Roman Polanski 'overwhelmed by . . . messages of support and sympathy'

Mostly from Charlie Sheen I'd guess:

My dear Bernard-Henri Lévy, what you have said in the Swiss press is true -- I have been overwhelmed by the number of messages of support and sympathy I have received in Winterthur prison, and that I continue to receive here, in my chalet in Gstaad, where I am spending the holidays with my wife and my children. . . .

Nick Gillespie -- whose libertarianism evidently doesn't encompass the right of award-winning film directors to anally rape Qaalude-dosed 13-year-olds -- notes the reaction of the Feminist Majority Foundation: "It's bad a person was raped. But . . ."

Britain's anti-clitoris crime wave

Prepare to be completely creeped out:

Hundreds of British schoolgirls are facing the terrifying prospect of female genital mutilation (FGM) over the Christmas holidays as experts warn the practice continues to flourish across the country. Parents typically take their daughters back to their country of origin for FGM during school holidays, but The Independent on Sunday has been told that "cutters" are being flown to the UK to carry out the mutilation at "parties" involving up to 20 girls to save money.
The police face growing criticism for failing to prosecute a single person for carrying out FGM in 25 years; new legislation from 2003 which prohibits taking a girl overseas for FGM has also failed to secure a conviction. . . .

"Cultural sensitivity" vs. the good kind of sensitivity? No need to tell you which side of that issue I'm on.

Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugged is also adamantly pro-clitoris. Perhaps President Obama will appoint a Clitoris Czar to lead U.S. efforts against genital mutilation. I hereby nominate Mark Steyn.

(Via Memeorandum.)

UPDATE: Commenter Elizabeth:

Who honestly thinks that this would be tolerated if someone was mutilating the genitals of little white girls?

Indeed. The Independent notes:

An estimated 70,000 women living in the UK have undergone FGM, and 20,000 girls remain at risk, according to Forward. The practice is common in 28 African countries, including Somalia, Sudan and Nigeria, as well as some Middle Eastern and Asian countries such as Malaysia and Yemen.

This is one of those situations whre "cultural sensitivity" becomes a synonym for racism.

Dept. of Suspicious Statistics

The New York Times and Obama's Justice Department appear to have entered a joint-operating agreement, with misleading headlines as the transacted commodity:

Federal Hate Crime Cases at Highest Level Since ’01
Two days after the Justice Department announced federal indictments related to the fatal beating of a Mexican immigrant in Shenandoah, Pa., federal authorities said the charges were part of a larger effort to step up civil rights enforcement after nearly eight years of decreased hate crime prosecutions. . . .

(Note how the anecdote and the statistic are connected in the lede, suggesting a causal relationship between the Pennsylvania case and the statistical trend.)

Thomas E. Perez, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said the department brought more federal hate crime cases this year than in any other year since 2001.
During the budget year that ended in September, 25 hate crime cases were filed, Mr. Perez said. By comparison, that number fell to a low of 12 in 2006, before rising to 23 in 2008. In 2001, 31 such cases were filed.
Mr. Perez said he was "shocked to see the downtick in prosecutions of hate crimes" during the George W. Bush administration, adding, "The Civil Rights Division is again open for business."

Please pay attention to the variable -- the annual number of federal hate-crimes prosecutions -- that is the basis of that "highest level" headline. There is no evidence in the story that the frequency of such crimes has changed. Rather, the Department of Justice has decided to prosecute more of these crimes as federal cases.

This is an important distinction, and there is no suggestion that the Ramirez case -- the anecdotal "hook" of the New York Times story -- would not have likewise been prosecuted by the Bush administration.

Federal hate-crimes prosecutions are useful in cases where there is reason to belief that state and local prosecution may be inadequate to the severity of the crime. For example, if the Klan burns a cross in someone's yard and the perpetrators get off with a plea-bargained arson conviction and a suspended sentence, federal intervention can be justified. And the Ramirez case, where local law-enforcement officials are accused of falsifying police reports to cover up for murderers, represents another justifiable intervention.

Nevertheless, prosecutorial discretion involves a number of different considerations, including the appropriate allocation of personnel and other resources. If fewer federal hate-crimes cases were prosecuted during the Bush administration, perhaps this was because the Justice Department was busy dealing with cases related to terrorism.

It may well be -- and I suggest this merely as a possibility -- that state and local law-enforcement have done a better job at prosecuting hate crimes, thus lessening the need for federal intervention. Or it may even be that there is a declining trend in the number of hate crimes.

But these are not possibilities that the New York Times wishes its readers to consider, preferring to create the impression that the Bush administration was indifferent to civil rights, and that the Obama administration is now rectifying a shameful oversight.

Of course, that is not a possibility that can be ruled out a priori. Yet we must note that the Times article dishonestly insinuates that conclusion in the absence of any actual evidence.

(Via Memeorandum.)

Huckabee meltdown continues

The Arkansas coordinator for Mike Huckabee's PAC has resigned. From a Washington Times story yesterday:

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's hopes for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination have been dealt a major blow by his 9-year-old decision to commute the sentence of Maurice Clemmons -- the man suspected of killing four police officers near Seattle early Sunday.
"It will be extremely damaging," said Diana Banister, a Washington-based publicist for Republican causes and candidates. "His GOP primary rivals will use it to their advantage against him." . . .
"It will be the Republican version of the Willie Horton issue that GOP surrogates used against Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, the unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate in 1988," Ms. Banister said.

Just in case you don't remember, it was Al Gore -- one of Dukakis' rivals for the 1988 Democratic nomination --who first raised the issue of the Willie Horton furlough.

UPDATE: Allahpundit:

Kudos to Huck, I guess, for stopping short of calling his critics racist too.

Give him time, Allah. Huck might yet go totally Johnsonoid. Jim Geraghty:

It takes a particular bravado for a man in Huckabee’s circumstances to contend that his critics are the ones who should hang their heads in shame.

Meanwhile, Huck continues his blame-shifting campaign with a Human Events column:

I take full responsibility for my decision then.

But he doesn't. Instead, he points the finger of blame at others. If Huckabee wants to "take full responsibility," all he has to do is shut up -- which he most certainly should do (cf., Healey's First Law On Holes).

COPS KILL COP-KILLER CLEMMONS

Seattle Times:

Maurice Clemmons, the suspect wanted in slaying of four Lakewood police officers, was shot and killed in South Seattle early this morning . . .

Via Memeorandum. More at Michelle Malkin.

UPDATE: More from the Seattle Times story:

Clemmons was standing outside in the 4400 block of South Kenyon Street when he was confronted by officers. He challenged the officers and was shot around 2:40 a.m. [i.e., 5:40 a.m. ET]
Police have said Clemmons received help since the Sunday morning shooting from friends and family who gave him places to stay, medical aid, rides and money, police said. Officers detained a sister of Clemmons who they think treated the 37-year-old suspect's gunshot wound.

That anyone would help a cop-killer is incredible. But Mumia Abu-Jamal is a hero to liberals everywhere, so why not?

UPDATE II: A long Seattle Times article provides background Clemmons' criminal history, and Dan Riehl calls it a "must-read."

Shocking as it may seem -- but not really surprising, given the vulgar antinomianism of the "No Snitching" culture -- Clemmons not only got help after his attack, but boasted to friends about his plans beforehand:

Clemmons has been getting help and shelter from friends and relatives since shortly after the Sunday morning shooting deaths of four Lakewood police officers, authorities have concluded.
"Basically, there's no way that he could be doing this by himself; he was shot in the abdomen," said Sheri Badger, Pierce County spokeswoman at the incident command center.
Also frustrating to law-enforcement officers is that Clemmons reportedly told acquaintances the night before the attack to "watch the news" because he was going to "kill cops."
No one reported his comments to police until after the attack, Badger said.

UPDATE III: Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

[Police] would have preferred an uneventful surrender, but Clemmons apparently was determined to go out in a blaze of hatred and insanity. And so he did.

Indeed, this was a sort of "suicide-by-cop," and Clemmons thereby forfeited the opportunity to have his own NPR radio program, or to have famous liberals sign petitions to spare him the death penalty. How sad.

UPDATE IV: A timely reminder:

The anti-police bigotry of the Left
. . . Bill Ayers, whose door sports a picture of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal.

The Left foments hatred of police and then blames "society" for the predictable result of such rhetoric. But if conservatives complain about the Left's agenda, these monsters who celebrate cop-killers as heroes call us "anti-government" and claim that we are menaces to society.

SEATTLE MANHUNT: Search continues for cop-killer suspect Maurice Clemmons POLICE: 'People are helping' suspect

UPDATE 12/2: CLEMMONS SHOT DEAD.

UPDATE 7:55 p.m. ET: Tacoma News-Tribune:

McDonald said investigators believe Clemmons, who was shot in the torso during the shooting, is getting help.
"It's apparent people are helping him," McDonald said. "Anyone helping him ... will be held accountable."

UPDATE 7:45 p.m. ET: According to the Tacoma News Tribune, police have found the Mazda belonging to Clemmons wife -- his ex-wife, they report -- and say it was not involved in Clemmons' escape. The News Tribune also reports that agents on the Canadian border have been told to keep an eye out for Clemmons.

Clemmons and his wife were married in 2004 by an Arkansas judge who wrote a letter in support of Clemmons' clemency appeal.

UPDATE 6:35 p.m. ET: More on the manhunt:

Washington state police are looking for the wife of the man suspected of killing four police officers near Seattle. They believe she may be headed to Arkansas, where her husband, Maurice Clemmons, had served prison time before former Gov. Mike Huckabee commuted his sentence in 2000.
Police are on the lookout for a green 1997 Mazda Millenia with Washington license plate 208-SSX, registered to Clemmons' wife, Nicole Cheryleen Smith, the Seattle Times reports.

UPDATE 6:20 p.m. ET: Michelle Malkin has a new post about the manhunt, linking an interview with one of the victims of Clemmons' 1989 crime spree:

Karen Hodge, one of Maurice Clemmon's robbery victims in Arkansas 20 years ago, said she was horrified by the Pierce County shootings.
"I'm flabbergasted," said Hodge, now 68, of Little Rock. "He should still be in prison."
Clemmons . . . was convicted in 1989 of aggravated robbery after he told Hodge he had a un, demanded that she give him her purse, and hit her in the face.
"He was a punk .... kid," recalled Hodge, who had just parked her car on a street.
"He said give me your purse, or I'm going to shoot you. I said, 'Hell no.' Boy, he knocked me half way across my car. That's about all I know about that little bastard."

Huckabee is still defending his indefensible decision to grant clemency to this vicious sociopath.

UPDATE 1:45 p.m. ET: The families of four slain Lakewood, Wash., police officers will no doubt be furious to learn how easily Clemmons fooled Mike Huckabee:

Documents released this morning by the Arkansas Parole Board show police slaying suspect Maurice Clemmons was supposed to remain in prison there until at least 2015, but won his release by claiming he'd changed while behind bars.
Clemmons' appeal for clemency was granted in May 2000 by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee, who commuted Clemmons sentence and made him immediately eligible for parole.
Clemmons wrote in an appeal to Huckabee that he'd been sent to prison after an extended crime spree that started in 1989 when he was a teenager — and that he was a different person now.
At the time of the crimes — which included aggravated robbery, firearms possession and burglary — Clemmons claimed he was 16 years old and had moved from Seattle to a high-crime neighborhood in Arkansas.
"I succumbed to the peer pressure and the need I had to be accepted by other youth in my new environment and fell in with the wrong crowd and thus began a seven (7) month crime spree which led me to prison," Clemmons wrote in his application to Huckabee.
Clemmons said he came from "a very good Christian family" and "was raised much better than my actions speak (I'm still ashamed to this day for the shame my stupid involvement in these crimes brought to my family name.)," he wrote.
"Where once stood a young (16) year old misguided fool, who's (sic) own life he was unable to rule. Now stands a 27 year old man, who has learned through 'the school of hard knocks' to appreciate and respect the rights of others. And who has in the midst of the harsh reality of prison life developed the necessary skills to stand along (sic) and not follow a multitude of do evil, as I did as a 16 year old child."

At First Things, Joe Carter writes about the limits of "compassion," and Doug Bandow at the American Spectator notes a 2007 report by ABC's Jake Tapper:

In fact, an Arkansas Leader study indicated that Huckabee helped free more prisoners from 1996 through 2004 than were freed in the six neighboring states -- Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas -- combined.

Kill Truck comments:

We just want Huck to accept his responsibility in this. We're waiting.

UPDATE 1:25 p.m.: In a press conference, Lakewood Police Chief Brett Farrar vows to "carry on," says: "In the face of adversity is where we triumph." There is a fund for the slain officers' families:

Lakewood Police Benevolent Fund
PO Box 99579
Lakewood, WA 98499

UPDATE 1:10 p.m. ET: Maurice Clemmons is now officially a fugitive suspect:

Troyer said warrants for first-degree murder have been issued against Clemmons in the killings of the officers from the Tacoma suburb of Lakewood who were gunned down in a coffee shop on Sunday morning at the start of their shifts.

That's the end of the "person of interest" language. BTW, Clemmons is believed to have been wounded in the abdomen, and may be dead by now.

PREVIOUSLY (11:52 a.m.): Associated Press:

The suspect in the slaying of four police officers gunned down in a coffee shop was not found Monday in the Seattle home where he was thought to have been holed up overnight, likely wounded from his bloody encounter with the officers.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

University of Washington police have alerted students to an unconfirmed report that the suspect in the Lakewood police shootings may have been sighted on or near the campus in Seattle.
Cmdr. Jerome Solomon says someone reported that Maurice Clemmons was seen getting off a bus about 7 a.m. Monday near the university's hospital. He says police are checking the area.

Michelle Malkin continues to update . . .

UPDATE 12:57 p.m. ET: Fox News reports "people who know Clemmons told investigators that he had been shot in the torso." The names of the slain officers have been released:

Those killed were identified as Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, and officers Ronald Owens, 37, Tina Griswold, 40, and Gregory Richards, 42.

Dan Riehl is blogging the story. The Jawa Report and Gateway Pundit are also on the story.

More at Memeorandum. Will continue to update with latest developments.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Cops surround Seattle neighborhood
• 4 police officers ambushed

BREAKING: Cops surround Seattle neighborhood; Clemmons cornered? LATEST: 'Bleeding,' says 911 caller MORE: Now SWAT Operation

UPDATE 11:45 a.m. ET: Maurice Clemmons is still at large. I got six hours sleep and woke up to this news on TV.

LATEST NEWS ON SEATTLE MANHUNT HERE

UPDATE 4:55 a.m. ET: More from KIRO at SWAT standoff in Seattle:

Several bangs, followed by sound of breaking glass, then a louder explosion from Leschi standoff scene.

Obviously, the police want to end this before dawn. They've got night-vision equipment; Clemmons doesn't.

UPDATE 4:50 a.m. ET: KIRO reports from scene of SWAT standoff:

After loud bangs, negotiator on loudspeaker: "This is one of the toughest decisions you'll make in your life, but you need to man up."

UPDATE 4:25 a.m. ET: Michelle Malkin:

KIRO TV in Seattle has detail . . . 4:15am Eastern 11/30…hostage negotiator on loudspeaker attempting to communicate with Clemmons . . .

Young folks, pay attention to how hard Malkin works. Best-selling author, Fox News star and yet here she is, awake in the pre-dawn hours, working to provide up-to-date coverage of a breaking news story. And beating me!

Meanwhile, via Seattle police scanner, we learn that a neighbor is heading to the police command post to report the interior layout of the home where Clemmons is reportedly holed up.

UPDATE 4:40 a.m. ET: KIRO reports police are warning people in the neighborhood to expect loud noise from flashbang devices in event SWAT has to assault. As of now, it's a standoff situation.

BTW, my guess is Malkin filed her 4:15 a.m. blog update after getting a call from Fox News telling her they'd want her on "Fox and Friends" this morning to discuss the case.

UPDATE 3:40 a.m. ET: Zack in Seattle:

BREAKING: SPD SWAT has started their tactical operations

Zach reportedly lives near the scene and is listening to a police scanner.

UPDATE 3:20 a.m. ET: The Seattle University student newspaper reports:

The person of interest in the slaying of four Lakewood police officers this morning may now be hiding in a home at East Yesler Way and 32nd Avenue South, about two miles from Seattle University’s campus.
Police responded around 8:45 p.m. [i.e., 11:45 p.m. ET] to the location because a woman told police Maurice Clemmons, the person of interest, was on the property and bleeding, reports The Seattle Times.

Also: Why was this Arkansas convict in Seattle? Apparently because his sister lives there. And there has been a reported "spurt of crime" in the area near the university.

UPDATE 3:32 a.m. ET: Twitter updates from Seattle resident Zach:

SPD issuing an APB for Eddie David, light skin black male 6'3" 170lbs, assassin's accomplice driving white 83 Buick LeSabre . .

Medics are being summoned to the scene of the police standoff . . .

one of those SPD armored assault vehicles just rolled by my place en route to the scene

PREVIOUSLY 2:42 a.m. ET: Just now reported:

Seattle police cordoned off a section of Seattle's Leschi neighborhood late Sunday night, believing they had located the person of interest in the shooting deaths of four Lakewood, Wash. police officers.
Police cruisers surrounded streets in the neighborhood of 32nd Avenue and Yesler Way in the search for Maurice Clemmons. Several law enforcement sources say they believe they have Clemmons pinned down in the neighborhood. . . .

Previously reported here. Michelle Malkin has been all over the story. More at Memeorandum.

UPDATE 2:53 a.m.: Via Seattle's Channel 5 Twitter:

Seattle Police ask people living in blocked-off area to stay inside/keep doors/windows locked

UPDATE 3:10 a.m.: Also via Twitter, Seattle software developer Buzz Bruggeman says police are searching near the home of his friend.

UPDATE: 4 police officers ambushed LATEST: Ark. man sought for questioning

MONDAY 1:20 p.m.: LATEST UPDATES ON THE SEATTLE COP-KILLER MANHUNT

MONDAY 4:05 A.M.: Clemmons now reportedly surrounded in Seattle neighborhood; SWAT operation underway.

PREVIOUSLY (SUNDAY 9:35 p.m.): Seattle Times reports:

Maurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing of four Lakewood police officers this morning, has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health.
Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protestations of prosecutors. . . .
Clemmons' criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington. . . .
Clemmons had been in jail in Pierce County for the past several months on a pending charge of second-degree rape of a child.

UPDATE 10:11 p.m.: Michelle Malkin has details on Huckabee's clemency for Clemmons. As I said in the Greenroom, if Clemmons is the killer, this would make Huckabee a Republican Dukakis.

UPDATE 10:30 p.m.: Now a thread at Memeorandum. It appears Confederate Yankee was the first blogger on the Huckabee angle. Don Surber also comments. Thanks to Tacoma Mama for alerting me to the fund for the slain officers' families:

Lakewood Police Benevolent Fund
PO Box 99579
Lakewood, WA 98499

UPDATE 10:40 p.m.: Linked by Paco Enterprises and It's Only Words. Thanks.

UPDATE 10:50 p.m.: Gabriel Malor has more at AOSHQ. And we're linked by Dave C. at Point of a Gun. Thanks.

UPDATE 2:35 a.m. Monday: Excuse the delay in updates, as I had a deadline for the The American Spectator on another topic.

The Underground Conservative calls this "Huckabee's Willie Horton moment." In an update, Michelle Malkin makes reference to the bizarre case of Seattle cop-killer Christopher Monfort. He killed a cop and torched four police cars and was described by police as a "lone domestic terrorist." Monfort was apparently into child pornography and was a general weirdo with strange political beliefs:

Monfort didn't appear to have friends, a romantic interest or close ties to his family, [former supervisor Roxy] Hill said . . .
"You couldn't connect him to any human beings, not even his parents," Hill said. . . .
Monfort would get worked up at times about political issues, decrying things such as warrantless wiretaps under President George W. Bush, [former employer Lloyd] Lezcano said. . . .
He also displayed his political views at the juvenile center, Hill said.
When she walked by classrooms, Hill said, Monfort would always be talking about inequities in the criminal-justice system.
"He was turning it into a black and white" issue, Hill said.

That was evidently Monfort's motive for his (alleged) cop-killing terrorism. Police say a note Monfort left at the scene connected the attack to a case in which two sheriff's deputies were videotaped beating a 15-year-old arrested for car theft.

There is no reason to believe that Sunday's killing was in any way related to Monfort's attack. Maybe the Pacific Northwest has become a magnet for violent cop-hating weirdos or something.

PREVIOUSLY (8:52 p.m.): KOMO-TV in Tacoma:

Four uniformed police officers were shot and killed in a bloody Sunday morning attack at a Lakewood-area coffee shop, officials said. . . .
Troyer said investigators have learned that the gunman stood in line the Forza Coffee Co. outlet at 11401 Steele St. South as if he were there to buy some coffee. When he reached the counter, the barista saw him pull a gun our of his coat. She fled, thinking the gunman was about to target her. Instead, he turned and fired point-blank at the four uniformed officers as they were working on their laptop computers, then fled the scene. . . .
One officer was shot as he attempted to struggle with the gunman. Another officer fired off some shots toward the gunman as he fled, and may have hit him, Troyer said.
"We believe there was a struggle, a commotion, a fight . . . that he fought the guy all the way out the door," Troyer said. "We hope the suspect was shot, because that would tell us who it is. There aren't a whole lot of people running around with gunshot wounds."

I've posted video in the Hot Air Greenroom. Also more at the American Spectator.

We await Dave Neiwert's reaction

More right-wing anti-government terrorism?

PARKLAND, Wash. - A gunman walked into a coffee shop and shot and killed four police officers Sunday morning in what sheriff's officials described as a targeted "execution." . . .
The officers were obviously targeted because they were in full uniform, their marked patrol cars were parked outside and no one else was shot at . . .

Read more. And in case you don't know who Dave Neiwert is.

UPDATE: Breaking news, as edited by Dave Neiwert:

Here's the most recent suspect description: blackRepublican man, mid-20s to mid-30s, 5 feet 7 to 5 feet 10, medium build, scruffy and wearing a blackFox News jacket over a gray hoodedGlenn Beck sweatshirt and blue jeans.

All points bulletin for this dangerous Tea Party extremist!

UPDATE II: The slain officers were from the Lakewood Police Department:

This morning a complete coward and threat upon all of society took the lives of four of my Guild members and your sworn protectors in a cold blooded assassination. As I write this I am numb. We were dealt a nasty blow, good men and women I have had the honor of knowing for years are senselessly gone. There is no way to comprehend it, to validate it, or to make sense of any of it. You cannot understand evil like this, as a community we must form a solid bond against criminals and hold them accountable. I know my members and can say with certainty that as a group we will remain professional and will continue to work to protect those of you we have taken an oath to protect. If you know a cop tell them how much you appreciate them, it truly keeps us going.
Please pray for these officers and their families. All of them had significant others and children who are left behind. As a Guild we will do anything we can. If you want to donate to the families our Guild has a benevolent account. Every penny will go to the families; if you want to donate to a specific officer you can write his or her name in the memo section. If the check is made out to LPIG Benevolent Fund at PO Box 99579 Lakewood, WA 98499. I will personally make sure it goes where it is intended. May God bless you four who are in a place so much better than this; you are some of the finest professionals I have ever known. God bless our community today.
Brian D. Wurts, President
Lakewood Police Independent Guild

The manhunt for the killer continues. $10,000 reward. The gunman may be wounded.

Incompetent dopehead pipe-bomber as dangerous as al-Qaeda, lefty implies

Pathetic Loser No. 1:

Police said no charges have been filed against Mark Campano, 56. Police found 30 completed pipe bombs in his apartment along with components to make more, plus 17 guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Campano is in an Akron hospital with injuries received when one of the bombs exploded. . . .
Campano is a former anesthesiologist who lost his medical license in 2005 because of an addiction to the drug clonidine, according to state records. He had similar problems with the drug as far back as 1994 when he was cited by the West Virginia Board of Medicine.

And here's what a former neighbor said about him:

Barbara Vachon lived next door to Campano at the Center Park Place Apartments for several years and said he was a big reason she moved.
"He was always trying to get me and another neighbor to listen to anti-government tapes and watch anti-government videos," said Vachon. "I would never watch them. He was some kind of radical, and he didn't believe in the government."
"There was a steady stream of creepy visitors going in and out of his apartment," she said.

Well, yeah, the government took away his medical license and busted him for drugs, so an "anti-government" attitude might be expected. Criminals in general are "anti-government." But now meet Pathetic Loser No. 2:

Of course, if this had been a Muslim extremist caught with such an arsenal, we'd be getting talk-show panels on Hannity featuring Michelle Malkin ranting at length about the threat of Islamic jihad, blah blah blah. Not to mention chatty discussion on Fox and Friends and Morning Joe.
But instead, because he's just a white anti-government extremist, hey, let's just give it a big shrug.

Note the apples-and-oranges comparison involved here. A Muslim extremist might be connected to al-Qaeda -- you know, 9/11, embassy bombings, "death to infidels," that kind of thing -- whereas this dopehead loser guy would be connected to . . . ?

Michelle Malkin! Sean Hannity! Fox News!

UPDATE: One of the things that annoys me about this lefty's presentation of the dopehead pipebomber as an "anti-government extremist" is how it is typical of the way liberals argue. Given the liberal predominance in academia and media, liberals become accustomed to debating everything on their own terms.

The only issues that matter are the issues that matter to liberals. And when it comes to discussing those issues, they only wish to discuss certain facts, which can have only one meaning. As much as they love to whine (when losing) that no one recognizez the ambiguity and nuance of the issues, it is liberals who are always oversimplifying things.

Go back to the Matthew Shepard murder, which liberals insisted was a simple story of homophobia, of society's hateful intolerance, of the evils of Christian conservatives, and the need for hate-crime protection for gays.

Alas, the facts didn't fit this narrative. Matthew Shepard was not killed by "society," or by Christian conservatives, he was killed by a couple of two-bit hoodlums. Both of Shepard's killers had records of petty crime (one for dope possession, one for burglary) and neither had any connection to any religious or political organizations at all.

Yet to hear the Matthew Shepard story as told by liberals, you might have thought Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson were hard-core Republican operatives, personally trained as assassins by Jerry Falwell and sent to Wyoming by James Dobson with orders to kill a gay man.

But anyone who tried to point out this discrepancy between the reality of Shepard's murder and the symbolic mythology of "The Martydom of St. Matthew the Gay," was accused of de facto homophobia. In other words, to contest the liberal narrative -- the just-so story of saintly victimhood -- was to invite accusations of complicity in murder. The facts of the case (the identity of the criminals and the nature of their crime) were subsumed by the political template.

So here is this dopehead pipebomber in Ohio -- a genuine menace to society, no doubt -- yet liberals insist the most important facts to liberals are not, inter alia, his evident incompetence or his long history of drug addiction. No, they say, the only thing that matters is that he liked tto "listen to anti-government tapes and watch anti-government videos."

What kind of videos and tapes were these? Heritage Foundation seminars? Alex Jones 9/11 Truth videos? Triumph of the Will? We don't know. There are all manner of things that might be characterized as "anti-government," from libertarianism to anarchism to conspiracy theories. Exactly what Campano's political views were, we don't know and frankly, at this point, it's irrelevant. He wasn't arrested for his ideology, but for making illegal explosives.

Yet here comes the liberal temper tantrum, that this "anti-government extremist" is not getting the same sort of media coverage that he would receive if his name was Abdul and he were inviting his neighbors to watch jihad videos. OK, that's arguably true -- but what's the point?

The point is simply that liberals are desperate to find a symbolic villain who can be used to illustrate the danger of "anti-government sentiment" -- hello, Clay County, Kentucky! -- to serve as an indictment of Glenn Beck, the Tea Party movement and conservatism in general. And thus the bizarre attempt to make the Ohio dopehead pipebomber analogous to al Qaeda, as if the logical alternative to the Bush administration's War On Terror should be an Obama administration War On Right-Wing Extremists.

We could laugh at this, were it not for the reality that such loopy ideas can have disastrous consequences. In the late 1990s, the Clinton administration awared a $1 million Department of Justice grant to Mark Pitcavage to create a program to do "anti-terrorism" training for state and local police. Pitcavage's expertise? You guessed it: Right-wing extremism. So while al Qaeda was plotting the 9/11 attacks, the DOJ was training law enforcement to keep their eyes peeled for militia crackpots.

Now think about the amount of law enforcement manpower devoted to investigating the alleged "anti-government sentiment" in Kentucky that turned out to be suicide. And then compare that to the Army's seeming indifference to the warning signs of the Fort Hood killer.

Ask some of the survivors at Fort Hood if they think we're paying too much attention to Islamic extremism.

The vindication of Clay County, Ky.

Y'all remember Morgan Bowling, right? Well, she gave me a call yesterday afternoon from Kentucky, and so I mentioned her in my American Spectator column:

Thanks to an anonymous source in an Associated Press story and a flurry of speculation by bloggers, however, this quiet community was imagined to be a seething cauldron of hatred stoked by Fox News, talk radio and Republican politicians. Clay County's state Sen. Robert Stivers told the Lexington Herald-Leader that "many in the media owe the county an apology." As Morgan Bowling said Tuesday afternoon, at times it seemed as if pundits were trying to turn Bill Sparkman into a "sacrificial lamb for ObamaCare."
At the height of the national media glare, the Manchester Enterprise's young editor received an e-mail from New York: "What are you people, backwoods ignorant freaks?" the e-mailer wrote. "This crime is a reflection of all the residents of Clay County. . . . You are all disgusting pigs, and if one could level a curse at a community, then I curse the whole lot of you."
Morgan Bowling is only a few months into her journalism career, but she got a crash course about what can happen when irresponsible reporting leads to unfounded speculation.

You can read the whole thing. And you should also read Michelle Malkin's rejoinder to Andrew Sullivan.

UPDATE: Well played, Charles Johnson!

Since this news came out, I've received several angry emails demanding that I apologize for saying Sparkman had been murdered by a right wing extremist.
The problem is, I never wrote anything like that. For the record, this was my post when the story broke, and I don't apologize for a single word:
"There's not enough information yet to say for sure what was behind this killing, so let's not jump to conclusions. But the description of the circumstances and the timing (around the time of the Washington DC tea party) raises a strong suspicion that anti-government sentiment may have been the motivation."

Right. And the connnection between the two phenomena -- the murder and the 9/12 March on D.C. -- was entirely imaginary, so long as we assume that Bill Sparkman didn't have something like that in mind in choosing the date of his demise.

Nevertheless, don't apologize for your suspicion that the Tea Party movement represented the sort of "anti-government sentiment" that could motivate a murder.

By the way, Tea Party: The Documentary Film will have its Washington premiere next Wednesday, Dec. 2, at the Ronald Reagan Center.

UPDATE II: Perhaps it would help to explain that my interest in the Sparkman case -- what inspired my spur-of-the-moment urge Sept. 26 to light out for Kentucky -- was not so much a matter of ideology as of people.

Some have seen the debunking of the "right-wing lynching" meme as a vindication of conservatism, but I see it as the vindication of the people of Clay County. Having worked for 10 years as a journalist in the small towns of north Georgia, I was all too familiar with the yawning chasm between the perception and reality of such places and such people. Go back to my Sept. 29 American Spectator article:

MANCHESTER, Kentucky -- Rodney Miller has lived nearly all his 56 years in Clay County, the only exception being when, as a young man, he moved to Indianapolis. He lived in the big city for two years without ever knowing his neighbors' names.
"The best people in the world live here," says Miller, sitting in the office of the Manchester Enterprise, where he directs advertising sales. "Down here, everybody knows everybody else." . . .

Those are the kind of small-town people I know. It was their good names, and the reputation of an entire community, that were being smeared by the implication that they were a bunch of hateful yahoos who had lynched Bill Sparkman.

The good people of Clay County have been vindicated, and their know-it-all accusers (inter alia, the Harvard-educated Andrew Sullivan) have been exposed as credulous fools.

UPDATE III: Speaking of people who have been vindicated, this is as good a time as any -- on the eve of Thanksgiving -- to express my gratitude to our readers, especially those who have contributed to the Shoe Leather Fund.

Several people -- including Da Tech Guy -- have expressed congratulaions to me on the denouement of the Sparkman case, validating the reporting I did here, at the American Spectator and in the Hot Air Greenroom, but I would never have been able to do that reporting without the generosity of the tip-jar hitters. When I got the wild notion of traveling to Kentucky to cover the Sparkman case, I wrote:

Figure 1,200 miles travel round-trip, at 25 cents per mile, that's $300. Five meals at $5/each, that's another $25. A carton of smokes, $50; ten cups of coffee, $20. If you add $125/night for a hotel room, I could make it a two-day trip for $500. . . .
So if the tip jar contributions between now and Sunday evening reach $300, I'll take it for granted that the rest will come through while I'm on the road. I could be filing reports with a Kentucky dateline by Monday noon.

That $300 threshold was reached within a matter of hours, and it is to you people -- too numerous to name, lest anyone be omitted from the honor roll -- whom the congratulations are owed. The honor roll can be extended to include all the bloggers who have linked my reports on the Kentucky case, and to Smitty, whose labors and skills deserve so much praise.

You who have contributed should are invited to take a bow in the comments, and you who have not yet hit the tip jar -- well, what the heck are you waiting for?

My wife just spent $90 at the grocery store, including $12 for a turkey. We've got six kids to feed, including 17-year-old twin boys, and you know how teenage boys can eat. You know those $4 frozen pizzas? Last night our family ate four of those -- that's $16 worth for one meal.

Now try to imagine feeding this brood three times a day, 365 days a year. Like they say: Do the math. And the Christmas shopping season starts Friday.

When I came up with this blogging idea, my wife told me I was crazy -- and my wife is always right. But somehow crazy has always worked for me. So I am thankful for being crazy, and thankful that there are so many of you who (like Mrs. Other McCain) actually like my craziness. God bless you!

Kentucky Census right-wing lynching fake hate-crime suicide schadenfreude update

Let's start with this: If Bill Sparkman really did commit suicide and stage it to look like he was murdered by demented right-wing Kentuckians, he's a bigger loser than Andrew Sullivan. And that's quite an achievement.

So now that conservatives are in the post-vindication gloat zone, we ought to at least pause to reflect on the tragic dimension of Sparkman's death. There have been many fake hate-crimes over the years, including the Sharpton-abetted Tawana Brawley hoax, but to kill yourself in pursuit of politically-correct glory . . . well, this is truly sad.

High fives, anyone?

UPDATE: If you expected Sully to be gracious and admit he got carried away with his "Southern populist terrorism" rant. . . well, think again:

Notice Malkin's formulation: "pointed his finger" or "immediately fingered." I said the "possibility" remained real and that "we'll see." How can you finger someone when you simultaneously say we do not yet know what happened for sure?

This, from a post entitled "Correcting Michelle Malkin," as if Malkin -- who was right all along about the Sparkman case -- needs corrections from Dr. Andrew Sullivan, M.D., OB-GYN. Tell you what: We'll let Sarah Palin's Uterus be the arbiter here. We're not laughing with you, Sully, we're laughing at you.

UPDATE II: One thing that made the "right-wing crazies run amok" angle credible to the national media was the setting in the rural South, and Old Reb reminds us that the MSM relied on the usual suspects:

Both the Department of Homeland Security and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) have warned of a dramatic spike in antigovernment militia activity.

Lower Glennbeckistan gets a shout-out from that dangerous redneck Michael Moynihan at Reason, who quotes some of the original lefty fear-mongering:

If conservative politicians and opinion leaders keep stoking fears about the government using census data to steal from or perhaps even round up law-abiding citizens, I am concerned that mentally unstable individuals will commit further acts of violence against census-takers next year. Republicans should condemn the hatemongers and make clear that the census is not only permitted, but required under the Constitution.
MyDD

The gruesome lynching of this Census worker seems to bear a disturbing similarity to some of the worst hate crimes committed across this country. Regardless of what the motive for the killing may have been, why would a murderer(s) take such pains to so blatantly convey anger, fear, and vitriol towards a Census employee? Perhaps because some on the right have created an impression that Census employees are terrifying.
Earlier this summer, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) waged a high-profile, wildly-dishonest campaign against the Census.
ThinkProgress

Others, namely the type to kill a Census worker and string up his body as message to the government, may call it a retraining camp run by the "Feds."
This is the kind of violent event that emerges from a culture of paranoia and unsubstantiated attacks.
Huffington Post

From this profile of the cancer survivor and volunteer, it appears suicide is unlikely. We'll find out. But at some point, unhinged hostility to the federal government, whipped up by the Becks, can become violence. That's what Pelosi was worried about.
Andrew Sullivan

Send the body to Glenn Beck…Is it possible that the time has come for the FCC to consider exactly what constitutes screaming fire over the publicly owned airwaves? And what if Mr. Sparkman’s murderer(s) is never found? How many other lunatics will be emboldened to make their own anti-government statement as the voices of Beck, Limbaugh and Dobbs echo in their ears?
Nobody ever intended our public airwaves to be turned over to irresponsible voices. Maybe the time has come for the FCC to worry a bit less about wardrobe malfunctions and a whole lot more about those who would use our airwaves to make a name for themselves at the expense of the public they are suppose to serve–particularly when the expense comes in the form of blood.
True/Slant

We'll keep this in mind, next time the lefties accuse conservatives of fomenting paranoia.

UPDATE III: Donald Douglas at American Power calls out some lefty fearmongers, including the genuinely demented Larisa Alexandrovna, who seems to be trying to cheat Sully out of his Batsh*t Crazy Blogger Of The Year honors.

UPDATE IV: Bob Belvedere has a roundup at Camp of the Saints, and Darleen Click at Protein Wisdom links a McClatchy story that gets it wrong:

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.

That is wrong. It wasn't the "bizare details" that caused the "widespread circulation," it was an anonymous source -- an unauthorized federal law enforcement official -- who fed the "anti-government sentiment" meme to Devlin Barrett of the Associated Press D.C. bureau.

The Sept. 23 AP article (lead byline for Barrett, with Jeffrey McMurray reporting from Kentucky) was the spark that ignited the "media firestorm," and if the Associated Press doesn't name the source of that bogus leak, maybe Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell can call for a congressional investigation.

The First Amendment doesn't grant federal officials the right to lie to reporters. A good reporter never burns his sources, but a good source never burns a reporter, and this unauthorized leaker fed Barrett a lie.

UPDATE V: Drew M. at AOSHQ accurately predicted the liberal blog reaction:

They'll pretend it never happened or better yet they knew it all along and this is just a rightwing attempt to smear them. The poor dears are always correct and the victims.

Dave Weigel linked me (good) but couldn't resist taking another shot at Michelle Bachmann (bad).

Clayton Cramer kept his powder dry. Reaganite Republican says the left was actually "hoping for a case of reactionary violence against a federal employee to exploit for propaganda purposes."

Exactly. Democrats wanted Bill Sparkman to be to Fox News what Matthew Shepard was to homophobia -- a symbolic victim of right-wing media to justify re-implementation of the Fairness Doctrine.

Of course, you'll never get them to admit that, but we know it's true, in the same way the Left knew that Glenn Beck and the 9/12ers were responsible for Sparkman's death.

UPDATE VI: Da Tech Guy mentions the ugliest thought about this sad story:

Mr. Sparkman was counting on the media blaming the right for his death for his scam to work. He intentionally tried to frame us for his murder!
As a rule it isn't proper to speak ill of the dead, but I'm just amazed that the dead was trying to speak ill of us. What a dishonorable act!

Stop the ACLU has a round-up and I'm pushing deadline for the American Spectator, so let's let a Clay County resident have the last word:

Many people felt the speculation and coverage of the death played on Appalachian stereotypes and gave Clay County an undeserved black eye.
"Everybody was saying, 'It's bad, but why are they saying this without letting the investigation go forward?' " said state Sen. Robert Stivers, a Republican who lives in the county.
Many in the media owe the county an apology, Stivers said.

Good luck collecting that apology, senator. Being liberal means never having to say you're sorry.

NEWS ALERT: Kentucky State Police Will Announce Sparkman Investigation Result UPDATE: Official: It Was Suicide

UPDATE 2:15 p.m.: It's now official: Bill Sparkman committed suicide. So much for "Southern populist terrorism" -- and the credibility of Andrew Sullivan. So much for "Send the body to Glenn Beck" -- and the credibility of Rick Ungar.

UPDATE 2:40 p.m.: The official report:

Frankfort, Ky.) -- The Kentucky State Police Post 11 in London, with the assistance of the FBI, the U.S. Forest Service, the State Medical Examiner's Office and the Clay County Coroner's Office, has concluded the investigation into the death of William E. Sparkman, Jr.
The investigation, based upon evidence and witness testimony, has concluded that Mr. Sparkman died during an intentional, self-inflicted act that was staged to appear as a homicide. While all the details of the investigation will not be released at this time, the unusual level of attention and speculation attributed to Mr. Sparkman's death necessitates this release of information.
The investigation indicates that Mr. Sparkman died of asphyxiation/strangulation at the same location where he was discovered in Clay County, Ky.
Despite the fact that Mr. Sparkman was found hands, feet and mouth bound with duct tape, rope around his neck and the word "FED" written on his chest, analysis of the evidence determined Mr. Sparkman's death was self-inflicted. A thorough examination of evidence from the scene, to include DNA testing, as well as examination of his vehicle and his residence resulted in the determination that Mr. Sparkman, alone, handled the key pieces of evidence with no indications of any other persons involved.
Witness statements, which are deemed credible, indicate Mr. Sparkman discussed ending his own life and these discussions matched details discovered during the course of the investigation. It was learned that Mr. Sparkman had discussed recent federal investigations and the perceived negative attitudes toward federal entities by some residents of Clay County. It was also discovered during the investigation that Mr. Sparkman had recently secured two life insurance policies for which payment for suicide was precluded.
All tips and leads, including those from the public, were thoroughly investigated but were found to be inconsistent with any known facts or evidence.
It is the conclusion of the Kentucky State Police, the FBI, the U.S. Forest Service, the State Medical Examiner's Office, and the Clay County Coroner's Office that Mr. Sparkman died in an intentional, self-inflicted act that was staged to appear as a homicide.

UPDATE 2:50 p.m.: Michelle Malkin hasn't forgotten, and Dan Riehl says Sparkman may even have faked cancer.

UPDATE 5:30 p.m.: With perfect consistency, Allahpundit (a) arrives three hours late to the story and (b) doesn't link me, even though (c) I filed a 4,000-word article about my Kentucky trip in the Hot Air Green Room.

That report, you'll note, was intended to be Part 1 of a series, but I never finished the second part. Why? Because under no circumstance will Allah ever headline or front-page anything I do in the Green Room. At some point, the perpetual non-linkage sends a message: "Don't even bother trying."

Allah Hates Me. Because I Suck.

PREVIOUSLY (1:05 p.m.): A 2 p.m. press conference has been announced. It is believed that KSP and FBI have concluded that census worker Bill Sparkman's death was suicide. My friend Morgan Bowling of the Manchester (Ky.) Enterprise, who has covered this story from the beginning, sent me the KSP press release.

UPDATE 1:27 p.m.: Associated Press and CBS report the press conference, without mentioning how their own irresponsible reporting effectively libeled Clay County, Ky., as a dangerous hotbed of right-wing violence:

An Associated Press report said the FBI was "investigating whether anti-government sentiment" played a role in Sparkman's death. Law enforcement officials criticized that story, but the liberal blogosphere seized on it as proving that conservatives had fomented a killing rage among the yokels.
"Send the body to Glenn Beck," Internet pundit Rick Ungar proclaimed Thursday, also indicting Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann (a Republican who had warned that census data could be abused) among right-wingers presumed complicit in Sparkman's murder.
Saturday, the Atlantic Monthly's Andrew Sullivan fretted over "the most worrying possibility," namely that Sparkman's death was "Southern populist terrorism whipped up by the GOP and its Fox and talk radio cohorts."

Well, you biased bastards, I have not forgotten the perfidious role you played here, and you will not escape blame for your journalistic malpractice.

UPDATE 2 p.m.: Yes, we remember all those headlines at Memeorandum. Yes, Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Ungar we remember all your irresponsible speculation. The people of Clay County, Ky., await your apologies.

How not to deal with a gang-rape

Let's start with some basics: When a girl is gang-raped for two hours at the high-school homecoming dance, the generic "community" is not the victim and generic "violence" is not the perpetrator. But leave it to the Left Coast to respond to this heinous crime in politically correct fashion:

Upward of 200 people marched from Richmond High School to nearby Wendell Park, where speakers decried violence against women and what they see as the social forces that take such behavior in stride.
"Men need to speak to other men and say, 'Stop,' " said Richard Wright, a community activist from Oakland. "Men need to stand up in this to make a cultural change, to say that rape is no longer acceptable."

Uh . . . to whom was rape ever "acceptable," Mr. Wright? But wait, there's more:

Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin . . . thanked people for bringing an affirmative message of support into her community.
"It's great to hear you raising your voices loud and clear against this horrible crime, and against the horrible crimes against women that go on all the time," McLaughlin said. "This is not about Richmond youth. This is a much larger systemic problem."

Way to muddle the issue, Mayor! Could you please elaborate on that "larger systemic problem"? Because I'm thinking the real problem is the criminals who committed this act. And I'm also thinking that every attempt to externalize guilt by attributing this rape to amorphous "social forces" tends toward the exculpation of the rapists.

There's not really much that rallies and speeches can accomplish in terms of preventing rape. A more simple and useful response: Prosecute the guilty to the maximum extent of the law and, if you have a daughter, don't ever let her go near a California public school.

'Investigators have grown more skeptical that Bill Sparkman died at the hands of someone angry at the federal government'

Skepticism, wow! Who would have thought that the Associated Press might know a skeptic or two?

Investigators probing the death of a Kentucky census worker found hanging from a tree with the word "fed" scrawled on his chest increasingly doubt he was killed because of his government job and are pursuing the possibility he committed suicide, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. . . .
There were no defensive wounds on Sparkman's body, and while his hands were bound with duct-tape, they were still somewhat mobile, suggesting he could have manipulated the rope, the officials said. . . .
The strange case attracted national attention when it first came to light, prompting worries that it may be a sign of increased anger toward the federal government in the first year of Barack Obama's presidency. . . .

Read the whole thing. (Hat tip: Dan Riehl.) Since we've now got official permission from the Associated Press to start asking skeptical questions, I say we begin with this one:

• For whom did the case "prompt worries" other than AP reporters Devlin Barrett and Jeffrey McMurray?

The original URL is no longer active for the Sept. 23 AP article -- also by Barrett and McMurray -- that went a long way toward "prompting worries" in this regard, but it happens that I quoted it in my Hot Air Green Room report:

The FBI is investigating whether anti-government sentiment led to the hanging death of a U.S. Census worker near a Kentucky cemetery. A law enforcement official told The Associated Press the word “fed” was scrawled on the dead man's chest.

After quoting that tendentious lede, I went pointed out how the AP article described the source:

The article said this official "was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity," and went on to cite David Breyer, a spokesman in the FBI's Louisville, Ky., office as saying that "the bureau is helping state police with the case."

That article had a dateline from Washington, D.C., where Barrett is based, so you can bet money that it was Barrett's unauthorized source at the Justice Department -- and not McMurray's sources in Kentucky -- who leaked the tidbit about "fed" scrawled on the chest and the "anti-government sentiment" motive.

OK, so here's the deal with anonymous sources: The source who gives a reporter bad information automatically forfeits his right to anonymity. Barrett's source misled him, so that the entire premise of that Sept. 23 article was bogus.

C'mon, Barrett: Name your source.

High time we made an example of some of these less-than-reliable sources, I say. And if you won't name your source, I can think of a few people on Capitol Hill -- hello, Mitch McConnell -- who might be willing to give me a quote or two for a story about how there needs to be an congressional investigation of leaks from unauthorized sources at DOJ.

Because you see, Devlin Barrett, I'm thinking this anonymous source of yours isn't FBI or regular DOJ bureaucracy. No, sir. My hunch is you got this tip from one of Barack Obama's political hacks over at Justice, which just happened to provide the White House with a story that fit their narrative arc:

These Tea Party people and folks asking health-care questions at town-hall meetings -- they're dangerous! Kooks! Wingnuts! Extremists! Glenn Beck and Michelle Bachmann have got the wool-hats whipped up into a lynch-mob frenzy!

Name your DOJ source, Barrett. Expose the culprit. Turn on the light, so we can watch that cockroach scurry away under the refrigerator.

Meanwhile, somebody send out a search party and try to find Andrew Sullivan's credibility.