Remember this?
April 15, 2009, Foxnews.com…
The government considers you a terrorist threat if you oppose abortion, own a gun or are a returning war veteran.
That's what House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said Wednesday in response to a Department of Homeland Security report warning of the rise of right-wing extremist groups.
Smith, who said the report on "right-wing extremism" amounts to "political profiling," said that DHS is "using people's political views to assess an individual's susceptibility to terror recruitment." He joins a growing chorus of protest from irate conservative groups that are protesting the report's findings.
And now this from yesterday….
With one bullet, a gunman ended the life and the controversial career of abortion doctor George Tiller, killing him as he stood in the foyer of his church Sunday.
For years, abortion foes tried to put Dr. George Tiller out of business. One of the few American physicians who performed late-term abortions, he was targeted by violent extremists as well as principled opponents.
In 1986, his clinic was bombed. In 1991, it was blockaded for six weeks. In 1993, he was shot in both arms. In March, Kansas prosecutors tried him on charges of breaking an abortion law; he was acquitted. In May, vandals cut wires to security cameras and made holes in the roof of Tiller's clinic, Women's Health Care Services, a fortified single-story building where abortion foes keep daily vigil. Link
The domestic terrorist alleged to have executed Dr. George Tiller yesterday, Scott Roeder, has this background….
Police also obtained a photo of the suspect, who had a prior conviction for criminal use of explosives, which was overturned on appeal, according to court records
Roeder appears to be a full fledged member of the American Taliban. The same American Taliban that wantonly killed and maimed other Americans on American soil the last time we had a Democratic president.
The bitter savagery and hatred of the far right extremists over abortion….
Warren Hern, a Colorado physician and close friend of Tiller who said he was now "the only doctor in the world" who performed very late-term abortions, said Tiller's death was predictable.
"I think it's the inevitable consequence of more than 35 years of constant antiabortion terrorism, harassment and violence," he said. "I get messages from these people saying, 'Don't bother wearing a bulletproof vest, we're going for a head shot.' "
……Eventually, his clinic evolved from family practice to abortions. At his trial, Tiller testified that over the years he and his wife had taken into their home about 10 "young girls . . . so they could have a safe place to continue their pregnancies." He also said that his patients were sometimes followed to their hotels and that members of his staff were picketed at their homes.
Under George W. Bush, these extremists only got two of the three radical Supreme Court Justices appointed that they needed to take away a woman's right to her own reproductive choices. The last two elections have left Republicans swirling down the drain and the extremist right knows that ending Roe at the level of the Supremes…is now unlikely anytime soon. Lawlessness and violence is what these American jihadists resort to when they can't get their way through the political process.
These are the people Napalitano's Homeland Security report warned us against….and the far right howled over how they were being singled out in some kind of political witchhunt.
Now a good man, one of three remaining late-term abortion doctors in the country, has been executed by a member of the American Taliban.
I've blogged extensively on the role the conservative movement and it's corporate media partners have been playing in stirring up domestic acts of violence.
GOP Media Has Blood On Their Hands, Propaganda Fueled Crime In Pittsburgh, Glenn Beck's "War Room" Inciting Violence,
In A Grave And Gathering Storm, I asked these questions….
" is it possible that the thuggish speech and printed word of our nation's fringe dead-enders on the right could actually be fomenting violence? Is this something we should be concerned about, especially in light of a Democratically led government?"
Also read Professor Huhn's blog on this topic today.
More here about Roeder and Operation Rescue.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
This Dr. Tiller sounds like he was truly a force in the baby killing industry. You're on the right track here, Reverend–maybe we can use his tragic death to stifle free speech.
Once again we are allowing words to divide us. Hate speech vs. free speech. I am sure that in the near future the courts will rule that what the founders really meant was CORRECT speech. Who could argue against correct speech? Better yet we can adopt Mao's "Let a hundred flowers bloom".
Do you agree that the Supremes made the right decision when supporting censorship of two specific words of profanity? In effect, limiting free speech.
And don't we agree that free speech rights don't include shouting "fire" in a crowded theater, if there is no fire?
Then, what about the violent, hate-fomentation language being used by the extreme right? Is that guaranteed free speech….or incitement to violence?
Or, as long as the right people are being killed, does it even matter?
He was a modern day Adolph Eichman running his own late term abortion clinic creating his own legal holocaust. He is responsible for the murder of thousands of babies that if removed from the mothers womb at the time of the abortion could thrive and live. I don't agree with what the murderer did, I feel however that karma got the best of the doctor. When you do something as wrong and heinous for a living as he did, something evil is bound to happen to you. He was lower than a drug dealer or a child rapist. It doesn't matter if it is legal or not, there are powers beyond us that cleanse the earth of garbage like him.
I like how you call him a good man Rev. I see why they say liberalism is a disease. Libs are always for the wrong side of good. Taliban good, America bad. Attacking and killing americans in their own city good, America protecting it's citizens against further terror attacks bad. and so on and so on.
What worries me is why was he an elder at a church? What church was it?
Reverand,
Tiller's killer used a gun, not "thuggish speech". Can you be more specific on the speech you would ban?
Doesn't get more specific than this…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677#31053883
average…we couldn't disagree more. Tiller attended a Lutheran church.
average you are so wrong — thrive and live ?? — there are approximately 1000 late term abortions preformed per year in the US and they are performed for heartbreaking reasons.
Go to http://www.aheartbreakingchoice.com and read about the reasons if you dare to learn.
I see you are willing to abort all those "vegetables" in that nursing home you volunteer at however.
Mary – Are you actually trying to tell me that all of the children that are victims of late term abortions are children that are going to be disabled? You are wrong. Nice try though. If they were done for that reason I would consider that. But read this site….
http://www.nrlc.org/ABORTION/pba/pbafact9.html
Are these folks automatic liars because they are for the human right to life? Most late term abortions are performed on babies that, if allowed to be born would live and thrive.
You know, I actually agree with some abortions if the fetus hasn't fully developed or if it is missing certain parts of the body like the essential organs. Or will be born severely retarded. Or will be still born.I feel this is humane. Because if they were another animal in the wild that animal would die.
I didn't say to abort these elderly people. I am for the right to die with dignity. These are people that are lying there in agony being kept alive with a peg tube, who can't talk, eat, communicate or anything else and have no hope of getting better. THey are eaten with cancer and lost in 3rd stage alzheimers. They are frozen with MS and Huntingtons and Parkinsons. They sit there and quiver. Do you think they really want to be kept alive like that? All this pain for the selfishness of the family and the profitability of the doctors and the nursing homes. Is there a difference between what Tiller did and what Kovorkian wants to do?
Rev, that is my opinion. He is a child murderer. He kills them after most of the body except the head is out of the body. 3 more inches and it is murder. I don't agree with what happenend to this man. No one has the right to kill someone, but you get from life what you give. Also, he is not a domestic terrorist. I love how the left labels these people. Would you consider the loony left groups to be terrorist groups? Like PETA or SIERRA?
Thanks for the link to Olberman, Reverand. I am disappointed, but not surprised, that you adopt his fascist goals. Life and politics would be so much more orderly if we could just banish the thoughts and speech of those with whom we disagree. This is the position of Keith Olberman, at least in the link you so conviently supplied in response to my last post. Olberman stated that his goal in attacking Fox News as being complicit in the death of Tiller was to get "O'Reilly off the air".
The evidence he cited to support his position that Fox News "incited" the killer to murder Tiller was that Tiller was aborted late-term unborn babies. Is this not true?
You have made your position clear Reverand. You are in favor of banning the free speech rights of those who criticize positions which you advocate. Apparently, this applies even when the criticism is factually true.
What O'Reilly was doing was inciting violence….and he was successful.
O'Reilly didn't try to contextualize Tiller's legal work. O'Reilly didn't tell his audiences about the rape and incest victim 10 and 11 year olds that Tiller mercifully helped. O'Reilly never brought up the hundreds or heartbreaking reasons late term abortions are requested.
Instead, O'Reilly continued to call the doctor "Tiller the baby killer". If we had an FCC that worked, O'Reilly would be off the air.
I am in favor of monitoring hate and subversive speech on American "news" programs….you know, like the NSA monitors all Americans' electronic communications.
Do you really believe that inciting violence should be protected speech?
It seems the Reverend's definition of inciteful hate speech is entirely subjective, and excludes…the Reverend. The Rev himself engages in this very type of speech. He called for Bush and Cheney to be hanged, calls them Nazis, calls them war criminals, etc, etc, etc. All very hate inspiring. He's even doing it in this post, and consistently demonizes Republicans by engaging in all sorts of negative name-calling and hate-filled assertions.
The hate speech hardly all comes from the right, and some of it isn't hate speech at all, such as this observation I will make right now – late term abortion is murder. That isn't hate, it's medical fact. Aborting 6-8 month old fetuses that are viable babies cannot be objectively categorized as anything other than murder.
Were I a psychologist, Reverand, I would diagnose your condition as one of projection. The King is correct. Hate speech drips form virtually all of your posts. Do you really believe that your fascist behavior advances your goals?
Quid…I don't have any goals to advance. I know America is in decline, and barring a miracle, will self-degrade into an ugly third world country. This blog is simply a way for me to express my anger at the nonsense.
And here's a question for you….do you think Rush's "fascist behavior" all these years has advanced his goals?
And tell me…what should be the response of an average American nobody, like me, to the pre-meditated murders of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi human beings and 4300 of our own American soldiers?
King…late term abortion, King, is….legal….in the U.S. The way to change that, is to win elections….something conservatives are having some difficulty with.
The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines "fascism" as "a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition". Rush Limbaugh may irritate leftists and be somewhat "over the top" in the articulation of his beliefs. But Fascist he is not.
You, on the other hand, have advocated government control of large sections of the economy, including health care, and the suppression of free speech of those with whom you disagree. The adjective "fascist" applies to you, Reverand, not Rush.
Rev,
Legal doesn't make it right. Slavery was legal once too.
So, I take it you are in favor of aborting 8 month old fetuses ???
Quid has a very shallow comprehension of the word "fascism."
Conservatives make it sound like women are recklessly and flippantly aborting their babies for sake of convenience. That reflects blatant ignorance. Dr. Tiller's patients each had a tragic story and all wanted to carry their baby to term….but because of horrible circumstances, were forced to make heartbreaking decisions.
Don't allow your ideological cloaks to hide the truth.
However "shallow" my comprehension of fascism, Reverand, you are lost in its depths. Likewise, you have no way of knowing either the life story of each of Tiller's patients or how individual conservatives think of abortion.
And please Reverand stop trying "to hide the truth" about abortion. I have no doubt that many women who seek abortion have tragic stories. That does not change the fact that abortion is the intentional destruction of a human life.
Potential human life.