Just one day after the announcement that George Tiller's clinic would be permanently closing James Von Brunn entered the Holocaust Museum and opened fire. Just hours before today's shooting it was announced that the anti-choice group Operation Rescue is considering buying the clinic and making it their new offices. Terrorism appeared to have won, and through cold blooded murder Scott Roeder had not only succeeded in shutting down the clinic but it even looked like people that were pushing the agenda he murdered for would be taking over the clinic.

Does anyone really think that it is just a coincidence that the shooting at the Holocaust museum came so quickly after the announcement of the closing of George Tiller's clinic? Is it not possible that maybe Von Brunn thought that he could shut down the Holocaust Museum in the same way that Roeder shut down Tiller's clinic?

It is time to stand up to hate groups like Operation Rescue who would seek to use the Tiller assassination as a means of pushing the same agenda that the terrorist who killed him was pushing. And make no mistake about it by even suggesting they will purchase Tiller's clinic Operation Rescue is clearly trying to use his assassination to their own advantage, and is in effect promoting this sort of terrorism. What Operation Rescue is doing is perfectly legal because as long as they don't directly incite violence they are well within their rights under the law, but that doesn't make their actions any less sickening.

We need to remember that Operation Rescue and hate radio talk show hosts are not the only groups with First Amendment protections however, we also have the First Amendment on our side and we need to fight back against the hate groups.

We have listened to them talk about the sanctity of life in one breath while celebrating the taking of life in Iraq in the next. We have listened to them vilify women, gays, immigrants, Muslims and welfare recipients. We have listened to them spew hate for far too long, and now we need to make sure they start listening to us.

Every time they lie we need to expose their lies not just to those who read the blogs, but to those in the general public who would be outraged if they knew what was being spewed about on right-wing hate radio. Picket their offices, boycott their advertisers and financial supporters, hand out fliers, write blogs, and expose to the world the kind of filth these people are pushing. We all have the power to speak out against Fox News, hate radio, and extremist groups like Operation Rescue, let's use that power to expose these people before they inspire yet another murder.