One of Rush Limbaugh's pet pundits Michelle Malkin has been invited by California Patriots, the politically conservative campus group at Cal, to speak about her book In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror. Her talk is likely to focus on criticism of her book from the left, the role of racial profiling in our current War on Terror and her experiences as an author, New York Post columnist and television personality. Some readers may remember the heated exchange between Ms. Malkin, Chris Matthews and our own Willie Brown on MSNBC's Hardball, which Ms. Malkin posted about on her site.
1115.org has made their feelings known by featuring Ms. Malkin in one of their biting STFU pieces, and Ana Marie Wonkette has also weighed in on the issue. SFist also wants to point out that the children and grandchildren of interned Japanese Americans will have a hard time swallowing some of her arguments - and Muslim students at Cal, who by her own account should be viewed with suspicion as potential terrorists based on their ethnic background, are probably none too pleased with her appearance. SFist remembers reading Farewell to Manzanar in grade school and thinks the camps and their justifications were truly regrettable. We thought we were all clear on this when Reagan apologized for it, but Ms. Malkin disagrees.
The speech will be tomorrow night at 7:00pm in 145 Dwinelle Hall on campus.