So, while you were sleeping, the Drudge Report has been blaring (upper left hand corner!) an outrageous story about a white McCain volunteer from Texas working in Pittsburgh who was mugged by a black man, who 
then noticed a McCain sticker on her car and proceeded to punch the woman in the face and carve a “B” in her face. Here’s how the Pittsburgh TV news station WTAE covered it…
PITTSBURGH — A 20-year-old woman who was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield was also maimed by her attacker, apparently because of her political views, Pittsburgh police said. According to WTAE’s news exchange partners at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Ashley Todd, of College Station, Texas, was using an ATM at Liberty Avenue and Pearl Street just before 9 p.m. Wednesday when a man approached her and put a knife to her throat. Police spokeswoman Diane Richard said the robber took $60 from Todd, 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.
Sounds horrible, right? But wait, then there’s this…
The Tribune-Review reported that Todd, who isn’t familiar with the area, drove to a friend’s house and together the pair located the Citizens Bank ATM at Liberty and Pearl where the attack happened and called police. Todd declined to comment to the Tribune-Review. Friends said she is in Pittsburgh volunteering for the McCain-Palin campaign. Richard said the woman refused medical treatment after the assault, which happened outside the view of the bank’s surveillance cameras.
Hmm. Drove to a friends house before reporting the crime. Refused medical treatment. Refused to speak to the media. And then there’s the curious fact, pointed out in KDKA‘s report, that the photo above, the only photographic proof we have, was NOT taken by the police, nor a medical professional. Furthermore, the “B” is weirdly backward, the way it would look if, say, you looked in a mirror and carved a “B” in your face. And you’ll notice that Drudge DOES NOT link to this story about the incident in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, perhaps because the second graph goes like this:
Police planned to administer a polygraph test to Ashley Todd, 20, because her statements about the
We are starting to get a real Joe The Plumber feeling about this. DEVELOPING…
UPDATE: Speaking to Channel 4 Action News on Friday, Pittsburgh Police Spokeswoman Diane Richard said they’re still questioning Todd because of some new developments. “We have learned that the victim’s statement has a few inconsistencies in it and her statement has changed,” said Richard. Richard said Todd now says she isn’t sure if it was a bumper sticker on her car or a campaign button on her jacket that angered the attacker. Richard said Todd added new details to the attack, saying at one point she lost consciousness. [via WTAE]
FROM COMMENTS: “If you’re familiar with the city, there are several things about this story that don’t track. Bloomfield (where the attack happened) is a busy, lively, mostly Italian Catholic neighborhood. To outsiders, all of Pittsburgh probably looks a little scary, but Bloomfied is a mellow, really nice place. At 9pm on a Wednesday night in Bloomfield, people would have been out walking, shopping, going to dinner, bars, coffee-shops, riding bikes. There’s a hospital right across the street from the ATM at Liberty and Pearl, with nurses and doctors coming and going all the time. Liberty Ave — a big, busy thoroughfare — would have been flush with cars at that hour. If I was having a backwards “B” carved into my face, I would probably be screaming the whole time. I’m guessing it takes at least 10 seconds to carve a letter into someone’s cheek — probably more, if the person is squirming around (which she must not have been, because, other than the fact that it’s backwards, it’s a pretty solid-looking “B.” So we’re talking about an attacker who not only risked robbing someone at knifepoint on a busy street, he also risked drawing attention to the attack by provoking several seconds of screaming, during which he had to stick around and finish the job.” MORE
- DKOSOPEDIA: Freeper A right-winger who repeats or reprocesses with limited changes the current talking points or message (c.f., On-message), often making unreasonable vociferous personal attacks on all lefties as if required to justify their own New Troll point of view. The name comes from the self chosen nickname of the members of the right-wing political site Free Republic. While they consider themselves to be ethical trolls, many lefties disagree.
WIKIPEDIA: Ratfucking is an American slang term for political sabotage or dirty tricks. It was first brought to public attention by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their book All the President’s Men.