President Obama arrived in Colorado this afternoon to meet with the victims of the Aurora shootings.

Air Force One landed at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado, where he is expected to stay for a two-and-a-half-hour visit. He headed straight to the University of Colorado Hospital, one of several area medical centers that received shooting victims.

Obama will not attend a community prayer vigil, which is scheduled in Aurora Sunday night. He will be briefed on the investigation, officials said, and is expected to address the public before he leaves Colorado.

Aurora Police Chief Oates approves:

"These families need that kind of contact by our elected leader," Oates told CBS' "Face the Nation." ''It will be very powerful and it will help them. As awful as what they've been through and what they're going through has been, having the president here is very, very powerful."

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The New York Times reports the Drug Enforcement Administration will be expanding operations in West Africa, in continued efforts to stop cocaine from going from South America to Africa to Europe.

“We see Africa as the new frontier in terms of counterterrorism and counternarcotics issues,” said Jeffrey P. Breeden, the chief of the D.E.A.’s Europe, Asia and Africa section. “It’s a place that we need to get ahead of — we’re already behind the curve in some ways, and we need to catch up.”

In 2009, the U.S. drug war budget for Africa was $7.5 million. For 2010 and 2011, it was $50 million. Now, for 2013, it seems to be at least $60 million.

At the State Department, Asst. Secy. William Brownfield has been pushing hard for support for the DEA's African adventures, including new initiatives like the five year West African Citizen Security Initiative (WACSI). There's also the West Africa Coast Initiative (WACI). [More...]

Journalist Dave Cullen, author of the definitive book on Columbine which he spent ten years researching, has an op-ed in tomorrow's New York Times on the myths of the mass killer and why people shouldn't rush to judgment about James Holmes.

YOU’VE had 48 hours to reflect on the ghastly shooting in Colorado at a movie theater. You’ve been bombarded with “facts” and opinions about James Holmes’s motives. You have probably expressed your opinion on why he did it. You are probably wrong.

In other words, "The killer is rarely who he seems." I'm ignoring the media's speculating pundits and profilers and will wait for the evidence.

Update: In other case news, Holmes bought his tactical assault gear online from a company called Tactical Gear in Missouri. Here's the receipt. He ordered in on July 2 and specified 2 day shipping. One of the items is a BlackHawk Urban Assault Vest. Here's BlackHawk's website and catalog.

I think it would be more productive to monitor the sale of "urban assault vests" and similar "tactical gear" than guns. What possible sporting use could these items have? Check out the D.O.A.V. Assault Vest System.[More...]

Roundup from a combination of our local news channels:

70 people were shot, 12 have died in last night's shooting at the Aurora, CO movie theater. 10 died at the scene, 2 died in hospitals.

James Holmes is in the Arapahoe County Jail. His first court appearance will be Monday. He stopped talking to cops shortly after his arrest and asked for a lawyer. He will be represented by the public defender.

Holmes passed both an FBI and CBI background check when he bought the guns (he only has a traffic ticket on his record.) The AR 15 is a semi-automatic firearm. It's legal under both federal and Colorado law. (It was subject to the federal assault weapons ban until 2004 when the ban was repealed.) [More....]

Via Krugman:

Suzy Welch, former editor in chief of the Harvard Business Review, and wife of Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric...suggested that Mr Obama’s personal style and choice of musical material define him as a member of a “different America”....“It’s the difference between the songs that they’re singing,” Mrs Welch said. “Mitt Romney didn’t exactly do a beautiful job on that song, but think about what he’s singing, OK? I mean it’s that patriotic song and he goes all the way through it. Then you’ve got the very cool Barack Obama singing Al Green. That is the two different Americas. Isn’t it?”

If Al Green is unAmerican, then count me out of America.

CNN reports that James Holmes, the suspect who is believed to have attacked moviegoers at last night's opening of the latest Batman movie at an Aurora, Colorado multiplex, killing 12 and injuring around 50, is a Ph. D. candidate in neuroscience. Earlier reports state that Holmes was a former medical student at the University of Colorado in Denver. CNN also reports that Holmes was in the process of withdrawing from school prior to last night's events.

Holmes, a 24 year old white male, allegedly used gas canisters, an assault rifle and two hand guns in his attack.

Jesse LaGreca, the Ministry of Truth, and I, will be on Daily Kos Radio today at 11 a.m. Listen here.

Topics: 1. Update on Colorado bombing/shooting. - Link 2. President's appearance at Century Village Florida – first attacks on Ryan Plan and ending Medicare as we know it - Link 3. Peggy Noonan Underpants Gnome Theory of why Romney will not release tax returns. - Link 4. The Talibanish attack on a women's right to contraceptives and how it increases the number of abortions – the nation of Georgia's case study - Link 5. Romney example of not needing government help is destroyed by admission that in fact he received government help - Link

President Obama to speak on tragedy at 11:20 am.

Open Thread.

Above: Mitt Romney on marijuana in May, 2012

Below is a clip of Romney in 2007, "I believe marijuana should be illegal in our country." He says cancer patients don't need marijuana, "there are other sources of pain management that work entirely effectively. He says marijuana legalization "is the wrong way to go. We need less drugs in our society" and "I would oppose the legalization of marijuana." [More...]

A gunman entered the Century 16 Movie Theaters complex at the Aurora Town Center (a suburb of Denver)around 12:30 a.m. this morning, released a gas canister and then opened fire, killing 14 people and wounding 50 more. (Updated: Death total is 12, not 14.)

Three of the theaters in the complex, like others in across Colorado, were showing Batman: the Dark Knight at all night movie premieres. [More..]

During his interview of George Zimmerman last night, Sean Hannity asked George Zimmerman "What do you say to Al Sharpton and those who rushed to judgment?" MSNBC today released a statement to Politico:

MSNBC would like to set the record straight following some misinformation presented by Fox News during the interview with George Zimmerman last night," MSNBC wrote in a statement sent to POLITICO. "Reverend Al Sharpton never 'rushed to judgment,' as stated by Mr. Hannity. Reverend Sharpton repeatedly called for calm and for a more thorough investigation in the wake of the tragic events. Ultimately, the authorities agreed an arrest was warranted."

I guess MSNBC forgot about this March 19, 2012 Al Sharpton show. (video here.) Or this Sharpton appearance on the March 21 Joe Scarborough show and this press conference (especially around the 4 minute mark) on the day of his arrest. Sharpton's comments speak for themselves. To say he merely called for calm and a thorough investigation is laughable. [More...]

Jesse LaGreca, the Ministry of Truth, and I, will be on Daily Kos Radio today at 11 a.m. Listen here.

We'll be discussing Elizabeth Warren and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and one of it first big results - a $210 million settlement agreement with Capital One for consumer fraud. Also, the GOP's latest attack on contraception, Mitt Romney's ad bragging about his Mexican roots (not a joke) and Justice Scalia's renewed admonition that we get over it on Bush v. Gore. The podcast:

Here is link to a story covering the Lackland Air Base sexual assault scandal that Military Tracy discussed with us this morning on Daily Kos Radio.

Open Thread.

Thanks to Big Tent Democrat for putting up a thread on George Zimmerman's interview on Sean Hannity's show tonight. I just got back to Denver and am watching now. (I missed the beginning.)

I listened to his jail calls for all 7 hours of the drive back from Telluride -- I didn't finish. But, listening in sequence for so many hours, I got a sense of his personality (as well as that of Shellie, his sister Grace aka Susie, his mother (who talked in Spanish), Ken, and some male cousins.)

I think he was genuine on Hannity. Some highlights below: [More...]