Questions and more conflicting reports on the Arizona shootings. Did the shooter have help? Authorities are searching for a white male in his fifties. Did Judge Roll just stop to say hello to Rep. Giffords while he was shopping at Safeway, or had he planned to be there? News organizations provide different accounts.

Jared Loughner's last message on My Space today:

"Goodbye friends. Please don't be mad at me. The literacy rate is below 5%. I haven't talked to one person who is literate. I want to make it out alive. The longest war in the history of the United States. Goodbye. I'm saddened with the current currency and job employment. I had a bully at school. Thank you. P.S. --plead the fifth!"

Here's an open thread for late-breaking news on the Arizona shootings, and all other topics.

BTD found these on twitter. The feed of caitieparker. Good Morning America is already onto her.

1. @lakarune I haven't seen him since '07. Then, he was left wing. less than 5 seconds ago via Twitter for iPhone in reply to lakarune

2. @noboa more left. I haven't seen him since '07 though. He became very reclusive. 2 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone in reply to noboa

3. @antderosa he had a lot of friends until he got alcohol poisoning in '06, & dropped out of school. Mainly loner very philosophical. 3 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone in reply to antderosa [More...]

22 year old Jared Lee Loughner is the suspect in custody in the Tucson, Arizona shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords this morning. Here's his You Tube channel. He calls himself Classitup10.

He favorited this video,which begins with a breathy voice saying "Let the bodies hit the floor."

Images from his youtube videos below:

Janet Napolitano has confirmed that John Roll, Chief Judge of the Arizona U.S. District Court, was shot by the gunman who shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords outside a Tucson Safeway this morning. MSNBC and other outlets report he has died.

As of now, five people are confirmed dead. At least one was an aide to Rep. Giffords.

Update 2:04 pm: Press Conference: University Hospital spokesman: Ten patients were brought in to the hospital, one, a 9 year old child, died. 5 are in critical condition, 5 are in surgery. The Congresswoman is in the recovery room, spokesman is optimistic about recovery. He says she is responding to commands. The bullet went through and through (right through her brain.) She's going into intensive care. She's under anesthesia still.

Update 1:44 pm MT(TL): 5 of the 11 people shot are confirmed dead. No word on Rep. Giffords' surgery outcome yet. A news conference is about to begin. Arizona's Chief U.S. District Court Judge John Roll was shot and killed. The shooter was born in 1988. His name is Jared Laughner and he is from Tuscon.

Update 1:15 pm MT(TL): MSNBC now reporting a federal judge was also shot.

Update(TL): Live streaming news at 12:36 pm MT: Congresswoman Giffords is in surgery at University Medical Center. 11 people were shot, 4 are dead, 7 are still alive.

Breaking - U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat from Arizona, was shot during a public forum in Arizona on Saturday. At least five other people were also shot. [More....]

Newt Gingrich, who in 1994 gave us his Contract on America, which included a draconian ten point crime bill called the Taking Back Our Streets Act is now switching horses, joining the newly founded conservative group Right on Crime, that advocates for prison reform and reducing our reliance on incarceration as a cost-savings measure.

Right on Crime has a spiffy new website. It's a project of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a research institute in Austin, TX "committed to limited government, free markets, private property rights, individual liberty and personal responsibility."

The Libertarians have often been our allies in the fight to be smart about crime instead of tough on crime. When criminal defense lawyers fought Newt's 1994 Contract, where did we find help lobbying against the provisions that would have applied the good faith exception to warrantless searches and restricted habeas petitions? From the Second Amendment groups. [More...]

Via Daily Kos, the President of the United States said in his weekly radio address:

Now we’re seeing more optimistic economic forecasts for the year ahead, in part due to the package of tax cuts I signed last month. I fought for that package because, while we are recovering, we plainly still have a lot of work to do. The recession rocked the foundations of our economy, and left a lot of destruction and doubt in its wake.[. . .] Independent experts have concluded that, taken together, this package of tax cuts will significantly accelerate the pace of our economic recovery, spurring additional jobs and growth.

And that is our mission. That should be the focus, day in and day out, of our work in Washington in the coming months, as we wrestle with a challenging budget and long-term deficits. [. . .] The tax cuts and other progress we made in December were a much-needed departure from that pattern. Let’s build on that admirable example and do our part, here in Washington, so the doers, builders, and innovators in America can do their best in 2011 and beyond.

(Emphasis supplied.) Touting tax cuts and 'addressing the deficit' to spur the economy. Feels like 1981.

Speaking for me only

The worst news yet about the Republicans gaining control of the House: Uber-crime warrior James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) has been named Chair of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.

What a joke considering the purpose of the Judiciary committee:

“The House Judiciary Committee is often referred to as the guardian of the Constitution. Our members have a solemn duty to protect the principles of liberty, equality and justice for all Americans.

Sensenbrenner is a menace. He's a one-man disaster for justice. Examples: His 2005 "five years for passing a joint" bill ", officially called the "Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005", H.R. 1528. It created a new group of mandatory minimum penalties for non-violent drug offenses, including a five year penalty for passing a joint to someone who's been in drug treatment.

It was also a "Snitch or Go to Jail bill", providing for a two year jail sentence if you observe or come across information about drug distribution near colleges and do not report it to authorities within 24 hours and provide full assistance investigating, apprehending, and prosecuting those involved. [More...]

As predicted, President Obama has signed the defense funding authorization bill into law, issuing a signing statement that registered his objections but did not assert the provisions banning funding for the transfer of Guantanamo detainees was unconstitutional.

Despite my strong objection to these provisions, which my Administration has consistently opposed, I have signed this Act because of the importance of authorizing appropriations for, among other things, our military activities in 2011.

Nevertheless, my Administration will work with the Congress to seek repeal of these restrictions, will seek to mitigate their effects, and will oppose any attempt to extend or expand them in the future.

Good luck with that. Once you give power to the Government, it rarely gives it back.

Human Rights First has issued this response. [More...]

More thread.

I'll be in court until mid-afternoon. It's your turn to take on the news. This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Gen. Vang Pao, 81, has died of pneumonia in California. Exiled to America, the revered Hmong leader, regarded as the George Washington of the Hmong, was born on a farm in a mountain village in Laos. He began his career as a teenage translator for the French who were fighting the Japanese in Laos. He then went to French officer candidate school and became a commissioned officer in the French army. During the Vietnam War, he led a secret CIA-sponsored army fighting the North Vietnamese.[More...]