Remember this gleeful bit of Leftwing assassination p0rn?
When Bill Sparkman was found hanged two months ago, with the word “Fed” written on his chest in marker, the Left was giddy in blaming Republicans, Michelle Malkin, Michelle Bachman, Glenn Beck, Limbaugh, teabaggers, yadda yadda yadda.
But WAIT!
A U.S. Census worker found dead in a secluded Clay County cemetery killed himself but tried to make the death look like a homicide, authorities have concluded.Bill Sparkman, 51, of London, might have tried to cover the manner of his death to preserve payments under life-insurance polices that he had taken out. The policies wouldn’t pay off if Sparkman committed suicide, state police Capt. Lisa Rudzinski said.
“We believe it was an intentional act on his part to take his own life,” said Rudzinski, who helped lead the investigation. [...]
The bizarre details of the death caused a firestorm of media coverage and widespread speculation on the Internet, including that someone angry at the federal government attacked Sparkman as he went door to door, gathering census information.
There has been some anti-census sentiment in the country this year, and Sparkman apparently tried to capitalize on that with his ruse. [...]
Tests indicated that the letters were applied from the bottom to the top — not the way an assailant facing Sparkman would write them. Police concluded that Sparkman wrote on himself, Rudzinski said.
Ultimately, there was no evidence to point to murder, she said.
Tests results showed that there was no DNA other than Sparkman’s on the rag in his mouth or on another rag found near his body. Those results, which police received only recently, were a pivotal development.
Other evidence also pointed to suicide as the manner of Sparkman’s death, police said.
For instance, there was no evidence that Sparkman had struggled with anyone. There were no wounds on his body, Rudzinski said.
Tests ruled out any theory that he was drugged and unconscious when he was tied to the tree, making the lack of signs of a struggle more significant. Also, Sparkman’s glasses were taped to his head. The question that raises is why a killer would care whether Sparkman, who had poor vision, could see what was going on.
On the other hand, if Sparkman was writing on his chest or preparing to kill himself, it would matter that he could see.
And although it is true that Sparkman died of asphyxiation from the rope around his neck, he was not dangling from the tree the way people commonly perceive hanging, Rudzinski said.
His legs were bent at the knee and his knees were less than six inches off the ground, Rudzinski said.
Wow, imagine that, Nancy Pelosi’s faux-concern really was unconnected to reality.
h/t Michelle Malkin
Comment by sdferr on 11/24 @ 5:22 pm #
MKH posted a fairly thorough rundown of the initial commentary as well.
Comment by Joe on 11/24 @ 5:26 pm #
The Speakman investigation shows that being Charles Johnson or Andrew Sullivan means never having to say you are sorry.
Charles Johnson is the Dwight Shute of the blogosphere.
Andrew Sullivan is more of a malicious hybrid of Michael Scott and George Costanza (who is also gay and into beagles).
Comment by B Moe on 11/24 @ 5:39 pm #
Does it really matter who physically put the rope around his neck?
Pingback by But Who Made Him Do It? : Conservative Compendium on 11/24 @ 5:44 pm #
[...] the entire conservative movement. Now that the Kentucky police have ruled it a suicide, prominent conservatives are asking where they can find the apologies from the [...]
Pingback by Kentucky Census Worker Officially Comitted Suicide, The Left Completely Pwnd : Stop The ACLU on 11/24 @ 5:53 pm #
[...] CBS News, The Jawa Report, RedState, AmSpecBlog, The Washington Independent, Michelle Malkin, protein wisdom, Fox News, Weekly Standard, TPMMuckraker, American Power, NewsBusters.org, Hot Air, The Other [...]
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 11/24 @ 5:58 pm #
Recall this gem from the reality community:
Mark Kleiman writes:
“Unless and until contrary facts emerge, I’m prepared to call this a terrorist incident, and to say that Glenn Beck very likely has Bill Sparkman’s blood on his tongue and lips.”
Under a post with URL titled:
http://www.samefacts.com/2009/09/watching-conservatives/terrorism-in-kentucky/
and Blog Titled:
Same FACTS
Comment by Bob Reed on 11/24 @ 6:18 pm #
A few weeks ago I saw a little noticed story about the Fed’s coming arounf to just this conclusion. At the time I remember wondering of there would even be an attempt to walk back all of the breathless rhetoric; when the nutroots declared him the victim of wingnut, tea-baggin’, militiamen gone wild…
But, I guess if the DU thread is gauge, they won’t even try…
Comment by jummy on 11/24 @ 6:22 pm #
sparkman case was suicide
lgf charles is following form, ultimately addressing the matter by claiming that he never claimed that conservatives were responsible.
and here he is saying what he never said:
one comment from mshaw notes:
that one comment sets off a persistent flurry of defenses from charles’ sycophants.
finally charles does what he must do:
the last defense i linked is funny because it claims that all theories were examined in an even-handed manner, with specific reference to suicide. the fact of the matter is that posters suggesting the suicide theory were down-dinged and banned for suggesting it and charles himself could not from the beginning believe that it could have been anything but murder by a conservative.
in his original post, there are twenty three deleted messages for contradicting charles’ certainty about the motive and cause of sparkman’s death.
here is charles line, in continuity:
next thread in which charles suspends judgement on the matter.
next thread:
when a minion suggests that conservatives are only looking for alternate explainations because they know as well as anyone that they’re responbsible charles readily assents to the logic:
next thread:
and so on.
again, the self-serving narrative that charles hasn’t radically rearranged his biases but that he’s remained a stable island of non-biased reason amid all of his former fellows going nuts is revealed to be an abject lie.
the real test of honesty will be whether this career hack ever posts about sparkman again.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/24 @ 6:32 pm #
Charles Johnson is too too gay I think. He trivializes my Internet.
Comment by Idly Awed on 11/24 @ 6:43 pm #
Such thick irony. An incident widely posited as confirmation of Redneck America’s bigoted intolerance, ultimately reveals the accusers’ bigoted intolerance.
Comment by Republican on Acid on 11/24 @ 7:01 pm #
LGF was a done deal for me when ALL Europeans opposing multiculti nonsense suddenly became right wing “nazi’s”.
Comment by McGehee on 11/24 @ 7:08 pm #
No more than it matters, to some, who physically put the bullet through JFK’s head, or who physically put the jets through the Twin Towers.
Harsh, but true.
Comment by McGehee on 11/24 @ 7:09 pm #
Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
Comment by alppuccino on 11/24 @ 7:15 pm #
#
Comment by RD on 11/24 @ 7:01 pm #
He should have spelled “fed” backwards. Man bites dog and all that.
BTW, outside of wingnut blogs, no one really gives a shit about this story.
Do you ever dream that you’re the stupidest person in the class and yet you just can’t stop being stupid? You’re not dreaming.
Comment by Mr. W on 11/24 @ 8:20 pm #
It really is a nothing story except for the utterly predictable pavlovian response of the media when they thought they could pin the death on Glenn Beck.
The media could use some fresh tricks; at this rate they may have to start reporting on that stench of epic failure eminating from the Oval Office.
Comment by Steve-O on 11/24 @ 8:43 pm #
Thank you, jummy. Charles didn’t just entertain the possibility that right-wingers were to blame. He actively pushed the idea.
Hell, Kilgore & iceweseal are STILL pushing it:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/showc/516/7896996
They are changing their line of attack, though. Now we’re bad people for celebrating when a man is dead?
I was once falsely accused of robbery. It was a humiliating, demoralizing experience. So, yeah, I wept with joy with the Judge called the charges “bullshit” & threw out the case.
Comment by LTC John on 11/24 @ 8:45 pm #
“Fake but accurate” morphs into “suicided but murdered”?
Comment by LTC John on 11/24 @ 8:48 pm #
#12 shows why meya/RD should probably go post on another blog, so to speak. When HuffPo et al breathlessly grasp the story as cudgel, when the Speaker of the Flippin’ US House of Representatives uses it as a political buckler…sure, nobody but those on the “Right” care about the story.
Please go be neutron-star dense elsewhere.
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 11/24 @ 8:58 pm #
BTW, outside of wingnut blogs, no one really gives a shit about this story.
You mean the left only cared about Sparkman when they thought Glenn Beck murdered him. At least your honest about your political grave opportunism.
Comment by Alec Leamas on 11/24 @ 10:02 pm #
I think that the real fun will be getting ahead of the Neo-commies and predicting how they will process the dissonance.
I think it will involve postulating that Sparkman was driven to suicide by listening to Glen Beck albums forwards.
Comment by Sharmutta on 11/24 @ 10:27 pm #
Kilgore Trout tea bags Charles Johnson.
Comment by LTC John on 11/24 @ 11:25 pm #
#21 – very nice. How about a Limbaugh-made-him-do-it angle? Or work in some sort of Palin blame somehow?
Comment by happyfeet on 11/24 @ 11:40 pm #
He must have been very unhappy. I get that. But the taping the glasses to the head thing… that’s not unhappiness that’s just weird.
Comment by Bruce Willis on 11/24 @ 11:52 pm #
Fed is dead baby. Fed is dead.
Pingback by Census worker Murder was not a murder after all | Political Byline on 11/25 @ 12:07 am #
[...] and there are a bunch of ‘em: The Other McCain, Raw Story, The Daily Dish, NewsBusters.org, protein wisdom, Weekly Standard, American Power, Another Black Conservative, Gateway Pundit, Riehl World View, [...]
Comment by Joe on 11/25 @ 6:54 am #
Michelle Malkin gives Andrew Sullivan a good whoopin over Sullivan’s Southern Man hyperbole over the Bill Sparkman death. He was the guy found hanging with Fed scrawled on him. It turns out it was a suicide insurnace fraud thing, not a murder. Sullivan started his whole questioning thing if this was a “Southern populist terrorism” whipped up by Fox News and right wing extremists (I guess than means Rush and Levin).
And Trig Palin was not in on the insurance scam either Andrew.
Comment by Rusty on 11/25 @ 7:06 am #
#23
Shorter. Boooosh!
Comment by Carin on 11/25 @ 7:15 am #
I see I missed the
funnonsense.Comment by daMamma on 11/25 @ 12:27 pm #
If it were suicide as they are now claiming. How then did he manage all that duct tape the way it was wrapped? For that matter, where did the role of duct tape go when he was finished taping himself up? It would also seem to me that instead of yammering on about his having no defensive wounds they would be yapping on about how his were the only finger prints found on all that duct tape.
Where were his clothes? They weren’t at the scene. There are just way too many unanswered questions for this to have been a suicide. Someone with power is involved.
Comment by B Moe on 11/25 @ 12:34 pm #
The director decided it just wasn’t moving the plot enough.
Comment by SarahW on 11/25 @ 1:34 pm #
#30 The roll of duct tape was found in Sparkman’s truck.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/25 @ 2:01 pm #
Someone with power is involved.
omg you’re a dork
Comment by McGehee on 11/25 @ 2:59 pm #
Anyone who doesn’t think someone can bind up their own hands with duct tape has never been really, truly drunk.
[...]
I’m just sayin’.
Comment by SarahW on 11/25 @ 3:38 pm #
Da Momma, Sparkman’s clothes were left in his truck, a little less than 50 yards away.
Comment by Alec Leamas on 11/25 @ 9:13 pm #
Yes, but as Da Momma and I would ask – who drove the truck fifty yards away after he supposedly hanged himself? Huh?
Comment by Spiny Norman on 11/25 @ 10:43 pm #
Jumpin’ Jeebus! I think you win.
Comment by Rusty on 11/26 @ 6:48 am #
#30
You want him to be murdered? He’s gone. Leave him be. We’ll never know what deamons drove him to this. Go find somebody living to represent your fears.
Pingback by update on census taker murdered by glenn beck : NO QUARTER on 12/12 @ 12:39 pm #
[...] a post on Protein Wisdom: When Bill Sparkman was found hanged two months ago, with the word “Fed” written on his chest in marker, the Left was giddy in blaming Republicans, [...]