Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Bending time and space

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Announcing a retroactive 1-week vacation, starting two days ago. I'll be back next Monday. Guest Posting: Liberal Avenger, as if it would be anyone else.

Monday, April 25, 2005

50% of this post is something I never thought I'd say

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
David Brooks is right, and Michelle Malkin is wrong.

Friday, April 22, 2005

Friday Random Ten

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Wow, I have been slacking - kind of sad when two Friday Random Tens appear on the same page. Oh well. A few repeat artists from last week, too. That's my payback for ripping entire albums (for my own personal use), I guess.

  1. Believe What You're Saying - Sugar
  2. Going Back to Cali - LL Cool J
  3. Day Tripper - The Beatles
  4. Mister Grieves - TV on the Radio
  5. Spider of Destiny - Frank Zappa
  6. Nothing to Lose - Brian Jonestown Massacre
  7. Sparkle Finish - Hazel
  8. Atom in my Heart - Frank Black
  9. Float On - Modest Mouse
  10. All We Are - Fischerspooner
Add your own in comments.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Everything old is new again

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
I don't particularly like it when people express a lack of sympathy for someone who died, no matter who they are. That said, I defended Kos due to the extenuating circumstances around his controversial remarks.

Well, with another mercenary-related tragedy comes another unfortunate, ill-considered comment, and another round of finger-pointing at the "hateful left."
THESE F[**]KERS ARE NOT NICE PEOPLE. I have a hard time feeling sorry for their families. I have known a few of these wives and if they are in the marriage they are so high on Prozac and Xanax they will barely know he's gone...If one of their mommas is crying I'm somewhat sorry but I really want to ask that woman why she never got any help for her son, who was obviously a potential serial killer! I lay some of what that man became on her and his father's doorstep. I have almost no tears for these people. I can barely squeeze one out.
Now, considering the fact that there's apparently a video making the rounds that shows terrorists executing one of the Bulgarian survivors in cold blood, I in no way endorse this view. Despite what the Malkins would have you believe about liberals, I don't wish death on anyone, however I feel about what they do for a living.

That said, it's kind of - oh, let's say humorous that the source of Malkin's link is LGF - yes, that LGF - yes, THAT LGF.

Not only that, but the commenter Malkin links to is not some pot-smoking hippie, but rather a military wife.
The only fucking people who need to run around Iraq with automatic weapons and working for "our side" for any reason whatsofuckingever are people who answer to our military chain of fucking command and thereby the American voter and taxpayer and thereby follow the Geneva Convention to the fucking letter. If you had any idea how much these MERCs disgust and sicken honest military folk!!!
As usual, Malkin finds one comment by a distraught person, quotes it without full context, and leaves us with a few dead horses beaten:
No word yet on whether any AP photographers were tipped off to the cold-blooded execution by the Iraqi "insurgents/militants." Could be another Pulitzer Prize in the making.

Meanwhile, LGF notes that some unhinged liberals--in the same sick spirit of Howard Dean campaign consultant Markos Moulitsos Zuniga--are gloating over the murders.

Clutching at straws

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Mykeru, who by the way has another hilarious wingnut run-in posted, wants to know "why the fuck I haven't responded to this post. You're (I'm) such a pussy." (Well, no, he didn't say that, but you can imagine him saying it, right? Only with a little more creativity than I can muster?)
Editorial page editors, be on guard. MoveOn.org is calling on its left-wing troops to flood your offices with letters to the editor attacking Republicans over judicial appointments.
A-oo-gah. Of course, a look at MoveOn's dastardly plan reveals these actual details:
  1. MoveOn provides talking points.
  2. MoveOn provides names of newspapers.
  3. MoveOn provides a handy form through which one can submit one's own letter.
  4. MoveOn does not provide so much as a sample text in the letter-writing space, as thousands of other letter-writing efforts on both sides do.
More importantly, Michelle provides four examples of "astroturf...in full bloom!"

Are you ready for the punchline?

Not one of the letters she references come from one of the newspapers targeted by MoveOn's web form.

Additionally, one of the letters she holds up as an example of this terribly dishonest groundswell was published on April 1. Now, Michelle's post was published April 18, and MoveOn's article refers to the first letter campaign taking place "two weeks earlier." Even if it took Malkin four days to discover the letter-writing campaign, it's impressive that a letter got published the very same day it was sent.

Michelle:
Get the picture?
Yes. Yes, we certainly do. Nothing scares Malkin more than the idea that liberals might actually start getting organized about things like this.

Quoting Mykeru's e-mail with absolutely no permission whatsoever:
It's simply not astroturf in the fine right-wing echo chamber tradition. The Moveon form allows people to write their own damn letter, rather than just signing their name to some boilerplate as the wingnutty do. You will notice that even a cursory glance at the example she uses doesn't hit all the talking points. Why, it's almost as if the moveon form and the letters to the editor are discussing the same issue. Very suspicious.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Echoes

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Malkin quotes Max Boot:
Infinitely worse deeds [than Abu Ghraib] are being done in Darfur daily. Where's the outrage?...

The silence of the "antiwar" masses speaks volumes about their priorities: They don't object to war crimes as long as they're not committed by Americans.
Well, he's certainly not entirely wrong; Darfur seems to have fallen off the radar screen. (Although check out Tas.) I certainly haven't written about Darfur, and I could point out that it's because Michelle hasn't written much either.

But instead, I'll respond to Malkin's accusation-by-proxy of "silence" on an issue with a bit of a non sequitur.

There's nothing particularly wrong with Malkin's new column. It should come as news to no one that our schools have a red tape problem, and as an outrage to everyone that child abuse occurs, goes unreported, and is covered up, in the public schools. But Malkin clearly has an agenda here, and it's not improving public schools.
You send your children to school to learn, not to be assaulted by classmates and abused by the negligent overseers of Public School Classrooms Gone Wild. If these assaults occurred in private schools, the institutions would be shut down. Instead, the government dance of the lemons continues, as abominable administrators skip away with "sensitivity training," "reassignment," and eternal protection from accountability.
Yes, that is a problem.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

All for the good of the party

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Malkin approves of this. ("Right on.") I just find it creepy. (Emphasis added)
The conservative group Move America Forward has announced an ad campaign targeting Voinovich.

...Here's the ad text...
Wife: Honey, were you watching C-SPAN today? Did you hear how disloyal Senator Voinovich was to Republicans and President Bush? Voinovich stood with the Democrats and refused to vote for John Bolton, the man President Bush has chosen to fight for the United States at the UN

Husband: No, I was streaming it on the Internet at the office, but from what I could tell, Senator Voinovich played hookey from the hearings?

Wife: Yeah that’s right. He’s missed most of the Bolton confirmation hearings, but then shows up at the last minute and stabs the President and Republicans right in the back.

Husband: That’s ridiculous – the United Nations needs reform, we need someone who will stand up for the United States and fight the UN’s corruption and anti-Americanism.

Wife: Shame on Senator Voinovich. After the Democrats smeared Condoleeza Rice for Secretary of State and Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General, how could Voinovich side with the Democrats in smearing John Bolton?

Husband: It seems like Senator Voinovich has become a traitor to the Republican Party.

Wife: Enough’s enough. I’m logging on to Move America Forward dot com to register my protest with Senator Voinovich’s office.

Husband: What was that site? Move America Forward dot com ?

Wife: Yep, Move America Forward dot com
God forbid an elected official follow his conscience.

Why does Move America Forward dot com hate democracy?

Sunday, April 17, 2005

One side to every story

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
One of the Malkins (coin flip says: Michelle) reports on an Illinois bill which would require doctors' orders before an ultrasound is performed on a pregnant woman. Through selective quoting, Malkin manages to make it seem as though the only explanation for this bill is Planned Parenthood's efforts to enact a Final Solution:
Why would Planned Parenthood, an industry leader that aborts children and makes millions doing it, care a bit about the safety of children in the womb? Simple. It's hard to see an ultrasound and remain pro-choice. Once you see that your potentially aborted wad of tissues has fingers, toes, eyes and a nose and all the rest it becomes a person in your mind, and that makes you less likely to become one of Margaret Sanger's company's customers.
Why doesn't she explain that bolded sentence (emphasis mine)? Because it offers an alternative, Occam's Razor-approved explanation for the bill, which is also supported by the Illinois State Medical Society. From the story Michelle linked to:
Mulligan said that Planned Parenthood and the Illinois State Medical Society encouraged her to sponsor the legislation because there was a concern about long exposure of fetuses to ultrasound waves.

"There's a new little industry that does ultrasound videos on babies before they're born for entertainment purposes," the Cook County legislator told her colleagues. "There is concern about the neurological development with long exposure."
I'm not very impressed by Planned Parenthood's case here. But considering that Malkin has repeatedly blogged about her worries about the safety and efficacy of vaccinations, I would think she'd want to err on the side of caution. At least one paper published in Lancet recommended:
Repeated prenatal ultrasound imaging and Doppler flow examinations should be restricted to those women to whom the information is likely to be of clinical benefit.
But is the other contention - that "It's hard to see an ultrasound and remain pro-choice" - even accurate?

Well, one study says otherwise.
Ultrasound may be better at picking up abnormalities in foetuses than previously thought, but its results could also be misleading, causing parents to abort healthy babies...

Another 174 foetuses had signs suggesting abnormality, but went on to be normal at birth. They are known as "false positives"...

In two cases, parents of these babies opted for an abortion because they feared their children would be born with deformities - against doctors' advice.
And those are just the false positives. Thousands of abortions are performed every year as a result of the discovery of birth defects by ultrasounds. If Planned Parenthood is really interested in selling as many abortions as possible, why aren't they working to mandate ultrasounds for all pregnancies?

April Agita

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Get it?

Norbizness' Comedy Bracket competition is under way, and you should go there and vote. Here's my round 1 picks...
Bracket 1
Monty Python's The Life of Brian (1) vs. Heathers (8)
Sullivan’s Travels (4) vs. Animal House (5)
Some Like It Hot (2) vs. Repo Man (7)
Blazing Saddles (3) vs. The General (6)

Bracket 2
Modern Times (1) vs. Slap Shot (8)
Dr. Strangelove (4) vs. Trading Places (5)
The Ladykillers [1955 Alec Guinness version] (2) vs. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (7)
Waiting for Guffman (3) vs. M*A*S*H (6)

Bracket 3
Duck Soup (1) vs. To Be or Not to Be [1942 Jack Benny version] (8)
Caddyshack (4) vs. Royal Tennenbaums (5)
Airplane (4) vs. A Shot in the Dark (5)
The Philaldephia Story (3) vs. Office Space (6)

Bracket 4
Annie Hall (1) vs. Bedazzled [Moore/Cook] (8)
Safety Last (4) vs. Hollywood Shuffle (5)
The Bank Dick (2) vs. South Park (7)
Raising Arizona (3) vs. The Incredibles (6)
There's a mini-controversy brewing over whether the Incredibles deserves to be in the competition. I agree with that point of view - that the Incredibles is not really a comedy - but I voted for it anyway, because I'm a sucker for animation and it's the best animated feature ever made, in my opinion.

I also agree with commenter Alex who said:
If, as I suspect, The Left* is, in organizing this contest, merely trying once again to show his contempt for our democratic process, he could not have done better than by having The Ladykillers beat out Kind Hearts & Coronets and first-rate stuntman/third-rate "comedian" Harold Lloyd beat out the sublime Laurel and Hardy.
My endorsement of this view should in no way eclipse my appreciation of Norbizness' work on this contest.


*If you are a non-regular-reader of Happy Furry Puppy Story Time, 1) You're a fool. A fool, I say! 2) All is revealed.

Friday, April 15, 2005

By the way

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
For those with high tolerance, Michelle will be cohosting Hannity and Colmes tonight. I wonder if she'll coach the guests during commercials? (Via Media Matters)

Friday Random Ten

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
As you have probably guessed, the last few days have been filled with tax prep and work stuff, and a mild case of Malkin fatigue. Monday should see me refreshed and ready, although I still hope to get some weekend offtopic stuff in, starting with finally joining the Friday Random Ten craze.

  1. Louis XIV - Louis XIV
  2. Heaven - The Fire Theft
  3. Goalhanger - Billy Bragg
  4. Six Feet Under - Odds Against Tomorrow
  5. Galvanize - Chemical Bros feat. Q-Tip (that's still on here? Gah.)
  6. Amsterdam - Guster
  7. Something - The Beatles
  8. What You Want It To Be - Sugar
  9. Gliding Like a Whale - Peter Murphy
  10. Satellite - TV on the Radio
Forgot: Add yours in comments if you want to!

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

That was quick

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
If Malkin was looking for CafePress products from the right as 'sick' as those she found, she need look no farther than this Jesus' General post.

The difference, of course, is that the "Kill Bush" merchandise didn't come from the "best commenters in the blogosphere."

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Shorter New Column

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Teresa Heinz Kerry has far too much influence on her husband's career.

The Vast CafePress Conspiracy

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
[Crossposted to Liberal Avenger]

In yet another run-up to their impending book, the Malkins expose liberals for being objectively pro-assassination. Malkin quotes a Drudge story about an anti-Tom DeLay t-shirt which suggest that the Hammer ought to end it all. The t-shirt has since been pulled, but:
Not to worry. There are plenty of other hate-filled, liberal knick-knacks and apparel items still on sale.

Like this "Kill Bush" magnet depicting the president holding a gun to his head with the caption "End Terrorism Now"...

"Oh, but it's all in good fun," the libs will shrug...

"Where's your sense of humor?" the libs will ask.

Where's their decency? Their sanity?

Welcome to the sick world of the pro-assassination Left.
Well, no, I'm not going to shrug. I don't particularly like the items listed, and I'm not sure that wearing them isn't illegal.

However...at least one of the examples comes not from the left, but, as LA found, from a bipartisan CafePress store which, among other things, carries this shirt:



Clearly this item, at least, isn't "the sick world of the pro-assassination Left" but rather "the humorless world of the opportunistic schlock merchants." The caption that went with the messenger bag was the first clue.
They are a party on a mission to seek revenge for killing their hopes for a president, but 4 years later the Democrats are on a mission, they are going to "KILL BUSH"!
That sounds more like something Byron York would say than those evil liberals. (In fact, I think the above is taken directly from his interminable subtitle.)

As for the DeLay t-shirt which started it all, let's hear what ThinkProgress has to say:
The “liberals” selling the shirt are actually…just one random guy named Christopher Goodwin. Christopher runs “Ye Olde Christopher Goodwin Art Shoppe,” an online store
(hosted for free by CafePress.com) where he sells drink coasters, tote bags, and throw pillows emblazoned mostly with images of his own “abstract and representational art"; only two of his featured items are political in nature, the DeLay shirt and a set of shirts that say “Bush Is Vile"...According to Alexa.com, Christopher Goodwin’s website is the 2,071,537th most visited site on the Internet; to put that in perspective (and to make clear Goodwin’s profound obscurity) consider that the homepage for Chicken of the Sea tuna is ranked 163,081.

In other words, Drudge made a concerted attempt to find absolutely anything to take the heat off Tom DeLay’s various corruption charges, and the very best he could come up with was a stupid t-shirt from “Ye Olde Christopher Goodwin Art Shoppe.” Lame.
Lame indeed.

[Crossposted to Liberal Avenger]

Monday, April 11, 2005

A disturbing pattern emerges

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Hm.
Last week, many conservative bloggers--self included--picked up on a LifeNews.com story about a new Zogby poll that showed a majority of Americans opposing removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube if the question was framed differently than most other MSM polls.

But now some skeptical bloggers--conservative bloggers--are revisiting the poll and asking questions about the sponsors, poll wording, and reporting on the poll.
Hmm..
And for fair and balanced coverage: On the left side of the blogosphere, David Corn gets $60 from www.johnkerry.com for a blog ad urging RINO Sen. Lincoln Chafee to vote against Bolton. Seems the ad is running on a number of blogs and websites to put pressure on Chafee. Corn also takes his fellow left-wing bloggers to task for not paying more attention to the nomination:
Bolton's a bad deal for the United States. I wish progressive bloggers were as fixated upon him as many of them have been on Jeff Gannon/James Guckert.
Hmmm...
There's plenty to criticize John Kerry for, but this isn't one of them. The Associated Press now asserts that both Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Richard Lugar "may have blown" a CIA agent's cover during the Bolton hearings...

[There are] four previous media citations of the agent's name--all which make public reference to the agent, Fulton Armstrong, and the specific intelligence controversy at issue--dating back to September 2002...

...[H]ow will all of these newspapers that picked up the AP story square the reporter's assertion with those previous media citations?
Three thoughts: It's probably not genuine, it's not exactly overwhelming, and it definitely won't last.

Or copies of Ward Churchill's essay at Ground Zero?

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Is the NPS taking its cue from C-SPAN?

Eric Muller:
Why on earth is the National Park Service stocking Michelle Malkin's book "In Defense of Internment" in the bookshop at Manzanar?
He goes on to wonder whether they carry the JFK assassination computer game at the Sixth Floor Museum.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

And so timely

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
That bastion of unbiased journalism, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, conflates two different issues into one orgy of Malkin-defense:
Syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin: "Chris, I don't think we can be absolutely certain about what his wife, what Terri, would have wanted."

Matthews: "Do you think he's a murderer?"

Malkin: "What? No, Chris let me make my point ... "

Matthews: You do, don't you!? Now, I want you to be clear now. You're alleging that Michael Schiavo walked in one night oh so many years ago and took a pillow to Terri, aren't you?"
Oh, yeah, that's the same.

Unintended consequences

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Thanks to my feeble attempt at hilarity regarding Jane Fonda, I'm now on the first page of Google results for "Jennifer Aniston's ass."

Weekend Portlandblogging

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Malkin omitted Portland's Nigel Jaquiss from her list of Pulitzer Prizes.

As if that didn't sting enough, erstwhile mayoral candidate (link not safe for work) and alt-alt-weekly newspaper managing editor Phil Busse of the Portland Mercury has some questions.
The work that Jaquiss has done on the Goldschmidt story and, especially, on PGE, has been much needed reporting in town.

That said, a month ago, I sent a letter to the Pulitzer board outlining concerns about the the story and 30-year cover-up of Goldschmidt's crime. Since the story broke, we've learned of several political figures with knowledge of the story, as well as several missed opportunities for newspapers to pursue it.

According to Jaquiss' own reporting, one of the original founders of Willamette Week, Robert Burthchaell, was actively involved in "handling" (more precisely, "silencing") Goldschmidt's victim. The question of Burthchaell's alleged involvement in the cover-up--and how this should reflect on WW--is a question I believe should be asked.

As a result, certain media outlets have questioned my intentions. If anything, this response has reinforced my concerns regarding Portland's media. After all, wasn't the failure--and the fear--to ask probing questions for 30 years the reason that the Goldschmidt rape remained hidden?

Jaquiss has done a great service by finally uncovering this hugely important story. But I believe there are still many unanswered questions requiring our attention. The Mercury is currently pursuing those leads.
This story is so incomplete that it seems pointless to even have published it, except to stir up controversy the same week that WW is celebrating its Pulitzer win. No details are given regarding when/if Robert Burtchaell ended his relationship with Willamette Week, in relation to when Nigel Jaquiss came to Portland from New York, and how many (if any) people remain on staff at WW that were there 30 years ago, assuming that's when Burtchaell allegedly "handled" the victim.

I think that it's the timing that probably bothers people, Phil, because I, for one, never heard you were worried about this issue until after your competing paper won a Pulitzer Prize. Why send the letter to the board? Do Burtchaell's alleged misdeeds have any effect whatsoever on Jaquiss' reporting? In fact, by your own admission, it was Jaquiss' reporting that revealed Burtchaell's potential involvement. Tell us more, Phil, or let WW have its moment.

Update: Jaquiss, of course, came to Portland from New York. Typo corrected.

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Malkin Schiavo Memo Pile-on: Late to the Party Edition

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
For the last forty-eight hours, Blogger has been so wildly unpredictable that I've been loath to start any long posts. This means that I've been woefully underrepresented in the "nice job, guys" department regarding the now-debunked Schiavo memo. Now that we're a couple days into it, I'll content myself with rounding up a few of the better efforts from around the blogosphere.

Mykeru demanded Jesse & Michelle's resignation.
The main proponents of Republican apologia were, not surprisingly, Powerline and Michelle Malkin. Both of whom weren't, you know, really wrong if you really, really read what they wrote very, very carefully and then equivocated on the meaning of some words and pay close attention to the singular or plural...

I will be expecting the resignations of Malkin (preferably both of them, and I don't mean the kid) and Hindrocket from blogging in my inbox by the end of the day.

Oh yeah, and

Biatches.
Mykeru was responding to a post in which one of the Malkins (my money's on Jesse) went on the attack, accusing liberals of reading comprehension "lower than my 17-month-old son's. And he's just started reading picture books"; later, one of them (probably "voice of reason" Michelle) switched tacks effortlessly, calling for explanations of the possible "GOP coverups." That's one nice thing about having two people writing under one name: "Michelle Malkin" can hold two different opinions on the same day. John from AMERICAblog gives Malkin credit, though, for being reasonable:
I have a nagging feeling I've been hoodwinked.

But uber-conservative pundit and blogger Michelle "Internment camps are good things" Malkin just wrote a rather incredible, forthright, and honest analysis of where things stands with the Schiavo memo. In a nutshell, she's asking if there wasn't some attempted GOP cover-up surrounding the memo, trying to blame Dems for it when it was really a GOP memo, etc.
Well, John, I think you have been hoodwinked. The Malkins are just trying to have their cake and eat it too: First they "investigate" the "forged" memo; then they "investigate" the GOP coverups.

Jack Schafer at Slate says something I've always thought: Bloggers are potentially as good and as bad as the mainstream media, amplified by their ideology.

Roxanne asks for suggestions on Malkins' and Powerline's next whole-cloth scandal.
Illegal immigrants sneak into San Diego homes to drink the blood of unsuspecting white babies? Jimmy Carter performed a human sacrifice in the Lincoln Bedroom back in '78 and that's why he's not going to the Pope's funeral? Hillary Clinton conspired to have a guy murdered and then covered it up? John Kerry shot his entire squad in Vietnam and replaced them with hippie look-a-likes he found partying with Hanoi Jane in Ho Chi Min City?
As for why I think Jesse's the one sticking to his guns on the Schiavo memo, an alert reader forwarded this e-mail from the Malkin e-mail list (I don't subscribe - it requires personal information, and I don't want to end up on a list like this):
From: jessemalkin@comcast.net <>
Subject: Washington Post Digs In
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_----------=_11126306683184455"; charset="US-ASCII"
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 16:04:28 UT
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/001992.htm
WASHINGTON POST DIGS IN
By Michelle Malkin · April 04, 2005 11:16 AM

You're gonna love this.

Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz writes about the Schiavo memo once again, finally acknowledging that the Post did indeed report that the talking points were "distributed to Republican senators by party leaders."
Whoops? Or the first step in admitting that they're a team?

Friday, April 08, 2005

Oh, really?

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
More payola...
Disclosure is not the only issue. Perception matters, too. Do we really need another paid partisan hack to confirm what the liberal MSM already unfairly assumes of all conservatives in the media--that we're all on the payroll of the Republican Party and incapable of independent journalism?
Disclosure and perception, you say?

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Besides decorum...

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Here's the reason why it drives me nuts when people attack "Michelle" ad hominem...

...because it allows them to get up on their high horse.

(I can see I'm going to have to work on my own pronouns when referring to these two.)

It's just sour grapes, anyway

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Jesse/Michelle have been spending a lot of time whining about the Pulitzer Prize for photojournalism. Athenae has quite a post up on the topic - angry, accusatory, and every single word of it the gospel truth.
What's the matter, don't like looking at your pretty war, Michelle? Pictures of the dead and wounded don't get you off anymore, Powerline? Guess what? Freedom isn't free.

You're awfully fond of that slogan, aren't you? Freedom isn't free.

So why aren't you using these photos in your "support the troops" rallies? Why aren't you using them to remind us all what a solemn and glorified endeavor this war really is? Why do you so hate to look at the thing you profess to love?...

Freedom isn't free, you say, giving me the impression that whatever other xenophobic homophobic fundie whackjob tendencies you harbored, at least you understood that for your bravado somebody pays a price. I hope you got a receipt, because it sounds like freedom's a little more expensive than you counted on. In fact freedom's so fucking expensive you can't stand to be told what market price is these days.

Go read it.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Either Jesse or Michelle has some explaining to do

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Via AMERICAblog, Raw Story:
A one-page unsigned memo that became part of the debate preceding Congress' vote ordering a federal court review of the Terri Schiavo case originated in Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez' office, Martinez said Wednesday.
Wow. It's a good thing the Malkins didn't waste any time, words, or credibility on this issue.

(That's not every post, either. I just got sick of cutting-and-pasting.)

Update: OW asks:
Will the last honest right-winger please turn out the lights?

So what does it matter?

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
[Cross-posted at the Liberal Avenger]

The most common question asked of me following this post goes a little something like this:
Okay, let's say you're right. What difference does it make?
That's a good question. First of all, as noted in this post by LA, I am right, as has been confirmed by sources who have come forward since the original post. I was cagy about some of the evidence I had for multiple reasons, none of which I'll go into here.

Second, I am not attempting to destroy Michelle's career, nor am I foolish or crazy enough to believe that I could even if I wanted to. Worse has been done than anything I'm suggesting of Michelle by many people. That said, I'd like to suggest a few reasons why this might matter, if only a little.

Disclosure: The Liberal Avenger and I had many discussions about this story prior to its publication, and some of these ideas more likely belong to him - he's already written about some of them in his comments section, as well.


  1. It's the lying.

  2. As I noted in my initial post, Michelle has gone out of her way to promote the idea that she is the sole proprieter of her blog. Perhaps her resolve slipped in recent days, for as LBC noted, the new Immigration Blog lists simply "Malkin" as a byline. It just seems that she's guilty of protesting too much in, without prompting, taking full credit for "her" output. Maybe it's just another right-wing lie, or maybe it's more significant.

  3. It's the scandal.

  4. Michelle has always been very hot on the idea that blogs are home to better reporting than the mainstream media. Well, one of Rick Bragg's biggest transgressions was allowing others to write stories under his byline. If Michelle were to admit that "Michelle Malkin" is a generic byline for both herself and Jesse, then fine. Except, of course...

  5. It's the persona.

  6. A quick glance through Technorati reveals, if one didn't know already, that Michelle is something of a right-wing darling. She's not the only one, on either side, either - this is the age of celebrity journalism. She's bright, photogenic, and talented, and, in my opinion, finds a much more forgiving audience because of it. While, as I noted in my original post and continue to state, I have no doubt that she is responsible for much of what appears under her name, the introduction of Jesse into the equation does tend to confuse the issue.

    This is not to say that opinions are more or less valid coming from a minority female than a white male, or vice versa, although I am sure that is what I will be accused of saying. Rather, it is a statement of fact that the public, en masse, often reacts this way. It seems more than possible that Jesse Malkin, a white male, producing anti-immigrant, racially focused writings, would only ever be a face in the crowd.

  7. It's the questions it raises.

  8. As LA notes:
    Has "Michelle" ever blogged or written about topics related to what Jesse was working on for the government at the think tank while Jesse was still connected with the think tank in any way?
  9. It's none of the above.

  10. At the bottom of all of this is, honestly, "I report - you decide." As I noted on LA's comments thread:
    I chose a topic for a blog...My topic happens to be one particular writer.

    Then I realized my topic is actually two particular writers, so I wrote that.
    Michelle/Jesse love, love, love the idea of bloggers replacing the MSM as the source of investigative reporting. This is just playing by their rules.


[Cross-posted at the Liberal Avenger]

Column

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Michelle and/or Jesse's column this week is about Jane Fonda. Yeah, I know.

I can't really defend Jane Fonda, because I wasn't born yet when she did - well, anything, and the Fonda story is so confused by ideology by now that I don't know if she and John Kerry fired anti-aircraft guns at Air Force One live on WNVA, or if she led the escape from the Hanoi Hilton, which was later made into a movie starring Michael Moriarty*.

Okay, it's way more like the former than the latter. But here's the part of the column I find entertaining (emphasis mine):
No mind. Fonda's cynical non-apology "apology" keeps making headlines, just as she and her book publicists had hoped. This isn't about making amends. This is about making money..

Me! Me! Me! Hanoi Jane rides again.

-------------
*Troll, also starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Sonny Bono. June Lockhart played Fonda, a role she later reprised in C.H.U.D. II - Bud the Chud. C.H.U.D. II - not to be confused with Leprechaun, starring Jennifer Aniston's ass - was written by Ed Naha, who later adapted the O. Henry story The Ransom of Red Chief, which would later be bastardized by Malkin for a commie-baiting blog post. And that's six degrees of Michelle Malkin for today. Next time: Leni Riefenstahl.

        

Monday, April 04, 2005

Weekday Portlandblogging

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
As an anonymous commenter on LA's site notes, one of the Malkins posts the list of pulitzer prize winners...minus Portland's own Nigel Jaquiss.
The revelation by the Williamette Week drove Goldschmidt, a high-level consultant and power broker, from public life.

As the award was announced in the offices of the Willamette Week, tears came to Jaquiss' eyes. Jaquiss is a former Wall Street stock trader who moved to Portland eight years ago to pursue a career in journalism.

Good for him. And shame on the Oregonian for covering it up for eighteen years.

I don't know how many alternative weeklies have won pulitzers, but it seems like quite an event to me.

Ghost blogging?

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
(Assisted by and cross-posted at the Liberal Avenger. Written - as is this entire blog - by Auguste. You'll see why I make this disclaimer soon enough.)

We're coming up on the ten-month anniversary of michellemalkin.com in its current form, and as of the time of this writing she's posted 1975 times, from this one (number 4, for some unexplained reason) to this one. For those of you playing at home, that's an average of 6.6 posts a day. That's a lot of posts. But this isn't a "see what I do for you" post - for one thing, I'm not exactly keeping up: I've only been averaging about 2 a day.

Of course, Malkin does this for a living. But the weird thing is, she keeps it up no matter what. For example, on September 8th, the day she was on her way to speak at Berkeley, she posted four times, including one in-depth post about Eric Muller. She then posted a wrap-up of the talk and a review of her schedule at two am pacific time, before posting again at 9:30 the next morning.

More recently, on Friday night, Malkin posted this at 7:28 pm, updating it afterwards when it turned out her first source was probably mistaken. The same night, she gave a talk in Washington, D.C.

Malkin once explained her prolificacy thus:
From the e-mailbox:
Is that really you posting at ungodly hours of the night?
Actually, ungodly hours of the morning. Yup, it's me. No gold-plated interns here at Malkin Central. Just me and my keyboard and my incurable insomnia.

Insomnia...it does a blogger good.
I don't think it's that simple.

Michelle's husband, Jesse Malkin, first met Michelle when they were students at Oberlin College. From Goldsea's not-exactly-flattering profile:
Jesse Malkin's first assignment for his new Filipino American reporter was collaborating on an article denouncing Oberlin's affirmative action program. Fellow students found the article offensive and showed their displeasure to Malkin & Company.
Jesse earned his PhD in economic policy analysis from the Rand Graduate School, with most of his study related to the economics of health care. Goldsea:
His PhD thesis was The Postpartum Mandate: Estimated Costs and Benefits. That subject would be reprised in a paper Malkin later co-authored as a RAND consultant with three others titled Postpartum Length of Stay and Newborn Health: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis. Essentially, it finds medical benefit in extended hospital stays for women who had given birth. Another of his co-authored papers is titled How Much Does Global Warming Matter? and subtitled, “What the world's population needs most are more lavatories and better sewage systems.”
Interestingly enough, the one area in which Michelle seems to straddle the line between liberal and conservative is health care. Here she admits that her health-care costs have risen dramatically, and here she actually uses the words "agree with Krugman" - that our health-care system is broken, particularly for the self-employed.
After my husband quit his job earlier this year (to become a full-time stay-at-home dad), we had a choice. We could either buy health insurance from his former employer through a program called COBRA at a cost of more than $1,000 per month(!) or we could go it alone in Maryland's individual market. Given our financial circumstances, that "choice" wasn't much of a choice at all. We had to go on our own.
Very admirable of Jesse to become a stay-at-home dad. But was that the only reason he quit?

James Capozzola from the Rittenhouse Review had a run-in with Jesse in November of 2003, in which Jesse defended his wife against something Jim wrote.
Michelle has nothing against immigrants per se and would be the first to acknowledge that many immigrants make positive contributions to our country. She does, however, think that immigration should occur in a controlled, legal manner--and is particularly concerned that people who enter this country not be known terrorists or criminals. She also believes that tolerance of high levels of illegal immigration depresses wages among poorly-skilled workers and is unfair to those who wait in line to come here legally.
Jesse, apparently, did this without Michelle's knowledge.

What is this adding up to? Well, let's add one more piece of evidence: The royal we. Here:
You remember the West Seattle High School anti-war
student assembly we blogged about last week.
Here:
No, we're not turning into Wonkette, but our friend
Spokane Spokesman-Review columnist Dave Oliviera has
an exclusive blog post...
Here:
Don't miss this hatchet job on our friends at
powerline by Jim Boyd...
Once is a typo, twice is a figure of speech, three times - plus all the other evidence - makes me ready to state my conclusions for the records:

Malkin not only has a "gold-plated intern", it's her husband. Or to put it another way, Jesse Malkin has a great deal of influence on Michelle's writing, even to the point of posting on her blog, probably on a regular basis. I think it's very possible that the books were cowritten as well; In Defense of Internment was written over a period of sixteen months, the last six (or so) of which Jesse was at home.

Don't misunderstand; Michelle is clearly very capable - she wouldn't be able to handle the media as well as she does if she weren't - and certainly is responsible for much of what is written in her name. But it seems clear that her husband is more deeply involved in her career than expected.

This is important because, for me, it calls into question Malkin's motivation. If her husband is a partner in punditry, where do Michelle's opinions end and Jesse's begin? And, in today's personality-driven politics, would even right-wingers be as willing to swallow this kind of thing from a white male PhD as from a photogenic minority woman?

Sunday, April 03, 2005

n. One who takes advantage of any opportunity to achieve an end, often with no regard for principles or consequences.

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
While Michelle is whining about "liberal bias" (CBS actually covered both the Pope's death and one of the most-watched sporting events of the year on the same day, those sacriligeous cretins) Mykeru is both honoring the pope and eviscerating right-wing opportunists.
Nothing says "scumbag" like the transparently nasty wing nut tactic, just slightly more advanced than making shit up, of combing through posts on Democratic Underground to find a poster writing something stupid and then claiming this represents "liberal" thinking. Sorry, I missed the great liberal conspiracy meeting where they explained that liberal thought is encompassed by random twits posting on the net. Second to that sleazy tactic is sifting through the often lazy and confused live coverage of the Pope's death to find slights against him, religion, God and decorum, even if they have to be half-imagined.
I'm sure Malkin is adding a chapter to her book - even as we speak - about the anti-Catholic bias of fundamentalists liberals.

Saturday, April 02, 2005

Science

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
This is cool.
The system is young, so the planet is rather warm, like a bun fresh out of the oven. That warmth made it comparatively easier to see in the glare of its host star compared with more mature planets.

Blogroll Time

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Roxanne gets the nod (ha - I say that as though it's an honor) for, among other things, her fantastic April Fool's parody.

Loaded Mouth covers the Sudan and let me know that Mitch Hedberg died, sadly.

Friday, April 01, 2005

What? No comments about the MSM?

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Malkin quotes WFTV:
He's been in a persistent vegetative state for more than a month, but a popular high school basketball coach has awakened.
Then Malkin updates from the Orlando Sentinel:
...says the man awoke from a coma, not PVS.


Even if he had been in a PVS, there's quite a difference between one month and fifteen years. At least by my calendar.

""SCREW THEM:" NOT A JOKE:" WHAT A JOKE

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Update: Welcome Daou Reporters! I hope you're enjoying your preview of Malkin's new book.

Well, I should clarify - she hasn't announced anything about it yet, but I've got a strong feeling that it has something to do with this and this.

I'm just disappointed she didn't use my idea.

-------------------------------------

Infamous? Or just incredibly disingenuous?
A year ago today, left-wing blogger and Democratic strategist Markos Moulitsos Zuniga of the Daily Kos cheered the brutal murders of four American civilian contractors in Fallujah--all of them war veterans with distinguished records, three of them fathers--with the following infamous words:

"Screw them."

...April Fools' Day lesson: Bashing murdered veterans pays. No joke.
Okay, not that Markos (himself a military veteran) needs me to defend him, but here's what he actually said:
That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.
And the next day, he explained: (emphasis mine)
There's been much ado about my indifference to the Mercenary deaths in Falluja a couple days ago. I wrote in some diary comments somewhere that "I felt nothing" and "screw them".

My language was harsh, and, in reality, not true. Fact is, I did feel something. That's why I was so angry.

I was angry that five soldiers -- the real heroes in my mind -- were killed the same day and got far lower billing in the newscasts. I was angry that 51 American soldiers paid the ultimate price for Bush's folly in Iraq in March alone. I was angry that these mercenaries make more in a day than our brave men and women in uniform make in an entire month. I was angry that the US is funding private armies, paying them $30,000 per soldier, per month, while the Bush administration tries to cut our soldiers' hazard pay. I was angry that these mercenaries would leave their wives and children behind to enter a war zone on their own violition.

So I struck back.

Unlike the vast majority of people in this country, I actually grew up in a war zone. I witnessed communist guerillas execute students accused of being government collaborators. I was 8 years old, and I remember stepping over a dead body, warm blood flowing from a fresh wound. Dodging bullets while at market. I lived in the midst's of hate the likes of which most of you will never understand (Clinton and Bush hatred is nothing compared to that generated when people kill each other for politics or race or nationality). There's no way I could ever describe the ways this experience colors my worldview.

Back to Iraq, our men and women in uniform are there under orders, trying to make the best of an impossible situation. The war is not their fault, and I will always defend their honor and bravery to the end of my days. But the mercenary is a whole different deal. They willingly enter a war zone, and do so because of the paycheck. They're not there for humanitarian reasons (I doubt they'd donate half their paycheck to the Red Cross or whatever). They're there because the money is DAMN good. They answer to no one except their CEO. They are dangerous, hence international efforts (however fruitless they may be) to ban their use.

So not only was I wrong to say I felt nothing over their deaths, I was lying. I felt way too much. Nobody deserves to die. But in the greater scheme of things, there are a lot of greater tragedies going on in Iraq (51 last month, plus countless civilians and Iraqi police). That those tragedies are essentially ignored these days is, ultimately, the greatest tragedy of all.
I quoted the entire post, because context is ultimately vital in this situation. That's why Malkin's failure to provide it is a joke.

Oh, now I get it

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.
Maybe it's the Mary Jane, but she's finally convinced me. Just looking at these patriotic Americans stirs my blood. Frankly, had I known that the Fuurther folks had such strong feelings about immigration, I never would have started this blog in the first place.