"You can...scream now Cardinal Roark Markos."
MY EVENING WITH KOS or "And my Mitts!"
Okay I do confess to having a slight murder fantasy with Markos for banning me and not allowing me to defend myself on that site of his despite my long years of activism. Markos would have been Cardinal Roark and I would have been Marv mumbling about my "hallucinations" and "mah condition". But then Froth would have shot me 41 times (Police will be police.). But I would have gotten my revenge because Froth would have attempted to take pictures afterward and I would have raised my blood soaked hand and said, "Good shoot Froth. Bloggers probably shouldn't murder other bloggers cough and hack. But I would appreciate it if you let the Multi Medium guy take the photographs. You see, he's a talented photographer (coughs blood.) and I trust him more because he has a wonderful sense of composition. For example, ahhhh the pain, wish you hadn't shot me in the groin, this arc of blood spurting from my chest three to four feet high...I just know Eli's going to do something bold and striking with it. And earlier, when I was digging my thumbs into Markos eyes Eli probably would have known that was an allusion to Sin City which was an allusion to Blade Runner when Roy Batty, played by Rutger Hauer, kills Dr. Eldon Tyrell. He just has a better visual vocabulary and with my last breath I spit at thee student loan fascists and 'ack' ".
Or something.
So what did Kos actually talk about at his 7 pm talk on the Southside Saturday night? Well, he gave a very short pre canned speech and then opened the floor to questions. I don't have total recall but here's how it went:
Question from Audience: Why didn't you support liberal alternatives to Bob Casey when you had the chance? I believe this could have been his facial response. (More pics at 2 Political Junkies and why does Maria look so glum...)
Kos response: (Keep in mind that I'm not objective and I "got a condition") Some mindless blather about how there was no grassroots support for alt candidates and what can I do I just run the most influential political website on the entire planet? Go Lamont!
The Reality: He made, probably, both a political and financial decision to not rock the boat here in Pennsylvania. Afterall, our alt candidates weren't worth 100 million dollars. Look, I like Lamont, and I hope that the netroots gets him over in November, but it doesn't take a lot of courage to support a candidate who's net worth is in the 100 million dollar range. Also, while I can appreciate him not knowing all the Pittsburgh blogs, he has to have heard of 2 Political Junkies and of course a lot of those political folks crosspost at Kos so there's no excuse. Kos is too intelligent to be that ignorant. He doesn't have the President Bush excuse. Both he and Atrios could have run free ads for Chuck or pointed him to their Act Blue links. Could have shown as much interest in the Pennacchio candidacy as they have in that silly ABC movie. The Path to 9/11. Granted, its a terrible evil movie, but it certainly doesn't warrant quite this much response, or if it does, could you extend the rage to supporting alt candidates or even the voter fraud issue--bigger than anything that's in that book that Kos wrote and that I'm not buying. (A graph about this whole justifiable Mexican Civil War thing? No?)
Question from the audience: Are you concerned about recent purges from the comments sections at the Huffington Post?
Kos response: More mindless drivel & pap about well they're very skittish don't you know. Went through some major financing round and that happens. And, why yes, we do ban people at Kos but I do it on a very narrow basis so on and so forth blah blah blah blather...
The Reality: Well that's just a big fuckin' lie. He's purged 100s if not thousands of people from the Kos "community". In fact, on the Internets, there's a whole page dedicated to icons for people who have been banned from Kos. I might note that I don't think these are legitimate reasons to be banned.
Telling Kos response to that question: "It's a Big Internet."
Translation: "Fuck you I've got mine. Get your own million person a day liberal site." Actually, that's exactly the same response that ABC is giving about their Disneyland special The Path to 9/11. Get your own network. And of course, the average person can't buy their own television network so it matters when these guys lie and distort and censor. Ditto for Kos. The truth of the matter is that it takes a prime mover like Kos for a major issue to take hold. So it's not a good thing that you can't vigorously discuss AIPAC or the vote fraud or whether Israel played a role in determining who the Pennsylvania senate candidate was or even the Mexican Civil War. When you're not winning everything should be on the table..
Question: Why can't there be a third party?
Worthless and Uninformative Kos Response: Wella its kind of hard institutionally to create a Third Party an duh look how fragmented The Reform Party has become nstuff. (Not a completely accurate transcription but I "need my medicine".)
The Correct Answer: First, there is a prominent Third Party effort for a cycle or two. Its called Unity 08. I don't back it because I don't want someone in the middle of the ruthless business party and the not so ruthless business party. I want a party that represents the public interest, period. Two, you can form a valid third party effort if you have about 100 million dollars. If Ross Perot had continued his presidential runs and widened the scope of the party to include senate and house runs as opposed to something to further his own warped ego, that would have become a Third Party. So, if someone like George Soros or Mark Cuban or Bill Gates or Craig Newmark (My fave. He takes the bus, but he'd have to run google ads and get the Craiglist net value up to $100 million dollars) wanted to form a third party they could. Parties are infrastructure and people. Also, the party wouldn't have to contest every seat. I've floated my 5/25 plan to the Green Party (no one has gotten back to me) go for five senate seats and 25 house seats and run on a well funded (where is the Hollywood Left?) populist campaign with real candidates (Tim Robbins or Alec Baldwin for the senate seats in New York. Someone gives the Romanelli campaign a million in infrastructure money, etc.) That way you control majorities in both chambers. In my particular fantasy, the Greens give majority control to the Dems but they get environment and that now worthless committee that Specter runs...
Bottom Line: Despite all the mean things I've said I read Kos daily. You kind of have to. But I don't think he can be a leader for all democrats and certainly not for progressives. Still won't buy his book, but I will take an hour or two and read it. And he's right. It is a Big Internet. Someone should learn the Scoop software and do it right. First rule: No censorship, but widespread ridicule for the LGF flamers of this world. Plus, I actually do want to know what the other side thinks sometime. I'm not always right.
Nicer reviews of Kos from 2 Political Junkies, Multi Medium guy Eli, Froth, who shot me 41 times and this Spork guy, who I should probably permalink.
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