Bush Won't Hand Over His Interview Transcript to Waxman

by emptywheel

For those of you looking for my post on the news that Fitzgerald has been handing over files to Waxman, but Bush won't let him have the White House files?

That post is over at my new digs. Come check it out!

Comments

[bmaz]

Vaya Con Dios. Live long and prosper TNH.

[Neil]

The Last Hurrah?

[justobserving]

It is remarkable that we haven't seen fitz's letter to luskin about rove, haven't heard a peep from fitz about whether rove was really let off the hook and yet there continues to be attacks on jason leopolds reporting on this story. Did anyone ever consider that leopold has been right? What about the sealed indictment 06cr128. Why did that suddenly disappear off the court website?

Why can't we see the letter to luskin?

[justobserving]

It is remarkable that we haven't seen fitz's letter to luskin about rove, haven't heard a peep from fitz about whether rove was really let off the hook and yet there continues to be attacks on jason leopolds reporting on this story. Did anyone ever consider that leopold has been right? What about the sealed indictment 06cr128. Why did that suddenly disappear off the court website?

Why can't we see the letter to luskin?

[Dismayed]

Yes, it seems that TLH is at its end. Lately, I had missed the grand old days when there were multiple posters and lots of troll-less examination of issues. Ah, but for the grand poll debated stirred up by demfromct.

I'd been wondering where the other contributors had gone. I once in a while ran into them while lurking elsewhere, but always preferred this smaller environment. There is so much noise over at big orange and FDL - it was always nice not to have to sift through a billion comments to find out what bmaz, karg, sara, phred, readeroftealeaves, or lest we not forget freepatriot and so many of you other worthy and attuned commenters, thought.

Such a shame for this this place where once only giants roamed and no troll dared to tread come to an end. I hope to see you old-school hurrahers over at EW's new place.

This was for a while truly the greatest little blog on the web, and for it I say one last HURRAH!

[freepatriot]

et tu emptywheel

so is the site going belly up or what ???

am I gonna have to change my homepage again

guess it's too late to complain about the new format at fdl, that boat already sailed

I haven't been this sad since "media whores online" folded their tent and dissapeared

we'll still see each other from time to time, but things will never be the same

thanks for everything ew

you are my muse

veya con dios my friend

and happy trails to you ...

[Canuck Stuck in Muck]

Three Cheers for Marcie! See you on the other side...

[JohnLopresti]

I wonder if there is moderation implemented at the new site, or if only limpidly clear prose is to appear there; I may try to post again there, sorry if it appears redundantly. The news this morning from SixApart's subsidiary sale also seems a timely indicator of a good transition point, but this old tnh site still has better graphics and speed. I appreciate the hospitality at tnh. Maybe Sara, Kagro X, and mimikatz could appear in the new place occasionally on a guest basis. I found you all at the Orange place around the time the Dean campaign was emphasizing the internet for communications efficiency.

[KLynn]

freepatriot

I cannot even get FDL to load on my computer. I have emailed for help often. I now know it is not my computer because I have NO problems with any other site. So, TNH was my saving grace for cogent news on an in-depth basis.

Dismayed- ditto

bmaz- will I even get to read your insightful commentary again, considering we have such problems getting FDL to load on our computers? I keep trying the "bookmark" suggestion and it only works randomly. FDL sent some suggestions and those only work randomly too. Take care all.

EW- Congrats. I hope it will be a great match for your awesome skills. Regrettably, I cannot get FDL to load on my computer since the "diggs" was added on the site. I'm not sure how I will keep up with your skillful research and timelines. For now, I'll go to the sites that load just fine and miss your skillful intellect. Take care.

[cboldt]

FWIW, for those who have trouble loading FDL, I use a text-only browser, "lynx," and it works just fine over there.

It does take some attention to figure out the presentation in a text-only format, but IMO, the speed makes it worth it. "lynx" is very cross-platform friendly.

[phred]

I just put this down at Beer and Turkey Thirty, but this appears to be shaping up as our farewell thread, so here again...

"I'm with you bmaz. I'm thrilled for EW, but it appears (at least for now) that her comment threads over at FDL will be of the rapid sort that I have a hard time keeping up with. The slower pace over here has suited me, but I'll manage I guess. So who gets to turn out the lights?"

Dismayed et al., can't tell you how much I'll miss our discussions here. I'm hoping we can pick things up over at the new place, but I'll miss our quiet corner... And besides, there appears to be problems with colons and semicolons over there. What will I do without my smileys ;)

[P J Evans]

KLynn

I hadn't been able to get into FDL for quite a while when at home on dial-up. The new version is loading fine (faster, anyway). Try it again, please? (Also, your log-in at EW's new place works at FDL also.)

[KLynn]

P J Evans

Your invitation to keep trying at FDL is so nice. I've tried for the last 1.5 hours and only had luck getting a text only version to come up once and it was a bit difficult to follow. I cannot even attempt to get a comment posted. I have a high speed connection. I have no other sites with this loading problem. I cannot even get a connection to EW's new place at FDL either.

It's a bit of a downer...I am concerned about all the lurkers at both FDL and TNH who found themselves informed beyond what any MSM would provide. I wonder what the "hit" numbers are since the change and how many will be lost here and there.

BTW bmaz, I have to say...Go Buckeyes! Yes, Arizona should have received a better bowl bid.

[Jodi]

I think everybody here would like to see the new site attrack the more opened minded people, not so much Democrats just ranting. We should strive for less polarization and more discovery. I'll give you more insight on the new site. ALSO: Dad says Buckeyes should make it to a big bowl so expect to see them on New Years Day!

[SaltinWound]

Wheel, I registered over there, but when I try to post, it adds random characters and makes it look like gibberish. I'll try from my other computer. Failing that, I'll continue to read you but won't be able to post without looking like an idiot, so I could be disappearing for a while. Thanks for all your great work.

[Mad Dogs]

KLynn,

Perhaps I can help with your FDL and Emptywheel problems? I'm a techie and might be able to assist.

Can you tell me the following stuff:

1. What OS are you using? Windows XP, Vista, a Mac OS?
2. What browser are you using? Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari?
3. Can you describe exactly what the problem is? Step by step, what is not working?

[Mad Dogs]

SaltinWound,

Others have reported the same problem. And if I'm remembering correctly, doing a "hard refresh" of the page cleans everything up.

[SaltinWound]

We never had to do a hard refresh at the nexthurrah. We were young and beautiful.

[JohnLopresti]

There may be a delay after first time registration at ew's new site. After a while, I finally posted there but only after removing the html links embedded in my post.

I think part of the fdl wordpress version problem is each user has to reload the entire thread and all the graphics each time a visitor decides to click the showNewComments control; when there are thousands of simultaneous visitors, the solution may require some topologically distributed servers worldwide, or at least in the places which serve the largest concentrations of viewers. For TypePad I am located on a fiber backbone, or sufficientlty close to it that our broadband provider can refresh easily thru a nearby metropolis where TypePad has a subsidiary; over dialup, my backup connectivity, even in TypePad, is slow. There may be an issue with video at the new fdl site, as well. Even before fdl migrated to WordPress, fdl had to shorten the currently available posts once they began adding images and video; that revision sped up their site immensely.

The new modified WordPress should work well, as it has an above-the-fold appearance for each author's posts.

I hope there is some arrangement with SixApart to archive TNH for reference purposes. But the pace seems so much quicker at fdl-ew already, with the new synergies of bright people there, that we should enjoy even more effective communications there.

I have thought for a long time ew could benefit from the blogads concept, and the new ew site appears to have its own separate sponsors; that idea should help spread the commercial information which ew personally supports, as well. In all, a bumpy start, but a very quick acceleration there. My appreciation to the new site owners, to TypePad for years of service, and to some of the still contributing authors at tnh.

Footnote: The commentPreview mode is still to be implemented at fdl-ew; I hope they design it as tnh's original designers did so preview provides the same view of the linewraps as actually appears in the final posted comment, so we can continue to write our iambic pentameter knowing how the reader will view it.
Nice to have shared here. JL

[JohnLopresti]

They say refresh is a beauty product now. Hope it is safe for the ocean dwelling biota and lake and stream life.

[tekel]

Phred said: I'm thrilled for EW, but it appears (at least for now) that her comment threads over at FDL will be of the rapid sort that I have a hard time keeping up with.

replace "rapid" with "vapid" and you've got my thoughts exactly :-( FDL was great until they got popular, but I don't think they've scaled very well at all. At least EW has her own page, we won't have to wade through all the other cruft on the front page of FDL to see her posts.

I wrote, but did not post (power outage in the middle of it) a long comment earlier about my dismay that more folks who have jumped on the political web2.0 trend have not seen fit to use slashcode. Slashcode is the php/MySql program which runs slashdot.org. It uses the same underlying web and db technology as Wordpress, but it represents a vast improvement in that it allows users to moderate comments, and allows readers to FILTER comments by mod level.

Slashdot has been doing the user-generated content thing for ten years now. They've been an overwhelming success because the site is easy to use for readers, and it is easy to filter the comments so that you see only those which other users agree are worth reading. And they've made their code available for free. There is simply no reason NOT to use it.

The moderation feature addresses so many of the problems that keep cropping up at high-traffic unmoderated blogs. Moderated comments allow readers to just ignore the "FIRST POST" stuff by reading at level 3, counting on other users to mod the trolls to -1. And it solves (well, part of) the Kos censorship problem, because everyone has the option of reading, and responding to, posts at the -1 level.

I'm all for the wordpress platform, and I use it myself- but it's pretty much unworkable from a reader's perspective once you have more than 20 or 30 comments per post on a regular basis. Takes too much time to read what everyone before you has said. Slash fixes that too. And they got started in Ann Arbor- I bet EW has seen Rob Malda at the corner bar before without knowing who he is.

Anyhow. Best wishes and best of luck EW, hope you're able to benfit from this change in the way you expect, and that your dedicated TNH fans can find a way to continue to enjoy what you write.

[jonno]

Thank you KLynn for describing the hell I've had for almost a year trying to load FDL on my dialup system. I've written so many times and they just won't acknowledge that there is any problem. I use Opera browser which works wonders for me. FDL would sometimes load, sometimes half, sometimes not at all. Since they changed their system over the weekend I cannot get a thing except insane server warnings telling me

Access forbidden!

You don't have permission to access the requested directory. There is either no index document or the directory is read-protected.

blah blah blah. The fact that EW, my favorite blogger, has moved there is devastating. I can load it on IE6, but the type is too small for me to read comfortably, and text size has no effect on it. Oy.

The great thing about reading Marcy here was the wonderful commenters who had the brains to challenge each other to greater heights. Gonna miss this terribly. Even worse than when Gleen G went to Salon.

[pow wow]

emptywheel - In case I don't make it over to FDL to tell you there, thanks so much (to you or to whomever did the deed) for working on the eyestrain problem with your page design at the new FDL digs (excellent new banner heading too). The tiny, thin font on a beige background of the new, main FDL is almost painful to read - particularly the comments, located between the blue-to-white bars. Between squinting to make out the very fine lettering and to account for typos, and then re-adjusting to the bordering blue to try to identify the obscured name of the commenters, it's a real chore now to read FDL (although today the blue-bar contrast seems less stark, so perhaps the problem is slowly being addressed). Your page there is a significant improvement, with the white background, and gray bars - though a slightly thicker or larger, or just 'less-squeezed' font for the comments would probably be preferable for most readers. Perhaps color just needs to be very muted when used next to such fine/thin lettering. I don't seem to have a problem with TNH's small and quite thin font on a white background. The "relief" to the eyes, when I 'escape' from FDL to another site is quite pronounced for me - so the squinting to read is not my imagination, I'm confident. [I know I can fiddle with the settings to make FDL more legible if I'm determined enough to read in comfort, but I doubt many lurkers and others will bother with that. The tiny lettering and thus seemingly ad-focused new format also makes it appear that FDL has started 'whispering' its posts, which seems counterproductive to me. But, perhaps, that was the intended effect - more revenue in order to be able to affect politics where it lives today, and a lessening of the focus on the site's opinion and analysis per se.]

Also, for the record re FISA: Harry Reid announced on the Senate floor this afternoon that Jay Rockefeller, Kit Bond, Pat Leahy and Arlen Specter are working together to merge the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committee FISA bills into one. One bill that will presumably be able to fly through with 60 votes in the Senate later this week (or at least in December - because Reid sounds bound and determined to put together a new bill, and he said they need time to conference with the House before the PAA expires in early February). So it's three authoritarians against one 'nice guy' fair weather democrat. Good Luck, Fourth Amendment. Good Luck, domestic communications networks. Good Luck, America.

[KLynn]

Mad Dogs

Posted the following last week...

phred & bmaz,

I have a G4 Quicksilver running OS 10.4.11 and Safari 3.0.4 so I should have "enough" to load FDL. I am not sure why, but this past week, my loading FDL has gotten much worse. bmaz, tried your trick with bookmarks and it worked to a degree. When I tried to post a comment, the "server stopped responding" message came up again... It seems all three of us have "enough" to be able to load the site.

I have at&t as my high speed (please forgive me all, my original company was bought out by a&tt. I have been worried about switching and having my yard "dug" up yet again).

Anyway, FDL told me to:

1) Clear browser cache and restart her computer.

2) Repair permissions: Go to Applications folder, then Utilities folder, double click on "Disk Utility." In Disk Utility, in the left hand column, highlight the name of the hard drive, then click the "Repair Disk Permissions" button. Wait for DU to do it's thing, it will say "Permissions repair complete" when it's done, then restart the computer.

Did this last week before the launch of the new format. It worked a few times but I only had marginal success and had to do it anytime I wanted to visit the Lake.

For a long time I never had any problems with FDL or any site for that matter. Then over time, FDL started to take longer to load. Then it started to load on a default font. Then, I began getting "servers not responding" notices. Now, nothing most of the time. Although, I have gotten a text only version to come up twice all day in a default font and it took 15+ minutes to load. It takes so long and is such a hassle to even get this default text,text only version of the site that it is just not worth it.

I have no problems with any other site. Everything else loads with high speed, no default fonts, no error messages, no server not responding messages.

Trouble shoot away -- I'm all eyes, ears and keyboarding hands ready to work!

[Mad Dogs]

KLynn,

I was dreading that you were on a Mac, 'cause I'm a Windows-only techie. :-(

But I'm not willing to leave you folks wandering in the desert without helping to get some attention paid to this.

I'm going to ponder just how best to get the attention of the FDL and Emptywheel folks in a way that finally deals with this access problem once and for all.

It is simply not acceptable that folks are left high and dry, and that "customer service" says try this, but if it doesn't work, go away.

Let me think about this for a bit and decide on an approach to take.