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(Phoenix, AZ) -- A judge in Arizona rules that mental exams of accused Tuscon shooter Jared Loughner should not be videotaped.  Loughner, 22, is accused of a mass shooting in which he allegedly tried to assassinate U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona. According to the New York Post, Loughner's lawyers filed a motion requesting Federal District Court Judge Larry Burns to order hospital officials at Springfield's Federal Medical Center to capture all clinical proceedings of Loughner's health. That was denied Thursday. The judge says there's no basis to question the impartiality of staff at FedMed.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords returned to Washington, D.C. Monday, seven months after her tragic attack to cast her vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling. Her timing couldn't be better to unveil the absolutely relentless hypocrisy of left-wing media and politics. The vicious attack on Giffords sparked a whirlwind of criticism over the violent rhetoric of the right in which the media castigated the tea party for its tone. Sarah Palin was criticized relentlessly over a map depicting crosshairs over vulnerable democrats, similar to the DNC's use of targets on Republicans. Most heinously, Giffords' attacker, Jared Loughner, was assumed by...

Racial and ethnic bigotry have long been rejected, but once again the left needs ideological bigotry to get them through their day. In the 1860s, the Civil War was fought to preserve the Union and reinforce the notion that blacks would never again be relegated to a value of 3/5 of a human being. Slavery was abolished, and the struggle for full equality commenced. In the 1940s, German Jews were loaded on to boxcars, stripped naked, and thrown into ovens for "delousing." My great-grandparents were the victims of the worst genocide in world history. My grandfather saved seven people including...

Hush puppies and the Tea Party. The Republican run House of Representatives passed a debt limit plan last night 269-161. With Arizona Democrat Gabrielle Giffords returning from death's door to cast a yes vote. Good for her. You always think of these things together, right? No? Well, you should. Hush puppies, for those coming in late, were once the casual shoe of choice in the late 1950s. By the 1990s they were pretty much vanished, disappeared to the fashion twilight zone along with tri-corner hats and powdered white wigs for men. They sold somewhere in the neighborhood of a pathetic...

If there's one thing Chris Matthews is good at, it's spewing rhetoric-infested propaganda that generally ends up making himself look like an ignorant dunce. Indeed, while the rest of the country was celebrating Gabrielle Gifford's surprise visit to Washington today, Matthews was lumping "gun-toting" Tea Partiers into the same category as psychotic murderers. Here is MSNBC's crazy nut job host in his attempt to play "hardball": "It’s also important to remember why she was, why she was coming back. She was shot by a violent act, of course a person using a gun, breaking up a political meeting with a...

You just can’t make this up. Oaf Joe Biden told reporters he joked with shooting victim about “cracked heads.” Vice President Joe Biden, with a big smile on his face, walked to the House floor and said, “I came to see Gabby, that’s why I’m here.” …When Biden was asked about what he spoke with Giffords about, he joked, “She’s now a member of the cracked head club like me.”

Look, I am past exhausted talking about liberal media bias. It’s real, we all know it, and people who deny it aren’t even fooling themselves. But some things just have to be pointed out. This morning I watched the first 15 minutes of the Today Show. I don’t particularly love or even like the program, but I find it useful to see what the producers think is the big news of the day. And sometimes Chuck Todd is on, and I like him. If I sound defensive about watching the show it’s only because I am. Anyway, the first ten...

You just can’t make this up. Oaf Joe Biden told reporters he joked with shooting victim about “cracked heads.” Vice President Joe Biden, with a big smile on his face, walked to the House floor and said, “I came to see Gabby, that’s why I’m here.” …When Biden was asked about what he spoke with Giffords about, he joked, “She’s now a member of the cracked head club like me.”

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Crisis legislation to yank the nation past the threat of a historic financial default sped through the House Monday night, breaking weeks of deadlock. The rare moment of cooperation turned celebratory when Rep. Gabrielle Giffords strode in for the first time since she was shot in the head nearly seven months ago. The vote was 269-161, a scant day ahead of the deadline for action. But all eyes were on Giffords, who drew thunderous applause as she walked into the House chamber unannounced and cast her vote in favor of the bill. [...]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. Gabrielle Giffords returned to the House for the first time since she was shot last January, making a dramatic entrance Monday night during a crucial debt vote and drawing loud applause and cheers from surprised colleagues. As lawmakers stood on the floor, staring up at the vote board, Giffords slowly made her way through an entrance on the Democratic side of the chamber. Applause built and rolled like a wave through the House as lawmakers realized that their colleague had returned.

.WASHINGTON (AP) — Emergency legislation to avoid an economy-rattling government default sped through the House Monday night, a scant day before the deadline for action — the dramatic vote made all the more memorable by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' first appearance in Congress since suffering a head wound in a shooting six months ago. The vote was 269-161, but all eyes were on Giffords, who drew thunderous applause as she walked into the House chamber and cast her vote in favor of the bill.

Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has returned to Washington and will vote on the debt ceiling bill tonight. It will be her first vote since the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson. More on this story as it develops.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) has just come to the U.S. House floor to cast her first vote since the shooting, in favor of the debt ceiling "deal", which has just passed. She entered via a wheelchair, but was last seen standing on her own accord after the vote completed. We wish her well. This certainly answers questions about whether she would serve or resign. Let's hope that her post-recovery career is less in line with the disgusting Raul Grijalva and her buddy Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and more in line with the people of Arizona, on SB1070 and illegal immigration.

Lawyers for the suspect in the Tucson shooting rampage say prison officials have resumed forcibly medicating their client with a psychotropic drug. Jared Lee Loughner's attorneys in filings Thursday questioned whether the forced medication violates an earlier order by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that forbid them from involuntarily medicating Loughner as the court mulls an appeal on his behalf. The filings say officials at the federal prison facility in Missouri resumed the forced medication on an emergency basis because Loughner had become an immediate threat to himself. Loughner's attorneys say their client has been on 24-hour suicide watch,...

A three-judge federal appeals panel has ruled that Tucson shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner can refuse anti-psychotic medication. Tuesday's ruling comes days after the court said it would review an appeal by attorneys for the government who argued the alleged gunman should be forced to take anti-psychotic drugs for his behavior. The federal appeals court last week temporarily halted the forced medication. "Since Loughner has not been convicted of a crime, he is presumptively innocent and is therefore entitled to greater constitutional protections than a convicted inmate," court documents said.

PASADENA, Calif.—A three-judge federal panel pressed a U.S. Justice Department attorney Thursday to justify the government's decision to force psychotropic drugs on Jared Loughner, who is accused of shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others in January in Tucson, Ariz. The judges appeared skeptical of the government's argument that Mr. Loughner could be involuntarily medicated without clearance from a court.

Friday marks six months since the Tucson shooting which severely injured Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the White House is now hinting it's prepared to add its own voice to the gun control dialogue that tragedy reignited. "As you know, the President directed the Attorney General to form working groups with key stakeholders to identify common-sense measures that would improve Americans' safety and security while fully respecting Second Amendment rights," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Thursday. "That process is well underway at the Department of Justice with stakeholders on all sides working through these complex issues. And we...

A federal appeals court in San Francisco has temporarily halted the forced medication of Tucson shooting defendant Jared Loughner until a three-judge panel can hear competing arguments from his lawyers and prosecutors by mid-week. Loughner is charged with seriously wounding U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in a January rampage that also left six others dead. The brief order from a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals set a tight deadline for lawyers from both sides to file more detailed legal briefs. The federal government has until 5 p.m. PT Wednesday to argue the involuntary medication should continue....

Arizona shooter Jared Lee Loughner was declared unfit to stand trial last month, a ruling that put government prosecutors in a position of having to try to restore Loughner to a mental state that would allow him to defend himself in court. Prison officials is Missouri, where Loughner currently is undergoing a mental evaluation, decided earlier this month to try to medicate Loughner against his will with anti-psychotic drugs. But lawyers representing Loughner have asked a federal judge to block prison officials from forcibly medicating Loughner, WSJ reports. U.S. District Judge Larry Burns is considering the issue at a hearing...

(Reuters) - A federal judge has ordered a hearing on Tucson shooting rampage suspect Jared Loughner's petition to stop prison officials from forcibly medicating him with anti-pyschotic drugs. U.S. District judge Larry Burns set the hearing for 2 p.m. on June 29 at the U.S. District Court in San Diego, California. Loughner, being held at a federal prisoners' hospital in Missouri, is not expected to attend, a spokesman for the prosecution said.