Liberals Jump the Gun on West Virginia Shooting
When word came across the wires that some scumbag in Elkins, West Virginia had shot some Federal Marshalls (killing one) before having his lights turned off permanently by the cops, many of us on the left perked up our ears and said, "Aha! A Teabagger who drew down on cops coming to serve a warrant for drug and gun charges who decided to go down shooting."
The killer's name was Charles Smith. Based on the early information and that fact that no age was given for the suspect, I did a basic Google and found a MySpace and Facebook page for a Charles Smith living in Elkins. This was the only Charles Smith I could find LIVING in Elkins. And this guy would have been a PERFECT candidate for a right wing loonie who decided to have his guns pried from his cold, dead fingers. The imagery on his MySpace page had Confederate Flags (including the words, "Burn THIS one, Asshole!" under one) and a stack of money ala the Geico commercial with the legend "This is the money you could be making if Obama were not president."
I threw together an article for this column, but held onto it for one final bit of information. I wanted to make sure I had the right guy before I went public with what I had written.
Others on the left? Not quite so patient. Over at The Daily Kos, one could find a now-scrubbed diary claimed that an "Obama-hating thug" had done the shooting. They included the guy's name, his picture from MySpace, as well as the photos I've described above. To be fair, several Kossacks jumped all over the diarist — not for the fact that he might have the wrong guy, but for declaring him an "Obama-hating thug" based on such scant evidence. But there were more than a few comments after the diary lamenting the fact that there is such hatred among the right wing that some guy would kill a young U.S. Marshall rather than turn over his weapons as the warrant directed.
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