Lower the flag in America to half-mast - This is senseless; it will set the tone of the political debate for the next several months.

Jim Galloway, in a way sort of live, writes in the ajc's Political Insider:

“I do think it’s really important as a society that we take the edge off our positions,” said [my good friend and our District's Representative Jack] Kingston over an aide’s cell phone.

[Arizon Rep. Gabrielle] Giffords, his House colleague, hovered between life and death – the first member of Congress felled by a bullet since Leo Ryan was gunned down in Guyana in 1978 by followers of Jim Jones.

“She’s one of the most popular and delightful members of Congress,” Kingston said. “Her husband’s an astronaut – so she’s got that celebrity flair.”

Because she was not at either end of the political spectrum, her shooting puzzled him, Kingston said. “She would be the last person you’d figure as a target for anyone.”

Giffords was one of 20 Democrats on a graphic posted by Sarah Palin’s political action committee last spring, each marked for elimination with the crosshairs of a gun sight. On Saturday, the website offered condolences to Giffords, her family, and the other victims.

UPDATED from The New York Times:

Ms. Giffords was also among a group of Democratic House candidates featured on the Web site of Sarah Palin’s political action committee with cross hairs over their districts, a fact that disturbed Ms. Giffords at the time.

“We’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list,” Ms. Giffords said last March. “But the thing is the way that she has it depicted has the cross hairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they’ve got to realize there’s consequences to that.”