As I watched the Laughing Liberally comics at YearlyKos, I wasn’t sure where I was supposed to see the funny. I missed last year’s performance by James Adomian, a seriously funny Bush impressionist. Someone recently passed along his Bush Blog on Scooter Libby, a plug for the new OpenLeft.com. This was not particularly inspired, but I followed the “video response” link and watched his State of the Union 2007 and the Democratic response. This was the belly laugh I needed so much. You have to watch all of the way to the end to get the full scream-then-big-sigh effect of a belly laugh.

read comments (0)

Given that he is a local guy, I feel obligated to mention that Karl Rove has resigned as of August 30. I would be happy about this if I didn’t realize it means he will work his dark magic full time.

BuzzFlash is collecting readers’ reactions to Rove’s resignation.

read comments (0)

Look closely at the flags.  People across the world have a surprisingly similar message for George Bush.  It could have been worse, considering his name.

read comments (1)

Rather than putting out each fire as they light it, how do we put out the fire from the base? How do we change the fundamental story?

Ruth Rosen from the Progressive think tank Longview Institute (a spin-off of the Rockridge Institute for some reason) tells us to challenge market fundamentalism. You know that story. Tax cuts will provide jobs, which means people will buy their own health care, housing, and transportation. In this story, “the common good” means everyone for themselves. I have no doubt this is one of the lies we need to engage to some degree in order to discredit it. OK. Yes, let’s do that. But, let’s not stop there.

I want to see us go further than telling the story of what we are not. I want to see us tell the story of what we are.

I have been reading Mark Kurlansky’s Nonviolence: 25 Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea. He quoted Vaclav Havel as having said that the way to create a viable alternative to violent culture was to live not in opposition but to live in parallel. You can be, as John Mohawk wrote, a good subject (”Yes, sir”), a bad subject (in rebellion), or a non subject (moving on with your own concerns, not accepting the terms of domination). The non subject doesn’t live in reference to domination. (Though it is amusing that both nonsubject and nonviolence do refer to themselves in the negative.)

Rather than letting the dominant story determine our response (”not market fundamentalism”), we can tell the story the way we see it — not the challenge to their story but the heart of our story. We can tell the story of community, cooperation, and genuine democracy. This is a story in which we actually do love one another, a story in which the common good is determined in common.

Cliff Schecter thinks we’ll find synergy in the variety of voices and ways they find their audience to retell the story. I hope we reach synergy in our non subjecthood rather than in our bad subjecthood.

UPDATE:

• Immanuel Wallerstein makes an excellent point in his International Herald Tribune article, “The ‘Alter-Globalists’ Hit Their Stride”: the World Social Forum, which met last week, is already on that parallel path.
• Joshua Holland asks “Do you challenge them on their ‘free-market’ fundamentalism, or do you call bullshit on the entire premise?”

read comments (1)

My family suffered as downwinders of the nuclear tests of the 1940s and especially the 1950s. That is true for a lot of Utahns.

Divine Strake

Opposition to the Divine Strake high-explosive test, planned last year then postponed several times, has been winding up recently.

The test will create a mushroom cloud over Nevada. The bomb to be tested is not nuclear but a nuclear bunker-busting super bomb. The test is proposed to take place in underground tunnels where it likely will cause fallout from previous nuclear tests to be “resuspended.” Don’t worry, the government assessments tell us, there is no danger. But — oh, yes — the “resuspended” particles can be carried away on the wind and “may contribute radiological dose to the public.”

In Utah, Kane and Washington County Commissions oppose the test. Last week, the St. George paper, The Spectrum, published an FAQ on the blast as well as a compelling story about a downwinder of an underground nuclear test / accident. He also provided an opinion piece for the paper, “Divine Strake May Kill You.” His wife asks:

How do you stop the military industrial complex?
How do you stop them from doing it?

read comments (0)