Michelle Malkin Tries To Foment War With Iran

[Hissyspit]

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4730

Michelle Malkin tries to foment war with Iran
Right-wing propagandist misrepresents photographs of police violence
Guest Blogged by Joseph Cannon

Larisa Alexandrovna draws our attention to a piece by noted reactionary Michelle Malkin. In her blog, Malkin publishes some photos of Iranian police brutalizing four men, and adds these comments:

The innocent young men in the photos were beaten, humiliated, and arrested for wearing Western clothing and hairstyles. It is in the public interest to spread these photos far and wide. The images should be seared onto the global conscience...
Question: Will these photos be blared across the front pages of the international media with as much disgust and condemnation as the photos of Abu Ghraib or the manufactured Gitmo Koran-flushing riots?

As we'll see in a moment, Malkin hasn't quite told the truth about those photos. But even if we were to take her assertions at face value, Malkin has ignored what we may call the "Matthew 7:4 factor."

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Here is my original post from about a day ago on the Larisa Alexandrovna posting at her site:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1177389&mesg_id=1177389

Firedoglake.com also posted about Larisa's posting:

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/06/25/late-nite-fdl-malkidinejad-gets-pwn3d/

The blog of Ali Eteraz who comment to Larisa on her blog. Here he posts a sort of mea culpa:

http://eteraz.wordpress.com/2007/06/25/new-york-times-neil-macfarquhar-gets-iran-dress-crackdown-story-wrong-my-lack-of-due-diligence

Malkin hypocritical in being selective in her outrage over human rights abuses. In addition, why is the word 'police' in English and not Farsi on the Iranian police uniforms? You have to read the entire posts to get a sense of the arguments, not just the parts I have excerpted for my post here. Although some of the comments left at her site miss this point, Larisa's posting to the atlargely.com site concerning Malkin's hypocrisy BRINGS MORE attention to the Iranian government's outrages. (ON EDIT: Iran photo links have been broken?) - H'spit

http://www.atlargely.com/2007/06/michelles-straw.html#c...

http://www.atlargely.com/2007/06/michelles-straw.html#c...

Michelle Malkin builds a human rights straw-man and feels no shame...

- snip -

Okay, I have to post about this. Michelle Malkin is busy building a moral straw man for some reason in order to declare something about the lack of Abu Ghraib type of outrage by the US media and US citizens over repression in Iran. She writes in her AEI mouth-piece blog as follows:

Question: Will these photos be blared across the front pages of the international media with as much disgust and condemnation as the photos of Abu Ghraib or the manufactured Gitmo Koran-flushing riots?
Answer: Fat chance.

Let me be the first to tell Ms. Malkin that being concerned for human rights, really and truly concerned does not depend on the color of the victim's skin or their religious background. It is an absolute moral position. This is not something Malkin can understand, because her outrage is purchased. However, the reason there was so much national outrage over Abu Ghraib is because in the pictures shown, there were not masked Iranian police committing atrocities, rather, they were US soldiers committing atrocities. People feel more culpable because they are directly contributing to this through their own money via taxes, and the horrors depicted are stunningly graphic and obscene on levels I cannot even comprehend. I hope she understand the difference, but that would be asking too much of her and her ilk.

Now, the other big issue I have with Malkin's usual noise festival is that the context for me suggests that in order to prove substantially outraged by Iranian repression, a person must support war against Iran.

ABOVE LINK FOR IRAN AND ABU GHRAIB PHOTOS POSTED BY LARISA ALEXANDROVNA

Here is what Malkin wrote about Abu Ghraib and the photos... a small collection of her concern for human rights... Again, the strange comparison:

Watching the news in my hotel room before my speech, I just saw CNN air a few of the new, highly inflammatory Abu Ghraib photos now making the rounds.

No pixelation of the nude prisoners in the photos. No disclaimers about paying respect to members of the US military who will be endangered by publication of the pics. The Washington Post used the opportunity to republish Abu Ghraib photos and video it obtained in April 2004.

Note please that Malkin is concerned that nude elements of the photos are visible...

From a Comments response by Larisa:

Ali,

Thank you for thoughtful response. Let me be clear, I do not support the action of the Iranian regime at all. I agree completely that they violate human rights and civil liberties and while I am not a scholar of Islam, my opinion is not far from yours with regard to how the Iranian establishment has used Islam to justify their abuses. We appear to be in agreement sir. So I am not sure what it is that I wrote that would make you think otherwise.

- snip -

She is outraged at how these protesters are being treated. Right? She has no problem, however, defending Gitmo, she has no problem defending the bombing of Lebanon. In fact, Ms. Malkin has no problem with concentration camps for Japanese Americans during WWII. Clearly, Ms. Malkin has no problem with human rights abuses. So why this particular abuse? Why does this particular abuse send her screaming, when the likes of Abu Ghraib did not make her shake in horror all the while she complained of nudity being shown in the photos?

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[RoyGBiv]

1. She should ...

She should foment all the war she wants with Iran, go there, invade by herself or with her little army of followers and promptly get herself smashed like a bug. I have no problems with that.

[samq79]

12. yeah...as long as they don't think they're going into the fray..

wearing red, white, and blue...

[Nikki Stone1]

2. Maulkin vs Iran? Hmm... I'd have to go with Iran in overtime.

:)

[shain from kane]

3. Most of the time she is foaming at the mouth.

[Lerkfish]

4. ironic thing is, she quoted ME from DU as being insane.

my one little moment of fame. If you search for "lerkfish" on google, you'll find several right wing sites calling me insane.
I think they don't realize how much that confirms how sane I am.

:)

[ProfessorGAC]

7. A Badge Of Honor, I Would Think

I wouldn't want any of them thinking i'm on their wavelength, either. The frequency is WAY too low.
GAC

[Lerkfish]

9. yup. I view it as such. If sociopathic chickenhawk warmongerers consider you insane

then you're doing something right.

[sakabatou]

5. Is she wants a war...

Why not send her alone with just a single derringer?

[JacquesMolay]

6. Man, I saw those pictures and ...

... they're really bad. That little fucker in Iran is even worse than Bush. He's exploiting the fundamentalists and targeting 'people with Western dress and haircuts' to take people's mind off the tanking economy. I think if they held an election tomorrow, he'd be out on his ass, and he's going to rig an election or stop holding them altogether. They're heading toward fascism in Iran, and i don't think that's good for anyone.

[Lerkfish]

10. you forgot the sarcasm tag

here ya go.

:sarcasm:

use it whenever you spout right wingnut talking points, it'll help us understand you're being sarcastic.

[JacquesMolay]

11. No, dude ...

... right-wing extremism is just as bad coming from a Muslim as it is from a 'Christian' like Bush. Somehow, some people seem to think that because ahmedinijhad is 'against Bush', that makes him cool. He ain't, man.

[Zodiak]

14. No one said he was cool

so you can take that strawman down.

However, you used the word "fascism", which does not apply to countries in the Middle East because the economic underpinnings of fascism are not theere. "Islamofascist" is a right-wing term that has no basis in truth.

Now if you were going for theocratic totalitarian state, then I would not argue with you.

Plus, it has not been established (from what I see on this thread) that these series of pictures even came from Iran. Was there not a mention of why the cops had "Police" written in English on their backs and not Farsi?

So....you contructed a strawman, you used RW talking points with no basis in fact, and you readily believed Malkin's premise without attending the caveats. I would say that being admonished for your post on DU is in order.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TahitiNut]

8. Malkin is a sociopath who is ENVIOUS of those who use their power to commit atrocities.

She demonstrates no comprehension whatsoever of personal responsibility and knows only blame-shifting and abdication of any moral code when she can invent any specious rationale for committing identical atrocities on those she deems "deserving" of them. She's the epitome of a self-anointed "hand of God" (immune from criticism) the bears no culpability for her hatred of others - based solely on obedience to her perverted view of the 'right'.

In other words, she sees HERSELF in the behavior of the Iranian police and detests the projected self-image. This is the essence of self-loathing. Tacitly confirming her own loathsome character, she can know no limit on emulating that which she declares atrocious.

It's testimony to the pathology in our body politic that she's afforded both a stage and an audience for her obvious personality disorder. She's only marginally 'better' than Ted Bundy, if at all - and we (the people) find ourselves recapitulating the perverted attitude that said "what a shame to put a nice-looking guy like him to death."

[Richard Steele]

13. "This is not something Malkin can understand, because her outrage is purchased."

What a great one-line summation of that froth-flecked anchor baby!

[blogslut]

16. I liked the too

Very appropriate turn of phrase.

[lies and propaganda]

17. the images of Abu Graib should be SEARED onto our consciousness

I cant believe her, she is still shocks me, Im not sure how.

[Vinca]

18. Michelle could always enlist.

(Insert chickenhawk smilie.)

[Hissyspit]

19. .

[dkofos]

20. Slap that bitch in a burka and send her to Iran!!