Markos Moulitsas, 'American Taliban,' and Russ Feingold

The founder of the far Left-leaning blog Daily Kos, Markos Moulitsas, has a new book, American Taliban: How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right.

Here are some "editorial reviews" of Moulitsas' book:

“It isn’t possible to understand American politics now without understanding the worldview and arguments of Markos Moulitsas. If you still believe the beltway caricature of the squishy, compromising, conciliatory American left, American Taliban should disabuse you of that notion.”
—Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show

“Moulitsas alerts us to a clear and present danger in America: radical zealots who disregard our Constitution and our freedoms and who disguise themselves as patriots.”
—Roger Ebert, film critic

“I can’t remember a time in my life when anti-intellectualism and intolerance—from America’s prejudice against evolutionary science to its reactionary condemnation of a scholarly African American president—has been more pervasive. The time has never been more ripe for a book such as this. American Taliban reminds us that fanaticism isn’t always an import.”
—Brett Gurewitz, Bad Religion

“A thorough compendium of right-wing hypocrisy and selective memory that is either hilarious or tragic, depending on your mood. And it’s all lovingly couched in outrage and profanity.”
—David Cross, I Drink for a Reason

“While not afraid to laugh at the American Taliban, Markos Moulitsas sees the culture warriors for the insidious, dangerous force they present to a free and democratic society.”
—Amanda Marcotte, Executive Editor, Pandagon.net

“Markos writes with a conscience and armed with facts to let you know: no, you’re not crazy. What you suspected all along was true—America’s right wing lives on a myth of self-constructed lies about the Other, with a juvenile disregard for reality, and Obama’s presidency has further radicalized an already radical conservative movement.”
—Janeane Garofalo, comic and actor

The glowing reviews from these extremists really tell you all you need to know about the extremism of Moulitsas and his message. But listen to the man himself. Here's a Ring of Fire Radio interview with Daily Kos founder Moulitsas, September 4, 2010.

Audio.


Transcript

RING OF FIRE RADIO HOST: I want to get right into your book. The book, I was trying to figure out the way to describe this book. And I would say that you speak truth to power in American Taliban, but in fact, you speak truth to paranoia. And it is the paranoia of our fundamentalists, the so-called... you describe them as the American Taliban, but they describe themselves as patriotic Christians, the people who are fighting for the America that they know and love, that we are trying, we secularists, are trying to destroy. That's the way they couch it. This is no different, as you point out in this wonderful book, than what the Islamic fundamentalists, what the jihadists do as they couch things in good versus evil terms.

MARKOS MOULITSAS: The reasons I don't like the American Right-wing are exactly the same reasons I do not like fundamentalist Islamic jihadists. They fetishize guns. They see violence as a solution to their problems. They want to impose their theocratic mores in our government. They're anti-women. They have weird, bizarre hang-ups about sex. They are vicious. They want to eradicate gays. They are hostile to our culture. They are hostile to education, to science.

And so when you go down the list, and you realize well these guys share the same values and they want the same outcome. Obviously, I don't want Islamic fundamentalists to win for exactly the same reason that I fight the American Right-wing on a daily basis.

Good Lord.

Listen to Moulitsas absolutely trash "patriotic Christians." He equates the American Right-wing with terrorists, Islamic fundamentalists. Moulitsas has it all wrong. Conservatives are not anti-women. We don't see violence as a solution to our problems or fetishize guns. We aren't vicious or hostile to education and science and our culture. We don't want to eradicate gays. No weird bizarre hang-ups about sex.

His accusations and generalizations are disgusting. They're flat-out lies.

Later in the interview, Moulitsas discusses critics of his book and beheading:

MOULITSAS: And so these people think well, you know, that kind of language is a little harsh and it's not fair because well the American Taliban doesn't behead like the Islamic Taliban.

ROF: And you make the point they would if they could.

MOULITSAS: Right now, the American Taliban is constrained by our set of laws and our constitutional...

ROF: Only, only barely.

MOULITSAS: And this is why they are attacking it. This is why they want to eliminate half the amendments in the U.S. Constitution. This is why they're so hostile to the First Amendment and freedom of religion, as evidenced by Cordoba House, the so-called mosque which is a community center two blocks away from Ground Zero.

It is outrageous to compare conservative Americas with the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalists. Outrageous.

Moulitsas is clueless as to what Islamic fundamentalists are about. In terms of being anti-women, he should talk to Aisha and find out what she thinks about the Taliban and violence and viciousness.

We know that Moulitsas is an extremist. I think he's unstable and he's encouraging other unstable individuals to believe that American conservatives are akin to the Taliban. It's sick. He's lost touch with reality, if he ever did grasp it in the first place.

What's really disturbing is that Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, gets Russ Feingold's seal of approval.

On Feingold's campaign website, the blog contains links to hate-filled, radical Leftist blogs, such as Daily Kos.

Feingold himself has posted material on Moulitsas' site.

I wonder what Feingold thinks of his buddy Moulitsas' new book, American Taliban.

Does Feingold denounce the views set forth by Moulitsas? Does Feingold believe that conservatives are similar to fundamentalist Islamic jihadists?

Feingold can't have it both ways. He gets cozy with Leftist nutjobs like Moulitsas yet he tries to pass himself off to Wisconsinites as good ol' moderate Russ.

There is a massive disconnect here. It's a big lie.

After all these years, I think it's time for the people of Wisconsin to finally get to know the real Feingold. He's an extremist. He is way out there with the Daily Kos crowd.

Feingold isn't like us.