A note to our readers

Hey --
Sunday and we're finishing now. Finally.

Here's who worked on the edition:


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,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
and Marcia SICKOFITRDLZ.

And Dallas. We thank them all as well as Liang and especially Ava and C.I. but, to steal from them, we'll get to it.

Truest statement of the week -- Iran. The war that still hasn't taken place. But there was Common Dreams, at the end of last week, running another piece on that possibility. Strange isn't it, that The Washington Post can note what our alleged 'independent' media can't? This was hands down truest and the least discussion and debate we've ever had while selecting one.

Editorial: NO judgement -- "Hey, I'm Bambi Obama. I'm super smart! And I know right from wrong." He knew Wright, if not right and he didn't know enough to cut off contact with a man who damns the country.

TV: Broadcasting False Narratives -- Ava and C.I. turn in another masterpiece. Here's the story. We were all sick of one person (see roundtable) and that person's attempt to get around this site, while complaining about an article at this site, by e-mailing people who participated last week to whine, gripe, and insist. Including insisting upon knowing which IVAW members had complained about the really bad panel. It really had us angry and we weren't sure we wanted to do an edition. Ava and C.I. were all for that. A Saturday night off at last! But then we kept talking and talking and they said, "Okay, everybody take three hours, take four hours, go to sleep. We'll regroup after that and in the meantime, we'll write our TV piece." As I (Jim) have noted before, when we're lagging is usually when I'll read Ava and C.I.'s latest outloud to everyone. It always inspires us and give us the extra oomph we need to finish an all night session. This time, it inspired us when we came back from our long naps. Ava and C.I. note that if you read something in this that says it will be addressed in another feature and it wasn't, remind us. We are all very tired. We may have forgotten a feature. (And there are two we weren't pleased with so they just went into the print edition.) They really did not plan to comment on public affairs. They thought they were doing entertainment. But the reality is that they were griping to friends all week and when it was time to write this piece, they realized that the was the story of last week. Not just the spin of Bambi's 'brilliant speech' but the complaints they were hearing. They include it all, friends in the press, friends in Congress. It's an indepth piece and a lengthy one that, when I finished reading it, had Dona saying, "I think we all know we'll be doing short pieces for the rest of the edition." They worked their butts off writing it and they typed it up, did the links and even spell checked while we were sleeping. (Ava notes spell check conked out two-thirds in so live with any typos.) Next week, the plan is to return to entertainment programming. (But you know I won't complain if they don't.)

There's only one fighter in the Democratic race -- This had to be a long piece because it was pulling together two needed topics (planned as two pieces) when we were too tired to tackle writing two articles. This was the last thing we wrote. We think it holds up despite how tired we all were. There's a comment in here that held up the edition. We do not call for any candidate to drop out of a race ever. This statement appears in the article as a parenthetical, usually a clue that it's intended humorously, "Such as Barack doing what's good for the country -- the one he's okay with being damned, apparently -- and the party and dropping out." That is not a call for Barack to drop out. Obviously, he's never done for what's good for the United States or the Democratic Party.

Roundtable -- This is where we address how one Drama Queen can you spoil something for you. Equally true is we do not take well to threats, intimidation, sneaky-ness, et al. Try it on us and we'll show you we're not going to listen because you are not our boss and if you do not like what we write, you can go elsewhere. No one has the right to tell anyone (a) to rewrite something and (b) what to include.

Liang's comments to Barack Obama -- Liang had e-mailed C.I. last week after Bambi's 'Pretty Speech' to note how offensive it was to her as an Aisan-American that the media was treating it as the last word on race. This was supposed to go up today at The Common Ills but C.I. e-mailed Liang while all of us were sleeping (except Ava and C.I.) to ask if it could go up here instead (because we weren't in the mood to write our usual edition). Liang kindly agreed and we're happy to include this. Thank you, Liang. Longterm community member.

Hillary spoke about Iraq, Panhandle Media blacked it out -- On the fifth anniversary of the illegal war, a candidate for president gave a major speech outlining her plan for Iraq. And Panhandle Media ignored it. They were too busy promoting Barack Obama's Tuesday speech that he had yet to give. That was news, to Amy Goodman and Aileen Alfandary, that Barack Obama would be giving a speech later Tuesday. But Hillary's speech given on Iraq wasn't. Let's speak slowly for the idiots of Panhandle Media, a speech delivered may or may not be news. A speech not given is not news, it's barely "coming attractions." Try to learn the difference. It was cute the way Aileen mixed up Reuters and AP for her 'report' and, in both cases, was sure to ignore that in the same wire stories, the bulk was Hillary's Iraq speech. The only thing more embarrassing than that may be the presidential candidate who used the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War to speak to America about . . . Venezuela. As C.I. asked in Friday's snapshot, "What country are you running for president of?"

Mr. Pretty Speeches offers a 'history' lesson -- We love faux history. Elmer Gantry (Ava and C.I.'s comparison for Bambi) really fits here as Bambi raided the Bible to jazz up his speech. He raided others as well. We'll get to it.

Theft, C.I.'s not Bambi's speechwriter -- And here we are. When last week's roundtable went up Sunday morning, a lot of e-mails came in on C.I.'s comments. C.I. only speaks once and it's at the end of the roundtable. But that's what stood out the most to everyone. But before we could get to those e-mails, we had to read the ones that came in on Tuesday (the first time any of us checked the e-mails was late Tuesday). C.I.'s comments were so good that Bambi worked them in. That was 'cute,' as C.I. would say. That's not the first time it's happened (and why Marcia noted two or three roundtables back that C.I. didn't need to play "in fairness" with Bambi). By the end of the week, 82 regular readers had written in to note the theft. (Some wondering, since C.I. has friends on the Bambi campaign, if there was any 'arrangement' worked out as allegedly took place with Patrick Deval? No, there wasn't.) In addition 14 e-mails came in from Bambi supporters who stated we must have something nice to say about Bambi since he is echoing C.I.
Something nice to say about Bambi? He steals from the best.

Highlights -- Mike, Marcia, Kat, Betty, Rebecca, Cedric, Elaine and Wally wrote this and picked out the highlights except where otherwise noted. We thank them for this.

So that's it, that's the edition. We almost took the night off. On that, Ava and C.I., as noted in highlights, plan to go back at some point in the week and note Mike's post in their TV review. They are too tired to do so now. They are too tired and sick of looking at computer screens. To write these editions, we stay up all night. We've done that all along, the core six. All of us, except Ava and C.I., have taken at least one weekend off. Point, for Drama Queen, we don't have time to rewrite any article to please you. If we wanted to, which we don't, we don't have the time. You seem remarkably able to operate a keyboard and e-mail various people who are not signing this note to lobby them against us in your e-mails. We would assume you could use the same keyboard to write whatever article you want. But it probably would carry more weight coming from someone other than you. Which is why you think you can get us to change our opinions and rewrite on your command, to your command. It doesn't work that way.

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

Added: And "The 4,000 mark"-- tonight the number of US service members killed in Iraq reached 4,000. All community sites posted on this mark. It is important.