It seems there has been a stepped up administrative moderation effort lately.
Warnings have gone out to a larger-than-usual number of users.
But Daily Kos depends on community moderation, not administrative moderation. Community moderation is deeply built in.
Moderation is up to us.
There is a distinction now, there has been for at least a year, between comments that should be HRed, and comments that are HRable. Use of labels like "Obamabots" and "firebaggers" can stand in for the second class.
Comments that are HRable should not be uprated. And no one that gets dinged for an HRable comment has any legitimate complaint about it.
We have a widespread problem with factional HRing and factional uprating.
In theory, HRing should be done without favor to sides. In practice, we suck at doing this.
The Policing Your Own Side Strategy
Put special effort into policing your own allies and faction, into policing Kossacks you often agree with, into policing opinion that you agree with that is perhaps improperly expressed.
Put special caution into policing other sides and factions, into policing Kossacks you often disagree with, into policing comments where you also disagree with the opinion expressed.
One part of this is dinging HRable comments that are being uprated by your own faction. Another part is dinging HRable comments from your own faction. Another part is not uprating HRable comments from anyone.
Not with heat or anger or irritation, just as simple enforcement.
Another part is not making HRable comments yourself.
Another part is staying out of flamewar threads, rather than engaging in them, even if you yourself aren't being particularly flamish.
In particular, if there is a legitimate HR in the thread above, that is a vote that the whole conversation be dropped. It makes no sense, then, to continue the conversation, and certainly not to help push it over towards the right margin.
A Recognition
Policing your own side can be hard to do. Policing the other side can be easy.
There are just natural social or community dynamics that make this so.
It's why it takes some conscious and intentional effort. The effort is needed.
A Consistent Theme
Much of the flamewarish commenting has behind it implicit or explicit claims about who is and who isn't a real Democrat. This is almost always a bunch of bunk.