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, Ann of Ann's Mega Dub and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights. And, if you've been waiting, this is the summer fiction edition. We ended up stopping this morning with one short story. We had no idea what else to do. Not true. We had numerous ideas. We just were all arguing over which were the better ones. Ava, C.I., Elaine, Jess and Jim went for a long walk and came back with the answer. They then said everyone would take a long nap, we'd go out and get a late lunch and then we'd come back and work on the remaining stories. That actually worked out rather well. We have no idea about illustrations but that'll probably be the next issue as the stories start posting. However, we've still got to do an editorial. (Don't worry, Ava and C.I. did their bit. They did a TV piece as fiction. And when Jim suggested abandoning the summer read this week and pushing it back until next, they were the first to insist no way, no how.)



"David Sirota seeks a journalism tutor (won't you help)" -- most requested highlight of the week. For obvious reasons.


"u.s. makes civilians legitimate war targets" -- second most requested piece, Rebecca on how using a civilian airport (joint civilian-joint military) to launch and oversee drone attacks makes it a target.

"Iraq snapshot," "Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations," "Iraq snapshot" and "Iraq snapshot" -- C.I. and Wally report on Congressional hearings they atten.


Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "White House 'stud'" -- Isaiah's hilarious comic from last week.


"Patti LaBama" and "THIS JUST IN! DIVA ON A WAR PATH!" -- Last week on Good Morning America, Maureen Dowd commented on Barack Obama's vanity. Cedric and Wally have been charting that since 2008.


"The folk dance scare" -- Elaine's post on that frightening moment in the sixties when the government went after folk musicians!!!! (No, that never happened. See the post. And contact NPR.) And for more radio blogging, see Ann's

• It's a shame NPR doesn't really value animals
• How's it hanging, Terry?
• You don't celebrate that, honest
• Zoe Chace is an idiot

"Mom blogging" -- Betty offers some mom blogging.



"Requiem for a War Hawk" -- Isaiah dips into the archives to remember Donald Rumsfeld's departure from the Bush administration.

"Spin this" -- Trina on the jobs report.

"The Gulf Disaster destroys turtles," "the gulf," "Clampdown," "The spin," "The Gulf Disaster," "gulf disaster and bribe disaster," "The Gulf Disaster," "Dead Zones," "Gulf Disaster, Katty-van-van and more" -- some of the Gulf coverage from last week.

"Those were hearings?" and "The dull hearing" -- Betty on the Kagan hearings.


"Disagreeing with Kathleen Parker" -- Kat begs to differ

"On GLAAD spokespeople, Mel Gibson and others" -- Marcia tackles the need for experience.

"I Like Lucy" & "Not my Spiderman" -- Stan's movie posts.

"Idiot of the Week and Zogby"& "Blow hard John Kerry" -- It was a week of idiots and difficult to pick the biggest one but it appears David Sirota won.


"Spying" -- Betty on the portrayals of 'others'.

"Mr. Vain" & "THIS JUST IN! IT'S ALL ABOUT HIM!" -- It takes a special kind of vanity to show up at the funeral of a man you've known for less than a 20th of his life and make your 'rememberance' all about you and your political campaign.