Online ramblings from US shooting suspect
Tucson: The young man accused of shooting a US congresswoman posted angry but barely coherent opinions on the internet revealing strong views about currency, literacy and the government.
Police said Jared Lee Loughner, a 22-year-old resident of the Arizona city of Tucson, was wrestled to the ground after Saturday's shooting at a grocery store that killed six and seriously wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords.
In a posting hours before on the social networking site MySpace, Loughner wrote, 'Goodbye,' and said to friends: "Please don't be mad at me."
Loughner earlier wrote a series of thoughts on MySpace and the video swapping site YouTube in which he railed against the government and fellow constituents of Gifford in Arizona's eighth congressional district.
His statements often took the form of logic exercises, posing an idea and then offering a conclusion. He frequently spoke of creating a new currency.
"You're not distributing your new currency lethally to people. Thus, you're distributing your new currency non-lethally to people," he wrote on YouTube.
In another posting, he wrote: "The majority of people who reside in District 8 are illiterate - hilarious. I don't control your English grammar structure, but you control your English grammar structure."
He said that his favorite activity is 'conscience dreaming' and declared: "My ambition is for informing conscience dreamers about a new currency. In a few days, you know I'm conscience dreaming!"
The US Army said that Loughner applied to serve but was rejected. Citing privacy reasons, an Army spokesman declined to elaborate.
His writings were full of anger directed at local Pima Community College, denouncing the instructors and students and criticizing it over its currency.
The Arizona Republic newspaper, quoting a school administrator, said that Loughner attended the community college from 2005 until late last year when he was suspended and was told he needed a mental health clearance showing he did not pose a threat to others.
Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said that Loughner had 'a troubled past,' but said that police were not convinced he acted alone.
"There's some reason to believe that he came to this location with another individual," Dupnik told reporters.
Giffords had faced threats before, as had veteran federal judge John Roll, who was among the six others killed.
Giffords, a centrist member of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party, along with a more liberal Arizona Democratic congressman, Raul Grijalva, both had their offices vandalized after supporting an overhaul of health care.
Dupnik criticized the 'vitriol' against Giffords and Roll, particularly ahead of the November 2 election in which the congresswoman narrowly defeated a favorite of the arch-conservative Tea Party movement.
Politicians across the political spectrum denounced the assassination bid on Giffords, with the House of Representatives' new Republican leadership suspending all proceedings next week.
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