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Markos Moulitsas, proprietor of the infamous Phonycrat spin factory, the Daily Kos, now has Dennis Kucinich in his crosshairs because Kucinich is committing the ultimate offense of not being bought and paid for by the HMOs and health insurers.
From Democracy Now! 3/11/10:
MARKOS MOULITSAS: [I’m going to hold] people like Dennis Kucinich responsible for the 40,000 Americans that die each year from a lack of healthcare. And I don’t care if you’re a Republican or you’re a conservative Democrat or you’re somebody like Dennis Kucinich. The fact is, this does a heck of a lot for a lot of people. And like I said, it’s not perfect, it definitely needs to be improved, but it’s a first step. And God knows, it’s taken us a long time to even get our toe in the door, given the corporate interests that are arrayed against any kind of real reform. So I think this is a first step. It’s definitely not the end of the path. It’s not the ideal solution. But we are—our foot’s in the door. And if somebody like Kucinich wants to block that, I find that completely reprehensible.
And he’s elected, not to run for president, which he seems to do every four years. He’s not elected to grandstand and to—and to give us this ideal utopian society. He’s elected to represent the people of his district, and he’s not representing the uninsured constituents in his district by pretending to take the high ground here. What he’s doing, he’s undermining this reform. He’s making common cause with the Republicans. And I think that’s a perfect excuse and a rationale for a primary challenge.
Only a true rightist nutjob would say that voting to fine uninsured people for not being able to pay astronomic premiums is "representing" them. Moulitsas isn't some naive blogger who posts a couple of times a week and doesn't have the time to find out what this wealthcare bill is actually about. That guy lives and breathes politics. He is perfectly aware of what the wealthcare bill actually does.
1) Fines people for not being able to afford health insurance.
2) Makes it possible for the HMOs and health insurance companies to add astronomical premium hikes to already sky high rates.
3) Cuts life saving care for people on Medicare.
4) Puts into place unconscionable restrictions on abortion. (Yes, I know the Stupak restrictions are even worse, but that's still no excuse.)
5) Creates tax penalties for employers that provide mediocre health plans instead of terrible ones. (The mediocre plans are what the corporate media refer to as "Cadillac Care.")
6) Shovels a lot more of our nation's wealth in the direction of the HMOs and health insurers and away from the middle class and the poor.
Contrary to the DLC/HMO spin, this wealthcare bill is not about "incrementalism." It's a gigantic plunge backward.
Moulitsas' spin on healthcare and so many other issues that liberals and progressives care about is starting to resemble that of a concern troll (Urban Dictionary).
In an argument (usually a political debate), a concern troll is someone who is on one side of the discussion, but pretends to be a supporter of the other side with "concerns". The idea behind this is that your opponents will take your arguments more seriously if they think you're an ally.
Suggestion to Liberals and Progressives with DailyKos Diaries: Start Your Own Blogs
The Daily Kos is a large site, and starting a diary there may seem like a good way to drive web traffic towards your ideas. However, if your views are to the left of Evan Bayh, good luck in getting them featured there. Lotsa luck if you ever support a Green or Independent candidate against a far right Phonycrat.
Having your own blog may seem to be more work. But, remember, it takes a lot of work to get your diary noticed in the land of Markosbots. And, its a largely hostile audience to liberal and progressive views. If you have your own blog, you get far more editorial control, and the same amount of work will get you at least as big of an audience. (Interestingly enough, the comments/viewer ratio for Kos diaries is much higher than that of blogs, which can mask the size of your blog's readership if you don't use some kind of web stats such as Google Analytics).
Blogger and WordPress both are viable platforms for hosting your blog, and they are free. I prefer Blogger for a host of reasons I will omit for now for the sake of (relative) brevity. Both are pretty user friendly, though I found Blogger easier to pick up.
You get to express yourself freely with your blog. Also, you don't have someone exploiting your labor who holds you and your views in utter contempt like Markos Moulitsas.
Photo: nmfbihop
Kucinich h as faced primary challenges before and he's always won. And that's because his district knows he's the only real Democrat left.
Moulitsas is like another sacred cow of the newroots; John Aravosis of AmericaBlog fame.
Just as Moulitsas has ties to the rightwing military in Central America as well as the CIA, John Aravosis once worked for disgraced Republican Sen. Ted Stevens (AK) while he was trying to make up his mind whether he was straight, gay, Republican or Democrat.
I have DailyKOS on my blogroll because a lot of my readers like the site and visit it. I try to give my readers what they want.
Back to Moulitsas. I have a huge problem with him because he has an annual event and charges $600 for the privilege to gather and praise his greatness. This is a huge amount of money to attend an event with low overhead. The vast sum of this money goes directly into his bank account and affords him the ability to own a home in pricey Berkeley, CA.
Comment threads there always put me in mind of the climax of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (heretically prefer the Kaufman version). What is awful here is he uses moral language relating to deaths to cover up a bill that is not primarily concerned with human welfare despite its marketing as such. Hopes of blogs being a better, new way of a more honest discourse are not helped as Kos cements his commentariat credentials, Welcome to the Village. You are right to encourage people to start their own.
I never go to Kos because I find him arrogant and obnoxious. I favour independent bloggers anyway, of all pursuasions.
I have tried to navigate DailyKos with no success, finding it too unwieldy to be informative, and like many "progressive" blogs it is too Democrats-have-all-the-answers for me.