Dona said short pieces as the hour grew late! She told Ty, pick ten e-mails but we may only do five.
Ty: Cal-State wants to know why "none of you" covered the "explosive revelation" regarding George Tenet, former head of the CIA, last week and his oft attributed "slam dunk" quote which "merits a correction from everyone!"?
Jim: I can speak for this site -- which won't cover it, we couldn't have covered it before today and we're not covering it -- and for C.I. on this. We're not covering it because we didn't jump on the bandwagon in real time. Search this site and somewhere you'll find C.I. stating that Bob Woodward was fed that story by someone who wanted to come off good in one of Woody's books. You'll also find that addressed in a feature here. If the record needs to be corrected, it's not from The Common Ills or The Third Estate Sunday Review. Anyone else?
Rebecca: I'm not really sure who had sites up then and who didn't -- when this started as a wall-to-wall. I'll answer for me and if someone wants to disagree, feel free. I didn't run with it because of the reasons Jim's just listed. I belive the feature and the other thing that C.I. spoke about this in ran after the nonsense was really non-stop. I knew C.I.'s take on it and avoided it for that reason -- C.I.'s judgement call.
Ty: Juanita wonders when print independent media will cover war resisters?
Mike: I'll grab. Last summer, my guess was that they'd play catch up real quick. I thought that, no later than September, they'd be covering it and giving it the attention the subject deserves. But in September, October and November, you got more war resisters --
Betty: Mark Wilkerson, Kyle Snyder and Ivan Brobeck.
Mike: Thank you. And even though you got more of them willing to speak in public in this country, there was no interest. Now we're in April when even The New York Times has had to write something about it, about the large numbers of people self-checking out, and my guess is we still won't see a damn thing on it. I think, especially The Nation, it's been made clear that they just don't give a damn.
Betty: Dona told us all to move quickly but I want to say thank you to Kat for noting that Terri Johnson would get even less attention than the small amount other war resisters have received because she was a woman and because she was Black. That's exactly right and it needed to be said. We've got a feature planned where we're mentioning Johnson so I'll leave it at that except to note, she's a very brave woman.
Ty: And I'll note that we're in April, Mike, by one day and one day only. May's tomorrow. [Added: I was wrong. May 1st is Tuesday.] ZEeBO wonders why we don't spotlight more independent music?
Jess: We actually intended to this go round. A friend of C.I.'s was raising that issue Saturday and he offered five artists he felt we should note. They have downloads, some free, some at a cost, at their websites. We wasted a lot of time attempting to download. We may explore it in the future but I'll note right now, if you want people to hear your music, you need to make sure your links work. We were all excited about that. And at first we thought, "Oh, it's this computer." So we'd switch and switch. But it didn't matter if we were on a laptop or a CPU, an IBM or a Mac. It never worked. If ZEeBO knows someone whose site does work -- a non-MySpace page -- e-mail the suggestion.
Ava: And let's note that Kat covers a wide range of music in her reviews at The Common Ills. She just reviewed Bright Eyes who is a name but is independent. She's reviewed Josh Ritter, Lizzie West, and many others. You'd probably need to define "independent" and state whether you mean a name on an independent label or what. At this site, we've covered Anais Mitchell and plan to do something on her new album but it doesn't fit with what we're going for this weekend. Also, as Jess pointed out, after the issue was raised Saturday, we did think we'd have a piece on that and that fell through due to the fact that links did not work.
Ty: I think this question will put into more perspective the response ZEeBO's getting. Marilyn wondered if anyone here downloads? She noted that Mike and Kat have both written about getting a drive they could burn with recently and she wanted to know if anyone downloads?
Dona: Speaking for myself, Jim, Jess, Ava and Ty, no comment. The RIAA has cracked down on students, continues to do so, we don't support that. So we're not saying yes and we're not saying no.
Kat: I haven't yet. I've been playing around and checking out pay sites. I mention Real Player, which is actually Real Music, in my Bright Eyes review that went up Saturday. There's another one I've been looking at . . . Rhapsody. I've yet to download because I'm still trying to figure out which has the best collection, what the terms are -- Real Music wants "members" not "customers" -- etc.
Elaine: I buy my music at stores. I've never downloaded anything but reports in PDF form. I'll use Amazon in a pinch, to purchase a pre-recorded CD, but I don't download music.
Cedric: "Mix tapes" are mix CDs. I get those from my cousin, I've bought one at a flea market, but I don't download.
Betty: Along with the time issue, I only recently -- thank you everyone for that Christmas gift -- got a computer that would allow for it.
Mike: I downloaded some stuff and it just ended up slowing down the computer. There was a period where if Rolling Stone or somebody was offering a free download, I was putting it on my computer. Now that I have a burner, I could do it and not use up all my memory but I really haven't had the time. I'll probably end up downloading an album in the next few months and probably from Real Music because Kat and I were talking about that.
Kat: I have to add something, Dona, I know you want us to rush. But I was looking at Real Music and what gives? They charge 99 cents a track. Now if you agree on the price, it still doesn't make sense. One example, because I'm rushing, Joan Baez' Baptism. I have that CD, I recommend it. But, if you downloaded all the tracks, you're paying the same price for it as you would at the store. Do not download that. Buy it and you'll get a booklet. Most importantly,
some of those tracks are very brief. They're calling interludes songs. It's not worth it. If you're going to pay $16,99, buy the packaged CD, get the booklet.
Ty: "What do you see as the story being missed right now?" That's Aaron's question.
Wally: There are a ton. I think the fact that we still don't know about the recent helicopter crashes is a story. Last week, it was finally revealed that a British helicopter that crashed in Iraq in 2006 was shot down. We still know nothing about the recent US helicopter crashes. I think there was silence on the "wait until September" thing until C.I. pointed out -- the whole "we'll give the update to our plan that started in February next September." That's ridiculous. I think the recent reports from various organizations have been ignored. I could go on and on with stuff just related to Iraq. And, of course, chief among the ignored is the story of war resisters.
Dona: Is that five questions?
Ty: It is.
Dona: One more and that's it.
Ty: Okay, Gerry wrote to ask if the illegal war wasn't going on, what do we imagine we'd be writing about?
Jim: He means online, right?
Ty: Right. He wondered what the community sites would focus on.
Ava: I'll grab this because Dona's got that wild look in her eyes, "We're never going to finish!" We probably wouldn't write anything. If anyone disagrees with that, chime in after I'm done, but the reality is that all of us started up because of The Common Ills and C.I. only started that after the 2004 election as "What didn't I do that I should have or could have?" We do, all of us, care about and work on other issues but there's no question in my mind that things would have been different. Let's say C.I. started up The Common Ills and it had ignored the war, alright? Had that been the case, we -- Jess, Dona, Jim, Ty and me -- wouldn't have noticed it. We were very bothered by the silence on Iraq, the turning away from that topic, and if it had started at the same time, The Common Ills, but covered another topic, we would have blown it off. I know Elaine hates blogging and only blogs because she doesn't want to regret not doing it -- after the illegal war ends thinking, "Maybe if I'd blogged . . ." Elaine and Rebecca knew C.I. offline, for many, many years, so it might have been different for them but I don't think anyone here will tell you that Iraq wasn't the thing that first found them reading The Common Ills.
Cedric: Yeah, I agree with that. That's how I found the site, that's why I started mine.
So that was six from the mailbag and if you have a question for any of us -- The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim, Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man, C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review, Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills), Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, and Wally of The Daily Jot -- you probably have the best chance of getting it answered here. Elaine's assistant Sunny does work her e-mail account and C.I. replies when possible but this is probably your best bet.