A place where Editor-in-Chief, Sean Ivy can express his opinions and ideas, not only about Fire Society, but about American society.

Before I get to the good news, I'd like to let the members know how we choose the winner.

We expected the predictions to be varied on all counts, and set up the following qualifications and 'tie-breakers.'

First and foremost was name and percentage of the vote for the winner. Then the Democrat winner, his percentage and finally the order of the Top 5 Republican Candidates.

I'd first like to congratulate the 20 members who correctly identified Mike Huckabee winning with 34% of the vote. This is in order that they submitted their prediction.

LA
Racer1
JohnnyD
Ransack
Cabresch
setachctub
Buster13
Denise0513
The Big Red Bird
cyndiUSA
Boaz007
TXTENNman
open eyes
David Cooksey
SissyTheClown
Jimbo1185
BLusk
jimzgoff
brownkb
BWG

As the first Tie breaker qualification, we looked at the Democrat Caucus Winner. The following members correctly identified Obama as the winner of the Democratic Caucus.

JohnnyD
Ransack
Cabresch
Denise0513
The Big Red Bird
cyndiUSA
Boaz007
TXTENNman
open eyes
SissyTheClown
Jimbo1185
BLusk
jimzgoff
brownkb
BWG

The next tie-breaker was the percentage of the vote that the Democrat winner recieved. This was the final breaker and determined a winner, but we would like to mention 3 other members who were within 1 point as this was an extremely close contest.

Jimbo1185 - 38%
Ransack - 37%
Cabresch - 37%
BWG - 37%

Congratulations go to Jimbo1185 for winning the prediction contest.

On a side note, Jimbo1185, Ransack, and BWG also got the Republican Top 5 order correct, though Jimbo1185 was the only member to correctly predict all 5 questions.

This week I started the process of interviewing each of the Moderators, for you, the members of Fire Society. For this week's interview, I sat down with BiotechBabe and asked her a few questions about her experience at Fire Society.

Sean: Good Morning, BiotechBabe, what originally brought you to Fire Society?

BTB: I have been a member of grassfire.org for several years prior joining Fire Society. I had never participated in a forum like this before. I thought that if it is linked to grassfire.org it has to be on the up and up. I enjoyed participating in signing important petitions through grassfire.org and thought it might be interesting to see what other Americans are thinking and talking about with regard to related issues.

Sean: What keeps you coming back?

BTB: I have always worked with the public and enjoy meeting new people. The apathy of the bulk of our American population drives me to "get involved". The mainstream media "twists" everything so much - there is a need for Americans to "wake up" and keep an eye on the people they have elected to represent them.

It felt good to have a hand in killing S 1369 this past summer....the summer of "Shamnesty." I come back time and again because I find concerned Americans like myself talking about the issues, bringing new information out into the open and expressing their ideas and opinions on how to improve our situation in this great country.

Sean: Why did you decide to take the Moderator position when I asked you to do it?

BTB: I wanted to make a difference at FS. I felt like it was my patriotic duty to moderate. In my past career of over 20 years, I was the person who everyone came to with "problem" clients and unusual predicaments. If you knew me in person you would understand why... most people just call me "real" and "sincere".

Sean: I know it can be tough at times, why do you keep the position?

BTB: Civil debate and exchange of ideas is important to helping others understand where the "heart" of America stands in these trying times. We are at war on several fronts, the illegals continue to flow across our border and our elected officials still have their OWN agenda with regard to any solutions. I feel this forum has become a critical meeting place for Americans from all walks of life, religion and political views.

FS represents a cross section of WE THE PEOPLE and it is here where we will find "common ground" to remain a united front. No one ever said "moderating" would be easy - I have never done anything quite like this before. The internet can be a good experience or a bad experience. You don't have the advantage of seeing another persons face to determine if they were being "sarcastic" or have a dry sense of humor.

The anonymous nature of posting can often times bring out the worst in people and sometimes they will say things here that they would not say to another person's face. I have come to love and admire many here at FS - even those with views that differ from my own. I still love them as my fellow Americans.

Sean: What do you do when you're not at Fire Society?

BTB: I am finishing my last semester starting January 7th and graduate May 2008. I work as much as my schedule allows and commute 100 miles round trip to college. I look forward to a new career path after my former 20 year career was destroyed on 9/11. I keep up with new breakthroughs in the field of science so I read a lot of journals.

Sean: What issues are really important to you this election?

BTB: The war on terror, and resolving our situation with the flow of illegals over the border and dealing with those already embedded in our communities nationwide.

Sean: What do you think the Fire Society community can do to help drive that issue?

BTB: We can remain vocal, stay informed and carefully watch each and every new bill that comes up this year....every earmark, every little amendment. We can each inform those who are unaware in our respective communities through "letters to the editor", calling talk radio shows, writing letters, emails and sending faxes to our elected officials. We need to remain calm when communicating our opinions and ideas to our government officials so we will be taken seriously and really know the issues inside out. Together we CAN make a difference!

As Editor for Fire Society, one of my jobs is to go through our many submissions and choose articles and petitions to publish on the site. It has become increasingly commonplace to find different “immediate rejections” in the queue.

I'm writing this today to help you keep from making the same mistakes others have made.

1. IF THE ARTICLE IS IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS I will send it back to the drafts for revision. As you can see, this is very difficult to read, especially if it's a regulation size article.

2. If the article is in all bold letters, then I will reject it immediately. You can avoid this mistake by selecting all the text in the article, and then using the format tools available on the article submission page to format the article as “Paragraph” using a single font, and font size. Using bold to highlight key phrases or quotes is acceptable.

3. I will also immediately reject an article that is just a direct paste from another site's article or an email sent around the internet. Commenting on an email you received and using quotes from the email are fine.

4. I will send back any article filled with smilies. Overuse of new fonts, colors, sizes, etc. is also discouraged as they make the articles difficult to read.

5. Articles not submitted in paragraph form will be rejected for formatting issues. This can also be avoided by using the formatting tools as above.

6. The set size for articles and petitions is 400 words minimum, if your articles is less than this, then please post it as a Forum comment. If you need help figuring out where best to post this comment, then please send me a private message or email and I will assist you.

7. Petitions are to be broken into 2 set blocks. Background and This Petition States. Please use the titles to let people know when you're transitioning between why you're starting the petition, and what you want the receiver of the petition to read.

8. Petition submissions should include at least 2 links to articles for more information and background.

9. When submitting a petition, the minimum length is also 400 words.

I hope this will help you as contributors to Fire Society avoid making some of the same mistakes previous contributors have made. This will allow us to help get your article published quicker and your petitions signed faster.

Sean Ivy
Fire Society Editor