyzed from the neck chest down.  Wow!  And he's in military jail. He wasn't suicidal then was he?

Stranger, you keep messing with me, a-ight.  I got your number!

muhsin:
That's why I think I'll not respond to any of his (LagosShia) blabbing further. And, wallahi, if not because I am busy doing exam and other things I would have created anew thread to fully disprove his misguidance for all to see . . .

May Allah, the Exalted, guide us all to the right path, amin.

Brother,

Please don't be distracted from your exams/studies o. The thread and all the posts will still be there for you to respond to when you're less busy!

Salaam.

fstranger1:
I'd personally pay anyone willing to take out Omisore, OBJ, Daniel, Tinubu, IBB.

There must be a revolution in Nigeria too.

You haven't got 2 quarters to rub together.

One weirdo with a gun is not a revolution.

fstranger1:
When the Military guy committed the same crime, they went after Awlaki, now they are dragging their feet with Sarah Palin

What "military guy"?

Warning: You better be nice to me, or you'll be sorry!

::Biting my tongue::

A Single, Terrifying Moment: Shots Fired, a Scuffle and Some Luck
ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: January 9, 2011
New York Times

TUCSON — Patricia Maisch was waiting in line with her husband to get a picture with their congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords. Suddenly, gunfire erupted, and blood was spilling onto the pavement in an atmosphere of panic and pandemonium. When the gunman passed nearby, his clip fell out of his pocket to the ground. Ms. Maisch moved to grab it, scuffling with the gunman as he tried to insert a second 31-round magazine into the chamber of his Glock semi-automatic.

In what was perhaps the only fortunate event of the day, the spring on the second clip failed. Two other men in the crowd lunged at the gunman and tackled him to the ground.

For others, though, the fortunate moment came a few seconds too late.

Judge John M. Roll had stopped by the mall for a cup of coffee and a moment with a member of Congress to talk about overcrowded courts. Christina Taylor Green, a 9-year-old student council president, was on hand for a real-life civics lesson: “Congress on your Corner,” as Ms. Giffords called her constituent events. And Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, an aide to Ms. Giffords who was engaged to be married, was helping to line up the Saturday morning crowd, a familiar assignment.

It was the first official stop of her schedule, and Ms. Giffords had been on time Saturday morning. She and an aide parked an S.U.V. in the orderly parking lot of La Toscana Village, a mall about eight miles north of downtown Tucson. She posted a message on her Twitter account: “My 1st Congress on Your Corner starts now.”

Ms. Giffords walked over to the sidewalk in front of the Safeway, where an American flag and an Arizona flag marked out the area where she was to stand as she spoke one-on-one with constituents for the next 90 minutes. Standing, smiling and jaunty, she began the discussions that have been a part of her political repertoire since she was elected to Congress in 2006.

At that that moment, Jared L. Loughner, 22, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and sunglasses, approached one of Ms. Giffords’s aides, Alex Villec, and said he wanted time with his congresswoman. Mr. Villec, one of about five staff members there, asked him to stand at the back of a line of 20 people waiting their turn with Ms. Giffords. At first Mr. Loughner complied, Mr. Villec recalled Sunday.

But a moment later, he said, Mr. Loughner was back, walking swiftly past him, eyes steeled, heading for the table where Ms. Giffords was speaking. He raised his arm and opened fire.

For what seemed like minutes, but was probably no more than 15 seconds, witnesses said Sunday, Mr. Loughner kept up his fatal barrage, dancing up and down excitedly, turning from Ms. Gibbons before firing, apparently indiscriminately, at her constituents, staff and the random passers-by.

Within moments — in a crash of violence that sent terrified onlookers running for cover and screaming for help with a blitz of 911 calls that overloaded emergency circuits — Mr. Giffords was collapsed on the ground, blood pouring from her head.

“There was multiple people shot,” one anxious caller said. “It looked like a guy had a semiautomatic pistol,” another said. “He went in and just started firing and he ran.” Callers were frantic, eager to be helpful. “Are you sending lots of ambulances?” one woman asked.

Justice Roll, Mr. Zimmerman and young Christina were dead or dying, three of six who would die this day. And 14 others were injured, many seriously. A team of medics and firefighters, dispatched from a fire station five minutes away, swept through the carnage and performed a bloody triage, leaving behind Justice Roll and at least four others who were definitely dead and sending the most gravely wounded, Ms. Gifford at the head of that list, to local hospitals in a march of ambulances and helicopters.

In the 11 minutes between the start of “Congress on your Corner,” and the first 911 call to the sheriff’s office, at 10:11 a.m, there were moments of heroism, charity and just plain luck that might have avoided even greater carnage, as became clear Sunday when survivors shared stories of those harrowing moments.

As soon as Mr. Loughner had been wrestled to the ground, Daniel Hernandez, a 20-year-old intern who worked for Ms. Giffords’s past two campaigns and called her a friend, ran towards her after hearing the gunshots, fearing that she had been the target. Mr. Hernandez said he saw blood coming from her head and knew her situation was grave.

The first medical personnel arrived on the scene at 10:16 a.m., the sheriff’s office said. Initially, though, the victims and the witnesses were on their own.

“I worked at hospitals, so I knew basic triage and basic first aid,” Mr. Hernandez said in an interview. Ms. Giffords was in danger of choking on her own blood, he said, so he pulled her into an upright position. He then used his hand to stem the bleeding until some Safeway employees gave him some clean butcher smocks.

“Once the emergency services had arrived, I tried to attend to her emotional needs,” he said. “I tried to let her know that she was still there by holding her hand. Making sure she knew that she was going to be all right.”

She could not speak, Mr. Hernandez said. “She was still alert,” he said. “I’m pretty sure she knew what was going on.”

Police spent hours over the weekend searching for a second potential suspect — who turned out to be the cab driver who had taken Mr. Loughner to the site and who had followed him because Mr. Loughner did not have proper change for the trip.

A Familiar Format

La Toscana Village is a middle-class mall on the southeast corner of Oracle and Ina roads, anchored by a Walgreens and a Safeway. It is evidence of Tucson’s sprawl, but also to the striking beauty of this corner of Arizona: ringed by mountains that were covered in a slight mist on this crisp Saturday morning. By Sunday, the lot was a sea of yellow police tape and police cars.

It was a familiar spot to Ms. Giffords, who is married to an astronaut and known as Gabby by friends and some of her constituents. This was the third time, her press secretary said, that she had held a Congress on Your Corner here over the past four years — the event on Saturday was the first since returning to Arizona from the opening of the new Congress. It was supposed to go until 11:30 a.m., though they often went late if there were people who wanted more her time.

Given the political pulls here — and the difficulty of being a Democrat in Arizona these days — these sessions could be uncomfortable, and Ms. Giffords had faced tough questions for her support of President Obama’s health care plan, and her opposition to Arizona’s tough measure aimed at illegal immigrants.

At the moment Mr. Loughner rushed to the front of the line, she was talking to two constituents concerned about Medicare cuts. Ms. Giffords did not have security, not unusual for a relatively low-profile member of Congress.

If this site was familiar to Ms. Giffords, the format, as it turns out, was familiar to Mr. Loughner as well. The authorities said Sunday that a search of a safe at his home turned up evidence that he attended one of these Congress on Your Corner events in 2007 in the Foothills Malls in Tucson. Locked in the safe was a letter from Ms. Giffords, dated Oct. 30, 2007, and on her Congressional stationery, thanking Mr. Loughner for having attended. (It is typical, at these kind of events, for staff members to take the name and addresses of those who speak to the member of Congress, and follow up with a letter of thanks or to answer questions.)

The authorities also found in that safe an indication that Mr. Loughner might have been thinking ahead even after that meeting. Inside was an envelope with the words “I planned ahead” and “my assassination” over what appears to be Mr. Loughner’s signature, according to an affidavit filed with the federal indictment of Mr. Loughner on Sunday.

A few days after Thanksgiving last year, Mr. Loughner turned up at the Sportsman’s Warehouse in Tucson and bought a Glock semiautomatic gun, with serial number PWL 699. The authorities said it was the only weapon he bought there that day; it was, according to the F.B.I., the gun used in the shooting on Sunday.

At 5 a.m. on Saturday, Mr. Loughner wrote a message on his MySpace page: “Goodbye. Dear friends,  Please don’t be mad at me.”

‘A Miracle’

Judge Roll, who was the chief judge United States District court in Arizona, had got a telephone call Friday informing him of Ms. Giffords’s visit the next day. After picking up a cup of coffee, he went over to where she was standing in hopes of talking to her about overcrowding in federal courts. While waiting for his moment to speak, he told Mr. Conrad of his appreciation of her efforts so far, the authorities said.

That moment did not come. Just as Judge Roll was saying, “Hi,” to the congresswoman, the gunman loomed from her left and began firing. By some accounts — and there were, understandably, jumbled recollections of those moments — Judge Roll was hit first; in others, it was Ms. Giffords. In any event, the gunman fired first at the people standing eight feet or so in front of the supermarket window before turning around and firing into the crowd.

“He was pretty stoic,” said Mr. Villec, the intern who spoke to the gunman just before the episode. “He didn’t talk much. He walked past me without looking at me. I saw from my peripheral vision that he had raised his arm and started shooting.

“I have not been around a lot of gunfire,” he added. “I acted out of instinct, and I booked it. I ran 100 yards to the Bank of America.”

Another staff member who was there, Mark Kimble, said he fell to the sidewalk as soon as he heard the shot, and scrambled behind a concrete post.

“He stepped toward Gabby, and when he was about four feet from her, he fired at her head,” Mr. Kimble said. “The couple were not wounded. That was a miracle. But then he started shooting at the people, maybe a few dozen, waiting to talk to her. He kept shooting as he walked away.”

Ms. Maisch said that she grabbed the empty clip at the floor in an almost automatic reaction to people in the crowd urging her to act. “I wondered how it would feel to be shot,” she said. As the second magazine he inserted into the gun failed, two men later identified by the sheriff as Roger Salzgeber and Bill D. Badger pulled him to the ground.

It was clear to the paramedics that Ms. Giffords was, other than the 9-year-old, the worst of the injured. A bullet had entered the back lower left section of her head and cut clear across the brain, before exiting; this is the part of the brain that controls movement on the right side of the body, as well as speech and comprehension.

They took her to the hospital where she was giving a CAT scan, standard procedure from which surgeons assessed the scope of the damage and began an operation that lasted about two hours. Doctors said she was in the operating room within 38 minutes after she arrived at the hospital.

Mr. Hernandez said that the last time he saw Ms. Gifford was when she left the ambulance heading for the operation. The authorities kept him behind for questioning and took his clothes, which were soaked with her blood, for evidence. He said that while waiting he heard, on television, that she had died in the operating room, one of a number of false media reports that day.

“I wasn’t surprised, knowing Gabby, that she was still fighting for her life,” he said. “She is a very strong woman.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/us/10reconstruct.html?_r=1&hp