Mississippi Clinic Needs Our Help - Perhaps a Donation in Our (not) Favorite Politician's Name?

This morning, I received the following from Ellie Smeal of the Feminist Majority Foundation. Once again, a minority of Americans have decided that they get to decide how the rest of us live. Regardless of how you or I personally feel about abortion, the majority of American's still believe that it is a decision best left up to a woman and her doctor. Extremists would have you believe that wanting to allow women that choice automatically means you support that choice, conflating an extremely complex issue into a black and white, either/or question that is typical of the ignorance of the radical fringe of the extremist right.

The lives of doctors and clinic employees at Jackson Women's Health Organization in Jackson, Mississippi, are being threatened. This is the only abortion provider in the entire state of Mississippi. Extremists are trying to shut down this vital women's clinic. This clinic and its doctors need our help now.

One year ago Dr. George Tiller was brutally murdered. His killer, Scott Roeder, has been sentenced to life in prison, but the extremists have not been deterred.

The leading anti-abortion extremist in Jackson is an advocate of Justifiable Homicide - or the belief that justifies the murder of doctors who perform abortions. The clinic and its doctors have been repeatedly threatened.

The clinic needs immediate help to pursue legal strategies and to enhance its security system.

Our National Clinic Access Project legal coordinator has just traveled to Jackson to assist the clinic. She met with clinic staff and community pro-choice supporters to discuss ways to improve security, to assess legal needs and to devise new ways for the local community to support this critically needed health facility. We are determined to do everything we can to keep Jackson Women's Health Organization open and its patients, doctors and staff safe.

Help the doctors, health care workers, and patients of Jackson Women's Health Organization today by making an emergency, tax-deductible contribution. Half your contribution will go directly to the clinic to help pay for enhanced security measures.

The other half of your emergency contribution will help support our National Clinic Access Project's work to keep this clinic and other besieged clinics across the country safe and open. The demand for our work is dramatically increasing.

As I write this, we are working with Dr. Carhart and his clinic in Nebraska. Dr. Carhart, who had worked with Dr. Tiller, and his clinic were immediately targeted by Wichita-based Operation Rescue after the murder of Dr. Tiller. This group had harrassed Dr. Tiller for seven years.

And we are also working very closely with Family Reproductive Health in Charlotte, NC under siege by Operation Save America/Operation Rescue. Recently, anti-abortion extremists published the photographs of and information about the clinic's doctors in a WANTED poster. Similar posters appeared before the brutal murders of two doctors in Pensacola, Florida.

Without doctors and clinic to provide safe, legal abortions and access to birth control, there can be no choice for women. Please make an emergency contribution today to help Jackson Women's Health Organization and our National Clinic Access Project.

Together we are making a difference.

If you are able to contribute, please do so here.

Just as a belief that war is wrong or that our presence in Iraq or Afghanistan means you are against the troops--that for almost all of us could not be more wrong--the GOPhers and others on the right continue to narrow the issues into sound bites and buzz words that trigger an emotional response. Once that emotional response is triggered, room for rational thought is lessened and the individual is easily manipulated in the direction that is desired. Politicians, marketing firms, and "commentators" are very aware of how easily this is done. The attack on our freedoms is well-coordinated and well-orchestrated. Witness the immediate response to Rand Paul's interview with Rachel Maddow and the immediate attacks on Rachel, not on the incoherent response to her questions. Issues are not addressed, rather the individual raising the issue becomes the issue in Tea Party land.

As an aside, during the 2008 campaign, many individuals contributed to the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund which at that time, included a stuffed wolf as a free gift with a donation. Many people had their free stuffed animal delivered to Sarah Palin. Unfortunately, they no longer offer incentive gifts, but there is always the acknowledgment card... Personally, I donated to Planned Parenthood at that time, in her name, and asked that the thank you card be sent to her and I know of a number of others who followed suit. After all, she had told Katie Couric that she was a feminist, so I know that Sarah Palin would, of course, appreciate the donation in her name...

Thanks for stopping by. Come back soon.
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Did Hate Speech Kill Stephen Tyrone Johns?

In April of this year, the Department of Homeland Security produced a report, leaked to the media, that detailed home-grown, terrorist threat assessments of right-wing extremists. A report on threats coming from left-wing extremists had been released in January. It should be noted that these reports had been commissioned and data collected during the Bush Administration.

The report says that conditions similar to that leading to the militia movements of the 1990's - and the Oklahoma City bombing - are occurring now. Joan Walsh in Salon quotes Susan Page from an interview on MSNBC today, saying that, "... based on history: They include a prolonged economic downturn, the demonization of immigrants, the election of the first black president, fears about losing the right to own guns, a banking crisis inciting age-old paranoia about "Jewish cabals" and the return of many veterans to the States suffering from PTSD and other conditions while getting insufficient care."

When this report on potential threats by right-wing extremists was leaked, conservative talking heads immediately took offense, somehow believing that they were being personally attacked. I'm not sure how they felt linked to extremism, but hey, if the shoe fits ....

Rush Limbaugh insisted that right-wing groups had never done anything violent (!), while Michelle Malkin, who led the charge, called the report a "piece of crap" and said it was released at this time to smear those participating in the upcoming "tea parties." Columnist Bill Kristol called it "juvenile" and Rep. Michelle Bachman said, "To me, it looks like the extremists are those running the DHS." Continuing in this vein, Newt Gingrich demanded that the person who wrote this "outrageous" memo "smearing veterans" should be fired, and Rep. John Boehner said Napolitano herself had a lot of explaining to do. Rep. Peter Burgess said that Napolitano should step down.

I wonder how many of them regret those remarks today? I wonder, after the murder of Dr. George Tiller, and the murder of the guard at the Holocaust Museum today by a white-supremacist how many of them regret those remarks today?

Words have power. In our society, there is a price to be paid for free speech. We have a violent history and we know, based on our history, that there are people in our society who walk on the edge. People who are willing to pick up a gun, willing to make a bomb, and willing to die for a cause. When our talking heads are allowed to refer to legally practicing doctors as "baby killers," and say that our President should fail, that he is worse than al Qaeda. When torture is considered okay some of the time, and the law only applies to some of the people, then it's easy to see how someone can pick up a gun and shoot up a factory, or a church, or a museum.

Did this hate speech on our televisions cause von Brunn to murder Stephen Tyrone Johns today at the Holocaust Museum? I don't know. But it certainly didn't do anything to prevent it.

Thanks for stopping by. Come back soon.
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Morning Joe Pro Bono Lawyer for Abortion Doctor Killer

Prior to the murder this week of Dr.George Tiller, there have been several other murders of abortion doctors, clinic nurses and receptionists, bombings, and arsons. There are daily vigils and protests outside womens health clinics, and women seeking health care services are harassed. It is a federal crime to interfere with access to a womens health clinic, however, many law enforcement officials are as ambivalent about abortion as the general population and thus, resistant to enforcing that particular law as carefully as they should.

An article in The Village Voice provides a detailed report about a popular talking-head, MSNBC's Morning Joe Scarborough. He has an interesting history relative to abortion doctors and to abortion clinic protection. It's a history I'm sure that many of his (political) guests and listeners are unaware of, and one that he would much rather be left in the past.

Prior to becoming a talking head on the tv machine, Joe Scarborough was an attorney in Pensacola, Florida. The abortion rights movement was beginning to heat up (this was back in the early 1990's) and the first abortion doctor, Dr. David Gunn, was murdered in 1993, in Pensacola.

Guess who became the defense attorney? Joe Scarborough. Who, by the way, was not a criminal defense attorney and was not death qualified to defend what could be potentially a capital case. The defendant, Michael Griffin, had a court-appointed attorney, but Joe Scarborough stepped in, pro-bono. He later said that Michael Griffin's father was friends with his (Joe's) then wife's father (which they have neither confirmed).

Scarborough eventually brought in a criminal defense attorney and withdrew from the case. In handwritten letters to the Village Voice, Griffin (serving a life sentence) states that Scarborough tried to stay on the case despite Scarboroughs claims to the contrary.

"According to Griffin, Joe told him "several times" that he would represent him at trial and that he "had three friends still in law school who would help him," adding: "I have an exact memory on this point."

Scarborough eventually entered politics on the fame garnered from this trial. The article states that:

"His GOP opponent, Lois Benson, charged then that Scarborough "sought headlines by trying to defend Michael Griffin." ... "A University of West Florida political scientist, James Witt, told the Associated Press that abortion was "a factor" in Scarborough's win, though Scarborough insists that it wasn't."

Going on to say:

"The largest donor to Scarborough's cash-starved campaign was the National Right to Life Committee, which donated $15,210. The second-largest donor—at $8,113—was the Eagle Forum, founded by Phyllis Schlafly, the chair of the Republican National Coalition for Life."

Congress passed legislation to provide additional protection to women's health clinics only after overcoming Republican opposition.

"Within five weeks of Scarborough's arrival in Washington in 1995 (as part of Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America" revolution), Democrat Pat Schroeder tried to amend a law-enforcement block grant bill to permit—not mandate—the use of the funds to protect abortion clinics. Not only did Scarborough vote against that unsuccessful amendment, he opposed one introduced by a Republican that called for protecting "medical or health facilities." One legislator at the time is now a popular talking head, Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe fame on MSNBC."

No wonder Morning Joe hasn't had anything to say about the murder of Dr.Tiller. I wonder why no one has asked Morning Joe his opinion about the murder? I wonder why none of his MSNBC colleagues have asked Morning Joe for his take on the issue?

Thanks for stopping by. Come back soon.
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Dr. George Tiller

Dr. George Tiller was murdered on Sunday. He was in church, serving as an usher.

Church, no matter of what faith, has always been (and is always supposed to be) sanctuary. If you make it in the door, you're safe. The fight over abortion is about religion and nothing else, so for the murderer of Dr. Tiller to claim that his death is righteous and then kill him within the walls of his church, is obscene.

To hear all the right-wing pundits and conservative politicians express their polite sorrow, then deny responsibility, is heartbreaking.

They'll put on a sad face and say they certainly don't condone the murder of Dr. Tiller, but they'll be patting each other on the back when yours is turned.

The sad thing? They don't even bother to find out what they're talking about. They talk about Dr. Tiller as a "baby killer" or a "mass murderer." Bill O'Reilly has said repeatedly over the past 4 years on his nationally televised show, that Dr. Tiller for only $5,000 and for any reason, will abort a late term baby. This is a lie and Bill O'Reilly knows it's a lie. Late term abortion is illegal except in certain specific circumstances. Dr. Tiller went on trial for this very reason because people like Bill O'Reilly couldn't stand the fact that what he was doing was legal, and they wanted to stop him at any cost. He was acquitted. Here are the only reasons that Dr. Tiller would perform an abortion. These are the rules from his clinic:

Admission Criteria: In order to offer you an appointment, we require that a physician refer you to our center. In addition, we need your genetic counselor or doctor to provide us with gestational and diagnostic information regarding your pregnancy. Over the past twenty-five years, we have had experience with pregnancy terminations in such situations as anencephaly, Trisomy 13, 18, and 21, polycystic kidney disease, spina bifida, hydrocephalus, Potter's syndrome, lethal dwarfism, holoprosencephaly, anterior and posterior encephalocele, non-immune hydrops, and a variety of other very significant abnormalities.

Just any old reason, huh? And $5,000? I don't know where that number came from or if it's correct, but only someone like Bill O'Reilly would say only $5,000. To me and most of the people I know, I'd be that's a lot of money and not so easy to come up with if I found out I had a life-threatening need to have a late-term abortion right away.

I wonder how many of these right-wing pundits know someone who miscarried late in pregnancy or experienced complications during childbirth. There are many, many stories of women whose lives were saved because of late-term abortions, situations where the child was already lost and the mother would have been lost as well. I know 2. We probably all know women like this, but they rarely tell their stories. They hurt. If they've had an abortion, it's unlikely they'll speak up, especially if they've had a late-term abortion and most especially if their audience is of the Bill O'Reilly mindset. It's not baby murder. It's a medical procedure designed to save lives. As you can see from the criteria above, it is not used lightly. It is used only when the child will not live or will live in unspeakable pain (and I do not say this about disability, but about pain and suffering that cannot be eased) or to save the life of the mother which if lost, would also cause the loss of the child.

For this, Dr. Tiller died, and others before him.

Regardless of my personal feelings about abortion, to me, right to life means life is precious - all life. That means the lives of our soldiers, the lives of those on death row (many of whom are most likely innocent based on past history), and the lives of the mother. It's not up to me to tell her what to do or how to live her life. These people claiming to be pro-life aren't. When they care about stopping executions, war, and saving the lives of the mothers, and caring for the children after birth, then we can talk.

Thanks for stopping by. Come back soon.
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