Michelle Malkin is apparently speaking for the Jewish people now (see "The John Doe Manifesto" at Jewish World Review). Which is odd, because she's not Jewish. To the extent that I identify with my Jewish heritage, I certainly don't want her speaking for me. But Malkin is hateful and unhinged, and she did write a book (despite a serious lack of scholarly ability!) called In Defense of Internment (about WWII), and she does write an anti-Muslim, anti-Arab blog, and apparently that's all you need to get published on JWR, which I can only assume is utter right-wing trash. Chris Kelly (HuffPo) describes her post, in which she is, as far as I can tell, trying to start something like a cross between the KKK and the Gestapo:
Most Americans just rolled over and surrendered when Arab terrorists took over the government and the media, but not Michelle Malkin.
She's fighting back. By starting a club.
All you have to do to join is report everyone you see who seems to be a foreigner. Or who seems to tolerate foreigners. Or who may be thinking foreigner-tolerating thoughts.
It's like the Junior Spies in 1984, only totally fun.
It's called The John Doe Movement and it's got an oath and everything. And if you join not only will you fight Islamofascism, but you can also come to Michelle's house after school, have a healthy snack, and play with her Breyer Horses. Well, not play with them. But, you know, look at them.
You also get a button. Wanna sign up?
Ms. Malkin even has a Manifesto!; she is apparently trying to draw on the cultural capital of Karl Marx. The John Doe Manifesto (sidenote: since she's the author, shouldn't it be Jane Doe?) looks exactly like what one would expect to be trumpeted by FOX as the terrorist-writing of an Islamofascist, if only we substitute "Jew" for "Muslim" and "Mohammed" for "John Doe." But that can't be, because she's unquestionably a freedom fighter, struggling desperately to save America from the liberals and/or terrorists -- any similarities must be imagined by me.
She's reacting, you see, to the "six publicity-seeking imams" (odd for a media whore to accuse others of being publicity-seeking, isn't it?) who filed a lawsuit after being forcibly detained, prohibited from flying, and questioned for seven hours because they were seen praying in the airport terminal before their flight boarded.
Dear Muslim Terrorist Plotter/Planner/Funder/Enabler/Apologist,
You do not know me. But I am on the lookout for you. You are my enemy. And I am yours.
I am John Doe.
I am traveling on your plane. I am riding on your train. I am at your bus stop. I am on your street. I am in your subway car. I am on your lift.
I am your neighbor. I am your customer. I am your classmate. I am your boss.
I am John Doe.
I will never forget the example of the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 who refused to sit back on 9/11 and let themselves be murdered in the name of Islam without a fight.
I will never forget the passengers and crew members who tackled al Qaeda shoe-bomber Richard Reid on American Airlines Flight 63 before he had a chance to blow up the plane over the Atlantic Ocean.
I will never forget the alertness of actor James Woods, who notified a stewardess that several Arab men sitting in his first-class cabin on an August 2001 flight were behaving strangely. The men turned out to be 9/11 hijackers on a test run.
I will act when homeland security officials ask me to "report suspicious activity."
I will embrace my local police department’s admonition: "If you see something, say something."
I am John Doe.
I will protest your Jew-hating, America-bashing "scholars."
I will petition against your hate-mongering mosque leaders.
I will raise my voice against your subjugation of women and religious minorities.
I will challenge your attempts to indoctrinate my children in our schools.
I will combat your violent propaganda on the Internet.
I am John Doe.
I will support law enforcement initiatives to spy on your operatives, cut off your funding, and disrupt your murderous conspiracies.
I will oppose all attempts to undermine our borders and immigration laws.
I will resist the imposition of sharia principles and sharia law in my taxi cab, my restaurant, my community pool, the halls of Congress, our national monuments, the radio and television airwaves, and all public spaces.
I will not be censored in the name of tolerance.
I will not be cowed by your Beltway lobbying groups in moderate clothing. I will not cringe when you shriek about "profiling" or "Islamophobia."
I will put my family's safety above sensitivity. I will put my country above multiculturalism.
I will not submit to your will. I will not be intimidated.
I am John Doe.
This... um... okay. Kelly again: "Does Michelle Malkin believe the things she writes? Is she five? Is she living in a parallel universe where Afghanistan is occupying us? Can you sit down and type, 'I will not submit to your will,' to a hypothetical Arab teenager and not feel a little ... silly?"
Seriously, what is she on? This is how the right thinks? Even if she's just a war profiteer, the base is listening and believing. Frightening, that.
Malkin is a vicious and nasty piece of work. Her meanness is not even tempered by the slightly laughable and performative flame throwing of Ann Coulter, the right wing drama queen. M.M. is deadly serious when she supports internment of "domestic enemies," spying on Muslims and kicking out immigrants. The last one is especially ironic because she herself is a child of immigrants. But then that has never stopped some from yanking off the ladder once they themselves are safely ensconced within the free and prosperous confines of the US of A.
I hate the word "b***h,"(except when describing a female dog) - a peculiarly denigrating slur against women which has no male equivalent. But on the very rare occasion that this insult is on the tip of my tongue, is when I am confronted by an out and out fascist like Malkin.
And Joe, best of luck for the finals.
Posted by: Ruchira Paul | April 03, 2007 at 09:02 AM
Here is an article describing the thoughts of some descendants of interned Japanese Americans. What a contrast to Malkin!
Posted by: Ruchira Paul | April 03, 2007 at 09:38 AM
Is for real - or someone's idea of a sick April Fool's joke ?
Don't they find irony in their coined term 'Islamofascist' ?
Posted by: BongoP'o'ndit | April 03, 2007 at 10:08 AM
Thanks Ruchira.
Bongo: sadly, she was entirely serious. If you read her blog, you'll see that much of what she says is consistent with this "John Doe Manifesto."
Posted by: Joe | April 03, 2007 at 08:14 PM
She's Jewish by injection, as is my Lutheran wife, or so she claims after a couple drinks. What's Michelle drinking?
Posted by: mr.ed | April 18, 2007 at 07:59 AM
She really gets mad and even funnier when it's pointed out that she's being immature and silly (intil someone gets their eye poked out)...so that's what I usually do, while waiting for her train to crash, as we know it will, when she finally opens her eyes and sees that the world she hates is a reflection of what's inside of her...and stuff like that.
Posted by: Doug L | April 18, 2007 at 10:51 AM
definatly agree with you.
Posted by: Jamal | May 12, 2007 at 02:25 PM