What happened in Daniel Boone National Forest?

Daniel Boone National Forest, Kentucky

This morning I heard a story on the news that ought to raise alarm bells all over this country. It certainly startled and disturbed me. A federal census bureau worker, Bill Sparkman, 51, was found hanged with the word "fed" scrawled across his chest in the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky. The body was discovered on September 12th, but the story is only now becoming public.

The FBI is investigating the case in coordination with Kentucky State Police to determine if the death is the result of foul play and, if so, whether it was related to Sparkman's status as a federal employee.

I'm not jumping to any conclusions. Let the investigation run its course. If the death is the result of foul play, there are any number of possibilities. For example, considering the remoteness of the (potential) crime scene, perhaps Sparkman stumbled onto a moonshine operation or a ganja cultivation plot and was silenced by its operators.

That's a dark thought, but another possibility is even darker.

Imagine some backwoods Kentucky hick, half-crazed on corn-squeezings and Glenn Beck, sitting in his tar paper shack with his AM radio blaring, storing up ammo for when the Feds come to put him in a FEMA concentration camp and force him to bow down to the n**ger. Along comes the unsuspecting and harmless Sparkman, with his clipboard and his questionnaire...

Not a pleasant subject for contemplation.

This could very well be another example of the right-wing domestic terrorism that has been plaguing this nation ever since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. In just the last 15 months, there were the June arrests in Pima County, AZ. There was the incident at the Holocaust Museum, also in June. There was the murder of Dr. George Tiller in May. There was the July, 2008, incident where a terrorist opened fire with a shotgun in a church in Powell, Tennessee.

William E. Sparkman Junior: substitute teacher, Boy Scout volunteer, single father, and cancer survivor

If it turns out that this is a politically-motivated homicide, I wonder, will the media and government finally start using the term "terrorism" to describe this type of activity?