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.



"Steamed fish and tomatoes" -- Trina offers reader Pam's recipe (which Elaine, Rebecca and Mike had on Saturday and gives thumbs up too) and addresses the illegal war.


"Hanging with the 'girls' of The Nation" -- Betinna's hanging with the 'girls' and, poor Betinna, it's frightening. But for readers, it's enlightening and humorous. Read and enjoy.



"Joni (Elaine filling in for Kat)" -- Kat was at Mike's Friday (along with Ava and C.I.) and, due to the Iraq study group and the discussions that follow, that can be an all nighter. She never grabbed time to blog and they had to leave early Saturday morning to get back west (home). She left a note for Elaine on Trina's fridge and Elaine missed it completely. When she did see it (asking if she could do a quick post for Kat), she immediately logged on and "threw something together." Community member Susan asked that we be sure not to forget this in the highlights and Kat says she wouldn't have let it be forgotten. Elaine's discussing music and you'll want to read it all.



"Hans Bennet, writers strike, more" -- reader Tim asked that this be noted. Mike is addressing entertainment and the writers strike. Tim says he is waiting for Ava and C.I.'s review of Chuck "as patiently as I can" but he enjoys Mike's discussions of it as well. It's his favorite show of the year (airs on NBC). It's Mike's favorite as well. He says he made sure to write about the writers strike in that post because he was writing about Chuck "and I didn't want to worry that Ava and C.I. would hear complaints from their friends about that. But it really is a great show and, as I've said over and over at my site, before the fall season started airing, Ava and C.I. told me I'd love the show and it was the year's best. Even with that, I kept making excuses not to watch. When they were saying there was a must-watch episode, I watched that and I've been hooked ever since."



"Joy of Resistance (WBAI)" -- We love Ruth's blog. We're glad she started it. We apologize for monopolizing her on the weekend (leading to no "Ruth's Report" at The Common Ills). But she's listening to hours and hours of public radio and she's able to direct you to what you should have caught over and over. This was an especially call and we also agree with her sidebar in the post, no radio show should waste (as Fresh Voices did) ten minutes of air time on a theme song-mix.



"Love birds? Maybe but not real press" & "THIS JUST IN! AP & NPR GET LOOSE AND FRISKY!" -- Cedric and Wally on how two press outlets work overtime to distort reality. On another note, we hope AP and NPR at least made it to second base.



"Over in England" -- Kat scored a massive hit with community members in England over this point. It was big news. But US media didn't seem too interested did they? If you haven't read it, you can probably figure out already this must have to do with Iraq.



"NOW on PBS looks at Moore's Sicko" -- Elaine's take on the 'documentary' of Charlie Ferguson. It's not an anti-war movie and we love this post.



"We don't need your 'side boob'" -- Elaine's having a fit because we're noting three of her posts this week. (She doesn't even like for one to be noted.) Wonder why Bambi backed off on Bill Clinton near the end of the week? Maybe it was grasping the threat of side-boob. Read it and weep.



"primaries & more" & "Edwards wins" -- Rebecca and Mike share their thoughts on who won the debate -- Rebecca goes with Hillary, Mike goes with Edwards.



"monday thoughts" -- Rebecca's regular readers loved this. Others? Like Kat, a lot of people missed this. It was MLK Day (observed) which means the community was basically on holiday. Generally, that means The Common Ills is the only one posting. Rebecca took the time to do a talking entry and, once Kat pointed it out later in the week, it was very popular community wide. (But again, her regular readers caught it in real time.)



Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Mystique Candidate" -- Isaiah tackles the ever changing candidate with the mysterious powers to morph into anything.



"The Old & The Tired" & "THIS JUST IN! CHECKING IN WITH ACTORS THOMPSON & GOODMAN!" -- Ty counted 15 e-mails requesting this joint-post by Cedric and Wally be included in the week's best. They're tackling Fred Thompson dropping out and Amy Goodman, we guess, being dropped on her head.



"Glen Ford" -- Elaine highlights Glen Ford, yes, but she also lets it rip about a woman who's whined (via e-mail) to both Mike and Rebecca. Rebecca blew her off and didn't reply. Mike did and notes it did no good. In both cases, she was 'thanking' 'them' for linking to her -- they hadn't. C.I. linked to her in the snapshot (a point Mike made in his e-mail) and they just reposted the snapshot. Then she wanted to whine about Mike and Rebecca's posts. She went on, last week, to comment on her own article (repeatedly) that was posted online and apparently insist that it didn't matter whether war resisters were covered by independent media. "Idiot," says Rebecca.



"I Hate The War" -- Betty says, "I love C.I.'s Thursday night entries. They go up too late for me to read Thursday night. But Friday morning, at work, it's the first thing I read and I've generally had at least two people stop me on my way to my desk to praise them. This really was the best change in the world C.I. could have made." We agree. In this one, C.I.'s tackling the silences independent media creates.