What a day. Lots of conservatives laying into other conservatives. So refreshing. Today, one of my least favorite bloggers seems to have had an epiphanous moment, recognizing Michelle Malkin for the unbridled, unapologetic racist she so proudly is. His complaint is that Malkin fails to draw distinctions between Muslims and Muslims who commit acts of terrorism. He says, quite rightly, that her lumping them together as a single enemy would be akin to the US in WWII declaring a war to the death with all people of Germanic heritage, or with all Asian people. This, of course, is what Malkin and her soulmate Charles Johnson do every day – they insist all Muslims are potential terrorists and enemies

I will note again, as I often have, that during World War II there were Filipinos who were ethnically Japanese and who spoke Japanese, but who allied with us against the Japanese Empire. Fought and in some cases died alongside our boys in the South Pacific. Some of them were even United States citizens, and served invaluable roles as translators and in propaganda efforts (and “propaganda” is not a necessarily a dirty word by the way).

Furthemore the Chinese, as much as they “looked Japanese” to American eyes, were also welcome allies against Tojo’s Japan.

I think that many of America’s rightists–including, sadly, Michelle Malkin–have done a piss-poor job of making such vital distinctions. Indeed, I would like to publicly challenge Michelle Malkin: you’ve said you’ve stopped using terms like “Islamo-fascist” and “Islamic radicals” because they don’t make sense. Oh really? Then how is it, Michelle, that you guys at Hot Air and Michellemalkin.com still approvingly highlight statements by America’s Iraqi and Afghan allies, like Hamid Karzai and Nouri al-Maliki? They are Muslims. Born and bred Muslims. They’re Muslims right now. They will almost certainly die Muslim. So why do you treat them like enemies and liars?

I’m making an open appeal to your conscience, Michelle Malkin, and to the conscience of conservatives everywhere: shouldn’t you start making a distinction between Muslims who hate us and want to kill us, and Muslims who believe in freedom, democracy, and religious tolerance?

Conscience? What conscience?? Somewhere in that filthy, spider-webbed attic that is Michelle’s mind, you may find an odd remnant or or two of what used to be her conscience, but trust me, those faded little pieces are beyond repair. When she wrote a book endorsing the internment of entire races, she threw away her soul, and there’s no retrieving it. Someone as smart as Esmay – not my favorite blogger, but no idiot – surely understands this.

He lives in Hangzhou, his IP address is 60.190.253.150 and he is posting insane comments as fast as I can delete them. (He’s also friends with another one of everyone’s favorite trolls, and I have reason to think it’s a group effort, based on a recent incident in the Duckpond – IP addresses don’t lie.). If I can’t catch them all, please quickly scroll past them, and don’t let the two of them ruin the site. They’re trying as hard as they can. Some people have way too much time on their hands.

Don’t believe me? Just look over here. If it’s in People’ Daily, it must be true.

Via an amusing post from the Weifang Radish.

[NOTE: My apologies for deleting this post last night and then re-posting it. It’s a long story.]

This is a funny story. And yes, the “major blog” he refers to is Peking Duck. It was quite comical. As the blogger says, there are some mischievous people out there “with too much time on their hands.” Tell me about it.

Read the shocking story of institutionalized thuggery and see the photorgaphs over here. A real horror story, with some light at the end of the tunnel, the Southern Metropolis Daily is making the story known to all.

Time is short so I have to be brief. I just got back from an event sponsored by the Economist at which two excellent speakers discussed Taiwan’s macroeconomic situation, and then related it to more personal issues, such as how the Taiwanese see their futures, how they save their money and how they look at China. What came out of this discussion and the following Q & A was familiar to anyone who’s attended all the American Chamber of Commerce luncheons that I have: Taiwan is in the grip of a spiritual depression, mainly due to its inferiority complex which in turn is due to the long dark shadow Mainland China casts on all of its neighbors.

Again, this is old news. Plenty of people in Hong Kong and Singapore will tell you the same thing. What I got out of today’s session was the realization that much of this malaise might be part of a self-fulfilling prophesy, namely the stubborn belief that Taiwan is doomed to slow down and become irrelevant as China grows. Now, there’s plenty of evidence to show that this is partly true, but also plenty of counter-evidence to show the situation is not nearly so dire as those on the street believe. Taiwan’s forex reserves are the third or fourth highest in Asia (depending what week you look); it’s one of the world’s leaders in foreign investment; the wealth here is nothing to sneer at; and despite all the doom and gloom, Taiwan’s GDP has been growing at a respectable 4.1 percent a year. Not orgasm-inducing numbers, but nothing to weep over, either.

And yet, talk to anyone here and there is a tone of resignation and reticence. Taiwan’s glory days are over. The only place to be is China. Taiwan’s markets can only contract, including its job market. And yet, even in the face of downsizing and all kinds of pressures brought on by increased globalization, most of the multinationals here are doing quite well. No, not as spectacularly as some are doing in the PRC, but not so poorly as to merit swallowing the hemlock. This is still an exceptionally vibrant economy, unvexed by inflation or rampant corruption. (No, I’m not saying there’s no corruption in the government, only that the corruption that there is doesn’t drasticaly affect people’s lives and pocketbooks as in places like China and Indonesia and the Philippines.)

One of the speakers said a lot of the misery is caused by today’s political mess, and that nearly everyone agrees that 2008 will be “the magical year” when optimism once again surges in Taiwan. And he might be right; the animosity toward Chen in particular and politicians in general right now is so ripe you can smell it. If that’s what will make the diference, then I hope 2008 comes as fast as possible (especially since that’s the year Bush, too, gets the heave-ho).

It’s just too bad that so manyTaiwanese today see only bleakness in the cards, and that, at least according to one speaker, they then use this bleakness to feed a self-fulfilling prophesy of failure. They presume they cannot soar, so they don’t aim high. They presume they can’t have more so they settle for less. They presume the future is a closed book so they cancel their dreams. It’s a sad phenomenon, since the numbers simply do not support such melancholy. Let’s hope the malaise is as temporary as possible, because it’s nothing less than a cancer that creates a chain-reaction of doubt, insecurity and impotency. The malaise is real, even if its cause is not. If the solution is a new leader who can inspire the people and lift them up, I welcome him or her with open arms, no matter which party they belong to.

For the last two paragraphs alone…

Fill ‘Er Up With Dictators
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: September 27, 2006

What’s a matter? No sense of humor? You didn’t enjoy watching Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez addressing the U.N. General Assembly and saying of President Bush: ‘The devil came here yesterday, right here. It smells of sulfur still today.’ Many U.N. delegates roared with laughter.

Oh well then, you must have enjoyed watching Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad breezing through New York City, lecturing everyone from the U.N. to the Council on Foreign Relations on the evils of American power and how the Holocaust was just a myth.

(more…)

So what else is new? This time, it’s a report from the publication Nature on how global warming may be providing new fuel for hurricanes.

The Bush administration has blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported Tuesday. The possibility that warming conditions may cause storms to become stronger has generated debate among climate and weather experts, particularly in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

In the new case, Nature said weather experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration part of the
Commerce Department in February set up a seven-member panel to prepare a consensus report on the views of agency scientists about global warming and hurricanes.

According to Nature, a draft of the statement said that warming may be having an effect. In May, when the report was expected to be released, panel chair Ants Leetmaa received an e-mail from a Commerce official saying the report needed to be made less technical and was not to be released, Nature reported. Leetmaa, head of NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in New Jersey, did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

Well, we wouldn’t want to issue reports that are too technical, would we? Most. Dishonest. Administration. Ever.

An absolute must-read.

Whether you love Bill Clinton or hate him, one thing cannot be denied: the man knows how to communicate. A lot of righties are portraying his now-famous interview on Fox news as proof that he has no self-control, that he became “unhinged” and “hysterical.” One blogger I read made a big deal about how fat he looked. The bottom line, however, was that this interview was Clinton’s finest hour and finally Fox got hoisted on its own petard. Again, the right saw Clinton’s passion as a sign of insanity. But trust me on this one: if Bush ever, even once, could come across as that articulate, passionate and intellectually uncompromising as Clinton did the right would be standing up cheering him on with tears in their eyes.

This is the single best post I’ve seen to date on the interview. Read it first, then tell me how wrong I am about Clinton.

Update: Everyone has to make up his or her own mind. The video is being scrubbed from the Internet but it can still be seen here.

Also, this clip from the Nation blog referenced above says it all:

When a beaten Wallace tried to cover for himself – “…all I can say is, I’m asking you in good faith because it’s on people’s minds, sir. And I wasn’t…” – Clinton nailed him: “There’s a reason it’s on people’s minds. That’s the point I’m trying to make. There’s a reason it’s on people’s minds because they’ve done a serious disinformation campaign to create that impression.”

Love Bill Clinton or hate him, but understand that his appearance on Fox New Sunday was one of those rare moments in recent American history when a target of our drive-by media shot back.

Yes. As I said, if one of their (the right’s) own had pulled this off, instead of foaming at the mouth they’d be lauding him as a hero. But this is Clinton. All Clinton has to do is show up and they foam at the mouth.