As I clicked on post after front-page post in my quest to obtain the links to all of Steve Gilliard's writing on Daily Kos in June and July of 2003, an inescapable conclusion began to form: although officially a guest blogger, Steve wrote with such frequency and consistency that he was effectively a co-blogger with Markos for two months that year, before he left to start his own blog.
I'd originally planned this to be the final installment covering Steve's blogging career on Daily Kos, but instead of a steady two months of fill-in posts, his output accelerated. In the nine weeks remaining before Steve started his own blog, he posted almost daily, missing only 7 of 63 days from June 5, 2003 through August 6, 2003. (Compare that to Markos, whose business trips and site upgrade server struggles had him missing 13 of those days.) In all, he wrote 151 posts in these nine weeks as compared to 183 for Markos, excluding open threads.
151 posts are far too many for a single diary to encompass. As it is, there isn't room to give the individual posts their due here; you'll have to do that yourself as you sample the links. The first half of this bounty is being presented today, and can be seen over the jump.
This is the fourth part of a Top Comments diary series on the Daily Kos writings of Steve Gilliard, one of the original group of guest posters on this blog, who died last June. Part 1 was published on March 19, and featured Steve's comments in the three weeks before he debuted on the front page. That time period, March 12, 2003 through April 2, 2003, started one week before the invasion of Iraq. Part 2, featuring his first fortnight of front page posts, was published on March 21. Part 3, including Steve's subsequent posts through June 6, 2003, was published on May 20, 2003.
As I noted in the prior installments, there's nothing I can say about Steve Gilliard's writing that hasn't been said better by people who knew him well, and read him long before I became acquainted with his writing. I first found Daily Kos after he'd moved on to writing his own blog, so I didn't encounter his writing until much later.
The prime resource for Steve Gilliard's writings is at The Group News Blog. Everything you need to find Steve's writing on the web is there, plus much about Steve himself.
As The Group News Blog notes, finding Steve Gilliard's work here on Daily Kos is difficult in that all the articles are at the archived, Movable Type (pre-Scoop) site...and that site has no way of distinguishing between authors of front-page posts. No search capability, no nothing. The same is true of comments: the comments are displayed in a separate window, and there isn't a way to externally link to a particular comment in the thread, only to the entire thread itself. The current diary series here on Daily Kos is in part a way to ameliorate this difficulty.
The dKosopedia has an article on Steve, and also sub-pages linking to most of Steve's front-page posts and to the comment threads he contributed to in the Movable Type era; these sub-pages are incomplete, but growing. They contain material from the previous three diaries on Steve's work, but also new material. For example, the links to Steve's comments between September 30, 2002, and January 31, 2003, are original to the dKosopedia. There are also search strings for finding Steve's 1200 comments on the current site, but here's a single search string to list those comments.
During the period covered in this diary, Steve shared the guest-posting reins with Ron K, Seattle, and would continue to do so until his final such posts on August 28, three weeks after his own blog had begun operations on August 6. Steve signed his posts "Steve Gilliard"; his comments were signed "steve_gilliard", a signature he started using in late April. Each entry below will also note how many comments were made on each post, and how many of these (if any) were Steve's.
Steve Gilliard's front-page stories, June 7 through July 13, 2003:
Saturday, June 7, 2003
• Oh yeah, about that Afghan War.... also has 3 of 45 comments by Steve
• Is Bush lying? also has 9 of 157 comments by Steve
Sunday, June 8, 2003
• Is Blair lying? also has 8 of 106 comments by Steve
• Rummy's New Model Army also has 2 of 29 comments by Steve
Monday, June 9, 2003
• Al Qaeda Prisoners deny Baghdad link also has 3 of 34 comments by Steve
Wednesday, June 11, 2003
• Welcome to the miniwar also has 5 of 24 comments by Steve
• Delusions also has 3 of 53 comments by Steve
• How not to manage a colony also has 4 of 90 comments by Steve
• How Congress hinders mideast policy also has 4 of 215 comments by Steve
Friday, June 13, 2003
• The Secretary of Everything strikes again also has 5 of 216 comments by Steve
Saturday, June 14, 2003
• McKiernan's dilemma also has 5 of 77 comments by Steve. Markos grabs the first comment to say
I'm glad Steve is writing these pieces here and nowhere else :)
(But really, he should shop them around to the New Republic or The American Prospect. They're good.)
• Even the children scare me also has 3 of 36 comments by Steve
• Bremer's dilemma also has 4 of 65 comments by Steve
Sunday, June 15, 2003
• The disconnect also has 2 of 61 comments by Steve
• Come to Jesus, Iraqis, well the 98 percent who aren't Christians also has 1 of 146 comments by Steve
• Another day, another ambush has no comments by Steve in the 19 posted.
• The New Radicals also has 1 of 35 comments by Steve
• They will find no WMD in Iraq also has 4 of 175 comments by Steve
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
• So Gitmo isn't a Gulag? also has 1 of 43 comments by Steve
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
• Blair's troubles just begining also has 1 of 96 comments by Steve
Thursday, June 19, 2003
• The Problems of rear area security also has 2 of 31 comments by Steve
Friday, June 20, 2003
• In the Irony Department also has 2 of 57 comments by Steve—an article about Mark Foley over three years before Foley became a household name
• Ken Pollack: we'll find Saddam's bombs also has 5 of 95 comments by Steve
• The poor, dead Shia has no comments by Steve in the 37 posted.
Saturday, June 21, 2003
• "Far worse than we thought" also has 2 of 46 comments by Steve
• It's sabotage also has 7 of 102 comments by Steve
• Eight reasons why WMD matters also has 1 of 81 comments by Steve
Sunday, June 22, 2003
• Quagmire also has 1 of 30 comments by Steve
• Dwarves and midgets also has 4 of 102 comments by Steve
• Bush's Gay Problem has no comments by Steve in the 44 posted.
• War by other means: the 'reconstruction' of Iraq also has 6 of 71 comments by Steve
• What to do about Iran? has no comments by Steve in the 17 posted.
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
• Six British soldiers killed, eight wounded in Iraq also has 7 of 148 comments by Steve
• Iraq: waiting and watching also has 1 of 42 comments by Steve
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
• Analyst pressured to distort WMD data also has 3 of 113 comments by Steve
• Mob killed British soldiers also has 3 of 65 comments by Steve
• So, Judith Miller works for the NY Times and not DOD, right? also has 3 of 61 comments by Steve
• RIAA to sue file traders also has 5 of 49 comments by Steve
Thursday, June 26, 2003
• Unprovoked murder? The culture clash in Iraq and the growing resistance also has 1 of 160 comments by Steve
Friday, June 27, 2003
• Things are getting worse also has 3 of 92 comments by Steve
• Blair vs the BBC also has 2 of 45 comments by Steve
Saturday, June 28, 2003
• US still holds Syrian Border Guards also has 3 of 49 comments by Steve
• Kidnapped GI's found dead also has 3 of 112 comments by Steve
• Time for baby steps also has 1 of 99 comments by Steve
Sunday, June 29, 2003
• What are they afraid of? also has 6 of 66 comments by Steve
• Blair vs the BBC, pt II also has 2 of 54 comments by Steve
• Let's talk about the war also has 3 of 109 comments by Steve
Monday, June 30, 2003
• The National Security talk also has 2 of 46 comments by Steve
• The Shia debate and wait also has 5 of 38 comments by Steve
Tuesday, July 1, 2003
• Dr. Dean and the $6 million also has 3 of 73 comments by Steve
Effective with his July 1 posts, Steve's auctorial credit moved to the beginning of each article; guest bloggers had been putting their names at the end of their posts since January 3. RonK followed suit on July 12. Steve had tried this credit placement three times in June; now it was permanent.
Later in the day on July 1, and lasting through the morning of August 16, Movable Type comments were shut down on Daily Kos because they were overloading the ISP's server. HaloScan comments were made available as a substitute shortly before noon on July 2, and commenting almost certainly resumed its previous average pace of 750 comments a day, but all these comments were lost when Movable Type comments were re-enabled in August. Assuming these averages held up, that's approximately 34,000 comments lost to posterity.
Using HaloScan was supposed to be a stopgap of no more than a week while a new, dedicated server for Daily Kos was configured and installed; instead, due to major problems with that server, HaloScan remained in use for a month and a half. Unfortunately, all comments that Steve wrote in this period are lost. Given that he averaged about three comments in his own posts, that's nearly 300 of his comments gone from his posts alone, and who knows how many from those published by Markos and RonK, plus the open threads.
Friday, July 4, 2003
• It's worse than it seems
• Liberia won't be easy either
• Abusing history
Saturday, July 5, 2003
• Is this American justice?
Sunday, July 6, 2003
• "That is what you get for working with the Americans"
• Why the US is losing a man a day
Monday, July 7, 2003
• Why Bremer is in trouble
• What to do in Iraq
Tuesday, July 8, 2003
• Closing the Barn Door
• Time to admit the obvious: there are no WMD
• Kill the looters
Wednesday, July 9, 2003
• So how did we wind up in Liberia
• Senior British officials: no WMD to be found-BBC
• About sources includes this postscript from Steve:
Note: In the next week or two, once I figure out Moveable Type and devise a design, I'll be moving to my own blog. This is my first solo online venture in years and I'll be doing the same thing I do here, but with more discussion of technology, the subject I've written about on NetSlaves since 1998.
Kos has suggested I do this for months, as well as submit articles to the opinon magazines and websites, but the final straw was when I went over to American Politics Journal and they confused our writing. I then realized that it was time to do my own site.
I'll be here until I get the site up and whenever Kos needs a hand, which will be rare, I expect. I'll do this again, but let me thank him for the use of his site and for the quality and intelligence of the readers who frequent it. That means Terry, Joe and the rest of the party regulars are welcome to stop by as well as the rest of you:)
Thanks. It's been fun and should be even more fun in the future.
It was actually four weeks before Steve's blog site was ready. In the meantime, he picked up the pace of his posting:
Thursday, July 10, 2003
• Troops? What troops?
• "Have you no sense of decency, sir?"—this was republished two hours later on July 11; the only change was in the last paragraph, where "apoology" was corrected to "apologize".
Friday, July 11, 2003
• Let the fingerpointing begin
• It's time to go, Tony:Clare Short-BBC
• The heat is on Tenet
• The ball is in your court , Mr. Blair
• No planning for postwar Iraq
Sunday, July 13, 2003
• Why lies matter
• Tony Blair: intervene anytime, anywhere
• The cost of war
• A day of lies
That's half of Steve's remaining front-page posts, and a good place to stop. The final set of his posts as a Daily Kos guest blogger will posted here at Top Comments on Monday.
~~~~~
In the meantime, we continue making more history every day here at Daily Kos, and we highlight top comments from the past 24 hours every day, as emailed by you to the TopComments mailbox, and also found by your diarist du jour. Thanks to all Kossacks who took the time to mail in comments. If you saw any great comments that are not mentioned here—and there are always tens of thousands of comments to choose from—please link to them in your own comments below. The address of that mailbox:
TopComments AT gmail DOT com
(change " AT " to "@" and " DOT " to ".")
Anyone can submit deserving comments to our address—the direct link to a comment is available from that comment's date/time—as long as they arrive by 9:30pm Eastern Time. Please always include your Daily Kos user name in the body of your message, so we can credit you properly. Both link and username are important.
civil wingnut (first) and Neon Vincent (second) submitted the following nomination (I'm using Neon Vincent's writeup):
In Peregrine angst, Horsefeathers describes how the San Jose Peregrines nearly gave him a heart attack.
From llbear:
Timroff is just amazing.
Sent by jnhobbs:
In Brandon Friedman's John McCain is Not an Expert on Iraq, Dallasdoc waxes short and sweet.
From Horsefeathers:
Fans of verbal aerobatics have long enjoyed trivium's triple barrel rolls through the diaries of Daily Kos, but he outdoes himself with this impromptu news commentary in light verse about a Turkish barber in Saudi Arabia sentenced to beheading for cursing during an argument.
Magnifico reports the news item here, and trivium's response follows.
From your diarist sardonyx:
In Black Kos, Week in Review, From a distance posits a future sure sign that racism is on the wane, and wondering if, in reply, cites another inarguable truism.
In carpediva's How Barack & Markos Changed My Life, Uthaclena reminds us that one person cannot do everything, but everyone should do something.
Hillbilly Dem tells a story of Bella Abzug entering the House chambers that made me LOL.
CA Libertarian lists the hands-down most important voting bloc for us in this fall's election, from droogie6655321's diary What has two thumbs and wants to talk about the general?
In Hunter's front page note to the Republicans, Yes, Let's All Talk More About Iraq, Grendel mixes metaphors with great abandon, inspiring JML9999 to take on cliches.
No Top Comments diary would be complete without that day's top mojo—those comments which have received the highest number of recommendations from Daily Kos users like you. Today's top mojo is supplied by sardonyx, using his own revision of the amazing cskendrick's mojo-to-Excel magic.
First, Top Mojo excluding search-identifiable tip jars, first diary comments, Cheers and Jeers, and Mojo Friday:
1) Now this is why I read dKos. by iconoclastic cat — 277
2) I tried by jimstaro — 241
3) For Hillary, this is par for the effin' course. by Melody Townsel — 166
4) KICK HIS ASS BARACK by Michael Lawrence Gallagher — 147
5) They are just waiting until June 3rd by MadScientist — 142
6) She has one last trick up her sleeve... by Malacandra — 128
7) This is just like slavery, women's sufferage,... by Intercaust — 123
8) Governor by DyspepTex — 117
9) you are exactly correct by chimaeranyc — 98
10) Odd Statement by DumpDoolittle — 98
11) One small step for camp Clinton by Muzikal203 — 97
12) If you're there by anastasia p — 95
13) Obama's responses hit target every time by JohnB47 — 89
14) Here's the important part by Muzikal203 — 88
15) The beauty of it by Jennifer Clare — 83
16) The results don't suit her. by leawood — 73
17) (Oh, I should add ...) by Adam B — 73
18) Wow, she snapped lol by Muzikal203 — 71
19) Hooray for straight Texans by Bindle — 70
20) Nate's Wiki by Steven R — 68
21) I heard two parents of by Granny Doc — 68
22) Hillary Clinton: Grandstanding when expedient by slippytoad — 67
23) This just in.... by SaraBeth — 66
24) These are the fruits by oldjohnbrown — 64
25) I agree by bbrown8370 — 64
26) I'm sorry by glutz78 — 63
27) I'd be shocked by think2004 — 62
28) Excellent And Heartbreaking Diary by mattman — 62
29) Now if we could only get by mjd in florida — 62
30) I have come to the conclusion that by Delaware Dem — 62
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1) tip jar for moving on by Joe Beese — 934
2) Drink Jar! by Philoguy — 735
3) This is my first post here at DailyKos... by Governor David A Paterson — 682
4) Tip Jar by mikedallas23 — 632
5) TIP JAR by don mikulecky — 522
6) Tip Jar by davidsirota — 480
7) Tips/Recs for a tough candidate by dansac — 479
8) Tips for my first diary? by The Troubadour — 451
9) Thank you, Governor. by Adam B — 287
10) tips, flames and comments by testvet6778 — 278
11) Now this is why I read dKos. by iconoclastic cat — 277
12) I tried by jimstaro — 242
13) give me recs instead of tips! by slinkerwink — 229
14) R.I.P. Jason by BoiseBlue — 217
15) Tips for dispelling myths nt by davidkc — 215
16) Avada Kedavra... to this week by Hedwig — 167
17) For Hillary, this is par for the effin' course. by Melody Townsel — 166
18) KICK HIS ASS BARACK by Michael Lawrence Gallagher — 147
19) They are just waiting until June 3rd by MadScientist — 142
20) i need to promo myself by jlms qkw — 140
21) pimpage by anotherdemocrat — 139
22) A nice foggy day here today by vigilant meerkat — 137
23) It's a wonderful idea, and my neighbor who by blue jersey mom — 136
24) Sorry... by Hedwig — 131
25) Friday Tip Jar: by Bill in Portland Maine — 131
26) And by the way Hedwig by vigilant meerkat — 129
27) She has one last trick up her sleeve... by Malacandra — 128
28) I'm right over here!!! by vigilant meerkat — 127
29) Tips in by TomP — 126
30) Indeed. by notquitedelilah — 124
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All quotes are the property of the original authors or the websites that held them