John McCain has proven experience in turning around tough economic times AND he’s a former P.O.W. He should mention that more if he wants to win this election!

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It wasn’t just ‘old media’ or ‘main stream media’ who ignored the John Edwards story or got it totally wrong. Unfortunately, it was also the left wing blogosphere who overwhelmingly let their readers down. Many sites didn’t cover the story until it burst like a dam on cable news. Only one site censored it, however.

I don’t know Markos Moulitsas Zúñiga, the founder of Daily Kos. I’m still banned over there for discussing the Edwards story and I get letters and tweets asking me if I’m unbanned yet. I wrote Kos days ago to see if he thought banning me was a good idea and I haven’t heard anything.

Up until now, I’ve assumed it wasn’t personal. Then tonight, I remembered that Kos himself actually had written about the Edwards story on DailyKos before I did.

Now I think I know why I’m still banned. It’s not just that I got the Edwards story right. More significantly, Markos got this story totally wrong. I mean, 100% totally wrong. And his wrongness set the tone over at Daily Kos for everyone who attacked me and who continue to attack me to this day. Look what the leader of Kos told his followers.

Seriously, I can’t believe this is even subject to debate, but for the crazies, no source is too disreputable if it validates their warped world view.

Daily Kos: Why won’t the “MSM” cover Edwards love child story????

You nailed it, Kos! It’s telling that Markos quoted Richard Blair from All Spin Zone in that post. However Richard has done something Kos still hasn’t; admitted he was wrong.

I’m sad about this, because I was and am a very firm believer in the issues on which John and Elizabeth Edwards have led, especially since his first run for the presidency in 2004. I’m further saddened because no doubt their voices will now become silent. They have more important things to attend to.

I’m disappointed – no, hopping damn mad – about this, because I’ve been a supporter since 2004. He’s received my very vocal support, as well as financial contributions. I

All Spin Zone

No such reality from Markos. While mainstream news outlets like The New York Times are doing a bit of hand wringing about the case, Markos published a new diary actually congratulating himself and the whole community for being so darn swell to Elizabeth Edwards. It’s stunning that the Kossacks are so happy their echo chamber got the story so wrong but boy are they happy.

No wonder the Edwardses chose the Daily Kos as the place to launch her homespun manipulative PR deception piece, which helped push the falsehood of the 2006 ‘no affair anymore’ date four times in three short paragraphs. She knew she’d have a receptive audience of Kossacks whose critical thinking skills have atrophied.

In the middle of the Kos groupthink hug, someone brought up unbanning me. That didn’t go over well.

Here’s the comment.

Stranahan is the worst kind of so-called journalist. He only wanted to be right, and to “break” the story. Markos has a great site here, inspiring thought-provoking, reality based discussions. The community banned Stranahan because he was an idiot opportunistic jerk. This site has made such a difference and serves as a community townhall, and we (the community) need to keep it humming.

When Markos brought up the Edwards scandal he wasn’t an idiot opportunistic jerk, right? Even though he mentioned the story first he wasn’t trying to “break” it, correct?

The commenter is right. I don’t belong in the Daily Kos community. I only wanted to be right. Guilty as charged. That’s exactly what I wanted. Now if only we can figure out what Daily Kos wants to be.

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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.

Say It Ain’t So, DailyKos

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.

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Well done mashup – it’s like the Yes, We Can video for semi-middle-aged rock fans! Cesca says…

The song and the speech compelled me to take a break from the snark to assemble this mash-up as a tribute to everyone who has endured this seven-year-long dark ride; and to everyone who hopes that America can and will change for the better

Until recently, I honestly didn’t think it was possible. And even though it’s only the beginning, Senator Obama’s campaign is clearly our best shot to, at the very least, turn the tide against this seemingly interminable darkness.

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These are very good ads – they answer of the questions people have and they are aimed at working class voters without talking down to anyone. They’d be perfect for the November election, too.

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I watched the whole thing this morning and it was best, more honest and intelligent political speech I’ve ever heard. Here’s the whole thing…

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Restaurant in Socorro, New Mexico on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

I was waiting for Susie Bright to comment on the Eliot Spitzer thing and she didn’t disappoint – with a couple of great posts in the past two days. Something totally unexpected, though, was a really interesting conversation with a Spanish reporter about the ’standing at the podium with your wife’ tradition – something he says just never happens in Spain.

The whole thing is worth reading but here’s a random interesting thing that Susie said that jumped out at me. Never thought of it before.

Lands in the US that were originally colonized by the Spanish have profoundly different property laws, regarding gender, than the areas colonized by the English.

According to traditional Spanish law, a woman comes into a marriage with her own property, and if something should happen to that marriage, her property stays with her. She could have land in her own name— this was not thought of as “feminist,” but merely matrilineal. Women’s families counted for something, their historical line.

What this meant in modern American life, is that when the US became independent, the divorce laws followed the tradition set by the original settlers. In California— where I live— because the Spanish tradition is so profound, the divorce laws ALWAYS gave women half of everything earned in the marriage, plus their own property they brought with them into the marriage. Hence, Spanish-tradition states like California were clearly favored by wives, in breakups.

Susie Bright’s Journal

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Been listening to a lot of Steve Earle lately and damn, he’s good. This clip has no video quality to speak of but the audio sounds good (the lead guitar is heavy in the mix) and the spoken intro is awesome.

And here’s a really great and great sounding in studio recording of the same song – Rich Man’s War…

Jimmy joined the army ‘cause he had no place to go
There ain’t nobody hirin’
‘round here since all the jobs went
down to Mexico
Reckoned that he’d learn himself a trade maybe see the world
Move to the city someday and marry a black haired girl
Somebody somewhere had another plan
Now he’s got a rifle in his hand
Rollin’ into Baghdad wonderin’ how he got this far
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war

Bobby had an eagle and a flag tattooed on his arm
Red white and blue to the bone when he landed in Kandahar
Left behind a pretty young wife and a baby girl
A stack of overdue bills and went off to save the world
Been a year now and he’s still there
Chasin’ ghosts in the thin dry air
Meanwhile back at home the finance company took his car
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war

When will we ever learn
When will we ever see
We stand up and take our turn
And keep tellin’ ourselves we’re free

Ali was the second son of a second son
Grew up in Gaza throwing bottles and rocks when the tanks would come
Ain’t nothin’ else to do around here just a game children play
Somethin’ ‘bout livin’ in fear all your life makes you hard that way

He answered when he got the call
Wrapped himself in death and praised Allah
A fat man in a new Mercedes drove him to the door
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war

Sarangel Music (ASCAP)

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I heard about this a couple of days and I kind of suspended judgement on it – but now the Clinton campaign is lying to Fox news about it…and there’s obviously something to it. Read this Daily Kos diary for a lot of detail.

Daily Kos: Clinton campaign making Obama “blacker”

And as Troutnut said…

Make of that what you will. I think it’s more likely to be incidental than the color changes: they squished it to fit in exactly one half of a wide screen. They could have just cropped it rather than distorting it, though, and they didn’t.

I’m not accusing Hillary of technically being a racist. But she is cynically exploiting racism to further her personal ambition, and it’s part of a pattern. She’s doing it to a fellow Democrat who’s virtually certain to be the nominee.

Daily Kos: [UPDATE w/campaign response]

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Flickr Photo Download: Conflicted Primary Voters?

The polls all show things too close to call, but it’s early Tuesday morning and my guess is as good as anyone…so here goes; I’m hereby predict that Obama will do better the polls are showing right now and will win Vermont, Texas, Ohio and may take Rhode Island.

He’s beaten the polls in the past few races and I think Obama voters are more motivated then Hillary voters – this may be especially important in places like Cleveland where the weather is supposed to be horrible today. Texas should be a comfortable win, Ohio and Rhode Island would be squeakers.

Either way, I don’t see Hillary leaving the race any time soon no matter what happens today.

What do you think?

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