Smug GOP Congressman, Adam Kinzinger, Stokes The Flames Of Hatred During Colorado Springs Terrorism

It wasn't Fox, but CNN thant invited Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) to come on the air and denounce Planned Parenthood while Robert Dear was still inside a Colorado Planned Parenthood facility-- that has been targeted by right-wing extremists many times-- shooting people. Maybe Kinzinger, who had been rumored earlier this year to be having an affair with disgraced GOP ex-congressman and best-bud Aaron Schock, should learn to shut his pretty face. CNN didn't mention that it was patently false, self-serving political statements by anti-Choice extremists like Carly Fiorina, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Trumpf that are "controversial," but that Planned Parenthood is! The idiot anchor went so far as to claim-- with Kinzinger agreeing-- that "we don't know if Planned Parenthood was targeted" while the murderer was still inside the Planned Parenthood clinic shooting people! Kinzinger:

best buds

If we find out he was not targeting Planned Parenthood, I would fully expect an apology from the Planned Parenthood director for saying that. But regardless, if somebody is targeting Planned Parenthood, it's not indicative of what folks that are opposed to some of the practices that Planned Parenthood commits, how we feel. We saw these barbaric videos and that was something that many of us had a legitimate concern about. That doesn't mean we're going to take guns and walk into Planned Parenthood clinics. Obviously this is a person who has a mental health issue that's to some level psychotic and crazy and if he's targeting Planned Parenthood-- and, again, we don't know-- if he is, he has taken a legitimate disagreement with a practice and turned it into an evil response which is to go and shoot people. But again, we don't know that answer yet.

Kinzinger doesn't know if the gunman inside the Planned Parenthood clinic shooting people is targeting Planned Parenthood but he's already diagnosed the right-wing, anti-choice terrorist to be "crazy" and "psychotic." If the anchor wasn't brain-dead she might have asked him if the suicide bombers from Arab countries, who, do after all, have grievances are also psychotic and if being crazy excuses them from being called "terrorists."

Obama's statement was quite a bit different from Kinzinger's:

The last thing Americans should have to do, over the holidays or any day, is comfort the families of people killed by gun violence-- people who woke up in the morning and bid their loved ones goodbye with no idea it would be for the last time.

And yet, two days after Thanksgiving, that’s what we are forced to do again.

We don’t yet know what this particular gunman’s so-called motive was for shooting twelve people, or for terrorizing an entire community, when he opened fire with an assault weapon and took hostages at a Planned Parenthood center in Colorado. What we do know is that he killed a cop in the line of duty, along with two of the citizens that police officer was trying to protect. We know that law enforcement saved lives, as so many of them do every day, all across America. And we know that more Americans and their families had fear forced upon them.

This is not normal. We can’t let it become normal. If we truly care about this-- if we’re going to offer up our thoughts and prayers again, for God knows how many times, with a truly clean conscience-- then we have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them. Period. Enough is enough.

May God bless Officer Garrett Swasey and the Americans he tried to save-- and may He grant the rest of us the courage to do the same thing.

Kinzinger's north-central Illinois district, the sixteenth, would be competitive if Nancy Pelosi didn't keep appointing conservative incompetents-- Rahm Emanuel, Chris Van Hollen, Steve Israel and Steve Israel sock puppet Ben Ray Luján to chair the DCCC. Although part of the population base of the district, Rockford, was gerrymandered into IL-17 to give that district a Democratic edge, IL-16 is still winnable. In fact, in 2008, Obama did win it.

The DCCC didn't recruit a candidate in 2008 and GOP incumbent Don Manzullo beat Bob Abboud 60.9- 36.1%, even though Obama beat McCain there. In 2012 the DCCC once again didn't recruit a candidate. This time Obama lost to Romney but won in Winnebago, Putnam and DeKalb counties, while Kinzinger, who had narrowly beaten conservaDem Deborah Halverson 2 years earlier (57-43%) triumphed over Wanda Rohl 61.9- 38.1%, Kinzinger spending $1,972,830 to Rohl's $31,837. In 2014 the DCCC ignored the district again and Kinzinger was reelected against Randall Olsen 70.6-29.4%. Kinzinger spent $1,377,467 to Olsen's $11,506. You don't win, if you don't try and you never win if you allow the party to atrophy and fade away, as Van Hollen and Israel have both done. This cycle there is, once again, no DCCC recruit running against Kinzinger-- and not even an independent Democrat, just a teabagger, Colin McGroarty, challenging him from the far right. Kinzinger is Jeb Bush's Illinois co-chair.

Yes, innocent until proven guilty, but we already know they're both murderers

Alan Grayson issued a statement this morning that sounded nothing like Kinzinger's:

Yesterday, a homegrown terrorist attacked us on our own soil. He was not a Syrian refugee, and he was not a Muslim. We don’t know yet whether or not he attacked Planned Parenthood because he was anti-choice, or for some other reason.

But either way, today we are reminded of the continuing struggle to insure one of the most sacred rights-- the right to control our own bodies.

Earlier this year, I got a taste of what Planned Parenthood staff, volunteers, and patients face every day when dozens of anti-Planned Parenthood protesters came to demonstrate outside my office. And a few months later, when I attended a fundraiser for our local Planned Parenthood, protesters took pictures of one of my staff and put it up online as an intimidation tactic. Neither method worked.

I was talking with one of the Blue America candidates this morning, former marine and LAPD police officer, Lou Vince-- running in CA-25 against anti-Choice/pro-NRA extremist Steve Knight in northern L.A. and eastern Ventura counties. He told me that "the horrendous act of terrorism committed in Colorado against the Planned Parenthood clinic illustrates why this election is so critical. We must stand up for a woman's right to choose and her right to control her own body, a right that Republicans like Steve Knight want to take away. Secondly, we must stand up to the NRA and stop putting up with their woefully misguided lobbying efforts that ultimately contribute to so much violence. As a cop, I know a thing or two about guns and enough is enough, we need sensible gun control reforms. Unfortunately, these things will never happen with Steve Knight in Congress. It's time for him to go." I agree. We need fewer Kinzingers and fewer Knights and more level headed men and women like Lou Vince and Alan Grayson.


UPDATE From Iowa

Congressional candidate in northeast Iowa, Pat Murphy, put out a statement today too. "The recent news from Colorado Springs deeply saddens me. Yesterday, three victims were killed and nine injured when a gunman opened fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic. Attacks like these are extremely troubling and a heartbreaking reminder of how important it is to continue the fight for women's access to health care. We must stand with Planned Parenthood and show a united front against acts of violence and hatred like those of yesterday."

In reading that, it's important to recall that when Pat was Speaker of the Iowa state House, he led the successful fight to protect women's right to choice while expanding state family planning services and stem cell research so more life saving procedures could be done for medical research in his state. One of the reasons we originally endorsed Pat was because, while he was Speaker he led the successful battle to take gun rights away from individuals who were convicted of domestic abuse."