A Note to Our Readers

Hey --
Doing this on Monday but dating it on Sunday so it archives with the rest.

We had three hours of trying to post but not being able to Sunday morning. Everything was written. We were tired and ready to go to sleep. But couldn't. We had three hours of nothing going up and then an hour to get the stuff up once we could post. Dona, C.I., Ava and Jess had already said, "We aren't doing a note after this, we're going to sleep."

So we're doing the note today.

Highlights? We got 'em:


Ruth's Report
NYT critique via The Common Ills
Humor Spotlight: Wally and Cedric on Practical Jokester Dick Cheney
Humor Spotlight: Betinna tells all about the return to NYC with Thomas Friedman
Blog Spotlight: Rebecca puts Bully Boy on the couch
Blog Spotlight: Mike examines the focus
Blog Spotlight: Kat addresses the potential end of an era
Blog Spotlight: Cedric on Bob Herbert & Juan Williams' blame game
Blog Spotlight: Elaine on the hit squad that tried to silence truth tellers
Kitchen Spotlight: Mixed Greens with Honey and Oranges in the Kitchen

Thank you to everyone for their permission to repost. And thank you to Dallas for his help in hunting down links and adding input.

New content? Got it. And the following worked on it:

The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and, me, Jim;
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 Ils);
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix;
Mike of Mikey Likes It!;
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz;
and Wally of The Daily Jot

This edition, we again focused on Iraq. It wasn't as easy as the previous two because a number of people were exhausted. (Saturday was a busy day.) At one point, C.I. pointed out that we only had 1/2 an edition planned. Dona pointed out that we needed to put our thinking caps on because earlier in the week we had plenty of ideas, what were they?

We were also probably letting it slide because we knew there would be three features that would be very easy for 4 of the 6 of us.

Here's the new content:


In war and pain, 13 albums -- playlist, like CounterPunch does. This is what we listened to while we were working on the edition. And it was "pain" on this end. All listed above get credit for this (we all chose what to listen to during the writing).

How do you say, "We're abandoning the base in 24 hours"? -- The British abandoned a base in Iraq. It was quickly looted. The British military spokesperson tried to paint the abandoning in a flattering light. This is our feature on the sort of note that could have gone out announcing to the Iraqis it was being turned over. All above worked on this except Ava and C.I.

Books: Sadly from Paul Bremer, Every Picture Tells A Story -- This was done just by Kat, Ava, C.I., Dona, Jess, Ty, and me (Jim). C.I. had used the book early Saturday morning for an entry at The Common Ills. Ty was flipping through it, scanning some pages and then came to the photo section. Ty had the idea for this. Kat came up with the idea of opening with Rod Stewart.
All seven listed worked on this.

Courage to Resist's latest alert on Ehren Watada -- Courage to Resist worked on this. It's their's and we posted it as a PSA. Get the word out on Ehren Watada.

A public relations coup gone awry? -- All listed above worked on this. It was a tough one, believe it or not. Everyone was tired. After this one, we excused everyone not a part of the core six (Jess, Ty, Dona, Ava, C.I. and me, Jim) plus Kat (because she was physically present with us and not just on the phone) so that people could get some sleep.

How to be a print pundit -- We all worked on this one. This went through multiple revisions and if Dona hadn't screamed, "It's done" (literally, she screamed that), we'd still be working on it.
The tipping point was last summer. We noted it then. Only now can your pundits tell you that maybe the popular opinion has swung. Yeah, it did. Last summer. Get out from behind your desks and walk around in the real world.

It's not just Camilo Mejia, or Brandon Hughey, or Jeremy Hinzman, or Pablo Paredes, or . . . -- we like Carl Webb. We think he's shown real bravery repeatedly. Know his story, know his name, get the word out.

Denis Halliday said what? -- Couldn't get the word out on what Denis Halliday said because no press outlet covering the trial in real time bothered to note what he said. Read this and you'll have a good idea why he was rendered silent.

Editorial: If what Watada's standing up for matters, treat it like it matters -- Ehren Watada does matter, so you need to treat his stand like it matters. That doesn't mean you mention it once a month. Talk about it with every friend, every family member you have. Talk about it with strangers. Get the word out.

And? That's it. Actually it's not. And we wished we'd had this up when Belinda read. (Ty e-mailed her back.) She was really happy that Ava and C.I. did two TV commentaries this edition. Actually, they did three. The third doesn't show up on the main page. If we'd had our note up, Belinda would have known that.

TV: Vanishing -- I, Jim, asked them for this. Not for Vanished, but for a show that was on that would please their audience (the review, not the show). Why? I was really thinking we might be pushing it with three weeks in a row of Iraq and wanted to be sure that the "calling card" pleased the readers if nothing else did. (Ty says the response was positive to a third week of Iraq focusing.) They ended up tying it into Iraq, which they didn't have to. On our special editions, it may not always be possible for them to tie things into a theme we have for the rest of the edition. The hope was that if anyone thought, "Iraq again, for the whole edition?" -- they'd read this and think, "Well that was worth it."

TV: Make Room For Bully peters out -- Ava and C.I. greeted the request with, "We'll do Vanished." Then on Monday, Bully Boy held a press conference. I, Jim, said, "I know I just asked you for a feature but could we make it two?" They groaned. They were tired. And it was just Monday. They agreed they'd "try." "Try, no promises." We think this turned out very well. (We is not Ava and C.I. who are both griping, right now, about everything they wrote.)

TV: Washington Weak -- Blame this on Rebecca's husband Fly Boy. He called them to alert them to this show. They ended up watching with over the phone. Ava and C.I. provided a running commentary that had him laughing. Kat walked past them and started laughing. Slowly we all came in to check out what had Kat in hysterics and we were laughing as well. Come on, said Jim, you can probably do three? Saturday evening we started the edition. They were tired. They were sleepy. They couldn't do one. "You'll be lucky if you get one." "Stop bugging us or we're bailing." "If you ask us one more damn time, Jim, we are going to . . ." It was a long night. They were tired before a word was written. We were going to be happy with anything. We weren't expecting much because they kept yawning and saying they were tired. They surprised us with each one. Vanished had us laughing. Bully Boy had us laughing. Then came this one (with a threat of bodily harm if they're ever asked to do more than one again) and we think this is actually the funniest one of all. ("Great," says C.I. "Now we're in competition with ourselves and one came in first and one came in last, with one in the middle, the low-middle I'm sure." No, they're all wonderful. But this is our favorite.) The show's Washington Week and the review is hilarious. We probably wasted 20 minutes we should have been working talking about this after we read it.

And? That's it. We'll see you next weekend.




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