Kneel Before Design!

Getting Better All The Time

McCain Campaign Pushed Hoax:

John McCain's Pennsylvania communications director told reporters in the state an incendiary version of the hoax story about the attack on a McCain volunteer well before the facts of the case were known or established -- and even told reporters outright that the "B" carved into the victim's cheek stood for "Barack," according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

John Verrilli, the news director for KDKA in Pittsburgh, told TPM Election Central that McCain's Pennsylvania campaign communications director gave one of his reporters a detailed version of the attack that included a claim that the alleged attacker said, "You're with the McCain campaign? I'm going to teach you a lesson."

Verrilli also told TPM that the McCain spokesperson had claimed that the "B" stood for Barack. According to Verrilli, the spokesperson also told KDKA that Sarah Palin had called the victim of the alleged attack, who has since admitted the story was a hoax.

The KDKA reporter had called McCain's campaign office for details after seeing the story -- sans details -- teased on Drudge.

-tpm

Oh, That's Better

Palin, who is John McCain's vice presidential running mate, said the clothes were not worth $150,000 and were bought for the Republican National Convention.

Most of the clothes have never left the campaign plane, she told the newspaper.

- ap

Yeah, just what Joe the Campaign Donor wants to hear...

Paging Lt. Columbo

Ok, so we see how the nets - broadcast and broadband - are going to wallow tomorrow:



as they will go hogwild over this crime story as McCain Campaign talking point:

Woman Attacked At ATM, Assailant Scratches Letter Into Her Face
Woman Robbed, Attacked With Knife At Bloomfield ATM
...
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.
...
Todd declined to comment to the Tribune. 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.

-- WTAE TV

Now color me cynical, but doesn't anyone wonder why the robber scratched the "B" backwards?

Like it was done in, say, a mirror?

Or does the Pittsburgh press routinely print all their photos in reverse?

Update:

Police: Campaign Worker Admits Making Up Story
Source: KDKA 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.

Well, that was fast...

Zero Tolerance: New IP Edition!!

Following arrests across six states and a three year investigation, the notorious Mongols motorcycle gang faced a new and unexpected penalty: loss of trademark:

"U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper granted an injunction requested by prosecutors that prohibits gang members, their family members and associates from wearing, licensing, selling or distributing the logo.

"If a Mongol is wearing a vest or jacket bearing the Mongols patch, that item is pursuant to seizure based on this order," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Welk.

It is believed to be the first case in the nation in which the government has sought to take control of a gang's identity — via its logo — through a court order."

- AP

Now call me a worrywart, or at least a "Yes, Minister" fan, but this reeks of 'thin end of the wedge' to me.

Seriously - how long before the government seeks to seize IP control of "Dissident Works" created by "Enemy Artists" in the name of Public Safety?

Is this not yet another example of how gross and distorted the Limited Artistic Work Monopoly has become in the era of Intellectual Property?

First the government spends decades in collusion with the copycartels, making Copyright more sacrosanct than private property, and now it strips trademarks as a tool of law enforcement, as if a logo were a Cadillac stuffed with locoweed nabbed at the border?

And who granted a criminal enterprise Trademark protection in the first place? That's right...

Multiple Choice?

McCain reminds Biden he's been tested in crisis

Republican John McCain told voters in this key electoral state Tuesday he was personally tested by the same kind of crisis that Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden warned Barack Obama will almost certainly face if elected president.

McCain recalled being ready to launch a bombing run during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which Biden said over the weekend tested a new President John F. Kennedy and was the template for the kind of "generated crisis" the 47-year-old Obama would face within six months of taking office.

"I was on board the USS Enterprise," McCain, a former naval aviator, said in the capital city of Harrisburg. "I sat in the cockpit, on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise, off of Cuba. I had a target. My friends, you know how close we came to a nuclear war."

-AP

If by "tested" you mean "sit and wait for someone to tell you what to do," that is...

Hey - he IS a lot like Bush!