Monday, July 3rd, 2006
Yes, Michelle, let’s talk about double standards.
The big story this weekend was conservative bloggers going apeshit over the New York Times’ supposed "leak" of the locations of the summer homes of Vice Presedent Dick "Go Fsck Yourself" Cheney and SecDef Donald "[The WMD’s are] in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat" Rumsfeld. Malkin and her ilk, of course, insist that this is in retaliation for "mere criticism" of the revelation of SWIFT’s anti-terrorism program (that SWIFT itself made public).
Never mind that Rumsfeld gave his permission for the photos to be taken and the article to be written.
Never mind that conservatives’ favorite news sources, Faux "News" and "News" Max had printed much the same article months before (which is proably why Rumsfeld gave his permission).
Never mind that the New York Times ran a similar, but more detailed, piece on former President Clinton (whom conservative luminary Ann Coulter famously issued a fatwa against - "Impeach or assassinate" were her words, I recall).
And indeed, the rabid righties are following through with calls to assassinate those "responsible" for the article in question.
Meanwhile, Malkin pretends to be above the fray by bloviating with selective outrage about lefty disclosures of bad MapQuest directions to the abodes of various and sundry conservatives.
Okay then, Mrs. Malkin. If you want to chide the left about selective outrage, let’s see you condemn the following:
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In response to a Chuy’s manager whose only crime was carding Jenna and Tonic Barbara Bush in accordance with TABC regulations, the oh-so-rational members of Free Republic posted the manager’s "address, date of birth, drivers license and registration information, physical description, and even birth information about her infant child" (one example thread here). This happened in my backyard, "The People’s Republic of Austin," so you can understand my outrage.
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Malkin herself posted the contact information of some UC - Santa Cruz students and sicced her rabid hatriot readers on them after a protest that ended in the expulsion of military recruiters from campus (even after learning that they were receiving death threats - her response was to whine about having her personal information posted and to repost a link to the offending information).
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Finally, we have the Anthrax mailer from immediately after 9/11. Of particular note in this case are two things. First, the strain of anthrax used in the attack came from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, MD. The level of clearance required for someone to get their hands on a sample implies that the terrorist had connections inside the facility. This suggests that the attacker was a home-grown terrorist, rather than an al-Qaeda operative. Secondly, the attacks were specifically targeted at two of the rabid right’s chief targets: Democratic Senators and the "librul" media.
Oh wait. Let me guess, those are examples of righties being unhinged, so they don’t count in Malkin’s book.
Oh, but it gets better: Malkin’s calling for a "protest" outside the NYT Washington Bureau. In light of how recent conservative "protests" have turned out, I wouldn’t be surprised to find someone has torched/firebombed the NYT offices by this time tomorrow.
