A note to our readers

Hey --

Another edition completed. First up, last week's note had this added:

Ava, C.I. and Ty: We have added "Truest statement of the week III" Monday, April 13, 2009 because we thought Wally and Kat's comments qualified. We missed those until Monday morning just because we were tired. Be sure to check out their truest.

We were all okay with that. The reason it's Ava, C.I. and Ty is they were the only ones up that early in the morning (it was around five o'clock -- Ava and C.I. are up that early Mondays because they're getting ready to hit the airport to fly out and hit the road). Jess would have sided with Ava even if he didn't agree (Jess and Ava are a couple). So that's four votes (Jess, Ava, C.I. and Ty) and even if Dona and I (Jim) had disapproved, we would have been outvoted. But, for the record, we were asleep (as was Jess) which is why our names weren't on it. C.I. and Ava had to act quickly because they'd be leaving for the airport shortly and, short of waking us up, a decision had to be made. Ty was up and the three of them posted the addition. We are all fine with it and we'll just echo C.I. in saying we wished we had caught Wally and Kat's remarks in time to have posted them last Sunday.

So with that out of the way, onto this week's edition. 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 everyone.

And our content?


Truest statement of the week -- Adam Kokesh. This was an obvious once C.I. and Dallas clued us into it. Which was good because we had huge debates over the truests this week.

Truest statement of the week II -- Jim Branum was among the ones we had debates over. Another statement by him was also up for truest. This one emerged and there was no more debate. However the other statement had tied in multiple rounds with an activist (female), a journalist (female), an attorney (male) and a journalist (male). We would probably still be debating this had the statement we went with not been noticed.


Editorial: Media Whores and Medea Whore -- This wasn't our planned editorial but then we were checking the e-mails and, oh no, she's bothering us yet again. We really do not make a point to think of her. And some said, "Don't even open it." But we did and ay-yi-yi. At least we got an editorial out of it.

TV: Broken or fixed? -- There's so much we planned to cover this edition and didn't have time for. The economy is one example, Social Security is another. By the way, tonight Sunday CBS' 60 Minutes offers: "401K Recession. Never created to be a mainstay of workers' retirement funds, 401ks became just that to millions of Americans who are now facing uncertain futures because of the devastating losses in the stock market. Steve Kroft reports." We had this as a topic and an illustration. We may write it up next week. But Dona wisely realized, while we were making our list of topics at the start of the writing edition, that there was no way we were going to cover everything. What could we farm out to Ava and C.I., she wondered? She took the list to them and they said they'd be happy to handle Iraq's LGBT community but noted that Marcia and Betty and Cedric really were vocal on that topic (which is why we have two features on that this edition). They looked over the rest and said torture and prosecution ("responsibility") would fit with what they were covering because (a) they could grab PBS on this and (b) it is about responsibility and imparting lessons so it does fit with the sitcom they were planning to tackle. But, they added, check and see if others are wanting to work on this topic before they grab it. No. Everyone that wanted to had weighed in Thursday and/or Friday at their own site. Ty, Jess, Dona and I (Jim) were happy to let Ava and C.I. run with it. And that was before we knew what they were going to write. They did not disappoint. This really is a must-read and it's hard, reading it (I've read it three times now), to grasp that they hadn't planned to cover torture all along. Who else but Ava and C.I. would catch that PBS was silencing dissent and silencing the American courts? Amazing. So strong I was tempted to pull out sections on torture and use them for our editorial (Dona said I'd be sleeping on the floor if I did that). Hats off to Ava and C.I. because I know when we were all discussing our torture feature at the start of this edition, we had nothing like this planned. I am truly blown away by this.

Tea Parties -- When everyone gloms on with an attack, Third tends to stick up for whatever's being attacked. That's not me speaking, that's reader Josie who e-mailed Thursday asking if we were going to cover the Tea Parties? She figured we would in some way because of what she'd detected. She was correct. We thank a Dallas community member for the long quote and we thank her daughter for the three photos. You need to look at the large version of the photos (click on them) to see the people between the trees, for instance, in one picture. It is a sizeable crowd.


Papers and David Carr Stuck In The Box -- The David Carr article ticked off C.I. and Ava and me (but me later because I read it after they had already left -- they had circled paragraphs three, four and five in red lipstick -- indicating they were pissed and I should read it). To all of you who have repeatedly complained about NYT's delivery services, we did listen. Dona and I took it into a roundtable for Polly's Brew last October. This was the first time we could work it into an article here but we have all discussed the e-mails and have paid attention to them.

Civil Rights history including 'Now!' -- I like this and I think we all do. We see it as one of the things we do, correct the record. And, honestly, none of us knew all of this (except C.I.) so it was really great. Betty called her father about the song, as we note in the article, and we were all saying, "Do you realize how late it is in Georgia?" She said he'd still be awake and, when he found out it was a musical and Civil Rights issue, he'd want to have been called. He did recognize the anthem once Betty gave him the first lines. Ty's grandmother read it when it went up this morning and has already called to tell us that "back then, everyone knew that song. You couldn't escape it."

The Shirley goes to . . . -- Marcia was the one who suggested this but we were all in agreement with her. Polis earned the honor.

Greta Garbo -- Elaine and Rebecca played around online Saturday and found these photos at the Library of Congress. They brought it in as a possibility. Dona went for it immediately because we have some readers (at least three) who are always asking us to write something about Greta Garbo. So we wrote some copy and tried to include less well known stories and details when possible. The photos are the real focus, however.

Lt. Muthana Shaad's Gay Boy Chronicles -- This is our serial. We probably won't do it every week but we will continue this. Iraq's LGBT community is under assault and we will do our part to draw attention to it and we will do our part to call out those who aid or add to the assualts. (In real life, Lt. Muthana Shaad is a presumably straight police officer in Iraq who is a homophobe.)

Yesterday's Morning Glory Naomi Klein -- We loved Information Clearing House's comments on a Klein article and wanted to include them so we wrote a quick wrap around. Thank Betty and C.I. for the wrap around if it works for you. They are the ones who can remember every line of a movie (in this case, Katharine Hepburn's Morning Glory).

Matthis Stands Tall April 21st -- PSA on Matthis Chiroux. Remember this Tuesday.

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

I could go on forever but Dona says I already have. So that's it and we'll see you next week.

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