As a service to many of the newer members here -- we're up to
78592 according to
jotter's count, I decided to write a short history of Daily Kos.
Please join me on the flip for a quick ride from the early days of this site to the present.
Here's an example of one of the first diaries written on Daily Kos:
Common Sense
by Thomas Paine [Unsubscribe]
Mon Jan 10, 1776 at 10:14:48 AM EST
Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not YET sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favour; a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.
As a long and violent abuse of power, is generally the Means of calling the right of it in question (and in Matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the Sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry) and as the King of England hath undertaken in his OWN RIGHT, to support the Parliament in what he calls THEIRS, and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpation of either.
The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested. The laying a Country desolate with Fire and Sword, declaring War against the natural rights of all Mankind, and extirpating the Defenders thereof from the Face of the Earth, is the Concern of every Man to whom Nature hath given the Power of feeling; of which Class, regardless of Party Censure, is the AUTHOR.
Tip Jar (4.00 / 6)
by Thomas Paine on Mon Jan 10, 1776 at 10:14:24 AM EST
[ Reply to This | none0: Troll1: Unproductive2: Marginal3: Good4: Excellent ]
Note for a document well loved in this day and age, Mr. Paine did not receive a lot of 4s.
I found this comment in that very same diary
Another winner here, Thomas(4.00 / 2)
We'll have a lot of people saying they want to quit as soon as the going gets tough. You can call them something like the 'Sunshine Patriots' who stand and cheer when the weather is fair. But I'll shoulder this through with you. Call me a 'Winter Soldier.'
The Tories control much of the media, but it's important for voices like yours to be heard so that people will find a reason not to run.
by Grand Moff Texan on Monday Jan 10, 1776 at 02:27:47 PM EST
Fast forward a few months to this post in an Open Thread:
Action Alert(none / 0)
Guys, the fellows in Philly have asked me to take over writing our message to King George. I've worked on it since June 11 and I'm stuck. I've really got to get this done. I've got a middle. I need a beginning. Help! Any suggestions?
by Thomas Jefferson on Tuesday, June 27, 1776 at 04:50:24 PM EST
[ Parent | Reply to This | none0: Troll1: Unproductive2: Marginal3: Good4: Excellent ]
* Try this (4.0 / 8)
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Also don't forget equality for the women folk, Indians and for the people held in bondage as slaves.
-9.13, -7.64. Visit The Next Hurrah.
by Meteor Blades on Tuesday, June 27, 1777 at 05:11:58 PM EST
[ Parent | Reply to This | none0: Troll1: Unproductive2: Marginal3: Good4: Excellent ]
*Great! Thanks n/t.... (none / 0)
by Thomas Jefferson on Tuesday June 27, 1776 at 05:22:48 PM EST
[ Parent | Reply to This | none0: Troll1: Unproductive2: Marginal3: Good4: Excellent ]
Too bad he didn't listen to all of MB's advice.
I won't go into the diaries posted around the time of the Articles of Confederation and later the Constitution of the United States. They make the pie fight seem tame in comparison.
Here's another diary of interest from before the Civil War:
Lincoln at the Cooper Institute
by Armando [Unsubscribe]
I corralled Abe after his speech at the Cooper Institute in New York. I told him he should focus on winning the northern, western and mountain states. I call it 'The Lincoln Strategy.'
Mon Feb 27, 1860 at 04:50:24 PM EST
Now I see why Armando keeps harping on that today. I also note Armando wrote shorter diaries back then.
In Part II I sail through the 20th century and into the 21st century. Here's a preview:
Kossacks juls, left, and Alliance for a Better California, right, administer first aid to me, center, after marching at the counter-inauguration in Washington, D.C., in January 2005 with DCDemocrat and BrodyV.
Hopefully it will not be like the long-awaited Part II of a diary I owe Frederick Clarkson.