(POL) Michelle Malkin - Frickin idiot.

[SirFozzie]

http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/a...achael_ray_ad/



Does Dunkin’ Donuts really think its customers could mistake Rachael Ray for a terrorist sympathizer? The Canton-based company has abruptly canceled an ad in which the domestic diva wears a scarf that looks like a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men.

Some observers, including ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, were so incensed by the ad that there was even talk of a Dunkin’ Donuts boycott.

‘‘The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,’’ Malkin yowls in her syndicated column.

‘‘Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.’’

The company at first pooh-poohed the complaints, claiming the black-and-white wrap was not a keffiyeh. But the right-wing drumbeat on the blogosphere continued and by yesterday, Dunkin’ Donuts decided it’d be easier just to yank the ad.

Somebody tell the Right-Kook-Wing (yes, there is a Left-Kook-Wing as well, so let's not get sidetracked here.) that.. ah fuck it. You can't tell the Kook Wingers of either side that they're living in a dream world.

[Young Drachma]

What's better is, they'll be patting themselves on the back about this now, saying "their pressure" made this happen, as if it was some sort of victory for America.

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

What's better is, they'll be patting themselves on the back about this now, saying "their pressure" made this happen, as if it was some sort of victory for America.

I wish Dunkin Donuts hadn't given in to the lunatic fringe. Hell, if people who'd read this kinda crap and actually believe this gross stupidity DID boycott Dunkin Donuts.. maybe there'd be less morons in front of me in line when I get my folks some coffee

[SirFozzie]

You know what, I'm glad I'm not in Dunkin donuts advertising right now, you know why?

My next ad would have been Rachel Ray in a burqua, and the first copy with the ad in it would have gone straight to Malkin with a coupon good for three full pounds of "Shut the **** Up, you crazy idiot"

[sabotai]

So how is this any different from all of the "Political Correctness gone wild" crap that her and those like her are constantly bitching about?

Spoiler

It isn't.

[sabotai]

BTW, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keffiyeh

It looks NOTHING like that!!

[Crapshoot]

Malkin is an evil bitch. Really, I don't even care to give her a whit of sympathy.

[Greyroofoo]

She does look threatening with that latte. Is it a bomb? Anthrax? Did she just steal US military secrets? My God, if the terrorists can steal military secrets in a Latte we are doom.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!

HELP US GHOST OF RONALD REAGAN!!!!!!!111111

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

You know what, I'm glad I'm not in Dunkin donuts advertising right now, you know why?

My next ad would have been Rachel Ray in a burqua, and the first copy with the ad in it would have gone straight to Malkin with a coupon good for three full pounds of "Shut the **** Up, you crazy idiot"

I kindof wish you were in Dunkin Donuts advertising right now. They're probably glad you aren't

SI

[RainMaker]

The irony in this whole thing is Australian, British, and U.S. troops all wear them over there.

[Schmidty]

I think this is great. Now if we can just get her to wear a Nazi armband on her other shows, we might never have to see her again!!!! Yay!!!

[KWhit]

What's troubling here is that the outrage really stems from the "mainstreaming" of something that is reminicent of muslim culture.

That to me indicates an incredible us vs. them mentality against Middle-Easterners as a whole that is incredibly dangerous for us as a country. People like Malkin don't want us to think of Middle Easterners as people like us in any way and something like this infuriates them.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Malkin is an annoying idiot, but I would hit it.

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by sabotai

BTW, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keffiyeh

It looks NOTHING like that!!

You came up with that link pretty damn fast, Achmed.

Sabotai? More like sabotage.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Shkspr

You came up with that link pretty damn fast, Achmed.

Sabotai? More like sabotage.

Heh.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

I think this is great. Now if we can just get her to wear a Nazi armband on her other shows, we might never have to see her again!!!! Yay!!!

I think this is idiotic beyond belief, but I'm with Schmidty here, I'm all for anything that keeps Ray off the air. She annoys.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Problem I'm having is that I really don't see that strong a resemblance. Maybe it's more pronounced in the complete spot at some point but based on the provided picture I'm just not seeing it.

[cartman]

Even if it were a keffiyeh, wouldn't it be more of an insult to the terroists that a woman is wearing it, since it is supposed to be worn by men, than an example of terrorist appeasement? Sounds like a slow righteous indignation week if this caused that much of an uproar.

[Flasch186]

i dunno what I see in her right hand is a gun getting ready to be pointed at me. Thank god someone caught this before it scared the children.

[Passacaglia]

At least she wasn't holding a Mocha.

[albionmoonlight]

I beleive in expansive gun rights.
I believe that universal health care is not the right solution for America.
I beleive that states should have the right to ban abortions.
I beleive that private companies should have the right to discriminate without the fear of lawsuits.
I beleive that things like smoking bans, fois gras bans, etc. are an undesirable expansion of government power.
I beleive that things like government sponsored busing, affirmative action, and the like violate the Constitution and should be stopped.

And people like Michelle Makin and Ann Coulter mean that I will vote Democratic in pretty much every relevant election for the foreseeable future.

I have no idea how representative I am of any sort of a moderate middle. But part of me suspects that for every dyed-in-the-wool neocon who listens to Makin and chuckles while saying "yeah, Arabs suck," there is one moderate conservative who feels that much more alienated from the GOP.

Xenophobia, homophobia, and whatever other kinds of phobias motivate these people do not seem like the basis for a sustainable political majority in the United States.

[Mustang]

Time to make the baklava

[Toddzilla]

(POL) The sun rises in the east

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

And people like Michelle Makin and Ann Coulter mean that I will vote Democratic in pretty much every relevant election for the foreseeable future.

Malkin and Coulter are extreme examples of conservatism. In some ways, they give conservatism a bad name the same way that Michael Moore gives liberalism a bad name. Malkin, Coulter and Moore are all the same, they're all agitators and are out there to make a name for themselves, not the good of their parties.

[B & B]

[Swaggs]

I remember her, on Hardball w/ Chris Matthews, during the 2004 election suggesting that John Kerry had purposely gotten injured in Vietnam so that he could win Purple Hearts.

[King of New York]

Rachel Ray is a terrorist. Period.

Her weapon of choice is trans-fatty acids, with which she is killing millions of westerners. Slowly.

Millions.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

there is one moderate conservative who feels that much more alienated from the GOP.

Xenophobia, homophobia, and whatever other kinds of phobias motivate these people do not seem like the basis for a sustainable political majority in the United States.

I don't vote Democrat much at all, but I agree with what you're saying wholly, even if I have slightly different views on the policy issues you brought up. I've long felt alienated by the strain of the party that insists on putting xenophobia ahead of principles and common sense.

[JediKooter]

What the hell is Dunkin Donuts????

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

What the hell is Dunkin Donuts????

They only have the second best coffee behind Tim Hortons!

[CamEdwards]

I think the real sin is wearing a scarf with a short-sleeved t-shirt. Well, that and being Rachael Ray in the first place.

As for the xenophobic wing of the Republican Party... I guess maybe I'm a moderate xenophobe? I actually BOUGHT my wife a kuffiyah for Christmas a few years ago, but at the same time would never allow one of my children to wear a Che Guevara t-shirt.

I also do believe we're a bit too touchy-feely when it comes to the threat posed by fundamentalist Islam, but attacking Rachael Ray's outfit seems to be one of the silliest ways to draw attention to the threat that fundamentalist Islam poses. In fact, I'd argue it does more harm than good, because it makes people think you're a silly crank who imagines terrorists and terrorist sympathizers at every donut shop.

Still, I can't say that the fact that Ann Coulter exists stops me from voting for a Republican, any more than Michael Moore has prevented me from voting for a Democrat. There is an abundance of assholes in politics these days, and unfortunately it's a truly non-partisan trait.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

I think this is great. Now if we can just get her to wear a Nazi armband on her other shows, we might never have to see her again!!!! Yay!!!

But she's hot!!! Just mute the TV when she comes on.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Shkspr

You came up with that link pretty damn fast, Achmed.

It's spelled A*flem*med, thank you very much! Wassalaam.

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by samifan24

Malkin and Coulter are extreme examples of conservatism. In some ways, they give conservatism a bad name the same way that Michael Moore gives liberalism a bad name. Malkin, Coulter and Moore are all the same, they're all agitators and are out there to make a name for themselves, not the good of their parties.

+1

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by samifan24

Malkin and Coulter are extreme examples of conservatism. In some ways, they give conservatism a bad name the same way that Michael Moore gives liberalism a bad name. Malkin, Coulter and Moore are all the same, they're all agitators and are out there to make a name for themselves, not the good of their parties.

You forgot Al Franken. But the point is definitely correct: there are crackpots on both sides of the fence, many of them getting great publicity.

It's been fun to follow CNN.com's attempts to get Hillary back in the race, for example

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by bsak16

They only have the second best coffee behind Tim Hortons!

Can't say I've heard of him, but, then again, I don't drink coffee...

You want some good donuts though, go to the Donut Wheel in Cupertino. They have some damn fine maple bars.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

You forgot Al Franken. But the point is definitely correct: there are crackpots on both sides of the fence, many of them getting great publicity.

True, but there are just so many more (and more popular) on the conservative side of things. It's not even close.

I really enjoyed this "spot on" assessment of this type of nonsense that too many "popular" conservatives have stooped to over the last several years.

Political discourse is at an all time low.

The video is pretty amusing.
Conservative principles backslide



BY LEONARD PITTS JR. • KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS • May 24, 2008

Don't read this column yet.

First, I want you to do something. Google "Chris Matthews + Kevin James." This will bring up video of the latter, a conservative L.A. radio pundit, being questioned by the former last week on MSNBC's "Hardball." You must see this video.

For the Internet-deprived, here's a recap: James goes on "Hardball" to comment on a speech President George W. Bush gave before the Israeli Knesset in which he accused unnamed politicians -- read: Sen. Barack Obama -- of a policy of appeasement toward terrorists. Bush evoked the memory of Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister whose attempted appeasement of Adolf Hitler made him one of the more thoroughly discredited figures of the 20th Century.

James goes off like fireworks, blasting Obama's willingness to talk to the nation's enemies and accusing him of policies detrimental to Israel. And Matthews asks him a simple question: What did Chamberlain do? You're defending a speech that equates Obama with him, so what was his sin?
James couldn't answer. He could bluster, sputter and spread fertilizer like a gardener, but he couldn't answer. This became painfully obvious each time Matthews doggedly repeated the question.

What Chamberlain did -- he gave Hitler a chunk of Czechoslovakia in exchange for what he thought was "peace in our time" -- is not some "Jeopardy!" obscurity. It is, rather, a pivot on which turned perhaps the bloodiest tragedy in human history. Yet Kevin James knows nothing about it.

If anything more aptly symbolizes the regression of conservatism since the age of Reagan, I am not aware of it.

Some will say it's unfair to paint thoughtful conservatives with the same brush one uses to tar this blowhard. I would suggest the very need to use that modifier speaks volumes.

There was once a day when conservatism was driven by principles: smaller government, less-intrusive government, strong national defense, fiscal sobriety. But in the years since that day, the putative heirs to Reagan have trampled not just those principles, but also principle itself.

The ideology that wanted small government now presides over expanded government; the one that wanted less intrusion now seeks to regulate bedroom behavior; the one that demanded strong national defense has run the military into the ground; the one that championed fiscal sobriety turned a $236-billion budget surplus into a $400-billion deficit.

And if thoughtful conservatives see the disconnect, if they have the intellectual integrity to find it shameful, the news flash is, thoughtful conservatives no longer predominate their ideology.

No, that honor goes to unthoughtful conservatives, the loud, proudly ignorant voices of talk radio, books and television of which Kevin James is now the poster child. Matthews kept asking him to explain the sins of Chamberlain and he kept crying, "Appeasement! Appeasement!" clinging to the words like a drowning man to a raft.

That's what people like him do. They are geniuses at rhetoric ("War on Christmas," anyone?) that rouses the rabble and lets them feel aggrieved, while simultaneously having the intellectual heft of cotton balls. But they can no more step beyond that rhetoric than Gilligan could step off his island. There is no there, there.

Still, every once in a while, one is required to stand and deliver. His inability to do so says everything you need to know about James and his brand of conservatism.

During the MSNBC interview, his opposite number, Mark Green of the liberal Air America radio network, gave James some advice: "When you're in a hole, stop digging."

James, whose station, KRLA, might want to rethink its slogan -- "Intelligent. Conservative." -- did not listen.

So I figure he's halfway to China by now. If we're lucky, he'll take the other unthoughtful conservatives with him.

[KWhit]

The problem, HB, is that that kind of rhetoric works. And the right is much better at it than the left.

Does "Flip - Flop" ring a bell?

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by KWhit

The problem, HB, is that that kind of rhetoric works. And the right is much better at it than the left.

Does "Flip - Flop" ring a bell?

Oh, I know it does. People eat it up.

And, I agree, it certainly is a problem.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by bsak16

They only have the second best coffee behind Tim Hortons!

Am I the only one who gets the runs when I occasionally drink coffee?

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

Am I the only one who gets the runs when I occasionally drink coffee?

The runs? No, but I tend to drink a lot of coffee. That said, coffee is an intergral part of the morning process. It helps get things moving.

[Maple Leafs]

First, I want you to do something. Google "Chris Matthews + Kevin James." This will bring up video of the latter, a conservative L.A. radio pundit, being questioned by the former last week on MSNBC's "Hardball." You must see this video.

I hadn't seen that before.

Um... wow.

[molson]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

I wish Dunkin Donuts hadn't given in to the lunatic fringe. Hell, if people who'd read this kinda crap and actually believe this gross stupidity DID boycott Dunkin Donuts.. maybe there'd be less morons in front of me in line when I get my folks some coffee

It's kind of annoying that they think that, but more than anything else, it just highlights to the public how ridiculous they are.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

I hadn't seen that before.

Um... wow.

It's pretty funny, but Chris Matthews does the same stuff to liberal guests who are typically just as stupid.

There's a clip on youtube where Matthews demands that a Obama supporter name one of his legislative accomplishments. He can't, and Matthews won't let it go.

[molson]

Originally Posted by KWhit

What's troubling here is that the outrage really stems from the "mainstreaming" of something that is reminicent of muslim culture.

That to me indicates an incredible us vs. them mentality against Middle-Easterners as a whole that is incredibly dangerous for us as a country. People like Malkin don't want us to think of Middle Easterners as people like us in any way and something like this infuriates them.

Agreed. Is Disney's Aladdin still on the shelves?

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by molson

It's pretty funny, but Chris Matthews does the same stuff to liberal guests who are typically just as stupid.

That's great. I wish more reporters did that (instead of just writing down whatever both sides say and calling it a day).

[Flasch186]

like a sieve

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by CamEdwards

I also do believe we're a bit too touchy-feely when it comes to the threat posed by fundamentalist Islam, but attacking Rachael Ray's outfit seems to be one of the silliest ways to draw attention to the threat that fundamentalist Islam poses. In fact, I'd argue it does more harm than good, because it makes people think you're a silly crank who imagines terrorists and terrorist sympathizers at every donut shop.

This is how I feel whenever some overly PC whack jobs start railing on the use of Native Americans as college mascots or whenever PETA happens to do something stupid and outrageous (which pretty much almost every day for PETA.)

[duckman]

Just give me a few minutes and I'll fuck the stupid out of her.

[JW]

But then Chris Matthews gets tingles up his legs when he hears Obama speak, and worse, tells everyone he does.

This is the kind of stuff a lot of people on both sides of the spectrum want to listen to and read. There's Hannity. There's Olbermann. And so it goes.