United States Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat from Arizona, was shot in the head Saturday morning while hosting her first Congress On The Corner in Tucson. She remains in critical condition with a traumatic brain injury caused by a bullet that traversed the left side of her brain from back to front.

People died and others were wounded exercising a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States for which others have died establishing and protecting that document.

I hope Gabby’s story does not get lost in political rhetoric. She has a long, long, long rehabilitation period facing both her and her family…the results of which cannot be known at this time.

You will notice at the end of this article that friends of Uncle Brice include some brain injury sites. I encourage you to visit those sites and better acquaint yourselves with Gabby’s future. (continued below)

Pundits and Palin

There are many who have already ramped up the political rhetoric about gun control and hateful speech and Internet postings. Was Sarah Palin wrong to post a map targeting Democratic districts as potential Republican takeovers in the last election? No. Was she wrong in using gun sights on her map? Yes.

Is it wrong for elected officials and political pundits to call for second amendment remedies and for people to carry guns to political rallies? Certainly. The First Amendment guarantee of free speech and a free press does not guarantee that the speech be responsible. Common sense is not so common anymore.

President Barack Obama spoke Wednesday night at a memorial service held at the University of Arizona. He said, "But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized – at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do – it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds."

He summed up a need in America when talking about nine-year old victim Christina Taylor Green. "I want us to live up to her expectations. I want her democracy to be as good as she imagined it… We should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations."

This story is not about Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz or any others who have chosen to politicize it. This story is about America. Will we remain divided according to selfish political policies, or will we come together to promote the common welfare of our nation?

This is a developing story. For now, we can only hold up the families of this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

"We want to keep what works in the private industry and make it better," Senator Blanche Lincoln said in a conference call on June 18, 2009. Lincoln is a member of the Senate Finance Committee chaired by Senator Max Baucus (see article Single Payer Health Insurance for America).

Senator Lincoln continues to support the Republican party by opposing the will of the American people who overwhelmingly favor a public option for America’s health care system.

"One of our biggest concerns is that it doesn’t need to be a government plan that usurps that ability to compete in the marketplace, which I’m concerned that a totally government-run option would do," she said. Lincoln prefers private insurance cooperatives who, out of the goodness of their hearts, would cut costs for the American people.

She was right about one thing. "We can’t sustain spending the amount of money we do on health care right now."

Ed Schultz of MSNBC is a big supporter of a Single Payer Public Option, and so are many of his blog supporters. Mary Farber of Illinois said, "We all need to keep the pressure on the 10 senators who are in bed with the insurance companies. Here are the 10 Democrats that are reluctant to embrace the public plan option:

Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC), Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND),
Senator Max Baucus (D-MT)

They make me sick. Without people like Big Eddie S. we would have zero chance. President Obama better not cave in. We all need to get involved and take to the streets—whatever it takes, do not let that gang of 40 keep us from public insurance option. The bottom line, we want true health care reform." (Source: Ed Says Blog)

More About Senator Blanche Lincoln

Sen. Blanche Lincoln Co-sponsors SHOP

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas Republican?!

Blue America’s new Campaign For Health Care Choice: Targeting Blanche Lincoln on the Public Option: "We are going to target Blanche Lincoln first with TV ads, with the help of Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films, and expose her actions to her constituents in Arkansas. This will be the first play because she is up for re-election in 2010 and has already received the second most money from the HIC of any Senator."

Monopoly Money: "Our good friend Senator Blanche Lincoln thinks it’s very dangerous for the insurance companies to have to compete with a public plan option: ‘One of our biggest concerns is that it doesn’t need to be a government plan that usurps that ability to compete in the marketplace, which I’m concerned that a totally government-run option would do,’ she said."

For more information about her political contributions, you can visit the Federal Election Commission Blanche Lincoln Page.

Politics has changed. But, it ain’t changed enough just yet! That’s why I call on all you feller bloggers to form a Blogitics consortium. Don’t get too worried about that big word – it just means we’re gonna do some consorting and such.

I been readin about a feller named David Perlmuter. He wrote a book called Blogwars and does some consorting on his own talking to folks about what he calls Online Social-Interactive Media (OSIM). (Note: don’t go looking for him at blogwars.com cause you’re gonna find an adult site that’ll make your eyeballs sweat.)

Anyhow, Mr. David said, "I have been traveling, giving speeches about blogging and other online social-interactive media (OSIM) and Campaign 2008. Either in person or in tele-video or Webchat connections, I have spoken to groups in Germany, the Netherlands, the Philippines, and Afghanistan. In the United States, my audiences have varied widely, from high school teachers to the New England Journal of Medicine. All have asked questions about accuracy and responsibility in our new world of media."

Everybody is asking questions about the accuracy and responsibility of this new world media, meaning us bloggers. And I’m wondering why that has become an issue all of a sudden. Are bloggers less accurate and responsible than "regular" media? Let’s see, we got Fox News on one side and MSNBC on the other. We got The Weekly Standard, National Review, American Spectator, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Sean Hannity, Ed Schultz, Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, Laura Ingraham and Rachel Maddow. Is this the standard of accuracy and responsibility he’s talking about?

Now, I ain’t pickin a fight with any of those folks. I like some of ‘em and watch ‘em on the TV set every day. But…if Mr. Limbaugh says it’s black Mr. Olbermann will say it’s white. If the whole world says waterboarding is torture but Mr. Hannity says it’s not, who is the most accurate and responsible? I visited Laura Ingraham’s blog and there was a great big headline, "Obama Family Tree Extends to Germany." What would you think that meant? Well, let me tell you what it really is. Mr. Obama had an uncle who fought in World War II and went to Germany to help liberate one of the concentration camps. Yeah, let’s talk responsibility.

Let’s take a short walk back in time to Rathergate. Y’all remember that, don’t you? Old Dan Rather jumped right up on 60 Minutes and challenged President George Bush’s military service records. I mean, right there on the TV set he was showing documents that proved Dubya was lying. Bloggers to the rescue! The Online Social-Interactive Media, as Mr. David likes to call ‘em, jumped higher than ol Dan had jumped…and proved his documents to be fake. CBS apologized and so forth. Would CBS be the standard of accuracy and responsibility Mr. David is talking about?

The American Truth Squad

Whilst I like to think that Uncle Brice’s Blog is probably the most entertaining thing outside the TV set, there are some other blogs that I like. Here are a few:

Ed Schultz: Insurance Companies Are At The Table, Why Not Single … – Ed Schultz asks why Max Baucus is ignoring the majority of Americans who want single-payer healthcare.

Ed Schultz To Be MSNBC 6 PM Host – UPDATE 8:55 PM The #1 story on Countdown was Keith Olbermann introducing Ed Schultz as the new host of “The Ed Show” on MNSBC weeknights at 6PM ET.

Cafferty File – Jack Cafferty on CNN tells it like it is.

Remember, you can find all of Uncle Brice’s stuff listed on the Uncle Brice Sitemap. You can also add your email address to that eNews and Updates box in the upper right column and the good folks over at Feedburner will send you an email each time this blog gets updated.