Malkin

Not long ago, this blog (and others) posted the phone number and exact street address of far-right propagandist Michelle Malkin. She, in turn, had previously made widely available the private telephone numbers of protest organizers at UC Santa Cruz.

She did so despite the long-standing journalistic tradition of never publishing private contact information gleaned from press releases. She did so despite requests to remove the data from her site. She did so because she knew full well that her zealous followers would harass and threaten those protestors.

Malkin's defenders have argued that the students were "communists" -- an insult that has seen increasing usage in recent days. At one time, the term "communist" was reserved for those who believed that the state should run all industry. But to right-wingers, "communist" describes anyone who dislikes George W. Bush -- the man who, paradoxically enough, has done more than any other single individual to put this country in hock to the Chinese, who really are communists.


Malkin has announced that, due to the publication of her home address, she will now have to relocate. I am not happy that she must do so -- but frankly, neither am I sad.

Of course, one cannot expect Malkin to admit that she took the first and cheapest shot, and that any blows directed her way were retaliatory. All right-wingers are so egomaniacal that, even when clearly in the wrong, they would rather eat spiders than apologize. But the right has established a pattern of intimidating opponents through publication of private data and the issuance of threats, and this pattern forces decent people to fight fire with fire.

Malkin will not employ such tactics again. She has received a necessary schooling, although I am sure that she did not enjoy her lesson and will never confess to having been educated.

Let me address another point.

Malkin argued that the protestors were "anti-troops." For a sadly eloquent response to this foolishness, read the obituary of Army private Angelo Zawaydeh, 19, of San Bruno, California. (The L.A. Times piece requires registration.) He was killed by a mortar shell on March 15. His family told the Los Angeles Times that he had "grown disillusioned" with the war, and that he had become convinced that the Iraqis should "fight their own battles."

Why are good men like young Zawadeh still fighting and dying in that country? Because if the Iraqis were allowed to "fight their own battles," the people of that nation would regain control of their own oil. Too few Americans understand that Bush has literally stolen that oil -- has placed, by decree, the entire industry in non-Iraqi hands. Americans may refuse to recognise this fact, but the Iraqis see it with great clarity. That's why they all have come to hate their "liberators."

Zawadeh died to protect Bush's larceny -- a theft sanctioned by Michelle Malkin. She does not support our troops. She wants good soldiers to die in an obscene cause.