Okay, I'm not a funny guy. But even good comedians appear rather staid and stodgy next to Jon Stewart. So it is with some trepidation that I register my alarm at Stewart's call for a “Rally to Restore Sanity” and Stephen Colbert's “March to Keep Fear Alive.” Now, I don't think rallies are bad; quite the contrary, they are both necessary and good – they can expand the conversation and help regular people using their own resources to express their opinions. But there are real problems with this call. First, it's primarily reactive to the radical right. This leads to the next issue: there are no solutions being proposed at a time when there are genuine problems. A third concern is the traditional media trope Stewart employs: both the left and the right are are fault; the answers lie with the “moderate” middle. Most importantly, a real counterweight to the right is already in the works: 10-2-10, the March for Jobs, Justice and Education.

BOSTON/Beacon Hill - A talk by US Marine veteran Ross Caputi, journalist Dahr Jamail (on live video via the internet), and MIT Prof. Noam Chomsky drew over 150 attendees to the Paulist Center on Thursday. The event was a benefit to help the Justice for Fallujah Project bring two Iraqi doctors to the US to present their research on the health crisis in Fallujah since the US military invasion in 2003. Alisa LaSotnik was Master of Ceremonies and music was provided by Simon Rios. According to organizers, the benefit was a success - raising the $4,300 necessary to bring the Fallujah doctors to America in the near future.

Cambridge, MA - Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post spoke with host Christopher Lydon of Radio Open Source about her new book Third World America to a sold-out house at the Brattle Theater on Monday. The event was sponsored by the Harvard Book Store. Following the discussion, Huffington took questions from the audience then signed copies of her book.

BOSTON/Jamaica Plain - The Jamaica Plain Forum, a series of local and national speakers and public discussions sponsored by the Institute of Policy Studies and the First Unitarian Universalist Church in JP, hosted local journalist and author Michael Blanding on Thursday.

Blanding, a Contributing Editor at Boston Magazine has written for The Nation, The New Republic, and the Boston Globe among other publications.

Dueling federal deficit explanations. Traditional right wing folks are complaining about the danger now of the increasing deficit and how it’s going to undermine our economy. Many progressive folks find that really frustrating and want to get in their face about the fact that Clinton left things in the black and Bush took them deep into the red. But the question is: while the right wing doesn’t want to acknowledge Bush’s part, are our progressive folks prepared to acknowledge that the deficit is much worse because Obama has continued the very policies that Bush was burying us with?

Following Tuesday's dismal first televised debate between the candidates for Governor, it’s even clearer that we need a better choice than what’s on the ballot now. The Governor’s Race looks wide open right now, a dead heat, with Patrick at 44%, Baker at 42%, and the level of voter dissatisfaction very high.

Therefore I and some of Grace Ross’ supporters in and outside of the labor movement are calling for a write-in vote for Grace Ross for Governor in the Democratic Primary on Tuesday!

Back in April, peace movement activist Paul Shannon began looking round for a national project that spoke to his values while addressing the economic crisis. Soon Paul's search had him in conversations with AFL-CIO and other trade union leaders. Everyone seemed to think that 2010 is an exceptional year: business-as-usual would simply mean defeat for everything folks like Paul care about: implementing effective climate-protection measures; bringing all the troops home; creating decent green jobs. For Shannon this trifecta of policy principles is a no brainer: together with my employer, Mass. Global Action, Shannon has launched the Majority Agenda Project with the claim that the crises of environment, economy and peace are deeply interconnected and therefore that their resolution requires an interrelated package.

Labor Day is coming up. I hope all everyone gets a chance to enjoy some time with their friends and families.

This is the holiday brought to you by the labor movement. What is the labor movement? It's people just like yourself, working together for a voice on the job and better wages and working conditions.

Labor Day celebrates our achievements: the eight hour day, occupational safety and health laws, child labor laws, minimum wage laws; the Fair Labor Standards Act, etc.

All of the rights and protections that workers have achieved were won because people just like you sacrificed to make progress and to achieve fairness. But nothing was ever won alone. Victories are won by being united and working together.

Extra, extra! Celebrity gossip! Horserace election coverage! Reality television! The same song (again) on (every) radio station! Even higher Internet bills for slower speeds!

Wait. Anyone else feeling they are being ripped-off? Or perhaps falling into the “mad-as-hell-and-not-going-to-take-it-anymore” category?

Alright -- so let’s do something about it.

A small but enthusiastic group gathered on the fifth floor of the Chinatown community center, encuentro 5, last night to hear historian and author Paul Street talk about his new book, The Empire's New Clothes: Barack Obama and the Real World of Power. This stop on Street's book tour was hosted by Charngchi Way of the online anarchist radio show, The Authority Smashing Hour.