I heard the announcement on KCPW (local NPR) about the Alternative Gift Fair today.  What a great idea.

Utah Red Cross, Intermountain Therapy Animals, Salt Lake City Film Center, One H.E.A.R.T. and other charities will be participating in the first Alternative Gift Fair for the Holidays.  The fair will offer sustainable and environmentally friendly gifts to match family and friends’ personalities.  Saturday, December 9th from 11 to 4 on the 11th floor of the Wells Fargo Building.  For more information, please contact One H.E.A.R.T. at 596-3317.

That’s TODAY, Saturday December 9, 11 - 4 pm at the Wells Fargo Building downtown Salt Lake City. 

read comments (0)

United for Peace and Justice are determined to use their First Amendment rights and take the mandate for peace to Washington, DC, on Saturday, January 27th. They are under Petagon surveillance, but spying won’t deter them.

“One of the main things we have to be concerned about is how this whole war on terror plays out here at home and how they use it to justify absolutely everything they do no matter how outrageous.”

Are you going to Washington?

read comments (0)

As family and I have been driving through the Nevada desert today, I’ve been thinking of Burning Man. Next year’s theme is The Green Man. THE GREEN MAN. I am so there.

Not only will this verdant force of nature be the theme of Burning Man, but the community of Black Rock City is asked to offset the carbon footprint of travel, power generation, and expressive burning. A handy calculator helps with this.

• Burners without Borders will participate in this focus.

With the announcement of next year’s theme for Burning Man–The Green Man–expect to hear about lots of BWB projects focused on environmental/sustainable communities in the coming year.

• Cooling Man offsets greenhouse gas emissions and cools it forward.

read comments (3)

Apparently there are conservatives who like to think that “progressive” is a euphemism for “liberal.” It makes them happy to know that Democrats didn’t embrace the term “liberal” during the recent election. I’m tempted to just say Bite Me, but I find that doesn’t do much good in the end. I’m not sure how much they care about distinctions and historical context—and lack of ideological dogma among progressives. Pearls, swine. They want to create dichotomy where none need exist.

I mention this become I wonder whether confusion over the term “progressive” is preventing media from seeing the election as a progressive victory. I know it isn’t. I’m just trying to figure out how they justify the apparent common wisdom in calling the election a victory for the center. Not everyone sees it that way, but mainstream media is screaming it loudly enough that people are bound to believe it soon unless we point out the error.

Democrats didn’t move to the center in this election. Democrats ARE the center, no matter that TIME lacks the imagination to make this more than a simplistic visual issue.

David Sirota’s article on the Connecticut Senate race offers a very interesting analysis of why Lamont’s loss was a progressive gain. John Podesta’s memo on the election is titled “The End of the Grand Conservative Experiment,” but the more interesting point is The Progressive Opportunity. Podesta emphasizes the common good and community. This doesn’t have to be a moment of domination but could be a time of cooperation.

People don’t know whether to call them populists or not, but many won on progressive ideas. The Congressional Progressive Caucus will add seven new members to make a membership of 71, the largest group within the Democratic Caucus. Some states (like my former home New York) are seeing progressive local leadership. I see this as a potentially progressive moment for wages, health care, economy, poverty, education, civil rights–you get the picture.

Alas, this isn’t true in my state, where

a Progressive is a Democrat,
a Democrat is a Republican, and
a Republican is a Fascist.

read comments (0)

Notice! Move On Victory Parties tonight across the country.

I just have to say something about food. Why is the food always so bad at Democratic Parties? Even if they are completely cheap, surely they could find some cheap food other than pretzels and colorful tortilla chips (the food so bad that my children declined to eat anything at all at the state Democratic Victory Party Tuesday night). Even the White House ordered chicken tenders Tuesday. That’s Amurikan food. Too much like meat for Democrats?

When I was filling tender young college minds with my version of U.S. foreign policy, one of my students talked about his time spent interning in Washington DC for both Republicans and Democrats.

“What was the biggest difference,” I asked him.

“The food.”

What?

“Republicans serve steak at their parties,” he told me. “Democrats serve chips.”

True to form, the Utah state Democratic Party served chips to celebrate shifting from 10% Democratic to 30% Democratic in the state. yeah. If we win in Utah, could we get some salsa with that?

If you go to a Democratic party tonight, take some decent food. I’m searching for a cheesecake to take to mine.

read comments (0)