This piece 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 and all highlights selected by us unless otherwise noted.
"Kat's Korner: Grab the lifeline" -- Kat's latest CD review. This is of Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals Lifeline. Read the review, hear the CD. Wally, the only one of us who's been able to find time to watch the DVD says if you watch DVD concerts, spend the extra bucks to get the deluxe edition because you won't be disappointed. (Deluxe edition comes with a DVD.) Kat's written three CD reviews that all but Betty and Cedric have read (Betty's heard them over the phone from Kat) and the other two need to be typed but are otherwise ready. She's trying to decide whether to post two today or to post one tomorrow and one on Tuesday to go for three reviews, three days in a row.
"Baked Pinapple Stuffing in the Kitchen" -- Trina's latest where she talks about Dennis Kucinich, about the illegal war, about cooking and about her son. (That would be Mike.)
"Ruth's Report" -- Ruth told Rebecca on Friday that she doubted she had a report for this week. She told C.I. Saturday morning she'd do something but it would probably be only a few paragraphs (three tops). To no one's surprise but her own, she had a full blown report in her. Read it.
"The late night visitor" -- This is where Betinna's life begins to get darker. Betty's father has known this part is coming (he knows the outline Betty works from) and isn't thrilled about. He really likes Betinna. To make him more comfortable, Betty's planning to try to add more action while still sticking to the outline.
"Dali, Quixote and the Dems" -- Kat writes about the project on one of the students she met last week. We enjoyed this but we also wanted to pick it in case Jim forgets in the note at the end of the edition. A photo of the student's bulletin board in the art student is used in this edition. The photo's been cropped. A full photo of the bulletin board as well as the art project Kat's writing about runs in Hilda's Mix on Tuesday, look for it.
"Florida sticks up for itself" & "THIS JUST IN! SUNSHINE STATE STANDS UP!" -- Cedric & Wally's joint-post. When they cover the issue of Florida, even if there's a joke in there, they're very serious. Wally was born and raised in Florida. He takes the nonsense the DNC is pulling very seriously. As do we. We've twice written things on it for an edition and twice it's gone in the print edition because we just didn't feel it was working. (Everything goes in the print edition because it has a deadline to be passed around on the gang's old campus.) We will say that, for the record, after what was done to Democrats in Florida in 2000 -- disenfranchisements of African-American voters, the infamous 'butterfly ballot,' etc. -- Florida should be the first state to hold a primary with the DNC blessings.
"The death toll" -- As the 3800 marks was approaching, Leigh Ann notes, C.I. covered it. When it hit, C.I. covered it. Leigh Ann e-mailed to select this highlight and wrote, "Can someone tell me why big, brave indamedia couldn't do the same?" No, Leigh Ann, we can't tell you that. But we do have the same question and share your disgust.
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Bully Boy On the Job" -- Isaiah's hilarious comic from last week (we love the Beetle Baily joke!). His comic this week is going up early (C.I. will post the morning entry later and then rearrange it so that Isaiah's comic is the top entry for the day) because it's also being used here. Mike and C.I. had an idea for a piece here while jogging on Saturday morning and Isaiah had a similar idea -- it was synchronicity.
"Isaiah, Kevin & Monica Benderman, 3800" -- Elaine covering a number topics and really noting something important regarding the new documentary on Kevin and Monica Benderman (which Elaine says now is available in full online at the link in this post).
"Isaiah, Joni Mitchell, 3800 mark" -- Pick for Mike? You can't read it. He edited it. It's gone. We're not supposed to talk about it. Rebecca asks, "Is it really gone?" Uh, yeah. But we enjoy this one and all agree with the comments regarding the way Isaiah was treated. We'd apply that to the way Mike was treated as well. If Mike hadn't asked us not to note this, this would have been a huge topic community wide and Rebecca says, "It should have been. Thank goodness Trina can ignore Mike's request."
"Obama, Edwards & Clinton okay with US trops in Iraq until 2013" -- C.I. asked us to highlight this by Kat. Why? Kat, Maggie, Ava, Jess and C.I. were on the road last week speaking about the illegal war. Kat was "bailing" (her term) in the evening since she brought along her friend Maggie. They'd go out to eat or check out some sites, then get back to the hotel and Kat would immediately blog to get that over with. (Or, sometimes, blog right before they went out.) Sherry noted Rebecca's post ("craven dems and disgusting peter pace") and C.I. made a point to link to that the next day. But C.I. had no idea what Kat had written about. "If I'd known Kat also covered the topic, I would've linked to it the next morning and in the snapshot, my apologies." (Kat says, "It is no big deal." And also suspects a member e-mailed about that. Kat says, "Everybody chill. It was a busy week. Anything I had wanted highlighted, I could've just asked and it would have been.")
"grab bag" --Rebecca sums up the week that was.
"Iraq snapshot" -- Mike's favorite professor asked that this snapshot (Thursday's) be highlighted and noted C.I. hit hard on the kill teams all week, hit hard on "Tent City" when "everyone avoided it" but this one with the critique of Pig and Samantha Power "especially could have only come from" C.I.