Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2011/jan2011/pers-j10.shtml

The shooting rampage on Saturday in Tucson, Arizona was clearly an act of right-wing terrorism. The gunman shot a total of 20 people, critically wounding Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killing Federal Judge John M. Roll and five others. In his first statement to the press, Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik got it right when he placed the shootings in their political context. He denounced the "political vitriol" that animates the politics of the right and characterized Arizona as the national center of bigotry.

Link: http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2011/01/body-of-wife-of-senior-white-house.html

Car was in a Capitol Hill garage. DC, Capitol police on the scene. Deceased identified as Ashley Turton, wife of White House liaison to the House of Representatives Dan Turton. Turton worked as a lobbyist for the Raleigh, N.C.-based utility giant Progress Energy.

Link: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/10/106406/why-the-cia-is-spying-on-a-changing.html#storylink=omni_popular

Last summer, as torrential rains flooded Pakistan, a veteran intelligence analyst watched closely from his desk at CIA headquarters just outside the capital. For the analyst, who heads the CIA's year-old Center on Climate Change and National Security, the worst natural disaster in Pakistan's history was a warning.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/sarah-palin/3405336/Sarah-Palin-blamed-by-the-US-Secret-Service-for-death-threats-against-Barack-Obama.html?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4d2a2a998935ffeb,0

Sarah Palin's attacks on Barack Obama's patriotism provoked a spike in death threats against the future president, Secret Service agents revealed during the final weeks of the campaign. How many people have to die before the American legal system shuts Palin up?

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/america-has-reached-the-point-of-no-return-reagan-budget-director-warns/

America has reached the point of no return, Reagan budget director warns The Obama administration's $78 billion cut to US defense spending is a mere "pin-prick" to a behemoth military-industrial complex that must drastically shrink for the good of the republic, a former Reagan administration budget director recently told Raw Story. "It amounts to a failed opportunity to recognize that we are now at a historical inflection point at which the time has arrived for a classic post-war demobilization of the entire military establishment," David Stockman said in an exclusive interview.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110111/ap_on_re_us/us_winter_weather

ATLANTA – Temperatures plummeted late Monday, turning slushy streets into sheets of ice across Southern states that are more accustomed to sunshine than snow. The wintry blast has grounded flights, cut power to thousands of homes and even forced Auburn University to cancel viewing parties for the national championship bowl game.

Link: http://www.henrymakow.com/the_emasculated_american_male.html

"You let your women take control, and your society will unravel- it will make your men weak, and destroy your society to it's core. " What you are about to read is a rare look into how the West and it's culture is perceived by an Arab who has lived and traveled all over the world and is a keen observer of society and people. Meeting Westerners, one of the things I noticed was how insecure and emasculated they seemed to me; compared to myself and the male-dominated, testosterone-driven culture of my land. Western men seemed fragile somehow, unsure of themselves and their worth, the vast majority of them. Some put on fake personas, some overcompensated ... none quite had the quiet confidence that people from our culture possess. On the internet, most Americans seemed to act like little bitches, little girls brought up in a Feminist perversion of nature.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27229.htm

“The Patriot Act was similar to legislation carried out by the Nazis because essentially it was using terrorism in both cases as an excuse to strip civil liberties that were enjoyed in both countries; in the United States and Germany,” Phillip Giraldi said in an interview with Press TV. “Governments have been willing to use fear, such as fear of terrorism, and fear of the enemy, as a way to get the people lined up in support of government policies. Very often these policies are essentially bad for the people because they take away many of their rights,” the former CIA officer said.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27232.htm

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday that the economy gained only 103,000 new jobs in December--not enough to keep up with population growth--but the rate of unemployment (U.3) fell from 9.8% to 9.4%. If you are confused by the report, you are among the many. In truth, what fell was not the number of unemployed people but the number of unemployed people who are actively looking for work. Those who have become discouraged and have ceased looking for work are not considered to be in the work force and are not counted as unemployed in the U.3 measure. The unemployment rate fell because discouraged workers increased, not because employment rose.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn01102011.html

Six dead and Gabrielle Giffords, a 40-year old congresswoman hanging to life by a thread. In the wake of the lethal fusillade in Tucson Republicans came close to confessing to complicity by reason of incitement. Sarah Palin pulled her cross-hair go-shoot‘em target pics of Democrats from her site. Republicans in Congress suspended their opening political onslaught for a week. The right-wing commenators settled down to a steady chorus about Loughner being a lone nut, maybe even a secret Commie. He had Orwell’s Animal Farm and Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest flagged on his site, next to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. A fusion nutball maybe.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/10-3

New York Times writer Matt Bai’s article on the shooting of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others (“A Turning Point in the Discourse,” January 9, 2011) starts out as a sane and sober commentary on the relationship between the shootings and the recent political rhetoric suggesting that guns might be an appropriate response to perceived political differences. Just past its halfway point, however, Bai’s piece itself takes a staggering – and sickening turn.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/01/10-7

The Obama administration is holding the door open to having combat troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014, undercutting a promise made by the Vice President. Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Monday to meet with President Hamid Karzai. He also met with Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in the conflict, and plans to visit U.S. troops and an Afghan Army training center.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/news/149471/brave_woman_who_grabbed_clip_from_shooter_blames_right-wing_media_and_rhetoric_..._in_fox_news_interview/

In an interview on Fox, the brave woman who helped stop Loughner calls out right-wing media for creating an environment that encourages violent impulses. Patricia Maisch, 61, was the brave woman who kept alleged shooter Jared Loughner from unloading a second clip into a Tuscon crowd on Saturday. Wounded herself from a bullet, she saw him attempting to equip his gun with another magazine, grabbed him and knelt on his ankle, delaying the reload and potentially saving many more lives.

Link: http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff338.html

The U.S. government is insolvent. Who says so? Timothy F. Geithner, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. Geithner sent a letter to Congress on Jan. 6, 2011 asking for the debt limit to be raised. If it is not raised, he warned, the U.S. will default on its debt. In his words: Never in our history has Congress failed to increase the debt limit when necessary. Failure to raise the limit would precipitate a default by the United States.”

Link: http://www.gata.org/node/9496

GATA today scored a small but perhaps auspicious victory over the Federal Reserve in our lawsuit seeking access to the Fed's secret gold files. The judge presiding over GATA's federal freedom-of-information lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Ellen Segal Huvelle, granted GATA's motion to order the Fed to produce in complete form for the judge's private review 20 gold-related documents the Fed has sought to keep secret. The judge ordered the Fed to deliver the documents by Friday.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/01/2011110155250500962.html

At least nine people have been killed and 66 others are missing after the latest downpour hit Australia's flood-wrecked Queensland state. Raging torrents rushed through several towns, washing away cars and houses. Rescuers on Tuesday rushed to reach residents trapped on their roofs overnight as the onslaught of muddy water tossed cars like toys, carried away furniture as it washed through stores.