Category Archives: Daily Kos
KOSFEST and The ‘New Rush’
While the normal tactics over at ‘Orange’ are very much like the cutting of microphones (locking of accounts), petty demagogy (troll ratings) and appeal to the same type of sycophantic retrograde morons (kossacks) that are utilized on The O’Reilly Factor the point is well made that Kos and his slithering minions are exactly the sort of squadrons of angry winged monkeys that have long been lacking as a counter to the Freepers, Dittoheads and other bullies and frustrated thumb sucking dipshits on the extreme right, as Dionne puts it:
Daily Kos is often described as liberal, but it is, more than anything, partisan. Its core assumption is that ideological conservatives made the Republican Party their vehicle and rallied in lock step against Democrats. The party of FDR and JFK needed to find the same discipline. The key litmus tests for Kos and his many allies in the blogosphere involve not long lists of issues developed by the American Civil Liberties Union or the AFL-CIO, but loyalty in standing up against Bush and doing what’s necessary to build a Democratic majority.
And just as Limbaugh aroused passionate opposition on the left, so has Kos become the object of conservative rage. In the lead-up to Moulitsas’s Chicago gathering, Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly, a right-wing showman who knows a threat when he sees one, has gone after Kos. “There’s no question that the most vile stuff imaginable is posted on this hate site and others like it,” O’Reilly said Tuesday.
O’Reilly is irate that the leading Democratic presidential candidates are showing up this weekend. “The far left wants a quasi-socialistic economy and a one-world foreign policy, where national security decisions are made only with the approval of other countries,” O’Reilly fumed. “So that’s the soup the Democratic presidential candidates will be dining on when they show up at the Kos convention.”
I’m not in the habit of giving advice to Bill O’Reilly, but there’s always a first time: Liberal rage at Rush Limbaugh not only was useless, but it actually strengthened his credibility with the right. (I speak from experience.) Bill, I bet Markos loves what you’re doing.
Personally, I dislike the use of obscenity on the Web, and many online posts are way too nasty. But the right wing, suddenly so concerned with the niceties of political discourse, did not worry much about what its militants said about Clinton, Al Gore or John Kerry. Limbaugh even blamed the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on a president who had been out of office for eight months. I’m still waiting for his apology.
I have my own documented history of problems with Zuniga and Daily Kos, many are personal and the others are because I detest electoral politics, censorship sucking up to candidates to curry favoritism at the expense of ideology or a unifying mission to take back this country from the war pigs, Social Darwinists and Rapture freaks who have taken it hostage but as the saying goes, nothing unites like a common enemy and I would encourage everybody to take some shots of their own at that loudmouthed prick O’Reilly as well as the rest of the Republican noise machine moonbats to take their raving, anti-American asses down a peg or three. It’s time for total war against the fifth columnist filth that has polluted the airwaves in this country for far too long with their Gestapo tactics and uncanny ability to rouse the rabble.
Blogswarmed by Cyber Stalin’s Soldiers of Orange
Bleating and babbling I fell on his neck with a scream,Wave after wave of demented avengers
March cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.
Have you heard the news?
The dogs are dead!
You better stay home
And do as you’re told.
Get out of the road if you want to grow old.
Pink Floyd- Sheep
The opening salvo by longtime contributor Maryscott O’Connor started out with:
This is one of those times.
There is a sort of groupthink, Lord of the Flies kind of behaviour at DKos over certain issues that absolutely makes me nauseated.”
The author, an outstanding writer in her own right went on to call into question the behavior of many of the members of the hottest left wing blog going regarding their witch hunt mentality (personally I compare it a drunken lynch mob fired up by some ranting demagogue in a beer hall) and crushing of certain dissenting opinions. The treatment by the head honcho toward the Democratic Party’s sacrifice of Paul Hackett was also addressed and it sent shock waves reverberating throughout the Kos-O-Sphere. I wrote a piece back when Hackett was thrown under the bus by the slimy corporate fucks in the DLC and believe me, it still makes me want to throw up. Sleazy bastards like Rahm Emanuel and the rest of the reprehensible Vichy accommodators whose mortal fear of derailing the status quo far exceeds their will to participate in a true democracy are the real reason why the Republican menace has been running roughshod and is hell bent on unleashing their jack-booted armies of brownshirted thugs….there is no fucking opposition! The DLC sold out the working class long ago and until there is a serious move by the Democrats and their progressive mouthpieces to address this we will forever be trapped in an endless cycle of “GOD, GAYS & GUNS” and other inflammatory social issues that distract from the looting and crushing of dissenters.
That being said, the shit hit the fan on DK and the fan was on high sparing nobody from getting showered by the spray. The mindless rush to attack the messenger reminded me of nothing short than the Bushist Gestapo pouring out of their megachurches after a particularly ‘uplifting’ Hellfire and Brimstone anti-liberal sermon, the loyalty as intense as the dumb bastards stormed the beaches oblivious to the thundering artillery and whithering machine gun fire in order to wage total war for their leader even if they are cut to pieces in the process.
Here is a sample of some of the comments from the both fronts of the battle and I am not listing aliases nor changing names to protect the innocent just listing some of the more provocative or otherwise inane comments, there were between both sites nearly 1,650 of them (and of course the ones hidden or deleted by the Kostapo):
I certainly threw around my share of ‘Fucks’ during my tenure but there is no crying in baseball and blogging isn’t for sissies. I will however try to watch my fucking language in the future.
Key Word: O’Reilly!
Sneetches? And as far as this guy’s prediction goes it isn’t officially false until after Nov. 8th.
Blah blah me blah blah blah me me me. Me me blah blah me me me myself.
Blah blah me blah blah blah me me me.Me me blah blah me me me myself.
Blah blah me blah blah blah me me me.Me me blah blah me me me myself.
Blah blah me blah blah blah me me me.Me me blah blah me me me myself.
Blah blah me blah blah blah me me me. Me me blah blah me me me myself.”
I shit you not about that one.
If you cannot smell THAT?
Then I got yer diatribe, right HERE!!!”
Now THAT’s a fucking diatribe!
Nothing personal of course….
“Gazing in awe at the carnage*:
Un. Be. Lievable. It looks like WWIII in the comments and hidden comments section here. Congrats MSOC: you actually got an Armando flame war, a Kos flame war, and an MSOC flame war all on one thread (with a handful of trolls to boot!)!
Sorry I missed it.
FWIW, I almost never agree with Maryscott, but I’m tentatively with her on this one. Even the appearance of impropriety can do immeasurable damage to the netroots, and like it or not, we will be held to a higher standard.
Because people are looking for someone who upholds a higher standard.
Comment tentatively approved by Supreme Overlord Kos”
For some reason I particularly liked that one.
Dkos is just at a certain level in the evolution of organization. It is the nature of organization, and MLWers will have to work very hard to keep it from happening to that extent here. But, that would be the exception to the general rule. There will be a hierarcy, intolerance of independent thought, group think, and purging, purging, purging. It’s happened in every liberal organization to which I’ve ever belonged, and it’s fucking depressing. Liberals tend to become fascistic in their own little fiefdoms. Liberals eat their young.”
Meet the new boss…..same as the old boss!
Sure, if the Dems win something he can TAKE credit, but is it really his to take?
The liberal blogosphere is a great sounding board for the “disadvantaged”, but its still nothing more than a reactionary liberal chat room with fascist tendencies…well DKos has apparently slipped into full blown cyber fascism, apparently…this site and nowhere excepted.
Thanks MSOC for being reborn and keeping it real for a few of us, at least! I remember well your days of consciousness raised at the Kos.”
DAMN!
“Not to seem like I’m denigrating another forum, but, frankly, the few brief visits that I’ve made to DKos have given me the impression that that is a blog that brooks ABSOLUTELY NO DISSENT WHATSOEVER, and that they’re just about as bad as the right, in that respect. I’m also aware that many of my opinions would get me troll-rated, if not banned outright from DKos. At the same time, however, my opinions are not accepted on the RIGHT-wing blogs, either.”
Now there’s a great endorsement!
“Between you, edencho, and arthur, I’ve been about ready to put a bullet through my screen. And as I told Arthur, what a fucking waste of our time and yours this has been. We have much better things to do.”
Open mouth, insert gun…pull trigger. You will feel much better.
Jesus Fucking Christ!!! Carnage is the not the word for this electronic abattoir, if you think that this was bad you should see some of the other ones!
The ‘Troll Police’ led by their mighty community Gauleiter Armando manned their swift boats and flailed away at their laptops, hitting the delete key to smack down dissenters as though they were swinging rubber truncheons. Look if you want community and you can put up with ignorant little piss-ants with large egos and itchy trigger fingers who enforce discipline then DK is the place for you. There are a lot of good stories and posts there by a lot of intelligent minded people, Frederick Clarkson for one posts there and any place where you can get exposure to his great work on the menace of the fundamentalist zealots in the religious right is a good place no matter what sort of riff raff that you have to tolerate to be there.
If however you happen to be a free thinker who also happens to be an iconoclast then you had better stick with the lower profile blogs.
DK specifically forbids so called ‘conspiracy theorists’ and shows no quarter when inconvenient subjects may arise that show more than a lemminglike ability to follow along in parroting the official stories for many suspicious events.
This is their official statement:
Addendum
Some people have been confused by the above discussion. Let me make it perfectly plain. Diaries advancing ‘Conspiracy Theories’ are subject to ridicule and derision from the community at the very least. Repeat offenders can and will be banned.
Here is what kos has to say-
The conspiracists by kos
Fri Jul 08, 2005
Today I did something I’ve never done before (not even during the Fraudster mess), and wish I’d never had to do.
I made a mass banning of people perpetuating a series of bizarre, off-the-wall, unsupported and frankly embarassing conspiracy theories.
I have a high tolerance level for material I deem appropriate for this site, but one thing I REFUSE to allow is bullshit conspiracy theories. You know the ones — Bush and Blair conspired to bomb London in order to take the heat off their respective political problems. I can’t imagine what fucking world these people live in, but it sure ain’t the Reality Based Community.
So I banned these people, and those that have been recommending diaries like it. And I will continue to do so until the purge is complete, and make no mistake — this is a purge.
This is a reality-based community. Those who wish to live outside it should find a new home. This isn’t it.
Update: I’ve been reinstating some of the banned accounts as they email me. Some people wondered why there wasn’t any warning. There have been warnings from others — repeated pleadings for people to ground themselves in reality.
It’s telling that I have NEVER done something like this before. Because this has been an extreme situation. This isn’t about disagreeing with what people are saying. If that was the case, everyone would’ve been banned by now. The myth of the “echo chamber” is just that. A myth.
But as for warnings, well, this has been my warning. I wanted it clear that I was serious, and I think that has come through. I am reinstating those who ask to be reinstated. But the message has been sent.
Straight from the Horse’s mouth and of course using the especially inflammatory Bush-Blair theory as an example…..hey assholes, you forgot to mention the UFOS! Never mind George and Tony’s alleged scheming, there are more important things that can be proven or are more easily questioned. The Downing Street Memo for example as well as the theft of the 2004 election that was addressed in the report by Congressman John Conyers as well as by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a major piece in a recent issue of Rolling Stone.
So therefore, if you question the evidence of voter suppression, disenfranchisement, machine rigging and outright electoral fraud that is DOCUMENTED but unfortunately falls under the dreaded ‘conspiracy theory’ definition on DK then you will be run and run quickly. I am not even going to there as far as questions with the official explanation of 9/11 or any of the other myriad of stories that are out there that people who actually are capable of thinking for themselves are easily able to see don’t add up due to the inconsistencies and contradictions. Do not expect any sort of meaningful conversation on the Project For A New American Century (PNAC) and the “New Pearl Harbor” that it so specifically mentions.
Posting on these topics is verboten on DK, they are deathly afraid of being saddled with the dreaded ‘tin foil hatter’ label that they immediately censor any comments that relate to Deep Politics (thanks to Peter Dale Scott for that term) which is that there are always illicit and duplicitous activities going on in the background.
So any posts on election rigging, market fixing, drug running, collaboration to give amnesty to Nazi war criminals in the aftermath of WW II to use them as intelligence assets and research scientists, lingering questions over the JFK hit, the PNAC or any questioning of official explanations gets your ass run in a New York second from DK even if you have links to back it up from official reports.
I guess that for many that it’s better to remain an Ass Ostrich (my term) than a Tin Foil Hatter who dares to ask questions. Da KOS has made it very apparent that they need any sort of ‘conspiracy theory’ that could damage their cred like Kennedy needs another hole in the head.
The swarming of the Kossacks was so brutal that some of the blood spilled over onto other blogs:
An Open Letter to the Daily Kos Community
Dear Kossacks,
It’s not your fucking blog.
Love,
Atrios
And everybody’s shouting,
“Which Side Are You On?”
“Jesus… now i’m ashamed this is absolutely unbelievable. For shame. for shame. I don’t see much of a future for the political blogs… the heyday was over before it even began.”
As long as you have pathological assholes like Armando donning his Hitler hat and his lackeys and ilk controlling the discourse this is sadly coming true. Need of mainstream acceptance leads to self-censorship and agendas. As far as cred, hey show me some fucking electoral success instead of a lot of yappy, self-centered yada and sanctimonious bullshit and you’ll get my respect……I’m waiting! Absent winning shy don’t you get busy in advocating for some fucking social justice in this country, take on the class war…..the little guys are getting their asses kicked on a daily basis while you people are more interested in puppy love and humping the leg of whichever Democratic Party charlatan happens to be serving free booze.
Thank you, again, for opening the door for me.”
And a sincere thank you from the bottom of my heart to that particular comment because a lynching it was, so severe that the only way that I could possibly retaliate was by dropping a daisy cutter.
Look, the piece that I wrote ‘Peckerwood Nation’ that caused this whole fiasco at least from my standpoint was admittedly over the top even for myself and although it was true in portraying a lot of the so called stereotypes it offended some really good people as well.
My biggest sin was in lumping everyone in the South in together with those bigoted yahoos who have had us all bent over a log squealing like pigs much like poor old Ned Beatty in Deliverance for the past several years and have been giving us the business without the benefit of a lubricant.
That was a tactical error on my part, quite honestly I didn’t think that the fucking thing would be so controversial…it’s been on my site since last August.
Anyway…I posted a disclaimer here on my own site on the post but since DK has banned me they have the original version that caused so much outrage.
Believe me I have paid for it, I have been targeted by a well-connected white supremacist group and now fear that one of those fascists could show up on my doorstep as well as banished by those whom I once felt shared respect for free speech….they certainly had me fooled.
The problem that I have in all of this is not in catching the shit, I expect that….it was in the dastardly nature of the lynching itself. My comments were hidden or censored when I tried to respond.
What the fuck is that?
Gutless! Maybe Ann Coulter can write her next book about y’all who stabbed me and others who tried to defend me in the back.
Dispatch From Lago: I am a real bastard sometimes. A phantom returned from the grave after an ugly lynching just like Clint Eastwood rolling into the town of Lago in High Plains Drifter with a wagonload of red paint and a hankering for vengeance.
Using the screen name ‘Abu Grabb Ass’ I briefly reappeared to engage the Troll hunters with several mean-spirited and tantalizing posts which was fun but my own itchy finger blew my cover too soon. I think that the one entitled:
Was just a bit too obvious and gave me away, I was banned within two minutes after that outburst when Armando picked up the super-user rune and smited me down.
Damn it….I’m down to 14 logins now!
Maybe it’s time for Markos M. himself to climb down from his ivory tower for a Night of the Long Knives style purge against his troll hunting goon squad.
It may offer up a new perspective rubbing elbows with the lepers once in awhile.
Hannity and Kos
Not that the chaos and tumult over my short tenure as a member of the online community at the liberal blog Daily Kos where I posted occasionally and drew an onslaught of rabid flamers is the cause of this but I would like to make the following observations, not out of anger, desire for revenge or for any other reason than to state that which is true.
1: Da Kos is as quick to affix people with the dreaded ‘conspiracy theorist/tin foil hatter’ label as any right wing media outlet. I brought up something about a certain notorious media mogul’s past affiliation with the CIA and the Bush family and provided links to the story and it was denounced and scrubbed. I am also sure that any and all references to electoral fraud, the inconsistencies with the official story of 9/11, the JFK assassination and any other in the myriad of events with far too much remaining unexplained or left to coincidence and happenstance will be similarly treated. God forbid that the Democrats be affixed with the dreaded ‘tin foil hatter label’.
2: Every time that I sought to defend my position in the ruthless flame wars of my so called GBCW (Good Bye Cruel World – cute but not very original) posting I had my comments rapidly censored. Now I know what it must feel like to be a guest on Hannity and Colmes or the O’Reilly Factor. The left (at least on that particular site) is equally adept and quashing free speech if it doesn’t fit into their own interpretation of such. And by the way, the grammar police are always out in force there…frustrated teachers or something. The ‘Troll Police’ also enforce their frontier style justice and are eager to lynch whoever they desire.
My personal message to them, as Marshall Jed Cooper once said “when you hang a man you had better make that he’s dead” or something along those lines.
And too many more to list….it is sooooo Republican, but hatred eventually makes you become as bad as your enemy in many ways, it’s the looking into the abyss thing, trust me I know.
3: Some of those righteous individuals who sought to defend my stand were also harassed:
Stop recommending the trolls!
Talk about enforcing discipline! It’s like the House under Tom DeLay
4: There are some on the left who are every bit as nasty as their counterparts: The flaming and distortion of my words was the sport of the day for the Kostapo, the one that I liked best was some little laptop wielding fruitbag who took the following words from one of my own bloggings totally out of context to state that my ultimate goal was to destroy the Democrats by telling voters to:
1: Stay Home
2: Vote Libertarian
3: Vote Green
And advise everybody else to do the same….
Unfortunately the dipshit ignored the entire fucking post up to that point where I railed against the corporate shithacks of the DLC and their continued lack of opposition to the GOP juggernaut as well as their failure to mount any sort of defense against GWB’s two fascist SCOTUS appointments to the high court’s bench.
The left wing blogosphere suffers from one thing other than a giant inferiority complex. That itself is pretty justifiable considering how the right has consistently made hay out of them due to the abysmal lack of leadership in the so called opposition party. Their problem is their stubborn unwillingness to take the time to look at any of the excellent sites or seriously discuss the opinions of principled conservatives or investigative reporters who could offer some context and insight that they could use for direction. If you are going to fight at least show up with as much information as you possibly can have about your opponent. The opinions and research that I immediately seek out are from conservatives that the right-wing slime machine itself decries and denounces. The left misses out on a lot of quality by ignoring the work of Paul Craig Roberts, Kevin Phillips, Lew Rockwell and his great libertarian site, Alex Jones of Infowars, Lou Dobbs, Wayne Madsen and even loose cannon Pat Buchanan who makes sense….at times. They are all outraged over the fascism of the Bushists and neocons.
Endnote: I do want to thank those who were cool enough to defend my right to say what I wanted to even if it did cross the line and piss a lot of people off, you know who you are and you are welcome here. A special shout out to those who really get it:
Mary Scott O’Connor whose excellent ‘My Left Wing’ blog has no similar problems with free speech or those who are opinionated. I also occasionally post there.
This following comment was very well put and very much appreciated.
by alienabductee
I also want to apologize for offending people with ‘Peckerwood Nation’, this was a bit over the top even for me. If you were genuinely outraged by this diatribe I am sorry, I did not mean it as a blanket slur against EVERYONE in the south only those who fit into the stereotype and there are plenty of em! To everyone else I offer my sincere regret and assure you that I meant no injury to you or your families….honestly it got far more exposure than I expected.
There are a lot of good folks on KOS and it is blowing up to the point where the Republicans need to counter it….that is progress. My advice is to fight on against the right-wing machine but don’t become lemmings by tuning out the independents.
And don’t hitch your wagon to the DLC, use your megaphone to demand that we get the fuck out of Iraq IMMEDIATELY and then move the dialogue towards the CLASS WAR!
The Great American Lemming Farm 