A note to our readers

Sunday, barely.

The note was delayed because we need to note if we're publishing Sunday. We weren't all aware that Christmas was Sunday. A lot of people are up in the air due to plans. We have confirmation from Elaine, Mike, C.I., Cedric, Jess and Jim at this point. If others are able to participate, that's wonderful. If not that's fine as well. Ruth said she'll be happy to participate in a discussion.

We will have an editorial. We're not sure what else. Ava and C.I. are "very unhappy" with their TV commentary (we're betting you'll enjoy it) because that wasn't what they worked on. They were doing a review and were half way done with it prior to us all getting together. At five in the morning, while we still had to do the editorial someone (me, Jim) mentioned that we really wanted them to do a commentary on TV in terms of entertainment this week and on TV news next week.

They had no idea that was coming and we (which means me, Jim) will try to give proper notice when we have a request. We think it's funny. They don't care for it. They wrote it in five minutes, then one hour later, did five minutes of polish. It took Dallas longer to track down the links in that then it took them to write it. We like it and think you will as well.

Next week may or may not have a look at TV news. Ava's holiday plans are very firm and it's really too late for her to back out on them but she and C.I. are going to try to get something done ahead of time in "the hours and hours of time . . . we don't have!"

But there will be something up on Sunday so check for that.

This edition, we list personal favorite Christmas songs at the request of one of our readers. We also have an essay on a disturbing "trend" -- arresting people attempting to visit their Congressional reps. The editorial focuses on Bully Boy's flashback to Watergate. ("He's tripping," as Betty noted while we were writing it.)

We also have a very lengthy book discussion.

Some notes on that. Whenever an e-mail comes in, as one did recently, noting that someone didn't speak much or only spoke at the beginning, Dona feels awful because she's the one trying to keep everyone on track. So this time, we designated the reading of an excerpt, for instance and tried very hard to follow who wasn't speaking that much.

C.I. feels there's way too much C.I. We disagree. The comments all go to important points. With one exception. Where C.I.'s repeatedly explaining why Robert Parry's book sat on the book shelves unread for years. That's due to the fact that C.I.'s not doing a blog but representing a community and wanted to be very clear that Parry's book was not left unread due to any problem with the book or Parry (who's a favorite of many in the community) but because Rebecca hadn't gotten around to reading a book C.I. had gifted her with and they were in a stand off.

A lot of times when clarifications are repeated, that is the reason. The rest of us don't worry about it. But the rest of us aren't expected to speak for ourselves and a community.

With that exception (which is obviously needed by and for the community) noted, the rest of the statements were necessary. C.I. had plan to sit out the discussion of the last book as did Ava.
Betty chose an excerpt and she wasn't the only one choosing similar ones but she was comfortable discussing it after the break we took. One comment C.I. wanted in that didn't make it was that Betty is a reader and responds as someone well read and interested, greatly interested in reading. This book is trying to go beyond that and reach a wide audience. The book is Mary Mapes' book. Mary Mapes is attempting to explain what happened.

On the break we took, due to the fact that the discussion had already gone longer than we intended, the issue of quote came up and led to a discussion. It wasn't a heated one. (That would be last Sunday.) C.I. and Ava both had strong comments based upon people they knew at CBS. Dona agreed with the arguments C.I. and Ava were making.

We felt they needed to go into the discussion. Ava said she was uncomfortable with discussing things told to her in confidence by friends and wouldn't budge on this (though she did end up contributing at least one point once the discussion was back on). C.I. was of the same attitude but agreed to speak if we could keep it strictly in generalities. If you read the discussion and feel like we're pulling teeth with our questions, we are.

It would have been very easy for us to swipe Ava and C.I.'s comments and speak of them in the discussion ourselves but it wouldn't have been honest. We're not sure how that plays out, to be honest, because the break didn't end up being a break. We were supposed to take 15 but before that happened, the issue of the excerpt came up and we spent an hour discussing the book, during the break, with no one taking notes.

But we do know the points made. Rebecca was more than happy to identify the two people she recognized in the book, two people making supporting comments to Mapes but left unnamed. C.I. was clear that if that happened, C.I. couldn't participate.

During the hour "break," the issue C.I. kept coming back to was whether silence to protect friends anonymity was fair and what was the news value. So we focused on the critique. It worked for us but we have a huge backstory that's not in the discussion as it appears. Hopefully, in general terms, it still works.

Where is our promised note? The one about last edition. Check Cedric's site because when we hit a wall with a huge entry that Dona felt needed severe editing, Cedric ended up tackling the issue. It will appear at his site and we will spotlight it next week.

The highlights are here, where we spotlight other entries. We took an hour debating what to include and what not to. Since none appeared last week, we felt it was important to include them this week. An additional hour was spent discussing who could and couldn't work on next Sunday's edition.

Some of us will be working on it. Those who can't, can't. We respect that. And no one ever needs to feel guilty about that. Mike's going to be late posting this week but plans to work on something every day. Elaine plans to try ("to try") to do the same. Rebecca says she'll post at least four times. Wally's got extended family coming in starting Monday and is unsure how often he'll post. Betty notes that she's having huge problems with her latest but will have it ("I swear") up this week. C.I. will post something each day but will also need to work on the year-in-the review. You'll see stuff at The Common Ills from Martha & Shirley (their book list which was ready this week but is being held for Christmas day), Ruth and Isaiah. Isaiah was held today because C.I. wants Isaiah to have a week off. Kat is working on three things for The Common Ills and hopes to have them completed before the new year so she notes that she may only post once this week. With the church program he's involved in, Cedric thinks he will post only once this week.

That's the community announcement.

All features posted were the work of:

The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim;
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude;
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man;
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review;
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills);
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix;
Mike of Mikey Likes It!;
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz;
and Wally of The Daily Jot.

Except the TV feature which was done by Ava and C.I. ("under duress, " Dona notes).

We thank everyone who lets us highlight them in our spotlights and we thank Dallas for hunting down links. Dallas agreed to do that for next week and we're attempting to get him to participate. (For those who've forgotten, the only time Dallas has participated is in two news review and the first time was because C.I. put him on the spot since the topic was the victims of Hurricane Wilma and one shelter was in Dallas' hometown.)

See you next Sunday.

-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava