Notes From The Clownhouse

Mickey Kaus continues to study the 'Kosola' story, and sends us to Jason Zengerle of TNR for this:

THE BLOGOSPHERE'S SMOKE-FILLED BACKROOM:

Are Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas (of the famous Daily Kos) engaged in a pay-for-play scheme in which politicians who hire Armstrong as a consultant get the support of Kos? That's the question that's been bouncing around the blogosphere ever since The New York Times's Chris Suellentrop broke the news last Friday about a 2000 run-in Armstrong had with the Securities and Exchange Commission over alleged stock touting. But Armstrong, Kos, and other big-time liberal bloggers have almost entirely ignored the issue, which is a bit surprising considering their tendency to rapidly respond to even the smallest criticism.

Why the strange silence in the face of such damning allegations? Well, I think we now know the answer. It's a deliberate strategy orchestrated by Kos. TNR obtained a missive Kos sent earlier this week to "Townhouse," a private email list comprising elite liberal bloggers, including Jane Hamsher, Matt Stoller, and Christy Hardin Smith.

Interesting - the Kos himself recently explained that

"I used to say this was a leaderless movement, and I was wrong.  It's not a leaderless movement; it's a everybody-who's-part-of-it-is-a-leader.  And so you can take any single individual down, and it will continue to live on.".

Based on the existence of this Clownhouse Cabal, I infer that some are more leaderless than others, or some are more a part of it than others, or something.  But I digress.

The Kos assured his followers that he would commence his pushback any day now, like right after the elections:

I am exploring legal options against some of the wingnut bloggers who are claiming I'm syphoning netroots money into consultants and my own pockets. Note how Glenn Reynolds is fueling it with his typical passive aggressive, "I don't think it's a big deal, but let me provide links to everyone who thinks this is THE BIGGEST STORY EVER!"

And Jerome's case, if it could be aired out, is a non-story (he was a poor grad student at the time so he settled because he had no money). Jerome can't talk about it now since the case is not fully closed. But once it is, he'll go on the offensive. That should be a couple of months off.

"Exploring legal options"?  Oh, stop - do the critical thinkers at the Clownhouse take this seriously?  As a Meet The Press guest, touring book author, and prominent blogger, Kos is a public figure who will have a nearly impossible time sustaining any kind of defamation action.

And Jerome won't be going on the offensive any time, unless he intends to violate the terms of his SEC settlement.  I posted links to the key legal documents in this old post, but the key bit was this, from the consent agreement (5 page .pdf):

Defendant agrees not to take any action or to make or permit to be made any public statement denying, directly or indirectly, any allegation in the complaint or creating the impression that the complaint is without factual basis.

Maybe we can anticipate a very quiet pushback in a few months.  That's the ticket.

Comments

[MayBee]

it's a everybody-who's-part-of-it-is-a-leader.

Bumperstickerist at PW called Kos the Most Equal Pig. That was before Kos made the above quote. Bravo, Bumperstickerist!

[Carol Herman]

Kos, it turns out, is funded by Soros.

Not exactly a "home grown" start up, if you ask me.

[Disa]

KOS himself. 'The Great KOS,'KOS Investments LTD, Soros, AstroWorld...

Clownhouse; KOS followers after the election.

[MayBee]

Where did the Kos is funded by Soros thing come from?
I do wonder who paid for his book tour. Probably his publisher, but it was a large tour for a small publishing house, no?

[wadikitty]

Maybe we can anticipate a very quiet pushback in a few months.

More likely we'll see this pushback in the next few business months.

[ed]

Hmmmm.

** Must Credit "ed" **

I think the pushback has already happened and is in advance of the news cycle by a few business days but is currently hidden behind a legal wall until Fitzgerald can look into what crimes were committed by those defaming Kos!

Rove must be involved! Even after he's been indicted!

(yes it's a joke.)

[Bob]

Although I would love to believe it's Rove, I think what we may be witnessing, is a last ditch effort by the Democrats to pull down their own moonbats, before it destroys their chances in the fall. We can't be the only ones noticing how much power these moonbats have in influencing the Democrat party.

Didn't Dean get slapped around a bit lately too?

Looks more like Clinton tactics then anyone else. I'm sure Hillary isn't to pleased with the lambasting she's been getting.

[Patton]

I could reveal what was discussed in the 'Townhouse', but I would have to give up my secret decoder ring and Soros lapel pin...

[Jimmy's Attack Rabbit]

The "Clownhouse" push-back is scheduled to commence 24-48 business hours after the much anticiapated Zuniga take-down of the DLC commences, (which was set to start several business months ago). However, the DLC takedown has been held up waiting on John Kerry to release his Form 180 info which was over a business year ago.

[patch]

The SEC takes a very dim view of people who they think have violated settlement agreements. Michael Milliken almost did a second tour of "Club Fed" when some of the SEC staff thought he might be in violation of his probation agreement.

The KOS kids might find out that there are some adults in charge; and calling the SEC bad names doesn't help the case. Also, which Democrat office holder would stick their neck out to help?

[Patton]

We may have mis-read these left wing bloggers..maybe Truth Out is right about Rove..these types apparently have experience with Federal Legal procedures up close and personnel.

[Dieaz]

Federal legal procedures are usually well known by retired operations officers.

Comment from other blog;

1 Comment »
Comment by neil —
June 24, 2006 @ 1:00 pm

His name is Markos Moulitsas. Zúniga is his mother’s maiden name, which he customarily writsn with his other names in the Latin formal manner. But if you’re writing in the English formal manner, call him Markos Moulitsas.

Phew! Now the master will throw me a crumb.

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[Carol Herman]

For "bug" control, the only way to stop the infestation in the donk's timber is to call Tom DeLay. Who used to control bugs very, very well. Before his House run, too.

Anyway, IF some tin foil hatters see a "donk's dismissal team" trying to alleviate the curse; have I got news for them!

For starters, Kevin Drum TRIED a sane approach to the Dean fiasco. And, it caused his blog to belly up. Cal Pundit's gone. Even though it had Wesley Clark as the "better choice" for '04. AND, Cat Blogging Fridays.

Nope. I'm not sad. Some might say that Kevin ended up on his feet. But the real money isn't to be made by a salary check, working for somebody else.

And, oddly enough, I, who never had a single idea that newspapers were profitable ... Because I thought getting a paper delivered was "under cost" ... forgot about who really funds this stuff. The advertisers. Sure, I knew in the 1960's, that a back cover could cost $40,000. I shrugged. But it didn't compute.

Then, I read that the NY Times, prior to pinch's running it into the ground, use to profit by millions of dollars; after paying off all their costs. Yup. Go figa you could make that much money announcing births, marriages, deaths, and lost dogs. To say nothing of the market placement ordinary people used, by the line, to advertise their garage sales. Or apartments for lease, above their garages. Who knew money added up like that?

Then, I read that Glenn Reynolds' InstaPundit pulls in about $40,000 a month in profits. For Drudge, I'd bet it's more! Meaning that while we tap away, there's a way those who own blogs that get traffic, can do very well, indeed. A law professor no longer has to watch his students go off to earn "real" money.

I'd bet George Soros was tossing big bucks around, hoping to pocket America, until his name became such a joke. Kos not funded by his Georgie? Just Code Pink? I think you'd be surprised how left wing foundations were tossing streams of money at things they thought would bring them followers. Now, it's like seeing empty pews in church.

While the Internet's strength rests on its "small town" feeling.

[Lesley]

"Clownhouse Cabal"?

You betcha. And I knew I'd stuck gold when I found the Clownhouse Cabal Car for the Leaderless Movement. It is described as follows:

"Vehicle drives itself, water spraying, parts falling off & going up in smoke."

"Crazy comedy clown car shows have water spraying out, lots of car parts falling off and smoke matched by the mad capers of the traditional clown. When the clown looks the other way the car drives around on its own as the audience watch in wonder."

Crazy Comedy Clown Car

[mcg]

It's safe to say that Jerome won't be doing anything until he is absolutely sure the planets and other celestial bodies are maximally aligned in his favor.

[Javani]

Poor defense. The target audience of the defense is his site's usual moonbat supporters yet he did not work the words "Karl Rove" into his appeal. Shoddy.

By the way, anyone here want to get in on setting up an anti-Hillary website mirroring the style and techniques of TruthOut? could be profitable in the next year or so.

[Tom Maguire]

Astrologer Jerome - does that provide a hint as to the origin of "moonbats"?

[Carol Herman]

Ah, Javani, Hillary doesn't attract attention.

Most people wouldn't waste their time.

Now, what the moonbat left has, are designs on representing "mainstream." They thought all they had to do was show their hatred for Bush, enough, they'd be followed like pied piper's, and pied pipperettes.

It never took off! It's as if they have ideas about flying. Never heard of the Wright Bros. And, they jump off cliffs a lot, with their capes extending out to keep them aloft.

Yup. Gravity, the weak force, keeps them grounded. But they were getting lots of money! There were people abroad who've invested in this. The elites in the MSM did not tip them off about how things go afowl.

And, there's lots of sane people who could care less if hillary's the moonbat candidate in '08. Or not.

What you can see, though, is that Algore's movie isn't lining them out at the box office, buying tickets. The seats in their temple remain pretty empty.

They're competition, meanwhile, keeps them busy screaming and yelling. Not unlike the Islamofascists, who are also convinced a few horror videos, and will all roll over, backwards, for them. They don't even hear the laughter. Or get our jokes. And, I guess with race whores like Jesse Jackson's song goes: "Keep hope alive."

Kerry thinks he lost in '04 because of a fluke. And, some unfair advantage delivered by the Swift Boat Vets.

Meanwhile, Dan RaTHer bled to death from a paper cut.

There's lots of times in competitive sports where one team just isn't up to snuff. And, what any audience would see is that the better team's "A" team can sit on the bench. And, the water boy can be sent in to tackle their receiver. Take the ball away. And, score a goal.

In the worst games, what losers do is try to move the goal posts. Try dishonest tricks, hoping nobody's looking. But if you watch the stands, you'd see people going to the parking lot. While the massacre on the field keeps on going. (Only in boxing is the referee allowed to stop the fight.)

Here? Ya gotta wait for election day.

Sometimes, I wonder why the NY Times printed what it did. It won't sell more papers, now. But maybe they just want to take the whole subject of Fitzmas, and special prosecutors, and ad abcerto, reach a point where the American people will just let everybody go home?

Of course, that's just my idea why the NY Times chose to do what it just did. They weren't on a "Get Bush" roll, ya know?

I guess in the fog of war, when chaos breaks loose, ya get to a place where the enemy makes enough mistakes; you can stop and take a breath of fresh air. Why stop them now?

The Internet is getting velocity out of this crap. And, we're not even burning up fossil fuel.

Yes, I am amazed at what I see.

[jerry]

Libby-Plame news, I need my fix, need Libby-Plame news!

[Jimmy's Attack Rabbit]

Tom,
I realize I am a guest here in your house but would it be possible to have the name of the commentator posted before that person's post? .........No offense, Carol Herman, but it hurts my brain to try and follow your train of thought.

[richard mcenroe]

Joe and Valerie read their horoscopes. An obvious connection...

[Redcoat]

Tom Maguire

Origin of Moonbat.

From the LGF Dictionary:

moonbat - An unthinking or insane leftist -- in other words, most modern leftists. Moonbat can also be used as an adjective, e.g. a moonbat professor. According to the Wikipedia entry for moonbat, the word was coined in 2002 by the Editor of Samizdata, Perry de Havilland, and was a variation on the name of radical British activist and columnist George Monbiot. Originally, the term "moonbat" was intended to be more politically neutral, and described wackos on the left and the right, but it quickly acquired its current usage of being applied almost exclusively to those on the left. The term also references the moon much in the same way that "lunatic" refers to the insanity-causing powers of the full moon (luna = moon). LGFers occasionally analyze the behavior patterns of various moonbat "species" as if they were actual animals, and even give them satirical Linnaean taxonomical names, such as moonbattus berkeleyensis. According to Charles: "Moonbat was originally coined by Perry at Samizdata, I believe. But LGF probably played a much bigger part in popularizing it." The entry in the Samizdata glossary indicates that Perry originally coined the full phrase "barking moonbat"; apparently "moonbat" is just a subsequent shortened version of "barking moonbat," rather than being a pre-existing term that was lengthened to barking moonbat.

[Geek, Esq.]

Kos has shown a remarkable and most unfortunate tendency to say utterly stupid things in order to show his solidarity with other left-of-center bloggers. No one is safe from his venom if they cross bloggers.

There was a big stink at his site when he labeled Tim Kaine, now the governor of Virginia, a 'coward'--his first front page mention of Kaine. Kaine, of course, is a Democrat. His crime? He hurt Steve Gilliard's feelings.

Armstrong is a liability.

[lurker]

Clarice, what do you think about ABA Violates Antitrust Consent Decree

About time, huh?

[clarice]

Interesting. I am more concerned about ABA's increasingly political role in judicial nominations and its part in trying to foist illegal AA programs on law schools.

[Cecil Turner]

Armstrong is a liability.

I was with you right up to there. But I think your premises more logically point to the liability as . . . Markos Moulitsas Zúniga.

[fishbane]

Wow, Tom. You managed to completely miss the humor, didn't you? You're usually sharper than that.

[richard mcenroe]

Lurker, Clarice — I agree. Anyone who wants to sing "Dancing Queen" should be free to.

[clarice]

Transterrestrial Musings does a side-splitting rife on Markos raise high the red banner bit--Here's a sample:

"Whenever there's a brutally murdered American in Iraq to scorn, I'll be there.

Wherever there's a few loons milling around with misspelled protes' signs saying 'Bush Lied! People Died!' and pictures of Che, and paper-mache puppets of Uncle Sam and Bushitlercheney McHalliburton, I'll be there.

Wherever there's a politician pandering to the tiny anti-American, 'anti-war' constituency, I'll be there.

Wherever there's a politician who los' an election because he decided that he wasn't far enough to the lef', I'll be there.

Wherever there's a moonbat business associate whose political beliefs seem to shuttlecock with the financial winds, and who thinks that Osama attacked us because the Moon is in the Seventh House, and we were oppressing the Oort Cloud with our technoimperialism, I'll be there.

I'll be in the way that mindless minions compassionately tilt their heads in sorrow and regret over the fact that Saddam and the Taliban are no longer in power."http://www.transterrestrial.com/archives/007224.html#007224

It's masterful--read it all.

[CS]

TNR's already won. They've delinked the Kossack netroots from the Dem establishment. Armstrong's now unhireable by mainstream campaigns. Hard to identify a replacement from the netroots ranks, at least in time for this cycle.

[CS]

Of course, that may not be good news for the GOP...

[Jim Treacher]

"Bumperstickerist at PW called Kos the Most Equal Pig. That was before Kos made the above quote. Bravo, Bumperstickerist!"

Yeah, that bit seemed pretty Napoleonesque to me too... I wonder if the Koslims remember how that particular story worked out?

[Carol Herman]

Ah, Clarice; it's like the Cindy Sheehan spectacle. Sitting at a desk. Nobody around. But her supporters were showing her signing her book. (No one bought one.)

While we now know Sheehan as the Madonna of the Ditch.

And, the one thing about the left, their lines are thin. Ever see people gathered about? Even at the donk's 2004 convention, they were housed behind a fence. That's how the elites feel about the loonies who come out for them.

By the way, when Nixon said "It doesn't matter what they say about you, as long as they spell your name right." HE GOT IT WRONG. And, was treated, accordingly.

The left, by the way, hasn't produced a single player that has the staying power of Little Green Footballs, or this site.

The real fields that are sprouting up are the newcomers from the Right. Tony Snow even did something interesting. He cast himself as a teacher. That means those who watch appreciate learning a thing or two. And, that's another failure for the MSM.

THey cat call. They shit fight. But there's no reasonable explanation for the stuff they produce. Dan RaTHer bled from a thousand paper cuts of his own making. Nixon, too, bluffed, when he shoud have punted.

[Dave Schuler]

Is linking actionable?

[lurker]

Linking or delinking?

Well, Polipundit delinked Lorie Bird and DJ Drummond and perhaps one more person.

????

I don't like TNR, btw. And I don't read Andrew Sullivan either.

[crosspatch]

I was reading this article at Fox when suddenly the solution to Kos' problem became clear.

[Tom Maguire]

Wow, Tom. You managed to completely miss the humor, didn't you? You're usually sharper than that.

Working on it.

[Molon Labe]

New Zengerle post is up at th Plank in re Giliiardgate.