Success??

Was it worth it Markos? Was it worth destroying your own web site and credibility?
You sold your credibility in order to turn this...
Selection_009_24.png

...into this.

Daily Kos, the progressive blog that's long been a fixture on the left, is out with its first presidential straw poll of the 2020 cycle.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is the clear leader, with 22 percent, with former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke, California Sen. Kamala Harris, former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders bunched up behind her. O'Rourke has 15 percent support, Harris and Biden are tied at 14 percent, and Sanders is at 11 percent.

You obviously got what you wanted, but was it worth the price?

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Gee, where did everyone go? And what sort of people vacated the GOS?

Do you like defending the ruling elite? Or are you just after a future payoff for undermining real progressive changes? Do you like punching down?

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Straw poll was revealing. Markos is really pushing his particular version of purity--the dem candidate must be about identity politics--nothing about candidate policies.

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@MrWebster @MrWebster

a majority of over-educated, affluent, white males. I'll never forget the Kos diary they all gathered in to measure their wealth and dicks. I wish I had saved it. It was quite a collection of egos.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Azazello's picture

@dkmich
The DKos demographic pretty much mirrors the demographic of the Party in general.
It's the credentialed, professional class that Thomas Frank describes in the yellow book, the upper 10%.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

@Azazello

OUR AUDIENCE
- 81% have college degrees or better
- 34% have graduate degrees
- 26% have a HHI greater than $100,0000

The old link that let you see demographics in greater detail (male vs female) is gone. They used to be a majority male. I have no idea what the place is like now. I haven't been there in three years. I remember the snowflake lady, not her name, that built safe spaces for Hillary folks. No Berniebros allowed. God that place was awful for years before it blew up and everyone left. If you did and thought what you were told, life there was a bowl of cherries. If not, gangs, thugs, racists, censors, and demeaning treatment is what you got. I deleted everything in my dailykos account, logged out, and left. Haven't missed it one bit.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Cassiodorus's picture

@dkmich but I'm sure not affluent.

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"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@MrWebster

Why don't their standards count as a purity pony?

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

detroitmechworks's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal between Comedy and Tragedy.

Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when YOU walk into an open sewer and die.

Hence the difference between Purity Politics and Identity Politics.

Purity Politics is bad because it limits who you can sell to.
Identity Politics Is good, because you can sell it to EVERYBODY except people who wouldn't buy it in the first place.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

@MrWebster the spin

While there have been not-so-subtle hints that Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is becoming more serious by the day about forging a second White House bid to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020, some political observers — and even some of the lawmaker's own supporters — have suggested the Democratic Party "has moved beyond him personally," the Boston Globe reports.

"I don't see a lot of lasting energy for Bernie," Markos Moulitsas, the founder and publisher of Daily Kos, a popular liberal website, told the Globe. "It's different from last time when he was the alternative to an unfortunately flawed front-runner, and there were just two of them. Right now, the mantle of 'progressive' can be carried by any number of candidates and potential candidates," including fellow Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — three outspoken liberal leaders who have embraced Sanders' call for "Medicare for All" and a $15 minimum wage, among other policy proposals that helped establish the Vermont independent as a national figurehead for socialist ideas. As the 2020 race begins, Moulitsas told the Globe, "people have mostly moved on" from Sanders.

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@gjohnsit

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

mimi's picture

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@mimi
I don't go to GOS anymore.
But when I started seeing that BS straw poll I felt a rant coming on.

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mimi's picture

@gjohnsit
on the one hand I see German TV documentaries and news and read some German newspapers online and learn things that I didn't get through my favorite US based alterntive news sites (Truthdig, TRNN, Democracy now, Empire Files, Aljazeera and some that are listed here on the left hand side columns. At the same time I realize how little of what I get through the US sites I could get through German media, be it German TV or German online news sites and newspapers. And while trying to understand what's going on in the world, I don't read any books anymore. How FUBAR is that? I would have to live without a TV, without a computer and without a smart phone. Then I know I would start to read, but the withdrawal symptoms would be terrible. Sigh.

I am puzzled how little crosses over from and to Europe and the US for the average citizen on both sides of the big pond.

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Cassiodorus's picture

Sure, it would be nice if all the kind Democrats over at Daily Useless, our former audience y'know, recognized that their party was run by reactionaries who would rather hand America to the Republican Party than let the government give the public anything new for their tax moneys. And, sure, it would also be nice if Congress would concede Trump his wall (at far less a price than what the Pentagon loses every year) so that we could all get our 2018 tax refunds at some point.

But it seems that mere debate will leave the project of making the world into a horrific Margaret Atwood novel untouched. The gilets jaunes have the right idea -- do something.

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"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati

Daily kos is a reliable product favorable to a much higher strata of the 99%, while appealing to favored segments of the lower 99%. In skilled hands it could be a valuable tool.

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Hillary's staffers than I did at KOS. However, many who posted where I did posted often on both boards.

In any event, on the board on which I posted most, supporters of Sanders would, from time to time post the results of polls that showing that Bernie was more popular than Hillary. Because, given the msm, the Democratic Party and the policies of the board itself, some of us had to find encouragement outside of ourselves wherever it was to be found, Whereupon, the board's bots, human and not, paid or not, would swarm to the thread to discredit the validity and significance of the poll, ESPECIALLY IF IT WERE "ONLY" AN ONLINE POLL. (Hope that was enough emphasis.)

I can barely imagine their reactions if we had posted, not only an online poll, but a poll of the denizens of a political board where deviation in opinions from those of the board owner's propaganda are unwelcome and those who post them are continually purged, by banning, or driven off by lack of interest in "I agree with the prevalent sentiments on this board" posting or by battle weariness or by disgust at unfairness, or whatever.

Good times!

And, as my favorite homegrown yogi may have observed to us, if he were alive and not very probably a Republican, "It's deja vu all over again" on steroids, now that recent indications are that another Sanders Presidential run is more than wishful thinking by his supporters.

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detroitmechworks's picture

over here.

I don't even bother heading over there to see what they say about me. IIRC I'm a beggar/parasite/intolerant of RKBA jerk.

(Although I do find it funny that at TOP I frequently saw RKBA use the "Institute for Historical Review" as a source. FYI, it's a Neo-Nazi Holocaust denying website. No, Not kidding on that one.)

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@detroitmechworks

what they say about me (and us). He was quite angry.

I was surprised he even bothered to go look.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

detroitmechworks's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal I'll just quote Jefferson.

I came at once to a resolution to rest on the justice & good sense of my fellow citizens, to consider from my general character and conduct thro’ life, not unknown to them, whether these [false or slanderous statements] were probable: and I have made it an invariable rule never to enter the lists of the public papers with the propagators of them. in private communications with my friends I have contradicted them without reserve.

Source

I no longer feel the need to defend myself from public ridicule. No matter the source. Jefferson had the right idea. Don't read the fucking comments, except among friends.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@detroitmechworks

position (on which I complement you), which I may go into in a future essay.

I am really close to adopting a "He who has ears to hear, let him hear," position--and I don't often suggest I'm like Jesus of Nazareth!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Deja's picture

@detroitmechworks

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@Deja thanks, I'm jumping in with what I think it's short for, the gun rights groups. Not necessarily all NRA types, just people who like to shoot stuff and don't like being told what to do. I can relate, but I am not RKBA material. Too dangerous, and I hate the NRA. fuck those guys

peace
and wow what a profane asshole I am today, f-bombs just feel right somehow, maybe tomorrow my aisle nine mouth will get a cleanup. HOPE

again

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@eyo f-bombs gotta drop, you gotta let 'em go.
Potty mouth, where's the Soap!?!
Ha.

peace

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

I'm guessing that Kos values his outing on MSNBC more than he cares about clicks.

Working for the Media Arm of The Pentagon must have its own rewards.

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NYCVG

@NYCVG

at MSNBC, they must be desperate for Bernie smearers.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

@dkmich Yes, dkmich. I remember that. Smearing Bernie must be the #1 new High Priority.

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NYCVG

WaterLily's picture

@dkmich

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@WaterLily

I don't remember the specifics, but I think he inferred that the cloud over Joe's head was still there. Thought Scarborough was going to have a heart attack. Roundaboutly told Kos to STFU and ordered him off the set.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

snoopydawg's picture

@dkmich

I'll try to contact him and let him know too that most of Bernie's supporters have left the site because kos kicked them off. Kinda important information when discussing a poll don't ya think?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg

We weren't kicked out. People either fled the propaganda and tyranny of their own accord or were driven out. Don't like the sound of kicked out - some were I know, but lots of others quit.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

@dkmich I happily quit of my own accord.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

snoopydawg's picture

@dkmich

Good point.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@dkmich

Does he know what "activist" means?

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snoopydawg's picture

@HenryAWallace

Activists Democrats on DK. Haven't seen an anti war diary there for I don't know how long. Pretty much everything is Trump Trump Russia Russia Trump Russia Trump Russia and Putin. Oh yeah. I guess it's okay to be misogynistic and bad mouth democrats over there now because the recent diary on Tulsi was both. Oh and racist too. Tulsi has mixed bloodlines doesn't she? But say something bad about Kampala and they're all over you like flies on peanut butter.

lol!

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg

successful battle to pass an anti-equal marriage amendment to the Hawaii state constitution and she sided with him until she was 21 and entered the military.

Her mother's maiden name is Porter, but I don't know her mom's heritage. I don't know which race American Samoan is considered, either. All the oceans on the planet could not hold all the things I don't know, even with Mr. Google as my faithful companion. Sometimes, I am too lazy to even google.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

he's probably just fine with it.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

gulfgal98's picture

It always was more, much more, about identity politics. Identity politics is how the establishment Dems keep us separated from one another. Unfortunately, it took me a while to understand it myself. What a waste of time that place was and now it is just a cesspool.

gulfgal98 Rosencrantz
April 27 · 12:56:03 PM

Markos himself, in response to comment in his recent ask me anything diary, said policy does not matter.

Policy is useless right now. We don’t need any message beyond “NO!”

I completely disagreed with kos over this and said so in that same diary. The Democratic party has become the party of nothing, no substance, no policy. For the public, no policy or promise (plus delivery) is malpractice. Democrats never tried even when they held both houses of Congress and the Presidency.

Being not Republicans or not as bad has led to over 1,000 seats lost since 2008. Pursuing the same failed strategy is ridiculous. The Democratic party has been hemorrhaging members as a result too.

For the record, Markos has never replied to anything I ever posted there. But here is my comment to him which was referenced above.

gulfgal98 kos
April 13 · 07:05:03 PM

I completely disagree.

Policy is useless right now. We don’t need any message beyond “NO!”

The reason that Democrats keep losing at all levels is a lack of a cohesive policy to help real people, particularly an economic policy. “No” or “we’re not as bad” is not a winning formula for people who have been economically struggling for over eight years under a Democratic leadership. To recycle this idea is folly.

The Democratic party has been playing the identity politics game to avoid addressing the real issues facing real people in this country. Economic issues cut across race, ethnic origin, gender, or sexual identity. That is why the Democrats have been getting their butts handed to them over the last eight years and particularly in the bloodbath of 2014 when their only message was they were not Republicans.

People want real policies that will make their lives better. Being not Trump is not addressing the real policy issues. I firmly believe that one of the reasons Hillary Clinton lost, particularly in the very economically devastated mid West is that her campaign was basically devoid of addressing policy. An analysis of this is laid out in this Vox article.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@gulfgal98

there is one way in which I agree with Markos (man it feels nasty to say that, like I inadvertently stuck my thumb into a rotten zucchini).

As of 2011, I realized that we had no political power, and were unlikely to get any in the Democratic party as it then stood. That was the last time I went to the Take Back America conference hosted by the Campaign for America's Future, who were the best of the big multi-issue NGOs.I went to multiple panels, and almost all of them were debating policy and talking about what policy would be best (on taxes, the environment, jobs, financial regulation, etc). None of that mattered, because we had no way to implement any of those policies, nor even to implement a watered-down version of them. Then I went to a speech by Van Jones designed to address why putting Obama in had not brought about the policy changes we sought. He explained it as our lack of work ethic and our wish to have Obama do it all for us. In other words, we elected him and then sat back with popcorn. He and Donna Edwards both worked to protect the reputation of the Obama administration, at the cost of truth and the well-being of the country.

I went out into the open air and thought: left-leaning panels debating what energy policy is best are at this point completely useless. We need attention to our political situation, because the disease is political; the bad policies are merely the wretched symptoms of it.

So, in that sense, yeah, policy doesn't matter. But that's not what Markos means. He means the important thing is to oppose the Big Racist Sexist Meanie and his handful of friends. He means that we shouldn't consider policy when forming alliances against the Big Racist Sexist Meanie, nor should we pay any mind to the shitty policies of the Democratic leadership.

In other words, we should use Donald Trump as a top-notch distraction from everything that's wrong with our political system.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

We need attention to our political situation, because the disease is political; the bad policies are merely the wretched symptoms of it.

Any political movement that doesn't include an anti-corruption platform is pointless.

In fact, I'll go one further. Any anti-corruption platform must include reforming the corporate culture/incentives.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@gjohnsit

and that we wouldn't need to devise entirely new political methods for getting what we want.

If a fight against corruption suffices, then we would need a way to put that platform into concrete action. In other words, a plan. Smile

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@snoopydawg

We weren't kicked out. People either fled the propaganda and tyranny of their own accord or were driven out. Don't like the sound of kicked out - some were I know, but lots of others quit. @Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@dkmich

as in, "You can't BOJO me, I quit."

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

He means the important thing is to oppose the Big Racist Sexist Meanie and his handful of friends. He means that we shouldn't consider policy when forming alliances against the Big Racist Sexist Meanie, nor should we pay any mind to the shitty policies of the Democratic leadership.

The policy doesn't matter, winning does. Why? Because Markos is corrupt. He needs another Tesla, another stroke. Winning puts money and power in the winner's pocket, and that is all he cares about.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@dkmich

Other than the fact that obviously Markos wants more power and money and fame for Markos.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cassiodorus's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

He means that we shouldn't consider policy when forming alliances against the Big Racist Sexist Meanie, nor should we pay any mind to the shitty policies of the Democratic leadership.
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"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Cassiodorus

that means a lot coming from you.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@gulfgal98

Republicans "the party of no?" What Democratic politicians and their shills, like Markos, would say if given truth serum:

"Yeah, only the majority of Americans care about policy. Fug 'em. This is not about governing or building a better America. It's about electing more Democrats. And by Democrats, we mean Republicans who, for whatever reason, choose to put (D) after their names and don't get caught using the 'N' word. Yeah, we know Hillary got caught, but that's different. We treat her like an incumbent neocon. Incumbent neocons get our unconditional support."

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I did not know the pay-for-play scheme that Markos cooked up using TOP. Looks like Markos was taking money to say positive things about Howard Dean, and other unreported candidates. Totally missed this story when TOP came into existence.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/01/daily-kos-and-blogging-for-d...

Moulitsas is a different case. He’s never pretended to be a journalist—this past October, he told National Journal, “I am part of the media. But a journalist? No. If I had put a label on it, I would say I am an activist.”—but in the year since he stopped cashing Dean’s checks, he’s gained a reputation as “the liberal Instapundit” and the most popular left-wing blogger. And while it’s true that his role as a Dean consultant was disclosed and reported in the press on multiple occasions, it came as a surprise this week to a whole lot of people, including a lot of prominent bloggers. Perhaps more important, the people who were aware of Moulitsas’ consulting work aren’t 100 percent comfortable with it. “Markos is infamous for these kinds of issues. That may be too strong a word. But it’s come up with Markos before,” Nicco Mele, the Dean campaign’s Webmaster and director of Internet operations, told me. “I can find you threads on Markos’s own site about it.”

Moulitsas’ crime isn’t taking money from Howard Dean. He, too, can get away with a suspended sentence for insufficiently disclosing his role in the Dean campaign once he was off the payroll. The hanging offense is that Moulitsas took money from other, undisclosed, political clients. And while he may have disclosed—in 2003—that he wouldn’t disclose them, that’s not good enough. DailyKos raised money for a dozen congressional candidates this past election. Which, if any, of them paid Moulitsas for the honor of directing his grassroots minions to part with their wallets? If you gave one of Moulitsas’ preferred candidates money, wouldn’t you like to know if Moulitsas’ endorsement was purchased?

Political campaigns and consultants are becoming increasingly skillful at manipulating the mainstream press by planting stories in the blogosphere. Despite this, the mainstream press remains credulous about blogging. During South Dakota’s U.S. Senate race between Tom Daschle and John Thune, the Thune campaign put two local political bloggers on its payroll. One got $27,000, the other $8,000. Their anti-Daschle reports trickled up into South Dakota newspapers.

And then there is this.

https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/daily-kos/

In 2008, Time listed Daily Kos as its number 2 top blog of the year.[17] However, the following year, 2009, the magazine called it one of its most overrated blogs. Time wrote that without the George W. Bush administration to use as a foil the blog “lost its mission, and its increasingly rudderless posts read like talking points from the Democratic National Committee.”[18]

So TOP looks to have continued as a PR website for the DNC. Sorta reminds me of Rush Limberger. He seems to have consciously chosen to be a right wing blowhard because that is where the money is at. Seems the same with Markos--he is the highly compensated evangelist of the corporate DNC and their candidates.

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

Time wrote that without the George W. Bush administration to use as a foil the blog “lost its mission, and its increasingly rudderless posts read like talking points from the Democratic National Committee.”

Being anti war during Bush's tenure wasn't cool anymore once Obama took over the wars.

Nuff said.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

detroitmechworks's picture

@snoopydawg [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP6-UNbeaHw]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

@MrWebster

bloggers to lunch at his Harlem pad. They never fully reported on what transpired, and after that, it was all about the party line. That is when the Democratic Party bought all of the left bloggers. And who complained? OMFG, the black bloggers because they weren't included in the corrupt fest.

If dailyKos teaches people anything, it is to zip your wallet.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

@MrWebster

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EdMass's picture

My 2016 presidential and Senate predictions

I love the smell of sellout in the morning...

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Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!