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Seriously TIME?
The left has seized on Bill Sparkman's still mysterious death as evidence that the "right wing" is inciting violence. Since the story broke, details have changed by the day.
Early on, people who were day dreaming of a Silence of the Lambs episode insisted that the word "fed" was carved into Sparkman's chest.
Democratic Underground user, aptly named "TheWraith," says that Sparkman was lynched and further speculated: "He had the word "Fed" written on his chest--and the fact that the police declined to say HOW it was written there makes me suspect it was carved into his skin." Andrew Belonsky of Gawker also repeated the "lynched & carved" wet dream.
A quick Google of "Bill Sparkman carved" will demonstrate just how wide spread this version is. All of the "carved" folks wanted a nice Chianti and some fava beans to be found in a Fox News viewer's house.
Another detail that has been struck down is that he had his Census computer with him at the time. He didn't according to Capt. Lisa Rudzinski, who's post is handling the investigation (I assume with the FBI). That is significant to the reporting of the story by the media because it suggests Bill Sparkman was not working as a Census taker at the time of his death. His badge could have been discovered after an altercation took place.
The units that 2010 Census takers use are equipped with GPS. There is a chance that the Census Bureau may know of the last location the unit was powered up, but that is only speculation.
The tragedy has also become convenient fuel for igniting talk of Fairness Doctrine-type policies. Rick Ungar wrote a piece called Send the body to Glenn Beck in which he declares: "Maybe the time has come for the FCC to worry a bit less about wardrobe malfunctions and a whole lot more about those who would use our airwaves to make a name for themselves at the expense of the public they are suppose to serve – particularly when the expense comes in the form of blood."
The hyperbole gets even more disappointingly stupid at Time Magazine. Cary G.Stemle ties 2008 McCain voters to the incident. "Speculation has run rampant that the Sparkman case may be related to the vitriol. Kentucky, like many other Southern states, voted overwhelmingly for Senator John McCain during the 2008 presidential election." A related stories section features Tea Party protests, Charles Manson and former Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska.
The Huffington Post's Gail McGowan Mellor wrote a piece in tune with the talking points and even excoriates "Big Coal" in the process. It is after her story, in the comments, that Gail really shines:
That's right, a 9/12 conspiracy. 9/11 Truthers weren't enough, so now we have our first 9/12 Truthers. Hot Air covers some more of these outrages and even touches on one where Neal Boortz is supposedly at fault.
What most of those in the blame Beck/Bachman/Rush etc... crowd want is a big bearded mountain man with an illegal firearm, a racist streak, and confederate flag in his pick up window.
A few have actually speculated that Sparkman is a casualty of the war on drugs. That is a war that was evidently lost in these writer's homes. Career criminals may have murdered him, but Nancy Reagan did not.
Just as Senator Ted Kennedy was used as a prop for Obamacare, Bill Sparkman's death is what the left wants to put on the tip of their spear as they use the FCC to drive it into the heart of talk radio.
All of this is a sad commentary on how this man's death has become a signal to draw the long knives and wait for the proper cue.
Bill Sparkman's death is still a mystery as of this writing. What it will be used for, is becoming very obvious.
Comments
The right-wing certainly appears to be inciting violence - it is not necessary to invoke this grisly murder to support that notion. The increased gun and ammo purchases, and crazy right-wing propoganda about nazis, muslims, Kenyans, communists and socialism together with the idea that the census leads to concentration camps all indicate that not all is well in the good ol' USA. The question is whether Bill Sparkmann's death was caused by nut-jobs inspired by those inciting violence, or nut-jobs inspired by something else. We don't know the answer to that yet, but I would be reluctant to call out people getting worried at the craziness increasingly apparent in the US.
Wow! If you have ever been to Kentucky you know it is a different way of life in the rural areas… It goes back to prohibition - They don’t like government in there lives. Maybe, just maybe this mans death should be left as tragic and criminal and not disgraced as a political angle. Anyone that tries to use this as ammunition (on either side) is the lowest of the losers and instantly discredited.
For 8 years the left has said the most outrageous things about Pres. Bush. Never once did anyone on the right set up straw men to blame for whatever lurks in the minds and is played out by evil people.
And yet, everytime the left is in power, they are simply incapable of dealing with any criticism or debate thrown their way. Talk about wussies. Grow up, you sophomoric boobs!
I happened under Clinton and now Obama.
Memo to all you dufus' on the left.
We oppose your policies!
It's no more complicated than that.
If evil doers act out, that is their doing, "they are to be held personally responsible". Not some boogey man you concoct in your own twisted mind.
But then again, "individual responsibility" is something the left has never understood. It's always someone else's fault.
bluto
The idea that drug dealers killed Sparkman is silly. They would have hidden the body. Someone that is hung against their will is lynched; someone with "Fed" marked on their body (apparently with a sharpie marker) is the victim of political violence. What we know indicates that the most likely scenario is rightwing violence. Perhaps more info will be released that dissuades us from this conclusion. billsparkman.blogspot.com
Of course the right wing is inciting violence in this country.
Its all they have left.
A "big bearded mountain man, etc.?" That image betrays your bias, and an analogous interpretation to those you are arguing against.
More likely: another Jim Adkisson, the man who killed Unitarians in Knoxville, TN. He wasn't a raving lunatic. He was an angry man, and left a coherent manifesto. Google: Adkisson Manifesto
Mostly, it sounds like the talking points of most PROFIT-DRIVEN right-wing media today. In this individual, the HYPERBOLE keeping the snake oil selling, found root and grew to a sadly logical end. He set out to kill those who he had been told, and later believed, were the authors of his sad, ruined life.
Sparkman:
Found NAKED, rope around his neck
Hands bound with duct tape, rag stuffed in mouth
Tape covered his eyes
Census ID taped to neck
The word "Fed" written on his chest.
He was DISPLAYED. HUMILIATED in death. What are you arguing? This is inconvenient for Beck, et al.?? I can't seem to find a tear.
Sparkman's commencement address is on Youtub
Kudo's to Bluto. My friend you are exactly right. Your comment "individual responsibility" is something the left has never understood. It's always someone else's fault." pretty much nails it. They have no legit argument so resort to personal attack, innuendo and blame "the other guy." They go nuts over folks like Beck who simply put the liberal faces on the screen and let their own words hang them. No pun intended.
This post was about how the left is exploiting the death with their theories and self promotion, coupled with big government power grabs.
Leftists then come on here and confirm this idea all the while hustling websites and YouTube videos to bolster their desired outcome.
This summer, a finger was bitten off by a MoveOn.orger, a pro-life activist was murdered, Union thugs beat up on old man in Tampa, a young Muslim shot up officers at a recruiting center and a case was dismissed against some "poll watchers" who stood outside a poll during last fall's election, wielding batons while dressed in para-military outfits.
Meanwhile, the left is mad that Glenn Beck boiled a plastic frog and cried on TV.
Hustling websites? This was a human being. The way Sparkman was displayed wasn't "Silence of the Lambs" enough for this author?
Bill Sparkman was a force for good in this world. He was a fighter that beat cancer and devoted his life to the education of youth. He was selfless, with no agenda other than to give.
And our public discourse has been reduced to which "side" is having more atrocities committed against them?
Jim Adkisson was a Vietnam vet. He served his country. He worked hard all of his life. He believed himself as a victim of the left, but was a victim of the right. Others believe they are victims of the right, and are victims of the left.
Meanwhile people are assaulted, shot, brutalized, and in some cases, hung in a tree and tagged like a deer.
So yes, Beck, Olbermann, Limabaugh, Huffington, Levine, Carville, ALL of these PROFIT (PROFIT PROFIT PROFIT)-DRIVEN wretches need to have a moment of silence and realize what they are doing to the fabric of this nation
We see the groundwork here for the right-wing defense of its continuing anti-government hysteria. Somehow the word "Fed" being not carved but written with magic marker will make the crime less heinous. The victim didn't have his census computer, which somehow is supposed to distract us from the fact, according to one of the folks who found the body, that "they had [his identification tag] duct-taped to the side of his neck." Whatever the Left's exaggerations and misstatements in this matter, the fact remains that Bill Sparkman could only have been murdered and is quite unlikely to have been murdered by a member of MoveOn.org. Only the fantasy land of Right-Wing World are the hyperbolic incitements of verbal thugs like Glenn Beck somehow irrelevant. Not that Beck and his brethren are responsible, but the paranoid mentality they speak for is certainly implicated.
LOL, trolling liberal blogs for crazy comments? Is this the new journalism? Didn't "snoopy1967", "spockfan4", or "voltronkrew" say anything crazier? Inquiring minds want to know! If we are going to set our standards so low, a trolling of right wing blogs would easily reveal racist, violent, and anti-government screed.
BingoBlue, there was no "trolling" of comments. Gail was the author, and her comment was the 4th or 5th one down.
I could care less about anon comments, but when an author displays such ridiculous ideas after writing such a long piece, it stands out.
I look forward to your condemnation of those right-wing bloggers who are now accusing Bill Sparkman of being a child molester.
"Ray" (who fires from the crowd, so he is too ashamed to use his real full name)
The Riehl piece was written AFTER this one. If I write on Sparkman again, I will address it.
Go get your own column, blog or user group.
I look forward to you being courageous enough to use your actual name.
Bordini, I don't see you condemning the right-wing commenters who use aliases, like hadEnough, bluto etc. But then like all right-wingers you are a hypocrite. Feel free to visit my blog (Google "To Hell with the mob", since you childishly taunt me for not having a blog, but don't allow the posting of URL's - another sign of your hypocrisy.)
Examiner.com does not allow posting of URLs. We have no control over it.
The comments that challenge me directly may get called out as I wish.
You don't get to demand anything of anyone around here.
Your blog sucks.
Thanks for commenting.
Yes. The right wing in this country is responsible for his death. Don't be surprised, and innocent man is dead today because of the Tea Party movement.
"His badge could have been discovered after an altercation took place."
His badge was found duct taped to his neck.
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