I had a website covering the Clintons in the 1990s.
It was a time eater keeping it updated since the Clintons had endless scandals and there was so much to cover—very difficult since I had a challenging real day job.
Jim’s site did it better—so I ended my site and came here.
My highlights of those years was the “Vince Foster” tour of the DC area where some locals investigating the case gave me a tour of Ft. Marcy Park and I got to meet some of the good guys hard at work.
We thought we had a handle of most of the Clinton scandals.
Then one mass media publication had a photograph of a meeting in the Oval Office. Folks here posted it and zoomed in on a piece of paper on one of the tables.
It was a lengthy handwritten document listing a bunch of scandals that the White House was busy “managing”.
We had never heard of 90% of them.
Those scandals were the ones they had totally “contained”.
We knew at that point we had a lot more work to do.
The spirit of investigation and collaboration in those days was amazing.
I am glad the Clintons did not have you Arkancided.
Good memories...
Like MANY who are here, I first found the site via the link on the Drudge Report in March of 1998. The Monica Lewinsky story was great on many levels:
- It allowed us to debate with our wives about whether a B-J counted as “sex”? (any chance to discuss B-J’s with the wife tends to have good long-term benefits!) and
- It led many people to Free Republic, one of the all-time greatest places for news and comment.
Free Republic was/IS what X /(Twitter) aspire to be; a national counter-top for discussion of current topics. The level of discourse when it first started was incredible. Over the years, it’s ebbed and flowed, but in my opinion, has remained high.
I still find it easier here than anywhere to find a wide range of CURRENT news. And eventually... insightful comment from people with better sources, or different viewpoints. A place where I can easily ask questions and debate points of issue. What more could anyone ask for? Anything that’s not here? I’m probably not that interested in it.
I loved FR from the start, but I came to truly appreciate it when 9/11 happened. As someone stated earlier, FR was just about the ONLY internet site that remained able to provide news for those of us stuck in an office. EVERYTHING else was frozen.
My favorite times here were the real-time commentary we used to have when watching the TV show “24”. It was freaking hilarious. I’ve also always enjoyed the hurricane following threads. Now, I’m actually live back in storm country... eek!
There was a time when I was a routine monthly donor, but I must admit... I stopped it when things got a little crazy here, and when I started working for an ultra-woke European company. I truly felt like I might be fired, just for being a member. I’ve made a few one-time donations since and will continue.
I hope the site is able to outlast me! To this day, it’s one of, if not THE, first site I go to in the morning for news. What a blessing JimRob was able to bring us all with his vision. MANY THANKS to all who are working to keep it going.