More on the census worker murder in Kentucky

I've been holding back on this story waiting for it to develop but it's now hitting the legacy media outlets with CBS News and the NYT publishing the newest information. It's hard to believe law enforcement are still hedging over whether to call it a "homicide, suicide or an accident" with this eyewitness account on record now.

A part-time census worker found hanging in a rural Kentucky cemetery was naked, gagged and had his hands and feet bound with duct tape, said an Ohio man who discovered the body two weeks ago. [...]

The only thing he had on was a pair of socks," Weaver said. "And they had duct-taped his hands, his wrists. He had duct tape over his eyes, and they gagged him with a red rag or something."

"And they even had duct tape around his neck. And they had like his identification tag on his neck. They had it duct-taped to the side of his neck, on the right side, almost on his right shoulder."

Kind of hard to do that "by accident." And for the record, the word "fed" was scrawled with a felt-tip pen across the victim's chest.

Of course, we don't know the motive yet and I suppose it is possible that he stumbled onto a meth lab or moonshiners or something out there in the sticks but it seems unlikely to me. I made the mistake of looking at Althouse's comment section where they refuse to even consider the possibility that there might be a nexus between the over-the-top hysterical bleating of the Republicans and their fellow wingnuts and this obvious murder.

The victim's truck and his work computer that he logged the census info into were 50 yards away from the body. And it's hard to forget the relentless fearmongering over the census in the prededing weeks. Right Wing Watch has a great compliation and Think Progress has more in addition to the clips I posted earlier.

All I know for sure, no matter what the motive turns out to be, the blood will be on all their hands for creating an environment where bizarre conspiracy theories about the most basic functions of government thrive and expressing their mistrust with unbridled anger is somehow acceptable.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]