Shhhhhhhhhut up, Brad. My check ain’t cleared yet.

So Kos = De’Lay, according to Kaus?
WTF???
I knew there was a reason I don’t read Slate.

Does anybody actually still pay attention to Mickey? Why, when there are so many much more crazy and less dull wingnuts out there, giving much more entertainment?

This whole stupid affair could have been averted if some major lefty bloggers had been upfront about it all. Reality aside, it is easy to twist this into “Kos said jump and the rest asked how high” I’ve been over to FDL, and I know the reasons why Jane did not respond… but if you give a hint of weakness the rightwing will pounce. Someone should have stood up and told Kos to fuck himself loud and clear, and there wouldn’t be a problem. Now they can twist all of these posts after the fact to look like CYA. Kos was wrong to ask other bloggers to cover his ass. This is a blow to the credibility of the left wing blogs.

I haven’t really read all of it, but I don’t see this as a big deal; Kos asked “us” (lefties in blogistan) to do something. We can either comply or not. We’re not under any sort of compunction to do what he says. He asked us a favor; we’re free to say “no.”

Am I missing something?

But nobody said no… nobody said anything until the wingers started flinging crap. Now the left is on the defensive. Kos placed bloggers in a bad spot – they were left with the choice of saying no publicly and calling attention to it, or staying silent and looking complicit. Kos fucked up. Methinks YKos went to his head.

Buh-buh-buh-but I never mentioned it because I didn’t give a shit about it! Not out of some creepy cultish fealty to Kos (who fucks goats, if I haven’t mentioned it yet).

Agreed that Kos put people in a bad position. On the other hand, everybody who ever asks you a favor puts you in a bad position. If you do it, your girlfriend/boyfriend/guys at the bar will think you’re a pushover, if you don’t, everybody thinks you’re mean. It’s not an exact example, but, hell, I’ve been up for three days with a migraine.

My actual objection is that this is another one of those things where the right stands and points at someone on the left and screams “Cooties!” and everybody on the left does everything possible to distance themselves, regardless of actual cootie existence. We do it a lot. We do it when it’s reasonable (As now, for example, since I continue to be baffled at the notion that what Armstrong did is defensible, though admittedly I haven’t been paying attention.) and we do it when it’s not, as when leftists are expected to run from the atheists among us just because Ann Coulter is pointing and screaming “Cooties!”

Meanwhile, Coulter says some of the most vile things imaginable, and her political broodmates all slither closer to her in defense.

As Molly Ivins notes in her latest column, William Jefferson was kicked out of a position of power by his own party when his wrongdoing came to light. The GOP, meanwhile, tried to change the rules to keep DeLay in his.

They’ve got us nervous, kids. I’m not saying cling to the corrupt because admitting they’re corrupt is embarrassing. But I’d like to see us stop the knee-jerk sacrifice of everyone the GOP thinks we ought to ditch.

That’s the point of it all… Kos took one of his issues that most people didn’t give a shit about and turned it into a weapon for the right. Nobody talked about it for their own reasons, but it is easy for the right to say Kos put his foot down, and he got what he wanted. Really, the only thing that could have been done to counter this mess would be a lib blogger posting Kos’s email before this crap broke and state that it was bullshit. But that would be crazy. That’s why I say Kos fucked up royally – he made it a lose-lose for lib bloggers. Kos is one of the most powerful lib bloggers, and I think it is going to his head.

Kos took one of his issues that most people didn’t give a shit about and turned it into a weapon for the right.

I think you exaggerate. If anyone remembers this come election day… well, our country will truly be doomed.

lmao… the tempests in the blogsphere won’t likely have much impact on the election. Honeslty, most of the stuff online is for the political junkies. It just makes the wingers more annoying and puts libs on the defensive for no good reason. The wingers are short of facts to support their world view, and therefore it is not a good idea to add to their short list. This is how it will be spun: Kos told the lib blogs not to talk about it. None of the lib blogs talked about it. That is FACT. The reasons why nobody talked about it don’t matter shit. In any future debate the wingers will be able to use that as a weapon. “Can you point to any liberal blogger that went against what Kos wanted” “No, but (insert lib defence here)”… You know how they will respond to that. This is a harder position to defend, and all a result of Kos’s hubris.

Just for the record here is an article on it (someone did talk about it anyways) to shove down a wingers throat.

http://www.prospect.org/weblog/2006/06/post_629.html#002851

In a message to “‘Townhouse,’ a private email list comprising elite liberal bloggers”

How come Kos didn’t include ME on that list? That goatfucker. And so is Jerome Armstrong, whoever he is.

Seriously, I do actually know who Jerome Armstrong is, sorta.

Well well well.
Mikey F*ing Kaus has the GOP’s member loged deeply in is throat. It’s amazing the he can still eat and go about his business while servicing such a large conservative appendige. But such is the life for Mighty Mikey K, who thinks he’s “independent”. Another lapdog of the right and an innuendo spewing SOB.

This is kind of a catch-22, or at least a situation where post hoc does not necessarily equal propter hoc. Just because a lefty blogger didn’t mention it doesn’t mean that he follow orders from the Kositburo; as Bradroquette patiently explains, he just hadn’t heard of it. The problem is that it’s hard to separate out the ones who did it out of cultish fealty to Dear Leader Kos and the ones who didn’t hear about it, or didn’t care, or just thought that it was good strategy not to mention it, or something.

The wingers just want to pretend that lefties are actually organized in any fashion at all. The reality is of course that the wide variety of opinions and ideas out there in reality land means organizing lefties is worse than herding cats. Seriously, I try to have meetings and maybe one or two people will show up, and no one lets me know if they’re coming or not.

The right has the advantage that most of them will simply do what they are told, if you don’t ask them to think about anything.

What is there to actually talk about? Because I think maybe three people know what the controversy is supposed to be.

The facts:

There is an invitation only Google group called Townhouse that some of the top lefty bloggers (apparantly Atrios is not a member, because he’s never mentioned) and other interested partisans use to talk about stuff. I find this to be unremarkable to say the least. They colud just have easily set up a CC email list. and it would have been less transparant. Whatever. This is a complete non-issue. Also, it’s a complete coincidence that Mexicans became the biggest issue in the country out of left field. Gotcha.

Apparantly paragon of online civility and integrity, Josh “I google myself” Trevino got cheesed that Townhouse didn’t like Online Integrity. Trevino goes to every web site that mentions Online Integrity and namedrops Townhouse to let everyone know he’s on to their game and will not let them get away with it (exagerrating but not by much). Even though most of those people don’t know what the fuck Townhouse is. Left unsaid is just how paragon of integrity and civlility has gotten access to the contents of the Townhouse email group. Certainly he wasn’t a member. *

Jerome Armstrong settled a civil suit in 2003 with the SEC regarding alleged “stock touting” activities in the late 90’s and early Aughts. As part of the settlement an injunction was placed on Armstrong disallowing him from discussing internet stocks online. This is certainly doesn’t place Armstrong in a flattering light and calls his ethics into question and depnding on his actual guilt this might hurt his career pretty badly. OK.

Markos Moulitsas sent an email via the Townhouse google group asking that people keep quiet about this until Jerome can himself speak (implying that the SEC matter isn’t entirely closed). Miraculously this email makes it to NRO. Wow, Kos asked for a favor for a friend. Whooppee

The left blogosphere hasn’t said much about the SEC thing. Really not that remarkable. Even if Kos hadn’t said anything via Townhouse, “Jerome Armstrong may have done something shady 5 to 8 years ago” isn’t really something a lot of normal people would be inclined to talk about all that much. Seriously
I saw it and thought “sucks for him” and didn’t give two more shits about it until it became a wankosphere cause celebre

From this Trevino and the rest of the right wankosphere has gone into complete speculative insinuation mode that:

Kos and Amrstrong are running a pay for play scheme. Wherby you pay for Armstrong as a consultant and Kos gives you positive coverage on his blog. How this is supposed to be such a great deal for Kos is never really discussed or even thought about. Is Armstrong supposed to be paying Kos out of his salary or what?

Kos and Armstrong have an iron death grip over the left blogosphere via Advertising Liberally and they use the Townhouse group to dispatch their nefarious marching orders. Apparently if you don’t do what they say, they might take away your beer money. (Seriously, if you have enough traffic to live off your blog, you don’t need something like Advertising Liberally). Somehow the fact that a couple of incompetant hacks with no business plan got, what, 3.5 million in startup cash to set up an unusable blog portal that was made irrellevant a few years before they even really conceived of the idea by RSS feeds never comes up during this discussion.

The left blogoshpere is a top-down heirarchy stepping on the backs of the little people. Furhtermore the A-List liberal bloggers aren’t real people like, say call-center managers or verbose unemployed cell-phone repairmen. No! They are like lawyers and professors and ex-speechwriters for the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Kos is gay.

Out of all of it, the only thing that really sticks is Armstrong, and only he can really address the matter. It doesn’t really concern the left-blogospherere as a whole. The rest of it is just bullshit.

* Also Trevino writes in his blog:

As there was no example of online-left malfeasance with regard to respect for privacy, adherence was unnecessary, and left-wing participation would only lend moral cover to the right. (This is, in fact, untrue — to give just two examples, Duncan Black has passed out personal contact information at his site in the past, and John Aravosis helped publicize Michelle Malkin’s home address and phone number this past April.)

Now I know that Avarosis isn’t very well liked in these quarters, but the only mention of the Malkin fiasco I could find at Americablog was here where Avarosis pretty much decries the entire notion of posting private contact info, even on odious people. Now, it’s true that our friend “themole”/”killthebitch”/”grottieyottie”/”Ingmar Lee” posted his “payback’s a bitch, eh Malkin” spam into Avarosis comments. But by that standard of guilt,
this dude also “helped publicize” Malkin’s contact information as well as just about anybody who commented on Malkin on April 19 and 20. Trevino has to be aware of how thin his reed is here because of the weasally “helped publicize” language.

If it’s the same one I’m thinking about, and the only one I know about, Atrios posted an AIM username, “personal contact information” the person himself included on his own website. Not Nice, perhaps, but malfeasance? I think I hear the defense lawyer snickering already…

As there was no example of online-left malfeasance with regard to respect for privacy, adherence was unnecessary, and left-wing participation would only lend moral cover to the right. (This is, in fact, untrue — to give just two examples, Duncan Black has passed out personal contact information at his site in the past, and John Aravosis helped publicize Michelle Malkin’s home address and phone number this past April.)

I really like Tacitus’ weasel language here. Aside from “helped publicize:”

1. “To give just two examples” That’s really priceless. Because he’s got so many, see. Malkin’s the only high profile case I can think of in the blogosphere (see infra). I’m sure, Steve Crager aside, many blogs of varying degrees of leftitude and prominencce have crossed a line. But no blog as high profile as Malkin’s on the left has gone as far over the line as she did (not to mention the Nicedoggie.net episode).

2. “Duncan Black has passed out personal contact information at his site” Sure. Though that “personal contact information” was an instant messanger address. It was over the line, but Trevino knows that Atrios has subsequently said it was wrong to post it (because he was trying to bait Atrios into compoinding the wrong here in these very comments). It’s also somewhat less serious than say home phone numbers and addresses, or the name and workplace (of your wife as well) and/or client list of pseudonymous bloggers. But, I’m sure having even 1/2 of one percent of Atrios’s readers spamming your IM wouldn’t be pleaseant to say the least. However, It’s also kinda funny that the wronged person puts that IM address on the front page of his blog as contact info. TBogg, of course would have been the more obvious choice here. But I guess he wanted someone more high profile. I also like the froth Trevino manages to work up contemporaneously over people putting up an email and IM address that a person puts on his blog as contact info when by his own admission he has a history of outing liberal commenters. And almost a year before he signed the OI Pledge magically removing all of his own past sins. That’s a neat trick there!

3, John Avarosis. He’s an awful odd choice of lefty malfeasance in the Malkin mess considering there are actually lefty blogs/websites that posted the information on their front page. They are googlable easily enough. However, all the blogs where it’s posted are pretty much internet backwaters, including the website that has had that information up since 2004 where “themole” found it. (Malkin’s also not the only person for whom they have personal information. They have about 100 profiles, I believe They are also by all appearences cranks). Again, Patriotboy would have been the more obvious choice, because he’s the only person who flirted with the line, though he did not actually post any personal information and one would have to already know her address to know just how close, if not over the line, he was in that post. No other A-List blogger had anything close to the line on their front page. Pretty much everything else was our friend “themole” and he didn’t discriminate between left and right websites. I guess Avarosis was the highest profile left blogger Trevino could find with a themole post. It’s a pity, ’cause he could of said the same thing about Atrios. A missed oppurtunity for slime. Or maybe he just wanted to diversify.

nobody said anything until the wingers started flinging crap

jedmunds at Pandagon did, I think. He didn’t know he had been ‘ordered’ not to, by the King of the Leftwing Blogosphere.

I agree with Bas, I believe this has Tacky the Unofficial Wingnut Blog Ratfucker (wonder who pays HIM??) written all over it. He’s been jonesing for this ever since Box Turtle got nailed for plagiarism. The ‘outing’ of Armando was merely the first step in the cunning plot. Kos and Armstrong are obviously the biggest targets to go after. And those stupid tools over at TNR need to do something to increase readership. Feh.

IMO, we’ll see a lot more of this; the wingnuts have finally figured out that a lot of lefty bloggers actually, you know, do other stuff besides blog. Stuff that might have an effect on the November election. So I’m sure the wingers will be doing more than just rolling out Puke talking points on lefty blogs from here on out.

It’s going to get a lot uglier. People who value their anonymity ought, perhaps, to be taking steps to protect it. I don’t blog, but even if I did, I’m in a position not to care if I got ‘outed’. I realize that not everyone has that luxury.

I agree with Bas, I believe this has Tacky the Unofficial Wingnut Blog Ratfucker (wonder who pays HIM??) written all over it. He’s been jonesing for this ever since Box Turtle got nailed for plagiarism. The ‘outing’ of Armando was merely the first step in the cunning plot. Kos and Armstrong are obviously the biggest targets to go after. And those stupid tools over at TNR need to do something to increase readership. Feh.

Tacitus was most assuredly not behind Armando, that was actually a lefty pissed off at Armando b/c Armando boxed his ears over a poorly sourced Kos diary about Rove’s “impending” indictment. The only reason it finally got traction with anybody was YearlyKos. Completely unrelated event.

Armstrong’s trouble with the SEC was actually brought to light by someone who used to do battle with him over stocks. during the late 90’s and early Aught.

Also, I doubt Tac’s behind the Townhouse leak, but probably the same people leaking to TNR have been leaking to him. I actually think it’s kind of odd that Tac didn’t keep it closer to his vest in:re the O/I thing and I’m surprised that no one involved with Townhouse seemed to pick up on the fact that Tacitus was privy to what was being said. At any rate, when it comes to Townhouse, Trevino seems to always be there.

I’m feeling guilty and embarrassed oner the whole “Kos is gay” thing. Not that I said that anywhere, but… looking at Instahack’s post that led to *that* whole brouhaha, I see that the Ole Perfesser cites some vague “comments at liberal blogs” that make the Kos claim. As I said, I didn’t, but… I did make a comment over at World O’ Crap that could be (purposefully) misread to make that claim. I mean, you’d have to be a moron to take it that way, and the original comment more makes me look like an ass than anything else, but since Instayokel doesn’t actually *link* to any actual comments, I have the immediate irrational reaction that he’s pointing straight at me (no pun intended). *sigh* The last thing I would ever want to do in the world is to hand the wingnuts a “weapon,” even if it’s one that doesn’t actually exist. Stoopid wingnuts!