Highlights

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.


Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Spineless" -- We're starting with Isaiah because we always forget him! Mid-week, Elaine will usually remind us, "We forgot him." He posts on Sunday and we write this on Sunday (while everyone else is editing pieces -- look out for Ava and C.I. this week -- "WOW!" that's all we'll say!). If you're new, a little back story. Ruth does reports, Kat does music reviews. Isaiah's a community member who couldn't figure out what he wanted to do but knew he wanted to do something. He used to draw a little and figured he could do something to give The Common Ills a visual. So he started doing The World Today Just Nuts in 2005. We used to all post various of his comics at our sites. That largely stopped when Hello! (a program for pictures, illustration, etc.) went kaput (it's still around, it just doesn't interface with Blogger/Blogspot anymore) on December 31, 2006. When it was still around, it was easy to repost Isaiah's comic. Flickr has these terms of use and you have to sign in to get the code. (You can repost without the code but it looks like crap if you do it that way.) We've got the password for Flickr but it's a pain in the butt and it's also true that we're never sure what size to do. If you use too big of a size (sometimes that's "large" and sometimes it's "medium"), you end up with your whole web page being thrown off for days and days. So it's hassle. But we keep forgetting Isaiah and we're going to make an attempt to figure out Flickr. We love what he does. And we love that he does it. A lot of times, he'll pass on ideas to Wally and Cedric because he'll have one that's more verbal than visual or that's really beyond a single panel. So he's a part of the community and we are really, really sorry that we repeatedly forget to include him. (Watch, we'll forget again next week. And be sure to check The Common Ills later today for his latest comig. You'll laugh.)

"The bigamist Thomas Friedman" -- Betty's latest. We told you things were unraveling in Betinna's world. With Thomas Friedman being on vacation, Betty's using the break to push Betinna's story a little further along then she'd planned to at this point. We're thrilled and can't wait for the next plot point. (Yes, we've badgered her and know where the end comes. We don't know how it ends but we do know the basic plot points.) You've got a turnaround coming soon so be sure to read the latest chapter.


"Spinach, Orange and Almond Salad in the Kitchen" -- Mike says, "I kept telling everyone Ma was fine. Everyone kept asking and not believing. I wonder if that wasn't why Ty, Jess, Jim, Ava and C.I. made a point to visit Friday. She's fine. This is her first grandchild. She's just enjoying that. And trying not to burn up in the summer heat! More rain, please more rain!"
Here Trina is discussing a number of issues as she always does. You've got the recipes. (Mike says he is highly, highly allergic to strawberries and so is his father. If they even touch the juice of one off a plate, they break out in hives.) You've also got probably one of the kinder interpretations offered of why some are screaming "Racism!" when John Conyers is held to account the same as any other member of Congress who talks big and doesn't deliver.

"gonzales, conyers & more" -- On that last note, Betty asked Rebecca to address the issue and Rebecca says, "Betty asks, I deliver." Betty was working on her chapter Friday night and trying to get it up because the usual Friday posters would be posting late (that's also why Kat posted early Friday evening -- especially early for her because she's on the West coast). Rebecca had talked to her friend T about this (and notes T may have some stuff she wants Rebecca to add this week), to Cedric and to Ty (Ty in person because she and Elaine go to Mike's Iraq study group on Fridays) to get a sense of what they wanted covered. She said she felt like she let everyone down but Ty, Cedric and Betty say Rebecca came through beautifully.

"The Black Commentator has been delinked" -- A rare solo post from Cedric. He says he wishes he'd remember to include Gina and give her credit because she did drop everything else to make this the topic for Thursday night's roundtable that ran in Friday's gina & krista round-robin. Other than that, he says he can handle what he wrote. We can more than handle it, we praise him. We are not worthy, Cedric!

"THIS JUST IN! IT WAS BULLY BOY!" & "Bully Boy hard at work" -- Wally and Cedric doing a joint post and explaining how Pearl Jam's webcast got censored. They note they use Isaiah's illustration and, yes, that's a Hello! illustration because Hello! is so much easier to use. Cedric says they almost went with an Alberto but saw that was on Flickr and weren't in the mood. Rebecca notes it is "Flickr" with no "e."

"The 'saintly' War Hawk Andrew White" -- Ty told us, "This has to be noted. Pru e-mailed on this." We all love Pru, one of the earliest community members in England. Kat's addressing man of the cloth Andrew White who gave testimony and wasn't happy that it was public (he thought it wouldn't be). If you were a man of the cloth lying in your testimony, you'd be unhappy it was public too.


"Toledo Blade editorializes US troops out of Iraq" -- Did you hear about The Toledo Blade editorial? It's the strongest editorial on the illegal war we've read yet in a daily paper. You can, and should, read it by clicking on "Iraq's demise."

"John Stauber, Ruth Conniff" -- The community determines the content at The Common Ills. C.I. is only one member. We are all members of the community and try to respect the community. Elaine feared she was stepping on dangerous ground here because the community didn't want to hear about the Yearly Toilet Scrubbers. She's the only in the community who made any kind of comment on it. Fortunately, no one was upset. (But we really do try to respect the community at our own sites. They're not interested in "Debate Central" as Susan's dubbed the so-called debates we've been seeing. So we don't defocus by obsessing over each one. That's just one example. The journalist who repeatedly smeared Cynthia McKinney is another example. Betty loathes that woman and asked if she could not be linked to -- before Betty started her site -- she explained why and C.I., Rebecca and this site honored it. Probably Folding Star did at A Winding Road as well. The other sites came after and we honored it as well. When members feel very strongly about something, we all try to show support.)

"fair gets it wrong" -- Rebecca's post (C.I. covered the topic as well the next day in that day's "Iraq snapshot"). The story of Iraqis living under occupation, FAIR explained in an action alert, was told by The Nation . . . interviewing not one Iraqi. Rebecca and C.I. rightly called it out. For good reason. That's offensive as hell and FAIR should be ashamed of themselves. Read Rebecca, read C.I. and grasp how some organization calling itself FAIR should be expected to behave FAIR-ly. They didn't. We aren't all surprised.

"Jane Mayer, Pelosi's office can't explain the 'woopsie' moment" -- Kat called Pelosi's office about Congress giving Bully Boy new powers to spy with. She gets the round around and writes about it.

"Tim Howe and Bob Somerby" -- Wally just remember this. It went up on Sunday and we're usually not thinking about last Sunday when we're trying to figure out our picks. Timmy Howe sends an e-mail to all of us . . . via C.I. Those of us writing this say, "Thanks for the scribbles. Glad to have a fan."

"the 'learned helplessness' of congress" -- Rebecca on our do nothing Congress. Picked by reader Dot who wrote an e-mail saying "It's the perfect connections to make."

"William Blum, Willi Langthaler, Matthew Rothschild...," "Marjorie Cohn, CCR, Ken Silverstein, John Nichols," "Ken Silverstein, Dave Lindorff, Betty, Cedric & Ty...," and "Dave Lindorff, Robert Parry, Scott Horton" -- Ty told us reader Darren had a request. We were thinking the same thing and Wally and Betty were the ones who had suggested it. Mike's addressing impeachment in the posts above. All worth noting.

"Other Items" -- Sherry e-mailed Rebecca and said, "This has to be highlighted!" C.I. noting a rotund film critic who doesn't have a lot on the ball.

"US helicopter goes down, Iraq dictoator talk floated" -- Community member Joan said "Sub Rosa" was her favorite of all the things last week at The Common Ills. (We liked it to, Joan.)

"THIS JUST IN! BARACK OBAMA IS SAMMY POWER IN DRAG!..." & "Bi-racial Barack wants to be an Irish woman" -- Wally and Cedric with a hilarious take on the voice behind the puppet.