Michelle has some well-intentioned critique for the Obama camp as it relates to defending the candidate against unsourced smears:

As I reported yesterday, Kurtz spent two hours on legendary radio talk show host Milt Rosenberg’s Chicago program on WGN last night detailing his initial findings. The Obama campaign went ballistic — and in typical Chicago mafia-style, smeared Kurtz and tried to shut down the show.

Ignoring that Michelle never does any original “reporting,” she does an interesting job of conflating many vintage attacks that have been used by the Blame America Last contingent.

The Obama/Ayers connection is an attempt at bringing 60s radicals, many of whom have entered the mainstream of society, back from the Weird/Bizarro/Scary/Acid Trip days. The terrorist allegations aren’t sticking. This is mainly because Ayers is now a middle-aged white guy. Other middle-aged white people see him standing on the American flag and shrug their shoulders. “He’s a professor, huh? Well, that’s nothing new.”

The “Chicago mafia-style” reference is also less-than-resonant. In no way does Obama’s supporters defending their man look anything like organized crime. If anything, what Michelle is complaining about resembles what Republican activists did back in 2000 to stop the recounts–something Michelle likely applauded.

And, of course, Michelle and “thuggery” cannot be mentioned together without reminding all of how she posted the personal phone numbers of members of Santa Cruz’s Students Against War. She wouldn’t remove them after a request. She responded, “You are responsible for your individual actions. Other individuals are responsible for theirs. Grow up and take responsibility.”

If only she gave Stanley Kurtz the same suggestion.

Gavin the Sadlynaught has it about right with this Shorter Right-O-Sphere:

Video Exclusive: Michelle Malkin Attacked At DNC

Ho-hum, we condemn the alleged plot to assassinate Barack. . .OH MY GOD, SOMEBODY YELLED AT MICHELLE MALKIN!

One, i.e., me, might conclude that Michelle can’t go out in public without running into members of The Unhinged Left. And that would explain at least one of the major themes of her oeuvre–that liberals, as a people, aren’t just crazier than their conservative counterparts, but they are less likely to reel in fringe elements.

Another conclusion: She just brings out the worst in people.

Update: As is the case with my entire oeuvre, this post is ill-informed and unreadable. David Neiwert has the goods on the man who accosted MM. Basically a solid STFU to Gateway Pundit.

Although I’ve been silent about what some bloggers are dubbing “Reutergate” (also “Billowgate” and “Slightly-More-Smokegate“) I’ve been following its unfolding.

I’ve found the following posts to be a good survey of my own thoughts on the topic.

• An LGF Watch Parody, Probably a photoshop…
• S,N!’s You Call This a Scandal?
• The Liberal Avenger’s In Defense of Reuters.

As with every blogswarm, there is something important to take away. The moral:

It’s journalistically unprofessional to alter photographs. If you get caught, you’re going to lose your job. (But if you can probably get away with it, because photo editors are overworked and underpaid. Increase your chances and your bankroll by cropping out limbless kids!)

Submorals:

1. Conservative bloggers are desperate for scandalous material pointing to international media bias. Anything to take the spotlight off of Israel’s total decimation of Lebanese infrastructure. (As evidenced by the posts linked above, this cannot be overstated.)
2. [Something to do with aerial dog feces. I haven’t fully derived this. Wingnut nutrition, I think.]
3. An impulsive and irrational contingent of outrage junkies is scouring the Prestigious Internet for photos that prove Capt. America was stabbed in the back with the dagger by Prof. Left in the library.

Of course the Second Universal Law of Political Blogging, the negation of Manshake’s tagline is true, has dictated the wingnutosphere’s behavior over the past few days. They are an amazing bunch; you’d think they didn’t have anything better to do.

Oliver Willis sent along a link to Michelle blaming the victim of a horrendous murder on O’Reilly’s show. Any decent, empathetic person would have responded to Bill’s question thusly: “The only person to blame for this act is the murderer. The killed do not choose their murderers; murderers choose their victims.”

It must be seen to be believed.

Yesterday marked the weakest blogging day out of Malkin Central in some time. (Discounting this past Saturday, of course.*) Not too surprising, because it comes after nearly 48 hours of vigorous updating wherein the troops she agrees with were given (con)textual backup (over an odious song). Maybe she’s been working on a post for The Immigration Blog, which hasn’t been updated since June 9th.

Then again the lag may be attributed, not to something as simple as “battle fatigue” a la 82nd Chairborne Brigade (cite), but to a barrage of fire coming from the Left-O-Sphere’s own A-List nasties. (We’ll know for sure if some not-so-glorifying emails find their way to the front page of MM.com later today.)

Warning: This post is long. If you find my prose tedious and boring, you may as well stop here.

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