Welcome to all Meet the Press viewers who may be visiting our site for the first time. Chances are you are checking out the site after seeing our founder Markos debating Harold Ford on Sunday morning.
If this is your first time, you might be here to check out just how antisemitic we are. After all, Mr. Ford used as one of his debate points, that:
"Your site has posted awful things about Jewish Americans"
You also might be here because you got a letter from a supporter of Republican Congressman Mark Kirk. In this email, the supporter calls Daily Kos:
a community that slurs Jews and supports the Iranian President's dream of wiping Israel off the map
Maybe you're like my father who had a friend tell him that his daughter posts on an antisemitic website.
If you came here looking for rampant antisemitism, you will be disappointed. What Mr. Ford said was misleading. We are a site of over 130,000 registered users. The site gets 500,000 visitors a day. Anyone with an email address can register and post both comments and diaries. The only posts that are approved or endorsed by Markos and the site are those whose text appears on the front page. Since this is an open forum, anyone can come on and post something offensive.
Update [2007-8-13 11:50:25 by ArgusRun]: For example, I am just a humble user. Nothing in this diary has been approved by the site administrators. I could write whatever I want here. For example: My cat loves dental floss. However If I said something false, or hurtful, or racist, I would be called on it. That is the power of an open forum like Daily Kos. No matter who you are, you can have a voice here. You will only be judged by the quality of your words.
Every now and again an antisemite will pop up. They are usually banned immediately. Others will use antisemitic language that is inappropriate for the reasoned discourse that takes place here. The community has a user powered form of moderation. If we feel that the comment is innapropriate, we can "troll-rate" it. If enough users troll-rate it, then the comment is hidden. This is what happens to antisemitic comments. The same goes for racist, homophobic, or violent comments. The system is not perfect, but it's usually effective.
What you will see on our site are stories and diaries about the Democratic Party and how to achieve electoral victory. In fact, that is the sole stated purpose of this site. You will also find diaries about progressive values such as environmentalism, health care, education, reproductive rights, seperation of church and state and other issues.
You will see humor and satire. You will see people reaching out for humanitarian aid and those issuing calls to action on political issues. You will see diaries posted by senators, congressmen, governors and other politicians.
You will see prominent diaries by Jewish users who will be glad to explain to you why they feel welcome here and why Daily Kos is not antisemitic. If you have a minute, check out these two recommended diaries by Jewish users: Anti-Semitism on Daily Kos? -- An Open Letter to Harold Ford and Hi All. Jew here.
You will also see vigorous debate on Israeli and Palestinian policies and actions from time to time. Since we are progressives, we recognize the humanitarian problems that the Palestinians are having. It upsets us, just as it upsets us when a suicide bomber kills Israelis. All human life is precious to us.
The debate surprised me when I first started reading DailyKos. For the record, I am a reform Jew. My parents are a little more conservative. My father's family is from Germany. My last name is Lieb, shortened from Liebowitz two generations ago.
The debate surprised me because frankly I wasn't exposed to much Israeli and Palestinian issues beyond "Israel is good and the Palestinians are bad." To be honest, we didn't talk much about it at all. Daily Kos was a bit of a wakeup call for me, in a good way. While I am still a proud Jew who supports Israel and takes pride in their accomplishments, I recognize that supporting Israel does not always mean supporting every action of the Israeli government. For me, supporting Israel has come to mean supporting a lasting peace in the region.
If you are not used to constructive criticism of Israel, it might seem antisemitic at first. It usually is not. In fact, you will see a good number of Jews debating both sides of every issue. We belive that the debates, when conducted civilly, are in keeping with our progressive values and help create a stronger community.
Sometimes the debate gets out of hand. You would expect to see this in any forum where people feel very strongly about an issue. When the language ceases to be productive and becomes bigoted, hurtful, or racist, the majority of users will call the offender on their actions, and their comments will be hidden or the user banned.
In fact there was an excellent diary a few months ago that addressed many of the issues with antisemitism that creep up both here and in normal political discourse. It was read by thousands. I highly recommend it.
The result is a young community (the site is only 5 years old) that strives to improve the Democratic Party, America and the world. We are Jews, Christians, Muslims, Wiccans, Buddhists, and Atheists. We are young college students and we are retired veterans. We are a growing group of Americans that recognize the problems facing us and our fellow countrymen and we are working to fix those problems.
I'm glad you took the time to check out our community and see for yourself what we are all about. If you would like to know more about the site and our rules, check out the FAQs.
If you would like to join us, or at least participate in our discussions, you can register here. There is a 24 hour waiting period before you can comment though. It's sort of like buying a gun without the backgrond check.
Everyone is welcome to comment and post as long as you follow the rules and speak respectfully.
One hint though: Most us us really don't like President Bush. So if you are going to defend him or Dick Cheney, expect some really vigorous debate.