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California Gold
2010. Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36”
Once again the marijuana issue is back. And just when the people of California have a good, logical, sensible idea, it quickly gets attacked by a desperate fear campaign of misinformation and perception management led by the Los Angeles Times and some old law enforcement reactionaries.
The new issues to attack the Proposition are federal law and international treaties regarding the Controlled Substance Act, as well as driving under the influence of marijuana, and employment.
First, federal law and international treaties. How can anyone not laugh at this issue?
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Bureaucrat Totenkopf
2010. Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36”
When Donald Rumsfeld was fired as Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush, Robert Gates was brought in as an old hand, an accepted bureaucrat from former administrations, ‘the man who [would] help overhaul President Bush’s Iraq policies.”1 He would breeze through confirmation hearings as “polite and personable” and “enjoy influential protectors on both sides of the aisle.”2
However, what was not discussed was Robert Gates’ actual history as a bureaucrat.
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Iraqi Dead Under US Occupation
2009. Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 48”
"We have a better way… Kill them. We are going to wipe them out."
President George W. Bush 1
In October 2006, doctors from Johns Hopkins School of Health along with Iraqi doctors from al-Mustanceriya University in Baghdad published a study in The Lancet, a British medical journal, which estimated the number of excess deaths from the occupation of Iraq at about 655,000.2
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Final Tour
2008. Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36”
How many more tours will there be for the American military in Iraq? Tour after tour takes its toll. Each tour increases the chance of not getting out alive, or in one piece with all arms legs, eyes, hands, and feet – a physically functioning human being. Even then, how destroyed is the mind? The brain subconsciously takes pictures with the eyes, retaining those images for a later time, creating a different world inside the mind. Perhaps it’s a world without myths, without propaganda; without hero worship; a world of reality from within the abyss.
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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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