A note to our readers

Hey --
That anything went up at all is a miracle and readers know why.

Along with Dallas, the following worked on this edition:

The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, and Ava,
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.

We thank everyone for their work.

Here's what we came up with:

Truest statement of the week -- There were too many truests so we went with three. We think you'll agree that in a strong week, Susan had the strongest.

Truest statement of the Week II -- Marie Cocco continues to make some fearless observations.

Truest statement of the Week III -- And a surprise entry in the Truest sweepstakes.

Editorial: Ignoring the only news out of Denver -- Ralph Nader made news, instead the media served up junk. Delaying the posting allowed us to come up with a stronger editorial. The original one was effected by many things. Obviously.

TV: The endless non-news -- It needs to be noted that Ava and C.I. didn't falter. When everything fell apart this weekend, they finished their piece and did it on time. Some read it Sunday morning after 1:30 a.m. PST when it posted. We assumed we'd be done in a few hours. When we weren't, we took this down to put up with everything else. This commentary stands with the strongest of Ava and C.I.'s body of work. Dona: "I will repeat. I would save every one of Ava and C.I.'s TV commentaries. It is always our strongest piece each week and it always the most popular. The rest of us were falling apart. I will never forget how Ava and C.I. were able to keep to their heads down focused on the work. I think we all learned a lesson from them this weekend."

Sexism -- As Ava feared at TCI, this got destroyed. Tomorrow Hilda's Mix publishes C.I.'s original first person essay ("I am a feminist"). I (Jim) called it for Third. We reworked and it's nothing like what it is. It's hard for me to realize how powerful it was and like this. I'm told I'm being too hard on it. Thanks to Cedric and Betty who pointed out that not all African-Americans weren't able to vote until the Voting Rights Act. A little bit of history that had passed us by.

MSNBC's Weiner Dog -- This was handed to us for two reasons. One person attending the MSNBC Friday meeting wanted it out and the second reason was personal. (Not related to MSNBC or anything covered in this. Related to C.I.'s cancer.)

The overview of Gutter Trash's attack -- Ava and C.I. walked out on this before a word was written. They didn't write this. We did and we will probably be writing much more next weekend.

How it started and who started it -- Again, no Ava and C.I. We (Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Rebecca, Betty, Mike, Cedric, Elaine, Wally, Marcia, Ruth and Kat) wrote this.

A rare moment when John Edwards told the truth -- Dona cried short feature. She cried it early on. Nothing was working. Ava and C.I. suggested this.

Highlights -- Mike, Elaine, Kat, Betty, Rebecca, Marcia, Ruth, Cedric and Wally wrote this and we thank them for it.

That's what we managed.


See you next weekend.

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