[link to original on deviantArt]

This started out as a simple deal with Donkey and Elephant on vacation with opposing “I’m With Stupid” t-shirts, but once we started digging into the idea it really came to life. The trick was getting the expressions right – the eyes and the faces. Donkey is a kind of “deranged Bill Gates” and Elephant is your standard brutish life-time politician.

[Link to original on deviantArt]

This design illustrates how “justice” in the U.S. is tilted towards those with money. And anyone and anything else is basically jettisoned off the scales from the magnitude of the imbalance. There’s also a bit of a play on words with the title if you look close.

[Link to original on deviantArt]

Basically what happened is this: The Democrats were trying to get a vote on an extension on the payroll tax cut extension, which would extend the lower rates for another two months. The Republicans wanted no part of it, and walked out. And, when the Dem’s started to call them on it, Boehner had the C-SPAN feed cut.

This is wrong at so many levels I don’t know where to start.

OK, how about starting here: does Boehner think the voters want higher taxes? Does he think at all? No. Of course not. He’s engaged in his own little dipshit battle for the Good of the Party. So, basically, he’s giving everyone who voted for him the finger. Because no one – rich or poor – wants higher taxes. And a lot of people can’t handle any more…

If you recall those heady, sweat-soaked months after 9/11, when America couldn’t decide if it was a rabid pit-bull with a belly full of rage, or an overly abused Harbor Seal in need of round-the-clock maximum-security protection, the mantra was: “If you don’t travel, the terrorists win.”

“If you don’t watch football, the terrorists win.”

“If you don’t go out and spend money at the malls for Christmas, the terrorists win.”

And so, we did all those things.

But a funny thing has happened. Despite our unchecked gluttony and relentless observation of the color-coded Terror Threat Level: the terrorists won. America still stands and we can still kick most other country’s asses with “shock and awe” and twenty-four hour embedded media coverage. But the things that Americans value have been napalmed: freedom, safety, and personal wealth. While the mega-rich are not much worse off than they were in 2001, most everyone else…

OSF was going to the park for their nightly “GA” (General Assembly) … you know, something guaranteed by that pesky First Amendment … and SFPD appeared to want none of it. So they surrounded the core of the OSF group with their “kettle” – the first step before arrests begin en masse.

But then they grabbed a guy from outside the cordoned area – someone not in the cross-hairs of an arrest – someone sitting down, no less – no threat. The PD put him in one of their…

On Tuesday the 29th of November the Los Angeles Police Department swept in and overran the Occupy LA camp in front of city hall. There were between 1400 and 1800 officers involved, depending on the sources you go by. Close to three-hundred people were arrested. A number of the people who were arrested were held in Van Nuys, which is about ten minutes from where I live, so I drove up to meet some of the Occupy people who were waiting for their comrades to be released. I hadn’t been to a “General Assembly” or a camp – up until last night all I knew of the Occupy people was what I saw through…

IMMORTALS (2011) — Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

They should have named this one “Immordulls.” It’s as if someone said: “Hey, lets make a bigger-budget version of ’300′ – people will pay to see that.” Because that’s all this flick really is. It has the same ambiance of ’300′, without the script, acting, or direction. When Mickey Roarke (who plays the evil king) is the best actor in a movie, you have a problem. He does a good job, actually but … come on … it’s Mickey Roarke.Technically, it’s a gorgeous piece of work. So I’m giving it a decent rating more on technical merit than on entertainment value. The…

Click for full-size image.

In case you missed the video which inspired this, and many other political art works depicting the event, here it is:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The OWS (“Occupy Wall Street”) folks were evicted in 40 cities today in coordinated pre-dawn raids. Reporters on the scene were either denied access or arrested – credentials be damned. News helicopters were not allowed overhead. People were gassed and beaten. Homeland Security and the FBI were involved in coordinating these raids on unarmed US citizens engaged in peaceful protest.

And what’s on the front of CNN’s home page? PSU and Coach K.

Are you freakin’ shitting me?

How is what happened today not news? Screw if some network or paper is left or right – this is a bigger story in a democracy than a pederastic football coach or college hoops.

And this happened right after Veterans Day weekend. So much for the freedom that our troops fought and died for over the last couple of centuries. What an insult. I am so completely disgusted. Not out of sympathy for one side or the…