White House Christmas Tree and Copyright...

Spent an excellent week home in Milwaukee for Christmas, which included a visit to the MAM. Didn't go through the Warhol special exhibit (ends Sunday, focuses on his Catholicism, go see it) because we saw it in October, but we walked through the extra Pop Art they borrowed for the occasion and stared for awhile at the Mao silkscreens. They look sort of like this image of Mao from the White House Christmas Tree:



The cover article of the November issue of ARTNews was about Warhol and his current popularity on consumer products. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts owns his copyrights; you have to get a license from them to use his images. They approve just about every request--perfume, chocolate, snowboards, condoms--but according to the article "the foundation rigorously guards against unauthorized use of copyrights and trademarks" and "legal actions have been periodically initiated against offenders."

So did the "artist" (sneer quotes) who contributed this derivative work to the White House Christmas Tree--they didn't even alter it, they just decoupaged it on a ball--get permission from the Foundation to use Warhol's work? I'm not insinuating anything, but I want to know. Because I'm pretty sure "the glory of Barack Obama" isn't covered under "fair use"--see Associated Press vs. Shepard Fairey. They charge "nominal fees" for "educational and creative purposes" but they do expect you to get their permission before using their property in your own art. Which is fair, and supported by copyright law.

I'm not a fan of copyrights lasting for generations after the creator's death, but the Foundation donates its money to artists, art programs, and museums, and I AM a fan of those things being supported solely by private entities instead of tax dollars.

Yeah, I know, this pales next to all the unConstitutional garbage the White House is orchestrating, but given that people who describe themselves as "artists" are overwhelmingly Obamaphiles...they need to know they're just tools of this megalomaniacal bastard and his pals. If they'll countenance stealing from icons, stealing from you is easy-peasy. (Thanks for nothing, Ovoters!)

I question the timing...

Friday, David Paterson ordered a "review"* of New York's contracts with ACORN.

Saturday night, the NY Times reports Obama wants Paterson to refrain from running for election. Cites Deval Patrick-esque approval numbers, without mentioning either Deval Patrick's fail or Obama's own plummeting approval.

Timing aside, I wonder who Good King Barack was planning on appointing to the governorship**? And why hasn't anyone told him that's not how it works in this country?


* My assumption was that he asked for someone to generate some paperwork to wave at TV cameras so it looks like he's doing something, with no intention of an actual investigation, because that would be political suicide for a Democrat governor of any race.

** No way it's Hillary, not after exiling her to Africa and appointing commissars to do work traditionally under the Sec. of State's purview.

Cyberthreats to Air Traffic Control

Came across this, dated last month, while looking up something else at work today:

Federal investigators were able to hack into an air traffic control tower, weather systems and traffic flow management computers as part of a wide-ranging cyber security audit of the US FAA's air traffic control infrastructure.

Yeah. GREAT.

I had no idea critical safety systems were linked to the Internet at large; and I feel like I incorrectly intimated that there were no electronic terrorists threats in my post last week. My apologies; I've been doing more reading than posting lately, and it looks like I need to do even more reading.

There's scary stuff out there, but Obama's proposal to give an appointed bureaucrat access to every privately-owned network in America (and to tell private enterprises what software they can and can't have installed by only bureaucrat-approved geeks) is still fascistically bad and wrong. And I stand by my assessment that Obama's not interested in protecting critical infrastructure that can be accessed via meatspace (even more so after this morning's "America sucks" speech to the "Muslim world"), and even less interested in improving "technology education" by insisting progenitors* actually care for their own damn children instead of leaving it to the state.

The ATC security audit was requested by Republicans John Mica and Tom Petri (WI-6). I find that interesting.

* I'm trying to distinguish between actual parents, and the people who fuck a baby into being but don't let it cramp their sex-and/or-drugs party lifestyle, then all of a sudden when they can't read in eighth grade or get arrested shortly thereafter get pissed at "the schools" or "the system" for "not teaching them right." Because I'm like that.

Torture...

Who believes any of those children actually want to meet Joe Biden? Seriously?

I'm skipping the monthly lecture to the serfs--technical difficulties, mein Führer, the rabbit ears seem to have been disconnected...

Kathy Shaidle: "Difference between Obama blathering on and on, and waterboarding, is that waterboarding gave us important information..."

Huh.

Newton's really changed since the last time I drove through central Iowa. I don't remember any sort of mountains there...



No word on whether or not Obama apologized to the Newtonians for not speaking Canadian.

UPDATE: Sweet Michelle's biceps, it gets worse:

Yeah, this grinds...

Victor Davis Hanson, on Obama bad-mouthing America to the European heads of state:

A modest suggestion: from now on, every president who wishes to go abroad and review all his lesser citizens' collective past and present sins, with accompanying apologies — to applause from foreigners — must first, in the spirit of New Testament atonement, review his own regrettable transgressions.

...although I have no idea why he thinks America is uniquely "guilty", besides his sheer ignorance (Heather hat Schadenfreude weil sie kann mehr Österreichish sprechen dann Barry*). I guess they don't teach European history in America anymore, but you'd think in the time he was growing up in Indonesia, someone might have mentioned the Dutch.

It's the 21st Century...no one alive in the U.S. today has been a slave, with the following exceptions that "progressives" do not care about: women and children smuggled over the border to work in the sex trade, illegal immigrants trapped in sweatshops to "pay off" their smugglers, and children forced to perform "mandatory volunteerism" to obtain the junior high or high school diploma formerly seen as their free right. So let's get on with it already.

* I make no claims to proper grammar/word order. My respect for people who learn English as an adult--especially if their native language wasn't in the same Indo-European family--has soared since I started trying to learn Deutsch. It physically hurts trying to figure out where to put prepositions when you've done it a different way your whole life...

Retweets.

Well, BHO suggested that we all needed to learn another language, maybe learning "Austrian" is what he meant.

(Reference.)

Aren't you glad we FINALLY have a SMART PRESIDENT? Good grief.

"Even flushing yourself down the toilet of history is trickier than it looks."

Literal bathroom reading at Radishhof--Mark Steyn's NR piece on the death of Europe and the Europeanization of America is now online.

Key graf:

When the state “gives” you plenty – when it takes care of your health, takes cares of your kids, takes care of your elderly parents, takes care of every primary responsibility of adulthood – it’s not surprising that the citizenry cease to function as adults...

But of course, you must read the whole thing for the delightful Steynian prose that induces snickers amidst the gloom.

Travel.

I caught the tail end of this today (the AM band in my rental car was already tuned to the station that aired Rush--convenient!) on the way to an airport.

LEVIN: The statist creates nothing. The food Obama has was created by capitalism. The suit that he wears when he does these press conferences, he can thank capitalism, not a single bureaucrat. The car that he drives or that's driven for him -- the helicopter, the jet he takes -- all of it is a creation of capitalism.

RUSH: The teleprompter.

Did not drive off the road.

Changed flights at DTW, which smelled like a yak soaked in dog piss--I assume a fault in the climate control, since I can't find any news articles about shaggy bovines loose in a terminal--and featured stadium-sized screens of Airport CNN, which seemed to have Dear Leader's stand-up routine on a loop. There were smaller screens everywhere except the ladies' room. I finally found a dank corner where the screens were too far away to read the text--and the sound was being piped out of a speaker directly above my head. Thank God I had earplugs.

The young man seated next to me on my flight into MKE was a member of the WI National Guard returning home after graduating from basic training. He seemed tired, so I did not pester him with too much chat. His wife met him at the baggage claim and they were adorable. Heartening, somehow.

Dreams from my TelePrompter

*laugh*

I made a bitchy comment over at Ace of Spades yesterday about Barry O is getting half a million dollars so someone can abridge a book with his name on it (I'm sure the House of Representatives won't demand he send 90% of it to the Treasury, either...), which memed around the Intertubes until Mock Barack! created an excellent mockup of the cover:


Conservative bloggers are hereby given express written permission to use the phrase as they see fit; late-night liberal "comedians" need to send a check first. Heh.

Wig tucked behind the ears for the win...

Gary Varvel.

In which I lack understanding.

Everything “unacceptable” about the last 8 years is now “acceptable.”

I'm also wondering why the hell Barry O's vow to "halve the deficit in four years" is a masterstroke of leadership when he signed a bill tripling it just last week. Even Nigerian bank account scams aren't that obvious.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

Gary Varvel is having a caption contest. I've got nothing "suitable for a family newspaper"...except Lucy's usual "That'll be five cents."

Hrm...

In the spirit of fairness, I note that Obama "rejected his transportation secretary’s suggestion that the administration consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive instead of how much gasoline they buy."

Good call.

But don't forget, Obama changes positions more often than Jenna Jameson (Jamison? I'm not going to Google to check the spelling, I'm trying to eat breakfast). Also, he objects to the tax-on-mileage, not to GPS units in private vehicles reporting to the government (hmm...why aren't there GPS units in government-owned vehicles, as a means to prevent/prosecute government employees abusing public resources?).

And individual states are still considering the scheme.

Giant Puppet Head!

Photos of protesters in Arizona. Some good stuff, some Ronulans, some vulgarity...

And a giant Obama puppet head!

I get a kick out of the Giant Heads of Mockery.

Speaking of puppet heads, when I was at the gym this morning, I caught an ad (in the middle of CNN's "100 Glorious Days of the Obamamessiah" feature) that replayed footage from His stupid two-minute campaign ad about the economy and encouraged us to call the White House and thank Him for signing the porkulus bill and saving all our jobs. Uh...um...uh...WHAT? It's been TWO DAYS. Not to mention I got laid off three days after the coronation...

The "paid for by" print was too small for me to read from where I was, and I'm not giving anyone the satisfaction of a YouTube search/view, so I'm hoping to read about it somewhere, because I have this sick feeling that the 2012 campaign has started already.

Victor Davis Hanson:

Bush was pilloried for supposedly hyping al-Qaeda in order to create a security state. Obama trumped that by proclaiming that the present recession is a catastrophe, a disaster, a Great Depression. He ceased his scare-mongering only when he had exhausted the vocabulary of doom. “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” bragged Rahm Emanuel, reminding us that the envisioned Obama socialism could take root only if a climate of fear was created.

...and it worked.

Where's the band? The Titanic had a band...

Oh boy.

Obama is switching "troops already gearing up to go to Iraq" to Afghanistan. Not as many as the U.S. Commander in Afghanistan requested, of course; listening to the guys on the ground requires a soupçon of humility.

Never too late to surrender, is it? Has he had dinner with Emperor Akihito yet?

I'm surprised it took this long.

Dissent is no longer patriotic.

Will there even be a United States of America by the time we get a chance to vote this asshole out?

"plastic President"

No need to bother watching it on television--it's already happening at Legoland in California. Looks like they put a little more effort into it than they did in 2001.

Poor Oprah, watching her man forlornly from afar. I can't tell if she's expecting or having a serious underwardrobe malfunction.

Ooooh.

Saul Alinsky's Rule 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.

Make your own here.