Hard to call something “terrorism” when so many people seem to agree with the perpetrator

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

@jaketapper Why did he kill a cop and innocent people. He killed no one at PP. Why? Because he is a lunatic!

— Nels (@debitking) December 9, 2015

In case you were unaware, shortly after the Planned Parenthood attack there was a committed effort by right wingers to deny the shooter was even targeting a clinic, hence the lingering desperation of the likes of this chap who replied to Jake Tapper

The angry man who shot up a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs two weeks ago, killing three and wounding several others, was arraigned on Wednesday and made it crystal clear that his target was abortion providers.

“I’m guilty. There’s no trial,” Robert L. Dear Jr. told a startled courtroom here on Wednesday. “I’m a warrior for the babies.”…

…“Let it all come out,” he said in one of a series of outbursts that seemed to remove any doubt about his motivation. “The truth.”…

…As Judge Gilbert Anthony Martinez of Colorado’s Fourth Judicial District and the lawyers discussed which parties might be affected by a pretrial publicity order, Mr. Dear, 57, shouted: “Could you add the babies that were supposed to be aborted that day? Could you add that to the list?”…

…“You’ll never know what I saw in the clinic, the atrocities,” he said on one occasion. “Protect the babies!” he said on another.

Hell, Dear could easily be a GOP politician anywhere, including running for President like Carly Fiorina (who famously imagined seeing atrocities) or Mike Huckabee, with those comments.

(Huckabee) “[T]here’s no excuse for killing other people, whether it’s happening inside the Planned Parenthood headquarters, inside their clinics where many millions of babies die, or whether it’s people attacking Planned Parenthood,”

Oh yes, it was terrible what that shooter did, according to so many anti-choicers, but it’s really no worse than what Planned Parenthood does!

But part of the blame for recent anti-abortion violence not getting the accurate description it is due – terrorism – also falls upon the broad swath of “mushy middle” people, including MSM people, who have treated the Center for Medical Progress video bullshit like it was legitimate from the very beginning. Hard to call something “terrorism”, when you are agreeing with Robert Dear on how terrible the “baby parts” make you feel.

It’s jarring to see doctors acting as negotiators as they dicker over the price of a fetal liver, heart, or brain, and then talk about how they meticulously go to the trouble of not crushing the most valuable body parts. This practice is perfectly legal, and for some people, it is just a business. With millions of abortions each year in America, business is good.

Who could forget Dr. Mary Gatter, council president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Medical Directors, when, in Video #2, she tells undercover investigators that it isn’t about the money—before she zeroes in on dollars and cents?

“Let me just figure out what others are getting, and if this is in the ballpark, then it’s fine,” Gatter said. “If it’s still low, then we can bump it up.”

Then, going for broke, she added: “I want a Lamborghini.”

I want a shower.

Being “mushy middle” apparently means not even having to acknowledge the ugly misogyny and violence being carried out by people who are in agreement with you about the Planned Parenthood “sting” videos. Ruben Navarrette (the columnist I quoted above) who obviously had much to say about those bogus videos, has written nothing about the Colorado Springs attack that I can find since it happened. He’s not the only one. I’m amazed at how many “I’m pro-choice but gosh darn it those Planned Parenthood videos bothered me so much!” pundits haven’t had shit to say about the shooting. Cat got their tongues?

UPDATE: AZ Senate President Andy Biggs(R) has no qualms about employing the very kind of “baby parts” calumny that inspired the Colorado shooter.

Biggs said he believes there are legal ways to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood’s non-abortion services.

“I think that there are ways to get at it and that’s what we are going to be trying to do,” Biggs said. “The second component of the measure we’re talking about is the prevention of their practices with regard to the abuse of the aborted babies – the bodies and body parts and trafficking in that.”

Note that the funds at issue do not go to abortion but to family planning and other health services. This isn’t about “baby parts”, it’s about sex.

And behold this eloquence:

Planned Parenthood-Arizona says it doesn’t transfer fetal tissue, but Biggs said he doesn’t trust their word.

“I don’t know that I’m acquiescent in their self-proclaimed righteousness there,” Biggs said.

Eyeroll.