This piece is written by Rebecca, Elaine, Betty, Cedric, Wally and Mike and all selections are our own unless otherwise noted.
"Ruth's Report" -- Go Ruth, it's your birthday, get busy. Ruth telling the truth as only she can. This is an amazing report. Cedric has actually heard News & Note and says Ruth caught it on good news, "It's an embarrassment. It's Flava TV played on NPR and that host can't shut up about how the Red House became the Dead House. As an African-American, I cringe with embarrassment anytime I get stuck listening." Ruth also takes on Leigh Ann Caldwell who's back to spinning. Betty notes that Ruth e-mailed her about that on Tuesday and was going back and forth earlier in the week about whether or not to include quotes from her in the report? She wrote them down for Betty and her fear was that, by repeating the false information Caldwell provided, she (Ruth) might be advancing the right-wing plot of Sympathy for Scooter. Please allow him . . . She decided not to quote. We think that was a good call and we wonder exactly why Caldwell sees a light sentence and fine as "harsh"?
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Bye-bye" -- Isaiah will not have a new comic today. Ruth's report should have shown up last night. It didn't. It only showed up at 9:00 am (EST) this morning. She posted it. She called C.I. thinking she'd done something wrong. C.I. reposted it. It still would not show up (which is why it was posted here). At which point (and this is in a "Community Note" C.I. wrote at The Common Ills that isn't showing up currently), C.I. called Isaiah to check if he'd drawn the comic for this week. He was just about to start. C.I. told him to take the night off, don't bother, there were problems with the website and no guarantee that anything (comic or otherwise) would show when it was posted. So that's your heads up to what's going on today at The Common Ills.
"Green Beans and Jess in the Kitchen" -- Jess filled in for Trina and thinks his post was too short and not "weighty" enough. Mike reports, "Ma loved this. She was glad to have a day off and she really did enjoy it. She pointed out that Jess covered Peter Pace and then discussed food in a way that many readers will appreciate because it's not a gourmet cooking site. Most of Ma's readers are first time cooks and she said Jess' 'recipe' and his story should be well received."
"THIS JUST IN! BARACK LOST HIS GROOVE!" & "You go, girl!" -- until we read Wally & Cedric's joint post, we were confused where this Obama campaign was leading. Now we know. He meets Taye Diggs in a tropical paradise. Get your groove on, Obama!
"Adam Kokesh" -- C.I. explaining how wrong Heather Hollingsworth's 'reporting' has been and C.I. and Ava taking on Katrina vanden Heuvel who is always the last to note sexism when it occurs. An incredible entry and one Ty said 28 e-mails came in to this site on.
"THIS JUST IN! JOHN MCCAIN'S KNOCKED UP!" & "Senator Crazy with child!" -- an insta-classic from Wally and Cedric. So that's why John McCain's so obsessed with abortion!
"I've lost my faith in independent media (Betty)," "Indymedia, bad hair and bad manners," "Wow," "Pissed," "THIS JUST IN! YOU DON'T MEAN SH*T TO A TREE, INDYMEDIA!" & "The ungrateful" -- Betty, Elaine, Kat, Mike, Wally and Cedric weigh in on the stab in the back of the week. Rebecca writing this description because my own rant (I rewrote Monday's entry on Tuesday) is unreadable and I said, "We're not including it." Dona told us we shouldn't stuff this inside, we should write about exactly how we feel. Mike came off as angry as I was but his you can follow. Betty touched my heart with her wonderful post. Elaine was flat out funny as she can be when she finally gets pissed. Wally and Cedric chose to contrast the back stabbers with Mary Matalin who, in person, was actually very nice to them. (C.I.'s always said Matalin has good manners and is a warm person.) If these posts had not been written, the community sites would be dead now. If we had stuffed this inside, we would have just been depressed (which we still are) and angry (ditto). By writing about it, I think Betty, Elaine, Kat, Mike and Wally did some of the best writing they've ever done and I just realized I forgot to comment on Kat's. Kat used the stab in the back to talk about a previous one -- when someone came to begging to C.I. for attention and exposure and received it but it didn't end up being enough for the priss so the thing to do, apparently, was to trash C.I. in a lengthy e-mail to Ava. When that happened, all lost any desire to promote priss. C.I. had promised two mentions and, even knowning of the trashing, C.I. still kept the word because some people honor their word and have manners. As Elaine points out, independent media rarely is known for being done by people with manners. Great posts, one and all.
"The tax dodger Bono" -- we're going to expand on Kat's post in a future edition here. For now, read it.
"Betty filling in for Rebecca" -- Betty guest posted for Rebecca on Friday and wrote about childhood, childraising and other issues in only the way Betty can. As Cedric long ago noted, Betty brings deep wisdoms from the south.
"Torch Songs Between Dust and Bad Delivery" -- Betty also posted her latest chapter so give it up for Betty who found/made time for three posts in all last week. Betty wants it noted she had no idea what she was doing and had several chapters. She read them to Kat and C.I. Both thought all were fine. But Betty wasn't pleased. C.I. picked out the last line in one of the proposed chapters and suggested she develop that into a full chapter. That's how this one resulted. Read it.
"fair, (mama) michelle phillips, katie couric" -- Rebecca posted Monday (now gone), rewrote it on Tuesday, posted Wednesday and Thursday. We think she did strong work but she said we could only highlight this one. Here she's really laying it all out. A must read.
"Glen Ford, Dem nominees (Cedric)" -- Cedric fills in for Elaine and gets to the heart of the Obama nonsense. You won't want to miss this.
"Michelle Phillips, Stanley Aronowitz, Laura Flande..." -- Kat fills in for Mike and Stanley Aronowitz will be taking part in a debate on Monday in NYC, see the post for details. Admission is $5 and $10.
"And the war drags on . . ." -- In a week that was crazy enough for a number of reasons, C.I. wrote another magical entry that only C.I. can. We'd already agreed this was a must read before Ty informed us that this was the most cited thing for highlights among readers who e-mailed this site. (Second most, Elaine's post on indymedia.) Read it and you will see why. All week long, C.I. kept the head down and focused on the work. Since C.I. was the one ripped off, it's all the more amazing. But, as Rebecca says, that's C.I. for you.