Fifteen years (and 2 days, h/t to N in Seattle for the reminder!) ago today, Daily Kos instituted Scoop, an upgrade for the comments section of Daily Kos. One which required that everyone pick a user name and then use that sign in. It had been announced that the upgrade was coming and I was waiting very impatiently to get signed up. I think I missed a 3 digit user number by about six hours.
This is what the original Sign In to post a comment section looked like. You picked any name you wanted, each time you signed in, or kept the one you chose before by never clicking that “forget info” button. The options for text were few and required you use HTML tags, which many like myself learned to post here.Previous to that day, Daily Kos had a comments section where you picked any name you wanted each day you came by. Those comments had been getting a lot more action in the past couple of months, as word of mouth spread throughout the Dean For America blog, where I first started using my online moniker Angie in WA State.
I’d chosen that name because over there, people used a name to indicate where they were from. I was the Chair of the 49th LD of Washington State for the Howard Dean for President campaign of 2003/2004 and he had galvanized those of us working to unseat George W Bush (the warmonger) to use the Internet to help get him elected president. It seemed to be working in the summer of 2003, because Howard had managed to excite a new generation of Americans to care about politics. To care enough to raise an unprecedented amount of money ($50 million dollars at that point) and bring crowds of thousands to hear him speak.
I’d gone to one in Portland, Oregon in September during his Sleepless Summer Tour to hear him speak. I took my mother and my sister with me. My completely non-political sister, who I was astounded to hear wanted to go. Because unlike myself, a political junkie since watching the Watergate hearings as a 12 year old in 1973, she never EVER had any interest in politics. But like for many on the left side of the political aisle in America in 2003, George W Bush changed all of that.
The unmitigated disaster which was W was the impetus which created Daily Kos. In May of 2002 it brought Markos Moulitsas to the point where he started the blog to yell into the wind, while he was in the process of determining his own future, and lo and behold, he wasn’t just yelling into the wind. He found that there were a lot of other people out there yelling, too. As the word of Daily Kos started to spread into the nascent blogging world, more and more people started showing up in the comments section during the early part of 2003. I was one of them.
THIS is kos’ very first post on DailyKos. This is the very first post the Wayback Machine has of Daily Kos.
The first archived post of www.dailykos.com at the Wayback Machine from August 1, 2002.As you can see, Daily Kos was a lot more simple in design back then. It only had one writer, kos, and the comments were spare (4 of them on this post), but one of them, not surprisingly, is a post by the author of one of those African nation moguls looking for an American patsy…
JIM HONEYMAN Abidjan, Ivory Coast West Africa.
JIM HONEYMAN Abidjan, Ivory Coast West Africa.
APPEAL FOR URGENT BUSINESS ASSISTANCE.
My Dear, Permit me to inform you of my desire of going into business relationship with you. I got your name and contact from the Ivoirian chamber of commerce and industry. I prayed over it and selected your name among other names due to its esteeming nature and the recommendations given to me as a reputable and trust worthy person that I can do business with and by the recommendation , I must not hesitate to confide in you for this simple and sincere business . I am JIM HONEYMANthe only son of late Mr and Mrs KIVEN HONEYMAN. My father was a very wealthy cocoa merchant in Abidjan , the economic capital of Ivory coast, my father was poisoned to dearth by his business associates on one of their outings on a business trip . My mother died when I was a baby and since then my father took me so special. Before the death of my father on January 2001 in a private hospital here in Abidjan he secretly called me on his bed side and told me that he has the sum of seven million,five hundred thousand United State Dollars. USD ($ 7.500,000) left in fixed / suspense account in one of the prime bank here in Abidjan ,that he used my name as his only son for the next of Kin in depositing of the fund. He also explained to me that it was because of this wealth that he was poisoned by his business associates. That I should seek for a foreign partner in a country of my choice where i will transfer this money and use it for investment purpose such as real estate management or hotel management . Sir, I am honourably seeking your assistance in the following ways: (1) To provide a bank account into which this money would be transferred to . (2) To serve as a guardian of this fund since I am only 22years. (3) To make arrangement for me to come over to your country to further my education and to secure a resident permit in your country. Moreover, sir i am willing to offer you 15% of the total sum as compensation for your effort/ input after the successful transfer of this fund into your nominated account overseas. Furthermore, you indicate your options towards assisting me as I believe that this transaction would be concluded within fourteen (14) days you signify interest to assist me. Anticipating to hear from you soon.
Thanks and God bless.
Best regards, JIM HONEYMAN
jim_honeyman_2002@yahoo.fr
Posted by at October 8, 2002 12:04 PMSo, while a lot has changed in the past 15 years —
Daily Kos is no longer a simple blog with some like-minded folks agitating for a better government, but a portal for up to 25 million people each month and a home base for many politicians on the Left to seek engagement during campaign season. Registered users include: Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, from his days as a US Senator in 2005.
After working on the Dean campaign, I got involved with my local Democratic Party and canvassed for campaigns across the board for a number of years. I volunteered for the Obama campaign in 2008 and in 2012 I was the volunteer Campaign Manager for Jon Haugen, who ran for my US House seat (and lost). I ran for that same seat in Congress (WA03) in 2016 and lost, too.
I am currently writing a book about my experiences with my friend and yours, Eric Lewis (ericlewis0, creator of the Daily Kos comic Animal Nuz) who spent some of his time in 2016 working as a Field Organizer for the Hillary Clinton campaign; and another fellow who ran for my US House seat in 2018, but withdrew earlier this year, Peter Harrison, whom I introduced to Daily Kos in this post. Peter is a published author and when he worked at Microsoft, he invented the “how fast is your internet speed” test (yes, really). We also have an experienced Editor, Colby Allerton, who has shepherded over 40 books to publication, including Mr. President, Mr. President! by Sarah McClendon.
We hope to be available to purchase and read sometime during the holiday season.
… a lot hasn’t changed.
I’m still active here at Daily Kos, some months and years a lot more active than others. We have another worthless Republican prick in the Oval Office, getting shit done for the greedy and awful (Tax Cuts) and demeaning the value of immigrants and people of color (babies in jails and the extra-judicial killing of unarmed black men and boys). The world still seems to be going to hell in a handbasket.
But we had eight good years on the whole during the two terms of Barack Obama. I sometimes watch this to remind me of how I felt on November 8th, 2008, because it puts HOPE back into my heart and some steel back into my spine when things are looking their worst:
UPDATE: I see I posted the wrong damned election night video, so here is the correct one:
x xYouTube VideoI won’t delete this one, because it’s still worth listening to, too.
x xYouTube Videoand in THIS ELECTION SEASON I want to remind you all, just 22 days before the we once more Vote for the people who will represent us in our Government at all levels, that the most important thing you can do is also the most simple thing.
Go out of your home, knock on the doors of your own neighbors, and ask them this simple question:
WILL YOU BE VOTING ON NOVEMBER 6TH?