四 川 铁 FourRiverIron

Zombie Gabrielle Giffords votes to raise National Debt Limit

Giffords returns to Congress to vote on debt deal

By David A. Fahrenthold and Felicia Sonmez, Published: August 1

Usually, casting a vote in the House of Representatives has all the drama of a visit to the ATM. Legislators swipe a plastic ID card, punch a button, and watch a small “N” or “Y” appear alongside their name on the House’s back wall.

But on Monday, people wept to see it done.

[Zombie] Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), grievously wounded by a gunman in her home town of Tucson seven months ago, made a surprise return to the House floor Monday evening, to cheers and hugs from her colleagues.

One legislator dropped his dignity and climbed on a chair to see what the fuss was about. Another, seeing the commotion, assumed the president had arrived. But it was Giffords, with shorter hair than when she left, a bandage on her right wrist and the scars of trauma still visible on her head.

But she wore her congressional ID pin. She had come to cast a vote to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.

The lawmaker whose near lethal injuries had come to echo the rancor of the political times had returned to Washington at a moment that seemed to triumph over the bitterness.

“There is a basic humanity here, man,” said Vice President Biden, who was at the Capitol when Giffords arrived. At the end of a long and bitter fight over the debt limit, Giffords was encircled by legislators from both sides.

“I have closely followed the debate over our debt ceiling and have been deeply disappointed at what’s going on in Washington,” Giffords said in a statement later. “I had to be here for this vote. I could not take the chance that my absence could crash our economy.”

Giffords, 41, is in her third term in Congress. The last time she voted was on Jan. 7, on a routine bill that attracted little notice. A red “N” appeared next to her name, and Giffords left town for the weekend.

At 10:10 the next morning, Giffords was standing in the parking lot of a Safeway in Tucson, about to begin an event called “Congress on Your Corner.” According to police, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner walked up to the crowd. He had a Glock 19 semi­automatic handgun.

Giffords was shot in the head, and bystanders were then gunned down. Six people died, including a congressional aide, a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl. Thirteen more were wounded.

In Giffords’s absence, the House took 678 votes. In each, the space next to her name remained blank.

On Monday, the first hint that that might change came in messages on Twitter. “The #Capitol looks beautiful and I am honored to be at work tonight,” Giffords wrote on the microblogging site.

The previous evening, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Giffords’s closest friend in Congress, had received a call from Giffords’s husband, Mark Kelly, who said Giffords was following the debt debate. Even when it became clear her vote was not going to be pivotal, Giffords remained eager to weigh in on the significant issue, Wasserman Schultz said.

“We had all prayed she would be able to do this,” said Wasserman Schultz. “It was a huge step.”

When she arrived, Giffords met briefly with House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) outside the chamber. Then the doors on the Democratic side opened to wild applause at something the rest of the House couldn’t see.

“I did something that was not too congressional,” said Rep. James E. Clyburn (S.C.), the No. 3 Democrat. “I stood up in the seat to see what it was about.”

Word spread. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) called it “the best experience I’ve had in Congress.”

Giffords walked a few yards through the crowd to a voting machine and punched the button. Heads turned toward the back wall, where a green “Y” appeared next to her name.

It read like an existential declaration. Giffords: Yes.

Staff writers Rosalind S. Helderman, Sandhya Somashekhar and David Brown contributed to this report.

Giffords Returns, as Does Unity, Briefly

Giffords Returns, as Does Unity, Briefly

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER and JEFF ZELENY

Published: August 1, 2011

WASHINGTON — With two minutes to go and roughly 20 votes needed to pass a bill to raise the nation’s debt limit, a smattering of applause rippled from a corner of the House chamber. After a few seconds of confusion, a flash of teal jacket could be seen almost floating among a sea of Democrats.

There she was, Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, appearing unexpectedly Monday evening to cast one of the last votes needed to send the measure over the top.

The full chamber erupted in loud applause as Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House whip, flicked his eyes from the vote board to Ms. Giffords. It was the first time she had been in the chamber since she was critically injured in an assassination attempt in January in Tucson.

As Ms. Giffords walked tentatively to her seat, accepting embraces and kisses from Democrats and Republicans both, the long and bitterly partisan spectacle that has engulfed the nation seemed to melt quietly away. In its place was a vital blink of hope that ideological intransigence — something Ms. Giffords had little patience for as a lawmaker — had faded in a Capitol that seemed to be careering toward dysfunction.

“The Capitol looks beautiful tonight,” Ms. Giffords posted in a message on Twitter, “and I am honored to be at work tonight.”

The vote board, for minutes stuck near 200, suddenly clicked quickly to the 216 affirmative votes needed to pass the bill to avert an almost certain economic catastrophe.

Ms. Giffords has been following the debt debate from her home, said Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, a close friend, and had told her husband, Capt. Mark E. Kelly of the Navy, that she wanted to be at the Capitol if her yes vote would be needed.

It was not, Ms. Wasserman Schultz said, but in several conversations late into Sunday night, it became clear that Ms. Giffords wanted to come anyway. In the morning, she tagged along with her husband, an astronaut, who had already planned a trip to Washington.

“She decided that even if it’s not pivotal, it’s important to her constituents that she be there for the vote,” Ms. Wasserman Schultz said. “She would be a yes vote, she said, and she wanted to cast a vote.”

Ms. Giffords arrived in Washington shortly before the vote. Only a handful of Congressional leaders knew she was there.

On the House floor, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader, hailed Ms. Giffords’s return. “There isn’t a name that stirs more love, more admiration, more respect,” she said, adding, “Thank you, Gabby.”

Ms. Giffords moved her mouth slowly, seeming to speak, and was less than steady on her feet. She wore glasses and had short brown hair — a contrast from the longer blond hair she wore before being shot in the head — but her smile was remarkably the same.

“She smiled to me and said, ‘I love you,’ ” said Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic whip. “She’s still got a ways to go, but she clearly is on top of things in terms of understanding.”

Her dramatic appearance came after a day in which Republicans initially seemed confident that things were finally turning around in the chamber, beset last week by a near failure to pass their own bill. But around 5 p.m., things started to seem suddenly grim for them. Members of the Armed Services Committee, uncomfortable with a component in the bill that could result in cuts to military spending, began to make it clear that they could not support the bill.

Representative Bobby Schilling, Republican of Illinois, made a quick call to his wife before heading to House chamber to listen to the last hour of debate on the bill, hoping someone on the floor would convince him how to vote.

Mr. Schilling, a member of the Armed Services Committee who struggled until the very last minute to decide which way to vote, was among the scores of headaches for the Republican leadership team, whose members were loath to do a hard sell yet again.

Mr. Schilling whipped out a little chart that showed a reduction in bombers and other weapons programs over recent years. He said the proposed cuts to the military if a new Congressional committee should fail to come up with a deficit reduction plan that passes muster with Congress “really scares me,” he said. “We’re on the fringe right now. We can barely defend ourselves.”

One of the last to vote, he ultimately supported the bill.

Staff members from the office of Mr. McCarthy and Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican majority leader, leaned on the aides of on-the-fence members, fuming, at times, said several staff members, that their bosses would not simply commit and move on.

To get the bill to pass, Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Cantor worked the phones, as well as the hallways and the floor of the House.

“All of the sudden they were all sitting here and, whishhhhh, ran back to the back to whip people,” Mr. Schilling said. “I better hide! Oh my gosh!”

Rank-and-file members aided the effort. “Our appropriators believe they will be able to defend our defense spending,” said Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, who said he was working over his colleagues who were concerned about possible cuts to the military, like Mr. Schilling.

Most of the efforts to whip up votes clearly paid off.

“It always comes to the end,” said Mr. McCarthy, who received his first whip report of the day around 2 p.m.

The initial shortfall seemed to be coming from Republicans, whose concerns were not only about signing onto a compromise with Democrats, Mr. McCarthy said, but also about being on record supporting the debt ceiling, a lightning-rod issue among conservatives.

For the next three hours, a roster of undecided members was divided among Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Cantor and Representative Peter Roskam of Illinois, the deputy whip, who sequestered themselves in Mr. Cantor’s office just off the House floor. They knew they had room for error, but were not sure how much.

“We were trying to grow the vote,” Mr. McCarthy said.

Even Speaker John A. Boehner cast a vote — his fourth of the 112th Congress.

A large share of Democrats waited until the end of the 15-minute voting session, hoping to draw out as many Republicans as possible. The look of surprise was clear on the face of Mr. McCarthy, who flicked his hair, rubbed his eyes and his face as he circled the Republican side of the chamber.

When Ms. Giffords entered the chamber, Mr. McCarthy and others around him first heard a rumor that President Obama was on the House floor. It was several seconds before he and others realized that she was making an appearance.

D.C. still abuzz over Giffords' big return

Source

D.C. still abuzz over Giffords' big return

Despite surprise vote, no plans yet for future

by Dan Nowicki and Karina Bland - Aug. 3, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' surprise reappearance on Capitol Hill remained the talk of the town Tuesday, with seasoned neurologists expressing awe at the progress of her recovery from a gunshot wound to the head and political analysts and pundits reassessing the likelihood that she may run for re-election.

Giffords, D-Ariz., wowed her House colleagues when she unexpectedly showed up to vote Monday on the historic bipartisan debt-ceiling bill. It was the most dramatic moment yet in a journey that started when she was near death after a Jan. 8 assassination attempt near Tucson, and continued as she began speaking simple words such as "toast" and eventually made two trips to Florida to watch her astronaut husband, Capt. Mark Kelly, blast off in the space shuttle Endeavour. She went twice because the first scheduled launch was scrubbed.

But her nationally televised appearance this week not only showcased the leaps and bounds she has made in her recovery but also gave some glimpses into her continuing limitations.

video Tucson tributes | video Flake discusses return | More

On the House floor, Giffords, 41, was animated, seeming to recognize and acknowledge other people and responding with her own facial expressions, including an easy smile, which would indicate good cognitive abilities, said Dr. Joseph Zabramski, head of cerebrovascular surgery and director of neurosurgical research at Barrow Neurological Institute and St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.

Zabramski and his colleagues watched Giffords on television on Monday, marveling at her recovery.

"As neurosurgeons, we were all just shocked," Zabramski said.

The doctors, who are not involved with her care, had heard the reports and understood the damage that had been done.

"We're all just amazed at how well she is doing," Zabramski said.

Giffords, who has been undergoing rehabilitation as an outpatient in Houston since June, has recovered to the point in which she is able to follow issues and determine that the impasse over raising the nation's $14.3 trillion debt limit was grave enough to insist that her vote might be needed to break a deadlock, staffers said.

She was able to help craft a complex, five-sentence explanation of her decision, her first such written statement since the mass shooting that killed six people and wounded 12 others.

Although Giffords was able to exchange greetings and have brief conversations with many of her fellow House lawmakers, it still could be awhile before the public hears from her in such a direct way.

Though her congressional staffers say they have been swamped with media requests for interviews, Giffords won't be granting any in the near future, her spokesman C.J. Karamargin said. He jokingly suggested that The Arizona Republic's request Tuesday to speak with Giffords would be granted if "a whole squadron of pigs" flew past the newspaper's window.

Karamargin declined to say when Giffords might start talking to the media again.

"What has happened since January 8 has taught us two very important things," Karamargin said. "One is the need to be patient, and the other is it is foolish to make predictions. No one could have predicted seven months ago where we would be today."

Karamargin could not specifically say how Giffords' written statement was drafted because he is based in Tucson and it came from Washington. He said he has seen Giffords use an iPad and scroll through pictures on a BlackBerry.

"The congresswoman has always been very hands-on about statements and releases, and that hasn't changed," Karamargin said. "As with any public statement that has come out of this office, the congresswoman worked with her staff. That's why she has staff."

Zabramski said he suspects that she did not speak publicly at the House and is avoiding media interviews because her speech is not yet fluent. She may be waiting until it improves lest people misinterpret less-than-fluent speech as an indication of impaired brain function.

"If you can write well, you can probably speak well, but the articulation may not be there," he said. "A lot of times people have difficulty expressing themselves, but they have no difficulty understanding what we are saying to them."

And, despite her injury, Giffords could understand issues as complex as the nation's finances, Zabramski said.

Giffords did look slim, probably the result of being on a feeding tube for so long after the shooting, not as a result of her injury. She will have to build up her muscles again through physical therapy and exercise.

"It's hard to get a lot of calories into somebody through a feeding tube, and once you lose that weight, it is hard to put it back on," Zabramski said.

On Tuesday, Dr. Dong Kim, the neurosurgeon who has been caring for Giffords at the Mischer Neuroscience Institute at Memorial Hermann and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, said in a written statement that the congresswoman has made great strides in her recovery.

"I could not be more proud of how far she has come," he said Tuesday in a written statement.

"She looked terrific in Congress yesterday, and her presence there offers clear signs of cognitive improvement, physical strength and personal confidence. She has a strong will to recover, and I look forward to seeing the next milestone in her journey."

Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., got the opportunity to interact with Giffords briefly on the floor and said he hopes it's a sign that lawmakers will be seeing more of her in Congress. He said he noticed that her right wrist was bandaged and that she didn't use her right arm much.

"She looked thin, but she had good color in her face," Pastor told The Republic. "She was smiling. She knew where she was. She was able, at least to me, to say, 'Hi, Ed.' "

Pastor would have liked to have talked to Giffords more. He said he didn't get a chance to do much more than give her a hug because her fellow lawmakers were mobbing her on the floor.

"It was like a Mexican dollar dance - they were tapping you on the shoulder to move," Pastor said.

Since the shooting at a constituent event, Giffords' political future has been the subject of rampant speculation. Many observers took Monday's House vote as a possible precursor to a full-time return to legislating and politics.

Early Tuesday, Karamargin had to extinguish a rumor caused by a CBS News Twitter message that Giffords was running for re-election to her House seat in 2012. She has not yet made that decision, he said.

Before leaving Washington on Tuesday to return to Houston, where she is undergoing speech, physical and occupational therapy, Giffords briefly met with her Capitol Hill staff.

"I've said this before and I'll say it again: The congresswoman wants to return to her job, full-time, when she is able to devote her complete attention to it," Karamargin said.

Bruce Merrill, a veteran political scientist and professor emeritus at Arizona State University, said he expects Giffords will run again next year if her doctors give her the OK. He said that she would easily win re-election.

Merrill was less sure about her ability to undergo a "difficult and grueling" statewide Senate campaign, as some of her supporters have suggested.

Although Republicans may not contest her re-election to the House, they likely would not give up a Senate seat without a fight, he said. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., already is in the Republican Senate race and, as of the end of June, had $2 million on hand.

"The difference between running for re-election in her district and running a statewide campaign is night and day," Merrill said. "I obviously have no inside information about her health, but even if she's in pretty good health now, it would be exhausting."

Will Giffords husband run for her office?

Source

Giffords still undecided on reelection run

By James Oliphant, Los Angeles Times

August 3, 2011

Reporting from Washington—

Despite Gabrielle Giffords' surprising and triumphant return to the House floor to cast a vote in favor of the debt ceiling compromise, it remains unclear whether the wounded congresswoman will return to work on a regular basis or seek reelection.

Giffords' staff on Tuesday disputed a news report that said the Arizona Democrat would run again, saying "no decision" had been made about 2012.

Her appearance Monday at the Capitol, to loud cheers from her Democratic and Republican colleagues, "showed just how hard she has been working at her recovery," said her spokesman, C.J. Karamargin. But, he added, "going to Washington doesn't change the fact that she still has work to do."

He said Giffords wanted to return to her job full time "when she can devote her complete attention to it."

Giffords' husband, Mark E. Kelly, was honored at the White House on Tuesday along with his fellow crewmates of NASA's final space shuttle mission aboard the Endeavour. Giffords did not attend, instead returning to the Houston facility where she has been undergoing rehabilitation after being shot in the head in January. That shooting, at a Tucson event where Giffords was meeting constituents, left six people dead and 13 injured, including the congresswoman.

Karamargin said Giffords had until Arizona's filing deadline next spring to decide whether to run again. Her close friend, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, said Tuesday that Giffords supporters were laying some groundwork should she go that route.

"We're certainly getting her ready to make sure she can run for reelection at the point that they're ready to decide on that," Wasserman Schultz said on MSNBC.

Republicans in Giffords' Tucson-based district have largely been quiet about the prospect of challenging her. As of the end of June, Giffords had about $800,000 in cash on hand in her congressional campaign account and has benefited from several fundraisers.

Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said she had no inkling that Giffords was planning on returning to vote until Kelly called her Sunday night. He told her that Giffords had been following the debate over the debt ceiling and, if the vote was close, was prepared to come to Washington to vote for the compromise plan being crafted by congressional leaders.

By Monday, Wasserman Schultz said, Giffords had decided to show up and vote regardless, reasoning that the measure was probably "the most important bill" the House would address all year.

A cheer went up when Giffords' vote appeared on the electronic tote board in the House, adding a unifying grace note to a debate filled with partisan acrimony.

"She really just filled up all of our hearts, and these were some really frozen hearts. Gabby helped us melt them," Wasserman Schultz said.

After the vote, Giffords posted to her Twitter account: "The Capitol looks beautiful and I am honored to be at work tonight."

james.oliphant@latimes.com

Groups want to become party to Loughner case

Groups want to become party to Loughner case

Aug. 3, 2011 04:42 PM

Associated Press

Two psychiatric groups have asked an appeals court to let them weigh in on the issue of forced medication in the criminal case against the suspect in the Tucson-area shooting rampage.

The American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Psychiatry and The Law made a request Wednesday to become a party in the case.

Their request comes as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considers whether the decision to forcibly medicate Jared Lee Loughner with psychotropic drugs can be made by prison officials or a judge.

Loughner has been at a Missouri prison facility since May 27 after a judge concluded he was mentally unfit to help in his defense.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges in the Jan. 8 shooting that killed six people and wounded 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Feds want to keep Jared Loughner medicated

Feds want to keep Jared Loughner medicated

Aug. 10, 2011 07:37 PM

Associated Press

PHOENIX - The suspect in the Tucson shooting rampage should remain forcibly medicated with psychotropic drugs despite his lawyers' claims that doing so violates his due-process rights, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Jared Lee Loughner's lawyers had earlier asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal to stop the forcible medication of their client at a federal prison facility where doctors are trying to make him mentally fit to stand trial.

Prosecutors told the court in a filing Wednesday that officials at the prison determined at an administrative hearing that Loughner should be forcibly medicated because his outbursts there posed a danger.

Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges in the Jan. 8 shooting that killed six people and wounded 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The 22-year-old has been at a prison facility in in Springfield, Mo., since May 27 after a judge concluded he was mentally unfit to help in his legal defense.

He was forcibly medicated between June 21 and July 1 after prison officials concluded his outbursts at the prison posed a danger to others.

The appeals court temporarily halted the medication. But prison officials resumed medicating him July 19 after they concluded his psychological condition was deteriorating and put him on round-the-clock suicide watch. The court later lifted its ban on medicating Loughner.

At issue in Loughner's appeal is whether prison officials or a judge should decide whether a mentally ill person who poses a danger in prison should be forcibly medicated. Prosecutors say the decision is for prison officials to make, while Loughner's lawyers say it's up to a judge.

The 67-page filing by prosecutors lays the groundwork for an Aug. 30 hearing before the appeals court in San Francisco over forced medication. It provided little new detail on Loughner's behavior in prison. Several pages of the filing were redacted nearly in full to omit details from documents that are under seal.

If Loughner is later determined to be competent enough for trial, the court proceedings will resume. If he isn't deemed competent at the end of his treatment, Loughner's stay at the facility can be extended.

Loughner's lawyers haven't said whether they intend to present an insanity defense, but they noted in court filings that his mental condition will likely be a central issue at trial.

A message left for lead Loughner attorney, Judy Clarke, wasn't immediately returned Wednesday afternoon.

Are they going to dope up Baby Gabriel's mom??

If you ask me it sounds like a third world police states method to railroad alleged criminals.

Source

Competency hearing of Baby Gabriel's mom is postponed

by Laurie Merrill - Aug. 11, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

Maricopa County Judge Paul McMurdie, having been told "both parties need additional time," on Tuesday postponed the competency hearing of Baby Gabriel's mother, Elizabeth Johnson, from today to Aug. 25.

At issue is whether Johnson, a 25-year-old Tempe resident charged with kidnapping, conspiracy to commit custodial interference and child abuse, is competent to ever participate in her defense and understand the proceedings.

Four of five doctors who evaluated Johnson found her to be incompetent. Of those, three determined she could be restored to competency with medicine and counseling.

If McMurdie finds Johnson unrestorable, she will likely be sent to the Arizona State Hospital instead of trial, undergoing release hearings every two years, officials said.

Johnson first said she smothered her baby, then said she gave him to a couple in a park under the direction of Tammi Smith, also charged in the case.

Judge allows Loughner's forcible medication

Sounds like something they would do in a third world communistic police state. Or the American police state.

Source

Judge allows Loughner's forcible medication

by Michael Kiefer - Aug. 27, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

TUCSON - Jared Loughner, the man accused of killing six and wounding 13 in a mass shooting, is on suicide watch and - for now, at least - will continue to be forcibly medicated.

Loughner's condition was the subject of intense discussion in a three-hour federal-court hearing Friday that covered a range of issues, including attempts to restore Loughner to mental competency and defense requests to videotape his clinical sessions.

Loughner, 22, is charged with 44 felonies related to the Jan. 8 shooting outside a supermarket near Tucson where U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was meeting with constituents. Among the dead were a U.S. District Court judge, a congressional staffer and a 9-year-old girl. The wounded included Giffords, who is undergoing rehabilitation for a severe head wound.

In late May, Loughner was found mentally incompetent to stand trial and was sent to a federal Bureau of Prisons hospital to be restored.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys have since been battling over the method and manner of restoration. Friday's hearing was ordered by U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns to consider some of those disputes.

Burns and Loughner's defense attorneys were in San Diego while prosecutors were in Tucson connected by a video uplink.

Two of January's shooting victims, Bill Badger, 74, and Kenneth Dorushka, 63, also attended in Tucson.

The psychiatrist, Dr. Christina Pietz, attended via telephone from Missouri.

Loughner did not attend.

Pietz revealed Loughner's mental state, how he paces and rocks during interviews and sometimes stands in a corner hiding his face.

That information was brought out in response to a motion by lead defense attorney Judy Clarke, who wanted his clinical assessments videotaped so she could monitor them.

Pietz said Loughner had strong reactions to other taped sessions.

"The first time, he was so psychotic that he became enraged with the video camera," she said. "He's less psychotic now."

But Pietz said even the mention of videotaping makes Loughner depressed and withdrawn, and he complains that he has no control over anything in his life. [I'm sure he doesn't have any control over anything in his life. His prison guards control that!]

Over the course of legal filings regarding the possibility of using existing surveillance cameras focused on Loughner's cell, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace Kleindienst made the startling revelation that not all corners of Loughner's cell are visible on camera.

Prosecutors said release of the tapes to his defense could alert Loughner to those portions of the cell where he cannot be seen. One prosecution brief said, "Disclosing areas where the defendant could place himself that could not be observed would defeat the whole point of the surveillance system."

Burns denied Clarke's motion.

Burns also denied a motion by Clarke and her co-counsel, Reuben Camper Cahn, seeking another hearing on the appropriateness of forcing their client to take medication for his schizophrenia.

According to U.S. Supreme Court case law, forcible medication during the restoration process can only be done after a court hearing.

But on June 21, federal Bureau of Prisons officials determined that Loughner was a danger to others. Under that scenario, a prisoner can be medicated with only an administrative hearing at the prison.

Maintaining that he deserved a court hearing first, Clarke and Cahn appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ordered the medication stopped on July 1.

Prison officials restarted the forced medication on July 18 after an emergency determination that Loughner's mental state had deteriorated to the point that he was a danger to himself.

A second administrative hearing was held at the Missouri prison Thursday reaffirming the need for the medication.

This time, the 9th Circuit upheld his forcible medication and returned the issue to Burns, who declined Friday to stop the forcible medication.

In court Friday, Cahn said Loughner was initially given an anti-psychotic drug and Prozac.

After Loughner was deemed a danger to himself, the anti-psychotic drug was increased six-fold and Loughner was also given drugs for depression, anxiety and to counter side effects.

Though Burns denied a new court hearing on the medication issue, the 9th Circuit on Tuesday will consider the broader issue of whether an administrative hearing on Loughner's medication is sufficient or whether a full court hearing is needed.

Burns also extended a Wednesday deadline until Sept. 6 for the Bureau of Prisons to file a report on Loughner's condition.

Loughner will get a fair trail before the Feds execute him

At least that's what the judge says

Judge: Loughner can be made mentally fit for trial

Posted 9/28/2011 10:16 PM ET

By Jacques Billeaud And Amanda Lee Myers, Associated Press

TUCSON, Ariz. — The man accused of wounding Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in a deadly shooting rampage can eventually be made mentally fit to stand trial, a federal judge ruled Wednesday in ordering that Jared Lee Loughner's detention be extended for four more months.

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said "measurable progress has been made" in restoring Loughner to the point where he could assist in his defense. Loughner has been at a prison facility in Missouri the last four months after Burns found him mentally unfit for trial.

Experts have concluded Loughner suffers from schizophrenia, and prosecutors contend Loughner can be made competent with more mental health treatment. But Loughner's attorneys argue prosecutors have failed to prove that it's probable his condition will improve enough.

Loughner listened intently and quietly at Wednesday's hearing. He looked thin and pale and was wearing a white T-shirt and khaki-colored prison pants. He had closely cropped hair and sideburns, and his wrists and ankles were shackled.

Burns noted the suspect's smirk was gone and that, for once, he was paying attention to the proceedings.

"There's reason to be optimistic he will recover and be able to assist in his case," he said.

Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the Jan. 8 shooting that killed six and injured 13, including Giffords.

Earlier Wednesday, a psychologist testified that Loughner has improved to where he understands that he killed people and feels remorse about it, and can be made competent to stand trial within eight months.

Loughner is still delusional but has made strides during the past four months at the Springfield, Mo., facility, Dr. Christina Pietz said.

When he first arrived at the facility, Loughner was convinced Giffords was dead, even though he was shown a video of the shooting.

"He believed it had been edited" by law enforcement, Pietz said.

Now that the 23-year-old is being forcibly medicated with psychotropic drugs, "he knows that she (Giffords) is alive."

"He is less obsessed with that," Pietz testified. "He understands that he has murdered people. He talks about it. He talks about how remorseful he is."

As Wednesday's hearing dragged on, Loughner swiveled back and forth in his chair at times, and sighed as the talk turned to video surveillance of the shooting and later his delusions. But for the most part, he sat still and expressionless.

It was a stark contrast from Loughner's last court appearance, on May 25, when an angry, loud outburst got him kicked out the courtroom. According to court transcripts, he interrupted that hearing by blurting out: "Thank you for the free kill. She died in front of me. Your cheesiness."

Federal marshals whisked him from the courtroom, and he watched the rest of the hearing on closed-circuit TV from a separate room.

The judge required Loughner's presence at Wednesday's hearing, even though his lawyers objected and argued traveling would be disruptive for their mentally ill client.

Loughner wanted to attend so he could see his parents, who live in Tucson and were at the hearing. They sat in a back corner of the courtroom, holding hands and whispering to each other.

Several survivors of the shooting spree also were at Wednesday's hearing, including Giffords staffer Pam Simon and Daniel Hernandez, the intern who helped Giffords at the scene. Also in the courtroom was Giffords spokesman Mark Kimble, who stood only a few feet from the congresswoman when she was shot.

Pietz testified Wednesday that Loughner remains on suicide watch but is no longer having auditory hallucinations.

Extending his stay at the Missouri facility by eight months will give him enough time to become mentally fit for trial, she told the judge.

"He has already made improvements, and he has only been on medication for 60 days," she said. "Given the progress he has made today, I have no reason to think he wouldn't continue to make progress."

Prison officials have forcibly medicated Loughner with psychotropic drugs after concluding at an administrative hearing that he posed a danger at the prison.

Loughner's lawyers have been seeking to have the judge, rather than the prison, decide whether Loughner should be medicated.

Burns ruled Wednesday that officials could continue medicating Loughner based on the prison's finding that he's a danger to himself. He also said that Loughner's detention could be extended again after the next four months expires in January, but more "measureable progress" would need to be seen.

Loughner's medications include the sedative Lorazepam, the antidepressant Wellbutrin and Risperidone, a drug used for people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe behavior problems.

Source

Loughner's lawyers argue against forced medication, commitment

by Amanda Lee Myers - Oct. 18, 2011 10:55 AM

Associated Press

Lawyers for the suspect in the Tucson shooting rampage are arguing against his continued commitment at a Missouri prison facility, saying a judge failed to fully consider possible negative side effects from his forced medication or put a limit on his future dosage.

In a court filing late Monday, Jared Lee Loughner's attorneys said his forced medication to treat bipolar disorder has violated his rights and that there's no evidence he can be made mentally fit for trial in the next four months.

Loughner, 23, has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson that killed six, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl, and injured 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Loughner was found mentally unfit for trial and first ordered to the Springfield, Mo., facility in June. He was there four months before U.S. District Judge Larry Burns held another competency hearing Sept. 28 in Tucson and ordered that Loughner to be returned to the facility for four more months and continue being medicated.

In his ruling, Burns said there is a substantial probability that Loughner's mental health can be restored.

Loughner was returned to the facility Oct. 12

In their Monday filing, Loughner's attorneys disagreed with Burns' ruling. They said even if Loughner can be made fit, his right to a fair trial could be violated because of the possible sedative effect of the drugs he's being forced to take.

The lawyers cited Loughner's behavior at the Sept. 28 hearing, his most recent. Loughner appeared to be paying attention but sat still and expressionless even as witnesses testified about emotional topics, including the shooting and Loughner's mental health problems.

That was in stark contrast to Loughner's behavior at a May 25 hearing before he was medicated in which Loughner interrupted the proceedings by blurting out: "Thank you for the free kill. She died in front of me. Your cheesiness."

The angry outburst got him kicked out of court.

In Monday's filing, Loughner's attorneys said his expressionless and sedated appearance at the more recent hearing "presented serious concerns about whether he was likely to receive a fair trial in a case such as this," in which witnesses and victims will recount the events of Jan. 8.

Prison officials have forcibly medicated Loughner with psychotropic drugs after concluding at an administrative hearing that he posed a danger at the prison.

Loughner's medications include the sedative Lorazepam, the antidepressant Wellbutrin, and Risperidone, a drug used for people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe behavior problems.

___

Follow Amanda Lee Myers on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/AmandaLeeAP

Source

Loughner doesn't want his interviews recorded

Nov. 2, 2011 09:34 AM

Associated Press

The suspect in the Tucson shooting rampage that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords told his psychologist that he doesn't want his interviews with her video-recorded as his lawyers are requesting.

Psychologist Christina Pietz says in a filing late Tuesday that Jared Lee Loughner has recently been resistant to speaking with her and she believes video-recording interviews may make him more reluctant.

Still, Pietz says she won't oppose requests by Loughner's attorneys to video-record interviews in which she tries to determine whether he's fit to stand trial.

Loughner is being forcibly medicated with psychotropic drugs at a Missouri prison facility where experts are trying to make him mentally ready for trial.

Loughner pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the Jan. 8 shooting that killed six people and wounded 13 others.

Is Mark Kelly helping his zombie wife Gabrielle Giffords get reelected? I suspect he is doing everything he can to help her keep her cushy $174,000 a year, do nothing job in Congress. He doesn't want go get off the gravy train.

Of course the pay for astronauts isn't that shabby either. It starts at $60,000 and tops out at $130,000 per year.

Source

In new book, Gabrielle Giffords vows to return to Congress

By Michael A. Memoli Washington Bureau

November 4, 2011, 9:57 a.m.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords says in her forthcoming book that she will return to Congress, and she details the challenges she's faced recovering from an attempt on her life in Tucson earlier this year.

The Associated Press obtained an early copy of the book from Giffords and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly. "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope" is not due for release for 11 more days.

Most of the books was written by Kelly, the wire service reported, but the closing chapter was the work of the Arizona Democrat, who writes: "I will get stronger. I will return."

It was not until two months after the Jan. 8 shooting at Giffords' constituent event at a Tucson shopping center that Kelly says his wife began to fully understand what happened. "Shot. Shocked. Scary" were her initial reactions.

Giffords was overcome by grief as she learned that others were killed in the shooting rampage, the AP reported, but it wasn't for six more months that she would learn the identity of the victims, including Gabe Zimmerman, a member of her staff.

Since her release from Houston's TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital in June, Giffords has been staying at her husband's League City, Texas, home. She's made two visits to Washington, the first a surprise return to Congress to vote on the debt-ceiling compromise in August, and then in October for a retirement ceremony for Kelly at the White House.

She's also returned to her district several times, but the book notes that her political future has been a secondary concern to her physical recovery. According to the AP, the book explains that Giffords has lost 50% of the vision in both eyes.

The book also recounts Giffords' panicked state when she realized she couldn't talk at first. And when George H. W. Bush visited her in the hospital, she could only say one word to the former president: "chicken."

She since appears to have been fully briefed on current affairs. When a specialist showed her a picture of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, she said: "Messin' around. Babies."

Gabrielle Giffords - Zombie!!!!

Gabrielle Giffords' recovery: Finding her voice again

by Jaimee Rose - Nov. 15, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

The first time she tried to talk, to pull a word -- any word -- through the broken pathways of her brain, no word came.

With only a jumble of sounds and disjointed consonants, Gabrielle Giffords began sobbing, hyperventilating, waving her good hand next to her mouth, eyes wide with fear.

Her nurse shouted for Giffords' husband. He found his wife in her hospital bathroom.

"She had just figured out that she was trapped," Mark Kelly writes in the couple's memoir, "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope," which is on shelves today. "Trapped inside herself."

Months later, when her words had manifested in staccato phrases, she came to him with this: "Voice in my head," she said.

Whose voice, Kelly asked -- someone else's?

No, she said, and then he guessed it.

The voice echoing in Giffords' head was her own -- haunting, because she couldn't use it.

After 10 months of secluded recovery, Giffords and Kelly are unveiling the raw, painful, even undignified details of her journey to heal and find her voice again -- detailing the weeks she spent repeating "chicken-chicken-chicken" in answer to therapists' questions, sharing her humiliation when she couldn't ask nurses to get her to a bathroom, and revealing her desire to see the defendant in the shooting, Jared Loughner, "rot."

Giffords herself writes, "Just rolling onto my side is hard. Hard to sleep at night. Reminds me of how badly I was hurt. It was hard, but I'm alive."

Ten months after she was shot through the left side of her brain at a constituent event near Tucson, Giffords wants to go back to her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. She also wants to have a baby, and she might get to do both, even in the next year, Kelly said in an exclusive interview with The Arizona Republic. However, a Giffords 2012 Senate run, he said, seems "unlikely" at this point. And he is no longer insisting that he won't ever seek political office himself.

"I don't know," Kelly said, when asked if he'd run for election. "Not anytime soon."

Through the pages of their book, and the candor of Kelly's interview, and in 32 minutes of home videos shared with The Republic, a clear understanding of Giffords' dramatic recovery emerges.

"Hope and faith. You have to have hope and faith," she writes in the book's final chapter -- just 19 lines that Kelly said they worked on together for a month, five minutes at a time -- Giffords dictating, and Kelly her scribe. The couple also worked with a co-author, Jeffrey Zaslow.

In the audio version of the book, Giffords reads her chapter herself -- with syllables halting and emphasis misplaced, but determination clear: "Lot of people died. Six wonderful people. So many people hurt. Always connected to them. ...

"I will get stronger," she continues, enunciating each syllable. "I will return."

The couple hope that in sharing Giffords' hardest days and most humble moments, the public will allow her that chance.

"We decided if we were going to write a book ... and people are going to pay for it and spend a lot of time reading it, we might as well put everything in it and suffer the consequences," Kelly said. "We didn't leave anything out."

In the book's photo section, Giffords appears with her head shaven, eyes swollen and black and blue, lying in a hospital bed. An image like that could affect public perception of the congresswoman, or provide fodder for her opponents. But Kelly said she read and approved every page -- even correcting errors, like the spelling of Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva's name.

"We talked about it," he said, "but she's very comfortable in her own skin, and so am I, and you know, people can judge her. Politics is a tough and nasty business, (but) I think it's always best to be honest about who you are, and what you believe in, and that's what we did."

It took Giffords about 20 minutes to record her chapter of the audio book, Kelly said, and "she didn't practice at all." There were some stops and starts as she worked her way through the 189 words, he said, but she pressed through.

The time had come to share the voice she had fought so hard to find.

* * *

"Everything I do reminds me of that horrible day."

-- Gabrielle Giffords in "Gabby"

"My mother screamed," Kelly writes of the moment he and his family heard the news on an airplane TV. They were high above Texas in a private jet, hurrying toward Tucson on Jan. 8. They knew his wife had been shot, but an update flashed on the screen: Gabrielle Giffords now confirmed dead, according to NPR.

Kelly heard his mother's shouts. His two teenage daughters started to cry. He stood, walked to the plane's tiny restroom, and locked himself inside.

From their seats, his daughters could hear his sobs -- the first time they'd ever heard their astronaut father cry.

At the time, Giffords and Kelly were working to have a baby of their own. They had even talked of names, Kelly said. At 40, Giffords was healthy, but the 46-year-old Kelly's own fertility issues were complicated. Still, their fertility doctor at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Maryland gave them a 40 percent chance of success. Giffords was taking rounds of medication, and it was almost time to try to conceive. She had an appointment at Walter Reed on Monday, Jan. 10. She had assured her husband they would find a way to work it out, even if she pursued her other dreams: a Senate race in 2012, or maybe even the Arizona governorship in 2014.

But on Jan. 8, a shooter lifted a Glock 19 and fired a bullet through Giffords' brain at point-blank range.

A few minutes after hearing the news report, Kelly was able to use an airplane phone to talk to a friend and then to Giffords' staff at the hospital. The news was wrong, he learned. Gabby was in surgery, and alive.

A portion of her skull was removed to allow her brain to swell.

That night, Kelly stood at her bedside, their plans for the year seemed far away. Wiping a small, bloody tear from her black and blue eye, he touched her "terribly swollen" face and noticed the blood caked beneath her fingernails. She was unconscious, and still.

"You're going to make it through this," Kelly writes of telling her, his voice breaking.

* * *

"I was a zombie."

-- Gabrielle Giffords, seven months after waking, speaking about her first few days.

On Jan. 21, Giffords was flown to Houston to begin rehab at TIRR Memorial Hermann hospital. On her second night at TIRR, Kelly brought out his video camera.

"Can you wave?" he asks, filming her. She blinks. Her hands remain still.

"How 'bout hold up my ring?" Kelly coaches in gentle tones. "Show everybody my ring. Can you do that? Sweetie?"

Giffords raises her left hand, twirling her husband's wedding band between her index and middle finger.

She is propped against the back of a hospital bed, wearing a gown. One of her eyes is more open than the other.

Later, they would learn that she had lost 50percent of the vision in each eye.

"In the early weeks," Kelly writes, "people didn't know what she was thinking. At times, it was hard to know if she was thinking at all."

In the video, he zooms in on the track of staples across her scalp, her hair gone except for a few stray patches on the right side.

"You look great," he tells her. "We've just got a little work to do here."

He coaches her to give a "thumbs up," asking her seven times.

"Can you smile, sweetie?" he asks.

She blinks in response.

"That's not a smile," he says, laughing, and then she gives him a grin.

"That is better," he says, happy.

But the right side of her mouth barely moves.

Left-brain injuries commonly inhibit movement on the right side of the body. Giffords, formerly right-handed, could only move her left. Her right leg wouldn't budge.

"Can you lift up your left leg? Gabby? No? Not interested right now?" Kelly asks, his voice quiet.

In the hospital, she received shots of Botox to deaden the nerves in her arms and legs, which protects against pain.

Behind her, Kelly zooms in on the whiteboard, where Giffords' code name is written: J.S. Lasso, to help ensure privacy.

It would be needed in the weeks ahead -- from media, of course, but also from doctors who would present themselves and their credentials at TIRR, asking to be brought to Giffords in her private wing, even though they weren't invited, and had never been consulted on her care.

Kelly zooms in on the left side of her head, where scabs cover a jagged scar left by the bullet.

"Let me take a look here so you can see what your little boo-boo looks like here," he says, getting closer. "It's going to be so much better."

Throughout his coaching, his smiling, his teasing, and tender whispers, she watches him, silent.

* * *

"What I know I don't remember."

-- Gabrielle Giffords, in "Gabby"

A few days into her rehab, there was that difficult moment when Giffords tried to speak, and nothing came out.

"She couldn't find any words at all and she knew it," Kelly writes. "In those early months, Gabby was locked inside herself," a few words emerging at a time.

During those first days, Kelly tried to tell his wife what had happened to her. It seemed, he writes, like she didn't understand.

But soon, on Feb. 6, her first word came. Not "toast," as some media reported, but something that sounded like "whatwhatwhatwhat," Kelly writes. Within weeks, she could say a few dozen words. Within months, about 1,000.

Early on, like many brain-injury patients, Giffords was stuck on a few odd words, which she'd offer any time she was expected to speak. Kelly videotaped an early speech-therapy session.

Giffords is sitting with a therapist at a table in her room, a flashcard depicting a lamp in front of her.

"You turn on the lllllll ..." her therapist prompts.

"Llllll, Mary, chicken," Giffords responds. "Chicken-chicken-chicken-chicken."

The therapist tries again.

"You turn on the lllll. ..."

"Tooooooth berry chicken," Giffords responds.

It happens again, and again, and again.

Tooth berry chicken.

Chicken chicken chicken.

Trying to help Giffords access the "L" sound, the therapist asks Giffords: "what do you say to Mark? I ..."

"Love you," Giffords replies easily, punctuating the words with swings of her good arm.

They try again.

"You turn on the lllll ..."

Giffords squints her eyes, scrunches her face, grits her teeth.

"Don't get frustrated," the therapist says, patting her arm.

"Cheeseburger," Giffords moans, her voice rising as if she is about to cry. "Cheeseburger."

She says it again, "cheeseburger," and shakes her head, laughing with frustration as the meaning of what she is saying sets in. She swings her left arm, like she's saying "darn it," grits her teeth, and groans.

In a later session, a flashcard shows a hair brush. Giffords wears a green jacket and a baseball cap and is stuck on a new word.

"Comb. Brush. Giffords," Gabby says, and then starts to wince.

"Comb, brush, Giffords? Good try," the therapist says.

"Boo hoo," says Giffords, pouting, mostly with the left side of her bottom lip. She makes a fist with her good left hand, shakes it.

"Boo hoo. Boo hoo, chicken," she says, her anguish clear.

The therapist reaches across the table, and puts her hand over Giffords' own.

"Gabby, I know it's frustrating. Do some of the words come out when you don't want them to?"

"Yes," Giffords says, shaking her fist, and groaning. "Yes."

"Gabby, you're doing amazing," the therapist says. "It's been five weeks. It's gonna be a long road, but we can do it.

"Are you a fighter?"

"Yes," Giffords says, and then again, louder.

"Yes."

* * *

"I wonder what happened to me."

-- Gabrielle Giffords, March 2011

On March 12, for the fourth time, Kelly told Giffords about Jan. 8 -- because she wanted him to. This time, it sunk in.

What did she remember about that day? he asked.

"Shot. Shocked. Scary," she replied.

Her memory seemed intact, but Kelly wanted to test her.

He asked her if she remembered their wedding, even the moment of magic that came just as they were saying their vows.

"Yes," she told him. "Rain."

He tried something more technical, testing her recall of the amendments to the constitution.

Kelly would begin: "The first amendment is free ..."

"Freedom of speech," Giffords filled in.

Second, the right to ...

"Arms," she said.

She could even fill in words from the opening lines of the Gettysburg Address.

Doctors also used music to test and improve her memory. In a video, Giffords and her therapists sing along with "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." She is grinning, hitting every pause, even remembering the lyrics to the verses her therapists didn't know.

Music memory is stored in the right brain, and doctors use it to trigger the language skills kept on that side of the brain.

Therapists helped Giffords work out key phrases that she'd need often, putting the words to song to help her remember. A home video shows her singing with ease: "I need to use the bathroom. I want to go to bed."

Music can also stimulate physical movement. Another video shows a guitarist accompanying Giffords as she tries to walk, pushing a grocery cart down the hospital hallway while a therapist crawls behind her, moving her right leg.

After, in her room, the therapist asks, "Are you proud, Gabby?"

"Yes," she says, giving a half-sure smile.

Throughout the hours, days and weeks of work, Giffords' brain was rewiring. Soon, it was evident that her opinions were still there.

"No more Mr. Nice Guy," Giffords said in March, hinting that she wasn't going to be so acquiescent. She expressed opinions about what she'd eat, wear, do.

"Want out of here," she'd say. And "space shuttle, space shuttle."

Kelly was about to command STS-134, his last mission and the last of the Endeavour, and Giffords wanted to go to Florida for the launch.

Doctors gave her the go-ahead to fly, and on April 27, 16 weeks after being shot, she climbed the stairs to the airplane herself.

Even President Barack Obama was attending the launch. And when it was scrubbed just before the astronauts were to climb into the shuttle, Kelly writes, Obama decided to make the trip to Florida anyway to say hello to his friend Gabby.

They spent 10 minutes together, Kelly writes, and Giffords stood the whole time, to show the president that she could. The last time he had seen her, she was in the hospital in Tucson.

Interest in Giffords' recovery was intense -- and A-list -- from the start. Her security team liked to joke that you never knew who was coming, Kelly writes: FBI Director Robert Mueller, Obama, even former President George H.W. Bush, who didn't flinch when Giffords greeted him with "chicken." Kelly received e-mails from U2's Bono and Neil Armstrong, and even a phone call to space from the Pope, who mentioned Giffords by name. The visitors were met wth a list of rules Kelly drafted and posted in her room.

"No crying," he instructed.

There were also notable calls they didn't receive: In April, when House Speaker John Boehner visited Houston to attend the NCAA Final Four tournament, Kelly was surprised he didn't call, or ask to visit Giffords.

And Kelly writes of hearing through the grapevine of Sarah Palin's regret over placing Giffords' district in graphic-design peril on her website, showing Tucson in the crosshairs of a gun sight. Kelly thought Palin would call to apologize, and had his response ready.

"I think she was pretty irresponsible," he told The Republic last week, and planned to accept her apology, but also share his concern.

Palin never called.

As Giffords improved, her habitual words expanded into phrases.

"Tucson, Arizona," she'd say, asking to go home.

Often, she also said this: "Wondering what is happening to me."

Kelly liked to respond.

"You're getting better," he'd tell her. "That's what's happening to you."

* * *

"Questions and answers."

-- Gabrielle Giffords, July 2011

After a string of delays, the shuttle launched with Kelly aboard. He returned to Houston on June 2 and went straight to the hospital to see his wife.

On June 6, he left for a business meeting in London with his friend, Tilman Fertitta. June 8 was Giffords' 41st birthday, and he missed it -- taking one day off, he writes, to go to Monaco and relax on Fertitta's yacht.

Giffords noticed, Kelly writes. When he got home, she wouldn't look at him or talk to him. Finally, she spoke.

"I am mad at me!" she told him.

"I think you mean you're mad at me," Kelly replied

"Yes, Mark, I am mad at you!" she said.

Kelly screwed up, and he knew it, he writes. It took a conversation with the chief executive officer at TIRR, Carl Josehart -- a former marriage counselor -- for Giffords to feel understood, and to finally forgive him.

On June 15, she was released from TIRR and moved to Kelly's suburban Houston home, where she would live while continuing therapy as an outpatient.

"Free at last," she'd say each time she walked out of the hospital where she had lived for nearly five months. Over Father's Day weekend June 19, she even took a trip home to Tucson, where she visited family and friends and took a nap in her own bed.

When they returned to Houston, Kelly was hoping for another breakthrough.

He hadn't told her who was killed on Jan. 8 because doctors said she needed to be able to ask questions. It tormented him. Her inquisitiveness had been one of the qualities he most adored.

"I spent my days hoping that Gabby would be able to end a sentence with a question mark. And then at night, after I'd drift off to sleep, she would appear to me, asking about everything," he writes.

One July evening over spaghetti, Kelly asked Giffords what she'd done that day. She talked about therapy, and then said, "Your day?"

That was enough for him.

On a Sunday afternoon a few days later, when Kelly walked into the couple's bedroom, there was something else she wanted to know.

"Sit down," she said. "Shut the door."

"Shot," she said. "Questions and answers.

"Who died?"

Finally, he told her about her friends, Gabe Zimmerman and Judge John Roll, and the four others killed in the shooting. He told her he went to all the funerals that he could.

"She started half-crying, half-moaning," he writes. "She was overwhelmed with grief."

That day, even after her breakthrough question, and her demand for answers, it was hard for Giffords to say anything at all.

* * *

"Trying to get back to work. Back to work for Arizona. Back to work for the American people. ... I'm so sorry I'm unable to work right now."

-- Gabrielle Giffords, in "Gabby"

Writing this book was difficult. Kelly said, for both of them.

"The hardest thing was when Gabby and I would go over it," he said. "A lot of times we would have to stop and come back later."

Giffords struggled to read about her husband and his family hearing the erroneous report of her death on that airplane, and to relive that early moment when she sat panicked and wordless in the hospital bathroom, trapped inside her own mind.

"She would cry and talk about how sad that is," Kelly said.

The chapter in which Kelly details the lives of those killed on Jan. 8 -- to whom the book is dedicated --was another emotional trigger. His wife is still grieving.

"When we got to Christina (-Taylor Green), she couldn't even listen to it. She got up and left," Kelly said.

Just last Tuesday, a box arrived in Houston from Christina-Taylor's family, filled with photos of the girl, purple rubber bracelets to wear in her honor, and a replica of a ceramic butterfly she made in art class before her death.

"That was really hard for Gabby," Kelly said. Sometimes, he wonders if she feels responsible for the shooting, and all the people lost and hurt.

He hasn't asked her, he said, but he should. He wants to help her talk through that. He asked her once what she thought should happen to suspect Jared Loughner, and Giffords had just one word: "rot."

But other parts of the book, he said, were "also very uplifting, and motivating for her."

He recounts Giffords' dramatic return to the Capitol on Aug. 1, and the way she watched news coverage in their hotel room after.

"Proud of me," she said then.

He writes of the two embryos still frozen at Walter Reed, and the baby they could still have together.

"It's not something we feel we're going to take on here in the next couple months, but possibly in the next year," he said. "We haven't spoken specifically about the time frame, but we have said this is something we will talk about."

They might require the help of a surrogate, he said, because the elevated blood pressure that can be common to pregnancy might be dangerous for Giffords.

He also writes about Giffords' recent work with Dr. Nancy Estabrooks, an expert in neurological disorders from Western Carolina University. Estabrooks went to Houston to test Giffords and to help consider her future.

When Estabrooks laid out photos of U.S. presidents in random order, Kelly writes, Giffords began arranging them chronologically without being asked. She took Ben Franklin out of the mix, saying "wonderful, electricity," but he was never commander-in-chief. Giffords considered Jimmy Carter's photo and said "Habitat for Humanity."

She aced tests on politicans from other states and countries, too dubbing Margaret Thatcher "Iron Lady," and commenting "Tea Party," about Michele Bachmann, and "running for president." Arnold Schwarzenegger's photo prompted this comment: "Messin' around. Babies."

Giffords continues to work with Estabrooks, and is to the point now where they focus on things like how often she uses prepositions, Kelly said.

At home, he still likes to test his wife, too, playing a game called "How did you vote?"

What was her vote on the 2009 climate change bill? "Yes," Giffords told him, and she was right.

Cash for clunkers? "No," she replied. Correct again.

One day, when Estabrooks was leaving their Houston home, Kelly asked her a question. Can Gabby go back to work, and be good at it?

"Yes," she told him. "Gabby will be able to do whatever she wants, and I think she has good judgment."

She could struggle during debates, Estabrooks said, and might not be ready with a politician's easy quips, but Kelly says Estabrooks believes Giffords could be an effective lawmaker.

Kelly says he's leaving the decision to his wife.

"She would like to return to Congress, and she'll know when she's ready," Kelly said. "Gabby hasn't made a final decision whether she'd like to run for the House or Senate seat. I will say the likelihood of her running for U.S. Senate -- as time goes on and she hasn't declared that she's going to do that -- is getting more unlikely."

As for returning to work, he said, "right now, she's not ready to go back." Giffords still tires easily, a common effect of her injury. But she is continuing to improve, Kelly said, and hopes that "during the next year, she can make a decision and possibly go back to work full time."

Estabrooks had her own question for the congresswoman, Kelly writes: Was she glad she survived?

"Yes, yes, yes!" Giffords replied.

There are many videos online of Giffords before Jan. 8, talking to journalists on MSNBC about political consequences, or debating border security on the House floor. Her words are easy and quick, her voice a tool at her command.

Now, on the audio book, each syllable is slow and laborious. But she is still using her voice.

"Long ways to go. Grateful to survive. It's frustrating. Mentally hard. Hard work," she says in that final chapter.

"I'm trying. Trying so hard to get better."

Reach the reporter at jaimee.rose@arizonarepublic.com.

Can a zombie run for Congress and be elected? Probably!!!!

Source

Gabrielle Giffords' political future is still hazy

by Dan Nowicki - Nov. 16, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords this week gave America its clearest look yet at her ongoing recovery from a gunshot wound to the head, and her dramatic progress has renewed her supporters' faith that she will make a full political comeback.

But some political experts and other observers, while marveling at Giffords' stylish appearance and poise in a nationally televised interview, say her short-term political future remains hazy.

They don't doubt that she could effortlessly win re-election, but they wonder if the Arizona Democrat can reach a point in her rehabilitation where she feels comfortable enough to seek re-election in time to run again next year. Speculation that Mark Kelly, Giffords' recently retired NASA astronaut husband, might possibly run for her seat in her stead also has resumed, although he is on the record as saying he is not inclined to pursue political office anytime soon.

More than 13 million viewers tuned in to the intimate look at Giffords and Kelly that aired Monday on ABC's "20/20" news program, according to Nielsen Media Research.

In addition to featuring Giffords' first interview since the Jan. 8 assassination attempt near Tucson, the hourlong special used extensive video footage to demonstrate the major strides Giffords has made so far in her 10-month rehabilitation.

The television show coincided with the publication of "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope," a new memoir written by Kelly and Giffords and co-author Jeffrey Zaslow that arrived in bookstores on Tuesday.

"I firmly believe, and I've said since the beginning, that she is going to be back here," said Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., who, like Giffords, represents a southern Arizona border district in Congress.

"If you saw her grit and her strength through the therapy to this point and how far she's come, anybody who doubts that she will return to the House and win against any Republican who dares to run against her is going to be sadly, sadly mistaken," Grijalva said.

Giffords, who continues to struggle with her speech but clearly understands what is said to her, has yet to officially announce whether she intends to seek a fourth House term. But she is sending signals that she hopes to return to Capitol Hill when her condition improves.

"I want to get back to work," Giffords said in a recorded voice message first made public late Monday on the Tucson-based Arizona Daily Star's website and later posted on her Facebook page. "Representing Arizona is my honor."

In Monday's TV interview, Giffords told ABC's Diane Sawyer that she would like to resume her congressional duties when she gets "better."

Giffords, 41, was shot through the brain during a gunman's rampage at a constituent event outside a Safeway grocery store. Six people died in the shooting spree and 12 people besides Giffords were hurt. Since that tragedy, Giffords has been the focus of a prolonged national outpouring of sympathy and goodwill.

"There's no question in my mind that she can come back," said C.J. Karamargin, her former congressional spokesman who now is a vice chancellor at Pima Community College in Tucson.

"Whether or not she does is entirely up to her. If she does, she will be even more effective because she has earned the affection and good faith of the people who now know her so well." Senate run unlikely

Giffords' and Kelly's future aspirations have been the focus of intense speculation among political insiders and the media.

When Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., announced in February that he would not seek re-election in 2012, Giffords' name quickly came up as a potential Senate candidate despite her injury.

Although she still has not ruled out a Senate run, Kelly has told The Arizona Republic that it is increasingly unlikely as time goes on.

Rodd McLeod, Giffords' campaign manager, has been helping out with the recently announced Democratic Senate campaign of former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona of Tucson. There also is now chatter about a possible 2014 gubernatorial campaign for Giffords.

Giffords has until a May petition-filing deadline to decide whether she wants to defend her own House seat on the 2012 ballot.

"I think it is pretty clear that neither the congresswoman nor a member of her family is going to be running for the Senate," said Nathan Gonzales, a national political analyst and deputy editor of the nonpartisan, Washington-based Rothenberg Political Report.

"The special probably buys her and her husband some time because it gives people a sense of where she's at now in her recovery," Gonzales said.

Bruce Merrill, a veteran Arizona political scientist and pollster, said it is hard to imagine Giffords losing should she choose to seek re-election. She probably wouldn't even have to appear much in public, he said.

"I think the question is whether she is capable from a physical and emotional point of view," said Merrill, who is now a senior research fellow at Arizona State University's Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

"Is it possible? My guess is she could run a pretty effective campaign from home," Merrill said.

One national political expert said the ABC television special reflected "a difficult recovery." But if Giffords chooses not to run again, there is a long tradition in American politics of one spouse taking over for the other, said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

For example, after pop-singer-turned-politician Sonny Bono died in a 1998 skiing accident, his wife, Mary Bono, won his House seat in a special election.

Even without the national Giffords drama, astronauts can make formidable candidates for Congress.

Former astronauts John Glenn and Harrison Schmitt served in the Senate, and former astronaut José Hernández announced last month that he is running as a Democrat for a House seat in California.

"I could see him (Kelly) running for a term, and if she continues to improve, he would let her take over again," Sabato said.

Bipartisan empathy

Giffords' appearance in Monday's ABC program elicited a bipartisan emotional reaction among political figures who know her.

"That was one moving hour of television -- it really was," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a friend of Giffords' who is running for Senate.

"I think anybody who watched that had to be buoyed up by where she is right now."

Uncle Sam wants to cure Loughner so they can execute him

Loughner's life behind bars detailed

by Sean Holstege - Nov. 19, 2011 10:19 PM

The Arizona Republic

Jared Loughner, prisoner No. 15213-196, spends his life in isolation but is never alone.

Cameras watch his every movement. Guards log his actions every 15 minutes.

His existence is charted in three colors. Blue means he's in bed. Green means up and awake. And then there's red.

Red means he is pacing in tight circles in his small cell. Red made up the largest slice on Loughner's tri-color pie chart some days during the summer.

Since then, the red slice has shrunk, and the blue one has looked more normal. The ratio of the recorded colors shifts with Loughner's moods as his mind responds to therapy and drugs.

A mental-health team at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo., is treating the man accused of January's Tucson-area mass shooting with counseling and a cocktail of drugs to counter anxiety, depression and psychosis.

Dr. Christina Pietz, prison psychologist and Loughner's main therapist, delves into his past and trawls through his psyche, trying to restore the 23-year-old to mental competency so he can stand trial on 49 charges related to the shooting deaths of six and wounding of 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, on Jan. 8. He has pleaded not guilty. Pietz diagnosed Loughner early on with schizophrenia, based partly on descriptions from people who knew him and after reading his online statements and a dream journal recovered at his home. She also interviewed him for nine hours over a month.

Prison officials won't talk about Loughner's confinement. His family and his attorneys have turned down interview requests, and Pietz didn't return calls. But a fascinating glimpse into his world and new clues about his past, including that his family took him to a therapist years ago, emerges from court testimony of Pietz and others who have reviewed Loughner's file.

Pietz is his main human contact. She meets with Loughner every weekday from 10 minutes to an hour.

Loughner's universe is a roughly 8-by-10-foot cell with concrete floors and a steel bed. He has a toilet, a sink and a shower, but the shower curtain was removed.

Natural light enters through a window with thick, plastic-coated glass and bars. Guards keep the ceiling light on 24 hours a day.

His cell is on a special psychiatric ward, Building 10. About 300 of the 1,142 inmates at the Springfield prison, known to locals as Fed-Med, are housed in Building 10. All inmates are issued khaki pants and T-shirts.

At one time, all federal lock-down psychiatric prisoners in the country were confined to one area, Ward D, says psychologist David Mrad, who retired from the prison five years ago. He says Ward D became notorious in the prison system as a tough place to do time because "the most severe, out-of-control or dangerous psychiatric patients" went there. Prisoners nicknamed it "10-Dog," dog for D.

It's unclear, but two retired prison officials say it's likely Loughner is on that ward. The prison won't say.

Fed-Med opened in 1933 and has held many of America's most notorious prisoners. The list includes mob bosses Joseph Bonanno, John Gotti and Vito Genovese; terrorists Jose Padilla and the "blind sheik" Omar Abdel Rahman; and the traitorous spies Jonathan Pollard and John Walker.

A troubled mind

The question of Loughner's mental state arose right after his arrest. News reports detailed his bizarre rantings and strange videos on the Internet. He was seen smirking at his initial appearance in court. In March, prosecutors asked that Loughner be evaluated for his paranoid fears and the voices he was hearing, and a judge sent him to Fed-Med, where he was labeled a high-profile inmate.

Pietz met him on March 23 at his cell. He sat on his bed, unrestrained. She was in a hallway, talking to him through a grill. For months, all of their encounters would take place there.

He cocked his head and looked at her out of the corner of one eye. He laughed at things that weren't funny and cried at things that weren't sad. His remarks were linguistic porridge. This was the maniacal-looking Loughner that the world remembered from the days after his arrest.

Pietz had to gain his trust, start building a history of his social interactions and his illness.

Mrad, in an interview with The Arizona Republic, says the typical approach for a Fed-Med psychologist is to begin by asking questions about the inmate's background, family and childhood. Mrad, now director of clinical training for the School of Professional Psychology at nearby Forest Institute, says he also told new prisoners that everything could end up in pretrial testimony or a report but wouldn't be introduced in trial. That made building trust more difficult.

"It does create problems," Mrad says. "The typical doctor-patient relationship does not exist."

Still, to the inmate, "this person is more accepting than most folks you deal with, and that's comforting," he says.

In Loughner's case, Pietz moved fast. Loughner's thoughts gushed out, according to a psychiatrist familiar with the prison's assessments. The outpouring came after years of Loughner's growing isolation.

Within days, they had discussed security-camera footage from the Safeway store where the shooting occurred. The video shows Loughner firing all the bullets of a 9mm Glock into a crowd, authorities have said. Loughner said the video was doctored.

"He believed that the government, possibly his attorneys, possibly law enforcement, had actually edited the version of the video," Pietz testified on Sept. 28, according to a recently unsealed court transcript. "He believed his attorneys were blackmailing him."

Loughner refused to meet with them at the prison. When they arrived, he lunged at them and spat. But he talked to Pietz.

On March 28, she asked about his adolescence.

"I think there's child abuse," she quoted him as saying. She asked him to elaborate. He said, "I have to mention this because it's included in my high-school education. While I was sitting there, I was a child slave."

The remark smacked of Loughner's delusional ramblings in online posts and videos, in which he said he was persecuted by authority figures, particularly educators and the government. But Pietz testified this didn't seem a fantasy created by a delusional mind but his way of expressing something real.

It was during high school, in 2006, that Loughner started having trouble. That year he drank so much vodka he had to be taken to an emergency room to have his stomach pumped.

That episode was reported publicly after the shooting. But less well-known is that his parents, Randy and Amy Loughner, took him that year to a psychologist.

"His family got him to seek treatment," Dr. James Ballenger, a Charleston, S.C., forensic psychiatrist who read Loughner's prison evaluations and testified about them, told The Arizona Republic. "He got a straightforward diagnosis of depression. He was treated."

It's unclear how often or for how long he was treated. Until the testimony, there was no public record of any referral or counseling for him. The new information dispels a common perception that his parents never sought help for their troubled young son.

Ballenger and Pietz told the U.S. District Court in Tucson in September that Loughner had started spiraling into schizophrenia by early 2008. He heard voices and acted strangely. Since 2009, he has had delusions of being persecuted.

Ballenger, who says he has been an expert witness in more than 200 cases, saw no evidence in the Loughner files that he was seen by or referred to counselors for the new illness seizing his mind.

Loughner couldn't silence the slew of "hateful" and "derogatory" voices in his head, as Ballenger described them.

By the time he was in Fed-Med talking to Pietz, his schizophrenia had gone untreated for nearly four years. The illness raged on.

He threw chairs and wads of wet tissue paper at the cell-door grill when he saw video cameras. He often stripped and showered in front of female guards.

On May 25, during a court hearing in Tucson, Loughner burst into a rant in which he called presiding U.S. District Judge Larry Burns "your cheesiness." Burns ruled Loughner was not mentally fit to stand trial.

Three days later, when Loughner was back in his cell, Pietz told him for the first time he was mentally ill.

"He was devastated," Pietz later testified. Over the next month, "he would lay in bed and often had his entire head covered," she said. "He might converse with me while he was laying in his bed, but he wasn't willing to get up."

On June 21, the prison team began giving him drugs for his restoration. Loughner took Risperdal, an anti- psychotic drug, mixed with Kool-Aid in a paper cup. He was given it through a slot in his cell door, and though he objected, he drank it. If he hadn't, prison officials were ready to forcibly inject anti-psychotic medicine.

Two days later, prison officials agreed to his request for a TV so he could have more stimulation. He switched it off after 30 minutes, complaining to a prison therapist that, like a radio he was given during confinement in Tucson, it was planting messages in his head. The TV was gone five days later.

The drug treatment was short-lived. On July 1, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the prison to stop forced medication.

Deteriorating state

On July 1, cut off from medication, Loughner entered the darkest chapter of his confinement.

He got "significantly worse," Pietz testifed.

His pacing got out of control. He went in circles up to 14 hours one day.

"He paced so much that he created a blister on his foot," Pietz said. "The blister became infected. The infection actually moved up his leg." Loughner resisted treatment.

At one point in early July, he stayed awake for 50 hours straight. On one night, staff found him sitting on the concrete floor with his knees tucked into his chest. He spun in circles on his buttocks for two hours.

Pietz explained in court that when Loughner paces, "he's obsessing, ruminating about the events in his life, what he believes his life is going to be."

Around this time, he used a plastic spork, a tined spoon, to fling his feces on his bed.

He stopped eating normally and dropped 5 pounds in one day. Prison staff took urine samples to gauge his nutrition.

"During this time he was sobbing uncontrollably," Pietz said. "He was telling staff he wanted to die."

Judge Burns read the weekly clinical reports and later, in a telephone hearing, noted the severity of the decline. "He was up for many hours at time, 50 hours at a time, pacing, walking in circles for hours, yelling, screaming, crying, rocking back and forth in the shower," Burns told lawyers, according to transcripts.

On July 8, the prison put Loughner on suicide watch, where he remains. Staff took everything out of his room that he might use to hurt himself and removed the shower curtain so he could be seen by a hidden camera. They gave him a "suicide blanket," made from a thick weave that cannot be torn.

Mrad, the retired prison psychologist, says a pair of eyes typically will be on him every 15 minutes and a camera at all times.

By July 18, Loughner had deteriorated so much that the clinical team decided to give him emergency forced medication without a court order because he was an imminent danger to himself.

A slow recovery

Since July 18, Lougher has gradually improved with treatment and a regimen of five drugs. But he still shows disturbed behavior, and doctors say he has a long way to go.

The decision to continue that treatment without a ruling from Judge Burns framed a complex legal fight that stretched through the summer and fall and was heard last month by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Loughner's doctors testified that Loughner could die without proper medication.

Loughner takes the Risperdalfor psychotic delusions and hallucinations, Wellbutrin to fight depression, Klonopin to help him sleep, Ativan to curb anxiety and Congentin for side effects from the medicine.

Improvement has been bumpy.

On Aug. 26, Pietz told Burns, "Currently any time I interview him he paces back and forth. He's rocking back and forth. There are many times he will sob uncontrollably."

A month later, Loughner's defense team argued the medications were making him more depressed. Pietz testified "he's very depressed," so much so that when she gave him books and puzzles, he couldn't focus on them.

"He has clearly said he wants to commit suicide. He has written a note indicating (so) to his father," she said.

At that time he called his father, and the prison's special investigative services team, which monitors phone calls, became concerned enough to call Pietz and tell her "you need to listen" to them.

"He wanted to see (his father) one last time, then he would kill himself," Pietz testified.

Loughner even complained there was nothing in his cell that he could use for the act. Later they found another suicide note.

His delusions and hallucinations abated but didn't disappear.

On Sept. 4 staff found Loughner standing in the middle of his cell, talking as if somebody else were there. He kept repeating, "Stop, stop, stop."

Eleven days later, Loughner told one of Pietz's colleagues he was having conversations with imaginary friends.

Up through October, he "obsessed" over not wanting his therapy sessions to be videotaped, Pietz said. He told her he was worried about how the tapes would be used, though his defense team argued that they wanted video evidence of the sessions.

"He feels as though he has no control over anything that's going on around him, and this is just one more element of that," she said.

In such moments, Loughner shuts down. "I'm done talking to you. I'm going to ignore you now," he told Pietz. Obsessions fade

Loughner's behavior has become less erratic.

By early September, his sleeping and appetite had improved. Pietz logged that he was sleeping eight to 10 hours a day and ordering three trays from the commissary rather than the two most inmates ask for. She said he was eating a substantial amount of junk food.

The published prison commissary list shows he can buy everything from a six-pack of Snickers bars for $4.40 to a packet of buttered popcorn for 50 cents.

He also was pacing no more than an hour a day. His angry outbursts and throwing of chairs were gone. He started asking female prison guards to look away when he showered.

As he progressed, Pietz started returning items like toothpaste, soap and a washcloth. He became more self-aware and rational, more communicative and considerate, the psychologists testified.

He started looking forward to meeting his attorneys. He hasn't missed an appointment with them since being medicated.

In September, he became eager to fly to Tucson for another hearing about his mental competence. He told Pietz, "It is my case. It's about me. I should be there."

He also was eager to see his parents. The thought consumed him by late September.

Privately, the lawyers and Judge Burns were trying to find a way to waive Loughner's statutory requirement to be present, transcripts show. They didn't want another outburst like the one in May, and he wouldn't have much to contribute. In a telephone interview, Pietz told them it would be good for his recovery "because he has very little interaction with others."

Loughner's behavior swung like a pendulum with news of the trip. At first, he said going to Tucson was important. When later it looked like he wasn't going, "he covered his head with a blanket," Pietz said. A day later she confirmed the trip and he started crying, explaining, "I'm glad."

The U.S. Marshals Service flies a direct charter "special operations flight" from Springfield to Tucson every time Loughner is set to appear in court, U.S. Marshal for Arizona David Gonzales told The Republic. Loughner, shackled and manacled, is the only prisoner on the six-seat jet during the roughly 2½-hour flight. He usually sits quietly, not speaking, Gonzales said.

In therapy, Loughner and Pietz talked repeatedly about his fondness for his turtles and dogs.

People suffering from schizophrenia can be unusually insightful about the feelings of others and often form strong bonds with pets, said expert witness Ballenger, who has practiced for 40 years and until 2002 was chairman of the psychiatry department at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Then one day Pietz showed up with a brace on her arm. He asked about it and then said something that Ballenger considers an important sign of progress: "I hope that you're OK."

"He had never said anything like that before, never expressed care for another person," Ballenger said. "That's as clear as any example, clearer, of his improvement."

Ballenger says Loughner is between 20 and 40 percent better. Both Pietz and Ballenger have said that Loughner stands a good chance of returning to mental competency. Regardless, he will need treatment for the rest of his life, Pietz testified in late September.

Pietz also testified that another encouraging sign was how Loughner was now discussing the Safeway footage. In the fall he agreed for the first time to watch it with her.

"Yes, and I'll draw you a picture of it so you'll understand it," he told her. She told Judge Burns that her treatment plan involves viewing a tape described by investigators as grisly and asking Loughner what was different between the images and what happened.

His reaction could determine how firm a grip he has on reality, one important factor in whether the therapists think he can be mentally competent to stand trial, Ballenger says.

There are other signs that he is grasping real events.

Already, Loughner has softened from his courtroom outburst in May, when he was heard to say of Giffords: "Thank you for the free kill. She died right in front of me."

"He now believes that she is alive," Pietz testified in late September. "He's less obsessed with that. He understands that he's murdered people. He talks about that. He talks about how remorseful he is for that. He understands the implications of what he did and the impact of what he did."

Whether his improvement continues to the extent that he can go to trial remains unknown. What is known is that he's improving and the psychiatric team is getting closer to finding out. Judge Burns has ordered another four months of forced medication, though that decision is under appeal. With each passing month, Loughner appears more communicative, logical and compassionate, testimony indicates.

Ballenger puts it this way: "He's becoming more human."

Gabrielle Giffords really is a zombie! - Running for Reelection

Source

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords serves Thanksgiving meal at Davis-Monthan

by Matt York and Bob Christie - Nov. 25, 2011 12:00 AM

Associated Press

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords helped serve a Thanksgiving meal to service members and retirees at a military base in her hometown.

Giffords, D-Ariz., arrived in the dining hall at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base at midday Thursday wearing a ball cap and an apron with her nickname, "Gabby," sewn on the front. She was accompanied by her retired astronaut husband, Mark Kelly, who also donned an apron.

Giffords used only her left hand as she served, a sign of the physical damage she sustained after being shot in January.

Kelly supported her from her left side as she worked the turkey station on the serving line. He served ham. Afterward, she mingled with service members, exchanging pleasantries and mostly one-word greetings and responses.

She did tell Airman 1st Class Millie Gray, of Kansas City, Mo., "Happy Thanksgiving, thank you for your service."

Gray said she had intended to only grab a plate and head back to her dorm to eat, until she heard that Giffords was going to be there.

"She's such an inspiration and her story is so inspirational, it really made me proud. I felt very proud and very humble," Gray said. "It just feels really good to see that she is out here supporting the troops, and just continuing to be an inspiration and a strong role model for Americans in general.

"She was very warm, asked how our meal was, which, of course, was amazing. The food is awesome. She and her husband were very, just delightful and asked a lot of questions. It was just very warm-hearted, and I told her she was an inspiration and she was very thankful for that."

Giffords and Kelly left after less than an hour.

Giffords has been undergoing intensive rehabilitation at TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston as she recovers from a gunshot wound to the head she sustained in the Jan. 8 shooting outside Tucson. She was among 19 people shot, six fatally.

The congresswoman arrived in Tucson on Tuesday evening from Houston for a private visit with her parents and other family members and friends.

"It's always special to have a member of Congress come and spend time with the troops and show support," said Brig. Gen. Jon Norman, acting commander of the 12th Air Forces, Southern. "But after everything that she's been through, it's a little bit more special."

Giffords' staff said base officials originally asked a member of the congresswoman's staff to take part in the annual Thanksgiving dinner.

When the staff member told Giffords about the event, the congresswoman decided she wanted to go herself.

Giffords had previously returned to Tucson for the Father's Day and Labor Day weekends.

Gabrielle Giffords is a zombie!!!!

Source

Brain injury group disappointed by Giffords interview

The National Aphasia Foundation has released a statement expressing its disappointment in the interview with recovering Rep. Gabrielle Giffords that appeared on ABC-TV.

Don’t know what ‘aphasia’ means?

That’s why they’re disappointed.

The statement reads in part:

“First, we would like to express our heartfelt congratulations to Gabby for her recovery so far and offer her, Mark Kelly and their family any ongoing support they might need as they face the challenge of aphasia. While ABC did an accurate and comprehensive job of explaining aphasia, the program inexplicably never mentioned Gabby's condition by name. It is aphasia - the inability to read, write, speak or communicate after a stroke or other sudden traumatic brain injury, such as the one Gabby tragically experienced. “Many people with aphasia, their families, friends and caregivers, were very disappointed and frustrated by this omission. Eagerly, they watched that special Monday night edition of 20/20, hoping that finally, a greater awareness and understanding for aphasia would be realized. The general public would finally hear the word aphasia and begin to understand the condition. Unfortunately, the hour-long program never used the word aphasia once, which added to the pain and frustration of the over 1 million people estimated to have aphasia…”

You can read the entire statement here.

For a woman struggling to recover from a gunshot wound it appears that Giffords is being pulled in lots of different directions. Does she go back to Congress? Does she become a symbol or advocate for people with brain injuries? Or both? Or neither?

I understand the frustration of others who are dealing with loved ones suffering from similar injuries. One thing that just about all of them say is that the injured person they know isn’t getting nearly the quality care that Giffords is.

So, should Giffords also become an advocate for improved health care?

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords stepping down

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords stepping down

By Ashley Powers and Lisa Mascaro, Los Angeles Times

January 22, 2012, 10:47 p.m.

Reporting from Ely, Nev., and Washington— Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who came to symbolize hope and resilience as she tenaciously recovered from a gunshot wound to the head during the last year, announced she would resign from Congress to concentrate on her recovery.

Giffords, 41, announced her plans in a stylized video on YouTube and Facebook and in a Twitter post. Her decision, effective this week, clears the way for candidates in both parties to stake a claim on her competitive border district. By state law, her replacement will be chosen in a special election.

"I have more work to do on my recovery," Giffords says in the video, appearing in a crisp red jacket and without the glasses she has sported recently. She says she is doing what is best for the state.

"I'm getting better. Every day my spirit is high," she says, speaking directly, deliberately and somewhat haltingly. "I will return, and we will work together for Arizona."

Her announcement comes just over a year after a gunman opened fire while Giffords greeted constituents outside a Tucson Safeway. Six people were killed, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl born on Sept. 11, 2001. Thirteen were wounded, including Giffords.

The alleged gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, has pleaded not guilty to multiple federal charges. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, he has been found incompetent to stand trial and is being held in a federal prison hospital as doctors try to restore his competency.

The shooting, and Giffords' recovery with the support of her high-profile husband, now-retired astronaut Mark E. Kelly, turned her into a national heroine. When she made a surprise appearance on the House floor last summer to vote for raising the nation's debt ceiling, she received a bipartisan standing ovation.

On Sunday, President Obama praised her decision to resign as "selfless."

"Over the last year, Gabby and her husband, Mark, have taught us the true meaning of hope in the face of despair, determination in the face of incredible odds, and now — even after she's come so far — Gabby shows us what it means to be selfless as well," he said.

Giffords, who is serving her third term, had earned plaudits for her congeniality and middle-of-the-road approach to lawmaking. She had until May to file for reelection.

Sunday's announcement sparked an outpouring of support for the wounded congresswoman, as well as speculation about the timing and what it means for the race to replace her.

Democratic Party leaders were warned beforehand and may have conferred with Giffords.

Kelly tweeted a photo of himself on the phone Sunday, saying, "Called some of Gabby's friends & colleagues to tell them about her decision."

Among those he alerted: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), according to a Democratic source who asked not to be identified to describe a private conversation.

In a statement, Pelosi called Giffords a "true bright star — a dynamic and creative public servant."

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) praised Giffords "for her service, and for the courage and perseverance she has shown in the face of tragedy. She will be missed."

Once Giffords' seat is declared vacant, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer must call a special election. The primary must be held within 80 to 90 days, and the general election 50 to 60 days after that. The winner will serve through December and, to remain in office, would have to run again in an August primary and in the November general election.

Giffords' 8th Congressional District, created in 2002, is a mix of conservatives, liberals and independents that tends to lean Republican. But after redistricting takes effect with the August primary, it is expected to tilt Democratic. The special election will be held under the current district lines.

Both Democrats and Republicans will position the special election as a potential bellwether for voter preferences heading into the fall "because it's a seat either could win," said John Pitney, a former GOP operative and now professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College. He warned against drawing sweeping conclusions without knowing the candidates.

"It was an act of heroism to last in the seat as long as she did," Pitney said. "She gave it her best shot."

Some had speculated that Kelly might run in his wife's stead, using a campaign fund she has accumulated of more than $800,000. He has rejected those rumors.

Giffords' endorsement would be likely to carry great weight. David Wasserman, who analyzes House races at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, said, "Democrats might figure a Giffords-blessed successor would have a better chance in a stand-alone special election than a November race obscured by the presidential" contest.

In Sunday's video, Giffords talks about returning to public service someday. A close friend in Congress who is also chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, agreed.

"We will miss Gabby's spirit in Congress ... but I am confident that she will return to public service and we can all work together for America," she said.

The weekend Giffords spent in Tucson for the anniversary of the shooting "crystallized" her choice, Wasserman Schultz said. Never one to settle for doing something "halfway," she realized "she'd be doing neither thing full strength."

"She's at peace with the decision, as sad and wistful as she is about leaving public service," the Florida Democrat said.

Giffords said in a news release that she would meet privately Monday with some constituents to finish the Congress on Your Corner event that was interrupted by gunfire. Among those attending will be some of the people injured in the shooting and others who subdued the gunman, the news release said.

"I don't remember much from that horrible day," she says in the video, "but I will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice. Thank you for your prayers and for giving me time to recover. I have more work to do on my recovery, so to do what is best for Arizona, I will step down this week."

She plans to attend Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday.

By Sunday evening, more than 2,000 comments had been posted on Giffords' Facebook page.

"You will be missed, but you must take care of yourself," said Kathy Stanton of Sunnyvale, Calif. "I have no doubt you will be back!"

ashley.powers@latimes.com

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

Times staff writers Molly Hennessy-Fiske and James Oliphant contributed to this report.

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