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McSame

Four more years of the McSame, via Voltron.

07/10/08 by mark in art, politics.   No Comments »

an update on oil

In case you missed it, here’s what’s been going on with oil:

The oil industry continues to make record profits as prices at the pump skyrocket. Congress summons oil execs to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain their “exorbitant profits.” Oil execs claim it’s actually the restrictive policies of Congress that are causing the high gas prices, specifically to open up more federal lands “and allow us to responsibly produce more American oil and natural gas, which can supply us for decades to come.”

Bush falls in step with Big Oil and pressures Congress to pass “good legislation as soon as possible” to lift federal bans on exploring the Outer Contentinental Shelf and allow states to permit offshore oil drilling, even when his own energy department reports oil production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge “is not project to have a large impact on world oil prices.”

A top McCain economic advisor, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, admits offshore drilling “would have no immediate effect on supplies or prices.” But another McCain advisor, Nancy Pfotenhauer, continues to parrot the false talking-point that China is drilling near Cuba near the coast of Florida:

When you think about the fact that we’ve got China and Cuba drilling closer to the United States — the coastal United States — when American companies aren’t allowed to drill. It’s just insane.

Meanwhile, Western oil companies are about to be awarded no bid oil contracts in Iraq: Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, and BP — are in the final stages of “talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields.”

Does anyone believe the tired rhetoric that offshore drilling is needed to bring down prices at the pump?

06/19/08 by mark in politics.   No Comments »

Dr Steven Kurtz Cleared of All Charges

Incredible news from the Critical Art Ensemble’s Defense Fund: after four long years, all charges against Steven Kurtz were dismissed as “insufficient on its face” and the US Department of Justice did not appeal within its thirty day window to do so.

Finally vindicated after four years of struggle, Kurtz, asked for a
statement, responded stoically: “I don’t have a statement, but I do have
questions. As an innocent man, where do I go to get back the four years the
Department of Justice stole from me? As a taxpayer, where do I go to get
back the millions of dollars the FBI and Justice Department wasted
persecuting me? And as a citizen, what must I do to have a Justice
Department free of partisan corruption so profound it has turned on those it
is sworn to protect?”

If you are not familiar with what happened to Kurtz after his wife died, below is an excerpt from his wikipedia page that details some of the story of his arrest.

In May 2004, Kurtz called 911 to report the death of his wife, Hope Kurtz, by congenital heart failure. In order to create their art installations the Kurtzes sometimes worked with biological equipment and had a small home lab and petri dishes containing biological specimens. At the time of Hope Kurtz’s death they were working on an exhibit about genetically modified agriculture for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Buffalo police deemed these materials suspicious and notified the FBI, who detained Kurtz for 22 hours without charge on suspicion of “bioterrorism.” Meanwhile, dozens of federal agents in hazardous material suits raided the Kurtz home, seizing books, computers, manuscripts, and art materials, and removing Hope Kurtz’s body from the county coroner for further analysis.

Kurtz was allowed to return to his home one week later, after the Commissioner of Public Health for New York State had determined that nothing in the home posed any sort of public or environmental health or safety threat, and that Hope Kurtz had died of natural causes.

In July 2004 a grand jury refused to bring any “bioterrorism” charges, but did indict Kurtz on federal criminal mail fraud and wire fraud charges. Also indicted was Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, who served as a scientific consultant on Critical Art Ensemble’s projects. The charges concern the way Kurtz and Ferrell allegedly ordered and mailed the non-pathogenic bacteria used in several museum installations. Under the USA PATRIOT Act the maximum possible sentence for these charges has increased from five to twenty years in prison. [wikipedia link]

06/11/08 by mark in art, politics.   No Comments »

iso50’s obama

Scott Hansen just released the details of the poster he was approached to design for the Obama campaign. Shepard Fairey’s Obama image is arguably more direct and powerful, but Hansen’s work is interesting because his focus is not on Obama the man, but the hope and promise of an Obama America.

Stylistically, it’s straight up iso50 with the layers of texture and sunbathed saturation. There’s the typical imagery of the tree of life/prosperity with the Obama logo at the center of it all, but what I found most interesting about the design is the visual reference to uniting the red and blue states around a shared vision.

This is an important message for any presidential candidate as the general election looms closer, and while Fairey’s design certainly speaks to the Obama-base, conceptually Hansen’s design has the potential to resonate with a larger and more diverse audience. Buy it here.

05/24/08 by mark in design, politics.   4 Comments »

When the Levees Broke

Some experts predict a significant rise in the death toll in Burma, possibly up to 1.5 million people from the 100,000 estimated already dead in the aftermath of the cyclone if clean water and sanitation is not provided soon. The Burmese government has frustrated many attempts at foreign aid, even politicizing what little foreign aid has been allowed in: “government officials were seen handing it out from boxes on which the names of prominent generals had been written.”

In light of this natural disaster and the humanitarian crisis caused by the lack of a coordinated government response, it’s hard not to draw direct parallels to what happened in New Orleans (and what is still happening) in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina almost three years ago. I just finished watching parts one and two of Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke, a monumental four-part film that documents the collapse of a city and the mind-boggling failure of our federal government to help people in need. If you haven’t already seen this documentary, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Most people think that it was Katrina that brough about the devastation to New Orleans. But it was a breaching of the levees that put 80 percent of the city under water. It was not the hurricane…If you go New Orleans, only one-fourth of the population is there. So hopefully, this documentary will bring this fiasco, this travesty, back to the attention of the American people. —Spike Lee

05/11/08 by mark in politics.   No Comments »

99 problems

NPR’s Soundcheck had a segment on the music of the democratic campaigns, dubbed the “Soundcheck Smackdown: Clinton vs. Obama.” Of all the aspects of the campaign, I can’t think of a less important issue to focus on besides who’s wearing American flag lapel pins. But the segment was redeemed by a discussion of Obama’s use of Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” track:

As Obama and his wife, Michelle, strolled triumphantly into his victory party in Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 3, Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” was blaring. In it, Jay raps, “I got 99 problems, but a bitch ain’t one.”

Some listeners took it as a not-so-sly reference to Hillary. [link]

Honestly, I’m surprised the Obama campaign sunk to that level.

04/22/08 by mark in music, politics.   No Comments »