Drudge tries to tie ATM mugging into a political attack

[grantcart]

This is the story that Drudge is running under


SHOCKER MCCAIN VOLUNTEER ATTACKED AND MUTLIATED IN PITTSBURG

Whatever happened must not have been that bad as she refused medical treatment.

Nothing in the story labels the woman as a campaign volunteer except that she has a bumper sticker.

'Attack' happened outside of the range of the bank's survelliance camera

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/17789356/detail.html

PITTSBURGH -- A 20-year-old woman who was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield was also maimed by her attacker, police said.

Pittsburgh police spokeswoman Diane Richard tells Channel 4 Action News that the victim was robbed at knifepoint on Wednesday night outside of a Citizens Bank near Liberty Avenue and Pearl Street just before 9 p.m.

Richard said the robber took $60 from the woman, then became angry when he saw a McCain bumper sticker on the victim's car. The attacker then punched and kicked the victim, before using the knife to scratch the letter "B" into her face, Richard said.

Richard said the woman refused medical treatment after the assault, which happened outside the view of the bank's surveillance cameras.

The robber is described as a dark-skinned black man, 6 feet 4 inches tall, 200 pounds with a medium build, short black hair and brown eyes. The man was wearing dark colored jeans, a black undershirt and black shoes.

edit to add



"B" is obviously self inflicted




In 1984 Robert Downey staged an attack on himself ---- but he drew the swastika on backwards because he was using a mirror

The 'victim' made the same mistake

http://www.freedomslighthouse.com/2008/10/mccain-staffer-claims-b-was-carved-into.html




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton_Downey_Jr.

In 1989, as fascination with Downey's TV show began to wane, he was involved in an incident in a San Francisco International Airport restroom in which he claimed to have been attacked by neo-Nazis who painted a swastika on his face and attempted to shave his head. Some inconsistencies in Downey's account (e.g., the swastika was painted in reverse, suggesting that Downey had drawn it himself in a mirror), and the failure of the police to find supportive evidence, led many to suspect that the incident was a hoax and a plea for attention.

later, during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Downey admitted that he had orchestrated the entire "attack" -- even shaving the front of his own head in the desperate effort to save his show from cancellation

[Roland99]

1. Refused medical treatment. Happened outside the view of the ATM camera.

Happened to be a Black man who got angry at a McCain bumper sticker??

:wtf:



I feel incredibly sorry she was attacked but good grief this story stinks.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

30. Plus he took the time to gently scratch a "B" into her face with a knife?

...You have to be gently to scratch something with a knife, otherwise a knife would cut.

Sounds fishy, almost as fishy as "Joe the Plummer", -the only plummer who may make $250k a year.

[EFerrari]

32. Then he whispered, "Gobama!" and tap danced into the night!

:puke:

[krkaufman]

53. Yes, very gently... to not cut, and to make a well-formed "B" ...

... even though the attacker was probably juiced on adrenaline after beating the victim.

Add'l comments, here.

.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Poor Drudge has had nothing to whine about for a while..

[WeDidIt]

3. Drudge has sharked the jump. n/t

[EFerrari]

4. Black men assaulting white ladies? Just when you think the rightwing nutcases couldn't get more

fucking obvious.

Off camera and she refused treatment.

Thank God for Drudge! I might have gone out of my house today! :sarcasm:

[Quantess]

5. I don't really get it.

"B" is supposed to stand for Barack, is that the conclusion we are supposed to reach?

[Two Sheds]

6. Matt Drudge may be the first "journalist" kicked off the Internet.

I don't think he made this up by himself. He had help from someone like Floyd "I'm proud to have come up with Willie Horton" Brown.

[Quantess]

7. I don't really get it.

"B" is supposed to stand for Barack, is that the conclusion we are supposed to reach?

[scheming daemons]

8. There is nothing in the story to indicate she was a "McCain volunteer"

Drudge doesn't even just spin stories anymore... he out and out lies.

[TornadoTN]

9. Oh, but she'll be one by 6:00 tonight, you can bank on it

Drudge might have jumped the gun a little bit by calling her a volunteer, but they'll spin it as they always do and proclaim she was at that bank, visiting "real" Americans, and was attacked because of it.

They are so predictable.

[EFerrari]

10. What a sickening corrupt asshole he is. n/t

[Marsala]

11. Even some of the Freepers aren't buying this one

There are quite a few skeptical responses over there, and Drudge already minimized the headline. Poor desperate Drudge.

[yardwork]

12. Refusing medical assistance was the first clue.

[David__77]

14. Unless they want to play the "all-out race war" option, GOPers won't touch it.

But, if they are prepared to attempt such, all progressives must be absolutely prepared to wage all-around combat to politically crush it. I think they are already playing with fire. They risk destroying the existing social contract. What ultimately replaces it would likely be far less conservative-friendly. They should be careful.

[Youphemism]

13. He pulled a twofer... He's also misrepresenting a media study report...

Drudge headline: "SURPRISE! Coverage of McCain Much More Negative Than That of Obama..."

Of course, when you read that study it indicates that the coverage was very even until McCain suspended his campaign and started acting like a spastic child on a coffee IV. It directly attributes the coverage to the behavior of the candidates, not to media bias.

Surprise!

[EFerrari]

15. MSNBC is "reporting" this now.

[ObamanationYes1]

16. Schuster (MSNBC) says she was a campaign worker

.........why did she refuse medical help???/

[DeepModem Mom]

18. I thought Shuster said "treated and released." nt

[ObamanationYes1]

22. You're correct n/t

[grantcart]

24. Pittsburg paper "she refused medical treatment"

[VolcanoJen]

27. Post-Gazette says she "declined medical treatment at the scene."

Hmmmm. I think if someone carved into my face, I'd like very much to see a plastic surgeon as soon as possible.

The woman is from Texas.

Hmmmm.

[krkaufman]

54. Surprisingly, I hadn't thought of that. Wouldn't you assume that you might need stitches?

Or maybe a paramedic team was on the scene, and provided some basic first aid.

who knows...

[ecstatic]

17. MSNBC went out of their way to mention the race of the attacker

:eyes: Last minute race baiting. Where is the breaking news about the Obama canvasser who was attacked? :shrug:

[Quantess]

25. Well maybe the "B" stands for Black, then.

let's ask MSNBC, shall we?

[anneboleyn]

34. Please call them and complain! I don't buy this story for a minute -- big black man, pro Obama

Seriously I buy the mugging story but the rest is totally made up and I suspect the woman has severe psychological problems.

[EFerrari]

36. letters @ msnbc . com n/t

[wvbygod]

19. SO we can't believe the victims now if they are members of the right party?

Screw Drudge, but why would you call the victim a liar? You really think all Barak supporters
are 100% puritans? For all the crime and violence in this country they can't ALL be non-Democrats.

[EFerrari]

26. We have no direct quote from the "victim", do we?

And why are you so anxious to believe Sludge?

Really, we should know better.

[wvbygod]

38. An Officer of the law gave the report.

And no, I don't believe Drudge without sources. Drudge is not the report I read.

[EFerrari]

40. Please. You embarrass honest cops by attributing this obvious crap to them. n/t

[wvbygod]

44. How do you know it was a dishonest cop that said it?

When should I believe what a police report says? I believed someone yelled "kill em" at a mccain rally.

Why not this?

[EFerrari]

45. Excuse me? I didn't call any cop dishonest.

And, in case you haven't noticed, the rightwing does this shit, not us.

Good grief.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

61. Take a look at this.

http://kdka.com/local/attack.McCain.Bloomfield.2.847628.html

[Shakespeare]

43. He took her statement. He did NOT attest to its veracity. n/t

[Erin Elizabeth]

39. I'm calling her a liar because the story is patently bullshit

see my post below for the many reasons why it's bullshit.

[Warren DeMontague]

42. I think the idea of a mugger hanging around to do something like that stretches credulity

to say the least.

So, let her file a report, clearly if she's telling the truth this dangerous person needs to be apprehended.

If she made the whole thing up, Parlock-style, I think it's against the law to file a phony police report.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

59. Why am I not surprised that you, of all people, would buy this unbelievable bullshit?

Seriously, what robber decides to stay to make a POLITICAL statement?

This story stinks to high heaven, and you know it.

[firedupdem]

20. She's mugged then the mugger notices McCain stickers on her

car and then comes back to carve a B on her face? She needs no medical attention? Something smells!

[NYC_SKP]

21. Would the GOP thugs hire a men to carve the letter "B" in a McCain person's face?

Yes, I believe they would.

[EFerrari]

29. Isn't that Rove's specialty?

[Erin Elizabeth]

23. Any police officer can tell you how ridiculous that story is.

And if she tried to fob it off on the police, they dutifully wrote it down and probably rolled their eyes at each other over her head.

Because there are some serious issues with this story.

1. After thieves rob you, they DON'T HANG AROUND. They RUN. They HAVE YOUR MONEY. That's all they wanted. Staying around increases their chances of not only being caught at the scene, but also identified later.

2. It doesn't say exactly how he carved this B into her face, but here are the problems with that (besides hanging around long enough to do it :eyes: )

a) if she's standing and he's standing, you mean to tell me she allowed him to carve a B into her face??? That's FIVE slashes (you could make the round parts into triangles, too hard to do curves). FIVE. So he got all five in while she stood there? He's better than Zorro!

b) even if he wrestled her to the ground and sat on her, how is he going to do these three things at once--keep her face still, keep her from screaming, and carve the five slashes to make the B?

So patently riduculous I can only believe someone as stupid as a freeper would make it up. It's nice and convenient that this WHOLE thing happened off camera and that she refused treatment. She refused treatment probably because she took a fingernail and cut a couple of lines on her face and knew the medical personnel would debunk her story.

In case you need some more, go to Google maps and check out Liberty Avenue and Pearl Street in Pittsburg. There's a 360 photo of the street. It's not exactly a deserted street, is it? This was before 9 pm. You mean to tell me no one would hear that kind of screaming? The LAST thing a mugger wants you to do is scream, they want to get your money and get the hell out of there BEFORE you get the chance to start wailing. They are not going to MAKE you scream on a public street, for fuck's sake.

I doubt the entire thing happened, to be honest.

[EFerrari]

28. It's obviously bullshit unless she had Kreskin-like access to her attacker's

mental processes.

BULLSHIT.

[grantcart]

35. what attacker - oh you mean her pissed of BF?

[EFerrari]

37. If this gets spammed all over the world, they will pay.

:grr:

[qanda]

52. You are so right!

I'm from Pittsburgh and know Liberty Avenue well (not in that way! Pittsburghers will know what I'm talking about--LOL). Anyway, it is a VERY busy street and there is no way that an attack of that nature took place there without anyone noticing. BTW, I'm almost positive there are other cameras in the area that will be able to debunk this bogus story.

[Rambis]

31. I heard it was North Carolina and the guy had a hook on his foot?

load of crap!

[EFerrari]

33. I heard it was Fresno and the guy gave her a ride because she was hitchhiking.

[Roland99]

46. Where were Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright at 9pm last night?

[EFerrari]

48. If not The Hook or the Vanishing Hitchhiker, we're left with the three

brothers in folklore that are responsible for everything.

Wright, Ayers, -- Colin Powell!

They should go arrest Powell immediately.

[Oldtimeralso]

56. Which One Wears a Hockey Goalie Mask? n/t

[Phredicles]

57. I heard it was Richard Gere and the 'B' was carved by

the gerbil.:P:P:P:P

[NatBurner]

60. now THAT makes the most sense since dyslexia runs rampant

in the gerbil community-

you can't argue with science

[Warren DeMontague]

41. Poor lady, sounds like she was mugged by Zorro.

Hmmm. Something about this story sounds like B...ullshit.

[Roland99]

47. Is that pic her??? She did that with a nail file looking in a mirror!

Or an abusive boyfriend (probably both freepers)

[qanda]

49. Liberty Avenue is one of the busiest streets in Pittsburgh

I seriously doubt anyone would have time to attack someone in that manner without anyone noticing. The police are going to question this girl and find out that she's lying and it's a real shame that they have to stoop to these levels to try to win.

[EFerrari]

50. Next thing you know, they're going to insist Miss Scarlet not take her buggy out at night.

:puke:

[mvd]

51. Non-story

IMO.

[9thkvius]

55. All sorts of things wrong with this

If I am wrong, mea culpa, and I apologize in advance if I am indeed wrong. But this does not feel right at all.

1) For someone who got punched and kicked a lot she looks remarkably unscathed. No lacerations around the black eye, or on the nose or lips. No broken blood vessels in the eye that was hit. No abrasions that I can see.

2) The scratched letter looks like it was done with a kind-sorta sharp object, maybe a nail file or a fingernail, but almost certainly not a knife - not one a mugger would likely use. Muggers who use knives draw blood - they tend to slash and stab, not scrape. What did this guy use, a butter knife? And like everyone else has said, it appears to be backwards. Some GOPers are claiming it was done "from above" and that is why it looks backwards, but I don't think I buy it.

3) I have seen a lot of injured people in my day, and I can't think of any time I have ever seen someone who supposedly got their ass kicked by a mugger (punched and kicked and carved on with a knife) who REFUSED medical treatment. I men, wouldn't you want to document everything for the police, even if you didn't really NEED medical attention? Wouldn't you WANT everyone to examine your injuries?

4) Apparently no one saw anything and no cameras recorded anything, despite it being a supposedly busy street in a relatively safe area before 9 PM.

5) She is a McCain-Palin campaign volunteer and a College Republican who came all the way up from College Station, Texas, i.e. she is probably a student at the University of Texas - the school where Bush went. She just happens to come to Pittsburgh and get mugged by a big scary black man who hates her for her politics just a couple of weeks before the election, and during a time when the GOP is way behind in Pennsylvania and the Republicans are afraid a "scary" black man is going to win the election. Wow.

If she really was mugged, I hope they catch her attacker, but I am inclined to say she was not. I hope if the local PD figure out she is leading them on a wild goose chase they prosecute her. There is enough difficulty convincing people that violence against women is a real problem without putting any false stories and fake accusations out there.

[LynnTheDem]

58. A backwards "B", so we're supposed to assume all Americans who support Obama

are in on this alledged attack.

So are all white "christian" republicans part of the timothy mcveigh terrorism?

Or does rightwingnut "logic" only apply when it's rightwingnuts against everyone else?

(Rhetorical question.)

[woo me with science]

62. MORTON Downey, not Robert Downey. nt