The Obama Campaign Worker That Was Actually Assaulted

With the Ashley Todd case looking as though it will live on in the memories of the more politically inclined of us, there is a case that was disregarded. The case was of a campaign worker in San Francisco who was, according to the police (who witnessed everything), slashed in the face by someone who disagreed with the candidate that the campaign worker supported. The worker wasn’t one of John McCain’s innocent little angels that have a mortal fear of anything colored beyond a slight mocha, but one of Barack Obama’s.

It was on August 28, San Francisco was under an excessive heat warning, the normal cooling off of the city by the cool ocean bay could only help so much. A worker for Senator Obama had received a permit to campaign in the city, and diligently had set up a table with pamphlets to help the cause just a little bit more.

San Francisco is wrongly considered a liberal bastion, impenetrable by anyone with even slightly conservative views. It has, in actuality, always been a battleground, of sorts, the more liberal majority only in the past thirty years taking hold on the cities policies. It is still contentious, and no ground is gained without conservative groups fighting what they perceive as the deviant and socialist tendencies of those that dream of a better world. The political landscape is just as foggy as the city’s weather, with only the sunny, more enlightened days getting highlighted by the conservative elements.

Market & Powell Street, overlooking the scene of blood and hatred.

It was towards the end of the day on that overheated Thursday. A 35 year old guy had set up his campaign swag at 5th and Market, where people exit the Powell Street BART station, ready for a day of shopping at Nordstrom or to catch a movie at the Century Theatre. About five blocks from the bay, it must have made the dissipating heat all the more bearable.

A couple of cops overlooked the scene, watching the end of the rush home after a long workday, and the very beginnings of the busy Thursday shopping night. It’s probably somewhat of a cushy place to beat their feet, worrying more of jaywalking and shoplifters than violent crimes. This night had a surprise in store for the cops, which probably isn’t as uncommon as they’d like. The docile campaign worker handed out pamphlets, talked to those interested, and went about his small piece of the election cycle, hoping to do just a bit of good.

A man approached. A tantrum of hate, slurs, and verbal berating rained down upon the campaign worker, spewing forth from the pedestrian. The campaign worker, according to the cops who approached the scene and overheard the conversation, thanked the vitriolic man for his opinion, and calmly asked him to leave. He did–he walked away, but only for a short while. He would return to ruin everyone’s night.

Storming back, the man pulled out a knife before anyone could act. The steel blade, probably still warm from the day’s heat and the owners body, traced a path across the Obama campaign worker’s cheek. That very slight delay between a bleeding slash, and the skin being parted probably hung in time, like many shocking moments do. The campaign worker became a victim of divisive politics, after being polite and patient with someone trapped in a mindset unfit for rational discourse.

An oasis of calm across from the busy Powell Street BART station

The police found the instinctive springs erupt in their joints, charging into action as the danger became clear. Their footfalls and heartbeats sped up, and if my experience with adrenaline is anything similar, the world’s noises hushed, and their target became the most vibrantly colored and focused object in their sights. They gained control of the man, but it’s unlikely they could control his hate.

One of the cops cuffed the perp, trapping the hand that wielded the steel blade in a steel of a different construction, one used to control rage, rather than let that rage explode into another’s flesh. The other cop, mindful of the blood and shock of the campaign worker, took him under their wing, rushing him to the hospital to tally the damage inflicted from a day meant to be spent informing the electorate, rather than becoming a symbol for the opponent’s attempts to wedge hate and fear within their hearts and souls.

In the wake of Ashley Todd’s false charge of some big, scary black man robbing her of money and political opinion, we should not only look at the misplaced passions that divisive politics creates, but also be mindful of the real victims that are out there, beyond the sensationalist push of McCain’s campaign. The politics of hate are still tumbling out of the mouth of John McCain, just as the politics of smear are bellowing from his running mate’s public address system and her frenzied crowds. This case should have been an early warning, but it went away just as fast as the swipe of the blade sliced the face of the Obama campaigner.

Please take a moment to Reddit and Digg this article, I’d appreciate it very much.

Ashley ‘McCain Hoaxer’ Todd on Video & She’s Upset With Media!

Ashley Todd, the dumbest racist political hoaxer since Albizer the Racist of Phoenicia, circa 850 BCE

The reviling McCain campaign volunteer* is suddenly very upset with the media for creating a ‘political firestorm‘ over her allegations that she was beaten, robbed, sexually assaulted, and mutilated by a 6’4″ black man who did these things simply because she had a McCain bumper sticker on her car. Yes, that’s right, she is claiming that it’s the media’s fault that her hoax was talked about in the first place. This leaves me wondering what her motivation was to give herself a black eye, scratch a backwards B into her cheek, and report it to police? Could she have only been looking for attention amongst a small group of people with this obviously ill-prepared hoax? Of course not.

Not only did she quite obviously intend for this to get into the media, the McCain campaign themselves attempted to capitalize on this incident, not only publicizing that McCain and Gov. Palin had called her to see how she was, but apparently pushing the story to reporters! It makes me wonder how much of this was her own inspiration, and how much it was a group effort.

This is the same idiot that posted videos on YouTube complaining about a tall (maybe 6’4″?) black janitor that removed some signs that she had obviously not received permission to put up:

And here’s Ashley ‘ZOMG! I just got beaten up by a fake Obama supporter!’ Todd introducing herself:

I’m sorry McCain campaign, but she is simply more than just a ‘volunteer’. The responsibilities she listed are more in line with a paid employee of an organization affiliated with the campaign, not a straight volunteer.

*currently there is a debate evolving as to whether on not she had a paid position for a group that works for the McCain campaign

Wasilla Project Examines Palin’s ‘Fiscal Conservatism’

This is a great mini documentary about Palin’s time as Mayor of Wasilla, and the exploding debt she left the small town with. Somewhere between $22.5-25 million of debt now rests on the small town, when the town had no debt when she came into office. Abuse of power is alleged by some interviewed, as well as a blatant disregard for needed projects in favor of extraneous pet projects that now cost the town more than they can afford.

Video by Wasilla Project

Empty Chairs-A New Protest Song By Ronnie Ray and Wiismax

Ronnie Ray Jenkins and Wiismax don’t have all the latest technology. They don’t sit in the ultra modern music recording studios of the corporate music industry, but they have something that those studios can’t capture–authenticity. I first heard Ronnie Ray Jenkins and Wiismax in the song ‘The Ballad of Caribou Barbie’, a great take on the VP running mate of John McCain. That song made me chuckle, of course, but this song, ‘Empty Chairs’ speaks in a more passionate voice with a far more lamentable tone.

These guys aren’t Joan Baez, or Bob Dylan, but something tells me they aren’t trying to be. They want to voice their concerns and frustrations, just like the rest of us. Support Ronnie Ray Jenkins and Wiismax, he’ll thank you for your patriotism.

Special Thanks to ‘Crooks & Liars’

I was included in the Crooks & Liars ‘Mike’s Blog Roundup‘ for the Using Google Trends to Predict Election post. I would like to extend to them my appreciation, and a special thank you to Mike Finnigan. They have an extraordinary site, chock full of wonderful stories, incisive commentary, and an uncanny ability to tell it like it is.

Thanks again, guys. I appreciate it.

McCain ‘Bumper Sticker’ Beating – Hoax!?

Alleged victim of a brutal assault resulting in a black eye, and a gently carved 'B' in the cheek.

That’s right, it appears that the Pittsburgh police are investigating the case of the McCain volunteer who claims she was beaten and robbed and had a ‘B’ carved into her cheek, and it may be a hoax.

The alleged victim claims that she was at an ATM in Pittsburgh when the alleged assailant approached her, robbed her of $60, then, noticing she had a McCain bumper sticker, beat her, and carved a ‘B’ into her cheek with a knife. As the photo indicates, the assailant must have done the deed very carefully, as not to cause permanent damage. The incident, although it had been claimed to happen right near the ATM, shows no evidence of the assault on the ATM’s security camera.

If Ashley Todd’s claims are false, this could be a media nightmare for the already beleaguered campaign that many charge with untruths meant to show their opponent as a terrorist and child molester.

A curious aspect to the photograph is the ‘B’ is backwards, as if the assailant carved the letter into the alleged victim’s cheek while looking in a mirror. More on this story as the investigation continues. Check back early, and often.

UPDATE: She definitively hoaxed it, according to police. She’s a scourge on society, and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. What a psycho.

How Dumb is Sarah Palin? This Dumb.

Okay, so it’s de rigueur to bash Sarah Palin. It’s become somewhat of an American political past time in these past two months, with no end in foreseeable sight. She just may have become the butt of jokes 100 years hence, with even the future robot lords of a human-less earth synthesizing digital laughs at her amazing ability to be more clueless than a 3 hertz processor with no data to process! Seriously, it’s gotten that bad.

Maybe it’s a bit overboard, but she does seem absolutely incapable of making even small decisions that make any sense whatsoever. The best illustration of an undeniably clueless act (as of exactly right now, while I’m writing this. Another has probably occurred while writing) was at a rally a couple days ago–she was wearing a Democratic activism scarf. I kid you not. Sarah Palin, hater of all things liberal, denier of evolution, man made climate change, and claimant to the throne of intolerance was wearing a ‘Vote Democrat’ scarf. A keffiyeh, if you want to make it even more hilarious.

Anti-American Sarah Palin hints at desired loss for campaign, 'Vote Democratic' she subconsciously urges. (Image credit to Jezebel)

That’s pretty dumb. I can’t help but wonder if she knows the difference between the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey. The imagery on the scarf is pretty blatant, it’s not like it’s an M.C. Escher print, where it can take a few seconds to figure out what’s really going on. This scarf is quite obviously a bunch of Democratic Party donkeys, some of which are urging the admirer of the political apparel to vote. No big mystery, no crazy, confusing patterns–just donkeys and the Red, White, and Blue.

Add this onto the growing list of ‘Sarah Palin Being a Dumb Ass’, which is fitting considering the scarf.

For all of you conspiracy theorist who are claiming that this is not Sarah Palin, here’s something for you to get those words into your mouth:

This is a Getty image, taken by Max Whittaker. It's Gov. Palin, stop your "it's not her!" whining now.

Using Google Trends to Predict Elections?

What a day and age we live in. The vast amount of information and analytical ability we possess due to our digitalized environment can often times be overwhelming, but there’s some good stuff to be found. Some stuff we do (okay, at least the geekier among us) with the information we have is to play with it. No ends needed, no definitive goal or tactical reasons, just playing with data like we had with Matchbox cars as a kid. That sounds weird, doesn’t it? Eh, oh well, so I like stuff like that–it could be worse, I could be a plushophile.

Occasionally though, playing with data leads to something neat, as I think it did this time. There I am, playing with Google trends, comparing ‘sex’ to ‘Jesus’, and ‘Tootsie Roll’ to ‘Thoreau’ (sex is way more popular than Jesus, and surprisingly, Thoreau beat down Tootsie Roll), when I decided to plug in the presidential tickets. It seemed banal at first, but then I got to thinking. I downloaded the chart and opened it in Excel, made it into my own chart with linear trend lines, and viola! An instant explanation of the past month in the campaign.

The big peak that you see is the VP debate. That orange skyscraper is Palin being searched a ton, probably the searchers looking for some sort of rational explanation of what to expect, and the polling results of the debate. Biden went up by about the same factor, although his search volume both before and after just can’t compare to Palin’s.

Biden, no matter his ability to stuff his size 11 loafer deep into his mouth, has had relatively little search volume for the entire campaign. This is not only good, it’s great. Biden isn’t a sexy choice (although don’t tell that to my mother and her friends, apparently he’s hot stuff to the AARP girls), but he’s one that’s seen as completely safe to the voter. There’s no reason to search for Biden stuff, he’s a total pro with a resumé longer than da Vinci’s. The sheer boringness of Biden is his greatest strength on the Democratic ticket. No surprises.

Palin has peeks and valleys reminiscent of that Himalayan adventure I’ve never actually taken. She’s the most dangerous person I’ve ever seen on a campaign trail, and not to the opponent. She can’t go three days without some major, idiotic gaffe that a first year poly-sci student wouldn’t make. The VP needs more power, the VP is in charge of the Senate, I can see Russia from my snowmobile, the Bush Doctrine (“In what way, Charlie?”), and any number of other mind numbing comments make her like a blind moose on meth running through the entire Republican party with chainsaws for antlers–you know someone’s getting hurt, but you can’t help but watch. There is reason after reason to search for her on the Internet, and not too many of them are good.

Now, McCain versus Obama.

Senator Obama’s trend line looks like a plane taking off guided by a demure and responsible pilot. McCain’s trend is rising, but ever so slightly. The best news for him is that by the end of the campaign he should be more searched than his Vice Presidential choice. It’s called upstaging, John, and you’ve been upstaged by a half-wit former sports anchor from a small TV station in Alaska. That’s gotta hurt.

These trend lines seem reflected in the polls. Senator Obama’s support seems to be solidifying just at the right time, while Senator McCain, although not losing percentage points (in most polls), he is losing ground.

Here’s the RCP tracking averages for the past month, with an approximate trend lines added:

McCain’s trend line in the searches seems to be better than the polling numbers, and Obama’s polling numbers seems to be shallower than his increase in search volume. Now, one can reasonably expect that closer to the election, more searches will be performed on each candidate, so logically, the trend lines need to be ‘normalized’ to some degree. I could have actually done some math for this, but I decided to merely overlay the trend lines, and adjust the search lines so that they have approximately the same midpoint as the poll trends–about where 50/50 would be.

Lo and behold, the overlay:

Wow, that’s a close match. The search trend lines are still not in exact line with what the polls are saying, but I’d say that they match up better than expected. Can this be? Can searches from Google show the direction of the campaigns? Honestly, I’m not completely sold on the idea, but I’ll tell you what- that’s an interesting correlation. I told you playing with data can be fun.

New Pew Research Poll Out – Shocking Numbers!

The presidential race is tightening, that’s been the dialogue over the past week or so, but is it true? According to Pew Research, not at all. The latest poll has to be quite the barbiturate to the hopes of the McCain campaign that has been touting some recent polls as evidence that the race may be breaking Senator McCain’s way. Those polls did show a very slight movement, but so insignificant as to not statistically show anything. The Pew poll shows a very statistically significant movement, and not in the way McCain’s lobbyist pundits were hoping for.

The October 16 through 19 poll was released today, polling over 2,500 registered voters. The results are stunning, so please make sure that you are sitting. Ready? Senator Obama now leads Senator McCain by 14 percentage points, 52 percent to 38 percent. You read that right, the Pew Research poll, one of the most extensive and most trusted polls in the business shows a lead of 14 percent.

The poll is more in depth than most, also delving into the perceptions of individuals on subjects such as the the way the campaigns have been run, who they trust more with individual issues, and gives a full demographic and psychographic profiles of those that they polled. It is certainly one of the more interesting reports to read if you are into geeky stuff, like I am.

Here’s a brief breakdown:

Pew Research Poll Oct. 16-19
Your Choice for President?
Senator Obama	52%
Senator McCain	38%
Other/Undecided	10%
Best Handle Economy?
Senator Obama	53%
Senator McCain	32%
Best Handle Iraq?
Senator Obama	48%
Senator McCain	42%
Other/Undecided
Inspiring?
Senator Obama	71%
Senator McCain	37%
Too Negative?
Senator Obama	26%
Senator McCain	56%

Two weeks out, and the race now looks to be widening. I expect Senator McCain to tone down his hateful scorn within a few days, and attempt to make nice. It won’t work. At this point, he’s burned every bridge, ticked off every Democrat and half the Republicans, and I wouldn’t expect him to be received well (if he ever really was) in the Senate chamber.

First Bachmann, Now Hayes – Liberals Hate America – Audio

Congressman Robin Hayes. Pantyhose factory owner and hates liberals.

Congressman Robin Hayes, a Republican from North Carolina, has echoed the sentiments of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann who, only a couple days ago called for investigations into whether certain liberal members of Congress were ‘anti-American’. His stunning comment, made before what he described as the largest gathering for John McCain in North Carolina, was “liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.”

Rep. Hayes, a wealthy owner of a pantyhose factory, said not minutes before “make sure we don’t say something stupid, make sure we don’t say something we don’t mean.” In other words, Congressman Hayes either doesn’t understand the statement was stupid, or he is indeed so stupid as to think his statement was intelligent. His think, rural, southern accent lends a wonderful atmosphere to this bit of far right wing hyperbolic, hate filled rhetoric.

It seems the Republican party has become more honest with the American people as to how they view America. It’s not one of acceptance, or democracy, or a melting pot, or a place where freedoms are sacred, but rather they seem to view America as only residing in the hearts of those that unfailingly vote for Republican candidates. That seems to be what they think is America. I have news for them, America is no such place.

We have not toiled and striven, fought wars and sacrificed family members for your vision of America, Congressman. These actions and accomplishments have been undertaken for freedom, liberty, and the hope of never having an oppressive regime siphon these noble ideals from our minds. The Republicans don’t agree, apparently–they seem to be proposing just that. A regime that only honors those that believe in their god, that only protects those that support them, and only cares only to put forward the values of their America–where hatred is good, and investigating anyone who is suspected of disagreeing with them is needed. That is tyranny, it is not democracy. That is a reversion back to Joe McCarthy, or, if they succeed where he failed, Joseph Stalin.

Here is proof of Congressman Hayes saying the disgusting words of hate and division:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Credit to Politico for the audio