THIS MODERN WORLD

What does Thomas Jefferson have to say about the Kos & David Brooks & Newsweek & Jason Zengerle brouhaha? Let’s ask him:

Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, tho’ not the most wise depository of the public interests.

In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves. Call them, therefore, Liberals and Serviles, Jacobins and Ultras, Whigs and Tories, Republicans and Federalists, Aristocrats and Democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same parties still, and pursue the same object. The last appellation of Aristocrats and Democrats is the true one expressing the essence of all.

That’s all there is to say about this. The people who own the New Republic, Newsweek, the New York Times and the Democratic National Committee are Jefferson’s Aristocrats. They fear and distrust regular people. So they’ll attack anything that allows regular people to organize themselves and have some voice in how things are run.

That can be unions, or DailyKos, or the AARP, or in 2397 A.D. the Association of Alpha Centauri Moisture Farmers. It doesn’t matter. The important thing, from their perspective, is to destroy anything that allows regular people to talk to each other, discover their common interests, and act. In this particular case, the Aristocrats will not stop trying to destroy the blogosphere until (1) they succeed or (2) they or the blogosphere switch parties.

Just started Suskind’s One Percent Doctrine, and it’s absolutely fascinating. Also on my recommended list:

— Boehlert’s Lapdogs (best look at the media’s obsequiousness to power since On Bended Knee);

— How Would a Patriot Act? (if you read his blog, you know what a talented polemicist Greenwald is);

— Talking Right (Geoffrey Nunberg looks at how the right wing shapes language to its own advantage);

— and, of course, The Blogofascist Manifesto (I carry my copy everywhere!)

The real question in my mind is what the attack puppies are trying to accomplish. Surely they must understand that in the end, there is no such thing as bad publicity for a blogger. Ann Coulter has built an extremely lucrative career out of being attacked in print by her opponents. Does the TNR really think Daily Kos’s traffic and ad revenues are going to do down because of this? If so, it may explain why the fucking rag is withering away: an absolute lack of business sense.

Seriously, though, I suspect the real objective here is to try to scare away the Democratic pols who have been cozying up to Kos and the liberal blogosphere. The sight of all those powerbrokers — Harry Reid, etc. — lining up to kiss Kos’s ring in Vegas must have really set the klaxons wailing at DLC HQ. It isn’t that Kos is particularly liberal or progressive (the right wingers only yell that he is because they understand that he isn’t.) Go where the real lefties hang out, and you’ll learn mighty fast that the name Kos is a dirty word in those circles — right up there with those other well-known fascist running dogs like Howard Dean and John Kerry.

But in the end it doesn’t matter. The Lieberman Dems don’t hate and fear Kos and the Daily Kos “community” because they are too far to the left. They hate them because they represent an emerging power center within the Democratic Party that they don’t control — what’s more, one that is now much closer to the public mainstream on the central issue of our time (the Iraq War) than they are.

Much more.

A couple of points I’d like to throw into the mix in regards to the continung war between TNR (and now Daivd Brooks) and the lefty blogosphere. For one, most liberal bloggers aren’t defending Markos. They’re defending themselves. After all, it’s Zengerle who wrote things like this :

So far, Kos’s friends in the fiercely independent liberal blogosphere seem to have displayed a sheep-like obedience to his dictat.
. . .
Following up on this, why did so many of the people on the “Townhouse” e-mail list follow Kos’s orders to stay silent about the Armstrong story and the Kosola allegations? Part of it, I’m sure, has to do with their political allegiances to Kos. But let’s not underestimate their financial allegiances.

It’s not just Markos and Jerome Armstrong beign dragged through the mud, it’s every liberal blogger (especially those in the Advertising Liberally network). As one of the many, many unnamed bloggers whose integrity is being questioned by this yellow journalism, let me just say that Jason Zengerle is an asshole.Every liberal blogger has been besmirched by these unsupported insinuations and we’ve got every right to be pissed. And if that makes me just another lowbrow, potty-mouthed blogger, so be it. I’d rather be an immature fool than an immoral elitist.

Secondly, Zengerle’s ever-growing mountain of unsupported attacks and obvious attempts to discredit Kos have made him the Ken Starr of the blogosphere. Take a look at this capper on the end of Zengerle’s attempt to downplay the fact that he published a fake email :

…because the mistake that resulted from this failure has allowed Greenwald and others to try to use this minor error to distract people from much larger issues. Those issues are: Armstrong’s troubles with the SEC; Armstrong’s relationship with Moulitsas and Moulitsas’s pattern of supporting politicians who hire Armstrong as a consultant; Moulitsas’s attempts to silence liberal bloggers from commenting on these matters; the seeming acquiescence of so many of these liberal bloggers (including Greenwald) to Moulitsas’s demands; and now, strangely, stuff like this.

The “this” in question is a link to a weird astrology blog that Jerome Armstrong ran. Why is it relevant to the issues at hand? It isn’t. Just like a semen-stained dress is irrelevant when you’re investigating a failed land deal. The whole point of this little crusade wasn’t to actually build a case against Jerome and Kos, but to keep throwing allegations at them until something sticks. It’s the standard “there’s so much out there, something‘s gotta be true” trick that’s been used against John Kerry, Al Gore, John McCain, and Bill Clinton.

It’ll probably work this time too. The reason the trick works especially well in this case is that loud protests must mean that they’ve hit a nerve, right? There’s no way somebody would get this mad unless TNR is on to something. At least that’s how they’ll spin it. If the blogosphere rallies around Kos, it proves that we’re the well-trained poodles that TNR insists we are. And if we don’t comment on it, it’s becase Kos has issued “marching orders” (their words) to ignore the story and hope it goes away.

We’re all getting Swift-Boated now.

WEST PALM BEACH Sources have confirmed to CBS4 News that conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been detained at Palm Beach International Airport for the possible possession of illegal prescription drugs Monday evening.

Limbaugh was returning on a flight from the Dominican Republic when officials found the drugs, among them Viagra.

Story.