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"My tears are flowing and I am stunned and angered that Gabby Giffords was savagely gunned down while performing her congressional duties." So said Minnesota Republican Representative Michele Bachmann in response to Saturday's mass killing in Tucson. But less than a year ago, Bachmann called for resistance to cap and trade legislation, "I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue," adding, "Thomas Jefferson told us, having a revolution every now and then is a good thing."

Sadly, when it comes to the casual incitement to violence, Michele Bachmann has plenty of company among the leading lights of the Republican Party and the conservative movement. While the motivation (and mental health) of the alleged Tucson mass killer Jared Lee Loughner remains unclear, his bloodbath served to once again highlight the most dangerous development in American politics:

Whether concerning guns, abortion, gay Americans, immigration or judicial appointments, the line connecting the now commonplace rhetoric of the Republican Party to right-wing terror is a very short one.

Increasingly, the conservative movement finds its strongest support at the dark nexus inhabited by gun rights advocates, religious zealots, white supremacists, anti-immigrant xenophobes, pro-life activists and anti-government crusaders.

The Growing Right-Wing Body Count

In October, Fox and Friends host Brian Kilmeade declared, "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims." Of course, Timothy McVeigh, the killer of 168 Americans in the worst act of domestic terrorism prior to 9/11 was no jihadist, but an anti-government extremist and militia member. And his heirs have a growing body count of their own.

That includes men and McVeigh worshippers like Bruce and Joshua Turnidge. The father and son team of right-wing terrorists killed two policemen and wounded two others in their botched December 2008 bombing of a Woodburn, Oregon bank. Convicted and sentenced to death last month, their trial revealed that the Wells Fargo explosion in the days just after the election of Barack Obama allegedly had a much more sinister motivation than mere cash:

Bruce and Joshua Turnidge had long harbored anti-government feelings, but the November 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama served as a "catalyst" for the father and son to plant a bomb at the West Coast Bank and plan a bank robbery, prosecutors said today.

The two men feared that the Obama administration would impose a slate of new restrictions on gun ownership, Marion County deputy district attorney Katie Suver said in opening statements in the aggravated murder trials for the two men. Bruce Turnidge, years ago during the Clinton administration, had similarly anticipated a crackdown on Second Amendment rights and sought funding to start his own militia, she said.

In July, Byron Williams planned an attack on the offices of the Tides Foundation, a group which Glenn Beck described as "bullies" and "thugs." Williams' hoped-for bloodbath was averted only by a shoot-out with police in which two officers were wounded. Williams claimed he wanted to "start a revolution" and explained, "I would have never started watching Fox News if it wasn't for the fact that Beck was on there. And it was the things that he did, it was the things he exposed that blew my mind."

And in just the months since Barack Obama's inauguration, the Turnidges have been accompanied by fellow travelers, though not while making the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Another father and son act, Jerry and Joe Kane, featured supposed sovereign citizens who killed two cops in West Memphis in May. Holocaust Museum killer James Von Bruun declared, "Obama does what his Jew owners tell him to do." Richard Poplawski, who murdered three Pittsburgh policemen in April 2009 was said to have feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon." And aspiring Maine dirty bomber James Trafton "had filled out an application to join the National Socialist Movement and declared an ambition to kill the President-elect."

And these decidedly non-Muslim terrorists fly planes into buildings, too. Take the case of Joseph Stack, who piloted his small craft into an Austin IRS office, killing himself and an agency employee. Stack's radical anti-tax rhetoric may have been shocking ("Well Mr. Big Brother IRS Man, let's try something different, take my pound of flesh and sleep well"), but little different from Republican leaders in the 1990's who charged "The IRS is out of control!" and decried its " Gestapo-like tactics."

Then there's Scott Roeder. The assassin of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller made no secret of his political aims, which did not include the establishment of a global Islamic caliphate. Roeder was inspired by Shelley Shannon, who in the 1990's torched abortion clinics across Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, and California. (In 1993, she shot Dr. George Tiller in both arms in a failed assassination attempt.) And as the New York Times recounted in 1995, Shannon was quite clear as to whether she considered her crimes terrorism:

Handcuffed and nondescript in jailhouse blues, Shelley Shannon, a housewife from rural Oregon, stood before a Federal judge here on June 7 and admitted waging a terrorism campaign against abortion clinics and doctors.

Judicial Intimidation

In December, right-wing radio shock jock and past Sean Hannity regular Hal Turner was sentenced to 33 months in jail for his on-air threats against federal judges in Chicago. But when Turner posted information about the judges online and declared, "Let me be the first to say this plainly: these Judges deserve to be killed," he differed only in degree and not kind from some of the biggest names in the Republican Party.

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Credit: New York Times

During his 2004 campaign, Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn declared, "I favor the death penalty for abortionists." Four years later, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin famously refused to condemn an abortion clinic bomber as a "terrorist." Last week, a GOP mayoral candidate in Jacksonville joked that bombing an abortion clinic "may cross my mind." Now, deadly serious Republican lawmakers in Nebraska and Iowa are pushing legislation that would in essence legalize the murder of abortion providers.

Less than two years after the assassination of Dr. George Tiller and less than two weeks after South Dakota Republicans shelved a similar bill, Nebraska state Senator Mark Christensen has introduced an even more onerous version in LB 232. As Mother Jones explained:

Unlike its South Dakota counterpart, which would have allowed only a pregnant woman, her husband, her parents, or her children to commit "justifiable homicide" in defense of her fetus, the Nebraska bill would apply to any third party.

"In short, this bill authorizes and protects vigilantes, and that's something that's unprecedented in our society," Melissa Grant of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland told the Nebraska legislature's judiciary committee on Wednesday. Specifically, she warned, it could be used to target Planned Parenthood's patients and personnel. Also testifying in opposition to the bill was David Baker, the deputy chief executive officer of the Omaha police department, who said, "We share the same fears...that this could be used to incite violence against abortion providers."

Meanwhile in Iowa, two new measures backed by House Republicans could together enable "the justifiable use of force against abortion or family planning providers." In violation of the Supreme Court's Roe v Wade ruling, House File 153 would ban abortion by mandating the state must protect "life" from the moment of conception. House File 7 would provide civil and criminal immunity for citizens using "reasonable force, including deadly force, to protect themselves or a third party from serious injury or death or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony." Together, the Iowa Independent explained, the two bills could enable the very kind of necessity defense for anti-abortion terrorists a Kansas judge rejected for Tiller murderer Scott Roeder:

If passed into law, the two bills -- House File 7 and House File 153 -- would offer an unprecedented defense opportunity to individuals who stand accused of killing such providers, according to a former prosecutor and law professor at the University of Kansas, and are something that might have very well led to a different outcome in the Kansas trial of the man who shot Dr. George Tiller in a church foyer.

If terrorism is defined as "as the deliberate murder of civilians or destruction of property in order to achieve a political objective," the wave of attacks on American abortion providers certainly qualifies. After the 2003 capture of Atlanta Olympic Park and Birmingham family planning clinic bomber Eric Rudolph, then Attorney General John Ashcroft agreed, announcing "this sends a clear message that we will never cease in our efforts to hunt down all terrorists, foreign or domestic, and stop them from harming the innocent."

Shelley Shannon, one of the nation's most notorious anti-abortion extremists, agreed with Ashcroft.

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We've discussed so-called "sovereign citizens" -- those newly revivified remnants of the militia/Patriot movement of the 1990s who believe you can declare yourself free of the federal government by filing a bunch of pseudo-legal documents saying so -- quite a bit here, particularly the threat of extreme violence they represent, embodied most recently in the case of Jerry and Joe Kane, the traveling Patriot-scam salesmen who gunned down two police officers in Arkansas.

But it's kinda strange: Even though these cases would attract huge amounts of media attention had they been committed by, say, someone of the Muslim persuasion (you know there would be nonstop coverage on Fox), scarcely anyone has paid attention to these violent crimes, at least in the media.

And there's an important thread here: Not only were Jerry and Joe Kane "sovereign citizens," so were Scott Roeder, the assassin of George Tiller, and James Von Brunn, the Holocaust Museum shooter.

So I was keenly interested when WSB-TV in Atlanta reported on a "sovereign citizen" in Georgia who has been apparently playing with the same Patriot scam that Jerry and Joe Kane were selling: moving into foreclosed homes and claiming them as your own.

If you watch the video, and the others Kane left behind, you'll see that the scheme he was selling entailed creating "strawman" companies that would enable a "sovereign citizen" to then claim ownership, by virtue of their sovereignty (often defined in divine terms), of whatever properties they set their sights upon. As one account noted:

Seminars of this type usually teach that each person has a real self and a “corporate self” that is a fabrication of the government, and that banks cannot legitimately lend money that belongs to their depositors.

“It’s mumbo jumbo; it’s magic words; it’s abracadabra,” Ms. MacNab said.

We're seeing, as I mentioned, this scam showing up in places like Seattle and Montana and California, too.

But what's remarkable about this "sovereign citizen" is that he's African-American. This is at first remarkable because "sovereign citizenship" is typically a product of racist-right organizations that preach racial separation -- 99 percent of the sovereign citizens in America are white.

But there are in fact some black-supremacist organizations such as the Black Nuwaubians who similarly truck in these kinds of conspiracy theories (which, like the white supremacists', ultimately blame Jews for all their ills). And all you have to do is listen to this fellow ramble on for a little while to realize that he's very much of this vein.

Now, if anything will get the attention of mainstream media -- and particularly the folks at Fox (Megyn Kelly, I'm looking at you) -- it's a black man indulging in this kind of rhetoric and behavior.

One can only imagine the horrified faces of the Fox anchors as they describe how this fellow has been moving into foreclosed homes and claiming they're all his! Why, hasn't he heard about white people's work ethic?

And you know the names of any of the white extremists who created and sold this Bizarro World belief system will never cross their lips.

I'm not sure which is redlining higher, my irony or my outrage meter:

The man who killed Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller has filed a petition complaining that his rights have been violated and asking to be released from custody.

Scott Roeder, 52, of Kansas City, criticized the judge, the jail, prosecutors and his lawyers in a habeas corpus petition filed in Sedgwick County, Kan. A hearing is scheduled for June 4. Such a petition requires a judge to determine whether a person has been imprisoned lawfully and whether he should be freed.

Roeder was convicted of first-degree murder in January and sentenced April 1 to life in prison with no chance of parole for 50 years. That case is under appeal.

In the 24-page petition, Roeder said the judge’s imposition of a $20 million bond “along with a suggestion that I might enact ‘more’ violence if I make bond demonstrates heightened disregard for the presumption of my innocence.” He also said that after his arrest, the judge “made a public spectacle of me, forcing me to appear on television without the assistance of counsel or court clothes.”

Roeder complained that the names and addresses of his visitors and correspondents had been made public by the jail “and that some of these have been subjected to questioning by the police power as a consequence.”

Roeder said prosecutors had “made libelous allegations against me.” For example, he said, Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston told the judge that a reasonable person would believe that he had engaged in “alleged acts of American terrorism.”

Roeder argued that he should be released because his attorneys “disparaged me in public behind my back” and deprived him of a fair trial. Roeder also complained that he wasn’t allowed to use a necessity defense, arguing that killing Tiller was justified because he was saving the lives of unborn babies.

I'm sure that Dr. Tiller would like to have not had his civil rights violated too. And not liking being called a "domestic terrorist"? All I can tell you is if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

LA Times:

In a trial that never became the referendum on abortion that some abortion foes wanted, Scott Roeder, a 51-year-old airport shuttle driver, was convicted today of murdering George Tiller, one the nation's few physicians who performed late-term abortions.

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for only 37 minutes. Roeder faces life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder.

Roeder also was convicted on two counts of aggravated assault for threatening to shoot church ushers Keith Martin and Gary Hoepner as he fled Reformation Lutheran Church after murdering Tiller.

Roeder tried to claim that the murder was justifiable homicide, as he was protecting the "unborn." That, of course, ignores the very real medical reasons why a woman may be forced to terminate a late term pregnancy.

In his testimony, Roeder acknowledged that he did not believe an abortion was warranted even when the life of the woman was at risk. That's the same kind of fanaticism that led him to walk into a church and shoot a man in the head.

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Violent rhetoric and the stalking of abortion clinics and the people who work there has gone way up since Dr. Tiller was murdered and people are getting very, very afraid. And the right wing zealots are actually wishing to buy Dr. Tiller's clinic to use as a rallying cry, I kid you not. These people have no shame.

Maddow: Mr. Troy Newman told “The Associated Press,” quote, “I would love to make an offer on that abortion clinic and some of the discussion that we are having.”

So, the official reaction of the super right-wing fringe to the assassination in its name, of its cause, is to make George Tiller‘s place of business a triumphant symbol for themselves, a symbol of their victory over the murdered doctor.

On Saturday, at the day George Tiller was buried, a man with ties to the radical anti-abortion group, the Army of God, threatened a voluntary escort at an abortion clinic in Allentown, Pennsylvania. This is according to a worker at the clinic.

This is a great segment by Maddow so I'll let her fill you in. I do believe law enforcement will step up to the plate, but please if you are being threatened--make sure the authorities know what's going on. And nothing is too small or too insignificant to report. Don't feel like you're "seeing things," if you feel threatened report it.

Transcript vi The Rachel Maddow Show:

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You should all (BLEEP) dies, (BLEEP) bomb that place, (BLEEP) (INAUDIBLE) (BLEEP) kill you.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MADDOW: That‘s the sound of domestic terrorism, a voicemail left on a Texas abortion clinic‘s voicemail last month. Given the events today in Washington, D.C., and in Wichita, Kansas, at Dr. George Tiller‘s church two Sundays ago, it is, of course, bone chilling. Its aim is to intimidate the doctors and nurses and clinic workers and the people who are legally seeking medical services amid strident, sometimes lethal, sometimes merely ghoulish intimidation.

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[UPDATE: Stephen Tyrone Johns, the guard who was shot, died later of the wounds.]

We're learning more and more about the man who walked into the Holocaust Museum in D.C. this morning and opened fire on a guard.

First, more personal details from MSNBC:

Law enforcement officials identified the suspect as James Wenneker von Brunn, 88, from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, NBC News reported. NBC said he may have had connections to hate groups or anti-government groups.

... Von Brunn is believed to have had contact with law enforcement in the past, according to NBC. A D.C. Superior Court jury convicted a man by the same name in 1983 of attempting to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board.

The case involved a 1981 incident in which police arrested Von Brunn at the board's headquarters carrying several weapons. He was convicted and later released from federal prison in 1989, records show.

What this tells us, of course, is that he was "sovereign citizen" -- just like Dr. George Tiller's assassin. If he was attempting a "citizen's arrest" of Alan Greenspan as far back as 1981, that almost certainly means he was an adherent of Posse Comitatus ideology, and very likely Christian Identity as well.

VonBrunn had a Website (now unavailable) where he promoted his online book, "Kill the Best Gentiles". Here's a screen grab:

Here's how he described his 1981 arrest:

In 1981 von Brunn attempted to place the treasonous Federal Reserve Board of Governors under legal, non-violent, citizens arrest. He was tried in a Washington, D.C. Superior Court; convicted by a Negro jury, Jew/Negro attorneys, and sentenced to prison for eleven years by a Jew judge. A Jew/Negro/White Court of Appeals denied his appeal. He served 6.5 years in federal prison. He is now an artist and author and lives on Maryland's Eastern Shore."

I contemplated putting up the first six chapters of his book so people could see how far gone this guy is, but it's too vile. Here's a sample of his short work:

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Newshoggers: Obama's insistence on sheltering the toxic fallout survivors of Bush's criminal policies has already poisoned his presidency for me

TAPPED: WTF? In the wake of George Tiller's assassination, Obama has appointed Alexia Kelley, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG), to head the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Health and Human Services. Kelley has made it clear that she seeks to reduce access to abortion. 

Corrente: Robert Reich on how Olympia Snowe's "trigger" will kill the public option

Emptywheel: All the News the NYT does not see fit to print

Mugsy’s Rap Sheet: We don't always agree with the president, but we haven't accused him of treason. Sign the petition to censure Senator Inhofe for his dishonest and destructive attacks on Obama

WEB TV News: Tired of the same old TV propaganda? You can get some of the rest of the world's here (hat tip CW)

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Well, you had to figure this was coming:

The Justice Department on Friday opened an investigation into the killing of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller to see whether the accused gunman had accomplices.

The department will investigate possible federal crimes in connection with Dr. Tiller's slaying at his church on Sunday in Wichita. State prosecutors have already ruled out seeking the death penalty against the accused gunman, but federal prosecutors did not rule out doing so as they announced their own investigation.

"The Department of Justice will work tirelessly to determine the full involvement of any and all actors in this horrible crime," said Loretta King, head of the department's civil rights division.

Anyone who played a role in the killing, she said, will be prosecuted "to the full extent of federal law."

The sound of sphincters clenching from people like Randall Terry and Cheryl Sullenger could be heard for miles and miles.

You can read the text of the DOJ release here.

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KCTV5 exposed Phil Kline for being a typical conservative crook in a the above video clip, and C&L had a hand in exposing it to the media in KS.

Logan Murphy wrote this back on 11/28/07:

Kansas City CBS affiliate KCTV5 conducted a 6 month investigation of Phil Kline, the religious zealot and rabid anti-abortion District Attorney of Johnson County, Kansas that has now caught fire on blogs nationwide, earning C&L a nod for our coverage. The investigation uncovered some dirty secrets about Kline's true residency and his apparent lack of work ethics -- and now he's running for cover...read on

cjonline:

Thousands of Kansans opened their mailboxes Thursday to find a solicitation letter from former Attorney General Phill Kline that invokes physician George Tiller and Planned Parenthood while seeking contributions for a campaign against abortion rights.

The five-page mailing from Kline was placed into circulation by an Ohio company May 27, a spokesman for Kline said, which would have been four days before Tiller was shot and killed at a church in Wichita.

“There was no way to foresee what was going to happen,” said spokesman Brian Burgess. “I think it’s fair to say the timing is unfortunate.”

Kline, who filed criminal charges against Tiller while serving as attorney general, targeted the solicitation at former political supporters. He is trying to eliminate $200,000 in personal legal debt that piled up during the past six years. The letter also says cash was needed by Life Issues Institute, an anti-abortion organization in Cincinnati affiliated with Kline, to “launch more aggressive battles on the national front.”

“I need your support,” Kline says in the piece. “Your contributions will help us continue this fight and defray our legal expenses.”

---

Monnat said Kline’s pursuit of Tiller wasted millions of dollars in public resources. It would be improper for the public to pay an additional price for Kline’s failed campaign against the late doctor, he said.

“Phill Kline now wants to con taxpayers into paying him the attorney fees generated by the investigation of his bamboozlement,” Monnat said. “This solicitation is a tasteless piece of propaganda that ought to make Kansas citizens glad the voters of Johnson County ridded this state of Phill Kline.”

He's the lowest of the low, and that's not only coming from me. The people of Johnson County booted him out on his head as he lost his re-election bid. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Like Randall Terry, Kline is looking for the anti-choice movement to bail him out. He's another component of the assassination equation here as well.