Exclusive: Loughner Friend Explains Alleged Gunman's Grudge Against Giffords  —  In a MoJo interview, the friend shares a message sent hours before the massacre.  —  Post Comment  —  At 2:00 a.m. on Saturday—about eight hours before he allegedly killed six people and wounded 14 …

The progressive “climate of hate:” An illustrated primer, 2000-2010  —  The Tucson massacre ghouls who are now trying to criminalize conservatism have forced our hand.  —  They need to be reminded.  You need to be reminded.  —  Confront them.  Don't be cowed into silence.

Rubio: Not open to VP nod  —  Sen. Marco Rubio said this morning he is not open to the possibility of being a presidential running mate.  —  “The state of the Republican Party hasn't been that good, so maybe we do need you as a VP candidate,” Panama City radio host Burnie Thompson told him in an interview.

Ashley Turton, ex-Congressional aide, found dead in burning car  —  A veteran Congressional aide who worked most recently as a lobbyist and was married to White House legislative affairs senior official was found dead in her car Monday behind the couple's Capitol Hill home following a low-speed car crash and subsequent fire.

Official: DHS has not determined any possible ties between Arizona shooter and right wing group  —  For the last 24 hours, the Web has been alive with speculation that the Arizona shooter has some sort of ties to a right-wing group called American Renaissance.

Within GOP, Huckabee Most Liked, Palin Best Known  —  Palin, Romney, and Gingrich trail Huckabee on Gallup's net favorable dimension  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has the highest net favorable score among Republicans nationwide in a field of potential GOP candidates for 2012 …

Dick Winters, of ‘Band of Brothers’ fame, dies  —  Dick Winters, the former World War II commander whose war story was told in the book and miniseries “Band of Brothers,” has died.  —  Dick Winters led a quiet life on his Fredericksburg farm and in his Hershey home until the book and miniseries …

Government-created climate of fear  —  One of the more eye-opening events for me of 2010 occurred in March, when I first wrote about WikiLeaks and the war the Pentagon was waging on it (as evidenced by its classified 2008 report branding the website an enemy and planning how to destroy it).

United in Horror  —  When John F. Kennedy visited Dallas in November of 1963, Texas was awash in right-wing anger — over perceived cold-war betrayals, over desegregation, over the perfidies of liberalism in general.  Adlai Stevenson, then ambassador to the U.N., had been spit on during his visit to the city earlier that fall.