And Now You Know... the Rest of the Story

David Weigel | August 7, 2007

Michelle Malkin's wrap-up of the Yearly Kos convention was surprisingly dull, possibly because assumed the crowd would be crazier than it was and conservoblogger Rick Moran had to shoot her points down. Example:

MALKIN: Did you see a lot of 9/11 truth types, the conspiracy theorists?

MORAN: No, no and it's -- I made a point of asking a lot of people -- a lot of the bloggers who were there.

More evidence of our national political schizophrenia: five days later conservative bloggers are chasing the story of a sergeant who showed up, in uniform, to a Q&A session with a military panel, and tried to prove the success of the Iraq surge before being shut up by the moderator. It's leading the O'Reilly Factor tonight. Apart from Ezra Klein, liberal bloggers didn't even seem to notice.

Comments

|8.7.07 @ 5:27PM|#

Another lefty blog, Whiskey Fire, had a post about him too a couple days ago:

http://whiskeyfire.typepad.com/whiskey_fire/2007/08/double-standard.html

|8.7.07 @ 5:39PM|#

The Democrats are in power now so it's not "anything goes" anymore. When you're in the minority, you can get away with acting loony.

rho|8.7.07 @ 6:22PM|#

It seems to me that at least 1/3 of the support for the war on the right-wing of the Internet is solely due to reflexive antithesis to the left-wing. Most of the effort on the rightish blogs seems to be spent fencing with the lefty blogs. I assume it's because that's simpler than defending a deteriorating situation in Iraq.

I mean, what's easier? "Iraq is better because it has democracy, but no water, power or civility," or "The mainstream media isn't reporting this great story about a boy who one the Iraqi spelling-bee!"

Anonymo the Anonymous|8.7.07 @ 6:27PM|#

a boy who one the Iraqi spelling-bee

In other news, irony died of exhaustion today at 6:22 p.m.

highnumber|8.7.07 @ 6:48PM|#

I ate the sandbox.

D'oh!

jet|8.7.07 @ 7:09PM|#

Excuse me, but the Democrats are sucking up to the union thugs in Chicago. No live blog?

rho|8.7.07 @ 7:59PM|#

That's not irony. Irony is ray-ee-ain on your wedding day.

St. Louis Fan|8.7.07 @ 8:11PM|#

Get a brain, Moran!

|8.7.07 @ 9:51PM|#

Having spent so many years flailing at straw men in place of contending with the oppositions arguments, people like Malkin are utterly incapable of even knowing their opposition, much less defeating them.

I'm sure it was quite fun for her to spend these last few years simply dismissing dissenting voices with insults. Beats working.

But unfortunately for her side, that opposition actually has been doing the intellectual heavy lifting of formulating a coherent theory that can stand up to challenges, and finding the holes in the Malkins' own theories.

Fat, lazy, and ripe for the picking - that's what you get when you refuse to go mano-a-mano with your ideological opponents. I saw the Democrats fall apart from this in the late 80s and early 90s, so I know what it looks like.

Asking about 9/11 Truthers at YearlyKos is like asking if there any Klansmen at a Republican welfare reform conference in 1991.

Anonymo the Anonymous|8.7.07 @ 11:00PM|#

Asking about 9/11 Truthers at YearlyKos is like asking if there any Klansmen at a Republican welfare reform conference in 1991.

Exactly -- same reason Malkin and the Freepers (anybody wanna start a mod band?) want to tie Ron Paul to the Truthers.

With a complete lack of evidence in support of Bush's foreign policy, they have no option but to regard their failed doctrines as self-evident. And if your opponents can't see how self-evidently awesome it is bombing the fuck out of random countries, they must be crazy. So they probably hang out with all the other crazy people too.

|8.8.07 @ 1:32AM|#

Serious question:

Is there a regulation against showing up at an even like YearlyKos in uniform?

It may have to be a more explicitly political function. I just seem to recall there being some kind of regulations about things you do in uniform.

Doctor Gulag|8.8.07 @ 4:21AM|#

Ideology is the mind killer

|8.8.07 @ 9:57AM|#

Re: the sergeant who showed up and was shouted down by the moderator. I know Atrios also posted on it and there was a front page post on Kos on it as well. I recall seeing others post on it also. I don't think stating that lefty bloggers hardly even noticed is quite accurate. They didn't wallow in it ala their right-wing counterparts to be sure, but it was posted on and discussed.

|8.8.07 @ 11:34AM|#

Jon H,

The UCMJ forbids servicemembers from taking part in political activities while in uniform. Remember the anti-war protestor who was going to be given a less-than-honorable discharge for wearing camo, with no insignia, to a march?

This guy walked in in his uniform, with his rank, unit patch, and nametag, and started making political arguments in front of an audience and on camera.

|8.8.07 @ 1:42PM|#

If he were arguing against the success of the surge, he'd be facing court-martial by now. Of course, since he was arguing for the surge, I tend to suspect that the incident will somehow be... overlooked.

|8.8.07 @ 3:56PM|#

Shouted down is really not accurate. The video is out there take a look.

Turns out the sergeant was actually addressing a superior officer in the person of Captain Jon Soltz. The sergeant got plenty of words in without interruption. Basically he tried to justify the surge by saying US combat deaths were falling. That's not factual but he still was allowed to speak. Soltz did berate him for showing up in uniform which is a violation of regulations. Justifiably. The guy wanted to be a big media star and make a scene. Well he made a scene but ... watch the video. It was no big deal.

|8.8.07 @ 6:07PM|#

Y'know, that would have been a lot more entertaining if Malkin was in a bikini. Just sayin'.