Let this be the be-all, end-all meta-Kos diary. Please.
There are a lot of reasons that I decided to start this blog. Mainly, after months of voter registration and GOTV work in Florida and Pennsylvania, I discovered that a lot of ‘my’ voters got screwed. They had to wait in 8-hour lines. They got sent to the wrong precinct. They were told that they weren’t registered.
I don’t even remember when I first came to Daily Kos. Whenever it was, it was a long time before I became a registered member. But I got tired of writing about what needed to be done, and so I went and organized voter registration teams.
I worked long hours and I didn’t always have internet access. I mainly trolled dKos late at night while decompressing with some drinks.
A few days after the election I returned to Daily Kos expecting them to lead the fight over Ohio, and to make damn sure that we raised the distrust level about the results to such a high level that we would have major momentum for voting reform.
They wanted no part of it. So, I decided to start a community where I could say what I thought needed to be said. If I want to call Bush a criminal, I’m going to call him a criminal, and I don’t care if it makes Harry Reid squirm.
I didn’t lose respect for them. They turned out to be different than I expected them to be, so I started my own thing. I didn’t quit the site, I didn’t storm off in a huff.
Having invested so much in building turnout, I was fucking outraged over voter suppression, and possible voter fraud. It was an issue I cared about passionately, and they were lumping my concerns in with tinfoil specialists, and marginalizing ‘my’ issue.
But I didn’t take it personally. I did something about it that was constructive.
Daily Kos is the best political website on the net, and the best that has ever existed. I basically stole the whole architecture and concept for this site from them, and I did it because there was so little to improve on.
In its history, Daily Kos has had some of the most amazing writers I have ever seen. And for those of you that are critical of Armando, 99% of it is about his activity in the threads, not his writing. Trust me, after Susan, he is the most prolific and energetic blogger I have ever seen.
He can write, he can do analysis, he can do interviews, he can write blistering emails, and he can contribute energetically in the threads, and still find time to work and eat.
Markos not only developed the architecture of the site, but he built-in fund-raising, action-items, and probably is responsible for Howard Dean being head of the DNC. Think about that…
Some of my closest friends have done some horrible things to me. They’ve slept with my girlfriends, stolen my money, turned me into the cops, or principal, or my parents. My closest friend killed himself 15 years ago. I still love them all. I’d go to the wall for them. I’d throw myself in front of a bus for them.
You want to talk about the pie-wars?
Meteor Blades blasted Markos, Armando criticized him, I criticized him. You know what else?
Meteor Blades recommeded the diary just published on why Daily Kos is worth fighting for. Armando has been on a rampage to defend Markos’s honor, and my first reaction was to write a defense of Markos.
We are on the same team. Sometimes we will disappoint you. Sometimes we will marginalize you because we don’t care enough about the issue that really touches your heart. Forgive us. Friends aren’t perfect. Family is not perfect. You don’t always get the apology that you deserve. You don’t always reach ‘closure’ with your mother, or your father, or your brother, or the friend that sold your book collection.
Believe me, I understand disillusionment, disappointment, unreciprocated love, and all the rest. But I know who the good guys are and I know who the bad guys are. And the Daily Kos crew are not the bad guys.
