CNN dot com has a feature that I just discovered (maybe its been there a while, I dunno).  On the main page there are headlines and next to the ones that have video with them is a little video camera icon.  Next to some of them is a t-shirt icon.  So I clicked one.  It takes you to a screen where you can purchase a t-shirt featuring the headline you just read with the tagline, “I just saw it on CNN.com” with the time stamp next to that.

So, a significant developing international story that could affect the worldwide oil market has been reduced to an ad slogan, “Russian missile obliterates spy plane.”

Now that the first ever US Social Forum has ended, the broad social justice movement needs to look critically at the event and what it means for the work we do in the future. The next USSF is only 2 1/2 years away. Hopefully a process can begin that will address the faults of this forum and manifest creative solutions in the next.

Update: The audio from the “Future of the Forum” workshop is online at the USSF2007 site, and many of the issues I write about here were discussed. Give it a listen below

An Amazing Success
The organizers and the workshop and event planners need to all be congratulated for putting together an amazing week of social justice. The logistics for an event of this magnitude are just overwhelming. The vast majority of the events at the forum ran smoothly and on time and, as all of the participants know too well, the sheer scope of the offerings at this forum was staggering.

I say this now, up front, because all of the criticism that follows is intended to be constructive and not to detract from the organizing work done by the organizers and event planners.