THIS WEEK’S POLITICAL SCANDAL IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE LETTER ’B’

ITEM [via drhoz  and dinopollard ]: Ashley Todd, a McCain-Palin campaign volunteer in Pittsburgh, tells police she was robbed at an ATM by a ”large black man” who began beating her after seeing a John McCain bumper sticker on her car. For good measure he carved a backwards letter "B" in her cheek. “B” for “Barack”, she said.

Turns out she made the entire thing up, and the “B” was self-inflicted. She has a history of mental problems, they say.

Now, I know people are tempted to paint with a broad brush here and say, “O those insane Republicans!” But that wouldn’t be fair. Sure, every conservative blog on the planet initially believed every word of it (because Matt Drudge broke the story, and Matt is never, EVER wrong), but as details emerged even Michelle Malkin was saying, “Well, now wait just a minute here ...” (even though she went on to claim that actually liberals do this kind of stuff, like, all the time).

Besides, it’s not like young Republicans habitually beat themselves up and then claim they were attacked by Liberals. It only happens like twice every election cycle.

Still, the real story here is how several news organizations reported it as fact without checking up on it. CNN – which didn’t report the story initially and frankly is acting all smug about it – has a surprisingly good summary of this. Notice Hugh Hewiitt at the end talking bullshit.

It’s also worth mentioning that while I don’t for one moment believe McCain would have personally approved something like this, McCain’s spokesperson in Pennsylvania jumped all over the story and gave a more incendiary version of what happened than even Todd did.

Oops!

KDKA, the TV station that got the quotes, has since removed them from its web site, but Talking Points Memo still has them, if yr interested.

Anyway, the real crime here is not the hoax itself, but that it was exploited in the name of sensationalism, race baiting and/or political gain.

The weirdest response, incidentally, came from John Moody, executive VP of Fox News:

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.

Sure. Because for all you know, it was Obama who ordered the hit.

Of course, Moody also said,  “If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.”

Well, gosh, I wonder whose fault that is?

Stop the press,

This is dF

DEEP IN THE HEART OF DARKEST AMERICA, PART 399,235,023

Meanwhile, in “real” America, here’s what else has been popping up in my news feeds today:

ITEM: Brandon McClelland, 24, an African American, was dragged to death beneath a truck driven by two white men in Paris, Texas last month. The site of his death is about 200 miles from the location where James Byrd was murdered in a similar manner ten years ago.

ITEM: A woman encounters a group of very agitated supporters of Prop 8 (a proposition to ban gay marriage) in Oakland, CA. After she begins taping them with the video camera on her phone, she is screamed at, physically intimidated and eventually attacked by one of the sign-wavers.

ITEM: At least four students from a suburban St. Louis middle school face punishment for allegedly hitting Jewish classmates during what they called "Hit a Jew Day."

And people wonder why I’m such a cynical old bastard.

Quite ugly one morning,

This is dF

SCARY PHOTOS AND SUPER (SEXY) CREEPS

Okay, let’s switch to something more fun. Here’s an old meme chestnut:

1. Google halloween and the year you were born.
2. Find the most bizarrely frightening photo and post it.
3. Recoil in horror!

I did this on the old blog a couple of years ago. Thing is, I tend not to get “bizarrely frightening” photos when I do this. I get things like this:

 

  

Not that I’m complaining or anything. Good karma and all.

Still, if you want “bizarrely frightening”, I think we have a winner this year.



Bite the apple,

This is dF

DEMENTIA 13! PART 07: CAN I COUNT IT OFF?

Continuing the Halloween countdown, just in time for Saturday morning, have some Groovie Goolies. (The cartoon, not the punk band.)

For the young people out there who weren’t alive when this show came out, here’s the history. Basically, it was from the same people that gave you The Archies, only with a horror theme, and they borrowed liberally from things like Laugh-In. (This was back in the day when even cartoons came with laugh tracks, children.)

It’s also partly the inspiration behind this Johnny Bravo music interlude:

FUN FACT: The Groovie Goolies was my favorite Saturday morning cartoon when I was six. I had action figures of all the characters and everything.

I'm gonna find you,

This is dF