From The San Francisco Chronicle, 7/28/05:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/28/BAGJFDUGMU21.DTL
U.S. in toilet painting prompts artistic duel
Reds, blues offer own work in Sacramento
Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, July 28, 2005
The latest skirmish in the nation's culture wars happens today in
Sacramento over a controversial art exhibit, with both sides conceding
that the issue has less to do with fine arts than political battle.
The fight is all about the painting hanging in the building where
Attorney General Bill Lockyer works that depicts a red-white-and-blue
United States being flushed down a toilet.
Nominally, dueling protests being held today in Sacramento are
concerned with high-flown matters such the boundaries of free speech.
The intellectual ammunition, however, is anything but subtle.
People who pass through the plaza outside Lockyer's office may be
treated to artistic renderings of the attorney general himself being
flushed down a toilet.
They are certain to see a busty drag queen lampooning a conservative
talk show host who is angered that an "anti-American" painting hangs
in a public building and has helped to organize a "pro-American" art
show outside.
It's all been prompted by the art exhibit in the cafeteria of the
state Justice Department building called "A Creative Merger,"
organized by a 31-year- old group called California Lawyers for the
Arts.
Among the works was one by Stephen Pearcy, a Berkeley lawyer best
known for hanging an effigy of an American soldier outside the home he
owns in Sacramento with a sign saying, "Bush lied, I died."
For this show, Pearcy offered a rendering of the United States sinking
into a toilet.
Next to it was the phrase, "T'anks to Mr. Bush."
That lit a bonfire under the seat of the politically red portion of
California, and word roared through conservative blogs and Web sites
and from conservative radio talk shows.
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WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Harry
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