Markos Moulitsas

Markos Moulitsas, the founder and publisher of the Daily Kos, demonstrated that he can locate a vast right-wing conspiracy just like the rest of the Kosmonauts. Mark Halperin's suspension, for him, proved once again that Halperin is a right-wing fellow traveler with Joe Scarborough, who's the "real president" of MSNBC:

I think it's wonderful that Halperin betrayed his full feelings about Obama on the air. It's tiresome seeing people pretend that he's some sort of neutral political arbitrer [sic], when he's engaged in a long-running jihad against the truth.

Greg Gutfeld on Saturday went after "hacks with an axe to grind" whose "rush to judgment" concerning last Saturday's shootings in Tucsocn "revealed the media's not so secret biases towards certain political personalities and movements."

Offering his opinion at the end of "Fox News Watch," the "Red Eye" host specifically named Jane Fonda, Paul Krugman, and "the creeps at Daily Kos" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Fox News Watch panelists on Saturday named some villains concerning last week's tragedy in Tucson.

Aside from the shooter himself, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, and Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos were mentioned for their terrible coverage of this awful event (video follows with transcript and commentary):

With the founder of the Daily Kos deliberately trying to tie Sarah Palin's target list to yesterday's shooting in Tucson, perhaps it's time Markos Moulitsas took this opportunity to look at his own people in regards to using incendiary rhetoric.  Markos took the time to send a message to his followers yesterday tweeting, “Mission accomplished, Sarah Palin”. 

But if target lists are considered dangerous and violent rhetoric at the Daily Kos, and not hyperbolic metaphors used for rallying supporters, then Chris Bowers, their Campaign Director, has some 'violent' speech in his past.  Most recently, Bowers made a name for himself by starting a failed campaign to manipulate search engine results for the midterm elections.

In a 2006 post titled, Use It or Lose It:  Full Frontal Assault, Bowers discusses how 'we fired some warning shots across the bow of ultra-safe House Democrats who are hoarding campaign cash'.  He explains that the campaign cash is necessary for huge election gains, because 'our target list (is) deeper than it has been in a generation'.

In the original call to action, Bowers repeatedly discussed how they need to target Republican seats, and how they also need to target House Democrats not willing to part with their campaign funds.

Capitalizing on the shooting in Tucson this afternoon, CBS furthered the lunatic left rhetoric that Sarah Palin was somehow responsible for this heinous crime.  The theory being that the shooter was inspired by Palin’s midterm election map, which featured Gabrielle Giffords as a potential target. 

“…critics of Sarah Palin have already drawn a link between the shooting and the fact that the former Alaska governor put Giffords on a "target list" of lawmakers Palin wanted to see unseated in the midterm elections.”

It’s a little concerning that CBS would fall for such a disgusting attempt to point the finger at Sarah Palin, a theory being perpetrated by liberal bloggers.  But more concerning are the critics being cited in the article – commenters on Palin’s Facebook page.  Impressive bit of journalism.

The first comment reads:

"What a hypocrite you are.  You targeted this woman - literally with a target on her district - one of your freaky Fox followers hunted her down - and now you try to distance yourself from blame."

Sarah Palin at Monday's Tea Party rally in Reno, Nevada, told attendees, "Don't be thinking that we've got victory for America in the bag yet...We can't party like it's 1773."

Clearly not understanding that was the year of the famed Boston Tea Party, history challenged media members, including PBS's Gwen Ifill and Daily Kos's Markos Moulitsas, mocked Palin via their twitter accounts (screencaps follow with video of Palin's remarks courtesy Right Scoop, h/t Perfunction):

In his 7-question September 22 Q&A with Markos Moulitsas, Time magazine's Ishaan Tharoor timidly challenged the left-wing blogger on his extremist rhetoric about how conservative Americans, particularly religious ones, are the "American Taliban."

Moulitsas was interviewed as part of his publicity tour for his new book, "American Taliban: How War, Sex, Sin and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right" which "takes aim at what Moulitsas thinks is animating this right-wing revival," Tharoor noted. "You refer to a whole swath of U.S. conservatives as American Taliban. Is that really helpful?" Tharoor began meekly.  Moulitsas, of course, cranked it up to eleven and let loose with a boilerplate screed about how evil and subversive American conservatives are:

A petition is beginning to show up in e-mail inboxes across the country thanks to the left-wing website Daily Kos. The goal? Ending the practice of filibuster completely and letting Senators pass news laws with a 50 plus 1 vote.

For those who paid attention to Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) becoming the infamous "number 41," the implications are all too clear.

The Senate passed Obamacare on Christmas Eve in 2009 only because there were exactly 60 votes to stop a Republican filibuster. Brown's election weeks later dropped Democratic control to 59 and virtually stopped them cold. Democrats are now expecting to lose the House in November and keep the Senate only with a slim majority.

The folks who run Daily Kos, apparently thinking 49 Republican votes should not matter, are trying to change the rules to make it easier for Democratic agendas to sail through. Behold the thought process of today's Machiavellian liberals who will do absolutely anything to get their way (h/t NBer choselife3x):

We're fast approaching the two week anniversary of the Shirley Sherrod affair, and I have yet to hear anyone honestly answer the following question concerning the controversy:

How would the media have handled this matter if it happened when George W. Bush was President?

Would the press have acted the same, or would somebody else be taking the heat?

Before you answer, consider the following hypothetical scenario: 

Even though I as a pro-life blogger know I battle on the right side of history, on a day-to-day basis I sometimes don't feel like a victor. The fight seems so uphill, with money, political power, and MSM all against us.

So the following July 21 Politico story about what bloggers on the Left think of us was enlightening. Every time I get a peek into the other side's view of us I realize once again that they're paper tigers.

Also of note is the Left's view that Obama has clipped his agenda thanks to us, when we think his actions thus far demonstrate he is the most liberally radical president ever.

The piece's impetus is the Shirley Sherrod debacle....

But this week's forced resignation of a previously obscure Agriculture Dept. employee is just the latest example of Obama officials reacting to a cable news-driven obsession of the right.

It not only infuriates Obama's liberal base, which feels like the episodes just reinforce the power of the right to push a damaging story into the mainstream press....

When you're too crazy for MSNBC…

Markos Moulitsas, founder of the far-left blog Daily Kos, announced today that he has been "blacklisted" by MSNBC for taunting "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough. "I just don't know how one could reasonably expect to be welcomed onto our network while publicly antagonizing one of our hosts at the same time," MSNBC president Phil Griffin told Moulitsas.

Griffin's ostracism marks the second instance in recent days that a prominent MSNBC personality has spurned Kos or his blog. A couple weeks ago, Keith Olbermann announced he would no longer be writing for the site. He returned a few days later.

Still, there seem to be some reservations even at liberal MSNBC about the often crude, pugilistic style employed by so many of the Kossacks. What set off the most recent tiff? A tweet exchange, recounted below the fold.

Two stories in Thursday's New York Times featured the paper avoiding pinning liberal labels on two media organs: the liberal newsmagazine Newsweek and the far-left political blog Daily Kos.

Reporter Jeremy Peters insisted in Thursday's Business Day that the left-leaning magazine Newsweek was "apolitical," yet easily spotted a right tilt in two potential purchasers of the struggling weekly: "2 Suitors for Newsweek Are Said to Be Ruled Out." A photo caption made the easily refutable claim that Newsweek "strives to be apolitical."

The Washington Post is looking for a bidder who will be a good fit for the magazine, which strives to be apolitical.

Really now? As Nathan Burchfiel at NewsBusters reminds us: "Newsweek has attacked Tea Parties and conservative leaders like Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh, earned praise from gay marriage activists for its coverage, launched pro-atheism attacks on religious figures like Mother Teresa, among numerous other liberal positions."

Peters gave Newsweek's editors the benefit of the doubt on its liberal slant, which even Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz believes is an accurate view:

The ideas that Newsweek is promoting are mainly left-of-center....When Newsweek put a conservative's essay on the cover, it was by David Frum, assailing Rush Limbaugh under the headline 'Why Rush Is Wrong.' And when Newsweek took on Obama, it did so from the left, in a piece built around New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and his criticism of the president's economic policies.

Peters was able to see conservatism and libertarianism in the two rejected buyers, but not the clear liberalism at Newsweek.

[UPDATE: Matthews addresses Daily Kos/Research 2000 polling issue on June 30 Hardball. Text after the jump.]

With the news that Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas is suing the polling group Research 2000 for providing "bunk" results that his Web site published, the question has to be asked: Will those figures in the media who've advanced Daily Kos poll results, like MSNBC's Hardball host Chris Matthews, let their viewers know of the suspect data? Back on the February 2, 2010 edition of Hardball, Matthews as part of his Sideshow segment, alerted viewers to the results of "a wild new poll of Republicans" that showed 58 percent of them didn't believe or weren't sure that Barack Obama was born in the U.S. and 64 percent of GOPers agreed or weren't sure that the President was a "racist who hates white people." Matthews granted the poll so much credence he cited Research 2000's discovery that 68 percent of its Republican respondents wanted Obama impeached as that day's "Big Number."

The following is from the "Sideshow" segment aired during the February 2 edition of Hardball:

Isn't it odd to see one blogger declaring another blogger irrelevant when he tries to run for office? Daily Kos founder Markous Moulitsas mocked fellow blogger Mickey Kaus in a New York Times story by Janelle Brown. The reporter quoted Kaus friend Nicholas Lemann explaining Kaus: “Mickey sees himself as a liberal whose mission in life is to correct the flaws of liberalism.” This spurred the Kos claws:  

Not everyone sees it quite that way. Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos, for one, calls Mr. Kaus’s campaign the desperate act of an irrelevant blogger. “Suddenly, he decides to run for Senate, and lots of people think it’s absolutely hilarious,” he says. “I mean, it’s as if Emmanuel Lewis suddenly announced he was running for Senate. First of all, you’d be like, ‘Whoa, I forgot that guy existed!,’ then you’d wonder, ‘What the heck is he thinking!,’ and then you’d laugh.”

Is this some sort of knock at the brief Gary Coleman for Governor campaign in California in 2003? If so, it's not a very savvy move as the country still mourns the former child star.

Phil Donahue believes people should learn about Fox News's Glenn Beck by watching a video that was posted at the perilously liberal website Daily Kos.

In a preview of an interview to be aired on the "Joy Behar Show" Friday, the host asked her guest, "What do you think of this upsurge of the Becks and the Limbaughs and Fox News?"

Donahue curiously responded, "You know this kid Daily Kos?...He's got a thing called 'Full Mental Beck.' And it's, it's like seven minutes of, a montage of Beck" 

He amazingly continued, "So, if you've just read about Glenn Beck, and you don't want to watch Glenn Beck, check Daily Kos and watch it, because you better know what's going on here or you're going to be culturally illiterate" (video follows with transcript and commentary, h/t Weasel Zippers): 

Is there anything more ridiculous than putting on the architect of the dark and ghastly radical castle called the Daily Kos to denounce extremism and irresponsible rhetoric? And yet that's exactly what Keith Olbermann did on Tuesday night's Countdown -- he brought on Markos Moulitsas.

He didn't ask about the Kos blogger who compared Virginia attorney general (then-candidate) Ken Cuccinelli to a dragon that "can be killed." Or the one where we are oblivious to America's reign of terror? Olbermann didn't even ask Moulitsas about his own disgust that Obama shouldn't have pushed Van Jones out to placate conservatives because "you don't negotiate with terrorists."

Nope, these two routinely vituperative political communicators lectured about the absurdity of conservative victimhood at the hands of MSNBC and other liberal outlets:

How do liberals really think journalism can be improved? By shrinking the amount of time and space Republicans have in the media. Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas lamented on Friday that John McCain would continue his streak as a go-to spokesman on Sunday morning news shows. Citing fellow liberal blogger Steve Benen, he complains McCain’s appearance on Sunday’s Meet the Press marks the 20th appearance on a Sunday morning talk show since Obama's inauguration: he's appeared on ABC three times, CBS 5, NBC 4, CNN 4, and Fox 4:

Quite the schedule for a backbencher with no power base within the party, a loser whose re-election to the Senate -- heck, survival in his own primary! -- is in serious jeopardy.

When I was on Meet the Press in December, David Gregory asked me what he could do to make the show better. I said, "stop having John McCain on". He and his producers nodded, seemingly acknowledging the ridiculousness of McCain's incessant appearances.

The folks at the uber-liberal website Daily Kos are showing their political bias this evening with a new poll claiming Tuesday's special Senate election in Massachusetts is all tied up.

What makes this laughable is the Real Clear Politics average -- including the DK poll -- has Republican candidate Scott Brown leading Democrat Martha Coakley by 6.2 points.

Here are the most recent poll numbers:

Remember how the vocal elements among the left-wing media were all too eager to exploit disagreements between prominent conservatives?

There were comments Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele made about Rush Limbaugh earlier this year and the back-and-forth between former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former GOP vice-presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. These and other overblown instances were offered as anecdotal evidence there was a divide in the Republican Party and/or conservative movement by MSNBC personalities and sometimes by even more mainstream media types like George Stephanopoulos.

Bad blood brewing between Ed Schultz and Chris Matthews?

Schultz today invited a guest on his show for the express purpose of taking shots at fellow MSNBCer Matthews!

On yesterday's Hardball, Matthews criticized the netroots who are trashing the watered-down ObamaCare bill.  "I don't consider them Democrats," said Matthews, dismissing them as "troublemakers." Concluded Chris: "they get their giggles sitting in the back seat and bitching."

On his show this evening, Schultz invited netroot-in-chief Markos Moulitsas on to fire back at Matthews.  Not merely did Schultz offer Kos a platform, he prodded him with leading questions sure to stir up a pointed response. Kos was only too happy to take up the cudgel, accusing Matthews of being "trapped in a bubble," "not learning from his mistakes," and warning that Matthews "has a thing coming."

Want to understand the liberal mind?  Check out Daily Kos creator Markos Moulitsas on this evening's Schultz show . .

Why does Kos say he hates the Taliban?  Because they aided and abetted Osama Bin Laden in the murder of thousands of Americans?  Nope.  That they are actively engaged in killing American troops in Afghanistan? Guess again.  No, the Taliban's real crime—the only complaint Kos mentions— is that . . . they're not PC.  Not feminist. Not gay-friendly. Hell, they might even be opposed to stem cell research.

Oh, and for good measure, Kos calls conservative Republicans like Michelle Bachmann "the American Taliban."  What was that about dissent being patriotic?

Newsweek’s 20/10 Project has a list of the Decade’s Worst Tactical Blunders. It might not be a shock that Newsweek decided three of the top four were made by Team Bush – and the fourth was John Kerry for letting Swift Boaters prevent him from taking that awful Bush out. What might be surprising are the authors of the little articles that accompany the list. The number one blunder was "Bush’s Katrina Flyover." The author was Bush-hating atheist scold Bill Maher:

But there was something about Bush’s response to Katrina that did bother me—oh, yeah, it was that he didn’t have one. Nor did the former dildo salesman he appointed to head FEMA. In other words, I get far more angry when politicians don’t do their jobs than when they get their pictures taken pretending to do somebody else’s.

The second biggest blunder of the decade was "Kerry Lets Himself Get Swift-Boated" by Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter. Conservative "lies" outpaced liberal "facts," thanks to Kerry’s decision to stay out of the rebuttal battle:

The liberal blogosphere is cheering one of its heroes for insulting a former Republican member of Congress on national television who as a result walked off an MSNBC set in disgust.

Appearing on Friday's "The Ed Show," Daily Kos owner Markos Moulitsas said to former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, "I did not get a deferment because I was too depressed to fight in a war that I supported in Vietnam."

Tancredo asked for an apology, and when one was not forthcoming, he took off his microphone and earpiece, and left (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, h/t Mediaite):

Oops!

Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos, has discovered that his endorsement can be  political poison. Such was the case with his endorsement at the beginning of this month of the very liberal Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, in the New York 23rd CD special election:

Club for Growth darling Doug Hoffman is running on the Conservative Party line, and has even garnered the endorsement of Fred Thompson. The guy has legitimate traction, fueled by the fact that Dede Scozzafava, the Republican, is actually the most liberal candidate in the race. (Heck, she has run on the very liberal Working Families Party ballot line in the past.)

Sure, she is a Republican, and opposes the public option. But she's been willing to raise taxes when budgets require it, and is to the left of most Democrats on social issues (including supporting gay marriage). That's why conservatives are panicked about her -- for a party that is becoming more regional, more conservative, more ideologically rigid, Scozzafava's brand of moderate conservatism is grating. Hence, Hoffman has a real shot at not just playing spoiler and undermining the GOP candidate's chances, but also of potentially winning.

As a congresswoman, she could either move even more to the left to properly represent her progressive-trending district and be a pain in the side of the GOP caucus (they have nothing like our Blue Dogs), or Democrats can field a real Democrat to challenge her in 2010.

In an October 20 The Gaggle blog post, Newsweek's David A. Graham sought to explain to readers why the New York 23rd Congressional District special election on November 3 "is more important than" the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races.

Graham portrayed the race -- pitting liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava against Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman and Democratic candidate Bill Owens -- as a bellwether fight for the soul of the Republican Party. Graham noted Scozzafava's socially liberal stances, implying that conservative ire over her nomination tothe GOP ticket in the special election was based solely on the ire of social conservatives.

Yet nowhere in his blog post did Graham explain that economic conservatives and libertarian-leaning Republicans worry Scozzafava is truly a Republican-in-name-only (RINO) on economic matters as well, given her ties to ACORN.

As Human Events reporter John Gizzi noted a month ago (emphasis mine):

Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas on the Midday Open Thread, Thursday: "As bad as Rep. Joe Wilson's behavior was last night, look on the bright side -- at least he wasn't carrying a sign that said 'Obama = Hitler'. Or a loaded rifle."

Also Markos on Thursday, lauding Joe Wilson’s Democrat opponent: "Overall, Rob Miller is close to hitting $400,000 from almost 11,000 patriots sick and tired of Republicans like Rep. Joe Wilson trying to debase our democracy." (More here.)

Markos Moulitsas, opponent of debasing democracy, on the Midday Open Thread, Wednesday edition, on conservatives causing the resignation of radical leftist Van Jones: "It would be nice if the White House learned, as Baratunde notes, that they can't negotiate with terrorists."