ARTCAR FEST 2007!!!

ArtCar Fest 2007 Photo by Ken Duffy © 2007


FULL SCHEDULE FOR ARTCAR FEST
SEPTEMBER 27-30, 2007 (SAN FRANCISCO, BERKELEY,
SANTA CRUZ)

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2007 GALA OPENER
(in conjunction with Epic Arts) GET TICKETS!

Join us for an incredible evening at one of the most beautiful places on earth! Enjoy a breathtaking Bay View sunset, live music, delicious cuisine & cocktails, guided Art Car tour, interactive science exhibits, silent auction, and great company! Meet the creators, innovators, and supporters of the East Bay community arts scene. Yes, you can be a part of history, support our programs, help us kickoff ArtCar Fest, and gear up for the "How Berkeley Can You Be!?" Parade and Festival - our biggest event of the year!

On Thursday Sept 27th at sunset we will celebrate our accomplishments and share the vision for the next stage at Epic Arts with a damn good party at the Lawrence Hall of Science in the Berkeley hills above UC Campus. If you've ever been there you know the Bay View sunset is without parallel!

The Sunset Gala & Art Car Fest Kick party will be a one of a kind gathering in an incredible location at the best time of the year! This benefit event will bring together some of the most interesting, entertaining, and visionary movers and shakers in the Bay Area. Over 50 Art Cars will descend on this location from all across the country.

This is the starting line for largest annual gathering of Art Cars in the West! The Art Cars will proceed the next morning to tour throughout the Bay Area for 3 days and return to join us on Sunday at the 12th annual "How Berkeley Can You be Parade & Festival!?", ArtCar Fest's flagship event.

VIP DINNER 7PM-8PM GET TICKETS!


The Gala begins with a very special VIP dinner reception at 7pm. For those who are moved to make this a great night out complete with a fabulous meal, cocktails and other splendid offerings we have Supporter Tickets for the price of a good dinner and a show. We have a limited number of these VIP Dinner Seats available and it is our hope, if you can, that you become part of this very important network of community support that we rely on to continue our work. Please consider taking the opportunity to purchase a ticket for yourself and a guest. Better yet we would be thrilled if you can invite the people in your life who would truly enjoy sharing this special evening with us while supporting a great cause.

OPEN PARTY 8PM-1130PM GET TICKETS!


And of course, in the spirit of a true community celebration we are inviting all our friends, and their friends to join us for a night to remember. At 8pm we will open the doors to everyone who wants to come; at whatever price they can afford. The Science Hall will be open to explore the interactive exhibits . We will be offering hors devores, a full bar, live music, cocktails, art car film clips, silent auction, and a host of interesting people who know how to have a good time!

Here's a clip of me being interviewed by Smithsonian Network from a documentary they did of last year's ArtCar Fest. Click on the word VainVan

And more video from the Yahoo Underground News crew who followed our caravan to Arizona last February.

Please respect the work of the artists you see here and be sure to credit them when you share their artwork with others.

To share your opinion on this or any other post, please click the word "COMMENTS" below.

Right Wing Comes Unglued Over MoveOn Ads

Senate Condemns MoveOn Ad -- Group Hits Back

By Editor and Publisher Staff

Published: September 20, 2007 3:20 PM ET

NEW YORK After the U.S. Senate today easily passed a resolution, with 72 votes, condemning actions by MoveOn.org after its recent "General Betrayus" full-page ad in The New York Times, the activist group has hit back.

In an email to members this afternoon, group leaders declared, "Every day, our brave men and women are dying in a bloody civil war this Senate has done nothing to stop. Yesterday, they couldn't even pass a bill to give soldiers adequate leave with their families before redeploying. But they're spending time cracking down on a newspaper ad?

"So, we're making clear where America stands. We're releasing a statement from MoveOn members—and anyone else who feels the same way—saying, 'We will not be quiet, will fight back. We will keep speaking out until Congress forces an exit plan for this awful war.'" It asked members to follow a link to endorse it.

MoveOn charges that the blowback on the ad is "part of a larger campaign by Fox, the right-wing echo chamber...And it has one purpose: to intimidate all of us. To send a message that anyone who speaks unpleasant truths about this war will pay. To make everyone—especially politicians—think twice before they accuse the administration of lying."

It adds that the resolution, which was backed by many Democrats (but not Sen. Hillary Clinton, with Sen. Barack Obama not voting) "absurdly" claims that MoveOn impugns the honor and integrity of all the members of the United States Armed Force "despite the fact that MoveOn includes hundreds of thousands of veterans and military family members, who've led our campaign to bring our troops home."

President Bush also condemned the group and the ad in a press conference today.

Here's the irony about this entire episode is that MoveOn.org is 100% funded by it's members, people just like me and perhaps you. It is one of the few large, powerful organizations that is speaking for us to those in power. As you can see from the reaction, our leaders STILL aren't hearing our demand that they end this horrible war in Iraq! We must keep at it, until they do!


See the ad paid for by MoveOn members (like myself) about General Patraeus' clean-scrubbed report about conditions in Iraq HERE!

Read about the right wing backlash this ad has created (too bad they aren't outraged about the monstrous war they helped create)

Note which jelly-spined Democrats signed onto this idiotic bill HERE! (Sorry to report that Dianne Feinstein voted yes on this stupid, wasteful, irrelevant, right wing bill!

See the 2nd add funded by MoveOn members attacking Congress for wasting time, precious lives, and resources HERE!

Please sign the MoveOn.org PETITION!

Give your Senators and Representative an earful about the heel-dragging, guilt-shirking, NIMBY behavior they're engaging in. Call them every week until they listen and come November 2008, VOTE THE BUMS OUT!!!

Back From Alaska, More On That Later

For now I have a very interesting video clip from Hardball with Kos of DailyKos and Eli Pariser from MoveOn.org. It's about a hard-hitting ad MoveOn members paid for that ran in the NY Times:

...When September Ends

Green Day

Now, after months of putting the American people off with promises of the all-knowing, all-explaining "Patreaus Report" there apparently won't even be an actual report. From the Washington Times (via Think Progress)

A senior military officer said there will be no written presentation to the president on security and stability in Iraq. "There is no report. It is an assessment provided by them by testimony," the officer said.

The only hard copy will be Gen. Petraeus' opening statement to Congress, scheduled for Monday, along with any charts he will use in explaining the results of the troop surge in Baghdad over the past several months. Full story here.

Yes friends, the Bushies continue their shell game with national security and the Freedom of Information Act. These folks are busily doing their most important task yet destroying evidence of their previous crimes and mistakes, er um I mean putting the finishing touches on Bush's "legacy". Knowing that, how could we possibly expect them to allow General Patreaus (a kow-towing PR hack), to report what's really going on in Iraq? Even this completely compromised flunky can't hide the pile of dead bodies, stolen billions, and escalating violence in that poor country. So, they won't even let him write it down. There will be no evidence for future generations to find. It's all locked down, erased, deleted, and hell, didn't even happen.

















Image Source

The Brits Get It, Why Don't We?

Photo from the UK Ministry of Defence

Yes folks, while our wayward (or is it ass-backwards) President pays a surprise visit to Iraq touting the "success" of his failed military surge (using the doublespeak play book of course) the British have pulled out of Basra to the cheers of the citizens there:

Bush's visit came just hours after British forces slipped out of their last base in the Iraqi oil port of Basra under cover of darkness and handed over control of the base to their Iraqi comrades.

The move came amid heightened tensions between Washington and London, the closest US ally in Iraq, and left behind a city in the grip of a brutal militia turf war. Source

What a difference a new Prime Minister makes eh? Now that Tony (Bush's lapdog) Blair is gone Mr. Gordon Brown is introducing:

...a different style of government, restoring a more serious tone to British politics after the "sofa-style" decision-making of the Blair years.

"It will be very much a more 'get on the with the job' style of government," said Oakley. "There will be a lot of serious purpose."

"People are hopeful there is going to be a change of mood and a change of pace very quickly," Labour lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn, an outspoken critic of Blair and the Iraq war, told Reuters.

"The first priority of Gordon Brown has to be recognizing the disaster of the strategy in Iraq and making plans for the withdrawal of our forces." Source

And gosh darnit he seems to be a man of his word! HOW REFRESHING!

Just think my friends. In just one year, that's 1/6th of the time we've had to put up with the GOP elephant rampage across our Constitution, we will have a new president! But, before we relax our efforts we must make CERTAIN that Mr. Bush and his boss Mr. Cheney are NOT ABLE TO COMPLETE THEIR INTENDED MISSION! That is, we...you, me, our family friends and neighbors, must not allow Bush to pervert the U.S. Congress and American law in order to bomb the sovereign nation of Iran!






















Graphic by Craig Foster

Oh yes, this is indeed their next disastrous plan for the world. It is the next logical step (in their upside down bubble world.) Insane, outrageous, illegal? Yes, but this is their plan and only public awareness and resistance can stop it! The London Times breaks the story:

September 2, 2007 - The Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.

Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for “pinprick strikes” against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military,” he said.

-SNIP-

President George Bush intensified the rhetoric against Iran last week, accusing Tehran of putting the Middle East “under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust”. He warned that the US and its allies would confront Iran “before it is too late”." Source

And if that weren't bad enough, the article goes on to say:

Israel, which has warned it will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, has made its own preparations for air strikes and is said to be ready to attack if the Americans back down." Source

No, we cannot allow this my fellow citizens. We must make our feelings known about this loudly and clearly to our Congressional representatives, to our media, and to those few doubting Americans still drinking Bush's Koolaid. Start writing!

Contact Congress: HERE!

Write to the media: HERE!

Please respect the work of the artists you see here and be sure to credit them when you share their artwork with others.

To share your opinion on this or any other post, please click the word "COMMENTS" below.