Reprise :: June 10, ’06 :: The SMBIVA Infiltration of Ykos 1

Saviors! of! the! Nation! 10 June 2006

 The eternal flame is held aloft!  The Southern vinyardist car phone entrepreneur bearing martinis in his quest to be Holy Southern (White) Veepessa shall… save you a spot – to pungle up.

 Get with the program.  You ‘sacks.

 A Wicked Take:  fortunately there is just the right (but very left) irreverent, ever-skewering entity there to report.  And, we hope, survive the burgeoning, breathless, applauded mediocrity.

 Enjoy his offerings.  And to think, this is only Day Two.

 Our man in Kos-itania, Chapter I

 Our man in Kos-itania, Chapter II 

oh he is prolific:  there is more….  Kos on the commanding heights

“Kos” is a small, trim, birdlike guy, given to quick, fluttery gestures. He has a distinctive, shoulder- and hip-swinging walk — what you might call a sashay, actually. The play of expression on his face reminded me strangely of Louis Farrakhan, though I suppose this is the only point of resemblance between the two. He has that same slow, deliberate smile, held a little too long for comfort. There is something in his look that says he is confident of adulation, and pleased with his own success.

He read his text a little woodenly, and there wasn’t much to it. His two great points of self-congratulation were

1) Howard Dean is now DNC chair and

2) Paul Hackett almost got somewhere in Ohio. (You haven’t heard of Paul Hackett? Don’t worry about it.)

Kos confidently predicted that Joe Lieberman would lose to his anti-war primary challenger, Ned Lamont — but then, last week Kos was saying that Francine Busby would pull an upset in San Diego. (You haven’t heard of Francine Busby, either? See Paul Hackett, above.)

Neither Kos nor anybody else today talked much about what you might call the content of politics. The word “progressive” was frequently invoked, but either everybody agrees on just what that means or nobody wanted to get into it.

The Iraq war was mentioned, in my hearing, twice, in the context of alluding to the death of Zarqawi. Both times the crowd applauded this victory in the war on terror — applauded solidly but not thunderously; I couldn’t help thinking, wishfully perhaps, that although the Kosniks are loyal adherents of the understudy War Party, at least some of these progressives are starting to have doubts about this particular war.

 And more wicked commentary:  Small fry

 Long ago in the mists of some year like… 2002 I was told by a NJ / FL tied-in Democrat that Kos’ long range plan was to get himself to the Executive Committee of the DNC.  I’d say that is about right.  If you have ever observed the mediocre toadies that populate the table and have crushed nearly every breath of air in 40 years… or resolutely undid what ever was accomplished (Bob Strauss as DNC chair, for one)… 

 I think particularly of Alexis Herman, former US Sec of Labor, calling into FOX News, speaking to Hannity during the first week of Katrina. 

 Very chatty they were. Friends.   

 All about her Mamma and her Sister (New Orleanians but evacuated ahead of the storm) and the power of prayer.  Nothing about the suffering of the thousands, the failure of FEMA, the failure of Bush, the lost, the dead, the dying. 

 Not one word.

 I imagined her picking her teeth with a sharpened human bone as she talked to Hannity.

 Yes. Kos would fit right in. 

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ADDENDA

Some other links from June 2006 on slurp sports in the desert… 😉

Garance F-R from The American Prospect adds her take.  

Ezra Klein at TAPPED pulls into port.

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Long snip from a post of mine June 14 2006… Enjoy… 😉

Here are are some snips from Chris Nolan of Spot-On, whose current beat in the Bay Area is largely the Silicon Valley and Venture Cap money and people – and politics and media.  She is often of interest on the subject of things Koswhackian.

Enjoy… or not:  Love for Sale

The Kos bloggers want to storm the barricades – using the one of the cheapest tricks in the news business, the spoon-fed dirt-drop – and be welcome with open arms for their vigor, innovation and “good reporting.”

But when it comes to actually understanding the editorial business, they fall short. Crassly imitating the behavior of the pundits they see on television (which they mistakenly think is the zenith of the business) bloggers are flatterers around Big Media stars.

Why? So they can become like them. Even a passing reference in a traditional news outlet s worth a lot of traffic and traffic sells advertising and, oh, yeah, it can make you a Big Boy Blogger with influence and power. But once the reporters have pulled out? Well, Big Media is a bunch of clueless boobs who can’t see how wonderful bloggers are and how sorely their work has been neglected.  […]

A few years ago, bloggers costs nothing more than a few cheap-o BlogAds. Writers were happy to repay the favor with a nice mention, maybe a fund-raising post. Today, the entry fee is an appearance at a Los Vegas convention and a big party with free sushi and lots of other goodies.

Think I’m making too much of this?

Listen to Moulitsas talking last night on MSNBC’s Countdown (sans – sigh – Olberman). Asked who made the biggest splash, Moulitsas didn’t hestitate. “Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia did create a big sensation. He had a big party. Some criticized it as being a little too lavish. Others, like me, said ‘You know what? There’s so much stupid money being wasted in politics, it’s about time they spent it on meeting some regular people.” And, at the end of the day, bloggers are regular people. We’re not media elite, we’re not political elite, we’re just people sitting in front of our computer really passionate about politics and if they want to spend a few bucks on us, I say bring it on.”

And then she moves in (I did say she has observed and written about Kos/things Koswhackian for a while) – and I have been kind in editing, she is more to the point with the full text:

Ummmm. Since when is a non-practising attorney living in Berkeley, CA and running a website that’s given him a six-figure income a “regular person”? … Or Armando Lorens-Sars, an attorney with a list of corporate clients as long as his arm?

“Regular people” pulled into Los Vegas today for the United Auto Workers annual meeting a session that promises to carry grim news to one of the best-compensated unions in the country, once the backbone of the Democratic Party across the Upper Midwest.

Those regular people are not sitting in front of their keyboard and feeling passionate about politics. They’re staring at their family budgets and their depleted bank balances, wondering how they’re going to pay for health insurance and worried that the pension plans they were once promised could disappear entirely.

And a last snip:

There are more questions to ask about Kos. My friend Micah Sifry points out that Moulitsas’ reasons for supporting Warner, who is running on the “not Hillary” plank for the Democratic nomination, amount to nothing more than Moulitsas’ endorsement of Warner’s hiring the “right people.” […] It may just be a recognition that the Warner campaign – the first candidate Kos singled out when he was asked about the Vegas gathering – is money in the bank for Moulitsas and company.

What’s even more troubling? Most bloggers – partisan to their core – don’t see Moulitsas’ statements as contradictory or incriminating. They think this is business as usual.

They’re right – if you’re a political consultant. In that job you’re supposed to take money from your client, the candidate, for your work – which is to get him or her elected.

But if you’re “media” – mainstream, traditional, new, or old – this sort of talk ought to raise a few questions about what’s your job is, how you’re doing it and where you loyalties lie.

What – exactly – is the relationship between DailyKos and the candidates it supports?

And when are they going to stop being coy about it?

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As I find current things on Swampland JetBlues to Chicago will post…