Sunday, September 11, 2011

A note to our readers

Hey --

Another Sunday.


First up, we thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:

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,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.

And what did we come up with?
Barry Grey from WSWS -- one of the few outlets to refuse to whore.
Kevin Alexander Grey and read the entire piece he wrote (though Black Agenda Report was down for most of Sunday).

Last week exposed how little research gas bags do before weighing in. Excuse us, before RUSHING to weigh in. A lot of dunce caps should be provided by various outlets and someone should ask the dunces what they think "AP" stands for because it's a news outlet, not a grocery store, a news outlet they should familiarize themselves with.

Reading this piece, I understand why Ava and C.I. insisted they had to write it. I told them Friday afternoon that we needed a piece on Barack's speech from them. They didn't want to do two pieces. I said just do a piece on the speech. Reading this, I understand why they didn't want to ignore it. This is one of their hard hitting pieces and for those who keep asking, "When are they covering entertainment again?," the fall season doesn't kick off for two more weeks.

A short piece. And after this posted, we saw that the photo had to be reduced or you couldn't see the second arrow to the TelePrompter. You can also click on the photo to see it in a larger size at Flickr.


The piece I (Jim) asked Ava and C.I. to write. I didn't realize that they'd do so much background work before writing a word. I should have. If it's a topic they're unfamiliar with or don't feel strong on, they do a huge, huge amount of prep work. My Friday afternoon request not only caused them to have to work on Friday night and Saturday doing research, it also probably caused a panic because normally they'd would have done even more prep work. This flows beautifully and is much more than I expected. Thank you to them for their hard work.

C.I., Betty and Stan wanted this addressed. It's an issue that's not getting the attention it deserves. Again, the Black Agenda Report has been down today. If it is back up or when it is back up, please read Glen Ford's piece that we quote from at the top. It's a pretty important article.

This was planned as an e-mail roundtable but quickly went somewhere else. If I thought it was a problem or not productive, I could have stopped it. (That's what a moderator does.) But though completely unplanned, it was far better than what we thought it would be going in. Thanks to Stan especially for really getting it kicked off. When he explodes, that really shifts the whole dynamic.

A repost from Great Britian's Socialist Worker.

A repost from Workers World.

A repost of C.I. We asked for this due to the fact that we weren't sure we'd be able to pull off the editorial. We did so that covers Iraq. In addition, Ava and C.I. grabbed Iraq in one of their commentaries to be sure it was seriously covered.
Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.


And that's what we came up with. We'll see you next week and will try to heed Bonita's e-mail requesting a "fun piece on movies or music."

Peace.

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