1920-1932- Economy sucks. Middle class gets the shaft.
1933-1952 - Mess fixed, economy eventually booms.
1953-1960 - Economy slowed, middle class gets somewhat shafted.
1961-1968 - Economy booms.
1969-1976 - Economy sucks. Middle class gets the shaft.
1977-1980 - Economy is mediocre.
1981-1992 - Economy really sucks. Middle class gets the shaft.
1993-2000 - Economy booms, peace and prosperity.
2001-2008 - Economy sucks. Worst ever. Middle class gets the shaft.

There are so many things I "want." I want to be able to go to a Hugh Hefner Party and be able to have my pick of any woman there for as long as I want. It's just not happening.

I want to win lotto and retire tomorrow. It's just not happening.

I also want some other things.

I want our troops home from Iraq tomorrow if not today.
I want progressives on the Supreme Court, real progressives in the tradition of Brennan, Marshall, Warren, and Goldberg.
I want HMO bureaucrats out of our health care system.
I want health care guaranteed and separate from employment.
I want our national debt eliminated.
I want taxes raised on the rich to their Eisenhower or Kennedy levels.
I want Bin Laden dead.
I want global warming reversed.
I want every school in America to have the proper infrastructure.
I want NCLB perforated and used as toilet paper.
I want all loose nukes secured.
I want us to create alternative sources of energy that is safe and environmentally friendly so we can tell Saudi Arabia to go Cheney itself.
I want it to be easier to form a union.
I want paper ballots required for every election.
I want felony disenfranchisement over.
I want Washington DC to have two senators by 2010.
I want student loan rates to be interest free.
I want college tuition costs cut in half.

Oh and I want Angelina Jolie. And I want Tom Brady to dump his girlfriend so she can go out with me. Except for money I'd be the better husband. Heck if you give me a golden goose, I'd want that too.

Now here is what I know. I am not going to get everything I want. I will get some of it, all of it in some instances, some of it in others, and nothing in others. But instead of whining about it, I'll appreciate what I have because at this point, that's a million times better than what we've had for the past 8 years.

I'm hopeful Barack Obama understands that if during his first year in the White House he reverses global warming, finds the cure for cancer, brings permanent peace to the Middle East, and increases the standard of living of every American by 5000%, right wing republicans in Congress are still going to try to undermine his presidency, obstruct his policies, and claim he's doing a lousy job.

In short, NO MATTER WHAT DEMOCRATS DO, REPUBLICANS WILL OBSTRUCT.

Therefore it is incumbent upon Democrats to simply pass the legislation and use their huge majorities to get things done and only reach out to Republicans who want to genuinely be reached out to. Don't play their games.

Additionally, if there are Republicans who are going to play games and obstruct, then you play hardball with them. You cut off every pork project of theirs and give them nothing.

The 200 or so links of specifics can be found at my website davefromqueens dot com. To enable Kos or support Kos is to help right wing Republicans. To stand up to Kos is to help Democrats. I've chosen the latter just as Barack Obama and so many Democrats we all love below have chosen. Here is the full article.




Ann Coulter? Charles Manson? The ghost of Timothy McVeigh? Who is the sicko with the following thoughts?

He said recently, "Democrats are like battered spouses!" He said recently, "F*ck Ralph Nader" and his 700,000 supporters! He compared Barack Obama to ultra wingnut extremists. He wrote that liberal New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd is an insecure, catty bitch. He was bad mouthing Democrats in early 2008 and was plotting to have them taken out in 2010. He claimed the liberal group Center for American Progress is a bunch of assholes. He needlessly attacking Mike Gravel as a waste of our time. He obsessively attacks Caroline Kennedy and claimed that Caroline has done nothing to help beat back the right wing machine. When four Americans are killed in Iraq, he said "screw them." He smears Democratic activist Bob Fertik as "a holier than thou purity troll." He's cold and callous. He told liberal Kathy Sierra, upon receiving death threats that she should just "suck it up." He said that Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher needs to be taken out. He tried starting a fist fight with Jim Bonham, the head of the DCCC in 2004. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was attacked by Kos as someone kept afloat by the Cuban-American mafia. He wants to see white people in the minority so that he can teach the white man a lesson. His effete frontpager gets exposed as an elitist and racist who thinks blacks are too poor and uneducated to blog. He thinks gays shouldn't be in the military for it is incompatible for homosexuals and he fears "worrying" about the homosexual next to him. Guess he doesn't belong to any gym.

Who is this sick nutcase? Bill "F*ck it we'll do it live" O’Reilly? The ghost of Joseph Stalin? Michelle "internment" Malkin? Nope. This person was the only left leaning political Internet person to be voted one of Radar Online's 10 worst people of 2007. But calling him a horrible person is an understatement. What's next? Will this guy claim he ate fast and ran to the library to read in high school because he didn't have any friends? Wait! That is next.

He said about his high school experience, "I had to eat fast and run to the library to read, because I didn’t have any friends." He played to people's fears and engaged in race baiting during the 2008 Democratic primary between Obama and Clinton. He defended blogger thereisnospoon when this Kossack claimed that a woman who has too much to drink loses her right to claim rape. He has a deep seated hatred for women as indicated by his bizarre theories here of the women's studies set. Call Creedmoor! Who is this guy? He runs a blog that 99% of politicians avoid like the plague and he is despised by almost everyone. Yet this guy actually thinks that he is the 2nd most powerful person in the world. Call Creedmoor, there's a megalomaniac on the loose! Who is this nut? His name is Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, owner of the Daily Kos who blogs as Kos. He's a Republican enabler and troll. He's the Ann Coulter of the Left. He's a hate monger and a smear merchant. To support him is to help and enable right wing Republicans. To support him is to support one of the lowest common denominators of human existence. He is an unacceptable voice no matter how often one agrees or disagrees with him. Screw him and any Democrat or politician that aligns himself with him.

Most online active Democrats who are progressives, liberals, and moderates know Kos is a despicable individual. While I have no problem using adjectives to embellish my point, the bottom line is that my point is mostly made with factual examples. This is in stark contrast to the Kos cultists who almost exclusively use ad hominems and excessive name calling to try and delegitimize facts they find inconvenient about Markos Moulitsas. Their primary tact is to label their centrist or liberal critics as unhinged, obsessive, or insane to try to shift the focus away from the issue of Kos' actions, words, and behavior. I should know, I've been the 3 month target of that Kossovik smear campaign. I'm not the first person to expose Kos as the nearly 200 links within demonstrate. 99% of the information accumulated was gathered by others. I've simply organized it. Clearly I am far from alone in my Democratic criticism of Kos and others have picked up on it. In fact I'm in the majority. Here’s a partial but long list of solid Democratic leaning individuals that have incurred the wrath of Kos and/or despise this little man.

Aba who explains why Kos is an extremist, peace activist Anna Baltzer, arc xix for writing a story on the Palins that Kos didn't like, Booman of the Booman Tribune elaborates, Senator Barbara Boxer stopped writing diaries in May of 2007, Buelah Man who explains why Kos is irrelevant to progressives and why, Vincent Bugliosi who yelled at Kos in Denver, thousands of Hilliary Clinton supporters who boycotted Kos' site when Kos' hatred for Hillary went too far, actor John Cusack who stopped posting at the site after two diaries, yours truly davefromqueens who left after Kos made it clear that he supported the bullying of children and outing of real life users, Desert Peace banned for thoughtcrime, Tom Duncombe who is now very disillussioned with Daily Kos, Echidne who was infuriated over Kos' sexism, Jeff Fecke of Moderate Left, Eileen Fleming who explains her banning for thoughtcrime, Brad Friedman of Brad Blog who is infuriated by Kos' right wing views on election integrity, The writer Ghandi who expresses his outrage and credentials, former Kossack, Iraq War Vet and Ohio congressional candidate Paul Hackett who was shamefully double crossed by Kos and later accused of losing his mind. Noted election reformer Beverly Harris, Francis Holland Esq. who for the most part did a great job exposing the real Markos Moulitsas, Democrat Nancy Kallitechnis who explains her banning for thoughtcrime, Erin Kotecki Vest vents her frustration with Kos at Huffington Post, talk show host Michael Kwiatkowski who explains how Kos' scam operation works, blogger Lesser Devil banned for Rick Warren thoughtcrime, Anthony Levensalor expressed his displeasure with Kos, Talk show host Mike Malloy blasted the gatekeeping of Kos, former Kossack Marisa Cat who now regularly exposes Kos, Media girl who explains Kos' misogyny over his Pie Fight, Bob Morris explains his banning along with others like Lake Superior, NARAL gets attacked by Kos for supporting abortion rights, Brendan Nyhan explains Kos' attacks in Time Magazine, President-Elect Barack Obama who ripped DailyKos in December 2006 after he was driven off the site by the Kos hate mongers, Author Mary Scott O'Connor, one of the earliest Kossacks, routinely exposes Stalinist Kos. The staff and multiple bloggers of the liberal Buckeye State Blog who exposed later banned and vitriolic front pager Armando Llorens-Sar's conflicts of interest regarding Walmart and Kelo as well as Kos' ties to the Payola Scandals. Investigative journalist Greg Palast who was ambushed and driven from the site, former Kos administrator Peeder, James Pence of the Hillbilly Report who humorously explains his banning on video, Eyal Rosenberg who explains why Kos kills progressive thought, Rural Democrat who was banned for defending Democrats of Appalachia, Jay Sennett who talks of censorship at Kos, activist Cindy Sheehan who was "warned" by Kos after she spoke of taking on Nancy Pelosi, Philip Shropshire of ThreeRiversOnline, Richard Silverstein who explains the cult and vindictiveness of Kos, Blogger Socratic Gadfly who highlights many Dems who left the site and talks about the intolerance of Kos, Liberal Lee Stranahan banned by Kos for reporting the John Edwards sex scandal and turning out to be 100% right just days later, Known activist David Swanson got banned for thoughtcrime masqueraded as copyright infringement, Howard Dean campaign higher up Zephyr Teachout exposed Kos' payouts from the Dean campaign, Activist Umkahlil and others banned for thoughtcrime on I/P issues, feminist writer Jessica Valenti of feministing called Kos out on his vileness toward women, Rev. Jim Wallis who called Kos out for shooting the Left in its foot (Rev. it's intentional, he's a Republican enabler), Senator Jim Webb who grew tired of Kos' hate, and blogger Zuzu who rips apart Kos' misogyny. In addition to all these people, there are tens of thousands of ordinary Democratic citizens who will have nothing to do with Daily Kos, Kos, or candidates that support him (the few that are left) because of how horrible Kos and his minions act. The question must be asked, "Are all these people wrong?" Of course not.

The myth of Kos is predicated on the grossly false perception that the site has millions of users and readers per day. If this myth is punctured, Kos is out of business. The myth is punctured because the real numbers are merely in the thousands. The media should know this and simply treat Kos as nothing more than a gadfly who attracts fewer customers than your typical mall outlet on a Tuesday afternoon. If you check the true statistics supplied by Kos' statistician Jotter, you will realize that the site has never had more than 33,000 active users in a given year, has never had more than 18,000 active users in a given 3 month period, that the site has about a 30% turnover ratio from quarter to quarter, that many of the so called active users are duplicates/sockpuppets of the same person, that there are only a few thousand active users there per week, and that the number of diarists is now at more than a 12 month low. Moreover, these numbers understate the discontent at Kos given that many registered user names are the same person. Plus, what kind of community sees 30% of its people leave every 3 months? Obviously, there is something rotten in blogmark.

Kos the purge lover is an opportunist with no moral backbone who "doesn't give a shit where Democrats sit on the spectrum." In addition to claiming to have been a Reagan Republican, he actually worked for Henry Hyde and voted for George Bush in 1992. His ruse in 2004 is that he was a liberal. His 2006 ruse was that he was a right leaning libertarian democrat but when that didn't sell, it was back to claiming to be a hard left progressive who despises the DLC while actively working with the DLC's New Politics Institute to undermine and destroy the very progressive Democrats he claims to represent. Kos is apparently from the Reagan Republican, Bush voting, DLC, libertarian democrat, Obama is right wing, unapologetic liberal, strong progressive, Henry Hyde, who cares about ideology wing of the Democratic Party that coddles Chevron. This worst of all worlds scenario is one reason Democrats of all stripes despise him immensely. He once said, "Everybody says I'm an asshole and they’re right I am." Most Republicans and most Democrats would concur.

Why is Markos Moulitsas such an asshole? Is it his Kos Kops who formed a secret website of utter filth where his Kostapo coordinated their cyberbullying toward fellow Democrats, their outing of real life information and investigations of Daily Kos users, and their attacks on children because it was a game to them? Is it the #2 of the Kos Kops who lost his license to practice medicine in Colorado for admittedly sexually assaulting multiple patients. Is it the fact that almost every candidate that is closely associated with him loses races for public office? Is it the multiple crooked scandals he has been associated with regarding payola with candidates including Hillary Clinton who was buying him off weekly? Is it his censorship tendencies and gatekeeping as part of the group Townhouse where he tried to starve the oxygen of other liberal and progressive bloggers even though he openly supports the Online Freedom of Speech Act? Hypocrisy never seems to bother Kos. Is it the 30 real but unpublished rules of the site that look like something out of an Orwell or Kafka novel and not a liberal blog? Is it his personality that reminds people more of Charles Manson than the guy they’d want to have a beer with?

The reasons why most Democrats do not want Markos Moulitsas being perceived as one of them is because Markos Moulitsas is a Republican enabler who hurts Democrats because his actions and behavior are so deplorable that they turn off most people, even compelling John Kerry in 2004 to delink Kos from his campaign. Kerry's initial associations with Kos may have cost him the presidency and Kerry and Kos are so powerless that when Daily Kos endorses an Iraq vet in a Democratic primary who has six digits backing him up, he loses to Alice Kryzan in a primary. She spent $100. In only one House race in 6 years has a Kos House candidate (Donna Edwards over Al Wynn) defeated a better established Democrat in the primary. Most like Mark Pera, Jon Powers, and Karen Carter, can't make it out of a Democratic primary. Others like Ashwin Madia, Dan Seals, and Darcy Burner lose races they should have won with ease. Then there are the infamous Kos House Dozen. Now you've heard Markos' lie about how he tries to fund candidates in Republican leaning districts. Of course if you know Markos, if his lips or keyboard is moving, chances are he's lying. Guess how many of these 12 House seats were later taken over by DIFFERENT democrats? If you guessed EIGHT, you win. So ask why eight other Democrats were able to win House seats that Kos couldn't in 2004? Oh it's because Kos is a Republican asset and the best thing and ally the GOP has going for itself because Kos is a turnoff troll in the mold of Abbie Hoffman, Al Sharpton, and Medea Benjamin. Consider also that Kos would have loved to have taken out the 12 Democratic Senators with more conservative domestic voting records than Joe Lieberman. Thus far, none have lost an election.

Obama wisely condemned DailyKos for condemning Daily Kos, a site where common vulgarity usage totals several hundred thousand times per year. Condemning Daily Kos is indeed a wise strategy for Democrats who want to get elected (This is perhaps the site's only useful purpose). If Obama had chosen to align himself with Markos Moulitsas in 2008 Obama doesn't win by 7 points. In fact he probably doesn't win at all. Republicans would have been wise to have disassociated themselves from the crazed, evil Ann Coulter long ago. We as Democrats won’t make that mistake with the nearly equally venomous Markos Moulitsas. He does not speak for Democrats, progressives or liberals, or the netroots although he has planned for years to seize the Democratic Party. Bottom line, he can't and won't. Let it be clear - If you support Kos you are enabling Republicans and therefore you are the troll undermining Democrats. Moreover, any politician that associates with Kos forfeits the right to the vote of millions of Democrats. Kos is a radioactive toxin. Screw him and any Democrat that aligns himself with him.

Who speaks for the netroots? Who speaks for Democrats? Who speaks for progressives? The answer is no one person. However, the perception of who has power can translate to mega dollars, appearances in the mainstream media, etc..

I have argued, and will continue to argue, that DailyKos' Markos Moulitsas, a few of his front pagers (Dhinmi, Misslaura, BarbinMd, ScoutFinch, etc..) and his cyberbullying Kostapo are as bad for Democrats as Ann Coulter is for Republicans. (I don't mind republicans destroying themselves.) I will further argue that we should do the Democratic Party a huge favor and disown this hateful man (he of supporting death threats against liberal blogger Kathy Sierra and of screw them infamy) now while he has minimal power so that he can go no further and cause no more harm. His recent bashing of Caroline Kennedy, his recent shameful reference to Democrats as "battered spouses" and numerous other instances of bizarre behavior should be an alarm bell for us real and solid Democrats. (If anyone wants my street creds, voting history, etc... I'll provide it..)

I argue that most progressives and most Democrats dislike Kos because they realize his true nature but often are afraid to say so out of fear. Well extensive googling throughout the web will reaffirm my point but the bigger point can be shown at what is happening at Daily Kos. The site is plummeting and nosediving like the economy under Bush. While sites like DU have stablized the past 6 weeks, Kos keeps going down and down and down.

And now he is below Democratic Underground on a regular basis, something that never happened before until recently.

A check of Alexa rankings shows DU beating Kos for the entire week by nearly 1500 ranking spots.

Now there are plenty of other liberal sites way ahead of Kos, like Huffington Post. But who speaks for the progressive netroots? Well as of now Democratic Underground would rank well ahead of DailyKos in that regard. And I suspect that DK's rankings will continue to plummet, just like MYDD's did for the same reason and that the list of sites will simply keep expanding and expanding.

Why is DU moving up? What are you doing right? Feel free to share.

For over 40 years this country has had socialism. But that socialism has been for the wealthy. It's been "capitalism" for everyone else.

For over 40 years this country has had redistribution of wealth. But it's been money taken from the poor and middle class and given to the lazy rich who have used government as their personal welfare trough.

For over 40 years America has had class warfare. But the victims have been the middle class while the pillagers have been at the very top.

As a result of corporate communism, wealthfare, and redistribution of wealth upwards, we have a crumbling domestic infrastructure, record deficits, and a 10 trillion dollar debt.

So how do we fix this mess? How do we rebuild our infrastructure, eliminate debt, create more economic opportunity for the middle class, and reduce the deficit dramatically? The primary way to do this is simple - You MUST raise taxes on the very rich.

Restoring the tax to 39% and letting the Bush tax scam expire immediately is bread crumbs. In order to fix our country and in fact save it from economic ruination, tax rates on wealth over 5 million dollars should be taxed at 70% with that rate increasing to 90% on wealth over 100 million dollars. Therefore we should be arguing for 70% tax rate for those making over 5 million a year combined with eliminating every loophole out there and establishing an alternative minimum tax for large corporations to prevent the tax evasion from sending jobs overseas or hiding assets offshore.

Your thoughts?

And while some are trolls who should be banned, most were actual Democrats.

My crime was standing up to and exposing the Kostapo and I had over 10,000 comments there.

For those who don't know

Kos users = Mostly good people
Kostapo - a bunch of people who monitor thoughts all day long and start cyberbullying person after person who posts a comment on an issue that doesn't tow the product line.

It is the fact that Kos allowed his site to be taken over by the latter which has driven most people away. If you check Jotter's weekly statistics the site's active users is about 5% of the UserIds. (most have been banned or have left)

I am an adult. I have two prestigious licenses, a permanent certificate to teach grades K-6 and I'm a member of the New York State Bar. Both jobs require me to exhibt a lot of patience, indeed extra patience, for differing views than mine in which I have to listen, engage, and accommodate.

I am the same way politically. I will crush right wingers but I can certainly allow them to speak. I have no problem with people disagreeing with me for I"m comfortable in my views.

The problem with Kos is that he has the same mentality as the intolerant crowd that composes most of the Right. He is illiberal in practice and gives the progressive movement a very bad name. (All the while actually undermining it and bashing people who are part of it) Is this something we want speaking for Democrats? The answer is No b/c if he somehow becomes more influential, he will sink the party. There's a reason why Hillary criticized him in 2007 and Obama lambasted him in 2006 in an article that appeared in the Washington Post.

Well it has finally happened. According to Alexa's rankings, Democratic underground ranks just above 5200 and DailyKos ranks just above 7200. This may be the first time DU has crushed DK and it surely won't be the last. It may even happen everyday.

To understand what an accomplishment this is, understand that DailyKos had a virtual monopoly on the progressive blogosphere. This is the equivalent of a mom and pop store overtaking Walmart.

While DU was building coalitions, discussing issues, demonstrating tolerance, servicing its customer, and actually caring about issues important to Democrats, something else was going on at Markos Moulistas site.

Moulistas let his inflated ego get the best of him and decided that blogads generated from Orwellian searches for trolls and flamewars was more important than issues like health care, education, the economy, and foreign policy. Moulistas over time managed to irritate thousands of Democrats, from Obama to Swanson to Palast to Shaheen to Hackett, along with many of his former front pagers and his tech guru Peeder. Eventually people had enough. They witnessed how the site allowed what is referred to as Kos Kops or the Kostapo effectively ruin the site with double standards, hypocrisy, and constant literary urination in people's earnest work. As the straws accumulated, it reached a point of critical mass. So like Sears, the big bully on the block is now a pariah.

I am a rock solid centerleft Democrat. (Yes Big media most of America is center left) I have 15 years of work and accomplishments helping Democrats from things such as mailing envelopes and making calls for Democratic congresspeople to some of my more well known public events. (Hannity, Bushman, aggressively taking on Right wing dirtbags wherever they may appear) I speak for a large number of Democrats when I say that Kos is bad for us, bad for liberals, is driving people away from our party, and that all of our interests are better served if this turnoff troll is marginalized the way the Right should have, but never did, marginalize Ann Coulter years ago. Coulter turns republicans into Democrats. Kos turns democrats into republicans. He must be rejected and denounced for this reason.

 
Greek restaurants on every corner giving out free falafels.

Now is the time to govern. One of the areas where change is needed is election reform. Here are some of the ideas I propose.

1. All votes must have a paper trail. All machines should have two receipts, one that goes into a box with the number of the voter and the other to the voter.

2. You want 60 Senators? Make Washington DC and Puerto Rico states. Frame the issue in terms of racial discrimination.

3. Eliminate felony disenfranchisement. Once you serve your time, you are eligible to vote.

4. Stronger penalties for election fraud or attempts to prevent legit people from voting. Mandatory jail terms, write the statutes clearly and enact them.

5. Automatic registration. Every citizen has a SS card. When you turn 18, you are automatically registered to vote as an independent. Should you choose to join a party, you do so on your own initiative.