You Big Mouth, You!

This woman is all over the rightwing blogs, in an ad. I don’t know who she is, but she makes a great advertising model.

Yowser! She’s part of an ad campaign for Right-Wing Stuff at Cafe Press. The ad points out that a woman’s tee should be designed to fit differently than a man’s tee.

I have to say that I agree. I SO agree!

Weekly Update [PDF file] Electricity load served last week increased significantly to an average of 92,500 MWh, with several power plants coming back online. Hours of available power likewise increased to 9.9 hours in Baghdad and 9.0 hours countrywide. Peak capacity is above pre-war levels and is expected to increase into the summer months. On May 19, the Iraqi Police Service graduated 167 police officers from advanced training and specialty courses at the AdnanTraining Facility. The courses consist of Basic Criminal Investigations with 58 graduates, Interview and Interrogations with 21 graduates, Critical Incident Management with 25 graduates, Violent Crime Investigation with 29 graduates, Mid-level Management with 19 graduates and Basic Computer Skills with 15 graduates. Small steps, but necessary for the overall development of the Iraqi police forces. Over 4,000 houses have been connected to Baghdad�s revitalized main water system. Contractors have installed 47 kilometers of new pipeline to date, providing approximately 40,000 people with safe drinking water. The three major cell phone companies in Iraq (Asiacell, Iraqna, and Atheer) continue to enroll new subscribers at healthy rates. As of May 1, there were 2,180,355 active cellular subscribers in Iraq, a 6 percent increase over last month. Landline telephone subscribers in Iraq have also increased to 992,416. Prior to the war, there were approximately 833,000 landline subscribers and no cellular network. This continues to be a huge, and underreported story. The ability to communitcate around the world at will cannot be undereastimated as a positive influence for democracy. The Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) issued Iraq’s first credit/debit cards on May 24. A number of VISA cards were distributed to ministers, government officials and financial professionals in a ceremony at the TBI headquarters in Baghdad. Ninety additional Fiji soldiers will be deployed to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq in July. A Fijian military spokesman said the extra Fijian troops would be posted to man the two additional guard units in Iraq, specifically in Basra and Erbil. These troops are in support of the U.N. and not directly in support of the MNF efforts.

Hard to believe 1200 people. The church doesn’t look that big and the news reports didn’t seem to show that many. But, I was over freezing with the diehards, not with the comfortables.

R News More than 1,200 people gathered in downtown Rochester to protest President Bush�s social security plan. A rally was held inside and outside of the First Universalist Church. It was organized by the In This Together Campaign: New Yorkers United to Protect Social Security. It began after Mr. Bush left Rochester, but those involved say they’re more interested in getting their message out to the general public. Amy Schramm of Rochester explained, “I think he already knows that a lot of people don’t like him, but I think that we’re trying to get across to the other Americans who still might believe it what he says.”

Democrat & Chronicle About the same time, about 750 opponents to the plan gathered at the First Universalist Church downtown. They had planned to meet at the Liberty Pole but moved to the church because of the rain. Evan Engel, 19, of Brighton seized on Bush’s promise that the reforms won’t affect people born before 1950. “What about my generation?” he asked. “This plan is going to take trillions of dollars. That’s a debt my generation is going to be stuck with.” Karen Lee-Byfield, political chairwoman of the United Auto Workers Local 1097, said Bush is trying to “sell a bill of goods,” based on the false premise that Social Security is on the verge of collapse. Jim Thompson worried that the protest’s message would get lost in the glow of the visit. “Bush seems to have a hypnotic allure,” he said.

OK, I take back everything bad I ever said about Paris Hilton. The corporation behind the Carl Jrs. and Hardees restaurants has her in a video at Spicy Paris. She’s washing a car in a tiny black bathing suit. With lots of suds. Lots of suds. Oh, yeah, she takes a bite of a sandwich, too. Did I mention there were lots of suds?

nowhere? Not quite. The organizers decided at the last moment to move the protest to the Universalist Church, indoors. It’s for the press’s comfort, I gathered. It’s cold, wet and windy here but not as bad as it could be. Here are some pics from the Liberty Pole, with comments. I went back to work rather than pursue further protesting. Organization grade: C-

UPDATE: President Bush came to Rochester, New York today. Previous posts on the visit here and here. Thanks, Pat!

UPDATE: Here’s the President’s address, and his conversation with some local folks.

This is the Liberty Pole, the site of the protest today. It’s a, well… pole.
	Here are the diehard protestors. Some Building Trades guys were wandering around, too.
Protest babe number one	Protest babe number two
Best sign award.	Spookiest sign carrier award.
It’s all about the children.	The littlest protestor of them all.
Best butt award.	Dammit! We’re moving the protest! I don’t care if you WERE at Woodstock! BTW, the guy with his hand up just butted in and started giving directions. He admitted he was not with the organizers.
But, but, I brought all the signs! The little girl was heard to exclaim “Lame! Lame! Lame!”

I think we’re all agreed that the Burger King peeping tom is creepy. Beyond creepy. What about the Quaker Oats guy? Very non threatening. Almost lifeless. Zombie-like. While you expect the Burger King to have spooged on your lilacs, you wonder about the Quaker Oats guy. Is he going to walk into the plant one day with an assault weapon and just start blowing people away? It’s always the quiet ones.

I’ll be turning 50 years old on July 31, and I’m in a thoughtful mood today. Here are a few lists resulting from that mood:

BEST MOVIES I’VE SEEN Casablanca Rocky I Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope Young Frankenstein Armageddon	FAVORITE FOODS bacon Dunkin’ Donuts’ Dunker scotch vanilla ice cream Double Stuff Oreos
FAVORITE TV SHOWS Stargate: SG-1 CSI:Miami Dark Angel Witchblade Nero Wolfe	CELEBS I WANT TO MEET President Bush the Pope Rose McGowen Michelle Wie Laurell K. Hamilton
BLOGGERS I WANT TO MEET Acidman Michele Dean Esmay Donald Sensing Rightwingsparkle	THINGS I WISH I’D DONE Drove cross country to see America Served in the military Been in lower Manhatten on 9/11/2001 Taken more portratis of pretty girls Paid attention in college

Bill Whittle is back! The sensible sage of the blogosphere makes sense yet again about the left and their illogical support of the terrorists in Iraq.

SANCTUARY

I am trying my level best to understand how and why someone who professes to be for freedom for artists, homosexuals and women � not to mention unlimited personal expression of every stripe — can take the side of 12th Century religious fanatics who brag about murdering writers, stoning women, beheading homosexuals and instituting moral policemen at every street corner with unquestioned authority to beat, jail or execute anyone suspected of being insufficiently pious.

Michelle Malkin wrote a book detailing her research on the internment of Japanese nationals and Americans of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast during World War Two. It has created quite a stir since its premise defies the conventional historical perspective. Her central thesis is that the United States government had sufficient reason to conduct the internments.

I’m not going to try to defend her thesis. She’s done that quite well and fairly convincingly. I am going to call your attention to a recent conflict with someone named in her book. You will find it on her blog here.

What I am going to discuss is the e-mail exchange with Professor Irons. The professor needs to turn “spell check” on in his e-mail, it would appear. Unless, of course, Michelle has yet again make errors in copying his e-mails. [/sarcasm] Examples:

My dictionary defines “suureptitious” as “taking by stealth” or “stolen.”

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I’ll copy you on my letter to Ms. Ross at Regnery, just to ensure they receive instructions from you about corecting your false statements.

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(of course, controvery sells books, even bad ones like hers)

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One more thing: in your 8-25-04 blog, you gratuitously note (”By the way”)that the now-discredited allegations about me are “not the only time Irons engaged in these sort (sic; should be sorts) of shnanigans.” Clicking on the last four words of that sentence takes the reader to a Wash. Post article in Aug. 1993 about the Supreme Court’s howwlow threat to sue me for releasing public records from the National Archives, after I had signed an agreement not to duplicate them and to use them only for “private research and teaching.”

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And so on. Now, I’ve written Michelle to confirm that all of these errors are verbatim. I wouldn’t want to make a serious error [/sarcasm]. I would note that the exchange contains several phrases that, were I Michelle Malkin, I would take affront to.

He had more character and courage in his little finger than all you right-wing hacks put together.

Hardly the stuff of civilized discourse. His characterization of events and Michelle’s intent use the words

“and tendentious insinuations”,
“obviously had a pre-conceived conclusion”,
“you’re not a historian, just a right-wing journalist”,
“and even internal, confidential documents, which must shock you-just kidding, since I know you drool over such “under-the-table” stuff)”,
“if you only look for tidbits you can use to support your preconceived notions, you have moved from legitimate journalism to biased, David Brock-type hit pieces”,
“So I am demanding (”requesting” is too namby-pamby a term for your style of journalism) that you either retract the whole phrase (preferably the whole sentence) or provide me with probative evidence that anything in the records was “confidential” in any manner. Hint: you can’t, because there is none.”,
“By the way, Bill Safire and Jim Kilpatrick both wrote columns supporting me. You should be so lucky.”,
“But her gratutitous and false claims about me and Aiko, in which she insinuated under-handed and sinister motives (and, in fact, unethical if not illegal conduct) could not go unchallenged. Malkin has gone on from the Times to become an unabashed right-wing columnist, but her professional and ethical lapses have, in this instance, undermined whatever credibility (very little, in my opinion) her book may have.”,
“She got it all wrong, and backwards, but that’s what happens when you are a) sloppy, b) in too much of a hurry to check sources, c) not willing to talk or correspond with people you are eager to accuse of unethical or illegal acts, and d) so consumed by political bias that you fail to be “fair and balanced” in your writing and speaking. Malkin is guilty of all the above faults, and I’m sure would not have retracted the “sureptitious” slur (she has until tomorrow to retract the “confidential” error) had I not pushed her so hard. There is nothing, as you know, in Mitch’s book or your article that says anything about any of the records that Aiko and I shared being confidential; Malkin just made that up to fit her bias. Anyway, thanks for your messages, and I hope (but don’t hold your breath) that Malkin will have the decency to apologize to both of us.”,
“I’m assuming that you’ll put another cover-your-ass, shift-the-blame, I’m-a-victim-of-the-leftist-conspiracy spin on it. I’ve got a proposal; why don’t you post the entire exchange of emails between us for your readers to judge for themselves who’s right and who’s wrong? That would make this a “fair and balanced” dialogue? Deal?”

Well, she has posted the entire exchange, and I will presume until she says otherwise that it is correctly copied. I would note that all of Professor Irons comments about her book are made without his having ever read the book. I would also note that the variety of personal characterizations which he made about Michelle to her, and to others, in the e-mails are the equal of any which she may have made about him. There are several instances of purely gratuitous shots at her, and he specifically calls her a “hack” and characterizes her as having “professional and ethical lapses“. In addition he criticizes the scholarship and the thesis of her book without ever having read it. Professor Irons forgets the most important point in law, winning a lawsuit makes you a winner, not necessarily correct. As a historian, he should be well aware of this principle.

Had he engaged in a professional, business-like exchange of e-mails with Michelle Malkin, I wouldn’t have anything to write about. The fact that he felt it necessary to send, by my count, 39 e-mails between May 11 and May 17 on the subject suggest he has a great deal of free time since his retirement. Perhaps some of it would have been better spent getting a life, rather than engaging in an e-mail exchange which does not befit his stature in academia.

And the facts of this little kerfluffle are:

1. Professor Irons was not permitted to make copies of certain documents because the person who would have to approve that was not present.
2. Professor Irons knew someone who could make those copies.
3. The incident was related incorrectly in another publication which Michelle Malkin relied upon, and footnoted, in her book.
4. Michelle Malkin added a characterization of the incident, based on a legitimate assumption, which was false.
5. When the original parties involved corrected and clarified the information that she had relied upon, she made the necessary corrections and retractions.

I wonder if Professor Irons has ever had to make a retraction? Inquiring minds want to know. Of course, my personal experience after many years in academia is that tenured professors don’t make mistakes. Their assistants and secretaries do. I also wonder if the good professor has ever been a journalist? Or a blogger? Perhaps that would be a good way for him to fill his spare time. I would read a history blog, though he would be in competition with the many existing ones. He’d have to write well, be interesting, oh, and spelling… the blogosphere is death on poor spellers.

May 21 is Armed Forces Day. The link for the full sized image is here. To request a poster size image, go here. Information found at the Department of Defense.