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.
"Egg plant, Onion, Tomato blend in the Kitchen" -- Trina's latest. She didn't have time to note Dennis Kucinich this week for two reasons. One, she loves egg plant and when she found an e-mail Saturday asking for an egg plant recipe, she ended up altering what she'd planned to write about and, two, she's hitting hard on the topic of war resistance. As Elaine notes, "We really do, community wide, let C.I. and Trina tackle this subject. Maybe it's because we end up writing about here, as a group, each Sunday but the work Trina and C.I. did last week, and repeatedly, on this topic, really makes me wish I would cover it more at my own site by something other than including it in the snapshot." [Also note, unlike The Nation, every site has covered war resisters in the last 12 months in some form in addition to running the snapshot. That includes Betty, Wally and Cedric who do humorous posts. Every site.]
"Somebody Switched His Meds" -- if you don't like Thomas Friedman's opinion, wait for the next column? Is that the motto? Maybe it should be. Two weeks ago he was insisting (short of a UN mission) all troops out of Iraq. Now he's back on the war bandwagon calling for a US "diplomatic surge." He truly is insane. Poor Betinna, she's married to him.
"Talking entry on Iraq, Borders and more" -- Kat cannot believe the response to this post. We cannot believe she wrote it after our long Friday night (we're all together again this week -- those of us not living on the West Coast leave at various times today). This really is mammoth. You've got to read it.
"Michael Eric Dyson meet Tuesday's NYT" -- Mike wrote this quickly on one of the nights everyone was trying to hurry out the door. Betty had asked him if he could address the fact that Obama's claims of "small donors" weren't reality and said if he couldn't, that was fine, she'd blog. Mike was happy to grab it. Obama's "small donors" -- for any who have missed it -- are not people donating money to the campaign -- the way people donated small sums to Howard Dean. Instead, "small donors" are people buying merchandise at rallies. Those are not donors. But it makes it seem as if Obama's less corporate contolled by claiming they are "small donors."
"It's a Crock" & "THIS JUST IN! THAT'S A CROCK!" -- Ryan Crocker addressed by Cedric and Wally in a favorite of ours as well as Bonnie and Josh who both e-mailed thirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com requesting that it be noted in highlights. Crock's selling "the fear" like its a bad hygene odor.
"Ruth's Report" -- Ruth did this on a Saturday and it was wonderful. Breaking news altered her report so it wasn't posted Sunday morning to give her a chance to rewrite it. She feels like something's lost in tone as a result but we think it stands as a strong report.
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "You Are Staying" -- Condi singing for more war, Dick Cheney playing with himself at the thought of it and Bully Boy saying the troops are staying. It's a comic, it's also reality.
"Kat's Korner: Mavis Staples doesn't turn back" -- Kat's latest review. This is an amazing CD and those who've bought it in the community since Kat's review went up last Sunday echo that. Kat says there have to be ten brilliant CDs released between now and the end of the year for Mavis not to make the list of the ten best of 2007.
"Now they want to wait until November" -- Kat usually doesn't help out on these things. "Honestly, you do these last while the gang [Jess, Ty, Jim, Dona, Ava and C.I.] are doing the final edits and by skipping out on helping you with this feature, I get to be the first one in bed."
She wanted to help out this week to make two points. First, as she noted during the week, all of us being together the last two weeks has meant that those of us posting in the evening were able to really help each other out. "You're posting on ___? I got an e-mail on that. I saw an article on that. Let me help you find something on that." Second, she appreciates the e-mails of "good catch" on this post but wants it noted she was going to post the snapshot and "I'm tired" and nothing else. She mentioned it to C.I. and said she had nothing to say that someone else wasn't already saying. C.I. suggested she go to USA Today and look for the article about the November date to evaluate the illegal war. "That happened throughout the week, from everyone, and I thank them all. I noted that in a post but I'm not sure that came across. I really enjoyed being able to help and being able to be helped by everyone."
"alberto does a video," "silvestre reyes is a dumb ass," "Cindy Sheehan, online radio (C.I.),"
"alberto gives speeches & gets a letter" and "albie gonzales" -- Tori e-mailed that it must be hard for Betty to post anything with three kids and it must be really hard for Rebecca to post with a newborn. Since Rebecca's covering the Alberto scandals exclusively and since she's a new mother, Tori wrote that she hopes all of Rebecca's posts will continue to be noted. Rebecca says, "Thank you, you're so sweet." Rebecca is doing a strong job keeping it real and breaking down to understandable levels. If you missed it, she took one evening off. That was the evening we were all rushing. C.I. volunteered to fill in (and watch her baby and Betty's kids). Rebecca agreed if C.I. would keep it light ("I didn't want C.I. trying to do a heavy post with everything else going on"). Didn't work out that way and we all loved the post but were asked (by C.I.) not to note it. Rebecca ignored the request when she posted next. The rest of us tried to follow it. C.I. said, "It'll be like a hidden track." In case you missed it, we'll steer you to it now.
"Senator Crazy is bored with Iraq, whine, whine" & "THIS JUST IN! GET HIS TIRED ASS OUT OF THE SENATE!..." -- John McCain, Senator Crazy, thinks Iraq's been discussed by Congress too many times. Senator Crazy is insane. Wally and Cedric say they intend to go to the well everytime Senator Crazy makes another insane remark.
"And the war drags on . . ." -- powerful commentary by C.I. (Mike gives you some background on the writing of it in his "The power of "no") that was selected by 31 people e-mailing this site for a must include. It's also on the short list for the "Truest Statement of the Week" feature.
:"Iraq snapshot" -- Trina asked that we "please" highlight this snapshot by C.I. She said it sometimes seems like if C.I. doesn't call it out, it's not going to get called out. We all agree.