Congresswoman Giffords Leaves Hospital with Husband, Headed for Houston Rehab

Giffords' ambulance departing
the Hospital for
the trip to Houston

It was a joy to see the footage yesterday of Congresswoman Giffords venturing outside for the first time in two weeks.  It was an even greater joy today when she left the Tucson hospital ICU to begin her recovery and rehabilitation.  I hope the photo gallery link at the end will bring a smile to our Penigma readers.

This was in my email, and I share the sentiments, It's nice to know that with all the attention being given to the gentle Congreswwoman and her superhero astronaut husband, that those in her office who are her support staff in Arizona also received a little attention.  I imagine living and working in the Tucson area will never be quite the same, and more so for Giffords staff than most.:

 I'm Julie, and I work with the local MoveOn Council in Tucson, Arizona and I wanted to tell you about a moving event we held this past Tuesday. 

Normally, local MoveOn councils organize rallies, district meetings, and other grassroots events. But this Tuesday we were doing something very different. We had the honor of delivering the thoughts, feelings, well wishes, hopes, and prayers of thousands of MoveOn members nationwide to our Congresswoman.

In the days since the tragic events of January 8th, MoveOn members like you showed their support and well wishes with a get well card for the Congresswoman. There were more than 140,000 messages—enough to fill three LARGE three ring binders. We presented these to the Congresswoman's staff along with a heartfelt message of thanks and support for all of their service and dedication.

The Gun - the Second Update to the Giffords Shooting: Guns and Gold?

There is a familiar mantra on the right, the ideology sound byte, "Guns, God and Gold".  The videos of the shooter addresses some rambling, not very literate statements about gold.  Although hardly reliable or definitive, the shooter is not reported to be religious, which leaves out 'God' in understanding this tragedy on the part of the gunman.  God would seem right now, and during the initial tragedy, to be at the side of Congresswoman Gifford.  The number of people injured and killed caused me to wonder about what the shooter used to cause so much harm to so many people.  And I wondered as well about the legality of the gun purchase by this pot smoking possibly mentally ill shooter.  Coincidentally, Giffords herself owned a Glock, the same brand of gun that the shooter used.