Cool picture from florian.b who also features this quote…
“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.” — Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
Please DIGG my new john Edwards piece right now
BREAKING UPDATE: I made a new name to comment on a thread someone started about me getting banned….I used my own name. 3 hours later, banned again!
Update. We’re getting a lot of traffic, so I should mention one thing – a few reports have said I was a longtime blogger at DailyKos but it’s more than that, really — if you visit my YouTube page you’ll see that DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas called one of my videos ‘the best YouTube parody’ of 2007. So this whole thing is really a pretty big turnaround.
Someone on Kos noticed I was banned and they discuss it. Short version – I had it coming! This completely get wrong what my posts were about, but it’s nice for them to be able to do that where I can’t comment. Any of you Kowards care for an actual discussion, I’m here.
Also, the Gawker wrote about my banishment and turned up the ultimate answer to the idea that I was banned for citing a tabloid — a 2005 diary someone wrote with Kos commenters praising the National Enquirer when they ran a story about George Bush. (A story that wasn’t sourced with first person accounts the way the Edwards hotel story was.) The Kos Community banned me because of the subject matter, period.
If you want the best roundup of posts, facts, and reporting about this story the gossip site Deceiver has gone above and beyond the pale in covering this.
About a week ago, I posted a piece on the Huffington Post called Say It Ain’t So, John. I didn’t think it would have much more impact than my usual posts…maybe a dozen comments or so, a couple of people linking to it. To my surprise, it became the most read blog the Huffington Post for a few days.
I cross posted on DailyKos, which is probably the best known and biggest progressive blog. I’ve been posting at Kos for a long time. As more news about Edwards has come out, I followed up with more posts which were also the subject of a large number of comments. All of them looked at the Edwards situation from my point of view; that is, a liberal who is concerned about the implications this story may have in November.
Now I’m banned. I can’t write about ANYTHING at Kos. Can’t comment, can’t post a non-Edwards piece. Nothing.
And I stand by my title – it’s largely John Edward’s fault that I’m banned. I’m now personally a small piece of fallout from the scandal. That’s because Edward’s defense is shoot the messenger, not answer the questions. The rabid response of the people on Kos is directly related to Edwards and his own response. That’s exactly why I’m saying this has the potential to hurt the Democratic brand.
So answer the effin’ questions already, John. For everyone’s sake.
I’m not sure if the DailyKos is going to take down my writing and make me a complete un-person there. Of course, real progressives are against censorship so Maryscott O’Connor’s blog MyLeftWing is my new community home. (Maryscott was the lead actress in my film Breathing Room about 13 years ago, by the way.)
Here are the pieces I wrote on Kos that caused the problems…if you look, I’m not writing about anything that isn’t being written about already.
Dissent, Disloyalty, And Disappointment
Irrefutable Proof Of The John Edwards Scandal
Erin Kotecki Vest also wrote this piece about me getting banned. Editors from Kos contacted her. I haven’t heard a thing.
{ 25 trackbacks }
{ 111 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
Well, now that you are vindicated, you might want to know that another blog whose organization works with Kos and serves on the Board with him for Netroots nation, has gone to delete and ban members. They are doing this to monthly donors. None other than Democracy for America/Blog for America. They are the ones Markos stole the idea from for Netroots Nation but it was different staff then. Now they all are on this ego trip and sending these letters out to people first threatening them for disagreeing, then if you defend anyone or say boo you get deleted too. If I can find the letter I will post it. Rather hilarious actually. I am not a member but my Father is and he is laid back but stumbled into their little blog war.
What kind of morons threaten and delete donors? At least with Kos he isn’t losing any money deleting people. The DFA people have lost thier minds.
This long time activist quit her DFA group over the issue. She was an organizer. Here is the letter DFA sent http://hannah.smith-family.com/?p=2527#more-2527 (the bold parts are the activists comments to the letter).
This is the organization founded by Howard Dean and run by his brother Jim Dean. So much for progressives. Even Republicans have more tact that to write shit like that.
Note, DFA does not have over 700,000 members…they spam lists that no one replies to and their fundraising and declined dramatically since their first year and continues to decline. If you have over 700k members as they claim and can only raise $2 million a yar or less in a presidential year, something is seriously wrong. Mismanagement at the top is obvious. These are the parts people are most pissed off about:
“We will not be making this request again. Please consider this your last warning. If you fail to comply with the Democracy for America website policies, we will be required to delete your DemocracyforAmerica.com profile and no longer allow you to post blogs or comments anywhere on the website.
This decision is not up for discussion. That time has passed. We hope you will understand why we are asking you to do this and choose to work within these parameters. The Blog for America is there for all 725,000 DFA members and millions of progressives across the country. We hope we are able to continue to include you as well.”
So if you disagree, you are erased.
Liberal fascists up to their usual tricks. Newsflash: usually the Left screams about their “open-mindedness” because they are actually so close-minded.
Daily Kos is hardly progressive. No one but the most naive sees it as anything other than wannabe (now part time) apparachiks.
As a self-proclaimed liberal, I hope you’re happy that you’ve provided tons of gloating material for right-wingers and Kos-bashers alike.
Hey righties – Kos is hardly an exemplar of the wide field that is the left. At best, they are Democratic party intelligentsia (and their blind followers). Stop pointing out that they are a regular feature of the left wing.
You err in calling Daily Kos a “progressive” blog. Kos made it clear when Cindy Sheehan was banned (along with any mention of her campaign to unseat pro-war House Speaker Pelosi) that Daily Kos was a Democratic Party outlet, not a progressive outlet. In other words, you may not criticize Democrats in any way, even the most rabidly anti-civil liberties and pro-war ones.
At least Kos was fairly honest about where his loyalties lay – maybe he’ll become Obama’s press secretary.
Heard you on TYT yesterday and can’t tell you how annoying I find such practices. I know it is DK’s right to do whatever the hell they want, but as as Nick Swardson once said in the Oscar-winning Grandma’s Boy- “shitz weak!”
Interesting that DailyKos also squelches free speech without warning or reason. I was blindsiaded by being banned from SmirkingChimp amd another site. I didn’t realize then that mentioning virtually anything related to America’s support for Israel – a crucial discussion that should be front and center in our discourse – would be enough to do me in on any number of sites. So much for any type of intellectual challenge and to free speech on the internet. Many, many, website editors should be ashamed of themselves.
LOL.
You seriously are blaming John Edwards because you were banned from a leftist website? You blogged about him and now it’s HIS fault?
It couldn’t possibly be because you pissed off your friends on the left and now they are censoring you, could it? I mean, calling your friends sock puppets and trolls does nothing to promote free speech and civil debate. When they all leave because of this kind of treatment, who’s left? The lemmings who can ditto and ^5 each other over every post and thread.
What a fun place that will be!
Oh wait… LOL I happened to notice that this all took place back in August.
What’s the update? Did they let you back into the inner circle? Or did you find a more accepting leftist home?
Interesting thing about getting banned. Are you even able to see access the site? I made a post about the nastiness of some Obama supporters and about the way this drives others away. Within five minutes, I cannot access http://www.dailykos.com. Does this mean I’ve been banned too? Or is the site just down?
In any event, I think Daily Kos is one of the nastiest forums I have ever seen. The posters there are often just vicious and mean. There is no sharing of opinions on Daily Kos–just nasty brawls.
Daily Kos has a terribly sick culture.
← Previous Comments