Bishop Thomas Tobin, the fellow who decided that abortion-tolerant Catholics like Rep. Patrick Kennedy should be denied the right to partake of Communion ceremonies, went on The O'Reilly Factor last night to try to answer his critics.

In the process, all he did was make it look like the anti-Catholic bigots of yore were right after all.

Tobin's arguments were not exactly convincing. When O'Reilly asked Tobin why it's OK to deny Communion to politicians who are pro-choice but not to Catholics who are pro-death-penalty, Tobin answered with a flimsy argument that amounted to nothing more than theological lawyering, evading the core issue that both are core matters of Catholic beliefs pertaining to "defending the values of life."

And when O'Reilly pointed out that, for people like Kennedy and Sen. John Kerry, it's a matter of democratic principle to separate their personal religious beliefs about abortion from the conduct of their policy, Tobin replied that opposing abortion rights is a matter of "defending your faith."

What people like Tobin refuse to acknowledge is that their belief that abortion is murder, based on the belief that life begins at conception, is fundamentally a religious belief that is not shared by many other Americans, especially those who take a more strictly biological view of the process.

So in denying any American the right to an abortion, anti-abortion politicians are fundamentally shoving their religious beliefs down the throats of everyone else. That's not "defending your faith", it's forcing it upon everyone else. Which is what that whole First Amendment thing about church and state was bout.

Wiser politicians, like Kennedy and Kerry and many others, recognize that this is fundamentally an anti-democratic, anti-First Amendment, and anti-American, way of doing things.

Guys like Tobin? They just make living caricatures of themselves -- people who are the living incarnation of the "Papists" who it was at one time imagined were trying to take over the country so that America would be run by fiat from the Vatican.

Back when anti-Catholic bigotry was much more common in America, it was one of their articles of faith that Catholic politicians were always going to be forced to do the bidding of the Vatican, and to have ultimate loyalty not to the Constitution but to the Church and its edicts.

The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s, for instance, was particularly and viciously anti-Catholic. Its magazines and books -- including Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty and The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy -- were largely anti-Catholic tracts warning of the dire consequences of "Papist" influence on the political system.

This anti-Catholicism spread into other areas as well, including education. The Klan's anti-Catholic propaganda campaign led to the formation of groups targeting private and parochial schools on anti-Catholic grounds, including the National League for the Protection of American Institutions, which fomented to "protect" the public schools from Catholic ideology.

Remember Al Smith?

Smith was the first Catholic to win a major-party presidential nomination.... Smith’s Catholic beliefs played a key role in his loss of the Election of 1928. Many feared that he would answer to the pope and not the constitution. The people also criticized him for being a drunkard because of the stereotypes placed on Irish Catholics of the day.

The belief that Catholics would be forced to heel to the demands of the Vatican -- that they would essentially be puppets of the Church -- was finally blunted by John F. Kennedy in 1960:

A key factor that hurt John F. Kennedy in his 1960 campaign for the presidency of the United States was the widespread prejudice against his Roman Catholic religion; some Protestants believed that, if he were elected President, Kennedy would have to take orders from the Pope in Rome. To address fears that his Roman Catholicism would impact his decision-making, John F. Kennedy famously told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12, 1960, "I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters — and the Church does not speak for me." He promised to respect the separation of church and state and not to allow Catholic officials to dictate public policy to him. Kennedy also raised the question of whether one-quarter of Americans were relegated to second-class citizenship just because they were Roman Catholic. Even so, it was widely believed after the election that Kennedy lost some heavily Protestant states because of his Catholicism.

Kennedy went on to win the national popular vote over Richard Nixon by just one tenth of one percentage point (0.1%) - the closest popular-vote margin of the 20th century. In the electoral college, Kennedy's victory was larger, as he took 303 electoral votes to Nixon's 219 (269 were needed to win). The New York Times, summarizing the discussion late in November, spoke of a “narrow consensus” among the experts that Kennedy had won more than he lost as a result of his Catholicism, as Northern Catholics flocked to Kennedy because of attacks on his religion.

Now, ironically, the Church itself is turning on another Kennedy and acting as though it expects total political obeisance to Vatican edicts -- in other words, making the anti-Papist bigots look as though they are right.

Fortunately, that younger Kennedy is around to continue to prove them wrong.

Mike Stark has been a regular member in the liberal blogosphere for a long time and has been on the Hill with his Flip camcorder getting pols on tape to answer questions that the media somehow never seems to get around to asking.

Digby, Howie and myself have joined with CREDO and are trying to generate some cash for him. I know it's tight out there. Advertising has been down for all of us and I may have to do another fundraiser soon for C&L, but if you can please sign Credo's petition that will send a coat hanger to every member of the pro-choice party that voted yes to the ugly Stupak amendment and a dollar to Mike. Blue America is collecting the money from CREDO and we decided to give it to Mike.

Here's Mike to explain:

And you aren't the only folks noticing this work. Blue America (Howie Klein, Digby, John Amato) and Credo Action/Working Assets have also been keeping an eye on my efforts. They realize that this work cannot continue without support (I have a family to feed, student loans and rent to pay, etc. etc.), and they know a movement cannot succeed without mutual support. With that in mind, they've teamed up to raise some money for me.

Credo Action/Working Assets has a petition set up. For every signature on the petition, they'll be delivering a coat-hanger to Representatives that voted for the ridiculously regressive ant-choice Stupak Amendment. In addition, for every signature, up to 5,000, they'll donate $1 to StarkReports. Right now they are at about 1800 signatures.

If you appreciate hard-hitting and tenacious reporting... If you like seeing powerful people asked tough questions... If you want a media that works for you... I can use your help. Please sign the petition (it costs you nothing but your time). Watch my videos. Visit (and bookmark) StarkReports.com. If you've got some extra cash, drop it in the donation box on the right-side nav bar...

In the meantime, I'll be asking more tough questions this week. I've got some doozies stored away; this is sure to be a productive week.

Blue America is teaming up with Working Assets, the folks behind CREDO Mobile and CREDO Action in a project we think you'll like. We're urging you to sign a petition to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid regarding the 20 formerly pro-choice men who voted for the virulently anti-choice Stupak Amendment last Saturday. Working Assets will send one of them a coat hanger for each signature. Here's the text:

We know what happens when women are denied access to reproductive health care including abortion. And we can't go back to an era of coat hangers and back alley abortions. Reconsider your vote on the Stupak Amendment. Tell House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that the final health care bill that emerges from the conference committee can't turn the clock back on women's rights.

Working Assets will also donate $1 to Blue America for each signature we gather (up to $5000) towards a fellowship to support a blogger. We got to choose who to support and we can’t think of anything more deserving than the incredible work of Mike Stark. So, please, sign the petition here.

Cross-posted at Down With Tyranny.

Pat Toomey, the Club for Growth hero has been running to become the Senator from Pennsylvania for a while now and has had Arlen Specter in his cross hairs. James Dobson and the religious right squad have been trying to defeat Specter because they aim to control the Supreme Court and overturn Roe v Wade. Since the republican party has turned into teabaggers, Specter has no shot at winning the republican primary in 2010 so he left that party. Toomey is as an extreme right wing fanatic as they come. Check out his beliefs.

Matthews questions him on some of those beliefs, but Chris already knows them quite well. And why does he have to interrupt him so often? It's so annoying.

Matthews: Are you on the political right?

Toomey: I'm in the center right.

Matthews: Center, well let's ask you about a couple of issues. What do you think about outlawing abortion? Arlen Specter is pro choice, where are you on that one?

Toomey: I'm pro life.

Matthews: Would you like to outlaw abortion?

Toomey: Yea, I'm pro life. I think ahhh...

Matthews: Would you outlaw abortion, would you put people in jail for performing...?

Toomey: I think that Roe v Wade was wrongly defined, wrongly decided and I think states should be free to restrict abortion and I would support legislation in Pennsylvania that would ban abortion and I would suggest that we have penalties for doctors who perform them if we were able to pass that law.

Matthews: Would you put people in jail for perfoming abortions?

Toomey: At some point doctor's performing abortions, I think would be subject to that sort of penalty.

Pat Toomey is trying to make believe that he's a different kind of conservative--pro-birther by saying he endorses Sonia Sotomayor. A leopard still has spots, I think. Here's his op-ed from Philly.com:

If I were a U.S. senator, I would vote for her confirmation, because objective qualifications should matter more than ideology in the judicial confirmation process.

In determining whether a nominee is within the judicial mainstream, we should ask how he or she views the Constitution and whether he or she will administer justice impartially. Too many American judges are making up their own versions of the law rather than faithfully interpreting legal texts. Lawmaking must be reserved for the elected, politically accountable legislative and executive branches. In general, though, Sotomayor's record does not show judicial activism...read on.

That's very kind of him. But he also just loves the deregulation of the financial system so there's that. I'm sure some on the right will not like this column, but will forgive him anyway because he's their big hope in Pennsylvania. However, his views are such that he's unelectable.

This is a speech by Tim Ryan back in 2005. It was pretty powerful and I had some dealings with him after this because he spoke up against the war and highlighted the insane amounts of money we were pouring into it. Billions of dollars a month. That was then and this is now.

I'm sure most of us have been amazed at how disingenuous pro-life groups are when it comes to contraception. They scream "life" is sacred, but then try to prevent all ways that are available to our society when it comes to pregnancy prevention. We've seen insane protests against the Plan B pill which would actually prevent unwanted pregnancies. What many pro-lifers really want to do is control the sex lives of every American. I know it's hard to picture, it creeps me out just thinking about it, but the James Dobsons and Richard Lands of the religious right just want to decide when and how people can have sex.

There's a Democratic group devoted to the pro-life movement that's called Democrats For Life of America and Rep. Tim Ryan learned why they are so full of shit and can never be taken seriously.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) has been, in his words, "booted" from the national advisory board of Democrats For Life of America. The group's mission is to elect and support pro-life Democrats; Ryan served on the board for four years but the relationship had recently soured when he co-sponsored the "Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act":

Ryan said he tried to convince officials with Democrats For Life of America, which he referred to Monday as a "fringe group," that the use of contraception is needed as part of any plan to reduce unintended pregnancies but that failed.

Kristen Day, Democrats For Life's executive director, was ready to move on. "DFLA gave Congressman Ryan ample opportunities to prove he's committed to protecting life, but he has turned his back on the community at every turn."

Ryan insists he's still a strong pro-life advocate. The proposed bill includes funding for comprehensive "teen pregnancy prevention" sex education and expanded coverage of "family planning" for low-income women. "We're working in Congress with groups that agree with preventative options while [the DFLA] is getting left behind," Ryan said. "I can't figure out for the life of me how to stop pregnancies without contraception. Don't be mad at me for wanting to solve the problem."

Say goodbye, Mr. Ryan. No sex for you.
Digby linked to this article in the NY Times from 2006 and it spells out their views on contraception. We must never forget what they really believe.

Many Christians who are active in the evolving anti-birth-control arena state frankly that what links their efforts is a religious commitment to altering the moral landscape of the country. In particular, and not to put too fine a point on it, they want to change the way Americans have sex. Dr. Stanford, the F.D.A. adviser on reproductive-health drugs, proclaimed himself "fully committed to promoting an understanding of human sexuality and procreation radically at odds with the prevailing views and practices of our contemporary culture." Focus on the Family posts a kind of contraceptive warning label on its Web site: "Modern contraceptive inventions have given many an exaggerated sense of safety and prompted more people than ever before to move sexual expression outside the marriage boundary." Contraception, by this logic, encourages sexual promiscuity, sexual deviance (like homosexuality) and a preoccupation with sex that is unhealthful even within marriage.

This is why the "common ground" movement is such crap. The social conservatives don't care about "life" they care about sex. In fact, they are the ones who are obsessed with it. And until they can establish social and legal sanctions against other people having unapproved sex, they will not stop. That is what moves them.

Tim Ryan says that he can't think of a way to stop unwanted pregnancies without contraception. But that's because he knows that human have sex regardless of whether it's sanctioned by some busy bodies down at the corner mega-church. These social conservatives do not accept that. They think that sex must be controlled and that they should be the ones to control it. Perhaps they think they need this in order to control themselves.

I'll never forget that freak of nature Bill Frist, who embarrassed himself on THIS WEEK when he didn't know how HIV was transmitted and that condoms fail 15% of the time. He's a man who backed the phony abstinence programs that was being taught to our kids. then he self diagnosed Terri Schiavo from a video tape. He embodies the "social conservative" sex movement. Yuck.

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.

Continue reading »

Scott Roeder issued a warming. More violence is on the way. I think it's time that the entire pro-choice movement, including groups like Planned Parenthood, NOW and NARAL, vow never to appear on The Bill O'Reilly show again. His vile treatment of Dr. Tiller along with his staunch opposition to a woman's right to make her own reproductive choices should make it clear that you will never get a fair shake from him.

I love the Washington Post article last week by Mary Alice Carr called: Why I Turned Down O'Reilly:

The first time I appeared on "The O'Reilly Factor," in 2004, I sat across from Bill O'Reilly in awkward silence while he shuffled papers and took notes.

Finally, he glanced up and acknowledged my existence. "Thank you for coming on," he said. "Most people don't have the guts." I said, "Well, you are one of the most-watched new shows on cable." He swiftly retorted, "The most-watched news show on cable TV." Let's face it: Bill O'Reilly is not only aware of his power and his reach, he's damn proud of them.

So I went on his show, time and again, even though many other progressives discouraged me. I went because I know what O'Reilly knows: It's the most-watched show, and I thought it was imperative that his audience also hear our viewpoint. I also know that when you have a bully pulpit, you need to be held accountable for what you preach.

O'Reilly is being incredibly disingenuous when he claims that he bears no responsibility for others' actions in the killing of Dr. George Tiller on Sunday. When you tell an audience of millions over and over again that someone is an executioner, you cannot feign surprise when someone executes that person.

You cannot claim to hold no responsibility for what other people do when you call for people to besiege Tiller's clinic, as O'Reilly did in January 2008. And this was after Tiller had been shot in both arms and after his clinic had been bombed.

O'Reilly knew that people wanted Tiller dead, and he knew full well that many of those people were avid viewers of his show. Still, he fanned the flames. Every time I appeared on his show, I received vitriolic and hate-filled e-mails. And if I received those messages directly, I can only imagine what type of feedback O'Reilly receives. He knows that his words incite violence.

That is why I made a personal pledge to no longer sit across from him after he called for people to converge on Tiller's clinic. I realized that appearing on the show with him would only legitimize his speech and that no good would come of my efforts.

So on Tuesday morning, when an O'Reilly producer called and asked me to come on the show to "discuss the reasons why women have late-term abortions," I held fast to my pledge. I told his producer what I thought: that I had had that conversation on air with O'Reilly five years earlier and that he agreed with me at the time that the decision was between a woman and her doctor. That O'Reilly then went on to pretend we had never talked about it and continued condemning women and doctors. That the nation and those of us in the pro-choice community are reeling from the murder of a doctor who helped women. That we hold O'Reilly responsible for helping to create a climate in which hate was allowed to fester. That I refused to dignify his irresponsible behavior, not to mention his deplorable reaction to Tiller's shooting.

---

But then I realized I just couldn't. Because if the murder of a man in a house of worship wasn't enough to make Bill O'Reilly repent, what hope did I have?

The writer is vice president of communications for NARAL Pro-Choice New York.

Good for Mary for finally realizing that Bill O'Reilly uses people in the pro-choice arena to further his agenda. He's very good at what he does and by nature is against the pro-choice movement, so the efforts to appear there to get your point across are completely wasted. He has little respect for any of the pro-choice groups, so why help his show? Why appear on The Factor? How does it serve the movement? And Bill O'Reilly's behavior towards Dr. Tiller was unconscionable.

I'm asking Cecile Richard, who is the head of PPFA, Nancy Keenan of NARAL, and Marcia Pappas of NOW to help get the word out. If Bill O'Reilly is unwilling to admit that the vitriol he spews as well as many from the anti-choice movement at the expense of women has a profound negative effect, then he shouldn't get the benefit of their presence. He does not deserve what he does not respect.

Please join me and contact every pro-choice group you know and ask that they boycott Bill O'Reilly to show support for woman's rights all across the world. It's time to take action because as Scott Roeder just proclaimed, more violence is on the way against a woman's right to choose what she does with her body.

The man who assassinated Dr. George Tiller says that more violence awaits pro-choice clinics. That's an ominous threat coming from the right wing religious fanatic that has acted out on violent views. We should be very, very afraid...

Huff Post:

The man charged with murdering a high-profile abortion doctor claimed from his jail cell Sunday that similar violence was planned around the nation for as long as the procedure remained legal, a threat that comes days after a federal investigation launched into his possible accomplices.

A Justice Department spokesman said the threat was being taken seriously and additional protection had been ordered for abortion clinics last week. But a leader of the anti-abortion movement derided the accused shooter as "a fruit and a lunatic."

Scott Roeder called The Associated Press from the Sedgwick County jail, where he's being held on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the shooting of Dr. George Tiller one week ago.

"I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal," Roeder said. When asked by the AP what he meant and if he was referring to another shooting, he refused to elaborate further.

Poor Roeder says he's cold in jail. I wish Dr. Tiller had the chance to feel anything, but since President Obama was elected, the violence that is coming out of the fringe far right is real and scary. Watch out, people.

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.

[H/t Scarce]

Sean Hannity interviewed Rush Limbaugh again on his show last night, and as you might expect, it featured the usual endless stream of insane right-wing crap. Now there's a big surprise.

Limbaugh repeated the point he made yesterday on the radio -- that perhaps Sonia Sotomayor, being Catholic and all, might secretly be anti-abortion. In which case, he'd probably be fine with her nomination to the Supreme Court:

Limbaugh: If -- now I'm speaking for me personally -- If I've learned, if I can be assured, that she is actually a pro-life person, and does think that Roe vs. Wade is bad constitutional law, and if she would rule on the right side of the life issue, I might look past this racism -- we can deal with that. But that's something very, very important to me, and she could be stealth in that regard. And I know that -- well, there's no record. Normally most liberals, they love to tell you how pro-choice they are on abortion -- she doesn't have any of that.

Now remember: The entire reason all of these right-wingers say they have been opposed to Sotomayor is that (given the way they've managed to deliberately distort her "wise Latina" remarks) she might be predisposed to favor identity politics with a feminist and Latino bias. Or as Newt the Phony put it, "Sotomayor’s words reveal a betrayal of a fundamental principle of the American system -- that everyone is equal before the law."

That means pretending that a judge's experiences and backgrounds and predispositions are never supposed to come into play when they make rulings, as though the law is some kind of abstract entity whose purity must be defended. It's an outgrowth of the "strict constructionist" philosophy, which likes to pretend that there can only be one perfectly literal interpretation of the law.

But that of course goes flying out the window when these same right-wingers contemplate the possibility that Sotomayor might harbor a secret bias about abortion that actually skews in their favor. Then they're all good with it -- supposedly.

Limbaugh doesn't mean a word of it, of course. We get the real reason that Limbaugh is saying this: He just wants liberals to start fretting and stewing and raising questions about Sotomayor's positions, driving a wedge into the heart of her support. Pretty clever ruse, Rushie boy. Too bad most of us long ago learned how to see right through your crooked lies.

Just like when you claim that "no one has denied" that Sotomayor is a racist. Um, yeah, right.

Bill O'Reilly led off his show by trying to denounce left wingers like all of us for blaming him for Dr. Tiller's death. He says he knew he would be the target because we hate him and FOX. How did you know we would call you out on Dr. Tiller? Maybe because of all your whacked out rants against him? What he said was true and that's that. He read off statistics from the Moonie Times and had on two Kansas law dudes (Khris Kobach, a law professor at Missouri and Brian Russell, teacher at Kansas) to help defend his cause. Usually, Bill has on an opposing--if somewhat ineffectual--view in his panel, but not this time. He couldn't risk his older audience getting hit with any of the truths surrounding BillO's outrageous behavior towards Dr. Tiller. He called him "The Baby Killer," again, the term he said originated with pro-life groups, but it's a name he used frequently against Dr. Tiller.

O'Reilly: When I heard about Tiller's murder, I knew pro-abortion zealots and FOX News haters would attempt to blame us for the crime and that is exactly what happened.

Later, Brian Russell disagreed with President Obama and said this:

Russell: Ideologically-driven killers rarely are influenced by anything other than their ideology. Obama got this wrong a few days ago when said that people become terrorists because they hear what's going on with Gitmo. No, they don't. They become terrorists because of ideology and just like this guy (Tiller's killer) almost certainly and exclusively because of ideology shot Tiller. These people who are saying that this drivel to you are as far off on their side of the issue as this shooter is on his.

Professor Russell thinks that since we point out O'Reilly's vitriol we're as bad as a freaking murderer. I called Russell on the phone and we had a heated exchange. I identified myself as a liberal blogger and he said he had to go in 5 minutes. I'll blog more about this later, but I told him that I was troubled by his last statement. A man who kills somebody does not have the equivalent ideology that I do on the left. That's insane. He tried to say that Bill O'Reilly had no influence on the killer and actually he took it a step further and said that no killer could ever be influenced by what he heard. I brought up the case of Jim David Adkisson and told him that Adkisson purchased Bernard Goldberg's book and listened to Bill O'Reilly and that was proof that these right wingers do influence people. He didn't believe me. I told him that I wanted BillO and his kind to take some responsibility for what they say and he disagreed. He kept saying he was an expert and I kept saying that his expertise didn't make him correct. He wouldn't admit that his last statement was meant as a blanket to cover Bill O'Reilly's vitriolic behavior with a defense and to also smear us by the hoisting on the values of a killer.

BillO targeted Kos and Huffington as usual. Hate is hate, Bill, and what we've argued for is not a silencing of your views, but to take ownership and responsibility for the hateful rhetoric that you and your right wing extremist buddies use that trigger violence in America against people with whom you disagree.

Later on, Bill's chief FOX News apologist, Juan Williams, came on to lick his boots and defend him even though he's pro-choice. Juan said he knew the left would use it against him and said that Bill O'Reilly never, never called for violence towards Dr. Tiller.

Here's Bill on the radio wishing he could kill Dr. Tiller.

OK. So, I'm the fascist, I'm the bad guy, I'm the problem. Not Tiller. No, he -- no, no, no. He's a good guy. Now, Tiller's pumping all kinds of money into obviously the attorney general race. He wants the guy that's gonna let him off the hook to win. Those of you listening in Kansas, you ought to know that. You know, I don't -- I'm not gonna tell you who to vote for. You guys know these guys better than I do, but I tell you what, anything Tiller wants, I'm voting the other way. And if I could get my hands on Tiller -- well, you know. Can't be vigilantes. Can't do that. It's just a figure of speech.

Contessa Brewer of MSNBC laid out the argument to Cathy Ruse, an FRC spokesman, who condemned the assassination---that if the police were looking for a mass murderer, which is how Dr. Tiller had been portrayed by the anti-choice movement, they would take him out with deadly force. So their arguments against Dr. Tiller were absurd. She got a little flustered and let something slip out that she probably wish she hadn't.

Brewer: Look at the logic of it. If we knew that a mass murderer was running around, our law enforcement would do everything in their power to stop them and in that moment if a life was going to be taken, they would take that mass murderer out. So it would be a life, so if you believe or if someone believes that an abortion doctor is a mass murderer, I don't know if logic is on your side there.

Ruse: This man who killed Doctor Killer, ahhh Doctor Tiller, excuse me, was apparently part of a movement, an anti-government movement who believe that they are not held within the law...

OK, a slip of the tongue, maybe...but then she cited facts that were not true.

Ruse: Interestingly, all the abortions that were done at 22 weeks and beyond by Tiller and others had been done for non emergency reasons so....

How does Ruse know this? Does the FRC know the medical history of every case that Dr. Tiller and others worked on? And at no time did Ruse ever mention the health of the mother. It's like a mother doesn't even exist in their thoughts. And when you call people mass murderers long enough, violence is sure to follow. It's what David Neiwert has been writing about for a long time and his book (The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right) highlights. The violent rhetoric of the far right has great influence to lead people down a violent path.

The hate is already pouring in from the right after it was learned that Dr. Tiller was murdered today. Check out this comment from Red State. I'm not blaming Erick for writing this, but it points out the true feelings of many anti-choice zealots.

There's a suspect in custody now.

Tiller was serving as an usher at the church, one of six ushers listed in the church bulletin. He was handing out bulletins to people going into the sanctuary minutes before being shot.

A church member who did not want to be identified said the gunman threatened another person at the church after the shooting.

Tiller's family issued a statement through Wichita attorneys Dan Monnat and Lee Thompson. "Today we mourn the loss of our husband, father and grandfather. Today's event is an unspeakable tragedy for all of us and for George's friends and patients.

"This is particularly heart wrenching because George was shot down in his house of worship, a place of peace."

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Wow, we know how much the extreme right hates this man and now Dr. Tiller has been killed:

WICHITA, Kansas - Media reports say that abortion provider Dr. George Tiller has been shot and killed at his Wichita church. Tiller has been among the few U.S. physicians performing late-term abortion. His clinic has repeatedly been the site of protests for about two decades. He was acquitted in March of misdemeanor charges stemming from procedures he performed, but moments after the verdict the state’s medical board announced it was investigating allegations against him that are nearly identical to those the jury had rejected.
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Tiller has been a favored target of anti-abortion protesters, and he testified that he and his family have suffered years of harassment and threats. His clinic was the site of the 1991 “Summer of Mercy” protests marked by mass demonstrations and arrests. His clinic was bombed in 1985, and an abortion opponent shot him in both arms in 1993.

There's not enough information in about this yet, but BillO. certainly has made him a huge target.

Here's More:

Wichita television station KAKE-TV reported that police were looking for a blue Ford Taurus with a K-State vanity plate, license number 225 BAB. Police described him as a white male in his 50s or 60s, 6 feet 1 inch tall, 220 pounds, wearing a white shirt and dark pants.

UPDATE: Scarce just posted about this on Video Cafe too.