http://hammernews.com/... 9 min AUDIO
Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, proprietor of Daily Kos, the most popular liberal blog web site, came to Providence May 22. The famous blogger, who looks like John Cryer, was promoting his book, Crashing the Gate (about how to effect progressive change with the Internet), with coauthor Jerome Armstrong, who hosts MY DD and helped set up Howard Dean's Internet operation that was emulated by Kerry and others. He spoke at the Brown book store, but I saw him at Trinity Brew House, along with almost every top Dem political campaign assistant for the various RI campaigns. Daily Kos Site costs $4000 a month to maintain, about $50K a year to handle 1/2-1 million hits a day, though ad income may substantially defray that.
He slammed Senator Lincoln Chafee on his enabling of the Republican agenda, "They want to destroy everything we stand for. NARAL, NOW, League of Conservation Voters, and Sierra Club pretend that Lincoln Chafee isn't the corrosive influence he is on their interests. He confirms every single one of George Bush's judges, and the ones that he didn't vote to confirm, like Sam Alito, he voted for cloture, so the vote that would matter, he voted the wrong way. He's enabling the judges who are going to make war on progressivism for the next 30 to 50 years on the federal bench. There is no such thing, in today's landscape, as a moderate Republican, who may be an alright guy. His good votes have all been meaningless, and the one that could have mattered, he voted the wrong way."
Surprisingly, he wasn't that optimistic on the Dem's chances to retake Congress, "Right now the only way we're going to win is if the Republicans keep screwing up enough- so if Hookergate becomes a bigger deal, that's going to help... I'm looking long term. I'm building a movement.
Chafee is opposed by the likeable former AG Sheldon Whitehouse, who most observers give a very good chance of knocking off the ambivalent legacy. Disgust at the Republican war, corruption, malfeasance, and dishonesty is simmering in this most Democratic state (after Hawaii).
Moulitsas's parents were Greek and Salvadoran. The 34 year old lawyer grew up in El Salvador, served in the US Army in Germany in 1989-92, and now lives in Berkeley.
Talked with Jerome Armstrong too, who said Kos was a blogger on his site first- I first thought MyDD was a subsidiary site.
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Listen to upcoming interviews of Hanan Ashrawi- Palestinan Councilwoman and Scott Hornoff, a Warwick police detective who was convicted of murdering an ex-girlfriend without any evidence and spent over 6 1/2 years in prison before the real murderer confessed. He's getting a million dollars from the state and back pay. It's a terrifying tale of justice run amok even in this liberal state. Hornoff broke down on 10 hour interrogation perhaps due to guilt at cheating on his wife, and prosecutors were able to persuade a jury that that was evidence of guilt. Other evidence exonerated him, but they twisted even that to use against him.