Michael Steele's RNC spends party money
to throw a Grand Old Party at a bondage club.

Obama bows to his "bipartisan" instincts
with a Bush-like program to drill, baby, drill...
that Republican leadership immediately criticizes.

Tea Partiers aggressively howl about Big Government
as many of them, without any sense of irony, collect
Social Security, Medicare & unemployment benefits.

If we made these up, you just wouldn't believe us.

Who needs to create April Fools pranks
when there are so many April fools in the news?

No joke: we'll kick of April by kicking back,
tossing back a drink & tossing around ideas
at our local progressive social club.

DRINKING LIBERALLY
Find - or start - a chapter near you.

By Bec Zajac

Are you a filmmaker looking to share your work with a progressive audience? Looking for ways to promote your film among the liberal grassroots community? If so, Screening Liberally and Netroots Nation want to see your stuff!

For the third year in a row, Screening Liberally will be the proud host of the Netroots Nation Screening Series. We are currently calling for submissions for Netroots Nation 2010, coming to Las Vegas in July.

The deadline has been extended to Tuesday, April 6th! Time is running out; submit your film for Netroots Nation 2010.

Click here for submission instructions: http://ow.ly/1th08

More info after the jump!

By Bec Zajac

You know that feeling you get when you walk into a Starbucks that makes you cringe? And it’s not because your coffee’s not good or because the music is bad or because people aren’t friendly to you. Actually all those elements have been designed through extensive psychological testing to provide the perfect “coffee experience.” It’s because you just know somewhere deep in your gut that there’s something not quite right about it. I got an especially bad case of the “cringes” the other day when I read that Starbucks recently opened its first unbranded coffee shop in Seattle, 15th Avenue E Coffee and Tea. It is decorated with ‘one-of-a-kind’ fixtures and customers are invited to bring their own music for the stereo system to develop what the company calls a ‘community personality.” You have to look hard to find the small print on the menus: “inspired by Starbucks.” I got another bad case of the “cringes” recently when I read about Pepsi’s “Refresh Project,” for which Pepsi is dedicating $20 million to local organizations proposed by the public to tap into a booming trend of what is called “cause related marketing.”

Even though we’re all familiar with the feeling of the cringe, it’s often tricky to pinpoint exactly what causes it to occur… But, it’s exactly that feeling of cringe-iness that’s explored, dissected, and extrapolated upon in the new Clooney movie, Up in the Air, directed by Jason Reitman. Although I went in to the theatre expecting a movie about a guy who flies a lot (which does happen) and expecting a movie where George Clooney, as always, smiles sultrily at the camera a lot (which, of course, does happen too), what was most interesting to me about Up in the Air was the way it investigates the “cringe factor” and unravels what it means to live in our cultural moment, that is the moment of spin-saturated-double-soy-frapuccino-Mc-Have-a-Nice-Day-iCorporate-culture that has become so naturalized in America today. Indeed, it is no coincidence that the opening song is a jazzed up version of Woody Guthrie’s American classic This Land is Your Land. More after the jump...

Check out this hilarious video sent in by Laughing Liberally comedienne Katie Halper.

From Katie's website:

Michael Steele, Republican National Convention of Drill Baby Drill fame, makes it rain! The RNC dropped nearly $2,000 at a bondage-themed night club and $17,000 on private jets in the month of February. Trickle Down Economics. Trickle Baby Trickle!

The heated debate over health care reform sparked a slew of nasty name-calling from folks who fear that their taxpayer dollars could somehow wind up financing an abortion, a practice that they equate with murder.

But aren't our taxpayer dollars already killing our children? That's essentially the premise of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution reality show, which debuts on ABC tonight.

The first episode (which had a sneak preview last Sunday and can also be viewed online) highlights the dismal state of our school lunch program, which is woefully underfunded, hamstrung by ham-fisted USDA guidelines, and far too dependent on government-subsidized processed foods that are high in calories and low in nutrients.

Like the Beatles, this British invasion's brought a charismatic, mop-topped populist to our shores. Only this time, as Oliver attempts to bring his "food revolution" to the dietarily disastrous town of Huntington, West Virginia, he garners more sneers than cheers.

Having freed ourselves from British oppression a couple hundred or so years ago, Americans are apparently still in no mood to submit to a Brit telling us we've got to stop feeding our kids a steady diet of commodity crop-based crap, a practice Oliver labels "child abuse."

I'm not sure what our founding foodie and farmer Thomas Jefferson would find more appalling: the fact that the children of Huntington can't tell a tomato from a potato, or the fact that it takes some limey interloper with a film crew to make folks sit up and pay attention to the shameful state of the American diet.

(Then again, it's possible that Jefferson might be too distraught over the Texas Board of Education's decision to eliminate him from a list of American thinkers who inspired revolutions around the world to worry about our screwed-up food system.)

The series kicks off with Oliver bounding into town like an impudent puppy, tussling with the school cafeteria cooks and shaking his shaggy head in disbelief at the agribiz atrocities they blithely dish up: breakfast pizza; sugary pink milk; dehydrated, chemically "enhanced" mashed potatoes whose reconstitution Oliver likens to the mixing of cement. The "lunch ladies," as he calls them, stare at him in disbelief when he suggests that they ought to try making meals from scratch using unadulterated, wholesome foods.

He befriends a shy, bullied twelve year old whose steady diet of corn dogs, chicken nuggets and fries has him tipping the scales at 350 pounds. And Oliver finds an ally in the local Baptist pastor, who's buried too many members of his congregation prematurely due to diet-related diseases.

But Oliver's blunt, cocky persona rubs a lot of folks the wrong way, generating the obligatory drama that's so essential for good ratings. Does the show sensationalize the awful eating habits of Huntington's residents? Of course. Is it manipulative and mawkish? Without a doubt. Will America tune in to watch it? You betcha.

But will it make a difference? David Letterman doesn't think so. When Oliver appeared on his show Tuesday night, Letterman expressed support for his campaign, but burst the eternally effervescent Oliver's bubbles by stating flatly:

Try as hard as you might, you're never going to succeed because we are living in a culture dominated by the commerce of selling food which is inherently unhealthy.

Lettermen might have been channeling Marion Nestle, or maybe Grist's Tom Philpott, who noted the other day that, "a hugely powerful installed base of companies likes the food system just the way it is, and will fight in Congress to preserve its prerogatives."

Oliver, visibly frustrated by Letterman's skepticism, insisted that he's committed to creating genuine change:

I made five shows in Great Britain, and I got a billion dollars out of the British government, and we changed law, and we got the junk out of schools, and it can happen here--it can.

Some good food movement foot soldiers, who've been striving for years--and even decades--to change the way we feed our kids in the face of tremendous obstacles, bristled at the hubris of this famous Brit landing on our shores and declaring "his" food revolution.

In his recent TED talk, Oliver did acknowledge the important work being done by the real food revolutionaries who are transforming our fatally flawed food chain:

It's local cooks, teaching local people, it's free cooking lessons in the main street...this is real, tangible change...around America, there's plenty of wonderful things going on, there are angels in America doing great things in schools: farm to school set-ups, garden set-ups, education. There are amazing people doing this already.

The problem is, they all want to roll out what they're doing to the next school, and the next--but there's no cash. We need to recognize the experts and the angels quickly, identify them and allow them to easily find the resources to keep rolling out what they're already doing and doing well. Businesses of America need to support Mrs. Obama to do the things that she wants to do.

But these local heroes were nowhere to be found in the premiere of Oliver's reality show, presumably because the show's producers figured those folks wouldn't provide the necessary drama. They did consult with folks like Debra Eschmeyer, the communications and outreach director for the National Farm to School Network. I have the pleasure of knowing Debra, a passionate and charismatic advocate who exemplifies the kind of grassroots activism that Oliver championed in his TED talk.

Eschmeyer was disappointed that Food Revolution's first episode ignores "the myriad of obstacles to bring fresh local food to the lunch room, most of which can be overcome, but it can't be done in a couple weeks even with star-studded British flavor and money. Food service staff are doing the best they can with what they receive; double the reimbursement per meal, give the kids enough time to eat, give food service proper equipment to prepare meals, and many would do better than what Jamie cooks up."

Debra expressed her hope that "at some point he highlights the work of the many local heroes so he doesn't just make people feel guilty and defensive, but instead empowered and informed on ways to make positive change."

Well, Debra got her wish; after talking with her yesterday, the show's producer decided to solicit videos from 'real food patriots,' like Debra herself, who were nowhere to be found in the first show. Here's the message from the producer:

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" wants to hear about what you are doing to start your own Food Revolution!

Whether it's planting your own vegetable garden, "passing it on," cooking dinner for your family, or if you just want to bring attention to something in your community that needs change - we want to hear about it!

E-mail us a high definition video (most newer consumer cameras these days are HD. If you don't have access to HD, the higher the resolution, the better) and answer the following:

Who are you and what is the problem you're facing in your school and community?

How are you currently, or how do you plan to improve the state of affairs?

How has Jamie's work inspired you?

What do you want to say to Jamie?

E-mail your response to: JOFoodRevolution@gmail.com

Please include your name and contact information - you may be selected to be featured on Jamie's new TV show!
You can also post written responses on their blog here:

I'll let Debra have the last words:

I hope that this next week will result in a massive amount of grassroots footage to not only show Mr. Oliver the U.S. food movement, but also Mr. Obama. Let's move!

We worried he wasn't a fighter
& he'd let healthcare die post-Scott Brown
but the President brought it back to life
& did what no President last century could achieve.

We complained he was too focused on bipartisanship
straining foragreement with the Party of No
but in the end he shouldered through healthcare
by getting his own party to toe the line.

We were annoyed he didn't step up to lead
& push a vision, draw lines in the sand...
and now we have the largest reform in decades
that looks an awful lot like his campaign plan.

We were concerned that he wasn't a fighter.
Obama proved something else: that he's a winner.

And in the words of the great Joe Biden,
"Man, that's f***ing big."

A toast to reform -- imperfect, but impressive
-- and to the President that made it happen
as we share ideas for what comes next
& share a few drinks with liberal friends
at your local progressive social club.

DRINKING LIBERALLY
Find - or start - a chapter near you.

Some sort of healthcare reform may soon pass
but only after DC was gummed up for a year
by obstructionist tactics, bribes to selfish Senators
& every effort to stall, strangle & stunt progress.

Somehow denying reproductive rights took center stage
while a public option, single-payer & medicare expansion
were good ideas that never got an up-or-down vote.

Insurance companies, Pharma & private hospitals
all had their say & their sway in this debate
...which will result in reforms that nonetheless
put us well behind most other developed nations.

Yet, if this passes, it'll still be a miracle.

We've all lost sleep, felt rising blood pressure,
& had migraine headaches from GOP arguments...
we'll need healthcare after this unhealthy debate.

Until we get healthcare, at least we have each other
& can share a few drinks with a few friends
at your local progressive social club.

DRINKING LIBERALLY
Find - or start - a chapter near you.

Seeds of Strange: Beckistan invades Kunstlerland!

Are the teabaggers ready to stop throwing tomatoes and start growing tomatoes? Glenn Beck's latest sponsor, The Survival Seed Bank, is banking on Tea Party paranoia to sell a product it calls the "Full Acre Crisis Garden." As Stephen Colbert noted on Wednesday, "nothing moves product like the hot stink of fear."

For $164, you get a vacuum-sealed tube of PVC pipe filled with enough seed "to feed friends and family forever," because, "in an economic meltdown, non-hybrid seeds could become more valuable than even silver and gold!"

But hang on to your credit card! It turns out that the folks flogging the Full Acre Crisis Garden are nothing but horticultural hucksters, as Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas revealed on Tuesday.

The Survival Seed Bank claims to offer "the peace of mind knowing that if things were to get scary, that you and your family could still eat." But those vacuum-packed seeds "will be dead within the first year," according to Seed Bank Scams, because "seeds need an airtight, but not airless environment...if you take away all the air, you will kill the seeds."

Glenn Beck has made a fortune by stoking his viewers' sense of persecution and their fear that shadowy, corrupt forces are hard at work conspiring to rip them off.

And he's right, of course; there's no shortage of greedy, dishonest individuals and companies eager to profit by preying on people's worst instincts. Take Bill Heid, the guy behind the Survival Seed Bank. The Federal Trade Commission fined him $400,000 "in consumer redress" back in 2005 for making "false and unsubstantiated claims for the "Himalayan Diet Breakthrough."

Heid made $4.9 million in sales off The Himalayan Diet Breakthrough, a dietary supplement containing "a paste-like material" called Nepalese Mineral Pitch that "oozes out of the cliff face cracks in the summer season" in the Himalayas. Heid promised buyers that this miraculous product would enable them to achieve rapid and substantial weight loss without dieting or exercise, while still consuming unlimited amounts of food.

Who could possibly buy the notion that you could sit on your ass all day eating crap and still lose weight by ingesting some mysterious substance harvested in the Himalayas?

Maybe the same folks who think that slashing taxes and shredding regulations is a dandy way to shore up our crumbling bridges and highways, boost our children's flagging academic performance, clean up our environment, guarantee affordable health care, protect consumers from makers of defective products (like, say, cars that accelerate unexpectedly, or a diabetes drug that's known to cause heart attacks); and prevent financial institutions from ripping people off through fraudulent, predatory practices.

If you buy into all that, I've got a seed-filled PVC tube to sell you.

The Full Acre Crisis Garden is a twisted variation on a victory garden, tailored to folks who fear a laundry list of perceived threats: a "world wide government agenda;" "a belligerent lower class demanding handouts"; "a rapidly diminishing middle class crippled by police state bureaucracy"; "an aloof, ruling elite that has introduced us to an emerging totalitarianism which seeks control over every aspect of our lives;" and the ever popular "Big Government."

It would be bad enough if the folks who wrote this stuff actually believed it, but Heid's history proves that he's just a cynical con artist looking for suckers to help him make a quick buck. And he's found them in Beckistan.

The Survival Seed Bank gets one thing right: seeds are "more valuable than silver or gold in a real meltdown..." After all, they're the source of all life.

To us sustainable ag advocates, seeds are sacred. Ken Greene, co-founder of the Hudson Valley Seed Library--note that it's a library, as opposed to a bank--said it best:

Seeds are, by nature, about sharing. They are community resources. Saving seeds is about survival, both of the plants and people who depend on them, but this is survival through cooperation, not competition. Through the Seed Library we are trying to change the way people think about and treat seeds. We are trying to move seeds from being seen as commodities to be traded or profited from, to cultural and nutritive resources to be protected, shared, and celebrated.

As opposed to, you know, making them the foundation for your get-rich-quick scheme to pick the pockets of tinfoil hat-wearing teabaggers.

By embracing the Survival Seed Bank as a sponsor, Glenn Beck is treading on peak oil prophet James Howard Kunstler's turf. Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century, has been warning us to start growing our own food for years.

But Kunstler's message is anathema to the defenders of American Excess-tionalism. In his forecast for 2010, Kunstler predicts that we'll have to learn to live without "all the trappings of comfort and convenience now taken as entitlements":

...we must return to some traditional American life-ways that we abandoned for the cheap oil life of convenience, comfort, obesity, and social atomization...

...The successful people in America moving forward will be those who attach themselves to cohesive local communities, places with integral local economies and sturdy social networks, especially places that can produce a significant amount of their own food.

Note that for Kunstler, growing your own food is just one component of a revitalized local economy, a renewed civic spirit, and a renouncement of our car-based, consumption-crazed culture.

And he's right. We do urgently need to relocalize our far-flung, fossil fueled food chain. We need to reclaim our farmland, empower a new generation of gardeners and farmers, and invest the capital required to "accelerate the transition from an economy based on extraction and consumption to an economy based on preservation and restoration," in the words of eco-preneur Woody Tasch, founder of the Slow Money Alliance.

But you won't find the answers to these challenges in a sealed plastic pipe from a Beck-sanctioned scam artist.

Look for them instead at Change.org's Ideas for Change in America contest, where you have the opportunity to voice your support RIGHT NOW for several visionary proposals to transform the way we grow our food. Time is of the essence, because voting ENDS in just a few hours.

Change.org will mount grassroots campaigns to promote the 10 ideas that win, and the three that I'm asking you to please support only need a few hundred votes to get (or remain) in the top 10:

1. Slow Money: invest in local food systems to save the economy and the planet

2. Good Food For All Kids: A Garden at Every School

3. No Farms No Food: Save the Land that Sustains Us

If you're wondering whether these kinds of campaigns ever generate any real change, consider the White House Kitchen Garden, which got its biggest boost from Roger Doiron's Eat The View campaign. Millions of folks have been inspired to start growing food in their own yards as a result. So go vote!