A Note to Our Readers

Hey --
We'll try to keep this note brief. We're all tired and thought, 90 minutes ago, we'd be writing this and finally going to sleep. But C.I. couldn't find anything on Iraq (to do the morning entry at The Common Ills). We grabbed papers to help out, we went around online to help out. C.I. finally called a friend at a wire agency. We did see Iraq coverage, we just saw worthless Iraq coverage.


First, credit where it is due. The writing on this edition is by:

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

Thank you to all, thank you to Dallas for hunting down links.

Truest statement of the week -- Breslin telling the truth.

Editorial: Make way for the Nervous Nells -- We actually had a different editorial. We'll make it a feature next week. (It's legislation we disagree with.)

TV: The Troubles with 30 Rock -- Kat's stomach was killing her, everyone was tired. Dona said to me, "If Ava and C.I. can pull it off, I'll call this week's edition a success." That was pretty much everyone's attitude. Fortunately, Ava and C.I. did pull it off.

Where Have All the War Resisters Gone? -- a review of some stories not getting covered.

Impeachment -- we worked forever on this feature. It's the second longest one time wise. Longest? Didn't even make the print edition. We found an article online that someone had e-mailed us about on Saturday and thought it was something to explore futher. We did research on the subject (male), we did research on the issues involved. All the while C.I. kept saying, "This is a waste of time." Finally, at five our time, C.I. made a call. To the subject. The online article (about the man) is wrong. Was it meant to be a joke? We don't know. He's not running. But someone either thinks he is or thought it was a cute joke. We probably wasted three (Dona says three and a half hours) on research alone. It was our planned big piece. Impeachment may be the big article this time. We edited this down to tighten it up and had we known, when we were going through drafts, that we'd end up without the big article, we would have stuck with a longer version. (Dona wants it noted that is three and half hours of everyone involved working on research. Not three and a half hours of one or two or three people. She's really pissed and says if you want to know where the article ran, e-mail because she's in the mood to trash an incompetent news source website that ran an article that has no basis in reality. "If it was a joke, they should have labeled it as such.")

Not Ready for Primetime Barack Obama -- This is the article that really ticks Dona off. She thinks we could have done even more with Obama's statements if we hadn't wasted time researching and writing the article that never came to be. (And she notes C.I. kept telling all of us, "This isn't happening." We didn't know at that point that C.I. knew the man and had his phone number.) (C.I. stuck with schooling for the research and with locating a public domain photo.)

For the record -- At the request of readers, we reiiterate a point from last week.

When journalists distort reality -- Another piece, Dona's saying, that could have been more developed if we hadn't wasted time on that piece that never ran anywhere. She notes we do not link to that site but had been considering it. Now that's off. This feature is about Obama cheerleaders who feel the need to pretend reality isn't reality.

Mailbag -- We did it differently this week. Ty selected the comments and questions as always. But he noted the topics and we all chose what we would respond to. Dona wasn't in the mood to try to keep track. (Dona notes she was in a bad mood before we started writing the edition.)

10 CDs listened to while writing this edition -- at the request of a reader, we did this feature again.

Highlights -- Mike, Kat, Wally, Cedric, Betty and Rebecca did this feature, we thank them for it.

That's it. This is a short note. We're going to sleep. (It's ten past one p.m. as we wrap this note up. PST.)

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