Sunday, December 06, 2009

A note to our readers

Hey --

Another Sunday, another headache.

First let's talk who helped with this edition:

The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, 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),
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.

We thank them all. And we thank Dallas for his help. So what did we come up with for this edition?

Truest statement of the week -- Cindy Sheehan grabbed this one. She's had at least three others this year.

Truest statement of the week II -- Chris Floyd's been a truest before but we're not sure if he's had one this year or not.

Truest statement of week III -- Arthur Silber grabs his first truest.

Editorial: War Paint and Soft Feathers -- C.I. came up with the title. (It was a song Cher recorded in the seventies.) We would have loved more time to work on this but we were tired and Jess was feeling sick due to a headache.

TV: Oh what a difference a name change makes -- Ava and C.I.'s masterpiece. Dona called it that and I (Jim) agree. After I read this outloud to everyone, Dona grabbed it and started reading over it again. She then told Ava and C.I. to table the second piece they were planning until next week. Says Dona: "This doesn't need anything distracting from it."

Book: The Battle of Seattle -- Our book discussion. This is a discussion. This is not, "On page 2 this happens, then on page 3 and by page 15 . . ." This is a critical article, not a book report. If you want a book report, you'll no doubt find many online. We recommend the book and we have a discussion about it.

Roundtable -- Dona and I feared the edition wasn't coming together so planned a quick roundtable. With Elaine at the opening and Marcia, Ty and Ruth at the end, we ended up having a much longer and stronger roundtable than we planned or expected. Mike has strong moments and pretty much everyone does. There's a wide range of topics. I note here that Ava and C.I. will be doing a second article. By the time this posted, we knew that wasn't the case but I don't ever ask for something to be pulled and didn't want to start now.

Iraq -- The Iraq article. There was so much more we wanted to write.

Wanted by the FBI: Diane Rehm and Barbara Slavin -- This is a short feature and we like it. It's got visuals. It's got less text than most of the features. It's got humor. It's got outrage. It's got it all.

Liar Supreme: Greg Mitchell -- Greg Mitchell is a jerk and he can't read.

Civil Rights Era Cold Cases -- We were asked if we would note this and we were happy to. Pass it around if you can.

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

And that's what we have for the week. We'll see you next Sunday. And remember . . .

War paint and soft feathers
Under the pale moon light
Doing what tribal laws forbid
As drums brought the silence of the night

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