Picasso Dreams

A Tribe of Congo Monkeys

A tribe of 50 Congo monkeys (including at least 10 babies) came for a visit  a few nights ago.  They spent several hours hollering, swinging through trees, and taking care of the little ones.  These are the best of 200 photos!  I used my 300 mm lens (latest and best-ever consumer purchase from my stateside visit), great for definition, but difficult to focus between the branches.

I put up an (incomplete) album of my eco home as well, which you can see here.

KAT Rant: Nica Politics

Crock Dundee wannabes say living in Nicaragua is like living in the Wild West.  There are no rules.  Take the rules for electricity theft.  Oh, there are none!  Between 30 and 40 percent of electricity sent down the antiquated lines is stolen.  The IMF is withholding further aid that will NEVER, EVER BE REPAID, because the government hasn't imposed laws to deal with electricity theft.  It's rampant for all sorts of reasons, but the government's solution is to criminalize theft above 700 Kilowatts, which is far more than the average home uses.  Ortega, the man whose contribution to the Sandinistas was robbing banks on their behalf, railed against all the big businesses who are stealing energy.   There are barrios in Managua where 80 percent of the homes and hovels are hooked up to electricity illegally.  The big businesses are the only ones with money to pay the bills, taxes, employment, and thieves both domestic and international, Spain specifically.  We pay more for electricity than any other country in the Northern Hemisphere.  Sure, there's geothermal, but the last President sold his soul to an economic hitman.  Back in the 1980's, the IMF and The Economist magazine convinced the former Minister of Energy that oil would never rise above $13 a barrel, and so the IMF loaned money to Nicaragua for expensive, oil-powered generators built to last 20 years in a land of plentiful and constant geothermal energy.  Prior to this conversion to fossil based fuel, Nicaragua's energy was more than 70 percent geothermal.

Nicaragua now faces a shortfall in international aid.  EU countries have scaled back donations, citing the lack of transparency.  Hugo Chavez sold Nicaragua sour crude oil for half the market price, and two percent interest.  Ortega sold some (or all?) of the Venezuelan oil at market price and hired a private company to monitor the financial transactions.  Generally Accepted Rules of Accounting do not apply.  When this scandal erupted, Ortega treated his friends and family (though probably not the step-daughter he allegedly molested for years) and the rest of his entourage to a little R&R in between jaunts to Iran, Libya, Cuba and North Korea.  I made the last one up.  I am not sure if he has ever visited North Korea, but it seems his style.

The leading Sandinistas want nothing to do with Ortega.  Dora Maria Tellez, Commandante 2 in the Sandinista revolution, held a hunger strike in protest of Ortega's dictatorial powers and his denial of her splinter-party status.  Carlos Mejia Godoy, a Sandinista and the most famous folk musician in Nicaragua, denied the Sandinistas permission to use his music.  "No mas dictadoro" and "No mas dictadora" are scrawled on buildings, walls, and billboards throughout Managua.

There is a great deal of passion here.  If Americans were one-tenth as Nicaraguans, George W. Bush would not be in office today.  No doubt another crook would have taken over the Presidency, but there would have been far more than a whimper after the 2000 debacle.  I hope that the country evolves peacefully, despite La Dictadora Rosarillo Murillo and her incestuous husband, officially referred to as El Presidente.  It promises to be an interesting journey.

Artsy San Juan del Sur

This is a scene shot from a friends window.  It was kind of drab, so I did some Photoshop magic to turn it into the colors I would like to see.

copyright Kelly Ann Thomas

All rights reserved.

KAT Mini Rant: Road Rules

I just want to live a life in peace. It's not that difficult. I think that's what the majority of people want. I want to be left alone to my own devices.  Nicaragua affords me that opportunity, so sometimes I bristle at the law because laws just seem rather stupid here. I'm not talking about laws that involve theft, physical or slanderous harm to another, all of which are applied inconsistently.  It's the other stuff. Like driving. No one and I mean no one obeys all the rules, all of the time. It is impossible. Multas?  We should be rewarded with ribbons and ticker tape parades for surviving the roads of Nicaragua. 

  Though I live in the so-called Nicaraguan Riviera, we have some of the worst roads, roads that make you wish you were wearing an industrial sports bra and a  kidney belt, I kid you not. New tires every year, new shocks every year.  Alignment?  Are you kidding?   There is no such thing as a perfectly aligned car in San Juan del Sur.  I am not sure if there is even a car without front end damage here.  The trip between San Juan del Sur and the Pan American highway is the road to hell: twenty kilometers of axle-bending potholes, red dust, dirt, gravel, more potholes, detours, more potholes…well, you get the picture. Fortunately, the road is in the process of being replaced as I type this, but potholes breed faster than mosquitoes, so there will always be some road damage that will cause expensive damage to a vehicle. What I am trying to say is that my car is beaten daily and my hand-eye-rear-view-mirror coordination must be exceptional because I have yet to hit a cow, goat, pelibuey, horse, iguana, snake, chicken, pig, child, drunk, donkey, bird, turtle, ox, cyclist, school bus, tractor, or another vehicle on these roads, knock on wood. Except for the tree in the parking lot, but it was inevitably unavoidable. And the concrete planter box, but that was only because I was distracted by three children (none of whom share my DNA) screaming for my attention while I was trying to back into a blind spot. And...oh, never mind.

Hilltop Sunset

Looking westward from my "front" yard.  I do miss watching the sunsets in San Juan del Sur, having a cold Tona with my friends as we rate the various stages of the sunset.

The worst music video ever made

As I stumbled onto The Fifth Column, I found a funny entry on the best band ever.  As  much as I love Hall & Oates, it's a good thing I never saw these videos or they may have changed my perception of their talent.  I would be too busy mocking the the video.

>

She’s Gone” — This looks like the hallucinogenic musings of a high-school AV class strung out on meth and wine coolers. A public high school too, because this was made with no money. I think the Eyewitness News in Darfur has a bigger production budget.
...
Yeah, picking on old music videos is definitely shooting fish in a barrel. Most videos suck. But what makes the videos in the H&O oeuvre so unique is that they are the almost perfect combo of catchy, hummable pop tunes conveyed in the worst videos imaginable.

Sure, there have been lots of awful videos: Taco’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” Reebie Jackson’s “Centipede,” just about anything R. Kelly’s ever done.

But I can’t think of another band that consistently paired good songs with horrific videos. It’s almost like they wanted to test the audience’s attachment to the song by trying to repel them with the video.

Malinche Tree

This photo does not do the gorgeous orange malinche blossoms justice.  These are my favorite flowering trees.

Nicaragua: Expert Predicts Powerful Quake

Just to worry my family...

Managua, Jun 17 (Prensa Latina) The fall in earth tremors in Nicaragua is alarming experts, who fear the occurrence of a huge movement to release accumulated energy, said Wilfried Strauch, Geophysics Director General of INETER (the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies.)

At least 1,517 tremors were registered in 2006, and last year the figure fell to 1,250, according to INETER reports.

Strauch said that the "seismic silence" remains, as no strong, alarming tremor has been reported in nearly a year and a half. An unpredictable, powerful quake can be expected after a long period of calm, he noted.

The latest event registered, measuring 4.7 degrees on the Richter scale, was located in the Pacific, off Costa Rica, 118 miles from Managua, on Sunday.

Full Moon

If I had used a tripod, this might have been a great shot.  Even blurry, I think it's pretty cool.

Editorial: What Barack Obama and his supporters need to do to win in November

I receive a lot of requests for guest editorials, most of which fall by the wayside because I procrastinate too much.  After almost 5 years of blogging, it's about time I organized the site a little better.  I have decided to keep Picasso Dreams as my art, photography and personal writing blog.  I will put most of the political and news content on my new blog, Poets, Priests and Politicians.  Actually, I don't want to call it my blog.  I want PPP to be a place where those who don't have a blog or to share their insights on lies, deceptions and manipulations of the media and those in a position of authority.  I will set up Junior or Guest accounts for those interested in regular commentary.

I see so many passionate "Letters to the Editor",and far more that never make it to print.  It's a shame that the corporate media wishes to stifle the voices of those who dare question the status quo.  lt's important to have some kind of record that shows that those who oppose war, corruption, and cronyism far outnumber the fictitious polls placed in corporate media outlets.  I hope to provide another outlet for people to share their voices.

Email me at kelly at picassodreams dot com with commentary.

What Barack Obama and his supporters need to do to win in November

by Kurt Muse

Right after the Congressional election of 2006 CNN conducted a poll asking voters why the Democrats were so successful. 64 percent described the results as a rejection of Republicans. Only 13 percent described it as support for Democratic programs.

Most voter’s in most elections, do not vote for a given candidate—they vote against another candidate. Obama supporters need to provide voters compelling and emotional reason to vote against John McCain.

And those reasons should be able to fit on a bumper sticker or label.

Unfortunately, slogans, sound bites and bumper stickers decide elections. We must accept this as fact and use them to our advantage. We must define John McCain.

We must let the voters know that the reason John McCain is where he is, is because of whom his father and grandfather were and because who he married. McCain’s father and grandfather were both four-star Navy Admirals.

John McCain graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy in 1958. His class ranking was 894th out of 899. In other words, fifth from the bottom of his class. The main reason he didn’t flunk out was because his father was a four-star Admiral. (It’s not a career move to flunk the son of a four-star Admiral).

Either John McCain is not very bright or he didn’t study very hard.  Perhaps both.

Five and a half years as a prisoner of war obviously did not stimulate his intellect. In fact, it did just the opposite. Almost nobody who spends prolonged periods in prison comes out a better person either
intellectually nor emotionally.

If elected President, John McCain will be our oldest President ever. Not only is John McCain very old, he is a very “high-mileage” old person. He is not young for his age. His father died as a result of a stroke at the age of 70. His grandfather died of a heart attack at the age of 68.

For much of his life, John McCain was a two pack a day tobacco user.  Heavy tobacco use does irreparable damage to the cardio vascular system.

We need to point out McCain’s age problem without blatantly appearing to do so. We should point out that McCain has spent 26 years in Washington, DC. McCain has way too much experience in Washington, DC.

Negative campaign ads work. If negative ads didn’t work, George W. Bush would not be in the White House today. In 2004 the Bush Campaign spent 75 percent of their budget on negative, attack ads.

So how can Obama supporters attack John McCain? On several levels McCain is very vulnerable. There is a common saying in the military that rank has its privilege. And John S. Cain III, the son and grandson of
four-star Admirals, was very privileged.

And as an opportunist, McCain has no superiors. Five weeks after divorcing is first wife Carol, he married Cindy Hensley, the only child of a very wealthy beer industry executive. Cindy McCain is worth more than $100 million. John and Cindy McCain own seven multi-million dollar homes.

John McCain doesn’t feel any pain at the pump. John McCain doesn’t have to worry about the price of food or anything else. John McCain was born into a life of privilege and John McCain married into a life of privilege and wealth.

The British newspaper The Daily Mail had a story written by Sharon Churcher about McCain and his first wife Carol titled: “The wife U. S. Republican John McCain callously left behind.” We need to get this story read by every potential McCain supporter. If trickery and deception is required to do so, so be it.

John Dolan wrote a great article for AlterNet.Org titled: “Fighting Words: How to Humiliate—and Convert—a Right-Winger.” He suggested we call the opposition names like Suckers. He suggested a bumper-sticker  “There are two kinds of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.”

I suggest we put them on labels just a little larger than a return address label. And make hundreds or perhaps thousands of them. You can make your own with MS Word and blank Avery Labels you can buy at any office supply store. Or you can order them through a professional label making company. Some suggested labels are as follows:

Two kinds of Republicans:
Millionaires & Suckers

McCain Supporters:
Don’t Google:
“The wife U. S. Republican John McCain
Callously left behind”

McCain—McSame—McBush

McCain Supporters:
Don’t Google:
“Opiate for the Mrs.”

John McCain, 1958 Graduate
U. S. Naval Academy
894th out of 899.
Fifth from the Bottom of his class

Three kinds of Republican voters
Multi-millionaires, billionaires &
Suckers. Dumb Suckers.

Cindy McCain’s net worth is more than
$100 million. The McCain’s own
7 private homes. Just like you and me.

John McCain has way too much
Experience in Washington, DC

Obviously it is probably illegal to place any stickers or labels on other people’s property without their permission. So don’t get caught putting them on or near ATM machines, gas pumps, grocery shopping carts, parking meters, bus benches, newspaper racks, public rest room stalls and other highly visible public places.

Kirk Muse
Mesa, AZ

Kirkmuse@cox.net

Kirk Muse is a retired business owner who lives with his wife and son in Mesa, Arizona.

Breaking Free

Copyright Kelly Ann Thomas, 2008 All rights reserved.

Editorial: John McCain, the most flawed presidential candidate in history

"Everyone's Entitled to My Own Opinion"
Thursday, February 28, 2008 9:05 AM
Roland C. Eyears

JOHN McCAIN
THE MOST FLAWED PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN HISTORY

It is now clear that what is left of the Republicon Party, after being fatally poisoned by the Bush administration, intents to commit suicide by nominating Senator John McCain (R-Hanoi) for the presidency. Where do I start?

THE EARLY YEARS

McCain spent his boyhood in exclusive boarding schools where staffers were paid to put up with his tirades. We all did some immature things before we matured. But with McCain, the tirades continue today.

Had he not been the son and grandson of admirals, there is scant chance he would have been admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy. Given his behavior patterns and academics, had he not been the son and grandson of admirals, there is little doubt he would have been thrown out. Instead, in 1958 he managed to graduate 894 out of 899. Had he not been the son and grandson of admirals, he is no chance he would have been accepted into the prestigious naval flight training program over far better qualified officers. On his way to becoming a North Vietnamese ace, the aviator lost 3 expensive aircraft on routine, non-combat flights. Little was made of all that, because he was, you know, the son and grandson of admirals.

McCain’s most horrendous loss occurred in 1967 on the USS Forrestal. Well, not horrendous for him. The starter motor switch on the A4E Skyhawk allowed fuel to pool in the engine. When the aircraft was “wet-started,” an impressive flame would shoot from the tail. It was one of the ways young hot-shots got their jollies. Investigators and survivors took the position that McCain deliberately wet-started to harass the F4 pilot directly behind him. The cook off launched an M34 Zuni rocket that tore through the Skyhawk’s fuel tank, released a thousand pound bomb, and ignited a fire that killed the pilot plus 167 men. Before the tally of dead and dying was complete, the son and grandson of admirals had been transferred to the USS Oriskany.

As a rising naval officer, McCain was surrounded by rumors of numerous adulterous affairs, such as used to be called “conduct unbecoming an officer.” Author and biographer Robert Timberg has detailed several of McCain’s sexual relationships with subordinates when serving as a Squadron Leader and an Executive Officer. I think we all know such behavior is a clear violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, in other words, a crime.

When McCain’s application to the National War College was rejected, according to noted author and researcher Joel Skousen, he whined to daddy who pulled strings with the Secretary of the Navy.

PRISONER OR HONORED GUEST?

McCain’s 5½-year stay at the Hanoi Hilton (officially Hoa Loa Prison) has ever since been the subject of great controversy. He maintains that he was tortured and otherwise badly mistreated. One of many who disagree is Dennis Johnson, imprisoned at Hanoi and never given treatment for his broken leg. He reports that every time he saw McCain, who was generally kept segregated, the man was clean-shaven, dressed in fresh clothes, and appeared comfortable among North Vietnamese Army officers. He adds that he frequently heard McCain’s collaborative statements broadcast over the prison’s loud speakers.

On October 26, 1967, McCain’s A-4 Skyhawk was shot down over Hanoi. The fractures of 1 leg and both arms were reportedly due to his failure to tuck them in during ejection. According to U.S. News & World Report (May 14, 1973), McCain didn’t wait long before offering military information in return for medical care. While an extraordinary patient at Gi Lam Hospital, he was visited by a number of dignitaries, including, to quote McCain himself, General Vo Nguyen Giap, the national hero of Dienbienphu.

Jack McLamb is a highly respected name in law enforcement circles. After 9 years of clandestine operations in Cambodia and unmentionable areas, he returned home to Phoenix where he became one of the most decorated police officers on record. Twice McLamb was named Officer of the Year. He went on to become an FBI hostage negotiator. This man has stated that every one of the many former POWs he has talked with consider McCain a traitor. States McLamb, “He was never tortured…The Vietnamese Communists called him the Songbird, that’s his code name, Songbird McCain, because he just came into the camp singing and telling them everything they wanted to know.” McLamb further quotes former POWs as saying McCain starred in 32 propaganda videos in which he denounced his country and comrades.

The Glavnoje Razvedyvatel’noje Upravlenije is the Soviet’s military intelligence division. Numerous sources confirm that during the Nam Era, the English-speaking Vietnamese who conducted interrogations of American prisoners were always overseen by Russian GRU officers. The ranking GRU officer at the Hanoi Hilton had a multilingual teenage son who was tasked with translating all interrogation reports into Russian. He would become known only as T.

According to T who interpreted all interrogations and notes pertaining to McCain during the latter’s stay from December, 1969, to March, 1973, when a well-fed looking McCain’s was released, privileges were extended. These included time at a furnished apartment in Hanoi – furnished with 2 prostitutes. McCain would attribute such absences to solitary confinement.

It has been widely reported that following his father’s appointment as CINCPAC Commander-in-Chief of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater of operations, McCain was offered an immediate parole. McCain insists that he refused such a preference. Others insist that his father refused to allow such a preference. In any event, such an offer would have required the approval of the Soviet masters, and T would have seen documentation. He has no recollection of such an offer.

In 1991 the Soviet Union was in a state of collapse. People and things were up for grabs. During that thaw, a mass document swap took place between the KGB and CIA. All T’s translations were included. If these dots are really connected, it is small wonder that McCain had fought consistently to keep all files sealed, block any attempts to retrieve POWs, and establish the friendliest of relations with his former tormentors.

Imagine the possibilities. A Clintonian leak during the presidential campaign. Or, in the unlikely event of a McCain victory, blackmail of the Manchurian Candidate.

It is public record that Admiral McCain was on hand to greet his son upon return. According to Major Mark A. Smith (USA Retired), a Green Beret and former POW, a trusted friend of his accompanied the Admiral that day. Later, when the friend referred to that meeting, McCain became enraged, volunteered that he had received “no special treatment,” and then denied that his father was there.

In 1989 legislation known as The Truth Bill was introduced in the U.S. House. It required the Department of Defense to publish the names and information on all unaccounted for POWs, MIAs, and KIAs in WW II, the Korean War, and Vietnam. It languished and was resurrected 2 years later. Then came the McCain Bill, promptly enacted, that blocked such information. The DoD does not even have to acknowledge confirmed sightings of live Americans.