POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

The Census Worker Killing [UPDATE x3]

Bill Sparkman, a census worker in rural Kentucky, was found dead in Daniel Boone National Forest on September 12th, the date of the massive Tea Party Protest in Washington, DC, by people visiting a cemetery.

The AP reported on the incident in such a way as to stimulate leftist outrage. Among the details released was that he was hanged, that his truck was nearby with his computer for census work in it, and that he had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest.

Immediately, the HuffPo (citing a journalist's appearance on Maddow) and lefty bloggers including the singularly hapless Oliver Willis began to speculate wildly that this was the work of "tea baggers" who, worked into a hateful lather by the likes of Glenn Beck and Michelle Bachman, had decided to send a message to the federal government by murdering the man. Because the crime involved a federal worker, it is in the province of the FBI. Those who didn't jump the gun or state outright on the basis of slender evidence that the word "fed" definitely constituted a "slur," are to be commended.

The story didn't rally go national until about 10 days later, on the blogs, and what struck me immediately was the paucity of detail. It seemed odd, for example, that the investigators had not indicated whether any fingerprints not belonging to Mr. Sparkman or his family and friends were discovered on the vehicle or whether there were any signs of struggle, and didn't release a photo of the letterforms, which might have helped to identify a suspect. There's no indication even regarding what kind of instrument was used to write the letters. Stacy wrote about it yesterday, and I shared some of my concerns in his comments. Dan Riehl notes that there's a Wal-Mart in the area.

It seemed strange to me that in the intervening time, no new information had emerged that could be shared with the public. In fact, yesterday reporters seemed still to be waiting for autopsy results. Interestingly, the man's mother had been quoted as saying that she'd been told that it would be better to cremate the remains.

Given that, it might have been wise for some people not to speculate too wildly. Today, we find out that Mr. Sparkman's corpse was in contact with the ground when discovered, that investigators did not in fact find the computer in the truck, that it seems he died early on 11 September (when Obama was announcing his plans for a day of national service, and Joe Biden was at Ground Zero), and that the investigators have not to this point ruled out suicide or misadventure.

I tweeted about this, and Oliver Willis popped in to say that it was a good thing if "rightie nuts" didn't kill the man, but that it was inevitable that there would be a "another." A next time? Meanwhile, nary a peep about the insanity at the UN yesterday, Obama's donation of $400k to the charities of Qaddafi's children, the lunatic who floated the idea that Swine Flu was designed as a biological weapon (much like AIDS to Reverend Wright--and of course Obama didn't walk out this time, either), who inveighed against the evils of capitalism, whilst demanding investigations into MLK and JFK, among others. Some diplomats did walk out on Ahmadinejad, thankfully, but as Netanyahu railed today, WTF were they doing giving that anti-Semitic ass and holocaust denier a forum, anyway? The mainstreaming of crazy isn't taking place just in the Obama administration, obviously. I fist you not. And if some left-wing loon kills a Humana exec, you can be sure that Oliver will be all over Ed Schultz.

Today, too, Obama's pal Zelaya, who's holed up in the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras, thanks to Chavez and company, complained that Israeli security agents were poisoning him with mind-altering gases and radiation. And there was a riot in anticipation of the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, where anarchist demonstrators complained that they were being deprived of their civil right to peaceably damage property.

Squidfucking assholes also want to take away your soft toilet paper. When is enough enough?

Scott and Liz are covering the G20 live this week on The B-Cast.

UPDATE: William Jacobson selects this as one of his posts of the day, thanks very much. And you should read what I've linked above about Obama and David Paterson, which connects to my post yesterday that connected to Darleen's post that she connects to, which I've just linked.

UPDATE x2: New AP article keeps hope alive, but braces proggs for disappointment, pointing out that there are other possible root causes for such an incident in this backwater part of Appalachia, some of which are similar to dangers in, say, Detroit.

UPDATE x3: Jammie Wearing Fool on the same page. La Malkin, too.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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