{UPDATED} Markos Moulitsas Zuniga is a Right Wing, CIA Loving Tool

Editors note: I don't usually link to DailyKos because I don't do favors for CIA operatives, agents or assets. However, since someone there has taken the time to help "out" Markos C. Alberto Moulitsas Zúñiga's (MAMZ) contacts with the CIA, I though I'd reprint the diary here. before the MAMZ's minions delete it.

Plus, the writer asks a very good question: With so many people who love to do research at DailyKos, why doesn't one of them go to the link "Guy Caballero" posted and try to refute any aspect of the substance?

"Guy" is right. There simply is no way to refute what MAMZ said about himself at the Commonwealth Club on June 2, 2006. The admission, the confession, the "statement against interest" is in MAMZ own inimitably feminine nerd voice. (There's nothing wrong with being an effeminate-sounding nerd, unless you also train for two years at the CIA while pretending to be a progressive blogger, and post homophobic screeds at your college newspaper.)

When DailyKos commetors gang up against a poster and write nonsensical, childish and irrelevant comments,posting silly photographs with no relation to the substance of the post - without ever discussing or deconstructing the actual substance of the post, that is part of a very determined psy-ops type operation intended to prevent the poster from communicating meaningfully with the public.

Posted Today At DailyKos:

by Guy Caballero

Share this on Twitter - {UPDATED} Markos Moulitsas Zuniga is a Right Wing, CIA Loving Tool

Sun Aug 23, 2009 at 12:04:22 AM PDT

No lefty would have ever supported the CIA. Proof of Kos doing so is now well-known, as he had a brain cramp in an interview with the Commonwealth Club in 2006. It is without a doubt that he called the CIA a liberal institution he'd have no problem working for. Maybe he already did? According to his own words, he went through a six month interview process starting in 2001. He said that he went all the way to the end and had to decide whether to become a clandestine spy or work for Howard Dean.

We know what he decided on. Funny thing though about the timeline according to his own words. How does a six month process starting in 2001 end in the middle of 2003? Daily Kos was started in 2002. Did Kos run this blog while he was working for the CIA? He needs to explain this, or otherwise it is fairly clear what the answer is. At a minimum, he is no lefty. He is into making money. He was the worst thing that ever could have happened to progressives on the net

• Guy Caballero's diary :: ::
• 
  

Update: Not one of you numbnuts debunked the content of this diary, because you can't. Also, there should be 276 comments. A rough count shows there are only 174 comments. You're nothing but a bunch of cheaters. Uhm, no I am not a wingnut. I am not working for Dick Cheney. I do believe Obama was eligible to run for President. Notice how not one of these buggers went into detail of what Kos said in the Commonwealth Club interview. Also, that was done in 2006, so Moulitsas Zuniga has no wiggle room as he seems to think he does for being an outright homophobe in his youth. You are all my bitches. Go Cheney yourselves.

If you look at his biography and on at least one of his diaries, he mentions those darn violent communist guerillas who forced his family to flee El Salvador. Can anyone show me where he has condemned the right wing death squads? We all know what will happen with this diary. If it isn't outright deleted, the sycophants will crow about tinfoil hats and decoder rings, not to mention cuckoo bananas. The instant hammerban will be applied. Not only that, anyone who supports what I have written will suffer the same treatment, as if they were a Mormon trying to escape their cult. All these new crap revelations are coming out against the CIA. I felt this was a good time to repeat what is so often censored or ridiculed at this dive. With that said, you can all now resume your normal sycophant schedules.

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Since "Guy Caballero" will be exiled from DailyKos for posting this truthfull information, he should have included a link to The Truth About Kos in his post. Go out with a bang!

Thanks go to "Socrates" for informing me of this post, since I otherwise certainly wouldn't have been reading DailyWhitosphere to read it.

RE: Netroots Nation Study: White Men are "The General Population" of the United States

Dear Friends:

Back in 2007, we had a vigorous debate in the afrosphere over whether it was important or not for Black people to be permitted to participate at white-owned blogs.

We subsequently discovered that when white blogs got together and decided which bloggers would have access to the floor of the Democratic National Convention, the decision was made along the lines of the "State Blogs" organization put together by Markos C. Alberto Moulitsas Zúñiga. All of the blogs included in his "State Blogs" organization were white-owned, so no Black bloggers would have continual "state blog" access to the floor of the Democratic National Convention.

That was an apartheid-like decision that came from the apartheid-like white blogs and was ratified by the DNCC while we were asleep at the wheel, in the mistaken belief that white male machinations would make no difference to us.

Now, they're at it again. A study released at Netroots Nation says, in essence, that white men are "the general population" of the United States, while white women, Blacks and Latinos are, taken together, a curious minority who use technology differently from "the general population" of white men.

Now, many readers will ask what difference it makes that white men are announcing that they are the reference group for what "normal" is, while the majority of the United States, including white women, Blacks and Latinos are anomolous outliers whose incompetent behavior needs to be studied in order to determine what hoops we could jump through in order to be considered worthy of having access to the privileges that white men enjoy.

Social and societal movements start with studies that attempt to characterize facts in a way that suits those who originate or sponsor the studies. These studies, when accepted as fact, get some people and groups moving intellectually, politically and economically in a certain direction, while marginalizing others. Because, as Franz Fanon said, subjugated communities often "internalize" the views and behavior of their oppressors, you even find, as I have, that white women, Blacks and Latinos are willing to submit to the phallacy (pun intended) that white men are "the general population."

I only discovered this bogus assertion of white male superiority in the Netroots Nation study because it was sent to me by a Black woman who hailed it as a new scientific discovery: 'Backward white women and minorities just don't know how to act like white men.'

Soon, you may hear that only bloggers who are using the technology prominent among white men will be permitted to participate in some aspect of Democratic Party news reporting and policy making, just as they decided in the winter of 2007/2008 that only blogs focused on state issues would be allowed continual access to the floor of the Democratic National Convention. Or you may discover that white male bloggers are sharing information in a way that only they have accessed.

If this sounds like a "conspiracy theory" , then just look at the all-white state blog corps that came out of the last conspiracy. Believe it or not, there are people conspiring right now to marginalize you and people like you. Slavery, the Fugitive Slave Act, Jim Crow and the Tuskegee Syphilus experiments may the foremost examples of white male conspiracies that had lasting negative results for Black people.

The Fugitive Slave Act, excerpted below, is an example of a national white conspiracy against Black people in which some whites actually obliged all whites to treat Blacks as chattel:

after arrest of such fugitive, by such marshal or his deputy, or whilst at any time in his custody under the provisions of this act, should such fugitive escape, whether with or without the assent of such marshal or his deputy, such marshal shall be liable, on his official bond, to be prosecuted for the benefit of such claimant, for the full value of the service or labor of said fugitive in the State, Territory, or District whence he escaped:

That's right. If any police official anywhere received a slave and then allowed the slave to escape, intentionally or unintentionally, then that officer was to pay the slave's owner the full value of the slave and the labor that the slave would have provided if he had not been freed!

So, you heard it here first. Markos C. Alberto Moulitsas Zúñiga did not spend two years training at the CIA in Washington to be "a secret agent", only to become a legitimate leftist blogger instead. His skills in misinformation are apparent in the Netroots Nation report that says that white men are "the general population" while white women, Blacks and Latinos, who make up perhaps 68% of America, are NOT part of "the general population." Once you accept that premise, all sorts of political consequences will follow from it.

Assertions such as this will definitely have political repercussions unless we push back against them. We need to let white men know, as we did when we elected President Barack Obama, that white men are NOT, in and of themselves, "the general population" of America and we do NOT measure what is appropriate for everyone by referencing how white men are spending their time.

At the same time, when that minortiy of America that is comprised of white males is using a technology or novelty to their advantage, we may want to see if that technology can be useful for us as well, because sometimes minorities such as white men have an idea from which everyone can benefit.

Francis

Netroots Nation Study Says White Men Are "General Population" of the US

For Immediate Release

Contact: Atty. Francis L. Holland, afrosphere participant

Telephone Number: 55 (73) 9123-2538

Netroots Nation Conference Spreads
Demographic Misinformation in the Blogosphere

Washington Post staff writer José Antonio Vargas attended YearlyKos blogger conference in 2007 and declared that the group was "A Diversity of Opinion, if Not Opinionators: At the Yearly Kos Bloggers' Convention, a Sea of Middle-Aged White Males, with one leader of the conference quoted as saying, "I hate to use the word diversity."

Founded by ex CIA-trainee Markos C. Alberto Moulitsas and billed as a "progressive," "liberal," "leftist" bloggers conference, Atty. Francis L. Holland of the Truth About Kos blog insists that, although the name of the conference has since changed to "Netroots Nation", the white male "opinionators" seem to have learned little about diversity.

For example, one report disseminated at this year's Netroots Nation conference says,

Research proves that women, Hispanics and African-Americans use mobile differently than the general population. This session is designed to engage participants in a discussion about mobile technology and how it can be best used to reach women and minorities. (Emphasis added.) Netroots Nation

However, the study is easily disproved based on facts from the US Census Quick Facts database. White non-hispanics constitute 66% of the United States population, of which less than half is white men. White men do not constitute more than 31 to 32% of the US population.

If you compare that 32% "general population" to those groups who are not included in the general population, you discover that the "non-general" population is actually twice as large as the so-called "general" (white male) population.

Women = 51% of population

Blacks = 13% of population

Latinos = 15% of population

Total women, Blacks and Latinos, etc. = approx. 68% of population.

Rather than diverging on the Internet from the general population in their use of networking tools, women alone and in combination with minorities actually constitute the "general population" from which white men may diverge.

The above statistics aren't perfect because of overlap between women and minority populations, but the female population alone shows that white men are not "the general population." What is true is that white men are, as the Washington Post observed, the general population of the Netroots Nation bloggers conference, but they are vastly outnumbered by the aggregate of other demographic groups within the Democratic Party.

When women alone constitute a majority in the United States, how can white men ever be referred to, logically, as "the general population"? The study's result would make much more sense demographically and statistically (studies are about science, right?) if the study announced,

"Research proves that white men use mobile differently than the general population".

Meanwhile, the only way the announcement as written can be interpreted is according to the premise that, although white men are perhaps 31% of the US population, they nonetheless are "the general population". The strategic advantage of trying to convince liberal women and Latinos and Blacks of this errant nonsense is that it encourages us to try to act like white men instead of demanding that institutions craft themselves according to the habits of the female, Black and Latino majority.

Also, setting white men up as the reference group for effective networking is part of convincing the public that white men control the country because their professional behavior is more effective, and not because they endeavor to act like a political majorityarrogating power unto themselves in a way that is disproportionate to their numbers. (See the assertion above that white men are the "general population".)

Only according to the "white male supremacy paradigm" , in which white men are deemed inherently superior, can explain the assertion that white men are America's "general population.

It's easy to see how women, Blacks and Latinos can attend the Netroots Nation conference and end up feeling like a part of the minority, when simply being a woman makes them part of the majority.

It ought not surprise anyone that statistics are distorted into misinformation at the conference, since DailyKos' founder, Markos C. Alberto Moulitsas Zúñiga, by his own admission, was trained for two years by the CIA while he was starting his DailyKos blog.

The attitude of Mr. Moulitsas, in declaring white men to be the "general population", is similar to that of the Afrikkaners during South African Apartheid, who insisted that only white opinion mattered in a country where whites were outnumbered by a ratio of five to one. At Netroots Nation, their most basic statistics don't add up and tend to value white men while marginalizing others.

Atty. Francis L. Holland, editor of the Truth About Kos blog urgers liberals "not to be brainswashed by Netroots Nation", but instead to read, "The Indictment of Markos C.A. Moulitsas ZÚÑIGA by Justice and History (Updated with Additional Information and Counts)."

Referring to a book by Netroots Nation leader Markos Moulitsas, Atty. Holland says,

"God help us if the Netroots Nation leadership ever succeeds in "Crashing the Gates" of the Democratic Party and declaring a tiny group of white male bloggers to be the 'general population' of the Democratic Party's membership. That attitude is for Republicans, not Democrats."

Holland cites a letter by Markos Moulitsas opposing all gay service in the military as yet more proof that Moulitsas' political goals are anything but liberal.

References:

http://www.netrootsnation.org/node/1142

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/05/AR2007080501580.html

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html

http://www.google.com.br/#hl=pt-BR&q=%22white+male+supremacy+paradigm%22&btnG=Pesquisa+Google&meta=&aq=f&fp=7bcd4d7c7b346f40

http://truth-about-kos.blogspot.com/2007/08/indictment-of-markos-ca-moulitsas-ziga.html

http://www.commonwealthclub.org/archive/06/06-06zuniga-audio.html

http://truth-about-kos.blogspot.com/

http://www.northernstar.info/article.php?id=16416&old=1

CIA-Trained Markos Moulitsas Plans Leftist Networking Site

It seems more likely to me that all of the training MAMZ received during his two years at the CIA is being used in this new venture to monitor, prune and ultimately disrupt the flow of leftist thought and activities. -- Truth About Kos

Paul Bedard, an author of the "Washington Whispers" column at US News and World Reports, is helping Markos C. Alberto Moulitsas Zúñiga (MAMZ) to announce a new leftist/progressive networking platform at DailyKos. Bedard does not mention that MAMZ acknowledges that he spent two years training with the CIA simultaneously with starting DailyKos, which most of the public would consider relevant to the credibility of MAMZ's ostensibly "progressive" efforts.

In fact, no one in the mainstream media mentions the dubious origins (during CIA training) of MAMZ's supposedly "progressive" blog.

Bedard quotes MAMZ as saying,

I've got a pretty good thing going. It's a big risk for me. It's about empowering people.

I find it very hard and, in fact impossible to believe that MAMZ, who was trained for two years at the CIA, is now trying to "empower" progressives. I find it hard to believe that someone who will not permit discussion of the dubious official version of 9-11 is nonetheless trying to help leftists to use their critical thinking skills. How, insist, can leftists be "empowered" by a site where their ideas are vetted and approved or disapproved by others, who may well work for the CIA indirectly?

If MAMZ is empowering leftists, doesn't that mean that the CIA wasted a lot of money training MAMZ, since leftist empowerment is antithetical to CIA goals? It seems more likely to me that all of the training MAMZ received during his two years at the CIA is being used in this new venture to monitor, prune and ultimately disrupt the flow of leftist thought and activities.

I think it's fair to say that if MAMZ's blog became the center of leftist thought then leftist thought and action would cease to exist as such.

Of course, I continue to observe that the press in the United State actively collaborates with the CIA by failing to mention CIA involvement of national figures and thereby encouraging the public to accept CIA and defense department propaganda as legitimately independent public activity and opinion. To me, writing about MAMZ without mentioning the CIA is like writing about Hitler without mentioning the Third Reich.

Markos Moulitsas "Humble Family" Renews Registration of International Industrial Salt Corporation

"Humble" manager of Moulitsas' "family hotel," distibutes
SEVEN MILLION TONS of table salt annually on five continents.

Baja Salt Group is the Sole Distributor of Mexico's E.S.S.A.
Salt in Central America Registers with Salvadoran Government

When you take what Markos C. Alberto Moulitsas Zúñiga (MAMZ) has told newspaper reporters and compare that with Salvadoran Government documents, you can only conclude that MAMZ is an inveterate liar who believes that no one in the United States will ever learn or care to discover that little or nothing MAMZ says about himself and his family is true. Below, verbatim, we find Markos C. Alberto Moulitsas Zúñiga (MAMZ), owner of DailyKos, telling a Spanish-language Salvadoran newspaper, La Prensa Gráfica, a bold-faced lie about his family:

In the world before the Internet, someone like me never would have been able to reach this level of success.

"I don't have money." [Stated in the present tense of the verb "to be."]

"I do not come from a famous or powerful family." [Again, stated again in the present tense of the verb "to be."]

"Technology gave me the ability to start a publication with more than a million readers daily, without having to have much money. The costs of starting were around one hundred dollars."

The original Spanish language quote is available in the online archives of La Prensa Gráfica.

Compare that to information that the "manager" of MAMZ's family hotel filed with the Salvadoran government on the February 26, 2008 for Baja Salt Group (screenshot above), where Baja Salt Group is listed as a "commercial cartel".

The official online Salvadoran government registration of the Baja Salt Group, says:

LET IT BE KNOWN: That at this office Carlos Alberto Delgado Zuniga, his status as the Lega Representative of the Baja Salt Corporation [listed in Salvadoran Government documents as the "manager" of the Moulitsas Zúñiga family hotel] . . .

HACE SABER: Que a esta oficina se ha presentado CARLOS ALBERTO DELGADO ZUNIGA, en su calidad de Representante legal de la sociedad BAJA SALT,

If you just follow the name in the Savadoran Government's webite to the corporate webite of Baja Salt Group, you'll discover that Lic. Carlos Alberto Delgado Zuniga, the "manager" of Markos Moulitsas' "family hotel", is also listed as Central American distributorship for table and industrial salt sold throughout Central America, with "annual exports seven million tons of salt "Japón, Corea, Taiwán, New Zeland, Central and South America, and the east and west coasts of the United States."

Everytime I consider these facts, I cannot help but laugh ruefully at the outrageous magnitude of the bold-faced lies that MAMZ has told the public and the press, who have not bothered to fact check anything that MAMZ has said.

Clearly MAMZ would like his DailyKos blog readers, the American press and political word to believe his "up from poverty" story of a poor immigrant who makes it big in the United States in spite of a humble and poor family background, like Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Nothing could be further from the truth. The manager of his family hotel, who shares MAMZ's second middle name, last name and perhaps his first middle name as well (no one knows MAMZ's first middle name) is distibuting SEVEN MILLION TONS of table salt on five continents.

Meanwhile, MAMZ himself would have us believe that he started DailyKos with one hundred dollars of his own money while he was training for two years with the Central Intelligence agency, as he confessed on an audiotape at the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, on June 2, 2006.

Below is the complete Registration document text from Salvadoran government archives:

ASIENTO DE EMPRESA 2008060757
ASIENTO DE ESTABLECIMIENTO 2008060757- 001
LA INFRASCRITA REGISTRADORA DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE REGISTRO DE MATRICULAS DE EMPRESA Y ESTABLECIMIENTOS DEL REGISTRO
DE COMERCIO.

HACE SABER: Que a esta oficina se ha presentado CARLOS ALBERTO DELGADO ZUNIGA, en su calidad de Representante legal de la sociedad BAJA SALT,

SOCIEDAD ANONIMA DE CAPITAL VARIABLE que puede abreviarse BAJA SALT, S.A. DE C.V.; sociedad de nacionalidad SALVADOREÑA, del domicilio de SAN SALVADOR, cuya escritura social esta inscrita bajo el número 15 del libro 2207 del Registro de Sociedades del Registro de Comercio, con Número de Identificación Tributaria: 0614-020207-107-2; quien ha presentado solicitud a las nueve horas y cuarenta y cinco minutos del día veinticinco de febrero de dos mil ocho, con la cual se otorgó el asiento de Empresa No 2008060757 inscripción 240 y el asiento de Establecimiento No 2008060757- 001, inscripción 241, ambos del
Libro 173 de Asientos de Matrícula de Empresa y Establecimiento; la Empresa se denomina BAJA SALT, S.A. DE C.V., la cual se dedica a VENTA DE SAL
INDUSTRIAL, con dirección en AVENIDA OLIMPICA FINAL PASAJE UNION Nº 122, COLONIA ESCALON del domicilio de SAN SALVADOR, cuyo activo
asciende a ONCE MIL CUATROCIENTOS VEINTIOCHO 57/100 DOLARES ($ 11,428.57) y que tiene el establecimiento siguiente: 001-) denominado BAJA
SALT, S.A. DE C.V., ubicado en AVENIDA OLIMPICA FINAL PASAJE UNION Nº 122, COLONIA ESCALON, SAN SALVADOR y que se dedica a VENTA DE
SAL INDUSTRIAL.
Lo que se le hace saber al público para los efectos de Ley.
San Salvador, veintiseis de febrero de dos mil ocho.
RENTAL POWER, SOCIEDAD ANONIMA DE CAPITAL VARIABLE
BAJA SALT, SOCIEDAD ANONIMA DE CAPITAL VARIABLE
2008060760
2008060757
236
240
173
173
473
481
474
482
26/02/2008
26/02/2008

Is Markos Moulitsas a Closeted Gay Homophobe?

I don't think anyone should "out" gays out of antagonism toward gays or a homophobic desire to embarrass gays. However, when public figures who are secretly gay make a public point and spectacle of denouncing gays publicly, while denying their own private and strong homosexual desires, and sometimes homesexual behavior, then I believe it is constructive to "out" such public figures.

Why? Because demonstrating the hypocrisy of the public vs. private positions of these gay public figures compels them and entire societies to confront homophobia and reevaluate it in the light of the reality than many of those who persecute gays and fight gay rights are secretly gay themselves.

It is in this context that, we intruduce a letter that Markos C. A. Moulitsas Zuniga (MAMZ) wrote to his college newspaper, published on January 25, 1993 (below) in which Moulitsas Zúñiga:

(a) condemned Bill Clinton for seeking to allow gays to serve openly in the military, and

(b) expressed intense fear and discomfort about being around gays during his military service.

The Indictment of Markos C.A. Moulitsas ZÚÑIGA (MAMZ)
by Justice and History
(Updated with Additional Information and Counts)

MAMZ joined the US Army in 1988, at the age of 17, and says he remained in he US Army for four years. Is it possible that MAMZ wanted to be the only gay in the military so that he would be at less risk of acting out his own homosexual feelings and desires?

One study shows quite conclusively that subjects who are most antagonistic toward gays are also the most aroused sexually when they watch films of men having sex with other men. We should absolutely consider this study as we read MAMZ's virulently homophobic letter below. But first, here is the study showing the potential relationship between the virulent homophobia in MAMZ letter (below) and MAMZ own sexuality.

Homophobia and Homosexual Arousal

A 1996 study done by the Psychology department at the University of Georgia and subsequently published in the prestigious Journal of Abnormal Psychology concluded with some very interesting findings. The title of the study was Is Homophobia Associated with Homosexual Arousal. While we have all heard anecdotal just-so stories explaining outward homophobia as some sort of denial or projection, this study gathers empirical data to support these types of hypotheses. This is not good news for the ego of the hondo-macho type.

The basics of the study

The researchers gathered 64 male University of Georgia students to participate in the study. They were all fully informed about the nature of the study and were told they could stop at any time. Once they showed up for the study, they were given a few surveys that have been historically demonstrated to be valid assessment devices. The survey that is probably of most interest here is a survey designed to measure the level of homophobic tendencies or homonegativity. After the surveys were administered, the participants were instructed how to fit the apparatus taken to a private room. Once in the private room, baseline measurements were taken before a display randomly showed three types of sexually explicit videos: heterosexual, homosexual-females, and homosexual-males.

The apparatus

The apparatus was basically a band that the participants wore around their penis. The band contains technology that measures the circumference of the participant's junk. Any increased blood flow due to arousal is measured by the increase in penile circumference. While this may be kind of funny, it is a time tested measure that has been used in numerous studies.

In the analysis of the data, two groups were compared. High score homophobic males and low score homophobic males. These categories were determined by the scores obtained from the before mentioned survey.

The interesting part

Both groups showed an overall increase in penis circumference while watching all three categories of sexually explicit material. But the only instance where there was a significant difference in engorgement between the homophobes and non-homophobes was during the homosexual-male porn. The homophobic males showed significantly more engorgement while watching two men go at it than the non-homophobic males.

Is Markos Moulitsas gay? I don't know the answer to that question. But, is Markos Moulitsas among those "homophobic males" who could be expected to demonstrate significantly more homoerotic penis engorgement when he watched gay films? The above study would seem to indicate that he might well be one of those homosexual homoerotic gay men. It's a question whose answer will undoubtedly become known in the fullness of time.

Admittedly, this is a question about his sexuality, not an assertion of a known truth. And yet the letter that MAMZ wrote to his college newspaper, the Northern Illinois University Northern Star, should be considered, particularly in light of the above study. However, as reported in Paragraph (6) of "The Indictment of Markos C.A. Moulitsas ZÚÑIGA by Justice and History (Updated with Additional Information and Counts)":

6). Markos C.A. Moulitsas ZÚÑIGA (MAMZ) is not a "liberal" and he is not a "progressive." In an essay submitted to the Northern Illinois University campus newspaper, the Northern Star, MAMZ strenuously opposed ALL service by gays in the US military, a position more extremely Republican and discriminatory than that taken by many other military members and conservatives. Northern Star

Here's the letter:

Military right

It's truly disturbing how much ado has been made over Bill Clinton´s campaign promise to lift the ban on homosexuals from the U.S. military. It's ironic how it has taken a president who has never served in the military to make a promise that affects the military in such a negative manner.

Those who have served in the military, such as myself, understand the demands and pressures of military life are incompatible with allowing integration with homosexuals. I´m neither socially conservative or prejudiced, and neither is liberal columnist Mike Royko, Gen. Colin Powell, and influential liberal Democrats Sam Nunn and Les Aspin, all who´ve come out against lifting the ban.

Under military circumstances, as much has to be done as possible to focus the unit's mission and keep disciplinary problems to a minimum. Worrying about whether the known homosexual sleeping next to you is watching as you change your underwear may seem trivial as you read this, but to the soldier who's short-tempered after three weeks in the field and four hours of daily sleep, it becomes a matter of great importance to his pride and sensibilities. And in any case, there aren't many people who would change clothes in a group of co-workers if members of the opposite sex were in the same room watching. There is something inherently uncomfortable about it.

Such fears would go a long way in disrupting efficiency and morale in a unit.

MARKOS C.A. MOULITSAS

Undecided

Freshman

As a result of opposition from ex-military people like MAMZ, the US Congress legislated the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" regime, thereby preventing any president, including President Obama, from opening the military to gays by executive order.

As The Truth About Kos reported earlier,

Cherry Andel, a business student at NIU, contemporaneously criticized Moultisas' stand against gays in the military, saying:

I'd like to address this letter to Marcos C. Moulitsas. First, do not assume that former military service people share your views. Rest assured that this one does not. I resent the fact that you assume that just because I'm prior service, I share your opinion.

Second, if a military unit is inefficient and morale is down, that is the entire unit's fault and not just one soldier's fault. As military personnel, we are trained to accomplish a mission. If you cannot accomplish that mission because you're worried about who's watching you while you change your underwear, it sounds like you don't have the right mental attitude.

MAMZ has since admitted that he "was an asshole" when he campaigned against gays in the military and against gay rights in general. In fact, even the word "asshole" takes on special meaning in the context of a discussion of common homosexuals sex practices, desires, and behavior. Why not simply acknowledge that he was homophobic, without this remarkable reference to specific body parts that serve an integral part of homosexual intimate relationships? What, exactly, does MAMZ mean when he says he was an "asshole" during the period when he publicly expressed the most virulently homophobic feelings. Is he referring to his desired role in homoerotic homosexual relationships?

Gay or not, MAMZ should acknowledge the petition on behalf of gays and their rights, and he should disavow his (above) homophobic published newspaper piece against gays. As the Truth About Kos wrote in 2007, when it first discovered MAMZ's homophobic letter in his college newspaper archives,

John M. Shalikashvili, a retired army general, was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1993 to 1997. Explaining historically why gays are not allowed in the military today, Gen. Shalikashvili said this year in a New York Times Op-Ed piece,

In the early 1990s, large numbers of military personnel were opposed to letting openly gay men and lesbians serve. President Bill Clinton, who promised to lift the ban during his campaign, was overwhelmed by the strength of the opposition, which threatened to overturn any executive action he might take.

Markos A.C. Moulitsas Zúñiga (MAMZ) was one of the ex-military whose vocal opposition to gays' participation in the media made it politically impossible for Bill Clinton to make good on his campaign promise to allow gays to serve in the military.

Regardless of whether he is gay or not, which is of little interest to me, if MAMZ is truly a "liberal blogger" and a "leftist" and a "progessive" then he has an obligation as a public figure to embrace gay rights in 2009 at least as publicly as he denounced gay rights in 1993.

Once he does so, whether he is gay or not is between him and his lovers, regardless of their sexual orientation.