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New Constitution of the United States of America
2008. Acrylic, paper, metal, and Polycrylic on wood, 8 x 4'
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Commander-N-Sleep
2007. Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 48"
On August 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a Presidential Daily Briefing, also referred to as a PDB. It was an intelligence briefing from the Central Intelligence Agency. The title of the August 6 PDB was, “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US.”1
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Mayor
2007. Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 48"
Antonio Villaraigosa was a rising star within the Democratic party. He even unseated another Democrat to win the position of Mayor of Los Angeles.
During the Mayoral campaign Villaraigosa trumpeted himself as the family man. On inauguration day, he walked down the street to City Hall with the family hand-in-hand – great photo-ops. The new Mayor had big plans – for himself.
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Today on NBC
2007. Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40"
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War Without End: Dix Revisited
2007. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 72”
“Corpses are impersonal.”
Otto Dix, from his daybook on the Somme, 19161
“What of their oath to the colors, to me as Warlord?” asked Wilhelm.
“Oath to the colors? Warlord?”
replied General Groener with disgust. “These are just words today.”
November 9, 1918, German Quartermaster-General, Wilhelm Groener and General Hindenburg meet with Kaiser Wilhelm to convince the Kaiser that the war was over. The next day, Wilhem boarded a train to cross the frontier to neutral Holland.2
The war was over, though not for the thousands who were permanently dismembered and disfigured in the 20th Century’s First World War. Just as it was then, today’s brutality of an insane war, orchestrated by cowards who had never served in combat, has permanently dismembered and disfigured thousands of soldiers and civilians all in the name of patriotism, loyalties to oaths, and lies.
In 1920, German painter and World War I veteran Otto Dix painted the Skat Players - 3 war cripples playing cards. The Skat players are “a mass of spare parts thrown together, left-over pieces of bodies.”3 The painting was an example of the grotesque - "[subverting] the expectations of both machine and man, merge horror with humor, and challenge the boundaries of propriety in order to attack the nationalism that created the result."4 The players "resemble derisive dedications to man the beast, whose malicious social games provide further confirmation of the theory of homo homini lupus.” (Man is a wolf to man.)5 The war is portrayed “as buffoonery, as a sarcastic farce.”6
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Republican Oversight
2006. Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 48”
The Republicans are destroying America. They are destroying life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in America. This destruction has been achieved through a pattern of deception and distraction, vague commitments, sleight of hand, and flat out neglect of the nation.
For instance, they hold hearings, but witnesses are not under oath. They pontificate instead of asking questions and demanding answers. When they do ask a question, there is no follow-through on the answers. Then they state, “We’ll look into it,” and never do.
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Republicans’ New Lapel
2006. Acrylic on canvas, 22 x 28"
The Republicans are the party of money. They have so much money yet they can’t get enough of it. In their quest for more money they have hit some roadblocks, known as scandals, which means, they have been trying to get money, money, and more money through illegal means. They just could not seem to get enough money legally.
Perhaps it’s an illness, always starving for that money. Perhaps it’s the only way Republicans can make any friends – having to buy them. Maybe the fact is, that the only way Republicans can get any support is to buy it, because no one seems to like their ideas, candidates, policies, or people.
Honestly, who would want to be friends with George Bush, Condi Rice, Dick Cheney, Ken Mehlman, Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, Rick Santorum, Arlen Specter, John Warner, Mark DeWine, Orrin Hatch, Bill Frist, Pat Roberts or any of the other Republicans, for nothing, for free? More than likely no one.
Let’s face it, these Republicans have the personality of a pile of dirt. Therefore, the Republicans need to sell their “public service” to get all that money to buy friends and supporters. But what happens when the money dries up and their payola runs out? What then?
That’s when they turn to foreigners: Israeli politicians and Israeli organizations, Arab sheiks and Arab bankers, Chinese businessmen, British wealth, Iraqi, Iranian, and Syrian dissidents, corrupt European politicians, arms merchants, Turkish political parties, foreign shipping corporations, on and on the list goes…all in the name of that big gold dollar sign.
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Republican Cuff-Links
2006. Acrylic on canvas, 22 x 28"
The Republicans have provided a new adjective to add to the lexicon of criminal procedure – Republican cuff-links.
When the Republicans do crime, they do it big time. They love money so much, that they have to turn to illegal ways to get more of it. And of course, like many criminals, the first thing out of a Republican's mouth is, “I didn’t do it.” Then the evidence piles up so high, that one Republican Congressman broke a record with his federal prison sentence. Perhaps that was appropriate for a guy who called himself, “Duke” (maybe he suffered from a John Wayne syndrome). The Duke was so confident in his illegal business, that he created a menu of what he would sell, and how much it cost to receive his access.
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Black Ribbon: Truth
2005. Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 48"
George W. Bush is incompetent and should be removed from office.
Dick Cheney is incompetent and should be removed from office.
Donald Rumsfeld is incompetent and should be removed from office.
Condoleezza Rice is incompetent and should be removed from office.
Alberto Gonzales is incompetent and should be removed from office.
Michael Chertoff is incompetent and should be removed from office.
The Republican Party is corrupt and disgraceful.
The Republican Party is the party of polite bigotry.
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Extraordinary Rendition
2005. Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 48"
Dateline: The Hague
In the early hours before dawn this morning, former President of the United States, George W. Bush, arrived in police custody at the International Criminal Court.
The former American President was transferred over to international authorities by the United States at zero hours GMT. The former President will face trial before an international tribunal for aggression, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
The international tribunal issued a statement saying, “The court will allow the victims of aggression to tell their story. Those who commit acts of aggression and crimes against humanity will be brought to justice.”
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What Was Their Role?
2005. Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 48”
“We have been too often disappointed by the optimism
of the American leaders, to have faith any longer
in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds.”
Walter Cronkite, February 27, 19681
The role of newscaster has been part of the American television landscape since the late 1940s. In the early years it was a short broadcast report of headline news on the three major television networks, CBS, ABC, and NBC. Over the decades there have been a collection of well known names: Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid, John Cameron Swayze, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, John Chancellor and the legendary Walter Cronkite.
Cronkite, known as ‘the most trusted man in America’2 rose to the status of news icon, and the measure of what Americans came to know as the network news anchor, for the very reason that he changed the course of history when he questioned the policy and progress of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. President Lyndon Johnson, in February 1968, “reputedly turned to his press secretary, saying, ‘If I’ve lost Walter, I’ve lost Mr. Average Citizen.’”3
By the early 1980s, the news anchor landscape would change.
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