In U.S., 46% Favor, 40% Oppose Repealing Healthcare Law

January 7, 2011

Three-quarters of Republicans favor repeal; 64% of Democrats oppose it

by Jeffrey M. Jones

PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans do not strongly endorse the new Republican House majority's efforts to repeal the landmark healthcare legislation passed last year. A new Gallup poll finds that 46% of Americans want their representative in Congress to vote to repeal the healthcare law, 40% want their representative to vote to let the law stand, and 14% have no opinion.

Gallup conducted the Jan. 4-5 poll as the new Congress elected last fall began its work. Republicans' gains in the 2010 midterm elections were partly the result of voter frustration with the growth in the size of government, exemplified by the new healthcare law President Obama signed into law last March. Republican congressional leaders vowed to attempt to overturn the law as one of their first acts after taking majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives. However, with Democrats still in control of the Senate, it is unlikely a repeal would pass both houses of Congress, and President Obama would surely veto it if it does.
Americans' broadly divided opinions on repealing the healthcare legislation are in line with Gallup polling from much of the past two years that showed the bill struggling to gain majority public support both before and shortly after its passage. Polls conducted more recently have shown Americans generally more opposed to than in favor of the healthcare law.
The current poll finds the vast majority of Republicans, 78%, in favor of repealing the law, underscoring the degree to which the new Republican leadership is attempting to represent the views of its supporters. Meanwhile, Democrats oppose repeal (64%), but not to the same extent that Republicans favor it. Independents are almost evenly divided in their views, with a substantial proportion (18%) not having an opinion.

Implications
Americans' opinions on repealing the healthcare legislation are in keeping with their generally divided views on healthcare reform throughout the process leading up to its passage. The consistency of opinion indicates that Americans' views on healthcare reform have been fairly fixed, and little that has occurred legislatively or politically in the past year has affected their views.
While the chances that the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives will successfully repeal the healthcare law are slim, the party is nevertheless taking action that its core supporters favor.

Survey MethodsResults for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Jan. 4-5, 2011, on the Gallup Daily tracking survey, with a random sample of 1,025 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, selected using random-digit-dial sampling.
For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.
Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones, with interviews conducted in Spanish for respondents who are primarily Spanish-speaking. Each daily sample includes a minimum quota of 200 cell phone respondents and 800 landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas among landline respondents for gender within region. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.
Samples are weighted by gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, adults in the household, cell-phone-only status, cell-phone-mostly status, and phone lines. Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2010 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older non-institutionalized population living in U.S. telephone households. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting and sample design.
The questions reported here were asked of a random half-sample of respondents for two nights on the Gallup Daily tracking survey.
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

GOP Pledge-O-Meter Share this: Cut Congress' budget

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/gop-pledge-o-meter/promise/650/cut-congress-budget/
Will "make Congress do more with less by significantly reducing its budget."
Sources:
GOP Pledge to America
Subjects: Congressional Rules, Federal Budget
Updates: GOP's first Promise Kept: Cut congressional budgetUpdated: Friday, January 7th, 2011 | By Louis Jacobson
In their Pledge to America, House Republican leaders promised to "make Congress do more with less by significantly reducing its budget." On Jan. 6, 2011, they took action.
By an overwhelming 410-13 vote, House members approved a binding resolution that would cut the operating budget of member and committee offices by 5 percent, or about $35 million annually.
According to the office of Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, the resolution prohibits any congressional office from spending more than 95 percent of what they were allowed to spend last year. If an office requests more money than that, the House's Chief Administrative Officer will be directed to disallow the request.
The 5 percent cut will be effective immediately, and when the new appropriations bill to fund the legislative branch going forward is passed later this year, the 5 percent cut will be written into the bill. The most recent spending bill provided $660 million for fiscal year 2010, and the appropriations this year have been based on that number.
"In the short term, the money simply won"t leave the treasury," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Boehner. "In the medium term, when we take up new spending bills this spring, we"ll request less money for House operations."
In judging the progress on this promise, we had two key questions.
First, does 5 percent qualify as "significantly" cutting the congressional budget? In the context of the House's budget, it doesn't strike us as a trivial amount, so we think it passes that test.
And second, does the resolution qualify as making Congress "do more with less," even though the resolution only directly affects spending in the House? This one requires a bit of background on the rather byzantine topic of legislative branch spending bills.
Independent experts confirmed to us that, unlike most substantive congressional bills, no further action by the Senate or the president is required to make the cuts a reality. Because the legislative chambers have historically given each other wide berth to run their own affairs, the House will be able to enforce the resolution without the Senate or the president weighing in.
"The legislative branch appropriations process offers significant latitude to the speaker to set funding levels," said Brad Fitch, president and CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation, which advises lawmakers on best practices for running their offices. "Basically, the House and Senate say to each other, 'You figure out what you want on your own,' within a limit for the overall amount apportioned to Congress."
We considered adopting the stance that a Promise Kept rating could only be granted once the Senate cut its budget similarly, which would be far from guaranteed since the Senate is under Democratic control. But two reasons have persuaded us that House Republicans have kept their promise. We think it is reasonable to infer from the context that House leaders were referring to their own chamber. And their action, while still limited to one chamber, does meet their stated goal of making "Congress do more with less by significantly reducing its budget," just as the promise stated. So we rate it a Promise Kept.
Sources:
Text of spending resolution, Jan. 6, 2011
Roll call vote on spending resolution, Jan. 6, 2011
Congressional Quarterly, "House Agrees to Trim Operating Budget," Jan. 6, 2011 (subscribers only)
Interview with Don Wolfensberger, director of the Congress Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a former House Rules Committee aide, Jan. 6, 2011
Interview with Brad Fitch, president and CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation, Jan. 6, 2011
Interview with Brendan Buck, spokesman for Speaker John Boehner, Jan. 6, 2011

House Budget Chief Ryan Says Republicans Won't Bail Out States in Default

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-06/house-budget-panel-s-ryan-says-republicans-won-t-save-states-from-defaults.html

              By Simone Baribeau and James Rowley -              

Jan 7, 2011 12:01 AM ET

 

Play Video

     Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, talks about U.S. government spending and the debt ceiling.      Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner says lawmakers must raise the federal borrowing limit in the first quarter of 2011 or risk a default on U.S. debt and a loss of access to global credit markets. Ryan talks with Peter Cook on Bloomberg Television's "Bottom Line." Bloomberg's Mark Crumpton also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg)

Congressman Paul Ryan, the BudgetCommittee chairman in the U.S. House of Representatives, saidRepublicans don’t intend to save states from debt defaults.
“We are not interested in a bailout,” the Republican fromWisconsin said yesterday in Washington. Ryan said some statesare “already telling us” that, when asked how he would respondif he was told one was in danger of defaulting.
U.S. states face a combined $140 billion in deficits in thenext fiscal year, the Washington-based Center on Budget andPolicy Priorities said Dec. 16. State tax collections remainbelow pre-recession levels, according to the Nelson A.Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, New York. Nostate has defaulted on its debt since Arkansas did in 1933.
“Should taxpayers in frugal states be bailing outtaxpayers in profligate states?” Ryan asked during a forum nearthe Capitol. “Should taxpayers in Indiana, who have paid theirbills on time, who have done their job fiscally, be bailing outCalifornians, who haven’t? No, that’s a moral hazard we are notinterested in creating.”
While negative budget news likely will mount as most statesnear the July 1 start of a new fiscal year, Wells Fargo & Co.said yesterday that “the potential for credit default is lowoverall and varies widely.”
Go It Alone
“We expect state and local governments to wrestle withtheir fiscal problems on their own without help from the federalgovernment,” said Natalie Cohen, a New York-based senioranalyst for the bank, in a report. She said 35 states haven’treported midyear deficits, while Illinois’s $13 billion gap is47 percent of its budget. In California, she said, the current-year imbalance amounts to 6.6 percent of the spending plan.
Moody’s Investors Service said yesterday in a report thatthis year won’t bring any defaults on state debt it rated. Therewere no defaults last year involving state and local securitiesit rated, the New York-based company said.
The U.S. government will face pressure before October tohelp states that have taken on too much debt, Meredith Whitney,the banking analyst who correctly forecast a Citigroup Inc.dividend cut in 2008, said in September. Last month, speaking onthe CBS show “60 Minutes,” she predicted defaults of more than$100 billion in local debt and said municipal finances posed“the largest threat to the U.S. economy” next to housing.
Wien’s Surprise
A major state won’t pay interest on a bond this year,“causing havoc” in the $2.86 trillion municipal-securitiesmarket, Blackstone Group LP’s Byron Wien said Jan. 3, withoutnaming the state. The default will occur “because of a lack offunds,” the chairman of the company’s advisory services unitsaid in a statement.
Republicans in the House aim to cut $60 billion in U.S.government spending, Ryan said yesterday at the forum sponsoredby the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in New York andEconomic Policies for the 21st Century in Washington. Both arenonprofit groups engaged in public-policy research.
“If we bailed out one state, then all of the debt of allof the states is not just implied, it’s almost explicitly put onthe books of the federal government,” Ryan said. He said hewould call hearings to examine states’ fiscal situations and the“proper federal response” in the event of a default.
Kevin Seifert, a spokesman, declined to elaborate on Ryan’scomments about states that may be in danger of defaulting.
States can’t declare bankruptcy and need bond-market accessto fund infrastructure, so the possibility they would renege on“full and timely” debt service is “remote,” BlackRock Inc.analysts said in a Dec. 7 report. The New York-based company isthe world’s largest money manager with $3.45 trillion of assets.

GOP's sloppy Start

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Tucson Tea Party Leader: We Won't Change Our Rhetoric After Giffords Shooting

Evan McMorris-Santoro and Jillian Rayfield | January  8, 2011,  8:20PM

A Tea Party rally in Michigan.

A leader of a Tucson-area tea party group condemned the mass shooting in Arizona that included Rep. Gabriel Giffords (D-AZ), but told TPM that this doesn't mean her group is going to tone down their rhetoric: "I think anytime you start suppressing freedom of speech, I think it's wrong. I live here and I didn't hear anything [in the 2010 campaign] that concerned me in terms of inciting violence."
Allyson Miller, a founder of the 500-member Pima County Tea Party Patriots, told TPM in an interview today that the members of her group, as well as the entire city of Tucson, were "deeply saddened" by the events of today and said "there is no place for violence" in political debate.
"This is outrageous," she said.
Miller was quick to distance her group from the shooting and said that she felt she had to go on the defensive after news of the tragedy began to spread. "I did feel, you know, very like 'why are they jumping to this conclusion before they even knew the person's name?' They're jumping to this conclusion that it has to do with the hotly contested Congressional race," she said. "Well, apparently, from what I've seen so far...it's looking like that's not the case."
The race she's referring to was between Giffords and Jesse Kelly, a tea party-backed Republican, who held one event in June that said "Get on Target for Victory in November Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly."
The suspect, now identified as Jared Loughner, left a trail of rambling YouTube videos on the internet, in some accusing the government of "mind control" and "brainwashing."
Miller said she knows the members of her tea party, who she called "reasonable individuals" closer to her age of 55 than the suspected shooter's 22. She said she's never seen the suspect at an event. "That's why we put out our press release [condemning the shooting] so quickly. I just felt like all the fingers were pointed at the tea party."
There's one thing Miller didn't feel she needed to defend -- the heated rhetoric of the 2010 campaign against Giffords. TPM asked if, after the shooting, Miller thought tea party activists in future campaigns should temper some of the tougher talk.
"There are people in society that are just going to do these things, unfortunately. And then, what happens is, you know, in this case, people trying to use it to create further divisions between the right and the left. I think it's irresponsible, in my opinion...what it does is polarize people even further."
Miller said she hoped opponents of the tea party won't use the Giffords shooting to try to score political points against the movement.
"Well, I don't know what will happen, but I can only hope that will have the responsibility that they do not try to make this, you know, to cause more problems or to create more division. Because there's enough division in this country."
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Dem Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Shot In Arizona]
A number of other Tea Party leaders were similarly quick to condemn Loughner's actions, and disavow him as one of their own.
Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, condemned the shooting as a "terrorist attack" and wrote on the TPN site this afternoon (at the time he believed the erroneous reports that Giffords had been killed. The post has since been updated): "Congressman Giffords was a liberal, but that does not matter now.  No one should be the victim of violence because of their political beliefs and certainly a member of Congress should not be shot and killed on a street corner."
But Phillips added that "no matter what the shooter's motivations where, the left is going to blame this on the Tea Party Movement. Already on liberal websites, the far left is trying to accuse the Tea Party of being involved."
In another post, Phillips took things a step further: "The left has simply gone to far.  There can be no civil discourse with people as crazy as those on the left are.  What that says for the future of this country is tragic."
Patrick Beck, the head of the Mohave County Tea Party, told Dave Weigel that tea partiers might have to be more careful about their rhetoric, "but it makes it real difficult to speak when every few minutes you're giving a disclaimer. 'We have to fight back -- but, wait, I don't mean literally fight.' Those words such as fight, and take back, and restore... we know what we mean but we have to be clear what we mean, and in next few weeks, as this all plays out, people will be more understanding of that."
Beck added: "When we talk about Barack Obama, we've got to be clear, it's not personal. When we say he's destroying this country we are not saying he's doing it out malicious intent and a desire to cripple us. He has good intentions and he's wrong. I worry when that gets lost."
CNN reports that Tea Party Express released a statement saying that "it is appalling that anyone would commit such unthinkable violence."
The statement continued:

These heinous crimes have no place in America, and they are especially grievous when committed against our elected officials. Spirited debate is desirable in our country, but it only should be the clash of ideas.  An attack on anyone for political purposes, if that was a factor in this shooting, is an attack on the democratic process.  We join with everyone in vociferously condemning it.

DeAnn Hatch, a co-founder of the Tucson Tea Party, told the New York Times that though her group supported Giffords' opponent Jesse Kelly during the 2010 election, but had not protested against the Congresswoman before. "We don't think it's ours," Ms. Hatch said.
"I want to strongly, strongly say we absolutely do not advocate violence," she continued. "This is just a tragedy to no end."

Marshals: We're Taking 'Appropriate Actions' Following Murder Of Federal Judge John Roll

 

Ryan J. Reilly | January  8, 2011,  7:25PM

John McCarthy Roll, federal judge for the United States District Court for the District of Arizona

Following the murder today of Arizona's Chief Federal Judge John McCarthy Roll at the shooting incident in Arizona, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service told TPM the federal agency is taking "appropriate actions to ensure the security of the federal judiciary."
"For obvious reasons I cannot discuss any actions we may be taking as a result of the shooting in Arizona," Jeff Carter, Chief of the Office of Public Affairs for the U.S. Marshals Service told TPM in a statement. "What I can tell you is that we take our judicial security mission very seriously and continuously monitor for threats."
Back in 2009, Roll spoke with Jerry Markon of the Washington Post about the threats against him, as Markon highlighted here.
As a federal law enforcement official told the newspaper, callers "cursed him out, threatened to kill his family, said they'd come and take care of him. They really wanted him dead." The calls from as far as Richmond and Baltimore, the official told the newspaper.
Threats against federal judges have been soaring nationwide in recent years. The newspaper reported:

U.S. marshals put Roll, who was appointed to the federal bench by President George H.W. Bush in 1991, under 24-hour protection for about a month. They guarded his home in a secluded area just outside Tucson, screening his mail and escorting him to court, to the gym and even to Mass.Roll told the Post in May 2009 that "any judge who goes through this knows it's a stressful situation" and that he and his family were grateful for the protection.

John Clark, who retired as Director of the U.S. Marshals Service just last month, told me in an interview last spring that the Internet created a greater threat environment against judges.
"In today's world there are more individuals who are more prone to threatening judges," Clark told me. "I think a lot of it has to do with the availability of information with the use of technology and the Internet. Individuals can find out more about particular cases and judges decisions. They can use Internet sources to find out more about the judge. So if someone is prone to want to threaten someone, there are a number of ways they can find material about a judge. We have to think about that as well."
Clark told me that the U.S. Marshals Service also strengthened its relationship with the judiciary during his time at the helm.
More on the threats against Roll here.
Late Update: Carter also confirmed that Roll "was not under U.S. Marshals Service protection at the time of the incident."
Late, Late Update: The New York Times has more:

Killings of federal judges are rare. The last to be murdered in office was Judge Robert Vance, who was killed by a mail bomb at his home in Mountain Brook, Ala., in 1989.On Dec. 21, Judge Roll sent an e-mail to Judge [Alex] Kozinski with an attached letter from Ms. Giffords and another member of Congress from Arizona, Ed Pastor, a Democrat. The two members of Congress encouraged the Ninth Circuit to "declare a judicial emergency" to help cope with the increased workload by extending deadlines under the speedy trial act. In the e-mail, Judge Roll wrote that the Congressional letter was "unsolicited but very much appreciated."
Judge Kozinski speculated -- "just a guess," he said -- that Judge Roll might have gone to the event on Saturday to thank Ms. Giffords for the letter. "And he gets killed for it."
Judge Kozinski added, "If it can happen to him, it can happen to any of us."

Holder: We'll Hold Those Responsible Accountable For 'Heinous' Shootings

 

Ryan J. Reilly | January  8, 2011,  5:45PM

Attorney General Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder just issued a statement on the shooting of several individuals in Arizona on Saturday, including Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) and the killing of federal judge John Roll.
"Today's tragedy in Arizona was a senseless act of violence that has already resulted in devastating loss, including the death of Chief United States District Court Judge John Roll and four other individuals and the wounding of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and a number of others," Holder said. "All of those who were killed or injured and their families are in our thoughts and prayers."
"As the President said, FBI Director Mueller is traveling to Arizona to help coordinate the investigation. The FBI is working jointly with local law enforcement to investigate today's events, and I have directed Department prosecutors and law enforcement officials to use every resource necessary to investigate this tragedy. I want to assure the people of Arizona and every American that we will hold accountable anyone responsible for these heinous acts."

Attorney General Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder just issued a statement on the shooting of several individuals in Arizona on Saturday, including Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) and the killing of federal judge John Roll.
"Today's tragedy in Arizona was a senseless act of violence that has already resulted in devastating loss, including the death of Chief United States District Court Judge John Roll and four other individuals and the wounding of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and a number of others," Holder said. "All of those who were killed or injured and their families are in our thoughts and prayers."

"As the President said, FBI Director Mueller is traveling to Arizona to help coordinate the investigation. The FBI is working jointly with local law enforcement to investigate today's events, and I have directed Department prosecutors and law enforcement officials to use every resource necessary to investigate this tragedy. I want to assure the people of Arizona and every American that we will hold accountable anyone responsible for these heinous acts."

Giffords Opponent, Jesse Kelly, Held June Event to “Shoot a Fully Automatic M16″ to “Get on Target” and “Remove Gabrielle Giffords”

By: Jane Hamsher Saturday January 8, 2011 11:43 am

Per Puppethead in the comments, Giffords’ 2010 Congressional opponent Jesse Kelly held a June 12 gun event that was billed as follows on the Pima County Republican website:

Get on Target for Victory in November Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office Shot a fully automatic M15 with Jesse Kelly

Kelly’s website has apparently scrubbed the event , but here is the account from the Arizona Daily Star:

Jesse Kelly, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to be bothered in the least by the Sarah Palin controversy earlier this year, when she released a list of targeted races in crosshairs, urging followers to “reload” and “aim” for Democrats. Critics said she was inciting violence.
He seems to be embracing his fellow tea partier’s idea. Kelly’s campaign event website has a stern-looking photo of the former Marine in military garb holding his weapon. It includes the headline: “Get on Target for Victory in November. Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly.”
The event costs $50.

KVOA television in Arizona is also reporting that Rep. Giffords has died.
Update I: Gawker spoke to eyewitness Steven Rayle, who says one of the victims was “a kid no older than 10 years old”:

The event was very informal: Gifford had set up a table outside the  Safeway and about 20-30 people were gathered to talk to her. The gunman,  who may have come from inside the Safeway, walked up and shot Gifford  in the head first, “point blank”. According to Rayle, who is a former ER  doctor, Gifford was able to move her hands after being shot.
After shooting Gifford, the gunman opened fire indiscriminately for a  few seconds, firing 20-30 rounds and hitting a number of people,  including a kid no older than 10 years old. Rayle hid behind a concrete  pole and pretended to be dead. When the gunman apparently ran out of  ammunition he attempted to flee, but a member of Gifford’s staff tackled  him. Rayle helped hold the gunman down while waiting for the sheriff to  arrive, about 15-to-20 minutes later. The EMS came about 30 minutes  later. Rayle said he was “stunned” by how long it took medical help to  arrive.

Update II: Brendan sends this, which has apparently been scrubbed from Sarah Palin’s web page:

Related Posts

• Congresswoman Giffords Shot in ArizonaJanuary 8, 2011
• Rep. Gabby Giffords and Six Others Have Died In Tuscon Shooting (UPDATE: AZ Sheriff Dupnick Says Giffords Still Alive)January 8, 2011
• Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in March Interview with MSNBC Re Palin’s TargetingJanuary 8, 2011
• Gabe Zimmerman, Giffords Director of Community Outreach, Died in ShootingJanuary 8, 2011
• Liveblog: News Conference on Giffords ShootingJanuary 8, 2011

After Rep. Giffords shot in Arizona, Palin's 'Take Back the 20' goes down

 

 

By Laura Conaway

 - 

Sat Jan 8, 2011 3:58 PM EST

This is a screengrab from Sarah Palin's website Take Back the 20, taken moments ago. One of the crosshairs in Arizona appears to be for the district represented by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat. (First iteration of Ms. Palin's map here.)
Rep. Giffords, who'd just won a third term, was shot today in the head outside a grocery store while meeting with constituents. The Arizona Republic is live-blogging coverage. The latest from them says Ms. Giffords is in surgery in very serious condition -- UPDATE: The paper says she's out of surgery and in intensive care. A federal judge, John M. Roll, and a Giffords staffer were also reportedly killed. MSNBC says the alleged shooter, 22, is in custody. In all, six people are reported dead. The toll includes a nine-year-old girl. Eighteen people were injured.
ADDING: As several commenters have noted, there's no indication that the alleged shooter was politically motivated. Even if the perpetrator turns out to have been seriously involved in political causes, which again there's no evidence of, his actions will likely remain senseless. What we can say is that today's shooting, whatever its motivation, comes after an election season that was marked by the language of violence, like Sharron Angle's call for Second Amendment remedies. And so today's literal violence in a political context will inevitably raise questions about the effect of violent rhetoric.

---

Firedog Lake and David Safier each link to an ad they say came from the Pima County Republican website in June. It invites people to a fundraiser for Ms. Giffords' opponent, Jesse Kelly. The ad urges:

Get on Target for Victory in November Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office Shot a fully automatic M15 with Jesse Kelly

At the time, candidate Jesse Kelly tweeted that the event had gone great -- "great turnout," "great success." He tweeted a couple of pics from the event, including this one:

Today Mr. Kelly tweets, "We are all deeply saddened by this morning's shooting. Gabrielle Giffords, the other victims, and their families are in our prayers."
Sarah Palin has offered her condolences over Facebook. After the November vote, Yahoo noted that Ms. Palin's Take Back the 20 campaign "scores a bull's-eye." Ms. Giffords' seat was one of only two Ms. Palin's favored candidates lost.
ADDING: House Speaker John Boehner issued a statement saying he's "horrified by the senseless attack." President Obama called it an "unspeakable tragedy."
After today's shooting, Ms. Palin's website went down. It's possible that it's simply being overwhelmed with traffic, though the error message I get says my browser "can't find the server." I was able to screengrab a couple of the pages before the site went dark. If you've got more, share links in the comments, please.
(H/T Aaron Naparstek)
Sarah Palin's map with Gabrielle Giffords' name.
From our original post last spring. You can also find this on Ms. Palin's Facebook note:

Suspect: 'You could call me a terrorist'

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Should political rhetoric be toned down

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Violent act strikes down Congresswoman

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A Look at Gabrielle Giffords’ Career

A visual tour of the Congressional career of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Full Story

 

First elected in 2006, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is a member of the conservative Blue Dog Coalition but at age 18 was inspired to register as a Republican by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a fellow Arizonan. She switched parties in 1999 after realizing her views on social issues were more moderate than most Arizona Republicans.

Man linked to Giffords shooting called 'very disturbed'

By Tim Steller, Arizona Daily Star Posted: Saturday, January 8, 2011 3:11 pm

Mamta Popat/Arizona Daily StarJared Loughner is the man identified by the Associated Press as the suspect in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and slayings of U.S. District Judge John Roll and 5 others this morning in Tucson.  Law enforcement is at house on Soledad Avenue that matches the address of the Jared Loughner who registered as a volunteer at the 2010 Tucson Festival of Books, where this photo was taken.The man linked to the shooting today of Rep. Gabrielle Giffordsand others is 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, the Associated Pressreported.

Police have surrounded a house at 7700 N. Soledad Ave., which isthe address listed by a man with the same name on a variety ofonline accounts and in the volunteer registry for the 2010 TucsonFestival of Books. The home is near West Magee Road and NorthThornydale Road on the northwest side, about five miles from theshooting scene.
A former classmate of Loughner at Pima Community College said hewas “obviously very disturbed.”
“He disrupted class frequently with nonsensical outbursts,” saidLynda Sorenson, who took a math class with Loughner last summer atPima Community College’s Northwest campus.
Sorenson doesn’t recall if he ever made any threats or utteredpolitical statements but he was very disruptive, she said. He wasasked to leave the pre-algebra class several times and eventuallywas barred from class, said Sorenson, a Tucson resident.
MySpace, YouTube and Facebook accounts maintained by Loughnersuggest he has spent most of his life on the northwest side: Hisprofile says he attended Thornydale Elementary, Tortolita MiddleSchool, Mountain View High School and Pima Community College.
The online accounts also contain bizarre discussions of a newcurrency and literacy, as well as threatening and despairingmessages.
“WOW! I’m glad i didn’t kill myself. I’ll see you on NationalT.v.! This is foreshadow .... why doesn’t anyone talk to me?..” heposted on MySpace Dec. 14.
On Dec. 13, he wrote: “I don’t feel good: I’m ready to kill apolice officer! I can say it.”
In a posting on YouTube, Loughner wrote repeatedly about a newcurrency.
“I’m thinking of creating a new currency,” he wrote. “Therefore,I’m thinking of a design for my new coins size, shape, color,material, and image to start a new money system.”
He also wrote repeatedly about literacy. In a written message onYouTube, Loughner said: “The majority of people, who reside inDistrict-8 are illiterate — hilarious. I don’t control your Englishgrammar structure, but you control your English grammarstructure.”
In a message posted on his MySpace account, titled “Goodbyefriends,” Loughner said: “Dear friends...please don’t be mad at me.The literacy rate is below 5%. I haven’t talked to one person whois literate.” It was unclear when it was posted.
In a MySpace profile, Loughner said “My favorite interest wasreading, and I studied grammar. Conscience dreams were a greatstudy in college.”
He lists among his favorite books “Mein Kampf” and “TheCommunist Manifesto”. But he also includes a broad variety of othertitles, including: “Animal Farm,” “Brave New World,” “To Kill aMockingbird,” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.
In another YouTube message, Loughner said: “I know who’slistening: Government Officials, and the People. Nearly all thepeople, who don’t know this accurate information of a new currency,aren’t aware of mind control and brainwash methods. If I have mycivil rights, then this message wouldn’t have happen.”
“In conclusion, my ambition - is for informing literate dreamersabout a new currency; in a few days, you know I’m consciencedreaming! Thank you!”
In a youtube.com video dated Dec. 15, entitled “Introduction:Jared Loughner” the accused gunman describes himself as a U.S.military recruit who had applied to join the Army. The Army,however, said it rejected Lougher as a recruit in 2008.
Loughner’s youtube video makes a rambling mention of “MEPS inPhoenix” a reference to the Military Entrance Processing Station inthe state capital that all Arizona recruits from every branch ofservice pass through before leaving for basic training.
“Every United States military recruit at MEPS in Phoenix isreceiving one mini bible before the tests,” it said.  “JaredLoughner is a United States military recruit at MEPS in Phoenix.Therefore, Jared Loughner is receiving one mini bible before thetests.
“I didn’t write a belief on my Army application and therecruiter wrote on the application: None.”
First Sgt. Brian Homme, who oversees Army recruiting in Tucson,said Loughner applied to enlist in December 2008 and was sent toPhoenix to take a test and physical. But “he was found to beunqualified so he never joined the Army,” Homme said.
He declined to say why Loughner was rejected, citingconfidentiality laws.
Jared Loughner has had at least two minor run-ins with police,according to on-line court records.
In October 2007, Loughner was cited by the Pima County Sheriff'sDepartment for possession of drug paraphernalia, a charge that wasdismissed in November 2007 when he completed a diversionprogram.
One year later, in October 2008, Loughner was charged with a"local charge" in Marana Municipal Court, that charge was alsodismissed following the completion of a diversion program in March2009.
Court records indicate the Marana case file is due to be purgedin December 2013. It's unclear what the exact charge was.
Grant Wiens, 22, attended Mountain View High School withLoughner, although they were not in the same grade.
Wiens also took a class at Pima Community College with Loughner,where they occasionally talked, he said.
“He was a guy in high school who definitely had his opinions onstuff and didn’t seem to care what people thought of him,” Wienssaid. “He did his own thing.”
Ryan Miller, 19, was a sophomore at Mountain View when Loughnerwas a senior.
He said Loughner was seemed like a normal kid.
“I was in shock,” he said, describing his reaction to theshooting. “I didn’t know what possessed someone our age to dosomething like this.”

 

 

Mamta Popat/Arizona Daily StarJared Loughner is the man identified by the Associated Press as the suspect in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and slayings of U.S. District Judge John Roll and 5 others this morning in Tucson.  Law enforcement is at house on Soledad Avenue that matches the address of the Jared Loughner who registered as a volunteer at the 2010 Tucson Festival of Books, where this photo was taken.The man linked to the shooting today of Rep. Gabrielle Giffordsand others is 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, the Associated Pressreported.

Police have surrounded a house at 7700 N. Soledad Ave., which isthe address listed by a man with the same name on a variety ofonline accounts and in the volunteer registry for the 2010 TucsonFestival of Books. The home is near West Magee Road and NorthThornydale Road on the northwest side, about five miles from theshooting scene.
A former classmate of Loughner at Pima Community College said hewas “obviously very disturbed.”
“He disrupted class frequently with nonsensical outbursts,” saidLynda Sorenson, who took a math class with Loughner last summer atPima Community College’s Northwest campus.
Sorenson doesn’t recall if he ever made any threats or utteredpolitical statements but he was very disruptive, she said. He wasasked to leave the pre-algebra class several times and eventuallywas barred from class, said Sorenson, a Tucson resident.
MySpace, YouTube and Facebook accounts maintained by Loughnersuggest he has spent most of his life on the northwest side: Hisprofile says he attended Thornydale Elementary, Tortolita MiddleSchool, Mountain View High School and Pima Community College.
The online accounts also contain bizarre discussions of a newcurrency and literacy, as well as threatening and despairingmessages.
“WOW! I’m glad i didn’t kill myself. I’ll see you on NationalT.v.! This is foreshadow .... why doesn’t anyone talk to me?..” heposted on MySpace Dec. 14.
On Dec. 13, he wrote: “I don’t feel good: I’m ready to kill apolice officer! I can say it.”
In a posting on YouTube, Loughner wrote repeatedly about a newcurrency.
“I’m thinking of creating a new currency,” he wrote. “Therefore,I’m thinking of a design for my new coins size, shape, color,material, and image to start a new money system.”
He also wrote repeatedly about literacy. In a written message onYouTube, Loughner said: “The majority of people, who reside inDistrict-8 are illiterate — hilarious. I don’t control your Englishgrammar structure, but you control your English grammarstructure.”
In a message posted on his MySpace account, titled “Goodbyefriends,” Loughner said: “Dear friends...please don’t be mad at me.The literacy rate is below 5%. I haven’t talked to one person whois literate.” It was unclear when it was posted.
In a MySpace profile, Loughner said “My favorite interest wasreading, and I studied grammar. Conscience dreams were a greatstudy in college.”
He lists among his favorite books “Mein Kampf” and “TheCommunist Manifesto”. But he also includes a broad variety of othertitles, including: “Animal Farm,” “Brave New World,” “To Kill aMockingbird,” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.
In another YouTube message, Loughner said: “I know who’slistening: Government Officials, and the People. Nearly all thepeople, who don’t know this accurate information of a new currency,aren’t aware of mind control and brainwash methods. If I have mycivil rights, then this message wouldn’t have happen.”
“In conclusion, my ambition - is for informing literate dreamersabout a new currency; in a few days, you know I’m consciencedreaming! Thank you!”
In a youtube.com video dated Dec. 15, entitled “Introduction:Jared Loughner” the accused gunman describes himself as a U.S.military recruit who had applied to join the Army. The Army,however, said it rejected Lougher as a recruit in 2008.
Loughner’s youtube video makes a rambling mention of “MEPS inPhoenix” a reference to the Military Entrance Processing Station inthe state capital that all Arizona recruits from every branch ofservice pass through before leaving for basic training.
“Every United States military recruit at MEPS in Phoenix isreceiving one mini bible before the tests,” it said.  “JaredLoughner is a United States military recruit at MEPS in Phoenix.Therefore, Jared Loughner is receiving one mini bible before thetests.
“I didn’t write a belief on my Army application and therecruiter wrote on the application: None.”
First Sgt. Brian Homme, who oversees Army recruiting in Tucson,said Loughner applied to enlist in December 2008 and was sent toPhoenix to take a test and physical. But “he was found to beunqualified so he never joined the Army,” Homme said.
He declined to say why Loughner was rejected, citingconfidentiality laws.
Jared Loughner has had at least two minor run-ins with police,according to on-line court records.
In October 2007, Loughner was cited by the Pima County Sheriff'sDepartment for possession of drug paraphernalia, a charge that wasdismissed in November 2007 when he completed a diversionprogram.
One year later, in October 2008, Loughner was charged with a"local charge" in Marana Municipal Court, that charge was alsodismissed following the completion of a diversion program in March2009.
Court records indicate the Marana case file is due to be purgedin December 2013. It's unclear what the exact charge was.
Grant Wiens, 22, attended Mountain View High School withLoughner, although they were not in the same grade.
Wiens also took a class at Pima Community College with Loughner,where they occasionally talked, he said.
“He was a guy in high school who definitely had his opinions onstuff and didn’t seem to care what people thought of him,” Wienssaid. “He did his own thing.”
Ryan Miller, 19, was a sophomore at Mountain View when Loughnerwas a senior.
He said Loughner was seemed like a normal kid.
“I was in shock,” he said, describing his reaction to theshooting. “I didn’t know what possessed someone our age to dosomething like this.”


Stay tuned to StarNet for updates
Copyright 2011 Arizona Daily Star. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

West Wing Week: 1/07/11 or "Resolutions"

Free Download |whitehouse| January 06, 2011 |
Welcome to the West Wing Week, your guide to everything that's happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. This week, the first family returns to Washington, the President signs over 30 bills into law, and West Wing staff share their New Year's resolutions.

Absentee oaths add wrinkle to proceedings

By CQ Staff
The first votes cast in the 112th Congress by a pair of Republican lawmakers will likely be thrown out by the House after it was discovered Thursday that they voted before being sworn into office.
Reps. Pete Sessions of Texas and Michael G. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania apparently were in another part of the Capitol when Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, administered the oath of office to House members in the chamber Jan. 5.
They were sworn in by Boehner on Thursday afternoon, but not before they had each participated in five roll call votes and one quorum call that followed Boehner’s election as Speaker.
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Rules Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., said the resolution his panel is drafting to govern floor action next week on a Republican proposal (HR 2) to repeal the 2010 health care law (PL 111-148, PL 111-152) will include language that would vitiate the votes cast by Sessions and Fitzpatrick before their swearing-in.
Such an action would not change the outcome of any of the House votes.
The Rules Committee recessed for more than 90 minutes in the middle of its marathon hearing Thursday on the health care bill after it became clear that Sessions, a member of the panel and chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, had voted several times on the floor and in committee although he was not yet sworn in to begin his eighth House term.
After discussions with House parliamentarians, Dreier announced that “nothing has been violated as far as the actions of this committee” and that the upcoming rule would cancel out the two lawmakers’ floor votes. “The cleanest way to doing this is to address this in the rule,” Dreier said.
Another option might have been a unanimous consent request, but it was unclear whether Democrats would have let the new GOP majority escape a minor embarrassment so easily.
“What in the world was more important to Congressmen-elect Pete Sessions and Mike Fitzpatrick than taking the oath of office, committing to support and defend the U.S. Constitution?” wrote Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Crider. “Republicans have spent a lot of time over the past two days proselytizing about House rules, but they don’t seem very keen on actually following the rules.”
The new House Democratic minority also would be glad to see the repeal effort hit a snag. Louise M. Slaughter, the top Rules Committee Democrat, expressed concern about continuing the hearing without completely resolving any constitutional issues that might be raised by Sessions’ participation.
“We feel that we are on somewhat shaky ground,” she said. “We would feel better, on our side, if we could recess and start the hearing over tomorrow.”
“How many other people decided not to take the oath on the floor?” Slaughter asked.
Dreier cited “a standard of collegiality” suggested by Thomas Jefferson’s 1801 “Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the Use of the Senate of the United States,” which Dreier said indicates that a House member need only be in proximity of the Speaker when the oath of office is administered.
In 1837, the House adopted Jefferson’s manual in all cases except when its parliamentary guidance contradicts other rules of the House.
A Sessions spokesperson said the Texan “stated the oath publicly in the Capitol, but was not on the House floor” during the swearing-in.
The Bucks County (Pa.) Courier Times published a photograph that the paper said showed Sessions and Fitzpatrick among a group of Fitzpatrick political supporters in the Capitol Visitor Center, their right hands raised, as the oath was being administered in the House chamber.
The House does not take attendance during the swearing-in ceremony at the beginning of each Congress. Both Sessions and Fitzpatrick participated in an initial quorum call and were in the chamber to vote for Boehner in the Speaker’s election.
“The purpose of the quorum call is to bring members to the floor,” said Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck. “Members are expected to stay on the floor afterwards, but often don’t. Any member not on the floor for swearing is expected to make that known to leadership to rectify.”
Also sworn in Thursday was Democratic Rep. Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon, who was not in Washington on Jan. 5. He did not vote before being sworn in.
-- Ben Weyl and Niels Lesniewski, CQ Staff

Debt warning spurs showdown

By CQ Staff
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner’s warning that the government will hit its debt limit as early as March 31 has kicked off a high-stakes game of brinkmanship, with Republican leaders determined to extract spending concessions as the price of supporting an increase in the federal borrowing capacity and preventing a government default.
The looming deadline for raising the debt ceiling coincides with the need for Congress to find a way to fund the government for the rest of fiscal 2011 after a stopgap funding measure expires March 4.
It will also be hard on the heels of President Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget submission, expected in mid-February.
And it comes after the House repealed a mechanism known as the “Gephardt rule” earlier this week, which in the past made it easier for the House to raise the debt limit by avoiding a direct vote on it.
[Request a free trial to CQ Today.]
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Geithner on Thursday warned that not raising the debt limit would cause a default on U.S. financial obligations, which he said would be potentially more damaging than the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009.
He called on Congress to raise the debt limit early this year, “well before the threat of default becomes imminent.”
“Default would effectively impose a significant and long-lasting tax on all Americans and all American businesses and could lead to the loss of millions of American jobs. Even a very short-term or limited default would have catastrophic economic consequences that would last for decades,” he said.
Republican leaders in both chambers want to tie spending cuts and budget changes aimed at gaining control of the nation’s ballooning debt to any vote to raise the debt ceiling.
Though GOP leaders view an increase in the debt limit as necessary, they will have to deal with tea party-backed freshman lawmakers and a few veteran conservatives who are ready to oppose it.
Mindful of the government shutdown in late 1995 and early 1996, for which the public blamed Republicans, GOP leaders are hashing out a strategy for forcing Obama and Senate Democrats to accept spending restraint as a condition for raising the debt limit.
“We’re talking among ourselves as to exactly what we think would be the best course to take,” House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., said Thursday at the National Press Club during a public interview with Paul Gigot, editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal.
When asked what leverage the GOP would have in bargaining with the administration, Ryan said the duration of any debt ceiling increase offered an avenue for negotiation.
“There are different ways of doing a debt ceiling increase that speak to our strategy,” he said.
Ryan also raised the possibility that Obama could be blamed for a government default if the president rejected a debt limit increase with GOP conditions.
“I think it would be irresponsible if the president brings about a default in the country if he refuses to sign a bill raising the debt ceiling,” Ryan said.
The Treasury Department says the debt now stands at $13.95 trillion, leaving a cushion of just $335 billion below the current debt limit of $14.29 trillion. Geithner said the limit is likely to be reached between March 31 and May 16. He urged Congress to act during the first three months of the year.
Congressional Democrats also did some positioning of their own on the issue.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Reid accused the Republicans of “threatening to shut down government, to have the United States of America default on its bills. You can imagine, as well as I can, the economic crisis this would cause. And not only what it would do internationally, but what it would do at home: no more Social Security checks, the troops wouldn’t get their checks, veterans wouldn’t get their checks, border security, FBI, all of it.”
The administration’s request for Congress to raise the debt ceiling provoked a combative response from House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio.
“The American people will not stand for such an increase unless it is accompanied by meaningful action by the president and Congress to cut spending and end the job-killing spending binge in Washington,” Boehner said.
“While America cannot default on its debt,” he continued, “we also cannot continue to borrow recklessly, dig ourselves deeper into this hole and mortgage the future of our children and grandchildren.”
Boehner added that the president and Democrats in Congress would have to work with Republicans to cut spending and overhaul the budget.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., seconded the House GOP’s call for tying spending controls to a debt limit increase and took a mild swipe at the administration.
“Rather than sending scary letters, what we ought to look at is an opportunity here on a bipartisan basis to address spending and the debt,” McConnell said.
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus called on Congress to begin work on raising the debt limit immediately.
“No one is more concerned about reducing the deficit than I am, but this is no time to play chicken with American jobs and the future of our economy,” the Montana Democrat said in a statement. “It is time to tackle the deficit in a serious, bipartisan fashion and to do so in a manner that doesn’t risk the full faith and credit of our economy and our country in the process.”
As a fallback position, Geithner said Treasury could take “extraordinary measures” such as suspending the sale of Treasury securities to delay the date when the limit is reached by several weeks.
“Once these steps have been taken, no remaining legal and prudent measures would be available to create additional headroom under the debt limit, and the United States would begin to default on its obligations,” he said.
Geithner also warned that even if Congress were to scale back discretionary spending to fiscal 2008 levels, a goal of House Republicans, that action would delay the need to raise the debt limit by no more than two weeks.
Congress last raised the debt limit in February 2010.
-- Paul M. Krawzak, CQ Staff

The Employment Situation in December

Posted by Austan Goolsbee on January 07, 2011 at 09:40 AM EST Today’s employment report shows that private sector payrolls increased by 113,000 in December, capping 12 consecutive months of growth that added 1.3 million private sector jobs to the economy during 2010, the strongest private sector job growth since 2006. The unemployment rate fell 0.4 percentage point to 9.4 percent last month.
The overall trend of economic data over the past several months has been encouraging, due in large part to the initiatives passed by this Administration, but we still have a ways to go. The measures we worked with Congress to pass last month that continue tax cuts for the middle class and extensions to unemployment insurance are vital to sustaining the recovery. The Administration will also continue to focus on actions that the President has recommended to increase growth and job creation, such as providing incentives to encourage businesses to invest and hire here at home, investing in education and infrastructure, and promoting exports abroad.
In addition to the increases last month, the estimates of private sector job growth for October (now 193,000) and November (now 79,000) were revised up. Including today’s revisions, private sector employers have added an average of 128,000 jobs per month in the 4th quarter, the highest quarterly average in almost four years.
Overall payroll employment rose by 103,000 last month. Among the sectors with the largest payroll employment growth were leisure and hospitality (+47,000), education and health services (+44,000), temporary help services (+15,900), and manufacturing (+10,000). Local government (-20,000) and construction (-16,000) were among the sectors that subtracted from the total.
Even though the unemployment rate fell sharply in December, it is still unacceptably high and we need robust employment growth in order to recover from the deep job losses that began over two years ago. The overall trajectory of the economy has improved dramatically since then, but there will surely continue to be bumps in the road ahead. The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and employment estimates are subject to substantial revision. Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.
. Austan Goolsbee is Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers

Leader Cantor on the Latest Unemployment Report

WASHINGTON, DC – House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) today released the following statement after the Department of Labor issued the December Unemployment report.
“Today’s jobs report shows unemployment hovering around 9% for the 20th consecutive month, and while the slight drop from last month is encouraging, we need to do more to make sure people can get back to work. That will start by empowering employers across the country to grow.
“The new Republican Majority is already working to cut government spending and the overreaching regulations put in place by the last Democrat-led majority so that the private sector economy can grow. First and foremost, we will repeal ObamaCare – the massive government takeover of health care that was rammed through Congress despite strong public opposition. With the repeal of this job-killing legislation, businesses will be able to breathe a sigh of relief and know they won’t be strapped with needless new mandates and taxes that will curb their ability to grow and be successful.
“The new Republican Majority is committed to a ‘cut-and-grow’ agenda which will signal to the private sector that we are ready and able to provide a pro-growth environment where businesses small and large can do what they do best – innovate, compete and lead. To that end, you will see the ‘cut and grow’ playbook begin to take hold over the next 3 weeks leading up to the President’s State of the Union Address. We must deliver results so that we can return this country to the land of responsibility, opportunity and success.”

U.S. judiciary facing rise in death

 

by Robert Anglen - Jul. 9, 2009 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

A prison informer gave up details of a planned hit in April:
A drug dealer wanted a federal prosecutor dead. The prosecutor had put him away;
now he was willing to pay someone to kill her.

The informer came forward on a Monday afternoon.

On Tuesday morning, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Mosher in
Tucson was alerted to the threat on her life. The next day, Mosher was under the
protective guard of a team of deputy U.S. marshals who would cover her every
move for the next 10 days while another team investigated the
threat

Federal judges and prosecutors across the country, including
in Arizona, are confronting a growing number of threats against their lives. The
U.S. Marshals Service, which provides security for federal court personnel,
reports that the number of threats nationwide against such officials, jurors and
witnesses has more than doubled in the past six years, from 592 to nearly 1,300.

In Arizona, U.S. Marshal David Gonzales said deputies who
once investigated a handful of threats, typically hurled by defendants at a
judge during sentencing, are now fielding three to four threats a week.

The threats come via e-mail, text message and telephone. They
are posted in the blogosphere and sometimes fed by polemic radio talk-show
hosts. In response, some federal judges have taken to arming themselves with
handguns. Others are tapping into federal funds to install or upgrade
home-security systems.

The need to investigate and assess the threats led to the
creation this year of a special unit of four full-time deputy marshals in
Arizona who monitor "inappropriate communications."

Marshals also have stepped up preventive measures, giving
personal-security lessons to federal court staffers and their families, training
them in evasive maneuvers and evaluating home-alarm systems.

The increase in threats is being fueled partly by the
Internet. A person who would never write a threatening letter to a judge does
not have qualms about posting the same anonymous message online, Gonzales
said.

Other factors are the country's worsening economic condition,
reflected in bankruptcy cases, where desperate people lash out in frustration at
judges who adjudicate their financial losses.

Gonzales also said the court system is seeing increasingly
violent defendants in cases related to immigration, terrorism, drugs and hate
crimes.

"A lot of times, you find threats are made by guys covered
with Cheeto dust and still living in their mother's basement," he said. "We
still have to neutralize all of those threats."

Threats change lives

Mosher said the threat on her life hit her like a brick. She
spent the next 10 days learning to live a completely different lifestyle.

"I've been doing this for this office for 20 years, and I
have never had a death threat," the 50-year-old prosecutor said. "It is very
disturbing. . . . You realize you are a victim. I do feel vulnerable."

Deputy marshals accompanied her when she went to work, the
grocery store, and to lunch and dinner appointments. They drove her car,
prepared to use defensive-driving techniques if attacked.

Deputy marshals went with her on hospital visits to her
ailing mother. Upon arriving at her home each night, they would go through every
room of her house, looking under beds and in closets, before she was allowed to
be alone.

Outside her house, Pima County sheriff's deputies, working
with the marshals, ran extra patrols. They were intentionally visible, sending a
signal.

"Basically, I had two people with me 24 hours a day," she
said. "They really impressed me with the training they had."

Mosher said marshals upgraded her home-security system. They
taught her to be aware of her surroundings. Every day, they would brief her
about their investigation.

Ultimately, they learned the informer was trying to use
jailhouse chatter to cut his own deal on a sentence. The drug dealer was a big
talker but had no intention of carrying out the threat.

Gonzales said that most threats fizzle into nothing and that
almost none leads to prosecutions.

"The vast majority of these things are just individuals
expressing their opinions," he said. "It's one thing to (make a threat). You
also have to have the means to do it."

Security for court staff

Security concerns intensified in 2005 after a man who was
angry over the dismissal of his civil-malpractice case murdered the husband and
mother of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow of Chicago.

On any given day now, the U.S. Marshals Service is running 20
protective details of judges and court staff across the country. Deputies are
shared with other jurisdictions to ease the manpower burden.

The Marshals Service this year opened a national
threat-assessment center at its headquarters in Arlington, Va., with links to
FBI, CIA and other law-enforcement databases. The center fields hotline calls
from court personnel, assesses the threat and can gather intelligence about the
person who made the threat.

Some federal court employees are linked to the system via a
panic button that alerts marshals at the center to their location and links them
to local emergency dispatchers.

Besides working details, marshals also evaluate the personal
security of judges, court staff and their families and coach them on safety
techniques. That could include observation training, advice on proper
landscaping around a house and how to react to a potential threat.

Gonzales said marshals also evaluate security at federal
courthouses across the country. Specific security measures are different in each
jurisdiction. Gonzales said the reason cameras and audio recorders aren't
allowed in Arizona's federal courts is to prevent potential bad guys from
identifying court staff, witnesses and jurors.

Gonzales said deputies work on identifying high-profile cases
that will generate controversy and outrage before they begin.

In February, when U.S. District Judge John Roll presided over
a $32 million civil-rights lawsuit filed by illegal immigrants against an
Arizona rancher, the Marshals Service was anticipating the fallout.

When Roll ruled the case could go forward, Gonzales said
talk-radio shows cranked up the controversy and spurred audiences into making
threats.

In one afternoon, Roll logged more than 200 phone calls.
Callers threatened the judge and his family. They posted personal information
about Roll online.

"They said, 'We should kill him. He should be dead,' "
Gonzales said.

Roll, who is the chief federal judge in Arizona, said both he
and his wife were given a protection detail for about a month.

"It was unnerving and invasive. . . . By its nature it has to
be," Roll said, adding that they were encouraged to live their lives as normally
as possible. "It was handled very professionally by the Marshals Service."

At the end of the month, Roll said four key men had been
identified as threat makers.

The Marshals Service left to him the decision to press
charges but recommended against it. Roll said he had no qualms about following
their advice.

The recommendation was based on the intent of those making
the threats.

"I have a very strong belief that there is nothing wrong with
criticizing a judicial decision," he said. "But when it comes to threats, that
is an entirely different matter."

A Rocky Start

 

Posted by Jay
Newton-Small Friday, January 7, 2011 at 12:43
pm

Sure, the handing over of power went smoothly and civilly. But Republicans are off to a tough first week and Dems are not letting them forget it – or so say the dozens of press releases in my inbox. Governing is always harder than being in the minority and there's bound to be some period of transition – though it's only been four years, Republican memories can't be that short. Four reasons why the GOP's first week in power hasn't exactly been one of shock and awe:
New Minority Rights, Except on the First Bill
Republicans are getting hammered for breaking their own new rules with their bill to repeal health care reform: they're bringing up a bill without any committee action, that increases the deficit and they're not allowing any minority amendments.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor defended the move in a Tuesday press conference (note to Cantor staff: you might want to hold back some news when for big press conferences because if he's just there to answer questions he has no answers to, he's gonna get hammered and the resulting headlines will never be good):
The health care bill has been through this process – the bulk of the Congress prior was about the health care bill. This election was about jobs and the economy, and certainly the health care bill played a significant role. It has been litigated according to the American people, if you look at the polling on this.
While the latest Gallup poll shows that 46% of Americans want to see the bill repealed, it also shows that 40% do not – hardly a resounding rejection of the bill. Besides, going off poll numbers is hardly a great measure for passing unilateral legislation: another recent Gallup poll found that 67% of Americans support repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell but that didn't stop congressional Republicans from overwhelmingly opposing it.
Don't shoot the CBO
Whilst on the subject of health care reform, when asked if Republicans will get their own score on the health care bill Cantor on Monday lambasted the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
What we do know is the CBO fulfilled its role according to the rules set by this Congress, and it looked at the paper that was presented before them. We all know that the bill that was passed by the Democratic Majority was full of budget gimmickry.
Blaming the CBO is a common bipartisan pastime – especially estimates done whilst the other Party was in control. But, it's unusual for the Party in power to attack a CBO score of one of its bills, which is exactly what happened Thursday when the CBO estimated that repealing health care reform would add $230 billion to the deficit. Speaker Boehner responded:
I do not believe that repealing the job-killing health care law will increase the deficit. CBO is entitled to their opinion, but they're locked within constraints of the 1974 Budget Act. Listen, even the actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have made clear that this bill will not save the kind of money that was predicted earlier.
I don't imagine Boehner wanted to spend his first press conference as Speaker arguing over the hypothetical bias of the non-partisan CBO.
When we said 100, we really meant 50
Republicans also scaled back on their pledge to cut $100 billion from non-defense discretionary spending from the federal budget. By the time the current continuing resolution expires, Republicans argue, the fiscal year -- which ends in September -- will be half over.
Cantor also seemed to back pedal from their pledge not to cut military spending (not surprising given that Defense Secretary Robert Gates himself this week proposed nearly $80 billion in cuts). “I think most of us have said everything is going to be on the table,” Cantor said.
Oops – I really do have to swear?
Despite the GOP's elevation of the Constitution – reading it aloud on the House floor for the first time ever – the Party was embarrassed when it turned out that two of their own members were not officially sworn in: Pete Sessions of Texas and Pennsylvania's Mike Fitzpatrick.
The snafu forced the Rules Committee to break in the midst of considering the health care repeal and for the pairs' six votes during the day to be invalidated. The two were at a fundraiser for Fitzpatrick in the Capitol Visitors Center during the swearing in – Sessions is the head of the National Republican Campaign Committee.
Read more: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2011/01/07/a-rocky-start/#ixzz1AUcDV269