whether or not

"You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals...many of these people, almost all of them that we see are so poor and they are so black, and this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are watching this story unfold."

–CNN's Wolf Blitzer, on New Orleans' hurricane evacuees, Sept. 1, 2005

If I were a preacher, this week's sermon might be titled,

"Is the Lawd Punishing Us with a Hellish Freeze for Harboring Radical Conservative Republicans?"

"Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy."

–April 30, 2001 Dick Cheney

‘Atlas Shrugged’ is a celebration of life and happiness. Justice is unrelenting. Creative individuals and undeviating purpose and rationality achieve joy and fulfillment. Parasites who persistently avoid either purpose or reason perish as they should.”

Fed chair Allan Greenspan as a young man

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A Christmas Wish

"Everythin­g secret degenerate­s, even the administra­­tion of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity. ­" - Lord Acton

Stop Endless War

"We've killed well over a million people. We've orphaned and displaced five times that number at least. And here in our own country, we've managed to throw millions of people of out work and out of their homes," Ferner told reporters at a press conference Wednesday. "There is a connection there. That connection is the true cost of war."

Demand PEACE On EARTH Now

... the Government now watches much of the citizenry behind a fully opaque one-way mirror -- that the dangers should be obvious. And this is all supposed to be the other way around: it's government officials who are supposed to operate out in the open, while ordinary citizens are entitled to privacy.

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Kettle to the Metal

Caps and Groans

When considering the quest for credentials, a college education is well beyond the reach of most teenagers with diminished expectations. At my kid public high school, at best half the students will go on to college. DASH is the exception.

Kettling for Curricula

Meanwhile back in the old country the Tea Kettle is whizzing with the vapors of discontent.

"More than 30 people were arrested in London alone as protests against education cuts erupted across Britain. An estimated 130,000 people demonstrated in the capital against the government’s proposals to raise university fees...."

"Police have been employing their controversial “kettling “ tactic, which involves herding the crowds into confined spaces in order to control them."

Edutopia Rocked

Prince Charles and that other lady thought they were immune to the roar outsider their Rolls. Perhaps so but they got a rude awakening on their sunday drive.

Thin Blue Line

The cost of a four year degree in a US university is in the five digits per year. That makes the credit card companies drool with green eyes. $50,000. is well beyond the reach of most american households. For them there are few options, go to work in a service economy, enlist in the armed forces or take the low road of degeneracy.

In contrast to their counterparts in England, American kids do not feel entitled to a college education. One thing is certain, there will be little noise from the downtrodden here when it comes to opportunity.

House of Animals

Thanks be to Jesus, Moses, Mohammed and Meghan McCain that most US kids are more interested in Facebook than in going to college.

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another $#$%^&* ticket

To their credit the Triple A (American Auto Association) appears to be one of the few voices of the motoring public expressing futile opposition to the current plague infesting our roadways. Sadly our whispers are being drowned out by an element of our communities blinded by the allure of a revenue stream the size of the Amazon river that is too tempting for those money grubbers to do the right thing by we the people.

Just Doing Their Job

People who say they are just doing their job and their job is to reduce the quality of life for others are just part of the problem.

Safety, Yeah Right

From the comfort of their bunkers, grubby authoritarians followers are poised to shake-down the motoring public. How do they sleep at night? Very well no doubt in their kevlar pajamas.

Turn Don't Turn

Of the 16 municipalities that issue citations for right turns and were able to break down their violation data, 100 percent acknowledged the majority of their tickets come from right turns. The total of right-turn citations going out per town ranged from 100 percent to 64 percent. Six municipalities estimated the rate of right-turn tickets was 90 percent or higher of the total violations.

The Camel's Back

I am running out of Christian Goodness for zero tolerance, My Jewish self is hating on the hundreds of thousand of millions extorted and my Muslim side is about to go bombastic if folks don't wake up soon and demand to Right the Wrong that are red-light scamera citations.

Just a Matter of Time

I guarantee you that sooner or later if you drive daily, a big fat ticket or two are in the stars for you. It will not come with any lubricant, instead it will feel like a corn cob soaked in gasoline.

The New-Clear Option

Root of a Revolution

Daryll McCray better known as Cornbread began writing in the slums of Philadelphia in 1968. Forty years later he is recognized as one of the original writers of american graffiti. Prior to his public expression of love and despair, there were few signs that suggested the global profusion of mass culture art that is grafffiti today.

Empire Blues

But graffiti is nothing new. It has been a vehicle for dissemination of discontent for centuries. Writing in the streets has also been an affront to absolute power but more importantly it has been a bitter tincture for countless individuals in coping with disenfranchisement, destitute and oppression at the hands of authoritarianism.

Message in a Spray Can

Why are some messages deems acceptable but rebuttals are not tolerated? Because graffiti is about destruction of the fragile facade of a rosy-colored reality propagated by the status quo.

Fairey Tale

The definition of expression has broadened to include previously black-listed forms. The visual component of graffiti has become the imagery of the masses. You will be hard pressed to find someone who does not recognize the poster that got Obama elected. Yet few have processed the fact that the creator of such a powerful image considers himself a graffiti artist.

Hierarchical Haring

Global trends are unstoppable, as we see from the migration of humans from Mexico or the degradation of the environment. Trend of this magnitude become overwhelming only to those who are unable to recognize the sources of the dynamic as they are incapable of understanding that mega-trends can only be steered towards a desired result. No less than a mega-trend, hip-hop culture of graffiti art has insinuated itself worldwide. And not a minute so soon.

Beautiful Banski

The power of street art lies in the surprise. To inadvertently wander upon an indelible image with social and political relevance is priceless. Of course corporate interest do not want unsanctioned public commentary that questions their construct. This is because one of the pillars of graffiti is the destruction of illusion with the vandalizing of the vortex that vilifies true artistic expression and funnels all its resources to perpetuating the myth of Freedom. If you were charged with keeping order would you tolerate those who rattle the cages of oppression? Would you be the one to cast the first stone?

Hebrew Hammer

This is the face of the new urban swamp. Miami does not exist in a bubble. Today is a great day for Primary Flight, champions for the cause to create a museum of the streets. Indeed the metro-dade sign police must be spinning its wheels to identify what is sanctioned and what is not. The thrill of illicit art may be gone but the remnants of power process persist.

Prodigious Playground

Urban decay is on the rise but don't blame me. In these tough economic times, folks need to let off a little steam. What better way than to take an abandoned cola distribution plan and bomb it to high heaven.

Krylon Coalescence

From the ashes of our economic depression rise a flock of flaming phoenix to usher in the proliferation of the peoples art. I should have bought stock in spray paint before the crash.

The Next Generation

The youth remind us what most geezers conveniently forget. The rebellious young artist can not be broken by propaganda devised to induce complacency using fear to persuade the lowly masses. We are told that graffiti is bad and billboards are good. I say the graffiti is misunderstood and billboards are visual pollution.

Snuff is Enough

Why not take a moment to reflect on the reasons why mega-trends are unstoppable. What are the root causes for expressions of discontent? Why is hip-hop so wildly popular worldwide?

Why is the power elite freaking out about Wikileaks? As Wikileaks continues to reveal the hypocrisy and dirty laundry of world power players, it becomes obvious that the time is ripe to do some laundry and see what comes out in the wash.

No Brittos Here

By now hundreds and thousands of visitors to Miami have experienced first-hand the awesome embrace of street art that currently defines the Miami Arts Awakening movement in the swamp. Little did county official with their Romero imagine that they would be upstaged and left in the dust by the formidable force of the people's art.

Nouveau Murals

Graffiti is not just bubble letters and nasty bombings. It has morphed into a exquisite expression of the richness of our culture. Graffiti is the language of the street and it belongs to you. Like a crazy cousin who you cant help but love, graffiti is now woven into the fabric of our society and it is wildly beautiful (most of the time).

Shaman Scharf

At the Wynwood Walls you will find the starting point for a tour of street art like no other in South Florida. This is the real deal folks, family friendly and most empowering.

Retna of the Mind

Open you hearts and read the message in the spray can. Graffiti is no longer a four letter word. It is the work of your friends and neighbors in the arts community who have stepped up to the wall to say, "Justice for All".

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Get Smart

" Perhaps the biggest surprise from the cables is how hard everybody strives to meet the American test of fealty"

Hello Chief

Back when bumbling Maxwell Smart battled the forces of KAOS for CONTROL, he had a great deal of help from his competent partner Agent 99. Things were satirical then.

Chief Enchilada

Obama has taken some bruising lately so he is not feeling the current Wikileaks headlines in part because they dampen Hilary's yearnings for a brave new world come 2012 election cycle. The cougar from the capital is spinning faster than a whirling dervish not to out-perform Condoleessa's mushroom cloud moment. Here is why the might of an empire is firing on all pistons to put a happy ending on Wikileak's inroads to democracy and any cypherpunk that might get in their way.

Assange has been described by his mother, Christine, as "highly intelligent."

"We're in the middle of a long social experiment to see what we will put up with. The plutocrats keep asking for more, and we just give it to them. There is absolutely no push-back whatsoever. In fact, all we do is ask for more punishment and deprivation. The results of this experiment have been so startling to the plutocrats that they have until recently not asked for everything, in fear that perhaps they would awaken a sleeping giant of rebellion. Nope. No giant. Just sleeping. "

In the old days Top Secret stuff looked like this...

... today it looks like this.

"Supporters contend Assange represents free speech at its finest. They say he is a man and an organization committed to outing injustices.

Yet despite unrelenting global media attention, Assange has remained an enigmatic figure.

Wiki Drones

"The treatment of Julian Assange and Wikileaks is intended to be over-the-top, hypocritical, offensive, and outrageous ("wholly comparable to the kind of treatment doled out to dissidents in China or Burma"). He's supposed to end up executed in an American military prison. Wikileaks put a real scare into them, which explains the overreaction. They want us to be reminded of punishments in the Dark Ages. It is a lesson to anybody who might present any real challenge to power."

Spy VS Fly (on the wall)

Let's be clear, it is one thing to be a whistleblower but quite something else to be a traitor and spy such as the real Robert Hanssen:

Ramon Garcia was one of his code names. He thought he had been cautious, never giving Moscow his real name and never meeting with the KGB. But he had not been careful enough. His biggest mistake had been leaving his fingerprints on the plastic garbage bags in which he delivered state secrets. When his file was sold by a former KGB higher-up in September 2000, the FBI lab had asked for everything. Surprisingly, the Russians had kept the Hefty bags and once the prints had been dusted and traced, his fate was sealed.

Wikiwood Hills

"He always stood up for the underdog. I remember that, like with his school friends. He was always very angry about people ganging up on other people. He had a really good sense of equality and equity." Julian's father Brett Assange

When Julian Assange Met Sibel Edmonds

You can't make this stuff up:

"Julian Assange’s chief accuser in Sweden has a significant history of work with anti-Castro groups, at least one of which is US funded and openly supported by a former CIA agent convicted in the mass murder of seventy three Cubans on an airliner he was involved in blowing up."

Wiki Novels

This reads like a mexican soap-opera:

"Small world, isn’t it? Julian Assange is the human face of Wikileaks – the organization that’s enabled whistle-blowers to reveal hideous war crimes and expose much of America’s foreign policy to the world.

He just happens to meet a Swedish woman who just happens to have been publishing her work in a well-funded anti-Castro group that just happens to have links with a group led by a man at least one journalist describes as an agent of the CIA: the violent secret arm of America’s foreign policy.

And she just happens to have been expelled from Cuba, which just happens to be the global symbol of successful defiance of American foreign policy.

And – despite her work in Sweden upholding the human right of gender equity – in Cuba she just happens to end up associating with a group openly supported by an admitted CIA agent who himself committed mass murder when he actively participated in the terrorist bombing of a jetliner carrying a Cuban sports team…an act that was of a piece with America’s secret foreign policy of violent attacks against Cuban state interests.

And now she just happens – after admittedly consensual sex – to have gone to Swedish authorities to report the sex ended without a condom…which just happens to be the pretext for Interpol to issue a “Red Notice” informing the world’s police forces of charges against Julian Assange.

Who just happens to be the man America’s political class – the people who run America’s foreign policy – have been trying to silence. And who happens to be the man some of them have been calling to have murdered."

Bring It On

"Assange's mother said Wednesday that she feared her son had become "too smart for himself."

"I'm concerned it's gotten too big and the forces that he's challenging are too big," Christine Assange told the Herald Sun."

Wiki Wacky War

"The continuing non-reaction to the massive financial theft in Europe and the United States, where the thieves were not only not punished, but massively rewarded, was the final test. The only reason why we are not all slaves building pyramids to the glory of the plutocrats is that they, in their infinite generosity of spirit, haven't asked us yet. They will, and we'll start hauling rocks"

Wiki Tea

"The whole universe or the structure that perceives it is a worthy opponent, but try as I may I can not escape the sound of suffering. Perhaps as an old man I will take great comfort in pottering around in a lab and gently talking to students in the summer evening and will accept suffering with insouciance. But not now; men in their prime, if they have convictions are tasked to act on them." Julian Assange

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