Why Didn't I Think of That?

An entertaining and cheeky music video by the Franco-American band.

These clever folks offer a wink at art history as band members playfully reconstruct famous paintings in an off the wall lyrical interpretation all their own.

Murray Hill Incorporated is Running for Congress!

Until now, corporations only influenced politics with high-paid lobbyists and backroom deals. But today, thanks to an enlightened Supreme Court, Corporations now have all the rights the founding fathers meant for us.

That's why Murray Hill Incorporated is taking democracy's next step - running for Congress.

“Let’s Franchise Democracy!” Franchise Opportunity Here.

National Icon "Granny D" dies at 100

NOTE: Late last Sumer (2009), I was able to arrange for Doris "Granny D"Haddock to sit for me. She is to be my first portrait in the new series I 'm planning, entitled, "People who Tell The Truth."

It was a fun shoot. She was feeling good and feisty that day and wore her infamous hat. One of these pictures is posted below.

I am so grateful to have these reference photos and I am sorry that Doris won't be here to see the result. I like the quote below and may letter it into her portrait.

- Karin

“You have the power of one,” she said. “And if you use it for something that’s bigger than you are, people will come.”

- Granny D



Granny D also understood and supported our efforts to spread the Truth of 9/11.

Doris “Granny D” Haddock died peacefully today in her Dublin, New Hampshire family home at 7:18 p.m. Tuesday, March 9, 2010. She was 100 years old. Born in 1910 in Laconia, New Hampshire, she attended Emerson College and lived through two world wars and the Great Depression.

She was an activist for her community and for her country, remaining active until the return of chronic respiratory problems four days ago.

She walked across the United States at the age of 90 in the year 2000, in a successful effort to promote the passage of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act.

In 2004, Granny D decided to challenge incumbent Senator Judd Gregg for his US Senate seat. She hoped to demonstrate that ordinary people can run for office and win with the support of small donations from individuals.

Despite a shortened, grassroots campaign without the benefit of any advertising dollars, Granny D garnered an impressive 34% of the vote. During the past year five years, Granny D has traveled the country speaking about campaign finance reform and working on behalf of legislation for publicly-funded elections in New Hampshire.

In the 1960s, she and her husband, James Haddock, Sr., were instrumental in halting planned nuclear tests that would have destroyed a native fishing village and region in Alaska.

The following was written in The Keene Sentinel. Wednesday, March 10, 2010:

DUBLIN, NH — Doris Haddock of Dublin, who walked across the country at age 90 to promote campaign finance reform and later waged a quixotic campaign for U.S. Senate, has died. She was 100.

Haddock died Tuesday of chronic respiratory illness at her home in Dublin, said spokeswoman and family friend Maude Salinger. She was surrounded by her son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

In 2000, Haddock walked 3,200 miles to draw attention to campaign finance reform. In 2004, at age 94 and bolstered by her new notoriety, she ran for the U.S. Senate against Republican Judd Gregg.

The subtitle of her autobiography, written with Dennis Burke, was “You’re Never Too Old to Raise a Little Hell.”

“Her age wasn’t a factor in what she did,” Salinger said. “She never gave up. Until the end, she advocated for public funding. She would have wanted people to know that democracy and government belongs to us.”

Haddock was true to her cause right up until her death.

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in January to ease limits on corporate campaign contributions, she fired back:

“The Supreme Court, representing a radical fringe that does not share the despair of the grand majority of Americans, has today made things considerably worse by undoing the modest reforms I walked for and went to jail for, and that tens of thousands of other Americans fought very hard to see enacted. ...

“The Supreme Court now opens the floodgates to usher in a new tsunami of corporate money into politics.”

In an interview with The Sentinel near the time of her 100th birthday, in January, Haddock said every month she continued to get hundreds of e-mails and letters from supporters around the world.

The HBO documentary “Run Granny Run,” which chronicled her cross-country walk, helped to fuel her cause and her legend.

Many told her she inspired them to stand up for something they believe in.

She printed the e-mails and kept them in a thick folder in her bedroom, she said.

She spent several hours a day on her computer, tracking campaign finance reform measures across the country, writing speeches and newspaper columns editorials on the subject and responding to e-mails from her fans.

She walked regularly — a mile or two several days a week — a practice she credited for helping to keep her young.

Haddock said her passion for taking big money out of politics at the state and federal levels helped her to keep going.

Doing so, she said, would bring true democracy to the country. That’s a legacy she longed to leave behind for her 16 great-grandchildren.

“I’ve been working on it for 10 years,” she said in January. “It will mean that anyone can run for office if they have the will and the guts.”

“But today, it costs so much to run for office, and it’s costing more and more all the time, and there are very few people who have the money to do it. They have to get it and they get it from special interests or from corporations.”

Haddock was born Jan. 24, 1910, in Laconia and attended Emerson College before marrying James Haddock. She later worked at a local shoe company for 20 years.

She spent a decade caring for her husband after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He died in 1993.

After retiring in 1972, Haddock became more active in community affairs.

In 1997, Haddock began to get involved with the cause that would become her life’s mission. She became interested in campaign finance reform after the defeat of the first attempt of Sens. John McCain and Russ Feingold to remove unregulated “soft” money from campaigns in 1995.

She gathered more than 100,000 signatures for a petition in support of the McCain-Feingold bill.

But a year later, disappointed with the response from her local representatives, the 89-year-old decided to begin training for a walk across the country as a champion for the cause.

Inspiration for her cross-country trek came from the Tuesday Morning Academy, a group of women in Dublin who met every Tuesday at 8 a.m. to do ballet exercises and discuss world affairs.

Her walk began Jan. 1, 1999, in Los Angeles and, 3,200 miles later, she arrived in Washington D.C., trailed by a crowd of about 2,200 supporters.

Covering about 10 miles a day, Haddock walked through more than 1,000 miles of desert, climbed the Appalachian Range in blizzard conditions and even skied 100 miles after snowfall made roadside walking impossible. She started in near-obscurity, but soon was discovered by local and national media.

The response from people along the way was one of the things she’ll always remember from the walk, Haddock said. “I had no money,” she said. “I walked as a pilgrim across the states.

“I walked until given shelter. I fasted until given food.”

And she shared her message with anyone who would listen, Haddock said.

“I stopped at every dog fight, any place, just so that my name is known and my name means public funding of elections,” she said. “It’s got to come. It’s going to.”

Burke, who co-wrote Haddock’s memoir, met Haddock as she walked through Arizona on her way to Washington.

“Doris was one of the youngest people I have ever known. She was a little kid about her country — so in love she was with it and so excited for it always,” he said early today.

In 2004, Haddock jumped into the Senate race on the last day to file after the presumptive Democratic nominee dropped out when his campaign manager was accused of financial fraud. A few months before the election, she officially changed her name to “Granny D,” but stressed that the “D” stood for “Doris,” not her party affiliation.

On Election Day, Judd Gregg won. But Haddock still saw the 34 percent of the vote she captured as a victory.

“I wasn’t going to just let him have it without giving a fight,” she said.

Mark Fernald, a former state senator and a Sharon resident who practices law in Peterborough, said Granny D was a woman of remarkable poise and commitment, which made it easy for people to naturally be drawn to her.

“She was genuine,” Fernald said this morning. “She had a way about her, and people liked her. She was out to tell her story; she didn’t put people down, she didn’t lecture, she talked about what she believed in and why we needed this change (campaign finance reform) to change our country.”

In recent years, she founded a group that pushed the state Legislature to create the Citizen Funded Election Task Force and attended the task force’s weekly meetings. She was honored at a Statehouse ceremony in January to mark her 100th birthday.

She was working on a new book, “My Bohemian Century,” which focuses on her college days and her Senate campaign and is expected to be published this spring. Haddock had stayed with Burke’s family in Phoenix last month to complete work on it, he said.

“Two things that people might not know, but should,” Fernald said, “she was a marvelous writer and speaker, and she wrote all her own stuff. And it was good. She really thought very deeply about what it meant to be an American, to live in a democracy. She’d get up there, and make these speeches, at age 88, 90, 92, and she never wore reading glasses.

“In some ways, she seemed like she was ageless — the mind of a 25 year old, the eyes of a 35 year old ... and the legs of a 40 year old.”

In the book’s dedication, Haddock offers readers advice: “You have to keep the young adventurer inside your heart alive long enough for it to someday re-emerge. It may take some coaxing and some courage, but that person is in you always — never growing old.”

In February, “Sources of Strength: Granny D at 100” was published. The book focuses on how she’s managed to live such a long and active life and includes the text of several of her speeches.

Both Democrats and Republicans offered condolences Tuesday night.

“Her commitment to fair and open democracy should inspire us all to work even harder for reform,” state Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley.

“We are always saddened when someone with a genuine commitment to their values and principles passes away,” said Republican Party Chairman John H. Sununu. “Granny D was an unwavering advocate for her beliefs, and her tireless efforts inspired many Granite Staters to participate in our political process,” he said.

Haddock told The Sentinel in January that she hopes her legacy will transcend politics.

“You have the power of one,” she said. “And if you use it for something that’s bigger than you are, people will come.”

Dear Readers,

I've gotten so many letters of concern from you all – thank you. I want to assure you that I haven't quit painting nor do I intend to abandon this blog.

But something huge shifted in my thinking....and it was because of a portrait I painted.

I wrote the letter to the editor of my local newspaper (below) and it's been crazy around my studio ever since. My focus has been on learning and sharing information about what really happened on 9/11 and it ate up a lot of time and energy.

In the eyes of some, this has trashed my reputation and my career - telling the Truth isn't easy - but if I am to live with myself, I have to do this.

I've been putting this information on yet another blog: http://nhtruth.blogspot.com Please check it out and use the index in the right-hand column.

So how does this relate to my art? This has been the tough part to figure out for sure.

So far my plan is to begin working on a series of portraits entitled “People Who Tell The Truth.” Stay tuned and I'll explain as I continue.

Meanwhile here is my Letter to the Editor I wrote that started it all:

Letter to the Editor of the Keene Sentinel:

I am a portrait artist, and my world radically shifted when I was hired to paint a young woman who died in the WTC North Tower on 9/11/01. Her image captured my heart and I couldn’t rest until I learned more about why and how she died.

I had never before considered the possibility that 9/11 was an inside job. It was easy to ignore those nagging rumors that the three buildings collapsed as a result of controlled demolition. But as I began to read, the “official” story made less and less sense.

When I finally saw the scientific evidence of controlled demolition, I was shocked. Since then I’ve heard credible eyewitnesses and whistleblowers speaking out – but the media isn’t listening and doesn’t report.

The major problem I have found in talking about 9/11 is that most people simply refuse to examine the evidence.

It is understandable – but not acceptable – that they prefer to ignore those things that disturb a comfortable view of reality. It is hard for anybody to question deeply held beliefs – even when all evidence clearly shows that belief to be mistaken.

In my efforts to spread the truth of 9/11, I have joined “Vote for Answers NH.org” and am seeking signatures on a petition to ask our town to call for a new and independent investigation of all of the evidence surrounding the tragic events of 9/11.

If you are reading this and are one of those who can muster the courage to examine new evidence, please contact me and I’ll give or send you a DVD entitled “9/11: Blueprint for Truth.” You can also access this information for yourself at http://www.ae911truth.org

This is a non-partisan issue and signers are Republican, Democrat and Independent.

Sincerely,

Karin Wells
Peterborough, New Hampshire

And my offer of that Free DVD holds for ALL of you too. If you want one contact me at : See New Evidence at gmail dot com

Believe your eyes - they'll tell you no lies!

This is what a controlled demolition looks like.

This is WTC Building #7 being demolished at near free-fall speed on 9/11/2001. It was exploded from the bottom up - whereas both Twin Towers* were exploded from the top down.

(*Note that Jet Fuel (kerosene) does not come within 1000 degrees F of melting steel. You just cannot break the Laws of Physics.)

See the top "crimp" as WTC Building #7 begins to fall straight down into its own footprint? This is classic demolition.

Note that Building 7 was not hit by an airplane but this steel framed and reinforced 47 story sky scraper collapsed anyhow.

Building #7 contained CIA Headquarters and all of the Enron and Worldcom evidence. Even though the Insurance Company paid off because it was classified as part of the "Terrorist Attack" - nowhere in the official 9/11 Commossion Report is the destruction of this building mentioned.

You can read more about Building #7 here and see why I support a new investigation into 9/11.

On the New Year

On this New Year's Eve a miracle can occur.

Tonight we ring out the old and ring in the new. And more--much more--can change than simply the dates on the calendar. You can resolve this night to change your entire life...or any aspect of your self and your experience that you choose.

And should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? No. Keep old friends near, and old loves dear. For they will help you make those changes in your life that will produce miracles, if you let them. Happy, happy New Year!

This is Auld Lang Syne as performed by Scottish folk group The Cast. The lyrics to the song are actually a poem written by Robert Burns in the late 1780s, according to Wikipedia, but they (as well as most of the melody) may be more familiar to you as the song people tend to sing just after New Years. This version has no such holiday connotations about it but I think it just sounds nice.

Love,

Karin

Let There Be Peace On Earth. . .

. . . and Health Care For All

Christmas 2009

The reason so much of humanity commemorates this day is that so much of humanity seeks to give and receive love.

During this holy time, know that all times are holy, that every religion holds truth, that each tradition is sacred, and that it is in the simple sharing of love that we make our beliefs come alive, and our dreams come true.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Love,

Karin

Evidently Joe Lieberman Wants a Pony

Check out this funny sock puppet video of Senator Joe Lieberman holding health care hostage for his list of personal demands.

From MoveOn.org

Keith Olberman's Special Comment on Health Care

OK, so you're happily painting and I am glued to the television on the subject of health care. I admit that a lot of my creative energy is going into this right now. It's sort of like trying to not to see/hear a train wreck if you happen to be standing there.

So herewith, a ten-minute catch-up in case you missed it:

Part 1

Part 2

What is wrong with my fellow Americans? Are we totally brain washed into believing that the Govt's role is not to provide health, education and social security to it's people? Will it always be "every man for himself" against corporate greed run amok? Rich vs Poor?

The Republican Party of "NO" understands that obstructionist tactics work when the voting audience is ignorant, gullible, or otherwise easily misled (which sadly, is a fairly apt definition of the US voting public). They deviate from the core discussion, introducing irrelevant topics (death panels, illegal immigrants, abortion issues), and divert attention from the core of the discussion. It is also FEAR MONGERING.

The following is childish I suppose, but somehow it felt satisfying that any respect for Joe Lieberman went out the same window that he tossed the public option and the Medicare buy-in compromise that was to replace it.

If you're frustrated and want to do something, try this: Tell "Susan G. Komen for the cure" to remove Hadassah Lieberman.

Donations to find a cure for cancer should not be used to pay the salary of Hadassah Lieberman, former employee of the pharmaceutical and insurance lobbying complex and wife of Senator Joe Lieberman, who is pledging to kill health care reform while millions go untreated.

If you can, please sign a letter to "Susan G. Komen for the cure?"

"I call for Susan G. Komen for the cure to ask Hadassah Lieberman to step down as a compensated "Global Ambassador" for the organization in light of the inherent conflict of interest her continued presence brings."

I irks the heck out of me to think that my donations to this charity have paid Hadassah to channel money to Joe....and I thought I was helping to fight breast cancer. Grrrrr.

Want to do something else? Pick up the phone and give these guys a piece of your mind:

House and Senate

(202) 224-3121

The White House

(202) 456-1111

It's not over yet.....I'm convinced that we can still make a difference. If we do lose this battle with the Insurance Companies, all of the Republicans and a couple of Blue Dog Democrats - won't you sleep better at night if you had made that call? We only lose when we stop the fight.

Breaking News: Senate Unveils CompromiseCare

New Details of Healthcare Plan Revealed:

WASHINGTON (The Blue Dog Report) - The United States Senate today unveiled details of its health care plan, tentatively called CompromiseCare:

Under CompromiseCare, people with no coverage will be allowed to keep their current plan.

Medicare will be extended to 55-year-olds as soon as they turn 65.

You will have access to cheap Canadian drugs - if you live in Canada.

States whose names contain vowels will be allowed to opt out of the plan.

You get to choose whichever doctor you cannot afford to see.

You will not have to be pre-certified to qualify for cremation.

A patient will be considered "pre-existing" if he or she currently still exists.

You'll be free to choose between medications and/or heating fuel.

Patients can access quality health care if they can prove their name is "Joe Lieberman," are Republican Congress Persons, or have accepted favors from one or more Insurance Lobbyists.

You will have access to natural remedies - such as death.

We are entitled to our own opinions; we are not entitled to our own facts

I listen to c-span while I'm working in the studio. This is the kind of stuff c-span junkies live for.

I want health care for all and I'm watching this like a hawk. I do not like what is happening in this country right now.

The divide between the rich and poor is growing rapidly. People are sinking into poverty and there is a distinct lack of compassion and civil discourse. Republicans and a handful of "blue dog democrats" are fighting every kind of reform with lies and disinformation. They count on people who don't have the time or inclination to search out the truth - simply ignore it and "hate all politicians."

Wake up guys - if you continue to reelect these lying fools, it's going to get worse for all of us as the "middle class" begins that long slow sad slide into poverty.

Most artists aren't rich. We get along but its getting harder. How many paintings does it take to pay a hospital bill? How many paintings does it take to pay health insurance rates that go up each year as our painting sales decrease. Most people don't have the spare cash to buy art in these troubled times.