Osi Speaks!

Tareq and Michaele Salahi Crash White House State Dinner Party. Secret Service Heads "Need to Roll", Period.

2009-11-26T18:06:00.001-06:00

Watch video below:

On Today, Thanksgiving Day, We Can Be Thankful For My Hero, Abraham Lincoln.

2009-11-26T15:33:00.000-06:00

Lincoln proclaims Thanksgiving

It was a son of Kentucky, leading the nation through the worst crisis of its life, who set aside an official day of Thanksgiving for America's people. Perhaps he had learned the leavening benefits of counting one's blessings, of stopping to note what gladdened the heart, when he and his family were carving an existence out of a veritable wilderness. A tough life can teach lessons of unlikely transformation. How else to explain the impulse to proclaim an official day of thanks for a suffering land, in the middle of a Civil War? That's what Abraham Lincoln did.

Spurred by magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale to make an annually observed day of thanksgiving “a National and fixed Union festival,” President Lincoln did what he could in a few sentences to bring people together. Just several months after the battle of Gettysburg, and just one month after Chickamauga claimed his own brother-in-law, Lincoln on Oct. 3, 1863, issued a Proclamation of Thanksgiving.

In it, he noted the “unequaled magnitude and severity” of the Civil War and asked God's “tender care” for “those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged.” But he also enumerated the gifts visited upon the people and the land. In fact, he started the proclamation, a competing narrative to the ongoing anguish, “The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies …”

If Abraham Lincoln could believe that, and declare that, in the middle of a real Civil War, then we certainly may find it in ourselves to follow his example in our own current, very trying, times. More — we must.

We need no cold comfort of numbers to support what we know about our times. So many Americans are out of work. Many more worry about losing jobs. We worry about making ends meet, and how to help our children realize their dreams.

So many uncertainties lead to so many incivilities, and we don't need the cold comfort of specific examples to know what we know about this, either. If we the people have not taken to fighting each other in Pennsylvania and Tennessee fields, as they did in Lincoln's day, we tear each other apart with words and images, and we attack each other over ideas, and we believe the worst about each other. We shout. We fume. We accuse. And maybe we are numb, or immune, or oblivious, to the goodness around us.

Lincoln's Thanksgiving proclamation delivered a land and a people from being defined by the worst of their times and their impulses. It created a special space for spoken grace, for shared grace.

From the depths of the Civil War, Lincoln reminded our forebears of the good in their midst in the Proclamation of Thanksgiving:

“… Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.”

Every year since, good or bad or somewhere in between, that special space shows up for a day.

This year, for many of us, Thanksgiving comes just in time. Maybe we can again learn lessons of unlikely transformation during hard times, and be of one heart and one voice, and mindful of our shared fruitful fields and healthful skies, in this special space.

POTUS Barack Obama Is Working HARD On Thanksgiving Day. Watch Video.

2009-11-26T12:52:00.000-06:00

From Osi Speaks!, Happy Thanksgiving.

2009-11-26T11:32:00.000-06:00

In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

-- I Thessalonians 5:18

Happy Eid-Ul-Adha To Our Muslim Brothers And Sisters.

2009-11-26T11:12:00.001-06:00

Happy Eid-Ul-Adha.

Happy Thanksgiving From POTUS Barack Obama.

2009-11-26T10:38:00.002-06:00

Osi --

Tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, Americans across the country will sit down together, count our blessings, and give thanks for our families and our loved ones.

American families reflect the diversity of this great nation. No two are exactly alike, but there is a common thread they each share.

Our families are bound together through times of joy and times of grief. They shape us, support us, instill the values that guide us as individuals, and make possible all that we achieve.

So tomorrow, I'll be giving thanks for my family -- for all the wisdom, support, and love they have brought into my life.

But tomorrow is also a day to remember those who cannot sit down to break bread with those they love.

The soldier overseas holding down a lonely post and missing his kids. The sailor who left her home to serve a higher calling. The folks who must spend tomorrow apart from their families to work a second job, so they can keep food on the table or send a child to school.

We are grateful beyond words for the service and hard work of so many Americans who make our country great through their sacrifice. And this year, we know that far too many face a daily struggle that puts the comfort and security we all deserve painfully out of reach.

So when we gather tomorrow, let us also use the occasion to renew our commitment to building a more peaceful and prosperous future that every American family can enjoy.

It seems like a lifetime ago that a crowd met on a frigid February morning in Springfield, Illinois to set out on an improbable course to change our nation.

In the years since, Michelle and I have been blessed with the support and friendship of the millions of Americans who have come together to form this ongoing movement for change.

You have been there through victories and setbacks. You have given of yourselves beyond measure. You have enabled all that we have accomplished -- and you have had the courage to dream yet bigger dreams for what we can still achieve.

So in this season of thanks giving, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to you, and my anticipation of the brighter future we are creating together.

With warmest wishes for a happy holiday season from my family to yours,

President Barack Obama

Happy Thanksgiving From FROTUS Michelle Obama.

2009-11-26T10:22:00.001-06:00

Tomorrow, many of us will gather around the table with family and friends to give thanks over a feast of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy -- and let’s not forget pumpkin pie!

But for some in this country, the feast will not be as bountiful. In fact, it won’t be much of a feast at all. Hunger is on the rise in America -- hitting its highest levels in nearly 15 years. A recent report released by the USDA reveals that in 2008 an estimated 1.1 million children were living in households that experienced hunger multiple times over the past year.

To combat hunger this winter, we’re launching, in coordination with the Corporation for National and Community Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the United We Serve: Feed a Neighbor initiative -- a program that empowers you with all the resources you need to mobilize against the hunger crisis in your community. Learn how you can get started today:

Barack and I are committed to doing all we can to end hunger by making food programs more accessible to eligible families. But government can only do so much -- it will take all of us working together to put an end to hunger in America.
That’s why we’ve made it easy for you to get involved at Serve.gov. Find local volunteer opportunities like delivering meals to homebound seniors, offering your professional skills at a food pantry, or planting a community garden and sharing produce with your neighbors. You can also create your own volunteer opportunity using our anti-hunger toolkit.

This holiday season let’s recommit to serving our communities and working together to feed American families. Get started giving back today.

Thank you,
Michelle

First Lady Michelle Obama
The White House

Happy Thanksgiving From My Hero, Abraham Lincoln.

2009-11-26T10:10:00.002-06:00

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

Happy Thanksgiving From George Washington.

2009-11-26T09:49:00.000-06:00

George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.

And Joel Pett Also Provides Today's Laughter.

2009-11-26T07:37:00.002-06:00

In Nigeria, A New BLOATED Budget Provides Unlimited Opportunities For MORE Unbridled Thieving Of Public Funds. Read More Below.

2009-11-25T21:51:00.003-06:00

Yes, read more by following this link.

UNBRIDLED Nigerian Corruption.

2009-11-25T18:36:00.000-06:00

Nigeria: Abacha's Son to Pay N53.2 Billion
Lawal Sabo with agency reports

Abuja — A court in Switzerland had yesterday, ordered the seizure of $350m, roughly about N53.2bn, worth of assets from the son of Nigeria's former military ruler, late General Sani Abacha.

Abba Abacha, the youngest male of the Abacha children, was convicted of being a member of an unnamed criminal organisation that specialises in money laundering and was given a suspended custodial sentence.

Nigerian state lawyers believe Sani Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from 1993, when he forced Chief Ernest Shonekan out in a 'silent coup'; until his death in 1998, may have pilfered about $2.2bn, equivalent of over N334bn, from the public treasury.

The Swiss authorities pursued Abba Abacha for six years before extraditing him in 2005, from Germany, where he fled to, when the Obasanjo government waged what was seen as a vindictive war on the Abacha family.

The BBC reports that,the examining magistrate sentenced him to a suspended jail term, and ordered the confiscation of his assets of $350m, as revealed by a Geneva canton's justice office in a statement. Adding that, Abba can however appeal the judgement "[The money] is held by his criminal organisation and seized through international assistance in Luxembourg and the Bahamas," the BBC added.

This development can serve as a great setback for the ambition of the eldest of the Abacha's progeny to rule Kano, the home state of the late General. Mohammed Abacha's posters in PDP colours, are all over the place, seeking for the Kano gubernatorial mandate come 2011.

It could be recalled that, Switzerland began investigating the Abacha family in 1999, after Nigeria's return to civilian rule and has so far handed back about $700m of the recovered loot to Nigeria. But the whereabouts of that recovered loot, most of which was believed to have been repatriated to Nigeria during Obasanjo's tenure as Nigeria's civilian ruler is yet unknown.

Maureen Dowd: As Palin Is Proving, Visceral Has Its Value.

2009-11-25T14:58:00.000-06:00

As Palin is proving, visceral has its value
By Maureen Dowd

It's easy to dismiss Sarah Palin.

She's back on the trail, with the tumbling hair and tumbling thoughts. The queen of the scenic strip mall known as Wasilla now reigns over thrilled subjects thronging to a politically strategic swath of American strip malls.

The conservative celebrity clearly hasn't boned up on anything, except her own endless odyssey of self-discovery. And she still has that Yoda-like syntax.

“And I think more of a concern has been not within the campaign the mistakes that were made, not being able to react to the circumstances that those mistakes created in a real positive and professional and helpful way for John McCain,” she told Bill O'Reilly.

Yet Democrats would be foolish to write off her visceral power.

As Judith Doctor, a 69-year-old spiritual therapist, told The Washington Post's Jason Horowitz at Palin's book signing in Grand Rapids, Mich., “She's alive inside, and that radiates energy, and people who are not psychologically alive inside are fascinated by that.”

Barack Obama, who once had his own electric book tour testing the waters for a campaign, could learn a thing or three from Palin. On Friday, for the first time, his Gallup poll approval rating dropped below 50 percent, and he's losing the independents who helped get him elected.

He's a highly intelligent man with a highly functioning West Wing, and he's likable, but he's not connecting on the gut level that could help him succeed.

The animating spirit that electrified his political movement has sputtered out.

People need to understand what the President is thinking as he maneuvers the treacherous terrain of a lopsided economic recovery and two depleting wars.

Like Reagan, Obama is a detached loner with a strong, savvy wife. But unlike Reagan, he doesn't have the acting skills to project concern about what's happening to people.

Obama showed a flair for the theatrical during his campaign, and a talent for narrative in his memoir, but he has yet to translate those skills to governing.

As with the debates, he seems resistant to the idea that perception, as well as substance, matters. Obama so values pragmatism, and is so immersed in the thorny details of legislative compromises, that he may be undervaluing the connective bonds of simpler truths.

Americans who are hurting get angry when they learn that Timothy Geithner, as head of the New York Fed before becoming Treasury secretary, caved to the insistence of Goldman Sachs and other AIG trading partners that they get 100 cents on the dollar when he could have struck a far better bargain for taxpayers.

If we could see a Reduced Shakespeare summary of Obama's presidency so far, it would read:

Dither, dither, speech. Foreign trip, bow, reassure. Seminar, summit. Shoot a jump shot with the guys, throw out the first pitch in mom jeans. Compromise, concede, close the deal. Dither, dither, water down, news conference.

It's time for the President to reinvent this formula and convey a more three-dimensional person.

Palin can be stupefyingly simplistic, but she seems dynamic. Obama is impressively complex but he seems static.

She nurtures her grass roots while he neglects his.

He struggles to transcend identity politics while she wallows in them. As he builds an emotional moat around himself, she exuberantly pushes whatever she has, warts and all — the good looks, the tabloid-perfect family, the Alaska quirkiness, the kids with the weird names.

Just like the disastrous and anti-intellectual W., this Visceral One never doubts herself. The Cerebral One welcomes doubt.

On Afghanistan, Palin says, W-like, that the President should simply give Gen. Stanley McChrystal a blank check. But Afghanistan is a wrenching decision, and we do need the closest exit ramp. So the President should get credit for standing back and studying the issue, and for not rubber-stamping the generals' predictable urge to surge. But the way he has handled the perception part has allowed critics — including generals — to cast him as indecisive.

McChrystal and Gen. David Petraeus should have been giving their best advice to Obama — and airing their view against scaling down in Afghanistan — in confidence. Instead, McChrystal pushed his opinion in a speech in London, and Petraeus has discussed his feelings in private sessions with reporters. This creates a Seven Days in May syndrome, where the two generals are, in effect, lobbying against the President and undercutting him as he's trying to make a painfully complex, life-and-death decision.

This time, Obama should adopt Palin's straight-from-the-gut approach, call the generals into the Oval and tell them, “Your pie-holes you will shut or rise higher you will not. Because, dang it, the President I am!”

Maureen Dowd is a New York Times columnist.

Editor's comment: Yes, dang it, Maureen. Dang it. LOL.

Trey Grayson And Rand Paul Send Out "Happy Thanksgiving" Emails, Double SIGH On The Politics Of The Latter.

2009-11-25T13:37:00.006-06:00

Compare Trey's email below:

Dear Friends,

Thanksgiving began as a simple celebration of life and an appreciation of the blessings of freedom. Our forefathers celebrated their arrival to this land of open possibilities, and each subsequent generation of proud Americans has built upon that example of strength and sacrifice.

This Thanksgiving while we gather with friends and family, let’s not forget those serving in our military, whom we owe so much. Many courageous American men and women will spend Thanksgiving far from home, but they are not far from our thoughts and prayers.

As we continue this campaign, I am grateful for your encouragement and support. There are many difficult weeks ahead, but with your continued help we will be successful next year.

Please be safe and enjoy the blessings of the season. Nancy and I wish you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,

Trey Grayson

To Rand Paul's below:

Giving Thanks For Liberty

Fellow citizen,

After being on the road speaking with voters every weekend for the past several months, Rand Paul and his family will be visiting Ron and Carol Paul for Thanksgiving weekend. As we prepare to celebrate this holiday, we reflect on the many things we have to be grateful for.

Our nation was conceived by those who desired individual liberty, and rewards personal initiative and responsibility. Our Constitutional Republic was designed to protect each person's right to life, liberty and the fruit of their labor - even from government itself! Under this system, we prospered unlike any nation in history, and stood as an example to the world that the pursuit of liberty brings many blessings.

We are especially grateful to all those who sacrificed their lives to defend our Constitution and make this possible. We are grateful to all the patriots still working for freedom, thousands of whom we've had the privilege of meeting in recent months. Even in these days of rampant government expansion, you are making a difference!

Last week, the House took a first step towards allowing a full audit of the Federal Reserve for the first time in its 96 year history, when Rep. Mel Watt's measure to sabotage HR1207 was defeated and the original language restored by a vote of 43 to 26. This legislation introduced by Rep. Ron Paul would reveal the recipients of trillions of dollars in bailouts, and due to pressure from concerned citizens across the nation, has attracted 313 cosponsors in the House, and 30 in the Senate.

The bill would gain even more steam if a senator from Kentucky were to cosponsor and champion it. Dr. Rand Paul is fully committed to Federal Reserve transparency.

Looking forward: On November 30th, Dr. Paul will hold a fundraiser at 6:30 P.M. (EST) for Jimmy Higdon in Bardstown.

On December 1st, Dr. Paul will be at a Meet and Greet at 4:30 P.M. at Reno's Roadhouse, 30 Colonel's Court in Prestonburg.

The same day Dr. Paul will hold a town hall meeting at 6:00 P.M. at the Landmark Inn, 190 South Mayo Trail in Pikeville. We'd love to meet you at these events! See the calender for more details.

The December 16th money bomb planned by supporters will play a crucial part in the campaign going forward. Please pledge at: www.randsteaparty.com and spread the word!

All of us at the campaign would like to wish you and your families a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

In Liberty,
Christopher Hightower
Rand Paul For US Senate

Editor's comment: Now you see why the latter drew a *SIGH* from me?

Kentucky Supreme Court: Department Of Correction Parole Credit Rules Have Retroactive Application.

2009-11-25T11:18:00.003-06:00

Follow the story Supreme Court backs early release of prisoners by Bill Estep, or the excerpt below:cr

The state Department of Corrections acted correctly in letting people out of prison under controversial parole-credit rules approved in 2008, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

One key issue in the case was that the department gave people time off their current sentences based on periods they’d spent on parole before the new rules were adopted.

Opponents argued that amounted to an inappropriate retroactive application of the rules.

A judge in Southern Kentucky barred the department from using the rules, but a judge in Franklin County refused to issue such an injunction.

The Supreme Court consolidated the cases and ruled unanimously that the legislature intended the rules to be applied retroactively in order to save money on prison costs.

The ruling said the injunction barring use of the rules can’t be enforced. ...

Kentucky Supreme Court Gives Jack Conway A Bad Thanksgiving Present, Rules State Must Comply With Law Before Any Executions Are Carried Out.

2009-11-25T10:41:00.002-06:00

Read more from H-L, or excerpts below:

Court: No executions until death penalty process changed
By Jack Brammer

FRANKFORT –Kentucky may not execute anyone until it adopts regulations in compliance with the law, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The court ruling came in the case of three Death Row inmates – Thomas C. Bowling, Ralph Baze and Brian Keith Moore – who were challenging the state’s lethal injection protocol.
...
Earlier this week, Attorney General Jack Conway asked Gov. Steve Beshear to set an execution date for Baze and two other men on Death Row.

Meanwhile, the state’s top public defenders, a leading anti-death-penalty group and a group of lawyers sought a moratorium on executions until a recently organized American Bar Association review of the implementation of the death penalty in Kentucky is completed in about 12 to 18 months.

In its 35-page ruling, the court said the state Department of Corrections must follow state-mandated administrative procedures before adopting the current lethal injection process of a three-drug cocktail.

It also said the state should have held public hearings on the process.

“The Department of Corrections is required by Kentucky law to promulgate a regulation as to all portions of the lethal injection protocol except those limited issues of internal management that are purely of concern to department personnel,” the high court said.

It identified “limited issues of internal management” as identities of the execution team, storage location of the drugs and other security-related issues.

Editor's comment: I guess Jack Conway won't get his election wish now, and May is FAST approaching.

Joel Pett Provides The Laughter For Today.

2009-11-25T10:22:00.002-06:00

Watch CBS' Katie Couric Gone Wild.

2009-11-24T18:21:00.000-06:00

Want more?

Go here.

Another IDIOT Gets His Five Minutes Of SHAME In POTUS Barack Obama "Jihad" Billboard.

2009-11-24T17:46:00.002-06:00

GOOGLE Refuses To Remove Picture Of FLOTUS Michelle Obama. IDIOTIC Move -- Or Fair Play?

2009-11-24T14:43:00.004-06:00

Read more from Google.

If you are offended like I am, please contact Google and ask them to remove the image.

Some Republicans Propose A "Purity Test" -- Well, Really, An Anti POTUS Barack Obama Test -- Can You Pass It? Check It Out.

2009-11-24T13:48:00.004-06:00

Take the test here.

How well did you do?

SHOCKING NEWS: Kentucky Police Conclude Census Worker Bill Sparkman Killed Himself In Clay County.

2009-11-24T13:13:00.003-06:00

Census worker killed himself, tried to make it look like homicide, officials conclude
Bill Estep

A U.S. Census worker found dead in a secluded Clay County cemetery killed himself but tried to make the death look like a homicide, authorities have concluded.

Bill Sparkman, 51, of London, might have tried to cover the manner of his death to preserve payments under life-insurance polices that he had taken out. The policies wouldn’t pay off if Sparkman committed suicide, state police Capt. Lisa Rudzinski said.

“We believe it was an intentional act on his part to take his own life,” said Rudzinski, who helped lead the investigation.

Sparkman’s nude body was found Sept. 12 by people visiting the cemetery. There was a rope around his neck tied to a tree, and he had what appeared to be the word “fed” written on his chest in black marker.

His census identification card was taped to his head.

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.

There has been some anti-census sentiment in the country this year, and Sparkman apparently tried to capitalize on that with his ruse.

If there had been no writing on his chest and his identification hadn’t been taped to him, police could have concluded more quickly that Sparkman’s death was a suicide, Rudzinski said.

Instead, it took considerably more investigation to rule out homicide. Police even analyzed the ink on Sparkman’s chest to see how the letters were applied, in order to determine whether it was more likely that someone else wrote on him or he wrote on himself.

Tests indicated that the letters were applied from the bottom to the top — not the way an assailant facing Sparkman would write them. Police concluded that Sparkman wrote on himself, Rudzinski said.

Ultimately, there was no evidence to point to murder, she said.

Tests results showed that there was no DNA other than Sparkman’s on the rag in his mouth or on another rag found near his body. Those results, which police received only recently, were a pivotal development.

Other evidence also pointed to suicide as the manner of Sparkman’s death, police said.

For instance, there was no evidence that Sparkman had struggled with anyone. There were no wounds on his body, Rudzinski said.

Tests ruled out any theory that he was drugged and unconscious when he was tied to the tree, making the lack of signs of a struggle more significant. Also, Sparkman’s glasses were taped to his head. The question that raises is why a killer would care whether Sparkman, who had poor vision, could see what was going on.

On the other hand, if Sparkman was writing on his chest or preparing to kill himself, it would matter that he could see.

And although it is true that Sparkman died of asphyxiation from the rope around his neck, he was not dangling from the tree the way people commonly perceive hanging, Rudzinski said.

His legs were bent at the knee and his knees were less than six inches off the ground, Rudzinski said.

Sparkman could have stood up, taken the pressure off his neck and not died.

Sparkman’s hands were bound, but loosely, allowing him to move them shoulder-width apart, Rudzinski said.

The significance of that is that Sparkman could have created by himself all the conditions found at the scene, such as tying the rope around his neck and putting a rag in his mouth, Rudzinski said.

“We do not believe he was placed in that position” by someone else, Rudzinski said.

Authorities don’t think there was any single event that pushed Sparkman to take his own life, but rather a combination of issues. He had significant debt and hadn’t been able to get a full-time job, Rudzinski said.

In addition to hoping to preserve life-insurance benefits, Sparkman might have been trying to spare his family from thinking he killed himself, Rudzinski said.

Sparkman’s son Josh, whom he adopted and raised as a single father, had argued earlier that his father did not kill himself. Bill Sparkman had battled cancer a few years ago and survived, so it made no sense that he would kill himself, his son said.

However, Rudzinski said authorities are confident in the conclusion that Sparkman committed suicide. That is the consensus of all the agencies involved — state police, the FBI, the state medical examiner’s office and the Clay County coroner — she said.

“This is one of the most thorough death investigations that turned out to be suicide that I’ve ever seen,” she said.

Editor's comment: Surprising and shocking.

POTUS Barack Obama Aims To "Finish Job In Afghanistan". Watch Video.

2009-11-24T13:02:00.001-06:00

SURVEYUSA Poll: Steve Beshear's Approval Rating At 39%, Disapproval Is At 55%. WOW.

2009-11-24T10:57:00.002-06:00

Cal Thomas: Welcome to the U.S.S.A.

2009-11-24T09:28:00.001-06:00

Welcome to the U.S.S.A.
By Cal Thomas

Not all revolutions begin in the streets with tanks and guns. Some advance slowly, almost imperceptibly, until a nation is transformed and the public realizes too late that its freedoms are gone.

Such is the revolution now taking place in America. The '60s crowd has emerged from the ideological grave and is about to impose on this country a declaration of dependence in the form of government-run health insurance and treatment. It matters not what facts are known about this “coup,” because to those from the '60s — whether they lived in that decade or were born later and adopted its ideology — only feelings and intentions matter, not truth and results.

Why would anyone trust government — which has a difficult enough time winning wars — to properly administer health care? What track record does government have in living up to its economic forecasts and competence in running anything?

But this is about none of that. This is about liberal Democrats realizing their decades-old dream of complete control of our lives. Every move you make, every breath you take, they'll be watching you. Except, of course, when it comes to terrorists who want to destroy America faster than the liberals do. A different standard is applied to them.

Nowhere in the debate over health care “reform” have we heard a single word from liberal Democrats about personal responsibility, self-reliance and freedom. In fact, the message has come through quite clearly that government will penalize anyone who demonstrates such beliefs, as it attempts to spread your wealth around.

This is how I see health care reform working: If you are a doctor who has spent a lot of money and time becoming a responsible and caring physician, the government will tell you how much to charge your patients and, in fact, whether you will be allowed to treat them at all. Bureaucrats, having given themselves the power of God, will decide whether a patient is worth the cost of treatment, thereby deciding who lives and who dies. Despite the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, somewhere down the line taxpayers will be forced to underwrite abortions in violation of the consciences and faith of the majority.

This is the triumph of the humanistic, atheistic worldview. We are all to be regarded as products of evolution in which the fit and the powerful will decide our survival and worth.

When Republicans were in the majority, deficits mattered to Democrats. Now we see that expressed concern was a sham, because if deficits meant something when they were relatively small, they ought to mean something more when we are in hock up to the necks of our Chinese-made clothes.

We've only just begun with this. The new breast and ovarian cancer screening guidelines may soon become mandatory as health care rationing kicks in. The unwanted, the inconvenient and the “burdensome” could soon be dispatched with a pill, or through neglect.

Great horrors don't begin in gas chambers, killing fields, or forced famines. They begin when there is a philosophical shift in a nation's leadership about the value of human life. Novelist Walker Percy examined the underlying philosophy that led to the Holocaust and wrote: “In a word, certain consequences, perhaps unforeseen, follow upon the acceptance of the principle of the destruction of human life for what may appear to be the most admirable social reasons.”

In our day, the consequences of government seizure of one-sixth of our economy and government's ability to decide how we run our lives (it won't stop with health care) are foreseen. They are just being ignored in our continued pursuit of personal peace, affluence and political power.

Opinion polls show a majority of Americans reject this health care “reform” bill. They think haste may waste them in the end. It doesn't matter. Like members of a cult, whatever the leader says, goes. The facts be damned. The crowd from the '60s will “seize the time,” in the words of Black Panther radical Bobby Seale, thus sealing our doom as a unique and wonderful nation.

Welcome to the U.S.S.A., the United Socialist States of America.

Cal Thomas is a columnist with Tribune Media Services. Readers may e-mail him at tmseditors@tribune.com.