"April's Mom," a single mother whose blog chronicled her pregnancy with a child, terminally ill with Trisomy 13 and HPE, whom she was carrying to term, attracted the attention and support of abortion opponents across the country. Every day, thousands of people read about her commitment to keeping the baby, her struggles, her pain - all set to a Christian rock soundtrack and interspersed with Bible verses and anti-abortion links. They sent her stories and prayers, letters and gifts. As the site took off, she got links from other pro-life sites and a number of advertisers. Prominent pro-lifers added a "Pray for April Rose" button to their blogs. By the time "April's Mom" gave birth to the baby - who lived only a few hours - almost a million people were deeply invested in the story.

And so, when they realized it was an elaborate hoax, people were mad (albeit, in many cases, glad a baby hadn't died.) Suspicions were raised when the baby's description didn't match that of a child ill with Trisomy 13 and HPE, a red flag to those of her supporters who had dealt with the illness. Then April Rose looked suspiciously healthy. Then April Rose looked suspiciously like a doll*. These suspicions were confirmed when the author rushed to shut down the site, as well as her popular MYSpace and Twitter. And soon her identity was revealed: she was 26-year-old social worker Beccah Beushausen. Now, instead of checks and gifts, she's getting hate mail.

Beushausen says she feels bad, but that her acts were rooted in a real opposition to abortion - and that she drew on her experience of actually losing a son in 2005. Says the Chicago Tribune,

She had expected only a handful of friends to read it, but when her first post got 50 comments, she was hooked...."I've always liked writing. It was addictive to find out I had a voice that people wanted to hear," Beushausen said..."Soon I was getting 100,000 hits a week, and it just got out of hand, I didn't know how to stop. ... One lie led to another."

It's tempting of course to use this as a chance to take an easy bash at anti-choice, and revel in anything that makes them look foolish, but frankly, I'm just sad for this woman. Although the differences are obvious, in some ways, she's reminiscent of Ashley Todd (she of the inept self-mutilation) who saw the particularly emotional nature of people's political sympathies as an opportunity for attention. While these are deeply disturbed young women, it's also true that in both cases there were communities ready to embrace them ideologically, and that's no coincidence in a world where we see people galvanized by hate-speech and protests of the most lurid and distasteful kind. I don't take any pleasure in anyone extending prayers and thoughts to this woman and finding they were duped, especially those who actually went through the pain of losing a child. But the readiness to politicize, to use her pain and tragedy as a cause - and the anger at being duped, at finding that a baby did not, in fact die - is sobering. This woman saw there was rage and emotion to be harnessed, and she did. The found the attention and the approval - she was doing God's work, after all! - addictive. And that's the scary part.

*The doll in question was allegedly a Reborn. Our sources (aka, Wikipedia) say that "a reborn doll is a vinyl baby doll that has been enhanced to resemble a human baby. The process of creating a reborn doll is referred to as reborning."

Blogger's Baby Was A Hoax [Chicago Tribune]

Grotesque Con-Women for Life (The April's Mom Scam) [BeliefNet]
Little April Rose Is A Fake!!!

Earlier: Ashley Todd: An Image Of Intolerance, Illness Or Both?

ANA MARIE: Good morning.

MEGAN: Hello! I now have coffee brewing, it smells good enough I almost feel like I don't hate the world.

ANA MARIE: I am discussing hotel reward points with other reporters and eating bacon and fruit. THE BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS.

MEGAN: Bacon is always a part of the breakfast of champions, and I have now determined what I shall be eating once we finish. Porky deliciousness, which is really just a way to bring up Ted Stevens, who Palin has decided should resign.

ANA MARIE: FINALLY. Next, Palin will appoint herself as replacement.

MEGAN: You know that's coming.

ANA MARIE: Though I do not mean to suggest that Obama is inevitable!

MEGAN: Somehow, though, I don't see her having a warm relationship with Senator McCain when she gets there.

ANA MARIE: We on the trail have been discussing whether or not she will even invite McCain to Bristol's wedding — since he is, you know, the reason why she has to get married. In a just world, he'd officiate.

MEGAN: But they love each other! They always planned to get married! I'll bet she invited him for the gift because you know he ain't flying to Alaska.

ANA MARIE: I actually don't mean to be cynical about that. I mean, I am, but on the other hand: I thought I'd marry my high school bf, too.

MEGAN: Me too! True story: remember those machines in the mall that print business cards and invitations? We printed a fake wedding invite one time.

ANA MARIE:Who do you think WILL have a warm relationship with Sen. McCain? Mel Martinez?

MEGAN: Lindsay Graham's love for McCain will never, ever die.

ANA MARIE: No. He will die wearing the wedding dress he picked out.

MEGAN: He will have to be buried in it. I mean, you gotta admit, he does look really fabulous in it.

ANA MARIE: Guy behind me: "The first polls close in six days, nine hours, and two minutes."

MEGAN: Ok, Rainman. And where do polls close at 5:30?

ANA MARIE: West Viriginia? Maybe he's lying. Some kind of elaborate voter fraud project.

MEGAN: Maybe I am just better at math? It's slightly less elaborate than printing up flyers complete with logos and shit to pretend that Election Day has been moved. I mean, really?

ANA MARIE: What, it hasn't? Shit. I was looking forward to collecting more Hilton Honors points. Also, someone tell Mickey Mouse.

MEGAN: Dude, if they moved it to this week, I would totally be okay with that. It's Wednesday and I'm too tired to move to get the coffee I can now smell. I'm so bored I spent 5 minutes reading about Kwame Kilpatrick's cell and sexy texts just to not think about the election any more and then the damn reporters snuck it in there at the end anyway. Bastards.

ANA MARIE: I was watching a zombie movie last night and couldn't help wondering which party they'd vote for. This election has infected my brain.

MEGAN: I think the zombies, like al Qaeda, would want McCain to win, if only because, what with his arms, he seems like one of them. Yeah, I went there.

ANA MARIE: It's okay. It's hard not to.

MEGAN: Oh, and it turns out that Ashley Todd is not a McCain plant trying to turn people against Obama, she's a Ron Paul plant pretending to be a McCain plant trying to turn people against Obama to turn people against McCain. Soooo crazy. She's like the Manchurian Candidate and shit.

ANA MARIE: Personally, I think zombies would vote for Ron Paul!

MEGAN: He would be like the Pied Piper for zombies, I would agree. All that yelling, they'd be really distracted. Bonus points: after they voted, Ron Paul's living supporters could then serve as sustenance for the zombies. Bonus, bonus points: Democrats could finally accuse Republicans of mining the cemeteries of this great nation for voters.

ANA MARIE: There's a "Chicago machine politician" joke in there somewhere but I haven't finished my bacon.

MEGAN: I need a bacon butler in the morning. And a coffee steward.

ANA MARIE: So did Cindy McCain.

MEGAN: But why did she need John McCain?

ANA MARIE: I think the proper emphasis is, "Why did SHE need John McCain?" Or maybe, "Why did she NEED John McCain?" Sorry, that's totally the lack of bacon talking.

MEGAN: I am seriously going to have to go cook some damn bacon when we finish this.

ANA MARIE: Should we talk about Nicolle Wallace and her sexy under the bus pose?

MEGAN: Yes, I think we should. I'm glad she decided to tell Fred Barnes he'd better apologize.

ANA MARIE: She didn't really tell him that, she just busted out the whoop ass.

MEGAN: Which, good for her, make him squeal like the bitch he is. Who says women can't play political hardball? Don't fuck with Nicolle Wallace.

ANA MARIE: Usually it's just Bill Bennett that makes him do that. She's the velvet fist in an iron glove or whatever. (Speaking of Bill Bennett.) What I loved about Nicolle? She set her sights on Fred and did not let him out during that entire interview. SHE INVOLVED HER DOG IN THE MESSAGING. She's scarier than Mark Salter. He would just hurt you.

MEGAN: Did Fred Barnes make her puppy cry? That bastard!

ANA MARIE: Nicolle can DESTROY YOU. (From the interview: "We reached Wallace Monday night, enjoying a rare evening at home with her dog, Lily, who also joined the conversation at one point. "That's Lily protecting me from Fred Barnes," Wallace explained.")

MEGAN: Nicolle should figure out who suggested to Freddie Back that it was all her fault and destroy him. Rick Davis seems like enough of a backstabbing little diva to do it.

ANA MARIE: I think she has some ideas. No one in the press corps does tho... Seriously, favorite game right now is "who would be so stupid as to get on Nicolle's bad side?" Okay you have just made the obvious point that I should have. Davis. Totally. Wanted to do go to Saks himself

MEGAN: Also, let us take on short moment to point out that the purchases were all made by Robocaller extraordinaire Jeff Larson.

ANA MARIE: Who hasn't even denied it!

MEGAN: With whom one imagines Wallace doesn't necessarily work that closely.

ANA MARIE: Here's the other thing: Wallace is a Bushie. She knows how to hide illegal expenses. There would be no RNC disclosure of Wallace purchases. I kid, obviously. Though I only say that because I think she knows how to have me killed.

MEGAN: It does seem pretty junior varsity, I agree. And Nicolle is not JV squad.

ANA MARIE: Hold on. I have to get wanded.

MEGAN: Tell him to do it the sexy way.

ANA MARIE: I've been wanded! Wanded is one of the words I'll miss from the campaign. That and "manifest." As in a staffer telling me, "I'll manifest you." It sounds like one simply APPEARS somewhere.

MEGAN: Manifest destiny is all I can think of when you say that.

ANA MARIE: See, I think of manifestations.

MEGAN: I think I have proved once and for all that I paid way too much attention in class.

ANA MARIE: And I pay too much attention to the SciFi channel.

MEGAN: So, shall we briefly discuss the irony of the woman who wants to change the Constitution to give herself more power if she wins accusing her opponent of wanting to change the Constitution?

ANA MARIE: Do you think Palin would recognize the Constitution if she saw it? Like, the text? Maybe the part about guns...

MEGAN: I'm not sure she would recognize it if it walked up to her on the street Schoolhouse Rock style and slapped her for all the shit she's been talking about it behind its back.

ANA MARIE: But then she would shoot it.

Obviously, Todd has some rather specific ideas about race, from her Twitterfeed about being on the "wrong" side of Pittsburgh to this disturbing "mean janitor" video that Wonkette unearthed.

The janitor, who was probably just doing his job by cleaning up after her, locking the bathrooms on an urban college campus and removing signs that she may or may not have put up in violation of the rules, is called "mean" and "amusing." It's probably not really a coincidence that the janitor — who likely didn't appreciate the mockery from a 20-year-old from Texas — resembles the specter she tried to pin her assault on.

Like too many people before her who are inspired to this sort of action, she made her personal boogeyman the one she thinks we all share. That she did so in a season when her candidate's own campaign has been accused of making Barack Obama the unacceptable Other to try to win the presidency probably allowed her to convince herself that her actions were valid and helpful. Of course a black man would be enraged by a McCain sticker, of course she later added that he tried to grope her, of course he was an Obama supporter. Aren't all African-American men violent felons with bad tempers and an inability to keep their hands off of white girls who support Barack Obama? Aren't all douchey frat boys rapists with no respect for women who view black women as sexual objects? Aren't all white guys in upstate New York violent, racist rapists? Who else but a black man would steal a car with children in it and drown them? Why wouldn't their stories be believed? Too many people in this country have self-segregated themselves — racially, politically, educationally, religiously — to a point where their stereotypes and fears are all they are ever exposed to and so they seem not like illegitimate stereotypes but like Greater Truths — when the truth couldn't be further from their grasp. The shadows on the wall become their reality because it's easier than stepping back and turning around to see what's making them, and less disturbing than having to admit that it's you.

Police: Campaign Worker Admits Making Up Story [KDKA]
Joe The Mugger? [The Smoking Gun]
North Carolina: Attack Claim Repeated [New York Times]
Could ‘The Mean Janitor’ Have Attacked This McCain Lady, Again? [Wonkette]
Pittsburgh PD Smells a Rat [TMZ]