I am using WP 2.9.2, and Ata 3.4.9.

I am trying to find a way to group all posts from a specific date together. I plan to be posting many small posts/day, and having them grouped as such is pretty much essential.

Something like http://www.breakfastpolitics.com/ , but with posts instead of single lines.

I know that part of the work's already done since the posts are displayed chronologically. The theoretical method I would use would be to, within the loop display a date "header", and put that date into a variable, not posting another date "header" until the stored date and post date didn't match, then repeat:

something along the lines of the below but, y'know, with proper syntax.
if stored_date == called_date;
print date;
set stored_date = called_date;
endif

Problem for me is that I don't know the backend of WP or Ata well enough to know how to call that date.

Is there a simple function within WP/Ata I can use within the loop to get each post's date?
Is there a simpler way of doing what I'm trying to do?

Any help appreciated.

why don't you do a google wearch using 'wordpress post plugin' and check out some of the plugins