Michelle Malkin
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Revision as of 19:16, 10 March 2011
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“”Oh, sorry, Mr. Murdoch. (giggle) I thought you meant blow harder, not blowhard.
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| —Michelle Malkin sucks |
Michelle Malkin is a vile, hateful and hawt[1] far-right-wing political pundit. She seems to support torture, and demonizes liberals. (In many media markets, she is often turned to as the minority alternative to Ann Coulter--whether the more reasonable or more crazy alternative is hard to tell.) Her rhetoric is so bad that Andrew Sullivan made up the "Michelle Malkin" award for the most intemperate, hateful right-wing remarks of the year. (Both she and Coulter are ineligible for the award.)[2]
Contents |
Malkin's Greatest Hits
Malkin has a history of bizarre, unhinged and outright antisocial behavior. A full list would run to book length. Here are some of the more notorious incidents, in chronological order:
Malkin versus Matthews
Malkin's rise started during the run-up to the 2004 Presidential Election. At the time, she still had a habit of saying obscene things, but she couched them in such a way that she had plausible deniability. The first challenge to this tactic came from professional screamer Chris Matthews. On Hardball, Malkin raised allegations that John Kerry had deliberately wounded himself to earn a purple heart. However, she couldn't quite bring herself to say that she believed that, only that allegations were being made. The results were a bit embarrassing for Malkin, to say the least.[3]
Malkin and the Sinister Crescent
In 2005, Malkin took a pre-eminent role in an astoundingly dumb controversy regarding a proposed memorial for Flight 93. Dubbed "Crescent of Embrace," it consisted primarily of a stand of trees partially surrounding the crash site. The design was selected a panel comprised of design experts and victim's family members, and it was announced on September 7.[4]
Shortly after the announcement, a group of Internet obsessives - Malkin among them - came to the conclusion that the Memorial was actually a covert memorial to the terrorists.[5] Why? Because it's a big red crescent, a historic symbol of Islam.[6] With such clear facts, all Malkin had to overcome were the families, most of whom thought the claims were utter bunk.[7] Of course, Malkin is not one to let something as petty as the stated desires of the grieving get in her way.
The dreaded crescent was not a particularly long-term campaign, for Malkin or anyone else. Today, the only ones who want to talk about it are the mentally unstable sons of renowned political theorists.[8]
Malkin invokes death threats
In 2006, Malkin reported on opposition to military recruitment in UC Santa Cruz, specifically the actions of a few students calling themselves Students Against War. She included a copy of a press release which contained contact information for the three leaders. Subsequently, the three of them started receiving threatening phone calls and e-mails. In a rare act of civility, Malkin took the contact information down.
The students were understandably upset. When Malkin heard of their complaints, she blamed them, then reposted their contact info. Subsequent requests were ignored, and the information remains on her site to this day.[9][10]
Malkin stalks a child
In 2007, then-President Bush proposed cuts to SCHIP, an insurance program for lower-class families who are above the cutoff for Medicaid. The Democratic response included a statement by 12-year old Graeme Frost, a recipient of the program. The Frosts had been in a nasty car accident which left Graeme in a coma and his younger sister Gemma with brain damage. The costs for their treatment were covered by SCHIP. As Graeme said in the response, "If it weren’t for CHIP, I might not be here today. … We got the help we needed because we had health insurance for us through the CHIP program. But there are millions of kids out there who don’t have CHIP, and they wouldn’t get the care that my sister and I did if they got hurt. … I just hope the President will listen to my story and help other kids to be as lucky as me."[11]
Enter Michelle Malkin. Spurred by the mad gibbering of the Freepers, Malkin launched a full-on harassment campaign/"investigation" against the Frosts. She traveled to the Frost's neighborhood, hoping to find evidence that they were all con artists. When grilling the neighbors failed to turn up any dirt, she tried snooping in their windows.[12] She made hay out of the fact that she thought she saw granite countertops, an accusation which has been dumped down the memory hole but lives on as a meme to this day.[13] Probably what would be the most laughable part of the whole incident, if it weren't such a twisted, dangerous display of lunacy, is that she actually had the audacity to claim that the Democrats had engaged in "child abuse" by putting Graeme in a place where Malkin could savage him.
And lest you still have doubts about Malkin's utter classlessness, she followed this up with an attack on an even younger SCHIP recipient.[14]
In 2010, Malkin decided to reprise her role as the huntress of children:
Marcelas Owens, an 11-year-old from Seattle, headlined a press conference with Senate Democratic leadership on Thursday, telling a packed room of reporters that he wanted the president and Congress to come together and pass health insurance reform. "I am here because of my mom," said Owens. "My mom was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension in 2006. She missed so much work she lost her job. And when my mom lost her job, she lost her health care. And losing her health care ended up costing her her life..."
...At least one conservative columnist wants to throw cold water on the Marcelas Owens narrative. Michelle Malkin wrote in a column that Democrats are using Owens as a "human kiddie shield." And, reprising her role in a coordinated conservative assault on the family of 12-year-old Graeme Frost during the battle over children's health insurance in 2007, Malkin questioned whether a failure of personal responsibility is not to blame for the death of Owens's mother.[15]
Michelle Malkin: Scourge of Poor Children
Malkin's Crusade against a Sinister Scarf
In 2008, Malkin looked at an ad Rachael Ray did for Dunkin' Donuts and decided that the black-and-white paisley scarf she was wearing was a sly sign of support for the Palestinian Liberation Organization.[16]
It is scientifically impossible to make that sound more ridiculous than it really is, Trust us we tried.
ACORN Conspiracies
Malkin has been one of the foremost proponents of ACORN conspiracy theories, or "Obamacorn" as she often calls it. She has written numerous columns accusing ACORN of everything from massive voter fraud to being a major player in causing the banking crisis so it could embezzle stimulus money. Compared to everything else she's done, Malkin is probably one of the few people who can make ACORN conspiracies sound sane in comparison.[17]
Stance on immigration
Michelle follows the typical far-right views on immigration; lock 'em up or kick 'em out. She is associated with the nativist website VDARE, who must be thrilled to have an actual minority on hand. She has a particular obsession with "anchor babies," children born to immigrants in the United States. She is adamant that the laws that allow foreign parents of American-born children to gain citizenship should be changed immediately.[18] Interestingly enough, Malkin's own parents were immigrants from the Philippines. Her father's work visa had expired around the time that Michelle was born. In other words, Michelle Malkin is an anchor baby.[19]
This user finds it odd that she hasn't put herself immediately at the front of the deportation line, but this user isn't really surprised at her hypocrisy.
Possible explanation for her craziness
Michelle Malkin apparently went to the same crazy activist school that this editor went to. Therefore, he has a theory that she might have been a liberal or even a leftist who was repulsed by the craziness of the activists at that school (which were supposed to have been even worse back in the 90s, when she was there). It is a common enough tale, with plenty of people like David Horowitz having gone through something similar.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ This video might change your mind about that
- ↑ http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/awards.html
- ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoM90bAsr1M&feature=player_embedded
- ↑ Flight 93 marker design picked, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- ↑ Flight 93 Memorial: Seeing Is Believing
- ↑ Actually, the crescent is a historic symbol of the Ottoman Empire, and the color red on a topographical map represents trees, which are green for most of the year. But hey, why let facts get in the way of a good controversy?
- ↑ Design of a memorial to Flight 93 fuels tension between families, New York Times
- ↑ Alec Rawls, in case you were wondering.
- ↑ More Thuggery In Santa Cruz
- ↑ Malkin Makes Worst Person on Countdown With Keith Olbermann
- ↑ http://democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=284567&
- ↑ If you can stomach it, here's Malkin account.
- ↑ The Internet will never let her live this down, rightfully.
- ↑ The original link, or a link for those who need some snark to mask the bitterness.
- ↑ Marcelas Owens, 11-Year-Old Whose Mother Died Without Health Insurance: 'Get The Health Care Bill Passed', Huffington Post
- ↑ Of Donuts and Dumb Celebrities
- ↑ Malkin's "ACORN Watch"
- ↑ No More Drive By Citizenship - Incidentally, I'm very sorry that this article has so many links to Malkin's site.
- ↑ Michelle Malkin: Anchor Baby