Jim Robinson, Protector against Evil?

This is the ever-present claptrap coming from Democrats since the release of information that the President had an intelligence brief that had (gasp) non-specific information! While it is fairly transparent what the Democrats are trying to do --score political points in hope of unseating Republicans for the mid-term elections, senselessly ramble on and on and on, and make the President appear as the coordinator of the 9/11 attacks-- they have yet to propose a legitimate solution to the problem. They are far too engrossed in the refined process known as political hay-making to do so. Unfortunately, Republicans inside the beltway don't seem to be doing all that much better. Arlen "still-looking-for-some-direction-in-Scottish-law" Specter has recently been calling for all kinds of investigations, threatening subpeonas, refusing to acknowledge reality...the whole bit. Other Republicans, who are slightly more in touch with reality, are calling for investigations, as well. Most are focused on the President and the White House with only a smattering of questions for the intelligence community. Their attentions, however, are woefully misdirected.

The events of 9/11 were, plain and simple, an intelligence breakdown. Could we talk about how the Democrats (specifically, the embattled Bob Torcelli) have slashed at the intelligence community for years? Yes, it is accurate to say this. Could we talk about the visceral hate for the military of our last President and how his inattention to the terrorists bolstered their resolve? Again, yes. But, while all that is true, it won't change what happened on 9/11 and it certainly won't help for the future. So, who can get the intelligence community(ies) to pay attention to the myriad of reports that come in through each field office?

That's right! Jim Robinson, the beloved founder of Free Republic, has the solution that I think would help resolve the intelligence breakdown: the Free Republic forum (or at least the "stuff" that powers it). Let me explain.

First, we have to look at the problem: lack of information. While some FReepers are more prolific posters than others, it is almost a sure bet that you will get the comment "Been Posted Here", or the ever-sarcastic, "Posted Here...Here...and Here". The amount of information that is available on Free Republic is truly astounding. No, it isn't a Google or DogPile, but the wealth of information is undeniable. And, yes, sometimes finding something after it has exited the "Breaking News" section isn't the easiest, but you can find it.

Second, there appears to be a wholesale dysfunction regarding interaction inside each agency and between agencies. The tools that power Free Republic could allow agents to post their reports to a similar forum. Then, specific personnel would review all the reports looking for common "threads" and trends. The intelligence agencies could even have their own "Barf Alert" to indicator potentially sour issues.

Third, the equity of the Free Republic forum would be key to solving the political in-fighting amongst the hierarchy in the agencies. This would allow members of the agencies to post and comment without the politics. Surely there are some posters that are better than others, but the comments and opinions could be laid out for all to see regardless of rank. I mean after all, when it comes to photographic manipulation, is there anyone better than Registered? What would be a day on Free Republic without the illuminating comments from JohnHuang2? I miss, as do all FReepers, the comments from BKO (Barbara Olsen) and BCM (Battalion Commander John Moran, brother of the now-famous Mike Moran of the "Osama-can-kiss-my-white-Irish-ass-fame"). What is a science post without some comments from Boris? What is unique is that these folks posted just like all the rest of us. We really don't know who these folks were/are, but we are able to read their comments for what they are. These folks could span the race and gender categories (and do), but others don't know it. Their posts and opinions are reviewed (and praised or excoriated) on their merits. This type of equity is absent in most organizations, most especially the involved government agencies.

Fourth, the common focus of Free Republic. The Free Republic has a mission statement, if you will. Most FReepers (save that of the DU disrupters) believe similar things or have a similar focus. These agencies, not withstanding the politics, have a focus as well. The agents are very serious people who are dedicated to doing their job. The politics never seem to emanate from the field ranks and most field agents can't stand the politicization of their organization. Most agents will tell you that it detracts from accomplishing their objectives. A tool like Free Republic would allow for a common focus and provide that focus to every level of the organization.

Fifth, this would also benefit all of us regular FReepers because Jim would/should get a hefty government contract for implementing such a tool. Then, maybe we wouldn't have to go a day without our beloved (and addicting) forum, JIM! <wink>

HTML Bootcamp (Cyber intelligence community training)

Music

Line Break: 
When you type at the end of a line of text
This is what happens.

New Paragraph: 
When you type at the end of a line of text

This is what happens.

As far as the basics, that's all you "need" to know.

These you need to turn something "on" and "off".

Bold "on" = Bold "off "= 
Typing in:
Bold no more bold
Looks like:
Bold no more bold

The rest work the same way

Italic: 
Italic

Underline: 
Underline

Strikeout: <s></s>
~~Strikeout~~

Center: <center></center>
Center

Nothing to it right?
Now these require you to enter what you want between the " and ".

Font Size: (?=font sizes; 1-7)
1234567

Font Color: (??????=color)
#FFFFFF White It's White, trust me it's there (highlight it with your pointer)

To: michigander

You can also use colors in English!

Font Color: 
(??????=color)
White It's White, trust me it's there (highlight it with your pointer)

Thanks brityank!

Click here for a all(?) the color "English" names and "#" codes.

Select Font: (?=font)
Arial
Times New Roman
Wingdings (Wingdings)
Creepy
Courier
If these don't show up as different fonts, these particular fonts aren't installed on your system.

These rquire you to enter a reference address (URL) between the " and ".

How to post an image: <img src="?" height="" width=""> (?=the URL of the picture)
In this case the picture URL is: http://www.freerepublic.com/images/frlogo.gif
the image height is 130, the width is 150
(It's from the FR home page)
<img src="http://www.freerepublic.com/images/frlogo.gif" height="130" width="150"> =

Be sure to add the height and width sizes if at all possible. It allows the threads to load more efficiently.

About now you may be wondering. How do I find the picture address, height, and width?

Some pointers on formatting images:
If you use an IE browser, and see a graphic you want to bring to the FR forum, just right-click on the graphic, and look at the "Properties" menu. Then highlight the "Address" listed in the Properties window, right-click on the selected Address, and choose "Copy" from the popup menu. Now the address of the chosen graphic is in your Windows clipboard, ready to be pasted.

As an example, the "China Spy Guide" graphic on FreeRepublic contains this address: http://www.freerepublic.com/images/prcexports.jpg

In order to place it on a Reply page, I would normally center the image, and add a caption underneath:


<CENTER><IMG SRC="http://www.freerepublic.com/images/prcexports.jpg" height="120" width="120"> 
China Spy Guide</CENTER>


The above HTML shows up as:

China Spy Guide

Thanks Cultural Jihad!

Links are a 2 step process. Where you want to go and something for the pointer to "click" on.
Link Something: <a href="?">??</a> (?=the URL of the page, ??=something to "click" on)
In this case the page URL is: http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a9d21696f05.htm (One of the Alamo-Girl NEWCOMERS pages)
<a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a9d21696f05.htm">(One of the Alamo-Girl NEWCOMERS pages)</a> the </a> turns off the link. =
(One of the Alamo-Girl NEWCOMERS pages) the </a> turns off the link.

Some more useful tips.

How did I do this?
Michigander, thanks for the writeup. I'm sure it'll help a lot of folks. But you really should have anticipated that someone's going to wonder how you managed to put the HTML commands inside brackets with no spaces and actually have them show up, instead of executing.

Folks, if you want to do what Michigander has done - making an HTML command *appear* instead of being acted upon by the browser, there's one more trick. Instead of typing < type the ampersand(&) pound(#) and 60. To make > appear, type ampersand pound 62 (no spaces anywhere). In between, you put the HTML tag you want to appear on the screen.

There may be another way to do the same thing, but this is the one I use.

</clinton>

Michael

Thanks Wright is right!

I use < for < and > for > because it's easy to remember "less than" and "greater than".

( And to get those to view on screen, I had to use &lt; and &gt; -- don't forget the semicolons!)

Thanks Willie Green

How to "Copy and Paste" text.
Highlight (darken in) the part you want to COPY with the mouse.

Do this by pressing DOWN the left click on ther mouse and HOLDING IT DOWN while you drag it over the portion to be copied.

You will see it darken in.

Then RIGHT CLICK on that darkened in portion.

A menu will come up.

LEFT CLICK on "copy" on that menu.

Go to the site you want to paste the copied part onto.

(for example free republic "reply").

RIGHT CLICK AT THAT SPOT.

A menu will come up.

LEFT CLICK on "paste" on that menu.

The copied portion will appear.

Thanks Joe Montana!

Another quick way to get the HTML codes is to go and "View Source" -- in Netscape it's on the top, or you can right-click on the page with the mouse. If you're in a Frame, select "View Frame". You can then either learn how it's done, or highlight the HTML you want, then hit Control-c to place on you're clipboard; go to where you want it inserted, and after positioning the cursor, do a Control-v to paste it in place. Or you can right-click the mouse, and those selections are there.

Remember to Preview and check the codes are working and are all </closed>.

Thanks again brityank!!

With the recent changes at FR, any open HTML tags will be automatically closed at the end of every reply or post.

Here is a list of the HTML tags that are available for use within the forum.

What do Bump, Ping, Bttt, ROTFL, LOL, VRWC and all those other terms and acronyms I see used here mean?
Stop by the Lexicon of FreeRepublic - 4th Edition. You'll be glad you did!

Previous Threads:
HTML for FReeper Newbies
Basic html formatting
Basic html formatting
HTML Bootcamp
HTML Bootcamp
HTML Assimilation
HTML Bootcamp (or how did they make that cool post/reply?)
HTML Bootcamp (or Wow, how did they do that?)
HTML Bootcamp (Cyber patriot training)
Go to TPartyType's HTML Sandbox to practice!

Finally, a few words from Mr. Robinson:

Free Republic is an online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America.
And we always have fun doing it. Hoo-yah!

Try to remember that last sentence and don't take things too personally.
At ease, as you were, smoke 'em if you got 'em, carry on, and all that stuff.
That is all.

As always...
M
5... 4... 3... 2...

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.