When Obama landed in Arizona today he was met on the tarmac by Gov. Jan Brewer. The two had a heated argument that ended when Obama simply walked away from Brewer while she was in mid-sentence.

From Reuters:

A long-simmering movement by liberal stalwarts in southern Arizona to break away from the rest of the largely conservative state is at a boiling point as secession backers press to bring their longshot ambition to the forefront of Arizona politics.

A group of lawyers from the Democratic stronghold of Tucson and surrounding Pima County have launched a petition drive seeking support for a November 2012 ballot question on whether the 48th state should be divided in two.

The ultimate goal of the newly formed political action committee Start our State is to split Pima County off into what would become the nation’s 51st state, tentatively dubbed Baja Arizona.

Good luck with that. If you recall, Pima County is run by far left sheriff Clarence Dupnick. He’s the one who blamed Rush Limbaugh and Conservatives for the Gabby Giffords shooting. Bristol Palin recently bought a house in Maricopa County where she lives under watchful eye of conservative Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

This article titled “Gun sales rise sharply in wake of Arizona shooting” was written by Ed Pilkington in New York, for The Guardian on Wednesday 12th January 2011 20.26 UTC

While the killing of six people and the wounding of 14 others in Tucson, Arizona, last Saturday has led to nationwide soul-searching about the nature of the political debate in the US, one group of Americans have profited from the shooting rampage: gun dealers.

In the days since the tragedy, gun sales have increased dramatically. According to figures obtained from the FBI by Bloomberg, some 263 handguns were sold in Arizona the day after the killings, a rise of 60% on a year ago. Handgun sales were up 65% to 395 in Ohio and nationally increased by about 5% to 7,906.

The spike in sales has been particularly pronounced for precisely the model of gun and ammunition deployed by the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, on Saturday: the Austrian-made Glock 19. The handgun is used by many law enforcement agencies in the US, including the NYPD.

It is light, powerful, accurate and easy to shoot at high speed. Since a ban on assault weapons was allowed to lapse in 2004, it can legally be equipped with an extended magazine that holds 33 bullets.

It was this magazine that was fitted to Loughner’s gun and that allowed him to wreak such carnage, as he was brought to the ground only after he attempted to reload, having fired all 33 rounds.

Yet sales of the extended magazines are doing particularly brisk business in Arizona. At Glockmeister, a specialist Glock dealer with outlets in Mesa and Phoenix, overall sales including those of the Glock 19 as used by Loughner, which sells for 9 in the store, have approximately doubled. But sales of the extended 33-bullet clip are up almost 400% this week.

Steven Zacher, the store’s operations manager in Mesa, said Glock owners had been coming in in large numbers because they were apprehensive that Congress might clamp down on possession of the high-capacity magazines. “Gun owners are nervous that there might be legislation on the way, and as a result they are anticipating it by stocking up on their personal collection.”

The extended magazine, known in the trade as a G18, is something of a novelty in the business and is usually only found among police officers and other law enforcers. For general users, the clip is normally considered unwieldy.

Similar runs on guns and ammunition have been seen following other gun rampages such as the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, in which 32 people died. There was also a surge after Barack Obama was elected president in November 2008 as gun owners again expected restrictions.

In the event, those restrictions have not been forthcoming, and there is no indication they will be now. The new leadership of the House of Representatives has indicated that it plans to block an attempt by a member of its own party from New York, Pete King, to introduce legislation that would ban anyone carrying a gun within 1,000 feet of a member of Congress.

Nor does there seem to be much public enthusiasm for a tougher approach to guns. An analysis by the polling company Gallup found that the public appetite for “more strict” laws on firearms fell from 78% in 1990 to 62% in 1995 and 44% in the last count last year. There was a spike in favour of gun controls immediately after the Columbine high school shootings in 1999, to 66%, but it proved to be short-lived.

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This article titled “US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shot as six die in Arizona massacre” was written by Ben Quinn and Paul Gallagher, for guardian.co.uk on Sunday 9th January 2011 01.53 UTC

A US congresswoman was shot in the head at point blank range yesterday and six people were killed at a public meeting outside a grocery shop in Arizona. The dead included a nine-year-old girl and a federal judge.

Gabrielle Giffords, a 40-year-old Democratic member of the House of Representatives, was airlifted to University Medical Centre in Tucson after being targeted by a 22-year-old army reject. A surgeon at the hospital said Giffords was in a critical condition following emergency surgery last night, but added: “I am very optimistic about her.”

Describing the shooting as “an unspeakable tragedy”, President Barack Obama asked people to pray for “a friend of mine” who was battling for her life. “While we are continuing to receive information, we know that some have passed away, and that Representative Giffords is gravely wounded,” he said. “Gaby is not only an extraordinary public servant but also someone who is warm and kind, who was liked by her colleagues and her constituents.”

As Obama ordered the FBI director, Robert Mueller, to Tucson to oversee the investigation, Arizona sheriff Clarence Dupnik said police had a photo of a second man they are hunting who they thought was also involved in the attack.

Giffords’s assailant was last night named as Jared Lee Loughner. He was described by a doctor who treated some of the victims at the scene as a young white man with a “determined look on his face” and wearing dark clothing.

After shooting Giffords, he used an automatic weapon to shoot at up to 30 people leaving several dead and 13 wounded, many of whom were also airlifted to hospital. Among the dead, according to Pima County sheriffs, were the child, and the US District Judge John Roll, who had been involved in immigration cases and had previously received death threats.

Only when Loughner ran out of ammunition did he attempt to flee. One of Giffords’s aides tackled the assailant and helped to pin him down until police arrived.

Giffords had been named as a political campaign target for conservatives in last November’s mid-term elections by former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin because of her strong support for Obama’s health reforms. Palin had published a “target map” on her website using images of gun sights to identify 20 House Democrats, including Giffords, for backing the new healthcare law.

While the motive for the shooting was not immediately clear, Giffords is one of 10 Democrat members of Congress who were the subject of harassment over their support for the healthcare overhaul. Giffords’s Tucson constituency office was vandalised last March after she voted in favour of Obama’s controversial health bill, which has been bitterly opposed by the American right.

In an interview after the vandalism, Giffords referred to the animosity against her. “We’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list,” she said, “but the thing is, the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they have to realise that there are consequences to that action.”

Palin came under huge criticism for her campaign and issued a statement via her Facebook page last night offering her “sincere condolences” to Giffords and her family.

The shooting happened shortly after 10am local time outside a Safeway store in Tucson. Loughner ran up and opened fire on Giffords while she was talking to a couple. The event, called “Congress on Your Corner”, was designed to allow members of Giffords’s 8th Congressional district to meet her face to face. The congresswoman herself had used Twitter shortly before the shooting, saying: “My first Congress on Your Corner starts now. Please stop by to let me know what is on your mind or tweet me later.”

Witnesses said that the gunman ran into a “crowded area” and began “firing indiscriminately”. Andrea Gooden, who was working across the road from the scene, said: “I heard about 15 shots. Then there were people racing across the parking lot.”

Another witness, Steven Rayle, who helped restrain Loughner, said: “The event was very informal. Giffords had set up a table outside the Safeway and about 20 or 30 people were gathered to talk to her. The gunman, who may have come from inside the Safeway, walked up and shot Giffords in the head first.”

Jason Pekau, an employee at a shop close to the shooting, said two bodies were covered on the pavement after emergency services had arrived at the scene.

Giffords, who was born in Tucson and has two children, took office in January 2007 supporting immigration control, embryonic stem-cell research and the right to abortion.

Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, told CNN that Giffords’s office had been shot at before and that she had received death threats in the past. At another event in 2009 which was similar to the one Giffords was holding, a protester was removed by police when his pistol fell to the supermarket floor.

Although a Democrat, Giffords was a strong supporter of the right to bear arms and was re-elected to her third term last November, edging out the Tea Party favourite Jesse Kelly.

Giffords is married to space shuttle astronaut Mark Kelly, and is the first Jewish woman elected to Congress from Arizona and the third female ever to be elected for that state. She has been building up a prominent public profile, with frequent appearances in the national media.

The US Capitol Police force said that it was advising Congress representatives and their aides to “take reasonable and prudent precautions” about their own security in the wake of the shooting.

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This is truly outrageous. Army Sgt. Terry Young brought home the dog who saved his life in Afghanistan. The dog alerted he and his men to the presence of a bomb. Young named the dog “Target” and brought him back home to Arizona. He said the dog was amazingly resilient. The Afghan villagers the soldiers were living with at the time repeatedly tried to kill Target, but he would not die. Even surviving a gunshot wound.

Target disappeared from Young’s home on Friday. A request went out on Facebook for help in finding the dog. Animal control picked up the dog on Friday after receiving a call about a stray dog. The dog was kept over the weekend at the shelter and on Monday morning it was euthanized.

Shelter officials say the dog was not scheduled to be euthanized and the employee responsible did not follow proper procedure.

“I am heartsick over this.  I had to personally deliver the news to the dog’s owner, and he and his family are understandably distraught,” said Animal Care and Control Director Ruth Stalter.  “We work hard get to strays reunited with their owners.  When it comes to euthanizing an animal, there are some clear-cut procedures to follow.  Based on my preliminary investigation, our employee did not follow those procedures.”

That is truly horrifying. Of all the dogs they could mistakenly kill it had to be that one. Unbelievable.

Here’s a clip of Target when he first arrived in the US:

This is probably the best example of how truly f*cked up our country has become. Nothing in this nation is more sacrosanct than the right to vote. It’s perhaps the most important right an American citizen has. Unfortunately, some in America want to see our voting rights destroyed. They want to dilute the legitimate votes of citizens with votes from illegal aliens.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today overturned Arizona’s requirement that people show proof of citizenship to register to vote.

They ruled that having to proof of citizenship violates the National Voter Registration Act. The libs got their ruling just in time for the election. Calling ACORN! Calling SEIU! Get your illegal aliens to the polls!

What a disgrace. What a tragedy.

This is great. This woman is using the same tactics SEIU uses against people. The woman’s beef is SEIU’s boycott of Arizona over their illegal immigration bill. “Look at these union fat cats!”

This is painful to watch. I know what this feels like. You blank out and then panic inside because you’re blanking out and then you blank out worse. Definitely every politicians worse nightmare.

[Breitbart TV]