After the election I'm finally taking a little time off...
By John Amato Wednesday Oct 01, 2008 4:15pmWin or lose for Obama, my doctors have won and I'm going to take a few weeks off after the election. The C&L Team have done a wonderful job during this wild time. C&L's traffic---which has always been great, has skyrocketed and that's a tribute to the dedication of the people helping me out and the readership that comes to play everyday. From the site monitors to the posters to the video team, guest bloggers and emailers. My hat is off to you. I really do have to take some time to heal the nerve damage that has plagued me for a long time.
We're up to 2 am every night trying to keep it going and then back it at the crack of dawn. I got to tell you, the mornings are rough for me, but who really cares? We all have our own problems to deal with. I'm just filling you guys in so you know what's up when I take a break. The site will motor on... I wonder if I can really unplug. I mean, really. Nicole yells at me all the time to take a break. (And I had to make a visit to the dentist today. Two teeth pulled...lol)
Hopefully the new C&L site will be up and running by next week and as we know---it's crunch time.
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Obama? I thought we were pulling for Nader?!?!?!
love the site, thanks.
You deserve it, John!
Hey man, burning the candle at both ends is what got us in this mess.
Keep churning out the content! I love it!
That's cool,
I'll still be around
To keep site monitors busy.
I don't get to do elite things
Like travel.
John, When this is all over, I'm going to Atlantic City. Hopefully if I win big, I'll move abroad if McCain wins.
Take some time and get well! You have done a brilliant job and your hard work is greatly appreciated.
C&L has been awesome....a good mix of fun/silly topics
and serious issues.
All the very best for your health, John
John, health comes first, even before a great site like C&L. We appreciate you and everyone who makes this site possible. Okay, I favor Nicole a little bit, but hey, us females have to stick together.
Take care of yourself and don't worry about the site. You have a great bunch of people who will keep stoking the flames while you take a break. As long as you don't put a lock on the gate and we can all come and go at will, things will be just fine.
Again, take care and don't worry about anything. Okay, worry about getting Obama elected but after that we'll all sit back and take a much needed breather.
Two teeth John? So listening to Palin tonight won't seem so bad I presume.Take care man. You deserve the rest.
good luck John
thanks for the site
John, as a long time reader and sometimes commenter... Your blog has kept me sane over the years and as a touchstone to know that I am not alone in my thinking. I love the community that you have created here.
You have earned the right to take a break and heal...and gone above and beyond. Take care of yourself. We need you.
You are addicted.
Admit it, you need blog rehab. You are a blogoholic.
Can you quit cold turkey?
feel better! thank you for a great (my absolute favorite) website.
respect.
best wishes to you and your health, and thanks for the work.
C&L is the most user-friendly, well-formatted, easy to navigate sites around. I hope the "new" site will maintain this superior performance. I dread "upgrades", they usually mean just the opposite.
Enjoy your time off, you deserve it.
Take good care of yourself, John. Rest is important. Thank you for all the good you've done with this blog. Having access to it has made a huge difference in keeping myself informed so well. And thanks to the other bloggers. There is a lot of brainpower and clear thinking on this site, as well as plenty of snarkiness, all of which I dearly appreciate.
YOU GUYS ARE AWEEESOOOOOME!
Take a rest and recharge the batteries - I noticed the C&L site has been kinda slow to post their "punch lines" to news breaking events. Keep the faith and thank you for C&L's insight.
In about an hour I will be having a cocktail and I'm gonna toast you John, all the folks who keep C&L going and all the commentators here...the good....the bad....and the ugly. ;)
You may feel a little pressure. . . sorry. I'm not an anti-dentite!
youve earned it.
Get well, John, get well! I greatly appreciate all your work from day one, and I implore you to take care of yourself - the citizens of the world need you! You are one of the pioneers of truth-telling in the age of the internet. You're leaving C&L in good hands, so focus on your health.
Plus, my invitation still stands for you to sit in with my jazz trio. Straight ahead until then.
Sincerely,
Jim Fisk
You're just a whiner like Phil Graham says.
Be healthy first, we appreciate all the timely posts, great quality and lively topics, but time to rest now. Best of health to you John and all the C&L community as well.
I'm gonna be a little cruel here. John, don't pull a Jim Henson on us. Take rest now. You have a crack team of bloggers who can handle it. There's nothing like the "Amato" touch, but I'd be glad to have less Amato on my blogging if it means you get the rest you need. :)
Sincerely,
An object in motion tend to stay in motion. It will be hard to stop yourself, John, but once you do, an object at rest tends to stay at rest. Be well.
John, thank you for all of your hard work. How can I donate to C&L?
[Donations here, And thanks for asking-Sitemonitor]
A well deserved rest, your services are most appreciated on this end, and if Obama wins, maybe you will stop grinding your teeth.
Take care.
Thanks so much for all that you do.
However, I am glad that you are making a decision to take care of yourself.
Balance is key!
Cheers!
Well, at least McCain has pulled out of Michigan. Now those guys get a huge break from the stupid ads. Not me though. I live in Pa. The ads will be non-stop from now until the end ot the campaign. I think I'll need Tylenol by the time this is over.
If it weren't for you and Steve Benen, I would be serving a life sentence for murder. Top that!
As for me being a long time reader/first time writer, I must say this site showed me that you can report the news with unbiased coverage (cough cough) and make it digestible for people (like me) that are still trying to understand politics; and what we can do in order to prevent further destruction of our: life, liberty and pursuit.
Thanks...
John: Sorry to hear you are so ill. Get better soon.
1st off, I'd like to say thank You John. You're the one who stuck his neck out when you started this site.
You're the one who gave all of us the opportunity to voice our opinion and to find like minded people so we all could learn.
That deserves a Great Big Thank You!.
I gotta be honest with you folks here, I'm so fed up with the last 8 years and all of the disinformation during this election, That I just can't wait for it to be over.
You deserve more than a break John. And so does everyone who helps you out with all of the nuances that makes this site so special. Tell Nicole to take a break too. That woman works her butt off.
And to all my friends here, I bid you all a good night.
JohnnyBravo @ 28:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/donations-page-paypalamazon/
Thanks for all you do. (Nicole rocks, too.) Take care of yourself so we can all come back and scream at the top of our lungs again. :-)
Thanks for providing this: this site is a public service!!
Here's hoping for a glorious win so you can truly get some R&R post Nov 4.
All the best to you and yours!!
Take care of yourself.
Listen sweethearts---,
All of you folks (including my fellow visitors) at C&L have always been one of the best blogs and a safe haven to me....
Take care of yourself and each other - Thank you so much for C&L -----
Mr. Amato,
Thank you for this blog, sorry on-line magazine, and letting people like me post here for a long time(7 years?). From the polotics to music to open threads and even the silliness, you have been a voice of sanity in a sea of craziness that is the web. From this blog I have met a lot of friends that I never would have before, heard from voices and opines that I would have ignored before, and have a new faith that we as a people will get better. Get well and have a nice time off like the Yankees are doing.
Thanks once more
jeff
Sorry to hear about your teeth John. Always depressing to lose teeth, makes one feel they're getting older. I'm your #1 dentist fan. I read C&L between patients. It keeps me sane. Consider some implants to replace the lost ones. Pray for some insurance and Obama.
Oh shit, it's only 2:40.
Twilight Zone time.
You work your ass off. I love this site and I'm glad you are taking time to relax soon.
Kudos for all the great work you guys and ladies do every day...thank you.
John:
Thanks for the herculian effort keeping the site up; I must say that if this site is not the best, it is a very close second. Take good care of yourself.
i wonder, john, if you would share what your ailment is?
"nerve damage" sounds and IS very scary, i know...
in 04 my body was "attacked" and within 2 days i was rendered into a "wet noodle" basically...
originally diagnosed with MS, further tests ruled that out, but the neurologist gave the verdict of TM - Transverse Mylitis... the non-progressive type, fortunately...
but over-work and over-heating and too much physical activity, and i'm a wet noodle again...
take care and take it easy!
oh! how selfish of me! i forgot:
THANK YOU, JOHN AMATO AND THE WHOLE C&L GANG!
Will be good to relax after the election is WON.
I think everybody will be wanting to wind down a bit and get prepared for the holiday season, or winterize the hovel ;)
Heres hoping and everybody enjoy this evenings entertainment, should be a giggle.
Everybody got their Palin bingo cards ready LOL.
Good luck, be well.
before there was a youtube...there was amato
man....you are a pioneer
not too many people in this world can say that
you deserve all of your success and a nice long rest
come back rested and ready for the battle ahead
i hope i can still afford dsl when you return
Sometimes you need to just relax. As the buddha said, "Don't just do something, stand there!"
Glad you're still around and dedicated to sit out this rollercoaster ride called elections! I enjoy you read immensrly.
And I hope to see you back when your body has been reset.
Greetings from all the way over the big pond we call the Atlantic.
Willem
The Netherlands.
Damn keyboard....
John,
Kudos to you and I applaud your choice to take some time off.
My family and I have developed a mantra: "Fun and relaxation are emergencies and all the other crap is what you have to do to get to the crisis"
Cheers John and enjoy!
wait... don't go now. Wait till the elec......oh ok good.
To the rest of the C&L crew: A thousand thanks to you all as well. Yeah! How about those troops? Are they getting any time off?! Where is their respite?! Fascist! ;o) i kid. I must just be in fighting mode.
Hopefully here in ever-blueing North Carolina, we can make a difference.
Please take care of yourself first! This is my favorite site in all of the internets and I want you around a long time to imform and amuse me!!!
Pretty selfish of me so I guess you should be a little selfish now and take the time to heal up a bit.
I'm sure we will all carry on the snark until your able to rejoin us!
I don't have a TV--if it's important, it's on C & L. For example, I just got this from SPJ (Society of Professional Journalists):
STRANGE ECONOMIC BEDFELLOWS
Every properly trained journalist understands the importance of objective reporting. Recognizing and avoiding conflicts of interest are an essential pillar of journalism ethics. How, then, can someone like NBC's Andrea Mitchell report on the economy? Mitchell is married to Alan Greenspan, the retired long-time chairman of the Federal Reserve. Megan Garber poses the question in a Columbia Journalism Review article. And it's not so much the economy in general, but the economic "meltdown," that is the problem. As Garber states, Greenspan is somewhat culpable in the current credit market problems. But is that a true conflict of interest that should prevent Mitchell from doing her job?
I blame my keyborat as well Whitehouse
Sex, dude. Lots of it. That's what keeps me sane.
Thanks for the site. Our appreciation cannot be measured. It is YOU our kids should be reading about in history books.
We love C&L way up here in north of 60 redneck hippie land. Keep it up because your spreading the word that changes are need in the good old US of A. Your sexy sitemonitors will keep the whole thing going just fine.
Prescription for John,
eat lots of garlic with good back to basics food
take a good long walk each day and get close to trees and birds.
enjoy at least one glass of good wine or a good thick beer each day
go through your old CD's, tapes, records, picture albulms etc and smile
unplug the phone and throw the cell in the drawer
stay off the net, try the radio but only in light doses
sleep in
No matter what, always take time to rest. Nothing works when 'the machine' is broken! Time (well spent) is worth more than money. Our time is finite. Money comes and goes, and we survive.
Quitter! (just kidding, hehe)
C&L is my favourite place to visit. Great writers and staff. Hope you have a good rest after Senator Obama wins this election, John. You certainly deserve it.
I'm looking forward to the new site even though I think C&L is absolute perfection already. Take care of yourself and have fun on your vacation!
Hey John
thanks for all you do. Like so many others, I love C&L and would feel a bit in the wilderness without it. You and your site are a great touchstone for so many.
Best wishes and rest up some... although I know it's hard - there's always something, some issue, some news, some rubbish that can't be ignored that draws us back to the 'puter.
Arctic Dude @ 60:
I think we could all benefit from that prescription. May I substitute a martini for the wine or thick beer?
Sex, dude. Lots of it. That’s what keeps me sane.
Me, too. Sometimes I even have it when I'm not alone!
pissed off patricia @ 64:
As long as it has a back to basics olive a martini is swell too.
Two teeth pulled, and you LOL ?? WTF?
John, John, you really do need to put the brakes on. After the first 3 days it'll be easier. And don't worry, C&L will motor on.
But yeah, I'm sensing that you need to step away to regain some perspective. Lots of us occasional commenters won't - and can't - keep blogging day in and day out. Time for you to regain some of our perspective.
Be well!
It must (or anyway, should) give you and all the crew at C&L real satisfaction to know that your work will be studied by historians down the road. That's a tremendous accomplishment in and of itself. Way to go, and stay healthy. Unless McCain does manage to somehow win. Then you may as well get it over with and blow your brains out.
LongTooth @ 68:
It's off to the Great White North if that happens!!!!
If the dentist gave you a script for some good pain pills, you might just miss the debate tonight.
I, like everyone else here, love this site. It keeps me informed and entertained, and I truly do appreciate it. Here's to slowing down, and honoring the vehicle that makes it possible to navigate every day.
What ever your body responds to the best, accupuncture, massages, etc., etc, I see that showing up for you!!
pissed off patricia @ 20:
A toast from me too John, to you and your great staff of site monitors and all the others who make this site one of the most relevant on the web. You have fair rules here and it's a very civil place to have open discourse with everyone. I especially appreciate having a place to discover great links from others and to post interesting finds myself.
Thank you and FOLLOW THE DOCTORS ORDERS!!! (I'm a nurse BTW!)
Hey John, is this a normal suspension of activities or just a "McCain" type suspension?
hey, were going on vacation too after the election. only if mccain wins we don't plan on ever coming back.
As so many others have stated. I love the site, it keeps me informed, and I hope you get the rest and relaxation you deserve.
Professor Frink @ 69:
Try this eh
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-6710657995584159187&ei=80blSILYJ...
I think we could all use a little break. I can't believe this damn election has been going on for nearly two years at this point! I'm having repetitive dreams about the fucker. Good luck, great site, Obama/Biden '08!
Do what you gotta do, John. Take care of yourself and all else will fall into place. All the C&L folks are wonderful, but you're the rudder and you need to be relatively pain-free (like I said, relatively) to concentrate on your work.
Chill, re-group, re-coup, and most of all, get lots of rest.
Sending healing thoughts your way. Water John.....water. Get in the water. My 2 cents. ;-) You all have meshed together so well to work this blog into the best. The crew you have now are most capable, and no doubt able, to keep things rolling while you're gone. Best wishes!!!
John, you do need to take care of yourself, but I think you'll start feeling a lot healthier over the next few weeks as Obama widens and strenghtens his lead. The Caribbean should be nice this time of year!
Your site is the first one I check in the morning and the last one I check at night. It's the best I've seen.
A job so very well done and much appreciated.
You created a community.
Best regards......
Thanks, John, for what you do. I've learned a lot from this blog, and you deserve a break. I know the past 8 years have taken a toll on us all, mentally and physically. take care.
Thank you John. You are appreciated. Be well and happy.
Good health to you, John. There is no font big enough to express my thanks for this site. THANK YOU.
Hey, good health to everybody, even the "trolls" that come hear to harass us! No really, we can fight and moan all we want, but I don't wish ill upon anybody, even if I would never invite you over for tea. I mean, lets' be real, right?
;)
Professor Frink @ 69:
Is Canada going to have to build a fence now to keep all the refugees out?????? I'll remember to tip our American chambermaids, dustmen and vegetable pickers well, if you come.
Take good care, John. And a big thanks to you and all the others at C&L who make this my fav site! You all rock and your insightful articles keep me coming back for more. Peace and love!
We have to be the only People-Nation on Earth that fears taking time off.
All Americans should be getting six weeks (guilt free) paid vacation at this stage.
To bad the economy is like a rubber band suspending a 2-ton truck over the edge of a cliff after 8 years of Bush 2 . . . . . . . . . . .
You've done good work over the years, Mr. Amato. Enjoy the time off.
Many thanks from up here in Canuckistan.
Edwin Hussein @ 84:
If you make your way north of the 49th parallel, bring you social democratic values and some genuine civility. Leave the other stuff behind. BTW, if you see the leader of the Conservative party, Stephen Harper, on the tube, you may think that you are seeing BushLite. You would be right. In that instance, you may chuck the "genuine civility" and go for his throat.
Thank you for all you do. You and Nicole and the rest of the C&L gang are who I've turned to for great information, intelligence and reason during these nutty times. You will be missed but please take it easy and get lots of rest.
John Amato - MY hat is off to you sir. You are an outstanding American... a patriot if ever there was one. THANK YOU for collecting and making concise information that would have otherwise taken me many hours to find and view! I APPLAUD YOU AND YOUR STAFF SIR!
Hey, Amato, take a "fiver" out of petty cash and sip on a cold one. Best wishes with your convalescence.
Thank you so much for your hard work and dedication. As much as I need my C&L fix, I need you to stay healthy and be in this world for a long, long time. Kudos!
Neo-classical secular humanist @ 88:
You mentioned Harper so before I fetch some wood here's this for everybody to look at. My duty to always share this speech.
http://www.thestar.com/federalelection/article/508758
If you are having health issues, GO NOW! Don't risk yourself. Your team can take over and you can drop us a note every now and then to let us know how you're doing. You need volunteers from cyberspace, just yell. We'll be there. The most important thing is you take care of yourself. I mean it, hear?
You deserve the time off and you should take a break and keep yourself healthy! I enjoy your site every day. It's always nice to see that others feel the same as I do, and that I'm really not going crazy :-)
Best wishes,
Kathy
ALL Democrats in the United States need a Break from Bush and Cheney. 01-20-09. It's coming. Go Obama/Biden.
Hey John,
I'm a registered sleep technologist and I have to say your lack of sleep troubles me. Did you know that at a certain point in mid life, if you have continuously lost sleep you can no longer get it back no matter how long you sleep? That's right, we're all going to be a nation of senior citizen zombies when we get older. Anyway, I love the site and we need your brain in top shape so do yourself a favor and get your 8 hours.
-T
John - Come hang out in Almaden, we'll listen to some tunes and make some pasta and eat. I really hope you can resolve the issue bothering you and move forward.
Follow your Doc's orders! I mean it!
Take all the time you need. You've earned and deserve it.
Thank you for all you've done to keep us all informed!
10-4 on the nerve damage there John. I got it too. Damn diabetes. There is a good thing about having two teeth pulled and that is it allows you to floss with a rope. Best wishes and take care of yourself. Btw, people do care about you guys at C&L even if you never see our face and just read our type.
Do take care of yourself. Marathon, not a sprint and all that... An Obama victory will certainly help for sleeping easier.
Love, love, lovity, love this site! I only recently discovered it during this year's election. But I'm a blogger too (fashion & entertainment), and I don't put up near as much as you guys do, but I can co-sign that it's super hard work nonetheless.
So take the time off to regroup and recharge! The site will keep plugging along and I have no doubt that your readers aren't going anywhere.