Gitmo 12

Gitmo 12 (2008)

[Click on the image above to see the view with binoculars.]

A federal court that ruled against the Bush administration in a Guantánamo detainee case ridiculed Defense Department reasoning as nonsensical, likening it to a 19th century Lewis Carroll poem.
--Carol Rosenberg, Miami Herald, 6-30-08

They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
They pursued it with forks and hope;
They threatened its life with a railway-share;
They charmed it with smiles and soap.
--Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark

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Image made initially with QuaSZ. Post-processed until habeas corpus was fully erased.

Tags: fractal, fractals, fractal art, fractal blog, digital art, lewis carroll, hunting of the snark, guantanamo, gitmo, gitmo 12, view with binoculars, jubjub, cruelanimal, blog with a view

Gitmo 3

Gitmo 3 (2008)

[Click on the image above to see the view with binoculars.]

Jane Mayer's new book, The Dark Side, reveals in greater detail the utter depravity of the Bush administration's official policy of torture. Mayer's long investigation makes clear that the tactics employed by the CIA on suspected al-Qaida terrorists do not exist in some grey area protected by the euphemism "enhanced interrogation techniques". They are unquestionably torture. It is all the more shocking then that John McCain, knowing all that he does about torture past and present, would sacrifice his considerable personal credibility and vote to preserve the CIA's ability to torture detainees.

[...]

...what Mayer's book makes clear is that waterboarding was only a small part of the CIA's torture programme. In fact, even detainees that were subjected to waterboarding did not think it was the worst technique they had to endure. That was reserved for stress positions. These were often employed differently but included being shackled to the ceiling of their cells, forcing all the weight of their body onto their shoulders as they were suspended upright for eight hours. One detainee was locked in a box half his size for hours at a time. Most of them were deprived of sleep and bombarded with loud music and noises for 24 hours.

There has always been a troubling level of indifference to these activities, because these are al-Qaida terrorists responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans. Rage and anger is understandable, but I hope people inclined toward this viewpoint appreciate that one of the principle divisions between us and our enemies is that we hold ourselves to a higher standard, we take our humanity more seriously and we intend to live up to our moral obligations. The United States should not torture prisoners in its captivity, no matter how grave their crimes.
--Ken Gude, The Guardian, 8-15-08

Mayer's book shows clearly the current American administration has committed war crimes. And the consequence? Nothing? Not even a Congressional reprimand?

Is this who we are now -- after almost eight long years -- and who we want to be?

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Image intially made with QuaSZ. Post-processed until I took the panties off its head.

Tags: fractal, fractals, fractal art, fractal blog, gitmo, gitmo 3, torture, war crimes, bush administration, view with binoculars, waterboard world theme park, cruelanimal, blog with a view

Gitmo 2

Gitmo 2 (2008)

[Click on the image above to see the view with binoculars.]

Writing the forward to a Physicians for Human Rights study of 11 former detainees who were apparently tortured by US military personnel and later released, Army Maj. General Antonio Taguba (Ret.) writes that "there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
--ABC News' Political Punch, 6-19-08

Note to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Can we put The Hague back on the table?

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From a new series. Image initially made in QuaSZ. Post-processsed until it would tell me whatever I wanted to hear.

Technorati Tags: fractal, fractals, fractal art, digital art, gitmo, gitmo 2, war crimes, torture, bush, cheney, rumsfeld, antonio taguba, physicians for human rights study, view with binoculars, hague time, cruelanimal, blog with a view

She-Hulk Hits the Beach

She-Hulk Hits the Beach (2008)

[Click on the image above to see the view with binoculars.]

Busy with her choreographer
and jizzzz on the beach
Zapper breaks it
over Savage Bono. She's going to hit
someone. No complaints
with those bodybuilders and surfboards
but snap me a pic of her
in her one-piece. There's no
justice in any comic book. I hear
Costa Rican sand sifting
inside my iPod. Dab on sunscreen
that blocks tabloid culture.

Fan mob
hit. How compassionate
to flash the green. Impress
the locals.

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Image originally made with Fractal Zplot. Post-processed until it wanted to smash something. Text is half-found "Google poem" collaged together from search strings of she hulk hits the beach.

Tags: fractal, fractals, fractal art, fractal blog, digital art, she-hulk, she hulk hits the beach, her want to smash too, view with binoculars, found poetry, cruelanimal, blog with a view

Chastity Belt

Chastity Belt (2008)

[Click on the image above to see the view with binoculars.]

Locking item
that female wasp spiders
cannot prevent
made of high-grade
fashion.

No quarter
proves no better
than primitive tools
stumbling into a subculture
less high tech.

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Image initially made in QuaSZ. Post-processed until it could no longer reproduce. Text is a "Google poem" collaged from search strings of chastity belt.

Tags: fractal, fractals, fractal art, digital art, poetry, found poetry, chastity belt, view with binoculars, a bit too medieval, cruelanimal, blog with a view

One Life Left

One Life Left (2008)

[Click the image above to see the view wirth binoculars.]

After lunch, and a half hour of reading, we piled into our clean car and drove to a playground at a nearby school. Some pent up energy needed to be released. I sat in the sun and soaked up the spring warmth. I also took many pictures of the children as they swarmed over the equipment. I noticed other children playing, with the ever vigiliant moms watching. I overheard a group of children around the ages of 5 to 9 playing and as they moved to a new jungle gym, one boy fell down and the girl called to the other two boys and said, “He only has one life left and he needs to get to the jungle gym!” If that isn’t straight out of a video or computer game, I don’t know anything. I chuckled to myself at how the times have changed. When we played dead in my childhood, we needed a fairy godmother or some such fantasy to resurrect ourselves.
--Allison Spence

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Something new. Image initially made with Sterling-ware. Post-processed until it landed on its feet.

Tags: fractal, fractals, fractal art, digital art, view with binoculars, one life left, tuna is manna, cruelanimal, blog with a view

Baggage

Baggage (2008)

[Click on the image above to see the view with binoculars.]

Unclaimed luggage
is a train

just as
forwarding reduces hassles
for passengers.

Ticket agents
offer allowances and a variety

of leather.
Dimensions will be screened
with audio. You are

physical with your
incomprehensible question.

Carry on
something more personal
than excess information.

Stupid old bag.
Pick it up or pet it better.

Due to lax security
and high fuel costs your seat
doubles as chum.

All of us with overweight airlines
will carry you off.

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Image made with Fractal Zplot. Post-processed until I just lost it. Text is a "Google poem" pieced together from search strings of baggage.

Tags: fractal, fractals, fractal art, digital art, poetry, found poetry, illustrated poetry. google poem, baggage, view with binoculars, overweight airlines, cruelanimal, blog with a view

Deconstructed Canary

Deconstructed Canary (2008)

[Click on the image above to see the view with binoculars.]

Through an extraordinary highlight
postmodern political debates reassembled.
Icon vaudeville overall. You guys
in old gangster movies get dissected
and remain troubled by failure. Rhinestones
help frame you even when the Justice Department
says nothing. What are you? Yellow?
Even with that microphone? You've given
the world sportswear and strangled parachutes. You have
a cable show. Narrate away
your private history of lost love trifles
and magical realist bullshit.

Further on down the coast
all your public photos and videos are tagged
with see-through critiques. A canary,
less composed but more used,
must be crushed by a magician's cage.

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Something new. Image made with Fractal Zplot. Post-processed until the image collapased just moments before everything caved in. Text is a "Google poem" collaged from search strings of deconstructed canary.

Tags: fractal, fractals, fractal art, poetry, found poetry, google poem, illustrated poetry, view with binoculars, deconstructed canary, chris matthews cave in, cruelanimal, blog with a view

Welcome to Rome 1

Welcome to Rome 1 (2004)

[Click the image above to see the view with binoculars.]

If anything, the national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war in Iraq. The collapse of the administration's rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should have never come as such a surprise. The public should have been made much more aware, before the fact, of the uncertainties, doubts, and caveats that underlay the intelligence about the regime of Saddam Hussein. The administration did little to convey those nuances to the people, the press should have picked up the slack but largely failed to do so because their focus was elsewhere--on covering the march to war, instead of the necessity of war.
--Scott McClellan, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception

Truth never comes into the world but like a bastard, to the ignominy of him that brought her birth.
--John Milton

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Image made with Fractal ViZion. Post-processed until it lied its way into a book contract.

Tags: fractal, fractal art, digital art, poetry, political poetry, illustrated poetry, rome, welcome to rome, view with binoculars, publishing toadies, cruelanimal, blog with a view

Welcome to Rome 3

Welcome to Rome 3 (2004)

[Click on the image above to see the view with binoculars.]

America is no mere international citizen. It is the dominant power in the world, more dominant than any since Rome. Accordingly, America is in a position to reshape norms, alter expectations and create new realities. How? By unapologetic and implacable demonstrations of will.
--Charles Krauthammer, 2-26-01

Look how wrong you can be
--Rod Stewart, "Every Picture Tells a Story"

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Image made with Fractal ViZion. Post-processed until it fell.

Tags: fractal, fractals, fractal art, digital art, poetry, political poetry, illustrated poetry, view with binoculars, rome, welcome to rome, cruelanimal, blog with a view