Jonathan Katz on the Commons today for the Americans with Disabilities Act

There will be a rally today on Boston Common today to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Jonathan Katz will speak, and the keynote speaker is John Hockenberry. Other entertainment includes the Matt Savage Trio and the Tommy Filiault Band. There will also be a march leaving the Common at 11:15. Go to the New England ADA Center Web site for more details.

Sugar Dish organizes "Mad Tea Party" protest on Boston Common

If you show up to the Tea Party rally today on the Boston Common, or watch the news coverage, you may catch a glimpse of some local burlesque performers and comedians decked out in Alice in Wonderland garb. It’s not an homage to Lewis Carroll or even Tim Burton, it’s part of a "Mad Tea Parrty" counter protest organized by Sugar Dish (from Babes in Boinkland, a troupe that performs regularly with the Steamy Bohemians’ Jerkus Circus show).

Sugar Dish officially designates herself a “glam-o-crat” on her Facebook page, and while that’s a cagey term, she is, to be sure, not terribly Republican friendly. Or at the very least, not very Sarah Palin friendly. “When I heard Sarah Palin was coming to town to promote the Tea Party, I was immediately incensed,” she says. “First of all, it pisses me off that Boston's Tea Party has been appropriated for their cause.”

Being good at costumes and organizing, Sugar Dish got some friends together for a counter protest, inspired by cover art from left-leaning magazine The Nation picturing a “Mad Tea Party,” with an Alice in Wonderland theme. “I think the setting of the Mad Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland is a perfect setting for this campaign,” she says.” I would love to see an intelligently orchestrated creative anti-Tea Party campaign. The Mad Tea Party in Wonderland is all about nonsense, which I think the Tea Party Express is spewing right now.”