Earls is a bad man. He raped a little girl and got a ridiculous one-year sentence. But it's still astonishing that last night two grown men openly discussed on national television whether or not it's OK to just up and kill him.

O'Reilly, cognizant of the criticism he received for his role in turning George Tiller into a national villain who was then gunned down by an abortion opponent, managed to struggle through the moral logic of Thou Shalt Not Kill. But Rivera, with a wink and a nod, basically said "Yes." The only reservation he has about someone taking his advice to go out and kill Earls is that they might get hurt themselves.

Here's the gist of the exchange:

O'Reilly: If Earls ever walks out of jail and gets killed, who are they going to blame?

Rivera: ... I can only tell you ladies and gentlemen, that I will not weep if something happens to David Earls. I do not encourage vigilantism. I think it is something that puts your own life at risk. I do not advise it, I do not counsel it. I will not, however, weep if David Earls is found sometime on a country road.

O'Reilly: We obviously don't want anyone to do anything. That would be as morally wrong as what Earls did—to take Earls' life. You can't do that.

Rivera: I don't agree quite with your moral reasoning. You're more moral than I am.

These men actually want people to die.

Pastor Ken Pagano of the New Bethel Church in Louisville, Kentucky is having members of his church along with anybody else in the general, gun-owning public to come on down and hang out! Even better, the New York Times blog The Lede is covering it live, and writing it up quite excitedly ("12:30 p.m. We are just a few hours away from the bring-your-gun-to-church event here at the New Bethel Church in Louisville. Doors open at 4:30 p.m."). It reads like a Phish concert, except, the exact opposite. Notably, the church's insurance company opted out of insuring the church for the day:

The pastor, Ken Pagano, told us a couple of days ago that the church's insurance company was opting out for the day, and that there was some question about whether parishioners would have to leave their guns outside. But I just spoke with Mr. Pagano, and he said he had found new insurance coverage for the day. He would not say who provided it.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Other interesting things: the church is having a $1 raffle for a handgun today. When presented with statistics from an LA Times article regarding church shootings (especially an interesting one about the 18 that happened in 2008, as opposed to the 6 in 2007), Pagano noted that the security of the church was part of the reason he was holding the event in the first place: to encourage churchgoers to secure the church through private gun ownership.

The most recent high-profile church shooting was that of abortion doctor George Tiller. Law enforcement's on hand to make sure none of the guns brought in the church are loaded, but they can't check for concealed weapons (by definition).

Armed and Faithful Count Down [The Lede]
Southern California churches prepare in case gun violence shows up at the altar [LA Times]

Still! His wacky speech did attract a bit of attention, mostly from the bloggers and journalists currently documenting the most worrying of the eliminationist rhetoric of the fringes of the far-right. Like the invaluable Dave Wiegel whose Washington Independent reported that Terry is still really, really in to pretending he is John Brown.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.People For the American Way's Right Wing Watch has clips of the speech, in case you need some excuse to get really mad, this morning. It ended on a really weird note. The murder of George Tiller apparently is "a teaching moment for what child-killing is really all about," according to Terry's closing line (leave 'em laughing!). And then it's time to take everyone out for beer and wings—extra crispy!

Matt Drudge trotted out his favorite animated GIF this morning to sound the alarm about the White House's plan to issue "guidelines," according to the Associated Press, that "reject direct intervention in corporate pay decisions" and rely on allowing nonbinding shareholder votes on compensation. Or, as Drudge puts it, "ADMINISTRATION: REIN IN PAY ACROSS PRIVATE SECTOR."

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.We hadn't seen the siren in a while. We certainly didn't see it yesterday, when a right-wing nut who doesn't think Barack Obama has a birth certificate shot up the National Holocaust Museum.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.And we didn't see it last week, after an anti-abortion jihadist murdered George Tiller. Susan Boyle got top billing on that morning.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Come to think of it, we didn't even see Tiller's murder on the cover of the New York Post, the dead-tree version of the Drudge Report. Here's the Post front from Monday, June 1, the day after Tiller was gunned down at church.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.And here's today's Post, which puts the anti-semitic terror attack at the National Holocaust Museum on page 11 and gives the cover to something about a bar mitzvah in prison.

Nothing to see here, people. Move along.

We wish we were making any of that up! But we're not! Tomorrow at 1 p.m., in DC, insane anti-abortion activist Randall Terry's "Society For Truth and Justice" will throw a press conference about how to "derail Sotomayor and overturn Roe." The email promises that the conference will compare the murder of George Tiller to Nat Turner's slave rebellion and Terry himself reports that this cold-blooded shooting of an innocent doctor by a psychopath "will propel us to victory more speedily."

Now it can be tough to get positive press coverage if you are a dangerous lunatic who should be in a padded cell. But Terry's got that covered.

Time: 12:30 to 1:00 P.M., Chicken Wings and Guinness will be served (for members of the press only). (Please RSVP at 904-687-9804 by Wednesday morning.)

And that is why there will be like two dozen reporters at this press conference, tomorrow.

Here's the full email.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

From: Studio Staff
Date: Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 12:17 PM
Subject: Tiller, Sotomayor, Overturn Roe PRESS CONFERENCE Thurs. 1pm
To: [Redacted]

*How Tiller's death and office closing can help propel pro-life movement, derail Sotomayor and overturn Roe. Four Key Senators will be targeted to vote against Sotomayor; Catholic Bishops will play a role to defeat Sotomayor.*

Press conference 1 PM, Thursday, to announce details how Pro-life groups can derail Sotomayor, and root out hypocrisy in pro-life ranks.

Also: Emergency Pro-life leadership training to be held in DC, June 12-14, with Randall Terry, Dr. Alan Keyes, Norma McCorvey, and Father Norman Weslin. Pro-abortion activists threaten to disrupt meeting.

*For immediate release: Dateline: Washington DC Contact: Kathy Veritas, 904-687-9804*

Press conference will cover:

1) How Mr. Tiller's death can propel the pro-life movement forward based upon lessons from Nat Turner's slave rebellion, and how abolitionists responded;

2) Plans of pro-life groups to seize moment to defeat Sotomayor, and expose hypocrisy within the GOP; names of 4 key Senate Targets to be released.

3) The role certain Catholic Bishops must play to insure Sotomayor's defeat;

4) Upcoming pro-life training: Pro-abortion activists threaten to disrupt.

Location: National Press Club, 14th and F Street, Washington DC

Time: 12:30 to 1:00 P.M., Chicken Wings and Guinness will be served (for members of the press only). (Please RSVP at 904-687-9804 by Wednesday morning.)

Press conference to begin at 1:00 P.M.

Members of press will be provided concise yet comprehensive research on the above topics. Upcoming plans and details of June 12-14 seminar will be laid out.

Randall Terry States:

"Tiller's death will either set the pro-life movement back twenty years, or propel us to victory more speedily. The outcome depends on our courage over the next 3-6 months.

"If we follow the example of the abolitionists, we will prevail; if we run like French Soldiers, we will be imprisoned in irrelevance.

"Our upcoming seminar is designed to raise up stout hearted, peaceful pro-life warriors, who do not fear, but follow this maxim: ".urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD." (William Lloyd Garrison)

—
Society for Truth and Justice
904-687-9804
P.O. Box 23775
Washington, D.C. 20026

[Photo: AP]

Reports the LA Times:

In a statement released by attorneys Dan Monnat and Lee Thompson, Tiller's wife, Jeanne, and their four adult children said that the family was "ceasing operation of the clinic and any involvement by family members in any other similar clinic.

"We are proud of the service and courage shown by our husband and father and know that women's healthcare needs have been met because of his dedication and service," the family said in the statement. "That is a legacy that will never die. The family will honor Dr. Tiller's memory through private charitable activities."

No matter what you think about about late term abortion, and there's a lot to be skittish about in regards to the procedure, the fact that Tiller's murderer achieved his intended purpose of seeing his clinic closed down is extremely unsettling. Though it's nearly impossible to fathom the pain being experienced by the Tiller family during this time, it's hard not to believe that this action on their part sends a strong message to other extremists lurking around out there in the world. We imagine that Scott Roeder, who said in an interview today that the closing of Tiller's clinic is "a victory for all the unborn children," will lay his head down tonight in a Wichita, Kansas jail cell feeling overcome with satisfaction, and that's just sad.

Slain Abortion Doctor George Tiller's Clinic to Close [LA Times]

The Scarborough interview, by Johnnie L. Roberts was a "web exclusive." It was posted to Newsweek's web site on Friday afternoon with Roberts' introduction leading with the newsiest bit of the interview: Scarborough's first comments about serving as the defense attorney for Michael Griffin, the anti-abortion zealot who murdered Dr. David Gunn in 1993, and whether that had affected his coverage of the death of Dr. George Tiller. Here's the original introduction:

In the wake of the murder of Dr. George Tiller, the abortion doctor shot dead in front of his church on May 31, a Village Voice writer had set the blogosphere abuzz about Joe Scarborough. Why had Scarborough's morning news show, "Morning Joe," been silent on the sensational murder story? Was it because Scarborough, as a young lawyer in Pensacola, Florida, had helped defend one of the nation's first murderers of an abortion doctor 16 years ago?

"We covered it as a news story, Scarborough told NEWSWEEK during an interview about his new book, "The Last Best Hope: Restoring Conservatism and America's Promise." Scarborough says he condemns the Tiller murder, and has since talked about his involvement in the 1993 Florida case on his show. "I'm an attorney," he says. "I represented clients. I did it as a favor to the family. The goal was to stop this young man from trying to defend himself."

Purchasers of his book won't read about this time in Scarborough's past, though he does advise conservatives to stop demanding that Washington become entangled in "gay marriage debates and ob-gyn issues." The morning news anchor spoke to NEWSWEEK's Johnnie L. Roberts about his book, Rush Limbaugh and how conservatives lost their way.

That went up Friday afternoon; by Friday night it was gone, replaced with an anodyne introduction that didn't mention Griffin or Tiller. Roberts' exchange with Scarborough about Griffin was still in the interview, but moved down into the body of the Q-and-A. And it no longer contained a reference to the criticism that Morning Joe gave short shrift to the Tiller murder or that Scarborough's book—curiously, for a work that deals with the politics of abortion and extremism—omits his relationship with Griffin. And that troublesome link to the Village Voice's reporting on Scarborough's past was also gone. The time-stamp—"Updated: 3:02 p.m. ET Jun 5, 2009"—remained unchanged, giving readers no clue that the introduction had been completely rewritten.

Why? We asked Newsweek editor Meacham:

On Friday, a member of Scarborough's team (not Scarborough) reached out when the original story, which led with Griffin, was posted; when I read it, I thought it was better to include that material in the flow of the interview, where it is now on Newsweek.com.

Scarborough himself claims that he had no idea that a member of his "team" was putting pressure on Meacham, a frequent Morning Joe guest, to soften the magazine's coverage of him. "I've never talked to Jon about the article," he says via e-mail, "and never saw the version of the intro you're talking about." Did he ask someone to harass Meacham on his behalf? "No. Below my radar. Again, I didn't know it was even up for a few days. Had a big family get together and didn't spend my weekend inside online."

We don't believe you, Joe. Here's a screengrab of the original introduction:

That's right. The Village Voice's Wayne Barrett reminds us, by way of reference to a bracing attack profile he wrote last year about Scarborough, that in Florida in the early 1990s—before he was a congressman or a lovably irascible co-host for MSNBC's Morning Joe—Scarborough served as Griffin's lawyer in the Gunn case free of charge.

The history makes one wonder what Scarborough has to say about Tiller's murder, and if he disclosed his relationship with Griffin when he discussed it on the air. There are no transcripts of Morning Joe available, so we don't really know. But Google turns up no statements from Scarborough that we can find. And the Morning Joe web site features 40 clips from the show going back to May 29, none of which, as far as we can tell (we didn't watch them all), deal with Tiller.

The only discussion of Tiller on Morning Joe that an MSNBC spokeswoman could confirm was a news update read by Mika Brzezinski on Monday's broadcast. She couldn't provide specific quotes, or say whether Scarborough talked about the case or disclosed his previous advocacy for an abortion provider's killer. An e-mail to Scarborough wasn't immediately returned.

Scarborough describes himself as a "family friend" of the Griffins. He was a civil attorney, and told the Voice that he initially represented Griffin only while the accused man searched for a qualified criminal attorney. After Griffin's arrest, there was some confusion about who would represent him. At one point in June 1993, Griffin demanded that his court-appointed attorney be taken off the case and replaced with Scarborough. In the end, criminal defense attorney Bob Kerrigan took the case, but Scarborough represented Griffin from March to June of that year. Scarborough told the Voice last year that it was absurd to think that a judge would allow him, with limited criminal defense experience, to sit on a potential death-penalty case. He was just a caretaker attorney, doing a favor for a family friend. In press coverage from the time, he was quoted explaining his client's legal theory behind subpoenaing as-yet-unborn children as material witnesses in his case:

Griffin family atty. Joe Scarborough said Griffin's attempt to delay the trial for unborn witnesses "may have been an attempt to set the stage for a defense argument that the doctor's death was necessary to prevent what he considered a greater evil— abortion."

But Griffin himself, in two handwritten letters to the Voice, told a different story, saying Scarborough was eager to stay involved in his defense but was barred by the judge:

Griffin, who is doing a life sentence, sent two handwritten letters in response to Voice inquiries, maintaining that Scarborough tried to stay on the trial team. He says that Kerrigan and Scarborough brought motion papers to him, which he signed, that would have kept Scarborough on as co-counsel. He maintains that "the judge rejected it" at an informal meeting outside the courtroom. 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."

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.The next year, Scarborough won a congressional seat with the help of $15,210 from the National Right to Life Committee.

Every criminal defendant needs a lawyer, no matter how loathsome. So Scarborough's representation of Griffin, whether it was fleeting or purposeful, is no shame. But given the fact that Scarborough has always been fiercely pro-life, one wonders whether he was motivated by a concern for the rights of the accused or by ideological kinship.

In the "Talking Points" segment at the top of his show, O'Reilly immediately condemned Tiller's murder saying that "anarchy and vigilantism will destroy a society" and that the act was a "clear thing Americans should condemn." But once O'Reilly got the formalities out of the way, he wasted no time blasting anyone who dared to implicate him in any of this.

"When I heard about Tiller's murder I knew that pro-abortion zealots and Fox News-haters would blame us for the crime."

He went on to call out a laundry list of "vicious individuals" for implying that his incendiary rhetoric towards Tiller may have inspired the violence, among which were Arianna Huffington, Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos (naturally!), former 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes, he said that Helen Kennedy of the New York Daily News lied when she said O'Reilly was guilty of "rants" against Tiller, and "far left columnist" Mike Hendricks of the Kansas City Star. He closed by saying that the "far left is exploiting, EXPLOITING, the death" of Dr. Tiller for political gain, and then reminded viewers that Tiller was responsible for destroying "60,000 fetuses who will never become American citizens."

So yeah, Bill O'Reilly gave everyone pretty much exactly what they expected tonight—-A load of BS.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

UPDATE: Later in his show O'Reilly had two abortion opponents on the show to back up his claim that "the far left is exploiting this, trying to shut guys like me up."

Clips via YouTube and Media Matters

In the first clip, Terry denies his movements culpability in Tiller's murder, then immediately turns around and says he basically got what he deserved—-"Pro-life leaders and the pro-life movement are not responsible for George Tiller's death. George Tiller was a mass-murderer and, horrifically, he reaped what he sowed."

When he was finished with his speech, Terry invited members of the press to join him out for for chicken wings and beer noting—-"I like Guinness for those of you who want to have a beer somewhere. I prefer my chicken wings really hot and a little crispy."

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

Now, the obvious joke here is that Randall Terry gives whole new meaning to the term "wingnut." Sorry, we just had to do it.

We just left you a voicemail, but thought we'd write you a note as well. It doesn't look like you ever met Tiller, but your colleague Porter Barry stalked him to a gas station in Kansas two years ago and called him a "baby killer," forcing Tiller to call 911. And you did ambush—or "confront," as you put it—his attorney Pedro Irigonegary in Topeka, Kansas in 2006. And you ambushed then-Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius last year to ask her what she thought of Tiller "performing illegal late-term abortions and covering up instances of child rape" in her state. You and your boss Bill O'Reilly waged a years-long campaign to brand Tiller a murderer and criminal who needed to be stopped. Anyone who stood in the way of efforts to stop him, O'Reilly said, "has blood on their hands." After you ambushed Tiller's lawyer, you wrote it up in a blog post for O'Reilly's web site, signing off with: "Keep watching. There will be more."

Wow. Were you right about that! We don't think it's reasonable to hold you and your Fox News colleagues responsible for Tiller's murder, Jesse. But we do think it's reasonable to ask you whether you think your practice of hunting people down to "confront" them might egg on madmen who aren't quite satisfied with the ritual humiliation that your little game offers them. Does it ever occur to you that the cat-and-mouse routines you serve up as you demonize and stalk your political enemies might inspire the people whose barely submerged rage you tap into each night in television? That the mechanics of what you do—choose a target, methodically and deliberately transform them into a villain in the eyes of your audience, track them, lay in wait for them, and then leap out of nowhere to "confront" them—could serve as a road map? That some of your less hinged fans might want to try it out some time because it looks fun? And that while you get your jollies from shoving a camera in people's faces when they least suspect it and without even offering them a chance to come on the program like a civilized human being, some of your viewers might want something a little more substantial out of the encounters?

Just some questions we'd like you to answer, Jesse. You know where to find us. And we know where to find you. Just like you said: "Keep watching. There will be more."

Scott P. Roeder, a 51 year-old resident of Merriam, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, was arrested on Interstate 35 yesterday afternoon in Johnson City, Kansas.

In the rear window of the 1993 blue Ford Taurus that he was driving was a red rose, a symbol often used by abortion opponents. On the rear of his car was a Christian fish symbol with the word "Jesus" inside.

Those who know Roeder said he believed that killing abortion doctors was an act of justifiable homicide.

"I know that he believed in justifiable homicide," said Regina Dinwiddie, a Kansas City anti-abortion activist who made headlines in 1995 when she was ordered by a federal judge to stop using a bullhorn within 500 feet of any abortion clinic. "I know he very strongly believed that abortion was murder and that you ought to defend the little ones, both born and unborn."

Roeder also was a subscriber to Prayer and Action News, a magazine that advocated the justifiable homicide position, said publisher Dave Leach, an anti-abortion activist from Des Moines, Iowa.

"I met him once, and he wrote to me a few times," Leach said. "I remember that he was sympathetic to our cause, but I don't remember any details."

Leach said he met Roeder in Topeka when he went there to visit Shelley Shannon, who was in prison for the 1993 shooting of Tiller.

"He told me about a lot of conspiracy stuff and showed me how to take the magnetic strip out of a five-dollar bill," Leach said. "He said it was to keep the government from tracking your money."

The McLatchy article in its entirety pretty much paints a picture of a guy who is basically a caricature of the American red state right-wing extremist, with involvement with the "Freemen" and other anti-government groups, multiple arrests for possessing and transporting bomb-making components—-If Scott Roeder were a character in a film or a book, reviewers would pan it as being too over the top and cliched, that's how much of a right-wing caricature the guy appears to be.

America, meet your potential new Timothy McVeigh—-Scott Roeder.

Suspect Supported Killing Abortion Providers, Friends Say [McClatchy]

O'Reilly began his jihad against Tiller back in 2005 and, according to Salon, Tiller's been mentioned on 28 separate occasions on his show. In addition to dubbing him "Tiller the Baby-Killer," O'Reilly has referred to Tiller's clinic as a "death mill" and called his work "Nazi stuff" for which he has "blood on his hands."

On November 3, 2006, O'Reilly had women's rights activist Amy Richards as a guest on his show to discuss Dr. Tiller. Over the course of the interview, O'Reilly repeated the claim that he had "inside information" and "incontrovertible evidence" that Tiller had been "executing babies about to be born" because the mothers were suffering from depression, which led to rampant specualtion that someone had provided O'Reilly with Tiller's patient records. He also made a further quantum leap of logic by saying that because Tiller was performing abortions on young rape victims between the ages of 10-15 that he was, in effect, protecting and encouraging rape. Over the course of the interview Richards remained unflappable despite O'Reilly's constant badgering, and you can clearly see him growing more and more agitated by the second, eventually blasting Richards, "So you're okay with this man executing babies about to be born because the woman says she's depressed?" Richards remained remarkably unfazed throughout even after O'Reilly sarcastically remarked, "We'll let the audience decide who the noble person is here" and then got one last dig in about people like her not caring if babies were being murdered or not.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

In July of last year O'Reilly dispatched ace buttboy Jesse Watters, who our John Cook is still hot on the trail of, to ambush Kansas Gov. Katheen Sebelius at a Governor's Conference in Philadelphia. The purpose of the "interview" was supposedly to get Sebelius' opinion of Tiller, noting at the end that Tiller had donated money to her campaign for governor.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

In November of 2006 Watters confronted Tiller's attorney, Pedro Irigonegaray, outside of his law office in another ambush interview. Then in 2007, O'Reilly Factor producer Porter Barry caught up with Dr. Tiller himself on his way to work and carried out another ambush interview. We've spent a considerable amount of time tonight searching for these videos and have come up empty-handed. We're unsure if that's just a coincidence of if they've been scrubbed after Tiller's murder earlier today, but if any of you happen to run across is either of them, please send them along to us.

It will be very interesting to see how O'Reilly handles this whole situation on his show tomorrow. We're sure he'll denounce the violent act against Dr. Tiller and express sympathy for his family, but we doubt anything he says will be enough to pacify the many who will almost certainly claim that O'Reilly is now the one with "blood on his hands."