It Sure Smells Like a Right Wing Zionist Cabal at The Daily Kos

I have never been one for conspiracy theories; but I do understand all things are connected and nothing happens by accident.

My short 'career' at the Daily Kos, touted as a "progressive" site which seeks to elect democrats, has been one of the most chilling and illuminating experiences of my life.

A progressive, is understood to be one seeking reform and progress. Respectful conversation and acceptance of 'the other' as an equal, is a prerequisite. In fact, Hunter, a Daily Kos Editor and Administrator wrote:

"Discussions are expected to remain on topic, for whatever topic is currently being discussed in a given thread. Community members are expected to allow others to make their points as they make theirs, and are expected to treat others with respect. [User will be banned] who consistently attack other users, or who carry fights and grudges from thread to thread, or otherwise hijack threads."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/17/131211/296?detail=f

One of the paramount progressive issues of the 21st century is the issue of democracies upholding international law and assuring inalienable human rights for all citizens, verses hegemony, empire building and the occupation of indigenous peoples.

Having been to the occupied Palestinian territories four times since June 2005; bearing witness to the human rights abuses Israel is allowed to inflict upon millions of indigenous peoples in collusion with the American governments blind allegiance to the Israeli government, is this reporters primary progressive issue.

I attempted to raise awareness of what I learned from my eye witness experiences in the diaries I posted at the Daily Kos beginning on March 12, 2007. After three articles, on March 14th, I was banned; locked out of the ability to add an article as well as comment back to what others had written in response to my diary.

As soon as I realized I had been locked out of my diary, I immediately emailed tech support asking why this had occurred. After sending three emails to tech support over a three day span, I then emailed over half a dozen of the listed contributing editors at the Daily Kos seeking to learn how to remedy the banning.

Nobody ever responded to my plea.

After a week, I kicked the dust off my feet and forgot all about it, until I received an email from a Shergald:

On 4/24/07, shergald wrote:

I have read you comments here and there on political blogs, but I have not seen your articles published in whole or part anywhere. Did I miss something?

Please agitate more. Crosspost your articles and news posts as diaries on Daily Kos. Many who have their own blogs do. Why Daily Kos? Because it has over a half million viewers a day, and even if diaries only stay in the top 50 for only 4-8 hours, depending on the time of day, if you give them a jazzy title that includes key words signifying this is an diary about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, over 100,000 people will notice, and many of them will click on.

There is no need to hang around afterward and get involved with flame wars. It takes less than five minutes to put up a diary and you can do that once a day if you wish.

Please get involved more. You are a great advocate.

shergald

I wrote Shergald back about my banning in March, and within a few days, the Editor of Peoples Voice emailed me that he published an article by Shergald, which  included me, "Two Peace Activists Banned From Daily Kos" http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2007/05/15/two_peace_activists_banned_from_daily_ko

The very next day, I received the following email from Shergald:
May 16, 2007 6:25 PM   
Re: Hunter says that Eileen was never banned 

Eileen,

Apparently they did ban you, but now are trying to come back and deny it. As such, you are probably the only productive person there, and I am glad you put up a diary. My suggestion is to put up all the past diaries that you were unable to post, and continue every day as long as you can. They have virtually purged IP diarists, seven of us plus you earlier. [end of email]

At the time it did not occur to me to wonder how would Shergald have obtained this information, if he/she had been banned from the Daily Kos?

At the time, it did not occur to me as wonder why would an Editor of the Daily Kos even be talking to Shergald, a banned writer?

But, instead, I returned to the Daily Kos on May 16, 2007. After posting daily diaries, on June 3rd, I was once more banned; blocked from responding to what had become an incessant barrage of slanderous attacks against me and the Peoples Voice, without any notification from the administration at the Daily Kos.

How undemocratic, I thought, but I also began to wonder about the true political agenda of the Daily Kos.

According to Hunter, immediate banning results when one is determined to be a sock puppet, misrepresents their identity, is guilty of copyright violations, misrepresents facts, makes threats of violence, and do exactly what my attackers were allowed to do unto me: posting offensive material.

I was slandered mercilessly, not so much about my words, but about my connection to the Peoples Voice, which the cabal had judged a "hate site."

According to Hunter, "Writing diaries that attack other site users in an overtly hostile or ad hominem fashion is forbidden: it is disruptive, it is obnoxious, and it is an inappropriate use of the site. Leave arguments in the comment threads where they start: if you truly feel you must respond to the arguments of another user via a diary of your own, then respond to those arguments, not as an attack on the intelligence, intentions, or experiences of the user [and banning will occur if users] Spam comment threads with repetitious and/or clearly off-topic posts. Strictly forbidden.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/17/131211/296?detail=f

The above rules were not just ignored by this particular cabal, these Kossacks also have the power of censorship; they are free to hide and delete posts. In fact, the few positive comments that were posted on the topic of my diary disappeared within minutes.

On the afternoon of June 3, 2007, when I discovered I was no longer allowed access to respond to the attacks against me or post another diary, I immediately emailed the founder or the site the following letter:

Dear Markos,

I am unable to comment back to anyone on my diary, as the COMMENT click has disappeared. I assume it is because my many attackers were able to finally achieve their goal and silence me.

But, I will not be silenced.

Before I write an expose of my experiences at the Daily Kos will you please clarify for my article the following issues?

1. How is it that one can be relentlessly slandered by so many on this site and have no recourse to respond?

2. Why are the commenters allowed to continuously post all sorts of inaccurate and derogatory comments about me, but I am dammed if I ignore them and Troll Rated when I respond?

3. Why does this site allow mean spirited, closed minded and hard hearted people the right to express themselves, yet I am denied the right to share what comes from my heart and what I learned in OPT?

4. Why are commenters allowed to persistently accuse me of all sorts of inaccuracies, such as I am anti-Semitic and a holocaust denier, without any proof cited from any of my writings to back up their false claims and now, I am denied the right to respond?

5. How come the supportive comments posted on the thread and my thank you comments back to the writer have been deleted? What is the criterion for such censorship?

6. If this site is dedicated to elect a democrat, why are sophomoric comments and inappropriate pictures allowed to be used to hi-jack a diary that addresses the most critical issue of this century: the 40th year of occupation of Palestine in the pursuit of human rights for all which would lead to justice, security and peace for all the people of the Holy Land?

I have yet to receive his reply.

The most persistent issue for this particular cabal of Kossacks was because of the free advertisement with a link to my site that the Editor of Peoples Voice had so graciously posted on the Peoples Voice site. This well organized cabal of Kossacks had judged and ruled that the Peoples Voice is an anti-Semitic "hate site" and has denied the holocaust. When I alerted the Editor of Peoples Voice about the slander against us, he attempted to post the following, but his comment was immediately deleted. Apparently, someone or some bodies were on duty 24/7 specifically to act as a censor.

What the Editor of Peoples Voice wrote:

Well my friends you have shown your true colors here today for many visitors to see.
I have witnessed many baseless slanders and groundless attacks. Thepeoplesvoice.org is neither a hate site nor an anti Semitic site. There is not one denial of the holocaust present on thepeoplesvoice.org web site however there are many pages reaffirming the holocaust. 

It seems to me that the people here attack others for speaking about things that supporters of Israel don’t like. I would say Mrs. Fleming is not being attacked for any wrong she has done, but because of her views, and some people here have launched into a little smear job against her.

None of the accusations about Eileen Fleming or thepeoplesvoice have merit.

You are only able to pull a single word taken out of context from a quote and this you say is grounds for your slander and hatred.

I have openly challenged you to back up your accusations that thepeoplesvoice.org or Eileen Fleming are anti Semitic and that thepeoplesvoice.org posts holocaust denials, but you only delete my posts like a child.

Please show me where thepeoplesvoice.org has denied the holocaust as you have alleged over the past week, I want to see the proof and I am sure the public wants to see the proof also.[end]

Although I am unable to respond to comments and attacks on my diary, the cabal has continued to talk about me and thus, provide the following proof. On June 4, 2007, Zemblan wrote:

Just a quick note about Eileen

About Eileen

I don't think she'll be posting here anymore…Poor Eileen. There's only one possible explanation. Obviously, she's just another victim of the Zionist Thought Police. Her advertising and crossposting on a hate site were simply irrelevant and could not possibly have factored into her departure in any way. If you think otherwise, you're a victim of Zionist mind control, just like the DKos editors. And it wasn't even really a decision the DKos editors agreed with; they were simply cowed into banning Eileen by a well-organized campaign of email harrassment that was most likely promulgated through GIYUS [ED Note: GIYUS/ Give Israel Your United Support, is a project of the World Union of Jewish Students] and I'll bet there were thousands of emails from Tel-Aviv pretending to be from Poughkeepsie, a-and...

No other possible explanation could possibly be possible, especially the plain and simply one given. She is clearly another victim of the Infantophagy Lobby.

by zemblan on Mon Jun 04, 2007 at 11:26:13 AM PDT

* And one other note

Remember when someone was hopping up and down about how this controversy is really all a put-on by Thuh Zionist Thought Police, and that we secretly didn't give a damn about the hate site, just about trying to silence Eileen's daring and controversial…

by zemblan on Mon Jun 04, 2007 at 11:42:40 AM PDT http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/3/85645/97104

What piqued my interest immediately is that I have a link attached to my website that informs me, where my readers are coming from. The 24 hours from June 3rd at 4 AM until June 4th, proved that visits from Israel increased so greatly, that Israel went from 17th place into 5th place out of the total countries who had visited my site during that time period. My government is also considered a link and they were in 7th place. Over the last few months, Israel had consistently been in 17th place and the USA Government either in 8th of 9th place.

Via the investigative skills of another civilian journalist it also is possible that Shergald is not who I thought she/he was. This particular concerned progressive Christian emailed me the following alert:

Eileen, Shergald is Eternal Hope. 

This VERY shady character was not too hard to find, but then again, I think there was an angel sitting on my shoulder when I found him. Follow me.

I goggled "shergald" and this was the link that came up
http://eternalhope.blog-city.com/growing_peace_movement_in_the_middle_east.htm

When I followed the link, I was lead to a post from Saturday, 18 November 2006 "Growing Peace Movement in the Middle East" by:
« H E » shergald

When I clicked onto the name Shergald, I was led to
 http://eternalhope.blog-city.com/ 

After scanning the last six months of diary posts, the only two writers on this blog are Shergald and Eternal Hope.

When Shergald first emailed me about my posting on the Daily Kos, all he told me was that he had been banned twice from the Daily Kos. He/she did not share that he had been a part of Eternal Hope's blog nor did he warn me about Eternal Hope's MO on the Daily Kos. Eternal Hope comes across as thoughtful and polite but clearly is a control freak and an accepted authority by many users. Eternal Hope also frequently mentions the administrator, Hunter is the one everyone should contact with any concerns regarding sock puppets.

The Daily Kos defines sock puppets as an additional account of an existing member pretending to be a separate user. This may be used to mimic community support in an argument or for acting without consequence to one's 'main' account. It is considered dishonest, trollish behavior.