A friend of mine just called and mentioned that his Dad (John Birch Society type) was all livid about some comments apparently made by Robert Reich. I had no idea what he was talking about so I googled the subject.
Apparently, the Right Wing media machine is trying to stir up muck concerning some comments Reich made a month or so ago regarding jobs to be created by federal stimulus money. Reich commented on the fact that union construction workers are overwhelmingly white males.
I am personally a white male construction worker and have worked as or with union workers for over twenty years, I can tell you that union construction workers are probably about 95% white males around here.
Reich made the point that if federal stimulus money is spent on construction projects, then likely a huge percentage of that money would go to white males, thus shutting out women and peole of color. (Makes sense to ME).
Reich went on to suggest ways to remedy the situation: "I’d suggest that all contracts entered into with stimulus funds require contractors to provide at least 20 percent of jobs to the long-term unemployed and to people with incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. And at least 2 percent of project funds should be allocated to such training. In addition, advantage should be taken of buildings trades apprenticeships — wich must be fully available to women and minorities.", said Reich.
Malkin quoted Reich's comments on her blog and then went on to twist the words and fabricate thoughts that never appeared in Reich's words. What did she say? Oh, the usual right wing bullshit. Read her blog if you really care what she said.
Her website is where it gets interesting. She has a list of links along the left side of her website. The links send you to a bunch of different websites, all of which support her insanity.
Of special interest were three other blogs that posted the exact same content as Michelle's blog. They quoted the Reich comments and then went on to post their own reworded version of Michelle's rant. All of which was designed to create the impression of a ground-swell of outrage against Reich.
All three of those blogs referred to Michelle Malkin's blog about the same subject. All three of those blogs invited others to comment, yet none of them had any significant comments. Do you think it's possible that Michelle basically has surrogates blogging about the exact same subjects as her and coming to the exact same insane conclusions?
Here's a link to Michelle's rant:
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/01/22/robert-reich-keep-stimulus-money-away-from-skilled-workers-and-white-male-contractors/Scroll down to the left and click the links to other comments about Reich and the stimulus money for a look at the "other" blogs.