Yesterday, Drudge had another multiple siren alert about a McCain volunteer being robbed in Pittsburgh by an Obama supporter who then allegedly assaulted her, mutilated her, and then carved a backwards ‘B” into her face because he was enraged by a McCain sticker on her care. Memeorandum looked like this:
Red State kicked it up a notch, in case you missed the point:
Today there is a new, more violent twist. A McCain supporter, a 20 year old college Republican volunteer, was savagely attacked by a Barack Obama supporter in Pennsylvania. She was at an ATM getting money. He saw the McCain sticker on her car, robbed her, and carved a “B” into the side of her face.
He carved her face like it was a pumpkin
You can see where this is going, can’t you? Alrighty then:
SHE MADE IT ALL UP:
Police sources tell KDKA that a campaign worker has now confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter “B” in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker.
Ashley Todd, 20, of Texas, initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect became enraged and started beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car.
Police investigating the alleged attack, however, began to notice some inconsistencies in her story and administered a polygraph test.
I am so sick and tired of all this bullshit.
Credit where credit is due- Michelle Malkin never once bought into the story, to her credit.
*** Update ***
Sherrell
I would like to say something insightful and intelligent but all I can think is "stupid bitch"
Jamey
What’s that old expression about a Conservative being a Liberal who’s been mugged by reality?
My last comments on the pictures of Ms Ashley Todd:
1) she looks like Kelli Osbourne
2) I’d "hit" that
But, really, we should have smelled a rat when Ms Todd showed up in the news made up like a crime victim … only after we find out that the highest-paid McCain staffer in Sept and Oct. was the make-up stylist.
Wow.
Ned Raggett
The spin will be that she was a secret Obama volunteer who did this to embarrass the McCain campaign. Uh, yeah.
shera
Talk about an epic fail on everyone’s part.
Joshau Norton
Why would anyone carve a "backwards" B? That should have tipped them that the claim was coming straight out of Fascist Fantasy Land.
plus C
In her defense, this incident was still more credible than the McCain campaign in general.
Mr Furious
If you look closely you can see her Che Guevara poster in the background…
Robert B
That backwards ‘B’ was a dead giveaway. Made Faux News and the local news here in Columbus though.
Napoleon
I still blame Obama!
DonkeyKong
Wasnt this old when Morton Downey Jr. did this 20 years ago.
TenguPhule
Save that quote for 8 years from now.
You will fondly remember these times as ‘the good old days’ before the Rightwing really went past insanity and came out the other side during the Obama admin.
rts
Charles Stuart….
Ned Raggett
Okay, having posted my comment, a friend says that some commenters ARE saying that on the Fox News site. Of course.
xyzzy
Hehideedy. John Moody, executive vice president of Fox News:
NR
The PUMAs over at Riverdaughter’s place were all over it, too.
For humor value, check out one of myiq2x’s comments there:
Too funny.
TenguPhule
Not really.
They believe it like true believers. And they can vote.
dewberry
For her, I actually have some degree of sympathy. You have to be pretty sick in the head to do something like that.
For Drudge or anyone else who was pushing this (she apparently called McCain PA hq before calling the police), I have no sympathy. Total assholeishness.
TenguPhule
So GoatIQ, Riverdaughter and Redstate all have less sense then Malkin.
…Darwin’s theory of evolution needs to be revised.
Desmond
Just a couple days ago, Eric Boehlert had a piece up on Media Matters about how Drudge’s influence has totally tanked. You know, since there’s so much actual news to report on, instead of semen-stained dresses and $400 haircuts.
I’d say this pretty much confirms it. Drudge is pathetic.
Rick Taylor
How dumb was this story? Even Michelle Malkin wasn’t fooled. Ace of Spades however was taken in.
The Grand Panjandrum
MM is the voice of reason on the Right. Sweet Jesus in the Morning did you ever dream that might be the case? And she does get props for not going off the deep end on this one.
I just wonder if she isn’t coming to the realization that McCain will lose and she’s got to keep her powder dry for the battle ahead. MM’s hyperbolic writing can be quite entertaining but I don’t think she’s stupid. Anyone with a BS detector should have seen all the warning signs. As soon as I saw the picture I was pretty sure it was a hoax but no sense in calling BS on someone who might possibly have been the victim of a terrible crime and making things worese.
gil mann
She would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for you meddling properties of reflective surfaces.
Robin G.
The wingnutosphere’s reaction to this is funny. What this girl did was sick. I saw the B and thought of the Manson Family’s X.
A few more years of this and "wingnut" will have a page in the DSM IV.
pharniel
check out the violence in cali, person attacked for recording:
Here
Trollhattan
Egad, a double-reverse Tuwana Brawley. Maybe Fox can retain Al Sharpton as a special correspondent to do the Nancy Grace thing.
The ass-kicking on November 4 is going to be galactic in scope.
Gene
Ahh, that RedState thread is just classic. They may be the only people on the planet who bought her story.
Joshau Norton
Unfortunately, a link-back from Drudge is guaranteed to seriously increase a website’s hits, which can then be used to justify ad rates and impress editors. So they really don’t try to get on his bad side and get dropped from his site.
Bubblegum Tate
You know who really kicked it up a notch? Blogs for
BushVictory, which dubbed the fake attack "Naziism 2.0":Now that’s good stupid!
Comrade Stuck
You know we’re on the cusp of a new pair-a-dine when the Queen of Outrage is the voice of reason and restraint on the right. I for one, blame the educational system in Amerika for this woman’s lack of knowledge about how mirrors work. It’s that damn libocommie NEA and their demorat ways that are failing our wingnut spawn.
South of I-10
I was suspicious when I saw this story last night. If someone had actually carved a "B" into this girl’s face, I don’t think it would have been as perfect as it was (or backwards). I hope she gets the psychiatric help that she obviously needs.
By the way, thanks to NR for sending me over to Riverdaughter’s site. I hope they get the psychiatric help that they obviously need.
ilsita
Whenever someone does something like this, I am always more baffled about the fact that they’d admit it than that they would do it in the first place.
I swear, if I were screwey enough to make it up, I’d stick to my story forever. "I don’t care if you have a picture of me in Florida reading yesterday’s newspaper. It happened."
The Other Steve
I’m wondering if the B looking like it was done by carving oneself in the mirror didn’t give her away?
MikeJ
If only Obama had agreed to 1,473 town hall meetings, it wouldn’t have come to this.
Bubblegum Tate
@plus C:
FTMFW!
zmulls
Once again, we extend kudos to local radio talker Michael Smerconish. Smerconish went ahead and endorsed Obama last week, causing an avalanche of unhappy mail from his audience (who stays tuned in to the station for Glenn Beck, Rush, Sean and Bill-O).
On today’s broadcast, Smerconish very clearly said this "backwards ‘B’" incident did not pass his smell test and he fully expected it to be totally retracted by Monday (and if it turned out to be true, he instructed his producer to play his "I don’t believe it" segment in full)
Didn’t even take six hours…..
jrg
I’m Susan Smith, and I approved this message.
Justin
I’m pretty sure this is still Obama’s fault. You know, for not holding enough town-hall meetings or something.
Zifnab
So Malkin waited a full 24 hours before entering in to raging hate-on hysterics mode? This used to be standard operating procedure. Drudge shoves a big "DEVELOPING" under at two line story. Every right winger in the world let’s us know about the allegation and then pensively waits for confirming evidence. If its confirmed, the right wing world explodes. If not, we never hear of it again – except perhaps as liberal trickery.
What’s the difference between now and then? Now a dozen blogs compete for page hits so they have to throw their full on crazy in the room before someone can out-crazy them.
At the end of the day, this won’t reduce the loathing and vile hatred spewed at the Obama campaign for future uncontrollable unrelated possibly fictitious incidents. I’m not giving Malkin any brownie points for failing to completely jump the gun. Talk about lowered expectations.
AnotherBruce
I’m guessing that the painfully obvious (as opposed to obviously painful) fake black eye had something to do with giving it away as well.
But really, gil mann @ 22 wins the thread.
wakeupUSA
Yet another wingnut to make the wingnuts look more wingnutty.
Speaking of wingnuts, check out:http://www.buttheadpolice.com
Vote for the biggest wingnuts of our time – like Palin and McCain – to get asses stamped on their heads. Funny and timely. Pass it on…
r€nato
the fact that Barack Obama has not submitted to a polygraph test regarding this brutal attack, speaks volumes.
Shinobi
And the political activism Darwin Award goes to……..
Smith
I might actually watch FOX (particularly Hannity & Colmes) tonight to see how they spin this. Hannity was all over this story yesterday. I wonder if he’ll even mention it. Should we take bets?
I’m not near a TV right now – are the networks who breathlessly reported on this story actually mentioning the hoax upfront or are they burying the story now that it turns out not to be true?
LanceThruster
She shoulda carved an "O"!
Problem solved!
r€nato
this woman was clearly not a ‘true’ McCain supporter. No real conservative would ever do something like this. She is obviously a covert Dhimmicrat running a clever false-flag operation.
Comrade Stuck
This was lost in the wake of the winger blog swarm and makes perfect sense. I mean, the carving was a creative ploy, but what credible lie of an Obama supporter attack would be believable without a little atavist sex action. They are like that those swarthy types, you know.
NR
The Pittsburgh police are going to hold a press conference about this this afternoon. So far, all we have are anonymous sources, so it’ll be interesting to hear what’s said at the conference.
Balconesfault
LOL – a backwards B.
Yeah, the police weren’t going to suspect someone did that looking in a mirror, were they?
We’re now officially transcending from stupid to lunatic, both with the ‘victim’ and with the idiots who saw the backwards B and circulated it, knowing that it would be stirring up anti-black hatred, and not using the simplest cognitive test to hold themselves back.
Reminds me of the numerous right-wing e-mails I get that can be debunked by 10 seconds on Snopes – those who pass them on don’t bother to check for veracity for a reason.
NR
Never mind, looks like the conference already happened.
Gerald Curl
Q. Why did she carve a backwards "B" into her face?
A. A backwards "O" would have been silly.
Seriously, I didn’t think of the Obama volunteer in disguise angle. Applying Reverse Ockham’s Razor Wingnut Logic, I really thought they’d go with a bribery scenario — she and the police were asked to be on the QT, paid off with some of Obama’s campaign contributions.
r€nato
let me guess what Hannity will say:
"mumble mumble sorry mumble mumble retraction mumble mumble BUT THAT DOESN’T CHANGE THE FACT THAT OBAMA AL-HUSSEIN IS A SCARY MUSLIM WHO WANTS TO TAX YOUR FORCED ABORTION AND GAY MARRIAGE!"
Dismayed Liberal
And to think that she might have gotten away with it if she had carved an ‘O’ instead of a ‘B’.
Moran.
zzyzx
Nope. The key fact was that the ATM cameras didn’t show her there. Idiot.
Pennypacker
Epic fail. This whole turn of events made my day.
Comrade Stuck
testing testing. Two comments got swallered testing
Gerald Curl
You’re overlooking the effort of our kerning experts.
pharniel
@49 and promise of a date with the…a-hem..endowed and swarthy staffers.
you n eed to up your oh-so-subtle racism factor
Martin
Obama’s black-agenda, socialist, terrorist supporters have the forethought to make sure that if they carve something into your face, that you’ll be able to read it correctly when you look into a mirror. This campaign is all about planning, you know.
And I don’t see how this changes anything. Even though it was a hoax, its obviously something that Obama’s black-agenda, socialist, terrorist supporters are planning to do to every person that votes McCain. And they’ll do it twice to all the white people.
I’m sure this will turn out to have been just an elaborate ruse for this ultra-liberal operative to gain the confidence of impressionable 17 year-old Christian girls in order to force them to get abortions.
Dismayed Liberal
zzyzx,
Clearly you need to adjust your sarcasm detector…take a breather.
Rex
The funny part, Martin is I can’t tell if it’s sarcasm or not because that’s how right-wingers talk!!!
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Are we talking about someone doing this to themselves and making a mistake while looking at the surgical procedure in a mirror?
OMFG!
Did she punch her own self in the eyes too?
This woman has a serious mental problem.
Tsulagi
@r€nato:
I’m thinking it would be more along the lines of “What does it say about Obama and his unreal American supporters that we immediately believed this story?!” It’s one of the Wingnut Ten Commandments: When proven to be batshit stupid, flip it to you’re an outraged innocent victim. Retard judo for the Moran class.
Okay, now when Michelle Malkin is the voice of calm reason, do you think that might give those vying to be the premierest website of conservative thought a little pause? Maybe some reflection time?
Nah, they’ll keep cracking that thin glass ceiling of Peak Wingnut with their heads happily.
NonyNony
Michelle Malkin is now the sanest right-wing blogger still shilling for the Republicans and the McCain/Palin ticket.
This is not to say that Malkin is any saner than she was a year ago, just that the sane right-wing bloggers have stopped trying to defend the Republican party. She kind of wins "sanest blogger" award among group containing "Ace O’ Spades", "Allahpundit" and "Confederate Yankee" (not to mention the fine folks at Red State and Free Republic) by default. (And I’m happy to give it to her – for all her problems, she doesn’t actually come close to the insanity and inanity generated by her cohorts on a regular basis – they’re in a class all their own.)
(Parenthetical Love)
Now I’ve had a few shiners in my life and I have never seen the whites of my eyes as pristine as hers, and there’s no swelling. That picture exudes fake. Why it even made Fox is a testament to their desperation.
gex
Man, if your shit is too weak for Malkin, that is… well, I wouldn’t have thought there was a limit. I thank this volunteer for expanding my understanding the depths to which some people will sink. Unbelievable.
Stuck in the Funhouse
Wingutophenia
Evinfuilt
If that’s not good news for McCain, I don’t know what is.
double-plus-ungood
More of Moe Lane’s tolerance on display in the comment thread of the RS post, I see.
Richard S
Why is it that I’m getting terrible feelings echoing Tulsa in ’21. Someone has to figure out that times have changed – not much but some.
dobrojutro
I’m etching my face for halloween right now.
Leeds man
Credit where credit is due
Total fucking douchebags being only douchebags merits credit?
chrome agnomen
what ‘credit due’, to malkin? she wasn’t so contrite that she forgot to say that most fake hate crimes are committed by liberals. guess we’ll leave all the real hate crimes to the malkinites.
Roza Hussein
Pittsburgher’s don’t take to kindly to this type of bullshit
the photo looked beyond fake and yet MSM went apeshit over
"the attack" but of course the coverage of the hoax, weak
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I think we can all agree that Ms. Todd will be named "Worst Person in the World" on Countdown tonight.
aarrgghh
too late — freepers beat ya to it:
jenniebee
Let’s all face the music shall we? The truth is, it’s only a matter of time until it’s front-page-worthy news when a Republican volunteer doesn’t have a history of mental problems.
Apparently, Rush Limbaugh went around the bend today, bashing "Moderate Republicans." Sorry, John – now that you and your ilk have left and they’re losing without you, the far Richtards are no longer interested in coalition building. That’s right – now that they’ve been utterly abandoned and cast out, they are totally breaking up with you. Fer reals.
PaulB
I loved Moe Lane’s ultimate response:
Classy, not to mention a classic case of projection.
PaulB
Sorry… That "and that last bit is more assuredly your problem, not mine," should have been in blockquotes, since that was from Moe.
Rex
This is bad news for Obama.
Bubblegum Tate
Holy shit, that RedState thread is absolutely phenomenal. I’m about halfway through, and this is my favorite comment:
You’re not laughing about it? Because I’m cracking the hell up over it. Schadenfreudegasm!
mantis
Moe Lane’s is good, but I think this is
Bubblegum Tate
Damn, blockquotes are all screwed up. The blockquote should end after "I’m not."
Lisa K
What an idiot! A carved B (which was backwards) into her face. She probably got beat up by her "B"oyfriend who thought she was a "B"iatch. LOL ~ just kiddin~
Lisa K
http://www.coolmediaplacement.com
Zifnab
@PaulB: In other news – DKos is raising tens of thousands of dollars a day for Democratic Congressional Challengers. Red State – not so much. I wonder why? Hmmmmmmmmmmm….
mantis
Dammit!
Moe Lane’s is good, but I think this is my favorite righty response:
Yeah, why all the violence, Obama supporters? What gives?
C
"Classy, not to mention a classic case of projection."
What a psychotic crybaby.
Laura W
Them thar sireens just made my whole damn day.
And I was actually having a pretty good damn day!
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
jake 4 that 1
Well you see, if the Obamanation weren’t running for President this poor young woman wouldn’t have been driven to madness by fear?!?!
She looks like that Tinker woman who let her brother beat the crap out of her so they could scam Disney.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Tinker… is that the same thing as what we in Florida (my former state) call a Traveler?
HyperIon
yeah, like explaining it for the 50th time is going to make a difference.
and i asked this on another thread: i no longer get the edit thingy when i post a comment. anybody having the same problem?
HyperIon
and you see why i need the edit thingy (or to re-read the directions and try to follow them). i think the blank line got me.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Don’t skip a line when you post and wrap paragraph tags around the second line as well (including a closing p tag on the first line). It will end up inside the blockquote if you do.
Yes, the edit button is gone.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
@CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII:
This Is Just To Say
I have eaten
the P tags
that were in
the toolbar
and which
you were probably
saving
for a properly formatted quote
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
The edit button is back.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
My p tags aren’t in the tool bar.
I have my own p tags. In fact I have blockquote AND p tags which together only require ONE click, not two. ;)
Ha!
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Elitist!
Comrade Darkness
@aarrgghh:
Oh, those quotes are beautiful. I spent the day delivering yard signs for my (hopefully future) congresscritter and this whole thing will keep my heart warmed and me grinning idiotically as I do it again tomorrow, in the rain.
I wonder how these people survive day after day, year after year. You’d think their lives would fall apart if this is the best logic they can apply to things.
Jana Walter
From:
Head of State
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/10/borderline-campaign-disorder-b-hoax.html
Friday, October 24, 2008
Borderline Campaign Disorder: The "B" Hoax
On a cold night in Pittsburgh, a disturbed young woman committed an act all too common–she called in an attack on herself, stating that she had been attacked by a black man who had robbed her, and, seeing the McCain sticker on her car, in a fit of social activism somehow compatible with his immediately previous psychopathy, slashed a "B" into her face. That the B was, in fact, backwards–as would be the case if one was putting it on themselves while looking into a mirror–was no doubt meant as a literary irony, such as the "Amerika" of earlier social radicals, while the lightness of the scratching–despite the "attacker’s" cited "rage"–was no doubt a signal of his electoral ambivalence in this tight race.
Of course, the event, implausible as fact even to the most rabid fictionalists on the right-wing, was a hoax. Anyone who understands the diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder is well aware of what happened here. Extreme needs for attention combine with physically destructive behavior–most often seen in cutting one’s own skin–in an act meant to bring outer love and attention as it attacks inner self-hatred.
The act is rarely carefully planned. One of the key features of Borderline Personality Disorder is impulsivity. The act is usually spurred by rage. As a result, they spring to action, in order to address the immediate need, without any consideration of how the behavior will later unravel. There is an intense desire to address a powerful sense of abandonment with an impulsive and ultimately self-destructive action.
In a supreme irony, these characteristics mirror the tactical efforts of the McCain/Palin ticket throughout this campaign: impulsivity, an emphasis on the grand gesture that is poorly thought through, and that is ultimately self destructive.
Perhaps the act was wiser than it seems.
Perhaps it was meant as homage.
UPDATE: Woman has been identified as having as history of mental illness.