...something along the lines of that Chinese (mis)fortune cookie: May you live in interesting times. In her post on Fair Play and Justice, Robin reminds us of the demonstrations being planned by United for Peace and Justice in NYC later this month (click on the banner for details). Elsewhere, CodePink has planned to shift from fasting to other froms of protest.. also near the end of this month... about the time of the Autumnal Equinox. On Sunday I stayed for the Meeting for Learning precisely because the topic was Civil Disobedience, and because I wanted to know more about the topic... practically speaking. It was a clarifying experience... about which there will be some future posts.

In the meantime, I was reading Sidney Blumenthal's latest piece at Salon, and the editor's choice of letters, and imagining what a creative and effective demonstration might look like. Certainly, as Molly Ivins asserts, it must be fun. What about a parade? Everyone loves a parade! We could make it even more fun-- and maybe even newsworthy-- if it were satirical. Something inspired, say, by the Billionaires for Bush, who not only have a lot of style, but appear to have a whole lot more fun than most political demonstrators. Perhaps a parade celebrating and unifying ourselves behind the president's PropAgenda (Propaganda = Agenda): The PropAgenda Parade.

Okay. So try and picture the citizens of an ordinary town-- maybe like mine!-- wearing tufts of sheepskin about their wrists and ankles, and maybe a bit around the head, being led by RightWingDrumMajorette Ann Coulter (the real one if we can get her... but a fake would do).

We would carry signs such as... W: Demand More Sacrifice! and More Guns-- Less Butter! and Reinstate the Draft! and Send More Troops to Iraq! (carried by a marcher throwing toy (fascist) soldiers into the crowd) and We Don't Need No Stinkin' SSI! and No. More. New. Deal! No. More!

This last one, of course, would be carried aloft on a claw-footed bathtub float, accompanied by a framed portrait of Neocon patron saint, Grover Norquist [see left]. Additional signs might be gold-framed portraits of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice et al.

And, finally, a few more signs proudly lettered with PropAgenda! Prop Up Our Leader's Agenda! Be a Patriot! PropAgendize! ...and scattered throughout the parade... among both the marchers and the bystanders.