A note to our readers

Hey --
A long edition. C.I. and Wally were both sick (Wally at the start, C.I. at the end). .

Mid-week, the illustration for "The Public Account (Ava and C.I.)" changed. Why? Dallas did the screensnap. Ava and C.I. didn't pay much attention to it. It was a screensnap of the public e-mail account for The Common Ills. Mid-week, a few began to e-mail noting that Dallas (who was credited for the screensnap) had some personal info on there: His zip code. We're all sorry we didn't catch that before it went up and our apologies to Dallas for that. Ava and C.I. cropped the screensnap to take out his private information and posted that illustration. When they log in or I (Jim) log in to that account or our e-mail account here, it doesn't give a zip. It does say "San Francisco." I've noticed that but that's about all I've noticed. We do respect privacy and we're very sorry that Dallas zip code was posted here. Our apologies.

Along with Dallas, the following helped 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),
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
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.

We thank them all. What did we come up with?

Truest statement of the week -- No, the Iraq War has not ended and saying it does in 2011 is a prediction, not reporting.

Truest statement of the week II -- Diane Rehm explains the EPA's reaction when she informed them she was doing a story on coal mining.

Editorial: Piss off, Aimee Allison -- We've been fairly nice to Aimee Allison when you go down the list of Barack Whores and compare. We think it was her snotty little attitude Friday when she rudely cut off the guest speaking. And then rudely and pompously tried to shame him. The person wearing the shame dress, Aimee? It should be you.

TV: Gary Unwatchable -- I love my title. Let me be Mike ":D." Dona was asking, "What are we going to call Ava and C.I.'s commentary?" I said, "Gary Unwatchable." I still laugh. (Yes, I am easily amused.) This is reporting. As Stan notes elsewhere this edition, Ava and C.I. do a lot of it and are usually months ahead of your news outlets that pride themselves on allegedly reporting.

Roundtable -- This is a quick roundtable. We did it to cover some aspects of topics dealt with this edition that we really didn't get to touch on as much as we wanted to. Special thanks to Wally who kicked off an Iraq section to the roundtable that Kat, Isaiah and Rebecca all participated in.

No, Harry, we don't forgive you -- Ty, Betty, Cedric, Ann, Stan and Marcia wrote this. We thank them for it.

Iraq -- Our weekly Iraq piece and BIG THANKS to reader Lelani who e-mailed to point out that the March 20th demonstration Ava and C.I. promote in their weekly TV commentary could also be used for the illustration of this piece "thereby increasing the awareness of the event." Well said. We'll use it for the illustration up to the big event. Thank you.

Who's in charge? (Ava and C.I.) -- The second of three articles Ava and C.I. wrote this edition. It's noted in the roundtable (and at the top of the note) that C.I. was sick. We didn't realize it at the start. If we had, Dona and I would not have asked Ava and C.I. to do two pieces. We knew Wally was sick (and getting over it) and had offered him time off but he wanted to participate. C.I. had a headache for about half the writing edition. But right before we did the roundtable, she started throwing up. She and Ava joke it was from having to listen to Terry Gross' annoying voice. This article tackles what comedy is supposed to be and what people like Terry Gross try to insist it is. There's a difference.

Why was Barack still asleep? -- A short feature.

Thanks, we'll keep our money -- And another short feature. You know Dona's thrilled and would love for us to do a short feature edition.

Naomi: The continual embarrassment (Ava and C.I.) -- The third article. Weeks ago, Mike thought Ava and C.I. were tackling this because the issue was brought up to them and he heard them riff on it. They were wickedly funny. They take a more serious approach here but still include some laughs.

Targeting Flashpoints -- KPFA thinks they can go after one of the few shows they air that actually matters, one of the few shows that actually makes a difference, one of the few shows that actually lives up to Free Speech Radio. They'll only get away with it if you're not paying attention.

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

And that's what we came up with. We'll see you next week and our e-mail address is thirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.