Lest I mislead with my title, the ramblings were not out of doors, but were through the pages of Daily Kos in October 2003.
There's something about reading what people considered important at this site back then, just as the blog was being transformed by having moved to the Scoop platform. Before, Markos had the front page with a few guest posters, and everyone else was restricted to the comment threads of these front-page articles.
Now, suddenly, everyone could write diaries about whatever they wanted: their own blog. And anyone could sign up for an account and join the conversation at a moment's notice, or start a blog here just as quickly. Change was in the air.
Politics also loomed large. The 2004 Presidential Primaries were only a few months away, kos was running weekly "Cattle Calls," and partisans of Howard Dean, Wesley Clark, Richard Gephardt, John Kerry, and John Edwards could be found, some with account names that reflected their favorite or their concerns. One who joined near the witching hour ending Halloween night, or possibly a couple of hours into All Saints: Clark Supporter 911.
The Iraq war was also on everyone's mind. It had just come out that the "Mission Accomplished" banner on the aircraft carrier was put there by the White House, not the sailors on the ship or the Navy, Zell Miller was just endorsing Bush, there were polls regularly being released, analyzed, and discussed, and DavidNYC's Swing State Project was just starting to get off the ground.
You also get a sense of who tended to be active commenters, frequently one of the few who visit other people's diaries in the early days, instead of sticking with kos and maybe the other front pagers. One of these was Carl Nyberg, now famous for the "Nyberg 3"—while most people would give a "4" (the equivalent of today's comment Recommend), back then the range was from 0 (modern HR), 1 (poor), 2 (okay), 3 (good), with 4 being excellent. Let's just say Carl did not believe in grade inflation, even though a high average was necessary to gain (and maintain) TU status, and the ability to HR (then called "troll rating", or TR).
Many names you'd have been likely to see in the comment threads are gone now, a few have changed—and it's very disconcerting to see a recently changed front-pager name appearing in comment threads from 2003 when that name wouldn't exist for over five (or six) years—but some of those names do live on.
A few dozen active Kossacks from the second half of October 2003: Lestatdelc, Bill Rehm, Kagro X, al Fubar, Trapper John, a gilas girl, Melanie, Bob Johnson, Chris Bowers, Matt Stoller, praktike, Mike S, math geek, jillian, Ephemeral Notion, Outlandish Josh, Mimikatz, Devilstower, jgkojak, manyoso, DemFromCT, Deep Dark, Frederick, Frederik, Civil Sibyl, theoria, JJB, mwjeepster, Meteor Blades, Marisacat, josh in chitown, emptywheel, AndyS, sakitume, CA Poll Junkie, deminva, travis bushman, sipples, Julia Grey, Marius, jd in nyc, jb in nyc, and way too many others to list (and there were certainly others more active than some I've listed here).
By the end of Halloween, UID 2846 had been given out to scaramouche (can you do the fandango?), who posted a first comment at 11:39pm EST (2845, whathappenedtoprivacy, posted six minutes earlier). It could be that 2847 signed up in the remaining minutes before midnight; 2848, lauren, didn't post until 56 minutes after November began, so while it's possible she signed up just before midnight and waiting an hour to post, it seems far less likely.
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We had a number of active Kossacks today: not only were over twenty-two thousand comments written, but a significant number of them were submitted, one was even submitted thrice. Thank you to all the wonderful Daily Kos readers who came through with submissions in the double digits to the Top Comments mailbox today, 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. I say again: both link and username are important; someone today forgot the latter, though I was able to do some sleuthing and determine the proper byline, and someone else forgot the former (ditto). Not all of us are sleuths, y'know. If you send a writeup with the link, we are able to include that, too, though we reserve the right to edit if desirable to do so.
A comment so popular it was nominated by cany, AnotherMassachuesttsLiberal, and dwayne (text amagalmated from the three emails):
From bmaples's diary about KY Dems speaking out against Rand Paul, this gem from Rumzarhazzit does a beautiful job of summing up the Rand Paul experience in a way both telling and true; it brought a huge smile!
From JanF:
In NCrissieB's Friday Morning Feature diary, MsWings describes the negative corollary to the Henry Ford model as practiced by WalMart.
From weatherdude:
In my 17th Amendment diary today, the fan man had me cracking up. [Editor's note: the comment is amended downthread. Be sure to keep reading.]
From JRandomPoster:
A summary of what's un-American, courtesy of RLMiller.
From ezdidit:
This comment by horizontalrule in this story about Sue Lowden's RV trouble, makes it to the top of my framing list.
From carolita:
In Booming the Top Kill by Fishgrease, commenter texasmom points to the real reason BP is so obviously underestimating the scope of the oil spill: their MMS contract requires a royalty payment on "lost oil" that could run to billions if the real amount is calculated.
From Interceptor7:
Here is a great new nickname for Rand Paul by Mnemosyne in Jed Lewison's front-page story, KY-Sen: Jack Conway's devastating response to Rand Paul.
From Pam from Calif:
I enjoyed this thread started by Mnemosyne from Jed Lewison's diary about Jack Conway's CNN interview. [Editor's note: this is a different Mnemosyne comment from the same diary as the previous nomination.]
From Yasuragi:
When Ian Reifowitz, replying to the Black Kos, Week In Review diary, says "as for Texas, well, I can't even think of what these folks were thinking," dopper0189 has the answer.
From sardonyx (your fried Friday diarist):
Belle Ame reduces the arguments of Rand Paul and his ilk to a simple equation, and lays bare how monstrous it is.
bmcphail writes about doctrinaire libertarians in general, and the correct response to those who run for political office.
Eyeball Kid has a good wish for Rachel Maddow.
A comment from October 29, 2003: in a diary by EphemeralNotion entitled Bush Admin Planning Early Withdrawl?, which cites Kevin Drum back when he was Calpundit, before he moved to the Washington Monthly for several years (he can now be found at Mother Jones—my, how times have changed!), a classic billmon one-liner.
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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, Mojo Friday, pooties du jour, search-identifiable tip jars, and first diary comments:
1) Conway is on the ball!! by zizi — 209
2) They say there are no atheists in fox holes by ontheleftcoast — 135
3) What a WATB by Dallasdoc — 127
4) How about a shoutout for the LouisvilleCourier?. by BlueStateRedhead — 113
5) Let Ron Paul Fly on BP Airlines by JekyllnHyde — 111
6) He's not a racist, he has a ... by labradog — 107
7) Thanks, Congressman by Hedwig — 104
8) Maddow is indeed a treasure by jpeskoff — 101
9) What they should be doing... by TheOrchid — 96
10) That exact same phrase came to my mind ... by raatz — 96
11) Yes, by bmaples — 90
12) There were a lot more Democrats... by KingOneEye — 90
13) I think I just fell in love by boadicea — 85
14) "Get guvmint off my back - but don't mess with by HylasBrook — 83
15) I have just two words for you Jack by KingOneEye — 81
16) awesome by Cedwyn — 78
17) Your conservative acquaintances by Liberal Protestant — 77
18) I think this moment is a big deal for TV news by greentank — 75
19) Lil' Paul has... by wyvern — 74
20) I LOVE that Conway is on the offensive on this... by APA Guy — 70
21) Note also that Byrd has, for many years, by Hillbilly Dem — 69
22) Good luck, Mr. Conway by Jeff Y — 69
23) Wow by Miss Blue — 68
24) Big Gubmint--- BAD by Pangloss — 68
25) Here's Another Comment From A Ky Dem: by Ky DEM — 67
26) That's actually a great response. by AUBoy2007 — 67
27) After 30+ years of Reagan by Flint — 64
28) Remember when Morticia spoke French. by 88kathy — 63
29) His name is Ayn Rand Paul! by Joe Bacon — 63
30) wow by LaughingPlanet — 63
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1) Tip Jar by greentank — 718
2) Tip Jar by Alan Grayson — 486
3) Tip Jar by bmaples — 472
4) Tip Jar by Fishgrease — 472
5) How 'bout that, Mr. President? by Crashing Vor — 421
6) Tip Jar by Jonze — 397
7) Tip Jar by Jack Conway for Senate — 376
8) Tip Jar by weatherdude — 303
9) Tip Jar by Scarce — 302
10) An equally important question is by 8ackgr0und N015e — 284
11) Tip Jar by geodemographics — 275
12) Tip Jar by pollchecker — 263
13) Tip Jar by dansac — 262
14) Tip Jar by Rusty5329 — 255
15) Tip Jar by rationalcauses — 252
16) Tip Jar by blackwaterdog — 242
17) Conway is on the ball!! by zizi — 209
18) They say there are no atheists in fox holes by ontheleftcoast — 135
19) What a WATB by Dallasdoc — 127
20) Scritchie Jar by triciawyse — 121
21) Tip Jar by George Lakoff — 118
22) How about a shoutout for the LouisvilleCourier?. by BlueStateRedhead — 113
23) Let Ron Paul Fly on BP Airlines by JekyllnHyde — 111
24) He's not a racist, he has a ... by labradog — 107
25) Thanks, Congressman by Hedwig — 104
26) With sorrow and respect by joyful — 102
27) Maddow is indeed a treasure by jpeskoff — 101
28) Mojo Mug by TexDem — 98
29) What they should be doing... by TheOrchid — 96
30) That exact same phrase came to my mind ... by raatz — 96
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