Colorado middle school teacher on paid leave after being accused of assaulting a student for sitting during the Pledge of Allegiance.

Courtesy of the Times-Call:

A Lafayette middle school teacher is on paid leave pending the outcome of a police investigation into allegations that she assaulted a student who refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance on Thursday. 

Boulder Valley School District spokesman Randy Barber said that Angevine Middle School physical education teacher Karen Smith, who he called a 20-year veteran of the school district, is on paid administrative leave.

Beating students into showing respect for their country, gee that's a good idea. 

Having grown up in the 60's and 70's I know that approach to behavior modification quite well.

As it turns out the Boulder Valley School District has a policy which allows students to sit during the Pledge, but apparently physical education teacher Eva Braun did not get the memo.

Clearly Donald Trump's poison is spreading through the country.

This is America so you could not close out 2017 without yet another mass shooting. This one cost the life of a Colorado police officer.

Douglas County Coroner confirms shooting suspect in #CopperCanyonOIS as Matthew Riehl DOB 9/09/80 (pictured). Investigation still ongoing and being investigated by @DA18th Critical Response Team. pic.twitter.com/H6wT0klSQv

— DC Sheriff (@dcsheriff) January 1, 2018

Courtesy of the LA Times:

In a year racked by mass shootings, including the deadliest in U.S. history, a spasm of violence here on the last day of 2017 added one more to the grim tally. 

Four Douglas Country sheriff's deputies responding to a noise complaint were ambushed by a gunman who sprayed them with more than 100 bullets. 

All four were hit. Those who could crawled away. But Deputy Zackari Parrish, 29, was shot repeatedly and killed. 

Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said at a news conference that the officers were responding to a complaint about raised voices at the Copper Canyon Apartments in Highlands Ranch, about 12 miles south of Denver, at about 5:15 a.m.

One of the occupants of the building opened the door and let the officers inside.

However the other occupant, a Matthew Riehl, opened fire on the cops from his bedroom.

This led to a standoff lasting about an hour and a half, before SWAT entered the building and after an exchange of gunfire killed the shooter. (One of the SWAT officers was also wounded in the exchange.)

As it turns out the gunman was an Iraq war veteran with a grudge against the sheriff.

The Sheriff's name is Tony Spurlock, and Riehl even threatened to run against him in the next election: 

He is seen wearing an Iraq combat veteran hat in a Dec. 13 YouTube video in which he called Spurlock a “clown” and a deputy a pimp. 

“You know who’s going flub big time next election, Spurlock,” Riehl said in the video called “Fire Sheriff Spurlock.”

He said he was running against Spurlock as a libertarian. 

A video posted on Nov. 28 showed a traffic stop by a police officer in the city of Lone Tree — apparently taken inside the officer's car — that Riehl said was done illegally. He claimed the officer clocked the wrong driver, identifying the officer by name in the video and calling him "dirty."

"S---bag, dirtbag, liar," he says as the officer questioned the driver. "He's the boss, huh? He's the Nazi in charge with the stripes on his shoulder and the fake badge."

Yeah, nothing unhinged about that. 

I don't think he has officially been identified as such, but this Riehl guy sounds like a sovereign citizen type to me.

That would explain his lack of respect for law enforcement, and self identifying as a Libertarian.

For the record there were over 15,000 gun deaths in 2017, 344 mass shootings, and 316 incidents where a police officer was shot or killed.

I expect the numbers to be much the same in 2018.

Homeland Security informs officials in 21 states that Russians attempted to hack their election systems in 2016.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

Russians attempted to hack elections systems in Wisconsin and 20 other states in the run-up to last year's presidential election, Wisconsin officials said Friday. 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security notified states of the attempted breaches on Friday, said Michael Haas, director of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The attempt in Wisconsin was unsuccessful, he said. 

According to the Associated Press, Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia and Washington were also among the 21 states targeted. 

Wisconsin's voter registration system was targeted, as were election systems in other states that have a presence on the internet, Haas said. Haas said he did not know which states other than Wisconsin were part of the attempt by what Homeland Security officials told him were “Russian government cyber actors."

I am not at all convinced that these were only "attempts."

I think there had to be some successful hacks, and I would not to at all surprised to learn that there were a number of them.

I also think that ultimately we will learn that there more than 21 states targeted.

As I have said before, we are still at the beginning of all this and it is certain that there is so much, much more we are going to learn. 

Cheerleading coach fired for forcing students into splits. Also fired from previous job for exact same activity.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A Colorado cheerleading coach seen in a viral video forcing a girl into an extended split as she screamed in agony was fired from a previous job for the same thing. 

The 13-year-old cheerleader was shown crying and begging her coach, Ozell Williams, to stop as he pushed her to the ground during an exercise at a camp in June, reported KUSA-TV. 

The teen, Ally Wakefield, told the TV station she tore a ligament in the exercise, known as “breaking,” and her parents sent video of the incident to school administrators shortly after the cheerleading camp began. 

Williams, who oversaw the camp, was suspended Wednesday by East High School in Denver, Colorado. 

KUSA also reported that Williams had been fired from his paid consulting job last year after parents at Boulder High School complained about the forced splits.

There is a video of this but I refuse to post it here because it is too disturbing.  (If you want to see it just click the Raw Story link.)

I spent twenty years training in martial arts, and was also a gymnast as well as a coach, but only once did I ever see this barbaric training method.

It was in a dojo in Anchorage, and the sensei literally stood on my legs, which were in the split position, while giving instruction to the other students.

Fortunately for me I could already do the splits to there was no injury, just some mild foot shaped bruising on my thighs.  (That guy really hated me.)

As a coach myself I NEVER engaged in this type of forced stretching because I knew it to be harmful, which is something that is actually touched upon during your training to be a coach.

Sports are fun, and they should be taught with the idea of keeping them fun.

(Yes I know I have diverged from the usual topics covered here on IM, but damn this thing really bothered me. Don't worry back to politics after this. )

People are responding to Trump's Advisory Commission on Election Integrity request for information by withdrawing their voter registration.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Hundreds of voters are responding to the possibility their information will be shared with President Trump’s election integrity panel by withdrawing their voter registration, according to a Friday report. 

In Colorado, one of the states that is complying with part of the commission request, two clerks have seen a significant increase in voters withdrawing their voter registration, Denver’s ABC affiliate reported. 

In Denver, one clerk has seen a 2,150 percent increase in people withdrawing as voters over the past since July 3 compared to the first non-holiday week before. 

Colorado allows voters to withdraw online or make their information confidential by paying a fee. 

The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity last week requested all 50 states to upload publicly available voter information to a federal website. The information requested, in a letter signed by Vice Chair Kris Kobach, includes voter names, birth dates, the last four digits of Social Security numbers and party affiliation.

Okay does anybody else wonder if this was not he plan all along? 

Gerrymandering, voter ID laws, inviting Russians in to hack our election security, and now this.

I don't think our ability to exercise our constitutional right to vote has ever been as under attack as it is today.

Colorado man shoots and kills intruder, who turns out to be his son.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

A man in Colorado allegedly shot his adult son dead over the weekend after mistaking him for an intruder, authorities say. 

Frank Leo Huner Jr., 58, faces a second-degree murder charge over the death of his 33-year-old son Nicholas Huner at his Sedalia home on Saturday night. 

Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said via a statement on its website that Huner Jr. called dispatchers shortly after 10:15 p.m. to say “he had just fatally shot what he believed to be an intruder breaking into his home.” 

“During the call, Frank Huner identified the intruder as his adult son,” the statement added. On Sunday, Douglas County Coroner Jill Romain confirmed Nicholas Huner as being the fatal victim of a gunshot wound.

I am always struck by the fact that most of these these people purchase a gun to keep their families safe, and in so many cases it ends up costing one of their family members their lives. 

Just why does somebody fire blindly without first seeing whose life they are trying to take?

How is that EVER a good idea?

Conservative Colorado radio host who claimed that only Democrats commit voter fraud has been charged with...all together now....voter fraud.

Courtesy of WaPo:

The 2016 election was just a month away when Steve Curtis, a conservative radio host and former Colorado Republican Party chairman, devoted an entire episode of his morning talk show to the heated topic of voter fraud. 

“It seems to me,” Curtis said in the 42-minute segment, “that virtually every case of voter fraud I can remember in my lifetime was committed by Democrats.” 

On Tuesday, Colorado prosecutors threw a wrench into that already dubious theory, accusing Curtis of voter fraud for allegedly filling out and mailing in his ex-wife’s 2016 ballot for president, Denver’s Fox affiliate reported. 

Curtis, 57, was charged in Weld County District Court with one count of misdemeanor voter fraud and one count of forgery, a Class 5 felony, according to local media. 

The case is the only voter fraud investigation related to the 2016 election that has resulted in criminal charges in the state, the Colorado secretary of state’s office told Denver’s ABC affiliate.

A good rule of thumb when dealing with outspoken conservatives is that whatever terrible thing they are accusing the liberals of doing they themselves are actually doing instead.

It also works with racists and homophobes.

Colorado Congressman sneaks out back rather than face constituents angry about his support to repeal Obamacare.

While more than 100 people were waiting to meet with him, Mike Coffman sneaks out early from his own community event. #9News pic.twitter.com/NAZlXTKgQm

— Nelson Garcia (@9NewsEducation) January 14, 2017

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

Congressman Mike Coffman (R-CO) tweeted Friday that he was excited to return home to Colorado this weekend, but things didn’t go very well when he got there. 

On Saturday, his open meeting to chat with constituents at the Aurora Central Library was overwhelmed by voters particularly concerned about the fate of their health care if the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as Obamacare) is repealed — a plan Coffman supports — without a replacement put in place. Rather than meet with most of them or even address them, he left the event via a back door and escaped in a waiting vehicle.

Gee taking away people's health care and then sneaking out the back.

Yep sounds like a Republican politician to me.

Raw Story has more on the incident here.

One of Donald Trump's very few campaign offices in the swing state of Colorado is run by a 12 year old. No not Sean Hannity, a REAL 12 year old.

Source

Courtesy of KMOV: 

Donald Trump's campaign has some young blood among its leadership. 

And by young, that means 12 years old. 

In one of the most important counties in swing state Colorado, Donald Trump is relying on 12-year-old Weston Imer, who runs the Jefferson County operation for the Trump campaign. 

Jefferson County is one of the most populous counties in Colorado and is part of the Denver metro area. 

Imer is in charge of the operation where volunteers will gather and help get out the vote, and while sitting behind a desk may not be the coolest thing to do, he hopes to use the position to inspire others. 

"Get involved," Imer said. "That's what I'm going to say. Get involved. Kids need to be educated."

As it turns out Imer's mother is the person officially in charge of the campaign office, just like Vladimir Putin is the one officially in charge of Donald Trump. 

However Imer is the face of the campaign in Jefferson County and the one doing most of the work.

Actually if you think about it who better to get out Donald Trump's message than a person so close to his intellectual age?

But then again you can call me crazy but compared to most of the other folks helping Trump, like Michele Bachmann and Stephen Bannon, I think this twelve year old might be the most mature one of the bunch.

Hillary Clinton's new campaign ad uses Trump's words against him, again.

Okay I'm not going to lie that kind of freaks me out a little.

I try really hard to not think about Donald Trump as President, and that ad just brought all of my fears right to the surface.

Thankfully as of right now the polls are showing that even if Jesus himself came down to endorse Donald Trump he would probably lose the election.

In fact the Clinton campaign is so confident that they are not even going to bother to run ads in the swing states of Virginia and Colorado.

And that confidence is understandable since Hillary is now tied with Trump in Georgia which has not voted Democratic since 1992. You know, when Hillary's husband was on the ballot.

Yeah well confidence is fine, but over confidence is how that racist conservative turtle beat that totally awesome progressive hare in THEIR race. 

Colorado roofing company giving away AR-15's with each new roof.

Yes this image is on the home page of Weatherproof Roofing. NO I am not kidding. 

Courtesy of KRDO:

A roofing company in Castle Rock is offering a unique incentive to go through them to get your roof fixed. 

WeatherProof Roofing has begun a “Get a Roof, Get a Gun” promotion. 

Owner James Webb is giving out AR 15s to customers who choose services from WeatherProof Roofing. 

"We are the only roofing company in the country that is offering this. We figured we’d take a stand on what we believe," said Webb.

You know somehow celebrating having a new roof by receiving a gift which might require replacing it again seems a little odd to me.

I mean giving somebody an assault weapon is not like giving away a free toaster or coupons for a carwash to promote your company.

What happens if one of these customers gets drunk and starts shooting their promotional gift at cars driving by on the street, or finally gets fed up with the wife and decides that they know just the thing to finally shut her up?

Is the company legally at fault in a case like that?

Well of course not. This is America, where everybody deserves a chicken in every pot, an AR-15 in every gun rack, and a bullet in every intruder, barking dog, or nagging spouse.

Wait, so you mean if you're a Republican Chairwoman and you put a racist meme on your Facebook account directed at the President you could lose your job? Yep.

That's right this Linda Storm Sorenson thought that meme was fucking hysterical, and posted it on her Facebook page for all of her racist buddies to enjoy.

And I am sure they did.

Sadly for her the other Colorado Republicans did not get the joke.

Courtesy of The Daily Sentinel:  

The chairwoman of the Delta County Republican Party has resigned. 

Linda Sorenson, who had been embattled recently over sharing a racist meme on her Facebook page, resigned her post after a fourth accountability meeting held Thursday by the county’s Republican Central Committee. 

That meeting was looking into allegations that Sorenson and others made that her Facebook page was “hacked” and whether she violated party rules by endorsing a primary candidate. 

It is unknown if the committee will continue to investigate the matter — it was set to meet again for a final meeting next week — since Sorenson’s resignation makes the matter moot.

Hacked. I swear that is the go to excuse for EVERYBODY who gets caught doing something stupid on the internet. 

Look I know that it happens sometimes, but the most likely explanation is that this Sorenson woman is a fucking racist.

And clearly a racist who likes other racists, such as Rick Perry.

(H/T to Addicting Info.)

Sarah Palin fills her Facebook page with adoring comments directed at her from Twitter.

Play your cards right Willow and maybe I can find you a husband like I did for you sister.

So we have already mocked that barely attended conservative conference in Colorado, where Palin joined Cheeto Jesus on stage to rain down their patented brand of lunacy on the attendees.

So while we laughed at the fact that hardly anybody showed up and most of the media coverage focused on Palin's batshit crazy attacks on the Never Trump crowd, the Wendigo herself really seemed proud of it.

Here are just some of the pictures that she posted on Facebook:

Noticing a theme?

Yep after years of getting ridiculed by the press, and attacked by many former conservative supporters, Palin finds herself bombarded by the tweeted kindness of the unwashed morons who would actually attend or watch a conference like this one.

 No matter how small of a number that might be.

And she loved it so much she wanted to make sure everybody saw it for themselves.

"That's right Glenn Beck, Matt Lewis, and Facebook fair weather friends, these people still love me!"

Of course it probably helps that whoever put up the graphics undoubtedly weeded out the large number of negative comments that were tweeted along with the handful of positive ones.

But hey, a tiny bit of adulation is still a tiny bit of adulation.

Donald Trump and Sarah Palin sell snake oil in front of a dwindling crowd while outside protests turn violent.

Picture courtesy of the Daily Kos: 

As you all settle down for the long weekend, here’s a picture that speaks a thousand words. From MileHighBrendan’s Twitter via Red State (that those guys hate DJT even more than Kossacks do is just another confirmation of how truly bizarre this election is). 

“I can hardly see with the bright lights, but this is a tremendous crowd, wow!"

Oh yeah, "tremendous."

Of course this appearance at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver did make news but mostly because of the ignorant word salad spewed by a certain Wasilla Wendigo.

Courtesy of Biz Pac Review: 

Calling the #NeverTrump crowed “threatened,” Palin said, “That gang, they call themselves Never hashtag, whatever, I just call ‘em Republicans Against Trump, or RAT for short.” 

In answering the question of why Trump is winning, Palin quipped, “And you know it was really funny, to me, the ‘splodey heads keep ‘sploding over this movement because it seems so obvious. [Colorado Republican Senate candidate] Darryl [Glenn] wins, Trump wins, America will win because voters are so sick and tired of being betrayed. Politicians campaign one way and they govern another and that’s become the status quo.” 

The #NeverTrump people “want to take their [Denver] Nuggets ball home and stay home instead of vote because their guy didn’t win this time around. Now, you know, I shouldn’t call them thumbsuckers because they’re not all bad … I’m kidding. They are. And Hillary thanks them because she cannot win without them.”

I think the higher altitude always makes her especially hyperbolic.

Who am I kidding, she is always like this.

In other news the crowd outside the convention center was a little livelier than the one inside: 

Anti-Trump protests outside the Colorado Convention Center turned violent as presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump spoke inside to a crowd at the Western Conservative Summit. 

At least three people were arrested after protesters began pushing and shoving outside the venue, home of the three-day conservative conference, according to 9News Denver. 

Jeff Hunt, director of the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University, warned attendees about the melee after Mr. Trump spoke to the gathering inside for about an hour. 

“I do want to make a very important announcement about what is happening outside right now,” Mr. Hunt said. “There are protesters out there, there are arrests, there are fights taking place. I want you to be very careful.”

Speaking to mostly empty venues while the crowds outside call for your oddly coiffed head. 

Yep, things are going great for the Republican party right now.

Hey. look who's back to endorsing.

Courtesy of the Kiss of Death's Facebook page: 

I'm proud to endorse a proven warrior for US Senate in Colorado - Darryl Glenn is who this country needs! Over two decades of exemplary military service brought him honor and adulation for his intelligence, leadership skills, fiscal responsibility, and patriotism. His deserved recognition honed a servant's heart. He's one who proudly clings to God, guns and our constitution! 

Darryl Glenn is a conservative outsider needed to take Washington by storm. Colorado - please support Darryl Glenn for US Senate. 

Thank you! 

 - Sarah Palin 

Apparently this Glenn guy is the new rising star in Colorado conservative politics, so of course Palin smells opportunity. And I'm sure it does not hurt that he is black.

Helps to tamp down those rumors of racism.

Or as we call them here in Alaska, truths.

(Here is Glenn's nomination acceptance speech just chock full of conservative do whistles, attacks on Obama, and Right Wing red meat.)

It took a little while for Glenn to acknowledge Palin's endorsement but he finally gave the old girl some attention: 

“This is a true honor, and we look forward to working for brighter tomorrow together. It is time for Colorado to lead, and we are proud to have Sarah Palin on board,” Glenn said.

The Colorado Democratic party on the other hand was much quicker off the block:

Chris Meagher, Colorado Democratic Party spokesman had this to say about the endorsement: "It’s hardly a surprise that Darryl Glenn earned Sarah Palin’s endorsement today, considering he is one of the most extreme conservative candidates running for Senate. Just as Palin has shown for years that she is out-of-touch with mainstream America, Glenn – a climate change denier who has called Donald Trump a patriot – has shown he is out-of-touch with the people of Colorado."

So let's see if Palin's icy touch is still as potent as it once was at destroying political careers.

Trump supporters send death threats to Colorado GOP chairman.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

Donald Trump supporters are angry that all 34 of Colorado’s delegates went to Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). And they’re taking it out on the state’s GOP chairman. 

Colorado GOP Chairman Steve House started receiving death threats from Trump supporters on Sunday, according to a local Denver ABC News affiliate. 

Angry voters are complaining that the state’s multi-step system of caucuses — which allows party activists to select the state’s presidential nominating delegates that will represent them at the national convention in Cleveland this summer — unfairly shut out Trump. The Republican frontrunner himself has also argued the system was a “crooked deal” and that millions of his supporters weren’t able to have their voices heard. Other states hold primaries and caucuses that give voters the opportunity to decide who they want on as their party’s nominee. 

House’s telephone number was made public on the internet and, over the past several days, he has received more than 2,000 calls from people complaining about the process — including some that have threatened the safety of his family. 

“Do me a favor,” read one of the threats sent to House. “Get your gun, put it in your mouth, pull the trigger, I’ll call you back in two minutes. If you can’t do that, I’m gonna send somebody over to the house and help you.”

So is this what Sarah Palin meant when she said that the people would "rise up" if Donald Trump did not get the nomination? 

Sounds like they went from disgruntled voters to domestic  terrorists without missing a beat.

Welcome to Donald Trump's America kids.

The guy who shot and killed three people and injured nine others in the Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic actually tried to blow the place up as well.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

The man accused of killing three people and injuring nine others during a shooting rampage at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado last year told police he unsuccessfully tried to set off an explosion during this siege, according to authorities. 

Detectives said that Robert Lewis Dear Jr., who has been held without bond since the November shooting, told them he brought propane tanks to the Colorado Springs clinic thinking that they would blow up when he shot them. Dear did shoot them, but the explosion never happened, police said. 

This was one of several details included in a set of documents released Monday by a Colorado court. These documents — an arrest report and a set of search warrants — offer a new account of how the shooting spree unfolded. They also provide a glimpse at Dear’s state of mind, describing how he told detectives that he expected to go to heaven and “be met by all the aborted fetuses at the gates of heaven and they would thank him.”

I think expecting to be thanked by a bunch of fetuses is a pretty good indicator of mental illness. 

You know if this guy were inspired by ISIS we would be going after the individuals who inspired him to commit his act of terror and taking them out.

So with that in mind just when will the Feds lock this little prick up and throw away the key?

David Daleiden the guy behind the doctored videos attacking Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood shooter (Remember him?) claims that he is a "warrior for the babies."

Courtesy of USA Today: 

The man accused of killing three people during an attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic bellowed in court Wednesday that he is a "warrior for the babies." 

Robert Lewis Dear, 57, declared his guilt and said there would be no trial. He was in court to be formally advised of the 179 charges against him, including murder, after a shooting rampage Nov. 27 in Colorado Springs that also wounded nine people. 

Authorities said Dear mentioned "no more baby parts" during his arrest. Dear's attorney said the suspect's mental competency must be investigated before the case proceeds. 

“I’m a warrior for the babies,” Dear hollered, his wrists and and ankles shackled. Dear repeatedly interrupted his attorney during the hearing and said he wouldn't meet with him again. 

So for all of those folks on the Right desperately hoping that this guy was not an anti-abortion terrorist inspired by pro-life rhetoric, I guess your prayers went unanswered.

Of course fortunately for them a much more digestible terrorist attack has happened since so now the media will be focusing on that and completely forget this totally non-Muslim, non-ISIS related, terrorist attack.

Gee and here I was hoping that Donald Trump might call for the denying of all visas to pro-life members and fundamentalist Christians coming into this country.

No huh?

More details emerge abut Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Dear.

Courtesy of The New York Times:  

On Friday, according to officials, Mr. Dear entered a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, killing three people and wounding nine others with a semiautomatic rifle. The attack, which ended with his surrender to the police after a harrowing nationally televised standoff in the snow-dusted Western city, was a brutally violent and very public chapter in a life story whose details are not fully known. 

But in court documents and interviews with people who knew Mr. Dear well, a picture emerges of an angry and occasionally violent man who seemed deeply disturbed and deeply contradictory: He was a man of religious conviction who sinned openly, a man who craved both extreme solitude and near-constant female company, a man who successfully wooed women but, some of them say, also abused them. He frequented marijuana websites, then argued with other posters, often through heated religious screeds. 

“Turn to JESUS or burn in hell,” he wrote on one site on Oct. 7, 2005. “WAKE UP SINNERS U CANT SAVE YOURSELF U WILL DIE AN WORMS SHALL EAT YOUR FLESH, NOW YOUR SOUL IS GOING SOMEWHERE.” 

A number of people who knew Mr. Dear said he was a staunch abortion opponent. Ms. Micheau, 60, said in a brief interview Tuesday that late in her marriage to Mr. Dear, he told her that he had put glue in the locks of a Planned Parenthood location in Charleston. “He was very proud of himself that he’d gone over and jammed up their locks with glue so that they couldn’t get in,” she said. 

One person who spoke with him extensively about his religious views said Mr. Dear, who is 57, had praised people who attacked abortion providers, saying they were doing “God’s work.” In 2009, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concerns for the privacy of the family, Mr. Dear described as “heroes” members of the Army of God, a loosely organized group of anti-abortion extremists that has claimed responsibility for a number of killings and bombings.

Of course the investigation is still ongoing, and currently the Colorado Springs police are keeping mum, but there is already a rather stark picture emerging of Mr. Dear, and his potential motivations.

And that was enough for one activist group in Colorado to move to hold certain politicians accountable: 

At a gathering of reporters at the Colorado State Capitol Tuesday, Amy Runyon-Harms, director of ProgressNow Colorado, said: “It’s time to name names. It’s time to call out and stop this dangerous campaign of lies from right-wing politicians before more lives are lost.” 

Runyon-Harms asked three Colorado politicians to apologize for their “extreme” anti-Planned Parenthood rhetoric, which, she said, played a role in inciting a man to kill three people Friday at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. 

“It must stop, and stop now,” Runyon-Harms said. “We call on right-wing politicians across the state and nation to stop their false attacks on Planned Parenthood, and apologize for lies that are directly contributing to politically motivated violence in America today.” 

The three elected officials, all Republicans, spotlighted at Tuesday’s news conference were U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, state Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt (R-Colorado Springs), and state Sen. Tim Neville, who represents a West Denver suburb and is running for U.S. Senate.

Of course this is what the conservatives have feared would happen all along, and it certainly looks like this tragedy is going to cause them quite a number of problems moving forward.

It is just too bad that innocent people had to die before people woke up to the fact that this anti-Planned Parenthood rhetoric was not simply harmless propaganda.

Colorado Springs police say they are not going to release motive for the Planned Parenthood shooting. WTF?

Courtesy of Salon: 

Colorado Springs police say they will not disclose why a gunman opened fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic, killing three people. 

Police say in a statement Sunday that they are sealing the warrants related to the case against 57-year-old Robert Lewis Dear. They say they are not providing information on the weapon used in Friday’s shooting, a timeline of events or a motive of the suspect. 

That will continue to stoke speculation about what led to the shooting that killed a police officer and two other people. Dear is scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday afternoon.

Okay not to be too conspiratorial here but for what reason could a police department have for not releasing this kind of evidence to the media?

I mean usually by this time there have already been a number of police statements as to the motive, condition, and attitude of the defendant. Yet in this case mums the word?

Could it be due to the fact that Colorado Springs is a conservative community, and that many of its residents are deeply religious, that is keeping the police from releasing information which might indicate that Mr. Dear is a fundamentalist with opinions about abortion that were tempered in the fires of religious rhetoric?

That is certainly what the evidence is starting to suggest:

A username apparently connected to Robert Lewis Dear, who is accused of fatally shooting three people, may shed light on the dark side of a man who was a mystery to many until he allegedly opened fire in the Colorado Springs clinic. 

The user posted a series of paranoid, Biblical rants on the message boards for Cannabis.com nearly a decade ago. 

“aids , hurricanes, we are in the end times,” one post from December 2005 read. 

“accept the LORD JESUS while you can.” 

Another post weeks later declared: “A FOOL HATH SAID IN HIS HEART THERE IS NO GOD,” adding: “PROVERBS.” 

Yet another said: “god made us so he can kill who he wants...the lord giveth the lord taketh away blessed be the name of the LORD.”

It is still too early to jump to conclusions, but that is why it would be very helpful for the police to cooperate with the press and let the public know just who this guy is, and what motivated him to murder three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic.

However it is clear that anti-abortionists are already getting their talking points prepared for if, and when, it turns out this guy was motivated by their rhetoric.

Last night Nancy French, hiding within her faux Bristol Palin camouflage, had this to say about the killings:

I join with the rest of America in grieving over this senseless violence and am deeply saddened that three more souls were added to the countless others who’ve lost their lives at that location.

Which is almost verbatim what Mike Huckabee is also saying:

“There’s no excuse for killing other people, whether it’s inside ... Planned Parenthood clinics, where many millions of babies die, or whether it’s people attacking Planned Parenthood,” Huckabee said.

Of course their argument is at least somewhat more coherent than the one made by Ted Cruz: 

When a reporter reminded the Texas senator that the suspect allegedly made a comment about “baby parts” while being arrested, Cruz countered, “It’s also been reported that he was registered as an independent and a woman and transgendered leftist activist, if that’s what he is.”

WTF?

So you see even if Mr. Dear was motivated by those doctored videos, or anti-abortion rantings (Which the conservatives want to point out is NOT proven yet!), it is really no big deal because thousands of potential human beings are killed at that location all of the time. And besides that he is probably a transgendered Democrat who is voting for Hillary, so what's all the fuss?

Of course if the Colorado Springs police would disclose more information we might be able to clear all of this up. But it does not appear they are going to do that anytime soon.