Sunday, April 22, 2007

Highlights

Written and selected (unless otherwise noted) by Elaine, Betty, Rebecca, Wally, Cedric and Mike.

"The Supreme Court decision didn't 'just happen'" -- Trina (Mike's mother) and Wally's mother both asked (we think they worked this out together in one of their many phone calls each week!), "Could you highlight this?" Both seemed to be working from the same playbook by noting, "I don't think I've ever asked you note something before." :D Mothers, what are you going to do? Seriously, we're glad to note it and Ty said Marcia was "the first of many" also wanting this entry by C.I. noted. Marcia, "See this is the sort of the thing I'm going to really miss if C.I. stops in November of next year. I know this was 'dashed and dictated,' but find one other place online where you can get that kind of calling out, that kind of passion. I saw the news on a crawl across the screen and quickly went from shock to anger. This captured everything I felt."

"Make your own kind of salad in the Kitchen" -- Trina's latest. She's addressing salad and Kucinich. Her husband (Mike's father), calls this her "Freedom Post." He's only semi-joking. Nothing ticks Trina off more than people feeling they have to live up to others' expectations.


"Friedman takes a trip" -- last week, Betinna was dumped in the Bronx and walked back to the Flop House. Now she's out for blood. Be scared, Thomas Friedman, be very, very scared. (And be aware there are twists and turns still up the road.)

"The Alberto Gonzales Show" -- Jim pretty much demanded C.I. do this (it pulls from The Third Estate Sunday Review) and pretty much demanded we highlight it.

"No moment of silence here" -- Mike pissed is a fascinating sight. We agree with him, it pissed off as well.

"THIS JUST IN! DON'T DINE OUT WITH MAINSTREAM PRESS..." & "They bore you and they stick you" -- Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be mainstream press . . . Wally and Cedric's joint-post which takes a look at the horse race handicappers who pretend they're journalists.

"showers & cesspools," "alberto: the crook with the bad memory," "grab bag," "not much" and
"bully boy involved in the gonzales crime spree" -- Rebecca's continued coverage of the Gonzales' crimes. She notes an apology to Joe, she never got around to writing much about her pregnancy last week. She'll try to this week.

"Ruth's Report" -- this went up late. We weren't even aware it was up until C.I. just passed that on. Ruth was going for (a) something brief and (b) noting Larry Bensky's upcoming departure from KPFA. Check it out.

"Nora Barrows-Friedman, John Walsh, Zinn" -- we liked this post for Elaine's observations and humor (Dolly Madisons!). We also picked it because most readers of her site know she loves Howard Zinn. (How much so? Mike wondered Monday night, when he, Elaine, Rebecca and Flyboy went to see Howard Zinn and Amy Goodman speak, if he needed to be jealous.) So the point: "Zinn." Why Zinn? Cedric and Wally links to EVERY community post (or entry, in C.I.'s case) in their posts. And each week, we tell ourselves that we'll do more to link to them. (Kat's the best about linking to them but even she forgets.) They're usually in a hurry. Now Kat and C.I. can make their titles however long they want, Betty also. The rest of us? Elaine, Mike, Rebecca, Cedric, Trina and Wally's sites display their titles of each post on the side and you can copy and paste those in a snap -- provided they are short enough that they don't cut off. So to help them out, we try to keep our titles short. (C.I.'s are usually grabbed from the mirror post.)
There have been questions about that before and "Zinn" was the perfect opportunity to explain that.


"Law and Disorder" -- Mike offers the breakdown for Law and Disorder. A lot to cover. And why is Mike always tired on Thursdays? Seriously, why?

"And the war drags on . . ." and "You just never know" -- this was a selection by stronger reader demand. C.I. and Kat each offer their take on a Thursday speaking engagement. We actually tried to do a piece on this for the online edition (the "scribbles" -- Dona's word -- will run in the print edition). Since we were unable to, we STRONGLY urge to read these two highlights. There are people who are not being reached or reached out to. There are people who feel excluded from the conversation. (Why shouldn't they? Check out this week's "The Nation Stats" and you'll see that it's still one woman for every four men featured in the magazine.)

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Limited Engagement" -- Isaiah's another one we need to spotlight more at our sites. Why don't we? It's not as easy now that the Flickr program is used. The Hello program went dead. Prior to that, grabbing one of Isaiah's comics and reposting at our own sites was the easiest thing in the world.

"That's GOP trash, make no mistake" and "THIS JUST IN! TRASH RISES AND TRIES TO PASS AS DEM!" -- Cedric and Wally's joint-post. A piece of slime emerged from beneath a rock last week and thought that by posing as a Democrat he could come to Alberto Gonzales' rescue. He was wrong.