November 23, 2014

Windows. Can we count them?

Looking out the roof of a brew house restaurant to the facade of a hotel that is part of the complex.
It's not Hundertwasser - but a pretty nice copy cat.

http://www.inspirationgreen.com/hundertwasser-architecture.html

November 21, 2014

The House of Representatives has filed suit against the President - this is not a joke

even though I'm laughing too hard to find a link at the moment.
It is breaking on MSNBC
It is a suit about Obamacare supposedly - not about immigration reform

OK
I found a link
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/22/us/politics/obamacare-lawsuit-filed-by-republicans.html?emc=edit_na_20141121&nlid=28208667&_r=0

November 21, 2014

Republicans Accuse Obama of Treating Immigrants Like Humans as observed by Andy Borowitz

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a sharp Republican rebuke to President Obama’s proposed actions on immigration, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused the President, on Thursday night, of “flagrantly treating immigrants like human beings, in clear defiance of the wishes of Congress.”

McConnell was brutal in his assessment of the President’s speech on immigration, blasting him for “eliminating the fear of deportation, which is the great engine of the American economy.”“Fear is what keeps immigrants working so hard and so fast and so cheap,” McConnell said. “Remove the fear of deportation, and what will immigrants become? Lazy Americans.”

In a dire warning to the President, McConnell said, “If Mr. Obama thinks that, with the stroke of a pen, he can destroy the work ethic of millions of terrified immigrants, he’s in for the fight of his life.”

He added that Obama’s comments about deporting felons were “deeply offensive” to political donors.


www.borowitzreport.com

November 21, 2014

"Victory" - A good start was made. And when it comes to "...poisoning the well"

How the hell can you poison a well that has no water?

November 20, 2014

"Like waving a red flag in front of a bull" - Daryl Cagle cartoon (AKA... DULL BULLS)

(.......I went to find this cartoon, all finished of course, in order to post it in anticipation of tomorrow's announcement about immigration reform. I was surprised to find the artist showed a progression of it's creation. I got a kick out of it, maybe you will as well.)

Words of the cartoonist, Daryl Cagle:

Today’s cartoon is inspired by a quote from incoming Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, who said that if President Obama does immigration reform with an executive order, over the objections of Republicans, that would be like, “waving a red flag in front of a bull.” Kind of obvious, but it was fun to draw McConnell and Boehner as bulls.

The drawing was a bit more difficult than usual. I think this is the first time I’ve ever drawn McConnell and I’m not really comfortable with him yet. My rough sketch is below.



I also struggled with how to draw the bulls’ penises in a way that editors could stand, without killing my cartoon. I like how bull penises seem to come out of the middle of their bellies, and I tried to be discreet.




I like to do line art for the black and white version of a cartoon, without gray tones. There is something more elegant about lines – although it is hard to call this cartoon “elegant.” Here is the color version …



I played a bit with making Boehner orange, and with making the bulls have more light and shadow, but whatever I tried was too busy and I ended up with dull bulls.

November 19, 2014

FINALLY: G.O.P. unveils immigration plan as told by Andy Borowitz

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled his party’s long-awaited plan on immigration on Wednesday, telling reporters, “We must make America somewhere no one wants to live.”

Appearing with House Speaker John Boehner, McConnell said that, in contrast to President Obama’s “Band-Aid fixes,” the Republican plan would address “the root cause of immigration, which is that the United States is, for the most part, habitable.”

“For years, immigrants have looked to America as a place where their standard of living was bound to improve,” McConnell said. “We’re going to change that.”
Boehner said that the Republicans’ plan would reduce or eliminate “immigration magnets,” such as the social safety net, public education, clean air, and drinkable water.

The Speaker added that the plan would also include the repeal of Obamacare, calling healthcare “catnip for immigrants.”

Attempting, perhaps, to tamp down excitement about the plan, McConnell warned that turning America into a dystopian hellhole that repels immigrants “won’t happen overnight.”

“Our crumbling infrastructure and soaring gun violence are a good start, but much work still needs to be done,” he said. “When Americans start leaving the country, we’ll know that we’re on the right track.”

In closing, the two congressional leaders expressed pride in the immigration plan, noting that Republicans had been working to make it possible for the past thirty years.



www.borowitzreport.com

November 15, 2014

Lineup of guests on Real time with Bill Maher tonight 10pm HBO

The Interview:

Rand Paul is thejunior U.S. Senator for Kentucky and serves on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Foreign Relations Committees. On Monday, Senator Paul wrote an opinion piece in the Daily Beast saying President Obama’s ISIS War is Illegal.

The Panel:

Margaret Hoover is a CNN political contributor and author of American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party. Hoover is also the founder and president of American Unity Fund .


Andrew Sullivan is the Blogger-in-Chief at The Dish. Read “What Washington Refuses to Admit” about America’s recent past.


Jeremy Scahill is the co-founding editor of First Look Media’s TheIntercept.org and author of Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield. Read “Blackwater Founder Remains Free and Rich While His Former Employees Go down on Murder Charges.”


Mid-Show Guest:

Martin Short joins Bill to discuss his book I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend.He currently co-stars in the FOX’s newsitcom “Mulaney,” and will soon be stepping into the Broadway production of “It’s Only a Play.”

November 13, 2014

Obama Plans to Protect Up to 5 Million From Deportation, Aides Say

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/us/obama-immigra

BREAKING NEWS Thursday, November 13, 2014 12:17 PM EST
Obama Plans to Protect Up to 5 Million From Deportation, Aides Say
President Obama will ignore angry protests from Republicans and announce as soon as next week a broad overhaul of the nation’s immigration enforcement system that will protect up to five million undocumented immigrants from the threat of deportation and provide many of them with work permits, according to administration officials who have direct knowledge of the plan.
Asserting his authority as president to enforce the nation’s laws with discretion, Mr. Obama intends to order changes that will significantly refocus the activities of the government’s 12,000 immigration agents. One key piece of the order, officials said, will allow many parents of children who are American citizens or legal residents to obtain legal work documents and no longer worry about being discovered, separated from their families and sent away.
That part of Mr. Obama’s plan alone could affect as many as 3.3 million people who have been living in the United States illegally for at least five years, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration research organization in Washington. But the White House is also considering a stricter policy that would limit the benefits to people who have lived in the country for at least 10 years, or about 2.5 million people.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/us/obama-immigration.html?emc=edit_na_20141113

November 10, 2014

Passed by a bit of local Red White and Blue this afternoon

November 9, 2014

My American exceptionalism fantasy is over: How these midterms sealed the deal / Andrew Cotto / Sal

Elections often hurt. Especially when they make you feel like a fool. I was one of the few who had held out hope that the electorate in key states would favor Democrats in respective races for Senate seats and governorships. As the map turned red over the course of Tuesday evening, the unraveling of my faith in the American political system — begun just about a decade ago during a lengthy trip abroad — completed its spiral.

Over 2003 to 2004, I lived in Italy for a year. It was a politically tumultuous time in America, and I spent much of my time in Italy fielding questions from concerned Italians about what was going on in the States. There was concern about the flawed election results of 2000, America’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, and, of course, America’s response to the attacks of 9/11.While the Italians were heartbroken by the attacks and deeply sympathetic to their beloved ally from across the Atlantic, they were also deeply concerned about our government’s response. Italians, having so much bloodshed on their soil over the course of a few millennia, hate war. And while they may have been skeptical about the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, they were outraged by the invasion of Iraq. Of the 600 cities around the world that hosted simultaneous protests against the Iraq War on a February day of 2003, the largest — by far — took place on the streets of Rome where an estimated 3 million people gathered. I arrived in Italy the following month to inspect our potential rental property and sign a lease, and rainbow Pace (peace) signs draped across facades were still so ubiquitous that the architectural aesthetic of the country had been altered.

Almost all of Italy’s animosity was directed toward the Bush administration. The Italians couldn’t — in their hearts — blame America yet as a country, so they blamed our leaders at the time. It was an easy thing to do, considering how Bush and Cheney and company exposed themselves, especially from abroad, to such profound ridicule. But there was also a larger concern about America in general, how we as a country were heading down the slippery slope toward the sinkhole of corruption and impotence, something the Italians have known so well for so long that they entertain no aspirations of ever escaping.


for the rest read:

http://www.salon.com/2014/11/06/my_american_exceptionalism_fantasy_is_over_how_these_midterms_sealed_the_deal/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow