Two days after a devastating elementary school shooting that killed 20 first-graders, mourning in this New England town played out at Sunday church services, makeshift memorials and vigils.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama arrived in Connecticut to meet with families, and police said they found hundreds of unused bullets at the school. Several funerals were scheduled and Obama planned to meet with families privately and speak at an evening vigil. In another sign of forward movement, the school district announced the surviving children would return to school in a temporary building on Wednesday.
The President is scheduled to appear at the vigil in Newtown not too long from now.
I will try to post a streaming link to the video so that those of you without televisions can still watch his speech.
Update: Apparently there has been a delay because President Obama is meeting with the families.
Update 2: Live streaming available here.
Update 3: President Obama just arrived.
Update 4: The camera keeps coming back to the President in between various religious leaders prayers. He looks drained. Can only imagine what kind of day he had today.
Update 5: Thought you might like to know that the politician who receives the most in donations from the NRA is none other than John McCain. John Boehner is number six on that list.
Update 6: The President is barely keeping it together, and there is open weeping in the audience as he discusses the bravery of the teachers and mentions the names of the children. This is heartbreaking in the extreme.
It's Sandy Hook...
ReplyDeleteIt's Newtown.
DeleteI missed it...I hope someone has a video but Gryphen here is a pic for you and all of us IM'rs!
Deletehttps://twitter.com/krupali/status/280491706779054081/photo/1
The city is Newtown and the residential area is Sandy Hook.
DeleteSandy Hook is the name of the elementary school.
DeleteNewtown is the name of the town where the school is located.
Livestreaming here: http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2012/12/16/live-streaming-video-president-obama-speaks-at-newtown-memorial-service-7p-est/
ReplyDeleteHAR, HAR, HAR.....
ReplyDelete@asshole
Delete@3:24
DeleteWTF are you laughing at?
GUNS IN AMERICA: Indiana Man Arrested With 47 Guns After Threatening Local School... Gunman Kills 3 In Alabama... Shooter Opens Fire In California Mall Parking Lot... HOTEL HORROR: Murder-Suicide On Vegas Strip... Man Accidentally Shoots Himself While Playing With Gun... Chicago Man Shot Dead... North Carolina Man Fatally Shoots Wife, Elderly Mother-In-Law...Obama's Justice Department Shelved Ideas To Improve Background Checks
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Lynchburg, VA Corruption and Localized Human Trafficking
ReplyDeleteSocial Workers Lisa Parks, Sally Barca, and Marty Laverty caught falsifying evidence, documents, statements, and committing perjury in court in an effort to make false findings of neglect and take a child away from her parents. Medical professionals Gail Briceland and Colleen Fletcher caught falsifying medical documents to help the Social Workers support their false allegations; City Attorney Susan Hartman caught lying to a judge and giving legal advice to the others who modified the evaluations to help LDSS out. The Lynchburg City Council and mayor Joan Foster were shown the evidence. Files were intentionally destroyed by the City Manager Kimball Payne to avoid investigations, Police Chief Snead refused to investigate and evidence was buried. Senators Newman, Webb, Warner, and FBI were also notified. This video will be updated soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdi-YSclWm0
Jesse===
DeleteBe sure to check this video out. Un-fucking believable. Worth the hour I invested here. Actually more, because I stopped the bullet points on every page to have time to increase my reading comprehension.
The allegation wasn't made here in this video or Youtube site, BUT I PERSONALLY wonder how this cronyism racket is tied to the Fundie RightWing nut capitalist scumbags. VA is a hotbed for these nutters, and Lynchburg, home of Liberty U. is a corrupt center of fundie commerce.
This is a travesty of justice initiated against citizens by their own government.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4671958771055&set=o.274330505796&type=1&ref=nf
ReplyDeleteRupert has his say
You have to see what Fox dug up... Lt. Col. Dave Grossman
ReplyDeletehttp://crooksandliars.com/news-hound-ellen/fox-guns-don-t-kill-people-video-
People are losing their friggin' minds lately...
ReplyDeleteThe solution to US debt? Sell Alaska
That's right. Put the entire state - from Juneau to Deadhorse, from the Bering Strait to the Beaufort Sea - on the auction block.
Absurd? No more absurd than the spectacle taking place right now as we skid closer to the fiscal cliff.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/world-business/the-solution-to-us-debt-sell-alaska-20121217-2bi2t.html#ixzz2FGjm16Ie
There may be someone who would trade a few wampum beads for Sarah Palin's Alaska and her dead lake.
DeleteAnonymous4:37 PM
DeleteAustralia sure knows how to have one sit up and take notice, 'eh?
How ALEC Thwarts Honest Debate About Gun Violence
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thenation.com/blog/171781/how-alec-thwarts-honest-debate-about-gun-violence
Social media users spreading false information about Sandy Hook massacre could face charges, say police
ReplyDeleteFollowing the killing spree at Sandy Hook Elementary School some social media users took to Twitter to spread false information about the shootings.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/people-spreading-misinformation-sandy-hook-massacre-face-charges-police-article-1.1221554#ixzz2FGkt8XqT
ReplyDeleteThe kids were still dressed in the clothes they had worn when they headed off to school that morning.
“They were wearing cute kid stuff,” the state’s chief medical examiner, Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, said. “They were first graders.”
Around 1 a.m., the children were transported to Carver’s main facility in Farmingdale. There, Carver was joined by four other doctors, 10 technicians, and a college student on the first day of an internship.
Carver did seven autopsies himself. He noted that each child had been shot multiple times with a high-powered rifle, suffering between 3 and 11 devastating wounds—the kind usually seen in war, but also the kind inflicted by a similar weapon in the movie-theater shooting in Aurora in July.
Only these victims were children: 12 girls and 8 boys, aged 6 and 7. One had just celebrated her 7th birthday on Tuesday. They all now share an obscenely early death day. The cause of death for each was officially recorded as gunshot wounds.
“I believe everybody was hit more than once,” Carver says.
None of the dead children had yet been seen by their parents; the officials were using photos for the identifications. Parents who wanted to see and touch their child—and that included almost all of them—would only be able to do so after a funeral director collected the body.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/16/in-newtown-20-little-angels-and-six-uncommonly-brave-adults.html
As experienced as these professionals might be, they are going to need counseling on this.
DeleteYou don't expect to be doing this sort of exam to 6 year old children.
Nothing prepares you for this.
President Obama Makes a Statement on the Shooting in Newtown, Connecticut
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIA0W69U2_Y
I am so proud that President Obama is in charge. He has such compassion and understanding and such a way with words.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
An amazing speech from an amazing man - the children will live forever in his thoughts and deeds.
DeleteNo wonder McCain was missing in action for Sunday's talk fest - he should hang his head in utter shame - & I thought Palin was the worst thing he ever did.
Fox is already saying that Obama is up to something. They say he is trying to do something himself about these shootings on his own without working with others. Fox just cannot say Obama's speech was great and fullfilling for the families, they have to make something devious out of it.
ReplyDeleteThey are going to do themselves in. The sooner they get Sarah Palin back on more the faster they will all go down.
DeleteNext someone will say Obama conspired with Lanza to shoot these children so he could take away everyone's guns.
DeleteThey are that crazy.
LOL I've been watching their heads explode!!!
Delete"Boom Boom, Pow!"
I've been waiting for this moment for far too long!!
“I’ll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens,” he said, “in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this. Because what choice do we have?” President Obama
"Warm up the Facebook machine, eat five pounds of sugar, down it with two quarts of strong coffee, and fire away, RAM!!!!!"
Baldy, of Wasilla
“Let the little children come to me, Jesus said, and do not hinder them,” Mr. Obama said. “For such belongs to the kingdom of Heaven.”
ReplyDeleteHe then slowly read the names of the children who were killed at the elementary school on Friday:
“Charlotte, Daniel, Olivia, Josephine, Ana, Dillon, Madeleine, Catharine, Chase, Jesse, James, Grace, Emilie, Jack, Noah, Caroline, Jessica, Benjamin, Avielle, Allison.”
“God has called them all home,” the president said. “For those of us who remain, let us find the strength to carry on.”
Mr. Obama often concludes his speeches by asking God to bless America. But he asked for God’s grace more deliberately — and somberly — tonight.
“May God bless and keep those we’ve lost in his heavenly place. May he grace those we still have with his holy comfort,” he said. “And may he bless and watch over this community and the United States of America.”
Mr. Obama said the nation is failing at what he called “our first task,” which he said was to care for the children of the nation.
“It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right,” he said, asking: “Can we truly say, as a nation, that we are meeting our obligations? Can we honestly say that we are doing enough to keep our children — all of them — safe from harm?”
Mr. Obama asked whether the nation is doing enough to give all children a chance at a good life with “happiness and with purpose.”
“If we are honest with ourselves, the answer is no,” he said. “We are not doing enough, and we will have to change.”
President Obama chided the nation for having not done enough to protect its children and said the country has to act to prevent such tragedies in the future.
“We can’t tolerate this any more,” he said. “These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.”
Mr. Obama said that he will use the power of his office to confront the spate of shooting that have claimed so many lives, many of them children.
He was not specific, but he made it clear that he will pursue change in the face of political opposition that has stopped new gun laws for years.
“I’ll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens,” he said, “in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this. Because what choice do we have?”
“Are we really prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage? That the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited upon our children year after year is simply the price of our freedom?”
Mr. Obama said that he was inspired by the scenes of the aftermath in Newtown, citing especially the children who survived.
“One child even trying to encourage a grown up by saying, I know karate. It’s O.K. I’ll lead the way out.”
He added: “As a community, you have inspired us, Newtown. In the face of indescribable violence, in the face of unconscionable evil.”
The president said that Newtown will be remembered by the love that people saw after the shooting.
“With time, and God’s grace, that love will see you through,” he said.
“I come to offer the love and prayers of a nation,” Mr. Obama said toward the end of a prayer vigil in the town’s high school.
Mr. Obama said he was “mindful that mere words cannot match the depths of your sorrow.”
But he pledged that the nation would offer whatever support they can in the days ahead, as the town tried to move on without those they lost.
“We gather here in memory of 20 beautiful children and six remarkable adults,” Mr. Obama said. “They lost their lives in a school that could have been any school in a quiet town of good and decent people that could have been any town in America.”
But he added: “Newtown, you are not alone.”
And he added, “We have wept with you.”
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/sunday-coverage-of-newtown-school-shooting/?emc=na
That was a moving service. The president's words were gut wrenching. For a moment I felt good he represents the nation.
ReplyDeletePres. Obama, Father-in-Chief, child whisperer
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photo taken by one of the Newtown families--family of Emilie Parker.
https://twitter.com/WestWingReport/status/280496153856995329/photo/1
Game Changer! He spoke from the heart, as one parent to another.
ReplyDeleteHe just finished his speech. I couldn't believe how powerful this speech was and I can't believe he "went there", but he did! Without using the term "Gun Control".
But most of all, he showed true compassion, reverence and respect. I lost it as he voiced the name of each child.
This was one for the history books!
President Obama is the right man in the right place at the right time. He makes me so proud. He is compassionate and humble. He personifies a true Christian.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing the love shared in his family - the kids still holding hands with Mom and Dad for instance.
President Obama is the right man in the right place at the right time. I am so glad he is leading us through these very trying times.
ReplyDeleteHis compassion and kindness reflect his true Christianity. He walks the talk.
I am glad enough smart people in our country recognized his unique qualities and ensured that his leadership would continue for another four years.
let’s keep them safe from harm
ReplyDeletehttp://theobamadiary.com/2012/12/16/lets-keep-them-safe-from-harm/
We are most fortunate to have such a strong graceful man at the helm.
DeleteSomehow, it was when I just read that little Noah, lost, has left a twin sister, Arielle....I just lost it.
ReplyDeleteEverything my liberal heart has endured as this country has been swept by what I discern as dark, stupid, hateful, greedy, fear-mongering, Christianist, gun-toting ass-hats...as exemplified and encouraged by Ms Palin and her ilk...it's just so hard to not get angry and hateful...all those babies...the grandmothers...oh, gosh...the mothers of the mothers....this is a very dark day.
Aurora
My heart is BROKEN and I just can't understand WHY except for a lowly coward that chose to take innocent babies with him to live in a twisted infamy.
ReplyDeleteMental illness is real. I know, I have a son....and I applaud our President for his compassion and words.
President Obama Speaks Interfaith Vigil for Sandy Hook
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=M1gSsm5xlKQ#!
Update 5: Thought you might like to know that the politician who receives the most in donations from the NRA is none other than John McCain.
ReplyDeleteWe need another reason to detest that scum.
To John McCain and the NRA
ReplyDeletehttp://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/christmas-card-nra
When he read the children's names, it was too much for me, I lost it. Imagining each and every household, family, extended family, friend, organization, club, group...that will be without those beautiful little ones.
ReplyDeleteMy heart is breaking for ANYONE who has been touched by gun violence...whose lives have been torn apart by gun related deaths...who've lost a child, a father, a mother, a sister, a brother, a grandchild, a friend.
Hearing those names, spoken with such grace and dignity and honor by President Obama touched me to my core.
I thank the voters of this country for recognizing the good man that he is and allowing him to continue to do the good things he does.
But most of all I am thankful to Mr. & Mrs. Obama for bringing this extraordinary man into life, into living and his mother and grandparents for shaping the strong and compassionate, honest and deeply loving, center of his being. He is one of the Light.
Eloquently stated and so very true! I shudder to imagine Mi - sorry, I can't even type the name.
DeleteSo did I as I have a six year old named Benjamin. My heart was already hurting and heavy with grief for those parents, but hearing my son's name come out of the President's mouth -- I completely lost it.
DeleteFinally a politician who cries for the right reasons,our President is a man of honor.
ReplyDeleteI just wish cry baby Boehner would take note....
Maybe we should not only discuss gun regulation, but also how we deal with mental health issues. It is a very complex discussion, but it is time so that we never have to lose so many precious souls again...
ReplyDeleteOur wonderful President Obama looks absolutely worn by all of this (and the other things he is having to deal with on the national and worldwide levels).
ReplyDeleteAnd, then we have the friggin assholes like McCain and Boehner that are increasing their political funds because of this incidence? What jerks to even accept the funds. The two of them are going to end up in hell and for me it won't be soon enough.
We so need to be rid of the Republicans that are currently serving in the U.S. Congress. They are the reason we have all these problems on the national, state and local levels.
Life used to be simple. But now it's like we are going back in time now. Russia was a communist country and had all control of everyone , looks like that's happening with the United States we have no control of what we do with our children we get punish for the things they do cause we can not desipline them so why have kids if someone else can tell u how to raise ur child , trying to take our guns and really don't have the right to speak . You figure it out
ReplyDelete