A note to our readers

Hey --

Another Sunday. Ay-yi-yi!

But we're now done. The truest just posted.

Let's note who worked on the edition. Along with Dallas who is a link locator, a soundboard and so much more, the following put in time 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.

And what did we come up with?

Truest statement of the week -- John Pilger. The one and only. If they ever expect John Pilger to drink the Kool-Aid they better plan on forcing it down his throat and even that may not work.

Truest statement of the week II -- Dennis Kuccinich ended up with a truest for speaking out against the bloated funding for the unneeded wars.

Editorial: Who do you think you're fooling? -- We wanted to call this, "Who in the world do you think that you are fooling?" That's from a Stevie Nicks' song. Everyone's so tired that no one will tell me (Jim) which one. But it's become a catch phrase. Ava and C.I. will sing it, Dona, Jess and Ty will just say it. (Dona will say it very slowly.) But it was too long for a headline, sadly. We flooded the zone on Abeer as much as we could this edition. She's covered here, in a feature article and Ava and C.I. worked in a mention in the TV commentary at the last minute when we asked them to. And Keesha's column is on the topic as well.

TV: Don't Lie To Me -- Fringe was planned for this week. For those who forgot, Fringe is the reason this site didn't go dark. Ava and C.I. had some serious problems with the show. They expressed those problems to friends with the show and were told that it was being fixed and, if that was the only problem, could they hold off on the review? They agreed to hold off. This was when we were due to go dark in November of last year. They'd wait, they said, to review it until sometime in 2009. And they didn't realize what they'd agreed to. They write their next commentary and note, "When we shared that judgment with a writer for the show, we were asked to wait until the mid-season to review the show (changes are promised -- don't believe it). We're more than happy to wait because the fringe was what really interested us. Not the show, not the writing, the fringe. Or, as some might call it, the lunatic fringe." They finish that piece and don't even realize what they wrote or, more importantly, what they'd already agreed to. As I explained in that September 2008 note, "Ava and C.I. said they just agreed without thinking but since they did and since it's up (they agreed to a writer for Fringe's request to hold off on a full review until the mid-season) they'll committ to this site through the start of January. That's only for this site. No one (including C.I.) has made any decision regarding their own sites. Since Ava and C.I. are willing to go to January, we (Dona, Ty, Jess and myself) gladly agree to as well. Now, if readers, can get beyond that unplanned announcement, focus on this powerful piece." Now Stan wanted to start a website but everyone was going to be closing down in January? Forget it. So C.I. extended until April. C.I., Ava and Elaine are the only ones ready to quit (and then some!). The rest of us are fine with continuing. But this was the week when Fringe finally got its review. What happened? Swine Flu. They didn't want to tackle Fringe this week because of that and switched over to Lie To Me. This is a pretty comprehensive review of last week. And funny.

Evan Bright Puts Big Media To Shame -- Evan Bright is covering the Steven D. Green trial. He kindly consented to an e-mail interview with us. We thank him for it and urge you to read the reports on the trial at Evan Bright's website.


Iraq War stories -- We wanted to note Cliff Cornell and Adam Kokesh and made it a short feature.

TV roundtable -- Ty and Dona both felt this was most likely going to be a 'heavy' edition and they recommended we do a follow up to last week's TV roundtable in order to have something lighter for the mix. Illustration is by Kat, Betty's kids and Wally.

Congress moves to weaken their own powers -- We wrote out this long article that never worked. We almost junked the whole idea and then Jess said, "Keep the intro but let's scrap everything else and just use Russ Feingold's comments and questions."

Valerie Jarrett's latest ethical problem -- ValJar is already shaping up to be the ethical scandal for the administration. Only those not paying attention are surprised.

Bitch Pleeze (Keesha) -- Community member Keesha wrote this contribution. She can write one anytime she wants. We believe this is the second time she's written here. We're always glad to have her input. (And she's right that I need to figure out a way with regards to the snapshot. We are the only community site that doesn't repost it and I am the hold up on that.) This is Keesha's and the only thing we added was added at her request, she wanted to know if the SNL video could be put in? We told her no problem and to write her column as she wanted, we'd add the video and we certainly wouldnt' change anything in her column. Ann Bartow's a piece of work, isn't she?


15th Annual Bike To Work Day -- PSA.

Highlights -- Mike, Elaine, Kat, Betty, Ruth, Stan, Marcia, Wally, Cedric and Rebecca wrote this. We thank them for it. They're testing another illustration this week, by the way. The one that I picked last week did not go over well with them or with readers.

So that's what we got. Hopefully somewhere in that is something that makes you think, makes you laugh, makes you angry, makes you feel alive.

See you next Sunday.

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