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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 08/13/2008 : 16:09:57
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Bill ("Gwatzilla") Gwatney, Chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party, has been gunned down in his office. The so-far-unnamed assassin was later killed by police. Here's the story, via CNN.
Though I yet have no real evidence, reading between the lines (that bit about him going armed to a Southern Baptist gathering) leads me to suspect that maybe the assassin was motivated by fundamentalist mania. My suspicion is very tentative indeed.
On the other hand, how can we have a "Culture War," especially in America, without gunfire?
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 08/13/2008 16:55:54
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2008 : 17:45:35 [Permalink]
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Lots of unknowns here and I think it'll be a while before they come out.
Religious dingbat, another liberal-hater like the church guy, random deranged idiot, contract but inept hitman (he actually tried to get away) or what? Just have to wait & see.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2008 : 18:32:57 [Permalink]
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The beginnings of a real war on liberals?
I wish the media would start using the term "terrorism" for these incidents... |
by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2008 : 18:43:17 [Permalink]
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Political assassination is a kind of terrorism.
I'd wager that this guy will turn out to be a right-wingnut. But thats probably just my own political bias talking.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2008 : 02:12:59 [Permalink]
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Although the conventional wisdom has it in favor of a combination of politics & lunacy with maybe a little Bible thrown in, and is probably correct, I'm not quite ready to buy into it yet. The guy could have been an angry husband or out a lot of money, or something equally mundane. Lots of possibilities remain open.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2008 : 07:22:40 [Permalink]
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Timeline & update. The guy has been ID'd. It seems that he might have flipped out because he lost his job. | UPDATE 2100 EDT: The Associated Press has reported the shooting suspect as 50-year-old Timothy Dale Johnson of Searcy, Arkansas. No motive is known, but it is reported that moments after he fired shots at Gwatney, he told the building manager at the nearby Arkansas Baptist headquarters, "I lost my job." |
Exactly why he'd blame a Democrat, if indeed he did, for his unemployment is not clear. Also unclear is what he was doing at the Arkansas Baptist headquarters afterward and how he got there so quickly.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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| Edited by - filthy on 08/14/2008 07:25:07 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2008 : 08:17:25 [Permalink]
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Here's a little bit about the assassin, a creepy-crawly whose name is Timothy Dale Johnson.
Personally, I'd like to know what he scrawled on the wall of the Target store he'd been fired from. And it would be interesting to know if he was, say, a Freeper.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 08/14/2008 08:24:09 |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2008 : 20:31:22 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
Here's a little bit about the assassin, a creepy-crawly whose name is Timothy Dale Johnson.
Personally, I'd like to know what he scrawled on the wall of the Target store he'd been fired from. And it would be interesting to know if he was, say, a Freeper.
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News reports indicate that he scrawled derogatory comments about his place of business (Target) and scrawled that the store manager was a "sorority bitch".
Right wingnuts would have left this guy alone. He was a superdelegate who was pledged to Clinton but then changed his mind to Obama.
He's a tad extremist whack-job. No manifesto in his house. There was a will and he seemed to be a good employee until that day. It all ended predictably with Suicide By Cop.
The right wingnuts I work with seem to belive that it's part of the "Clinton Death squads" that they muse existed around the Whitewater investigation.
I'll say he was just a mentally ill, but functional individual who just snapped. Since he specifically selected the victim (asking to see him directly, lying about wanting to volunteer), what ever wrong he percieved was possibly political. Bets are he was a Clinton supporter and bought into the rhetoric concerning Clinton having superdelagates "stolen" from her. |
Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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Arkansas Democratic chairman assassinated
