Hey --
Sunday and we've got the edition up. We don't have any illustrations. Throughout the many hours working on this edition we weren't able to log into Flickr and upload new illustrations. That's the way it goes.
Here's who helped out this week:
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
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
Truest statement of the week -- Naomi Klein became the obvious pick on Wednesday, as Mike noted during last week. Read it and see why.
Truest statement of the week II -- 12 readers (with no organized campaign we're aware of) wanted this. We actually intended to have two pieces up dealing with topics in this quote. We're going for next weekend.
Editorial: Victories for Watada and the Constitution -- we'll return to the topic of Watada next week. In doing so, we'll address coverage and representation. This, however, boils it down to the most notable point.
TV: The drip-drip of Carpoolers -- How the hell was this up long enough to result in 22 e-mails already? What do you readers do? Wait and wait for Ava and C.I.'s latest feature to go up? If we didn't enjoy them as much as the readers do, we'd feel ignored! Seriously, this really is wonderful. One feature we may pick up next week (we will note the e-mails) is the response from last week's comments on NBC's Chuck. A number of you seem to have found a new friend with that show. Ava and C.I. aren't surprised. But they note they are holding that interview because Chuck will still be on in the spring (barring an extended writers' strike -- and we all support the writers). They encourage you to watch Monday night and don't just e-mail this site that you like the show, tell your friends to watch.
Saint Bam-Bam -- C.I. with a migraine and dead tired is very funny. There's a line in here that just popped out and had us all laughing. See if you can figure out which one. (Any reader that guesses correctly will be noted next week. I, Jim, will call Mike and tell him not to note which line it is on Monday in his post.)
The kind-of left embarrasses with age -- As we note within the article, C.I. knows Scheer and was against "hack" being used. The only condition C.I. put on it. Hack is used twice. Why? Dona asked, "Have you read this section on news organizations?" Between the concept of a free press and the reality exists a huge gulf but C.I. was raised to appreciate the idea of the press and "hack" was the only word to identify someone who worked for years on a daily paper and wants to call an opinion journal a "news organization." (We'll be dealing with the news organization next week.) Hack. Yeah, I said it. (Stealing from KPFK's Uprising.) The second time, I think we were all tired. But we agreed with it. My own personal opinion? After 70, maybe some men don't need to have their own weekly radio program, their own weekly newspaper column and their own commercial website? Maybe at 70, you need to step out of the way and let others step up? That would certainly remove a lot of the aging men who get ever more conservative with age.
Dumb ass found online by reader Lou -- Wah! cries a Hillary hater. Reader Lou found this and we thank him for it.
Cassie's got a beef -- Cassie, can you move a little to the right? Always!
To non-members and non-regular readers -- This really did tick off Elaine, the e-mail issue. She has this guy who is convinced that Noam Chomsky is responsible for every tragedy (and that apparently includes WWII war crimes). It's gotten so bad, she and Sunny hate reading the e-mails. In addition, there was something that was noted in an e-mail that she wanted to post -- from another man -- but she thought, "If I do that on this, the other guy" Chomsky hater, "will never stop e-mailing me." (The other thing was a press release, just FYI.)
November 17th, Robert, Nat and Sam Parry in Arling... --Next Saturday, November 17th, you can hear Robert, Nat and Sam Parry discuss their new book and they will take questions. The chance to pick the brain of Robert Parry? If you're in the area (Arlington), you can't pass up the chance.
Something to Remember -- Kimberly Wilder (and we're not doing links in the note -- we may come in and do some more after we get some sleep -- Ty says he'll come in and do the link tonight) found this and forwarded it to us. It should have gone into our Scheer article; however, we wanted that done and closed. By the time we found out about this one (C.I. found the e-mail), we were against going back in out of fear C.I. would water down some of the points out of "in fairness." (I'm not picking on C.I. We all know the "in fairness" instinct that kicks in.) So we included this as a stand alone. If it was from last week or even last month, we would've made it a truest statement but it's from March of this year.
From the Illinois Green Party -- Unlike Scheer, we know third parties are out there. We don't just think they have a right to run, we think they have a right to get attention for their campaigns.
Excluding Gravel -- This is the first thing we posted today. We put it up early to be sure anyone interested in the issue had a chance to catch Flanders' show. Only after Laura Flanders' show was over did we post other things. If you're interested in the topic, you should have caught the show.
Mailer -- Mike's post. If there's not a link, as one e-mailer has stated, we'll put it in later. We're trying to get to bed. And remember, Ava and C.I. hit the road again tomorrow morning. They got back on Saturday. They're back out on the road on Monday. Everyone's tired.
Highlights -- Mike, Kat, Rebecca, Betty, Elaine, Cedric and Wally wrote this and selected the highlights, we thank them for it.
Roundtable -- Ava posted this "bonus" on Saturday morning. Ava and C.I. of this site participated in the roundtable as did Betty, Kat, Ruth, Trina and Elaine (who've all helped out here) and Rebecca (ditto) moderated. We loved reading it. Two things quickly. "Parenthesis." Ava: "That's what Rebecca said. When we were finishing the typing, we pointed out it was 'quotation marks.' Rebecca said, 'Leave what I said in otherwise someone else may want to change something. I used the wrong word. Boo-hoo. I can live with it." Also the Pollitt book is Virginity or Death.
C.I.'s not sure we thanked Dallas. I'm too tired to scroll up. Dallas helps us each week. He locates links, he acts as a sound board and he does about a dozen other things. We cannot think him enough so thank you, Dallas or thank you again -- either way, you've earned it.
Wait! screams C.I. Even if we're not sure if we thanked Dallas, C.I. points out, we should have mentioned him already. Where's that feature? Not posted. In draft. We're tired. We must have hit "Save" and thought we hit "publish."
M.E. Moses -- now up. Reader Hazel had a question and wanted something written about. The Common Ills community members Dallas, Billie and Ramona (all live in Texas) were kind enough to share their memories of a five and dime chain store. We thank Dallas, Billie and Ramona as well as members we contacted in that area who had no memories of the chain.
See you next week.