skydyvr

It's the article about the bulldozer rampage in CO. --- GRANBY, Colo., June 5 -- An angry citizen with a grudge against City Hall and the local newspaper was found dead Saturday morning in his home-made armored tank after a destructive rampage that turned parts of downtown Granby into rubble heaps Friday -- but injured no one except the perpetrator. Police said they worked much of the night with torches and plastic explosives to break through the foot-thick armor welded to a 53-ton Caterpillar D9 bulldozer. The man who wrecked much of Granby, welder Marvin John Heemeyer, 52, was found dead inside, apparently a suicide. Before he died, though, Heemeyer had fired machine guns and rifles and smashed his armored vehicle into offices, businesses and a house along Agate Avenue, the main street of this mountain town surrounded by ski resorts, national park land and snow-capped 14,000-foot peaks. Heemeyer's one-man uprising against the local establishment came to an end about 4:30 Friday afternoon when he rumbled through the front wall of Gamble's Department Store -- a business owned by a planning board member who voted against Heemeyer in a heated dispute in 2000. The front of the massive bulldozer then fell through the floor of the store and was left dangling at an angle, witnesses said. Police warily approached the vehicle but found it welded shut and armored with a covering of concrete and steel. By Saturday morning, when the driver's hatch was finally blown open, Heemeyer was dead. "It's amazing what one person can do," said Colorado Gov. Bill Owens (R), who traveled by helicopter to inspect the damage in this town of 1,500. Astonished Granbyites echoed that notion as they strolled main street to assess the ruins. "City Hall is a pile of bricks, and I mean, that's all," said motel owner Jerry Brenner. "The cement batch plant, up there where he started, that whole factory is going to have to come down. He found his targets, and he wrecked them good." In a town where everybody knows just about everybody else, many people said they were aware that Heemeyer had been nursing a grudge for years against various residents. His rage evidently dated to 2000, when he fought in vain to get the local planning authority to block construction of a plant. The factory was approved and went up just across the road from a muffler shop that Heemeyer then owned. He had a running feud with the editor of Granby Sky-High News, the local newspaper, over that planning dispute and other issues. Neighbors said Heemeyer was forced to sell the muffler shop to pay debts. Recently, a fire at his home destroyed his most cherished possession, his snowmobile -- a vehicle considered essential in a community where winter runs from September to April and brings an average of 100 inches of snow per year. Working for months in a closed garage, Heemeyer equipped an old bulldozer with three television cameras and monitors so he could see to steer. He cut portholes for his guns, then welded a tight enclosure around them so police bullets could not penetrate. For armor, he poured 12 inches of concrete between metal plates welded to the vehicle. Police found two semiautomatic machine guns, a .223-caliber rifle and two handguns in the vehicle. All those weapons are legal in Colorado. Heemeyer started down his road to revenge Friday afternoon. He bashed in the cement plant, then rumbled through town to the combination City Hall and library. Librarian Cathy Pritchard said she said she hustled a group of children attending story hour out the back door just before the building fell. The tank then rumbled back onto the main street and plowed into the newspaper office, which was leveled. Heemeyer smashed a bank, an electric utility office and the house. With the driver's cabin of his vehicle enclosed in armor, Heemeyer clearly had difficulty steering. "He was veering everywhere, taking out trees and light posts," said Agate Avenue gun shop owner Terri Hertel. "But he only hit the buildings he seemed to be aiming for." Heemeyer fired several times at the propane tanks at Independent Gas. There was no explosion. He then smashed the home of a former mayor who had supported the cement plant in the planning case, and headed toward his smash-in at the department store. In all, the bulldozer traveled about four miles up and down the main street about 2 mph. © 2004 The Washington Post Company . . =(_8^(1)

How is that even a tiny bit heroic. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18948-2004Jun5.html . . =(_8^(1)

Who do you have in mind? Colonel Sanders? . . =(_8^(1)

Dude, insensitivity this deep has got to hurt. Get help. . . =(_8^(1)

No class... Yep, a big -zero- in the class department there. Blue Skies President Reagan. . . =(_8^(1)

This looks like a great resource, thanks for posting it.

That's not comparable to a professionally conducted poll asking reporters about their political orientations. But don't worry. When I disagree with poll results, I find ways to ignore the results too. . . =(_8^(1)

I'm American, and I dislike a majority of my own people. Fat, lazy and rude is what I've seen for a long, long time. Maybe it's just my attitude, or maybe it's that way in every country. Not being much of a world traveler, I can't make a fair comparison. . . =(_8^(1)

No, I was speaking of the stats I presented that reveal the overwhelming left leaning personal views of the individual members of the national media overall. Don't you think that might result in a significant slant on the way the news is presented? FOX takes a stab at seeming to be "fair and balanced" -- in fact some of their shows probably are -- but a blind man could see that they are right leaning overall. Why? Because they have more righties on the staff. Now take that same idea and apply it to the long-time traditional media, the huge majority of existing media, and a blind man could see they have a liberal bias because of the political leanings of the staff. People a lot more dedicated than me are slowly closing the imbalance. Isn't it nice things are evening out these days? . . =(_8^(1)

I have, but you did a fine job of ignoring it. . . =(_8^(1)

No contradiction. I am saying that when a FOX or Newsmax comes along these days, it is like a cool drink of water in the desert for the conservative half of the population. Thank God for cable and the 'net -- otherwise we'd all still be under the thumbs of Brokaw, Jennings, and Rather, along with a liberally slanted print media. But as we've noted before, people have a choice of media bias to view these days. The better informed among us probably shop around a bit. And so it is, he's selling very well to a few urban markets. I wonder what the attention span of the average 24yr old liberal is. . . =(_8^(1)

Mario beat him, for one. . . =(_8^(1)

So you stand for no group or individual shoving their convictions down anyone else's throat? . . =(_8^(1)

"I took the initiative in creating the Internet." Al Gore . . =(_8^(1)

And whenever that happens, the outlet usually becomes wildly popular, for example Fox News and numerous conservative magazines and talk radio shows. Why? People are tired of the long-time stranglehold liberal news outlets had on America for so long (NBC, ABC, CBS, etc.). BTW, how's Airhead America radio doing lately? 7% of national journalists claim to be conservative. 34% claim to be liberal. The rest are somewhere between, probably mostly left leaning moderates. Those numbers indicate a huge potential for bias. . . =(_8^(1)

Let's all get together and vote against Kerry. If you think we're in a shitstorm now, just wait 'till that arrogant, clueless SOS takes office. ;-) . . =(_8^(1)

Does that really break from your usual pattern? . . =(_8^(1)

You and the mouse in your pocket might feel that way, but I doubt strongly any European with an IQ over 85 sees average Americans like that. . . =(_8^(1)

Very nice, thanks. . . =(_8^(1)

It looks to me that just saying it is the part that's in question. Acting on it is already illegal. This law protects groups against speech, not action. Edited to ask Keith where in: --- 318. (1) Every one who advocates or promotes genocide is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years. --- do you see that advocating or promoting genocide must result in a death for it to be illegal? . . =(_8^(1)

Did you miss the part about "Hate Propaganda"? . . =(_8^(1)

What would the bigger pieces of that connection re-establishment be? . . =(_8^(1)

Then he was just as faulty for saying that as you. I understand your sentiments though, you are very unhappy with your president. . . =(_8^(1)

I believe the "word of God" is found in the bible, but the "trick" you describe is still extremely applicable. . . =(_8^(1)

The real question is -- would a successful large scale attack right before the election work towards keeping Bush in office, or would it finish him off. Or would it not influence the election at all? . . =(_8^(1)