I got back from one of my not so uncommon hiatuses and C99 was a hopping. It was good to see the other virtual drifters, hobos and nerr do wells hopping onto the C99 train. I am the diarist formerly known as NCTim and I shall be your sporadic host this fine day.

For the uninitiated, I work pretty hard to keep my diaries content free. I like to let loose a stream of consciousness that is easier to follow if you are demented or inebriated.

Over at the GOS, I spewed out about six month's worth of daily music diaries. Friday was known as Funk Friday, so the funk could break out at any time, hit play and scroll on down.

What can the blind man see? The devolution of our society into oligarchy? The golden rule, those with gold rule, being played out? HRC is a sell out? Markos is a sell out? The press is part of the problem? Heavy duty foil makes better hats?

The latest influx of GOS refugees brought along a palpable shift in the force. It is energizing, like a million voices crying out. People are ready to throw down.

Awhile back, I had hypothesized that the early C99 adopters were flight, not fight types. Upon reflection, the hypothesis quickly crumbled. Joe had some epic GOS scrums. Big Al got tossed for calling out Israeli war mongering. Mimi was followed into Evening Blues by an administrator for telling somebody to take a long walk off a short pier. Pluto got tossed and I still don't understand why. JayRaye's incredible series goes thoroughly unappreciated. For the longest time, I thought JayRaye was on the GOS staff. I was giving GOS credit for having JayeRaye publish her series and GOS was gaining credibility with me. I feel so used.

A little C99 background for our newest comrades. C99 is an exceptional cannabis strain with the high and the taste of an exceptional sweet landrace sativa. C99 is a descendant of Northern Lights, Skunk #1 and Cinderella99. But, I digress. I found my way here by following my virtual comrades out of The Evening Blues juke joint. I saw them all leaving and figured it was C99 time.

About that scrum over @GOS. GOS got big enough that Markos went corporate. The KOS declaring HRC "The Chosen One", insistence upon fealty and the naked agenda are all symptoms of a sell out. If it was really about getting mobetta Democrats, GOS would embrace Bernie and facilitate a civil debate.

GOS is infected with cliques, name callers and deflectors. The management has set the agenda and allowed the sectarian violence to besiege the site. The only way to win the game is not to play.

That's wah I'm sayin'.

Why in the world would Markos allow GOS to devolve into its current state?

Daily Kos: CIA Engineered Controlled Opposition?

Is it possible Markos Alberto Moulitsas Zúñiga, leader of the “Kossaks,” that is to say followers and fawners of the Daily Kos, is a CIA operative? Francis Holland, posting on the My Left Wing messageboard, details Moulitsas’ relationship with the CIA:

“Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, owner of the DailyKos website, now admits that he spent six months in the employ of the US Central Intelligence Agency in 2001,” writes Holland. “In a one-hour interview on June 2, 2006 at the Commonwealth Club, Moulitsas, also known as ‘Kos,’ admitted that he was a CIA employee and would have ‘no problem working for them’ in the present.”

{UPDATED} Markos Moulitsas Zuniga is a Right Wing, CIA Loving Tool

No lefty would have ever supported the CIA. Proof of Kos doing so is now well-known, as he had a brain cramp in an interview with the Commonwealth Club in 2006. It is without a doubt that he called the CIA a liberal institution he'd have no problem working for. Maybe he already did? According to his own words, he went through a six month interview process starting in 2001. He said that he went all the way to the end and had to decide whether to become a clandestine spy or work for Howard Dean. We know what he decided on. Funny thing though about the timeline according to his own words. How does a six month process starting in 2001 end in the middle of 2003? Daily Kos was started in 2002. Did Kos run this blog while he was working for the CIA? He needs to explain this, or otherwise it is fairly clear what the answer is. At a minimum, he is no lefty. He is into making money. He was the worst thing that ever could have happened to progressives on the net

My bold^^^

Now, about the Fourth Estate. Just sayin'.

Fourth Estate or Mouthpiece?
A Formal Model of Media, Protest and Government Repression

New media dramatically increases citizens’ access to information and decreases governments’ ability
to control the flow of communication. Although human rights NGOs have advocated that access to
independent news media will improve government respect for human rights, recent empirical studies
have shown this is not always the case. We posit that media independence and the presence or
absence of democratic characteristics, in particular political competition, have substantial effects on
government repression because these factors determine the degree to which the government is
vulnerable to public pressures. The model developed here includes three equations that encompass
the impact of interaction between and among the news media, citizens and government. The first
equation specifies the influences on the news media’s decision whether to perform a ‘watchdog’ role
regarding government repression. The second equation represents public reaction to the news
media’s coverage of government repression, i.e., protest. Here access to news media via traditional
and new media is an important factor. The third equation represents government repression.
Solutions to the system of equations are derived for four scenarios: 1. democracy and media
independence are both present, 2. democracy is present but media independence is absent, 3.
democracy is absent (autocracy) and media independence is present, and 4. democracy is absent
(autocracy) and media independence is absent. We then consider interesting properties of the
anticipated behavior from the government, media and general public through case illustrations for
the Netherlands and Myanmar/Burma.

When you’re in a Fourth Estate situation

As things stand today, the Fourth Estate is a state of mind. Some in the press have it, some do not. Some who have it are part of the institutional press. Some, like Ladar Levison and Edward Snowden, are not.

“I think if the American public knew what our government was doing, they wouldn’t be allowed to do it anymore.”

Those are the poignant words of Ladar Levison, founder of Lavabit, a secure email service that he voluntarily shut down when faced with some sort of demand from the U.S. government to reveal user information. The precise nature of that demand he cannot talk about for fear of being thrown in jail, perhaps the best example we now have for how the surveillance state undoes the First Amendment. But we know that Lavabit was used by Edward Snowden to communicate with the outside world when he was stuck in the Moscow airport. So use your imagination! #

If the public knew what the government was doing, the government wouldn’t be allowed to do it anymore… is a perfect description of a “Fourth Estate situation.” That’s when we need a journalist to put hidden facts to light and bring public opinion into play, which then changes the equation for people in power operating behind the veil. If it doesn’t happen, an illegitimate state action will persist. “My hope is that, you know, the media can uncover what’s going on, without my assistance,” Levison said. He’s like a whistleblower who will go to jail if he actually uses his whistle. All he can do is give truncated interviews that stop short of describing the pressure he is under.

So who the funk wants HRC being "The Chosen One"? Just sayin'.

Charles Walker and The Dynamites ->

Have a great weekend!