Wow. Just wow. American Spectator takes on the Bill Sparkman murder.

[Barack_America]

Murder and Motives in Clay County
By Robert Stacy McCain on 9.29.09 @ 6:10AM

Bill Sparkman was not from Clay County. A 51-year-old Florida native, Sparkman lived in neighboring Laurel County. Yet when Sparkman's body was found hanging Sept. 12 in a cemetery a dozen miles west of Manchester, the media seems to have placed blame for the apparent murder on Clay County.

How dare the liberal media blame Clay County for Sparkman's murder! I know his body was strung up naked and bound there, with his truck nearby, but he was probably murdered elsewhere, like Detroit. I mean, he didn't even live in Clay County, how could he be killed there?

LEAVE CLAY COUNTY ALONE!

But while we're on the subject, let me tell you what a real shit hole Clay County is. Here, I've condensed all of their embarrassments, without context, in a handy one-paragraph format. Easy to cut-and-paste for maximum smear potential!

The community has suffered plenty of bad publicity in recent years, with a long-running federal corruption investigation that has resulted in vote-rigging charges against eight local officials. The county also has a reputation for growing marijuana and producing illegal methamphetamine. And on top of these local P.R. problems, the murder also gave national media a chance to recycle stereotypes of rural Kentuckians, much to the annoyance of Clay County residents like Miller.

<snip>

Also, for the love of God, stop with the unfounded speculation and rumors, Liberals! You're embarrassing yourselves with that shit! But again, while we're on the topic....

Local folks have their own speculation and rumors about the case, most of it centered on the possibility that Sparkman somehow fell afoul of local drug dealers, who may have mistaken his federal identification for proof that he was an undercover informant. One man who lives in London offered a variation on that theory: Perhaps Sparkman actually did report on suspected drug-related activity, and his murder was an act of revenge by associates of someone arrested as the result of a tip from Sparkman.

You see that, it had nothing to do with Michelle Bachmann suggesting the Census is a ploy to send conservatives to internment camps. That's just silly. The guy was clearly a rat, that's what got him killed. A rat who got killed by Mexican drug smugglers living in the mountains of Kentucky, that's it. And he was an Eagle Scout leader so he was probably a pedophile too. Logic, liberals, try it out some time.

<snip>

Finally, how 'bout a little slice of Americana, courtesy of one of Appalachia's many impoverished and forgotten towns?

At the London exit off I-75, there is a Starbucks, that ubiquitous symbol of 21st-century American civilization. Drive west for 20 minutes, and the parkway exit at Manchester is surrounded by other all-American enterprises like Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Subway and Wendy's. Teenage boys hang around the shopping center near the Family Dollar store after school, riding their skateboards on the sidewalk.

Yesterday, I ate supper at the Pizza Hut in Manchester, where people were clearly more concerned about the Clay County High School football team -- "Once A Tiger, Always A Tiger," the waitress's T-shirt declared -- than with "anti-government sentiment."

Fast food, cheap Chinese exports and local sports. Lookin' good, America! Sure, some may say I'm an out-of-touch monied conservative, but I can be of the people. I ate "supper" at Pizza Hut, after all. And I used the word "supper" because it's quaint, like Clay County. Well, if it weren't for all of those election scandals, meth and pot I told you about earlier.

P.S. I blogged this from the Starbucks. That God for that Starbucks.

More of McCain's special brand of crazy:
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/29/murder-and-motives-in-clay-cou/

:crazy:

Editorial comments are clearly mine. I delved into McCain's psyche so you wouldn't have to.

[ShortnFiery]

1. Why has even the progressive M$M been muzzled on this? We should be LIVID?!?

[Barack_America]

2. Because we care about facts and looking stupid when we've got them wrong.

No such hang up to be found amongst conservatives.

[ShortnFiery]

6. Understood. But can we agree to "murder" when this man is found naked with hands and feet

bound with duck tape ... not to mention FED written in felt tip pen across his bare chest and his census ID taped to his neck and shoulder?

My point: The FBI and local authorities are LYING to us, yet we submit to their authority and keep this story hushed?

Despite the FACTS that it was MURDER?!?

That's just, IMO, f**king sad and gutless of our progressive media. :(

[Barack_America]

7. I haven't heard anyone refer to it as anything other than murder...

...since the scene in which he was found was described.

Well, there were still a couple people holding onto that auto-erotic asphyxiation BS, but I really don't think they believed it.

It's the motive that I think people are still being careful about. Well, except for the right with their claims of Mexicans, pedophilia and the like that they've come out with the past few days.

[renate]

3. I want to write something to kick this, and to thank you for posting it

... but I am too :wow: and :puke: by this article to know what to say.

[Barack_America]

4. I understand. It's amazing how many times he contradicted himself....

...in such a short post.

When I see RW craziness like this, my impulse is to laugh. But then again, I laugh from my safe liberal bastion in Philly. If I had to encounter these morans on a daily basis I'm sure I wouldn't be laughing.

In any case, it seems the true story is that American Spectator raced over to Clay County at all. They clearly suspect this is going to turn out poorly for conservatives and are in a desperate race to frame the debate before the investigation turns up more damaging items.

[Barack_America]

5. McCain gets bitchy on HotAir

Love to stay and chat, Mr. Shipley, but I’ve got to go talk to the Kentucky State police, have lunch with sources in Manchester, visit the Hoskins Cemetery, etc.

Y’all have fun. I’ll be back this evening.

The Other McCain on September 29, 2009 at 10:26 AM

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2009/09/29/reply-to-sl-toddard-the-murder-of-bill-sparkman-and-the-vision-of-the-anointed/


RSM is on the case and don't you say otherwise, god dammit! He's going to interview these people and check these places out and then he's going to twist the words and visuals to suit his opinions.

RSM is doing the work of REAL journalists, gosh darn it, y'all and other folksy sayings too!

[Barack_America]

8. .

One kick.

:kick:

[Canuckistanian]

9. I'm pretty sure Clay County didn't personally murder Sparkman

But it's sure looking like one or more of it's residents did.

Oh, and by the way. Plenty of murders have taken place within 25 miles or so of a Pizza Hut.

There aren't any magical shields around Pizza Huts that prevent nutcases from murdering people.

[ovidsen]

10. Your edited version of the "Spectator" makes little sense.

And that's a compliment, because the original is just a mishmash that makes NO sense.

After highlighting a number of reasons why Sparkman was killed where his body was found in Clay County, the author concludes the County couldn't be responsible.... because it's innocent until proven guilty!

What kind of hogwash is that?

BTW, In a shocking example of posession of an IQ that may be close to the national median, few details of the murder are being released by the county, the Kentucky State Police, or the FBI. I see federal agents at work here, for the better. They're keeping a lid on the case because they don't want to compromise leads, and because they don't want to taint the jury pool (of Clay County residents) who will most likely serve in the trial of whomever is accused of his killing.

edit for grammar

[Barack_America]

11. It's one of the most scattered and incoherent things I've ever read...

...so of course I had to share. And, good news! McCain is still in Clay County, so it looks like we may get a series here! :puke:

It's like Beckitis has infected the entire right.

And thanks for the bit of inside knowledge. Now I know why my recent google news searches are coming up empty. That's how I stumbled on this piece of trash.