Brian Burgess: Worst Media Communication Person Ever

This is no exaggeration. I have corresponded with Burgess on Twitter. I can't believe a man this immature would be hired to handle traditional and new media communications for Gov. Rick Scott. Miami Herald reporter Marc Caputo inquired about a coffee get together Scott was having with members of the legislator. Burgess sent him back this e-mail.

"Coffee with 10 legislators - purely social," he said by email. "But thanks for ruining a perfectly good Saturday with my family so you could be first to report the non-story."

Burgess told me on Twitter that I was wrong about Scott staffers using using private e-mail accounts to avoid Florida's Sunshine law. Yet that is what Burgess did in forwarding Caputo's inquiry. Burgess also fires off more passive aggressive snark at Caputo.

Burgess wouldn't or couldn't say. He then forwarded the correspondence from his public email account to his private email account and asked this of Scott higher-ups, Hayden Dempsey and Spencer Geissinger: "Do we have the names of the people who will be enjoying a smile and warm cup of coffee with the Governor on Tuesday morning? Mr. Marc Caputo, copied on this email, believes Floridians will be clamoring for this information and hopes to attract dozens of hits to his blog. I would like to accommodate him in the spirit of openness, transparency and friendship."

This is the guy that is suppose to win the media over and get Scott good coverage. Keep attacking the media, Brian. That is bound to help your boss' low approval ratings.

Update: below Burgess worked for Scott he worked for District Attorney Phil Kline. It was Kline's personal quest to prosecute Dr. George Tiller. Burgess said this about the Kansas media in an e-mail.

“I really don’t miss some of you dipshits at all. Have fun in your world of make-believe.”

I say again. This is the man hired to garner Rick Scott positive media coverage.

Update: Burgess is paid $$110,000.04-a-year for his tactful skills with the media. Burgess' title is (I'm laughing as I type this) Director Of Press Relations.

Randall Terry Is Still Vile

Randall Terry is the founder of Operation Rescue. The anti-abortion group had links to Scott Roeder. The organization's web site gives information on abortion providers. Accused murderer Scott Roeder was in contact with Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue. The latter gave information to Roeder about Dr. George Tiller's daily whereabouts. Sullenger served two years in prison for attempting to blow up the Alavarado Medical Center abortion clinic.

Terry is holding a Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid "Burn in Hell" video contest on the internet.

"If Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid force us to pay for child killing and they die unrepentant, they will burn in hell for this," Terry said in a telephone interview.

A few facts: Harry Reid is anti-abortion. Reid's position is abortions "should be legal only when the pregnancy resulted from incest, rape, or when the life of the woman is endangered." Apparently, Terry has no problem risking a woman's life to further his extremist views. Another fact is the Hyde Amendment bars federal funds for being used for abortions. Terry is factually incorrect. Facts don't matter to Terry. This is a man that attempted to deliver President Bill Clinton a dead fetus.

Terry is trying to stir up others to commit violence. It doesn't matter that Scott Roeder was linked to Terry's former organization.

"The man, as far as anybody knows acted on his own," Terry told the media. We know Roeder was aided by Sullenger. She admitted she gave Roeder Tiller's daily whereabouts. Terry is simply lying. Terry goes on to call Tiller a "mass murderer" and "reaped what he sowed" and was a "evil man."



There is no compassion in Terry's Christianity. In a different era, Terry would have supported Canon law allowing the stoning of women and blacks sold as property. In early America, that was considered perfectly Christian. Terry is a hateful man. Tiller was murdered a member of the anti-abortionist movement. Terry uses Tiller's death to attack a man whom can no longer speak for himself. It is just as cowardly as Terry's latest efforts to get others to do his violent bidding.

O'Reilly Brings Coulter To Discuss George Tiller

Bill O'Reilly brings Ann Coulter to talk about the Left's reaction to O'Reilly's years of hatemongering reporting on abortion-provider George Tiller.

Money quote from Coulter:

"I don't really like to think of it as a murder. It was terminating Tiller in the 203rd trimester."

O'Reilly must really need a shoulder to cry on if he is bringing Coulter on to attempt to make himself look morally just. Tiller will be the defininbg moment of O'Reilly's career. He can bring on try to reframe his reporting all he wants. The fact is as mere journalism his reporting was shit. Tiller's death brought his years of demonizing Tiller to the mainstream and the GOP and elite conservative pundits aren't coming to O'Reilly's rescue.

Compassionate Conservatism: Wiley Drake Edition

The Rev. Wiley Drake has prayed for the deaths of Barry W. Lynn, Joe Conn and Jeremy Leaming of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Drake prayed for the death of Dr. George Tiller. Scott Roeder gave him his wish. Drake told Alan Colmes he was "happy" that Tiller is dead.

“This man, George Tiller, was far greater in his atrocities than Adolf Hitler,” Drake said. “So I am happy. I am glad that he is dead. Now I am sad that he went to hell, because he had a choice just like everybody else did. He could have chosen Jesus Christ and when he died went to heaven. But he chose the devil. He chose to neglect, he chose to reject Jesus Christ. And therefore on Sunday morning when he breathed his last breath there in the Lutheran church, he breathed his last breath, and he slipped into the presence of the devil. And I have a strange hunch and a strange feeling that there is a special, superheated, super-hot place in hell for people like George Tiller.”

Tiller is now praying for the passing of President Barack Obama.

Asked if there are others for whom Drake is praying "imprecatory prayer," Drake hesitated before answering that there are several. "The usurper that is in the White House is one, B. Hussein Obama," he said.

Later in the interview, Colmes returned to Drake's answer to make sure he heard him right.

"Are you praying for his death?" Colmes asked.

"Yes," Drake replied.

"So you're praying for the death of the president of the United States?"

"Yes."

Drake told Colmes he didn't pray for Tiller to be murdered. Just for the doctor to die. That sounds rather disingenuous from a man that is happy after learning of Tiller's murder. Drake is teling people don't look at me. Drake just yelled fire. Don't blame him if people get trampled trying to get to the exits. Drake shows no remorse and goes on a news program telling Americans he would like to see Obama die. One can hardly call that responsble discourse. Drake desperately wants to cast blame away from himself and the Christian Right movement by spreading a conspiracy theory that Obama is involved in Tiller's death.

Wiley Drake told me on radio that he did not support the declaration suporting Kopp and that he asked the Army of God to take his name off that declaration. He did say that he suspects that somehow Obama is connected to the death of Tiller, as that side of the debate benefits from such an action.

I don't believe Drake believes Obama ordered Tiller's killing. Drake would be Obama's biggest support if his disturbed mind actually thought the President was assassinating abortion-providers.

We All Are Dr. Tiller

I suggest you check out the blog I Am Dr. Tiller. Abortion providers submit posts to commemorate the memory the late Dr. George Tiller.

Anti-Abortionists Rewriting Their History

Amanda Marcotte has a Reality Check podcast on the murder of abortion provider George Tiller. I highly recommend you listen to the podcast.

There are a few things Marcotte discussed that I want to touch upon. Bill O'Reilly uses inflammatory speech to boost ratings. O'Reilly said Tiller was running "a death mill" and labeled him "Tiller the baby killer." Watch the video and judge for yourself if O'Reilly is attempting journalism or throwing red meat to his audience.



O'Reilly made this statement on his November 3, 2006 Talking Points Memo.

"In the state of Kansas, there is a doctor, George Tiller, who will execute babies for $5,000 if the mother is depressed. And there are rapists impregnating 10-year-olds who are being protected by abortion clinics. It doesn't get worse than that. This is the absolute shame of America."

The old show bisiness saying is "give the audience what they want." The Fox News audience does not want investigative reporting and wonky analysis of policy. They want profession wrestling-style screaming matches and words that make their blood boil. O'Reilly did 29 segments on Tiller. O'Reilly can present himself as the pro wrestling-style hero battling his evil opponent.

"No question Dr. Tiller has blood on his hands. But now so does Governor Sebelius. She is not fit to serve. Nor is any Kansas politician who supports Tiller's business of destruction. I wouldn't want to be these people if there is a Judgment Day. I just -- you know ... Kansas is a great state, but this is a disgrace upon everyone who lives in Kansas. Is it not?"

If that isn't inflammatory language than I don't know what is? O'Reiily has the right to free speech. That freedom has consequences. O'Reilly responded to Tiller's death by attacking Daily Kos, the Kansas City Star and Mary Mapes. O'Reilly desperately wants to turn attention away from his comments. His ratings will tank if viewers believe he has (to quote O"Reilly) blood on his hands.

It took just minutes after the report of Tiller's murder for the far-left loons to hit the websites. Postings on the Daily Kos and The Huffington Post immediately blamed me and Fox News for inciting Tiller's killer. Even though I reported on the doctor honestly, the loons asserted that my analysis of him was "hateful."

Chief of among the complaints was the doctor's nickname, "Tiller the baby killer." Some pro-lifers branded him with that, and I reported it. So did hundreds of other news sources. But the bigger picture here is the glorification of Tiller.

Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry and three other members of the organization were arrested for attempting to deliver a fetus to (then Governor) Bill Clinton. Operation Rescue employee Cheryl Sullenger went to prison for attempting to blow up an abortion clinic. Rachel Maddow reported on Sullenger notifying Scott Roeder of Tiller's movements. Andrew Sullivan reported, that Roeder commented on going inside Tiller's church, on the Operation Rescue message board.

Terry wrote an op-ed titled "We Didn't Kill George Tiller."

Abortionist George Tiller is dead.

I grieve for him that he did not have an opportunity to properly prepare his soul to face his Maker. Unless some miracle happened, he left this life with his hands drenched with the innocent blood of tens of thousands of babies that he murdered. Surely there will be a dreadful accounting for what he has done.

It now falls to pro-life leaders like myself to stand strong and unflinching in the face of the unjust criticism we will now endure because of his killing. And so I turn my attention to the attacks that will follow his death.

Much like O'Reilly's op-ed, Terry seeks to turn attention away from the anti-choice movement's history of harrassment and assassination attempt against Tiller. O'Reilly and Terry portraying themselves as victims is sickening. Tiller is dead and they aren't brave enough to stand by their past deeds.

O'Reilly and Terry are tough culture warriors but pleed for sympathy when public opinion is turning against them. O'Reilly and Terry continue to attack the dead Tiller's role as a abortion provider. Yet they refuse to acknowledge alleged killer Roeder's connection with Operation Rescue. Anti-abortionists are engaging in revisionist history. Their real history is too shameful for them to keep on the public record.

Bill O'Reilly's Free Speech

Litbrit has a post about free speech and Bill O'Reilly's series of inflamatory against George Tiller. I agree with Litbrit's assessment that O'Reilly's speech is protected. I question if O'Reilly believes half the opinions he spouts on his show. A man whom pals around with Jon Stewart and Bill Maher isn't as conservative as on The Factor. Maher publicly said so on his show.



Bill O'Reilly exists because conservatives create a market for shock jocks. The more outlandish the statement the higher the ratings. O'Reilly is his generation's Morton Downey Jr.

In the 1980s, Downey was a talk show host at KFBK-AM in Sacramento, California,[1] where he established his abrasive and much imitated right wing, populist style, relentlessly deriding anyone who disagreed with him or had a liberal point of view. Downey's success, coupled with the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, laid the groundwork for more aggressive, opinion-based talk radio. His work led to the "trash talk" genre of Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, Ricki Lake, Steve Wilkos and many more. His quarrel with fellow radio talk show host Wally George (with each charging that the other was not conservative) on George's talk show led to police tackling Downey to the ground.[2] The man who succeeded Downey at KFBK was Rush Limbaugh.

Downey's largest effect on American culture came from his very popular, yet short-lived, syndicated mid-1980s television talk show, The Morton Downey Jr Show.

O'Reilly got into a shoving match with an Obama staffer and settled a sexual harassment case out of court. O'Reilly behavior would get him fired by most employees. Rupert Murdoch's bottom line is shock pundits creating controversy. Controversy makes people take notice. Ratings begin the spike. Journalistic accuracy and civil discourse take a back seat to the mighty dollar.

There will always be people like Bill O'Reilly. Ignorance and fear create a market for hateful speech. Education and tolerance is the best way to put O'Reilly out of a job.

The Scott Roeder and Operation Rescue Connection

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Rachel Maddow does a disturbing story about the connection between George Tiller's accused murderer Scott Roeder and Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue. Sullenger originally denied knowing Roeder. Evidence later forced Sullenger to admit she had several telephone calls with Roeder. Sullenger used her Twitter account to track Dr. Tiller.

An interesting sidenote is Sullenger went to prison for attempting to blow up an abortion clinic.

Quote of the Day

"The murder of Dr. George Tiller, who was shot to death as he stood in the foyer of his church in Wichita, Kan., on Sunday morning, was a reprehensible act of domestic terrorism directed toward the dwindling cadre of physicians who risk their safety to perform legal medical procedures."

The New York Times editorial board.

Worst Headline of the Year

William Saletan latest Slate op-ed is titled "Is it wrong to murder an abortionist?" The question does not even need to be asked. In case Saletan is wondering the answer is yes.

Saletan comes up with the solution to end abortions. Unfortunately for Saletan, the pro-choice movement has been preaching birth control for years.

If you don't accept what he did, then maybe it's time to ask yourself what you really believe. Is abortion murder? Or is it something less, a tragedy that would be better avoided? Most of us think it's the latter. We're looking for ways to prevent abortions—not just a few this month, but millions down the line—without killing or prosecuting people. Come and join us.

The Christian fundamentalists that make up the anti-abortion movement only support abstinence-only sex education. The conservative state Texas teaches abstinence-only sex-ed. During Gov. George W. Bush's tenure, Texas was ranked last in teen birth decline for the ages of 15 to 17. The Bush administration literally had no science to back up that abstinence worked. They cooked the numbers and forced scientists to attend abstinince workshops.

One scientist, recently departed from a high-ranking position at the CDC, recounts that, on one occasion, even top staff scientists at the agency were required by the administration to attend a day-long session purportedly devoted to the “science of abstinence.” As this source puts it, “out of the entire session, conducted by a nonscientist, the only thing resembling science was one study reportedly in progress and another not even begun.”8 Despite the absence of supporting data, this source and others contend, CDC scientists were regularly reminded to push the administration’s abstinence-only stance. As he puts it, “The effect was very chilling.”9

The anti-abortion movement and Republicans have no interest in promoting birth control. The Catholic Church has denounced the use of all birth control. Pro-Life America has a web page calling forms of birth control abortion. This is scientifically ignorant. Birth control keeps the sperm from fertilizing egg.

Physicians across America -- and around the world -- are now confirming that the Pill, IUDs, Depo-Provera and Norplant cause early abortions.

Saletan has penned horrible op-eds on reproductive issues. Contemplating whether George Tiller deserved to live and having the fantasy the anti-abortion movement is willing to discuss birth control are new lows for him.

Jill Filipovic:

Fourth: Saletan is right that the reason pro-lifers are able to say that killing abortion providers is wrong is because they don’t actually equate fetuses or fertilized eggs with born human beings. Of course they don’t. But he fails to adress the issue of why these groups oppose abortion and birth control so strongly — he only offers the idea that there’s a “third way” of trying to decrease the abortion rate through prevention (which is actually the long-time pro-choice position and not exactly a new invention, but if it makes Saletan feel good to think he invented the Pill, then ok). In fact, anti-choice groups have a widespread social agenda that is about much more than just ending abortion. They’re against birth control. They’re against single parenthood. They’re against egalitarian parenting. They’re against planning the number and spacing of your children. They’re against women who work outside the home. They’re against any challenge to the nuclear, male-dominated family where Dad is in charge and Mom stays home and has as many babies as God gives. Think maybe that their real agenda in opposing abortion is about controlling women?

Short answer: anti-abortionists are sexist.

Tiller's Death Brings Out Worst In Bloggers

Megan McArdle writes a long and bizarre post defending the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller. Authorities have captured Scott Roeder. The suspect has a long history of militia involvement and voicing his desire to kill abortion providers. The fact McArdle would want to defend the actions of such a tainted individual makes me question her common sense.

Perhaps I find the certainty of the pro-choice side so disturbing because it feels a lot like the certainty of the warbloggers in the run up to the Iraq invasion. As some of Hilzoy's commenters point out, I was myself too caught up in it, which makes me cautious of getting caught up again. The pro-choicers seem to be acting as if people who shoot abortion doctors are some weird species of moral alien, whose actions can only be understood in Satantic terms, and who cannot and should not be negotiated with, because they only understand raw displays of power. Yet it seems to me that if I were in a society that believed fervently in the personhood of a fetus, I would very possibly agree, and view Tiller's murderer the way I'd view someone who, say, assassinated Mengele.

What we learned was McArdle's judgement was horribly wrong with Iraq and now with the Tiller murder. McArdle grew up in an Upper West Side of New York City. She was educated at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania and lives in the Washington, D.C. bubble. This is a woman that has not had a tough life. McArdle views Tiller's murder and the Iraq war as an intellectual debate.

I am aware that I have constructed my beliefs about personhood in the face of these things--like any good undergrad, I know the answer I need to reason to in order to ensure both social comfort and maximum personal freedom. I like to think that I am too rigorous a thinker to be seduced by such ephemera.

Coffeehouse debates with D.C. friends has little relevance with the real world. McArdle writes that she has pro-choice leanings. Her problem is the tone of the pro-choice movement makes them fail to understand why someone would want to murder a doctor at his choice. Excuse me, but I wonder if McArdle would feel that way if Tiller was gunned down a few feet from her.

If you interpret this murder as a political act, rather than that of a lone whacko, than this should be a troubling sign that the political system has failed. So why do so many people think that the obvious answer is simply to more firmly entrench laws that are rightly intolerable to someone who thinks that a late term fetus is a person?

McArdle's worldview is influenced by Ayn Rand and Libertarian economics. Find a feminist whom supports Rand theories? Name a good Libertarian economic idea? McArdle has a history of being and and ridiculed in the blogosphere. McArdle argues in the post her parents restrict her "autonomy by continuing to be alive." McArdle makes it clear she has no desire to murder her parents. I wonder why she even went there. It is rather morbid to write on a media blog how the death of McArdle's parents would financially benefit her. That is a sick line of thinking.

In Other News: John Aravosis is angry President Barack Obama backed down on the Homelan Security demestic terrorism report. Aravovis' logic is if Obama looked "to the future" Tiller's murder could now be used for political advantage. Aravosis' compassion is underwhelming.

Note that had Obama held firm in the face of the criticism last month, he'd be riding high right now and the GOP would be cowering in shame for having basically enabled this terrorist act. But Democrats rarely look to the future, nor do they see benefit in having a spine or doing what's right. And now a man is dead.

Remember what I wrote only a month ago about the religious right demanding the right to kill. Today, in church, they exercised that right. As they have in the past. As they will in the future.

In case you are wondering, Aravosis lives in Washington, D.C. It must be something in the Potomac River. This is America. We don't gun down people in church just because we disagree with them. The one trait McArdle and Aravosis share is neither of them give a damn about Tiller. The doctor is a prop for their political arguments and bad blog posts.