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Friday, May 20, 2011

Paging Thomas Paine: Common Sense in a World Upside Dumb May 21, 2011

Subject: Charley Reese's final column
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> Charley Reese's final column for the Orlando Sentinel...He has been a journalist for 49 years.
> He is retiring and this is HIS LAST COLUMN.
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> Be sure to read the Tax List at the end.
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> This is about as clear and easy to understand as it can be. The article below is completely neutral, neither anti-republican or democrat. Charlie Reese, a retired reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, has hit the nail directly on the head, defining clearly who it is that in the final analysis must assume responsibility for the judgments made that impact each one of us every day. It's a short but good read. Worth the time. Worth remembering!
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> 545 vs. 300,000,000 People -By Charlie Reese
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> Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
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> Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
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> Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
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> You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.
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> You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
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> You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
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> You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
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> You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
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> One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
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> I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
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> I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
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> Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
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> What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
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> The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
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> It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
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> If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
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> If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
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> If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...
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> If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
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> There are no insoluble government problems.
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> Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
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> Those 545 people, they alone, are responsible.
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> They, and they alone, have the power.
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> They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.
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> Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...
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> We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
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> Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
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> Photo: Running up the Engines, ( P-38 Lightning, Commerative Air Force Museum, Camarillo, CA 2006) by Gino Dellahunt

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Crescent Moon with Earth Shine, May 20, 2011

Up before dawn with a jaunt to the beach, keeping my painting gear well within reach. Just enough time to capture the light; the moonshine, the earth shine would dwindle from sight.
This was one special day; (especially the morn) when I painted this painting, and moved it along....all for the price of a dance and a song!

Crescent Moon at Dawn, Carpinteria Beach
8x8, oil/board, 2007
Private Collection

Teaching Day: May 19, 2011

Howling Winds today, but the hearty showed up to play. Hunkering down in the shelter of an amphitheater, most of the students painted the dramatic skies and sun dappled landscape of the Carpinteria Marsh.

The goal: Paint the wind. The challenge: How to express, through dynamic brush strokes, the 'feeling' of wind on the landscape.

There were some small successes, and some breakthroughs, and I truly appreciate the courage my students exhibit in merely 'showing up' to battle the elements, all for the sake of capturing the light on canvas

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Late Night in the Funk Zone May 18, 2011


I found this image showing the beginning stages of a painting I still happen to own.

I showed up one late afternoon, set up my easel and put brush to canvas; lining in what shapes I could see of Santa Barbara's notorious "Funk Zone".

The seedy, dingy, sometimes quirky neighborhood of galleries, surf stores, and beatnik coffee shops catering to the sleepless nocturnals. This is Avaunt Gard Central.

It's got character; especially after hours when the creatures of the night meander and lurk through the darken passageways off the main streets of the city.

Things happen there unexpectedly for this silent witness to observe, but it gets rather lonesome and desolate after the groove wears away, and only those who are invisible remain to play.



Late Night in the Funk Zone
Santa Barbara

24x30 oil/canvas/ 2004
Collection of the Artist

Monday, May 16, 2011

Late One Night in a Pumpkin Patch May 16, 2011

Carpinteria has a Pumpkin Patch called, "Happy Jack's Pumpkin Patch".

In 1995, around October 31, I stopped by the patch on a night when it was eerily desolate, and I saw this scene. The trailer's long shadows cast across the musty field of pumpkins and sunflowers. The lights in the trailer were on, and the shadow of Happy Jack, the scarecrow, showed in the window, giving the appearance of a human presence that may ward off lurkers or thiefs.

Cool blue light came from beyond the trees in the distance. I painted the lights emanating from the trees, and the next day when I viewed the painting it gave the impression of a jack-o-lantern. It truly is one of the parts of the painting untouched from that night.

In 1997 when interviewing my future adviser for my Master's Degree, Bruce Everett, and Cal State Univ., Northridge, He saw this painting in my portfolio, and suggested I paint this content for the following two years; paintings he deemed as, "Unsellable".

For two years, I was to paint one painting every two weeks: Drive down to C.S.U.N., from Carpinteria, 2-3 times per week, attend classes, drive back up to Carpinteria, at night, and paint subjects toward my thesis, in places most people would never go at night, mostly out of fear.

Add Teaching at Santa Barbara City College, producing artwork for gallery exhibitions, a stay at home wife, and new-born child to the mix, and there you have one maxed-out system .

Late One Night in a Pumpkin Patch
18x24 oil 1995

Private Collection

Sunday, May 15, 2011

The Ghost Yard June 1, 2011

This building is an example of Art Deco Architecture. It is owned and operated by the Sunkist Produce, in Santa Paula, California.

While working on obtaining my Master's degree, I would travel two or three times a week down to Cal State Univ. Northridge and back. While driving back to Carpinteria, at night, I would seek my painting motifs. in the desolate neighborhoods of the southland.

I was required to produce and finish one painting every two weeks, and subject each painting to critical review by my piers. by the end of the two years I would produce 30 images toward my Master's Degree. 15 of these were accepted, and exhibited.

I spent two nights on location painting this painting; four hours each sitting.

On the first night, I was alone while painting. It was the first and only time I would climb inside my van to avoid attracting four seemingly aggressive youths who were out carousing their hood, looking for someone to harass.

The second night which I went down to finish the painting, I convinced my buddy, Ian, to come along with me, to hang out and keep me company. As I grew close to finishing, he agreed to model for me; (you can see him walking across the rail yard in the distance).

Ian, is the the Ghost.

The Ghost Yard
22x44 oil/canvas 1999
Collection of the Artist