Top Comments: A Billion Here...

Early this morning, as the server computes, the billionth page view was provided by Daily Kos. To be a bit more precise, the server made this page available at 2:15:20am EDT, plus or minus a few seconds, if one is to believe sitemeter, the only reliable arbiter of such information.

It took six years and four weeks for Daily Kos to serve out the first billion pages. At the time I pulled the information from sitemeter showing that there had been one billion and twenty-four page views, it also said that the daily average was 975,088. Assuming that average stays constant, the second billion will take 1025.55 days to serve up, which would put that occurrence on the early afternoon of April 14, 2011. But, of course, the average won't stay constant. (It's already down from yesterday, thanks to that day's slow weekend activity.) Traffic will likely get busier as the election approaches, and after November 4, 2008—assuming the servers survive the extreme load that day—well, it's anyone's guess.

Everett Dirksen, then the junior senator from Illinois though almost certainlySenate Minority Leader at the time, has been famously quoted as saying, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money." Did he say those words? Dirksen says no, but he knew a good thing when he read it, according to the Dirksen Center web site:

A gentleman who called The Center with a reference question relayed that he sat by Dirksen on a flight once and asked him about the famous quote. Dirksen replied, "Oh, I never said that. A newspaper fella misquoted me once, and I thought it sounded so good that I never bothered to deny it."

So, what's on the way to being "real money" these days? We could get some Iraq War Results & Statistics, but after the first, which shows every two and a half days of Bush's war in Iraq using up a billion, there's really no need to go any further. Of course, once you add in the incurred but unpaid costs calculated last fall, the number is almost twice that, about $750 million a day, or over $5 billion a week.

This doesn't count money squandered, lost, mismanaged, or otherwise unaccounted for in Iraq, overpaid on no-bid contracts after Hurricane Katrina...the examples are endless. Real money has been spent to line the pockets of contractors at inflated prices. Private enterprise has made inordinate profits on public funds in the name of privatization, costing the taxpayers real billions—tens if not hundreds of billions—more than would have been spent if the tasks had remained in government hands.

Where has this spending left the government? Why, deeper and deeper in debt. 364 days and 45 of my Top Comments diaries ago, I reported that the national debt was at . It's now 9,370,753,974,906.22, up $567,523,930,899.29—that's a very real 567 billion dollars—in just under a year, or over 6.4%. The estimated U. S. population is up, too, to 304,419,783, which spreads out every person's share of the debt to $30,782.34. Thank you, all the babies that were born and immigrants who have entered the country in order to share in the debt, which is only up $1,650.11 per person (just 5.7%) from last year's $29,132.23. And you thought the price of gas was a problem!

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We all owe a debt to the Kossacks who sent in nominations from the past 24 hours in order to highlight for us all great comments made in that period. (Though don't any of you expect checks of thirty grand for your contributions: our fervent thanks must suffice.) If you saw any great comments that are not mentioned here—and there are always tens of thousands of comments to choose from—please link to them in your own comments below. The address of that mailbox:

TopComments AT gmail DOT com
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Anyone can submit deserving comments to our address—the direct link to a comment is available from that comment's date/time—as long as they arrive by 9:30pm Eastern Time. Please always include your Daily Kos user name in the body of your message, so we can credit you properly. Both link and username are important.

OrangeClouds115 submitted the following nominations from her diary The Sexiest Diary I've Ever Written:

sooo funny and sooo hot [comments by pylonsound and GlowNZ, respectively]

omg if a comment ever made me in danger of peeing my pants from laughing, THIS is that comment [by Snud].

omg, OK here's how to get people to call their legislators! [comment by blueintheface]

From jlms qkw (writeup by sardonyx):

rkelley25 says I have to watch my mouth, and then explains why, which left our nominator almost incoherent with laughter.

amnesiaproletariat sent:

A swiftboat book on Obama? billysumday explains why there's nothing to worry about.

From LISoundview:

two roads muses on the connection between bad media coverage and eulogizing Tim Russert.

From your diarist sardonyx:

In jlynne's Rescued and Recommended diary "God created Arrakis to train the faithful", timiti on who we need to convince.

Mumon notes how truly pandemonium describes the Bushies.

Several days ago, I forgot to nominate Carnacki for a comment he posted late at night in the Top Comments diary, when almost no one would see it. I added the nomination as a fairly late comment to Top Comments the next night. Thankfully, he's recast it as the second half of an excellent diary Late train on a hot day, so I can give it proper prominence. I think the first half may be even better than the second, so even if you followed my link the other day, there's good reading ahead.

droogie6655321 recounts a well-known fact that I hadn't previously been acquainted with in JeffLieber's diary Am eye teh stoopid? Lots of other facts available in that diary, true and variations of same. droogie also goes all flowery on us later in the diary. Later, after I propound a property of commutativity, marketgeek gives an example of how it works (start here at D Wreck's True Fact for best effect, find my own comment, and start down thread to marketgeek). Plus, Angry Mouse reposts one of my favorite newspaper front pages.

In droogie6655321's own diary John McCain: 'Comeback Kid'? I was fond of indycam's explanation of how the Republicans ended up with McCain as their nominee.

From OrangeClouds115's action diary The Sexiest Diary I've Ever Written, judith2007 writes that Tagging won't make food healthier.

In kath25's You Are Falling for the Right Wing's Trap, ClickerJeff has an interesting perspective in a first comment on Daily Kos, even if I don't necessarily agree with everything he says.

Today's top mojo—those comments which have received the highest number of recommendations from Daily Kos users like you—as supplied by sardonyx, using his own revision of the amazing cskendrick's mojo-to-Excel magic.

First, Top Mojo excluding search-identifiable tip jars, first diary comments, and Cheers and Jeers:

  1) She's beautiful by RoCali — 179
  2) I might as well add... by Trix — 150
  3) Thanks by Governor Chris Gregoire — 144
  4) Lost a great comedian by fbihop — 132
  5) I wish I could say... by Pris from LA — 120
  6) Fuck! n/t by Trix — 103
  7) I don't like that strategy by jayden — 98
  8) Thank you for watching episode no. 319 by horatius — 94
  9) Congratulations!!! by Plutonium Page — 93
10) Mark Twain Award by STOP George — 88
11) Congrats Brandon... by Lava20 — 76
12) Thanks! n/t by Brandon Friedman — 76
13) Yes true. One would think they were using it by ObamaManiac2008 — 76
14) Not Even Bill Maher Would Agree With This...n/t by jimpharo — 70
15) Not self-indulgent at all! by kath25 — 68
16) Think she's kidding? by melvin — 68
17) And may I add... by STOP George — 67
18) Wished he'd lived long enough to see Bush gone... by I am Spartacus — 65
19) It was just a simple strawman, wasn't it by Loquatrix — 64
20) Facts, schmacts by droogie6655321 — 64
21) It's amazing to me how much the Repubs by turneresq — 63
22) Man, some people will do anything by Seneca Doane — 62
23) Nice work, my man! by CC Lee — 62
24) There's a time I would have been embarassed... by ultrageek — 60
25) One of the best, the only person I can think that by fromdabak — 60
26) I believe healthcare is a right... by Governor Chris Gregoire — 57
27) How sad. :-( by browneyes — 54
28) George Carlin...... by lying mcliar — 53
29) This needs to get out there so by JaciCee — 51
30) Death for political gain... by Ken in MN — 51

Top Mojo with No Exclusions:

  1) Tip jar by Brandon Friedman — 822
  2) tip jar (please) by RPCVCAR — 541
  3) Tips and Recs for the wisdom of John Dean. by ObamaManiac2008 — 393
  4) Tip Jar by ufw — 327
  5) FYI- Current Commerce Secretary is by Theghostofkarlafayetucker — 278
  6) Then again, maybe I'm the eedeyut! by JeffLieber — 254
  7) Thanks for taking action! by OrangeClouds115 — 228
  8) Tips/Recommendations by kubla000 — 219
  9) She's beautiful by RoCali — 179
10) Tips by wils02 — 179
11) Oh, that was too young. by betson08 — 159
12) I might as well add... by Trix — 150
13) Thanks by Governor Chris Gregoire — 144
14) How can one oppose cleaning up pollution? by Delaware Dem — 142
15) tips and recommends for michelle, a great week!! by icebergslim — 134
16) Lost a great comedian by fbihop — 132
17) Tip Jar :) by Steven R — 129
18) I wish I could say... by Pris from LA — 120
19) Tips Flambe' by Vyan — 115
20) Fuck! n/t by Trix — 103
21) I don't like that strategy by jayden — 98
22) Thank you for watching episode no. 319 by horatius — 94
23) Congratulations!!! by Plutonium Page — 93
24) Mark Twain Award by STOP George — 88
25) Thanks for your CONCERN. by Geekesque — 83
26) Sad Monday by Debbie in ME — 80
27) Splash! by kestrel9000 — 78
28) Yes true. One would think they were using it by ObamaManiac2008 — 76
29) Thanks! n/t by Brandon Friedman — 76
30) Congrats Brandon... by Lava20 — 76
31) Cheers to Brandon & Alexandra by vicki — 76
32) Tip by Carnacki — 76

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