At the tag-end of my general defense of Kos, I write this:

As they say, it's not the crime, it's the cover-up. Even if Kos is found to have done nothing wrong in his dealings with Armstrong and his clients, there's still that matter of the La Kos-a Nostra oath of silence.

And there's still that matter of a previously-secret behind-the-scenes message-unifying email list. Liberal bloggers are coordinating with each other, outside the view of their readers, to agree upon a common message for the day.

Wonder why every lefty blogger decides, one day a week, to attack Jeff Goldstein as a "paste-eating drug addict housewife"? Well, wonder no more. What is held out as "independent" commentary and "spontaneous netroots response" is in fact at least partly a coordinated, pre-debated, top-down, here-are-your-marching-orders sham. The left of the blogosphere is employing the old tool of the political parties-- the blast-fax.

As they say, it's not so much "grassroots" as astroturf politics -- artificial "grass" made to look and feel like the real thing.

Nothing like that goes on in the right of the blogosphere. At least, nothing like that exists that I know about. It's possible that somewhere out there there is coordination, but I've never caught wind of it.

The most interesting thing about this scandal isn't what Kos might have agreed to do with Armstrong, but what many of the biggest leftist bloggers have agreed to do with eachother -- prescreen their postings with each other to arrive at a single focus-grouped message of the day.

It occurs to me that the dextrosphere (right-blogosphere) and sinestrosphere (left-blogosphere) may be following two different models.

The dextrosphere disagrees with each other, bickers, argues, etc., all in public. It's pretty transparent -- readers aren't missing anything going on behind the scenes. Sure, emails are exchanged, but of a "Check this out" variety. They're tips, not attempts to coordinate messaging.

The dextrosphere attempts, to the extent possible, to be an alternative media. We can never really replace the MSM, but to the extent possible, we try to displace those functions we can. Opinioniating, of course. And also editorial selection-- the MSM may say that this story is an A1 above-the-fold headline, and this story (say, on 500 chemical warfare shells discovered in Iraq) is page C13 (grudgingly), but we attempt to displace that function by substituting our own notions of newsworthiness for the MSM's lockstep liberal editorial boards.

But the sinestrosphere seems to be based on a different model. This secret message board for coordinating messages-of-the-day... it's the same as the DNC's or RNC's blast-faxes. And debating stories and opinions behind the scenes, focus-group testing them, agreeing on a common narrative?

That's not really something a media does.

That's something a political party does.

So it seems to me the right and left of the blogosphere have departed as to our basic assumptions. The dextrosphere seems primarily concerned with displacing the media, whereas the sinestrosphere seems primarily concerned with displacing the Democratic Party itself.

Much of what left and right do is similar, of course. We all slam our respective Party-Members-In-Name-Only, argue over points of ideology, attack the media for being too biased, etc.

But there does seem to be a difference in the basic conception of what this goofy pastime is all about. For the right, the blogosphere is an alternate media source; for the left, the blogosphere is simply a novel infrastructure for party-building activities.

Can't say, out of hand, that our model is better. Perhaps it would be more effective for the right to become more involved in the nitty-gritty of political activism and complete sell-out hackishness.

Then again, that sounds like a lot of work. Too much message-coordinating with internet dorks. So I'll stick with the alternate media model.

For all our differences, the left and right of the blogosphere seem to agree on two points: 1, the mainstream media is basically lazy, dunderheaded, and "intellectually incurious," and 2, the Democratic Party needs to be replaced by something that isn't pure crap.

It's interesting to me that the left of the blogosphere has been alleging for years and years that the right was all part of the same "rightwing noise machine" or "rightwing Wurlitzer," as Filet O'Fish calls it. We're all told what to write about by the RNC, or by Instapundit, and we all carry out our marching orders smartly.

And for all this time-- it's been the left that has been getting together, out of the view of their readers, to massage their daily Two-Minute Hates. All along, it's been the dextrosphere just writing about what we find interesting, with lots of different, and often disagreeing, points of views and idiosyncratic tics, while the left has been achieving its stultifyingly-similar GroupVoice by working out its bullet-points in committee.

This is an all-too-common failing of the left. They assume the rightwing bugaboos are doing something corrupt, or convince themselves that they are despite the evidence, and then use that as a pretext for doing the corrupt sorts of things they complain about. Rightwingers don't really out gay politicians, but the left convinces itself that we do, thus giving Americablog the purported justification to out any homosexual it dislikes.

And having convinced themselves that the right is conspiring to put out a common narrative and spin on the day's events, well, they seem to have decided to fight fire with fire.

Except, of course, there was no fire to begin with.

So, next time Oliver Willis mentions the "Right Wing Wurlitzer," I'd like what few readers he has left to ask him about the Townhouse Wurlitzer.

Posted by: Ace at 02:13 PM | Comments (43)
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(Thanks to, I think, Random Birkel for that headline.)

I had an online friend who routinely made vague charges against Bush. When I would ask for specifics as to what it was, precisely, Bush was alleged to have done wrong, he would just say "it seems hinky." It seemed "hinky" to him that Bush had garnered so many campaign contributions; no concrete allegations of illegality, just "hinkiness."

If Bush, who is pro-energy production, received, surprisingly enough, donations from big energy companies, he thought that was "hinky" too.

Why? I would ask. "Why is it hinky for someone who already agrees with a policy position to get money from people who also agree with that policy position?"

"It's just hinky," he would say. Which would annoy me, because last time I checked the FEC does not have any sanction against "Premediated Hinkiness."

It pains me to say this, but a lot of the vague allegations of "badwrong" against Kos fall into the "Hinkiness in the First Degree" cateogry. There's no real specific allegations. To the extent specific allegations are being made, they seem unlikely at best.

So, just to be honest, I'll run through the possible charges against Kos, assigning them a probability of guilt and also a corruption rating.

I'm ignoring the charges against Jerome Armstrong, as the SEC seems to be handling them quite well. Besides, Armstrong is a little fish, a former blogger and now a minor political consultant. He's the equivalent of Ben "The Nech" Domench.

But Kos on the other hand... he's the Jeff Gannon of the Left, to the extent that any human being can be said to be "Gannonesque."
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Posted by: Ace at 12:19 PM | Comments (33)
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Just curious. Before Chiraq assisted the mercenaries/soldiers of fortune in attempting a coup against a sovereign, assumedly kite-flying country, did he get a resolution from the United Nations Security Counsel?

Thanks to Ogre Gunner.

UPDATE: Markos "Kos" Moulitos Zuniga has sent out a mass email asking all liberal bloggers, and all anti-American nations on his "Screw Them" mailing list, to "starve the story of oxygen."

Posted by: Ace at 11:52 AM | Comments (17)
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TNR's The Plank continues blow-torching Kos. Here, Zengerle notes the backstory on Kos' "Speak No Evil Of Me" email. Basically, a lot of other bloggers were asking for guidance, saying that the story could not be kept under wraps, etc. They were worried that their readers would start asking about it, and they didn't think they could keep it secret.

This posting by Mike Stark is illustrative:

If we can ignore it, great.

But I think that's hoping for too much.

Hell, our own readers are going to bring this shit up, let alone all the dimwits in Malkinland... You just can't expect to get anything by the netroots.

So. . . there are substantial questions raised.

...

These are direct attacks on Markos' and Jerome's credibility.

I guess we can leave it to them to formulate a response. But they need to have one ready.

...

Finally... what if it is true? We really need to hear from Jerome - regardless of whether or not this blows up. I will not be a republican rubber stamp. If Jerome was involved in some recent financial chicanery and he doesn't have an adequate defense, how does that make him different from any of the rest of the DC lobbyist/consultant class that will do anything for a buck?

I might be digging my grave here, but before I put my credibility on the line ofr anyone, I want to know I'm standing on solid ground. Jerome should provide answers or cut us loose to do what we need to do. This "movement" is bigger and more important than any one of us.

It was in this context that Kos helpfully suggested everyone just drink a tall glass of shut-the-fuck-up juice.

Various people noted Kos' seeming assumption that "What's good for me is good for the Democratic Party." He seems to now identify himself as liberalism's last, best hope, and any attack on, or even questioning of, him is, ipso facto, an assault on progressivism.

Zengerle writes:

ecause I continue to ask these questions, Kos contends that "TNR's defection to the Right is now complete." How asking legitimate questions of and about two individuals can be construed as an attack on liberalism as a whole is beyond me. Kos evidently believes that, as The Democratic Daily put it, "the left c'est moi."

Michael Crowley then quotes Chris Sullentop, who you can't read, because he's part of the TimesSelect service, but Crowley has the good parts.

You know Kos' assertion that Armstrong will respond to these charges, forcefully, once the investigation is concluded?

That would seem unlikely in the extreme:

Armstrong has accepted a permanent injunction that prohibits him from asserting his innocence, or from asking his friends to assert it. The injunction states that Armstrong has agreed "not to take any action or to make or permit to be made any public statement denying, directly or indirectly, any allegation in the complaint or creating the impression that the complaint is without factual basis."

PS: Notice no one on the right tried to enforce a code of silence with regard to Ben "The Nech" Domenech. Charges were made that right bloggers felt they had to acknowlege and weigh in on, and so we did. Even the tenor of the earliest posts was along the lines of "I hope this comes to nothing, but it doesn't look good." The charges were dealt with honestly, not embargoed.

Posted by: Ace at 10:07 AM | Comments (59)
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Good stuff:

There was one big rule for this ["Townhouse" mailing/discussion group], an important cog in the growing Vast Left Wing Conspiracy -- everything discussed was off the record.

That was obviously violated today as the New Republic betrayed, once again, that it seeks to destroy the new people-powered movement for the sake of its Lieberman-worshipping neocon owners; that it stands with the National Review and wingnutoshpere in their opposition to grassroots Democrats.

The magazine published, in its website, an email I sent to the list. There is nothing controversial about the email, but Jason Zengerle tried to spin it as evidence that there is a "smoke-filled room" and that I send "dictats" to other bloggers, controlling what they can and cannot write about. In a subsequent post, Zengerle went further, saying that I control the financial fates of much of the progressive blogosphere. My power apparently knows no bounds!

Ludicrous, all of it, but that's the new rules of the game. TNR and its enablers are feeling the heat of their own irrelevance and this is how they fight it -- by undermining the progressive movement. Zengerle has made common cause with the wingnutosphere, using the laughable "kosola" frame they created and emailing his "scoops" to them for links. This is what the once-proud New Republic has evolved into -- just another cog of the Vast RIGHT Wing Conspiracy.

If you still hold a subscription to that magazine, it really is time to call it quits. If you see it in a magazine rack, you might as well move it behind the National Review or even NewsMax, since that's who they want to be associated with these days.

But what about the merits? There are none, as frequent critics of this site like Ezra Klein and Max Sawicky have already stated. In fact, it's quite funny how they're trying to parlay the nothing they have into something, anything at all. It's the price of success, and we knew the knives would be coming out after Vegas, so we shouldn't be surprised.

But I do admit being surprised by the sheer creativity of their invented attacks, such as my supposed "pay for play" scheme. Let me be crystal clear. I deny that charge completely. I have stated the sources of my income and they do not include money from people asking me to shill for anyone or anything. Problem for these writers, is that the law doesn't protect such defamation. The truth is an absolute defense to libel cases. If they have evidence for those smears, then they have nothing to fear. But if they, say, recklessly invented all manners of illegal or unethical activities by me without bothering to see if they bore any basis in truth, then they'll have plenty to worry about.

LGF has a great point. Kos is basically alleging the MSM is all in cahoots together -- TNR teaming up with NRO! -- to keep Kos down.

The irony is that there is indeed a secret organization, scheming to present a united front and keep all the stories straight and all the messages pure. And Kos admits in the first paragraph above that heÂ’s part of it.

Good run-down at Hot Air, with a funny photoshop.

Protein Wisdom observes:

You can’t be on the left and disagree with Kos. Or rather, you can’t be on the left and disagree with Kos publicly — which suggests that the defining characteristic of progressivism is fidelity to its officially-sanctioned narratives.

Over at Instapundit, liberal blogger Pandagon is quoted as saying he's crossed Don Kos and suffered no consequences. Well, okay; that's good to know. Certainly though Kos is looking for payback against TNR though, huh? One can forgive a liberal blogger for erring on the side of caution and avoiding the story entirely.

This whole "Townhouse" deal-- it's soooooo... liberal. So groupthink. As far as I know, there's nothing at all like that on the right. And if someone asked me to join something like that, I'd think they were a little soft.

Liberals are joiners.

Posted by: Ace at 09:19 AM | Comments (44)
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I'm sure everyone's about to be shocked:

Given the millions the prince has spent on public relations, Al-Resalah’s excessive anti-Western content is somewhat astonishing. It is no different from any other hate-filled Saudi TV channel. Take, for example, Sheik Ahmad Al-Kubeisi, who appeared on Al-Resalah on March 15 and said: “When there is no hope for peace, there is no alternative but to resort to the gun. ... The West’s conflict with Islam and the Muslims is eternal, a preordained destiny that cannot be avoided until judgment day.”

On March 7, the Arab News quoted Prince Al-Waleed as saying he plans to launch an English-language channel for a Western audience. As such, guests will include Muslim Americans - whom the channel aims to influence - such as Salah Sultan, who appeared May 17.

Mr. Sultan has been called one of America’s most noted Muslim scholars. He is a signatory to the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ fatwa against terrorism and is active in many American-Muslim organizations. In his appearance, Mr. Sultan praised a Yemeni sheik, Abd al-Majid Al-Zindani, whom the American government has categorized as a specially designated global terrorist for his loyalty to Osama bin Laden and his support of Al Qaeda. Mr. Sultan said of the attacks of September 11, 2001: “It was planned within the U.S., in order to enable the U.S. to control and terrorize the world.”

If the majority of Muslims do in fact believe that an apocalyptic conflict with the west is inevitable, then 1, it is indeed inevitable, and 2, let the apocalypse begin.

If genocide is unavoidable, I choose genocide against my enemies rather than myself.

There will be one more massive outrage from the Religion of Peace, and then things are going to go rather badly for them.

Okay, let me not be so coy and cute. I am just about ready to give my blessing to a genocidal nuclear strike on the majority of the Muslim world, and I suspect many of my countrymen are similarly itchy-fingered.

One more. One more fucking mass-murder. Go for it, boys. Give us the excuse. Some of us suspect it's inevitable and the only way to finally get it through your primative heads that we will no longer put up with being murdered by savage animals, but we need the moral pretext. We need the hot anger of fresh provocation.

So do it. If you are incapable of sharing the earth peacefully, then we will have to absent you from it. And when the nuclear fire rains down on you, you can cry out to your God and ask him "What have we possibly done to deserve this?"

In 50 years Americans will look back in horror at what we've done, just as they did 50 years after Hiroshima; but then, we'll have peace for 50 years. I'll exchange some guilt for safety.

Posted by: Ace at 08:30 PM | Comments (135)
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Lots of stuff about Haditha, but little outrage about the torture and beheadings of our troops.

So where are they?

Oh, yeah. Here they are:

They support the troops. The Al Qaeda troops. But the important thing is that they support somebody's troops. Let's not quibble over whose.

Little Green Footballs.

Posted by: Ace at 07:02 PM | Comments (45)
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Feisty calls it "tacky." Look, minus those stupid tire-tread stripes over the hood, which makes the car look like it's been driven over by a better, faster car, and it's got a pretty good shape to it. Certainly looks better than the cheeseball Camaros of my youth. (Except, maybe, those very early Camaros... the one in Better Off Dead looked good, but that was old by the time the movie came out. The Camaros of the eighties looked pretty stupid.)

Anyway, Feisty quotes a guy from the American Spectator saying the car will flop, mostly because it's way overpriced for the early-twenty-something lunkheads (and I mean that in the best possible way) that would want it.

Also-- a 14 year old girl sues MySpace because she went out to meet an older man she'd met on the networking service, and no representative from MySpace showed up to act as her chaperone.

She also seems fascinated by these "Toynbee/2001/Jupiter" plaques showing up in the streets of major cities.

Posted by: Ace at 06:19 PM | Comments (44)
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Really funny. And infuriating.

DAVE: Hi, I'd like to cancel my AOL account.

HAL: May I ask what your problem with the account is, Dave?

DAVE: I just don't need it.

HAL: I find that difficult to believe, Dave. Please tell me your real reasons.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 05:08 PM | Comments (36)
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You know, this is actaully the first thing I've heard about Kos that I actually like. I mean who doesn't love a cold blooded, understated threat? Why, it almost reminds me of something Dick Cheney or Karl Rove would come up with!

I guess there's a little neo-con/Jew in all of us, even Kos. -- Drew

Yep. Despite all of our differences, we all have the taint of that scheming, cunning Juan-Cole-thwarting Jew-blood in us.

Satan put it there. Or maybe Richard Perle. Tomatoes, tahmahtoes.

Ich Will Folgen Sichen, Mein Kosfurher Update: Pardon the atrocious, badly remembered German.

An emailer says he tried to post the Slate link about the Kosmerta (the Kos oath of silence) over at insane Jane Hamsher's place, and it was deleted within five minutes.

When Kos says "Jump!," the "independent, maverick" Jane Hamsher says "How high? And should I wash your feet thereafter?"

They know who signs their checks, don't they?

Instapundit, as big as he is, doesn't have this kind of power (and of course wouldn't exercise it if he did, unless it was about his sexual fetish for teeny-tiny nanowomen). The power on the right side of the blogosphere is kinda diffused; there are really big blogs, but a bunch of them. Kind of like capitalism, where there are numerous independent power bases competing with the one big power base (the government).

Remember the truly nasty spats on the right about Harriet Miers between Hugh Hewitt and, well, almost everyone else?

But over in Kosland, it's as you would expect it: there's one big centralized power center, and everyone beneath it snaps to smartly. They know there's only one way to advance within the party.

Jeff Goldstein has some thoughts on the lefty nutroots. It holds itself out as "bottom-up" activism, but it's very much top-down.

At least I think that's what he's saying. I tuned out after the third reference to "reifying the paraliminal."

Posted by: Ace at 03:32 PM | Comments (35)
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