In a dramatic turn of events, notorious late-term abortionist George Tiller has been murdered today in Wichita. As of this writing, there was no information available as to who wielded the gun outside a church at which Tiller served as usher.

Former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, who spent much of his career working to hold Tiller accountable for running the country’s largest late-term abortion mill, issued a statement:

“I am stunned by this lawless and violent act, which must be condemned and should be met with the full force of law. We join in lifting prayer that God’s grace and presence rest with Dr. Tiller’s family and friends.”

We join Mr. Kline in those sentiments.

While Tiller may have become the personification of evil, this crime was not justice. It is true that tens of thousands of babies died at his hands, but they did so largely within a legal framework created by our society as a whole. Tiller was merely the knife-wielding agent of death. We all share in the guilt of his heinous practice.

And that is why this killing will become a national tragedy. In the hands of a malicious media and skilled propagandists within the Abortion Lobby, the entire pro-Life movement will be tainted by this violence. Of immediate concern is the impact it will have on national policy.

Over the past couple of months, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was deservedly marginalized for publishing propaganda in the guise of “security alerts” – suggesting that the pro-Life movement was a breeding ground for “domestic terrorists” as dangerous as Al Qaeda. Now her defenders will use this event to dress her up as rational, even prophetic. More importantly, they will boldly use this killing as vindication of their plans to strangle public debate and opposition to socially-sanctioned abortion.

We ask for your prayers on behalf of the Tiller family and for the nation as a whole as we continue to reap the whirlwind of the violence we are sowing in the womb.

In our ongoing consideration of the threat posed by President Obama’s pledge to radically “reform” the American health care system, we have asserted that a nationalized health care scheme poses a threat to the infirm and elderly. But some have challenged our contention that Obama’s utopia will inevitably lead to rationed health care.

That argument comes despite plenty of available evidence from those in Canada and Europe who are now in bondage to such a system. But in liberal land, evidence never trumps ideological beliefs.

Perhaps such persons will believe their own president.President Obama announced yesterday that he and his agents will begin to reduce Medicare costs by penalizing hospitals who readmit patients within 30 days. The White House contends that this arbitrary rule could save $25 billion over 10 years.

The American Hospital Association responded to the action by issuing a public statement, reported by CNSNews: “There are a number of factors beyond the hospital’s control that whether a patient is readmitted, including the natural course of the disease, the limited availability of post-acute and ambulatory health care services, poverty among some hospital’s patients, and a lack of community-based social services.”

So why is the dapper, new Uncle Sam, so concerned about giving everyone in America free and easy health care, suddenly playing Uncle Scrooge and attempting to prevent patients from returning to the hospital if necessary? Money, of course. Just last week this same Administration announced that both Social Security and Medicare were, essentially, broke.

So even as Obama seeks to exponentially grow the government’s intrusion into health care, he must cut existing benefits to try and keep the wheels glued to the bus. From this vantage point, it is difficult not to see that a plague of irrationality has infested Washington. And it is that irrationality and political whimsy which will ultimately prove Obama’s health care plans to be a far more deadly plague on the American people.

After seeing our last posting on the very important issue of health care “reform” now being managed underground by Democrat leaders in Washington, Congressman Walt Minnick’s staff contacted us to share some of the work Minnick has already done to ensure that any reform measures are adopted in a fair and open legislative process.

In our previous update, we publicly challenged Minnick to take a fierce stand on behalf of all Idahoans to ensure that we have ample opportunity to challenge any “health” measures being imposed by President Obama – especially in the area of tax-funded abortions and policies designed to foster euthanasia.

John Foster provided us with a letter that Congressman Minnick co-signed on May 8th with some 44 other Democrat members of the Congress, urging three pivotal committee chairmen to abide by the regular legislative process. These members of the “Blue Dog Caucus” state that they are “increasingly troubled” by the immense groundwork being laid without input from members of Congress – including their group.

“[T]he process has yet to be structured in a way that includes the contributions of the majority of our [Democratic] Caucus,” the letter adds.

We are encouraged by this initial step by Congressman Minnick. We are particularly impressed with his staff. Minnick is to be commended, as we did Senator Crapo, for recognizing the huge threat posed by a short-circuited legislative process giving Obama a blank check to make revolutionary changes in the American health care system.

As a Member of Congress who helps maintain Speaker Pelosi’s power base, Minnick is, perhaps, in the best position of any Idaho delegate to defend Idahoans from Obama’s most outrageous plans.

While the letter is a good beginning, we must judge Congressman Minnick by the results. We note that his letter was addressed to three chairmen who are undoubtedly enjoying their tremendous power over the future of American families. Congressmen Waxman, Rangel and Miller are patently unlikely to yield their immense control voluntarily. It will likely take direct threats from Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer to ensure that this whole process is opened up to the American people.

Congressman Minnick and his Blue Dog colleagues will have to throw their collective weight around in a big way to wrest control from powerful leftists like Charlie Rangel. But the stakes in this battle are such that Minnick & Co. must do whatever is necessary to get that job done.

In addition, we challenge Congressman Minnick to use his influence to ensure that the final product coming out of Congress contain iron-clad safeguards for preborn children, the infirm and the elderly. This package, in defiance of Planned Parenthood’s darkest wishes, cannot be used as a back-door method for obtaining taxpayer paid abortions. Nor can it be used to force health care professionals and hospitals into delivering immoral medical services or denying life-saving treatment to those in need.

National Right to Life columnist Dave Andrusko published an important piece last week on the cold agenda underlying President Obama’s drive for “universal health coverage”. By creating a federalized system of health care, the leftists running the White House believe they can achieve their golden dream of “mainstreaming abortion”.

Through federal rules and a bureaucracy marshaled by flaming abortion fan Kathleen Sebelius, the Obama Administration intends to impose abortion on every corner, fold and laboratory of the health care system. They hope to make abortion coverage mandatory and accessible in every community, paid for by American taxpayers.

Andrusko quotes Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards as outlining the true health care agenda:

“I think the big picture is how do we make sure all women and families, regardless of their income, can get access to the full range of health care options, and I think health care reform is going to provide a platform for doing that.”

Her bold statement allows us to put various Obama initiatives into their proper perspective. For example, Obama’s attack on conscience protections is a vital step toward making sure that abortion is available on demand, regardless of income or location.

As we have observed in previous columns, abortion is only one chapter of Obama’s “Book of the Dead” being written for us. His health care agenda poses an equally lethal threat to older and disabled Americans who will soon face rationed treatment as a means to “controlling run-away costs”. Those outlandish costs, of course, will be the direct and inevitable result of the government’s take-over of our health care system.

What makes this all the more outrageous is that average Americans will get precious few opportunities to make their opposition felt. Like most of his radical agenda, President Obama and his allies in Congress are moving with lightning speed by circumventing the historical legislative process. The social engineers now in charge of the White House will certainly not risk a repeat of Hillary Clinton’s health care meltdown. They will not allow congressional hearings and oversight – our best opportunity for effective opposition.

This impending health care disaster may be the single most destructive act by President Obama in his entire term. The only greater crime will have been committed by members of Congress, who have abdicated their constitutional duty to scrutinize the demands of an ideologically-obsessed Executive Branch.

Our Fouding Fathers blessed us with a system of government in which there were three operational branches of government, checking, balancing and scrutinizing one another - regardless of party. At least for the time being, we seem to have just one.