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He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

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Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

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Accountability, motherfuckers.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

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You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

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You are here: Home / And This Is Even Dumber

And This Is Even Dumber

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WTF, over? Fox news editor John Moody:

If Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee.

If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.

This is as dumb as attempting to blame Obama for what some jackass mugger allegedly did- how in the hell is it John McCain’s fault that some crazy-ass volunteer faked a crime? How could this possibly be pinned on McCain? Why should it hurt him at all?

If this story had been true, it would not have been Obama’s fault and anyone trying to score political points would be wrong. Likewise, this is not McCain’s fault, and it should have no impact on his campaign.

Please stop all the damned stupid.

*** Update ***

Am I wrong? Did I miss the McCain team pushing this story? Because I do not remember anything from them on it.

Reader Interactions

136Comments

  2. 2.

    Palooza

    Really this woman is the perfect symbol for the McCain campaign. You could use her to psychoanalyze McCain-Palin:

    Attempt to create Obama as scary and violent person. Hoaxer – check. McCain – check.

    Use of tangential associations to try to link Obama to atrocious acts. Hoaxer – check. McCain – check.

    Attempt so transparent and obvious that the "attempter" clearly must think people are stupid. Hoaxer – Check. McCain- Check.

    Desperate flailing attempt for relevancy and attention by conducting stupid stunt. Hoaxer – check. McCain – check.

    Appeal to the most base level of hatred, division and ugliness in the attempt to win sympathy (or votes in McCain’s case). Hoaxer – check. McCain – check.

  3. 3.

    Comrade Stuck

    This comment got swallowed by WP in last thread so I puts it here. An artists work must be expressed. :0

    “She also indicated she was sexually assaulted as well. She indicated that when he had her on the ground he put his hand up her blouse and started fondling her. But other than that, she says she doesn’t remember anything else. So we’re adding a sexual assault to this as well,” Richard said.

    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.

  4. 4.

    cervantes

    Maybe not a reflection on Sen. McSlime per se, but very much a reflection on Matt Drudge and the wingnut chorus that touted this story — not to mention Fox News.

  5. 5.

    Punchy

    HERE ARE THE FRIGGIN RULES:

    If it’s true, then it’s all Obama’s fault
    If it’s a hoax, it’s all Obama’s fault for not questioning the veracity of the story early enough
    If it’s partially true, then Obama clearly organized and planned it, so it’s Michelle Obama’s fault

    And without a birth certificate, we will NEVER EVER know if this girl was mugged, therefore it’s still on Obama to prove this girl was born and she wasn’t mugged by Obama’s grandmother.

  7. 7.

    Balconesfault

    So per Moody, either Obama’s campaign hangs on how crazy some hypothetical black man out there is …

    or McCain’s campaign hangs on how crazy some white woman out there is …

    How about Fox News value as anything but a running punchline has to do with how vapid John Moody is?

  8. 8.

    The Moar You Know

    If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.

    Well, McCain’s quest for the presidency is over. That much is true. McCain’s campaign forever linked to race-baiting? Hell yeah! Just like Hillary Clinton’s.

    But all of these things have nothing to do with this incident. They were all true long before this woman decided that carving up her face was a good career move, and they will be true long afterwards.

  9. 9.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    This comment got swallowed by WP in last thread so I puts it here.

    “She also indicated she was sexually assaulted as well. She indicated that when he had her on the ground he put his hand up her blouse and started fondling her. But other than that, she says she doesn’t remember anything else. So we’re adding a sexual assault to this as well,” Richard said.

    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.

    try again to post

  10. 10.

    Zifnab

    Listen, John, its a simple equation. People are stupid. The media is loud. Stupid people do what the media tells them. Ergo, if the last media cycle of the election season is the blaring nonsense about some dumb bitch in Pittsburgh faking a scary-black-man attack on her person, everyone will feel sorry for Barack Obama and he will win the election.

    If only Ashley Todd had shut her c*nthole, McCain would have won the election in a landslide after releasing his instantly effective William Ayers advertising blitzkrieg.

  11. 11.

    Purple State Pundit

    You’re right, this is not McCain’s fault. UNLESS it is proven that someone in his campaign put her up to this. And even if they didn’t, right wingers seemed eager to pimp this story to the media. If the McCain campaign had any role in trying to get the media to cover this, then I hold them somewhat responsible, because it would appear that they were trying to incite fear by trumping up a story that played to racial stereotypes two weeks before Americans are about to go to the polls and decide whether to elect the first African American president in US history.

  12. 12.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    This comment got swallowed by WP in last thread so I puts it here.
    “She also indicated she was sexually assaulted as well. She indicated that when he had her on the ground he put his hand up her blouse and started fondling her. But other than that, she says she doesn’t remember anything else. So we’re adding a sexual assault to this as well,” Richard said.

    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.

    try again to post

  13. 13.

    South of I-10

    I keep hoping it is only hyperbole, but I guess I am just optimistic that way. I just spent about 5 minutes perusing the wingnut sites about the Todd incident – how do y’all even read that? Most of it is so crazy my eyes were staring to burn! I need to leave this to the professionals.

  14. 14.

    Foxhunter

    @The Moar You Know:

    They were all true long before this woman decided that carving up her face was a good career move

    Exactly. They (the spinners) have been trying to formulate the historical analysis in real time. I’m sure Steve Scmidt’s internal polling will tell us which narrative they should settle on WRT to the collosal landslide that is likely to occur on Nov. 4.

  16. 16.

    Bob Ramsey

    Could Moody have made his statement knowing the McCain campaign had been aggressively pushing the story to his minions at Fox?

    Is it possible that McCain’s people have pushed too far even for high Fox News official, and now that this is has been proven untrue, that he’s done with them?

    That’s the only way Moody’s comment makes sense to me.

  17. 17.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    via Allapundit at Hot Air

    She also indicate she was sexually assaulted as well. She indicated that when he had her on the ground he put his hand up her blouse and started fondling her. But other than that, she says she doesn’t remember anything else. So we’re adding a sexual assault to this as well,” Richard said.

    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.

  19. 19.

    fastandsloppy

    It will hurt McCain because it the type of stupid that media folks love to talk about and it will eat up another news cycle almost on the eve of the election.

  20. 20.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    So I wonder what new form of election truther will be bred when they Connect All The Dots and figure out that since Ms Todd last name is the same as Governor Palin’s husband’s first name ergo this was all a set up by the Obama campaign. Aren’t they headed in that direction? Makes about as much sense as anything else coming from the wingnuts.

  21. 21.

    Dave

    The reason it reflects poorly on the McC camp is that they pushed the story long and hard. So yes, it should be tarred with race-baiting.

  22. 22.

    Sherrell

    stupid mo-fo..

    but let’s be honest this woman was just following the example of her leaders…like Palin she told a blatant lie with the evidence right there on her face…her mistake was confessing to the hoax..palin hasn’t

  23. 23.

    Face

    I’ve got your "Even Dumber" beat:

    Palin did not take $150K in clothes.

    To recap the spin:
    First: yes, we needed the clothes, so what!
    Next: All of these threads are going to produce Hobo Chanel after the elections…
    Then: Who the fuck cares what she did with the moolah?

    After realizing that, yeah, peeps care, it’s now: No I didn’t. Dont know what you’re talking about. Also, shut up, that’s why.

    Seriously.

  25. 25.

    MR. Bill

    To be fair, the Führerprinzip does stress that as a unitary organism, the Partei is one being, and the leader is holds final responsibility…

  26. 26.

    Punchy

    @Face: Kinda hard to deny taking the expensive designer clothes when, ya know, there’s about 50,000 cameras which have taken probably 1 million photos of Palin at easily over 300 tour stops wearing, ya know, expensive designer clothes.

    They just blew past Ridiculous Area straight thru Unbeleivable Even to Retards and are approaching Complete Farce Mode.

  28. 28.

    NonyNony

    Am I wrong? Did I miss the McCain team pushing this story? Because I do not remember anything from them on it.

    Steve Benen at the WashingtonMonthly blog was saying that he was hearing that the campaign was pushing it to reporters heavily last night. But I haven’t seen any McCain spokesbots out pushing this story to the public themselves (I’d say if they had they should resign and be sued for political malpractice, but , well…)

    Moody may have gotten confused about what he was hearing from where. I agree that if the McCain camp had gone all in on this and tried to push it on the American people then it would be the end of his campaign in a stunning way. But it doesn’t look like they did so they can instead continue his slow slide into irrelevance.

  29. 29.

    John from Concord

    John, somebody pushed this at Drudge et al very hard. I’d love to know who and how. Wouldn’t you?

  30. 30.

    jrg

    Am I wrong? Did I miss the McCain team pushing this story?

    McCain pushed attacks of guilt by association. Using the "logic" of his campaign, McCain is guilty of lying to the police, and of being a complete moron. Hell, using guilt by association, McCain is even more at fault, because this unhinged woman was working for his campaign.

  31. 31.

    Aldorossi

    McCain might not have pimped it, but Hugh "Greg Marmelard" Hewitt and Mark Steyn had their hands down each others pants about it yesterday.

    I am so looking forward to tuning in this afternoon.

  32. 32.

    Foxhunter

    @John from Concord:

    I will try to dig up the source, but originally it was reported that she contacted Drudge directly.

    Also, it was stated that both McCain and Palin contacted her to offer condolences last night.

  35. 35.

    Malron

    I haven’t seen confirmation that anyone in McCain’s camp went on record tying the story to Obama but I have seen reports saying Sarah Palin spoke to her personally after the incident. Both campaigns expressed their regret and hoped the person responsible would be caught.

  36. 36.

    thefncrow

    Maybe someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Drudge’s initial report on this source this to a someone inside the McCain campaign?

    I could swear I saw that yesterday, which would mean that they were pushing it.

  37. 37.

    Kevin K.

    John, one of the earliest reports I read (early yesterday evening) made it appear that the McCain campaign was actively pushing this story. I know I read one that indicated that a McCain spokesperson indicated that the "B" stood for "Barack Obama." Unfortunately, it looks like a lot of the Pittsburgh media sources have been updating their postings about this story, so I can’t find it anymore (but I swear I saw it). Also, they were making a big deal about how both McCain and Palin called her. And the college Republicans certainly haven’t been holding back:

    The College Republican National Committee confirms that before the attack, Todd had just finished a campaign assignment at the University of Pittsburgh.

    The group’s national chairman, Charlie Smith, told Channel 11 News the alleged victim is taking time off to recover from what he views as a political hate crime.

    “It’s really too bad that someone, anyone, would have to go through this type of intimidation and abuse when she’s just trying to be more politically active and more active in our democratic process,” said Smith.

  38. 38.

    Sherrell

    I don’t know how much the McCain camp pushed the story but per Ben Smith, McCain and Palin called Todd’s family. The Obama campaign also issued a statement.

  40. 40.

    greynoldsct00

    OT, but this headline is a winner, glad to know where their priorities are:

    "Palin stylist draws higher pay than policy adviser"

    via Yahoo News….

  41. 41.

    Malron

    In an official statement the McCain campaign says: "We’re shaken up by this. It’s sick and disgusting."

    Governor Sarah Palin reportedly spoke with the victim by phone.

    Meanwhile, late this afternoon, the Obama-Biden campaign released a statement, saying: "This is a horrendous act of violence. Our thoughts and prayers are with the young woman for her to make a speedy recovery, and we hope that the person who perpetrated this crime is swiftly apprehended and brought to justice."

  42. 42.

    anne

    McCain and Palin did call her, not sure how much it was pushed other then by the wingnuts. But Fox did the hyperbole because they though it was true and would have ran with it hard until election day. Making it an issue about Obama, even if it wasn’t. I almost wish it wasn’t so obviously fake so the wingnuts could have worked themselves into more of a tizzy.

  43. 43.

    Purple State Pundit

    Aldorossi, I don’t think it’s really fair to hold McCain accountable for conservative bloggers anymore than it’s fair for the Republicans to hold Obama responsible for a user diary on DailyKos. Then again, they had no problem blaming Obama for a Kos diary with the conspiracy theory about Palin’s baby, so I guess it’s fair game by their logic.

  44. 44.

    thefncrow

    @thefncrow: Well, nevermind that. I found where I thought I saw that, it was talking about HER being a McCain staffer, not the source. Sorry.

  45. 45.

    Napoleon

    Am I wrong?

    Consistantly, since 2002.

    The only way McCain is at all "responsible" is stoking hate with their red meat rallies, but even that is a streach because its not like she went out and attached someone or destroyed property. Its BS to tie McCain to it.

  47. 47.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    [UPDATE]: Moe Lane here, and I’d like to offer an apology… to Constant Reader Han Pritcher, who I yelled at the beginning of the thread yesterday. I’m sorry, Han: I can only plead heat of the moment, coupled with righteous indignation at what appeared to be at the time a contemptible act of violence against a woman, which is something that pushes every button that I own. I regret any harshness that resulted: again, my apologies for the rudeness. As for everyone I banned… suffer. I enjoyed tossing all of you, I don’t regret it in the slightest, and you know and I know that the truth or falsity of this story wouldn’t have mattered to any of you at all.

    This is what passes for the ban happy Redstate crowd. That be the button marked, blame this on Obama and dems.

  48. 48.

    David Hunt

    Kinda hard to deny taking the expensive designer clothes when, ya know, there’s about 50,000 cameras which have taken probably 1 million photos of Palin at easily over 300 tour stops wearing, ya know, expensive designer clothes.

    After claiming that report in Alaska absolved her of any illegality or ethics breaches when it says, clear as day, that she violated an ethics law, there’s really no possible for her to lie about anything more blatantly. She’d have shoot someone on live television and then deny it was her to achieve a more blatant lie.

  50. 50.

    Dork

    and you know and I know that the truth or falsity of this story wouldn’t have mattered to any of you at all.

    Wow. Just wow. That’s one hell of a mea culpa.

  51. 51.

    the lies to nowhere

    Hum. The volunteer’s last name is Todd and first dude’s first name Todd. What a strange coincidence. Almost as strange as John Moody’s theory.

    What a weird election. What will we do for entertainment after it’s over?

  52. 52.

    ninerdave

    Red State on the hoax:

    [Erick writes ]The attack in Pennsylvania was no attack. The young lady either needs jail time or mental help or both.

    For the members of the left now gloating, please remember we correct our stories. You do not.

    [UPDATE]: Moe Lane here, and I’d like to offer an apology… to Constant Reader Han Pritcher, who I yelled at the beginning of the thread yesterday. I’m sorry, Han: I can only plead heat of the moment, coupled with righteous indignation at what appeared to be at the time a contemptible act of violence against a woman, which is something that pushes every button that I own. I regret any harshness that resulted: again, my apologies for the rudeness. As for everyone I banned… suffer. I enjoyed tossing all of you, I don’t regret it in the slightest, and you know and I know that the truth or falsity of this story wouldn’t have mattered to any of you at all.

    And that last bit is most assuredly your problem, not mine.

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

  53. 53.

    Calouste

    @JWeidner:

    It’s not just the rats leaving the sinking ship, the crew is heading for the lifeboats as well. And there will be an almighty fight when they find out that there aren’t enough of them.

    Captain Ahab and his first mate Starbursts will go down with the ship though, pulled down to the bottom of the ocean by that great white whale.

  54. 54.

    Xanthippas

    McCain might not have pimped it, but Hugh "Greg Marmelard" Hewitt and Mark Steyn had their hands down each others pants about it yesterday.

    That’s pretty much the grossest thing I’ve read today.

  55. 55.

    Jay Andrew Allen

    Ahem:

    In an official statement the McCain campaign says: "We’re shaken up by this. It’s sick and disgusting."

    Governor Sarah Palin reportedly spoke with the victim by phone.

    So, yeah. They were all over it.

  56. 56.

    Jay Andrew Allen

    Jesus, John, your blockquote feature STILL sucks. What have you done to your poor WordPress installation?

  59. 59.

    John PM

    How quickly the right wing blogs forgot the Duke LaCrosse Team incident. I really have no idea what it must be like to live in a world without reason or context.

  60. 60.

    tomtom

    Am I wrong? Did I miss the McCain team pushing this story?

    The writer is head of Fox News. If the McCain camp did push the story he would know, wouldn’t he?

    Then his piece coheres a bit better, doesn’t it?

  61. 61.

    Xanthippas

    That’s pretty much the grossest thing I’ve read today.

    Oh, and that’s accounting for the spider eating the dead bird that Megan McArdle links to.

  62. 62.

    Dork

    How quickly the right wing blogs forgot the Duke LaCrosse Team incident. I really have no idea what it must be like to live in a world without reason or context.

    If you’re white and rich: innocent until proven guilty

    If you’re Black: guilty until proven innocent

    If you’re Black attacking a rich white: guilty until proven guilty.

  63. 63.

    Zifnab

    @ninerdave:

    For the members of the left now gloating, please remember we correct our stories. You do not.

    LOLS! ROFL! ZOMG, HAHAHA!

    But seriously, its nice that you managed to pull yourself back from abyss for a few sweet moments to print a retraction. Now, don’t waste time with us here. You’ve got an Obama Birth Certificate to debunk.

  64. 64.

    Patrick

    John McCain is not in any way to blame for this nasty hoax. But what does it say about his judgment, and Palin’s, that they both rushed to phone Todd personally to offer her their sympathies? Wouldn’t a bit more caution have been in order, especially given the outlandish nature of the claim? Even Michelle Malkin smelled a rat. It’s one thing for the Obama camp to issue a general statement sympathizing with the victim and hoping that the perpetrator would be caught, but for both members of the Republican ticket to take the time to reach out to Todd personally before she had even been fully questioned by police looks at best like unseemly haste, and at worst like they were eager to insert themselves into a story that they thought would help them.

  65. 65.

    dmak

    Like Bob Ramsey, 13, said: if they were the source for Fox, that would make Moody’s statement at least somewhat sensical.

    While we don’t know (yet, at least) whether McCainiacs were pushing the story, we do know that the McCain camp stated that both McCain and Palin had called the girl personally to offer support.

    It’s also been reported that she called the McCain camp before the police. If true, that would seem to indicate that they could have been the source for Drudge.

    Drudge’s original story, which was there a short time ago, is now gone.

  66. 66.

    AnotherBruce

    I just tried to carve a big M for McCain on my face with a dull knife, but I think it looks more like a "W"

  67. 67.

    Kali's Little Sister

    I think the reports of personal phone calls to the "victim" by both McCain and Palin were a nice touch…

  68. 68.

    I'mRubberYou'reGlue

    how in the hell is it John McCain’s fault that some crazy-ass volunteer faked a crime?

    Doesn’t that depend on who put her up to it, if anyone?

    Ask me the question when we know all the facts. As of now, we don’t know enough to answer your question. She apparently faked the thing, but …. what motivated her to do it? Was it her own goofy assed idea, or did somebody else set it up?

  69. 69.

    El Cid

    The real question, libruls, is how Obama made this poor woman change her story so as to make Obama now seem innocent of beating this poor girl up.

  70. 70.

    liberal

    @John PM:

    How quickly the right wing blogs forgot the Duke LaCrosse Team incident.

    There was an even more similar example: some right-wing undergraduate at Princeton was beaten up by, he claimed, liberal thugs, a year or two ago.

    Turns out he did it to himself, and that he’d pulled at least one other crazy stunt in high school.

  71. 71.

    Calouste

    @Dork:

    If you’re white and rich and have the right connections, you are innocent until proven innocent. Or in exceptional cases, innocent until pardoned.

  72. 72.

    liberal

    @Patrick:

    Wouldn’t a bit more caution have been in order, especially given the outlandish nature of the claim?

    I think the backwards "B" was a red flag…

  73. 73.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    McCain might not have pimped it, but Hugh "Greg Marmelard" Hewitt and Mark Steyn had their hands down each others pants about it yesterday.

    In the Fuhouse, we call that a Republican Handshake

  74. 74.

    Zach

    Someone feverishly BlackBerry’d it to Drudge before anyone in the Pittsburgh press had reported on it. Whether that was the girl herself or she was in league with an idiot college republican cabal or the campaign itself orchestrating this disaster… that answer is genuine news I think. I was pretty disgusted at the amateur detective work going on when her picture came out regardless of the underlying truth, but someone should sort out whether the campaign at all sought to exploit it. Palin and McCain calling her doesn’t count.

  75. 75.

    Kali's Little Sister

    @liberal: Not only backwards, but nicely centered, well-crafted, and delicately etched…not what one might expect from a rage-filled maniac.

  77. 77.

    NickM

    I’m a little sorry that the story didn’t last longer. Within a couple of days, it would have been wingnut fashion to have letters carved into one’s face, to show devotion to the glorious cause.

    I can see the commercials that could have been, one moran after another declaring "I’m Ashley Todd."

  78. 78.

    Sherrell

    I absolutely believe that this was not some conspiracy on behalf of the McCain campaign. I think this was the attempt of a misguided volunteer to race-bait and possibly change the direction of the polls, but I in no way believe this was done on part of any official campaign official. We have got to stop demonizing the opposition. And truth be told, if the story were true I think the response of the McCain-Palin campaign was completely within bounds, their volunteer was supposedly hurt while working for them. The response of the blogs and fox news is a separate issue and the campaign shouldn’t be held responsible.

  79. 79.

    liberal

    One thing I’d like to say is congrats to the police for doing a decent job on this.

    In the past, you’d have to wonder about cops’ motivation re sniffing out fraudulent "the big scary black man assaulted me!" stories, but these days there are quite a few stories where the cops get things right, and reasonably quickly.

    IIRC the cops figured Susan Smith out reasonably quickly. (A counterexample was that thing in Boston; I was there when that happened (Stuart case, I think it was called). Took quite a while. Then again, the guy did shoot himself and his wife, which was fairly convincing.)

    Anyway, congrats to the cops here for a job well done.

  80. 80.

    Peter

    McCain campaign on the initial "assault":

    "We’re shaken up by this. It’s sick and disgusting."

  81. 81.

    Tsulagi

    If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.

    This is as dumb as attempting to blame Obama for what some jackass mugger allegedly did- how in the hell is it John McCain’s fault that some crazy-ass volunteer faked a crime?

    You would think that those who have gaily gone down the rabbit hole of stupid would stop digging trying to find deeper realms. But then you would be wrong.

    Not to worry, though. Moody will be fine. A wingnut self-preservation gene of selective Alzheimers keeps them safe. It’s already forgotten. If you now try to factually claim that was something said he’s now forgotten, that simply proves you are a liberal fact-based unreal American.

  83. 83.

    Joshua

    I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, and I figured a "B" could be cut into her depending on the angle of the attacker. Mostly, I was just looking to avoid a situation like the countertops.

    Of course, once it came out that she refused a hospital visit, and the "B" was just a bit of a puffy scratch, it all seemed way too odd, but I still think it was the correct course of action. The truth would come out.

  84. 84.

    Peter Johnson

    Maybe this was fake, but the way so many liberal blogs used this as a pretext to question whether or not John McCain was really tortured is offensive. That’s the real scandal here. But you won’t read about that here on Barack Juice.

  85. 85.

    Zifnab

    @Sherrell: If it was a conspiracy, it’s played out about as well as every one of their other political maneuvers – which is to say it was an epic fail. If it was just the lone nut acting like a douche bag… well, what’s new? She’s a die-hard Republican in an age when that basically means you’re a douche bag.
    Doesn’t really matter in the end. Obama is going to win this in a landslide, and little hiccups like this only make it painfully more obvious why he should.

  88. 88.

    Krista

    As for everyone I banned… suffer. I enjoyed tossing all of you, I don’t regret it in the slightest, and you know and I know that the truth or falsity of this story wouldn’t have mattered to any of you at all.

    For everyone he banned? For heaven’s sake, I think I can count on one hand the number of people John’s banned (Darrell once, TZ once, Slide once, and one or two others that I’ve forgotten about.) I’ve heard that Moe Lane is ridiculously ban-happy, but you’d think that when you find yourself uttering the phrase "for everyone I banned", you’d start to wonder if you might not have a bit of an itchy trigger finger.

    And "for everyone I banned…suffer"? Yeah Moe. I’m sure people are really despondent that they can’t comment on Red State. What a self-important asshat.

  89. 89.

    El Cid

    Maybe this was fake, but the way so many liberal blogs used this as a pretext to question whether or not John McCain was really tortured is offensive.

    WTF? You people are losing it.

    The only people seriously denying John McCain was tortured was John McCain and other Republicans, who now insist that what McCain went through is not torture but "enhanced interrogation".

  90. 90.

    Martin

    (he might even write you back, it’s been known to happen)

    He’s written me back twice, so I would even say that it’s not-uncommon.

    And I do have to say that this incident reflects somewhat on McCain. Not that he pushed the story, but it’s just an extension of the kind of guilt-by-association that McCain/Palin have been pushing since early this summer. He’s not responsible for it, but he sure has worked to create an atmosphere that encourages it.

  92. 92.

    I'mRubberYou'reGlue

    I have always considered my being banned here as a badge of honor. I look forward to the next ban. During the ban, I will get some rest, maybe tour the US on a motorcycle, perhaps work on a book. Maybe I’ll take up Yoga, or Buddhism.

    I’mRubber"ProudToBeBanned"You’reGlue.

    Oh, and I posted during the ban, just under another handle. And using a different ISP.

    Now, let’s all work together and ban fucking John McCain.

  94. 94.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    I just tried to carve a big M for McCain on my face with a dull knife, but I think it looks more like a "W"

    POTD!

  95. 95.

    dmak

    "And truth be told, if the story were true I think the response of the McCain-Palin campaign was completely within bounds, their volunteer was supposedly hurt while working for them. The response of the blogs and fox news is a separate issue and the campaign shouldn’t be held responsible."

    Calling her to offer support: absolutely.

    Issuing a press release touting their empathy: not so much, at least until they had more info on what smelled kinda fishy from the get-go.

    Whole thing echoes their strong embrace of J-the-P before learning all the details about old Joe. For that matter, it’s also reminiscent of the Palin pick – Ready, Fire!, Aim.

  96. 96.

    D-Chance.

    @Zifnab:

    Hey, look, everyone! I’m IGNORING Petey!

    Nope, I’m not reading his posts at all.

    Nope, not me.

    But I want to reply to let everyone publicly know that I’m not.

    Because I don’t want anyone to think otherwise.

    Nope. Ignoring him… ignoring… ignoring…

    He isn’t there, people!

    Honest.

    He’s invisible.

    And I wouldn’t publicly post this if it weren’t true.

    Absolutely. Would. Not.

    And I make a point of not acknowledging him right here and now.

    He’s no longer here.

    He’s gone.

    Totally.

    Pie.

    That’s why I’m not able to grandstand by replying to a non-existent and ignored post.

    heh…

  100. 100.

    Grendel72

    Do you honestly think Fox News’ John Moody would have been pimping this non-story in his blog if it wasn’t what the McCain campaign wanted? That Drudge would have been pushing this nonsense if it weren’t what the McCain campaign wanted?
    The right wing noise machine was pushing this story to drum up race based hatred (and never mind how many people get murdered over this nonsense, how many people have historically been murdered over nonsense exactly like this) because that’s how McCain wants to run this campaign.

  101. 101.

    ksmiami

    From a good piece on Kos, why don’t we talk about how this incident is like others that caused many lynchhings in the South – the original home grown terrorism that this country engaged in for decades. The black man / white woman frame is still a potent weapon used by the baser of our society and a tragic one. I know McCain didn’t set this up, but the way the right instinctively bought off on the story shows their lynch mob mentality. When I see McCain and Palin and their unhinged supporters I think of Emmett Till and many other unknown victims of our dark history – Many of these men killed for whistling at a white woman, castrated, hung, dragged behind trucks (remember Texas). I give this young woman no quarter, nor will I forgive the nuts at NRO for whipping up the froth – they think this is all in the past, that blacks should just get over it cause things are so much better now. I say bull – but luckily there are more decent people in this country than evil ones

  102. 102.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    @Mr Furious:

    Fu[n]house

    Thank you Mr. F, I’ve been looking everywhere for that N. The little shits have escaped my keyboard today.

  104. 104.

    demimondian

    The little shits have escaped my keyboard today.

    Funny, the shift keys are the biggest keys on my keyboard.

    Oh, and I think you’ve got a problem with the ‘f’ key, too.

  105. 105.

    Dave S.

    Is this one of the first moves to throw McCain under the bus for losing? It’s a bit conspiracy-ish but there’s been some chatter about Palin lining up the base for her own purposes…

  107. 107.

    Deborah

    On the sad young woman, I’m absolutely with John: This could have been an overwrought supporter of any politician or cause, who thought either "I’d like some attention" or "I can’t believe the polls are so close! People don’t realize what those people are like! How could I show them?"
    Be careful not to point too many fingers; it could have been someone on your side. (I saw no sign of the McCain people trying to exploit this; if they saw the photo and had any sense at all, they would do what they did, which is reach out in sympathy without risking having to take back any embarrassing statements in the likelihood it was a hoax.)

  108. 108.

    Cris v.3.1

    @Zifnab:
    Ninerdave’s entire post (except for the Bwahaha bit) was a quote from Redstate. He’s not responsible for the content, Erick Erickson is. And you’re not responsible for thinking it was ninerdave’s comment, WordPress’ bizarre parsing of blockquotes is.

  110. 110.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    Funny, the shift keys are the biggest keys on my keyboard.

    Oh, and I think you’ve got a problem with the ‘f’ key, too.

    Ugh!

  111. 111.

    mark

    I think anyone who actually believed this girl’s story, even for a moment, need to take a serious look at their bullshit detector. Hint: it’s broked.

    I’m glad to see that Tacitus.org is coming back. I thought it was the most sensible display of conservative ideology that I’d ever seen. I was really sad to see it go and be replaced by….Redstate. Ew.

    Hopefully Tacitus has the good sense to jettison Mr. Lane when he comes back. The right doesn’t need a conservative Daily Kos, they need to produce new ideas and they need to do it with the help of liberal criticism. I think what bothers me most about RedState is their cavalier attitude towards banning and dissent, in that they have a problem with the former and have an overdeveloped sensitivity to the latter. Exactly the opposite of what’s called for as conservatives are about to become the opposition party. They’ll have to win us over with their ideas, since the era of ‘do what I say because I say so’ is coming to a thankful close.

  113. 113.

    That One - Cain

    What kind of sick person beats herself up and then carves a B on her face?! Is she fucking insane? She needs serious counseling and maybe a year off from any kind of ideology.

    cain

  114. 114.

    dewberry

    She has admitted to a history of mental problems. I think perhaps having her far from her family volunteering for College Republicans was probably not a good idea.

    More:

    She told Detectives J.R. Smith and Scott Evans varying stories about how she ended up with two black eyes and a backward letter "B" etched onto her right cheek late Wednesday. She said she remembers being in her car, driving around the city, and seeing the letter on her cheek when she looked into the rearview mirror. She said she immediately thought of Barack Obama when she saw the "B," Bryant said.

    "She said she doesn’t remember doing it but knows it must have been her who did it," Bryant said.

    Minutes later, she told detectives, she was driving around and "came up with a plan" to manufacture a story about being attacked at a Bloomfield ATM by a black man who was enranged by her John McCain bumper sticker.

  115. 115.

    r€nato

    The real question, libruls, is how Obama made this poor woman change her story so as to make Obama now seem innocent of beating this poor girl up.

    You’re crazy. Barack Obama did nothing like this.

    He’s busy offing his grandmother in Hawaii to cover up the truth about his birth certificate.

    Michelle Obama is the one who convinced her that she had a ‘faulty memory’ about the incident.

  119. 119.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    She has admitted to a history of mental problems. I think perhaps having her far from her family volunteering for College Republicans was probably not a good idea.

    It’s the freshest strain of the coming endemic Obama Derangement Syphilis. Clearly spread through never ending Republican clusterfucks. We are currently in the early stages of this malady and Ms. Todd’s escapades will seem like normal behaviour before a cure can be found.

  121. 121.

    Mary

    So, under McCain’s healthcare plan, will this woman get mental help? Or possibly a visit from Palin’s makeup artist?

    inquiring minds

  122. 122.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    Can anyone tell me what our favorite double-phallic-named troll is babbling about?

    As usual, his troll-fu spoofing tries to reach beyond the pale of plausibility. It’s why I rarely engage him, because to do so would mean a wasted effort to bend the Space-Time Continuum.

  124. 124.

    curtadams

    "Palin stylist draws higher pay than policy adviser"

    That’s pay for performance if you ask me. Palin looks really good and their policy positions are total drek.

  125. 125.

    Peter Johnson

    McCain would have won the election in a landslide after releasing his instantly effective William Ayers advertising blitzkrieg.

    The FBI informant who penetrated the Weathermen says that Bill Ayers and company sat around plotting how many millions of Americans would need to go to reeducation camps and how many capitalists would need to be murdered: 25 million. How is it that the Left, who so freely and gratuitously call Republicans Nazis, are providing cover for Bill Ayers, who aspired to Nazi-like mass murder? How did the Democrats ever descend to this?

    And how is it that Obama never found anything so objectionable about Ayers that he would disassociate himself from him?

  126. 126.

    Chuck Butcher

    There are plenty of crazy people in the world, yes people crazy enough to attack a woman and carve her and crazy enough to do it to themselves. We make mistakes when we forget that. We make worse mistakes when we use rhetoric designed to do more than just activate voters.

    This is what I find so offensive about the McCain bunch (well beyond plain lies), that they’re ignoring the obvious outcome of over heated rhetoric. If you’re on a stage without lights blasting your eyes you can read a crowd. (if you’re a damn politician you better be able to) I’ve been there, these people are looking right at you and their expressions aren’t manufactured for consumption. The campaign knows what they’re doing.

  127. 127.

    MDee

    Did I miss the McCain team pushing this story?

    Depends if you consider McCain’s communications director in PA to be part of his team. According to TPM he was pushing a particularly nasty version of the story to reporters before any real facts were known.

  128. 128.

    Cris v.3.1

    And how is it that Obama never found anything so objectionable about Ayers that he would disassociate himself from him?

    And how is it that Walter Annenberg never found anything so objectionable about Ayers that he would disassociate himself from him?

  129. 129.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    And how is it that Walter Annenberg never found anything so objectionable about Ayers that he would disassociate himself from him?

    Maybe he looked at the actual body count Kissinger was responsible for and said "meh, amateurs".

  130. 130.

    Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s

    It’s too bad it’s a hoax. She would have made a great Jill twelve-pack to get date-raped by Joe the Plumber.

  133. 133.

    Tom A

    I don’t think Fox New’s John Moody was too far off. If it were true, I think it might have hurt Obama, at least a little. The drama might have been a strong catalyst that would have made some white voters start to consider the ‘violent black man’ stereotypes that have been latent in the campaign. Some voters are just starting to get comfortable with the idea of a black president, so having to simultaneously negotiate a negative black stereotype that just surfaced from their sub-conscious and potentially voting for a black candidate might have been too much for some voters. Plus, Todd’s mugger was such an enthusiastic Obama supporter that, while mugging her, got side tracked and carved a tribute to Obama on her face…Any kind of perception like that certainly wouldn’t have helped Obama.

    Todd probably needs psychological help, but she still knew that only a black mugger would have given her the biggest bang for her buck. Fear. That’s why the mugger wasn’t white, asian, latino, or any other race (or gender for that matter). There’s still some semblance of uncertainty and fear of the unknown with some voters. If this whole thing were true it wouldn’t have helped Obama encourage voters to give him a long look before they cast their ballot.

  134. 134.

    skylights

    If Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee.

    cite>

    This is even more ridiculous than the other statement. Because the supposed perpetrator was supposedly a black Obama supporter, some voters may revisit their support for Obama? Because they suddenly don’t know enough about him? WTF?? Sorry, only a racist would think such a thing.

  135. 135.

    vanessa

    Yes, you are wrong – the McCain campaign is directly involved. Campaign workers – not police – released Todd’s quotes directly to the media.

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