Yesterday I linked to Dan Riehl’s investigative work revealing that MyDD—before it was one of the lynchpin sites for progressive politics and one of its founders, Jerome Armstrong, the Kos-approved political consultant (and co-author of Moulitsas’ Crashing the Gates) for Dem presidential hopeful Mark Warner—was in fact a stock analysis site that used astrology (and perhaps Tarot cards? I’m not sure how this works, precisely) to predict the vicissitudes of the financial markets.
Think Aronofsky’s π—only replace the the idea of a secretly ordered universe being run by complex mathematics with the idea that, oh, say, Osama bin Laden’s rise to power was triggered by the discovery of the Kuiper Belt in 1992—and that, accordingly, you should probably dump your shares in United Airlines.
All of which, in and of itself, is not a problem per se—after all, some people throw their faith into religion, others into the stars, others into the idea that all of metaphysics itself is a sham—though it is certainly a dubious way to predict stocks, I should think. But it is a problem that once your analytical paradigm has been revealed, you begin trying to airbrush it out of existence. Using the “search and replace” function on your archives.
And it appears that’s exactly what Jerome Armstrong and co. are now trying furiously to do. From Wizbang’s Kevin Aylward:
It turns out that after being busted by the Security and Exchange Commission his initial work at MyDD was anything but reality-based. Dan Riehl and RedState document Mark Warner and Sherod Brown’s top Internet advisor’s history in astrology.
In the hours since the story broke it looks like a search and replace has been done at MyDD for the term ‘astrologer ‘ See this post (Original / Sanitized) for and example of the purge—look for the second comment by ‘Hugh’ in the original post. Suddenly it’s not there anymore in the latest version of the 2004 post, which Google cached in February 2005.
The Warner and Brown campaigns are in a bind. Dropping Armstrong is the logical course of action, but if they do they risk losing the support of Kos, whose support seems to correlate pretty strongly to Armstrong’s employment.
Oh well. I’m sure Kos can figure out a way to spin this. After all, he has an entire network of secret sharers to get his version of events distributed to the “reality-based” netroots—and in just the way he wants it distributed, too. He’s like Oz, that way.
But if he’d like a suggestion, I’d go with something like, “Sorry, people-powered movement. But it looks like a Warner Presidency just wasn’t in the stars, after all…” Ahem.
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update: Take it away, Marty!
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update 2: At the end of the astrological rainbow lies comedy gold. And a faux-populist leprechaun who resembles nothing so much as a little netroots blogfascist.
War on science, indeed. (h/t INDC Journal)
Sorry, it’s just tooo big a target. My brain locks up and I go into uncontrolable spasms of laughter every time I think about it.
Mmmmm. Ace of Swords reversed. Looks like it’s gonna be a bad day.
tw: Tower. Shocking, sudden, shattering defeat.
These people are the wave of the future and they haven’t realized nothing disappears on the Internet?
Search for “astrology”
Replace with “rear-echelon combat boots”
Hee hee!
I wonder who else the bug-eyed little freak has in his back room.
Like shootin’ turds in a toilet.
tw- nasty “turn”, eh moonies?
My my. Both Broder and Peretz savage the bloggers within 3 days. Getting nervous, aren’t they.
And, like in Lehrer’s Roman a Clef, Martin payed a lot of money to get heard. It follows that the last thing he ( or old Fussbudget) wants is a meritocracy with upstart voices being heard. Voices that haven’t paid their Georgetown dues.
Armstrong’s quandary: disavow astrology and he becomes just another huckster trying to screw the unwary or not…then he becomes like Nancy Reagan!!
OK, just when you think the ironies are so rich and plentiful there can’t possibly be more, along comes a new fresh dump truck full…
Do you remember the OUTRAGE that the WAPO would even think of removing – DELETING, ERASING – profanity laced comments that criticized them off their corporate website? The arrogance, the censorship, the dishonesty—were treated!
Magic Eightball says: ”Moonbats Crazy; Lying Again.”
Well looky here. We already got someone here at 12:28 regurgitating the talking pts no doubt handed down from on high on by Kos via the Townhouse list. Oops, rather by its superdooper topsecret successor.
Maybe there’s something in this, Jeff..
r/cock/mr. winky/g
SB: gone
like magic
DogHouse?
Do you have any idea what’s it’s like to see your 7 year old daughter in tears asking, “Daddy, why does Kos hate us?” What am I suppose to say to her? “Don’t worry, honey. You could take him.” was the best I could come up with.
ats, even if we concede that Peretz is guilty in the first degree of being verbose, rich, and the owner of a magazine: Peretz is still right in this case.
And I’m not seeing where Peretz is attacking “the bloggers”. There ARE bloggers out there who don’t take their orders from Kos’s mailing list.
BrickHouse?
OutHouse?
BrickOutHouse!!!
Miltown…
Darn it, Jeff, my theory was that it was because of the discovery of Batman’s utility belt.
…and the great part is that they forgot that they leave Townhouse Cracker crumbs scattered hither and yon across the internet.
Mehe.
Has anyone seen my dog…..
I take this as a good explanation as to why progressives, so distrustful of faith, religion, and CHRISTIANISTS (OMG!!!), seem to be so comfortable with the ideas of fate and destiny.
For science!
Astrology?….what a flake. Any investor worth his salt knows goat entrails reading is the only credible due diligence.
This line here is your political career line. It’s going nowhere. But your embarassment line is way long, so ya got that goin’ for ya.
Incidentally, you need a manicure…
In case you happen to be one of the six people who reads blogs but doesn’t visit instapundit, Glenn links to this post at JustOneMinute. Greenwald pens a new theory- this time there are no cults, but conspiracies abound.
Oh, and Greenwald responds in the comments.
Remember that Martin Peretz is a kool-aid drinker as well. Earlier this week he posited that Al Gore won in 2000 yet again. Nonetheless, Mr. Peretz is a lot smarter and several leagues more civil than Kos and his merry band of moonbats.
What is most telling to me is that Mainstream Democrats have felt, and apparently still feel as though they have to kowtow to these political operative wannabees who were never going to reach the big league. Kos is nothing more or less now than he has been all along. It’s just that a few folks who thought they were on his side of the line are finding out that Kos will keep redrawing the line a will for his own self-serving reasons. Oh yeah, he’s gonna build a winning coalition all right.
Mr. Moulitsas, you’re fifteen minutes are just about over.
Turing Word: days, as in, his days on top are numbered, and no doubt he’ll chalk his fall up to nefarious forces saying something like, “…and I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for those darn neocons!”
And dude? Athlete’s hand is nothing to be proud of.
That the (alternate) reality based community is given any validity at all is what never ceases to amaze me.
I find it particularily annoying that in a two party system, one of the parties is listening to a pack of shit house rats like Kos & Co.
It don’t do a damned thing to improve the species vis the other party. Consequently, the right only needs to be better than a bunch of moonbats, and just barely manages to do that much. Sort of a political darwinism, which is nothing at all like dwarfism, unless it’s mental in nature.
youre, rhymes with whore
But it’s grape Kool Aid. Kos drinks the other grape-flavored one with Dino from the Flintstones on the bag. There’s a world of difference, imperceptible to wingnut boot-polishers.
(“A diluted grape Kool Aid wash can restore the color 2 worn purple suede boots.” â€â€Prince, Household Hints 4 U)
Miltown…
Grass does more than Miltown can,
to justify God’s ways to Man.
And dude? Athlete’s hand is nothing to be proud of.
That’s jock itch.
Hucksters and astrologers. This is what the modern Democratic party has come to.
It’s like seeing FDR show up on the TheSmokingGun.com in a Nick Nolte/Glenn Campbell style arrest photo.
Sad. So very sad.
And dude? Athlete’s hand is nothing to be proud of. </blockquote>
…and your palms could use a shave.
damn! I meant to preview, I really did!
tw: fine
“What’s the fine for not using preview?”
Wow. Just wow. I’ve heard of revisionist history and all, but this just about takes the cake.
But that’s OK, as long as they leave the PIE alone.
armstriong was cornered by a reporter, who asked him how he felt about the story that he was an astrologer who predicted things based on stars and kuiper belts.
armstrong replied: i knew this was gonna happen; it was in my chart.
bada bumbum.
[Rimshot]
for reliapundit.
Kos is livin’ la vida loca liberali.
I blame Hillary!
And dude? Athlete’s hand is nothing to be proud of.
That’s jock itch.
Only if you keep touching it.
This whole thing is just turning into a Jim Jarmusch movie. Yeah, it’s entertaining, but the audience is going to leave the theater knda weirded out and not really knowing what the hell just happened.
What? Popcorn?
Nah, but if you’re going anyway I’ll take a large root beer and a box of Red Vines.
Oooh! And see if they have nachos
Mr. Pibb and Red Vines equals crazy delicious.
Smackdown of Kos: Case #1
Here’s a nominee for the First Online Smackdown of Markos
<a href=”http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Philosophy/Religion/Cath_response.htm” target=”_blank”>Same Old Markos”
From 1999 – in the response:
Only if you [Markos Alberto Moulitsas] misrepresent the thoughts conveyed, which you do. And you do so for the intent of villainizing Christians in general,- Zarove
================================================
Note the last name of the person administering the smackdown.
Zarove.
~ cue spooky music ~
zaRove
zaRove
Spooky, indeed.
I’ve got to hand it to Karl Rove … as smart as you think he might be, Karl’s even smarter.
Posing as an online vegetarian Christian animal rights activist to slap future NutRoots advocate/then current BU Law student Markos Moulitsas about the rhetorical head-and-shoulders.
Nicely played, Karl “Za”Rove.
Nicely played.
{link to article in sig}
.
belay that, skipper. kos is only interested in the war on science as a slimy opportunist with no convictions.
the republican admin is truly engaged in a war on science.
if you persist in spreading the meme that kos was actualy against the republican war on science, for any other reason than political expediency, i will publish some essays on the negative correlation of religious belief and IQ level. there is much data.
you are aware that the election time studies correlating redstate residence with IQ were deeply flawed–aren’t you? they missed the hidden variable: religious belief.
What’s for them to touch?
rickinstl,
“Like shootin’ turds in a toilet.”
Too right on so many levels.
Do you know if anyone has done similar studies on the subliminal paganism/mysticism/etc. in current leftist philosophy, particularly the enviromental crowd? I ask this seriously, it is something I am genuinely interested in.
Actus?? Actus, your reading is in.
Actus??
Your-anus is in retrograde.
Sell Kos.
Science. Fiction. If it don’t make sense, just call it by it’s name: LostKos.
California Conservative  Hey! One of the rules of science fiction is that it be at least internally consistent! What does that have to do with Kos and Armstrong?
Publish and be damned!
Your Grace, you want me to climb into WHAT city, you long nose bastard?
This thread isn’t about what I thought it would be about.
OTOH, a seizure strong enough to break bones will focus your mind in ways no herbage will.
Dave Berg knew what he was talking about.
Hmmmm.
Which is even stupider than some of the idiotic things you’ve written in the past.
Here’s a clue for you: Most of the scientists of the past 600 years were either trained in seminaries, ordained as ministers or were priests.
Here’s an example:
Sir Issac Newton
You are completely and utterly ignorant.
Mr. Sharpe, pray climb into that bastion over there and chase “old trousers” out. Right.
Very good then Mr. Sharpe. I now have a diabolical French plot for you to foil. Feel free to fall for some skirt along the way, and do bring that large Irishman to help you get out of trouble. Also be sure to make it back just in time for the battle of _____________.
bio-luddite ed, whyncha jus’ go back and live in the twelfth century or sumpin?
correlation religion & IQ -0.886
religious people are less intelligent
IQ-religion graph
survey data
Posted by Major John | permalink
Damn it, I shudda known you people are too sharpe for me to slip one over.
Good catch!
tw farm, as in that’s where I want to retire to.
Oh, man, I missed a memo again. Nobody told me that this was a week where I.Q. was a meaningful measure. I thought this was a week where I.Q. was a meaningless social construct designed to reinforce the white male power structure.
So does that mean next week is “I.Q. only measures one of several kinds of ‘intelligence’ week”? Or is it “I.Q. only measures the ability to pass I.Q. tests week”?
Somebody needs to publish a schedule, so I can keep up with the official Party line on I.Q….
TW: low. As in I.Q. But it doesn’t mean anything, right?
So – do the Jesuits count as the Vatican’s logic core? Then what are the Dominicans?
SB: national
velvet
Many of them are our finest shortstops, thank you. Then there’s Manny Ramirez, whose logic level is still miles above the average Kossian.
Nishi, I was a member of Mensa for four years. I let my membership lapse because I decided there was a greater proportion of morons among the high-IQ types than in the general population.
GNXP appears to be down, so I can’t check those references. But the HalfSigma one to the GSS data suggests only that religious belief is linked to a lower Verbal IQ. And that’s “Verbal IQ” based on some sort of mini-test in the GSS survey, not, you know, an actual IQ test.
(Interesting that HalfSigma uses “WORDSUM”, which is a vocabulary test for “intelligence”, rather than the “ALIKE1” through “ALIKE7” values, which are based on noting similarities between two objects. I mean, vocabulary isn’t intelligence, which is why the Stanford-Binet or California IQ tests aren’t based on vocabulary at all.)
mcgeehee, with all due respect, the only people in MENSA are those that have signed themselves up.
a sort of gradient for ego, if nothing else.
and anecdotal don’t cut it with me.
give me hard data or give me death!
sigivald, get back wid me whe you’ve finished the assignment.