Free Republic

Austin, Texas -- Last year online activists inspired by DailyKos.com, the nation's most popular liberal blog, swelled with power as the Democratic presidential candidates debated at their annual convention, asking for their blessing and a little cash - or at least a link to their site. And this year? In the words of Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos blog on which this Netroots Nation convention of political gate-crashers originally gathered: "We are the mainstream." The progressive online movement is now faced with its most significant challenge: using its online power to help elect a Democratic president. Doing that...

Score one for the Netroots! Newsweek has just announced that Markos Moulitsas, namesake and founder of the Daily Kos website, will be a contributor for the 2008. Here's the statement from Newsweek editor Jon Meachem, which seems to anticipate some sort of reaction from a disgruntled element: "We have always sought to represent a diversity of views in Newsweek, and we think Markos will be a great part of that tradition. He will give our readers in print and online a unique perspective. As always, our job is to create the most energetic and illuminating magazine possible, and Markos will...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- DailyKos, an influential political Web site that serves as a virtual bulletin board for liberals, qualifies as a media entity exempt from federal campaign finance regulations, the Federal Election Commission said Tuesday. The FEC said the Web site, operated by blogger Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, cannot be regulated as a political committee and can freely post blog entries that support candidates. Conservative blogger John C.A. Bambenek had argued in a complaint last month that the site should comply with campaign finance laws because such entries amounted to "a gift of free advertising and candidate media services." The FEC...

Let's say you are a scandal-ridden governor looking for some love. Where would you find it? Well, if you are New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, aka Steamroller Spitzer, immersed in a scandal that threatens to destroy your political career, you go looking for love in the Daily Kos with a divorced from reality "Happy Talk" blog post that makes no mention any pending unpleasantries. Spitzer's "Happy Talk" love fest on the Daily Kos will have no effect in stopping the scandal investigations but perhaps it is temporarily therapeutic to brag about himself to his fellow leftists in his blog post titled, Congratulations...

Markos Moulitsas Zuniga (AKA Kos) has a reputation as an ideologue and a bomb-thrower. I wish this were true, since he succeeds in helping Democrats win elections. He also raises enough money and attracts enough attention to keep liberal memes afloat, even when they lose. Alas, this isn’t the case. Kos is far worse. He’s a power-monger with no ideas. Kos openly admits this. He once said he was not trying to be the next Jesse Jackson. What he meant was that he was a political tactician, rather than a movement philosopher. He describes himself as being all about winning....

Top Dem candidates debate to win favor of the 'netroots'Chicago -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton faced a convention Saturday of 1,400 politically influential online activists who don't particularly like her. Yet she emerged from the presidential forum here at the Yearly Kos convention with a little more respect - if not love - from the liberal bloggers. It helps that the first thing Clinton did was thank them. In a meeting with about 350 activists before a debate with six other Democratic challengers, Clinton praised the bloggers for helping to create a "modern progressive movement" and for standing up "against...

By E. J. Dionne Jr. Friday, August 3, 2007; A15 Perhaps you missed it, but Wednesday was the 19th anniversary of Rush Limbaugh's radio show. Limbaugh was celebrating his ripe old age, in media years, in the same week that liberal blog fans were trekking to Chicago for the YearlyKos convention. Therein lies one of the most important stories in American politics. Make no mistake: From the beginning, Limbaugh was a revolutionary figure. He befuddled Democrats and the journalistic establishment because he was an up-to-date throwback. The large audience he won on the right marked the return in the United...

What did your psychologist tell you?" Such was the penultimate query of one of the first YearlyKos 2007 panels, "Holding Congress Accountable for a Progressive Agenda." The question was presented to Firedoglake celebrity blogger Jane Hamsher by a middle-aged woman who explained she was trying to convince disillusioned "progressive activists who are ready to give up" to continue to partner with her local Democratic Party chapter. Despite the Republicans' recent midterm election reversal of fortune, forlorn talk of Democratic victors stabbing "the netroots" in the back has paradoxically replaced the We're going to kick ass from one end of this...

WND Exclusive CONSPIRACY PLANET DailyKos: Did Bush order Pat Tillman whacked? Pelosi's favorite website now sees tragic death as political murder Posted: July 27, 2007 5:33 p.m. Eastern © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com Pat Tillman WASHINGTON – The highly trafficked "progressive" website DailyKos, which boasts contributors including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, is suggesting football star Pat Tillman was murdered in Afghanistan on orders from the White House. The theory behind the conspiracy? "It was well-known he (Tillman) was against the war in Iraq," explains the DailyKos diarist Dburn.

LGF has caught the Daily Kos community in the act: In an article entitled, "ME-Sen: Lieberman to raise money for Collins," a commentator states, "Once we lock up a Majority where we don't need Lieberman, I hope they will kick him to the curb like the dog he is." This comment received 24 positive votes and 0 negative. A follow-up states, "Don't insult dogs like that Given a choice between my dog and Lieberman, I'd gas him without thinking twice." (4+ / 3-). A bit later, a commentator advises hiding the gas-the-Jew vitriol: "Sharon, jeez I know you didn't mean...

McCain advertising on Kos McCain's campaign had this ad pop up on Kos last night -- of all times -- during the Dem debate.   The banner on the liberal site urges readers to express their support for the Iraq troop surge.    Given the high traffic Kos got during the debate, a few readers naturally noticed. "WHAT THE F***?" asked "humboldt joni."  "[F]or a blog that focuses on democratic politics and is predominantly anti-war, I find this beyond the f***ing pale. Really. What a f***d up thing to see when I come here to discuss a democratic debate. (Editor's Note: This paragraph was edited...

Edwards Declares War on Fox News Presidential Candidate Says 'No' to Fox-Hosted Debate By JAKE TAPPER and NITYA VENKATARAMAN Mar. 8, 2007 — - Seeking to solidify the liberal base of his party, Democratic presidential contender former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., announced this week his boycott of the August 14th Democratic debate in Nevada being co-hosted by Fox News. Edwards was, in fact, responding to a gauntlet thrown by blogger Markos Moulitsas, founder of liberal website the Daily Kos, who asked the Democratic candidate pool "not to do a Fox News debate," rather "to debate in Nevada with another media...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- At least three major companies want their ads pulled from Ann Coulter's Web site, following customer complaints about the right-wing commentator referring to Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards as a "faggot." Verizon, Sallie Mae and Georgia-based NetBank each said they didn't know their ads were on AnnCoulter.com until they received the complaints. A diarist at the liberal blog DailyKos.com posted contact information for dozens of companies with ads on Coulter's site after the commentator made her remarks about Edwards at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on Friday. (Full story) "One of the best ways to...

Welcome to The 2006 Weblog Awards! The Weblog Awards are the world's largest blog competition, with over 1 million votes cast in the last three years for nearly 1,000 blogs. This year's edition is the biggest ever with 45 categories to choose from. Nominations ended November 24, and voting began December 7 and will end December 15.

Reading over Kos's list of winners and losers from last night's primary, this one stood out: Losers: Lobbyists. They've paid good money to buy Joe Lieberman. How do you buy a guy that doesn't need money? That isn't willing to be corrupted by their strings-attached cash?You must be joking. Since when did the left adopt the belief that wealth equals incorruptibility? The Senate is full of millionaires, but I thought Washington D.C. was engulfed by a culture of corruption? Or is it only wealthy Republicans who fall under the evil influence of lobbyists? By Kos's logic I guess if we...

Is Kos Really the Kingmaker? He says no. But if Joe Lieberman loses his Senate primary and jeopardizes a Democratic seat, the leading liberal blogger knows that he will be blamed

By now, nearly everyone has heard of Hollywood actor Mel Gibson’s arrest for DUI and his subsequent profanity-laced tirade. While it was bad enough that he set such a poor public example for a professing Christian—between the carousing, the public intoxication, and finally the language and lack of respect for the police—Hollywood and many of the cultural elite see fit to pass over these items. (And why not, given the amount of partying, drinking, illicit sex, and use of drugs among the jet set? Their attitude on these matters is “Welcome to the club, Mel!” Instead, the indignation of the...

by Mark Finkelstein August 4, 2006 - 21:39 John Fund of the good old Wall Street Journal talking up the impact of the blogs on the Dem Connecticut primary. Mega-blogger Markos Moulitsas Zúniga of the Daily Kos talking it down. The odd couple, guests on this evening's Hardball, engaged in some serious media gender-bending. Fund went first, and overflowed with praise for the role the blogs have played in the race: Fund: "I think [the blogs' impact has] been very significant. I offer a tip of the hat to them. They have taken the former vice-presidential candidate and created a...

With all the speculation about whether Fidel Castro is dead or alive or in a permanent state of Francisco Franco, it is interesting to read a Daily Kos diary posted by a KOmmie who lives in Havana as the wife of a foreign service officer (not the USA). Of course, being a KOmmie living in luxury compared to the average Cuban, she rattles on about how Cubans are better off living in their socialist paradise than become victims of EVIL consumerism as you can read in her KOmmie DIARY titled, "The situation in Cuba, from someone who lives in...

I bet your first reaction upon seeing the name of "Michael Schiavo" in the title of this DUmmie FUnnies thread was "Huh?" It sure was my reaction when I saw Michael Schiavo's name as a Daily Kos Diarist SLAMMING Joe Lieberman in a KOmmie Diary titled, "Excuse me, Mr. Lieberman?" One would have thought that after all the controversy over Schiavo forcing the removal of the feeding tube from his comatose wife, Terri, over the strong objections of her parents who were willing to take care of her, that Michael Schiavo would slither away from public view and take...