A Note to Our readers

At our regular time, you had something to read. When Ty's solo entry last week (reposted this edition: Repost: Ty's Point of View ) was thought to be buried due to it being so low on the list, we wondered about the spotlights? With the new archiving (by week) and the lower number of posts per page, were most readers seeing them? So this week, we posted pretty much on the half hour. That included features that were finished last night which we forgot to change the time signature on and couldn't figure out why they weren't showing up.

So what do you have? You have Ava and C.I.'s TV Review: Four Kings? They're bluffing. They always say they hate them and that they're not funny. We think it is funny but at C.I.'s request, we will note that C.I. has a really bad case of swimmer's ear and that C.I. belives that impacted the review. We disagree, but it's been noted.

The other features were a group effort by the following:

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.

What did we pull together?

Day by Day coverage of the Alito fan club which was a selection of various points of view on each day of the hearings. You have observations from those of us who watched on TV, those of us who listened on the radio and those of us (C.I., Ava and Jess) who were in D.C. for the hearings.
Betty worked on this and kept saying she wished she had blogged on it. Betty provided us with humor at her site (Humor Spotlight: "The Tough Talking Thomas Friedman" ) this week and it was needed. In addition to that she participated in four of the roundtables Gina and Krista held for the gina & krista round-robins. (Dona says five. Betty took off Wednesday due to it being a church night, but she had participated on the previous Friday in the expectations round-table that went out in last Monday's round-robin.) C.I. feels there's too much C.I. in this feature but, to repeat a point we made repeatedly, C.I. was there. Eye witness observations are important.

Five Books, How Many Minutes? turned from a book discussion into an announcement roundtable. (Don't they all, says Dona.) But we were surprised to learn that a certain person thinks he can stalk Rebecca. Keep it up and you'll really experience the bite of The Third Estate Sunday Review.

Elaine, Mike and C.I. learned of this earlier and weren't shocked by the announcement. We thank them for caring on the book discussion when Rebecca asked that we return to it. Immediately after the announcement, as noted in the feature, there were long pauses as one of the three would make a comment and then wait for the rest of us to jump in. The book discussion did get back on track but we thank the three of them for keeping it going while we were getting over our shock. (We are not over our anger. Note to prick: We will print your e-mails to Rebecca here if you don't not stop harrassing her. With your name attached to them.)

State of the Party (in question), State of the Country (Purple, ask Laura Flanders) is our commentary feature this edition where we note the fact that Laura Flanders is taking her program, RadioNation with Laura Flanders, on a Purple Tour to demonstrate the reality of the country and not the spin. We like Flanders, we think she does a great show. But we also think this mission is one that should be applauded (and, frankly, one the Democratic Party should have undertaken itself).

Our editorial? We thought of pulling a John Lennon and the Beatles concept and having a blank space for it. We were afraid some of the Senate Dems on the Judiciary Committee (Biden for instance) might interpret that as space to be filled with notes of praise for themselves. So instead, we offer Editorial: Senate Judiciary Dems Go Stand in the Corner. We weren't impressed with the week long meeting of the Alito fan club and think the Dems need a time out to think about how they could have handled this differently.

Hopefully, something in this edition catches your attention, makes you think, makes you outraged about the state of the country, something, anything. Don't be a passive observer in your own country. Get active.

-- Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and C.I.