It’s the middle of another week, and still no Senator from Minnesota.John Nichols has the latest onthe GOP’s Minnesota machinations here. As I’ve done the past couple ofweeks, I wanted to use this space briefly to highlight a few newfeatures at TheNation.com and a couple of our stories making waves inthe wider media landscape. Five things you may have missed:

1. Our National Correspondent William Greider caused a stir with hisreport on a new push for so-called Social Security reform. BenSmith, Michael Moore, Real ClearPolitics and Robert Borosage cited Greider’s piece as anopening argument in what could become a long and fierce debate. (DeanBaker has also writtenextensively on the issue.)

In a VideoNation feature posted Tuesday, Greider issues acall to arms for progressives, arguing that the campaign to save socialsecurity needs to start now. The video is a quick primer on thisemergingstory; you can watch it here.

2. At The Nation we’re even older than the movies. But we’ve beenfollowing film and cinema–with a progressive twist–for decades. Inadvance of Sunday’s Academy Awards, we opened up our archives for aslideshow, “The Nation‘s Oscars.” from over 70 years of film, we link toThe Nation‘s past reviews good and bad.

3. Disclosure: I’m a regular guest on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and I likethe hosts quite a bit. But one of our newest bloggers, Leslie Savan,took exception to the program’s recent coverage. Their reporting on the economic crisis, sheargues, exposes the program for what it really is: a 50’s sitcomreprised as political talk show.

4. If you’re not familiar with our independent media ally the UtneReader, they have a great video feature called “Shelf Life,” whichsurfaces interesting articles, books, music and video from theirextensive alternative media library. This week “Shelf Life” featuredNicholas von Hoffman and The Nation‘s “Jobless in America” coverstory. You can watch the video here.

5. We were pleased to have Representative Barney Frank of Massachusettsshare his views with Nation readers about the impending budget battle.Rep. Frank, who was at the center of the stimulus debate in Washington,made a modest proposal in our pages last week:

Those organizations,editorial boards and individuals who talk about the need for fiscalresponsibility should be challenged to begin with the area where ourspending has been the most irresponsible and has produced the least goodfor the dollars expended–our military budget.

Frank’s Comment, “Cut TheMilitary Budget–II” is our most emailed piece of the week.