eBay removes last items in aberrant auction

Last night, the "prolife Bible" and "Catechism" were the first items posted in the Auction for Cowardly Assassinating Providers. Within the last half hour, they were removed. eBay had said they "would look into them". Seems they saw them as what they were: justification and glorification of violence.

Do expect Roeder's groupies to continue trying:

"I am very disappointed in eBay," Dinwiddie said. "I thought that was the last bastion of free enterprise in America with no political viewpoint, but I see I was mistaken about that."

eBay removes last items in aberrant auction

Scott Roeder Auction Items - Take a Look For Yourself

Talking Points Memo got pictures of some of the items being auctioned on behalf of Scott Roeder before they got pulled.

Word is there are still a couple of items that won't be pulled due to their "religious nature." Not sure on that but we'll keep looking and reporting them when we find them.

Scott Roeder Auction Items - Take a Look For Yourself

eBay Auction for Scott Roeder Begins . . . Then Gets Pulled

Those wacky anti-choice folks must have thought eBay was just joking when it said that an auction to raise money for Scott Roeder would not be allowed. They have started posting items to try and raise money for Roeder. Luckily eBay appears to be on it and has started pulling the items. The Associated Press reports that "some of the more obscure items were still posted Monday morning." If you're on eBay and see some of this trash, make sure you use the report link to report an inappropriate listing so eBay can get it pulled.

eBay Auction for Scott Roeder Begins . . . Then Gets Pulled

Great Analysis of the Roeder - eBay - Auction - Publicity Stunt

Mike Hendricks of the Kansas City Star has a great analysis of the publicity stunt that was the eBay auction for Roeder. We've reprinted it below. Until it disappears into the internet archives, you can read it here.

Mike Hendricks: Roeder not another John Brown, David

Little David slew the mighty Goliath and held aloft the Philistine's severed head.

Rembrandt and Caravaggio painted the bloody scene from 1 Samuel. Now comes Scott Roeder, the man charged with killing George Tiller. Roeder recently submitted for auction an autographed copy of a cartoon depicting his own version of the story.

"Tiller" is written across the forehead of the slain warrior. And for the role of David?

It's not spelled out, and as there is that presumption of innocence in our legal system, I'll leave it for you to decide what Roeder had in mind.

But biblical comparisons aside, Roeder's supporters have yet another notion of who Roeder represents to them, despite his not-guilty plea in the murder of the Wichita abortion provider.

He's a modern-day John Brown, reflecting the fact many in the anti-abortion movement compare themselves to the 19th-century abolitionists.

"We liken him to that," said David Leach, when I reached the Des Moines abortion opponent by phone last week.

Leach, along with Regina Dinwiddie of Kansas City, had tried to organize an online fundraiser on Roeder's behalf. Last week eBay put the kibosh on it (though Dinwiddie has said the auction will go on).

My interest, however, was in the comparisons, which are all over the Internet, between Brown, the anti-slavery crusader, and Roeder, the abortion foe. True, both were zealous believers in a cause.

"But it isn't just that they believed in it," Leach said. "There were actual human beings who were suffering that both intervened to rescue."

Roeder has admitted nothing. But he donated three cartoons to the auction, the stated purpose of which was to raise money to pay an attorney who would argue that Tiller wasn't murdered but instead was the victim of justifiable homicide.

"In my writings, I've been calling it the necessity defense," Leach said.

Chances of a judge allowing that defense in a Kansas courtroom are about as remote as Leach and his compatriots being able to raise the big bucks it would take to hire a lawyer willing to employ the risky strategy.

Even Leach acknowledges that Kansas law allows lethal force only "when the harm you're preventing is unlawful." And despite claims to the contrary by abortion opponents, Tiller's conduct in performing late-term abortions was lawful, as far as the legal system was concerned.

In short, the eBay auction was a publicity stunt aimed at confusing the issue. After all, what Roeder stands accused of is an act of cowardice, not nobility.

One Sunday morning in May, an armed assailant shot an unarmed Tiller to death at point-blank range in a church.

Dressing it up otherwise doesn't change that fact, or that the person who did it is a common murderer and no more.

Great Analysis of the Roeder - eBay - Auction - Publicity Stunt