guess

Don’t let the lack of reports fool you. Iraq is still very unstable, and seeing some very deadly days:

Six car bombs exploded across Baghdad Monday, killing at least 34 people and wounding scores, police said, after a spate of arrests targeting Sunni Arab fighters raised tensions in the Iraqi capital.

A blast at a popular market in eastern Baghdad's Shi'ite Sadr City slum killed at least 10 people and wounded 65.

Why aren’t we hearing about this? It’s hard to say. Perhaps it could be that there is so much going on that the media’s ADD is kicking into overdrive. Your guess is as good as mine, but we need these stories out there.

The media will turn their attention to Iraq one the troops start getting pulled out. When that starts then stories like this will be plastered on every network. It will serve  as some sort of “proof” that Obama is destroying Iraq. But right now they can still push the meme that “the surge worked” by kicking these stories under the rug.

I'm starting a new post on this since the story is constantly growing. For background, check out my earlier post.

So the skepticism is really growing now with this latest story:

When Ms. Todd reported the incident, "nowhere did she say to the officer that [the assailant] made reference to the bumper sticker. I don't know how she came to the conclusion that he noticed the sticker," Cmdr. Ross said.

Updates after the fold

He said the description of the robber as a 6-foot 4-inch, 200-pound black man is similar to that of a man who robbed a Liberty Avenue bank in recent weeks.

Police were checking surveillance video of the Wednesday ATM incident.

Several employees at nearby businesses last night said they were unaware of the attack.

So the whole bumper sticker thing was thought of after the fact? MSNBC has reported that she took her lie-detector test today, but the results aren't known. I have also been reading that this is a very busy part of town with a lot of bars and restaurants, including right across from the ATM. This happened at 9:00 pm at night, so business should have been good, yet no one saw it happen.

There was also the postings on her Twitter making it sound like she had no idea where she was and was in a "bad part of town". Apparently she knew right where she was:

Ms. Todd then went to a friend's house in the 5100 block of Cypress Street, about a mile away, where she reported the incident to police about 45 minutes later. She declined medical treatment at that time.

So she was in an unknown part of town, yet went to a friends about a mile away? Really? Let's add some perspective here. Todd is from Texas, but in Pittsburgh volunteering for the McCain campaign, on behalf of the College Republicans. Apparently she hasn't been there that long, so where did she make a friend at? A safe guess would be McCain headquarters, and possibly another volunteer.

Now let's add to that the fact she waited 45 minutes to call the police. If this is fake then I wonder if she now has an accomplice in this fraud. I am sure the police are talking to her friend now.

Also the right has been trying to defend the upside B by saying that the man sat above her head as he carved it in, which would make the B face properly. That story is now debunked:

Ms. Todd told police during at least five hours of questioning last night that her attacker said to her, "You are going to be a Barack supporter." She told police the man then sat on her chest, pinning both her hands down with his knees and used what she believed was a dull knife with a roughly 5-inch blade to carve the B.

Five hours of questioning is a lot also. If her story was solid, the questioning wouldn't have taken no where near that long.

If this all does turn out to be a fake then she needs to be publicly humiliated for what she has tried to do. Perhaps a public apology beside Obama when he does his big national TV appearance next week?

(Updated below the fold)

This one will get you:

While the U.S. military searches for a soldier missing in Iraq, kidnapped by insurgents possibly allied with al Qaeda, his wife back home in Massachusetts may be deported by the U.S. government.

Army Spec. Alex Jimenez, who has been missing since his unit was attacked by insurgents in Iraq on May 12, had petitioned for a green card for his wife, Yaderlin Hiraldo, whom he married in 2004.

Their attorney, Matthew Kolken, said 23-year-old Hiraldo illegally entered the United States in 2001 to reunite with her husband, whom she had met in her native Dominican Republic and later married at his New York State Army base in 2004.

Her husband's request for a green card and legal residence status for his wife alerted authorities to her status, Kolken said.

I really wonder what all the wingnut war bloggers, who have been crying about "amnesty", say about this. Will they want the government to let her stay (which would be amnesty), or will they want her kicked out? My guess is that they stay silent on it - simply because this is a smack of reality they can never face.

This is a tragic story out of Utah but also a look into the weird mental
thinking of some religious extremists in our own country,

The following is from KSL
in Utah.

Man Jumped From Truck Following
Argument

November 12th, 2005 @ 9:21pm

 (KSL News) Police now say an argument caused a 21-year-old man to
jump from a moving truck in South Jordan.

Tyler Poulson was riding with his brothers last night when he became
offended by one of them using profanity. Poulson, who recently returned from
an LDS mission, threatened to get out of the truck if he continued.

One of the men, not thinking he would, told Poulson to.

Earlier police said the car was going about 35 miles an hour when Poulson
opened the door and jumped. He was pronounced dead on scene.

This kind of mentality is exactly why people look at some of the religious
zealots as extremists. Perhaps this guy thought because he was doing something
in the name of God he would now be invincible. Guess God pulled a quick one on
this poor guy.