Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman Shot Dead
Bill Gwatney was shot in his Little Rock office and died a few hours later. The gunman fired three shots, and was followed in a 25-mile chase by police who eventually shot and killed him as well.
Just before noon, Mr. Gwatney’s secretary burst into a florist shop across the street from the party headquarters, said Sarah Lee, a sales clerk there. “She was saying that somebody was in her office shooting a gun, and she didn’t know if he had been hit,” Ms. Lee said. “She was just screaming, so we got her behind the counter and locked the door because we didn’t know if someone was following her.”
The secretary said a man had come into the party headquarters and insisted on seeing the chairman, whose office is the first room behind the reception desk, Ms. Lee said. When the secretary tried to put him off, by offering him bumper stickers, he walked past her into the office. “He kept saying he needed to see the chairman, and then just went around her and started shooting,” Ms. Lee said.
No matter your affiliation, this is just so sad.
August 13th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
What’s wrong with people?
August 13th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
I don’t know, OldLefty. We’ll probably hear that he was divorved, estranged from his family, and that his mother either never saw it coming, or saw the signs but was too depressed to act. Replace mother with father, either one works.
August 13th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
This is a damned shame.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Another one down, Another one gone, Another one bites the dust!!! Just another in a long line of Clinton syncophants getting his just desserts. Like those before him, Ron “I Take Bribes” Brown, Vince “I Know Too Much” Foster, and Jim “King of Madison Savings & Loan & Whitewater Scandals” McDougal this pal of the “Clitgone Clan has now met a just end.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
How dare you use a Queen song to assist in your hate.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
There are some sad, pitiful people in the world, (and posting on this site)
I guess W F G is right about bad family situation.
August 13th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Well, more that I could be. I am speculating.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Suntan, you truly are disgusting!
August 13th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
This really is a tragedy, but just add it to the long list of shootings like this…..I really don’t know what is wrong with people….I don’t think we will ever truly know.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
we have already had 3 incidents, from what i can remember of the far right nutjobs attacking democratic establishments!
-when hillary clinton was still running and one of her offices i think in new hampshire(dunno what state) was attacked by a gunman
-a few weeks ago, a gun man stormed a church with a gun hating the liberal movement
-and now this case!
August 13th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
What a tragic and horrible crime, my thoughts and prayers go out to Bill Gwatneys family and friends.
***
suntan your comments are offensive and inappropriate. Even if you have extreme offense from those on the political left, we settle differences by discussion and most importantly voting.
***
To everyone else I take back something I said to other folks here in another top thread when I read them saying suntan was bad for saying bad things. I didnt know the extent until now… so I would like to revise and extend my remarks for the record.
August 13th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Ok, Brad. Thanks.
August 13th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Put a horseshoe in it, Suntan. You are an uneducated bitter American who clings to your guns, bible and confederate flag. With wingnuts like you, the GOP will fall down in flames.
And by the way, stop listening to conservative talk radio. You’ll wind up crazy like the shooter.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:59 am
America is not a racist nation. America’s youth will not vote to remain silent when it comes to inequity. America’s women will not vote against their reproductive right to choose or their rights to work. America will not remain silent as fear tries to close our eyes to the unlimited possibilities of a bright future. America’s youth will not reject this call to action and sit at the table of power to find real solutions to our problems. America will not embrace “Endless War.” America will not vote to store more nuclear waste on a faultline.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:52 am
Everyone just ignore suntan. Don’t respond to him. If you see his name at the bottom, just skip it. He probably doesn’t mean half the shit what he says. He’s just a coward…
August 14th, 2008 at 10:45 am
FuRyUs,
I agree.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:55 am
It is a sad day in my state. And to suntan, go to fuckin’ hell!!!!!
August 14th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
We are affected by the psychological reaction we experience when we hear or read words. The reaction may be conscious or unconscious but we conditioned by the language that surrounds us. The Green House Effect has turned into Global Warming and now is a cute little puppy named Climate Change, Thus removing the sound of threat or man’s influence. To avoid the constitutionality of choice the wording is not anti-choice instead it is called pro-life.
How is your PTSD or my grand father’s shell shock, as G. Carlin has pointed out years ago through comedy? A tax shelter for the ultra wealthy is called a fair tax or flat tax. If you wish to have the tax be a smaller proportion of your income just make more money. That sounds great for a world full of only Kings, but we are living in reality. We greet one another on radio talk shows as, “you’re a great American,” thus leaving the opposing viewpoint drowning in anti-Americanism or unpatriotic, un-American, subversive waters by default. How sad it is that blind nationalism reminiscent of the Soviet era of anti-Soviets were rounded up and sent to reprogramming camps or prison for dissenting opinions. World War 2 had a group that rounded up anti-Germans, they were lovingly called the S.S. That is why we should all be disturbed by the use of the term anti-American or un-American when describing fellow Americans. The catch phrase, “Love it or Leave it,” is an endearing bumper sticker for Pol Pot. He hated the educated intellectuals of Cambodia who were smart enough to realize how much they did not Love it. Yes the big surprise is the fundamentalist Extremists during the 1980’s who beat down the Soviet Union in Afghanistan by the Mujahaden who referred to the Soviet Union as secular atheists that had to be expelled and defeated in the name of God. Does that sound familiar? Does the fear, ridicule, or language of some conservatives sound similar to the Bush Sr. Freedom Fighters of Afghanistan? Many conservatives routinely mention their displeasure for intellectuals, science, atheists, and other religions other than Christianity, Anti-American, Americans, and opposing views, thoughts, or speech. The problem is that questioning religion, conservative republican ideologies, or foreign and domestic policy will garner a possible label of un-American or anti-American subversion reminiscent or the Alien and Sedition Act of early American history. This is extreme nationalism, a super pride of nationhood, a pride so great that anything or anyone even slightly different thus becomes an Anti-American. We must remember that the only true Anti-Americans are those who wish to commit violence, kill, or wage war upon the nation, not the Americans who question or participate on the other side of the political equation. We are all Americans. Speech, thought and opinion are and can never be Anti-American. Though it would seem that we have sunk down to Soviet Era Nationalism. I am now sick and tired of being sick and tired of blind nationalism.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Ronald Regan spoke about America as a “Beacon to the World.” John F. Kennedy first touched upon this “Beacon” to the world. The Beacon has faded in the mist of Blind Nationalism, an Americanism with venomous attitudes, fermented by some in order to reap the reward of power. It is good to be a “Beacon” if you have any light to shine. We have walked away from this “Beacon,” leaving International Treaties, International Law, Due Process, Privacy, The Right of Redress of Grievances, and the Separation of Powers behind. We have taken on the act of Torture as the art of quality interrogation, while claiming that we are a moral, upstanding, modern, and civil nation. The critics of our walk from civilized Law, are most likely called, Anti-American or Un-Patriotic. Sometimes opposition or questioning of government policy is referred to with a reply of. “Well, you must Hate America.” This is Blind Nationalism, Americanism gone wrong, it is the dismantling of free speech, expression, and protest, our freedom of conscience of mind. It was employed prior to Iraq version 2, during, and is still ongoing. In 1950 Republican Senator, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine argued against Joseph McCarthy who was eventually, Censured.
“Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism,” “are all too frequently those who ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism, the right to criticize, the right to hold unpopular beliefs, the right to protest, the right of independent thought.” This is not the Republican Party of today. The Republican Party has been drunk on the poisonous nectar of the Neo-Conservative influence since Regan. The politics of the past are now tepid, innocent, even quaint, (Gonzales and the Bush Administration think quaint is a legal term). Modern, Neo-Conservative Republican politics is brazen in its use of Bad Nationalism, with the intent to divide and conquer. We now hear Americans referring to fellow Americans as “Great Americans,” this would by inference or innuendo a way of saying that there are “Bad Americans,” or ungrateful Anti-Americans. We are no longer a “Beacon to the World,” when Blind Nationalism breaks out, a rash on the principles of Liberty, our Liberty of Mind, Thought, Speech, and Expression are encroached upon by the very classification of fellow Americans as being Anti-American. Anti-American or Un-American is the purposeful labeling of Citizens as Not Being American. And what do Non-Americans not have? Rights! This is the Tool of the Thought Implantation of Supremacist Blind Nationalism or Super Americanism. It is unproductive, unethical, and immoral for the health of a Civil and Just Democratic Society. Though it is very productive for those who seek quick power, sustainable power, or control over the minds of the people who elect them. We have lost the respect of the Civilized World, by walking away from Civility. Civility of politics, Law, Rights, and the treatment of prisoners not yet convicted or proven guilty of a crime, is no longer something we can claim that separates the US from the other despotic nations we fear. At least 150 other nations have used Torture and I would not like to see this level stay at 151, while the US considers any interrogation method that does not kill the Person or damage their organs, as moral, ethical, and legal. For conservative Christians, I would mention something Biblical. One cannot beat, stop, or fight the Devil, while acting like the Devil. Can Evil defeat Evil or does it only bread Evil?
August 14th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
By all that is wholly, please start a blog.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I meant holy.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Antoinette, here’s hoping that you meet the same fate as the French aristocrat of the same name. To all the other liberal lefties attacking me, go screw yourselves as I post truth unlike most of you leftist zealots. If you can attack McCain, Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, et al I can attack the “Nigger” Barack HUSSEIN Obama Obama,(Jesse Jacksons word) and his band of stooges as well. What’s the matter you can dish it out but can’t take? What a bunch of pansys.
August 14th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I encourage all to send fruit baskets to HUSSEIN Obama at his campaign office. Be sure to include his favorites, bananas, watermelons and some grape soda to wash it down with.
August 14th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Where is the “outrage” at those of the “LIBERAL LEFT” when they attack and destroy campaign offices in the Pacific Northwest during the run up to the last 2 Presidentail elections? I guess it’s OK to glue door lock cylinders shut and break windows to steal computers with info on donors and campaign strategies of Republican candidates. It’s about time the “leftist” Democrats suffered some of the same terror inflicted on their rivals.
August 14th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
we have already had 3 incidents, from what i can remember of the far right nutjobs attacking democratic establishments!
Like the question many on the left asked on 9/12, what did we do to deserve this.
What did the liberals do to deserve it.
Tongue in cheek to mock those that think america deserved 9/11.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:26 am
We should send Suntan the Redneck some grits and eggs with whiskey to wash it all down. Hopefully a member of his family is a therapist, because he surely needs one immediately.
For all we know, Suntan could be a member of a terrorist group, the KKK. But rest assure, the FBI is probably watching his sorry behind as we speak.
August 15th, 2008 at 5:24 am
anty,
those who are ignored go away. suntan wants sooo much attention hell do the same as above to get it. i do believe most here are educated enough to NOT respond to him.
August 15th, 2008 at 10:06 pm