I've Got the Pwr

(Thanks, Danette!)

Electronic Voting: Command Central

There's an excellent article by the Wisconsin Citizens Media Co-op about one of the major suppliers of electronic voting technology in Wis., Command Central:

Forty-six Wisconsin counties and 3,000 voting machines are being controlled by a two-person company operating out of a strip mall in Minnesota.

* * * * *
In his report of his experience with the November 2010 gubernatorial election for Scott Walker, John Washburn, an election integrity investigator and professional software tester for almost 20 years, states, “I have been to dozens of voting system test sessions and have never seen any of this faux ‘testing’ actually test the voting system software correctly. This is the professional opinion of a software tester testing software since 1994.”

* * * * *
Last September, Election Integrity investigators discovered that . . . Command Central sent those 46 districts an offer: trade out your old Optech Insight Scanner for two DRE Touch Screen models, at no charge. The Optech machine is the one that paper ballots are fed through to read and register the votes.

While these machines are also susceptible to hacking . . . it is possible to physically monitor the paper ballots as they are fed through the machine to see if they match the machine totals.

With DRE Touch Screens, however, one’s vote could be flipped and one would never know because there is no receipt or paper trail voters receive to confirm their vote was counted as voted. . . .

And according to John Washburn, this swap-out two-for-one offer violates the statutes issued by the GAB for State approved system as described on the Government Accountability Board’s website that requires the inclusion of an Optech Insight Scanner.

On January 13, 2012, Washburn emailed the GAB about this situation. When he did not receive an answer, he submitted an Open Records request to the GAB, with no reply. On May 2, he submitted another, again to no response. On May 4, he turned the case over to Dane County Attorney, and on May 14 he kicked it up to the Department of Justice.

Much more at the link. Similar situations now exist not only in other states but around the world.

(Earlier companies supplying electronic voting technologies, such as Diebold and ES&S, are gone, or at least their names are.)

Political Art Month

From San Antonio artist, Gene Elder:

Due to the high survellance of Texas artists, Political Art Month has been cancelled. The revolution will not be televised.

It has come to our attention that "political art will not be tolerated in a free society."

All artists have been notified that their art making activities will be monitored. And any art that is upsetting to City Hall or the government of the United States will be shut down and the gallery will be told to close.

"Most artists are fine with this" says Beth Ann Forlet, "We have better things to do as artists than worry about what is going on in the world. San Antonio artists don't get involved in this nonsense. Crafts fairs are what we want, along with more fund raisers at Blue Star. I adore RED DOT. You get to meet people and the food is wonderful. Everyone has a good time. That is what an art community should be focused on. I like going to the McNay because it takes me away from thinking about war and Wall Street. Gene Elder and David Freeman are just wasting their time trying to get artists involved. I hope they have stopped with this silly idea that July should be concerned with political art. I hate when artists think they are important."

Political Art Month 2011!

No theme's been announced yet (not that anyone need feel bound to stick to one). For more on PAM, see my previous post.

My own suggestion for a theme is, Infowar as Class War. In particular, art has been and is being used to promote the interests and agendas of both rich and poor; and lately, the rich seem to be winning. Forget post-post-modernism; we seem to have entered post-reality. What to do? (More on the current infowar here.)

To get in the mood for PAM, see other artists' and art professionals' written responses to last year's PAM announcement here; they're funny as well as inspiring.

And let PAM's founder, Gene Elder, know what you're planning for PAM, at elder4tomato at yahoo dot com.

Here We Are Now, Entertain Us

From xkcd.

Ditto re- net neutrality et al.

If Only We, Anonymous, Act.

Use your freedom today, or lose it tomorrow.

Political Art Month: July, 2011

The theme's just been announced by Gene Elder of the MUD Underground: Homeland Aesthetics.

H*ll, yeah – less "security theater"; more real theater! (And other arts.)



Speaking of security theater . . .



But wait'll DHS greases them!

Fun; and Circuitous Mental Profit re- Wikileaks

When I was 14, my parents couldn't stand that my chores (making my bed, washing the dishes, doing the laundry, dusting, and vacuuming, taking out the trash, mowing and trimming our thick, 2/3-acre lawn using a heavy, non-self-propelled mower and hand shears, re-painting all the shutters on the house plus a picnic table, bench, etc.) did not completely take up all my free time; and I was too young to be legally, gainfully employed. So they enrolled me in a typing course, and for the duration, I rode my bike to class each week day.

The ride was 4 miles each way and included an extremely large hill. The area had been under a glacier, which might have scraped the land flat on its way in but left gigantic mounds when it melted. I never made it up this one without having to walk my bike up the last 10 - 20 yards.

I managed not to resist learning to type entirely; but engraved more deeply on my mind was an idea: that "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country."

We were told that typing those particular letters in that particular order involved the most difficult typing movements, so we practiced it, to improve our agility and speed. The sentiment was probably also thought helpful as an inspiration to young citizens.

Now, of course, we're just urged to shop.

Back then, my country certainly needed help, but I was too young and oblivious to feel personally called. But on some level, I understood that the time might come.

Re- the video below, there's a beyond-urgent need for Julian's stylist; but it's worth the visual torture for the info/ideas – it's jam-packed (pardon the pun) – and for the spoof on Alex Jones, plus lines such as "Obama must get firm grip on Wikitits."



If you appreciated the sentiment near the end, you may also like:

Let’s do something, while we have the chance! It’s not every day that we are needed. . . . Let us make the most of it before it is too late!
– Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (1949; emphasis supplied)

Or as Hamlet said, "the readiness is all."

This evening when I went out with friends, I brought 100 copies of this flyer with me. I returned home with about 25% of them. About 80% of the people I'd offered them to seemed glad to have them.

Here's another idea. Let's slip the word, "Wikileaks" into our everyday conversation, for no reason, without explanation, and on a regular basis.

More fun: Assange on The Colbert Report last spring.

"Kettling," a.k.a. containment or corralling, is a police tactic for the management of crowds during demonstrations or protests.

More on "kettling" at Wikipedia.

Mel Chin's "Fundred Dollar Bill" Project

You may remember the first pic, right, from my 2008 post on Prospect.1 New Orleans.

What I should also have mentioned is that this "safe house," created by artist Mel Chin, was the launching pad for a massive art project, Operation Paydirt, in which we're all invited to collaborate.

Chin visited New Orleans after Katrina and learned that not only had the city been decimated by the disaster, but thousands of its kids were struggling with severe learning disabilities and behavioral problems because dangerous levels of lead had been allowed to accumulate in the local soil. He discovered that lead contamination is pervasive in many U.S. cities, and he determined to do something about it.

Chin developed a template that can be used to make "FUNdred Dollar Bills," and using this template, kids and others across the nation have created thousands of unique artworks and sent them to Chin's collaborative. Their goal is to amass three million FUNdred bucks by the end of the 2010-2011 school year and deliver them by armored truck to Congress, to help bring attention to the problem.

They want you to become part of the collaborative by making and contributing your own Fundred buck(s). You can download the template and find lots more info here, including where to send your bucks.

We included the template in the Non-Profit Margin exhibition at CentralTrak, as one of several examples of socially-engaged, participatory art projects in the vein contemplated by Temporary Services' ART WORK newspaper, and we solicited people to make and contribute their own FUNdred Dollar Bills. You can see a few more examples here (the two shown in this post are by Gabe Dawe and moi).

Please consider making this a project for your family, students, or drinking buddies. Here's a video about Operation Paydirt:

US Prohibits Photography Within 65 Feet of Spill's Effects

I'm kidding, right? But this isn't per The Onion, but CNN:



As Cooper explains, the rule seems to have no reasonable relation to safety. Guess we didn't realize the "Constitution-Free Zone" extends into surrounding waters.

Meanwhile, the AP just reported US Sec. of State Hillary Clinton's statement last Saturday that "[i]ntolerant governments across the globe are 'slowly crushing' activist and advocacy groups that play an essential role in the development of democracy . . . ." She cited Venezuela et al.; but see my previous post (and you can find the AP's story here.)

Mark Your Calenders: "ART WORK" in Dallas

. . . a conversation about art, labor, and economics.

A series of events will be presented relating to the newspaper issue, ART WORK, published by the Chicago-based collective, Temporary Services, on the subject of how hard economic times affect artistic process and compensation and how artists respond in their own and others' behalf. The series is produced through a collaboration among S.M.U.'s Michael Corris and Noah Simblist, U.T.D./CentralTrak's Kate Sheerin, and Carolyn Sortor.

Exhibition at U.T.D.'s CentralTrak: "The Non-Profit Margin"
Where: 800 Exposition Ave. at Ash, Dallas, TX
When: Opening Sat., May 22, 6:00 - 10:00 pm; exhibition through July 24

Works that confront the global economic crisis by challenging the avenues for exhibition and consumption of art and the art experience, by Richie Budd, Gary Farrelly, Thomas Riccio and Frank Dufour, Ludwig Schwarz, Marjorie Schwarz, give up, and Temporary Services. The ART WORK corridor will also include materials on works and/or writings by Gregory Sholette, Harrell Fletcher, Liam Gillick, Not an Alternative, Mel Chin, Lize Mogel, Maria Lind, Research and Destroy, Robert Projansky and Seth Siegelaub, W.A.G.E., Michael Corris, Hollis Frampton, Don Celender, and Julius Getman. The opening reception will also include "Son of Trunk Show," presented by Shelby Cunningham and featuring eight other artists. Organized by CentralTrak Director Kate Sheerin and Carolyn Sortor. Gallery hours Wed. - Sat., noon - 5:00 pm.

Symposum at S.M.U.: "ART WORK: A Local Conversation About Art, Labor, and Economics"
Where: O’Donnell Hall in Owen Arts Center, on Hillcrest at Grenada, Dallas, TX (FREE PARKING in the "U-Lot" just south of Owen Arts Center)
When: Sat., June 12, 1:00 - 5:00 pm

A symposium on how cultural workers have responded to depressed economies past and present and the aesthetic contexts for Temporary Services' ART WORK project. The symposium is co-sponsored by S.M.U. and U.T.D.'s CentralTrak. Speakers will include Michael Corris, Chair of the Div. of Art at SMU's Meadows School of the Arts; New York-based artist Maureen Connor; artist Bryce Dwyer of the Chicago collective inCUBATE; Marc Herbst, co-Editor of The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest; and Brent Brown of bcWORKSHOP. A panel discussion with the speakers, moderated by Noah Simblist, associate prof. of art at SMU's Meadows School, will follow. Free parking in the "U Lot" just south of the building.

Program at CentralTrak: "ART WORK: Readings"
Where: 800 Exposition Ave. at Ash, Dallas, TX
When: Sat., June 19, 7:30 - 10:00 pm

Readings of excerpts from ART WORK, including history, fiction, autobio, and other writings by Temporary Services, Artforum writer Gregory Sholette, artist Nicolas Lampert, author Cooley Windsor, writer Brian Holmes, "Anonymous," and others. Support for actors' fees is provided by Undermain Theatre; organized by Carolyn Sortor. Doors open at 7:30; program starts at 8:00 pm.

For more info, see the facebook page for "Temporary Services "Art Work" in Dallas." You can also download a complete copy of the newsprint issue here. There's also more info and links re- Temporary Services and the ART WORK issue/project here.

UPDATE: For a review of the exhibition at CentralTrak, see Art Lies. For visuals of the exhibition, see here; for visuals of the symposium, see here; and for visuals of the readings program, see here (thanks to everyone for turning out!) To "like" the ART WORK in dallas series on Facebook, go here. For some of my reasons for instigating this project, see here.

A flashmob infiltrates the Westin St. Francis hotel in San Francisco in support of a boycott called by the hotel workers, who are fighting to win a fair contract and affordable healthcare:

Ideas for Activists:

If you're heterosexual, refuse to be married, 'til gays can be.

If you oppose our (the U.S.'s or whoever's) perpetual wars, wear something with blood on it every day.

The Barriers Have Been Lowered

Googletv.ads: for $100, you can put an ad up on a national network and reach 100,000 people.

"Amazingly, our ad aired 7 times during Glen Beck episodes."

UR Union of the Unemployed

. . . a.k.a. "UCubed":

. . . The idea is that if millions of jobless join together and act as an organization, they are more likely to get Congress and the White House to provide the jobs that are urgently needed. They can also apply pressure for health insurance coverage, unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits and food stamps. An unemployed worker is virtually helpless if he or she has to act alone.

Joining a Cube is as simple as it is important. (Please check the union web site: www.unionofunemployed.com). Six people who live in the same zip code address can form a Ucube. Nine such UCubes make a neighborhood. Three neighborhood UCubes form a power block that contains 162 activists. Politicians cannot easily ignore a multitude of power blocks, nor can merchants avoid them.

The union is built from the ground up. Cube activists will select their own leadership in each cube, neighborhood, block and higher group as well.

More at DailyKos.

Dallas County Primaries

We can't elect the officials we need if we don't get them on the ticket to begin with. We need to inform ourselves about party candidates and vote in the primaries (I admit I've been remiss in this dept.; but no more).

In Dallas County, the next primary is March 2. Early voting has already begun and continues through Feb. 26. Find your early voting locations here.

For what it's worth, among the Dems, I strongly endorse Ronnie Earle for lieutenant governor. Please contact me if you'd like recs re- the other offices.

Feds Claim Right to Kill US Citizens on US Soil if Suspected of "Terrorism" -- Seriously

Per ABC News, "The director of national intelligence affirmed rather bluntly today that the U.S. intelligence community has authority to target American citizens for assassination if they present a direct terrorist threat . . ." (emphasis supplied; full story at the foregoing link).

To repeat: The U.S. government has arrogated to itself the right to deprive you of your life (let alone liberty or property) without due process of law, if an unidentified authority says they think you "present" a "terrorist" threat.

They are not talking about a situation in which you are actually, presently threatening anyone – e.g., if you were actually pointing a weapon at someone, or holding someone hostage – because in that case, they would have the right to kill you anyway.

No, they are talking about assassinating you ahead of time, because someone says they think you're planning something like that.

So, the entirety of the U.S. is apparently now a Constitution-free zone.

Motion to Amend

Corporations have gone after our tax dollars, our jobs, our schools, our military, our voting machines, our infrastructure, our food, and our future. And

"[o]n January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government."

"Don’t just sit there and fume. . . . "

The Supreme Court's ruling was simply stunning on many levels. Regardless of whether it was correct, however, it is urgent that we get our brains around the issues involved and act quickly to prevent the final destruction of our democracy otherwise heralded by this decision.

Sign a petition, for starters, and learn what else you can do here. Wikipedia has a rough summary of some of the issues here.

C.A.R.T.E.L.

Feeling like your little artists' collective could use some "too-big-to-fail"?

Many years in the making, New York City-based 16 Beaver Group announced today the initiation of a complex multiyear process that will produce the largest global merger of arts and politics collectives known to date. Critics immediately attacked the move as being, “out of touch with recent developments in art and economics.” But the group argued at their press conference that the new mega-art collective, which will use the acronym C.A.R.T.E.L. (the group did not specify what each letter stands for), will soon be ready to compete within the current monopolistic anti-marketplace. C.A.R.T.E.L. plans to bring to a politicized cultural community a significant share of the benefits enjoyed by the recent slew of mega-mergers, also known as rescues, such as the few and well subsidized surviving banks that have risen from the ashes of the economic meltdown.

How about "Conglomerated ARTists of Every Leaning"? At any rate, count me in.

More at Art Work (via Temporary Services; see previous post here). To join C.A.R.T.E.L., e-mail cartel@16beavergroup.org.