Open Thread

Talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic.

NB's Matt Sheffield was featured in a panel discussion at the CPAC conference today about "Conservative Victories with New Media."

What impact will conservative bloggers have in the next two years in furthering conservative ideas on the 2008 campaign trail by holding the candidates to account for their policy stances? To what extent with conservative bloggers and vloggers break news about 2008 candidates that the mainstream media ignore or underreport?

Today is the first day of the CPAC conference. Several of the MRC and NB staff will be in attendance. Stop by the MRC booth and blogger corner and say hi if you're around.

Comment on news of the day and anything else.

And now for some NB news: I mentioned some changes coming to NB recently and one of them is that Ken Shepherd is now our Managing Editor. Greg Sheffield is leaving his spot but will still remain a contributing editor.

We're also getting close to being ready to perform a major software upgrade. This will involve making the site read-only for several hours during a weekend. Just thought I should announce this beforehand so no one gets surprised.

Discuss, debate, pontificate...

Discuss the news and anything else you like.

Discuss amongst yourselves...

Today's starter: Consider this newest delight of the left-wing blogosphere: Bush wanted to O-sodomize bin Laden?

Discuss, debate, descant.

Because the other one got full.

Comment on the news of the day and anything else.

Discuss amongst yourselves...

Comment on the news of the day and anything else.

Starter: In the grand tradition of the Church Sign Generator, have you seen the Valentine Heart Maker? (H/t: Ace) Note: You can't post images from the site elsewhere but you can link to them.

Admin note: There was a corruption in some of our data tables over the weekend which should no longer be present. For the technically inclined, I've migrated them from MyISAM to InnoDB which has more robust data management features. The move should also make making a comment go quicker, too.

As for our planned upgrade, I am working with someone to migrate us to version 4.7 of our software Drupal. When this is completed, we are going to shortly thereafter switch hosting companies.

However, all this moving is going to be expensive as is the new hardware and being released from our contract. If you could help MRC and NB with a donation, we'd all appreciate it greatly. There are some big things coming in the next few weeks and months and it will be nice when these tech issues are out of the way so stay tuned.

Feel free to use this node as an open thread.

For general discussion and comment.

Discuss amongst yourselves...

Open for discussion...

Comment about the news of the day and anything else...

Every year on February 6, Ronald Reagan's birthday, the owners of Ropewalk Tavern in Baltimore throw a free birthday bash for the late great president complete with jelly beans and drink specials.

It's a bit of a hike from MRC headquarters in Alexandria, Va., but I may go this year. At any rate, it made me wonder how many other bars and restaurants throughout the fruited plain host similar parties.

Feel free to use the comments field to post information about any Reagan birthday bashes in your neck of the woods.

Discuss...

Discuss amongst yourselves...

Comment on the news of the day and anything else.

Comment on the news of the day and most anything else you like.

Today's starter: Over the weekend, I went to the National Review Institute's first Conservative Summit where the 2008 presidential election was topic one. Several of the candidates were there including former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who in all likelihood announced his presidential candidacy on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.

I saw quite a few of my favorite bloggers there including the still anonymous Ace of Spades, Mary Katharine Ham of Townhall.com, Michelle Malkin, Rand Simberg and Rob Bluey of Human Events. Paul Mirengoff of Power Line was blogging incognito [not really] from the summit--none of the bloggers I talked to had bumped into him.

A roundup of blog coverage follows after the jump. Use this as today's open thread.

Comment on topics of your choosing.

Discuss amongst yourselves...

For general discussion and comment...

Tonight is President's Bush's State of the Union Address. How will the media cover the event: the lead-up to the speech and the post-speech analysis of what Bush "really" said?

If you catch something, share it with your fellow NBers.