Is It Fair To Label Fiorina A Conspirator In The Colorado Springs Terrorism At Planned Parenthood?

"Victims of Our Games" by Chawky Frenn

Much like Illinois Republican Adam Kinzinger said on CNN while the terrorist was still inside the Planned Parenthood clinic shooting people, Herr Trumpf, while having his candidacy boosted by another Meet The Press interview yesterday, pronounced him (not Kinzinger, the other terrorist) sick and a maniac rather than a right-wing domestic terrorist or just some guy going overboard in carrying out the Republican Party agenda.

Trump did not respond directly when asked about reports that the alleged shooter, Robert Lewis Dear, discussed “baby parts” during an interview with law enforcement officials.

"This was a man who they said prior to this was mentally disturbed," he said. "So, he's a mentally disturbed person. There's no question about that."

Trump did, however, cite "tremendous dislike" for Planned Parenthood.

"Well, I will tell you there is a tremendous group of people that think it's terrible, all of the videos that they've seen with some of these people from Planned Parenthood talking about it like you're selling parts to a car. I mean, there are a lot of people that are very unhappy about that," he said.

"I see a lot of anxiety and I see a lot of dislike for Planned Parenthood. There's no question about that."

Fiorina and Huckabee, who enabled the terrorist with their constant barrage of lies and Planned Parenthood selling "baby parts," have been unapologetic-- even aggressively assertive, after their tragic handiwork. Fiorina, perhaps an even more calculating, malignant and bold-faced liar than Trumpf, referred to people connecting the dots between her hate speech and the Colorado Springs murderer as "typical left-wing tactics." Fiorina admonished what she called "pro-life" demonstrators to "always be peaceful" and then implied if they weren't they'd be like BlackLivesMatter protestors (who, as far as I've seen, haven't been running around murdering people the way at least one Fiorina follower, so far, has, but instead have been murdered themselves, in all likelihood inspired by outrageous Republican rhetoric). She's a very sick and very dangerous person and, fortunately, even the Republican base, which, recall, embraced Sarah Palin, has rejected her. Fiorina's polling numbers have continued to plummet as her inability to speak truthfully became clearer and clearer. Now in 6th place at 3.7%, RealClearPolitics documents her breathtaking slide from a high of 15% in a CNN poll in September to a mere 3% in the latest Fox News poll last week.

Yesterday on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos Michael McCaul pronounced the mass murder at the Planned Parenthood clinic "not an act of terrorism," but, in his words, "a mental health crisis." Right-wing Texas congressman, NRA-fanatic, anti-choice extremist and Boehner's Homeland Security Committee chair, McCaul, married into the Clear Channel fortune and is now the 5th richest Member of Congress with an estimated average net worth of $137,611,043. Since first winning the GOP nomination in 2004 for the then brand new 10th district, he has never faced a serious challenge and the DCCC hasn't recruited candidates to run against him. His district connects northern Austin-- Highland, Brentwood, North Loop, Rosedale, Allandale, Crestview, and North Shoal Creek-- to the western suburbs of Houston (Katy, Park Row, Cypress, Rose Hill, Tomball, and Hufsmith) with nothing much in between other than rural towns like La Grange, Brenham, Giddings, Round Top and Bastrop. When it looked like McCaul would be in jeopardy from an expanding Mexican-American population, the Republican state legislature illegally drew Hispanic voters out of his district. The DCCC didn't take them to court over it.

Jennifer Markovsky, mother of two.
Ke'Arre Stewart, father of two.
Garrett Swasey, father of two.

All murdered by a right-wing terrorist shouting "no more baby parts," inspired by self-serving Republican Party garbage Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina, Adam Kinzinger, Marco Rubio and Mike McCaul. Now these Republican scumbags refuse to say their names, let alone take responsibility for their deaths. In honor of Giving Tuesday, Blue America will be matching all contributions to our candidates up to $1,000 by writing a PAC check to Planned Parenthood. You can read all about that here-- why we're doing it, what our candidates think and how to get involved yourself.

Millionaire terrorist enabler Michael McCaul (R-TX)

UPDATE: Ted Cruz: "Rhetoric and language has consequences."

Yeah... they sure has! Jodi Jacobson of RH Reality Check reminded us that Ted Cruz, who adamantly rejects and relationship between right-wing hate speech and the murders and terrorism in Colorado Springs overrated weekend, didn't always feel that way. Well, he may have but he was once outspoken about the relationship between rhetoric and dire consequences. He tried blaming President Obama for the death of a police officer based on a spurious interpretation of something the president said.

"The violence we’re seeing directed against law enforcement," Cruz told the media,"is a direct manifestation of the harsh rhetoric and the vilification of police officers and law enforcement that sadly has come all the way from the top. Senior administration officials have chosen to vilify law enforcement."

There was no connection between anything Obama said and the deaths of police officers, of course-- Cruz was lying as usual-- but, as Jacobson wrote, "for Cruz and others in the GOP, this indictment of Obama serves a far-right meme percolating since at least the beginning of this year when, in response to Black Lives Matter (BLM)—the organic movement against police brutality that coalesced after the killing of Michael Brown in 2014—the right countered by blaming the victims of excessive police violence for their own deaths, denying the persistence of racism in our society, and claiming that efforts by Black people to assert their basic humanity were resulting in 'unprecedented' dangers for police.

Last Friday, two civilians and one police officer died and nine others were wounded in a vicious and wholly predictable attack at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The alleged gunman, Robert Lewis Dear, who used what the New York Times described as an assault-style rifle to blast his way into the health-care facility, reportedly said “no more baby parts” during his arrest.

This would be a direct reference to false and defamatory rhetoric ceaselessly repeated by GOP candidates and the anti-choice movement over the past six months to claim Planned Parenthood profited from the sale of fetal body parts for research, when not a shred of evidence of illegal or unethical activity has been produced.

It’s no secret that the GOP, now fully co-opted by what was once a radical Christian fringe, long ago set its sights on destroying access to reproductive health care in the United States. With callous disregard to the effects on the nearly three million a year who receive primary reproductive health care at Planned Parenthood clinics, the right has made a religious crusade of efforts to shutter Planned Parenthood, persistently threatening to shut down the entire U.S. government in an effort to do so. State legislatures and governors throughout the country have voted to strip funding from family planning and other forms of reproductive health care, destroying an essential keystone of public health. And an entire industry now exists devoted to, among other things, manufacturing lies about abortion and contraception; passing laws to reduce access to abortion care and make criminals of doctors and patients; picketing clinics; harassing and threatening providers and patients; and denying women medically accurate information.

In this environment, heated rhetoric about abortion providers is only one lit match away from a raging forest fire of hatred and violence culminating in unstable people taking matters into their own hands.

...In July... Cruz released a statement saying:

Today’s news regarding allegations that Planned Parenthood is possibly selling the body parts of the babies it has aborted is sickening. There is no place for taxpayer funding of organizations that profit from taking away innocent life, much less profiting off the bodies of the lives they have stolen. Congress should immediately begin an investigation of Planned Parenthood’s activities regarding the sale and transfer of aborted body parts, including who is obtaining them and what they are being used for. And it should renew efforts to fully defund Planned Parenthood to ensure that its morally bankrupt business receives not one penny of taxpayer money.

Cruz has continued to hammer this theme on the campaign trail. In a September op-ed, Cruz wrote about the “horrifying and barbaric nature” of Planned Parenthood, asserting, among other things, that “American taxpayers are currently forced to fund this likely criminal organization, which barters and sells the body parts of unborn children.”

Well after the videos were found to be falsified, GOP candidate Carly Fiorina, who as noted by University of California researcher Carole Joffe, “has the habit of forcefully doubling down on her [false] claims [even] when she is confronted with the truth,” continued to claim Planned Parenthood was guilty of “harvesting baby parts,” despite evidence that the video to which she pointed was falsified.

Mike Huckabee has made attacks on abortion providers and on Planned Parenthood a centerpiece of his campaign, claiming that clinics are “selling babies’ body parts like the parts of a Buick.” Huckabee has variously called Planned Parenthood a “kill for hire organization,” compared abortion providers to Hitler, and stated that “only since the Nazis have we seen such coldblooded indifference to human life.”

Variations on this theme have been endlessly repeated for months by presidential candidates Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush on TV, radio, and in print, and continued well after threats to clinics were directly linked by the FBI to the release of the CMP videos.

“Since the release of the initial video by pro-life organization Center for Medical Progress in July, investigators say there have been nine criminal or suspicious incidents across the country,” according to a report on the FBI findings by Jeff Pegues of CBS News.

Yes, Ted Cruz, rhetoric and language have consequences. And over and over again we’ve seen that the GOP and the anti-choice movement writ large blatantly disregard the likely consequences of their own rhetoric, and then cry foul when asked to do some soul-searching.

But by its own yardstick, the anti-choice community has this blood all over its hands.

And please don't forget to check this out as a means of just saying NO to ugly Republican hypocrisy and violence.