Less than 24 hours after four American civilians working under contract for the U.S. government were brutally murdered in Falluja, Iraq, last week--their corpses mutilated on camera by an anti-American mob--the pseudonymous Daily Kos, a star of the liberal blogger set, chimed in on his website (www.dailykos.com) with this bit of political analysis, headlined "Every Death Should be on the front page":

Let the people see what war is like. This isn't an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush's folly. That said, I feel nothing over the death of mercenaries. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.

The uninitiated should know that "Kos" is not by reputation a far-left lunatic. He's a Democratic political consultant on the make. "Kos" is the pseudonym for Markos Zúniga, a 27-year-old lawyer in California. He started writing his political blog in the summer of 2002, and in January 2003 became partners with Jerome Armstrong, who had spent the previous couple of years helping Vermont governor Howard Dean cement his Internet presence. Last April, their political consultancy, Armstrong Zúniga, helped orchestrate grassroots efforts to draft Gen. Wesley Clark for president. And last May, they signed a contract with Dean for America.