Rationale Thinking Is Needed For the Ashley Todd Controversy

The conservative blogs unleashed their fury on the Left for the reported attack on 20 year-old Ashley Todd.

Glenn Reynolds

This is so serious that I predict it will get almost one-tenth as much national coverage as something some guy may have yelled at a Palin rally once.

Kim Priestap

Drudge has the headline in red. These Obama cultists are dangerous and out of control. What the hell will these people do if the messiah loses on November 4th?

Stop the ACLU

How do we know the assailant was an Obama supporters?

Well, glad you asked!!!

After seeing Todd’s car has a McCain/Palin bumper sticker, the thief became enraged and then punched and kicked her, then took his knife and carved the letter “B” into her face, according to Pittsburgh police spokeswoman Diane Richard.

Newsbusters

Wow! Think you'll hear much about this in the coming days?

If your answer is "No," with respects to John Grisham, imagine for a moment the assailant was a white McCain supporter, and the victim a young, black, Obama campaign volunteer.

Turns out Ms. Todd lied about her story.

"This afternoon, a Pittsburgh police commander told KDKA Investigator Marty Griffin that Todd confessed to making up the story," the station says on its website. "The commander added that Todd will face charges; but police have not commented on what those charges will be."

This young woman needs psychiatric help. A presidential candidate isn't worth mutilating oneself. I'm aware that Todd is a staunch Republican, but other conservatives don't physically harm themselves to get their candidate elected.

I'm troubled by the conservative blogs reaction. Glenn Reynolds continues to believe his conspiracy theory that the media is 100 percent behind Democrats. His statement that the MSM would not cover this story proved to be wrong. The media loves of young white women in jeopardy. That is why so much unneeded coverage was given to the Runaway Bride.

Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters argued "the victim a young, black, Obama campaign volunteer", is disgusting. Study after study shown African Americans don't get a better deal in the Justice system. Furthermore, if the story was true, the attack would be morally reprehensible, regardless of race or party affiliation. Democrats and Republicans should be able to agree on that point. If not, then this country has serious problems and change needs to be more than a campaign slogan.

These bloggers ignored the Jamie Leigh Jones story and Sarah Palin rape kit controversy. They suddenly became women's right activists when a (false) mugging of a female McCain supporter of by alleged Obama supporter. I wouldn't think these bloggers were using the assault of a female for political means, if they didn't gleefully make fun of Jessica Valenti's breasts.

Wingnut Alert: Wizbang Trusts What the Media Says

Kim Priestap of Wizbang states the Obama campaign wanted "horrific headlines" about the recent Wallstreet meltdown. Priestap's proof is that CNN's political correspondent Candy Crowley.

This is what the Obama campaign wanted. Got that? The American people watched the Dow drop by 500 points yesterday and banks go under and declare bankruptcy, and Crowley reports that this is what the Obama team wanted because they see the chance to score political points. But this is typical of Democrats because in order to win, they need suffering, they need upheaval, they need fear.

Let me get this straight. Wizbang actually trusts what the liberal media has to say. Let's do the time warp all the way back to September 6, 2008. Priestap wrote the post "CNN Portraying Palin's Thug Ex-Brother in Law as Sympathetic." Priestap accused CNN of smearing Sarah Palin on the TroopGate story.

Nice. He should have been fired right then and there. And there's more, including that the Alaska State Troopers confirmed that this guy threatened to kill his father in law if he helped his daughter (Palin's sister) get a divorce. Additionally, there were protection orders against him prohibiting him from getting anywhere near Palin's sister. This guy had absolutely no business being anywhere near any police force.

Yet, CNN slaps up a video that makes him look like the victim. Head on over to AJ's site and read all about who this guy really is and how low CNN is going in their effort to hurt Sarah Palin.

That same day, fellow Wizbang blogger Lorie Byrd accused CNN's Soledad O'Brien on cutting funding for special needs children. Byrd hysterically cites Michelle Malkin as a valid source of factual research. Malkin's book "Defense of Internment" contained numerious errors that Malkin was forced to admit. Malkin has since took down the page citing her errors. The Historian Committee For Fairness signed a petition stating Malkin's book. The petition was signed by several tenured history professors.

Michelle Malkin's appearance on numerous television and radio shows and her comments during these appearances regarding her book IN DEFENSE OF INTERNMENT represent a blatant violation of professional standards of objectivity and fairness. Malkin is not a historian, and she states that she relied almost exclusively on research conducted or collected by others. Her book, which purports to defend the wartime treatment of Japanese Americans, did not go through peer review before publication. This work presents a version of history that is contradicted by several decades of scholarly research, including works by the official historian of the United States Army and an official U.S. government commission. In fact, the author's presentation of events is so distorted and historically inaccurate that, when challenged by reputable historians, she has herself conceded that her main thesis in incorrect, namely that the MAGIC intercepts of prewar Japanese diplomatic cable traffic, explain and justify the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans.

So is Malkin and Byrd right that CNN is falsely accusing Palin of cutting funding for special education and needs children? No. The 2007 budget was created before Palin became Governor. The 2007 and 2008 budgets were during Palin's tenure.

FY2007 Governor - 8,265.3
FY2008 Governor - 3,156.0
2009 Governor - 3,156.0

The moral of the story is conservative bloggers agree with the media when it confirms their beliefs. That means even showing love to the so-called liberal media. Conservative blogger will bash the media and cite the journalistically dubious Michelle Malkin when it reaffirms their worldview.

Two thoughts:

1. My jaw dropped when Wizbang cited a CNN talking head as speaking the gospel truth. The end of days must be near.

2. Bronwyn Lance Chester on Malkin: I think she habitually mistakes shrill for thought-provoking and substitutes screaming for discussion. She’s an Asian Ann Coulter. I also think that, like Coulter, she says outrageous things just to get TV appearances and book deals. She’s the worst of what’s wrong with punditry today. She adds absolutely nothing to genuine political discourse.

That about sums up Malkin.

The Conservative Filter

Conservatives enjoy calling the media the filter. Meaning that the media is somehow blocking access to the truth. If it wasn't for the brave keyboard warriors, we wouldn't know that there were WMDs in Iraq.

CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN IRAQ: Austin Bay has a roundup on this story.

Glenn Reynolds, the gift that keeps on giving.

Conservatives really don't want unbiased journalism. They want the media to tell them what they want to hear. Rush Limbaugh could never make it (and I'm laughing as I write this) as a football analyst because he enjoys making racist comments. Conservatives don't mind. In their minds poor Mexican laborers are taking all the high tech jobs in Seattle.

Today's Gallup poll shows Barack Obama leading John McCain 47 percent to 41 percent. A USA Today article on the poll shows Obama leading McCain 47 percent to 44 percent. All this makes the unfiltered truth of the conservative blogs hysterical.

Say Anything blogger Ken McCracken writes the poll "shows McCain now ahead 49%-45% among voters that Gallup believes are most likely to go to the polls in November." Which in true. This is a demographic that isn't even registered to vote. The poll has a margin of error of 4 percent. McCracken uses this one demographic as prove that Obama's trip failed. I fail to see what McCain gained by constant media attention on Obama.

Wizbang runs the headline "His Own Worst Enemy."

Look at Obama's just-ended world tour. The media sure loved him, but Obama actually dropped in the polls, McCain gaining on Obama by not doing or saying much at all. It's as if America wants both of these guys to sit down and shut up, and they are willing to reward the one who actually does it.

Obama didn't drop in the polls. Obama is beating McCain in the major polls. The likely voters is a soft poll. Who knows how many of the people polled will actually vote? I'm fascinated by how conservatives can use the smallest poll fragment and say McCain now leads Obama in the Gallup poll.

Another point, I'm sure Jim Johnson will agree with. the Zogby poll predicted John Kerry would win. The problem with that is Republicans had a good turnout. What hurts McCain is he can't get supporters to fill small venues. Democrats have been registering voters in record numbers and Obama will accept the Democratic nomination at INVESCO Field. Turnout will be the key come election day.

Another point: McCain gambled by daring Obama into going to Iraq. Obama got Prime Minister al-Maliki to support his timetable. Obama isn't even President and he has achieved more diplomatically than Bush. McCain can't decide whether he likes or hates Obama's timetable.

Tastes great:

“I think it’s a pretty good timetable, as we should — or horizons for withdrawal,” he added, echoing a phrase President Bush used in recent days. “But they have to be based on conditions on the ground.”

Less filling:

"The difference between the two candidates going into November is that Barack Obama wants a rigid timeline for withdrawal," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said on CNN's "American Morning."

"John McCain wants to start reducing our troops, keeping the gains in security that we've earned in Iraq, but by doing so, avoiding a third war.

Obama scored a foreign policy coup and received photo-ops with eager European leaders. How Wizbang figures that Obama is his worst enemy and not the guy that flip flops on a timetable is beyond me. I'm just the filter. Wizbang and Say Anything are the truth.

The Difference Between Progressives and Conservatives...

...is we aren't apologists for when our side does something illegal and unethical. I have written negative posts about William Jefferson and Gary Siplin criminal behavior. Jay Tea of Wizbang takes a different approach. He attacks the Left for Larry Craig's arrest.

Prepare for Senator Craig to be referred to as a "prominent" or "leading" Republican extensively in the next few days, along with mention of Mark Foley and old whatshisname, the evangelist from the Mountain States, but nary a mention of Gerry Studds, Barney Frank, Jim McGreevy, or any other prominent Democrats caught up in gay scandals.

The really fun part would be to see Bill Moyers comment on this. After all, he was the one who was tasked with damage control when Walter Jenkins, a top aide to Lyndon Johnson, was caught doing something similar to what is alleged against Craig -- but Jenkins' men's room was in a YMCA.

As David Scott Anderson points out, Democrats such as Barney Frank haven't made a career out of demonizing gays and lesbians. Craig voted against same sex marriages.