Author: supersoling

This one’s going to be short because there was so little work that needed to be done from where I left off last week to get to completion.

Once again, I want to point to Boran2’s Saturday Painting Palooza as what inspired me to post these last few weeks. He’s always been gracious in encouraging others here to give a look at the works they create. There are some beautiful photographs added on to his posts the last couple of weeks. You should take a peek…  
Last week I was nearly finished, having pretty much completed both sets of flames. The only thing left to be done was to clean up any eff ups and clear it all over.
Here’s where I was…

Remember how I thought that there was little to define the outer, black flame because it was the same color as the body of the truck? Well, the more I looked at it and the more I looked at the picture I’d been given, the more I wanted to do something to highlight this outer flame more.
Here’s another look at the picture I was given…

You see how it’s kind of hard to tell what the hell is what? The purple stripe I used on my work was thicker than the work in the picture and that helped a little to give it more definition, but it wasn’t enough for my liking. So, I decided to airbrush a light highlight onto the outer flame to give it more of a contrast from the flame underneath, and which also seved to better enhance the 3D quality of the entire deal.

Here I’ve run a white line around all of the upper, or sunlight catching edges…

You can see it here, too…

Btw, can you pick out the uninteded, sort of anatomical element I ended up with in the above picture? :o)

Now the work with colors is finally complete. The only thing left to do is dump a bunch more clear on top of it, wet sand it, and polish it to a high gloss.

Here are a few pictures of how it looked with the final clear coats on it, with a couple at the end of it finished and put back together.
The owner is intending on buying a set of oversize, custom chrome wheels and tires that will really finish the job off and compliment the work I’ve done…

Again, can you make out the feature at the front of the fender? I think it’s pretty cool that I ended up with a nifty looking “eye” when it happened completely by accident :o)…

Here’s a closeup. It looks nice, doesn’t it?…

Thanks so much for hanging out each week and following me through this. I had a lot of fun writing these up and sharing what I do :o)

I don’t know when my next interesting job will come along, but I’ll definetily share it when it does come.
In the meantime I’m more and more intrigued by Tampopo’s idea of painting images onto venetian blinds :o) You could actually do two images, in open and closed positions that might give an illusion of movement when opened and closed. What a cool and unique idea! :o)

Peace

This would be Volume 3 :o)

In last week’s thrilling episode I mentioned in a comment to Dada that I would show this week how I came to regret not doing the underlying silver pflame pfirst instead of the backwards way I went about doing it, with the top flame first. Flames are a simple concept to interpret but can become complex when multiple layes, colors and so on are added. I don’t know about other artists but when I start a project I attempt to come up with a logical set of procedures of how best and most efficiently to go about creating multiple parts of an image. Sometimes though, I get it completely backwards and end up creating more work for myself.

This particular job has thrown me a little simply for the fact that the outermost flame is the same color as the color of the truck body…..
Here’s where we left off last week, having completed the first, outer set of flames…

A lot of taping work for such a simple result. Having prepared this surface for the next set of flames by once again sanding and flattening this surface, I begin laying out the right side of the truck with the second layer…

This is where an eyeball can take a beating! You look at this stuff long enough and you can actually hear faint little screams of pain coming from the middle of your skull! :o)….

In fact, this diary will double as an informal clinical test. You guys stare at the above picture for two hours and let me know in comments about the screams eminating from your own skulls, K? Hahaha!

Again, having completed the layout, all areas not recieving color are covered in with masking tape…

Actually, this is where I encountered the greatest difficulty in determining what to cover and what not to cover. Unlike the first flame, this flame is to be seen as underneath the first. Meaning that the parts of the first flame that intersect and go over this second one need to be carefully covered and preserved and the first one being the same color as the truck it makes it nearly impossible to determine it’s complete form once the taping and filling in with masking tape of the second one is finished.

See what I mean?…..

I tried to follow it’s path with a black marker so that I might see it more clearly. Those are the black lines on the tape…

Here we can see my beautiful assistant, Carol Merrill, otherwise known as Gary, doing the delicate work of covering all the sharp little flame licks (ends) that need to be preserved. He’s using a scalpel type razor here. Painstaking and tedious work. Gary is an artist himself and often helps me out. Without his help this whole process would have taken at least twice as long.

Finally, having finished covering everything up, and hoping I/we haven’t effed up too badly anywhere, I spray on the outline color for the second set of flames. I chose a medium sky blue type color to stay within the black, blue, violet side of the color spectrum. Sometimes I apply louder colors that have a starker contrast, like bright orange or lime green, but with this job I wanted it to maintain a more classy or understated simplicity….

Now, once again I take 1/8th inch fine line tape and follow the outline of the second flame, covering what I want to be seen as a blue outline…

This process was also difficult because evrything is becoming so hard to follow now, with multiple layers of tape all buried under one, uniform color. I sometimes have to walk away from my work for a while to give my eyes a rest because looking at this stuff for too long really can give you a headache! :o)

Now it’s time to spray in the primary color of the second flame. In this case it is silver. I chose/created a silver with a course metallic to give it a sparkly feel. Also, after applying this silver, Gary suggested adding a special silver pearl that he had over the top of it. It’s called Ice Pearl and according to him it was $80 for a tiny little container of it. It’s a dry pearl, meaning it comes in a powder form. The way to get this into a sprayable form is to mix it with a clear basecoat, which is identical to the colors I’ve used on the truck, only it has no pigment in it. When it was all done this pearl added a little extra kick to the overall appearance. We’re all about kick, you know? :o)

Now here is where I made a decision to do some airbrushing shadows that are opposite of what I’d normally do. This time I wanted the silver flame to appear as if it was cut into the black of the truck. To achieve this illusion a shadow was airbrushed inside of the silver flame, where as normally shadows would be placed outside and below (imagining the sunlight coming from a place above duh!) the flame. Here also is where the color of the truck being black makes it impossible to do a black shadow because, naturally, it wouldn’t show up.

Anyways…

This was done while the tape was still on the truck, helping to keep the shadow from leaking onto the outside of the flame. Can you get a feel for the negative aspect of the silver flame being cut into the truck?….

Here Gary helps me again to speed up the process by airbrushing the shadows on the other side. It’s nice to have competant help like that….

Finally it’s time to untape the entire mess, always being careful to go slowly and delicately. No matter how careful you are there are always little screw ups here and there. I am very picky about my stuff looking clean and precise, so I always take the time to do whatever little touchups that need cleaning up in order to have a quality finished product.

Here is how it looks right after untaping it, and here is where I’ll end this week’s Nightmare on Elm Street edition of how to generate a migraine! :o)

See y’all next week for the completion of this one :o)

Now who’s got the aspirin?! :o)

Hello again.
I’m a little late with my 2nd installation of the PPPP.
Last week I began a two layered flame job on a Dodge truck. At the end I explained how I wasn’t satisfied with the quality of the outline I’d attempted to freehand with a brush. This week I’ll explain and show how I managed to acheive a clean line by cheating with tape….
Okay,
so having failed with the brush I removed all the tape and the paint and retaped the entire right side of the hood and side of the truck. My first hurdle is how to recreate the taped pattern onto the other side of the truck and the hood. When taping out two separate sides of any job it’s okay to have a few differences here and there because minor differences are pretty hard to pick up on when you have to walk from one side to the other to see both sides. The eye and the mind aren’t quick enough or perceptive enough to catch all inconsistencies. The hood though, is a different story since everything is right in front of you. Also, more attention is usually paid to hoods because they are more like a canvas to begin with and most art work, whether flames or something different has it’s main theme that originates and flows out from the hood.

Many graphic artists can free hand tape a duplicate of an original pattern, only in reverse. I can’t. Part of the problem for me is the difference between how my left hand and right hand (right brain, left brain)  react to what I’m seeing. My left hand is far less adept than my right. Duh! That difference is why I generally begin flames from the right side of a car, truck, etc. My hands and eyes somehow cooperate more naturally that way :o)

Alright. What I do is to lay white, somewhat transparent paper over the taped out right side and using a large black crayon I sweep over the tape, which leaves a decent representation of the outline underneath. I’m also careful to highlight landmarks, like hood edges, door handles and windows so I can be more accurate in laying the stencil out on the other side…

Once I’ve done this I remove the paper as one large piece and lay it out on a large piece of cardboard. I then use a tool called a pouncewheel ( a glorified, miniature pizza cutter) to trace out all of the lines on the paper. The pouncewheel has little teeth on it that leave a perforated line along the trace route….

Btw, I’m not fond of this part of the process because it’s tedious and time consuming. Imagine doing this multiple times to reproduce multiple layers of an image on a 40′ boat! Great googly moogly :o) Some day I’ll be able to afford the computer and programs, along with a plotter, which is a machine that takes computer generated images and cuts them into stencils that can be applied to any vehicle or object you want to paint on. Till then? We do it the old fashioned way.

Now I take the paper and turn it over and lay it out on the left side of the truck. Making sure to align all landmarks. Especially at the center of the hood. I have a sock that is filled with blue carpenter’s chalk that I wipe over all the perforated lines…

Taking the paper off, this is what I get…

I have to blow off the bulk of the chalk without blowing away the lines because the tape won’t stick to the hood well. It’s a pain in the ass process, but it works.

Here’s what it looks like after I’m done laying out all of the outline and filling in all areas that won’t get painted with masking tape…

So far, so good, right? :o)
Now I take the lilac color I’d mixed up for the outline and spray it inside all my taped lines. After waiting about ten minutes for the color to flash off (dry and flatten) I take the same 1/8″ tape I used for the outline and run it over the whole pattern making sure to place it just inside the outside edge of the original outline. What I’m doing then is to cover an 1/8″ stripe of lilac around the whole deal…

…..

This is a very tedious, time and material consuming process. Which is why I attempted to brush the first flame out to begin with. I wanted to avoid this part.

After finishing the laying out of the outline within an outline, it’s also necesarry to use regular masking tape, in this case the wide, green tape, to cover over the miniscule gap that lies between the original outline and the line I’ve just placed inside of it because if I don’t the next color sprayed on will show up in spots along the lilac outline. With this particular job it’s not as important because this first flame is the same color as the body of the truck and any littrle overlaps here and there probably wouldn’t degrade the quality of the work much, but I like it to be as clean as possible. If I were spraying the flame a different color altogether then skipping this step would make for a totally sloppy and crappy outline as that color would show up randomly between the lilac outline and the body color on the outside edge of the flame outline. Brains hurting yet?! LOL! I know, it can be boring to read all of this.

So, once again I have to go over the entire image…

Finally (yea, I’m just about done!), I’m finished with all the taping for the first flame. I take the original body color, black with pearl added, and spray in the entire flame…

Holy M..M..M..Moly!! That’s a lot of taping! LOL! Better get my ass to pinstriping school, eh? :o) That, or invest in 3M stocks and bonds so I can profit off of all the tape I’m eating up! :o)

Now comes the fun part. The Christmas morning part! :o)….untaping everything and getting a first look at the flame. It’s important not to get too eager to see it all untaped and pull it all off to fast or haphazardly because these paints can be fragile and sensitive and do pull away some times in places you don’t want them to. Regardless of how careful you are though, imperfections in the lines are part of the deal. So, there are touchups to be done before finalizing it and clearing over the entire thing.

Having gone around and cleaned it all up and being satisfied with the way it looks, I go ahead and bury it all under three coats of clear.

…And now, boys and girls, here’s something we hope you’ll really like!!….

A lotta work for one little outline, huh?! :o)

Please join us next week when we do it all over again! LOL! Wait till you see the mess I make with tape then :o)

For years now I’ve been an avid follower of Boran2’s weekly series Saturday Painting Palooza. Each week he explains and shows how he progresses through the creation of his paintings. How he decides on colors, shades, shadowing, and elements of his art. It’s been cool to watch over time how the quality and precision of detail in his work has gotten better and more refined, like we were learning along with him. A very cool online series :o)

All along the way he’s encouraged others to share their own creations within the comments of his diaries and in doing that helped I’m sure to foster greater creativity in those of us, certainly me, who enjoy reading and following along every week. In fact, there’s an occasional series by CabinGirl called Knit-a-palooza where she and others like Diane101 and Denim Blue share their handiwork and art.

Being something of a painter myself I’ve decided to do a short series on one of my works. I’ve been encouraged by Boran and others to have a go at sharing a little of how I do what I do. So, taking their encouragement to heart I’ve decided to do a step by step series on how I’ve done one “flame job” on a customer’s truck. I hope you like it….  
Like a canvas, each car, bike, or boat I do has to have a solid foundation to lay my work on top of. In this case a Dodge pickup truck that is originally black. This customer wanted to change the color of his truck but couldn’t really afford the expense of also repainting the insides of his doors, hood, tailgate, etc. What I’ve done is to take his original color and add a mixture of blue and violet pearl tints to the black which upon first look still appears as black, matching all the door jambs, etc. But that when viewed in the sunlight has bursts of bluish and violet pearlesscence. This achieves both desires of the customer.

So first, I apply this ground coat of black with pearl…

After applying as many coats of the black pearl as needed and being satisfied that it’s even, so on, three coats of clear are applied on top of the color to seal it down and to give me a solid surface to work on that won’t disturb the color underneath. When all is thoroughly dry I sand down and flatten the clear coat, making sure not to sand through anywhere. This is necesarry for the graphics to adhere properly. Another effect of applying clearcoats in between elements of graphic images is that the finished product has an added effect of depth. This is important to the overall quality of the finished work.

Now the truck is ready for the flames. This customer, as is often the case, brought in a picture that gave me a good sense of what he was looking for. It doesn’t mean the picture will be copied exactly, though sometimes I do that, but just gives a direction to go in and a grasp of what colors and shapes appeal to the customer.. Here’s what I was given,

You can see that there are two overlapping sets of flames. The first is actually the same color as the truck. Which means that the only element that defines it is it’s outline. In most cases a flame is a combination of colors and blends, fades, airbrushed 3-D effects, etc. that are different from the base color. All of which generally recieve an 1/8 inch outline or border.

Here’s the part where I admit that there are some things that I don’t have the talent to pull off. Some things you can learn or at least fake. Others though, you are either born with or not. Let’s just say that my hand isn’t steady enough to use a pinstriping brush to create the 1/8″ outline, which could save an enormous amount of taping and time. On this job I decided to try and fake it. I’ll show how in a moment. But first, the next step is to lay out the outline of the flames with 1/8″ striping tape. The flames in the picture that I was given are called tribal flames. The ends, or licks of the flames as their called bend back in the opposite direction that the overall flame is going in. This is the outline applied to one half of the hood and one side of the truck<

Here’s where I attempted to outline the flames by taking my unsteady hand and brushing the outline color on using the applied taped outline as one half of the stripe, trying to achieve a line clean enough to pass off as brushed,

Unfortunately, even with the help of the tape line the finished painted outline was not clean and straight enough for my liking (I can be a bit picky).

Next week I’ll show how I went about getting the clean outline I wanted and how I was able to exactly duplicate the flame pattern onto the other side of the truck.

Peace

Yesterday Dennis Kucinich spent 4 and a half hours reading 35 articles of impeachment against George W Bush for High Crimes and Misdemeanors, presenting evidence for each charge.

“More than two centuries ago, the Founders of this country set forth a procedure for Congress to follow in the event of grave abuse of power by the Chief Executive. That process is impeachment. In the face of the monumental deceit and disregard for the Constitution that we have witnessed on the part of the President over the past seven years, Congressman Kucinich’s initiation of this process is neither fanciful nor futile, neither vengeful nor vindictive; it is the sober fulfillment of his sworn duty as a Congressman to follow the law without regard to personal consequence and misguided political stratagem. It is, quite simply, an act of patriotism .”

THAT is a goddamned patriot!
Where is Obama?
Where is Clinton?
Where is McCain?
Where is any democrat for that matter?

All hail Keebler elves!

More at After Downing Street.org

Update [2008-6-10 22:51:20 by supersoling]:

The clerk of the House is now reading Kucinich’s Impeachment Articles into the record on c-span. There may be a vote as early as tomorrow.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Update [2008-6-12 8:39:8 by supersoling]: II

Yesterday 24 Republicans joined Democrats in an overwhelming vote to send Kucinich’s 35 Articles of Impeachment to the House Judiciary Commitee for review.

The vote was 251 to 166

See Kucinich’s statement here.

“It is now imperative that the Judiciary Committee begin a review of the 35 Articles. I will be providing supporting documentation to the committee so that it can proceed in an orderly manner. The weight of evidence contained in the Articles makes it clear that President Bush violated the Constitution and the US Code as well as International law.

“It is the House’s responsibility as a co-equal branch of government to provide an effective check and balance to executive abuse of power. President Bush was principally responsible for directing the United States Armed Forces to attack Iraq,” Kucinich said. “The June 5th Senate Intelligence report convinced me it was time to act.”

Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Jay Rockefeller,

“In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed.”

Many more groups are joining Kucinich in leveling pressure Congress to proceed with the impeachment process. Among them:

Veterans for Peace , who protested in John Conyers office.

Please go to After Downing Street’s site linked above and join in the efforts to bring all available pressure to bear on Conyers and the House Judiciary Commitee.

My home is very quiet this morning. My children’s mother is in Maryland because her grandfather is gravely ill. My son has just left for work and my daughters are still asleep. In the few hours I have before leaving for work myself I’m cooking a big breakfast for the girls and trying to fill the void their mom’s absence has created. There is a void in my own life because I’m estranged from my own mother since the death of my father three years ago. And though the damage done is irreparable and I have no expectation of our relationship ever being saved, I still can’t help but feel some pride…still, and even love. Certainly gratitude for the woman who made me who I am and for the women I know who are so very much like her. She was and is a fierce antiwar activist. She never hesitated or wavered when it came to confronting the militaristic government of this country because for her it was about protecting her children and all mother’s children from the horror of war and from those in power who have always found it so easy to throw threats across oceans and continents while backing those threats up with the blood of others.

Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.

Julia Ward Howe

There are two women, mothers, in particular that I’m thinking of this morning. I’m fortunate to have met both, though whom through my own laziness and sad habit of taking some things for granted have neglected to contact lately. I beg their forgiveness for that. But despite not talking to or being with them for a long while I still think of each of them nearly every day and wonder how they are. Mostly I wonder how their adversarys are because I know that they, like my own mother, leave nothing on the field when confronting the enemies of peace!

I know that many of you here are relatively new to Boomantribune. I also know that this site is focused on elections now. Some of you might not be aware of the great burst of antiwar activism that existed here back in 2005 and 2006 or of the many people who found their activist sea legs through friendships and alliances made here. Those bonds are what have defined this place for me, even as we’ve mostly drifted apart, sometimes not on the best of terms. That’s a sad part of life, but it doesn’t mean those people’s influence on me is lessened in any way.

I think it’s important to take time to remember that great solidarity of purpose that existed then and personally for me, to pay a small tribute to two of the most influential women in my life. And also as a way to introduce them to those of you who never knew of them. There is a history of their commitment in this site’s archives. Their contributions remind me that it is the people who will bring about change in this country, not politicians and candidates.  It’s mothers like Damnit Janet and
Alohaleezy are the real heroes in my world because in spite of their fears and the obstacles arrayed against them they stood up anyway and defended and still defend the children of all mothers and strive for peace defiantly and lovingly.

For my two friends and for all women who sacrifice all for their children,

Happy Mothers Day

In August 2005 there was a diary here by MilitaryTracy that reignited my desire to get involved and make my disillusionment and disgust with the war in Iraq known in a very public way. She talked about going to Crawford, Texas to support Cindy Sheehan in her demand that George Bush come out and explain to her the “noble cause” that her son Casey lost his life for in Iraq. Though I had been active for many years, in different ways and for different and diverse causes, my passion was waning and dormant. I’ll always be grateful to Tracy for inspiring me to get back out there.
I wish that no one needed to protest another war in this country. I wish our leaders had learned their lesson from Vietnam. But they haven’t. In fact it seems like they are hell bent on drawing us into a conflict that could have a much greater disasterous effect for many countries, not to mention our own. I won’t deny a certain anticipation that I feel when I do get to make a trip and protest with likeminded people. Especially those of you here that I so deeply respect and treasure as friends. And I’ve expressed feelings of guilt about the social aspect of some of these protests. Thankfully a couple of you set me straight. But honestly, when I think about the nature of today’s anti war protests, which are pretty tame and painless compared to protests of the past and when I contrast the sacrifices I make to get to a protest against the sacrifices of our military men and women, but most especially the brutality and suffering we’ve unleashed on the people of Iraq, that feeling of guilt returns. BooMan has an excellent rebuttal to those who say street protests are a waste of time. He explains why he thinks that they are effective and how they are effective:

“the real power of street protests was never the coverage they received in the press. The real power was the fear induced by an assembled mob on the steps of Congress or the White House. It’s the same power that led to the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, or that led to the fall of the Eastern Bloc and the Berlin Wall, at the end of the Cold War. Protests may be peaceful, but they have the potential for revolution. The more revolutionary the rhetoric, the more fear inspiring the protests are. “

He’s right to say that, because it’s true that governments do feel threatened by mobs of people who gather in the Capitols, and the result of feeling threatened is almost always a violent crackdown on the protesters. If we are talking about Tiananmen Square or Ocxaca or Selma, then yes, protests are a threat and there is a serious risk taken by anyone who attempts to confront those in power and there is a real possibility of forcing the government to change it’s policies. But there are no attempts at pressing, confronting, or putting fear into the government here in the U.S. We gather at a negotiated for and pre determined site, walk along a prescribed route for a couple of miles, step off and rest, get drinks, rejoin, and head home. The city cleans up the mess, the cops aren’t challenged, the government isn’t challenged, and we all go home feeling as if we are changing history, or at least witnessing history. There is worth in this. But there is no incentive for the government to change course because there is no threat. Maybe this is because this current anti war movement is in it’s infancy and events haven’t gotten so intolerable for the people yet. There is no draft yet. Most Americans aren’t directly affected by the war or have a son, father, mother or daughter who’ve been killed in Iraq yet. This comment by MaryB2004, in a reply to BooMan’s dKos version of the above linked diary better conveys what I’m trying to say. Today’s protests are harmless…so far. I think things will have to become a lot more dire before any real opposition is mounted.

In spite of those feelings I do still think that these events have a great value if they are a stepping off point to engagement by more and more people who think there is nothing they can do to change anything. And there is a great deal of comfort and hopefulness to be gained from being with those who feel the same way you do and are willing to do something outside the normal channels. I was taken with how EJ seemed to be experiencing something like that. Just watching him watching and seeing him quietly absorbing the moment, the atmoshere of dissent was kind of moving to tell you the truth. The same with Manny. Several times I heard them say that there are a lot of people here. It was cool to see it in them because I feel the same way. Those of us who’ve been to other protests noticed that there were a lot more young people this time. That is always an encouraging sign. Lot’s of people brought their small children. The lesson being taught to them is invaluable and we’ll all benefit from those little ones in the future. To all parents who involve their children…thank you.  But I hope that thos kids will never again have to be at an American war protest. Sadly though I think this is just the beginning because Bush sure doesn’t give one single rat’s ass what we say. Not yet anyway. But if he keeps escalating this war and putting our soldiers in the impossible situation they are in where they are perpetuating a criminal war, yet have to risk prison to disengage from it, when he’s talking about attacking a country that can inflict serious damage on us then we’re gonna have to do our own escalating. I hope it doesn’t come to that.

I originally started out to write another one of my feel good post protest diaries but I think that there are unpleasant events on the horizon, and it darkened my mood a bit. I have some opinions that clash with some members here, especially those who are close to our soldiers. I’m sorry that there is conflict and I know that some of those opinions are deeply hurtful and offensive to people I care about. I wish we weren’t going through any of this. But I can’t change the way I feel. I think that this war will end, like the Vietnam war ended, when the soldiers themselves can no longer justify being a part of a machine that is commiting war crimes. When they can no longer bear the burden that this president has placed on them, and they begin resisting in larger numbers. I agree with BooMan and others who say that the war would end sooner if there were a draft because more Americans would be directly at risk, but I see no point in having more people killed to end something that has already gotten too many people killed. We’re all going to be forced to resist in larger numbers and forced to place ourselves in dangerous situations before this is all finished. Because this sick bastard who is occupying our White House isn’t going to go quietly. He won’t.

   Update [2007-1-30 8:50:43 by supersoling]:
Here are a few pictures I took. I’ll load more later as it takes forever on dialup….

…The crowd moves closer to the stage. I’m not sure about the official crowd size estimates of 100,000 or less because it sure looked like a lot more people than were there in 05 to me…

…Actually, this is the crowd gathering toward the stage…

…The BT crew…

…Tampopo…a very cool kid ;o)…

…Anyone recognize this guy?…

…Ann Wright, who resigned from the State Department in protest…

…Recognize this guy yet? It’s Ray McGovern, CIA analyst and one of Reagan’s PDB briefers, who just happened to be right in front of us…

…Here he’s shooting the breeze with BooMan. The content of the breeze is classified though. I’ll let BooMan decide whether to share it or not. My own personal opinion about this picture though is that Ray is explaining to BooMan that there will be no President Cheney if we impeach Bush because we’re going to impeach both of them.

…more later…

Update [2007-1-30 12:52:59 by supersoling]:…Here’s a couple more from the protest…
…distree signal…
…ignored and stepped on, kinda poignant…The next day I took a walk alone in the rain…
…This is the Dept.of Education, across the street from the hotel we stayed in. Bush marking his territory like a dog pissing on a tree…
…The empty reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial say’s something about the emptiness of Washington…
…a different age, a different love…

…a Man………..

Promoted by Steven D.

                                       
I have only a few minutes to put this together, but this is an update diary and a reminder for anyone who hasn’t yet heard about this.

Please see the previous diaries on this march by:

supersoling

Wilfred

Tampopo

there is updated meeting place info in Tampopo’s diary from last week.

United For Peace And Justice has travel information for those of you who need to make arrangements still. There are also resources for housing.

I don’t want to name names…well…okay, I will name names! ;o) but there are a good number of BT’rs who are going and meeting there, including ManEegee, ejmw, Wilfred, Janet T in Maryland, me, Tampopo, and I’ve heard rumors that BooMan, CabinGirl, Brother Feldspar, and possibly Boston Joe will be there too. Not to mention a Kossack contingent.

Please help us all to make it as crowded and loud as it can be. Bush is thumbing his nose at the new democratic congress and the American people and escalating the war no matter what. We really need to make sure the democrats hear us too. We expect, no, demand that they do whatever they can to stand up to Bush and say NO!!

Gotta go.

In solidarity,
super

Angel Diaz finally died after 34 minutes and two lethal injections in Florida.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said she doesn’t believe Diaz felt any pain. She said Diaz started snoring and became unconscious after the first three drugs were administered and never regained consciousness.

Not so.

Medical findings contradict prison officials
Diaz, 55, was put to death for murdering the manager of a Miami topless bar during a holdup in 1979.

The medical examiner’s findings contradicted the explanation given by prison officials, who said Diaz needed the second dose because liver disease caused him to metabolize the lethal drugs more slowly. Hamilton said that although there were records that Diaz had hepatitis, his liver appeared normal.

Executions in Florida normally take no more than about 15 minutes, with the inmate rendered unconscious and motionless within three to five minutes. But Diaz appeared to be moving 24 minutes after the first injection, grimacing, blinking, licking his lips, blowing and appearing to mouth words.

As a result of the chemicals going into Diaz’s arms around the elbow, he had a 12-inch chemical burn on his right arm and an 11-inch chemical burn on his left arm, Hamilton said.

Florida Corrections Secretary James McDonough said the execution team did not see any swelling of the arms, which would have been an indication that the chemicals were going into tissues and not veins.

Diaz’s attorney, Suzanne Myers Keffler, reacted angrily to the findings.

“This is complete negligence on the part of the state,” she said. “When he was still moving after the first shot of chemicals, they should have known there was a problem and they shouldn’t have continued. This shows a complete disregard for Mr. Diaz. This is disgusting.”

 
Governor Jeb Bush halted further executions after medical examiners said that Diaz’s execution had been botched. California halted executions in February after a legal challenge to the state by a condemned inmate that said lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment. The federal judge who ruled in that case said executions could go forward only in the presence of licensed anesthesiologists and other medical proffesionals, but none agreed to participate.

Although I am not personally opposed to the death penalty in some extreme cases, there is no way to kill someone humanely. I am less worried about that though than I am about the executions of innocent people and the overwhelmingly dispproportionate sentencing and executions of minorities. But Mr. Diaz’s execution was handled so badly, and he is only one of many who suffered during their deaths, that the practice should be stopped completely, nationwide, as Senators Feingold and Corzine appealed in 2002, though they focused more on the high number of death row inmates who had been exonerated through DNA testing and reexamining cases that were defended badly. Former Illinois Governor Ryan stopped executions for the same reasons in 2000. He went so far as to commute all of the state’s death row inmate’s sentences to life in prison.

I’m just throwing this up for discussion. I have complicated and tortured feelings about the death penalty in general even though I believe that some crimes are so horrendous as to justify ending the life of the one who commited it.

I read something today that caused me to reexamine my  feelings about Native American exceptionalism. At least as far as I, and many people I know idealize them. It’s been easy for me to romanticize their culture as if they are the one example of how a society can be inherantly fair and egalitarian. A reverance for the Earth. Never taking more than they needed. No modern sense of ownership of land. If you take something out of necessity, you give something of equal value or meaning in return. Leaving my larger opinions of them aside, and back to what I read today….
I was given a book as a gift by my Mother 5 or 6 years ago. It’s title is Stolen Continents, The Americas Through Indian Eyes Since 1492 by Ronald Wright. I’ve already read this book. It’s not much different from many others that I have. It documents the discovery and near annihilation of indigenous American peoples. In rereading a section of this book today about the Iroquois I came upon a passage about an attempted forced ban on abortion within the Iroquois Confederacy in the late 18th century.

In 1799 the Iroquois found themselves decimated. After successive wars, the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, disease, and continual encroachment by the British, Americans and to a lesser degree, the French, what once was the most populous and organized tribe of the east found itself numbering about 4000. Handsome Lake, who had fallen victim to alcoholism and been bed ridden for several years, began to have visions. According to the book, his life had mirrored the decline of his people. He became an alcolholic soon after his ancestral lands along the Genesee river in New York were taken by whites and he was forced to live on the Allegheny Reservation. Although an alcoholic and destitute, he came from the royal lineage of the Turtle Clan. Half brother of Cornplanter and uncle to Red Jacket. The visions, as told in Gawasowaneh’s (Arthur Parker) translation:

“Then said the beings, addressing me, ‘He who created the world at the beginning employed us to come to earth. Our visit now is not the only one we have made…..
‘Do not allow anyone to say that you have had great fortune in being able to rise again. The favor of the four beings is not alone for you, and the Creator is willing to help all mankind…
‘We will uncover the evil upon the earth and show how men spoil the laws the Great Ruler has made…
‘Four words tell a great story of wrong, and the Creator is sad because of the trouble they bring, so go and tell your people.
‘The first word is One’ga (alcohol). It seems that you never have known that this word stands for a great and monstrous evil and has reared a high mound of bones'”.

The other evil words that Handsome Lake speaks of contain the reference to abortion that caught my attention. They are, Withcraft, Black Magic and Abortion. According to the author, “the ban on abortion was timely. Many pre-Columbian peoples had practiced birth control and abortion to keep their numbers in balance with the land. But in 1800, with only 4000 Iroquois left on earth and women aborting from despair, it had to be stopped”.

Okay, this is what caught me. I can’t say that I was shocked. Not for a people facing what to them must have felt like impending extinction. More than anything I’m curious what you all think about it. Remember too that the Iroquois are a matrilineal society. The women decide upon and appoint the leaders. As the authour alludes to, abortion was more a practical thing. Nature can only support so many in any given environment. Too many people and the resources cannot support them. But faced with imminenet destruction, needing to reconstitute the tribe, abortion was seen, I’m assuming, as self defeating.

I’m still thinking about all this. It just gave me much to think about, and as usual, I’m very interested in what you all think.

Peace

Update [2006-12-3 17:35:18 by supersoling]:links

Stolen Continents
South Dakota Abortion Rights
Fire Thunder Impeachment and the Rights of Women