Posted on 06/28/2006 6:50:53 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
School's out for summer, and all the wayward children who received detention for shooting spit wads and carving naughty words into their desks are evidently attending the Kos Camp for Splenetic Activism.
The camp's proprietor is Markos "Kos" Moulitsas, founder of the influential DailyKos blog and a nominal leader of the Angry Left. "Crashing the Gate," a book Moulitsas co-authored with political consultant and penny stock touter Jerome Armstrong, is the playbook for progressive political activism and the "Net roots," a synthesis of traditional, progressive politics and the power of the Internet. And there's no doubting the contribution Moulitsas has made to advance what he calls people-powered politics.
Unfortunately for the people who take their politics seriously, Moulitsas himself and many of his paste-eating charges at Camp Kos seem more committed to acts of adolescent political vandalism, as the title of his book implies, than to the intellectual maturity of political leadership.
The Kos kids and their counselor got all worked up recently about a column in which I criticized their penchant for savaging Democrats who stray from their ideological agenda, their intolerance for dissent and their bullying tactics.
But what really set Moulitsas' marshmallow aflame, I suspect, was an affront to his vanity. I quoted his risible comment following the Texas primaries in March that his Net-roots effort had given Rep. Henry Cuellar "an ass whooping" — in an election that Cuellar comfortably won.
"Another idiot columnist tries to peddle the 'scary Daily Kos is trying to liquidate moderate Democrats' bull----," Moulitsas wrote on his blog. And his little band of Net hooligans set out to demonstrate just how tolerant and non-bullying they really aren't.
"I would love to purge this party of these DLC Centrist type Dems who think they can ride the middle to get votes from both sides of the fence," wrote one Kossack.
"Basically, you are full of ----. As a nurse, I can say that word, it is a medical term when someone spews idiotic statements and shows their stupidity," wrote another. Other Kos campers evidently drank from the same batch of Kool-Aid. Their topic headlines read, "Gurwitz tries to peddle BS" and "Bull---- article."
One generously expressed his hope that someday I "gain at least some self-respect back. You, as all humans, deserve it." Another burnished his progressive merit badge by simply writing, "The test came back positive. Start AZT as soon as you can."
Back at Camp Kos, there was even a plea for civility of sorts. "E-mail the idiot columnist," wrote one reader at DailyKos. But, he suggested, "be nice and don't give him a chance to write the 'angry lefties sent me nasty e-mail' column."
Sorry to disappoint, but no one should expect followers of a profanity-spewing pied piper not to be nasty. Moulitsas, who is currently venting his rage at liberal journalists who refuse to keep silent about pay-for-play political allegations against him and Armstrong, makes Ann Coulter seem downright charming by comparison.
In 2004, when four Americans working for a military contractor were murdered and their bodies mutilated in Fallujah, Moulitsas commented: "I feel nothing over the death of mercenaries. They aren't in Iraq because of orders or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them."
One of Moulitsas' colleagues in the Net-roots community wrote to me apologetically, the Kos reputation for vulgarity being well-known. "You are probably getting more than your share of uncivil responses from frustrated activists who believe their voices don't count as much as others. This will not be one of them."
And, indeed, what followed was strong yet sensible and civil criticism. That's an art Moulitsas and his followers haven't even attempted to master, preferring instead the rhetorical equivalent of gang graffiti.
Moulitsas has been instrumental in helping thousands of frustrated activists make their voices heard.
Being heard, however, is not the same as being taken seriously.
These ultra-liberal bloggers are doing the Conservative Movement a terrific service. If they are "successful," they will force the dems to put up a candidate who is way too far left to win a national election. If they "fail," they will still cause more mainstream democrat candidates (including those like Shrillary, who attempt to hide their commie leanings) into advocating more progressive platforms, which will ultimately lead to their defeat.
We may get to a situation, for example, whereby no democrat can get his party's nomination unless he calls for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. That's a position that is not very popular with the public at large, and would ease the way for the republican candidate.
Did the San Antonio paper slip in a reference to the Magic Man? ;)
This is a great piece! I didn't realize Kos was such a hostile guy. You'd never know it by the way Stephen Colbert was slobbering all over him. I've been pretty critical of Coulter, but it was nice of Gurwitz to put it in perspective. A reminder to all that we should never sink to their level.
That was my first thought. I had to do a double take to make sure he was still talking about Kos! LOL
This is why i get distressed when some of our FReepers use profanity, or make innane ugly comments. It doesn't help the cause. The left look wacko, because so many of their comments are fill with raging profanity. Who can take them seriously. I respect people here on FR, who can speak their minds passionately, but without foul attacks.
That's probably the worst thing a lib could say about another lib. Being a lib, of course, he couldn't use one of his own divas which would provide a much more suitable comparison, such as, say, Helen Thomas.
I had a business dealing once with two self-proclaimed "progressives" (whatever that word means).
By the end of that seemingly endless and painful experience, I PROMISED MYSELF never to do business with people like that again.
They were EXACTLY LIKE what is being described in this article.
The only word I can come up with to describe them is "Termites" in that they are endlessly self-serving and totally destructive.
They're caustic.
I can't even stand to be around them.
At least Ann Coulter has entertainment value.
Kos seems pretty humorless.
D
>>>>with two self-proclaimed "progressives"
Capable of inflating an entire smug cloud with their own hot air.
I's surprised he didn't mention that Armstrong is an astrology kook who swindled people by making stock predictions based on the planets.
LOL! I have to agree with that.
Well, I don't know much about doing business with liberals, but I have to say there seem to be 3 types. There are the nice, well-intentioned religious ones. There are the born-into-it-union types. And then there are the hateful, angry, miserable ones. I've met some nice ones, but I am stunned by how many bitter, angry liberals are running around out there -- and this was even before we controlled the 3 branches. I never met a more mean, miserable person in my life than the head of the Institute of Politics and Government when I was a student at USC. Even my liberal coworkers cringed around him. One of his secretaries actually sued the school for emotional stress. It seems that the rich ones are always the angriest too --- Ted Turner, Michael Moore, Alec Baldwin, George Soros --- always scowling. I happen to think Coulter went too far, but at least she seems to be a happy, upbeat person.
I agree with your description of "Liberals."
I was talking about people who call themselves "Progressive."
Liberals include people like Joe Liebernam and Zell Miller.
I have found that "Progressives" are FAR LEFT wackos like Markos and the denizens at KOS.
I could be wrong, but that's the way it seems to me.
Oh --ok -- I always thought it was the other way around. "Progressive" sounds so much "kinder". LOL!
Careful there, the media will paint us ALL with the same brush.
Just as myspace's 78million users are all tainted by the handful of murders and sexual solitications.
"You know what those political blogs are like..." Nevermind that FR isn't a blog.
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