We have so many insightful and powerful diaries written here at Daily Kos. Our diaries inform, inflame, impassion, and even entertain. We Kossacks have strong voices and an even stronger will to be the change we wish to see in this country.
One of the richest, and perhaps most under-appreciated, areas of thought come in the form of comments attached to these diaries.
Here at Top Comments we strive to recognize and promote the talent of this community by highlighting outstanding comments found throughout the day by the diarist, and through nominations at made at TopComments at gmail dot com by your fellow Kossacks.
These nominations are subjective, and certainly not complete (as no one can read the complete site on a daily basis!). But we hope they will serve to shine a light where deserved, and to give the reader a good starting point in finding conversation on the site.
Please come in and make yourself at home! Join us beneath the fold...
At approximately 3:40pm EDT/12:40pm PDT today, the long transition from pseudonymous username to real name username ended for Mark Sumner and Kaili Joy Gray, formerly Devilstower and Angry Mouse respectively.
They had both changed from their pseudonyms to using both real name and pseudonym on May 18, the same time that Kaili made the transition from Featured Writer to Contributing Editor, and that Turkana changed directly to Lawrence Lewis and became a Featured Writer along with brooklynbadboy.
The original set of aka names started with Kagro X on February 7, 2009. David Waldman aka Kagro X was joined by several others on February 9 and DHinMI on February 11, though Meteor Blades reverted within hours, and Plutonium Page the next day. (Page changed directly to Page van der Linden on March 11, 2010, and made her final post as Contributing Editor on June 6.)
At the beginning of March 2009, no fewer than six Contributing Editors were in aka land: David, Laura Clawson aka MissLaura, Jake McIntyre aka Trapper John, Barbara Morrill aka BarbinMD, Arjun Jaikumar aka brownsox, and Dana Houle aka DHinMI. Starting on March 19 with David and Laura, and ending on March 31 with Dana, five of these six converted to their real names.
Barbara, however, reverted to BarbinMD on March 23, where she stayed for over a year; it wasn't until May 14 of this year that she jumped straight to Barbara Morrill. On that same day, mcjoan and SusanG made a similar jump to Joan McCarter and Susan Gardner respectively, eschewing the aka transition that Mark and Kaili would start four days later.
There was a brief hint that DarkSyde would be adding an aka to his name, but he seems to have thought better of it, as that was back at the end of May, and nothing's happened since then.
While Contributing Editors and Featured Writers get to make name changes if it's desirable to do so—Adam B was the first to do so in October 2005—the rest of us have to do it the hard way: set up a new Daily Kos account with a new user id and username, and abandon the old one. If you make an embarrassing typo on your new username, you can write to ask if they can fix it for you...but not once you've actually posted something to that account. That would be embarrassing: change names only to typo the new one. I don't recommend it.
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What I do recommend is sending us word of great comments here on Daily Kos. I thank those who took time today to send in their favorites to the Top Comments mailbox, all in advance of the 9:30pm Eastern Time deadline. The address of our mailbox for top comments submissions remains:
TopComments AT gmail DOT com
(change " AT " to "@" and " DOT " to ".")
Anyone can send great comments to our address. Be sure to include the direct link to a comment—the URL—which is available from that comment's date/time; we need that to find your choice. Please always include your Daily Kos user name in the body of your message, so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we are able to include that, too, though we reserve the right to edit; if you don't do a writeup, we will.
From bubbanomics:
Senator Corker's call to "quit changing sweeping" as noted in Jed Lewison's front page story generated this hilarious observation from JML9999.
From Julie Gulden:
In Jay Inslee's Stop an Internet Hijacking diary, this comment by elwior gave me the chills because it's so true. I recall the horror of those students in the square, a friend of my son's was amongst them.
From Jacques (writeup by sardonyx):
In rb137's diary In defense of whores., kyril takes on the notion that prostitution is exploitive of the customer.
Chris Rodda's diary Why I'm Leaving Kos inspired two nominations:
From alizard, this comment by o the umanity.
From aoeu, Bob, from one Bob to another by BobTrips replying to bobswern.
From rfall:
In my diary—but unrelated to it—is this hilarious comment by citizenx on what some of us come to DKos to avoid.
From BeninSC:
What is the Democratic Party? Who are progressives? artmartin answers!
From sardonyx (your Monday diarist):
A belated find of this comment by Ohiodem1, who points out that the Paul Ryan roadmap is recycled from many Republican plans from as recent as Pryce/Santorum, but going back as far as 1956!
jjohnjj looks back on a vote he still regrets, and why.
I liked Bindle's last paragraph a lot, especially that we need to have successive administrations that aren't Republican. Also downthread: "you can't put a percentage value on the only door to a house."
Please add your own comment finds below!
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Finally, we have today's top mojo using my revision of the cskendrick-devised mojo-to-Excel process.
First, Top Mojo excluding Cheers and Jeers, miscellaneous cute animals, search-identifiable tip jars, and first diary comments:
1) how many commenters by dark daze — 195
2) Checkout Krugman's column on Soc Sec, today... by bobswern — 145
3) To state the obvious by Jerome a Paris — 133
4) I was in that diary by Empty Vessel — 132
5) If making up your bio out of whole cloth... by Trix — 108
6) There is never an excuse to refrain from voting. by SpamNunn — 87
7) Obama is about as far left as would be allowed by citizen k — 85
8) Its the most despicable garbage by LaFeminista — 84
9) your comments still exist by N in Seattle — 83
10) Bob, what really by Youffraita — 77
11) Converging emergencies=more cognitive dissonance by bobswern — 75
12) The current crisis is a crisis in the Anglo model by cskendrick — 72
13) Please rec this diary. by cultjake — 68
14) Given the track record, I share your fears that by Vtdblue — 65
15) GlowNZ by Carnacki — 65
16) What really worries me by joanneleon — 62
17) not at all by citizen k — 60
18) About 4 years of relevant background experience by BentLiberal — 59
19) Jeff@ by Carnacki — 58
20) the contradiction in your argument is glaring by citizen k — 57
21) Look, I read the Diary by Dartagnan — 56
22) My best to Soonergrunt by mataliandy — 56
23) I still find Wingnuts out there by Jeff Y — 56
24) Well, I don't think you should leave... by Doug in SF — 54
25) Excellent post, Jerome. by TomP — 53
26) the whole idea is to drive you off by o the umanity — 53
27) (((Mr Green))) by sheddhead — 53
28) Well, that's just being patriotic by ColoTim — 52
29) Recommended, although you really by pico — 52
30) I don't see the issue as being about Obama, Tom by Dallasdoc — 51
31) so basically, you're saying by Jerome a Paris — 51
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1) Food for thought by Jerome a Paris — 439
2) Tip Jar by Chris Rodda — 327
3) Tip Jar Morning by LaFeminista — 322
4) Tip Jar by AnnetteK — 293
5) Tip Jar by Carnacki — 280
6) Tip Jar by buhdydharma — 271
7) Tip Jar by topdog08 — 241
8) Tip Jar by Jud Lounsbury — 207
9) Tip Jar by Jay Inslee — 200
10) how many commenters by dark daze — 195
11) This is a headline from the Independent... by KingOneEye — 182
12) Checkout Krugman's column on Soc Sec, today... by bobswern — 145
13) For Mr. and Mrs. Green by Sandy on Signal — 136
14) To state the obvious by Jerome a Paris — 133
15) I was in that diary by Empty Vessel — 132
16) Tip Jar by 2010ftc — 129
17) Tip Jar by Clarknt67 — 126
18) If making up your bio out of whole cloth... by Trix — 108
19) Tip Jar by Killer of Sacred Cows — 94
20) Tip Jar by Amber6541 — 91
21) Tip Jar by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse — 89
22) There is never an excuse to refrain from voting. by SpamNunn — 87
23) Obama is about as far left as would be allowed by citizen k — 85
24) Its the most despicable garbage by LaFeminista — 84
25) These are times that try men's souls. by LaughingPlanet — 84
26) your comments still exist by N in Seattle — 83
27) Bob, what really by Youffraita — 77
28) Converging emergencies=more cognitive dissonance by bobswern — 75
29) Tip Jar by ronlysc — 75
30) Tip Jar by Josh Mull — 75
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