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The Spectacle Blog
Let me begin by saying I only saw the last third of the interview with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly so I’ll confine my comments to what I saw and heard.
It can’t be stated enough that it is nothing short of a miracle that Giffords is still walking this earth much less conversing after being shot in the head at point blank range just over nine months ago. The fact that she has a loving husband, a supportive mother and first rate rehabilitative team has certainly played a significant role in her recovery.
It appears that her cognitive abilities are largely intact. Slowly but surely she will be in a position to lead a normal life. Then again there is little that is normal about the life of a member of the House of Representatives. Aside from public speaking, a member of the House of Representatives is on the go eight days a week shuttling between his or her constituency and D.C. It’s demanding life when one is in the best of health.
Giffords has until May 2012 to decide whether she will seek re-election. That’s another six months down the road. I’m sure she’ll make leaps and bounds during that time. But as for being up for running for public office, well, the jury is still out. Nevertheless, the decision is hers. In the event she opts not to run in 2012 it certainly doesn’t preclude her from seeking public office in 2014 or at any other time in the future.
The only thing I didn’t like about the interview was Diane Sawyer’s rehashing of the jeers Giffords got at townhall meetings over Obamacare and Sarah Palin’s target map. While Giffords had concerns for her safety, it had absolutely nothing to do with why she got shot. When you consider all the violence that has taken place at various Occupy protests throughout the country, whatever anger there was at those townhall meetings did not translate into violence. Anyone who thinks Jared Loughner tried to kill Giffords because of Obamacare and Sarah Palin is frankly a blithering idiot.
For their part, neither Giffords nor Kelly seem to hold any animosity towards Loughner with Kelly suggesting this might not have to come pass had he received treatment.
The important thing here is that Giffords is alive, well and getting better everyday.
View all comments (14) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/11/15/thoughts-on-gabby-giffords-int
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J.P. Travis | 11.15.11 @ 12:06PM
It's important that Giffords is alive and getting better, yes, but it is not THE important thing. THE important thing is that her staff and husband have not done the honorable thing and submitted her resignation so that her district has representation in Washington. It is sad and tragic what happened to her, but nobody owns a seat in congress.
solidground| 11.15.11 @ 12:09PM
The local press in her district goes out of its way to convince her constituency that all is well in the hands of her marvelous and talented staff.
Lesser Weevil| 11.15.11 @ 12:09PM
Are you saying that brain damage disqualifies you from serving in Congress? At least _her_ condition seems to be improving.
solidground| 11.15.11 @ 12:12PM
If brain damage disqualified one from serving in Congress, most of the current crop would have to resign immediately.
solidground| 11.15.11 @ 12:07PM
As a Giffords constituent, I would just as soon see her not run (and let's note that in a staunchly and frankly strident Democratic Party district, she won by only 4,000 or so votes in 2010). While she does hold a few reasonable views, her vote for Obamacare defines her fatal flaw as a progressive stalwart, the fewer of which are in Congress the better.
tonypal| 11.15.11 @ 1:21PM
The only thing liberals seem to be concerned with right now with respect to Ms. Giffords is whether or not she will run for the senate. If she decides to retire, which she probably should do for her own benefit and that of her family, she will be forgotten because she's no longer a political weapon for the left.
Claudia| 11.15.11 @ 2:04PM
I thought that Gifford's recovery has been nothing short of amazing. But, she seems like a little girl now. If she were a Republican, people would be talking about - in spite of her recovery – that she should no longer serve. I was also thinking that had she not had the means, in other words had not been a member of Congress - who by-the-way will never be saddled with the restrictions of Obamacare, she would never had made it. I was also thinking that by continuing to harp on the imaginary claim that her shooting was because of "right-wing" rhetoric - liberals completely ignore the violent deeds and talk that surround Occupy Wall Street.
Stephanie| 11.15.11 @ 4:12PM
I did not see the interview, but the Giffords' constituants have been without a rep in Congress since she was shot. The best thing she can do is resign until she gets better. I am sorry that this tragedy happened, but she should just give up the power for awhile. From what I read of the interview with Sawyer, they are still going on about how the right wing is to blame for her shooting. Same old story.
Brandt Hardin | 11.15.11 @ 7:57PM
Sarah Palin is a mouthpiece for the Tea Party which represents nothing but hatred and dissension. Her rhetoric and violence-inciting imagery troubles me also and IS a form of terrorism and a prime example. She held Jared Lee Loughner’s hand while he murdered people with his misguided sensibilities. I was compelled to draw a visual commentary showing her handing him the gun on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.....do-it.html She'll go to any lengths and keep spewing her insanity for that attention (and the money of course.)
dlb| 11.16.11 @ 6:59AM
Troll.
Dai Alanye | 11.16.11 @ 12:10PM
After hearing from Brandt Hardin it's apparent that Jared Loughner isn't the only mentally ill jackass around. And the sad thing is that "treatment" never cures these people. The violent ones can't be trusted to take their meds, and shlould be locked up.
vtwin | 11.15.11 @ 8:08PM
Brandt HardOn, you're a pathetic jerk, an asshole of first magnitude and you should commit suicide now.
vtwin | 11.15.11 @ 8:09PM
Do it!
Occam's Tool| 11.15.11 @ 10:51PM
Not to mention, of course, the following:
"Bandage that helped save lives in Giffords shooting has Israeli backstory
By Ron Kampeas · February 14, 2011
Photos 1 out of 1
Other Media
A page from the First Care website showing how to apply the "Israeli bandage," credited with saving lives after a gunman targeted Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Jan. 8, 2011. (FirstCare Products)WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Israel changed Gabrielle Giffords’ life when the budding politician first visited the country in 2001 and it drew her close to Judaism.
After the Arizona congresswoman was shot in the head a month ago, an Israeli innovation invented by an American immigrant to Israel may have helped save her life.
First responders credited the emergency bandage colloquially known as “the Israeli bandage” with saving lives in the aftermath of the shooting in Tucson, Ariz., that left six dead and 13 wounded.
Pima County officials displayed the kit at a Jan. 21 news conference in Tucson, along with other military-grade gear used in ministering to the wounded in the Jan. 8 shooting. The county had switched last June to the upgraded gear, and the shooting was its major first field test.
"Without this care it would have definitely been a different situation," Dr. Katherine Hiller, who had attended the wounded at University Medical Center, told The Los Angeles Times.
It is not clear if the Israeli bandage was applied to Giffords -- the details of the day were lost in the chaos -- but the bandage is known for, among other things, its utility in stanching head wounds, one of the greatest challenges with conventional bandages. One model covers both entry and exit wounds, which Giffords is known to have sustained.
The bandage, like others, applies a sterile pad to the wound to stop the blood. What distinguishes it is that a built-in applicator applies the equivalent of up to 30 pounds of pressure over the pad by wrapping it in the opposite direction of the initial wrap.
Head wounds require multiple standard bandages to keep a pad in place. One Israeli bandage, with its elasticized cloth, is enough for a head wound, and the very act of wrapping it around the head applies pressure to the wound. That saves precious time, and the applied pressure applicator, because it is built-in, is more stable than the external pressures used with conventional bandages.
Since its 1993 invention, the Israeli bandage has become standard issue in militaries throughout the world. The U.S. military made it standard issue in 2003, in time for the Iraq War.
The inventor of the pad, Bernard Bar-Natan, is a self-described Brooklyn boy, a son of Holocaust survivors who immigrated to Israel in 1979 and was drafted into the military in 1983, serving an abbreviated service as an adult.
When he was going into the military, friends advised him to get a “job” or a specialty to alleviate the boredom of grunt-level service. Immigrants drafted as adults serve only a few months rather than three or more years, so they rarely serve in the military’s upper reaches. One of the few specialties available at that level is medic.
As the years wore on through monthlong stints in the Israeli reserves, Bar-Natan became annoyed by an anomaly: The bandages available might have manufacture dates as early as 1942 or as late as the previous month, yet they remained essentially unchanged. Medics in the field were required to improvise pressure applicators -- magazines, rocks, canteens, whatever was handy.
“The guns we used had improved, the planes flying above us had improved, but the bandages were the same,” Bar-Natan told JTA.
In the early 1990s, the Israeli government was encouraging start-ups through “incubators,” providing them low-interest loans. That encouraged Bar-Natan to jump in the waters with his idea for a newfangled bandage.
In 2000, he took the bandage to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, where the U.S. military trains medics. Soon his company, First Care, was selling the bandage for use by elite units, including the 75th Rangers and the 101st Airborne. Three years later the bandage was certified for standard use.
The Giffords shooting shined unexpected -- and unwanted -- publicity on his invention.
“The real story is about her,” Bar-Natan said.
He had heard about how Giffords on an American Jewish Committee trip to Israel in 2001 -- -- shortly after she was first elected to the Arizona state Legislature -- had connected with her father’s faith and decided to become a practicing Jew.
Bar-Natan’s success is not going unnoticed.
Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to Washington, told the conservative Daily Caller website recently that learning of the bandage's role in saving lives in Tucson has been a highlight of his stint as ambassador."
Can't help myself, Vtwin.
So damn easy to do. Jack, Clint, Sheila---never use this bandage even if you are bleeding out, please. It will corrupt you immensely.