Just say 'No'!

Barbara Amiel & Conrad Black 2000.

Conrad Black asks George Bush for pardon.

Story from 'The Guardian' here.
Australians may remember him from the 90's when he owned 25% of Fairfax, the owners of the Melbourne (and a note for every American band that comes here to play, that's 'Melban' NOT 'Melborn'.) newspaper 'The Age'.

A work of art!

Badge made from wood!
Couldn't resist that.

Happy Birthday Doc!

Dr. John was born on this day in 1940.
This will get you Mr. Weller's (rather wonderful) cover of 'I Walk On Gilded Splinters'
as heard on The Wire.

Paul Weller performing 'I Walk On Gilded Splinters' live on 'Later With Jools Holland'.

Lou Reed and Dr. John performing 'Perfect Day' on Dutch TV.

Neil Young: So you want a big electric car?

Story from 'The Huffington Post' here.

Talkin' Turkey

Not much chance of those birds behind her getting pardoned!

Breaking News

Politico reports that Hillary Clinton is to be named as Secretary of State shortly after Thanksgiving.
Would have thought that after Tom Daschle got Health that it was a given.

Nobby's Beach (aptly named)

+

There are some stories that you just cannot make up!
Go here.

The Sex Party - Australia's new political party

Video story from 'The Age' here.

Cat Power - Cross Bones Style

e=mc2 troo!

Nyah - nyah!

Story from the BBC here.

'Change We Need' by Bask

Do check out the Obama Art Report here.

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals announce Australian dates

Sean over at 'a-reminder' blog has the dates and some trax to download.
You can also watch Ryan and some of The Cardinals perform 'Cardinology' acoustically over in The Netherlands here.
Or in Cafe Select in New York here.

Girlz With Gunz # 6

C.N.T. & The International Brigade

More on the Spanish Revolution of 1936 here.

The Durruti Column

Buenaventura Durruti died on this day in 1936.

The Wire - Young Prop Joe (1962)

The Wire - Young Omar (1985)

Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris - Streets of Baltimore (Live)

Bob Dylan turns up at Neil Young's childhood home.

Story from 'CBC' here.

58 and counting; Stevens gets the boot

Story from 'Politico' here.

Johnny C & Bobby D Complete Sessions

'Aquarium Drunkard' has all this to download

Dylan/Cash :: Good Ol’ Mountain Dew
Dylan/Cash :: I Still Miss Someone
Dylan/Cash :: Careless Love
Dylan/Cash :: Matchbox
Dylan/Cash :: That’s Alright Mama
Dylan/Cash :: Big River
Dylan/Cash :: Girl From The North Country
Dylan/Cash :: I Walk The Line
Dylan/Cash :: You Are My Sunshine
Dylan/Cash :: Ring Of Fire
Dylan/Cash :: Guess Things Happen That Way
Dylan/Cash :: Just A Closer Walk With Thee
Dylan/Cash :: Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas)
Dylan/Cash :: Blue Yodel #2
& more

here.

A Bargain!

Available NOW for $20 (US)

http://store.barackobama.com/Office_s/600.htm

Rumours are that there will be a BIG Shepard Fairey exhibition to coincide with Obama's inauguration.

Bill Ayers Talks Back

Sarah Palin called him a terrorist, Barack Obama called him an acquaintance. A Salon editor who knew Ayers back when talks to the ex-Weather Underground member turned Republican talking point.

Full interview at Salon.com here.

Cool (again!)

1968 - Bobby Kennedy Predicts African American President In 40 Years Time

Vale Tim Russert.

Girlz With Gunz # 5

Still from 'Baise - Moi'.
A film completely banned here in Australia.

'Baise - Moi' Trailer.
Story behind the film from 'The Observer' here.

Steve Bell - 'The Guardian'

The Bush Cheer by Steve Bell

Bush Administration Moves to Protect Key Appointees

Just weeks before leaving office, the Interior Department's top lawyer has shifted half a dozen key deputies -- including two former political appointees who have been involved in controversial environmental decisions -- into senior civil service posts.

The transfer of political appointees into permanent federal positions, called "burrowing" by career officials, creates security for those employees, and at least initially will deprive the incoming Obama administration of the chance to install its preferred appointees in some key jobs.

Full story from 'The Washington Post' here.

Iggy Pop & Ryuichi Sakamoto - Risky

Grateful Dead - Truckin' (Tivoli Konsertal Copenhagen 17th April 1972)

Open letter From Tim Robbins to the New York City Board of Elections

Mr. Gregory C. Soumas
Board of Elections in the City of New York
Executive Office
32 Broadway
New York, NY 10004-1609

November 17, 2008

Dear Mr. Soumas:

I would like to publicly apologize for being such a dim-witted dilettante on Election Day. I was under the naïve assumption that I could vote where I voted in the last two elections. Your thoughtful letter pointed out that if I had voted in the recent primary election in September I would have discovered that I was no longer registered in the polling place I have voted in since 2004. Considering your position at the Board of Elections and your deep respect for the democratic process I must assume that my local 14th St. poll worker, Betty J. Williamson's assertion that my name was on the active voter rolls for the primary in September of this year was erroneous and that she must be as confused and wrongheaded as I am. If Ms. Williamson saw my name in the book in September that would mean that you are lying. Certainly you wouldn't lie about a thing like that. That is unbecoming of a man of your bureaucratic stature. And why would anyone in the Board of Elections be eliminating legitimate voters from the rolls in late September and October of 2008? That's just crazy and un-democratic.

I should also apologize for the misguided actions of Justice Paul G. Feinman in issuing a court order on Election Day allowing me to vote on 14th St. He apparently thought that a printed out record from your own Board of Elections computer verifying my polling place as 14th St was justification for issuing the court order. If he had only thought to contact you, you could have helped him understand the logic and wisdom of eliminating my name from the book on 14th St. where I have always voted and leaving my name registered at a place I have never voted.

I must also thank you for sending your letter not to me but to all the major newspapers in the New York area and across the internet. I understand it was your way of clearing up this matter and for that I am grateful. I am particularly appreciative of your sending a copy of my voter registration card with my home address and driver's license number to all the newspapers and, by extension, to millions across the internet. What celebrity dilettante wouldn't want his private information made public? What kind of snob gets angry that his family's safety might be compromised? It comes with the territory, right? I was thinking of returning that favor by publishing your home address in this letter but then I thought that maybe one of the thousands of New Yorkers that were taken off the voter rolls in the last two months might not understand what a patriotic upstanding man you are and might show up at your doorstep with the misguided assumption that you are a petty vindictive corrupt scumbag.

Tim Robbins
New Yorker since 1961
Voter since 1976

P.S. If anyone reading this letter had a similar experience on Election Day it can and should be reported at 866ourvote.org

cc:
Commissioners of Elections
Marcus Cederqvist, Executive Director
George Gonzalez, Deputy Executive Director
Pamela Perkins, Administrative Manager
Beth Fossella, Coordinator, Voter Registration
Steven H. Richman, General Counsel
Troy Johnson, Chief Clerk
Timothy Gay, Deputy Chief Clerk

You've gotta be kidding!

Palin Book Deal Said To Be Worth Seven Million Dollars (US)
Full story at 'The Huffington Post' here.

"If there is anything that I can do in terms of assisting there and allowing the credence, the credibility that that great vocation, that cornerstone of our democracy called the press, if I can help build up that credibility in the press and allow the electorate to know that they can believe everything that is reported through the airwaves and through print, I want to be able to help."
-- Sarah Palin to Larry King

All US forces will leave Iraq by 2011

Story at 'The Guardian' here.

Alice Walker to Obama

Dear Brother Obama,

You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. Us being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history. But seeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is almost more than the heart can bear. And yet, this observation is not intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed, because of all the relay runners before you, North America is a different place. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the spirit of Africa and of the Americas. Knowing this, that you would actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about.

I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on. One gathers that your family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate. One way of thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.

I would further advise you not to take on other people's enemies. Most damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion. We must learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise. It is understood by all that you are commander in chief of the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this we understand, completely. However, as my mother used to say, quoting a Bible with which I often fought, "hate the sin, but love the sinner." There must be no more crushing of whole communities, no more torture, no more dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people's spirit. This has already happened to people of color, poor people, women, children. We see where this leads, where it has led.

A good model of how to "work with the enemy" internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet. Because, finally, it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges, purple and majestic, also dies. And your smile, with which we watch you do gracious battle with unjust characterizations, distortions and lies, is that expression of healthy self-worth, spirit and soul, that, kept happy and free and relaxed, can find an answering smile in all of us, lighting our way, and brightening the world.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

In Peace and Joy, Alice Walker

You can watch a reading of the above at 'Democracy Now' here.

Obama links Israel peace plan to 1967 borders deal

Full story from 'The Sunday Times' here.

Me would like! - Santa are you listening?

Adrian Sherwood - Boogaloo (Drowning Not Raving Mix)

First Weekly Address From President - Elect Obama

Ka - Boom! (The Sound of Not So Distant Thunder?)

"The Obama team's pre-inaugural signals indicate strongly that Israel's next government will need to strike Iran's nuclear installations before two rapidly approaching deadlines. The strike will have to occur before the mullahs enrich sufficient quantities of highly enriched uranium to produce nuclear bombs. And Israel will need to neutralize Iran's nuclear program before the Obama administration begins implementing America's new foreign policy."
The concluding paragraph of 'The Perils Ahead' by Caroline B Glick at www.jewishworldreview.com

(!!!)

The same woman wrote this:

"McCain's selection of Palin as his running mate, then, came after he had set the conditions for a strategic assault on Obama by successfully weakening him and discrediting his support base. The surprise entry of a young, accomplished woman with a compelling personal story who was all but unknown to the national audience, placed the Obama campaign and particularly his media supporters in a state of shock. And in their shocked reaction to her selection, the liberal media destroyed their own credibility - not to mention likability - among the general public."

(!!!)