just a "heads up" for everyone else still using their dashboard that this might be happening to as well.

I get this error message trying to access it:

Movable Type
An error occurred

Can't call method "id" on an undefined value at /var/www/cgi-bin/mt-current/plugins/CommunityDashboard/lib/CommunityDashboard/App/Community.pm line 11.

For those who want to get into the Discus comment tracking (for comments outside reader blogs,) my post explaining that is here. (Or, if TPM Reader Blogs become hard to access, a copy can be accessed off-site here.)

I got an error message the first time I tried to go into Movable Type to post this entry, too.

RE-PUBLISHED for those who missed it the first time.

Thanks to teamwork, starting with Wendy Davis noticing on my last thread that there was something strange going on when she hovered over the new comments, and me trying to figure out what we had or didn't have, and getting it very wrong at first, and today with Bwakfat and stillidealistic on readytoblowagasket's thread,  we figured it out:

that we have a very nice, useful system of tracking of comments by user, provided by Disquis.com's management of the comments everywhere on the site (except for the Reader Blogs section, which is still using the site's older "Dashboard" system.)

You access every user's comments at their avatar (This is the new system comments, and not reader blogs.)

If you use Internet Explorer, you should be able to click right through from the avatar to their comments listed on the Disquis site, a page dedicated to that user, "My Profile." There you will see the links to get back to the TPM's threads that the comments are on.

If you use Firefox, it seems it does not click through for everyone but if you hover on it you will get the url and then right click and you can "open link in new tab" or "open link in new window."

It's similar on a Mac/Safari, bwakfat says: I have a mac, and control+click lets me open the link in a new tab. 

Disquis has other tracking services for website commenters that they offer, but I haven't checked them out much yet. Go to their "About" page if you're interested. Their home page is disqus.com (no "www").

Note that this only works for comments, not for blog posts, because Disquis is only managing this site's comments. So for Josh Marshall for example, you can only get access from an avatar on a comment made by him, not from his avatar on a blog post. 

Like many others, I am concerned about combining registrations at all these collation sites, and also worry that doing it "wrong" may screw up logging in at places. So if anyone has anything to say pro or con about this service, or suggestions from using it elsewhere, please do.

UPDATE: Stillidealistic says it appears that you can get functions just like the old "Dashboard":

More exploring on discus...

If you go to someone's avatar, click to pull up their page, subscribe to them. Then when you pull up your account, your comments are listed, as are those of the people you subscribe to, in order, just like on our dashboards, now!

Posted by stillidealistic

September 4, 2010 9:43 PM | Permalink

but also warns that you should check out what else they have on you there:

Now here's something interesting. I went over to discus and tried to set up an account, only it's already there, and I didn't sign up for it, so it must be an automatic thing.

...And, when I checked my comments, it picked up one I made at an off the wall site a year ago, back during the Whole Foods debate.

Point is...this thing connects up basically everything you do on the web under that name, so keep your stories straight! Ha! You don't wanna be saying one thing one place, and something else somewhere else!

Posted by stillidealistic   in reply to  a comment from artappraiser
September 4, 2010 9:15 PM | Permalink

.

If there is a decision to take reader blogs off line for a while or permanently, can management turn on the Export function on Tools menu on the Movable Type for reader bloggers so that they can export blogs to another venue like Google Blogger? For a short time before you take the Movable Type away?

See for example,

MovableType2Blogger:

http://movabletype2blogger.appspot.com/

Just askin' in case it would be a simple thing to do....I'm sure everyone would understand if it put too much strain on your resources.

In my experience as a member here since at least 2005, announcements about the current state of the site and its future are often hidden away as comments on threads that many users don't see. I am taking the opportunity I still have to blog here (which was admittedly difficult and also seems to be tentative and iffy) to change that.

Here's the most important one in my humble opinion, with my bold highlighting. I think it's something every user here should know, not just the people who happen to return to read comments on Schmed's thread.

Schmed, let me try to address the question of how this is better from the user's perspective.

Some of this I address in this comment on another thread. http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/d/a/dan_k/2010/08/amateur-hour-on-the-internets.php#comment-4082928

More generally, when the kinks are worked out, users will have less annoyance with spam -- which disqus can handle and MT could not. The login system will be much more robust -- no getting knocked offline, no getting emails saying you're using the wrong password when you're not etc. On top of that, once we have a secure and functioning log in system we can build features that actually work and are reliable on top of it.

That's the plus side.

On the down side some functionality is being lost, in least in the short term. The dashboard system will no longer work. Temporally we will also not be allowing new people to set up reader blogs and we are suspending access to reader blogs that have not been accessed in more than six months. We have carved out a portion of the site (the active reader blogs) to continue using the old system because of the importance of reader blogs and the time people have invested in them. I hope in relatively short order we'll be able to migrate them to a new system that will allow us to allow new users the ability again to start their own reader blogs. For now though, only the existing reader blogs will continue.

Again, I give some of the wheres and whys for this in the comment at the link above. But the gist is that we could no longer afford the staff time commitment or the money it was costing us to keep the old system going. And even though there's some pain involved we knew that we could create a better system by moving to the new open login system we've created.

Posted by Josh Marshall
August 28, 2010 12:42 AM | Permalink

Another comment:

Read more »

August 4, 2010:

The White House chose an unusual way to send its signals to Tehran. A small group of journalists was invited to a "background session" on Iran policy  with "senior National Security Staff." The briefer  turned out to be Obama. An official said later that the president plans more of these unscripted, informal meetings.

from the report by David Ignatius, Washington Post columnist, one of those present.

Here are some of the others present with links to their reports:

Robert Kagan, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace writing at the Washington Post;

Christiane Amanpour, ABC News;

Marc Ambinder, The Atlantic;

Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic

Also present:Carol Giacomo of the New York Times editorial board, NBC's David Gregory, and The Economist's Peter David. 

Here is a backgrounder on related from Laura Rozen.

As  I said here on Dean Baker's thread, this original Huffington Post story by Shahien Nasiripour, purporting that Geithner was opposing Elizabeth Warren's nomination, was a rumor from one unidentified and un-described source, combined with the author's suppositions that Geithner must hate Warren because she questioned him roughly in a hearing.

Because "netroots" et. al. hates Geithner, they are ready and willing to believe this rumor, disseminate it and even form groups to fight him about something they have imagined he is doing, and even make advertising buys spreading the rumor.

Meanwhile, it's not really appropriate for him to voice public preferences on this matter, as he has to work with whoever eventually fills the position. But because of all this madeup crap, he's been pushed to do so:

Geithner: Warren Would Be Good Consumer Watchdog

July 21, 2010

 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner  said on Wednesday that Elizabeth Warren has the credentials needed to head the new Bureau of Consumer Protection set up as part of a landmark financial reform overhaul.

In an interview on PBS' "Charlie Rose Show," Geithner was asked whether Warren was Treasury's top candidate for the consumer watchdog post but said it was President Barack Obama's decision to make.

"Let me just say she is an incredibly capable, effective advocate for reform," Geithner said. Treasury has denied rumors of conflict between Geithner and Warren....

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said earlier on Wednesday that Warren would be a "terrific" nominee to head the agency.

The position is considered a key one but the timing of an appointment is unclear and there are other potential candidates besides Warren, though Geithner offered lavish praise."She was way ahead of her time, way ahead of the country in pointing out what was actually happening in the credit busies," Geithner said of Warren. "So like I say, I think she'd do a great job in that position."

[.....]

Have so many in the blogosphere lost all skills to read skeptically? What is going on when people active on poltitical websites no longer seem to realize that rumors often have hidden agendas? And do so many, just because they are on a site where they like the slant, really believe everything they read on it is true? Has the internet become a really nasty tool of deception in politics? Scary folks, scary-- reminds me of  the Bushies' "believe it and it will be true."

I know that Geithner may be covering his ass in the above statements. But come on, at least they are actual quotes from an actual person with a name, a face and a job with major major responsibilities, and not rumors from a single anonymous source.

If you feel strongly about Elizabeth Warren for this position, of course you should write your Congresspersons and the White House. But my suggestion is to leave Geithner out of it, because if you don't, you will sound like gullible, easily manipulated people who need not be taken seriously. They'll figure if you fall for that one, you'll fall for others, too.

is here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/interview-president-yonit-levi-israeli-tv

I noticed bits and pieces, like the following, are being mentioned in a lot of summary news articles:

Q    Are you concerned that Prime Minister Netanyahu might try unilaterally to attack Iran?

THE PRESIDENT:  You know what, I think that the relationship that -- the U.S. and Israel is sufficiently strong and that neither of us try to surprise each other but we try to coordinate on issues of mutual concern.  And that approach is one that I think Prime Minister Netanyahu is committed to.

I decided I would be better informed by reading the whole thing, and recommend the same to others

I also noticed Israeli media mentioning some things John McCain said on his trip this week to Jerusalem (with Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham). after meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Israeli army chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi.  But those pieces are simply quoting things from this Washington Post article, and one might as well go to the original source:

McCain: Israel not planning strike on Iranian nuclear facilities

by Janine Zacharia from Jerusalem, Washington Post, July 7, 2010.

"Those who still pretend that we are not a nation at war are complicit in these deaths," said Farahnaz Ispahani, a spokeswoman for President Asif Ali Zardari.

from
Suicide Bombers Strike Sufi Shrine in Pakistan by Sabrina Tavernise and Waqar Gilani from Islamabad, New York Times, July 1, 2010.

LAHORE: The death toll of Data Darbar incident rose to 45 on Friday while Chief Justice Lahore High Court has taken a suo motu notice of the incident and has called the CCPO Lahore to appear before the court on July 5.

A day of mourning was observed in Lahore while protests were also held against the suicidal attacks in all major cities. People from all walks of life severely condemn the incident.

Security was on high alert due to Friday's prayers. A number of religious and political organisations have announced Saturday as a day of mourning.

Meanwhile, the scenes of carnage at Data Darbar were caught on closed circuit televisions which recorded the bombers in the final moments before they blew themselves up....

from
Death toll rises to 45; LHC takes suo motu notice, Dawn, July 2, 2010.

Read more »

Jessie Gugig, 15, said she could not believe the charges, especially against Mrs. Murphy, who was an accomplished gardener.

"They couldn't have been spies," she said. "Look what she did with the hydrangeas."

from "In Ordinary Lives, U.S. Sees the Work of Russian Agents" by Scott Shane and Charlie Savage, June 28, 2010.

Actually, this one particular play and movie:  "Pack of Lies".

I got a malware infection on June 20 which activated shortly after using this site.

Now I just noticed member Emma Zahn saying in the following comment that she recently got one too:

Thanks. I would expand on my remarks except for two things:

1) Just after submitting my last post my computer got hit with Antivirus7. I admit calling them jerks was a bit harsh but really....was a malware attack really called for? :)

2) I am out of Ritalin.

Maybe later. You're welcome to take the point and run with it if you like.

Posted by Emma Zahn in reply to a comment from David Seaton
June 24, 2010 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink

They were not the same, mine was "AV Security Suite," hers was "AntiVirus 7."

BUT it's curious that they are both what is known as "scareware," and very similar.  Mine has been described as originated from the same root as Antivirus Soft.

These scareware thingies are really nasty, they don't just appear like fake anti-virus programs with tons of pop ups per minute, eventually redirecting your browser to porn or other junk sites, but they take over and block your real anti-virus and other protection programs (I have fully updated AVG, the paid version, and it didn't detect a known malware named to imitate it, go figure! I also have Windows Vista Business which has other protections.) They are very difficult to remove from your computer, going into the registry with files that can replicate if partially removed.

I got lucky. First I knew the warning pop ups were fishy and I didn't do what any of them directed me to do, just continued to try to close them (the latter is hopeless, they keep coming like rain.) I used Windows Restore to go two days back on my computer and then I immediately purchased and installed Malwarebytes Anti-malware software, and crossing fingers, it hasn't come back.

But I noticed that Malwarebytes just popped up when I opened TPM on Internet Explorer for the first time in a long time (instead of on Firefox where I usually view the site and where I think I caught the malware.)

Emma and I could have got it from other travels on the web but I thought the concidence was worth posting about and asking if anyone else got a malware infection soon after using this site, especially of the "scareware" type. Also, the day I got infected, I really hadn't done that many things on the internet except here.

Unfortunately, if other TPM users recently got malware infections they might still be trying to fix their computer, and not be able to see this post or comment on it.

If you have ignored the story to date, in short: there's major ethnic cleansing of the Uzbek population going on. With threat of civil war (if you can't call it that already,) 400,000 refugees, an "immense" humanitarian aid crisis involving a million (see U.N. and Red Cross), autonomous zones developing, military atrocities, and with the current provisional government (the result of an ousting of the former government via rioting,) having lost control of the south.

The U.S. has a military base there that is crucial to supplying the troops in Afghanistan.

Russia has never been thrilled with our military base there. See Medvedev's comments on that and the general situation in Kyrgyzstan in an interview with him in today's Wall Street Journal.

Afghans of Uzbek heritage are a significant part of the population of northern Afghanistan and many are bilingual in Uzbek and Persian. (Also, those who have studied al Qaeda know that some Uzbeks from the Ferghana Valley have been known among the "foreigners" causing havoc in the northwest provinces of Pakistan.)

Today's New York Times has a good summary piece filed from Osh, with added input on the U.S. government's current troubled position, as the sub-headline in the print edition says: U.S. Fretting Over Base and Rudderless Ally.

Feel free to add more stories in comments, I myself might follow it that way over the next few weeks.

Edited 7:30pm EDT to fix links.

Read more »

I like to check if they are at the same time involved in hitting back at the Kurdish independence movement. That's usually the case, as it is currently:

Turkey: May air raid killed 100 Kurdish rebels
By Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press, 06/18/10

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's military said Friday it killed as many as 120 Kurdish rebels in an air raid on rebel hideouts in northern Iraq last month and a daylong incursion by elite commandos into Iraq this week. [....]
It was the largest air assault on the rebels since a 2008 ground operation into Iraq that saw many guerrillas return to bases along the border after Turkish units withdrew. The Turkish military says around 4,000 rebels are based just across the border in Iraq and that about 2,500 operate inside Turkey. [....]

Iraq protests Iran air raid on Kurd villages
Agence France Presse, 05 May 2009

BAGHDAD -- Iraq on Tuesday summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest over an air raid targeting alleged separatists in the country's autonomous Kurdish region, the foreign ministry said.
"The foreign ministry presented an official letter of protest to the Iranian ambassador in Baghdad over Iranian forces' bombardment of border villages on Iraqi territory," it said in a statement.
t went on to demand an "immediate halt to these sorts of violations which continue to have negative repercussions on relations between the two countries."[....]

Read more »

For the first time ever, I glanced at the TPM Twitter Rooms links on the front page. On the "Democratic Insiders" feed, I caught Peter Daou recommending this piece as a "Brutal Rolling Stone piece about administration's failings in the #Gulf disaster."

I just finished it. And it is brutal.

The Spill, The Scandal and the President

The inside story of how Obama failed to crack down on the corruption of the Bush years - and let the world's most dangerous oil company get away with murder.

By  Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, Jun 08, 2010

My teaser quote:

Like the attacks by Al Qaeda, the disaster in the Gulf was preceded by ample warnings - yet the administration had ignored them.

30 April 2010 -

UN aid chief urges DR Congo authorities to enhance protection of civilians
[....]

"Civilians continue to suffer enormously and disproportionately in this armed conflict," he said in Mwenga, where he helped launch a new feeding programme of the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

The Kivu provinces have been ravaged by armed conflict [....] where an estimated 1.4 million people are internally displaced, more than 70 per cent of whom live with host families, increasing the burden on a population with already-scarce resources.

Civilians face frequent human rights abuses, OCHA said, with villages routinely being looted and burnt down by armed groups.

Armed men from all combatant parties commit sexual violence. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said that last year alone, 8,300 rapes were committed against women in the Kivus, an average of 160 rapes every week.
[....]

1 June 2010 -

DR Congo: UNICEF warns a lack of funding hinders efforts to assist displaced

Nearly 1.9 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) - half of them children - continue to live away from their homes after having been displaced by armed conflict, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported today, adding that a lack of funds was hindering efforts to continue assisting them.[....]

4 June 2010 -

Low funding threatens humanitarian work in DR Congo, UN warns

A funding shortfall for relief operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) could lead to a major reduction in aid to hundreds of thousands of people in the African country, where conflict in some areas has displaced a large slice of the population, the United Nations warned today.

UN agencies and their non-governmental organizations (NGO) partners have requested $828 million for humanitarian projects in the DRC this year, but only $249 million - or 30 per cent - of that amount has been made available, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The available funding include $70 million carried over from 2009, an indication of how slowly new contributions have been trickling in this year.

"If resource mobilization continues at this pace, total financing for 2010 is likely to be below $500 million, or less than 60 per cent of the of requirements, with a shortfall of over $328 million," said Fidèle Sarassoro, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for DRC.

"This would have disastrous consequences for humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable," Mr. Sarassoro added in a press release issued jointly with the DRC Government.
[....]

Maybe they should arrange an occupation by Israel to get everyone interested?

CNN TV was just covering it, an official announcement by BP's CEO Suttle.

Here's the New York Times on it from Houston:

'Top Kill' Fails to Plug Leak; BP Readies Next Approach
By Clifford Krauss and Leslie Kaufman

Since I was here commenting, and I didn't see any other posts on it, I thought I'd start a thread so people can use it for discussion or more incoming news until a better post on it comes along.