Markos Moulitsas

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Markos Moulitsas Zúniga

Markos "Kos" Moulitsas
Born Markos Moulitsas Zúniga
11 September 1971 (1971-09-11) (age 36)
Residence Berkeley, California
Other names Kos
Occupation Blogger
Known for Political activism, blogging
Website
http://dailykos.com/

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (born 11 September 1971), often known by his username and former military moniker "Kos" (kōs), is the founder and main author of Daily Kos, a weblog focusing on liberal and Democratic Party politics. Moulitsas currently resides in Berkeley, California, with his wife and two children. He is also a weekly columnist at the Washington D.C. newspaper The Hill and a contributing columnist at Newsweek.

Contents

[edit] Early life

"Kos" in the Army.
"Kos" in the Army.

Moulitsas was born in Chicago, Illinois to a Salvadoran mother and Greek father, and grew up in El Salvador. (Following the Spanish language custom for surnames, his last name is "Moulitsas", not "Zúniga" – See Spanish naming customs.) His family moved back to the United States in 1980 due to the Salvadoran civil war. He served in the U.S. Army from 1989 through 1992; while stationed in Germany, and after missing deployment to the Gulf War "by a hair",[1] he changed his political affiliation from the Republican to the Democratic Party. He has described the American military as "perhaps the ideal society – we worked hard but the Army took care of us in return."[1]

After leaving the army, he attended Northern Illinois University and wrote for (and eventually managed) the Northern Star college newspaper.[2] Moulitsas earned two bachelor degrees at Northern Illinois University (1992-1996), where he majored in Philosophy, Journalism, and Political Science. He earned a J.D. at Boston University School of Law (1996-1999).[3]

[edit] Daily Kos

Main article: Daily Kos

Moulitsas founded Daily Kos in May 2002, and the site quickly rose to prominence. In its first year, Daily Kos received over one million unique visitors.[citation needed]

Moulitsas attended the California State Democratic convention in Sacramento in March, 2003 with Jerome Armstrong of MyDD. According to Instapundit, they may have been the first bloggers to be officially accredited at a political convention.[citation needed] By June 9, 2003, when Moulitsas' consulting firm, Armstrong Zúniga, began working for Howard Dean's presidential campaign, Moulitsas says he chose to work with Howard Dean rather than join the Central Intelligence Agency. [2][3]

[edit] Growth and controversy

The Daily Kos blog lost some of its political advertisers when Moulitsas published a controversial blog post in April 2004, about the non-US military Blackwater USA employees, whom he described as mercenaries, who were killed and mutilated in Fallujah, saying, "Let the people see what war is like. This isn't an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush's folly. That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. [sic] They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them." [4] John Kerry's website removed a link to Daily Kos. The next day, Moulitsas said he was wrong to make those comments,[5] and over time advertisers returned to Daily Kos. Kerry, Jimmy Carter, Barbara Boxer, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and many other Democratic senators, congressmen, governors, and candidates now post there regularly. The site now has more than 125,000 registered members.

Daily Kos has spawned an annual conference. The inaugural YearlyKos was held from June 8 to June 11, 2006, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Guests included Nevada U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, DNC chairman and 2004 presidential candidate Howard Dean. Despite its success, Daily Kos is not without its detractors. Karl Rove, for example, criticized this and other left-wing blogs for their profane propensities, referring to the "Kossification" of the web. "They blog not just for catharsis, but for political revenge." --Townhall, Jan., 2008.

On Mar. 17 2008, Moulitsas stated that Senator Hillary Clinton did not stand for the principles behind The Daily Kos and said Clinton "doesn't deserve fairness on this site." He equated the Democratic primary to a "civil war." His statement was precipitated by a 'strike' conducted by several prominent pro-Clinton bloggers, even though none of these posters were paid or in anyway officially linked to the site. Moulitsas noted that if the bloggers did not share his agenda there were plenty of other websites to blog at and called their strike "laughable." [4][5]

[edit] Effectiveness

Prior to the 2006 elections, a common criticism of Moulitsas had been that his endorsed candidates rarely won their races. Kos answers this by pointing out that he does not endorse sure-things and instead picks long shots where the candidate has very little chance. This approach, he argues, is consistent with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean's "50 State Strategy," advances long term political change, and forces normally safe Republican incumbents to defend themselves (and expend resources) instead of helping their colleagues. Not to mention that Daily Kos-supported candidates in South Dakota (Stephanie Herseth) and Kentucky (Ben Chandler) had won special elections in the runup to the 2004 elections, rendering such criticisms factually inaccurate.

Kos also notes that he has endorsed several victorious candidates in upsets, including Howard Dean for chair of the DNC, Jon Tester in the Democratic U.S. Senatorial primary in Montana in 2006, Jim Webb in the Democratic U.S. Senatorial primary in Virginia in 2006, and Ned Lamont in the U.S. Senatorial primary in Connecticut in 2006. High-profile losses include Paul Hackett in Ohio's 2nd Congressional District in 2005 and Francine Busby in California's 50th Congressional District in a special election in 2006. However, both districts are heavily Republican. Ned Lamont did win the widely publicized Democratic Senate primary race with incumbent Senator Joseph Lieberman on August 8, 2006. His victory was partially credited to grassroots activism, and the support from the blogosphere, with Kos in particular.[6] In a post to his website, Moulitsas wrote that he prefers not to be given credit for such things, because it undermines the efforts of grassroots contributors.[7] However, Lieberman went on to defeat Lamont in the general election by a comfortable 9-point margin.[8]

In 2006, Daily Kos-endorsed candidates did very well, with the following candidates now serving in Congress: Jim Webb (VA-Sen), Jon Tester (MT-Sen), Tim Walz (MN-01), Joe Sestak (PA-07), Ciro Rodriguez (TX-23), Patrick Murphy (PA-08), Jerry McNerney (CA-11), and Paul Hodes (NH-02). Several other Kos-endorsed candidates came within 3 percentage points of winning: Larry Kissell (NC-08), Gary Trauner (WY-AL), Linda Stender (NJ-07), and Darcy Burner (WA-08).

[edit] Consultant, author, and entrepreneur

During the United Kingdom general election in 2005, Moulitsas was hired by the British daily newspaper The Guardian to write elections analysis for their weblog. His book with Jerome Armstrong (of MyDD), entitled Crashing the Gate: Grassroots, Netroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics, was published in March 2006. Kos was recently hired as a columnist for Newsweek, and his column is balanced by one written by Karl Rove.[9] His second book, Taking On the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era was written alone. Moulitsas described it saying, "It’s sort of a Rules for Radicals for the digital age." [10] [11] Moulitsas is a fellow at the New Politics Institute, a think tank of the New Democrat Network, founded by Simon Rosenberg in 1996. The NDN's stated purpose is to help elect "centrist" Democrats, and is considered by many to be a successor to the centrist Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), an organization that Simon Rosenberg resigned from in 1996. Howard Dean's 2004 campaign manager, Joe Trippi is also a fellow of the New Politics Institute.

In addition to political pursuits, Moulitsas, along with Tyler Bleszinski (of Athletics Nation), is a cofounder of SB Nation, a network of sports blogs. The network now covers all thirty teams of the MLB and has a few blogs covering the NBA, NFL, College Sports and Pro Cycling.

Moulitsas was a political consultant for a single year, in 2003 and hasn't done any consulting since then.

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Moulitsas is a 2007 inductee into the Northern Star Hall of Fame [6], an honor bestowed by the alumni association of his college newspaper.
  • Moulitsas is a vegetarian and has used this to support his political predictions as in this quote: "I'll eat crow if I blow this call, but I'm not too worried that my vegetarianism is in any danger."[12]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b The American Prospect, April 2006
  2. ^ Northern Star Alumni
  3. ^ Bostonia Fall 2004
  4. ^ Daily Kos :: Comments Corpses on the Cover
  5. ^ Daily Kos: Mercenaries, war, and my childhood
  6. ^ Ned’s netroots lead to victory in Connecticut - The Most - MSNBC.com
  7. ^ Daily Kos: CT-Sen: Credit given where credit is due
  8. ^ Lieberman defeats Lamont to hold Senate seat - USATODAY.com
  9. ^ [1]
  10. ^ Daily Kos: Apropos of nothing at 30,000 feet
  11. ^ Alternet story on Progressive Books
  12. ^ Nevada caucus poll

[edit] External links

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