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Morning Shorts has always been a pain in the rear to do and then hardly anyone ever comments. So, I’m done with it. It’s over. Kaput. Finished.
Instead, after some initial difficulties getting it to work, I’m posting Stateline’s Illinois news feed on the right side of the page. They do a great job of finding all Illinois-related news items so I don’t have to.
The only way MS gets a reprieve is if you demand it in comments today. Otherwise, it’s history.
Use this Question of the Day to comment on the demise of Morning Shorts and suggest other things you’d like to see on the blog.
UPDATE: How about if I highlight the Stateline feed in a post of its own every day? Like this:
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 9:46 am
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
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I really liked them. You also did a great job in pulling together stories, as well as commentators that dont seem to pop up in the net news summaries posted to the right. Great job all around, btw. Thanks!
Comment by Been There Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 10:03 am
With all due respect, Mr. Miller, I read your blog for its focus on Illinois politics, insider read on the events, and the cross reference to related news/commentary. I go elsewhere to read the news, and by the time I get to your blog, I’ve seen most of the news listed in your Morning Shorts.
If you drop it I won’t miss it.
Comment by Conservative Republican Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 10:06 am
I like this new news feed and it frees your time up for the rest of the blog. While this is an Illinois-based blog, it’s nice to see what other states are doing.
Comment by bomber91 Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 10:08 am
personally, i liked it, but only you know how best to devote your time. although i believe i have commented on one (possibly two) item(s), i never felt like the reader comments was their function. i appreciated being alerted to various things, the convenience of your pulling them all together and your wit.
Comment by bored now Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 10:09 am
Rich, it’s your blog, do whatever you want. Whatever you do, insiders will keep coming to debate, outsiders will keep coming to spectate, and the main stream media will keep coming to borrow stories without attribution.
Theft, not imitation, is the sincerest form of flattery.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 10:10 am
Rich:
I liked Morning Shorts and wish you would keep it. I can get a news feed on a lot of sites, but I look to you to filter out what might be important and or interesting.
So I say keep it.
Comment by Gary Sawyer Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 10:11 am
Richard,
Lay that burden down.
Comment by Pat Hickey Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 10:12 am
Rich:
I liked the shorts a great deal. My vote is to keep it.
Comment by Morning Shorts Fan Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 10:19 am
Personally, I liked it. And anytime I can get somebody of Rich Miller’s caliber to do some of my legwork for me — for free — I’m in favor of it.
Comment by Jim Leach Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 10:21 am
Rich,
Keep it, it is a great resource for those of us who love Illinois politics but have real jobs, too.
Comment by Keep It Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 10:26 am
MS are fine, but like others said: won’t miss it cause there are other places to go for similar stuff. Leaves more room/time for other topics and associated rants that you cover so well. Your blog. Do as you see fit. The crowd will not leave.
Comment by zatoichi Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 10:30 am
The feeds on the right side of the page are all you need. I won’t miss the a.m. shorts.
Comment by Anon Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 10:36 am
People have as many thoughts on your blog as they do on politics. Wow. I liked the morning shorts because you linked to my op-ed in the SJ-R, last month. Thanks.
Comment by Collin Hitt Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 10:45 am
Could you move the Stateline Illinois news feed to the top of your page?
Comment by 'The Gay Governor' Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 11:01 am
Your update is an excellent idea and will work fine.
Comment by anon Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 11:09 am
Rich: Pleeeze save your energy for managing all the GOP (as in MOPE) posts on the blog. The MS fans can find their own news.
Plus you need to get that boat ready to take all your fans out for free cruises, beer, brats.
BTW When will you post the link for boat cruise calendar?
BTW2 For all the whiners who want to give the oil companies via gas tax cut you’ll be happy to note the Wall Street Journal reports Big Oil industry groups will send about +$80 milliion on new ads, pr and lobbyists. Forget research and expanding capacity.
Comment by Reddbyrd Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 11:12 am
Rich, maybe instead of a question of the day, you should have a running “quote of the day” contest. If you do, I submit the following quote from Liz Eilers, former downstate director for Jim Oberweiss, as quoted in Bernie Schoenberg’s column (set up paragraph by Bernie):
Eilers believes that one reason illegal immigrants have found so many job opportunities in the United States is because so many U.S. residents in lower socioeconomic levels have abortions. That, she contends, has reduced the supply of American blue-collar workers.
“The whole illegal immigration issues stems from abortion,” she said.
Oh, Judy needs to get this woman on board with her campaign. She will really bring he conservative vote home in November. Koo-Koo.
Comment by no name Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 11:17 am
I enjoyed the Morning Shorts but never commented because as noted above I never thought it was for that purpose. I especially enjoyed your comments on the importance or relevance of certain stories. Perhaps if you changed Morning Shorts to “Must See” media items, it would serve the same purpose. Also, you might consider creating a special highlighter for any news feed items you think are significant.
I assume you will continue to point out other blog posts of special interest.
Comment by Anon sequitur Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 11:17 am
I liked it, but there’s a reason I don’t do it…
I do like the Stateline headlines simply because it saves me another visit.
Comment by archpundit Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 11:36 am
¡Gran idea, rico! Destacar el Stateline diario serÃa un abierto-hilo fresco. ¡Una vez más, gran idea!
Comment by Cuero de Lovie Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 11:38 am
LOL. I wonder if he knows he’s being mocked.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 11:41 am
Sorry, Rich, that won’t do. Morning Shorts or nothing at all!
Kidding, of course. Either way, it’s a nice feature.
Comment by Jim Leach Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 11:41 am
I liked Morning Shorts because I saw it less as a roundup and more of your take on what was interesting, important, and quirky. We can get the newsfeeds on the right side of the page or elsewhere. Perhaps you could keep Morning Shorts, but without any compulsion to be exhaustive, or to even care much about comments. Instead, use it as your quick summary of maybe the top five or so stories/sites/images to look at.
Comment by Steve Rhodes Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 11:57 am
Please, Rich, for everyone’s sake … KEEP YOUR SHORTS UP!
Comment by YNM Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 12:05 pm
LOL
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 12:06 pm
I can live w/o your shorts, but would prefer to have the Stateline-Il morning highlights in the left column daily. Thanks.
Comment by Shorty Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 12:38 pm
Reddbyrd-
That $80 million will provide a lot of hot air. A great source of alternative energy, if it can be harnessed.
Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 12:48 pm
Just because we don’t comment doesn’t mean we don’t read them. You’re playing the role of editor in picking the stories which are more interesting (and commenting on their significance) rather than forcing laymen to slog through the redundant list of stories in the robo search engines.
I vote to keep it.
Comment by Get Shorty Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 1:07 pm
yes, please
Comment by Bill Baar Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 1:13 pm
This frequent visitor personallly finds the morning shorts to be incredibly valuable. It is great to see a sampling of *THE* most important news stories around the state. In a way, it’s similar to realclearpolitics, one of my other favorite sites. Take the noise of news and boil it down to a half-dozen articles and stories that really matter. It’s a huge time-saver for me, and I imagine a huge-time saver for the rest of the readers. As a Chicagoan, the only time I ever read anything non-Tribune or Sun-Times is if it is linked through this blog.
Please keep morning shorts!
Comment by Maroon Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 1:16 pm
It’s a good feature. Hope you keep it up.
Comment by Anon Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 1:19 pm
As the guy who usually compiles the Stateline round-up for Illinois every morning, I can tell ya they’re not a robo-list.
Comment by Dan Vock Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 1:35 pm
I loved your MS. They’re one of the first things I look for when I log on daily, and I would hope you bring it back. However, I realize you’re a very busy person and if it’s a hassle to do so, then the current update propsoal will do fine. But if you can, bring MS back! Thanks.
Comment by Howie Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 1:43 pm
I like morning shots best — pithy summary — I usually go there first. I just don’t comment on it because the thread would get too convoluted with all the different stories. I hope it stays.
Comment by Just Observing Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 1:46 pm
Rich,
Your blog is one of the first places I go to when I get on the web. I like the m.s., even if I don’t comment a lot. Like the others, I wouldn’t mind if you kept posting them.
Comment by Walking Wounded Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 1:49 pm
Post the Morning Shorts on the right hand side of the page, above the feeds. We value your editorial efforts on our behalf. Solicit your regulars to submit a guest column by a time certain each day; choose the one you like best; post the next morning on the left as the first item. All the spews that snits can print.
Comment by Horace Greeley Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 2:05 pm
Keep the morning shorts, Rich!
Comment by Sharad Kumar Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 2:11 pm
Rich, Rich, Rich, I demand my morning shorts! Enough said and I will see them tomorrow, if not Tuesday. You can take a long weekend to properly celebrate the weekend.
Comment by Wumpus/Cad Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 2:54 pm
Good compromise. You still will have the summary and you can spend more time on the boat. I think a Friday “Lake blogging” feature should be considered.
Comment by Comerford Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 2:59 pm
Tomorrow’s question should be:
Is it credible to say you do not know someone if you have a fundraiser at their DC restaurant? Let’s let once favored Congressional candidate Petey Roskam answer first.
Comment by Reddbyrd Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 3:29 pm
I dunno Redbyrd, that seems to be contagious. Howard Dean is the one who said that No Abramoff/or his agent’s money went to any dems. We all know that Enron was ONLY a GOP Scandal since they only gave to Republicans.
We are apparently allowed to ask Pedro Roskam about Delay, but not Major Duckworth about Hired Trucks or how she feels about being compared to Nazi’s by her sponsor, Dickie D.
Comment by Wumpus/Cad Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 4:22 pm
Keep the shorts.
Comment by B Hicks Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 4:26 pm
The Stateline feeds are good to have listed in a sidebar. It is great for us lazy surfers. I think the problem with the MS’s lack of comments is due to other items posted afterwards tend to attract attention thus taking people’s thoughts away from the shorts. Maybe if you threw in a condensed version later in the day and called it your Daily Dump… or something to that effect. You could also reduce the shorts to only what you consider to be the daily “hot button” items. Bottom line, its your blog, its your rules.
Comment by Papa Legba Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 4:29 pm
but it’s spelt “Throatwobblermangrove”
Keep Up the Shorts, Please!
This is my main State politics page for each day - I start here and root around via links from here.
That said, if it truly burns you, better to keep some Rich than risk losing it all.
Comment by Mr. Luxury Yacht Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 4:33 pm
Keep the morning shorts. Your links are more relevant to readers of this blog than someone elses.
Comment by Silent Majority Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 9:45 pm
Keep the morning shorts.
Comment by Swami Thursday, May 25, 06 @ 10:24 pm
Why to keep the morning shorts … ?? First, it’s one of the things that makes this joint so unique.
Second, it’s kind of like opening up a newspaper in the mornings of these techno savvy times. There’s a few headlines with some nicely penned ledes which add an extra personal touch, kind of like the intimacy of holding a newspaper, in an electronic way, and is far better than a comparitively more impersonal list of barren, newsy links with boring headlines which resemble, well, any other typical news feed.
Maybe people don’t comment, but maybe they didn’t really know that such a thing is expected. I mean, they’re called shorts right? Why bother burdening the shorts with the gravitas of one’s thoroughly informed opinons when so much may be commented on as they develop later?
Think of morning shorts as an intangible factor of the blog — like when they talk about intangibles in athletes. It’s just one of those things that can’t be quantified, but still makes for exceptional performance.
Maybe they are a pain in the keister, but the effort, sans comments, is thoroughly appreciated and I sincerely hope you keep the MS. But if not, that’s cool. I certainly won’t be moved to bail to some other source, or, heaven forfend, start my own blog.
Comment by saluki yay-hoo Friday, May 26, 06 @ 12:49 am
The shorts are nice, but stateline is a good alternative.
With the time saved, perhaps more focused posts and commentary on smaller stories from around the state would generate more discussion.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, May 26, 06 @ 8:45 am