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, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.
"I Hate The War" -- The most requested highlight by readers of this site. Wally is on the road with Ava, C.I., Rebecca and Kat (Rebecca goes off the road for this week and rejoins them for three weeks next week) tells us the backstory: War resisters have actually been news of late garnering attention from Real Media (while Panhandle Media remained largely silent as usual) so C.I.'s been juggling different things from the snapshot. While speaking to a group of service members last week about war resisters, C.I. was asked, "Whatever happened to Ehren Watada?" Nothing has happened to Ehren and he remains in limbo. C.I. decided then that Ehren would be the Thursday night entry and the focus of it.
"Testing out The Obama Playbook" -- Betty's latest. And you almost didn't get a chapter. All last week, Betty was getting ticked off by various things in the news and surveying all of us on how we thought it would go over if her site did a blog post and not a chapter this week? We all told her that we thought everyone would be supportive. Elaine pointed out that they would also be understanding because traditionally Thomas Friedman (in real life) takes a vacation around this time each year and Betty usually stops for a few weeks. (In the early days of her site, chapters were a response and corrective to his latest columns.) This was planned as a 'straight' post without Betinna. She was discussing it with Kat and C.I. on Friday when they pointed out that she could take her main point -- if she wanted to -- and very easily end up with a Betinna chapter. Betty says, "Don't expect that this week. If the nonsense gets me as angry again, I probably won't have anything to offer other than a straight post."
"Garlic Pasta in the Kitchen" -- Trina's offering a pasta recipe, selections of Nader and Gonzalez' recent speeches and also going over a basic for her site. We'll repeat it here to help her out. Her site's focus is on helping the people who need help. It's a Bully Boy economy and people are suffering. You may think your multi-hour prep recipe (containing 16 ingredients) for lasanga is to die for but not only does it consume more time than most have available, your ingredients are out of the price range of most working class Americans.
"Yeah, talking John Edwards" -- Mike's post. If you don't know, John Edwards confessed last week to cheating on his wife. Ava and C.I. toyed with including the topic in this week's commentary. They don't care for sex scandals and only considered including it because they were covering public affairs programming and Edwards was on Friday's Nightline. They didn't get around to including it and they say it didn't end up fitting. (They have a very long commentary this week that you'll love.) We're considering doing a feature of some sort on it this edition but, if we do, Ava and C.I. will not be participating in that (due to not being interested in discussing sex scandals) and, for the same reason that Rebecca and Elaine won't be participating, they know more than is currently being discussed. If we don't get around to the topic, Mike addressed it here. (And did so very well.)
"ralph nader, robin morgan" -- Rebecca's discussing Robin Morgan, feminism and using your voice. Be sure to read this.
"Go away, Tom Hayden, far, far away" -- Yes, please. We're all in agreement with Kat. Not related to Kat's post but she brought this up, we're currently debating including a "shut up" remark in a piece. It works for the piece but Elaine and C.I. both do not believe in "shut up" as a phrase or a philosophy. How it relates to Kat's piece is that writing this herself made it more powerful than what we probably could have done here. (And that's not picking on Elaine and C.I. or anyone else. Just noting one of the issues being discussed as pieces are being edited while we write this.)
"There's not an election in Canada this November" -- Thank you, Marcia, for saying what really needed to be said. The Cult of Barack is frightening enough in the US but Canadians are way too involved in the US election and way too uninformed (at least the loudest voices). We're guessing it provides a distraction from addressing the abuses of their own government.
"Barack needs his beauty rest" & "THIS JUST IN! BARACK'S BEAUTY REST!" -- Cedric & Wally's joint-post on the man who has taken three vacations since January.
"Talking post" -- Ruth talks about the Wednesday evening posts. The Wednesday evening posts?
"st.elmo's fire and heathers," "Jumping Jack Flash," "Pee Wee's Big Adventure," "Private Benjamin," "Michelle Pfeiffer" "The Godfather III, Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" -- Rebecca, Mike, Marcia, Ruth, Elaine and Kat weigh in on 80s movies. This proved very popular with the community. They were done for two reasons. 1) Burn out and wanting to do something fun. 2) The chance that talking about something non-political might catch a few drive-bys who otherwise don't even know Ralph Nader is running for president. We had a lot of fun writing and reading these and we're aware that a large number want something similar this Wednesday. We're trying to figure out how to go about doing that? Stay with movies? If so, stay with the 80s? (Ty points out that Larissa had a complaint: No one mentioned one John Hughes film from the 80s.) We'll figure it out between now and Wednesday and are happy that so many enjoyed the movie posts.
"Heather McRobie reveals her stupidity" -- C.I. and Betty loved this post so much that they really advocated for it to be reposted here in full. (We all loved Elaine's post.) Were time a luxury and not an enemy, it would be. For now, be sure to read it.
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels" -- Isaiah's comic from last Sunday that was SO POPULAR, he's actually too nervous to draw one currently. We're not joking. He hopes to have something drawn by Sunday night. Like Ava and C.I., Isaiah actually runs from mass adulation. This is the most popular comic he's done this year in terms of immediate reponse. Be sure to check it out.
"Liz Phair" & "Isaiah, Liz Phair" -- Kat and Elaine discuss an article about Liz Phair. Kat zooms in on the facts of the article, Elaine explains why Liz faltered with the public to begin with.
"Ralph Nader and how Joan Baez lost me as a fan" -- Ruth address 'the late' Joan Baez.
"Next up, Greek tragedies!" & "THIS JUST IN! THE AMERICAN FARCE!" -- Cedric and Wally cover the nonsense that passes for politics in America.
"E-mail from someone disillusioned and awakened" -- Marcia responds to an e-mail.