A note to our readers

Hey --
Finally done. We swore we'd be done three hours ago. Earlier we swore we'd be done even sooner. Didn't work out the way we hoped.

We give big thanks to all who survived this edition. That includes Dallas and 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,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
and Marcia SICKOFITRDLZ.

What have we got?

Truest statement of the week -- We were at a loss for truest and considering not doing it this week. We also debated including Bambi's statement of insult and noting it was "truest" because it reflected what Barack really feels about the voters. Then Ty checked the e-mails and discovered Mia had suggested a truest. Thank you, Mia. When we saw what she was highlight, we were all in agreement that it was the only choice. We also kicked ourselves for not thinking of it since all other community sites had highlighted it.

Editorial: Panhandle Media Exposes Itself -- This is a rush piece in terms of Ava, Betty and C.I. have proposed this for weeks. We've wanted to do it and we've never gotten around to it. We were tired and didn't go through everything we planned but we think there's more than enough to make it interesting. This is the piece Rebecca mentions in the roundtable (at that point, it was still unwritten).

TV: The Big Blather -- This posted without a title. My (Jim's) apologies on that. We were tired and I didn't realize I hadn't come up with a title. I tacked that on quickly and all the usual readers who complain I 'defaced' Ava and C.I.'s masterpiece with my title will actually have something to complain about this week. We almost didn't have a TV piece from them this week. It was a very busy week last week and as Ava pointed out, "We can't do everything. We can't follow the 24 hours plus of Congressional hearings and still be able to offer up a TV commentary." Add in that they thought they could grab something on Saturday but instead ended up changing their plans. (They were lobbying a super delegate Saturday -- a last minute thing.) They got back (late, very late), took a three hour nap and Ava said, "No TV piece, leave us alone." Then a friend called very early (on the West Coast, but not so on the East where he was calling from) to gripe about a program. "Is it's online?" they asked. It was. They pumped him for details about the commercials, then watched the program online. It's amazing how strong this article is considering that it was unplanned and they didn't think they'd have anything.

"Stop the madness!" cry the Goodmans, "You first," reply Ava and C.I. -- The reason we were okay with no TV commentary from them (which didn't end up happening) was because they agreed they'd review Amy Goodman and David Goodman's latest 'book' this week. Everyone who writes for more book coverage needs to note that they both say "never again." As Dona said when it looked like the edition would never come together, "Don't worry so much, we've got two pieces coming from Ava and C.I. It will be a strong edition." She was correct. This is a pretty amazing piece. And, I'm sure, another instant classic from Ava and C.I. for our regular readers. Repeating, they do not plan to review another book ever again. Ava wants it noted that their two pieces did not delay the publishing of this week's edition. They did both pieces in about 90 minutes with 24 minutes tossed on to watch Chris Matthews' program. They typed their pieces, did their links, did their research ("worked the phones," says C.I.) during that time. But never, ever again, says Ava.

Congress raises economic and legal issue -- This was our big piece for this edition. It took forever to write and one reason why was we were pouring over C.I.'s pages and pages and pages of notes on all the hearings. The print edition version of this is even longer. We edited it severely for the online version, punched it up and it was the last thing we completed (other than the note I'm writing now).

Roundtable -- Another roundtable. We did this first. We tried to cover a range of subjects and we think we did. As soon as this was completed, we started typing this.

Obama's Oswald Cobblepot Moment -- While Ava and C.I. worked on their pieces, we worked on this. It's very lengthy in the print edition. Dona declared it a short piece online so we worked forever editing it down. Illustration done by Kat and Betty's eldest son.

Why aren't we surprised? -- This was the quickest thing we wrote. Dona asked for a short piece and we had no ideas. Someone saw the Cheney's tax returns at the White House site (we don't remember who, sorry) and we lept on it.

The candidate who never stops working -- Hillary's campaign site is posting on Sundays. We did not know that last week. It was repeatedly pointed out in e-mails. C.I. added an HUBdate to last week's edition on Monday morning after the e-mails started coming in. We're including it today to avoid those e-mails. Though Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez are mentioned in one piece, we didn't really cover the political campaigns that much this edition. If your candidate wasn't covered, that's the way it was. We had a lot to do.

Highlights -- While we worked on typing the roundtable and other things, Mike, Kat, Wally, Betty, Ruth, Marcia, Rebecca, Elaine and Cedric worked on this. We thank them for it. C.I.'s "Iraq snapshots" covering three days of Congressional hearings are linked to in this. They aren't linked to in our own Congressional piece. They should be but we were all too tired. Any quote that doesn't have a link came from C.I.'s notes on the hearings.

That's it. Finally. We'll see you next week.

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