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.
Police sources tell KDKA that a campaign worker has now confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter "B" in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker.Here's what she claimed happened:Ashley Todd, 20, of Texas, initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect became enraged and started beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car.
The dumbass must have scrawled it into her face in the mirror, and thus the B is flopped. The police also reported that Todd's story conflicts with the security camera footage at the ATM. Good god, these wingnuts are stupid. More after the jump.According to Ashley Todd, a 6-foot-4 black man wearing dark blue jeans and a tank top robbed her of sixty dollars. Them, noticing a McCain/Palin bumper sticker on her car, became enraged, beat her, and then carved the letter "B" in her cheek.
Unfamiliar with her surroundings, Ashley Todd drove to a friend's house. The friend called the police and Ashley Todd was interviewed at the friend's house. Later the officer drove Ashley Todd to the ATM where the crime allegedly took place. Ashley Todd initially refused treatment, but was later driven to the hospital by the friend, a student at the University of Pittsburgh.
Later, a photo of the young woman began to circulate around the internet. Clearly the woman was beaten very badly and the "B", which appears reversed in the photo, is very clear on her right cheek.
Unfortunately, Obama supporters don't have to make up their encounters with the McCain mob.
Related: 
* The parade of racist images continues: Obama ribs 'n chicken
* NC: Greensboro reporter attacked by McCain/Palin supporter at rally
* Black bear cub shot, covered by Obama sign and left on Western Carolina University campus
* TX: More McCain/Palin patriots - trashing of car with Obama sticker
* McCain/Palin mob: 30 cars owners find tires slashed after NC Obama rally; voters heckled
* OH: Obama-labeled ghost hanged in effigy in man's yard
* California: Sacramento GOP web site calls for the torture of Barack Obama
* Mike Signorile listens to The Hate Out There
* Here we go again: another Palin groupie shouts 'kill him' at PA rally
* Own it, bigot
* Missouri: More of the McCain/Palin/GOP Base
* Frank Rich on the fires stoked by McCain/Palin
* The GOP ticket draws, and apparently embraces, the bigot eruption crowd
* More fun in post-racial America
* John McCain forced to denounce racist, homophobic member of Virginia leadership team
* Kentucky, I know you can do better than this
* FL: middle school teacher uses 'nigger' to describe Barack Obama
* Palin praised racist writer who called for RFK's assassination
* Values at the Values Voter Summit - Obama as a Muslim Aunt Jemima 
* Westmoreland stands by 'uppity' remark about Obama
* White supremacists: Obama's boosting our movement
* John McLaughlin: Obama fits the 'Oreo' stereotype
* Georgia: publication features Obama in crosshairs on cover for article on white supremacist threat
* Bigot eruption: GOP House member refers to Obama as 'boy'
* South Carolina: black reporter attacked by white family (on camera!)
With despair rising even among many of John McCain's own advisers, influential Republicans inside and outside his campaign are engaged in an intense round of blame-casting and rear-covering - much of it virtually conceding that an Election Day rout is likely.Ya think? McCain, in a truly toilet-bowl-circling maneuver, has lashed out at the Bush administration's incompetence (that he enabled 90% of the time, but no matter). This is the 157,132 change in message by the campaign, and everyone on the inside knows only a miracle (or a massive vote steal operation) can save it from swirling out into the sewer.A McCain interview published Thursday in The Washington Times sparked the latest and most nasty round of finger-pointing, with senior GOP hands close to President Bush and top congressional aides denouncing the candidate for what they said was an unfocused message and poorly executed campaign.
One well-connected Republican in the private sector was shocked to get calls and resumes in the past few days from what he said were senior McCain aides - a breach of custom for even the worst-off campaigns...."If you really want to see what 'going negative' is in politics, just watch the back-stabbing and blame game that we're starting to see," said Mark McKinnon, the ad man who left the campaign after McCain wrapped up the GOP primary. "And there's one common theme: Everyone who wasn't part of the campaign could have done better."
...In The Week, former Bush speechwriter David Frum wrote of McCain's travails in a way that seemed to take defeat for granted and warned the GOP faces a long road back. "That's not a failure of campaign tactics. It's not even a failure of strategy. It's a failure of the Republican Party and conservative movement to adapt to the times."
Again, ya think? We've been saying the failure of conservatism was upon us -- hey, I'll even be charitable on this one -- it's mainly due to the the whack-a-doodle social conservatives that have been gestating in the host, like the creature in Alien, and now that wing has done a bloody, gory chest burst, killing its host -- the GOP. The power-mad creature is squealing and slithering off into the night, feeling empowered, taking over the ship, intent on killing everyone on board. It is off to serve as a drone for the Queen Alien, Sarah Palin, who is laying her wingnut eggs for her 2012 run. It will destroy everything in its path -- our Constitution, personal freedoms, relations abroad -- the list of fragile entities the social conservatives want to devour is long and tasty. Republicans need an Ellen Ripley to open the hatch and suck that bloodsucking creature out into the airless realm of space for good.
I am 24 years old. I am a man; I am gay. I have been out of the closet for a mere five years, and in that time, I've had a slew of boyfriends. For the last 3 years, I have been married, in spirit if not legally.
Eighteen years of my life were spent in Texas, the nineteenth state to pass an explicit ban on gay marriage. Currently, I live in Kansas, the eighteenth to do so. Each of those states has their share of infamy. Texas, of course, is home to the Lawrence case. Kansas is home to Fred Phelps. They both have something in common: gay people live in both states despite the discrimination faced on a daily basis. Gay people thrive in both states. We live and love and laugh there. What's more, gay people live in every state, and did so even when we there were no protections, even when the idea was inconceivable.
Now, I can't claim to understand what it must have felt like to have been gay and out in those times. I doubt I could make that claim now. I donate money when I can, volunteer if I feel it necessary, I may even instigate an argument if I think it might benefit someone watching, but I am not a leader. I am out only in the sense that if someone were to ask me if I am gay, I would not, would never, lie. I would not conceal the truth. I would not deny what my husband means to me. Other people have sacrificed too much for me to be reticent in this regard. As the saying goes, “silence = death.”
Yet I am ashamed at not being as forthright as I think I could be. When we are out running errands, we usually walk side by side, and that gap feels all the larger for what it represents. There are many times when I see a heterosexual couple holding hands and wish I had the courage to close that gulf between us by the defiant act of lacing my fingers through his. The few times I've put aside any niggling, gnawing apprehenions, it was a terrifying, liberating experience.
I remember every look we've gotten when I've done that.
Despite knowing that other people's bigotry isn't my fault, I still feel a twinge of fear doing that, all the more so when I lived in Texas. That fear is just one reason why I tend be very discreet in my conduct. Often times, when someone learns of my sexual orientation, the first thing they say to me is, “But you don't act gay.”
And I think living my life as I see fit, honestly, if not loudly, is the best thing I can do.
There is no doubt in my mind that I could do more to strip off the insidious conditioning I've absorbed in any number of ways, but I've seen concrete results from doing what I've always done. In the past, I've had several people confess to me that, upon first learning that I am gay, they were uncomfortable around me. As time passed, that feeling diminished before vanishing all together.
I don't feel I need to do more. By living my life, I've changed people. I didn't have to argue, I didn't have to march in a parade or cheer at a rally. I didn't have to donate money or time. All it took was being human.
Just living my life.
That is why the bigots lost this battle before it even began. That is why they will have lost even if the Constitution is amended to codify their hatred.
Even if those wretched initiatives in California and Florida pass, there is no returning to the day before. People will know that gay people exist. They will know that we are just like them, that we value the same things they do in large part. There is nothing that can change that.
Even in the most hostile of climates, we lived our lives.
Even when faced with overt, unpunished violence, we lived our lives.
Even when faced with the most unconscionable of consequences, we lived our lives.
Even now, we live our lives.
If every state were to pass laws like the ones up for vote in Califnornia and Florida, the battle is lost in the most important way: we are still here. We have weathered the most terrible of times and survived. If those laws pass, we wil survive. We will continue to live our lives. In our own small, quiet ways, we can and will chip away at the lies, the smears, the verbal and physical assault, the hatred.
So, homophobes, you've already done your worst, and we're still here. Gay people are coming out at younger ages in many places. We are your friends and your neighbors, your siblings and parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, co-workers, bosses and subordinates, we write your TV shows and movies, we cook your food, we serve in the military, the police, the firehouses, we are around you everywhere, every day and you don't even know it.
Even if those laws pass we will go on living our lives and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it.
8 Against 8, an effort by eight lesbian bloggers to raise $8,000 in 8 days for the No On 8 campaign has surpassed our $8,000 goal - we could break $10,000 today with your help! My fellow bloggers on this project are:
- Grace Chu from Grace the Spot
- Lori Hahn from Hahn at Home
- Kelly Leszczynski from The Lesbian Lifestyle
- Sinclair from Sugarbutch Chronicles
- Riese from This Girl Called Automatic-Win
- Renee Gannon from Lesbiatopia
- Dorothy Snarker of Dorothy Surrenders
More below the fold, including an offer from another great artist for those donating $25 or more. Those low-dollar donations make a difference!
Artist Darr Sandberg contacted me to say that while his financial situation didn't allow him to donate money to the cause, he wanted to take part in some way -- he has donated one of his paintings, Desert Spring, placing it up for auction -- starting bid $695 with the proceeds going to fight the hate amendment in the Golden State. The highest bidder will receive is the original work (9" x 12" acrylic, unframed) not a print.
The winner will make a donation through the 8against8 page at EQ CA, and will be told for forward the confirmation info for that donation to me, which I will double-check with you before shipping the painting.
Participants in the auction need to:
1) Make a donation through the 8 Against 8 page at EQ CA.
2) Make an account at Darr's site (it does not ask for any sensitive info)
3) Make the account in the same name that you will use to make the donation.
4) The winner should printout or save the confirmation information of their donation, and pass on to Darr to receive the painting.
And to add to the fundraiser, if the final price is $1350 or more, Darr will make another painting immediately available for an additional auction for No on Prop 8.
***
We have a new promotion/donation, from artist Kristen Ridley, and it doesn't require a high-dollar donation to help out the cause.
Hi Pam,You can contact Kristen at artdyke@gmail.com if you would like a print.My wife and I love your blog. We're in CA and we've been putting in countless hours for the No on 8 campaign phonebanking and canvassing, but we haven't been able to do much financially. When I saw that Mr. Sandberg was donating a painting for charity auction, a light clicked on.
I'm an artist in CA whose art focuses on themes of gender and sexuality (My fine art can be seen here: http://logic4dummies.blogspot.com/2008/10/no-on-prop-8.html)...What I can do is offer signed prints of some of my pieces to people who donate to No on 8.
..I will offer a signed print of either of these artworks (if you search "butch lesbians" in google image search, the Lino print is the second image that pops up) to the first 80 people who donate $25 or more to No on 8 and forward me the confirmation.
***
If you want to continue adding to the effort, there is a list of promotions offered by these blogmistresses.
In my case, if a business or blog donates $100 or more to No On 8, you receive a week of free ad space on the Blend. If you donate $500 or more, you will get a month of free space on my blog -- and a Pam's House Blend T-shirt or mug. A month-long ad at Pam’s House Blend and Lesbiatopia amounts to 550,000 ad impressions.
In order to receive your free items you will need to contact the individual bloggers that you would like merchandise or ad space from, and in the case of ads, to receive the appropriate free ad codes to enter when you set up your BlogAd:
Grace Chu: gracethespot(at)gmail.com (Grace the Spot)
Pam Spaulding: pam(at)phblend.com (Pam's House Blend)
Renee Gannon: reneegannon(at)gmail.com (Lesbiatopia)
Dorothy Snarker: dorothysnarker(at)yahoo.com (Dorothy Surrenders)
Lori Hahn: lori(at)hahnathome.com (Hahn at Home)
Kelly Leszczynski: goldstardyke(at)gmail.com (The Lesbian Lifestyle)
Sinclair Sexsmith: aspiringstud(at)gmail.com (Sugarbutch Chronicles)
Marie [Riese] Lyn Bernard: marielyn176(at)gmail.com (This Girl Called Automatic Win)
Our first donor via PHB has claimed an ad for the effort - reader Chino Blanco's statement of support will run on the Blend:
If you wish to donate your free ad space to an organization fighting for LGBT equality, please let us -- and your target organization -- know.
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And don't forget that we're not only fighting for equality in the Golden State:
Click over to help out our friends in Florida and Arizona
UPDATE: 10/24, 11:45 AM: Wooten was found. Very little information has been released.Durham police officers found Tekenya Wooten on Gordon Street at about 11:45 a.m. today, according to a news release. She appeared to be unharmed, according to the release.
There is a 12-year-old girl missing in my town. Her name is Tekenya Wooten, and she hasn't been seen since Saturday. Investigators here in Durham have been unable to locate the 12-year-old, who is black, 5'1", eight months pregnant and was last seen wearing her hair in a ponytail.
Investigators believe Tekenya Wooten ran away from her Durham residence at 3529 Manford Drive. Although her disappearance does not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert, according to a news release issued this afternoon, the Durham Police Department "is very concerned about her welfare and we are actively looking for her."This story is so sad on so many levels. How and why this 12-year-old child is pregnant is a huge cause for concern, as is the fact that she ran away from a group home too many balls have been dropped, never mind that a child rapist is out there.Anyone with information about Tekenya's location should contact Durham Police Detective T.M. Ochman at 560-4440, ext. 289.
Gina of What About Our Daughters has been way out ahead of this, and asked some pointed questions of law enforcement, city officials and the media about why this has garnered so little attention.
"I'm concerned that the Durham Police Department has classified Tekenya Wooten as a "runaway" versus "high risk" as a result of this classification, no media outlet will cover her story. This reduces the chances that this young woman will be recovered. The fact that she is 12 years old and the birth of her child is imminent means that not only is this young girl in danger, but so is the life of her child. I am equally disturbed that the police department has done nothing further than take its cue from a group home that has an incentive to classify this child as a "run a way" for administrative purposes. A 100 pound 12-year-old can't RUN anywhere. Has she been classified in this way because she is poor? Has she been classified this way because she is Black? Has she been classified this way because she is pregnant? Has she been classified this way because she lived in a group home? Why doesn't the City of Durham think that a 12 year old pregnant child who is missing is not high risk? "Also, link up to Wayne's and Rock's coverage.
1 comment:
Thanks for the observations on Republican travails. They face a structural problem that has profound implications carrying well beyond election day.
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