Street Art:Where Illusions Challenge Reality and Perspective

  

Abandoned Art Comes To Life Across America:Junk or Jewels?

  

Cars are deserted and left to rust in every country all over the world. Most people wouldn't see them as very photogenic, but take a look below and see what a little ingenuity with lighting can achieve! These vehicles are from all over the USA, you can see some more abandoned vehicle pictures here.

  

Foreign Countries are Major Donors to Clinton Foundation

Former President Bill Clinton's foundation has raised tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments that his wife will engage as the next secretary of state.

The former president's foundation is releasing a list of its donors Thursday under an agreement that cleared the way for President-elect Barack Obama to nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state.

Saudi Arabia gave more than $10 million to the foundation, which pays for Clinton's presidential library and his charitable work around the world.

Other foreign government givers include Norway, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Oman, Italy and Jamaica. Indian interests are represented.

The huge donor list is packed with international business leaders and billionaires.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Barack Obama | Italy | Hillary Rodham Clinton | Norway | Kuwait | Jamaica | Qatar | Oman | Brunei | Clinton Foundation

Gingerbread people just want to have more fun!

       

   

Thanks to Funnyphotos.com

Obama and lobbyists: are they friends or foes?

                                                             By Dave Stancliff
     I don’t know about you, but I am getting mixed signals from the Obama camp about lobbyists.
During the presidential campaign “lobbyists” was a dirty word, and Obama took every opportunity to accuse Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of being in bed with them.

One year ago, Barack Obama told the Chicago Tribune, “I’m running to tell the lobbyists in Washington, D.C., that the day of setting the agenda is over. They have not funded my campaign.”
 The problem with this quote is that it’s not true. Anyone who wants to see how much the Obama campaign got from lobbyists can easily Google numerous watchdog and government sites. This is public record, so we’ll move on to an article published in The New York Times on Nov 23rd.
  The Times produced a list of 38 people who were working on Obama’s transition team who have accepted jobs in the White House and are either former lobbyists or have close ties to lobbyists.

  I won’t list them all here for lack of space. For starters, there’s John Podesta, recently named to head the transition team. Podesta lobbied for The Center for American Progress until 2006, and is currently the CEO of that organization, on leave to work with Obama.
 Mark Gitenstein, named as an advisory board member, lobbied for Merrill Lynch, KPMG, and Ernst & Young until this fall. Tom Donilon, member of the State Department review team, lobbied for Fannie Mae in 2005.
 Michael Strautmanis, senior staff member, lobbied for the American Association of Justice, a trial lawyers group, until 2005.  Sally Katzen, agency review member, lobbied for Amgen until 2007. Cassandra Butts, senior staff member, lobbied for 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East until just recently.
 You get the idea. Lobbyists are popping out of the woodwork and its payoff time. I admit to a sense of disillusionment as Obama packed his staff with them. Some experts say lobbyists are here to stay and it’s just the price of doing business.
Lobbying is protected under the First Amendment that says we may petition the government for a “redress of grievances.” It appears that lobbying is a necessary evil. It’s also absurdly out-of-control.
          According to Congressional historians, lawmakers rarely became lobbyists until the early 1980s. Lobbyists jobs were considered tainted and unworthy of once-elected officials. It was beneath their dignity.
  That all changed with the increased demand for lobbyists, huge salaries, a greater turnover in Congress, and a change in the control of the House (during Clinton’s term) when the Republican Party held a majority for the first time since 1954.
  Congressional historians pointed out that the Democratic Party was plagued by a series of scandals. Since a 2000 Congressional report, the number of registered lobbyists has grown to 34,750.
 Lobbyists can be seen as good or bad depending on who they represent. What the Constitution failed to cover is how can every American exercise that right when understanding how Congress operates can baffle anyone from a CEO to Joe the Plumber?
Lobbying and political corruption often go hand-in-hand when done on behalf of corporations that make huge contributions to political parties. Obama has come up with a list of new rules that some analysts say could benefit non profits.
    * Lobbyists cannot contribute financially to the transition.
   * Lobbyists cannot lobby while they work with the transition.
  *  If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they cannot work in the fields of policy in which they lobbied.
   * If someone becomes a lobbyist after working with the transition, they are prohibited from lobbying the administration for 12 months on matters on which they worked.
    * Finally, a ban on gifts to reduce the influence of special interests.
   I clearly remember Obama’s pledge to change the way Washington works and to curb the influence of lobbyists. It sounded good. These new rules don’t strike me as reducing the influence of professional lobbyists. It’s going to be business as usual.
As It Stands, I find it hypocritical, and sad, that our form of “transparent” democracy is so dependent upon this corrupt practice.

Parowan Prophet Predicts Nuclear Disaster Will Stop Obama From Taking Office

'He will not be the next president,' Leland Freeborn warns those who will listen. He and his followers expect nuclear explosions this Christmas season.

The Parawan Prophet, aka Leland Freeborn, use to be a Mormon but broke from the Church.

He, and his followers, are preparing for the worst, which they expect will take the form of a nuclear holocaust caused by the Russians attacking our country.

Freeborn has his own survivalist web site to spread the bad news.

Peter H. King, of the Los Angeles Times, interviewed this self-proclaimed prophet. Click here to read the whole story.

Governor Schwarzenegger declares fiscal emergency

Governor orders the new Legislature in to work on its first day of the session to deal with California's dire finances. The state could run out of cash by February or March.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered the new Legislature in to work on its first day, declaring a fiscal emergency Monday in response to the state's deteriorating finances and urging lawmakers to "get off of their rigid ideologies."
But even as Schwarzenegger warned that California could run out of cash within two months, there was little indication that the Capitol's partisan gridlock has waned enough to allow for an easy resolution to the state's $28-billion budget gap.

Obama appointed over 38 lobbyists to key positions, what's up?

 

Tomorrow, my AS IT STANDS blog edition examines some of the appointments president-elect Obama has made since putting his team together.

I can't help wondering about how evil Obama said "lobbyists" were during the election.

What happened?

See this blog Wednesday, December 17th.

Murderer of 'Most Wanted' host's son,Adam Walsh,is identified

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) — A serial killer who died more than a decade ago is the person who decapitated the 6-year-old son of "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh in 1981, Florida police said Tuesday.

The announcement brought to a close a case that has vexed the Walsh family for more than two decades, launched the television show about the nation's most notorious criminals and inspired changes in how authorities search for missing children.

"Who could take a 6-year-old and murder and decapitate him? Who?" John Walsh said at Tuesday's news conference. "We needed to know. We needed to know. And today we know. The not knowing has been a torture, but that journey's over."

The suspect, Ottis Toole, had twice confessed to the killing, but later recanted. He claimed responsibility for hundreds of murders, but police determined most of the confessions were lies. Toole's niece told the boy's father, John Walsh, her uncle confessed on his deathbed in prison that he killed Adam.

The Walshes long ago derided the investigation as botched, and John Walsh has said he believed Toole killed his son. Still, he praised the Hollywood police department for closing the case, and said it was not a day to place blame.

Ron Mueck's Works: Reality, Detail, and Playful Sculptural Scale!

Ron Mueck is a hyperrealist sculptor who was born in Australia in 1958 and now lives in Great Britain.

In his early career he was as a model maker and puppeteer for children's television and films, notably the film Labyrinth.

He now sculptures many hyper realistic works with silicone, acrylic and fibre glass.

Mueck's sculptures faithfully reproduce the minute detail of the human body, but play with scale to produce disconcertingly jarring visual images.

Ditty & Bernie feature 'classic' satire on artwork and fables

Welcome to the world of Ditty & Bernie. Aunt Nettie, the oldest internet guru tells it like it is (and was). Take a tour - click on these links -  Museum of Depressionist Art, The Glady's Dwindlebimmers Ralston Gallery of the Unidentifiable, and Redbone Fables and other Cautionary Tales. 

 

 

"The Fraternity Party Gets Out of Hand" 
Triptych ~ detail of right panel, "The Botched Beer Raid." Pieter Boggle.

  

"ASSHURBACKAWARTS"  C1850 BCE -Nilotic/Nubian? Originally thought of as a female fertility figure, it is now known that this statuette is composed of two separate pieces with different provenance, skillfully combined at some point after 1200 BCE.
The upper portion, with its diminutive breasts and dolorous expression, is believed to be a "brit'ny," purchased at temples by young maidens in the hope that divine intervention would make them more appealing to the opposite sex.
The lower portion is not, as originally believed, the erotically enlarged thighs and hips of a temple prostitute, but the buttocks of another statue entirely, perhaps representing either bountifulness or a diet heavy in carbohydrates.
Scholars have been polarized by this image, some believing it to be an androgynous cult figure, others seeing it as a some kind of a practical joke.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           )
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                             "Woman Wearing Chastity uit"
                                                                                                                                                 Angelo Bronzenoze c. 1545

Another Bronzenoze from our collection. According to the story the husband of the Lady Constance Du Pre, the subject of this portrait, was an extremely jealous man. Whenever he had to leave town for any length of time he assured himself of his spouse's fidelity by locking her into this ingenious extension of the notorious chastity belt. Only one key was made, which the Duke Umberto kept upon his person at all times. 
There came a time when the Duke was called to war by the King. Realizing that he would be gone for many years, and would perhaps never return, he took pity on his wife and entrusted the key to the chastity suit to Cardinal Wooley, a saintly man of the cloth, with the instructions that if he were not to return after seven years, the Lady Constance should be released from her bondage. 
With that the Duke heaved a heavy sigh and rode off at the head of his troops. He had not gone 500 yards before the good Cardinal, his vestments disheveled, galloped up upon his palfrey to say that the Duke, in his haste, had given him the wrong key.
Bronzenoze used the same breastplate shown here on one of his later Madonnas.

 

This is some real heavy metal art for creative enthusiasts

    

If you have a creative mind and metal working skills it's amazing what you can produce. It also seems to help if you watch a lot of movies.
Called mecha or metal art and sculptures, these creations made of 100% metal are surprisingly realistic.

photos by Damn Funny Photos (2006)

 

A POEM ABOUT THE TOWN I LIVE IN...

    

CLAM BEACH

    Central Avenue pumps cars through the body of McKinleyville which stretches out

like a supplicant

grasping the ocean in one hand and the inland trees in another.

 

                               McKinleyville

Old families still hold slices of  patchwork pieces of privacy
standing against growth until gone - except in memory.

BMW’s are sold where rooster’s once did roam
waking the sleepy town up for another day
Cars crouch there now and call it home
and just won’t go away.  

Where groves of trees once stood in majestic sway
a shopping center now stands
catching monetary prey.

Track homes sit where fields of wild flowers grew  
and ranches that went as far as the eye could see
are now history.

Preview for Tuesday:Your going to love Ditty & Ernie's blogs!

While surfing in cyberspace I discovered a series of wonderful blogs created by Ditty & Ernie.

Rated as some of the Funniest Sites on the Web by Internet Life, they all display satire an it's very best! As an avid satire user and observer, I was swept up by the artwork and the word work.

So...for the very first time, I'm going to do a profile on another blog. Kinda like a feature story. If this goes well with readers, then I might start doing it once a week (Month?)

    

Bush is greeted with flying shoes during Iraq news conference

 President Bush looked slightly bemused after he ducked to avoid a shoe hurled at him during a news conference. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki looked mortified, and as the assailant's second shoe came flying Sunday, he did what any gracious host would do: reached out and tried to catch it before it hit his American guest.

Later, Iraqi journalists identified him as Muntather Zaidi, a correspondent for Baghdadiya, a satellite TV channel that broadcasts from Cairo.

Zaidi was one of several Iraqi journalists attending the Sunday evening news conference in Baghdad's heavily secured Green Zone. His outburst came without warning as Bush and Maliki prepared to answer questions.
The first shoe flew over the heads of other journalists and might have hit Bush square in the face had he not ducked to avoid it.

"This is a gift from the Iraqis. This is the farewell kiss, you dog," the man said, according to a pool translation.
Seconds later, the journalist hurled his other shoe with similar precision as another Iraqi journalist reached over in an attempt to stop him.
"This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq," he said, according to the translation. 

Bush's surprise visit to Iraq and Afghanistan didn't accomplish a damn thing, other than some interesting photo ops!

Experts puzzled about why Frogs are rapidly vanishing

I've been reading articles about Frog populations around the world going down. Scientists are concerned about the impact of not having the Frogs in the ecosystem. They can rest easy now. I've discovered that the Frogs are joining motorcycle gangs and leaving the swamps and lily pads to hang out in biker bars!

What do we learn from watching television?

An Open Apology To Fellow Columnist Andrew Sorkin

For the record. I accused Andrew Ross Sorkin, of The New York Post, of being a Conservative. After further review (and a look at his column from last week - see below), it's apparent he's not. I stand corrected.

 He also rightly pointed out that hourly costs that I sited weren't accurate (as I didn't add production costs into the equation). Once again, I stand corrected.

I'm pointing out my mistakes in all fairness.

It's the least I can do for not doing better research on this column ("Conservative media lying about auto worker's wages"). I appreciate his points and his professionalism.

Here's a copy of the email Mr. Sorkin sent me this morning. 

Dave,
I just finished reading your article in The Times-Standard.
I was disappointed to see you place so much blame on me, in part,
because that facts are a bit different than you suggested.
First, I'm not a conservative columnist. Most people who read me
regularly would suggest I'm probably part of the "liberal media" --
though I don't like that label much either. Take a look at my column
from last week:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/business/media/09sorkin.html?ref=media.
Second, and more importantly, I did not come up with the $70 figure.
It's been used by GM and analysts on Wall Street for years. I am
attaching a chart produced by Deutsche Bank's research department,
which was distributed widely prior to my column, that goes through
GM's hourly wage costs line by line. The chart might help explain the
issue a bit better. Please look at the left hand column marked
"2007GM." You'll see that the total price comes to $70.84 an hour.
Toyota, on the other hand, comes to $47.25 an hour (look at the
right hand column.) If you factor out OPEB, you could probably argue
the number is closer to $55, or more likely $61 an hour, which is
still twice the hourly wage of the average American worker. The
additional wages and benefits at GM add an average of $800 per vehicle
over the cost of rivals like Toyota and Honda, making it pretty hard
to compete on price -- which contradicts what you said in your piece.
Also, these hourly costs do not include production costs (steel,
components, etc), as you said in your article, but wage and benefits
costs.
I imagine you may have thought I started the $70 number because that's
what Keith Olbermann said on his program. Keith has since written me
to apologize. Indeed, if you do a search of articles prior to my
column, you'll find at least 143 references to the $70 an hour figure
by other journalists, analysts, etc.
I very much hope that the automobile makers survive – I don't want
them to falter. The column was an effort to offer a solution that
would allow the companies to continue long into the future and make
them stronger.
I hope this is helpful. Please let me know if you want to speak about
this issue further.
Best,
Andrew

Today's AS IT STANDS in The Times-Standard: Conservative media lying about auto workers wages

The Senate rejected a bailout of the Big Three last Friday. Republicans passed memos that talked about busting unions in America, and making the UAW an example.

There's no doubts that those neo-cons want to use this opportunity to attack unions with every lie in their playbook.

The wages that UAW members make is just one front in their war of disinformation against the American auto worker.

They want to see a deal that precludes the union from even being involved with the new structure that the car companies are going to have to take on either after bankruptcy, or in a revised deal with Congress for a bailout.

Read today's AS IT STANDS by clicking here.

Guess which state gets the dubious honor of being 'most corrupt'

So you think that you know where the most political crooks are coming from, right?

You're sure it's got to be Chicago, for it's machine-style politics and its elected leaders have been under investigation for years. But by one measure, you're wrong. Illinois is not even close to the nation's most-corrupt state.

North Dakota, it turns out, may hold that distinction instead!

Federal authorities arrested Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich Tuesday after a wiretap allegedly recorded him scheming to make money on his appointment to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama. Blagojevich, a Democrat, ran for election in part on cleaning up after his predecessor, Republican George Ryan, who was convicted in 2006 of racketeering, bribery and extortion.

IN ILLINOIS: Obama 'appalled and disappointed' by Blagojevich arrest

"If it isn't the most corrupt state in the United States it's certainly one hell of a competitor," Robert Grant, head of the FBI's Chicago office, said Tuesday.

 On a per-capita basis, however, Illinois ranks 18th for the number of public corruption convictions the federal government has won from 1998 through 2007, according to Department of Justice.                                                                                                                              

Don Morrison, executive director of the non-partisan North Dakota Center for the Public Good, said it may be that North Dakotans are better at rooting out corruption when it occurs.                                                                                           

                                                                                                                A statue of "Honest John" Burke, governor from 1907 to 1913, stands in front of the North Dakota's state capitol building in Bismarck. North Dakota had the highest rate of public corruption convictions won by federal prosecutors from 1998 through 2007.

I'm working on a AS IT STANDS column for January 2009, which will deal with corrupt politicians and the states that produce them.