tagged w/ Gabrielle Giffords
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The attack left six people dead and 14 wounded.
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"Daniel Hernandez Jr., a hero of the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson, was elected Tuesday to fill a vacancy on the Sunnyside Unified School District governing board, with 61.8 percent of the vote to Sherrie Burdic’s 36 percent.""Daniel Hernandez Jr., a hero of the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson, was elected... more
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Cabal
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PCW Politics is War on P-SPAN (2 hrs)
Spengler Arena
Wauseon, Ohio
Thursday October 6th, 2011
Host: Johnny Suave
*10 bell tribute to Steve Jobs*
Suave: “It’s been a busy past couple of days in the world of political extreme. First, came Chris Christie‘s (R-NJ) final pronouncement on his PCW CEO aspirations…
Suave: Then, yesterday Sarah Palin (R-AK) stunned her followers by announcing that she would not run for PCW CEO…
Suave: “Yes…thank you Bob and Tom. So, with Christie and Palin out, where would the press go next?”
Rudy Guiliani‘s House
Guiliani stands on the porch wearing a robe and holding a newspaper. In the yard, a whole passo of press people waiting to see if Rudy decides to jump into the race.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
MATCH #1
‘Pizza Delivery Guy’ Josh Jackson (R) w/Herman Cain (R-GA) and ‘Extreme Pizza Delivery Girl’ Tessa Martin vs. Texas Jack (R) w/Rick Perry (R-TX)
COMMERCIAL BREAK
Mark Kelly escorts Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) into the ring. The crowd gives her a five minute standing ovation.
MATCH #2
Charlie Blackwell (I) w/Kenzie Blackwell and Blackwell’s Les Miserables vs. ‘The One Man Hollywood A-List’ Stone Chism (D) w/the Skanky Rich Bimbos: Kim, Courtney, and Chloe
BACKSTAGE
Sarah Palin is backstage with her family. The Rogue author Joe McGinniss barges in and confronts her.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
BACKSTAGE
Democrat Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts talks with PCW Investigative Reporter Woodward Bernstein about the possibility of meeting Scott Brown (R-MA) next year.
MATCH #3
Kathryn Randall Collins (D) vs. Jackie Daniels (I) w/Jill Berg, CEO of JBI
BACKSTAGE
Margie J. Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church is with PCW Investigative Reporter Woodward Bernstein.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
MATCH #4
Corporate Might: Big Oil and Kirk Walstreit (R) vs. Big Labor and James the Jeep Worker (D)
BACKSTAGE
Big Oil and Kirk Walstreit talk with Woodward Bernstein.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
Johnny Suave’s Universe’s Biggest Douchebag of the Week Awards:
Next, Suave walks through what happened at PCW Lock and Load 6 between then PCW Tag Team Champions Merchants of Death: Angel Scott and Angel Casey (R) and Women for Women: Code Pink and Emily List (D)
MAIN EVENT:
Merchants of Death: ‘Lethal Weapon’ Angel Casey and ‘The Terminatrix’ Angel Scott (R) vs. Women for Women: Code Pink and Emily List (D)PCW Politics is War on P-SPAN (2 hrs)
Spengler Arena
Wauseon, Ohio
Thursday October... more
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PCW Politics is War on P-SPAN (2 hrs)
Ventura County Fairgrounds
Santa Barbara, CA
Thursday September 8th, 2011
Host: Johnny Suave
BACKSTAGE
PCW Investigative Reporter Woodward Bernstein has Obama spokesperson Jay Carney with him.
MATCH #1
The Terrapin (I) vs. James the Jeep Worker (D) w/Union Maid
-James the Jeep Worker comes out with new valet, Union Maid.
-The Terrapin comes out in what appears to be the Maryland state flag wrapped around someone.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
BACKSTAGE
PCW Investigative Reporter Woodward Bernstein has the “Alaskan Pitbull” Sarah Palin in the back. Bernstein asks her about James Hoffa, Jr.’s remarks.
MATCH #2
Dawn McGill and Svetlana Kovalevski (R) vs. Women for Women: Code Pink and Emily List (D)
-This is McGill and Kovalevski’s coming out party
-Women for Women have also worked together before.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
PCW BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH
Two men come out and unroll a white carpet to the ring steps. Dancers then dance. Ballet dancers…ballet? Little children walk up the white carpet and drop rose petals. Someone lets loose some pigeons…not sure just how they’ll get out of the building. The crowd stands as PCW CEO Barack Obama appears. Behind Obama walks Joe Biden.
Former Skanky Rich Bimbo Paris Hilton appears behind a turntable as PCW has a musical interlude.
MATCH #3
Jackie Daniels (I) w/Jill Berg vs. Kalee Jones- The Eskimo Queen of the Triple Threat (R)
COMMERCIAL BREAK
MATCH #4–Republican Rumble
’Pizza Delivery Guy’ Josh Jackson- representing Herman Cain
’American Citizen’ Kevin Scott- representing Mitt Romney
Jack Schmidt- representing Ron Paul
Texas Jack- representing Rick Perry
Dann Armey- representing Rick Santorum
Average Joe- representing Michele Bachmann
Brad Company- representing Newt Gingrich
Jamie Walker- representing Jon Huntsman
COMMERCIAL BREAK
MATCH #5- Big Labor vs. Tea Party- six man tag match
‘The Self Styled Savior of the Middle Class’ Big Labor and the California Teacher’s Union: Andy Golatta and Malibu Dusty (D) w/pet Governor Jerry Brown (D-CA) and James Hoffa Jr. vs. Charlie Blackwell (I), Dave the Mechanic (Tea Party), and ‘Tin Cup’ Ray McAvay (Tea Party) w/Sheila the Secretary…PCW Politics is War on P-SPAN (2 hrs)
Ventura County Fairgrounds
Santa Barbara, CA... more
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PCW Extreme Political TV
Wood County Fair
Bowling Green, Ohio
Monday August 1st, 2011
Host: Johnny Suave
Suave welcomes everyone to PCW on a night where “finally, an agreement was reached on the PCW deficit and debt.” He shocks the crowd by introducing Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) to the crowd- her first PCW appearance since her near fatal shooting several months ago.
The crowd gives Giffords a standing ovation.
Suave: “So the compromise has passed and an agreement to reduce spending by 2.4 trillion dollars.”
Mike Doyle (D-PA) and several Democrats stomp out to the ring with Aide de Camp Joe Biden (D) and takes the microphone from Suave. Doyle says the agreement sucks. “We’ve negotiated with terrorists. This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.” Biden agrees that the Tea Party have acted like terrorists.
This brings out the Tea Party in the form of Average Joe, NRA, ‘Tin Cup’ Ray McAvay, and Tromeo and Dr. Molly Greenwald. Average Joe tells Doyle he’s full of crap. “Tea Partiers are ordinary people fed up with the extraordinary crap going on.” Average Joe tells Doyle that ordinary Americans don’t have the luxury of merely printing more money to pay off their debts. Dr. Greenwald says to call them terrorists because they’re finally standing up to the special interests and demanding change shows a deep seated hatred of average Americans.
Biden immediately tries to back up on his ‘terrorist’ remark.
Average Joe fires back. “Does this guy have a mirror in his home or office? As usual, politicians casts the blame everywhere other then where it belongs, on dem and repub elites. For the most part, Tea Party folks seem to be listening to the citizen. The same can’t be said for republicans and democrats presently in power. The political extortion he refers to is the art of lying, misdirection, distortion, and hackery, practiced by those who’ve been in office for what seems forever. Both mainline parties are at fault for this!”
COMMERCIAL
Back from break, ‘Hardball’ Chris Matthews, CBS’s Norah O’Donnell, the Angry Left Wing Bloggers (Markos Moutilsas, Paul Krugman, Eric Boehlert, and Arianna Huffington) have attacked the Tea Party and there’s brawling in the ring.
‘Do You Hear the People Sing?’ from the musical Les Miserables begins to play.
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
Independents Charlie Blackwell and “No Frills” Chris Escondido race out with Blackwell’s Les Miserables and dive into the middle of the fracas. Blackwell and Escondido clean house and start ejecting people from the ring. First, Matthews. Then Markos. O’Donnell. Krugman. Boehlert. Finally, Huffington.
*YOU’RE THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD!*
PCW King of Extreme Titleholder Keith Olbermann of Current TV and his FOK buddies Shannyn Moore, David Shuster, and Rachel Maddow jump into the ring and attack Blackwell and Escondido. Blackwell’s Les Miserables then swarm the ring and finally security arrives to try and sort all this out.
COMMERCIAL
MATCH #1
Code Pink (D) and Emily List (D) vs. The Triple Threat: Katie Collins (R) and ‘Texas Cowgirl’ Haley Dallas (R) w/Kalee Jones- The Eskimo Queen (R)
This match stems from last Thursday’s brawl. Bill Maher (D) had come out and trashed Republican and Independent women. The Triple Threat take exception. Code Pink and Emily List Glitter Bomb Collins and Dallas. Jones Eskimo Piefaces Pink and List.
…Collins with a bear hug on Emily List. List fights her way out of it and tags in Code Pink. Pink with an elbow and then gives Collins a pair of shotgun knees. Then Pink connects with a facewash kick for a two count. List sneaks back in and tries to get a Glitter Bomb but Kalee Jones jumps in, grabs her, and tosses her out of the ring. Code Pink misses the leg lariat and Collins locks in the PPD (Personal Political Destructor) for the win @ 8:25
Suave describes the high emotion backstage as everyone comes to terms with the deficit/debt agreement. “Perhaps, emotions are running too hot.”
BACKSTAGE
Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado): “Even if some people say, well the Republicans should have done this or they should have done that, they will hold Obama responsible. Now I don’t want to even have to be associated with him. It’s like touching a tar baby and you get, you get it, you know… you are stuck and you are part of the problem now and you can’t get away.”
Def Leppard’s ‘Tear It Down’ begins.
You got the look of a howlin’ wolf
I like it
The kind of eyes that could start a fire
Yes, I like it
A streetwise dynamo
I switch you on and I watch you go
A thrill to touch, you’re so hot
I’m coming for you ready or not
I’m gettin’ ready
Livin’ on the edge of a dream
Gettin’ ready, I’m gettin’ ready
Oh, switch on your lovin’ machine
Crowd: What the #$##! What the #$##!
Tear it down
There’s got to be a better way
Tear it down
I can’t wait another day
Lamborn gets blasted by the Extreme Equalizer. Then, kick to the stomach, powerbomb to the floor, and WTF flips him off.
COMMERCIAL
MAIN EVENT (From Golden Dreams’s Show)
PCW Television Champion Daniel-San (I) w/Mrs. Miyagi vs. ‘The One Man Hollywood A-List’ Stone Chism (D) w/the Skanky Rich Bimbos: Kim, Courtney, and Chloe
…Chism kicks him in the face but Daniel-San shrugs it off! Daniel-San takes Chism to the floor and Daniel-San drags Chism to the middle of the ring! Superkick by Daniel-San… Superkick! Superkick! Superkick!
Suave: “ANOTHER SUPERKICK AND CHISM IS DOWN!
The Skanky Rich Bimbos: Kim, Courtney, and Chloe slip into the ring and get in front of Daniel-San. All three girls whip off their tops
Suave: “WARDROBE MALFUNCTION! WARDROBE MALFUNCTION! God, I love that move…WARDROBE MALFUNCTION!”
Mrs. Miyagi rolls her eyes and leaps back into the ring. She grabs Gore’s Singapore cane and starts whipping the SRB with it. Blackwell throws them out of the ring. Daniel-San raises his hand and left foot.
Suave: “HERE IT COMES.”
Daniel-San kicks Chism in the jaw.
Suave: “CRANE KICK! CRANE KICK! DANIEL-SAN BACK DOWN…LABELL LOCK! LABELL LOCK! LABELL LOCK!”
Chism furiously taps out.
Suave: “THAT’S IT! DANIEL-SAN RETAINS!”
Mrs. Miyagi holds up Daniel-San’s arm.
Suave: “HUGE WIN FOR DANIEL-SAN!PCW Extreme Political TV
Wood County Fair
Bowling Green, Ohio
Monday August 1st,... more
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Hate 'the deal' and hate that GOP hostage taking brought the nation to such a sad point, but, damn, it was something to hear that the Gentlewoman from AZ was there for the vote.
All things considered, a true bright spot. Keep getting better, Gabby.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20086619-503544.htmlHate 'the deal' and hate that GOP hostage taking brought the nation to such... more
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The first photos of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords since she was shot in the head in a mass shooting in Tucson about five months ago were released early Sunday.The first photos of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords since she was shot in the head in a mass... more
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Source: Raw Story
LOS ANGELES – A US judge ruled Wednesday that Jared Loughner was unfit to stand trial over charges he tried to assassinate a US congresswoman and killed six other people in Arizona, US media reported.
Loughner had to be removed from court in Tucson after making an outburst at a hearing to decide if he was mentally competent to stand trial over the attack, which targeted lawmaker Gabrielle Giffords in January.
Judge Larry A. Burns said doctors found that Loughner has an irrational distrust of lawyers, and was therefore unable to help in his defense or understand the court proceedings, the Arizona Star reported online.
Loughner, 22, was arrested after the shooting at a public meeting Giffords held in Tucson on January 8, which triggered a wave of soul-searching over America's starkly divisive political culture.
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/25/jared-lee-loughne... /
"Wow.... Unbelievable!!!"Source: Raw Story
LOS ANGELES – A US judge ruled Wednesday that Jared... more
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KB723
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NBC's "Law & Order: LA" is currently filming an episode inspired by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' Jan. 8 shooting. The season finale of the rookie crime drama will feature a female state senator being gunned down in a public setting, with innocent people getting killed.
This echoes the shooting rampage outside a Tuscon grocery store that left six people dead and 13 others injured, including the Democratic congresswoman, who was wounded in the head. Though the inspiration seems clear, a rep for "LOLA" stressed to EW that the plot is purely a work of fiction.
Rep. Giffords, who has been undergoing rehabilitation in Houston, is now well enough to attend the launch of the space shuttle Endeavor at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday. Her husband, Mark Kelly, is the commander of the six-man crew.
"She's been working really hard to make sure that her doctors would permit her to come," Kelly told the Associated Press. "She's more than medically ready to be here, and she's excited about making this trip."
http://www.examiner.com/tv-in-chicago/law-order-la-filming-episode-based-on-gabrielle-giffords-shootingNBC's "Law & Order: LA" is currently filming an episode inspired by... more
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HOUSTON, April 25 (UPI) -- Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., will pick up her Houston rehab after attending the Florida launch of the space shuttle piloted by her husband, an aide said.
"Provisions have been made with NASA regarding Giffords' care while she is in Florida, and she will return to Houston to resume rehab shortly after the launch," Giffords' spokesman, C.J. Karamargin, said.
Doctors cleared Giffords to go to Florida, where her husband, Mark Kelly, will command the last mission of the space shuttle Endeavour, scheduled to launch Friday, the Houston Chronicle reported Monday.
Giffords has been in a rehabilitation program at TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, recovering from a gunshot wound to her head suffered when a gunman opened fire outside a Tucson grocery store in January, killing six people and wounding 13.
After receiving the medical go-ahead, Giffords' staff, doctors and NASA officials are planning for her transportation and medical care to watch the launch, ABC News reported Sunday.
"Due to privacy concerns and deference to family wishes the hospital will not release details about her travel," Karamargin said.
Accompanying her will be her family, her husband's family, her staff, President Barack Obama and the first family, ABC reported.
Doctors said the congresswoman can stand on her own and is trying to improve her walking.
"Her left side is perfect. She can do whatever you can do," said Pia Carusone, Giffords' chief of staff.
Carusone said Giffords' hair is short and a thin scar on her forehead is healing and fading.
Kelly's mission, the next-to-last NASA space shuttle flight, will deliver an alpha magnetic spectrometer to the International Space Station. The device will be used to detect particles to help prove or disprove the big bang theory on how the universe was formed.
Kelly and five other mission astronauts are in quarantine, a standard pre-shuttle procedure to keep the crew healthy. Kelly had considered skipping the mission earlier, but Giffords' improving condition and encouragement persuaded him to resume command.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/04/25/Giffords-to-attend-launch-resume-rehab/UPI-83421303733190/#ixzz1KbZZmbkTHOUSTON, April 25 (UPI) -- Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., will pick up her Houston... more
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Source: azcentral.com (Arizona Republic)
Her handwriting looks different in the letter she recently wrote to her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, than it did the last time he went into space. Giffords' mother helped her pen the traditional NASA sendoff note two weeks ago. She wrote to her "sweetie pie," and that part - those words - were the same.
Many other things are different since Giffords' brain was pierced by a bullet during the shootings near Tucson on Jan. 8. Her hair is short, maybe 2 inches long, says Pia Carusone, her chief of staff, so there are scars on her scalp that show through. Eventually, her hair will cover them. A thin scar across the top of her forehead is healing well and fading, and her face, though sometimes swollen, is otherwise the same as before, Carusone says.
Giffords speaks most often in a single word or declarative phrase: "love you," "awesome," even "get out" to doctors in her room at the end of a taxing day. She longs to leave the rehab center, repeating "I miss Tucson" and wheeling herself to the doors at the end of the hall to peer out. When that day comes, Giffords told her nurse, she plans to "walk a mountain."
Longer sentences frustrate Giffords. She must search her brain for the words she wants, which feels like trying to pull out the name of a familiar face you can't quite place, her doctors say. Once she builds the sentence in her mind, she speaks clearly and at a normal rate, and can offer as many words as she has the patience to string together. The doctor overseeing her rehabilitation places her in the top 5 percent of patients recovering from this injury.
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/04/24/20110...Source: azcentral.com (Arizona Republic)
Her handwriting looks different in the... more
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KB723
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Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will attend husband Mark Kelly's space shuttle launch in Florida on Friday, Kelly said, allowing the Arizona congresswoman to travel for the first time since she was flown from Tucson to Houston more than three months ago to recover from a gunshot wound to the head.
In an interview with CBS' Katie Couric, Kelly said Giffords' doctors had given her permission to travel to Cape Canaveral, Fla., for the launch of Endeavour, which is scheduled for 3:47 p.m. Friday. Kelly is the commander of the shuttle mission.
CBS released excerpts of the interview Sunday, and it was scheduled to air Monday on "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric," according to a network statement.
"I've met with her doctors, her neurosurgeon and her doctors, and ... they've given us permission to take her down to the launch," Kelly said in the interview in Houston. The network statement did not specify when the interview occurred.
James Harsfield, spokesman for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, referred all questions about Giffords to the congresswoman's office, where there was no immediate comment.
President Barack Obama and the first family also are scheduled to watch the launch, although it's unclear if they will watch it with Giffords.
Families view launches at Kennedy Space Center from a restricted area, and there are no plans for Giffords to make a public appearance.
It will be the first time Giffords has traveled since she was flown from Tucson, Ariz., to Houston on Jan. 21 for rehab. The Democrat was shot in the head Jan. 8 in a shooting in Tucson that killed six people and injured 12 others.
Giffords' spokesman, C.J. Karamargin, and her chief of staff, Pia Carusone, plan to hold a news conference after the launch to discuss the congresswoman's reaction, but Giffords will not go to the news conference because it could be an emotional moment for her, Karamargin said.
Giffords went to Kelly's last launch in 2008, when he commanded the space shuttle Discovery. The two married in 2007.
Obama last saw Giffords on Jan. 12, just four days after the shooting, when he visited her intensive care hospital room in Tucson and reported that she opened her eyes for the first time a few minutes after he left.
More recently, he wrote a tribute about the congresswoman in Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people in the world, saying that she wasn't known before the shooting, but now "she's got the prayers of a nation rooting for her."
He also wrote that Giffords is "a needed voice that cannot return soon enough."
The shooting happened as Giffords was holding a community outreach event in the parking lot of a Tucson shopping center. A gunman shot her in the head and worked his way down the line of her staff members and people waiting to talk with her. Jared Lee Loughner, 22, has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the attack and is in custody.
Giffords has not been seen publicly since the shooting and has spent the last three months relearning how to speak, walk and take care of herself. She has been singing as part of musical therapy asking for her favorite foods and visiting with family, friends, and her rabbi.
Kelly returned to training for the shuttle launch in February after taking time off to be at his wife's hospital bedside.
Endeavour's two-week trip will be the last for that shuttle and the next-to-last shuttle mission. Shuttle Atlantis will close out the 30-year shuttle program this summer. Kelly and five crewmates will deliver a $2 billion physics experiment to the International Space Station, as well as critical spare parts to keep the orbiting outpost running for another decade.
http://n.pr/i0e7Z5Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will attend husband Mark Kelly's space shuttle launch in... more
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Houston - Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords plans tgo atend the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour next month to see off her astronaut husband, a person close to the family told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The person spoke on conkition of anonymity because the family and doctors have not yet pubicized the decision. A new conference was scheduled for Friday morning at Houston hospital where Giffords is undergoing rehabilitation.Houston - Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords plans tgo atend the launch of the space... more
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PHOENIX — A Tucson firefighter refused to respond to the Jan. 8 shooting rampage that wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords because of political differences with his crew, delaying his unit’s arrival at the scene, according to internal department records.
Firefighter Mark Ekstrum’s unit was not a first responder and was called after the last of the 13 wounded gunshot victims had been transported from the scene by paramedics, fire officials told The Arizona Daily Star, which obtained the memorandums. Still, Firefighter Ekstrum’s refusal to respond because of what he called “political bantering” caused confusion as the department dealt with the shooting, which left six dead, officials said.
Firefighter Ekstrum, a 28-year veteran, retired after the rampage as department officials considered disciplinary action. A memorandum from a supervisor, Capt. Ben Williams, said that Firefighter Ekstrum “mentioned something about ‘political bantering’ and he did not want to be part of it.” Exactly what the disagreement was over remained unclear. In a statement, Mr. Ekstrum later said he had voted for Ms. Giffords, a Democrat, and did not respond because he was distraught over the shootings.
In the memo, Captain Williams said the firefighter had said “there were underlying issues regarding the call that brought up a lot of anger and made him ineffective as a firefighter.”
http://media.nola.com/news_impact/photo/gabrielle-giffords-mark-kellyjpg-8583415d4ddc2405.jpgPHOENIX — A Tucson firefighter refused to respond to the Jan. 8 shooting rampage... more
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The New York Times
February 13, 2011
Word and Lyric, Giffords Labors to Speak Again
By MARC LACEY and JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
PART ONE...
PHOENIX — Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an eloquent speaker before she was shot in the head last month, is relearning the skill — progressing from mouthing words and lip-syncing songs to talking briefly by telephone to her brother-in-law in space.
With a group of friends and family members acting as a backup chorus, Ms. Giffords has been mouthing the lyrics to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love, Baby.” And as a surprise for her husband, who is celebrating his birthday this month, a longtime friend who has been helping her through her rehabilitation videotaped her mouthing the words to “Happy Birthday to You.”
“It’s not like she’s speaking the way she spoke, but she is vocalizing and making progress every day,” Pia Carusone, Ms. Giffords’s chief of staff, said in a telephone interview on Sunday. “She’s working very hard. She’s determined. It’s a tight schedule. A copy of it is hanging on her door.”
Outside specialists say it remains unclear, despite the hopeful early signs, what functions in Ms. Giffords’s mind were affected by the traumatic injuries she suffered when she was shot at point-blank range on Jan. 8 at a constituent event in Tucson.
It is not uncommon for patients with a similar injury to have trouble communicating or undergo personality changes, brain specialists say. Everything from ambition and concentration to short-term memory and social inhibitions can be affected, doctors say.
But relatives and friends who have been at Ms. Giffords’s side as she undergoes rehabilitation at a hospital in Houston said in interviews and e-mail exchanges that though her recovery was slow and exhausting, it was marked by significant progress.
Ms. Carusone said that on Sunday afternoon, Ms. Giffords’s husband, Capt. Mark E. Kelly, put the congresswoman on the phone to talk to his twin brother and fellow astronaut, Scott, who is aboard the International Space Station.
“She said, ‘Hi, I’m good,’ ” Ms. Carusone said.
With the help of therapists at TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston, the congresswoman known for her active, outdoorsy ways now labors through the halls clutching a shopping cart and does squats and repetitive motions to build her muscles, her mother, Gloria, said in an enthusiastic e-mail she sent about a week ago to friends that recounted her daughter’s progress. Others who have visited Ms. Giffords recently have left similarly upbeat.
Aides conduct bedside briefings for her, telling her about the events unfolding in Egypt, for instance, and the decision by Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, not to run for re-election next year.
“We tell her everything that’s going on,” Ms. Carusone said. “Don’t get the idea she’s speaking in paragraphs, but she definitely understands what we’re saying and she’s verbalizing.”
In long days that begin with breakfast at 7, Ms. Giffords, 40, has beaten one of her nurses at tic-tac-toe and transformed herself, her mother wrote, from “kind of a limp noodle” to someone who is “alert, sits up straight with good posture (in fact anyone in the room observing unconsciously sucks it up and throws back their shoulders) and is working very hard.”
Ms. Giffords’s mother says doctors are regularly surprised by her latest achievement. They say, “She did WHAT?” she wrote in her e-mail, adding that “Little Miss Overachiever is healing very fast.”
Reached by telephone on Sunday, the congresswoman’s mother offered a one-word assessment of her daughter’s road to recovery. “As far as Gabby’s progress, you can quote me as saying, ‘Yippee!’ ” she said.
The rehabilitation center referred requests for comment to Ms. Giffords’s staff.
CONTINUED...The New York Times
February 13, 2011
Word and Lyric, Giffords Labors to Speak... more
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This Tantao-original production looks at the remarkable advances in military medicine and how the mortality rate from battle has dropped as a result. Rapid evacuation from the frontlines, on the line treatment of bleeding and innovation in treating head wounds and other head trauma affects are profiled, with exclusive footage and interviews shot at the National Naval Medical Center. These are some of the same innovative treatments used in the shooting treatment of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.This Tantao-original production looks at the remarkable advances in military medicine... more
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This Tantao-original production looks at the remarkable advances in military medicine and how the mortality rate from battle has dropped as a result. Rapid evacuation from the frontlines, on the line treatment of bleeding and innovation in treating head wounds and other head trauma affects are profiled, with exclusive footage and interviews shot at the National Naval Medical Center. These are some of the same innovative treatments used in the shooting treatment of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.This Tantao-original production looks at the remarkable advances in military medicine... more
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This is a great question we should try and get an answer too. What would the reaction be?
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