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, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ, Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.





"I Hate The War" -- Jim's still attempting to talk Ava and C.I. into turning portions of this Thursday entry by C.I. into an essay here. They (Ava and C.I.) are exhausted and have completed one article and are trying to complete another one. We don't think Jim's getting his wish, but maybe after all of us go to bed, he'll find a way to convince them ("that they need to do their part and everyone else's?" asks Elaine).



"The word is bi-racial" -- Betty takes on the issue she's been at the forefront on for two years now. She and C.I. did pitch the story topic she writes about here and, though they had to pitch it five to six different ways, they finally sold Jim and Dona on it.





"Baked Acorn Squash in the Kitchen" -- Trina. She's covering the economy and cooking and she's just asked, "Is there time to do the feature?" She and C.I. had an idea for something here but her granddaughter got sick and Trina wasn't able to participate last night.





"the juice" -- Rebecca covers O.J. Seriously. And that's fine. Someone dropping by for O.J. is going to find the snapshot attached. That's why we all repost the snapshot. (And we happen to love this post by Rebecca.)





"Jenny Matsui leaves a comment" and "Stupid Dissident Voice and Jenny Matsui" -- Marcia and her stalker Jenny Matsui.





"The LemonDrop Kid" -- Stan's Friday movie post. A pleasure to read. Don't miss it. (Cedric adds, "Don't miss The LemonDrop Kid either! Very funny movie. That was one of three movies we had on videotape when my grandparents got a VCR finally. I watched it over and it was a good year before there were any more purchases though there were rentals during that time.")





"It's not that easy, Alex" -- Elaine makes no secret of the fact that when C.I. lets The Common Ills go dark, Elaine's out of here. She's ready to quit blogging. She's not a good blogger (in her opinion) and blah, blah, blah. But she only has to do one piece like this to remind us why we all rate her so much higher than she does herself. And this is one of two superior posts she had this week.



"Musical thoughts" -- Kat writing a little about her CD reviews last week ("Kat's Korner: Break Up The Ass Kiss" and "Kat's Korner: Labelle's neither 'back' nor 'now'").







"Iraq, Chuck" and "heroes" -- As noted in this week's mailbag, Mike covers Chuck, Rebecca covers Heroes. Those are their shows, the ones they try not to miss. Their own private shows. :D (A joke about how Elaine -- she and Mike live together -- is stuck watching both. Heroes because Rebecca needs someone to discuss it with and Chuck because Mike's always saying, "Come watch it with me.")



"THIS JUST IN! PAT BUCHANAN WANTS TO BE DR. PHIL!" &" "Patrick Buchanan's envy problems" -- We're getting real sick of this pathological Hillary hatred. It's old, it's tired. And who the hell on the left is listening to Patty Buchanan anyway? Why is he being posted at left sites to begin with? When did he become a 'trusted' voice for the left?




"Mark the calendar, New York Times provides some truths" -- C.I.'s Thursday morning entry was so important and popular, Jeremy Scahill had to rewrite it the following day for CounterPunch. As the old Robert Wagner show advised us, It Takes a Thief.



"the liar tina fey" -- Rebecca's very popular post. It was the second most requested highlight here after C.I.'s "I Hate The War."





"Jeb plans for his future (not ours)" -- Ruth breaks it down. Seriously, if you are worried about Jeb continuing the dynasty, you need to start getting the word out now. Not when he's running for president.



"A game marketed too late" -- Kat's post about a bored game ("Bored" used intentionally) that's about ten years too late.



"Kwame hits the fan again!" -- Kwame can't even stick to his plea bargain.



"She rocks" & "THIS JUST IN! YEAH, SHE IS A ROCK STAR!" and "Sarah Palin" -- Cedric, Wally and Marcia note Sarah Palin's drawing power and impact.







"Sheehan," "Warnings, Cindy Sheehan, etc." and "Mark the calendar, New York Times provides some truths" -- Elaine, Mike and C.I. offer that if you refused to call out Barack while allowing your sick Hillary Hatred to run wild, you really need to take some accountability and treating Hillary (a Sec of State nominee) as though she were president in your current writings is more evidence of just how sick your hatred is.



"Paul Street, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Isaiah" -- Ruth was exhausted (and depressed) the night she blogged. Marcia told her to do something easy. Rebecca heard about it and called and suggested comics. We like this post. And, no, they don't all have to be essays.



"Too little too late from Matty?" -- Yes, Stan knows he wrote this. He's gotten several e-mails asking if he forgot he needs to answer. He's still attempting to decide whether it's too late for Matthew Rothschild. He'll try to pick it up next week.



"Iraq snapshot" -- If we pick this up, Ty explained, it would help. There were many questions about this that he wanted to include in the mailbag. But the first question of that feature (as you'll see) resulted in C.I. answering. C.I. does not like to be the only one speaking. So Ty had to ditch several planned e-mail topics and questions. This was one. Rebecca, Wally and Kat are helping to write this feature and they were present for the writing of Friday's snapshot. (As were Ava and, of course C.I.) This is not C.I.'s replies. But they can offer their own perspective of what happened. In the snapshot (the best part, Wally and Cedric say and they wanted to highlight it but C.I. asked them not to), C.I. does a lengthy section on Moqtada al-Sadr and his status. The backstory. That wasn't planned for the snapshot. The first five sentences of that section were written after the last part. Here's what happened, the snapshot was being quickly dictated and C.I. was using the other ear for another cell while returning messages. A friend on Barack's transition team wanted C.I.'s opinion about al-Sadr's current political status. C.I. said, "Hold on." And returned the call. While C.I. was explaining it, Ava (who was holding the phone with C.I.'s friend on the other end) said into the phone, "Go ahead and write it down." She then held the phone up to C.I. who was talking into the other cell phone about al-Sadr. When that call was done, C.I. was informed a portion was in the snapshot, C.I. quickly dictated the first five sentences and changed some other words here and there. Some people e-mailing feel that C.I. is "worshipping" al-Sadr and some feel C.I. is not giving al-Sadr any credit. C.I. has no personal opinion of al-Sadr. Those comments are about the status al-Sadr holds. Don't read it as a personal endorsement of al-Sadr or some sort of slam against him.