Daily Kos

It was a sight to behold. President Barack Obama reverses himself on his promise to release interrogation (now redefined as "torture") photos and the entire leftwing blogosphere erupts in an explosion of anger. It was so bad that Cenk Uygur, the leftwing host of The Young Turks radio show, claimed that Obama was cowed into caving in to Dick Cheney as you can see in his Daily Kos post:

This is an unbelievable moment. Dick Cheney's PR offensive over the last month actually worked. Barack Obama just crumbled and will follow Cheney's command to not release the new set of detainee abuse pictures.

...And to add insult to injury, we have to reconcile ourselves to the fact that Dick Cheney still runs DC no matter how unpopular and despicable he is. He still has the Democrats eating out of his hand. Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

Has General Electric's news division at MSNBC officially announced its unequivocal support for the far-left in this nation while abandoning what little remains of its journalistic integrity?

Before answering, consider that during Monday's "Countdown," a new GOP logo, created for the perilously liberal website Daily Kos, was used  in a hit piece thoroughly disparaging the Republican Party.

Is this really what the good folks at GE think qualifies as journalism (video embedded below the fold, h/t Johnny Dollar):

I want my, I want my MSNBC!

So screamed Daily Kos readers Saturday in a post destined to fill your Sunday morning with a much-needed chuckle:

In the past few weeks, it has come to my personal attention that one cable or satellite company after another has been quietly moving MSNBC away from the news channel section of their lineup and into the premium section, or into the stratosphere of three and four digit channels.

As a result, when the ratings came out this week, it was no surprise to see how MSNBC is now a distant third behind CNN and FOX.

The hysterical conclusion:

Some groups on the left may have it out for anti-tax tea party movement, but according to one of the movement's biggest proponents - it is because they don't understand it from a hierarchical perspective.

Although there are reports that ACORN, The Huffington Post and the Daily Kos wanting to infiltrate the rallies, or crying foul for other reason - Beck, who appeared on Fox News Channel's April 9 "Your World with Neil Cavuto," explained that the left has difficulty understanding it's not a top-down movement, but a bottom-up one.

"It is a fundamental misunderstanding of the left," Beck said. "They don't get it. They think that these tax rallies - because they are so into their ‘.org's and their ACORN movements, where you have to have these coordinators. These are regular people and they are regular people that were hacked off at George W. Bush. They were angry at the spending of the Republicans."

Acts of protest tend to be synonymous with the left and are usually considered unsurprising on the right. However, when conservatives demonstrate - liberals take notice in a big way.

On Fox News Channel's April 7 "Your World," host Neil Cavuto reported that the Tax Day tea party protests on April 15 will be "infiltrated" by their political opponents and led by left-wing activist organizations. He specifically named Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

"Only eight days before a nationwide tea party, some over-caffeinated crashers aiming to lay waste to it," Cavuto said. "Reports of very well-organized infiltrators trying to mix in and rain on this parade. Talk about taxing."

UPDATE AT END OF POST: Moulitsas was less concerned about the four Oakland police officers killed just miles from his home two weeks ago.

Shortly before Markos Moulitsas blamed Glenn Beck for instigating the senseless shooting of three Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, police officers on Saturday, the proprietor of the far-left website Daily Kos said that conservatives would rather shoot cops than organize to win the next election. 

He also wrote during the same Twitter discussion, "With no Veep to shoot people, folks are taking things into their own hands."

Such was revealed Sunday by a self-proclaimed Daily Kos diarist named Tommy Christopher who was so disgusted by these comments he has actually resigned his membership (h/t Hot Air via ConservaThink):

There is a somewhat amusing article on CNN.com right now. It's not amusing for its wit but for the fact that CNN and Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry think they need to explain away the "tough exchange" that Henry and Obama engaged in during Tuesday's press conference. Also amusing is the fact that Henry seems to be apologizing to The One for simply doing his job. Finally, it's amusing for the fact that CNN and Henry think they are the news along with the president. It's narcissistic and revealing all at once. On top of all that it is amusing for whom CNN obviously felt the need to explain themselves to because for the last day the left has been outraged over Henry's gall at asking the president a simple question.

If you'll recall, on Tuesday (March 24) Henry asked Obama why he waited days to react to the outrage over the AIG bonuses that Treasury Secretary Geithner wrote into the bailout plan. Avoiding the question, Obama replied with a surly "Because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak." This exchange had the extremists at DailyKos and the profane folks at Wonkette as well as the rest of the left-O-sphere worked up into a frothy lather over Henry's low down, hornswoggling ways. How DARE he ask the Obammessiah a pointed question! Why it's sacrilege, surely!

So CNN has dutifully whimpered no mas and tried to smooth the waters with this odd article explaining away why that darned ol' Ed Henry had the temerity to ask The One a question. It's an obvious effort to appease the gods of the left-O-sphere and other zealots of the Obamanation. Henry must want a talisman to warn off the lefty heebie-jeebies awfully bad to go this far.

Whether it's a shot at competitor Newsweek for putting Markos Moulitsas on the payroll, or a brief moment of clarity, Time magazine has named the disgustingly liberal website Daily Kos as one of the most overrated blogs on the Internet.

I kid you not. 

Such a revelation seems even more odd given the absence of any conservative websites in Time's "25 Best Blogs of 2009."

But before we get there, here's what the magazine had to say about DK:

Michael Moore is in the middle of shooting a movie about Wall Street and the financial industry. So who is he now turning to for help? The Daily Kos. I kid you not. Yesterday Moore posted a thread on the Daily Kos titled, "Will You Help Me With My Next Film? ...a request from Michael Moore." Here is the text of his request asking for Kossack "expertise" about high finance:

Friends,

I am in the middle of shooting my next movie and I am looking for a few brave people who work on Wall Street or in the financial industry to come forward and share with me what they know. Based on those who have already contacted me, I believe there are a number of you who know "the real deal" about the abuses that have been happening. You have information that the American people need to hear. I am humbly asking you for a moment of courage, to be a hero and help me expose the biggest swindle in American history.

All correspondence with me will be kept confidential. Your identity will be protected and you will decide to what extent you wish to participate in telling the greatest crime story ever told.

Comedy is not pretty, especially if it is wielded as a clumsy hatchet by the Left to do their dirty work for them. Such is the case with the suggestion on the Daily Kos that satire could be used as a weapon to "take Limbaugh down." This is the comedy weapon post on this topic by the ironically named Kossack, FreeSociety:

Like it or not, Rush Limbaugh's elevation to icon status, by the right-wing-owned Corporate Radio Industry (which pre-dated the rise of Fox News) has been a serious problem for progressive politics, and also just basic accuracy in News Reporting.

Limbaugh's popularity (boosted by a right-wing Corporate environment, to which there is no "Left" equivalent), soared in the 1990s as Democrat Bill Clinton took office. While I disagree with some things Clinton did back then (NAFTA, complex HMO-style Health Care), the constant berating, distorting, and demeaning of Clinton by Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich, was successful in ending hopes of any oxygen for a progressive agenda, and in causing an uprising in the Electorate to vote in mass for the GOP in 1994.

It would seem New Scientist magazine recently decided to sacrifice credibility in the field of research.  Journalistic research, anyway. 

In their recent article titled, "Science heroes and villains of 2008," New Scientist has taken the liberty of naming some noteworthy individuals in the field.  As their opening salvo states (emphasis mine): 

The collective brain of New Scientist has come up with 8 scientist heroes of the year and people to look out for in 2009, 3 non-scientists who deserve special mention - and two possible bad guys.

Apparently, the collective brain has recently slipped into a vegetative state.

Of the three non-scientists who deserve special mention, one is Philip Munger, an editor of the Progressive Alaska blog, guest of Air America radio broadcasts, and Daily Kos loon.  His contribution to science that earns him the status of hero?  Claiming that Sarah Palin once told him that dinosaurs and humans coexisted.  Ah, my hero.  Einstein, Newton, Hawking... and Munger, of course!

The shoes had hardly left the hand of the Iraqi who tossed them at President Bush during the Baghdad press conference yesterday when the leftwing blogosphere began cheering him as some sort of hero. The incredible success of the Surge in Iraq has been very frustrating for the left. Along with Joe Biden they claimed that the Surge could never work. Problem was that it worked. That is why they have been so silent recently on the topic of the Iraq. The complete turnaround there has been much too embarrassing for them to mention Iraq very much...until now. The shoes tossed by that Iraqi journalist let loose a river of pent up frustration in the form of hailing the shoe tosser. Here is a sampling of the the reaction from the Daily Kos:

 

Appearing on the November 24 "Fox & Friends," MRC Director of Communications Seton Motley reacted to left-wing bloggers critical of President-elect Obama for choosing center-left, rather than far-left staffers for his presidential transition team. [audio available here]:

GRETCHEN CARLSON, co-host, "Fox & Friends": Alright, Seton, so a lot of these people on the Left say, "Oh, wait a minute, Barack! You were supposed to choose people who feel exactly like we do on the issues." And in essence, he's chosen a lot of centrists. Will we now see the blogosphere really light up now with the ultra-left viewpoints?

DailyKos and DemocraticUndergroud types are starting to get a bit miffed at their messiah. So far, no one from their ranks has been given the nod to take a spot on Obama's staff or to fill his cabinet openings. The "progressives" are noticing, too, that far from bringing a "new" wave of politics to Washington, so far Obama is bringing back the age of Clinton. Instead of Washington becoming Obamopolis, it is a re-birthed Clintonville that is rising like a phoenix from the ashes.

It is certainly too early to claim that Barack Obama is going to be a centrist president like the far lefties fear. After all, he hasn't even taken office yet. But, one thing that can be said, when evaluating his pick of staffers and cabinet positions thus far, he sure ain't the candidate of "change" he claimed to be when he was a candidate. Obama has picked no one "new," no one "different," and no one "forward looking." So far, every choice he's made has either been an old Clintonite or another of those old politicos from the 90s that have been on the outside looking in since the year 2000.

Barack Obama sent a letter to the Daily Kos which was posted back in 2005 to talk strategy and "change" to the Kossacks. Obama was very serious about toning down the rhetoric only until it was safe enough to "enforce a more clearly progressive agenda.” (h/t to Gateway Pundit for bringing this back through Sweetness and Light) (my emphasis added:)

I thought this might be a good opportunity to offer some thoughts about not only judicial confirmations, but how to bring about meaningful change in this country.

Maybe some of you believe I could have made my general point more artfully, but it’s precisely because many of these groups are friends and supporters that I felt it necessary to speak my mind.

There is one way, over the long haul, to guarantee the appointment of judges that are sensitive to issues of social justice, and that is to win the right to appoint them by recapturing the presidency and the Senate.

Your humble correspondent had figured the polls would start to narrow in the final week of the campaign but this stunning new Gallup poll shows the lead in the Presidential race narrowing much more rapidly than he had assumed. The latest Gallup poll of traditional likely voters shows the race has narrowed down to 49 percent for Barack Obama and 47 percent for John McCain. Here is Gallup's explanation of this poll:

Gallup's "traditional" likely voter model, which Gallup has employed for past elections, factors in prior voting behavior as well as current voting intention. This has generally shown a closer contest, reflecting the fact that Republicans have typically been more likely to vote than Democrats in previous elections.

Meanwhile, over at the Daily Kos, some have nervously pooh-poohed this poll but others are starting to hit the panic button. Here is a sampling of Kossacks sweating buckets with some commentary by your humble correspondent:

The Kossacks at the Daily Kos are hitting the panic button over the Obama "redistribution of wealth" audio which has become the hottest political topic on the Web, including the Drudge Report. As NewsBusters Mark Finkelstein has noted, most of the MSM morning TV shows, with the exception of Fox & Friends and Morning Joe, are still continuing to bury this story which your humble correspondent posted earlier today. However, this burial by the MSM is giving little comfort to the denizens of the Daily Kos. Right now they are trying to desperately spin away this story with excuses that Obama talking about "redistribution of wealth" was taken out of context or that we must understand the nuances of what he actually meant. You can see the Daily Kos spin control on this erupting story on this thread so let us now join the Kossacks as they sweat buckets trying to explain away Obama's words that could cost him the election:

The leftwing blogosphere went into full panic mode Saturday as a result of a tough interview Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden had with a Florida anchorwoman two days ago (video embedded right).

As my colleague P. J. Gladnick previously reported, Barbara West of the ABC TV affiliate WFTV in Orlando gave Biden quite a grilling Thursday.

Yet, despite the obviously favorable and well-documented treatment Barack Obama and his running mate have received from the press during this campaign, Netroots members were shocked and appalled with how Biden was questioned.

Katharine Zaleski, the Senior News Editor at the Huffington Post, published the following Saturday (emphasis added):

Mary Mapes is in gloat over-drive.  Dan Rather's erstwhile producer, the woman behind Memogate, is beside herself with joy at what she sees as the impending death of the conservative blogosphere.  

It's her expectation that Barack Obama will win the presidency that has Mapes so hopeful.  Annotated excerpts from her HuffPo column, The Monster is Dying [emphasis added]:

Are there any mental health professionals out there? I'm trying to line them up now because if by some chance, despite all the gloating predictions of Chuck Todd & Co., Barack Obama loses the election, there is going to be a deep need for such people. Judge for yourself if experts in mental health help will be needed by checking out this Huffington Post blog by screenwriter and playwright Sherman Yellen titled, "My Coming November Crackup." I think you will agree, if Obama loses there will be a wave of grief and anger on the left, the likes of which we have never seen before. To get an idea of just how anxious the left is about this election, let us join Sherman nervously biting his fingernails (emphasis mine):

 When a black republican like General Colin Powell endorses a major liberal figure like Barack Obama, it is amazing to see racial vitriol stop at a lefty website like Daily Kos:

Powell didn't just decimate the McCain campaign rationale, however. Powell also offered up an endorsement of Barack Obama in the strongest possible terms, saying that Obama would be an "exceptional president" and that he had the capacity to be "transformational."

The amazing part of all this is that Powell still considers himself a Republican. While there will never be an excuse for his role in supporting the Iraq war, one thing does seem clear: Powell's endorsement today will be a boost for Barack Obama's campaign, and therefore a good thing for this country.

How sweet of Daily Kos. Back in April of 2004 Daily Kos's love did not extend at all for General Powell. In fact, it was downright nasty:

Uncle Tom Powell Stumps for Massah Bush

Yes suh! Yes suh! Right away suh!

Mr. Powell sir, you are a liar and an apologist for a crooked regime known as the George W. Bush administration.

Charges of "RINO", "limp-wristed republican", "Rockefeller republican", and "squish" are likely among the names to be thrown at Powell from the conservative base, but John McCain has been receiving that treatment from the conservative establishment too.

Joe the Plumber (Joe Wurzelbacher) seems to have committed a Thought Crime in the eyes of the leftwing Blogosphere by daring to question the Lightworker. As a result, and because his name was brought up several times by John McCain at the debate last night, Joe the Plumber has been the subject of a lot of rage at both the Democratic Underground and the Daily Kos. The title of the DU thread alone tells you just how angry the left is: "Hey, Joe 'The Dumbass' Plumber. Listen up!" And the Daily Kos thread is flat out incorrect: "'Joe the Plumber'" Not a Registered Voter." Sorry, Kossacks, but Joe the Plumber is registered to vote. He just prefers to use his middle name but you were too eager to smear him to consider that fact when poring through the Ohio voting records.

Did you hear that Governor Palin is stupid? Well, if you watch TV, listen to the radio, or read any news outlet you can't help but find the lefties there claiming in unison that she is the dumbest woman to appear on the scene since Goldie Hawn made her chops as the blonde ditz on 1960's TV. And, heck it's gotta be true. Why, even her SAT scores prove it! Except that the "proof" of that is an Internet hoax that fooled Wonkette, the DailyKos and a blue million nutrooter sites. But, who cares? As long as it makes Palin look bad, we're golden, baby! Truth-schmooth, right?

On October 10, blogger Dawn Eden found that a posted image of hers had been stolen, then altered, and then posted everywhere as "proof" that Sarah Palin is stupid. Apparently, the biggest stir was created by the tabloid site Gawker.com on its "Assignment Desk" section.

For the last few days various groups like MoveOn.org, and the folks at Huffington Post, DailyKos and DemocraticUnderground have been beating the drum of a new theme to attempt to undermine the McCain campaign among the media. The newest claim from the extreme left is that McCain's focus on the Obama/Ayers connection is responsible for fostering "threats" and "violence" to be ginned up among Republicans at McCain rallies. The left is pushing the idea that McCain is inciting riots and "hate" among GOP voters and they are pushing this theme in an email campaign to the main Old Media outlets.

On October 9, for instance, I got no less than 25 emails "alerting" me to a particular Huffington Post jeremiad that is amusing in its replication of the same behavior it pretends to condemn. In this childish bloviation the HuffPo writer uses as much name calling, guilt by association, and bald faced lies as he claims to be refuting from McCain. But, the germ of the argument is that McCain is inciting violence.

The leftwing blogosphere has a new villain in addition to John McCain and Sarah Palin: Bill Clinton. They have been suspecting that Clinton has not been giving all out support to Barack Obama including his announcement to Larry King that he wouldn't begin campaigning for Obama until after October 9 out of respect for the Jewish High Holy Days. However, the straw that really broke the leftwing camel's back was Clinton's statement today to Chris Cuomo on ABC's Good Morning America defending John McCain's request for a debate delay until after the financial bailout crises is resolved. Here are a couple of things that Bill Clinton said that drove the left absolutely bonkers:

We know he didn't do it because he's afraid because Sen. McCain wanted more debates.

At least since September 8 the extreme left has been pushing a lie that Governor, then Mayor, Sarah Palin "charged rape victims for rape kits" performed upon them in the Alaskan town of Wasilla. The charge stems from a May 22, 2000 article in the local Wasilla paper The Frontiersman and has been spun from a comment made by the Wasilla Police Chief. This comment was somehow made into a Sarah Palin policy. Evidence of the incident, though, shows no involvement by Palin at all. Still, many Old Media outlets continue to keep illegitimately linking this rape kit billing claim to Sarah Palin, even though the truth is easily discovered.

As mentioned first up was The Frontiersman story from 2000. In that story Police Chief Fannon was quoted as standing against legislation that would force local municipalities to pick up the costs of rape kits being performed. In the interview Fannon said that, upon conviction, he favored the criminals being charged for the costs.

On PBS's Web site today, ombudsman Michael Getler writes of complaints over an incident during last Sunday's pledge drive.  He describes the cheap shot taken by actor Mike Farrell against vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin:

According to Joseph Campbell, vice president of fundraising programs, here's what happened:

The latest issue of the media mag American Journalism Review gives a wee hint to the leanings of journalists. A study showed that the No. 1 blog read by political reporters is ... the lefty site http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.

The communications firm Brodeur interviewed 69 political reporters and it showed both HuffPo and DailyKos in the top five ahead of the one conservative site, Townhall.com.

 On CNN's American Morning today, White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux reported on Barack Obama's campaigning in Virginia.  Afterwards, anchor Kiran Chetry had a question:

CHETRY: All right. And Suzanne, what's on tap for the campaign today? And please tell me it's not lipstick again.

MALVEAUX: Let's hope not. He's going to be in Norfolk, Virginia. That is in southeast Virginia, and it's home to the world's largest Naval base. It's one of the most competitive areas that the Democrats and Republicans are fighting over. It's a critical piece of property, piece of land there with folks in Virginia, and they want those voters.

I sent the e-mail that follows to Sam Stein of the Huffington Post on Saturday evening, and followed up by resending it on Sunday morning.

I originally promised to call him out in public this morning if he did not respond, but other business matters intervened. I noted this morning that my call-out would occur this afternoon.

Stein has still not responded, so here we are.

________________________________________

Here is the original e-mail sent Saturday:

Mr. Stein,

The following assertions about the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman (the VF) that you made in your August 31 report are untrue, and should be corrected: