McCain volunteer gets probation for false report(Backward B in Pittsburgh)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A woman who falsely claimed she was attacked on a Bloomfield street by a supporter of Barack Obama was approved today to enter a probation program for first-time offenders.

Allegheny County Judge Robert Gallo gave Ashley Todd, of Texas, nine months of probation and ordered her to do 50 hours of community service in the next six months. She also must pay court costs.

Ms. Todd was a campaign volunteer for John McCain and working in Pittsburgh when she claimed an Obama supporter mugged her in October. She said a 6-foot-4 black man became enraged at the McCain bumper sticker on her car and carved a "B" into her cheek.

Police doubted her story and she soon admitted making the mark herself.

She had to receive counseling before she could be approved for the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program today. If she completes the terms of her probation, she can apply to have her record expunged.




Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09142/972012-100.stm

---

I watched for the first time last night on DVD Alexandra Pelosi's HBO doc "Right America Feeling Wronged" on McCain supporters at rallies and other venues. Scary. And I remember reading Alexandra cut out some footage cause she didn't want to make it seem as if she was trying to deliberately paint them as loonies. I wish on the DVD they had put on her outtakes. I'm so glad McCain lost.

[slampoet]

1. I had a friend get longer for stealing aluminum scrap!!! And she commits INTERSTATE Race Baiting?

with potential NATIONAL implications and they give her less than a year probation?

[JayMusgrove]

2. Defrinitely a very sick young woman. I would suggest

a few hundred weeks in a psychiatric prison for her as a way of getting on top of her blatant racist views.

[Ian David]

3. She was a McCain volunteer, but a paid staff member for College Republicans.

And she'd been kicked-out of the Ron Paul campaign for being too crazy even for the Paultards.

[MessiahRp]

4. Does her face still have the B etched into it?

That in itself will be punishment whenever she goes to try to find jobs or live a normal life... Completely and utterly crazy.

Rp

[Geoff R. Casavant]

5. Records can be expunged, but Google never forgets. n/t

[tabasco]

6. Good thing she didn't have any pot!

Or she would have been in REAL trouble!

[Hissyspit]

7. McCain Volunteer Gets Probation for False Report (Ashley Todd's Self-Mutilation)

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Friday, May 22, 2009
McCain volunteer gets probation for false report

By Jim McKinnon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A woman who falsely claimed she was attacked on a Bloomfield street by a supporter of Barack Obama was approved today to enter a probation program for first-time offenders.

Allegheny County Judge Robert Gallo gave Ashley Todd, of Texas, nine months of probation and ordered her to do 50 hours of community service in the next six months. She also must pay court costs.

Ms. Todd was a campaign volunteer for John McCain and working in Pittsburgh when she claimed an Obama supporter mugged her in October. She said a 6-foot-4 black man became enraged at the McCain bumper sticker on her car and carved a "B" into her cheek.

- snip -

She had to receive counseling before she could be approved for the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program today. If she completes the terms of her probation, she can apply to have her record expunged.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09142/972012-100.stm

---

From Raw Story Blog:



http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/05/mutiliated-mccain-volunteer-gets-probation/#more-2459

Mutiliated McCain volunteer gets probation

The emotionally-troubled girl at the epicenter of one of campaign 2008's most dramatic segments has been given probation for her false report of an enraged Obama supporter carving a letter into her face.

From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

SEE ABOVE STORY

Tony Norman, in the paper's editorial pages, described the initial reaction to the manufactured story with succinct aplomb:

The next afternoon, as the story broke on local TV, Drudge Report blared the news globally with a bright red headline: "Shock: McCain Volunteer Attacked and Mutilated in Pittsburgh." The photo of her bruised face set the right-wing blogosphere aflame. It was clear to even the dullest wit in conservative talk radio's vast echo chamber that the first skirmish in the long-feared race war ignited by Obama's presidential candidacy had begun. Ashley Todd, the belle of College Station, was its first "victim."

John McCain and Sarah Palin called with words of support. The Obama campaign issued a statement calling for the swift arrest of her assailant.

Meanwhile, people with common sense rolled their eyes and gritted their teeth through hours of credulous media coverage. You didn't have to be an Obama supporter to know antebellum fantasy and retrograde racist kitsch when you heard it. It smelled just like Willie Horton. Still, propriety insisted on a proper police interrogation and investigation before Ms. Todd's ridiculous story was blown out of the water by Friday.

According to published reports, Todd had previously hooked up with a group of Ron Paul supporters in Texas, but was kicked out after she faked an attack on her car and posed as a Huckabee supporter.

If you don't mind, I'm going to pull out my lecturer's cap for a moment.

When this story broke, we did not cover it. It was a conscious decision to wait for confirmation, because something was just missing from this girl's story. While Drudge Report screamed it from the rooftops in huge red text and blogs across the Web had a collective blamegasm, we and many other responsible journalists smelled a rat.

And what a stinker it was.

- snip -

The lesson inherent to both is one of journalism's most basic: trust your source, verify the facts, or don't run the story at all.

And of course, the lesson for you is a mere measure of skepticism. Questioning is healthy. Do it for everything.

-- Stephen C. Webster

[AlCzervik]

8. LIAF.

[FiveGoodMen]

9. SELF-mutilated, they could have mentioned

[FSogol]

10. Self-mutilated? n/t

[bluestateguy]

11. This is not acceptable

She should have received jail time and been forced to promise that she will vote for Obama next time.

[mitchum]

12. She tried to engineer race riots and she gets fucking probation