'B'-grade hoax reveals the GOP's inner race-baiter
By David Neiwert Friday Oct 24, 2008 5:30pm
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Fox exec John Moody has it precisely right: the "Obama fan attacked McCain worker" hoax in fact does "forever link" the McCain campaign to race-baiting.
However, it's not just McCain. The entire Republican Party this year has been revealed as the Party of Racial Fear. Nor is it anything new: Republicans for years have tried to make hay off of racially incendiary cases that turn out to tell us more about the motives and worldviews of the torch-bearing mob than anything they might be chanting.
It's like Susan Smith and Charles Stuart all over again -- a disturbed person blaming a non-existent black man for a crime, fomenting the fear of "the Other" based on our country's inability to acknowledge and deal with race, difference, and stereotypes. That this perpetrator of a hoax was a McCain campaign worker underscores the whole whipped up race frenzy of the McCain mob that we've seen in the last several weeks. It's time to flush this toxic sludge away.
What's equally remarkable, we might add, is the eager role played both by the McCain campaign and by the wingnutosphere -- led by Matt Drudge -- in whipping up a frenzy around this case without considering the potentially incendiary nature of the charges, not to mention the actual credibility of the storytellers.
This is particularly the case with the Mark Noonans out there, furiously clinging to their belief that the story is true, and claiming that the attack heralded the onset of "Nazism 2.0" under Obama: "God help us if Obama wins."
Along with John McCain, their credibility has just sustained a serious body blow. Couldn't be happening to a nicer bunch.
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McCain’s Latest ‘Working Class Zero’: ‘Ashley the Masochist’
http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=4300
They wont be able to continue their efforts to:
1. Make the SCOTUS a complete Right Wing Tank
2. Change the Constitution to prevent Gay Marriage.
3. Turn the USA into a Theocracy.
4. Make sure that Women don't have the control over their own bodies.
McCain has enough trouble keeping his brother from embarrassing him. Not to mention his Chief adviser quitting and endorsing Obama. Powell Endorsing Obama, Bush's daughter saying she didn't know yet who she would vote for.
But in the face of all of this, we still have to be vigilant and keep working on getting out the vote. The R's are desperate and will do ANYTHING (as shown by sending out the info on this poor nut-case to the press) to stay in power ..... ANYTHING.
People really, get over yourselves. This poor girl obviously needs some help. There are people like this on both sides. For some of you to think this is a Republican ploy of some sort is ridiculous.
She is obviously mentally disturbed and for people who are supposedly compassionate and tolerant of others not like them, you are smearing this poor girl into the ground. I feel sorry for her and really hope she gets the help she needs.
What is wrong with all of you that are insulting and ridiculing this poor woman? She needs help not ridicule. People on this blog saying Republicans have no humanity, etc.. Where is your humanity?
I hope someday to meet Drudge, the MFkr in person.
There will be a new vacancy in the wingnut blogosphere after that.
Right, John...I think a little of both (well, a lot of therapy or whatever she needs, but some humiliation) is deserved. This wasn't just some irrational act...it was thoughtfully planned and executed (poorly, to be sure, but still).
This girl may very well have serious issues. I don't know any details past media reports that she may have a history of mental health problems, so I'm not sure, but it seems likely that's the case. It doesn't entirely excuse attempting to blame a non-existent "big black man" associated with the political party you oppose for disfiguring you, but it is a mitigating factor.
That said, the real story from a political standpoint here has little to do with her and everything to do with Drudge, and more importantly people directly associated with the McCain campaign jumping on the story before any detailed information at all was available in either a desperate hope it was true, or an outright attempt to inflame racial tensions in their favor.
So probing at it from that angle isn't at all inhumane, I would argue. Unthinkingly blaming her isn't warranted--again, assuming that she actually does have issues as severe as it appears--but there's more to the story than just a girl with problems.
On a relatively unrelated note, I find it rather unbelievable, but Michelle Malkin of all people was an early one drawing this story into question. I don't know if that's just because it was that obviously false, or if her brand of right-wing crazy only extends to middle-eastern racism and so she was wiling to think a little more reasonably in this case. Either way, she deserves a little credit for actually addressing reality in this case.
Not that it compensates for everything else she's done wrong over the past several years (heck, ANYTHING else she's done wrong), of course.
John, thanks for your mild excoriation. As you know sentiments run high when one side calls the other un-American, fake American, terrorsit synpathisers etc., etc., ad nauseum.
Yes this girl needs help and she is not the problem. I say forgive and forget her.
BUT NOT the GOP attack dogs and operatives that jumped all over this, only too happily. to further bring race into the election, and to cast aspersions on Obama supporters.
So, John, I respectfully suggest you get over yourself. We are adults and can make our own decisions.
For McCain, Drudge and Fox to take this story and run with it - they should be held in the highest contempt because they, more than anyone, victimized this girl.
With that said, if people that pull ridiculous stunts like this are popularized but not shamed - I believe it will just lead to more acts of stupidity. Remember the "runaway bride"? This girl does need help, but she also should be admonished for this premeditated hoax.
You know what?
Um....NO.
Maybe she does need help.
Or maybe she was paid by the same people that sent letters to fraternities offering burgers and beer to get kids to show up at the debate sites and Obama rallies.
Ridiculous ploy? Perhaps you haven't been paying attention to the John "I want to be president because it's my ambition" McCain campaign and how there seems to be no low too low for them to sink.
Maybe she is unstable.
But that College Republicans group had her around working with them. I'm thinking they knew what she was doing with the lying to people while working the phones. You know: "Tell 'em whatever they want to hear, then read the script."
And I'm thinking maybe one of her buddies put her up to the whole sick hoax, none of them having enough brain power between them all to fire up a low-watt light bulb.
Yeah, "humanity", "tolerance" blah-blah-blah whatever.
Sometimes you have to fight back.
I agree......an unstable individual is just that, and a mental evaluation should be court ordered.
That said, this totally REEKS of the slimy underbelly of the Rethugs. Nothing less than a comprehensive investigation by the FBI must be demanded.
Listen, if you've never been up in that area of PA., trust me, every other house/trailer houses a poverty level, frustrated, underemployed or unemployed white male who would just love to have an excuse to get involved in a drama that would take them away from the bleakness of life.......AND they all have guns.
I insist every punk college rethug be investigated for inciting a vilgilante race riot.
Country first.......Right!!!
Fuck you.
That racist bitch needs to be ostracized from society, not coddled.
And please, don't try to turn this around in a feeble attempt to make us "the dirty left" look bad....this one is one of YOURS, not ours pal.
And don't ask about our humanity...when the right has sold theirs out for the ALMIGHTY DOLLAR a LONG time ago.
Thanks...and have nice day.
time to look ahead boys and girls.
http://counterpunch.org/cockburn10242008.html
It has Karl Rove's finger prints all over it (her) .
I think its Karl rove's offspring. If he even has sex with women that is.
This was not Rove’s doing. I never bought the “Rove as Genius” meme, but he’s NOT THAT STUPID.
This is a misguided 20 year old girl trying to prove that she has value. I do have pity for her. I do not pity those who have, for years, spread the fear and hate that she must feel she is subject to. She was so threatened by the prospect of an Obama presidency that she did physical harm to herself. She doesn’t need to be thrown in jail; she needs to be in a psych-ward.
It’s obvious she didn’t have a black eye. She did scratch a “B” into her face. That alone is reason for pity. Did she know what she was doing? Yes, it was calculated. Do I want to give her a break? No. I want to get her some help.
Remember, a lot of people drank from the troughs of Jim Jones too. They didn’t make it out alive. Hopefully this girl will.
Rove is smart enough to keep his distance; to give himself the out of plausible deniability.
And, yeah, there's probably something wrong with Ashley's brain. But there were a lot of Reblicans- notably Mr. Verilli of the McCain Pennsylvania campaign- who decided to push this hard as the truth. And if you go to NewsBusters and look at what the slack-jawed are saying there, there are a lot of idjits willin' to buy into this garbage- even after Ashley admitted it's a hoax!
I can't make up my mind whether to pity this poor girl, who obviously has some serious issues, including self-esteem, as posted on her now defunct MySpace/Facebook pages...or hate her for possibly assisting in inciting the unimaginable.
I have a very hard time feeling sorry for her...age not withstanding.
I feel very strongly both ways ..
This isn't about being a misguided, ardent McCain supporter. It's about hating someone so bad -- i.e., being a such a rabid racist, that she'd do this kind of crap.
Why did she ID her accuser as being "African American"? Lots of McCain suppporters are white.
You can only imagine how much of this kind of shit has happened throughout history...and have gotten away with it by incarcerating or even lynching innocent people.
She isn't an over-enthusiastic volunteer! She is a paid staffer who traveled from Texas to Pennsylvania for the campaign. Who hired her? To do what??? To whom did she report? That PA Communications Staffer?
The McCain campaign is concentrating resources in the state, and desperately hopes to enrage and encourage the closet racists. They must win, by any and all means, including fraud. Drudge and Hannity were all over this, ready to run with the narrative, so how do we know whether or not it was coordinated or planned like Joe the Plumber (another set-up).
Under the established law of respondeat superior, the employer is responsible for the actions of his employees, even if they go overboard or commit crimes.
Stoking racial hatred is as much a crime as filing a false report. Innocent people have been tortured and killed because of false allegations.
I hope the police investigate who hired her, and for what job. Considering her facebook pages, she is a natural liar and attention-seeker.
McCain is a racist, and he understands how the Republican media witchhunt functions. Somebody probably thought a telephone call and some publicity would help the campaign by throwing even more incendiary matter on the fires.
McCain and Palin have sown the whirlwind. I hope it etches them to their hollowed marrowbones and that every lie comes back to haunt them.
that she was a volunteer not a paid staffer.
"...her now defunct MySpace/Facebook pages..."
Hey! Who took down her MySpace/Facebook pages?!
Hmmmm....could it have been the RNC???
sized turds to be flushed.
... We may need to call in Joe the Plumber to unclog the tubes.
Charlie Manson and his like are salavating over every wiff they get from these fcuktrads...
Helter Skelter -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WuJ3EvNh-0
http://whatreallyhappened.com/IMAGES/Barack_S...
Her eye was not the least bit swollen... get this poor child some help before she cuts herself again, it's one of those OCD things!
The Reptiles have no sense of humanity.
None.
WE WANNA WIN BABY!!!!!
Palin, McCain, and Going-to-Burn-Alive-in Hell-Rove have already done the dirty deed. They have been fomenting these wingnuts for years, making them feel like down-trodden victims of the Liberal Conspiracy run by Jews, Blacks and Women. With the help of Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh and the like they have already been driven to maddness... or they have allowed themselves to justify the madness that was always there.
Obama (I hope) will win, but the seeds of hate and division will still blossom...
These people had no qualms in ravaging our democratic institutions in order to impeach a president for a blow job; they had no qualms in stealing an election, they had no qualms in using a lie to send thousands to their death in Iraq; they have no qualms in raping our economic system....
Do we really think this will end with the election...???
The McCain campaign is in such a death spiral now that generating false stories and fear like this is the only motivating factor they have left. Pathetic.
But that's not the issue here. The issue is that the Pa. communications director for the McCain campaign promoted this story to the media as a black on white hate crime before police had a chance to fully investigate whether it had some foundation in fact. The backwards B was a red flag that maybe she had done this herself, which she later admitted. The fact that the campaign PROMOTED this substantiates the theory that racism is the underlying theme of the McCain ticket.
You'n Missipy Naa BOah
If she would carve her face, looking in the mirror (likely scenario) she could easily give herself the black eye.
Maybe Palin will donate her 'drobe to her as a sign of support.
Nothin' like a spiffy set of duds to lift a girls spirits, you betcha'!
I know some people are calling for pity for this girl. While I don't think she needs to be mauled by the media (let them focus on the McCain link and how this incident reflects on how McCain has chosen to campaign) that she was calculating enough to use the 'big scary black man' makes me hope she gets crushed by the full penalty of law. Though I know she probably won't I'd like to see some inventive prosecutor wrangle in some federal hate crime charges as well as tampering with an election (a stretch I know). The way I see it, too many innocent black people have been railroaded into prison by ambitious or lazy police and/or prosecutors for me to feel much sympathy for this girl if her life is ruined by this.
I'm generally a sympathetic person. But I feel NO PITY at all for this girl.
She's being held on $50,000 in the Allegheny County Jail, but won't be released on bond (which bond no one seems to be posting) until she has a mental health evaluation. Her political life at least is ruined, as she campaigned against Obama but gave the McCain campaign a black eye with this hoax.
..the matter is still a hate crime and should be treated as such. Throw the book at her.
I agree but from a legal standpoint who would be the victim?
..civilized society, as a whole.
She accused a stereotypical black man of a vicious assault on her,
she and the WcCain people were hoping for a race war.
So time for a class action law case against her and her masters.
Under what law?
so we make up laws as we go along?
'The terror' to Me.
..and name it after Ashley Todd, since she seems to crave the attention so much.
You don't know much about American laws. Do You?
..but these kinds of things seem to happen pretty regularly under your existing American law. Maybe you need some new ones to accommodate hate crimes like these.
OUR Bill of Rights
You need to be a good citizen In Canada
'hello' how one goes about 'making a new law; in America?
..so you tell me-- and then go about and try to fix the problem.
We don't have a lot of cases like these emerging in my country, so we must be doing something right in Canada.
already have laws. It was a hoax. Not a 'Hate Crime' { And you are wearing my patience thin. Must you be so offensive? SiteMonitor}
I'm offensive. Then-what is the point of comments? I'll just let lies and bullshit go. And see? You left my comment up to make me an asshole. Thanks . I e-mailed John about it. what is the 'strike zone'?
{ That depends on you Dave. I've asked you to be civil towards other people here while commenting. You seem to want to pick a fight with just about anybody. Thank you for drawing attention to this. Be nice, and we can all get along. SiteMonitor}
We have a number of laws against this sort of thing.
From fraud, filing a false police report, to inciting violence. and probably a few others as well.
If this young woman is indeed mentally ill, she'll get help. Through the courts. I'm going to take a shot at this and say they will commit her for a short time for observation. She'll get meds, and monitored at home.
I know you do have laws to protect and the msm are even doing a nice job of clarifying, which is wonderful.
I tried to remain unprovoked throughout my exchange with UncleDave and am sorry for any unpleasantness, but it was worth it for me to get to say hi to you :D
I've gone to two threads. And both threads this guy was being a bit too aggressive to people here. Just my luck. Nice seeing you again hello.:)
not that there are no laws to which she is subject to but that are there hate crime laws.
The argument was:
She should be tried for hate crimes;
But it won't work since there is no specific individual damaged;
But what about damage against all black people?
There is no law for that;
There should be a law for that;
etc.
Okaaay. there are No crimes comitted in Canada against other ethics. Nice Try.
But, whatever.
Ethnics ?
Sure are a lot of crimes against ethics here...
how much sympathy would there be if some random black man was fingered for this crime, either by the law or by vigilantes?
And the Republican operative in Pennsylvania that fanned the flames of this needs to spend the rest of his career on a street corner with a cardboard sign 'Moron out of work, please help.'
There were inconsistencies all along: the B was backwards, it was on the right side of her face (the left side if looking at her), which a right-handed man would have found difficult to carve; the B was pristine instead of carved in a savage attack. That's why police gave her a lie-detector test and questioned her for five hours. So police were not about to fly off the handle and start questioning black men. Sadly, the investigation took many hours away from REAL crimes Pittsburgh police were in the process of also investigating. What a monumental waste of tax dollars this woman managed!!! It might never have gone to the press AT ALL if not for this Pa. McCain operative. What kind of campaign is John McCain running?
Just another one out of the Republican play book. Blame the opposition for your own weaknesses, and claim your opposition's strengths as your own. Thus, the Democrats would love to turn the US into 1937 Germany...when it is in truth the remains of the Republican Party that salivates over the prospect. Everything that comes out of the dead enders is in a bizarro world the complete opposite of the truth. "Country first" is exactly the opposite, and this goes all the way back to the "Patriot Act" and John McCain as hero and Sarah Palin as a "Pro-American". Hell, even "Homeland Security" has a Nazi ring to it. Nazism was simply the marriage of government and corporations in the quest for world domination and the elimination of domestic opposition. That sounds like the Fox News and Republican Party agenda.
WHY is the B - backwards? Uhm... cos she did it in a mirror? Why the hell would a voilent evil black man bent on smackin' down a fine young conservative go to the effort of etching her face BACKWARDS?
Didn't anyone catch this at the outset?
and WTF with that "black eye" - looks like a bad halloween job.
The Beautiful Karma thing about this ... she'll have a loverly scarlet letter now for a while and be known as "that idiot".
Frankly, anyone dumb enough to vote republican in 2008, should have to get a tattoo put across their forehead that says "complete imbecile, voted McCain/Palin."
That would save us a lot of time and effort. The next time some crazezoid does something stupid, the cops would show up and say, "Oh, I see, that makes sense now, the voted for McStupid."
1. She is sick and needs help OR 2. She was put up to it and whomever did will go to jail.
....that this campaign could not sink any lower..it does.
I can only imagine what will happen in the next week. These people are clearly their own worst enemy, and the contrast between this campaign and the Obama campaign could not be more stark. When all you have to offer is hate and fear you end up with a sordid tale like this one. I pity that woman, the attention she has received will be around much longer than the backwards brand on her face.
While I don't believe John McCain or Sarah Palin were directly responsible for what happened here, I am reminded of what Barack Obama told John McCain to his face during the last debate--that his campaign is revealing of his character. As I said, I don't believe McCain is directly responsible, but it's not a stretch to assume that his character is such that his staffers feel confident enough to take this sick woman's cry for help and run with it to the media oozing sleaze at every step in an effort to derail Obama's lead. Unfortunately, in doing things like this they're dismissing our collective hopes for change, constitutionality, peace, diplomacy and economic stability as irrelevant. And while I feel for this woman's obvious sickness, I don't dismiss her obvious hatred, bigotry, fear or whatever it is she feels that allowed her to blame a non-existant person of color. SHE and the McCAIN CAMPAIGN are making this election about RACE and dismissing that the rest of us are making it about HOPE and CHANGE.
Something rather just about her having a backwards B on her face to remind her of this for a while. I guess the silver lining here is that the police actually researched her story before randomly rounding up suspects and affecting peoples lives -and exposing her story as fraud before a posse of vigilantes did the same.
This is a blatant attempt to bait the African American communities in to rioting. or some such thing.
Now, this young woman may indeed be mentally ill. OK, get her help.
But that doesn't excuse the McCain campaign or the RNC from running with this. That is inciting violence and or riots.
They really are this stupid.
The African American communities( sorry, I don't know what's politically correct anymore) won't take this bait. They're sitting at home waiting for Nov 4th. A day they've been waiting for forever. Equality.
And a President Obama will signify a step in that direction.
The thing is, it shouldn't have taken this long.
Nice post..........thanks!!!.......:)
A McCain aide was apparently pushing the story before it even broke. In my eyes, McCain is just as responsible. If he gives carte blanche to his aides without review, he is no less liable for spreading the lies as they are disseminated.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/24/ashl...
The Republicans are starting to look just plain stupid. I would be embarrassed to have a McCain sticker on my car.
Is this to be believed? Sadly, yes.
for carving a reversed B into her own face !?
Its got to be worth at least a luncheon voucher and a 9th row seat at a Palin reich rally.
Luncheon voucher. Heh.
Only a 9th row? I'd have thought it would garner 5th row center. Front row center if they could have gotten some DNA.
I knew this was suspect even before I heard any of the so-called details.
There's just no way a real mugger, a.) cares about politics, b.) cares about anything but mugging.
When I heard that the alleged perp was a "big black guy," that kinda sealed it in my mind.
The girl may be mentally disturbed, but mostly she's just stupid, and unoriginal. Speaks volumes about the education system in this country that she is allowed within 20 miles of an institution of higher learning.
Actually, I wouldn't be surprised to discover that she was home-schooled and/or attends a "Christian" college.
that college won't be with this girl for long, at least this year.
She goes to Blinn College in TX, per her now gone MySpace page (cached)...again, probably not for long, though.
Shes their kind of girl, stigmata and self loathing prone.
"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."
This statement reveals not just the compassionate character of Obama and Biden and their staffers, but also their insight and intellect. We can join them in wishing the woman a speedy recovery from her illnesses and understand the real hate criminal was not black but white and that the crime was not perpetrated against McCain-Palin or their supporters but against the African American community and Obama-Biden supporters and lovers of democracy.
OK, the girl is nuts.
Key is whether she thought it up and did it by herself, or had "help". What is her previous mental trouble history/treatment?
It's one thing, to attempt suicide, to get attention, "cry for help".
The self mutilation, and story behind it, points to her not only getting attention, but also using a story that makes her a martyr/poster girl for all of the right wing, racist types.Part of her delusion is probably she'd be more popular than Palin for a while.
I'm sure the Pittsburgh police, are WAY pissed, they have been made to look either incompetent, or conspiratorial,regarding the "leak" of the story.
It's in their interest, to be seen as a non-racist org. to not be used as pawns.
McCain should fire any and all connected, just to look less like a racist, scumbag himself.He has nothing to lose, and can appear to be taking the "high road" (air quotes).
B = b
reverse the b = d
so... the 'DOH girl' and the winner of todays special donut
...the look on her face when a cop asked her why the 'B' was backwards.
This isn't the first time a Conservative has faked an attack to promote their ideology. It seems to be an identifiable pathology.
Conservatism attracts egomaniacs who desperately seek attention and play on their fear of minorities to do it. No one can deny that there is a strong undercurrent of victim envy that runs through the Conservative movement (I include Libertarians and their incessant whining about taxes).
I can only conclude that Conservatism is not so much a political tendency as it is a hodgepodge of phobias and neurotic pathologies window dressed as as political ideology.
This event reminded me of McCain's former campaign chair in Florida who blamed his fear of blacks for causing him to solicit gay sex from an undercover police officer:
Florida representative Allen: Fear made me offer sex
Jon Stewart Slams McCain's Racist, Hypocritical, Disgraceful FL Campaign Chair
Dang, I forgot about that!
It's $50 or better for a good one. So I heard.
8-O
Comments not Open on the next topic. The thing about Duncan Hunter. We can't post. We can't comment. I so much want to say that I never noticed Obama's teeth. I only noticed that he is ....
Tall?
Damn thing. It takes some gettin used to this new format.:)
...articulate?
...a changeling?
near?
Oh my god! Every team in the country that has a black coach is a terrorist organization. AAAAUUUUURRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! Oh my god they're Throwing a pop QUIZ!!! AAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!
The situation reminds me a little of Abu Grahib and Lindey England. A piece of work, definitely, but not at the heart of the evil. What is at heart is that the repub campaign has sent the signals that this kind of hate and fear is acceptable and that those harbouring those hates and fears can come of the woodwork.
was a strange one, she carried around a kitten skull and included it in many of her photos, she was an avid photo documentor of life.
The interview she gave to somebody after she got sentenced revealed quite a bit about what went on.
Filled in a few gaps in the knowledge of Abu Gharib.
Basically two chains of command, army officers deliberately absent while anything nasty was going on (so they had a deniability defense), civilian TLA types giving drink and drugs to squaddies to liberate their inner beast and facilitate the torture atmosphere.
A very carefully planned program of torture by DoD to scare the crap out of the Iraqis population and also to get information on the card deck Iraqis and any other info on Iraq infrastructure.
Typical planned destruction of an occupied countries government, the 1940s Gestapo would have been proud of them.
England, along with her fellow guards, were doing what they thought they were being asked to do- because they were being asked to do it.
As race-baiting as they are, I don't think there's anyone in the McCain campaign who would ask anyone to hoax an attack- there's just too much risk when it's found out.
via drink and drugs supplied by their new civilian masters.
What they did could not be done by sane or sober people.
The minute I saw the phony looking B I knew this was all a lie. No way would an attacker would be that artistic under the circumstances. And that's mascara under her eye. She looks like a religious nut to me. McGoo is pathetic and if this doesn't finish him for good then nothing will.
What's disturbing about this story is how the Republicans picked up on it. Even if the origial story were true, the alleged perpetrator obviously would have been extremely sick in the head or extremely hateful....either way, it was extreme, and extremists exist on all sides.
What's sad is that it has been reported that she is severely mentally ill. I think Dems should not focus on her but rather those who blew up the story, like Drudge and Hugh Hewitt.
That's the GOP.