This feature is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man, 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. Unless otherwise noted, we also picked the highlights.
"Hominy Salad in the Kitchen" -- Trina addresses Obama's ideas of 'equality.'
"Thomas L. Friedman is off today" -- Betty's backstory here is that C.I. and Kat -- whom she uses an audience for every chapter at her site -- were getting in late on Friday and she said she'd call them Saturday. She put off reading Friedman repeatedly. Then, twenty minutes before it was time to call ("I really hate reading him"), she picked up the Wednesday paper, turned to the op-eds and saw "Thomas L. Friedman is off today." "It was like a snow day," she explains of her relief. She considered using that as an out not to post but thought it had something in it even if she couldn't figure out how to work it into the outline she works from.
"The bravery of war resisters" -- Mike explains what constitutes bravery. This is our favorite post by Mike from last week and it may even be our favorite for the month from Mike.
"The quiz" & "THIS JUST IN! TAKE THE QUIZ!" -- Wally and Cedric weren't sure what to write and then decided to write about what was pissing them off. Take the quiz and find out where you stand.
"Bully Boy legalizes torture and Dems do nothing" -- Allison e-mailed Ty requesting that this post of Kat's be picked in the highlights. Allison wrote, "The frustration is real when you read it and you really get that it's not just the Bully Boy destroying the country. I thought things were supposed to change because of the 2006 elections."
"Elaine's post with a bit from me (Sunny)" -- This is a joint-post by Elaine and Sunny. It wasn't supposed to be that way when Elaine started writing. She wrote her part on Wednesday, intending to post it then but found out C.I. would be addressing the topic so she saved it to draft. Sunny agreed to post it for her on Thursday and did so after adding a few comments of her own.
"democrats play in the alberto cesspool," "tony snow tries to dance around the cesspool," "the cesspool and smarten up," "who will drain the alberto cesspool?" and "alberto prepares to face congress" -- Rebecca's continued coverage of the cesspool which may be her last due to so little action from Democrats in Congress. (She explains it in this week's mailbag which goes up as soon as this does. Kat's feeling sick, been sick all during this edition, the rest of us have been chatterboxes and Dona just screamed, "Has anyone looked at the time?" Everything was written but the editorial and highlights. We're writing this quick so it can go up.)
"Dear Drama Queen" -- Ty told us this entry by C.I. was repeatedly requested in the e-mails and one read will tell you why. It's to the point, it's funny, it's political, it's brave.
"Cindy Sheehan, Ann Wright" -- our second favorite of Mike's posts from last week.
"Bully Boy's mess" & "THIS JUST IN! BULLY BOY MAKES BIG MESS!" -- Rebecca picks this joint-post by Cedric and Wally as their funniest of the month "because it's so true."
"NYT gets 'creative' with polling," "700 People Go Missing, NYT buries the story!" &
"THIS JUST IN! MEET MEGAN THEE, PROFESSIONAL LIAR AND IDIOT!" -- C.I., Cedric and Wally on the way the paper of no record writes up polling results. Monday was a rough day for everyone and Cedric wants it noted that they had no idea what to write and everything seemed ho-hum. Cedric: "C.I. passed on the polling story. I want that on the record because despite the fact that C.I. gave us credit the next day in the first entry as well as the snapshot, I had an e-mail from a blogger who said C.I. was ripping us off. I don't know how you can credit and link to us and still rip us off but, for the record, we had nothing and I told Wally I'd call C.I. to see if there was anything we were missing." Wally: "When Cedric told me about the e-mail, I had to laugh. I've never done one post without consulting C.I. Correction, I have done one, exactly one. So it's a little crazy that someone thinks we'd be ripped off to begin with. But we get ideas from everyone. I called C.I. back after Cedric passed on the idea and I'd read the paper's article. My question was what to focus on. Because C.I.'s addressing several things the next day and it was more than a bit complicated. C.I. walked me through one issue and I said, 'I don't think we can get funny from that.' Then C.I. walked me through the missing people issue and that's how we, Cedric and I ended up with our idea to write about that."
"Rewriting Ned Parker on the death toll" -- Kat gives us the back story on this C.I. entry. E-mails were citing Parker's story with questions or complaints. C.I. was on the phone with a friend and a cousin (the cousin is an editor) and C.I. was asking about the story ("The Los Angeles Times was not available in the area we were speaking") and trying to find it online. "C.I. was basically egged on, with the offer of war resisters coverage as a trade off, into rewriting the Parker article. That's how this came about. And even with that offer, which C.I. usually leaps at, there was a reluctance. The whole 'I never wanted to be a reporter' thing. But C.I. finally said, screw it after confirming the promise of the upcoming coverage and wrote it. It was a challenge and there seemed to be a level of surprise that C.I. had met it. There were also some compliments but C.I. was in 'yeah-yeah-yeah, cut the crap' mode."