SCOUTER-Terry

Folks -

We repaired some exploits that occurred on SCOUTER.com last night, and believe all is well again.

The code for SCOUTER.com is more than ten years old (the site's been online since 1995!) and has tens of thousands of pages, including thousands of free hosting sites for troops, some of which get exploited). Short of a total rewrite of the site (no small task), we're dealing with these as they come up, and working on locking down the most common exploit zones.

Everything appears to be safe and secure now. Please feel free to post if you find anything suspicious or concerning.

Brief Hillcourt bio on this site... http://www.scouter.com/features/0290.asp

I have started, a few times, to craft the book, but regret it has not been done... Certainly open to collaboration.

The warning is because one of the thousands or free web hosting accounts that we provide on this site for Scout units got hijacked and a phishing scam was upload to that area. It was completely non-threatening to any site visitor, unless that went to that URL (http://host.scouter.com/ny/torr/____, which has now been deleted). Unfortunatley, many times a unit abandons the free site, or someone creates one under false pretences. It's difficult to police... but anything that is loaded into those sites is of no real consequence to visitors to the forum, and Norton was warning you that just some part of the site may have had a problem. It's a harmless warning.

The offending material was deleted... it had nothing at all to do with ads.

Thanks for sharing NJ... I woke up this morning remembering Bill. If you haven't taken the time to learn about Bill, check out the Wikipedia page, or his own autobiographical sketch on SCOUTER.com. This from a note I posted on the site three years ago...

In 1991, I was 19 years old and William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt was 91. He used to get a kick out of the symmetry of those numbers, and the fact that we spent nearly every day of that year together as unlikely friends.

I had come to know Bill Hillcourt not unlike thousands of others he met each year... I waited in line at the 1989 National Jamboree to have a couple of books signed for my Scoutmaster back home. I really didn't know or think much about who Bill was, I just knew the recipients of those books would appreciate that I had gotten his signature on one of more than 30 books Bill had written on Scouting and the outdoors.

We had a brief conversation that hot summer day of the Jamboree, but it resonated. The following year in organizing for the 75th anniversary NOAC, I reached out to Bill and asked him to write a memoir of his friend Urner Goodman for the event publicity material. The friendship took hold, as we swapped drafts and edits over several months.

Soon Bill invited me along to travel with him as he toured the country visiting Scouting events each weekend, speaking to thousands who were enchanted by his passion and zeal for the Movement of Scouting. We spent the summer of 1991 in Seoul as honored guests of the World Jamboree. It was there, when we stepped off the plane and were greeted by Korean Scouts who clamored for Bill's attention that I first began to appreciate the worldwide impact Hillcourt had on Scouting.

Later that year, I left my home and moved across the country to live with Bill in New York, helping him publish new editions of his Baden-Powell biography. As a young man Bill had a special relationship with Baden-Powell, who was in the twilight of his life. He admired and learned much from his friend.

Bill and I conducted interviews for hours each day, talking about the history of Scouting and the history of the world, all from a firsthand perspective. In retrospect, I missed so much of an opportunity to learn more from him, and I was so unprepared of the opportunity or responsibility, but it was an amazing gift nonetheless.

We spent most of 1992 traveling and writing and talking. Late that summer, Bill left for an around the world trip for Scouting (I stayed behind to coordinate a book release that was coming off the press, and was to meet up with him in his native Denmark in a few weeks). His trip began in Japan, where a new translation of one of his Scouting books was being released, and on to Moscow. This was just after the fall of the Soviet Union, and Bill had been asked to come to Russia and help draft Scoutmaster training materials for an emerging program that had been hidden for decades in the shadows.

He went on to Sweden, where he spent some time with his friends at the Silva Compass Company... Bill and his friend Bjorn Kjellstrom had collaborated many decades before to make orienteering and the liquid filled compass a sport. He was to leave Sweden, and meet up with me in Denmark, where we planned to spend a few weeks, away from the crowds and the busy travel schedule, focused on Bill's own autobiography.

On November 9, 1992, Bill Hillcourt shockingly, surprisingly passed away. It's a good thing, I think, to die at 92 years old and have it be a surprise to everyone you knew. He was as mentally awake and physically strong as could be, all the way to his final day. I was a kid, chasing him around the globe, and often I couldn't keep up.

Bill Hillcourt was my friend. That's a funny thing about him... when he died, I wrote to notify a few thousand people listed in his address book. Many of these people were just contacts that had coordinated some weekend Scouting event that he might have attended, probably only meeting Bill once or twice. But the boxes of reply cards and letters I received told a much different story... for years I encountered thousands of people who would tell of what a special relationship they had with Bill.

It didn't matter if you were a young Scout waiting in line for a signature, or if you were some Scouter coordinating an event somewhere for Bill to visit. It didn't matter if he had stayed in your home one night, or you had swapped letters to discuss Scouting. Bill had an amazing gift for making people he encountered feel special, for letting people know how important the relationship was to him.

Bill didn't always agree with the direction BSA followed, and throughout a nearly 75 year career, he was brought in several times to "right the ship" of Scouting when others drove it off course. I'm sure he'd find plenty about today's organization that could and should be better. But I also know that the Movement of Scouting, which Bill believed thrived in the spirit of the Patrol, the challenge of the outdoors, and the mentoring of leadership, would continue to make him proud.

I learned so much from Bill Hillcourt... there's so much more I could have learned, and our time together was fleeting. He had incredible confidence in me, but even higher expectations. Bill showed me, through his trust, that expectations are what raise a child. I will spend my life, often falling short, but always reaching for the expectations and example he set.

This site is dedicated to Bill Hillcourt. I encourage you to read more about his impact on Scouting and the world at http://www.scouter.com/features/0290.asp

TERRY HOWERTON

Hello Everybody,

My tech has gotten back to me and here is an update for all of you.

Uploads are working! but... you have to use Internet Explorer.

Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are both verified to not work properly for this upload functionality but they work fine for the rest of the site.

testing post-server move

Hello Everyone,

I've got one of my tech guys looking at things right now. I will post here again to let you guys know when I hear back from him. Thanks for your patience!

-SCOUTER-Terry

A couple more configuration changes have been made which should help with some of the sites that weren't loading (Virtual Directory listing denied errors). Also uploading capabilities should be working as expected.

Thank you for reporting issues.

Folks -

I apologize for the site instability over the past month, and especially during the past week.

The hardware this site runs on experienced some failures, and we had to migrate to a new set of servers. Much of the code for SCOUTER.com is more than ten years old (wow, this site has been around since the dark ages of the Internet!), so migrating to new hardware is wrought with peril.

I believe everything is now stable, and working as expected. If you experience any trouble, please post in this thread, or use the Contact Us link at the bottom of the page.

TERRY HOWERTON

Additional test

This is a test of forum notification (repairing).

This user has (on several occasions over the past several years and under several pseudonyms) been banned from this site. I'm bewildered why he shows up over and again. And while we can continue to deactivate accounts, block IP addresses, and delete messages, it's all just a big waste of time akin to chasing off a feral cat.

So, once again, the moderators will be deleting posts.

But, left with no other solution for resolving this, I suppose the next best option is to publish his contact information in the forum, so they might reach out to him at his home and his work over and again to sufficiently convey our mutual dissatisfaction.

TERRY HOWERTON

Now 16 years have passed... sometimes it seems like yesterday.

TERRY HOWERTON

OGE - the difference here is that the California law recognizes two different degrees of changing their constitution... minor changes may be done through "amendments", but major changes (such as takin away rights that impact a minority) is considered a "revison". Revisions require two-thirds vote of the people. This really doesn't come as a surprise to the proponents of Prop 8... they knew from the start the proper ballot initiative they needed to bring was one that required a super majority, but that they didn't have the votes. So instead they tried to "amend" the constitution, knowing full well they would either lose out right, or the courts would likely set aside the ballot initiative as improper and the wrong attempt to change the constitution. The result, unfortunately, is just a bigger wedge. You can argue whether this issue rises to the standard of requiring a super majority (ultimately that's the role of the courts to decide), but there's no arguing the rules of changing the constitution were already set by the people of California.

TERRY HOWERTON

Before the election I wrote ten reasons why I would vote for Obama. I can think of at least eleven high priority, executive actions he should take now that he's been elected.

The job before Obama is as complex and daunting as any President has faced since FDR. A global economy in crisis, two wars, a resilient radical Islamist threat throughout the world Americas hard power is stretched too thin, and our soft power is deeply eroded.

Here at home, he faces a workforce still not ready for a flat world, an abysmal secondary education system, millions of Americans without health care, a looming energy crisis and a country conditioned to distrust each other over wedge issues.

Many of the things on this list may be naive and wishful thinking... and ideologically drawn from the left and the right. But these are my "armchair quarterback" executive actions the new chief executive for America should take:

Immediately convene an economic council with people like Buffet, Bloomberg and Volkner... even Paulson. Critically review the recent bailout its only been a few weeks, but its not too soon (or too late) to correct course. Fix the unintended consequences of the bailout (i.e. lenders that didnt get low cost cash have slowed their lending because they cant compete at the cost of money).

If the government is going to inject more capital into the credit markets, it should spur entrepreneurship and small business and jobs (i.e. loans for equipment and short-term capital needs of companies, and pump up the SBA lending programs).

Close Gitmo and stop extraordinary rendition. Americas actions will speak much louder than words. Make a clear and undeniable statement on torture. Align the State Department to rebuild Americas soft power. Challenge the world and rebuild the coalition against terrorism, and reach out with real diplomacy. Tthe world was united after 9/11 to neutralize this threat the Madrid train bombings, July 7 London attack, Russian school massacre terrorism was not just Americas problem. But we squandered the coalition by focusing on Iraq, and a new call to arms is needed.

Critically review the overhaul Bush did on our intelligence agencies, and whats left undone. We created a Director of National Intelligence in 2004 to serve as the head of sixteen different intelligence agencies within the US government did it work? Is there better information, cooperation and effectiveness in this community?

As Commander in Chief, tell the American people what clear strategic objectives youve given your generals. Retain Bob Gates as Secretary of Defense hes a good man, and an effective manager. Hes also probably closer to your point of view than his current boss. Colin Powell is a suitable alternative. Accelerate the reorganization of the military to be leaner and more agile. Decapitate (again) a resurgent Al Qaeda, make a priority of capturing Bin Laden in Afghanistan or Pakistan or wherever these leaders are hiding. Draw down forces in Iraq. Use the same scheme of bribes to local warlords to surgically fight in Afghanistan (and acknowledge the best we can probably achieve is a friendly dictator and beholden local tribe leaders).

Challenge the country to energy independence within 10 years, and fund a Manhattan Project-style initiative for science and technology research that tackles the energy and climate change issues that are too costly for private enterprise. Private sector investment into these areas is much different than we saw with information technology it costs more and takes longer for real results.

Embrace federalism through your policies and positions, but not through unfunded mandates. Open and maintain a regular, direct, executive-to-executive dialogue with the governors offices. Bring the National Guard home and reaffirm the role of governors in deploying this force, especially for the emergencies that may happen in the homeland. Restructure the education department to fund block grants to the states and spur higher standards, more creative education methods, more free market influence in secondary education, and better pay and more accountability with teachers.

Health care should be a right in this country, and every American should have access to quality care. You said during the campaign that single payer was probably not practical, so lets not waste time on a grandiose, big government solution. Theres a raging crisis in Medicaid, where the federal government requires states to provide health care insurance to the poor, but only picks up 60% or the cost. 53 million Americans receive Medicaid at a cost of $300 billion a year. Costs are spiraling and states are cutting their budgets, and Medicaid is untenable. Reform it, and expand its availability. Let the states administer universal health insurance for the poor, but give them the resources to do it. Provide tax credits to businesses that pay health care costs for low wage earners.

Use the overwhelming influence youve cultivated with young people in this country for a renewed call to service expand on Jim Webbs Veterans Education Assistance Act, making military service a good deal beyond a patriotic duty. Radically grow Americorp and renew the partnering commitment to non-profit organizations, public agencies and faith-based groups. Today 70,000 people join AmeriCorp each year; you should make it a goal of your Presidency to dramatically increase the opportunities for service to our country.

As Vice President Al Gore tried a National Performance Review of the government, and an effort to reduce bureaucracy, inefficiency and waste. That was a job left undone, and the size of government has ballooned again. Waste is rampant, especially after a Bush administration dominated by lobbyist and populated through cronyism. Appoint a new czar, state a goal to cut 15% or 20% of waste from the bureaucracy and hold your Cabinet responsible for cleaning house. You can do this no one will ever see it coming from a Democrat.

One mans pork is another mans road, bridge or school. An omnibus appropriations bill from Congress needs the Presidents executive leadership, and an administrative focus on the real infrastructure needs of America, another good chance to work with governors. The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act you sponsored in the Senate is a start, but the country needs even more visibility into spending priorities and projects.

Put forth a conservative balanced budget; temper Congress, especially from liberal excesses. Set the tone with Congress that America will not tolerate a far left agenda, and that the party in power today must be more responsible, more sane and ultimately more conservative than the administration that is exiting. This Congress could waste a lot of time settling scores, prosecuting an administration that broke the law (war crimes and other), and bickering. Or it can chart a sane course, and manage the government in a more responsible way. The latter is what will keep them in power, and move the country forward.

Get started with these executive initiatives, and maybe in his second term we can tackle tax reform. :-)

TERRY HOWERTON

And this is generally the opposite (though hilariously similar to some reactions here):

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/209727/

TERRY HOWERTON

This is what political grace looks like: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/11/05/colin.powell.reaction.cnn

TERRY HOWERTON

Here's part of what's driving the mandate: the Republican Party just got a whole lot smaller yesterday. I wasn't the only one who left the GOP... across the country in down ballot offices the Republican brand is tarnished, this following 2006 and there's simply no mistaking the country's message. And if you look at the exit polls between those under 40 and those over, I'd say it's likely the Republican brand has been devastated for a generation.

Yes, the Republican Party became smaller... geographically and demographically. The question remains whether the GOP will also become smaller idealistically. Whether the triangle of doom I mentioned in my first post -- the religious fundamentalists on one angle, neo-con imperialists on the second, and anti-government types on the third - will splinter further, or double-down and drive the party further to the margins. We'll see if Palin (who as a vessel appeases all three of these fringes) sticks around.

This is a "slightly right of center" country that just elected a "slightly left of center" President (spare me the "most liberal ever" fantasy), and generally moderate Democrats to Congress and down ballot, nearly across the board. The reason that happened is because the GOP stopped being "slightly right of center", and allowed its lunatic fringe to define the party.

TERRY HOWERTON

America hasn't forgotten 9/11, and I'm anxious to punish the folks responsible for it. I think Obama's election will result in a more targeted and effective prosecution of that battle. I also think his election may do more to diffuse the spread of radical Islamist ideology (still the greatest threat in today's world) than any war. That's not because he's "not Bush", and I certainly don't expect any appeasement.

You're welcome to your opinion (obviously), but don't read into my words something that isn't there.

Now back to work... for five percent of America, there's a tax increase coming... I have some effort if I plan to be in that group next year. ;-)

TERRY HOWERTON

Obama: "This victory alone is not the change we seek, it is only the chance for us to make that change."

My admiration goes to McCain, a man who showed grace and love of country in accepting defeat. I'm confident he will regain my respect as a great hero.

My awe goes to Obama, simple awe. The face of America has changed. Andrew Sullivan wrote in the Atlantic a year ago: "If you wanted the crudest but most effective weapon against the demonization of America that fuels Islamist ideology, Obamas face gets close. It proves them wrong about what America is in ways no words can." Tonight the President-elect sent a clear message that America has not forgotten 9/11, and he intends to finish the job left undone.

His story... where he started in life, also sends a message to kids that no words can. Starting tonight, no child in America should doubt they can grow up to be anything they want to be.

He enters the Presidency with what looks to be the biggest mandate in a generation, and daunting challenges as big as any our country has faced in a century.

And from the podium tonight, he embraced the same, simple refrain that started with his speech four years ago... there are boy scouts in the blue states, and boy scouts in the red states... black or white, gay or straight, rich or poor... America is one people with so much more in common than apart. In fact, the very concept of "states divided" was busted tonight.

Yes. We can. That is the message of America, and the right tone for American leadership in the world.

Those disappointed tonight have a right to high expectations and real skepticism, but please don't be too cynical... there's too much work to be done together, and been too much time wasted on the things that divide us.

TERRY HOWERTON

(This message has been edited by scouter-terry)

... regardless of the final outcome (and as of 8:30pm CST it already looks near certain), the real winner tonight is America. Record voters heard, record new voters involved.

The beauty of America is the ability to transcend, the spirit of America is hope for a better tomorrow than today.

We're blessed to live in the greatest country on earth, and amongst people who value freedom, justice and opportunity for all.

TERRY HOWERTON

>>Both Obama and Palin are inexperienced.

Hops, my concern with Palin is not just about a total lack of experience in foreign or national affairs. It's mostly about capacity for the job. As I said, the Presidency is an exhaustive position, with no real time to develop intellectual capital... you pretty much work with what you bring to the job. Bush got beat up for saying "I'm the decider"... and while it was yet another of his boorish quips, he's generally right. By the time something comes to the President's desk, it's all about the "final decision". In that role, I want someone who is intellectually curious, able to ask for and accept good advice, weigh the consequences, make a decision and communicate to the stakeholders (the American people).

Time and again throughout this campaign Obama has impressed me as up to that task.

Palin, on the other hand, is not. Nor does she seem to have any particular insight that I imagine a President McCain counting on as an adviser. And to be chosen by McCain (the oldest President we've elected, who has suffered recurrent skin cancer, with the toll of this campaign already showing on him physically) to be a heart beat away is just unacceptable. More than fifteen times in the last six presidencies the VP has been called on to assume presidential duties at least temporarily.

The VP really has only one job (despite Palin's misunderstanding of civics) and one qualification... be ready to assume the Presidency at a moments notice.

TERRY HOWERTON

(This message has been edited by scouter-terry)

Yeah, Beaver, it is a funny point. And I would guess a ton of the disapproval of Congress (from the Right, Left and Center of America) is driven by frustration... frustration over how ineffective Congress has been in balancing President Bush and enacting a vision for America. My disapproval of Congress has less to do with their action than their inaction.

TERRY HOWERTON

>> where does democracy end, and socialism begin? Are we already there?

Yes. And we lept a heck of a lot closer over the past couple of months. Of course, I know you realize democracy and socialism are not alternatives to each other, and that Social Security, Medicare, school lunch programs and public schools are are a bit socialistic, right?

The point is how silly the argument is that Obama will somehow shift America into the USSR circa 1980. There's no part of his policies or statements that would support that contention.

>> starts making coal-fired plants pay for cap & trade carbon emissions

I'd guess at least two things will happen... clean coal technology will spread rapidly, as it's cost effective and better for the environment. That, plus there will be more need for innovation from the five million new jobs Obama wants to create by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.

TERRY HOWERTON

Kahuna - you missed the point. Obama may appoint liberal justices... but it's as a replacement to liberal justices. To claim this as something to worry about and that the balance of influence may shift wildly seems overly excitable.

This charge of "activist judges" has always been that they substitute their own views for those of the elected branches. But what about the current "conservative court" that did just that last year, ironically, by nullifying a key part of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law?

Let's admit all judges are activists for their vision of the law. The question is whose vision is more faithful to the Constitution, and better for the nation.

TERRY HOWERTON