No matter what happens, we are witnessing the end of Ted Stevens. Either he loses the election to Mark Begich, or he wins the election and faces expulsion by his peers. Neither scenario is one he would have chosen, or that Alaskans would ever have believed before his Girdwood home was raided by the FBI in 2006.
I hope that Mark Begich wins this seat for a variety of reasons. But, I think in the deepest recesses of his soul, Ted Stevens hopes he wins too. Stevens is a tough nut, but I suspect that the humiliation of being voted out by his Senate colleagues would be a lot tougher on him than losing an election.
The first official action of the Senate, a meeting in which senators will vote via secret ballot whether to oust Stevens from the Republican conference is scheduled to take place Tuesday morning, before the vote totals are even completed in his home state of Alaska.
Ejection from the Republican conference means losing his committee assignments and his vote on party matters.
Following his felony convictions in federal court before the election, Stevens was forced to step down as the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee and on an Appropriations subcommittee. He now appears in danger of losing his seat to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich
The conference meeting is currently scheduled for Tuesday, the day after Congress returns from its elections recess. While the vote is on the agenda for 9:30 a.m., it’s not clear whether it will take place. Many Republican senators say they would rather wait for the final election results so they don’t have to cast an uncomfortable vote on whether Stevens should stay in their conference.
Yes, we wouldn’t want to make them feel “uncomfortable” by voting on a secret ballot to eject a convicted felon from the Republican conference. For those Republican Senators who may be waffling on this decision, I have seven words for you. Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, aaannnnnd……guilty.
Whatever comes to pass, it won’t be long before Ted Stevens is packing up his undeclared massage chair, his fish sculpture, his stained glass window, and the rest. His Incredible Hulk collectibles, and the rest of his office will be finding its way to cardboard boxes, and leaving the Senate building after more than 40 years.
It’s a new chapter for Alaska, regardless of the outcome.
Mudflats 
Steens is history either way. Sarah too. Goodbye and good riddance – hope the same FBI guys make it to the Palin house soon.
errrr, Stevens, not “Steens”
Out with the old……in with the new….should have been done long ago. Congrats Alaska!
Ted…just take your chair and leave quietly now. You have had your turn; now gather up your toys and go.
yup yup you betcha
I agree AKM. I think he hopes he does lose. He can retire. Of course, so many people can’t anymore with the economy the way it is. If he doesn’t go to jail and can’t sell some of those “gifts”, WalMart greeter seems to be a good job, or the fries cook at MickeyD’s perhaps.
New fields are wide open for those who don’t have enough money to retire and yet lose their jobs.
Yep, Stevens is a gonner.
On an unrelated note, Phnxrising and I met up in Dublin today. I think this qualifies as the first international mudstock! 🙂
Phnxrising is going to post on this when she returns to Arizona and send in a photo or two.
Great! Email me at akmuckraker AT yahoo DOT com and send pictures! AKM
Alaska deserves that new chapter – all shiny, new, and with integrity. We are all pulling for Begich to make that happen.
He should concede to Begich, then the vote would not have to happen. Its his choice. He could save face that way. I felt sorry for him for about 10 seconds but realized he probably had his hand in the cookie jar for a lot more that didn’t get found out. I mean 40 years.. thats a long time.
That is great news Irishgirl. Now you’ll have to come our way. We’d make a lovely Mudstock party for you in Chicago, where you’d feel right at home with our large Irish community!
Irishgirl – Love the new name !
And I agree with Braveny –
Stevens should conceed – if he has any hope of saving face – that would be the way to do it.
Hello All !!
Greta Needs Rehab: Warning this youtube video may make you crazy!
Van Susteren continued to gush over Palin last night, devoting a segment to showing how popular the Alaskan was at the Republican Governors Association (RGA) convention this past week:
VAN SUSTEREN: The election may be over but governor Sarah Palin is not going anywhere. Senator McCain’s running mate continues to dominate headlines. Governor Palin stole the show this week at the GOP governor’s conference. […]
VAN SUSTEREN: Not that we measure necessarily who is going to be the best president by whose got the most cameras chasing himself or herself. But when you saw those other governors down walk the hall, Governor Crist and Governor Pawlenty, did they have the paparazzi following them? […]
VAN SUSTEREN: You know something interesting, Patricia, I don’t remember ever the national media going to one of these Republican Governor Association meetings. Maybe they do, but I just don’t ever remember. Do you know if your paper ever covered one before?
Van Susteren’s guest, Patricia Mazzei of the Miami Herald, tried to insist that other “rising stars” of the GOP also attracted considerable media attention, but she failed to deter van Susteren from her Palin-mania. Watch it:
Whew – its back. This thread seemed to have crashed for a few minutes – at least for me.
I’d also vote for Stevens to concede.
But how long before my vote would be counted….
Maybe Greta needs to go spend a week at Scientology Camp for a little refreshing.
@enjay AKA Turbine Yukon
Yes, I decided on an Obama name!
@Bec -Yes We Did – in Illinois
Thanks for the invite. 🙂
@ Bec -Yes We Did – in Illinois
Agreed…or else a week or two away from Scientology Central, as the refreshments served (black Kool-Aid) seem to unsettle Greta.
FOX entertainment news really has lowered the bar.
I can understand why ConvicTED’s Senate colleagues would just as soon he lost his seat rather than having to vote him out…. let’s not forget that there are some very long-term friendships and working relationships there. The GOP Sens know that Stevens can’t continue given his conviction, but on a personal level they’d prefer not having to vote him out. I don’t think it’s cowardice on their parts but having to expel a friend, regardless of what he did. I’d hate to be in the position to have to make that choice about a friend.
Let’s hope Begich’s lead continues. Then the whole vote becomes moot and ConvicTED can slink back to his chalet and whatever is left of his life until his appeals are finished and he’s packed off to the slammer. At 84, he’s on the downhill slope regardless of what comes from the appeals. Not a very good legacy after a 40 year career… But hopefully a lesson for the rest of the gang.
Greta’s interview is playing again now here in UK. It is truly nauseating!!
Has Greta got a girl crush on SP or a crush on the big Dud?
What has happened to Greta’s face?
How in the hell can Faux call themselves a news channel?
Halcrow — another very weird thing about Greta’s background – she is from Appleton, WI (near my old stomping grounds in Green Bay – dang – they just scored another touchdown. Bears fan, now) —
from Wiki:
Her father, Urban Van Susteren, was a longtime friend of Joe McCarthy, having studied law alongside him and serving as his campaign strategist in his successful 1946 U.S. Senate campaign to unseat three-term incumbent Robert LaFollette, Jr. During his Senate career, McCarthy lived in the Van Susterens’ Appleton home when he was not in Washington.[3]
Van Susteren’s sister, Lise, is a forensic psychiatrist in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2006, she was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.[4][5]
Another reason for Ted to prefer losing the election, (and why I don’t think he’ll seek a recount if it’s close enough), is that he can then blame the media while still protesting his innocence. The Blame Game seems to be a favorite pasttime of losing politicians.
Perhaps Stevens believes that any publicity is better than no publicity, and that he’d rather go out in a blaze of negative headlines, following Dylan Thomas’s admonishment, “Do not go gentle into that good night”.
Does anybody else suspect that Stevens insisting on running was not all about blind arrogance and narcissm, but at least in some part a thumbing of his nose to the Repubs of Alaska? I mean, as Red as Alaska is, another Alaskan Repub would have surely had a good chance of winning the Senate seat . . . Donchano.
Ted running lessened the Repub chances of retaining his Senate seat.
Me First said Ted. But was he also telling the Alaskan Repub party, Take This?
oops . . . narcissism, not narcissm
He should just start packing for the Big House. This isn’t just about Alaska, he’s, in essence, been stealing from the rest of the country.
@ Bec -Yes We Did – in Illinois
Her husband, John Coale, is/was a big McCain fan…and Coale is another high-profile Scientologist, just like his wife, Greta.
John talks a good fight, but the grip of his cold,dead hands slackens easily.
Greta and her husband John P. Coale were investors in the Ponzi scheme of Scientologist Reed Slatkin; they invested $2.1 million and received $2.7 million in payments according to this report by the court-appointed trustee. When being told that even innocent parties (i.e. participants who didn’t know it was a Ponzi scheme) are required to return the extra money, John Coale said: “I’ll fight this thing for 100 years” because “Most of that money went to the IRS.” (Source: The Los Angeles Times from 21.12.2001)
The 100 years fight is already over. John and Greta are settling the case and will pay back $705,000 to the estate in seven semi-annual installments.
I like to imagine that Mitt Romney has paid a fortune for the secret vids or tapes that aides made on the McCain campaign trail of Silly Sarah having head fits. Then leaking them out bit by bit in a blistering primary. Too long to wait but what a laugh that would be.
Of course, then in my imagination Mittens trousers split when he bends over, exposing his magic knickers – a real vote magnet :wicked:
As Mad Skills Son said earlier on this blog, “Karma is a mofo. The GOP is going down like a cheap hooker.”
That is one of my favorite comments of all time. That, and Granny’s comment about Palin having her hair done by a “straight” back around 8/30. I don’t know why, but they crack me up everytime it think of them. And I don’t like the mo-fo thing, but the entirety of the quote is priceless.
I hope I’m not wrong,but the way I heard it is if Stevens steps down voluntary he doesn’t lose his retirement. If he is expelled he loses it. So if he tries to hang on because he is a GRUMPY OL’ MAN he stands to lose more then his seat. I say Uncle Ted pack your pipes and tubes, take the one way ticket back home and ride there in you borrowed chair…..
Will re-post this artice from the NYT today, by Frank Rich entitled ‘The Moose Stops Here’ , no prizes for guessing the punchline
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/opinion/16rich.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
@Irishgirl Rosebud: You borrowed one, I borrowed another.
Yours fits, not sure how long I may keep mine.
—————-
A thought on the subject of video posted by bPoint (10:35:13) :
GRETA GOTTA GET GONE! 😮
Off thread again – has anyone heard from Ocliberal since she posted yesterday? The smoke was getting thicker last we heard from her and we all begged her to get herself and family and pets safe.
Same feelings about Stevens. Substitute STEVENS for GRETA
halcrow (11:19:00) :
Are you talking about Robert Plotkin of the Pt Reyes Light?
Misspell: Renegade not Renagade. 🙂
halcrow (11:19:00) :
@ Bec -Yes We Did – in Illinois
Blimey, didn’t know any of this stuff about Greta. Very interesting. So that’s all of them tools on Fox then. Well maybe not Shep, Maybe.
Newfoundland Dogs Rule–if you’re still around, I’ve discovered that replacing wheat flour with a 50-50 mix of rice flour and tapioca flour works GREAT for making regular baked goods gluten free. Have used it for angel food cake and brownies so far, and the texture has been as good or better than the regular recipe and no change in taste.
UK – I was just about to post about Ocliberal when this thread crashed on me again. My niece must live near her and she may have to evacuate – or as by now. Here is a map that shows the evacuation areas. I know Oc is in Orange County – somewhere. She probably did evacuate yesterday.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=106815419160512736787.0004568c3a70778cc83ab&ll=33.847037,-117.774124&spn=0.216706,0.32959&z=11&source=embed
@UK Lady (11:32:46) :
ocliberal hasn’t been spotted since we all encouraged her to head on out. I figure they got out of the way and are stuck somewhere without internet access and/or electricity, esp. since the electrical lines are in danger and all SoCal is being asked to conserve electricity. Hope she is okay, along with all other SoCal mudpuppies.
It really boggles the mind. I keep asking what is Ted Stevens trying to accomplish here?
Anyway you look at it he loses. While he is carrying on he is taking the Alaskan people down with him. I personally am just sick of the politicians who have their fist in the cookie jar, get caught and keep crying innocent.
Maybe there was integrity at one point in his career but sadly he bought into his own perceived power and persona.
It is time for all of us to recognize no one is above the law. No one, whether they are a ditch digger or a politician.
Shame on those among us who try to excuse the behavior of these political figures.
That includes the campaigners that tried hate, fear and division of the American people to further their goals and now are back peddling since the election! Shame on them and they should be ostracized for their behavior. These are not the leaders I want or want teaching my children and grandchildren.
Is the site acting funny for those posting on this thread? Stuff like comments appearing and then disappearing?
Bec – thanks for that, I hope they are all safe and with all the rest of us mudpups look forward to hearing from her very soon with good news about their home.
Keeping all of the people in the CA fires in my thoughts and prayers.
Deep Blue — the whole thread keeps disappearing. Don’t know what is up, unless the major server for WordPress is in LA or something. I thought for sure the whole internet would crash on election night – figuring that was probably the most traffic in history. But today, something funny is going on.
Bec – yeah – it’s been acting funny all day for me. I did email AKM about it, though I’m not sure if anything can be done. I don’t know that much about stuff like this, but my guess is it’s a server problem.
@ UK Lady (11:40:25) :
There is/was speculation that Rupert Murdoch’s son, Lachlan Murdoch, was being recruited by the Scientologist, Tom Cruise.
UK Lady (11:40:25) :
During a year working and living in Sydney, Cruise and Kidman fostered a circle of friends that included Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann and his Oscar-winning wife Catherine Martin, News Ltd media executive Lachlan Murdoch and his then fiancee Sarah O’Hare, and an actors’ network that included John Polson and David Wenham.
Through the association with Mr Murdoch, it’s understood Cruise was introduced to Mr Packer, Mr Murdoch’s long-time friend and partner in the doomed telco company.
The first sighting of the two men together came in August, 1999, when a newspaper reported that the pair met for coffee at hip Bondi cafe Hugo’s Lounge with Kerry Packer, Kidman and James Packer’s then fiancee, Jodie Meares, sharing their table.
About this time there were rumours that Cruise, the world’s highest profile Scientologist, had tried to introduce Lachlan Murdoch to the religious movement, but had been unsuccessful.
…http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/the-cruise-connection/2006/02/18/1140151850173.html
Ocliberal: as soon as you get hooked back up, let us all know that you, family and dogs are ok. In the meantime, safety first. Your fellow mudpuppies are thinking good thoughts for you.
Hi all,
It is possible WordPress might act strangely over the coming weeks given that there is an upgrade on the way.
I don’t know what is causing the problems but it is possible that ya’all are just asking too much from a blog comment thread.
Blog comment areas were never designed to be used the way you guys are using them. That’s why we created the forums. That’s where discussions not related to the actual blog post should be going. I understand that some of you don’t want to do that, and that’s fine, but it means that the blog is seriously under strain at times. Especially when ya’all sit here refreshing the page to read any new comments.
Forums are designed to deal with that kind of thing – blogs are simply not designed to carry on the discussion in this way.. If you knew how bloated the back end of wordpress can get, you would understand how problems can happen. The blog now has almost 100,000 comments on less than 500 posts. And every time people post one word comments, you see just one word here, but it creates multiple entries in the database that you can’t see – the thing that *runs* the blog. There will come a point at which the database begins to act up due to the sheer size of it, and I think we’re probably there.
I’m not having any problems myself but I’ll keep an eye on things for the next couple of days.
Meanwhile, can you post what internet browser you are using (ie internet explorer and the version number, like IE6 or IE7 or Firefox 2 or 3, you can find the version by clicking on help and then about internet explorer or about mozilla firefox), so I can try to work out if it is browser related?
Also, could I encourage you to perhaps move discussions that aren’t relevant to the blog post itself over to the forums. We now have this random thoughts thread, where you can post whatever you like.
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,3685.0.html
make yourself laugh — go visit “Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle!”
http://barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com/
and the hit “refresh.”
and then hit “refresh” again.
you will indeed be “refreshed.”
Here’s why many voters stuck with Ted
http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/590765.html
Thanks snoskred for the info. Getting us to change our habits could be tough. We’ll try to be good. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a thread disappear, and bunches of posts. And today’s traffic is a much slower day than many I’ve seen. But we probably are overloading with all the posts from the last month or two!
I’m using Firefox 3.0.4
Snos,
I answered your post on the previous thread, but I’ll reply again:
Thanks for the information on what might be going on. For the record, the site has been behaving perfectly for me for the past 30 minutes or so.
I’m using Firefox 3.0.4
@halcrow,
WOW…thanks for all the educational background/information on Greta/Coale and Cruise/Murdoch associations and everything in between.
Thanks. Great place to learn so much from so many!
Was just thinking how is Ted going to plug the Massager in when he is in his new 6 by 9 home?
halcrow (11:57:17) :
Thanks for all the info. I remember now about Cruise and Murdoch’s son. As I recall, he wasn’t interested.
Sorry Snoskred, just can’t get the hang of the foum.
Not sure, but I think I am on explorer.
Snoskred, thanks for the info. I tried the chatroom. Twice! It didn’t work for me. I know I must be doing something wrong. Alas. 😦
Okay, I use Safari Version 3.1.2 (4525.22), hope that helps. Glad to hear it just might be the server . .
I had thoughts of parallel universes stealing the posts.
Thanks, InJuneao for the heads up on the flour.
I’m hoping that he WILL go gentle into that good night. But then again, my dad when he retired some fifteen years ago had a difficult time because his image of himself was so wrapped up in what he did.
My mom, on the other hand, thought thank goodness that’s over, got bored, got a dog, and decided we were moving to the western part of MA so we could raise the dogs.
Maybe Ted needs a dog. Not a Newfoundland though, they are much too good for him. (so are Mutts, Boxes, Golden Retrievers, Labs and any other dogs that people reading the posts might have)
Deep Blue – The forums are actually just the same – it is simply that people are able to categorise their posts better. You guys might be patient enough to read through a 100 post thread where every second post is off on a different tangent, but that actually scares new people off, and it makes it very hard to have discussions.
There are so many great features on the forums. Like you can actually edit your posts, and there is no chance of things going into the spam bin – what you post is what shows up in the thread. I think you guys should give them a try. We have written many how to posts, showing people how to do things over there.
Perhaps you can see it from my perspective – it is really frustrating to hear people talking about how things aren’t working right over here and knowing that the likely reason for that is because the blog is not designed to do what you’re doing with it. The forums ARE designed to cope with lots of posts without breaking anything. 🙂
Snoskred,
I feel for you! I really had no idea that the prolific commenting was a problem.
I have been gradually using the forum more and more and I do see the benefits of it. I just think it will be difficult to create a sea change in how visitors use this blog to create a community.
Commenting is really easy, but the forum is much more complex and takes some time to figure out. I will try to use it more, though, now that I understand the importance of it.
@Newfoundland Dogs Rule (12:23:30) :
You’re welcome. I researched on the web when I needed to make angel food cake for Easter with guests that were gluten free. I figured it would work for other recipes so recently tried with brownies. Everyone agreed they wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t told them, which is a good recommendation!
p.s. I LOVE Newfies. One of our dogs was 1/4 Newfie, and she adored the water.
fromlaurelstreet (12:01:04) :
—————-
Thanks for the link, it’s pretty neat.
—————-
snoskred (12:00:47) : Thank you for the technical information.
With respect to your request, I am using IE7 and also have
Firefox3.0.4. I use IE7 primarily and have not had
any serious problems.Hope this is helpful.
How about we try a compromise.
The forum Admins will create a special forum, where we will put a daily thread. You can post in there all you like. Maybe we could try it for a week, and see if ya’all can get the hang of using the forums?
I will also ask Sephy and see if he can write something for the blog with links to all the how to posts, and hints and tips you might be able to use for using the forums.
Is anyone willing to give this a try?
When all is said and done, we must remember this – Ted Stevens did a lot of good for Alaska. And maybe we don’t agree with the how he achieve his accomplishments, but we cannot really fault him for his service to his state and his constituents. The lesson, if indeed there is one, to be learned is that good men (and women) are susceptible to the excesses of power, and as long as we, the electorate, choose to overlook such excesses because those are “our” folks in office, we feed those delusions of grandeur with our expectations of continuous results, i.e. pork/earmarks, for our region. I’m sorry to see Stevens’ long career of service end in such disgrace, but a public servant should always remember – they serve at the whim of the people, not vice versa.
snoskred (12:36:16) :
——————–
I am personally with your idea 1000%. Would love to learn how
to use the forum. Tried it a few times, but, had a tough time
figuring it all out. The links you mentioned would be great.
Thanks. 💡
Hau everyone!
Irishgirl Rosebud. (10:17:45) :
Congrats on International Mudstock!
Snoskred,
Dopey question: Do you know why, when you do post in a forum, you are sent back out to the like general forum page? Then you have to go back into that forum again, just wonderin…
Shikago – that is something you can change within your profile.
Click on profile in the top menu, then click on look and layout options in the left hand sidebar menu. Put a tick next to –
Return to topics after posting by default.
Then click on save changes. 🙂
That will send you back to the post you just wrote.
The thing is, the forums are so customisable – you have a lot of options, it is just a matter of learning about them and learning how to use them.
We’ll create some more how to’s. 😉
@Chief: Yesterday, I had something I really wanted you to take a look
at. Can’t remember what it was. Will post when I recall. This is a
stupid post. Shoulda waited till I had the info. Oh WTH. 😯
Who’s up / Who’s down
UP Mark Begich: The long count gives him a narrow lead over Uncle Ted.
DOWN Ted Stevens: Hulk mum. Don’t expect the senator to say uncle yet.
UP Don Young: The long count leaves him comfortably ahead. When the final vote comes to fruition, he’ll still be Alaska’s lone congressman for some of his constituents.
DOWN Ethan Berkowitz: Polls? Polecats! Sean Parnell ran a closer race. If Ethan is a man of faith, he must be sorely tested now.
UP Tony Knowles: Former gov has his name bandied about for Secretary of the Interior. That’s how it started for Sarah.
EVEN Sarah Palin: Gov returns to national stage. Must be the bright lights. But hey, how about firing up the home base?
http://www.adn.com/opinion/view/story/590763.html
Snoskred,
I think that’s a great idea and I am glad to jump on board. I’ve been gradually getting more familiar with the forum and think it would be nice to have more of the mudflats community using it.
There is a beauty in reading everyone’s thoughts and reactions, but there have been several times I tried to scan through everyone’s comments and it took HOURS……..so when there are conversations NOT meant for me, it would be a blessing to have them revert to instant messaging, the forum, emails……or another format…….with conclusions and questions and newcomers still appearing here.
Yes, I will give the forums a try…
ty snoskred,
I am rather infrequent with posting…but I visit every day. I use IE7 w/no problems.
I will use the forums more from now on because when I do have the time to post I like to visit with others…yeah, this old lady can learn to do so, I promise 🙂
Thanks for all you do!
@InJuneau (11:40:47) :
Newfoundland Dogs Rule–if you’re still around, I’ve discovered that replacing wheat flour with a 50-50 mix of rice flour and tapioca flour works GREAT for making regular baked goods gluten free.
_________________________________
Although this wasn’t for me, I am very grateful for the info.
Hey guys, I have started a new topic at the forum – Does Stevens want Begich to win – hop on over and you can continue the chat over there! 🙂
W. Virginia town shrugs at being fattest city.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27697364
I realize this is Off Topic, but it is important to many people
that may be posting or lurking on this blog. Hope I don’t
get in trouble for sharing this article. 😐
Snoksred,
This is all fairly new to me but i will have my techy husband teach me how to log in over in the forums and give it a try. I really had no idea that blogs aren’t meant to have this much activity. This is just such a beautiful ongoing conversation. It’s hard to resist. But I’m willing to learn something new…
snoskred, I use Firefox 3 and I’m having no problems.
I had actually decided yesterday not to post anymore unless it was directly pertinent to the thread topic. It was dawning in me that y’all were creating more reasons to gently prod us over to the Forum.
I may not join you guys over there. I really need to get stuck into Deleuze. But, I will be checking on you. 80 And, if and when anything needs our concerted action, I’ll be there.
amen, good luck Ted. I’m so sorry we ended this way.
Northern Quilter AK (12:59:49) :
Logging in is very easy. All you need is your user name, a password and an email address. You should try it now.
Hi everyone! I’m home again. Hallelujah!
What a night. Everyone is okay. We had headed to my mother-in-law’s home about 7:00 pm last night. My brother and sister-in-law and 82 yo mother joined us there. We tried to ‘pretend’ it was some sort of adventure but really it was just very tiring, nerve-racking and we were all just shell-shocked. We had our two recalcitrant beagles and my brother had his well-behaved mutt. My poor mother-in-law did her best to find room for all of us but we all just crammed together in her small family room staring at her tiny TV which repeated the same pictures and info over and over and over again.
One of my beagles wandered over to my mother-in-law’s pool and decided to take a swim (at 9:00pm). She is very fat and once in the water couldn’t get out. My 14 year old had to jump in and pull her out. That’s the kind of night it was. The daughter and beagle proceeded to drip water everywhere.
We came home very early this morning to blue skies over us and no winds. My daughter decided she wanted to go to church with her friends so at 8:00am I, against my better judgment and still dressed in what I slept in, drove her to church and returned home only to find the whole area had been blocked off by police cars and they wouldn’t let anyone back in! I was furious! I was only gone about 20 minutes and I was in my pjs!!!! They said tough. I went back to my poor mother-in-law’s house and spent 5 hours there fuming. No reason given any where for this lockout and it was not an evacuation area. Eventually a friend called my husband and told him of a back-door in through a parking lot of a senior citizen’s home in the area. So I left my poor mother-in-law again, retrieved my daughter from a friend’s house and returned home about an hour ago.
This is a tragedy for our city. There are over 100 homes lost and over 10,000 acres burned. I am truly blessed to be safe with my family, my home and my annoying yet beloved dogs.
My heart and prayers go out to those who have lost everything.
Sorry for the disjointed post but I wanted to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and wishes. I have never been so happy to be home.
Snoskred
Am tryng very hard to get to grips with the forum. Have just registered, but I think it will be a slow process for me. Things need spelling out very s l o w l y. And often often often. I can’t understand how I can do the Times cryptic crossword fairly easily, but come apart when faced with a computer. 😳
Shikago
Thanks for sticking up for me with ‘scared ex pat?’, yesterday, wonder what tripped his/her trigger? BTW just saw your fab animacons on the forum, can you tell me (in pidjin english obviously) how you did that?
One really nice feature to the forum is that it shows you who is online at the same time you are.
I think the forum takes some getting used to, but it could end up being better for all of us.
Thank God you’re okay, OC Liberal! Welcome home!
Ocliberal
Fab, great, wonderful to hear from you. I have been fretting since you last posted, so sorry though for all the people who have lost homes etc.
Love the beagle story. 😆
Newfoundland Dogs Rule
Musins about Stevens financial status in retirement.
The Pres gets a life time 6 figure retirement with lots of perks.
Surely Congress has voted retirement for themselves??
I’ve been out of touch for a couple of days with work, so AKM may have addressed this.
I know some of Palin’s Florida trip would be state business and taxpayer paid. How much of her other recent travels been foisted off onto Alaska?
Nver skup spill chek. Thas’s musings
I am sick and tired of Greta on Foxs news. I think she ate too much moose stew. It has gone to her head. When she thought SP was a hit at the Rep.convention, I wondered where she came up with this fiction. She must be blind. The other Govs couldn’t get rid of her fast enough. She may have had the media’s attention, but not her peers. She could never compete with them on any level. They threw her under the bus. I can’t wait until she is held accountable for all her sins of deceit in Alaska. Wonder if they have a morgage on that house, or is it a freebie ?
@Forty Watt (12:54:57) :
You’re welcome too. I’ll post info on it over on the Forum recipe thread too. It’s useful info for lots of people I think.
I will head over to the forum to comment on Irishgirl’s thread.
Will throw out this proposal —
Perhaps one of the first commenters who is savvy with Forum can create a thread over there using the same title & then come back here to post the link.
We’ll all get used to it in time.
We’re doing a lot of things over on the forums to try and connect people together, such as a book club, a Santa swap, stuff like that. Icy Russia Palin will post some links to those things in today’s chat thread on the forums.
And Sephy is writing you a post with links to the how to’s we already have written. If there is anything you’re not sure about you can ask for help in the thread and one of the mods will either link you to the answer if we already have it somewhere, or write an answer for you. 🙂
We have an events and meets area and we’re in the process of putting together a list of where people are from if you want to try and organise a meet near you.
There is a private messaging function, so if you want to communicate something a bit private to someone you can do that. 😉
Try this link to get to the forum thread easily:
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,3731.0.html
ocliberal–Oh blessings that you are back and everything is fine for you. You, your family, and your whole area are in our prayers for continues safety.
Thx Irishgirl Rosebud. I’m in! I guess it is possible for me to learn new techy things. I shortened my name to QuiltAK. It just seemed easier. See everyone over at the forums.
Snoskred
Crap, my hubby just changed my email address. I just registered in his because I was using his laptop. He wasn’t very chuffed with me so I have to change it again. So sorry, I am trying (in more ways than one), but I won’t give up. Do I have to re-register?
Now isn’t that going to be humiliating for the Democrats if the Republicans vote out Stevens and the Democrats do nothing to punish Lieberman.
I couldn’t stand to watch the Palin speech at the Governor’s conference again, but the link reminded me.
Another Palin/supermom myth fell. Without the teleprompters, she had to read her speech from notes on the lectern. No quick study. No perfect recall. And she stumbled so many times I have to think somebody else wrote it, or she was arrogant enough to whip it out the night before and not rehearse it.
Brain lazy or brain dead. In a leader it really doesn’t matter which. And if you get both, like Duhyba, look what a disaster can follow.
Nor sure if humiliating is the right word Katiebegood. Lieberman is a creep, but not a convicTED felon.
The GOP says they’ll take Liebermann! If only! Please throw out Judah!
Okay, I’ve tried to post THREE times over at the forum and this message remains above my post ‘Warning – while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post. and nothing happens.
Anyone know why? Thanks. :o(
snoskred (12:36:16) :
You’re saying that AKM posts a new blog entry, we all read it then jump to the matching forum entry and take the convo in there? You can count me in.
And g’evening fellow muddies!
Since I’m here I wanted to send hugs (and a search party) out to Ocliberal. Hoping that everything is OK with her and her family.
Greta- yeah, what’s up with the Palin worship? Maybe Todd gave her a *thrill* out on the snowmobile! 😉 lol
InJuneau (12:34:08) :
Thanks for posting the gluten free info. I’m have two celiac friends who I’m at a loss for in terms of baked goods. I did substitute straight rice flour last year (in place of wheat flour) for a pie crust. Taste-wise, you couldn’t tell the difference and it was still flaky.
Newfoundland Dogs Rule- I wandered over to your website to look around. Your Newfies are beeeautiful! I had a short-lived breeding program with German Shepherds (aka Shedders) and produced some beautiful pups (the youngest litter is now ten). How right you are that it’s a LOT of hard work and time (the main reason I chose not to continue).
I think it’s time for Ted to hang it up. Besides having a vote in issues, is there a reason why these ol’ dudes refuse to retire gracefully? I’m sure there are plenty of opportunites to serve peeps in the form of volunteering. Geesh
[[[Greta Needs Rehab: Warning this youtube video may make you crazy!
Clearly, Greta needs to have the witchcraft driven out of her. Perhaps Palin’s witchdoctor will be back in town soon.
does this work here?
:on my soapbox:
emjaygee – that is because people are posting while you’ve been writing your post.
I recommend everyone goes into their profile and turns that off 😉
Click on profile in the top menu, then click on look and layout options in the left hand sidebar menu. Put a tick next to –
Don’t warn on new replies made while posting.
Then click on save changes.
[[[As Mad Skills Son said earlier on this blog, “Karma is a mofo. The GOP is going down like a cheap hooker.”…]]]
How about “The GOP is going down like a $2 hooker on the Saturday night before the rent is due”?
She just won’t go away……..millions to Sarah Palin for a book deal? Say it isn’t so……….
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24661296-663,00.html
For Obama Art- a site collecting it, for viewing and some for poster sale. Some I like a lot.
http://www.obamaartreport.com/2008/11/mason-fetzer-prints-now-available.html
just a test
snoskred (12:36:16) :
You’re saying that AKM posts a new blog entry, we all read it then jump to the matching forum entry and take the convo in there? You can count me in.
At this stage, we’re going to try one daily thread for chat and see how that goes.. 🙂
[[[Now isn’t that going to be humiliating for the Democrats if the Republicans vote out Stevens and the Democrats do nothing to punish Lieberman.]]]
In reality, by now aren’t we all quite used to being humiliated by the Dems in Congress?
Sorry, the name of the new thread in the forum has been changed to “Blog Chat.”
Political Amazon (13:42:58) :
[[[Now isn’t that going to be humiliating for the Democrats if the Republicans vote out Stevens and the Democrats do nothing to punish Lieberman.]]]
In reality, by now aren’t we all quite used to being humiliated by the Dems in Congress?
Yes, but I had high hopes that things would change with Obama being elected. If the Democrats screw this one up, like it looks they are going to do, it will be a real shame.
[[[This is all fairly new to me but i will have my techy husband teach me how to log in over in the forums and give it a try. I really had no idea that blogs aren’t meant to have this much activity. This is just such a beautiful ongoing conversation. It’s hard to resist. But I’m willing to learn something new…]]]
ITA. It’s like a neighborhood bar where we stop by, see what subject is on the TV, talk about it for awhile, but from time to time drift off to a related subject.
Message boards feel more disjointed, and (IMO) it’s harder to develop a real sense of community for the majority of us who don’t have time to check all the threads, go to different sites for networking, etc.
It’s AKM’s show, though. If a lot of replies to her blog are creating a problem, then we’ll need to do what makes it easier for her.
Of course, if she didn’t write so many really good, evocative articles, we wouldn’t be so inspired to respond…. 🙂
@Ocliberal — I am glad you and family are safe!
@ everybody!
Here is what I see as best/worst case scenarios for the Ted Stevens drama:
Worst Case
Ted wins re-election. Before the re-counts are over the Rpugs quietly decline to vote him out of the party. The Senate first waits for January and then weakly attempts to throw him out and fails. His appeals meander over several years, and finally the Supreme Court overturns all seven guilty counts.
He lives to be 105 and dies – still in office.
Best Case
Begich wins the current election and de-thrones Ted. Before re-counts are over, the Rpugs fail to vote Tedout of the party amid much loud debate that exposes those who support him, with an especially poignant appeal on his behalf by Hair’em Scara that she cannot possibly back away from later. The Senate does not wait a moment and throws him out with a near-unanimous vote where his staunchest supporters fight on publicly to the bitter end (and we know their names). His appeals are either denied, or even better, he spends a lot of his own money getting his appeals heard by the Supreme Court who summarily uphold his convictions.
He lives to be 105 and dies -during a visit to Ben in prison.
I believe something significantly closer to the Best Case will play out. Please, Alaskans…..make it happen! See to it that Begich gets the win!!!
snoskred (13:42:25) :
snoskred (12:36:16) :
You’re saying that AKM posts a new blog entry, we all read it then jump to the matching forum entry and take the convo in there? You can count me in.
At this stage, we’re going to try one daily thread for chat and see how that goes.. 🙂
——-
Will that be something that changes at midnight Alaska time? Or on some other schedule?
——–
On the Ted topic (so that I am not commenting off-topic, and because I did want to comment on this), I am pretty sure that Ted would rather lose than be kicked out of the Senate. That way, he can say that the people have spoken (by a slim margin) and have voted for a change. He also gets to keep his pension. And he doesn’t do more damage to his party by pitting his friends against each other.
Anonymous (13:57:34) :
snoskred (13:42:25) :
snoskred (12:36:16) :
You’re saying that AKM posts a new blog entry, we all read it then jump to the matching forum entry and take the convo in there? You can count me in.
At this stage, we’re going to try one daily thread for chat and see how that goes.. 🙂
——-
Will that be something that changes at midnight Alaska time? Or on some other schedule?
——–
On the Ted topic (so that I am not commenting off-topic, and because I did want to comment on this), I am pretty sure that Ted would rather lose than be kicked out of the Senate. That way, he can say that the people have spoken (by a slim margin) and have voted for a change. He also gets to keep his pension. And he doesn’t do more damage to his party by pitting his friends against each other.
——-
Oh ‘ell, that was me, not Anonymous.
Big Slick
Well, you hairy, alpha male you, your best case scenario is wicked! 👿 😆
IamCdn (13:41:14) :
She just won’t go away……..millions to Sarah Palin for a book deal? Say it isn’t so……….
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24661296-663,00.html
They are going to have to hire a ghost writer for her because there’s no way she could write a book that would be comprehensible.
snoskred or techie help PLEASE
How can I change my name on my forum profile? I created it before I started posting here, and I want to change it to SMG – MN because that’s how I’ve been posting. Evidently I can’t remember my password either, now, so it won’t let me change anything. Is there anything that I can do????
SMG – Can you still log into the forums?
I can change your username that people see, but it will keep your login name and password the same.. 🙂
If you can’t log in then you’ll need to reset your password, i think.. it hasn’t happened to me so I can’t be sure, but if that turns out to be the case i’ll find out for you..
@: Political Amazon (13:50:51) :
ITA. It’s like a neighborhood bar where we stop by, see what subject is on the TV, talk about it for awhile, but from time to time drift off to a related subject.
Message boards feel more disjointed, and (IMO) it’s harder to develop a real sense of community for the majority of us who don’t have time to check all the threads, go to different sites for networking, etc.
———————————————–
Hopefully the blog chat thread will be an exact replica of this blog. You don’t need to check out all the threads – although there is a lot of good stuff there!
Just dive into the chat!! 🙂
snoskred, I can log in (I think, anyway, it seems to recognize me – I can see the chat and all). So yes, I just wanted to change my username to SMG – MN. When you have the time, if you could help me figure out how to get my password reset, I would be grateful. But no hurry! (I’m also not a very willing creature of change, but I will dutifully try my best…. 🙂 )
Snoskred
Thanks for all your hard work and best of luck!
Why not win and then resign to spend more time with the family? That’s the Republican way. Too bad the final vote count will not be finished before the Republican conference on Tuesday. Really really too too bad.
I have an SMR..
Can you log in and post over there, so I can make sure I’m changing the right name? 🙂
People are more likely to discover the forum and get in the habit of communicating there if Mudflats had a big obvious link right at the top of the page when it opens. Once someone makes an interesting off topic comment on a thread, it is so easy to just run with that in the comment section.
OC liberal. Have been thinking about you and glad to hear the worst of it was rescuing that beagle from the pool. Not so good for some other folks out there though. 😦
But sure glad all is well with you.
[[[How about we try a compromise.
The forum Admins will create a special forum, where we will put a daily thread. You can post in there all you like. Maybe we could try it for a week, and see if ya’all can get the hang of using the forums?
I will also ask Sephy and see if he can write something for the blog with links to all the how to posts, and hints and tips you might be able to use for using the forums.
Is anyone willing to give this a try?]]]
How about this approach:
1. AKM continue to post her articles on the blog, but for each one also make a separate entry in the Forum.
2. Turn off the ability to respond to the post in the blog itself.
3. Instead, at the bottom of the blog entry/article, post a link to the Forum thread created with the duplicate of AKM’s blog post.
Perhaps creating a separate forum folder entitled “BLOG RESPONSES”? For those of us who are goal-oriented and short on time, we can just go directly to the Forum folder, read AKM’s blog/folder entry, and then respond to it.
In general politicians being too closely allied with oil companies has hurt many–in Alaska and elsewhere. Due to war, due to high fuel prices, due to environmental degradation. So the charges are serious and Alaskans need to move forward.
I enjoy all aspect of Mudflats. Commenting here is kind of fun–sort of a little live chat that works better in my opinion that actual live chat for that purpose, as well as responding to AKM fresh posts.
The Forum works well for other topics that might last awhile and invite participation–but maybe not have require immediate give and take.
Wallowing in it here and there and everywhere and enjoying the company and leaving a few tracks of my own.
Since my computer hates the forum, I had better say goodbye while I still can.
bye
Hi ocliberal:
Glad youre back and your family is well and safe. I live up in Victorville, California and we werent affected by the fires and I could not see it from my front porch.( a little humor) Im glad your family is getting back to normal.
As for as Greta believing that SWWNBN is so popular is quite the sham. SWWNBN is a novelty like a monkey with moose ears and everybody is running out to see what the strange creature is about until they find out that she is nothing special, just all fluff and no substance.
I have gone over to the forum quie a few times and learned a little more each time. I will definitely go over there more often to be cooperative. Thanks for all the information and all that you do to make things more convenient for us.
Alternatively, we could try to figure out why your computer hates the forum, and fix it.
We’re pretty patient people, willing to try and help people out with problems.
If you want us to, that is.
OT for OCLiberal: We are planning a Post-Fire So Cal Mudflats party–check out the Forum for the planning part–we definitely want you in!
Post-fires SoCal Mudstock Meet-up under Events and Meet ups
I think this space works best for blog and chat. The forums work best for specific topics and issues that may last awhile. Both are great and the whole site is great.
Best blog on the web!! And best coffee shop!! And best place for action!! And best place for commiseration!!
Unfortunately Northern Exposure, WordPress.com begs to disagree with you.. people are having trouble with comments disappearing, and now I have loaded the page to get absolutely no images at all on it.. I think this thing is about to have a serious meltdown.. 😦
I’m staying here for blog and live chat. Wonder if I’ll be the lone moose??? The forum is too unwieldy for for instant conversation and divides us too much. Best use the forum for specific topics that don’t require immediate gratification.
Will be waiting for other renegades to join me back here.
snoskred (13:22:50) :
Thanks for the information; I am a technoidiot, and me and my trusty G5 (Safari 3.1.2) have some troubles in the forums- I finally figured out the recipes…I think.
ocliberal (13:08:54) :
Glad you are ok; we were worried last night. Weather Channel says winds will change Tuesday, so maybe good news for So Cal.
I think the Republican conference will postpone the Tuesday vote, until the final Alaskan vote tally is in. They are between a rock and a hard place: don’t want to lose any Republicans, but don’t want to be seen supporting a felon- especially for the next 18 months while Ted appeals. Not good PR for the GOP.
Sorry, Snoskred. Didn’t really understand the problem. Why the problems now?? We’ve had more comments previously than lately??
I’d rather put up with disappearing posts than disappearing people!!!????
I’ll sign out for now if the posts are causing difficulty. Bye, Muddies.
Aussie–don’t go away, please; see if snoskred can help you figure it out… We would miss you if you left.
@ Political Amazon (14:32:25)
That’s sounds really good.
AKM and all of you who moderate the Forum have been both wonderfully patient and (perhaps too) subtle. You can wait for us to jump off the diving board only so long–and I’m talking about myself–then you just need to step in there and give us a shove!
Northern Exposure Renegade (14:56:33) :
I will be here, as I am too slow for most of the forums-
Political Amazon (14:32:25) :
You lost me at #2, but I am game to try…I am very comfortable with this format, but it took me a week or more to get a handle on it. So I may crash and burn on the forums…
BTW-The Denver Post had an article today re Catholics leaving the Church, due to pressure to vote “pro-life” (McCain), just like someone last night said.
Northern Exposure – I explained it in a comment above, but the short version = this blog now has almost 100,000 comments. WordPress is put together by kids in their pjs (just like bloggers, Sarah Palin!) and unfortunately is not designed for what ya’all have been using it for. The MYSQL database which runs in the background gets bloated fast, and 100k comments would probably equal a couple of *gig* in disk space.
So when you have that many comments, things slow down and sometimes just don’t work right.
If you want to stay here that is fine, but if things go boom don’t blame me – I have no control over wordpress.com – and if this were on our server we’d have some problems, too, even though our server costs us $400US a month to run. We’ve been down this road once before with a blog we created which got a lot of posts and it ended up taking the server down completely until we deleted the entire database. Remember that wordpress.com is a free service.
Good post. Fully expect Begich to win. Time for Stevens to disappear.
A new day in Alaska politics? Let’s hope so. Now if Alaska could just not re-elect Palin in any political role whatsoever. That would be bliss. (I don’t think we have to worry about her on the national scene. She won’t win crap).
Anyway, good luck Begich and I hope Alaska fares well.
Oh, I should have added – forums are *designed* to get a lot of posts in a short amount of time, and the MYSQL database does not get bloated. It works a lot better because it was designed to work better. 😉
I would love to see Greta go one on one with Palin’s witch-doctor/preacher over Palin’s soul. . . and maybe just maybe, the witch doctor would take out scientology in a final strike. . . saving us all.
For a very cool online evolving image try this..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132×7514727
Hi, y’all,
I’ve been lurking on this blog since the day SP fell from outer space onto the noon-time news and I went searching to find out who the heck she was. Two good things about that day: 1) I found Mudflats (and you have truly and wonderfully saved my sanity many a time since then) and 2) my very Republican hubby (we have a bi-partisan household – I’ll hug his elephant if he’ll kiss my a$$) said “Well, McCain just lost my vote!” Truly a glorious day, although my delight has been tempered by the hell she put us thru for two months (and, unfortunately, continues the fresh hell to this day…)
Since this is my first post, I’ll stay on-topic and just say I’m not sure if Stevens would rather lose an election for the first time in umpteen years or get kicked out by the Senate. My guess is that he’d rather get kicked out because then he can keep playing the “victim” – yanno, he’s not “really” convicted yet, so they have no right to kick out a duly-elected senator, blah, blah, blah. My guess is that he’ll play that card till his dyin’ day whether he’s in a cell or a borrowed massage chair.
I hope I can jump in here often – hubby is at deer camp for the time being so he won’t notice my lack of attention to wifely duties (hehehe). He did notice I was “less engaged” in the “real” world and spent a lot more time than usual on the ‘puter in the run-up to the election but he knew how important this election was to me and wisely kept his counsel.
Hey Muddies,
I tried the forum and it works. Come on over, the water is fine and there’s lots of help from Snoskred. Save the server.
To all who are “forum-phobic” like me –
I understand and have tried the forum. It’s hard for me to stay on track there, so I’ll be lurking here too. I’ll try the new, too, but just can’t give up what I’ve grown to love. Hope to see a few friends still around.
Deep Blue in VA (13:11:18) :
One really nice feature to the forum is that it shows you who is online at the same time you are.
Deep Blue-
How do you find that? I can’t seem to go back and forth between the post I am writing and what others have said…
Maybe Alaskan voted for Stevens, because they aren’t ready to acknowledge that times have changed? Oil may not be king, climate change/warming are rapidly changing their lives, pollution of the environment is coming back to haunt them…AK mudflatters, what do you think?
Evening MudPups!
60 minutes on CBS getting ready to start …. inteview with the new prez and his lovely wife!!
hi kids.. who remembers The Wayback Machine?
Here’s Barbie before she went to the Dark Side..
snoskred (12:24:06) :
There are so many great features on the forums. Like you can actually edit your posts, and there is no chance of things going into the spam bin – what you post is what shows up in the thread. I think you guys should give them a try. We have written many how to posts, showing people how to do things over there.
… but snoskered,
I am a simple life form of limited abilities. It all sounds like a more complex ecosystem than I am used to swimming in. I am not sure I can evolve that much in one generation.
-eyes 😯
i’ll be sorry if we can’t comment at all after a new blog entry. it is so very nice to see everyone that we’ve come to know all commenting in one place.
but let’s see how the forum works out.
guess we might not have a choice.
SMG – MN (15:25:40) :
To all who are “forum-phobic” like me –
——————
Logged in there, typed up my first post, hit post and received scolding
for not logging in. Logged in again, lost post, timed out, next
scolding read. (scratches head in disgust) Came back here, where I know,
there is less trouble. Hope someone posts those help links soon.
Did ya’all know we’re doing a secret santa type thing? Click here to get involved in that –
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,3704.0.html
Seems like everyone’s having a good time over in the new chat thread at the forums – here’s the link again in case you need it..
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,3731.0.html
I’ll be off to bed soon but there will be mods around on the forums for a while in case you need any help.
Hello eyes 😯
I am more simple than you, have been to the forum loads of times and I can’t even see how to post. Managed to registed but it all went pear shaped after that, sigh, I will say goodbye now in case the site goes off the air.
It was good while it lasted. 😥
obama in the first few 60 min interview is already more endearing than 8 years of W..
I think we made the right choice.. ! 🙂
Bigtime BigSlick OT
Would Sarah Palin be a good choice for Secretary of Peace? I don’t think so.
But before we can decide that, we need to create the position.
With the election of Barack Obama, our work has now just begun in earnest.
I posit that although the greatest issue of influence on voter’s decisions was the economy, there is a more important issue that drives the economic mess we find ourselves in today.
The Oil War.
I want to stop the Oil Wars. Please help to create the Office of the Secretary of Peace.
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,3733.0.html
Peace be with you.
according to “roll call” on 11/13/08, “Although it was unclear how many lawmakers Stevens has reached out to, GOP aides said he has been making calls urging his colleagues to withhold judgement until the appeals process is exhausted.”
http://www.rollcall.com/news/30100-1.html
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2008/08/sarah-palin-bio.html
I found this web site about a book about Palin . On another site, I found this book is being given free of charge with a subscription to a news media. It is about as far right as you can get. I think it s Newsmax or something like that. It must belong to Fox news corp????
You know guys.. all it needs is a little patience and a will to give things a go.
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,3732.0.html
There is a link to all the how tos you will need.
snoskred (12:00:47) : And every time people post one word comments, you see just one word here, but it creates multiple entries in the database that you can’t see – the thing that *runs* the blog. There will come a point at which the database begins to act up due to the sheer size of it, and I think we’re probably there.
Probably the best reason yet to stop all the “I’m first!” comments.
I don’t post very often because I spend so much time reading the comments and following links. This blog functions for me like wandering thru a big room with lots of conversations (even if all are on topic) I listen to, and join in. I used the forum briefly and had no problems, but I found it to be unwieldy because I had to go to too many different places to check for new comments. In addition, I often missed new topics that I might have liked.
I like the idea of duplicating the blog with all the comments intact in the forum, but will it be in comment format, or chat? I don’t like chat; it goes too fast and I don’t have time to think about, follow up on, and write a comment before everything has retreated and left me light years down the road. Also, there are thousands of people all over the world that read this blog and post rarely – but they often have very good info to pass on. Will you make it easy for them to post in the forum, or duplicate their info in the forum? Will the link after each AKM post for comments automatically take us to the duplicate post/comments in the forum? Or did you already answer this and I’m needlessly confusing myself?
Never had problems with disappearing threads, posts, or comments. Windows XP Pro with Firefox 3.0.4, as well as previous Firefox versions.
@UK Lady (15:36:48) :
I tried my best, but everything on the forum is bells and whistles and way too “busy” for me. I also saw a comment from “Eyes” that he(?) was having similar reservations. Maybe we’ll have a few die-hards who’ll stick it out over here. 🙂
@ Political Amazon (14:32:25) :
snip
How about this approach:
1. AKM continue to post her articles on the blog, but for each one also make a separate entry in the Forum.
2. Turn off the ability to respond to the post in the blog itself.
3. Instead, at the bottom of the blog entry/article, post a link to the Forum thread created with the duplicate of AKM’s blog post.
Perhaps creating a separate forum folder entitled “BLOG RESPONSES”? For those of us who are goal-oriented and short on time, we can just go directly to the Forum folder, read AKM’s blog/folder entry, and then respond to it.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I support your motion. Sounds like an excellent plan and I believe it can be executed smoothly. Snoskred?
One more thought — the rules of the Forum might need slight modification for implementing rules on the AKM Blog Entries thread.
UK Lady – I see that you’re able to get to the thread you want to read. In order to post, there is a button at the top and the bottom of the page that says “REPLY” on it – in pink so that it is easier to spot.
From there, you’ll be taken to a screen with a blank box – that’s where you type what you want to say. When you’re done, simply click Post, and your comment will be made 🙂
The secret is to have some patience when learning this…it’s new to you, so it might take a bit of time. Here is a link to all you need to know about how it works on the forum –
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,3732.0.html
All it needs is a little patience and a will to try something out. 😉
HELP!
So sorry guys–anyone out there. I tried to post on the blog chat and ended up making my own topic.
Can anyone a) Tell me what I did wrong.
b) Delete me……please.
And I was so darn proud of myself too……
I wonder what kind of family life a guy like Stevens has. I mean, at the age of 84, shouldn’t his wife and children be telling him that’s enough we want you to give it up and stay home with us? McCain too. Why would his wife help him to run for president at the age of 72?
Sephyroth
I’ve just realized what I did wrong–I should have used “reply.” You can still delete me can’t you? I feel kind of dumb.
NMJ – the answer to how to see posts you’d posted in as well as unread posts since you last logged in is here –
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,3731.msg31312.html#msg31312
The blog chat threads will all be one thread, you do have to click through to the next page to read the entire thread. The reason for that is to keep things quick – one reason things are slow here is loading every comment on one page.
Seriously, we’re trying to answer all your questions and make it as easy for you as we can, but we can’t do all the work for you. You guys have to be willing to make an effort to learn how things work, too.
I’m tired, I’ve been up about 17 hours now, but I don’t feel like I can go to bed until ya’all are sorted out. I’m feeling a bit frustrated by all the negativity – whatever happened to YES WE CAN, huh?
To those who have made the effort – good on you, we appreciate it. To those who aren’t willing to – I’m sorry you feel that way.
AKMuckraker has done so much for us all, I feel like we should be willing to help out in whatever way we can. If that means taking the chatter elsewhere so the blog can survive in a format that works, then that’s what we need to do, right?
We’ve put so much work and effort into the forums. There’s a big team of people there working hard to make sure everything goes smoothly. There is usually someone around who can help you.
No, it is never easy to learn something new, but it is always worth it at the end of the day. Give it a fair go, please. Don’t just give up at the first obstacle. If Obama did that, where would the country be?
Personally, I think the ability to leave instant comments is what attracts people here and keeps us here. If we have to follow other links or go hunting for where people are currently posting, it’ll end the community atmosphere as it is now.
Overcomplicating things will make Mudflats a short-term destination. People will come and read AKM’s articles and leave. Before long, there’s no traffic and everyone’s dispersed all over the world back to their home.
I’d find that to a very sad ending to a place we all have gotten attached to.
I’d think if we’re clutting up too much, it would make more sense to delete comments on older threads (say over 30 days) that get very few or no posts and delete them to clean up space used to store messages.
Optimize the files and move on. Text is the lowest processor usage of anything a computer does. If text is properly optimized, we should be able to post thousands of messages without any issues.
One thing I’ve noticed is the little icons next to users don’t load into a set file and have to reload everytime the page refreshes.. Those icons aren’t big, but when the database has to assign one to every message, over and over is much more intensive when it comes to processor usage.
There have to be better ways to manage text files..
on a more fun note.. for laughs..
Marty – comments have to be deleted one page at a time. There are currently 4752 pages. I’m not kidding.
Oh! I like my snowflake – it’s green! And we are doing our best to be just that (it ain’t always easy, thanks Kermit).
One of my fervent wishes is that the Obama administration makes available some sort of government (socialist – yes I am) loan program for those of us who wish to install solar/wind power but don’t have the means to do so. Just once before I die, I’d like the electric company to owe ME something.
Forty Watt – it’s alright 😉
You’re learning, and there are bound to be some bumps in the road in the beginning 🙂
We’ve put the thread you’ve created into the main thread on the forum 🙂
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask 🙂
Miz Bella – if you want, I can save the image that is on here and make it your forum avatar – if anyone else would like to have that, you can ask me and I’ll help you out with it 🙂
Sephyroth, thank you so much.
snoskred, so sorry, you must be frazzled. It may not be much comfort, but we all think all of you are amazing.
snos
Could it be that some of the Forum-phobes are confusing the Forum with Live Chat? The chat moves too fast for some (me included!). If there’s a daily topic way up near the top that’s easy to find it may help. All the other “rooms”, “topics” etc may be way too intimidating for the less techie ones.
Anyway, if we need to migrate over there for more of the discussion to save the server, so be it. We just need to make REALLY sure it’s super easy. I’m fairly tech oriented, but it was intimidating for me to see all the options… and I’m still learning.
snos, what format is wordpress using? Having no admin ability to control processor functions seems just too obsolete C++ compiled OS.
I have little doubt there are loads of pages, but if wordpress isn’t running a modern blog system, maybe the secret is to move to a more robost OS. I think we’d all follow whereever AKM goes, but if there are OS limitations wordpress can’t or won’t fix, then instead of making people conform to a far less friendly method of what we love doing, then the obvious answer is move elsewhere..
We’ll follow, it’s not the software, it’s the people. Lots of us have grown very close. So we won’t abandon friends, just have to find ways to make it work for everyone.
I’ve looked at the forum software, and it’s something i’ve seen elsewhere, and honestly, i’ve never thought it was very user friendly.
Snoskred: Valiant efforts. Thank you so much. Go to bed now. We’ll all get by and tomorrow is another day. Sweet dreams!
CO Almost Native (15:28:14) :
Deep Blue in VA (13:11:18) :
One really nice feature to the forum is that it shows you who is online at the same time you are.
Deep Blue-
How do you find that? I can’t seem to go back and forth between the post I am writing and what others have said…
+++++++++++++++++++
Look at the column to the far left – it says “Donate to AKM” at the top, and at the very bottom it shows who is online.
Snoskred and sephyroth
Thanks for your patience with us old technophobes. Am honestly trying with the forum, and will a bit more. I guess one of the problems is all the bells and whistles and distractions someone mentioned earlier. It seems to take ages to refresh or go to an instruction. Maybe when the new blog thread is up it will be clearer.
I also like the community at the ‘bar’ feel to this format. Single column, simple, like me.
snos,
Is there any hope of resurrecting the new hosting for this blog that seemed to live for a day or so? If I remember right that was a month or so back.
Would that solve any problems?
ocliberal (13:08:54) :
Thank goodness You and Your Family are SAFE.
And thanks for the first hand account. Your emotions were loud and clear. Hope the winds stay calm.
Year round fire season sucks.
Sephyroth, yes please and thank you.
I swear I’ll wander over to the forum when my phobia abates a bit.
UK Lady:
I did see your post at the forum – yes you did make it!
Change is hard, but worth it, right?
Ocl, it’s wonderful you and your home are ok. Sad what happened, but property can be rebuilt and for those who’s homes were destroyed, they’ll get rebuilt better than before.
The LA area fire departments do what they do very well. Saving lives is all that matters. The rest is just gravy..
I love our new president…great 60 minutes interview
I agree UK Lady – I feel the chit chat and other efforts might be good over there- but I would sadly miss this blog format and responding to AKM’s posts and following the news and events.
Ah, well, it was nice while it lasted.
I agree, Krystal. He’s so intelligent yet so accessible and down-to-earth. He gets it.
Marty (VA) Mudstock DC Inaugural Party.. reply to mudstockdc@hotmail.com (15:38:58) :
obama in the first few 60 min interview is already more endearing than 8 years of W..
I think we made the right choice.. ! 🙂
————————————-
I watched it. Marvelous. These are normal people trying to solve the nation’s problems. Take a breath. We made the right choice.
Um… to jump in without sounding elitist – my brain cell is famed for its willful absence from my head, but I can use the forum just fine. If I can do it, anybody but a comatose stroke victim can. Trust me. It just takes some looking around and giving it a few tries until you get the hang of it.
Deep Blue and Bec
Well I managed one comment, then of course it all went pear shaped again. I suck. Will try again tomorrow 🙄
Bec – nowhere has anyone said that all discussion of blog posts would move. The idea behind this is to keep the on-topic discussions on the blog, while moving the off-topic discussions to the forum. You can still respond to AKM’s posts and continue following the news coming out of Alaska.
I think the reports of The Mudflats’ demise have been greatly exaggerated. 😉
Ira2 – I think I love you.. 😉
@Bec -Yes We Did – in Illinois (16:38:09) :
I agree UK Lady – I feel the chit chat and other efforts might be good over there- but I would sadly miss this blog format and responding to AKM’s posts and following the news and events.
Ah, well, it was nice while it lasted.
Just peeked in over at the forum blog, and noticed that our lack of wanting to join the new format was considered being “negative.” I’m really ,b>not >/b> trying to be negative or opposed to change. I just can’t think straight over there with little people and animals moving all over the posts and so much periphery. If there were a simple, “clean” format like the one over here, I’d be happy to move over there. I guess that I just don’t get it. So many blogs have the post and comment format. I didn’t realize it was such an issue.
Sephyroth (16:47:24) :
I hope not — I was just reading ssome posts suggesting no comments be allowed here and I’d hate to see that. I agree that the off topic chit chats we get into some days should take place elsewhere. The forum works for that, fine. But this has been a special place for discussion.
SMG-MN
I just can’t think straight over there with little people and animals moving all over the posts and so much periphery.
—-
That is a big problem for me, too. I was part of another forum for a few months and it got to be more art than words. Just sayin’! Sorry, don’t mean to be a party pooper either.
Somehow, the solution is to fix the problems with how posts are stored in the wordpress database. There has to be better ways to control content and as big as wordpress is, it’s amazing to me that posts must be manually deleted and doesn’t allow more automated function.
And as usual, i’ll give ya all a laugh.. enjoy.. 🙂
ocliberal, thanks for checking in, and
I am glad to know you are safe!
Now, I’m going into the Forum…and trust
me, forums are really not hard to use at all.
Bec – we are trying really hard to get the best of both worlds – that people can still comment without the blog exploding into a million pieces.
SMG – MN – from where I sit today has been an absolutely awful day. I do not enjoy having to spoil everyone’s fun, or be the bad cop. I am trying to get everyone to accept that there is a problem here and the best solution is to move the off topic chatter over to the forums.
Yes, there has been a lot of negativity towards the idea. I get that people do not like change (except when Obama is the one suggesting it) and I know it isn’t easy to try new things and learn how to do new things. I am just as technically stupid as anyone else on the planet – it does not come easy to me and I have to work hard for it.
I was not referring to anyone in particular. I’ve been up for about 18 hours now, and I’ve been trying to help everyone with their issues and problems without deleting the forums and giving up out of frustration. Maybe you could give me a break? 😉
Marty – this is not something there is a solution to at all. WordPress works the way it works. Even on a self hosted version of wordpress, it is not possible to delete comments en masse.
I agree, it is very not cool. It is not the first very not cool thing wordpress have done. I could go further into that, but I won’t.
This software is designed to allow people to blog, not hold long discussions in the comments area. Most wordpress blogs get less than 10 comments per post. The reason? Because if you want to have discussions, there are forum options available. 😉
Snoskred – go watch Marty’s new vid and you’ll be laughing out loud for a few to take your mind off this (thanks Marty!). Things don’t have to be solved in a day here.
Promoting the forum for those who want and feel comfortable using it is good. Maybe a new note at the top urging people to use it for OT chat will help. Today’s crashes were the first ever and aren’t that big a deal. Blame it on the big world of the internet and don’t lose any more time or sleep over it.
snos i have noticed that.. We seem very chatty in here. I just have a feeling that when new people show up, see the post and very few comments, they’ll read and leave.
part of the problem is our own success. having lots of comments inspires others to post comments, etc etc.
I was looking at wordpress.com and they have a lot of options. I don’t know what version AKM’s running, but in their more robust versions, it seems there is more flexibility. But i’ve not gotten into what they can and can’t do.
If it was a matter of running free v. paid, I’d have little doubt we’d be able to raise enough $ to cover AKM’s costs. Have you investigated this more?
Also, if you can tell me what platform wordpress is on, i can see what i can find. Feel free to email me details to not clutter.. :0
I think it would go a long way toward saving space here if we could all jump on board the messaging train available over at the forum.
I did not know about it until the secret santa stuff came up, then I was thinking WOW! Amazing! And so I used it to send a love note to our asiangrrlfriend who had been AWOL. When she replied to it I got an email in my real email inbox, as she would have received an email in her real email inbox letting her know that someone had contacted her.
I wish now that I’d known about it earlier for a couple of reasons — 1) Sometimes we want to reply to something off topic & personal & response can be quite off topic & revealing in a way that we might not be comfortable with everyone & their brother reading, and 2) that being the case we could maybe get MORE people in on the comments here if we do the personal off topic stuff over there and keep these threads clear of that stuff.
In the interim we can all dip our toes into the forum pool, get used to it, learn the best way to navigate & contribute (for ourselves, might not be the way that others work best with), and see if it has something to offer that we may not have known about but fully embrace.
Xs to you all whether you’re on the forum (which I don’t luuuuuurrrrrvvvve, but can stand) or here.
Totally OT
This $7mill Sarah Palin has been offered for a book is really p*ss*ng me off, how about some emails to editors saying we would post spoilers (extracts of the juicy bits) online everwhere, just to make them rethink their offer?
snos.. don’t know if you’ve gone to bed.. but wordpress is releasing 2.7 with what appears to be loads more flexibility. Again, without seeing what can be done in admin, i can’t say. but maybe once they release the new version, it’ll solve lots of problems. they’re talking end of nov/early dec for release.
Anyone else from SoCal interested in a brunch on Sun. Dec. 7, come on over to the Forum and check in. Fawnskin has graciously invited us to her home in West LA area. She needs a head count. Details here…
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,3713.0.html
shout outs to everybody. gotta love you all whether you’re pro-forum or pro-blog comment peeps.
and i know we’ll work this out ’cause that’s just the way we operate.
i’ve done my part to be forum educated and do appreciate the different apsects of the set up over there. but i have to put in my vote for trying in anyway possible to keep our comment section here. in my case, having had brain damage, it is much easier for me to acclimate to the simple layout of this comment section. my brain goes into a bit of override with the colors and spatial qualities of the forum sites.
i’m not saying that i can’t participate…just mentioning that it causes a bit more stress.
and as dear ole grandaddy used to say, “that is that”.
thanks, more light than heat, for extending our invite to the biggest ever mudstock (or maybe not).
Okay, I just posted this over at the forum, but wanted to put it here for those of you who, like me, get really annoyed about some of the forum functions. I found a way to make it much much more manageable. Try these and see if it makes it more bearable for you:
Okay, I just answered my own question and figured out some stuff that makes this place a zillion times better!
If you click on the PROFILE text at the top left (between SEARCH adn LOGOUT) you can change your personal profile to do lots of cool things that make this easier.
You can change things so that the most recent comments are at the TOP of your screen (meaning you don’t have to worry about page number). You can click a box that takes away everyone’s avatar (less space taken up on my screen). You can click a box that means that you are NOT prompted after replying re: whether or not there are new responses while you’ve been typing. And most important, you can click a box that allows you to STAY IN THE THREAD after replying!
How exciting is that?
Hi all: I grew up in Appleton, WI – knew Greta and her sister (not well) – what happened to her face? FOX noise likes pretty young things and she had to get plastic surgery to appease them – looks awful IMO. Palin on Wolf Blitzer interview said she is “not the type to appoint myself to Senate” if Stevens wins and gets booted – geeze, does she not know she CANNOT appoint herself re AK law? I wonder if she does have a girl-crush on Sarah; Greta is an educated attorney, and she does not even ask SP any real questions. Who will recruit who in the religion question – Greta to be born-again, or SP to be a Scientologist?
Yanno… I read that first sentence and all I could think was “I really don’t wanna see the end of Ted Stevens…” As in, his rear end… ‘cept right at the moment that big old barn door hits him square upside it.
SMR
Thank you, thank you, that sound great, I think snoskred and steph have been trying to say that, but I really needed it to be spellled out in non computer talk, will give it my very best shot tomorrow. Poopy headache right now. 😥
Gretta V: “The election may be over but governor Sarah Palin is not going anywhere.”
She’s right, but not in the way she intended. Palin ain’t going nowhere. She’s guv of Alaska for 2 more years, tops, and then it’s back to Wasilla.
If she’s lucky. But if the IRS and FBI do their respective jobs, she’ll be headed for a nice little hotel for women somewhere. Perhaps as Pam Smarts new roomie.
Sauerkraut – from your typewriter to Gods ears 😆
There are a zillion articles in the new “commerative” edition of Time that are worth reading. Check out this one:
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1856613,00.html
SP better be hoping that nobody in the new government is as vindictive in power as she has been.
Well, tried the forum thingie but can’t even get it to accept the pw. That’s after twice trying to get it to load without it getting hungup. Maybe I need to pick a less busy time?
My 2 cents.. I’ve been a geek for a long time, and maintained my own networks, including one in my house now that’s home to all my websites, as well as a mail server. We must be big, my IT guy tells me we hover around 250-300k spams daily.
So, I think I know a little.
My point is if we move off the public comments area in favor of a different page forum, usage will (not might) drop dramatically. New users, seeing all the comments get sucked into our fun and end up reading and becom posters. The lack of fancy makes it easier for many to simply type and voila, posted and public.
If AKM’s wonderful headline blog posts and a handful of comments are all that anyone sees, things will slowly fade into obscurity until all that’s left here are the diehard Alaskans with a vested interest in how their state is run by Barbie and her cronies.
I don’t claim to know the inner workings of wordpress, but i did see a new version is coming out soon. I don’t know if it helps the issues here. I did some searching and found other wordpress blogs with thousands of comments, so somehow, it works, at least elsewhere.
I can certainly use the forums, although that particular software has never been my favorite. There are many, far better that autorefresh and have a more friendly user feel to it.
I love Mudflats, the people who i’ve shared all the tension of McLost and Barbie’s horrors that scared our entire country. I think AKM posts are some of the most wonderful and inciteful.
My fear is moving comments elsewhere will hurt the community we’ve built and while it may not be obvious short term, month or 2 from now will show what might happen if this becomes the only option. And truthfully, once Obama is inaugurated, that will cause people who posted only occaisionally to depart (I’d love to be wrong) and it’ll slowly go back to what it was before we all discovered this wonderful place.
On the flip side, if people leave, and the core people who’ve been here since that fateful day Barbie was picked to be VP, the usage will drop and be manageable again.. 🙂
Guess we’ll see what happens.
Agreed
I’ve been wondering about this too.
Sympathetic to these sentiments too.
WWOD? (What would Obama do?) I think, based on some of his comments in The Audacity of Hope, that perhaps he too would be willing to delay the vote on expulsion. Furthermore, I don’t think it’s only Republicans who would feel this way. Furthermore, unless we are hypocrites, even though we may believe he is guilty as sin, he is still entitled to the full due process of his appeals.
NEW THREAD
NEW THREAD
NEW THREAD
NEW THREAD
Message boards feel more disjointed, and (IMO) it’s harder to develop a real sense of community for the majority of us who don’t have time to check all the threads, go to different sites for networking, etc.
—————————————————-
I agree with you, I have gone to the forum but keep ending up back here, When we moved to the forum before I stopped visiting for awhile because I just didn’t have time to locate the living room of the day so to speak to check in with my cyber friends, found the whole thing frustrating. Find some of the side converstions just as interesting as the main topic but perhaps not something I would have read had it been a topic on it’s own simply because my free time is short.
Marty – I’m not Matt Mullenweg and I didn’t insert my name into my company’s name. I didn’t have any hand in writing any software related to anything that is WordPress.
However, what I can say is that the only way to prevent the blog from falling down completely is if we move the off-topic discussions off to the forums where they are more able to handle the large number of comments that are generated in a blog comment area here.
It seems, however, that you know everything about how WordPress is run, and that we have control over what version is run here, and have the key to fixing it, let us know your rates so that we can send you the ftp login for this blog, along with the secret codes in one of the 26 briefcases that happen to be in Mudflats Central.
I don’t know if you’ve had any experience in hosting WordPress blogs, but I will guess you do, as you are aware of the latest goings on with WordPress. The important thing to remember is that you’re not the only one who keeps up with the goings on as well. There are folks who not only work with one blog, but I know of a person who has personally set up and currently hosts more than 50 blogs.
However, what you don’t know is that this person that I know? It happens to be the person who you’ve been proffering suggestions on how to fix the blog’s problems to. That person is Snoskred, who just happens to be testing a beta of the newest version of WordPress.
A version of WordPress which will not be able to be installed here, since this is not a self-hosted WordPress blog. It’s on wordpress.com, and as such has limited options as to what you can or can not do with the blog’s setup.
To answer your question about the platform that this site’s version of WordPress is running on…as far as I can tell the platform that WordPress is running on is WordPress.
Sometimes, as in all things, just blindly upgrading doesn’t fix already-existing problems, as some folks found out when upgrading to WordPress 2.6.
I just refreshed and noticed this –
I wonder what forum software has this feature – and how much server load that causes with users constantly requesting new information from the server.
One last note on that – while SMF might not be the most user friendly forum software for *you*, there are hundreds of other users who have no issue with using it. 😉
Yes, it’s different to other forum software, but as you use it, you find little tricks about it, and i have warmed up to SMF quite well myself – and would be my personal choice over the other major forum software – phpBB (which is full of security holes), vBulletin (which has the expensive startup cost with the license) and even Invision Power Board (which also has licensing fees).
By Wednesday this should be over and one way or another the corrupt old man will go away – likely to federal prison. It is as it should be.
This will be both good for Alaska and good for America.
Sarge
Indianapolis
Seph…wow. I know that you and snoskred have done a great deal of work here. It has been appreciated…by me and many others.
I do think though, that your reponses and snoskreds have been somewhat harsh, if not downright rude.
There have been many here for one reason or another, who cant or dont want to use the forums. So be it. I dont like the forums…hence I wont bother. I will read the other Alaskan blogs..or huffington post…so as not to have to ask you to put yourself out. I am not being snarky…I have said nothing previously…even though I do not use the forum.
What I and I think others liked about this site, was the feeling of community. Some of us just cant seem to get that from the forums…doesnt make us bad nasty people.
Some of us have also donated to the site…and believe me..I know that nobody begrudged that. AKM is and will always be much loved and appreciated.
If I could just say one more thing. People here are used to being able to speak openly. That includes you too…however there was a level of anger and irriation at Marty in your last post that I found un-nerving. Sorry if I sound rude…I am not meaning to be. I see your side…but some of us have another side. We are all entitled to that.