Another Wingnut Obsession a Lie
March 24, 2007 -- 10:27 AM EST // //
Here's a little light weekend entertainment for you: Our first installment of "Another Wingnut Obsession a Lie," or AWOL -- as in awol from reality, decency, sanity.
Today's edition of AWOL stars Michelle Malkin and winger Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs. For days now, Malkin and Johnson -- with an assist from Drudge and other righties -- have been pretending to be outraged by the fact that protesters burned a U.S. soldier in effigy and did other loathsome things during an antiwar protest in Portland. They are both desperately trying to turn this into something representative of antiwar sentiment as a whole, but in a laughably dishonest way.
The reason this is worth our time is that it's part of a much larger winger campaign of desperation to seize on isolated nutty and despicable acts to shore up the rapidly collapsing GOP argument that the Antiwar Majority's opposition to the war is anti-troops. This campaign relies on everything from lies like today's edition of AWOL to evoking cultural memories of allegedly spat-upon Vietnam veterans. Gotta knock it down every time it pops up.
So here's today's version. Johnson and Malkin are both making very loud noises of outrage about this editorial in the Portland Tribune. They are pointing to parts of the editorial highlighting various disgusting and loony acts by a few of the protesters, which led to a standoff with police and arrests. Johnson claims somberly that this represents "a new low for the antiwar movement," while Malkin sagely opines: "A few fringe actors? Not."
But wait -- guess who doesn't think this nutty behavior represents the "antiwar movement," and does think it was the work of a "few fringe actors"? The police who battled the protesters, that's who! Elsewhere in the very same paper Johnson and Malkin quote from to make their bogus argument, there's also this:
According to police spokeswoman Officer Cathe Kent, the confrontation began when a splinter group at the end of the march tried to pull a bicycle patrol officer into their group..."This was a splinter group. It was not the group we negotiated with for weeks before the march. Those people had a peaceful march and went home," said Kent.
Even better, here's an excerpt from the very same editorial cited by both Malkin and Johnson that for some reason wasn't quoted by them:
The vast majority of the estimated 15,000 protesters who took part in a peace march Sunday in downtown Portland did just that. They were well-behaved, well-intentioned and serious about their cause...Most of the people who marched on Sunday fully understand [that violence harms their cause]. And by singling out the few who didnât, we donât intend to place thousands of demonstrators under one label.
Best part of all: Of the estimated 15,000 who marched, only 14 were arrested for various low-level charges. That's less than .1 percent, students.
As Atrios would say, Swatting flies.
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