Hey --
8:56 am as we start this. We haven't been almost done this early in forever.
Let's note who wrote the pieces this edition:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and, me, Jim;
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude;
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills);
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man;
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review;
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix;
Mike of Mikey Likes It!;
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz;
and Wally of The Daily Jot
We thank all of the above and we thank Dallas for helping with links and being a soundboard. We thank Rebecca for photo shopping our illustrations.
New content? We got it.
Editorial: Return of the Toad, Robert Gates -- Gates, the toad, jumps back in. He destroyed before, he'll destroy again -- and you know we're tired if we're rhyming.
TV: Big Rip Off -- Ava and C.I. review Big Day and take on sitcoms, the Water Cooler Set and a great deal more.
What happened in Amman? -- What did happen in Amman? We think we know, but do we? The administration that staged the 'rescue' of Jessica Lynch and practices Extreme Press Management knows a thing or two about manipulation.
The One About The Nation -- This wasn't a go until we listened to Laura Flanders last night. This becoming a "go" meant postpoing a planned feature (read on to the end). It's not a war, if we were at "war," we wouldn't be biting our tongue.
Yes, RadioNation with Laura Flanders did air -- Flanders is unflappable. Even when a guest repeatedly takes an attitude with her, questions her knowledge of news and terms and just makes an all around ass out of himself. He's the reason the feature about The Nation became a "go."
Worst Video Collection -- Sandra e-mailed to tell us she'd checked this out from her local library because she likes Dave Matthews Band (we do as well) and, after viewing it, was less than thrilled with the band. She didn't offer examples so we watched ourselves. Sandra, we know just what you mean.
NYT: Wednesday Repeats -- They work so hard at the paper of record that some days they need to kick back and rerun a four month old piece. It's a daily paper. Except on days when it isn't.
Highlights -- Our picks for best of the week. Ty's already read one e-mail complaining that we didn't highlight Elaine's "Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Kim Gandy, Bay Fang." To be honest, we all forgot about it. If the hour hadn't been so late/early, we probably would have remembered it. We'll note it here. It was a very strong post.
Iraq Study Group Calls for All US Troops to Leave ... -- Thursday, when the gas bags couldn't shut up about the James Baker Circle Jerk, C.I. phoned Mike with a request -- get his Iraq Study Group to post their own recommendations so it could go into that day's snapshot. We prefer Mike, Nina and Tony's suggestions as well. When we read the snapshot Thursday, we were thrown thinking, "That's not what the press is reporting." Then we read on and saw it was Mike's group. The people's group, the one actually trying to end the war.
Okay, we were going to do a piece on Danny Schechter, or rather, on a section of one of his books. That was planned and got bumped due to The Nation. We're going to pick it up next week and are brainstorming on building a theme around it. (Ava and C.I.'s TV review does not have to fit the theme.)
Check back next Sunday and see if we can pull it off.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.