But that doesn’t mean I’m not still out there thinking about things I need to write about…I just can’t find the time to actually DO the writing!  It is frustrating, because I have a lot of things I want to post on here.  I just have to find a way to make it happen.

I know dhunley is busy, too, but maybe this post will bring him back around.

It is almost election time.  You know how you can tell?

The ads are on the TV.  The signs are on the telephone posts.  The candidates are on the buses.  And the messages are getting on your nerves.

It doesn’t matter to me who you vote for this year (although I’d hope you would not vote for the McCain/Palin ticket!).

In my opinion, Obama represents the kind of hope and vision that Kennedy must have represented to folks back when he ran.  I haven’t seen anyone with this much charisma run for President in my lifetime.  Bill Clinton was pretty close, but I think Obama may be even more larger than life.  Now, does that mean he’s qualified to be President of the United States?  Well, maybe not that alone.  But to me, he represents the best option for the job.

Eight years ago, I liked McCain.  McCain was a different kind of politician.  He often crossed party lines and didn’t worry about the bashing he’d take from his fellow Republicans for doing so.  That is exactly the reason that you heard so many hard-core Republicans saying they would NOT vote for him if he won their party’s nomination.  But, somewhere along the way, McCain did a big ol’ flip-flop.  He decided to walk the party line in order to appeal to the more conservative Republican base.

And as if that wasn’t enough, he decided to pick someone as his VP candidate that was even more conservative that HIM!  Now, nevermind whether she is truly qualified or not.  She’s “exciting”.

Now, there’s a difference between “exciting” and charismatic, and it doesn’t mean squat to be either one if you don’t have some substance to back it up.

This choice by McCain, in my opinion, shows a complete lack of judgement and is more proof than anything he’s done so far that he does not need to be the President.

The thing that is so astounding about this pick, however, is the level of hypocrisy that has emerged from all of the Republican talking-heads.  If Obama or Biden had a daughter who was 17, pregnant, and unwed, the Republican spin machine would be tearing her apart.  But with Bristol Palin??  Leave that poor girl alone!!  As a VP pick, they didn’t think the Governor of Virginia would have been a wise choice for Obama…too inexperienced…but Governor of Alaska??  SURE!!

Don’t believe me?  Well, I’ll just let Mr. John Stewart say (and show) it far better than I ever could.

If that’s not hypocrisy, folks, then I don’t know what is.

so…basically…here’s a rundown, from what i can gather has happened.

Kat made a post, which appears to have included information that she probably got in an email.

we’ve all gotten those emails.  my relatives send them to me regularly…obama hates america…obama is a muslim…obama won’t say the pledge of allegiance…obama kills kittens and eats puppies.

from what i can tell, about 90% of them are complete BS, and a simple visit to Snopes.com is all it takes to clear up any confusion about the validity of the email, whether it is about Obama or any other number of subjects.

however, many times, we tend to see something that strikes a nerve, and we feel like sharing it immediately, without taking the time to investigate a bit further.  i’m as guilty of it as anyone.

so, that’s what it looks like happened.

Kat posted something, and the comments came pouring in.  now, somewhere along the way, someone acutally struck-through the comments of another poster.

first off, i have NO idea who did that.  comments can be edited, and that type of markup can be added, but that’s a first for me.  i actually had forgotten that wordpress even had that option.

so, whoever did the striking-through, that’s definitely not acceptable.  that falls right in line with deleting someone’s comments.  that is ONLY to be done by an ADMIN (me or dhunley) and ONLY under extreme circumstances.

secondly, as i’ve now addressed the issue in a comment on the “time out” post, PLEASE refrain from deleting a post that has comments attached to it.  if you make a post and decide later that you want to kill it, please just edit the original post and insert your reason for removing the original text, but leave the comments section alive.

i DO have the ability to dig into the database and pull out deleted stuff, but to tell you the truth, i really don’t want to have to mess with that.  i just don’t have the extra time to be digging around and doing that sort of thing, ok?

so…i’m adding back in the comments that were posted to the original thread, but i am not reposting what kat had written.  she decided that she no longer wanted it to be seen (i presume?), and deleted it, so i will respect her wishes to take that post away, but this way, you folks can still see the comments that were made.

a big thank you to the person who had the foresight to see there could be trouble brewing and saved these…

11 Responses to “Can we trust OBAMA?”

1. nighthawk Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 3:23 am Well he might just fit the shoes of Lincoln and FDR, but he can never fill the shoes of JFK.
Just in case some haven’t figured it out, that was a non-racist remark, but I don’t think too
highly of old (dis)Honest Abe or FDR.
My reasons have been discussed before, but I will publish them on the anything pages
some time in the near future.

2. wthareyouthinking Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 12:48 pm Are you serious? You take snippets of quotes out of context and expect them to hold water?
Get real.
And just how much experience does that VP choice of McCain’s have?
Betcha don’t post about THAT, now do you? http://www.bubbaobama.com

3. [(Required Voluntary Compliance)] Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 4:13 pm Can we trust any of these establishment lackies, McInsane Is no better than “Barry Hussein” there is a bumper sticker FREE IDEA print them up I’d buy three of four just  put the quote attribution down in the corner in 1/5size font : “TechKnomen”

4. [(Required Voluntary Compliance)] Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 4:25 pm I thought Barry Hussein’s motto WAS “CHange” now its been converted
to “YES WE CAN” as the establishment Biden is brought on board the
“change” wagon? More of the same soundslike.
The only difference is we will be paying for yet another card with
numbers on it and the percentage of those working for the government
will go up so that means higher taxes. Other than that what difference
will Barry Jewsein’s “operation” due differnt’ than the Manchurian McInsane;
They are both Rockerfeller puppets working toward a Neu Whirld Odor.
Heck Barry Jewsein’s main mentor since he was 19
IS the Rockerfeller puppet Zibignew Brezenski the
AUTHOR of the policies towards the middle east being implemented
by the NEO Khan’s
look it up “THE GRAND CHESSBOARD” where he advocates
that those who control the center square chess spaces of
the world: IRAN IRAQ PAKISTAN AND AFGANISTAN
those are key to control of the world and
the implementation of the control grid
“one world if you will” of David Rockerfeller
The next time they re-run “THE UNIT” episode
pay attention SIX FAMILIES RUN AMERICA
just like things on a city or county level;
they hire out those that fit their agenda to do their
bidding.
I see modern pollitics of the major parties resembling
some zombie religious CULT where most of the followers
are wipped into some emotional frienzie ready to lay under
purple blankets waiting for the hero aliens to
fix their lives.
WAKE UP they see most of us as “worthless eaters”
and Resources to be used for their purposes and power.
Just kidding, they are all good
John Kerry really isn’t the “long devil”
Bohemian Grove dosent exist
“Death equals Death” is just a joke

5. [(Required Voluntary Compliance)] Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 5:10 pm “I’m in show business, why come to me?”
“War is show business, that’s why we’re here.”
– “Wag the Dog” (1997 film)
Last week, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had just announced record losses, and so had most reporting corporations. Unemployment was mounting, the foreclosure crisis was deepening, state budgets were in shambles, and massive bailouts were everywhere. Investors had every reason to expect the dollar and the stock market to plummet, and gold and oil to shoot up. Strangely, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 300 points, the dollar strengthened, and gold and oil were crushed. What happened?
It hardly took psychic powers to see that the Plunge Protection Team had come to the rescue. Formally known as the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, the PPT was once concealed and its very existence denied as if it were a matter of strict national security. But the PPT has now come out of the closet. What was once a legally questionable “manipulator” of markets has become a sanctioned stabilizer and protector of markets.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9828
(The Dog is gonna wag no matter who is “installed”,
we live in a time of illusions as perceptions are more important than
truth and “dark pools of liquidity” and “operations” pull the smoke and mirrors
levers outside of most of the voter’s eyes?)

6. Kat Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 7:07 pm Oh thar ye r! I just news that somebunny would make a dumb butt snappy remark. RE-READ the post ‘just-so-you-know–that–not-us-either.dork. I RECEIVED this as an EMAIL and posted what I received. This is not something I edited and took ’snippets’ out of, you silly little goose. Thar always has to be one in the bunch that refuses to take their med’s and play well with others. As for McCain’s choice today, talk about ‘SHOCK AND AWE’. Couldn’t have been more shocked. Never heard of her, can’t pass judgement on someone I don’t know about. I personally think he just shot himself in the foot. I don’t know her but picking a female as a VP choice failed in the passed with Geraldine Ferraro. I think either way, we’re screwed. Why is it they have 50 contestants for Miss America but only 2 for President? NO! Of Course, I don’t expect it to hold water! Heck, I CAN’T EVEN HOLD WATER! Why would I expect anything else to?

7. straighttalk Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 10:06 pm I am truly upset with the apparent lining thru of comments made by wthareyouthinking. If this is what Rowan Review is all about, allowing this kind of intimidation, then let rowan review fold. Let this media go to waste. I will not post or respond if my ideas are not at least left to be read and digested without interference. I support wthareyouthinking and their ideas.

8. nighthawk Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 11:37 pm Was that bubbaobama.com link even a part of the original comment?
How are we to know that straighttalk (or anyone else for that matter) isn’t Dave or DHunley
coming aboard to inspect ship (so to speak…)?
What was the real point of crossing out wthareyouthinking’s comment in the first place?
If you look back both Straighttalk and myself have been into a heavy debate over the
effectiveness of Operation UNITE, but you don’t see me editing or deleting his comments.
We have went head to head and verbally locked horns a couple of times, but I haven’t
even thought of editing his opinions in any way. Instead, I have been attempting to encourage
him to voice more of his opinion. As I am sure that straighttalk and myself meet in the middle.
It’s just a method of trying to sort out those things that we agree upon.
And with this issue of lining through a comment, I have to agree with straighttalk.
It doesn’t mean that I exactly agree with wthareyouthinking’s comment, but he does have
the right to voice his opinion and have it left unaltered.

9. nighthawk Says:
August 30th, 2008 at 12:26 am Was there anything racist/aggressive/hateful/vulgur about wthareyouthinking’s comment that I missed or something?
I know the amendments to The Rules of Engagement (known as the article titled “Time Out”) allow for an Author to edit comments, but there are strict circumstances to be observed before editing another’s comments.

10. wthareyouthinking Says:
August 30th, 2008 at 9:52 am So, who lined through my comment?
This is not a site for debate?
No other opinions but YOURS count?
Then why have a site at all? Just sit at home and lecture all your BS to yourself.
I DEFINITELY did not strike through my comment, just so everyone knows.
Apparently, I am not free to participate in this little forum.
This is silly.

11. wthareyouthinking Says:
August 30th, 2008 at 10:01 am I did NOT strike through my comment and I definitely did NOT link to some website I’ve never heard of.
THis is not an equal opportunity forum, I take it?

I want to know what in the world they are going to do with the very large and unsightly “development” along the connector, there on the right, just before you get to Sears/China Palace plaza.

That HUGE hole is just a mess…it isn’t finished…nobody is ever going to buy a lot there…any thoughts??

DISCUSSS!!

On several occasions, that place was just a total MESS inside.  The tables smelled like spoiled milk, the floor was greasy and slick, and the food was mediocre at best.

Lee’s has been kicking their butts for a while now.

Will that continue with the new KFC, or will they take a little pride and keep it in top shape?

DISCUSS!!

I guess every once in a while, a little clean-up needs to be done to make sure things are rolling smoothly on the site, but it looks like things have gotten particularly messy lately, so I think I need to step in here and say a few things.

The concept of this site seems fairly simple.  It is a place for folks in the community to vist and to post their feelings about things that they read here, or to just voice their feelings in general about whatever they feel like.

Ideally, to me anyway, the range of topics would remain focused on LOCAL issues.  However, since we all live in a fairly small area, there’s not always enough to fill up the pages.  Just look at local newspapers around here…there ain’t a whole lot going on!

So, that leads us to talk about everything from politics to aliens to cookie recipes, and I think that’s just fine.  It is still local, in that it represents the opinions and feelings of local folks about bigger issues.

I haven’t been by here enough, that is for sure.  However, it seems like since the last visit, everything has sort of gone haywire and needs a bit of tidying up.

So, let’s lay a few things out there.

FIRST off…the Content

One of the biggest problems for ANY site or message board/forum is always having enough/fresh content.  I know I lack the time to add as much stuff as I’d like.  However, we have to be sure that we NEVER post entire articles that were printed on another site.

Most everything that is posted on the web is protected by a copyright for that site, and copying/pasting that content to THIS site is infringement upon that copyright.  If you find something interesting at another site, please only post a snippet and then link to the original article.

Now, let’s talk about the role players here.

The Administrators

There are TWO Administrators on this site, myself and David Hunley.  I haven’t heard from dhunley in quite a while, so I’m not really sure about how involved in the site he wishes to be at this point.  Regardless, we are both still the only 2 administrators on this board.

As Administrators, it is the two of us, and ONLY the two of us, who have the authority to delete a post or a comment.  There are a few exceptions, but I will discuss that in the next topic, The Authors.

Authors

At present, we have two folks who have the role of being Authors.  They can create and delete certain content on the site.  Those authors are Kat and Nighthawk.  They can actually write new posts for the site (Articles, Scanner Scoops, Site Stuff, etc.).  As an author of a post, they have creative control over that post.

HOWEVER…every post that is submitted should have the comments enabled, in case folks visiting and reading that post want to add something.  Right now, I know that Kat disables comments on her Scanner Scoop posts, and I think i can see the reasoning for that.  Still, I think it would be a good idea to leave those comments enabled for even those posts, in case anyone has additional information or questions to ask about the post.

If there is a reason for not enabling comments that I’m missing, please let me know.

Once you’ve posted something, it is open to comments.  As I said earlier, myself and dhunley are the only 2 folks that should be deleting comments (which would only be under extreme circumstances).  However, should one of the 2 Authors see a comment that is just blatantly offensive in some way, whether it is spam or some poster being racist/aggressive/hateful/vulgur, I will not object to editing that comment in some way, and those Authors have full permission to take action.

My preference would be to simply EDIT the comment, and not delete it, unless it is just WAY too bad to remain on the site.  I want as little censorship as possible here.  We are all grown ups ( I think? ), so we should all be able to post in a fitting manner, and respond the same way.  We should also be able to handle ideas and opinions that don’t jive with our own and not just blow them away if they do not.

Also, if you are an author, please try not to “flood” a category.  By that I mean if someone has posted something in a category today, and you have something you’d like to post in that same category, maybe try and hold off on publishing your post for a day or 2, as long as it isn’t something pressing.

We definitely need fresh content, but if we are always pushing newly posted content off of the home page, then folks don’t get a chance to see it and respond to it.

To that end, I may set it up so that more than 1 post of some of those categories get shown on the home page at a time.

PLEASE…if there are additional folks out there who would like to become regularly posting Authors, please contact me at dave@morganminute.com, and I can get you set up.

Categories

This one is as big as any of the previous topics.  It seems like we have posts and comments that are jumping around a bit too much.

If you are posting a comment, PLEASE try and be sure that you are posting that comment on the right Article.  Every Article has a comments section at the bottom of the page, and if you have a comment about that Article, that is where those comments should go.  It gets way too confusing when someone posts a random comment to an Article that seems to be in no way related to that comment.

So, just try and keep an eye out for that.

Just as importantly, for the Authors, you should always try to make sure that your posts are categorized properly.  It may be a bit confusing about what types of articles go in to each category, even though I think I’ve posted information about that before.

Here’s a brief run-down on the categories…

Announcements - This is meant to be the place to put things like Event dates or other things that need to be “announced”. “519 is closed today.”  “The Bluegrass festival is this weekend.”  THOSE types of things.  We also have an Events category that can be used in this way.

Articles - These are meant to be just what they say, articles written about whatever subject is on your mind at the time.  These are the types of things you’d maybe see on the front page of a newspaper, or maybe sports, or arts and entertainment.  They are meant to share information and start conversations.  They are not necessarily meant to be Opinion/Editorial type content.

G33kbox - For those of you who aren’t geeks, this is Geekbox.  This is a category related to techie/geeky type things, such as warning everyone about viruses and such that they need to avoid.  It may go bye-bye soon, as for it to be really effective, it needs to be updated more frequently.

Games - pretty self explanatory.

Opinions and Editorials - These are meant to be where you lay out YOUR feelings about a topic.  “I think all fast food places stink.”, or “Morehead needs a non-curvy Main Street.”.  It is sort of a digital soap box.

Scanner Scoop - This is one of the original categories from way back, and has really been kept up by Kat.  These are the postings she makes as she hears craziness happening on her scanner, and is a vital part of the Rowan Review.

Site Stuff - This is meant to be where things related to the Rowan Review site are posted.  This is the category I use to let you know if an upgrade is coming/has been installed, or to tell you that pages have been rearranged/renamed.  It is only meant to be used to talk about things that are specifically related to the form and funciton of RowanReview.com.

That is about all I can think of right now.

All I can say to all of you is to just try and play as nice as you can, and try to keep everything in the place it belongs.  Also, if there is ever an issue that you feel needs the help of an Administrator, please email me directly (dave@morganminute.com), and I’ll deal with it.  Try not to take matters into your own hands, unless it is just something that needs URGENT attention.

Hopefully, this will help keep things sorted out.  I’ll try to come by more often to see that everything is going OK, but always feel free to contact me about anything.

Apparently, a couple of horse riders were attacked by someone screaming obscenities about having horses on trails and then threw rocks at them and chased them with sticks.

The story indicated that a person of interest had been identified, but no names were given.

I just recently returned from the area around Boulder, Colorado, where there is a HUGE bicycle culture.  People ride them EVERYWHERE.  I know that you do see more and more people on bikes around this area now, especially near Cave Run and down in the Red River Gorge.

But, with stories like this, do you think we are headed for trouble between the horse people and the bike people, or can they peacefully coexist?

Just wondered what you all thought, or if you’d heard anything about the incident.

The software we are using to run this site is called Wordpress.  There are any number of settings and such that get tweaked to make sure it runs the way it is supposed to.  Some of those settings deal with how the site reacts to what it PERCEIVES to be possible SPAM.

When ANYONE…and that does mean ANYONE…posts a comment that has more than 2 links, the system automatically flags it as potentially being SPAM and puts it in the moderation cue to be approved by an Admin.   This is because very often, SPAM comments are filled with links to external sites where you can buy Viagra, refinance your home, help out a Nigerian who is down on his luck…you get the picture.

I COULD bump it up to accept more links before being moderated, and maybe I will ease it up to 3 to see how it goes, but so far, it has been very effective at keeping SPAM from making it to the board.

Also, the site is being protected from SPAM by a little feature known as Akismet.  Its function is to look at comments and try to determine whether they are SPAM, based on their content.

Now, I do not know HOW it does that, only that it does it very effectively.  This site gets an ENORMOUS amount of SPAM traffic trying to be posted, and Akismet catches about 99% of it.  However, once in a while, it does label something as a false positive.  We had that happening recently with a comment that Nighthawk posted.

Whenever you post a comment that just disappears, that could be what it is.  I try to respond to comments being held in the moderation cue as quickly as I can.  I get an email whenever something goes in there, and I can usually get it approved pretty fast.  Once in a while, though, I may not be around to approve it, so just be patient, and I’ll get it approved.

If more than a day or so passes without your comment showing up, however, you may want to let me know, because it may have gotten Spaminated.

I just felt like this issue needed to be cleared up, so that nobody thinks there is some sort of conspiracy to control what you are posting.  It is simply good software trying a little too hard sometimes.

For the most part, it went off without a hitch.  However, the new version just did not like the previous theme we were using.  It would not allow you to view the comments that were on a post, instead giving a code error.

Rather than try to dig out the error, I decided to just switch themes, in order to keep the site up and running without problems.  It was meant to only be a temporary switch, and so it has turned out to be so.

A couple of you weighed in that you did not like the temporary theme (I didn’t care much for it either), so here is a brand spanking new layout and theme.  I just finished customizing it tonight.

This theme brings back the content/category blocks on the home page, which seemed to be pretty popular.  It also retains the blurbs of recent comments over on the right, which was also a favorite amongst most viewers.

Cruise around in here…I think this one is just as good as the pre-upgrade theme, far better than the post-upgrade/emergency theme, and at least from my perspective, it will be MUCH easier to customize.

I saw a few other site suggestions mentioned…adding more categories…granting all new members Author privileges…

I would love to hear any other comments and suggestions, as well as follow-ups to the 2 listed above.  What are some new categories you’d like to see added?

We’ll just keep fine-tuning this formula until we get it right.

Stay tuned…

I made a big upgrade to the site tonight, although you probably won’t see it unless you are an author.  However, we are now up-to-date with the most recent version of Wordpress, so that is a good thing.

So what is going on around town?  Any big ruckus going on we all need to know about?  Any good news anyone wants to share?  That might be a refreshing spin, in this time of high gas/high oil/high groceries/high stress.

So…good news anyone? (and I don’t mean how much you saved on car insurance!)