This is the old Malkin(s)Watch

Dick Cheney Jokes!

2006-02-15T20:52:00.000-08:00

LiberalAvenger.com has more Dick Cheney Jokes than you can shake a shotgun at!

P.S. Visit the NEW Malkin(s) watch at: http://malkinwatch.blogsome.com/

I have no words

2006-02-04T11:11:00.000-08:00

I really should have saved some for this. I mean, in the past I've escalated my snark and my flabbergasted outrage when I thought it was necessary, but it turns out that I wasted it all on trifles.

When the person who made her career defending widespread internment of a race of people - and advocating the same for another - invokes Pastor Niemoller about an overreaction to some blasphemous cartoons, well...

...I'm already numb.

There is no doubt that there has been violence committed on "behalf" of "Islam." There is no doubt that the current round of threatened reprisals is, as I said, an overreaction and unacceptable. Violence is always unacceptable.

But when a person in Maryland, a citizen of the most powerful nation in the world, looks at street riots thousands of miles away, riots perpetrated by people who have spent most of the last thousand years feeling - quite often correctly - oppressed by the West, a West who in the past four years has killed thousands of Middle Easterners in retaliation for something which the majority of them didn't even approve of at the time, let alone have a hand in, and that person in Maryland plays the victim card...well.

"Look how violent those people are," this clip is saying. "They shoot guns and they burn flags and they kill people. They are not like us. We don't shoot guns - in the street, anyway - and we don't burn flags and we don't kill people. We are not like them."

We're not? Read this. Then read LGF. Then find me a qualitative difference.

"But Auguste," you say. "LGF is just rhetoric, ugly but just rhetoric nonetheless. There's power behind the Muslims' words. No LGFer ever killed someone like Theo Van Gogh. No LGFer ever flew a plane into a building."

That's true. But just because we convinced our government to do our righteous angry killing for us doesn't mean it's any less linked to the rhetoric.

Call this "moral equivalence" if you want, I don't care. Call this "excusing terrorism" if you want, but you're wrong. Violence begets violence begets violence. Don't be fooled into thinking that the new Leni Riefenstahl over there is really horrified by the Muslim world's made-for-TV reaction, which allows her to peddle this "Arabs are savages" line with video! evidence!

She's not horrified, she's salivating.

Friday Poetry Blogging - Take a lesson from Bignose edition

2006-02-03T15:42:00.000-08:00

The first 'great literature' I read - or, to be precise, devoured, since I'm sure I was forced to sit through something in Junior High - was an old volume of Cyrano de Bergerac I bought at Powell's Books for $3.50, back when you could still find a below-market bargain at Powell's. Stupid internet, stupid bookfinder.com.

I always loved this speech, and I read it again just last night. It seems to carry new weight every time I read it.

From Cyrano de Bergerac - Rostand, transl. Hooker

I carry my adornments on my soul,
I do not dress up like a popinjay;
But inwardly, I keep my daintiness.
I do not bear with me, by any chance,
An insult not yet washed away -- a conscience
Yellow with unpurged bile -- an honor frayed
To rags, a set of scruples badly worn.
I go caparisoned in gems unseen,
Trailing white plumes of freedom, garlanded
With my good name -- no figure of a man,
But a soul clothed in shining armor, hung
With deeds for decorations, twirling -- thus --
A bristling wit, and swinging at my side
Courage, and on the stones of this old town
Making the sharp truth ring, like golden spurs!

Ooooh, Malkin's gonna be maaaad

2006-02-03T10:31:00.000-08:00

Reuters:

Washington on Friday condemned caricatures in European newspapers of the Prophet Mohammad, siding with Muslims who are outraged that the publications put press freedom over respect for religion...

"These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims," State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said in answer to a question. "We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression but it must be coupled with press responsibility. Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable."

Update: Yep.

By the way, am I hallucinating, or did this post, now titled "FOLLOWERS OF THE RELIGION OF PEACE", used to be simply titled "RELIGION OF PEACE"? I was struck by the original title, but I didn't think to get a screenshot, since this is from someone who previously titled a post "RELIGION OF THROAT-SLITTING"; I didn't think Malkin shied away from connections to LGF.

Am I crazy, or did others notice this too?

I'll say it, if no one else will

2006-02-02T09:48:00.000-08:00

The majority of the "Muhammed cartoons" are some of the worst, small-college-or-even-high-school, poorly drawn, idiotic, unfunny and unpoignant political cartoons ever produced.

This should not be construed to mean that I approve of the ridiculous overreaction and despicable death threats; it's just to point out that Chris Muir obviously isn't the only sign that the righties love them some second-rate cartooning.

If I were American newspapers, I'd refuse to print them not because of the risk of fatwas but because of their ridiculously low production values.

That said, if the LA Times does decide to print them, more power to them. Speech is protected, even if it sucks. As skippy says in earlier comments,

One wonders how the ever-opportunistic Malkin(s) responded to "Piss Christ" (you know the crucifix in a bottle of urine) or Sinead O'Connor's tearing up a photograph of the Pope.

That liberal media

2006-01-31T20:24:00.000-08:00

Malkin:

Meantime, pre-speech buzz is focusing on Hugo Chavez's big squeeze, Cindy Sheehan, who has a gallery pass to watch the speech live.

Wonder if she will be wearing pink lingerie?

Update, 900pm eastern: CNN is reporting that Capitol Police arrested Sheehan after she unfurled an anti-war banner inside the House chamber.

I heard - from NPR - that she brought a banner inside the chamber, but got arrested before the speech...a banner does seem a little over the top, actually.

Then again, I wonder what really happened?

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested Tuesday in the House gallery after refusing to cover up a T-shirt bearing an anti-war slogan before President Bush's State of the Union address.

Wow. A t-shirt. Enemy of the people.

Update: According to MSNBC (via a Kos diarist), the t-shirt said "2,245 dead - how many more?"

Ironic?

2006-01-31T11:59:00.000-08:00

Yes - the furor over the cartoons portraying Mohammed in Denmark is lame. There is no question that, as Michelle and Jesse explain it, "The Bullies of Islam" are behind it.

It is ironic that the Malkins are some of the highest profiles "Bullies of Anti-Islam." Do they not remember the cyber-riot they incited over the presence of a CRESCENT SHAPE in the winning Flight 93 memorial architectural design?

If 44 posts demanding the removal of a SHAPE that coincidentally has a connection with Islam isn't bullying, I don't know what is.

manshake

Malkin: Yay for socialists!

2006-01-31T10:37:00.000-08:00

Malkin is encouraging everyone to buy danish, which is too bad, because I prefer fritters.

Was that joke worthy of this blog? Probably not. But it's hard to ignore the irony of a right-led campaign to support a country with 75% union membership, universal health care, and approximately 250,000 left-of-center political parties. Apparently all it takes to win the approval of Malkin and friends is to say something bad about muslims.

And tell us, Malkin, who should we support?

The Danish Food shop
Danish Deli Food
LEGO
Gevalia coffee

Ah yes, the length and breadth of Danish industry.

The scientific method is for suckers

2006-01-30T12:56:00.000-08:00

Malkin:

[A] study, which was presented at a conference held by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal or anywhere else for that matter. But that didn't stop the Post from trumpeting: "Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases"...
Brian Jones, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said he disagreed with the study's conclusions but that it was difficult to offer a detailed critique, as the research had not yet been published and he could not review the methodology. He also questioned whether the researchers themselves had implicit biases -- against Republicans -- noting that Nosek and Harvard psychologist Mahzarin Banaji had given campaign contributions to Democrats...
This information should be included in any MSM article about the study. Why didn't the Washington Post report the details of the scientists' political contributions? Biases, anyone?

I wonder if what Malkin left out of the blog post would be illuminating in any way.

From the WaPo article:

[T]he study could not tell whether racial bias was a better predictor of voting preference than, say, policy preferences on gun control or abortion. But while those issues would be addressed in subsequent studies -- [independent reviewer Jon] Krosnick plans to get random groups of future voters to take the psychological tests and discuss their policy preferences -- he said the basic correlation was not in doubt.

"If anyone in Washington is skeptical about these findings, they are in denial," he said. "We have 50 years of evidence that racial prejudice predicts voting. Republicans are supported by whites with prejudice against blacks. If people say, 'This takes me aback,' they are ignoring a huge volume of research."

Malkin? Ignoring research? Pshaw.

I'm back, baby

2006-01-29T22:34:00.000-08:00

With my Thinkpad T30 newly be-powered, Auguste is back in business. (Thanks to LA and Ryan for kicking in while I was gone.)

(N.B.: There's a lot more links than usual to Malkin's site in this particular post. I hate to drive any more traffic than need be, but they're illustrative links. Still, if you don't particularly want to read her, make sure you preview the links before clicking.)

It wasn't easy, sitting by and watching Malkin's anti-Google hilarity. Vendor from Street Meat has an interesting point.

I wonder if she supports WalMart (who also does a lot of business in China)?

She certainly does. And does. And does. She doesn't like Wal-Mart's history of hiring illegal immigrants, but that probably goes without saying.

Wal-Mart doesn't just do business in China. They bowed to government pressure and reversed a companywide policy, Google's big sin. Not only that, but that reversal resulted in unionization (as twisted as that definition is in China), which should be driving Malkin crazy.

As troubling as Google's China concessions are (and Justin Raimondo makes a decent case that they aren't very troubling at all), Malkin's pile-on is not about China as much as this. And this. And this.

And, quite possibly and prophetically, this.

Gawker Pokes Fun

2006-01-27T18:33:00.000-08:00

Submitted without coment.

[via Jill]

Obsessed much?

2006-01-25T20:42:00.000-08:00

Today Michelle and Jesse posted their thirty-seventh post about the Air America "scandal." In today's edition they complain that Al Franken's salary is too high.

Michelle Doesn't Know What Words Mean

2006-01-25T20:18:00.000-08:00

From this bit of schadenfreude: "Code Pink, the radical anti-war guerilla group...."

From the Merriam-Webster Defⁿ of guerilla: "a person who engages in irregular warfare especially as a member of an independent unit carrying out harassment and sabotage".

In Malkin's world, you can call any partisan a "liberal conservative" and be right every time!

Learn more about CODEPINK at their web site.

Posting will be sparse...

2006-01-25T10:21:00.000-08:00

...to non-existent, as my laptop has a frayed power cord. Am scouring eBay as we speak.

I will check in as often as possible.

Possibly the least self-aware thing I've ever read, and I read Malkin!

2006-01-22T18:59:00.000-08:00

From Malkin's link regarding the "Milwaukee 5":

This is a clear message to any Democrat whose good conscience might prompt him to blow the whistle on fellow Democrats involved in felonious attempts to influence the outcome of an election: Democrats will destroy your reputation and smear you as a liar if you dare to tell the truth.

Hmm.

There's a lesson here

2006-01-22T12:33:00.000-08:00

If reports are true, it appears that Haleigh Poutre is, in fact, improving. Note here the difference between this case and the Terri Schiavo case: Diagnosis from the Senate Floor aside, Schiavo wasn't.

Which is why the irony here for the right-wing is so compelling. Malkin:

Michael e-mailed me that many talk show hosts don't want to discuss the story:
I fear it's the post-Schiavo syndrome.
I think Michael is right, and that the post-Schiavo syndrome is affecting more than just talk radio. Few on either the left or right--in politics, in the blogosphere, in the MSM punditocracy--want to grapple with the moral, legal, and medical implications of this wrenching case. And as I noted before, the bleeding hearts in Hollywood--so quick to leap to the defense of every last Death Row convict--are AWOL. There's already a jaded and shockingly callous exasperation about Haleigh's case epitomized by the title and comments at John Cole's blog: "Dear God, not again."

After which Malkin goes on to offer a sincere mea culpa for being such an integral part of the Schiavo media circus - nay, frenzy - which, she (or he) acknowledges, was so overwhelming that it would be impossible to blame the American public if they aren't interested in reliving it.

Just kidding.

"Blount"?

2006-01-21T07:37:00.000-08:00

This is just a silly error, just as simply fixable as the one Auguste pointed out concerning the stretched Ted K. pic, but this one's actually funny:

THE GOP LEADERSHIP RACE

I'll be listening in on a blogger conference call with Rep. John Shadegg in just a minute. There are two more calls scheduled later today with Rep. John Boehner and Rep. Blount.

Of course, Michelle means "Rep. Blunt". It makes me wonder, though, if she thinks of Winton Blount every time she sees Roy Blunt's name in print.

You'll recall that our current President worked on Blount's failed Senate campaign [after allegedly getting off the hook for cocaine possession in Houston], when he failed to show up for a flight physical [also allegedly related to cocaine use]. It's still an open question as to whether or not Bush "fulfilled [his] obligations" to the TANG. A question I'm sure neither of the Malkins wants coming up yet again.

Just sayin'...

America's greatest weakness

2006-01-20T14:19:00.000-08:00

Apparently, it's listening to The People.

To wit:

John Noonan at The Officer's Club reflects on the 25th anniversary of the end of the Iran Hostage crisis:
...upsetting the American public is our Achilles heel.

I've always said that the Founding Fathers made a huge mistake not hiring a really good copyeditor. That Rousseauian social contract stuff just slipped right by them, didn't it?

Hey, whaddya know

2006-01-20T14:16:00.000-08:00

Malkin is complaining about image manipulation again.

In related news, Teddy Kennedy's still 250x200.

You know what I just realized?

2006-01-20T08:26:00.000-08:00

In this post, Michelle essentially calls herself a "center-right blogger."

I just thought I'd point that out.

Friday Poetry Blogging: Heavy-handed allegory edition

2006-01-20T00:04:00.000-08:00

Ozymandias of Egypt - Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

And, finally, it comes down to this

2006-01-18T20:23:00.000-08:00

Malkin finally comes out and says it.

TAKE A STAND AGAINST THE ACLU

Okay, let's take a stand.

Against:
* The right to due process
* The right to a jury of one's peers
* The right to assemble peacefully
* The right to distribute religious literature
* The right to hold union meetings
* The right to travel freely between states
* The right of minorities to vote in primary elections
* The right to the Jeffersonian seperation of church and state
* The right of minorities to live where they like
* The right to artistic freedom
* Brown vs. the Board of Freaking Education
* The right of veterans not to sign a loyalty oath
* The right to privacy
* The right to nondemoninational prayer
* The right to a state-appointed lawyer
* The right to a lawyer during police interrogation
* One person, one vote
* The right to privacy in political mailings
* The right to contraception
* The right of the accused to understand their rights
* The right to criticize US foreign policy
* The right of juveniles to due process
* The right to marry interracially
* The right of illegitimate children to inherit
* The right of the poor to choose their domestic living arrangements
* The right of students to self-express
* The right to procedural due process
* The right to offensive speech
* The right to publish whistle-blowing material
* The right of women to administer estates
* The right to choose
* The right of a woman to have dependents
* The right of The People to hold their president accountable
* The right of the mentally ill to live outside of confinment when appropriate
* The right of, yes, even Nazis to Constitutionally protected freedom of speech
* The right to distribute poltical pamphlets
* The right to unpopular political speech
* The right of prisoners not to be beaten
* The right of women to serve on juries
* The right to practice one's chosen religion
* The right to display political signs

So. This is what Malkin would take a stand against.

What, then, are we to stand for?

Gainin' on ya!

2006-01-17T19:06:00.000-08:00

I'm not altogether sure about the right's fascination with the Nagin's "chocolate city" remark.

Can it be as simple as never having heard of Parliament? Are they disturbed by the idea of a black majority? Are they afraid of race mixing?

What the hell is the problem?

Champagne at the Malkins' tonight!

2006-01-17T18:32:00.000-08:00

Via twig, a commenter at Sadly, No!, comes this joyous news:

...soldiers, who are currently staging for combat operations from a secret location, reported that their commander told them if they were wearing Pinnacle Dragon Skin and were killed their beneficiaries might not receive the death benefits from their $400,000 SGLI life insurance policies. The soldiers were ordered to leave their privately purchased body armor at home or face the possibility of both losing their life insurance benefit and facing disciplinary action.

Thank God we've saved those soldiers from Hillary's dastardly plan to make them wear body armor they don't want, that will cut down on their mobility.

"We have to be able to move. It (Dragon Skin) is heavy, but it is made so we have mobility and the best ballistic protection out there. This is crazy. And they are threatening us with our benefits if we don't comply." he said.

Oh. Well, what do soldiers know, anyway?

Definitely read the whole thing.

Update: Via a Kos diary, the NC Times expands on the insult to the risk of injury:

Dragon Skin is worn by the Secret Service Presidential Protection detail, CIA, NSA, DoE, journalists and contractors in Iraq, U.S. Air Force, Special Ops forces, and several generals in the field.

Nothing but the best for our troops, eh, Malkin(s)?

Stretching the limits of hypocrisy

2006-01-17T14:27:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of Ted Kennedy as it appears in this blog post:

And as it should appear:

Here's what the Malkins have had to say about things like this in the past:

"DEMONIZING CONDI"

and

"Unfortunately, filtering prominent conservatives through a distorted lens seems to be a bad habit at Time magazine..."

Usually the Malkins' filtering of prominent Democrats through a distorted lens is figurative.

Not today.

Actually, no it definitely isn't

2006-01-16T19:23:00.000-08:00

WHEN IS IT OK TO TALK ABOUT DIVINE RETRIBUTION?

When you're the Democrat mayor of New Orleans.

My first thought upon hearing this was "Oh, that is so not okay." I was really hoping to beat Malkin to it, though, so that she would be glaringly wrong in suggesting that the left was ready to just let it drop.

Make no mistake, though, outrage isn't the main reason Malkin wants to focus on Nagin's claims. This is.

Update: I didn't make it clear that I'm referring here to Nagin's invocation of "God's role" in the hurricanes. Anyone offended by Nagin's "chocolate city" remark, as the Malkins claim to be, is clearly untouched by the funk.

Okay, I've gotta give it to Malkin...

2006-01-16T10:34:00.000-08:00

...this is really dumb.

I'm no munitions expert, but that certainly doesn't appear to be a missile of any kind.

Update: Via Chad in comments, Maha, a diarist at Kos:

But the good news here is that because (I trust) there is one fake staged photo, the entire news story about 18 innocent people being killed has been cancelled. The villagers were faking the story; they were probably lying about not hosting al Qaeda also. We can now dismiss the whole episode as so much spin, as if it never happened. I know you are relieved.

You know it, baby

2006-01-15T21:04:00.000-08:00

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Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Martin Luther King hates George W. Bush...FROM THE GRAVE!!!

2006-01-15T16:14:00.000-08:00

So sayeth Malkin:

Jim Hoft rounds up the bash-Bush events planned for the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday tomrrow, including:
* New York Martin Luther King Day Events, Realizing the Dream: A Call to Conscience, actors Susan Sarandon and Jeffrey Wright will read select works of Dr. King...

* Sen. Edward Kennedy will join the LET JUSTICE ROLL Living Wage services and/or events on the Martin Luther King Holiday Weekend in order to inspire, educate and mobilize congregations and community organizations to support an act for raising the minimum wage at both the Federal and State levels.

If anyone can explain to me why these events are "Bush-bashing" without using the words "unhinged", "moonbats", or "Chappaquiddick", you win a prize.

In fact, you can even use those words if you wish. Just don't tell me that you're really happy to claim that a focus on the civil rights movement or on labor rights is actually anti-Bush; since the obvious implication is that Bush is therefore anti-civil rights and anti-labor.

I mean, I'll claim that, but I don't think it's what Malkin meant.

And there are in fact some anti-Bush events available at the link on Malkin's site. Go sign up for some.

Update:Ryan reminds me that MLK may not have had much to say about W, but he certainly had some words which apply to his future apologists:

At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: "Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King?" "Why are you joining the voices of dissent?" "Peace and civil rights don't mix," they say. "Aren't you hurting the cause of your people," they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.

Malkin: So reserved, so cautious

2006-01-14T12:53:00.000-08:00

Re: Iran.

We are on the brink.

Of what? A nervous breakdown?

My simple question: Do Americans understand the gravity of the situtation? I fear not. Once again, we are ill-served by a short-sighted, narcissistic, Bush-deranged news media far more interested in playing "gotcha," selling fish-wrap, and serving as Democrat Party adjuncts than keeping readers/viewers informed of the world's biggest threats.

This from the woman (and/or man) who devoted significant blog space to Mrs. Alito's tears - arguably the least important thing to happen in a judiciary committee hearing room since Douglas Ginsberg took a giant bong rip live on C-SPAN.

To bashing (and wildly flip-flopping about) Hillary Clinton's call for better body armor.

To a completely bogus story about terrorists in Midland, Texas.

All since we stepped onto the brink.

Who's ill-serving, short-sighted, and narcissistic now?

Oh, dear

2006-01-14T12:50:00.000-08:00

More bullshit.

Once and for all: Is Malkin consistent?

2006-01-13T20:10:00.000-08:00

Sadly, No!

More fact-esque fun

2006-01-13T08:23:00.000-08:00

Malkin:

[The "War on Wal-mart" is] on in Maryland, and the socialists are winning...the state's Dems overrode Gov. Bob Ehrlich's veto of a bill that that would require large employers to set aside a set percentage of payroll costs for health care. The bill currently applies to only one large employer in the state: Wal-Mart.

Wow! That's amazing. Maryland democrats were able to pass a law targeting only one company? Wal-Mart is the only company that has to set aside money for health care?

Man, that is discrimination. Unless...could it be?

The bill requires companies with 10,000 or more employees set aside at least 8% of their payroll costs to provide worker health insurance. Wal-Mart is the only company of that size in the state that does not already meet the minimum requirement.

I'm surprised on SO MANY LEVELS. That's the article that Malkin linked to for proof, by the way.

Wal-Mart claimed that more than three-fourths of its employees have health insurance, and that all Wal-Mart Maryland employees can become eligible for health coverage for $23 a month.

Really? Is that similar to this story at all?

A legislative report compiled by the Connecticut Office of Legislative Research shows that more than 1,000 Wal-Mart workers depend on tax-payer financed healthcare for themselves or for their children.

Oh, but there's nothing socialist about that.

I hereby coin the term "Malkin Fatigue"

2006-01-12T20:29:00.000-08:00

I mean, honestly, how am I supposed to keep up with crying Alitos, 250 pound body armor, and almost-exploding Starbuckses in one week?

teh l4m3 covers the Starbucks non-story.

Paul at Shakespeare's Sister and TBogg are on the body armor beat. TBogg:

Shorter Michelle Malkin

If I can use it to disparage Hillary Clinton then, yes, as a matter of fact, I am objectively pro-sucking chest wound.

Update: I was remiss in not mentioning John Lombard, who is not only on top of the body armor story but the I'm-gutted-I-didn't-notice-it-first Malkin plagiarism story:

She just changed "said Clinton" to "concluded Brigadier General Clinton", "who recently wrote" to "who immediately dashed off" and "calling for an investigation" to "demanding an investigation", adding the snark about "smarter-than-thout" and "highly recommended by image consultants".

So, this is how Michelle Malkin writes her columns: she lifts paragraphs from the news, changes the verbs and adds snark.

Go look. It's enlightening.

Malkin(s) the Sensitive

2006-01-11T20:19:00.000-08:00

Then:

Oh, cry me a river [, Cindy].

Now (shorter):

Hey! Quit making Mrs. Alito cry, you big meanies.

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

Dadahead:

Boo-fucking-hoo. How about a little sympathy for all the women who will be relegated to the status of second-class citizen if Mrs. Alito's husband has his way?

And via Dadahead, Wolcott:

The hypocritical highpoint came when Newt Gingrich, who during his reign as Speaker of the House did more than any political leader in recent memory to dump raw sewage into the political discourse, had the gall to invoke Joseph Welch's famous rhetorical throwdown of moral umbrage during the McCarthy hearings--"At long last, sir, have you no decency?"--to showboat his phony disgust over this trivial episode of upset feelings.

Yes, so heartsick were conservatives over this lady in distress that they immediately hurrahed Mrs. Alito's walkout as the humanizing moment that would win the public's sympathy vote and put Judge Alito's candidacy over the top and assure him a seat on the Court. If Alito is confirmed, Mrs. Alito and Judge Clarence Thomas's wife can commisserate by exchanging monogrammed crying towels as their men folk roll back women's rights and civil liberties and go duck hunting weekends with Scalia.

To paraphrase Tom Hanks, there's no crying in politics.

Not, anyway, by those who sit in their ivory tower and look down carelessly on millions of lives - or those who aspire to.

I assume, unlike some others, that Mrs. Alito's tears were real.

I am certain, however, that the right's outrage is not.

Update: LA reminds me that the Malkin daughter was enlisted in the "Don't be a crybaby" Voinovich letter-writing campaign.

Hypocrites. Filthy, stinking hypocrites.

Unintended consequences

2006-01-10T23:36:00.000-08:00

Boogedy-boogedy.

USA Today has an overview of the MS-13 menace.

Just committing the crimes that Americans won't commit, right?

Oh, so clever. So pithy. So racist and wrong.

A while back I posted about the fact that MS-13 pretty much represents the effects of US foreign policy coming home to roost. Now reader Nathaniel R. points out another interesting tidbit about MS-13:

If she knew anything about the history of this gang, which I know would be asking for way too much, research is such a pain, she would know that knee jerk immigration laws are what created this menace in the first place. In the early 90's when people were screaming about dangerous criminals etc a law was passed that deported all felons without citizenship. While this may have been an okay law, the way it was implemented (not telling the countries who these people we were sending back etc) resulted in a lot of harden[ed] gang members with no family being dumped on the streets. In El Salvador this was a particularly acute problem...

I think that Nathaniel's in error about the very genesis of the gang - MS-13 began in the 80s - but the crackdowns he described certainly helped take the gang international. And it's still going on.

But a deportation policy aimed in part at breaking up a Los Angeles street gang has backfired and helped spread it across Central America and back into other parts of the United States. Newly organized cells in El Salvador have returned to establish strongholds in metropolitan Washington, D.C., and other U.S. cities. Prisons in El Salvador have become nerve centers, authorities say, where deported leaders from Los Angeles communicate with gang cliques across the United States.

A gang that once numbered a few thousand and was involved in street violence and turf battles has morphed into an international network with as many as 50,000 members, the most hard-core engaging in extortion, immigrant smuggling and racketeering. In the last year, the federal government has brought racketeering cases against MS-13 members in Long Island, N.Y., and southern Maryland.

Just committing the crimes America helped teach them to commit, eh, Malkins?

The War on Usury

2006-01-09T20:35:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, Malkin led with this lurid headline:

COMING TO AMERICA: MUSLIM-ONLY BANKS?

In a word, no. Surprised? Well, we'll get to that in a minute. What's Malkin's complaint, anyway?

Check this out:
A bank that has been offering special services for Muslims for two years has now formed a subsidiary to focus solely on the religious group.

The Ann Arbor-based University Bank has created University Islamic Financial Corp. to offer Muslims home financing, deposit accounts and Islamic mutual fund shares.

"The formation of the subsidiary allows us to have a financial institution which is 100 percent in compliance with the Muslim Shariah, the legal code of the Islamic religion," bank President and Chairman Stephen Lange Ranzini told The Ann Arbor News for a Saturday story.

Make no mistake; Malkin may be Instapundit-like in terseness here but this is a complaint. The headline says it all.

Because the headline is as false as false can be. I e-mailed University Bank:

Are Sharia'a-compliant products available to non-Muslims who might like their features regardless of faith?

Answering was none other than Stephen Lange Ranzini, President:

The answer is yes! But since the products, due to their legal complexity and higher cost to deliver, are more expensive than traditional products, it’s unlikely that they would appeal to anyone other than a Muslim or observant Jew who were concerned about usury for ethical reasons. Both traditions have an absolute ban on all interest whereas Christians observe a ban on excessive interest and believe that reasonable interest is okay. In Michigan this is the usury law: you can charge up to 25% but not more.

So, not only are those wacky Muslims not the only religion to attempt to set up religion-specific lending practices, but apparently Christians have made their lending traditions the law of the land.

Raise your hand if you're surprised.

Frankly, maybe we should spend less time worrying about the Muslims wanting some sort of special rights and listen a little more to religions - all religions - about what the Catholics call "exploit[ing] the passions or necessities of other men by compelling them to submit to ruinous conditions."

Update: John Lombard reviews some of the right's other, even more histrionic reactions to this story.

Moral Equivalence?

2006-01-08T23:43:00.000-08:00

Malkin's post about Harry Belafonte's meeting with Hugo Chavez includes this quote from another blogger (emphases mine):

In June 2000, Belafonte was a featured speaker at a rally in Castro's Cuba, honoring the American Soviet spies, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Tears, one observer reported, "streaked down" Belafonte's face, "as he recalled the pain and humiliation his friend [Paul] Robeson had been forced to endure" in 1950s America.

There's layers and layers of analysis that could be done on Paul Robeson, but I was struck by this passage from Wikipedia:

In 1948 Robeson was on one of his periodic visits to the Soviet Union when he asked to meet with Yiddish poet Itzik Feffer. Feffer, along with the actor Solomon Mikhoels and other prominent Jews were victims of the latest anti-Semitic purge by Stalin. They had been hosted by Robeson during a World War II visit to the U.S. as part of Stalin's Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and Robeson had been urged to intervene on their behalf. Though he had been cleaned up and dressed in a suit, Feffer's fingernails had been torn out.

Though he couldn't speak openly, Robeson later told his son that the poet indicated by gestures and a few handwritten words that Mikhoels had been murdered on the orders of Stalin and that the other Jewish prisoners were being prepared for the same fate. After the two friends said goodbye, Feffer was taken back to the Lubyanka and would never be seen alive again.

However, when Robeson returned home he condemned as anti-Soviet propaganda reports that Feffer and other Jews had been killed. Not once did Robeson denounce Feffer's murder. Later on Robeson confided in his son, Paul Robeson Jr., the details of his meeting with Feffer. He made his son vow not to make the story public until well after his death, "because he had promised himself that he would never publicly criticize the USSR."

There's a lesson here, but I have the feeling it's a little too subtle for the Malkins to pick up on.

Congratulations Pandagon...

2006-01-06T22:48:00.001-08:00

...on the new layout.

Boy, that Jedmunds really gets around, doesn't he?

Friday Poetry Blogging: I'm sorry John edition

2006-01-06T11:43:00.000-08:00

A couple editions ago I made fun of John Greenleaf Whittier, after whom my mother's high school was named for crying out loud. This was not right. I mean, the guy generally wouldn't know meter if he passed it on the street, but he was a huge lefty (relative to the time), a Quaker and labor and abolition advocate. So, here's one of his best:

A Moral Warfare - John Greenleaf Whittier

When Freedom, on her natal day,
Within her war-rocked cradle lay,
An iron race around her stood,
Baptized her infant brow in blood;
And, through the storm which round her swept,
Their constant ward and watching kept.

Then, where our quiet herds repose,
The roar of baleful battle rose,
And brethren of a common tongue
To mortal strife as tigers sprung,
And every gift on Freedom's shrine
Was man for beast, and blood for wine!

Our fathers to their graves have gone;
Their strife is past, their triumph won;
But sterner trials wait the race
Which rises in their honored place;
A moral warfare with the crime
And folly of an evil time.

So let it be. In God's own might
We gird us for the coming fight,
And, strong in Him whose cause is ours
In conflict with unholy powers,
We grasp the weapons He has given,--
The Light, and Truth, and Love of Heaven.

Right-wing fundies who think Whittier's talking to them are encouraged to read the poem again.

Righteous fury tempered by a dab hand with the ellipses

2006-01-05T12:12:00.000-08:00

Malkin:

A judge gives a child rapist a two-month sentence because he "no longer believes that punishment works":
Burlington, Vermont -- January 4, 2005 [sic]

There was outrage Wednesday when a Vermont judge handed out a 60-day jail sentence to a man who raped a little girl many,many times over a four-year span starting when she was seven.

The judge said he no longer believes in punishment and is more concerned about rehabilitation.

Prosecutors argued that confessed child-rapist Mark Hulett, 34, of Williston deserved at least eight years behind bars for repeatedly raping a littler girl countless times starting when she was seven.

But Judge Edward Cashman disagreed explaining that he no longer believes that punishment works.

"The one message I want to get through is that anger doesn't solve anything. It just corrodes your soul," said Judge Edward Cashman speaking to a packed Burlington courtroom. Most of the on-lookers were related to a young girl who was repeatedly raped by Mark Hulett who was in court to be sentenced.

The sex abuse started when the girl was seven and ended when she was ten. Prosecutors were seeking a sentence of eight to twenty years in prison, in part, as punishment...

And what did Malkin leave out?

But Judge Cashman explained that he is more concerned that Hulett receive sex offender treatment as rehabilitation. But under Department of Corrections classification, Hulett is considered a low-risk for re-offense so he does not qualify for in-prison treatment.So the judge sentenced him to just 60 days in prison and then Hulett must complete sex treatment when he gets out or face a possible life sentence.

Now, it would be valid to argue with the judge's theories of what best serves the community in this case.

It's objectively not valid to state that 60 days was the sum total of the sentence, which is exactly what Malkin did.

Haven't done a "shorter" post in awhile

2006-01-05T11:35:00.000-08:00

Two for one from the same post:

Feminism is like copyright defense. If you don't vigorously attack each violation, you lose your claim altogether.

And, a repeated theme:

Hate crimes are those committed by swarthy people.

Here's a question

2006-01-05T00:53:00.000-08:00

If Malkin's so upset about cronyism, why the outrage at people complaining about Bush's gutting of the Mining Safety and Health Administartion (MSHA)? Two Democratic congresspeople say that the MSHA is nothing but cronies:

The [House Education and the Workforce] Committee should investigate whether the Bush Administration has employed people with proper regulatory experience in leadership positions at MSHA. Many senior MSHA officials have come directly from the mining industry, raising concerns about their ability to effectively oversee the industry and protect its workers...President Bush's first appointment to MSHA was Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health David Lauriski, a long-time management official in the mining industry. In addition, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for MSHA John Caylor held management jobs with Cyprus Minerals Co., Amax Mining Co. and Magma Copper Co. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for MSHA John Correll served in management posts at Amax Mining and Peabody Coal companies. Special Assistant for MSHA Mark Ellis served as legal counsel to the American Mining Congress. And Chief of Health for Coal Melinda Pon was a management official at BHP Minerals-Utah International.

Et cetera, et cetera, et completely unsurprising cetera.

An editorial from the Charleston (WV) Gazette:

The exact cause of the explosion is yet to be determined. But the Sago mine had three roof falls since International Coal Group finalized its purchase in November. Altogether, the mine had a dozen roof falls during the last six months. The mine has an injury rate three times that of similar pits across the country. Last year, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration fined then-owner Anker West Virginia Mining Co. more than $24,000 for 200 alleged violations. MSHA issued 46 citations, including 18 considered “serious and substantial” for October through December. The company’s failings included violations regarding emergency escapeways and pre-shift safety exams. From July to September, MSHA found 70 violations, including 42 serious and substantial ones.

This mine operated amid growing laxity toward mine safety. After the Jim Walters No. 5 disaster in Alabama in September 2001, MSHA’s own internal review found that its inspectors did not make sure safety violations were fixed...

The Bush administration has taken a callous attitude toward the lives of coal miners. It has proposed cuts to MSHA’s budget and increases in the amount of coal dust miners can breathe. Its first MSHA director, Dave Lauriski, promoted “cooperative” enforcement of safety rules at the expense of actual enforcement. At least Lauriski came from a safety background within the industry. The current nominee for the job, Marion County native Richard Stickler, is an industry manager with questionable qualifications. He ran mines with injury rates twice the national average.

Malkin is properly outraged by the tragedy, but stops short of placing even some blame where it belongs.

And the always astute The Anchoress concludes:
Last night, while politics seemed far away from the awful scene in West Virginia - and we hope, for once, it remains so...

-------------------
In the repeated pleas by right-wingers to "leave politics out of [whatever]" is a fundamental self-denial: Actions have consequences. Controversial? Only to right-wingers, who claim to be for personal responsibility - but you can't take responsibility without a belief in cause and effect.

Political decisions have clearly identifiable real-world effects. When should we examine that relationship, if not while those effects are on display most prominently?

Or, to put it another way, the "leave-politics-out-of-it" crowd is saying that correlation does not imply causation, or that if it does, that causation is irrelevant. The latter is breathtaking in its amorality.

As for the former, I would argue that there's a certain point at which the "correlation implies causation" fallacy stops being a fallacy and starts to become the elephant in the middle of the room that no one wants to talk about.

More precisely, the left wants to talk about it, the media doesn't want to talk about it, and the right just wants to talk about how the other two are talking too damn much.

And, really, who can blame them?

2006-01-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

News quotes from Malkin's roundup regarding the mining tragedy:

Grieving family members 'lunged at company officials'...

...It took three hours for the coal company to correct the reports. It is unclear why the media carried the news without proper sourcing. Some reports claim the early reports spread via cell phones and when loved ones started celebrating most in the media simply joined in...

A shame. A tragedy and a shame.

Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story, eh, Michelle?

2006-01-04T00:44:00.000-08:00

Newshounds does a little deconstructing of Michelle's appearance on O'Reilly today:

Michelle Malkin went on to trash Newsweek as a Bush-hating publication, using as one of her examples the now-debunked "Koran flushing" story. As I've posted twice before, the DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE website contains a press release that absolves Newsweek of any complicity in the Afghani riots. But like the good conservative jihadist she is, Malkin hears only what she wants to hear.

M/esse: How We Learned To Stop Worrying About Abramoff

2006-01-03T15:05:00.000-08:00

[Guest posted by Ryan]

It's not a good day to be a GOP lackey, and the Malkins, who have been harshly critical of Abramoff since his indictment back in August, are bracing for the "A-Bomb's" blast.

As per the Malkin Method of Minimal Content Roundups, there is very little to wade through:

As I've noted before, Abramoff spread his stench across both parties. But principled conservatives must call Abramoff what he is--a sleazebag plain and simple, as I've noted before--and condemn his criminal activities unequivocally.

(Emphasis mine, and I also corrected the "sleazebag" link mistake the Malkins made.)

A casual perusal of Think Progress' Abramoff page would have brought the Malkins to this recent Bloomberg article:

Between 2001 and 2004, Abramoff gave more than $127,000 to Republican candidates and committees and nothing to Democrats, federal records show. At the same time, his Indian clients were the only ones among the top 10 tribal donors in the U.S. to donate more money to Republicans than Democrats.

The Malkins are attempting to minimize fallout by smearing Democrats as a whole. Note that they do not condemn any of the politicians who have received money from Abramoff or his associates. The lobbyist merely "spread his stench". The Malkins would prefer that the details of Abramoff's dealings remain out of the "MSM" spotlight, leaving him to be painted as some kind of rogue, satellite activist taking advantage of the helpless Republican party.

Pundits like Malkin know that there exists a pervasive image of Republicans as the more corrupt helmsmen of American government. This is the legacy of Watergate; not an imaginary media bias. For the rest, I defer to digby:

Anybody who looks at Jack Abramoff and sees anything but a hard core GOP influence peddler who was paid very well to finance the GOP machine is either a shill or a fool.
...
This characterization of the scandal as being "bi-partisan" is typical bad mainstream journalism, particularly the emphasis they are placing on the very small handful of Democrats who've even been mentioned (much less included in any legal procedings.) Not only are they creating some equity and illegality where none exists, by doing it they are missing the real story, as usual.

Read the whole thing, Messe.

PLAME PLAME PLAME PLAME

2006-01-02T10:42:00.000-08:00

I don't have anything to say about Plame, that aspect just annoys me.

Malkin is actually right, though, that whoever leaked the information about Bush's pseudo-Stalinist, unconstitutional, impeachable activities is not technically a whistleblower and is probably subject to prosecution, just as Daniel Ellsberg was. Which tells me that whoever the leaker was must think that this is at least as important as the Pentagon Papers, because he or she can't trust the Bush administration to break into a psychiatrist's office and blow the case.

Still, I have the feeling that before this is said and done, the leaker will be seen by reasonable people as a de facto whistleblower, even if not a de jure one.

January 1 Poetry Blogging: No War in 2006 Edition

2006-01-01T14:31:00.000-08:00

For Christmas Augustienne gave me a three-disc Johnny Cash collection, comprised of At Folsom Prison, At San Quentin, and the previously-unknown-to-me America. The latter is an interesting piece of Americana from a man who clearly has love and mixed feelings towards his homeland, kind of like me.

There's a song on it called "The Big Battle" which I had never heard before, being a Cash dilettante at best, and which has quickly become my favorite song of his behind "Man in Black." Given my love for popular music as poetry, it wasn't long before I knew I wanted to blog it. Here it is in an extended version:

The Big Battle - Johnny Cash

I
"I think, sir, the battle is over,"
and the young soldier laid down his gun
"I'm tired of running for cover
I'm certain the battle is done

"For see over there where we fought them
it's quiet for they've all gone away
all left is the dead and the dying
the ground's covered with them today."

II
"So you think the battle is over
and you even lay down your gun
You carelessly rise from your cover
for you think the battle is done

"Now, boy, hit the dirt - listen to me
for I'm still the one in command
Get flat on the ground here beside me
and lay your ear hard to the sand

"Can you hear the deafening rumble?
Can you feel the trembling ground?
It's not just the horses and wagons
that make such a deafening sound

"For every shot fired had an echo
and every man killed wanted life
There lies your friend Jim McKinney
can you take the news to his wife?

"No, son, the battle's not over -
the battle has only begun
The rest of the battle will cover
the part that has blackened the sun

"The fight yet to come's not with cannon
nor will the fight be hand to hand
No one will regroup the forces
no charge will a general command

"The battle will rage in the bosom
of mother and sweetheart and wife
Brother and sister and daughter
will grieve for the rest of their lives

"Now go ahead rise from your cover
be thankful that God let you live
Go fight the rest of the battle
for those who gave all they could give."

III
"I see, sir, the battle's not over
the battle has only begun
The rest of the battle will cover
this part that has blackened the sun

"For though there's no sound of the cannon
and though there's no smoke in the sky
I'm dropping the gun and the saber
and ready for battle am I."

Complicity

2005-12-31T00:24:00.000-08:00

One wonders if Malkin will call for an investigation of this leak:

Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray is defying a gag-order and publishing torture memos on his blog relating to the coordination between the Uzbek, British, and American governments...
At the Khuderbegainov trial I met an old man from Andizhan. Two of his children had been tortured in front of him until he signed a confession on the family’s links with Bin Laden. Tears were streaming down his face. I have no doubt they had as much connection with Bin Laden as I do. This is the standard of the Uzbek intelligence services.

[Hat tip: Atrios]

New Year's resolution: Stop saying "Oh well, it can't get any worse"

2005-12-30T10:10:00.000-08:00

Malkin crows:

Look for the Plamegate apologists to argue that the NSA leaks were "good" leaks, justified in the name of safeguarding civil liberties and the national interest, and should therefore be exempt from criminal prosecution.

By contrast, they argue that disclosures about Valerie Plame were "bad" leaks worthy of pulling out all prosecutorial stops--though no one has been charged with leaking classified info, and even if they did, the adverse effects on national security are infinitesimal compared to the damage done by the NYT/NSA leaks.

Okay, I'll bite: The NSA leaks were "good" leaks, justified in the name of safeguarding civil liberties and the national interest, and should therefore be exempt from criminal prosecution.

Happy? The fact is, by Bush's own words, the warrantless wiretaps were illegal and unconstitutional. They are a contravention of the spirit and the letter of our system of government and are most assuredly an impeachable offense.

Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution.

As for "the adverse effects on national security" being "infinitesimal", I'm a lot more worried about loose nukes (Valerie Plame's area of operation) than I am about Bush's ability to skip the FISA court.

We cannot forget that all of the wiretaps obtained illegally would have been relative child's play to obtain legally. Not to mention that anyone who claims that the NY Times story is the first time it would have occurred to terrorists that they were being listened to is a big, fat liar.

Jane Hamsher:

We picture a cave somewhere in Pakistan. Osama picks rat meat off a stick when countless number twos rush in screaming "Good God man, no warrants! Shut it all down!"

Update: That resolution is looking pretty good about now. Apparently, the CIA secret prisons leak is being investigated, as well, although there appear to be varying reports on whether it's a full investigation or simply the Justice Department "notifying the Post." This being New Year's weekend, I may not be able to follow up that development in a timely manner, but it's safe to say this whole thing is looking worse and worse.

You can only be outed once

2005-12-29T13:44:00.000-08:00

Malkin would probably claim that this is posted just because it's a cute story, but it wouldn't be the first time mm.com has tried to confuse readers about the Plame/Wilson timeline.

You said it, not me

2005-12-29T10:52:00.000-08:00

On the Rasmussen poll:

I'm not much of a poll watcher, but the new Rasmussen numbers on Americans' views of the National Security Agency's counterterrorism programs are very notable:
December 28, 2005--Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans believe the National Security Agency (NSA) should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 23% disagree.

Yeah, I think you need a little more practice:

Notice anything missing from the question? How about the part that the wiretapping is done without a warrant, although there is a court set up to consider the evidence and issue just such warrants. There is no doubt that the FISA Court would issue a warrant to listen to calls between "terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States." All the government needs is some articulable basis for the suspicion. Apparently that is what it did not have.

If the polling question asked was "do you think that the government should be able to listen secretly to any international phone calls to the United States that it wants to on the approval of a shift supervisor at the National Security Agency without a warrant or any court or legislative supervision whatsoever," the numbers would be very different.

How about "Do you think that the president should be able to violate the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States in the name of security, when in truth there was no real reason to since the FISA court is at his beck and call, and, while we're at it, the fact that Bush found it necessary to end-run FISA in the first place raises serious questions as to whether Bush was surveilling calls between terrorism suspects or, let's say, journalists and congresspeople?"

But that might be a little bit of a leading question. Not to mention a run-on.

Gimme Shelter

2005-12-27T12:04:00.000-08:00

From the "What-could-possibly-go-wrong" department, Malkin supports vigilantism once again:

The execrable Fred Phelps and his "church" continue to disrupt the funerals of fallen soldiers across the country...

The good news is that veteran bikers of all political stripes have united to form the Patriot Guard Riders.
Our main mission is to attend the funeral services of fallen American heroes as invited guests of the family. Each mission we undertake has two basic objectives.

1. Show our sincere respect for our fallen heroes, their families, and their communities.

2. Shield the mourning family and friends from interruptions created by any protestor or group of protestors.

We accomplish the latter through strictly legal and non-violent means.

I hate Fred Phelps and his group of closeted antichrists as much as the next guy. But I know bikers. There are bikers in my extended family. They'll tell you that no matter how benevolent the intentions, getting large groups of bikers together for any kind of activity carries great risk.

I almost hesitate to mention that this risk goes even higher when the stated purpose is providing security.

Happy Boxing Day

2005-12-26T17:36:00.000-08:00

Rather than ruin my own family time dissecting this post of Malkin's, I'm just going to go ahead and say one word:

PLAME!!!

Friday Poetry Blogging: War On Christmas Omnibus Edition

2005-12-23T02:10:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, ya bastards!

Under the assumption that people actually do enjoy Friday poetry blogging, here's four for the price of one:

Minstrels - William Wordsworth

The minstrels played their Christmas tune
To-night beneath my cottage-eaves;
While, smitten by a lofty moon,
The encircling laurels, thick with leaves,
Gave back a rich and dazzling sheen,
That overpowered their natural green.

Through hill and valley every breeze
Had sunk to rest with folded wings:
Keen was the air, but could not freeze,
Nor check, the music of the strings;
So stout and hardy were the band
That scraped the chords with strenuous hand.

And who but listened?--till was paid
Respect to every inmate's claim,
The greeting given, the music played
In honour of each household name,
Duly pronounced with lusty call,
And ~~"Happy Holidays"~~ "Merry Christmas" wished to all.

And another:

Mistletoe - Walter de la Mere

Sitting under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
One last candle burning low,
All the sleepy dancers gone,
Just one candle burning on,
Shadows lurking everywhere:
Some one came, and kissed me there.

Tired I was; my head would go
Nodding under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
No footsteps came, no voice, but only,
Just as I sat there, sleepy, lonely,
Stooped in the still and shadowy air
Lips unseen - and kissed me there.

And two from Quaker poets:

A Christmas Greeting - Walt Whitman

Welcome, Brazilian brother--thy ample place is ready;
A loving hand--a smile from the north--a sunny instant hall!
(Let the future care for itself, where it reveals its troubles,
impedimentas,
Ours, ours the present throe, the democratic aim, the acceptance and
the faith;)
To thee to-day our reaching arm, our turning neck--to thee from us
the expectant eye,
Thou cluster free! thou brilliant lustrous one! thou, learning well,
The true lesson of a nation's light in the sky,
(More shining than the Cross, more than the Crown,)
The height to be superb humanity.

And the metrically challenged Quaker poet extraordinaire:

A Christmas Blessing - John Greenleaf Whittier

Somehow, not only for Christmas
But all the long year through
The joy that you give to others
Is the joy that comes back to you.
And the more you spend in blessing
The poor and lonely and sad
The more of your heart's possessing
Returns to you glad.

I would imagine she's cried enough for two lifetimes, thank you

2005-12-21T16:13:00.000-08:00

Malkin to Gold Star Mother Cindy Sheehan:

Oh, cry me a river.

Read these things

2005-12-21T11:05:00.000-08:00

NTodd:

America is not unique in the makeup of her people. We can just as easily slip into despotism as the Germans, or the Russians, or the Japanese. What makes our nation unique is the recognition by a bunch of smart folks that government can help solve problems, but it must be watched lest it become a problem. Why is it, then, that so-called conservatives don't trust the government to collect taxes to provide vital services, yet are perfectly fine with granting it the power to kill, to regulate a woman's body, to snoop in our private conversations, etc, without so much as a by-your-leave from the very people from which it derives its most basic powers?

...I hear the whole "what part of 'we're at war' don't you understand?" bullshit. Allow me to retort: what part of "We're America" don't you understand?

The Editors:

Boy, is Judge Robertson ever going to feel stupid when he realizes that Presidential power is Constitutionally unchecked, that if Bush tried to follow the law we'd all be dead now, that the FISA statute was written using a Burroughs-esque "cut-up" technique, that the President doesn't have to follow laws, and that there's a war going on. And, basically, that rather than getting hysterical with Bush hatred, he should really be concerning himself with making sure that the people responsible for exposing this completely legal and mundane policy are found, tried, and executed.

Hopefully, judges will remember to do some research in the Wingnutosphere before they throw their career away on legal issues which - if I may be blunt - they clearly lack the background, the training, and the temperment to assess rationally. Hopefully, the President will appoint someone a bit more competent to replace him.

Oh, and Clinton did it, too.

That's right, boys and girls, and hold onto your hats - Malkin's blaming Clinton!

She's right, though. Assuming the story is as reported, President Clinton should definitely be impeached.

Hey, wait a second...

Happy Blogiversary!

2005-12-21T00:25:00.000-08:00

Born today:

Benjamin Disraeli
Josef Stalin
Malkin(s)watch

Woo!

One year ago today, I got off my ass and started what I'd thought needed starting for a few months, since the demise of my ten-hit-a-day generablog caused me to think I needed a niche, already. I'm a big fan of Sullywatch and, obviously, am constantly annoyed by Malkin, so the choice wasn't really all that hard.

Started very slow - not recognizing Eric Muller's name despite having devoured his takedown (with Greg Robinson) of In Defense of Internment and forgetting to link stuff a lot. On the flip side, it only took me three posts to coin the now-famous "Michael Moore is fat" meme*.
Of course, I still tend to forget to link stuff, and I just yesterday coined the soon-to-be-famous "No sense of irony exhibits", so not that much has changed, I guess.

Some favorite posts from the previous year:

Honorable Mention: All of February. I dunno, I just think I was on fire that month.
Five: The open borders lobby strikes again? - It's short but sweet, but the clearest, most undeniable evidence I think I've ever presented that Malkin. Is. A. Racist. (At least until #1, below.)
Four: If you're not in combat, Iraq's a playground - The first of many instances in which the decidedly non-veteran Malkin claimed to know the innermost thoughts of veterans and/or their families, with the added bonus of "all-hispanics-are-gang-members" racist conflation. Oh, and a little "all-hispanics-are-potentially-illegal-immigrants" goodness thrown in.
Three: Professor Glen Stassen Interview - Look, ma! I'm a real journalist!
Two: Ghost Blogging (redux) - Thought this'd be #1? Well, maybe I'm just contrarian, or maybe I just still gnash my teeth that LA and I weren't able to present all the evidence we have for this because a) we're not real journalists, despite what #3 is telling you and b) we can't. Still, I'm - and he's - pretty damn proud of it.
One: Who keeps company with wolves will learn to howl - Probably my most-linked post, and, if I do say so myself, with good reason: Malkin's association with VDare has got to be argument #1 against taking Jesse and/or Michelle seriously on racial issues.

Lots of thanks owed:

First and foremost to the Liberal Avenger, who's a good friend and a frequent partner in crime.
Ryan Fenno, my other erstwhile (and potential) guestblogger.
Mykeru, another early linker, and, naturally, insulter.
Wayne from Political Site of the Day
Eric Muller
David Neiwert

I am most definitely forgetting someone. How could I not? So, to anyone I forgot: Thanks to you too.

And thanks for visiting. Hope you'll be coming back for another year.
------
* There's a slight chance this may not have actually been invented by me. Who can remember? Don't answer, it was rhetorical.

...By the way, I've removed the virtually profitless GoogleAds (although for the person who clicks on them religiously: Thanks! You know who you are!). But I have left the link to the Amazon Wishlist. If you like what I write, and want to throw me a bone, that'd be just sweet of you. No pressure, though.

No sense of Irony: Exhibit XXXVIII

2005-12-20T10:16:00.000-08:00

Malkin snarkily condemns the German government for releasing a Hezbollah terrorist twenty years after the crime for which he was incarcerated, accusing Germany of bowing to terrorist pressure:

And, what timing, a German hostage has been released in Iraq...

Reader Tony J. e-mails: "Weasel" in German is "weasel."

Meanwhile, the number of mentions of "Dr. Germ" or "Mrs. Anthrax" on michellemalkin.com:

Zero.

No sense of irony: Exhibit XXXVII

2005-12-20T10:11:00.000-08:00

Malkin, cheerleader for execution, says of Stan Williams' funeral attendees:

The vultures never rest.

Forgetting something?

2005-12-19T14:46:00.000-08:00

Malkin notes that the birthday death wish received by a wounded soldier was from Michael Crook, the (Malkin's words) "troop-smearing, cop-bashing, white supremacist sicko" behind the Forsake our Troops semi-hoax. And just like that time, there's a major piece missing from Malkin's reporting: A retraction.

Malkin called the vile card Crooks sent a "moonbat death wish" and Crooks "unhinged", which as we all know by now is secret winger code for "liberal." It takes about an ounce of effort to discover that Crooks is anything but a liberal, but does Malkin note that the previous posts all labored under the unsurprisingly false assumption that some dirty hippie pacifist showed their true colors by sending this card?

Like hell (s)he does.

Happy Groundhog Day

2005-12-19T10:56:00.000-08:00

I'm a semi-late riser, so as I groggily became aware at 7:30 am that W was speaking to me from the still-on television, I turned it off and went back to sleep. I knew that anything I missed, Malkin would be there to fill in the blanks.

Actually, that's not quite true. In point of fact, I kind of could fill in the blanks of what Malkin would write: Blogger X thinks Bush did fantastically well, Blogger Y wonders why the press is always out to tarnish the glorious Bush presidency, Reader Z e-mails a funny, Powerline declares that the Democratic party may as well resign its charter because it was the kind of smackdown only the greatest leader in history could deliver, and Malkin's contribution: at least two more instances of the non-word 'reax.'

Ta-da.

Since I was snoring during most of the speech, I don't have any real thoughts on it - although I did, in my stupor, hear Bush say that he thought it was important to track down leakers who would undermine national security. Or maybe that was a dream, because generally speaking, cognitive dissonance like that only takes place during REM.

Brokeback Mountain feature/review

2005-12-17T23:59:00.000-08:00

Our local alt-weekly movie reviewer is very good, although he has been quite controversial over the years. Maybe that's why he's so good. In his three-page review and analysis of Brokeback Mountain, he makes a connection explicit that had only occurred to me subconsciously:

During the height of what history will hopefully acknowledge as the new era of McCarthyism—when homosexuality and terrorism walk hand-in-hand much as desegregation and communism did five decades ago—there is a queer revolution going on. This new battle of gay liberation, building on the foundations laid in the aftermath of Stonewall, seeks to do more than recoup the losses incurred in recent years. What is going here is a complex issue—clouded under the rhetoric of same-sex marriage and eternal damnation—that is, quite plainly and simply, a matter of civil rights. Few people want to call it that, as if the acknowledgement of such somehow humanizes lesbians and gays in a manner they don't deserve. But the truth is that queers—much like blacks in the early part of the 20th century—are not seen as human beings.

David Walker is an African-American man, which is only important, I think, when we consider whether he has the standing to equate the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties with today's gay rights movement. (Especially considering the denouncement of same by some African-American leaders.)

Sidney Poitier slapped a white man...and in one of the most revolutionary acts committed to film, he was not made to pay for his sin. Looking back, it is difficult for some to understand the artistic and sociopolitical significance to be found in a single action that occurred in director Norman Jewison's 1967 film In the Heat of the Night, which came along during the height of the civil-rights movement. But when added into the cinematic mix of the film and the complexities of where America was at that place and time, Virgil Tibbs' actions in a small Mississippi town meant something very significant. It became something important—the slap heard 'round the world...

...the explosion of pent-up sexual desire and repression between Jack and Ennis, equal parts mountain brawl and synergistic lovemaking, is likely to become something very significant. For lack of a better term, it will be the fuck heard 'round the world...

...if people can see past the hyperbole and whatever controversy may surround it, they will see Brokeback Mountain for what it is: a brilliant love story that promises to be among the most revolutionary films in years.

Read the whole thing.

Can we call namechecking Betty Dawisha a non sequitur yet?

2005-12-17T23:33:00.000-08:00

Malkin looooves Betty Dawisha.

What I wouldn't give to see a debate between Sheehan and Betty Dawisha.

The good news is, Cindy would only have to go as far as Minnesota. Meanwhile, Grace from Scriptoids discovered something interesting:

Well, curiosity got the better of me, and I contacted Professor Adeed Dawisha via email. I (politely) asked him if he was related to the Betty Dawisha featured on FOX News.

I received an amazingly fast reply:
Yes, she is. Betty is the wife of my uncle. And my children and I have ben [sic] teasing her a lot about her comments!!
So that's that.

Adeed Dawisha is a Middle East expert of, apparently, moderate to conservative bent who seems to have made numerous appearances on...

...Fox News.

Psst

2005-12-17T12:45:00.000-08:00

Koufax nominations are open.

Nominate someone. It doesn't even have to be me.

I'll give you something to cry about

2005-12-16T08:34:00.000-08:00

Shorter Malkin:

The federal government would never, ever abuse any kind of surveillance program, so quit your whining. Also, the New York Times Editorial Board has been infiltrated by agents of al-Qaeda. Andrew Rosenthal, I'm looking at you.

Update: Norbizness points out how weird this is, considering "the secret wiretap court always seems to approve these wiretaps." He also calls Malkin, by association, "fascist scum and an apologist for anti-Constitutional activity." Preach it:

There's only one way to scare the craven apologists [like Powerline, Hugh Hewitt, and Malkin]: remind them of the very real possibility of a Hillary Clinton presidency in 2008 with unlimited powers against perceived terrorists, foreign and domestic. You mean you believed that all of those executive orders magically expire when your anointed security sock-puppet exits the White House as the worst executive ever?

That might work, but let's not forget: a) they floated the idea of cancelling the elections once, they can do it again, and b) Maybe they're just that certain they're going to win again in 2008.

Update 2: Heh. Malkin, in an update:

Arlen Specter says the Judiciary Committee will investigate (the Bush administration, not the leakers)...

Yes, that's right. They're going to investigate a possible major breach of the Constitution, not the people who told us about it. I know that's hard to understand.

I guess Bush wasn't kidding.

Shorter Malkin redux:

Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!

Update 3:Another part of the update I didn't notice:

Some on the Left aren't happy with the Times, either...

This, my friends, is what is often called "Manufacturing Consent." Sounds like liberals think the NY Times acted irresponsibly too, right? Well, yeah:

...Will Bunch, the award-winning Philadelphia Daily News reporter who writes the "Attytood" blog there. He charges that the Times likely had this shocking information before the November 2004 election, and if it had come out with it then it would have sunk Bush’s chances for re-election. He also mentions that this comes on top of Times’ reporter Judith Miller not coming forward in the Plame case last year, which allegedly also helped Bush win...

"Simply put, the Bush White House gamed the media in 2004….Voters could have gone to the polls on Election Day, Nov. 4, 2004, knowing that Bush was spying on Americans, that a key White House aide was charged with felonies, and that the initial rationales for Iraq were bogus."

Update 4: By the way, you think the Malkins are pissed now, just wait until they weigh in on this.

Update 5: And in what has to win the award for "most perverse intentional misreading of a news item" - in a career full of them:

Some information that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted.
"Some," but not all.

No. Nice try, though. Read it again. Repeatedly, until you get it.

All better?

2005-12-15T16:02:00.000-08:00

For someone so unimpressed with touchy-feely liberalism, Malkin seems to think that a simple, warm handshake is all that's needed to heal the damage - to families, to infrastructure, to security - caused by the Iraq war.

Look, it's a very touching photograph, and just like in anything, personal, face-to-face contact is the surest way to build bridges. Unfortunately, we destroyed them a lot faster than we're building them back up, and we essentially created an entire movement dedicated to continuing to burn them.

Update: Which, I suppose, makes me a "Defeatocrat" for not celebrating the Iraqi elections. Yes - it's great that they're having elections! But it would take a particular ignorance of history not to know that the kind of conditions on the ground in Iraq today are exactly the kind of conditions which lead to the eventual election of strongmen. Leaders like...Saddam Hussein.

Better Bloggers Than I

2005-12-15T00:16:00.000-08:00

Snarky quick-hit posts are much easier to fit into a busy-ass life (especially the last two weeks - don't even ask) than the substantive stuff. The flip side is, of course, that it's the substantive stuff that really matters.

Thank God, as I so often do, for David Neiwert:

Michelle Malkin wonders if Sydney is "the next Paris".

In other words, when Middle Easterners riot in Paris, they are the problem.

But when whites go on a riot attacking Middle Easterners in Sydney, it is, once again, the Middle Easterners who are the problem.

I think Michelle Malkin has a problem...

And more:

See, at first glance, [Glenn] Reynolds' post seems not to make any sense: How could the white riots that broke out Sunday in Sydney somehow resemble the riots in France, which involved young men of Middle Eastern descent who have not been allowed to assimilate into French society? Surely Reynolds doesn't think that angry white Aussie skinheads are analogous to angry French Muslims?

[Reynolds', Hewitt's, Lucianne's] positions seem to be like Michelle Malkin's: If whites riot against Middle Easterners, and some Middle Eastern neighborhood respond violently, then the fault obviously lies with the Middle Easterners. All the racial friction, it's clear, is a product of those evil Muslims.

At least, that seems to be what they're saying, but it's hard to say for sure, because they're all incredibly incoherent.

And thanks, too, for Scout Prime [emphasis Scout's]:

Michelle Malkin is making a big deal that the majority of deaths in Katrina were not African American. They base this upon preliminary identifications of victims at the St Gabriel Morgue. And that is a problem. Of a total of 883 at St. Gabriels, demographics for 562 was given. The race was determined for only 514. At this point 48% were African American, 41% Caucasion. However 321 more bodies have yet to be included and the the race of 48 bodies of the 562 was stated as unknown. To make any pronouncements based upon 58% of the victims at this point is just wrong...

Malkin concludes by leveling blame at African American leaders for not speaking out on her pre-mature and dishonest conclusions. I believe all would be better served to follow Turner's recommendation....show some understanding of how people's perspectives developed and deal with social justice issues now as regards the poor, both black and white. But that certainly wouldn't fit in with Malkin's slash and burn divisive politics now would it.

Or as hat-tipee Thersites says:

...even though a majority of the dead Katrina victims in the St. Gabriel morgue were black, a majority of dead Katrina victims were, uh, somehow not black, when you adjust for population. And this proves how the only real racism in the country is the race-hatred of President Bush.

Yeah, it's that retarded...

What's really nauseating about this is Malkin's bizarre triumphalism and fake outrage. There are 6644 missing Katrina victims: THAT'S an outrage.

The Newsmax crap and Malkin's post are wildly dishonest. And they go far to show that if you really want to see someone get petulant, call a racist a racist.

Fear the Awesome Power of the Malkin

2005-12-14T20:05:00.000-08:00

Look out Tehran:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is at it again...

Contact the Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran...to voice your opposition.

Oooh...a letter-writing campaign. I can hear the Iranians folding up their nuclear program as we speak.

I'm willing to bet that Iran hasn't seen such intense political pressure since the days of this:

Marge: Can we get rid of this Ayatollah T-shirt? Khomeini died years ago.
Homer: But, Marge! It works on *any* Ayatollah: Ayatollah Nakhbadeh, Ayatollah Zahedi...even as we speak, Ayatollah Razmada and his cadre of fanatics are consolidating their power.

Anecdotally Speaking

2005-12-13T21:15:00.000-08:00

I've probably been reading Malkin for too long, because I've picked up an unhealthy cynicism. The same Malkins who wrote this about Giuliana Sgrena is now completely trusting of video ~~out of Iraq~~:

Blunt words from Iraqi voter Betty Dawisha for the Cindy Sheehan Left...
"Anybody who doesn't appreciate what America has done, and President Bush, let them go to hell!"

Assuming this whole thing is on the up and up, I'm gonna go ahead and weigh Ms. Dawisha's words against this kind of thing.

(h/t Fenno)

Update: Aha. Curiously absent from Malkin's post is the fact that Ms. Dawisha is, in fact, an Iraqi expat living in the United States. I'm gonna go ahead and suggest that this is crucial information. Can't imagine why it was left out.

Update 2: Because I like to be a completist, I'll mention that Ms. Dawisha is quite probably a 1987 graduate of the Center for Humanistic Studies. Relevant information? Probably not.

Bobby Mac? Lyndon? Dickie? Anyone?

2005-12-13T10:31:00.000-08:00

Malkin:

Read this Paul Greenberg column that deftly puts Howard the Coward Dean in his place. It's good. Really good.

Yeah, it's great, mainly because Greenberg doesn't write anything. It's simply a series of rah-rah quotes about war and victory, culminating in Dean's supposedly defeatist rhetoric.

Conspicuous in its absence is a single quote dated between 1961 and 1981.

Protesting too much?

2005-12-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

Malkin is hopping mad. Emphasis mine:

CANDIDATE FOR DUMBEST NYTIMES PIECE EVER

...Based on a single "expert" source--"liberal activist Matt Stoller"--Crowley makes
sweeping assertions about the content, nature, effectiveness, and media penetration of partisan blogs. Liberal blogs criticize Democrats more, while conservatives march in lockstep with the GOP leadership to "to provide maximum benefit for their issues and candidates," the piece asserts...

Anyone who swallows the idea that conservative bloggers are an organized arm of the Republican machine who are easily mobilized at the command of Karl Rove does not read conservative blogs--and should not be paid by the NYTimes or anyone else to write about them.

Rove may have no sway over the ever-so-independent-minded right blogosphere, but an alert reader (whose name rhymes with Chivaral Kaschmenger) points out the ending to this particular complaint:

TrackBack <23>

Conservative bloggers easily mobilized? It is to laugh.

A clemency even the Malkins can get behind

2005-12-11T11:23:00.000-08:00

Read the story of Corey Maye. Now read more.

Now get pissed off. It will be interesting to hear what the Malkins have to say about this one, seeing as how it covers so many of their hot-button issues.

Moonbat's Rallying Cry: "FORGET PEARL HARBOR!"

2005-12-07T15:17:00.000-08:00

Not really, of course, but that's what Malkin would have us believe.

Exhibit A? Those selfish hurricane victims:

Why have so many chosen to forget? The Mobile Register reports that observances of the Pearl Harbor attack are down, in part because of Hurricane Katrina:
While today marks the 64th anniversary of the Japanese attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which plunged the nation into World War II, local officials report a scarcity of area observances of the event.

No observance of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack will take place at Battleship Memorial Park on the Causeway this year because the park has remained closed since Aug. 29 when Hurricane Katrina inflicted some $4 million in damage on it.

Nothing says "choosing to forget" like allowing a 64th anniversary to go by while sitting in the broken shell of your house or refusing to rebuild the Battleship Memorial Park as the very top priority.

Please Make the Righties Stop Talking Now

2005-12-06T23:09:00.000-08:00

The Howard Dean winger swarm, summarized here by Malkin, illuminates two, and only two, theories of personality regarding Malkin and her co-ideologues.

But back to that in a minute. A commenter on Liberal Avenger hits Dean from from one side:

...he proposed that the troops be removed (”redeployed”) from Iraq . . . within two years!

Now, if he thinks it’s a plainly lost cause, why does he want to take two years to get out?

while Malkin comes from the other:

Scott Ott pens the defeatist DNC chair's Christmas theme song: "We'll Retreat 'fore Christmas."

Guess they forgot to nail down their talking points before deploying.

And from the "there's-a-first-time-for-everything" files, Malkin links to a blogger quoting Tom Paine, of all people. Emphasis mine to point out what Sensing and Malkin are missing.

‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered … The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. We have it in our power to begin the world over again. Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself – that is my doctrine. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself...

That's right, Malkin, who frequently puts quotation marks around "torture" and "abuse" when referring to Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, wants to claim Tom Paine.

Sensing, at least, has said "there is no 'but'" when it comes to torture being wrong, but I would still recommend he take a look at where the tyranny and oppression are truly coming from these days. Saddam is gone. Who are we fighting against? And why?

As for the theories of personality alluded to above: Malkin's reaction to Dean's comments - "Howard the Coward" - means that (s)he believes one of two things about Iraq: 1) We can win; 2) We can't win, but don't tell anybody.

If it's the former, I'd like to ask Malkin & the righties what exactly victory will look like. Because I don't think they know. And if they say they know, I'm sure it will involve an ending of the insurgency, a collapse of popular support for violence, the forming of a friendly government to the United States, the avoidance of the 'domino effect' of ~~worldwide Communism~~ Islamic extremism - all of the goals expressed during Vietnam. Which brings up the old "Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results" canard, with extra bloodletting.

If it's the latter then the right is just suicidal - "We get that it's not working, but it's treasonous to bring that up. Damn the consequences - stay the course!"

Crazy or suicidal. Either way, let me off here.

A New Low...

2005-12-06T12:02:00.000-08:00

...in a career full of them, Malkin celebrates actual treason:

DON'T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU...

Valerie Plame is on the way out at the CIA, reports the LA Times.

Just: Gah.

How is this defensible? And this while attacking Howard Dean, also for telling the truth...more on that later.

I've been doing this nearly a year, and I thought I was past my capacity for surprise. But gloating over the end of a CIA agent's career...just crazy.

If the shoe fits...

2005-12-05T12:03:00.000-08:00

...I mean, what else can you call it? (to mm.com)

My policy is this: Anything the troops do - especially those things they are ordered to do - is on behalf of their superiors and the administration. So, again, I can't figure out what John Kerry should have said (emphasis mine based on Malkin's point):

But I think what we need to do is recognize what we all agree on, which is you've got to begin to set benchmarks for accomplishment. You've got to begin to transfer authority to the Iraqis. And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs. Whether you like it or not...

Listen, Malkin (and Captain Ed), you may not like the word "terrorizing" because of its connotations, but it's very, very apt.

And it's being done under orders. So don't piss on my leg and tell me Kerry's calling Pfc Average American a terrorist.

True Story

2005-12-03T01:55:00.000-08:00

I went to the grocery store tonight (Vitamin Water, 10 for $10 - true story!) and observed an early skirmish in the war on Christmas.

I was standing in line, and at the head of it was a lady (wearing a "Bah Humbug!" sweatshirt - true story!) who wanted to buy some stamps.

The cashier gave her a packet, and she looked at them. I couldn't quite see them, but she handed them back and said, "Do you have any others?" The checker said no and she took them again, obviously annoyed.

I got to the counter and asked the cashier about the stamps that she had objected to. He demurred, claiming (pretending?) not to know exactly what was depicted. As he gave me my change, he begrudgingly pulled out a packet and showed them to me.

And what kind of stamps were they?

Madonna and child.

True story.

Friday Poetry Blogging: Post-BAR day edition

2005-12-02T11:21:00.000-08:00

All is quiet at michellemalkin.com, which is handy, because I'm still reeling from my choke-artistry yesterday. But besides Lauren and me, BAR day was a huge success - one which will hopefully continue as we go forth from here.

Enjoy the poem.

Dinner Guest: Me by Langston Hughes

I know I am
The Negro Problem
Being wined and dined,
Answering the usual questions
That come to white mind
Which seeks demurely
To Probe in polite way
The why and wherewithal
Of darkness U.S.A.--
Wondering how things got this way
In current democratic night,
Murmuring gently

Over fraises du bois,
"I'm so ashamed of being white."

The lobster is delicious,
The wine divine,
And center of attention
At the damask table, mine.
To be a Problem on
Park Avenue at eight
Is not so bad.
Solutions to the Problem,
Of course, wait.

Update: And this isn't poetry, but it might as well be. From the front lines of the War on Christmas (and reprinted without permission from Sadly, No!) Jillian reports:

The "War on Christmas" meme invaded my workplace the other day, with hysterical results....

I work at a bank, and we've decorated our branch with pretty blinky lights and a sparkly tree with presents underneath it, and we pump Christmas music through the speaker system. We all think it looks gorgeous - me the atheist, my Muslim boss, and all of my Muslim and Hindu coworkers. Even the minority of my coworkers who are Christian like how pretty it is.

The other day, a customer came in who needed to speak to the manager about something. She walked into my poor boss' office and immediately started in on how pretty our branch looks, and how it was nice to "see some people who weren't afraid to stand up to the PC forces that run this country".

I knew this was going to be good, so I hovered around outside the office door to listen. This customer went off on a complete tirade about how this country was being taken over by Muslims with no respect for America or its traditions, and blah, blah, blah.... My boss (who is a peach of a woman) listened to this crap for about ten minutes, before interjecting with "Ma'am? I'm a Muslim, and I decorated this branch myself."

Man, I wish you could all have been here to witness this....it was a truly priceless moment. The old biddy knew she had just made a fool of herself, and failed utterly in her attempt to get out of the situation with any degree of grace.

My Christmas wish for each and every one of you is that you get to see one of these idiot War on Christmas windbags taken down the way I did.

Blog Against Racism day - Writer's Block Edition

2005-12-01T10:23:00.000-08:00

I wrote at least 1000 words on the subject of "dehumanization of the enemy" last night before I realized that I was still on the background - I hadn't even gotten to the racism aspect.

I'm officially blocked, and I'm punting until later in the day, at least. Until then, please, go here and explore people who actually got on the ball and delivered.

For Some Reason...

2005-11-29T11:11:00.000-08:00

Malkin, so bothered by racial slurs, seems to have no problem linking to (or even blogrolling) blogs with the word "Jawa" in the title.

I wonder why that is?

Update: Not to mention to a post in which a commenter suggests that this whole thing is faked. And another who suggests that members of Christian Peacemaker Teams will rethink their nonviolent stance based on this event. Who's wearing tinfoil hats and into flexible morality now?

My thoughts are with the hostages, of course. Several students and alumni at my college did and do volunteer with CPT in one capacity or another, including at least one alumnus that I know of who went to Baghdad in 2003. They do very, very important work.

Self-promotion, Malkin style

2005-11-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

Okay, well, it's not exactly egregious, although perhaps a bit overwrought:

BERKELEY HATES DIVERSITY...

...of thought. (Thanks, Jeff!)

Nothing wrong with a little lobbying for your favorite author, but I think it's time for Malkin's supporters to retire this particular line:

Michelle even does her own research, unlike Franken...

...since she has freely admitted otherwise. I mean, LA and I may never convince the kool-aid drinkers of the truth of Ghost Blogging, but on the research point there can no longer be any argument.

Why does Malkin hate the free market?

2005-11-29T10:22:00.000-08:00

See:

FAIR AND BALANCED ON CAMPUS

...Anti-war zealot Cindy Sheehan will receive $11,000 in student fees to speak at the State University College at Oneonta.

FOX News military analyst and Iraq war veteran Lt. Col. Scott Rutter, who will counter Sheehan in a separate presentation, will receive $600.

Also appearing at SUNY-Oneonta: Jaleel White. No word on how much he's getting.

BAR day is December 1st

2005-11-28T23:46:00.000-08:00

I know, it usually falls on a Wednesday, but just this once...

I didn't forget, honestly. I just was waiting until an opportune time to mention that I'll be participating in Blog Against Racism day.

Even if it's just to mention that, considering my particular blog's topic, every day is Blog Against Racism Day.

Ba-dum.

No Sympathy for Saddam Here...

2005-11-28T12:10:00.000-08:00

...but what a ridiculous assertion.

Patrick Hynes of ABP guest-blogging at Right Wing News:
[T]he president and his surrogates need to call his critics out on the carpet: They cannot retroactively oppose the Iraq War and agree with the prosecution of Saddam Hussein at the same time...

...Simply put, if George W. Bush lied us into war then the prosecution of Saddam Hussein is a sham; Saddam is the innocent victim of George W. Bush’s zealous war hawkery...

Wow. Breathtaking. And I hate to sound like a cliche, but Patrick: Why do you oppose the prosecution of Kim Jong Il? For that matter, if Clinton was a criminal worthy of prosecution, why didn't Republicans start a Civil War in 1998?

There's a lot of criminals deserving of prosecution around the world. Worrying about killing thousands of American soldiers, demoralizing the country, and selling our national soul to get them does not equate with being "soft on crime."

I feel stupid even having to construct an argument against this drivel. Malkin should feel moreso for giving it credence.

The Case of the Disappearing Book Tour

2005-11-27T11:22:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, Regnery Publishing organized some appearances for the author of Unhinged to talk about her latest opus. The list of appearances was found here.

Now, not so much. I don't think the appearances have been cancelled...so where'd they go?

Bleeding Hearts vs. Bloodthirst

2005-11-26T15:13:00.000-08:00

Malkin may have a sliver of a point in questioning the propriety of lionizing a man who hasn't apologized for his original crimes; I'm not familiar enough with the case to understand how likely it is that Tookie Williams is actually guilty of the murders which put him on death row.

However, in all the talk about the motives of the left in nominating Tookie for the Nobel Prize, let's not forget the motives of the right.

Debra J. Saunders, who has followed the case for years, debunks the Tookie sympathizers' mythology:
Williams' co-author, Barbara Becnel, told the Los Angeles Times, "What Stan presents is hope that they, too, can change. He is worth far more to society alive than dead."

Wrong. He is worth more to society dead. The message from the Tookie-philes is that you can kill innocent people and be a star. An execution says you can kill innocent people and pay the price.

No, it really doesn't. And I suspect the so-called "reasonable death penalty proponents" know this. Which certainly raises questions about their motives.

Malkin:

Tookie Williams was sentenced to die for these brutal crimes in 1981. But at the end of this year, he will have celebrated 19 more Thanksgivings, 19 more Christmases, and 19 more birthdays. That's 6,935 days more than [Albert Owens], Thsai-Shai Yang, Yen-I Yang and Yee Chen Lin were allowed to enjoy on this earth...

But it's not about retribution.

And for someone who's so determined to hold bloggers accountable for what their commenters say, Malkin shows no hesitation in linking to the "Tookie Watch" on Flap's Blog, where one can find this gem:

his man should be granted clemancy ! the Crips have murdered & terroized more Black Americans in the past centery then the Klan could even imagen,infact he should be nominated for the nobel peace prize for his either concious or unconcious work reducing crime by Killing off scum!

Black Friday Posting Flood - Just Trying to Keep My Head Above Water

2005-11-25T12:47:00.000-08:00

Whew, Malkin had a lot of stuff pent-up over that pesky turkey day, eh? Quick thoughts:

Choose the word that best completes the sentence: Blaming "government schools" for using anti-government teaching examples shows a (surfeit,lack) of irony.
Reason number 95,385 to keep your kids out of government schools:
"I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring (sic) him Republican votes," said one question on a quiz written by English and social studies teacher Bret Chenkin...

Another example said, "It is frightening the way the extreme right has (balled, arrogated) aspects of the Constitution and warped them for their own agenda." Arrogated would be the proper word there.
Yes, it certainly would.

Gah:
Meanwhile, here's what the "Iraqi resistance," so adored by the anti-war Left, was up to yesterday...
All right, two thoughts, leaving aside the unprintable ones: 1) Someone should probably explain to Malkin that linking to a google search which brings up a whole bunch of other right-wing bloggers pontificating on something (without evidence) is not evidence, either; 2) You should probably have a talk with some of your fellow righties.

I can't take another year of hearing about the war against Christmas. I just can't. *collapses, sobbing*

Okay, I'm much better. But seriously: Nothing ruins my Christmas faster than a bunch of overprivileged Christians (an appellation which describes me to a T, btw) complaining about how the left is ruining Christmas. No, what's ruining Christmas is you.

What a terrible life that must be, to be congenitally unable to enjoy supposedly the happiest religious holiday of the year; to be forced by temperament to sniffle and snarl about how the majority of the majority just can't catch a break.

I, for one, don't depend on stores, cities, or the US Motherf'in Postal Service to validate my beliefs or the way I spend time with my family.

Thanksgiving Day Poetry & Prose Blogging - Read Until You're Stuffed Edition

2005-11-24T11:17:00.000-08:00

Two poems today:

It started as a poem:

A Boy's Thanksgiving Day - Lydia Maria Child

Over the river, and through the wood,
to Grandfather's house we go;
the horse knows the way to carry the sleigh
through the white and drifted snow.

Over the river, and through the wood,
to Grandfather's house away!
We would not stop for doll or top,
for 'tis Thanksgiving Day.

Over the river, and through the wood-
oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes and bites the nose,
as over the ground we go.

Over the river, and through the wood.
with a clear blue winter sky,
The dogs do bark and the children hark,
as we go jingling by.

Over the river, and through the wood,
to have a first-rate play.
Hear the bells ring, "Ting a ling ding!"
Hurray for Thanskgiving Day!

Over the river, and through the wood-
no matter for winds that blow;
Or if we get the sleigh upset
into a bank of snow.

Over the river, and through the wood,
to see little John and Ann;
We will kiss them all, and play snowball
and stay as long as we can.

Over the river, and through the wood,
trot fast my dapple gray!
Spring over the ground like a hunting-hound!
For 'tis Thanksgiving Day.

Over the river, and through the wood
and straight through the barnyard gate.
We seem to go extremely slow-
it is so hard to wait!

Over the river, and through the wood-
Old Jowler hears our bells;
He shakes his paw with a loud bow-wow,
and thus the news he tells.

Over the river, and through the wood-
when Grandmother sees us come,
She will say, "O, dear, the children are here,
bring pie for everyone."

Over the river, and through the wood-
now Grandmothers cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun! Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin pie

And prose, provenance unknown (I found this in a collection of verse, and it worked as free verse for me, but I'm pretty sure that it's just hacked apart from a prose original. For whatever reason, I like it formatted this way, so this way it's staying):

Indian Names and Whiteman Numbers

In the old days of the Cherokees all
used to have just one name; but back
when everybody had to get enrolled,
they had to give two names before
they were given a roll number. That
was so there would be no confusion
about people with the same name.
Well, when people went down to
enroll they would pick out just
anything for a second name, because
they thought it was all just some sort
of whiteman's joke anyway. I guess
that's how the Drywaters and the
Rattlinggourds and Roastingears
and Snakeheads and Dreadfulwaters
all got their names.
One time there was a whiteman
that came and hired a crew from
around here to work on a government
project. We all went down to work
the first morning and that whiteman
had a list of roll numbers and we
were all supposed to give him our
names, so he could write them down
in his book. Well, he read out the
first number and Crabgrass Gritts
gave him his name. Then he read
the second number, and Chickadee
Augerhole gave his name. Then he
read the third number and
Groundhog Rooster told him his
name. That was when that whiteman
quit writing and said, "Now come
on, you fellows, this is serious
business. I've got to have your real
names to put down here; and I don't
want you fooling around and
stringing me along like that."
Well, after a long time we got him
quietened down so he believed that
all those names were real names,
sure enough. So then he called out
the fourth roll number, and I don't
remember now if it was Hawkshooter
Pigeon or Birdtail Nofire that
answered. Come to think of it, it
might have been that old man
Peacheater Peacheater.

Malkin Translation Service

2005-11-23T10:05:00.000-08:00

Malkin says:

I thought this administration was supposed to be fighting the old Clinton/Kerry law enforcement approach to fighting terror.

Malkin means:

I thought this administration was supposed to be helping us circumvent the Constitution, so that the next one will be even easier.

Context is for traitors

2005-11-22T22:01:00.000-08:00

An e-mailer points this one out. I must have been distracted.

Obviously the words "Never forget" mean nothing to Chris Matthews:
In a speech to political science students at the University of Toronto yesterday, the host of the CNBC current affairs show Hardball had plenty of harsh words for U.S. President George W. Bush, as well as the political climate that has characterized his country for the past few years.

"The period between 9/11 and Iraq was not a good time for America. There wasn't a robust discussion of what we were doing," Matthews said.

"If we stop trying to figure out the other side, we've given up. The person on the other side is not evil -- they just have a different perspective."

As the e-mailer says, "the 'other side' isn't al Qaeda -- it's Democrats."

Well, yeah. But that doesn't stop the Malkins from ~~shamelessly pimping 9/11~~* tugging at the heart strings once again: They post a picture of people jumping out of the south tower on 9/11. Never mind that Iraq had noth--

Ah, screw it. I'm really getting tired of having to remind people. Here's some perspective: Whether it's al Qaeda or the Democrats, the Malkins have no interest in knowing their 'enemy.' They traffic in innuendo, hyperbole, and out-and-out lying, creating a caricature which would make WWI-era propagandists proud. Maybe their straw-man strategy works in the war of rhetoric, but it's no way to escape a real-life quagmire.

------------
*Eat it, Three Bulls!

Did I get hit on the head?

2005-11-22T09:56:00.000-08:00

Or am I just having trouble remembering this:

A snippet from [John] O'Neill's New York Sun op-ed:
Are the politicians like Mr. Kerry who led the campaign to send our kids to war (when it was popular) now to withdraw support while they are locked in combat and apparently succeeding because the task is difficult or unpopular?

From Kerry's floor speech before the vote on the Iraq war resolution:

In his speech on Monday night, President Bush confirmed what Secretary Powell told the committee. In the clearest presentation to date, the President laid out a strong, comprehensive, and compelling argument why Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs are a threat to the United States and the international community. The President said: "Saddam Hussein must disarm himself, or, for the sake of peace, we will lead a coalition to disarm him."

This statement left no doubt that the casus belli for the United States will be Iraq's failure to rid itself of weapons of mass destruction.

I would have preferred that the President agree to the approach drafted by Senators Biden and Lugar because that resolution would authorize the use of force for the explicit purpose of disarming Iraq and countering the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction...

When I vote to give the President of the United States the authority to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein, it is because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a threat, and a grave threat, to our security and that of our allies in the Persian Gulf region. I will vote yes because I believe it is the best way to hold Saddam Hussein accountable. And the administration, I believe, is now committed to a recognition that war must be the last option to address this threat, not the first, and that we must act in concert with allies around the globe to make the world's case against Saddam Hussein.

As the President made clear earlier this week, "Approving this resolution does not mean that military action is imminent or unavoidable." It means "America speaks with one voice."

Let me be clear, the vote I will give to the President is for one reason and one reason only: To disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, if we cannot accomplish that objective through new, tough weapons inspections in joint concert with our allies.

Kerry made a lot of mistakes in the run-up to war. But the biggest of them came by putting an ounce of trust in a word that came out of President Bush's mouth. And yes, I know they "had access to the same intelligence." Just stop it, already.

The wingnuts are clearly scared. The Iraq war is a failure, and they know it, and they know where the blame actually lies. So they send out guys like O'Neill to start reframing the language. Kerry blew it on Iraq. But he blew it by being a follower, not a leader.

Now this is much ado about nothing

2005-11-21T21:17:00.000-08:00

X marks the spot...

...where the wingers get really desperate for a scandal.

Update: See!?! Idiots.

teh l4m3 is 5o, s0 n07 l4m3

2005-11-20T22:03:00.000-08:00

This Is Not The Law:

...And the way I describe is not the Way. And the law I espouse is not the Law; it is merely a text description of the finger a monk points at the moon.

Read it.

Conflation, again.

2005-11-20T08:52:00.000-08:00

Well, Michelle finally addressed Ghost Blogging - except she really didn't, since nothing in this blog has ever remotely resembled "portray[ing her] as a greedy Asian whore/dupe/brainwashing victim who simply parrots what my white slavemasters program into my empty little head."

I haven't, and any claim to the contrary is pure conflation. In fact, the only claim that Malkin makes about my writing which holds water is probably that I made a little fun of Jesse's looks. Guilty. But the first time I posted Jesse's picture was in response to the Malkins' constant MO of finding a silly-ass picture of whoever they're writing about and throwing it out there. So I don't feel all that bad about it.

But people have come with the "racist, sexist, jealous" routine before, and I've asked them to back it up. They haven't. Read the posts carefully. There's nothing racist, sexist, or jealous about them.

[Update: LA responds.]

Update: Leaving this ridiculous crap aside, here's a couple of reax (hee hee) from both the right and the left about what amounts to an admission. Stoller:

Well it looks like she just admitted that she doesn't in fact write her own blog posts. Her husband "helped me with a handful of blog posts out of the estimated 3,000 I've written since June 2004." What is a handful? 10? 20? 100? 600? Since he in fact stopped working when her 'career took off', it must be quite a handful!

Oh, who knows? But she can't sleep and has to blog instead! Adorable! Even if she doesn't in fact write her blog!

A message to all the right-wingers trying desperately to smear Jack Murtha...

2005-11-18T19:52:00.000-08:00

Technically Friday Poetry Blogging: Now with annotations

2005-11-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

In honor of Celebrity Dream Cameo.

I CAN HARDLY WAIT FOR THE SANDMAN - Ogden Nash

There are several differences between me and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose bust I stand admiringly beneath;

He found solace in opium, I found it in Codman's Bayberry Chewing Gum, at least until it started loosening my teeth.

Another difference between me and Samuel Taylor Coleridge is more massive in design:

People used to interrupt him while he was dreaming his dreams, but they interrupt me while I am recounting mine.

Now, if anybody buttonholes you to tell you about how they dreamt they were falling, or flying, or just about to die and they actually would have died if they hadn't woken up abruptly,

Well, they deserve to be treated interruptly,

But when somebody with a really interesting dream takes the floor,

I don't think people ought to break away and start listening to the neighborhood bore.

Therefore I feel I need offer no apology

For having gathered a few of my more representative dreams into a modest anthology.

Once I dreamt I was in this sort of, you know, desert with cactuses only they were more like caterpillars and there were skulls and all the rest,

And right in the middle of this desert was a lifeboat with the name Mary Celeste,

And if I hadn't woken up because the heat was so blistery,

Why, I bet I would have solved this mystery of nautical history.

Another time I dreamt I was climbing this mountain although actually it was more like a beach,

And all of a sudden this sort of a merry-go-round I forgot to tell you about turned into a shack with a sign saying, LEDA'S PLACE, SWANBURGERS 10¢ EACH.

I hope you will agree that of dreams I am a connoisseur,

And next time I will tell you about either how I dreamt I went down the rabbit hole or through the looking glass, whichever you prefer.

Tonight, Ripped From the Headlines: Manufactured Outrage (ding-ding!)

2005-11-16T22:40:00.000-08:00

Last night:

Law & Order:SVU does a "Terri Schiavo" episode in which the "Michael Schiavo" character, played by Dean Cain, is a serial rapist who has his wife's feeding tube removed to collect on the life insurance and, presumably, so she won't testify against him.

Tonight:

Law & Order does a "Minutemen" episode in which the Minutemen kill a trucker for transporting illegal immigrants.

Guess which one upset the wingnuts?

What's your point?

2005-11-16T20:20:00.000-08:00

Bryan Preston:

[Clinton] is ordering major strikes on Iraq because, in his words, it had abused its "last chance."

And guess what? The left protested then, too. See, unlike certain elements of the right, liberals know that "their guy" can be wrong, and we will say so. Clinton screwed up.

But that doesn't change the fact that Iraq did not rebuild their weapons programs after December 1998. And it doesn't change the fact that we somehow avoided getting involved in a protracted land war.

Say what you want about Michelle...

2005-11-16T20:11:00.000-08:00

...she's never called Canada an "evil regime."

Nor has she ever publicly rooted for the toppling of a democratically elected government.*

*Except Venezuela. Nobody's perfect.