Sparkman's death a suicide

by: Jay Stevens

Wed Nov 25, 2009 at 10:54:26 AM MST

State police, working with the FBI, said at a press conference moments ago that Sparkman had recently taken out two life insurance policies that would not pay out for suicide. It appears Sparkman hoped that the scheme would benefit his son, Josh Sparkman.

Sparkman, of course, was the Census worker who was found hung, bound with duct tape, and with the word, "fed," scrawled on his chest. At the time, I wrote:

More gruesome details about the death of Census worker, Bill Sparkman, have emerged that make it obvious that - regardless of motive for the killing - Sparkman's killer was, by stripping Sparkman, binding his hands and feet with duct tape, scrawling "fed" on his chest, and attaching his Census ID card to his head, was participating in an exceptionally violent and lunatic way with the anti-government rhetoric promulgated on cable television and talk radio.

Obviously I was wrong about Sparkman having killers. It seemed fantastic at the time that anyone would kill themselves they way Sparkman did - it still does, frankly - and that a murder with such blatant anti-government details was, in fact, a reaction in some way to recent anti-government rhetoric. Instead, it turned out that Sparkman was spoofing Beck and Bachman, and a lot of us were wrong about his death, and obviously rushed to implicate high-profile, cable television righty extremists in it. In this particular case, we were wrong.

But beyond the senseless death and Sparkman's convoluted acts and the effect it will have on his family, the worst thing that will probably come out of this isn't that leftys suddenly look like jerks, but that the Glenn Becks and Michelle Bachmans of the world will somehow feel "exonerated" or cleared. But their vile rhetoric has already led to recent killings. The story here shouldn't be that leftys jumped to conclusions, but that extremist rhetoric has already created dangerous tensions. Frankly, the only difference between the extremist rhetoric that touched off Nidal Hasan, and that which touched off Poplawski is that the Pittsburgh shooter's fare is widely promulgated on cable television and underwritten by mainstream businesses. Politicized right-wing misinformation and paranoia has been legitimized, and the revelation that Sparkman's death was a suicide means warnings about rightwing extremism will be viewed as unfounded or exaggerated.

Take my Brown Shirt, please!

by: Jay Stevens

Sun Aug 23, 2009 at 12:39:59 PM MST

Yeah, like, he was so out of line!

Which is why this Marine vet is my hero! He gets up and totally gives it to Baird! Gives him exactly what he deserves! And compares health care reform to both socialism and Nazism! Like, because socialists and fascists are exactly the same thing! (Tho' I'm sure everyone who died in WWII is kicking themselves now about that...) And Nancy Pelosi is totally a Nazi! Just check our her website!

Nothing says you're not a Brown Shirt like riling up a crowd against a democratic process with a bunch of lies, right?

When the GOP starts resembling LaRouche...

by: Jay Stevens

Thu Aug 20, 2009 at 15:53:31 PM MST

EJ Dionne:

This is not about the politics of populism. It's about the politics of the jackboot. It's not about an opposition that has every right to free expression. It's about an angry minority engaging in intimidation backed by the threat of violence.

There is a philosophical issue here that gets buried under the fear that so many politicians and media-types have of seeming to be out of touch with the so-called American heartland.

The simple fact is that an armed citizenry is not the basis for our freedoms. Our freedoms rest on a moral consensus, enshrined in law, that in a democratic republic we work out our differences through reasoned, and sometimes raucous, argument. Free elections and open debate are not rooted in violence or the threat of violence. They are precisely the alternative to violence, and guns have no place in them.
On the contrary, violence and the threat of violence have always been used by those who wanted to bypass democratic procedures and the rule of law. Lynching was the act of those who refused to let the legal system do its work. Guns were used on election days in the Deep South during and after Reconstruction to intimidate black voters and take control of state governments.

Yes, I have raised the racial issue, and it is profoundly troubling that firearms should begin to appear with some frequency at a president's public events only now, when the president is black. Race is not the only thing at stake here, and I have no knowledge of the personal motivations of those carrying the weapons. But our country has a tortured history on these questions, and we need to be honest about it. Those with the guns should know what memories they are stirring.

In other, related, news, UnitedHealth apparently encouraged its employees to attend an anti-reform protest organized by religious extremists...

There are -- gasp! -- radical rightwingers!

by: Jay Stevens

Tue Apr 14, 2009 at 19:22:26 PM MST

The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in "rightwing extremist activity," saying the economic recession, the election of America's first black president and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias.

A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines "rightwing extremism in the United States" as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.

"It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration," the warning says.

Rightie bloggers have been apoplyeptic about the news -- Malkin's response is typical -- they claim it's a "hit job" on the right hours before their tax-day protests.

My initial reaction was two-fold. The first was, hey! I've been saying for years that right-wing extremism is a much more real and present threat than Islamic extremism. Or have we forgotten the violence latent in the anti-abortion movement? The militia movement? Timothy McVeigh? That the Bush administration and its agencies were focusing our attention on the Middle East -- and not terrorism, per se -- was a political decision. They used the specter of terrorism to further their foreign-policy objectives, not to actually combat or curb terror. Especially the rightwing domestic kind, because that's kind of embarrassing, isn't it?