Kinetic Copper Wind Sculpture Dual Headed Spinner - Spinning Ficus Leaves

The listing is for ONE copper wind sculpture with a theme of spinning ficus leaves. The entire spinner including the pole and its fixture is made of pure copper with brass hardware. The only metal is the three ball bearings that are completely covered by brass hardware. Two ball bearings make the two leaf-mounted wheels move independently (most of the time opposite from each other). A third bearing makes the kinetic structure swivel 360 degrees with the wind. With its heavy duty construction and swiveling head, the sculpture can withstand strong winds. The copper leaves and arms are not coated and will age naturally. If you want to preserve its original copper shine, you may spray a layer of clear coat on it. The craftsmanship on this spinner is impeccable. The wheels are finely balanced and maintenance free. The unit is entirely weather proof and made to last for decades. Size: Pole is about 6 ft tall. Each wheel is about 2 ft in diameter. To view this spinner in action, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRFBLm8NcpY

You know it’s funny, when I first became aware of Graham’s true face and not the assorted masks he wears I still didn’t want to believe. I didn’t want to believe someone would not only promise to pay me for rent, food and so on but I didn’t want to believe that someone out there could be that cruel and evil to someone let alone someone who was trying to help them out.

When I walked into the King County Courthouse today on the 12th floor, I opened the door and to my surprise there was Graham sitting on a bench with his duffle bag on wheels… I was taken back a little and I could recognize that mask he so proudly wears when out in public. I like to refer to that mask as “my shit doesn’t stink” mask. He is dressed in a pressed red plaid shirt, light brown pants and brown shoes with a yellow pages phone book on his lap and a pen in his hand. If you have lived with Graham he wears yet another mask… that one of someone who is lazy beyond belief, messy, and is incredibly disorganized.

He notices me, looks down at his lap and sighs. Did he think I have given up? Did he think even though it’s been over three months that I would stop coming to his court dates? Who knows and frankly I could give a damn what he thinks…. But I would be curious to know… Would be curious to know what goes through the people’s minds like Graham. Do they believe their own lies so deeply that they can’t tell the difference between truth and fantasy?

Graham, while standing in front of the judge looks a little worried but calm and collected, I would use the word cold in all senses of the word. Graham now faces an additional 4 charges (Theft In the 1st degree, Identity theft in the 2nd degree, unlawful issuance of checks or drafts, and theft in the 2nd degree). He pleads not guilty to the four new charges and the state again asks for bail to be set at $50,000 (as was his July hearing both times the state was asking for $100,000)… The judge feels Graham can be released with the same conditions as his July 1st arraignment... Of course I don't feel the same, but I know more history and facts then the judge has ever been presented with, which in my opinion is a break in the system.

Court date to set trial or to plea deal (from my understanding) is November 15, 2010.

Though this might seem a step back, I feel that with a better understanding of our Judicial system that at least it's moving forward.

The New New Deal, 2008, Photo illustration by Arthur Hochstein and Lon Tweeten.
( F.D.R. photo by Associated Press. Obama photo by John Gress, Reuters.)

On the road to the White House during the election year of 2008, Democratic candidate Barack Obama appeared on the cover of Time magazine a total of thirteen times. By far the most historically symbolic of those covers was this one, which appeared just after the November election. Through the magic of digital photo imaging, it alters a vintage photograph of Franklin Roosevelt to show Obama instead. Obama sits behind the wheel of Roosevelt's convertible, wears FDR's suit and hat, and smokes a cigarette with FDR's trademark cigarette holder clenched between his teeth. In placing Obama in FDR's shoes, Time was underscoring the president-elect's first priority of business-fixing a crippled economy, the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. With an urgency reminiscent of Roosevelt's New Deal, Obama signed a $787 billion economic stimulus package four weeks after taking office.

It can feel like we’re swimming in a sea of corruption. It’s unclear who exactly is in charge and what role they play. The same influential people seem to reappear time after time in different professional guises, pressing their own agendas in one venue after another. According to award-winning public policy scholar and anthropologist Janine Wedel, these are the powerful “shadow elite,” the main players in a vexing new system of power and influence.

In this groundbreaking book, Wedel charts how this shadow elite, loyal only to their own, challenge both governments’ rules of accountability and business codes of competition to accomplish their own goals. From the Harvard economists who helped privatize post-Soviet Russia and the neoconservatives who have helped privatize American foreign policy (culminating with the debacle that is Iraq) to the many private players who daily make public decisions without public input, these manipulators both grace the front pages and operate behind the scenes. Wherever they maneuver, they flout once-sacrosanct boundaries between state and private.

Profoundly original, Shadow Elite gives us the tools we need to recognize these powerful yet elusive players and comprehend the new system. Nothing less than our ability for self-government and our freedom are at stake.