A note to our readers

Hey --

A slightly easier Sunday. Slightly easier. 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,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ
and Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends.

We thank them all and we thank Betty's son for an illustration and Isaiah for the use of four of his illustrations. Ty's in the e-mails because they piled up and he doesn't want that to happen again. (Ty and Dona work the e-mails here. I -- Jim -- really don't do my part.) So let's move to what we have:

Truest statment of the week -- Paul almost didn't get it. We had the worst time picking. Finally, Ava and C.I. asked, "Is Paul doing so poorly in the ballots because we quoted him?" They offered to pull him out of their TV commentary if that was what prevented him from getting the truest. It may have been what was preventing him because after they said that, the next ballot found Paul Street winning. But we all agreed his quote was strong enough to keep in the TV commentary as well.

Truest statement of the week II -- Martha Raddatz got this. For several reason. 1) What she's saying. 2) We don't think we've ever given her a truest. We're fine with making fun of people and fine with ripping them apart but we also do try to give credit when its earned. Martha Raddatz earned it. Ron Jacobs and Margaret Kimberly were two others (the list of truest potentials was 12) who came awfully close to get a truest. I think MK was hurt by the fact that her essay really does flow (link there thanks to Dona who pointed out that if I'm talking about it, I should provide a link) and it's kind of hard to pull out just one paragraph and have it stand alone. RJ lost out because of 50,000. I have no problem with that because I'm the one who always voted him against him this edition. He was my last choice in every voting. Because of the 50,000. The number of US troops left in Iraq after Barack's withdrawal? The transition team told Ava and C.I. that it was most likely "around 70,000" (told them in DC last week). 70,000 is the number C.I.'s gone with because of previous comments by them and because, if you do the math on the 'withdrawal,' you do get approximately 70,000. 50,000 is the number RJ used. Read Martha's statement on "50, 60, 70,000" and grasp that RJ is using the lowest possible number. Truest? I didn't see it. But credit to Martha Raddatz and we're happy to give it to anyone doing the work. Another nominee was Howard Kurtz for this piece of writing. He was hurt by the fact that there were too many sections up as nominees from his piece and no one wanted to give a little and say, "Okay, let's all go with this section." Every wanted their section nominated.

Editorial: Barack kicks the can -- He's not addressing Guantanamo. He's pushing it back. He's refusing to make a decision. Now maybe all the radicals screaming about Gitmo really were just wanting the prisoners out of that and relocated elsehwere. Maybe, being such Fidel Loving guys and gals, maybe it really was about the setting and not about what was being done? Don't think so and people better start standing up. He's just sold out on Gitmo and the silence is going to allow him to sell out on other things.

TV: Baby, I Know -- Did I screw up the title? When Ty went into e-mails, I asked him to let me know if anyone complained about the headline. If I did a bad job, I'd change it before the note went up. No one complained. So don't tell me in three days that I desacrated Ava and C.I.'s wonderful writing with my headline. It is wonderful writing, you can tell me that. Ava and C.I. are tackling three programs and they could have gone even longer. But they didn't want to and Ava says right now, "Look at the time, Jim. We were promised we'd be done three hours ago." Yeah, we were. Didn't work out that way. Title is from a line in "The First Cut Is The Deepest" and it's the line that, during Linda Ronstadt's version, you really have to sing out on. Trivia note, "First Cut" wasn't in the original. It was a Carly Simon in the original. What changed? They were screaming mad in their original. They wanted to tone it down so they flipped the song. (That may seem like a minor thing, but to them it made all the difference in the world. And allowed them to jettison some sections that they couldn't cover without nonstop curse words.)
And on credit when it's earned, note that they have kind words for Norman Solomon here. You earn kind words, you can get them. Unless you make our s**t list. If you get on that, it's pretty impossible to ever get off it.


Roundtable -- Betty called the roundtable and I'm glad she did. I think it was a strong one and I think it was an important one. (Ava says, "And notice the number of I's Jim has already used.") But it does go to issues. It goes to issue we discuss and it goes to issues we can ignore. I was ignoring the Green Party. I've told Jess I was sorry about that. I have no problem with his comments or Elaine's or anyone's being in this. I have no problem with him being so angry, he had to get up and walk across the room. Or, I guess I should say (because Jess is laughing at my wording), I have no problem with that being known. Of course, I am sorry that Jess was so upset due to my actions. (Jess says I got it right the first time.) So I really like this roundtable.

Hillary Clinton becomes 67th Secretary of State -- Not planned. This was done at the last minute. Marcia was talking about and someone said, "You didn't toss it out during the pitch session." She didn't. She said there was no need to because there was so much more to cover and we didn't want to come off like the Barack groupies. Dona and Ty pointed out that while she was correct about not wanting to be groupies for Hillary or anyone, it was also true that an article on it could (a) feature photos (visuals are always good), (b) provide an update of sorts in terms of "and after the 2008 elections . . .", (c) celebrate a woman's accomplishments which were always fine with and (d) serve as an antidote to Bambi Fever. Is it cruel to include (C.I.'s tensing up, too bad) that Barack showed up at State -- according to two White House sources -- because he was miffed by the rousing reception Hillary received? True or not, that's what's being said. By people who should know.

More great moments in Feminist Barack History -- We're thinking this will be a regular feature. Barack's not a feminist and the best way to prove that is to let him do it and just track it. Regularly.

'Caroline, No' cries Babycakes Bringiton -- Ty says reader Douglas suggested this. We didn't know that. When Ty proposed this as a topic, he was cut off by a number of people participating with cries of "Yeah, that did stink!" And there was not a great deal of need to explain, "Well Douglas asks that we . . ." when it had already been agreed to. So Douglas, there's your credit. We thank you. Caroline was derailed. Slowly the reasons why may fully emerge.

This week's Bronze Boobs -- Reader Marcy (not to be confused with TCI community member Marci) e-mailed with not one but two Bronze Boobs. Thank you, Marcy.

Green Party on how they'd handle 1st 100 Days -- A Green Party press release that deserved attention.

Highlights -- Kat, Ruth, Marcia, Stan, Betty, Rebecca, Cedric, Wally, Elaine and Mike wrote this and we thank them for it. I tried to mix up the names this go round and hope everyone got their credit. (I say that because I once left off Stan's name by accident.)

And that's what we have. Breakfast is ready. We're eating it, watching a movie and going to bed. Movie? Ty and Dona want to see Marnie (they're on a Hitchcock kick).

See you next week.


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