Highlights

This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.

"2007: The Year of Living Useless (Year in Review)" -- after reading C.I.'s year in review, Betty says her attitude was, "I should pack it in!" Witty, hilarious and hard-hitting. For the record, we have lobbied hard for a number of sentences from this to be a "Truest statement of the Week." C.I. has said "no." (We're still lobbying.) The way it works with nominations for statements from community sites is that all votes are equal except the person who wrote it. They do have the right to nix it. Elaine has frequently used that power. She's, in fact, second only to C.I. in using that. Kat -- who along with the Third gang -- was present when C.I. wrote this and says, "My big fear, because I know how this was pieced together and the rush C.I. was under to get it written, this is really the only draft of the piece -- there wasn't time for another draft or even a polish, is that when C.I.'s weighing whether to go dark at The Common Ills in November after the elections, one thing reason to do so will be, 'I can't top that.'"

"Kat's Korner: The year in music" -- while C.I. critiqued the media's performance in 2007, Kat offered up a critique of 2007's music. Kat notes that she is planning to do a 2008 critique (even if it goes up in November of 2008) but that this one was a pain in the ass "from picking the best, to picking the order, to writing the damn thing. I didn't realize C.I. hadn't finished the year-in-review or I wouldn't have taken help on this piece. C.I. was there cheering me on and also looking at the text outside of the top ten and saying, 'Here's the break, you've already got your conclusion, don't worry'." Check it for the commentary, to see if your favorite made the list and to find out what you should have grabbed that you may not have.

"2007 in books (Martha & Shirley)" -- Martha and Shirley did their third look at books for a year. 2007 was a disappointing year for books. They offer a top ten based on the votes of community members and, if you get the round-robin which ran the top 50 picks by community members, you'll realize that some worthy books made the lower portions. In terms of speaking for the community; however, we think the books that did best made the top ten.

"Ruth's Report" -- Ruth's first report of the year and it is amazing. If we say anymore, we'll spoil the reading pleasure (this went up late last night).

"Cheese & Bacon Dennis' Funeral Dip in the Kitchen" -- Dennis Kucinich's campaign is dead. What to serve? Trina tells you that and more.

"The Mating of War Hawks" -- Betinna's continued discovery of the relationships between left and center and Betty notes, "In real life, no puppies were killed to bring you this chapter." :D

"it's a poster, not a candidate" -- What no one else will say, even when they think it, Rebecca will. That's from Elaine and see if it doesn't apply to this post by Rebecca.

"Land of over a thousand losers" & "THIS JUST IN! IOWA, THE LAND OF LOSERS!" -- Yes, Cedric and Wally use humor to make a point; however, are there two stronger critics -- with or without humor -- of Bambi? We don't think so.

"One less . . . candidate to vote for" -- Kat explains how Kucinich lost her support.


"isaiah and media benjamin's embarrassing top 10" -- Rebecca says, "First off, I'm not cutting my nails for anyone so deal with typos. Second off, 'Media' wasn't a typo, it was a joke."

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Message from Michael" -- Instantly popular. Betty says thank you to Isaiah for suggesting "my bad singing inspired this." (We note that Betty has a wonderful singing voice.)

"Isaiah, Third, Law and Disorder & Ken Silverstein" -- It's a rush post by Mike as he tries to type as fast as he can (which isn't fast at all) to get a post together on New Year's Eve before he and Elaine have to leave for a party. He's covering a lot and what he wants noted right now is that Ken Silverstein called out the Cult of 'Saint' Bhutto.

"Isaiah & the Mamas and the Papas" -- Kat's talking music for all you who e-mail you wish she'd do that more.

"2007" -- public radio pretty much sucked last week so Ruth chose to write about something else at her own site.

"Isaiah and closing thoughts for 2007" -- in a related post, Elaine makes clear what's helpful from independent media and what isn't.

"Why one lie begats another" -- Ty read us Marcia's e-mail which says, "Yes, C.I. wrote a ton of great stuff last week, but you have to note 'Why one lie begats another' because it gets to heart of everything Bush pushed through." Marcia, if you say we have to, then we have to. (Seriously, we were amazed by it as well. And that's really saying something in a week where C.I. was knocking them out of the park, one after the other.)

"Sammy Power Down" & "THIS JUST IN! Q&A WITH A PROBLEM FROM HELL!" -- Cedric and Wally in an exclusive talk with Our Modern Day Carrie Nations about Bambi, sex and snorting. A must read and rare look at the down-home Sammy Power.