We’re all going to miss saying that.

President Barack Obama – Kansas City, Missouri – September 20, 2013.

Over the last nine years I have had several opportunities to photograph candidate and President Obama. I have thousands of those images in my archives, along with a collection of corresponding media credentials.

This image is from Kansas City, September 20, 2013. The light was perfect. By some accident of fate I managed to be doing something right with the camera that day. I took over 2000 stills. Most of them look this sharp. It was a good day.

It’s been a good eight years.

We wrote a lot of stories and posted a lot of photos in 2016. These were the posts which generated the most traffic during the last year:

1. Hillary Clinton Campaign Headquarters Open In Kansas City – February 17, 2016 (February 18, 2016)

A post on the opening of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign headquarters in Kansas City for the Missouri primary in March. For the rest of the election year people used Internet searches to look for Hillary’s Kansas City headquarters. This story kept popping up in their searches.

Jackson County Executive Frank White at the opening of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign headquarters in Kansas City – February 17, 2016.

2. Your $27.00 won’t get you into heaven anymore (June 19, 2016)

The goings on at the Missouri Democratic Party state convention in Sedalia. There were vapors from the revolution crowd, also in the comments.

At the Missouri Democratic Party state convention in Sedalia – June 18, 2016.

3. HB 2610: Two years ago I couldn’t spell injinear, now I are one… (February 24, 2016)

Your right wingnut controlled Missouri General Assembly. This time, in a pique of self interest, someone introduced a bill that serving two years in the General Assembly qualified an individual to be an attorney or a Circuit Court Judge. Right.

4. Hillary Clinton – Harlem, New York – February 16, 2016 (February 16, 2016)

We ran the transcript of Hillary Clinton’s speech on race in Harlem, New York. Apparently it showed up on a lot of Internet searches.

5. How much does it cost to buy a state? (September 3, 2013)

A post from three years ago on St. Louis City/County consolidation and big dollar campaign contributions. Missouri and unlimited campaign contributions a big story? No, really?

6. HB 44, HB 78, HB 79, and HB 104: they ain’t gonna prevail no more (December 1, 2016)

The assault on working people and organized labor. Bills filed in the House to limit or eliminate prevailing wage on the first day of filing for the 2017 legislative session. It’s going to be a very long session for working people.

7. Hillary Clinton Campaign Headquarters Open In Kansas City (January 13, 2008)

From the first presidential campaign. People were looking for Hillary Clinton’s Kansas City headquarters for the 2016 campaign and stumbled upon this post from 2008.

8. Eric Greitens (r) – January 2016 Quarterly Campaign Finance Report – “Running for governor in which state?” (January 17, 2016)

The January 2016 quarterly campaign finance report for Eric Greitens’ (r) [ultimately successful] 2016 gubernatorial campaign. Most of his campaign contribution total came from out of state.

Contributions broken down by Missouri and out-of-state reported on Eric Greitens’ (r) quarterly campaign finance report filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission on January 15, 2016.

9. If you’re planning on a revolution it actually helps if you show up (April 7, 2016)

Skepticism about the revolution after poor attendance at an April county mass meeting during the Democratic Party delegate selection process.

10. That’s our Claire – part 2 (August 20, 2016)

Senator Claire McCaskill (D) needled Kellyanne Riefenstahl (r) for her previous Missouri campaign experience via social media.

A relic from 2003-2004.

The Soapblox platform we used from 2007 to 2015 easily enabled registered users and comments, but in that period we really never had a surfeit of comments on the site. Though, sometimes the spammers trying to register as users were a bit much. We managed to keep things under control.

When we switched platforms to this, our present site, it came with a really nifty spam filter – we hardly spend any time dealing with that distraction.

A couple of us who are still here cut our blogging teeth as troll hunters on A list political platforms or blogs. We know what to do.

Back in the dark ages I was a volunteer troll hunter on Howard Dean’s campaign “Forum for America”, and then later, for a while on the Democracy for America successor. The software was pretty neat – you could note a troll working on a comment in real time and then delete their labor in an instant after they posted it. Those were fun days.

In our present environment we’ve noted that we’re getting a slight uptick in right wingnut trollery. It’s easy enough to deal with. We delete troll commentary, for the most part, while it’s still in an approval queue.

Free speech means anyone can start their own blog. The government, for now, can’t interfere in political speech on your own blog. People can choose to read what you write, or not. Probably not. Go ahead, knock yourself out.

Free speech doesn’t mean anyone else has free rein here.