An Upwelling of Earth Wisdom

Karl Rove is a black wizard. He manipulates visions of fear, and death, and he sends these visions into your head. He and his ilk, with their information distribution networks, are casting a magical spell, a black magical propaganda spell against us.

Starhawk is a permaculture witch. She, along with a lot of other people, has an organic sloppy goofy kind vision of supple strength and languid living and a fierce determination to put out the fires already. From the heart, the Zapatistas say - from the left and from below. Coming from the left, but from below- the underleft. We have our information distribution networks, as well.

The spell the witches cast for this particular convention, in opposition to the spell cast by Karl Rove and his ilk, was that of an upwelling of earth wisdom.

Gaia also came to the table with an upwelling of pissed off water and air. The hurricane, in one sense, was a Deus Ex Machina, giving the despised occupant of the White House an excuse to not show up, much to the relief of Karl Rove and his ilk. George is damaged goods, a brand that has reached the end of it's shelflife and is headed to the collectors market. Pro baseball ownership, perhaps, until the protests at all his away games drive him to the speakers circuit. Unfortunately, the hurricane reminded people of Katrina, which might remind them of corpses lying rotting in the streets of a major American city for days on end, which was the keystone event to push the Bush 43 brand totally over the edge.

Air, water, and earth rising up to extinguish the fire that is killing the planet.

The war of visions - dark fear or cheery permaculture - is helped by the militarization of the state. Because, frankly, it looks like crap, with all those suits of armor out there. Our town has been invaded by these evil suits of armor, which, like Spiderman's evil black suit, takes cops (some of whom are thumpers already) and hides them and closes their hearts up and instills this faceless freedom to thwack the shit out of the bad guys. So the same arrogant bully vibe that permeated Iraq is driving the police responses in Saint Paul.

But enough of that trip. What we have is red white and blue puppies in the street. We have wave after wave of people who care deeply about the fire that needs so desperately to be put out. And with the winds blowing in the Gulf, we have a convention that's taking on water. The addition of a goofy sidekick, the evil most popular girl in high school with her surface evangelical credentials (she didn't deliver for them as Governor) and name after name dropping off the list... Giuliani's in, no he's not. The speaker order shows up late. The hall is empty empty.

The liberal and progressive blogosphere is, of course, the bulwark of the underleft's ability to spin against the cable and broadcast tv systems of Karl Rove and his ilk. The convention is supposed to get the Republicans news cycles. The show of force is intended to show us street scum who's boss, once and for all. It's not supposed to become the Teenage Ninja Turtles, comically slapsticking their way across the Twin Cities.

So yes, police state, yes Karl Rove and your ilk, you can slap people around, but they keep on springing up over and over. Aren't there a whole bunch of them? 2,000 rock and roll kids took off down the streets tonight after Rage got kicked offstage. (There is video of this, I hear.) Probably 1500 of them wouldn't have come out without the music, but when you got them there, riled them up, and asked - you wanna go for a walk downtown? they said YEAH.

This town's political dynamic will be changed by this, probably for the better. One council member, Dave Thune, has spoken against it in Saint Paul, two in Minneapolis, but Mayor Coleman stands behind the actions, the cops claim they're standing tall (although Ramsey County Sheriff Fletcher isn't crowing about much now.)

Getting back to the spell Rove and Ilk wanted to cast, that would be the hypnotically intoned JOHNNN MC CAIIIINNNNN.... FOR PRESSSIDENTTT... Particularly given the exceedingly well-cast spell over in the Obama camp, which was as glitzy as fuck and slicker than shit and made you cry three times and sign a check AND a volunteer form. They really needed to slam dunk this one.

But they didn't, and they won't. Because they're nominating the Also-Ran, and they know it, and the lobbyists know it, and some of the media know it. It's getting to the point (comically creepy) where they almost don't seem like they're even trying. Sarah Palin?

There's a ton of links that I need to add to this post, but it's way late and I have to work tomorrow. And here's some links I did save!

Twin Cities Indymedia kickin' some serious ass!

Garrison Keillor rips them a new Powerhorn Biscuit Hole

Indymedia podcast about crashing the hot lobbyist afterparty and ruining their fun

Really funny cartoon of an interview with two kids who got peppersprayed and are, like, talking about it. By Bateman.

Announcement that the seed that was planted by the Free State is starting to bloom. (Camp Coldwater soveriginity claim by Dakota.)