Common Folk Using Common Sense

Yeah, this is “yesterday’s news” to the true blog hounds. I’ve been sitting on this and watching it to see how it played out before commenting on it. And while the epic is long from over, I think there’s been enough activity for me to make comment on it.

I will be discussing some people and some places within the blogosphere. I have absolutely no desire to drive any traffic to them so I will not be providing any reference links, even when I quote their material.

ITEM 1

There is a blog called “Daily Kos” run by a guy named Markos Moulitsas Zúniga. A San Francisco Bay Area techie with a law degree, Markos maintains the site from Berkeley, California. Markos says the site receives about 20 million unique visits per month. He says he’s not a consultant:

Did I mention I’m not a consultant, and will not be a consultant in the future? Because if I didn’t, let me make clear — I’m not a consultant. And I won’t be.

He calls himself Left, Progressive, Liberal, and/or Democratic. I see him more as just another One World, neo-Euro-Socialist, a combination of Marxist and Hippie. He is the most popular left-wing blogger.

His “claim to fame” came back on April 01, 2004. The topic of the day was about the four Americans torn apart and hung from a bridge in Fallujah, Iraq.

Every death should be on the front page.

Let the people see what war is like. This isn’t an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush’s folly.

That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. They aren’t in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.

Markos has absolutely no love for the War on Terror, the Liberation of Iraq, the fall of Saddam, President Bush, Conservatives, Christians - making him the current darling of American Progressives.

Considering the enormity of the traffic his site receives it should come without shock that any political ideal, or political candidate, that Markos “likes” would be one that would receive huge support during elections. But the irony here is that, so far, Markos is (depending on how you count it) 0-20, 1-19, or 2-18 in election predictions.

He attributes a conspiracy when his candidate fails at the election, not understanding that maybe the majority of voters didn’t actually like “his” candidate. He demands to recount poll results until the count he gets is the count he want - and then stop all counting. He is ready and willing to condemn “red” states as hotbeds of racism, sexism, and any other -ism unpopular at the moment, while at the same time touting the “blue” states as the intelligent elite.

ITEM 2

Jerome Armstrong is a political consultant and journalist who writes for the left-wing blog “MyDD” (My Direct Democracy). MyDD’s political blogging began with the coverage of the special election in Virginia’s 4th CD, and later in 2001, the Governor’s elections in Virginia and New Jersey. In April of 2002, with a launch of the blogging software Gray Matter, MyDD’s full-scale blogging with comments began, and an online netroots community of political junkies quickly formed.

MyDD, like Daily Kos, calls himself Left, Progressive, Liberal, and/or Democratic.

Moulitsas started his Daily Kos after being a fan and contributor at MyDD. Moulitsas still refers to Armstrong as his blogfather.

Armstrong attended graduate school at Portland State University. Afterwards, Armstong served with the Peace Corps in Costa Rica and Sierra Leone and, according to Salon.com, “was arrested repeatedly at protests with Earth First! and Greenpeace.” He also spent a year and a half at a Buddhist monastery.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission brought a civil action against Armstrong over allegations of touting of securities issued by BluePoint Linux Software Corporation during 1999-2000. Without admitting or denying anything, Armstrong agreed to a settlement of the allegation with SEC.

It seems that Armstrong was frequenting various message boards and heavily promoting the software without informing anyone that he has just received, as payment (?) for his services, a bunch of undervalued stock in BluePoint. The S.E.C. alleges that “there is sufficient evidence to infer that the defendants secretly agreed to pay Armstrong for his touting efforts” on the financial Web site Raging Bull. Without admitting or denying anything, Armstrong has agreed to a permanent injunction that forbids him from touting stocks in the future. The S.E.C. remains in litigation with him over the subject of potential monetary penalties.

In December 2002 Dean Campaign Manager Joe Trippi invite Jerome Armstrong to Burlington, Vermont to assist the Dean campaign.

ITEM 3

Moulitsas and Armstrong teamed up in creating a political consulting partnership called Armstrong Zuniga. Howard Dean hired them for a time as technical consultants (an action they disclosed to readers), with Jerome shutting down MyDD for a year to work on the campaign. Daily Kos stayed running with Moulitsas at the helm.

Moulitsas and Armstrong would also co-author “Crashing The Gates“, a “…provocative new book that offers a perceptive analysis of progressive politics and proposes to revolutionize the Democratic Party…”. A trite and entirely predictable missive, it was only purchased by the most faithful; it sold only 3,630 copies in the month following its release. The authors cannot grasp the possibility that the American public is not as “progressive” as they are. The synopsis of all its 208 pages: “It’s all Bush’s fault.”

In June 2003 Trippi hires Moulitsas and Armstrong for consulting at a rate of $3,000 a month for four months. Armstrong describes his duties as “coordinat[ing] and direct[ing] the expenditures of all internet advertising for the campaign.”

Armstrong also received rather significant payments from his work as a political consultant on Jon Corzine’s successful campaign for NJ governor.

There seems to be a rather symbiotic relationship between Armstrong’s consulting business and the blogging activities of his “Crashing the Gates” co-author Moulitas. Clients of Armstrong’s consulting business, including rather netroots unfriendly candidates like Mark Warner, strangely seem to capture Kos’ fancy and get ringing endorsements.

Zephyr Teachout, a former high-profile Howard Dean aide, blogged on the subject of “Financially Interested Blogging”. As reported on Slate.com:

“Howard Dean’s presidential campaign hired two Internet political ‘bloggers’ as consultants so that they would say positive things about the former governor’s campaign in their online journals. In this past election, at least a few prominent bloggers were paid as consultants by candidates and groups they regularly blogged about.”

“On Dean’s campaign, we paid Markos and Jerome Armstrong as consultants, largely in order to ensure that they said positive things about Dean. We paid them over twice as much as we paid two staffers of similar backgrounds, and they had several other clients,” Teachout wrote. “While they ended up also providing useful advice, the initial reason for our outreach was explicitly to buy their airtime. To be very clear, they never committed to supporting Dean for the payment—but it was very clearly, internally, our goal.”

Wow. They were “hired” as “consultants”, but their real job was to shill for the highest bidder? To be fair Armstrong quit blogging for the half-year that he was on the Dean payroll, and Markos did post a somewhat grumpy disclosure on his site’s front page during the same period. If the two men were journalists, those disclosures would be woefully insufficient. But Armstrong and Moulitsas aren’t journalists - they’re bloggers. While there may be no actual laws broken what do these revelations imply?

Money goes to Armstrong and Moulitsas, and hype emerges around his favored candidates, and - if the Howard Dean campaign is any indication - what’s left at the end is a bunch of promoters and consultants who made a bunch of money and an audience of true believers who got left with nothing.

For example, on On October 4, 2005, Sherrod Brown begins making noises about making his potential Senate run official. Kos responds on DailyKos that Brown is not his preferred candidate. Later in the day Armstrong, having being hired by Brown, responds on MyDD that Brown is preferred candidate. Then just two days later Kos magically reverses his opinion and begins touting Brown as his preferred candidate. Coincidence? That’s for you to decide.

In February 2006, Paul Hackett, the opponent to Sherrod Brown, drops out of the Senate race, contending that national Democratic officials sabotaged his fundraising efforts and actively worked against his campaign. Was it sabotage by Democratic officials or the twin hired guns of Armstrong and Moulitsas? Again, that’s for you to decide.

And while it’s true that Moulitsas’ role as a Dean consultant was disclosed and reported in the press on multiple occasions, it came as a surprise to a whole lot of people, including a lot of prominent bloggers. Perhaps more important, the people who were aware of Moulitsas’ consulting work aren’t 100% comfortable with it. They have, for some time now, looked towards Moulitsas as Mr. Progressive, their Savior - not just “one more hack that can be bought with back-room dollars”. DailyKos raised money for a dozen congressional candidates this past election. Which, if any, of them paid Moulitsas for the honor of directing his grassroots minions to part with their wallets?

Consider that at 2006 Yearly Kos, the big “netroots event” for the DailyKos minions, Markos introduced Democratic Virginia Governor Mark Warner, who threw an incredibly lavish bash. He rented the observation desk of the Stratosphere, one thousand feet above Las Vegas, and he provided free martini’s, sushi, and Blues Brothers impersonators. It was a grand affair. Warner was not only granted the keynote speech; prior to the speech he was allowed to pass out free Yearly Kos t-shirts with his face superimposed on the front. And on the back, it says ‘Forward Together’ and ‘Authorized and Paid for by Forward Together PAC’, Mark Warner’s presidential political action committee - and employer of Kos buddy and MyDD’s Jerome Armstrong. Coincidence? Again, that’s for you to decide.

Or consider this scenario:

Step 1: “Leak” a story anonymously to a blog on your payroll.
Step 2: Get a local reporter to write a story on the controversial, gossipy, local political blog.
Step 3: Watch as everyone in town will be talking about the story you leaked to the blog.
Step 4: Watch the mainstream news run a story on the rumor that “everyone is talking about.”
Step 5: Watch other blogs write about what other blogs are buzzing about.

And no one will know that the original blog post was a paid placement until after the election. Oh certainly political campaigns and consultants are becoming increasingly artful at manipulating the mainstream press by first planting stories in the blogosphere - truthful or otherwise. Most of the DailyKos readers are under the assumption that what’s being written is “straight from the heart”, not “straight from the wallet”. Again, we may not be talking about a crime against the law, but are we seeing a crime against character or integrity, something Moulitsas has bankrolled his site upon?

Since the Dean mini-scandal broke, Armstrong has essentially retired from blogging and become a full-time consultant, selling his expertise in marketing to the netroots (a term he coined) to candidates. Whether he really believes in said candidates is really irrelevant in the consulting game; pay-per-play is the above board nature of that business. But Moulitsas, and his DailyKos, is still running full steam ahead. The question is whether Kos is running under his own agenda - or the agenda handed to him by his highest bidder. What these campaigns really want is good buzz from Markos and the support (financial, volunteering) of Kos readers. Most Daily Kos readers are willing to dig deep to support a candidate because Markos Moulitsas says he or she is a good candidate. There’s trust there.

The apple seldom falls far from the tree. Remember that DNC Sugar Daddy George Soros was convicted of insider trading in 2005. Given that Soros was a major funder of MoveOn.org, Dean, and the netroots ad boom, it is an interesting coincidence that netroots “founder” Armstrong was involved in insider manipulation and netroots “messiah” Moulitsas may be involved in voter manipulation. Again I must say that there is no direct evidence of a crime, but there may be the implication that all is not what it seems. Whether there’s any actual corruption here is still unknown. Shilling for candidates on one’s blog without disclosing being paid for it is incredibly dishonest.

Blogs should be a low-trust environment, and readers should be judging bloggers by what they say and how well they back it up - this blog included. But how many times have you already seen so many minions treating their “leader’s” words as “holy gospel”? Maybe this “event” will be nothing more than a wake-up call, and I’d simply be happy with that. But I fear that the Kool Aid Drinkers Brigade will simply circle their wagons, claim that everyone else is of the Devil, and continue their blind allegiance to their Master. The Kool Aid Drinkers Brigade aren’t just coming to DailyKos for analysis, they’re there for marching orders. They’re not giving tons of money to Kos-selected candidates because of careful weighing of facts and clicking through of hyperlinks but rather because they trust Kos’ endorsements.

Will Moulitsas takes money from political candidates in 2006 and 2008 without telling you who’s paying him? How will you know? Can you assume every Daily Kos candidate in this election didn’t write him a check for his “consulting” work - or his shilling? In order for Moulitsas to keep his reputation solid he must get “in front” of this issue and battle rumor with verifiable facts. He cannot squelch comment or criticism, but rather must face it head-on. To do anything else runs the risk of his followers, and their votes and dollars, to begin asking questions.

To be continued at “All May Not Be As It Seems For The Netroots, Vol. 2″

Kos, Markos, Moulitsas, Zúniga, Jerome Armstrong, MyDD, Joe Trippi, Crashing The Gates, Zephyr Teachout, Yearly Kos, netroots, DailyKos

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