The Australian New Finger

Driver blames 'little pinky' ad for road rage

Simon Jardak was fined $A400 by a magistrate yesterday after an accusatory finger on the Anzac Bridge enraged him so much he threw a plastic bottle out of his car window, hitting the gesturing woman's car.

Jardak blamed his malicious damage charge on the RTA's anti-speeding campaign, in which hoons are mocked with wagging little fingers, suggesting they have tiny penises.

He told Richard Glover's Drive program on ABC 702 that the RTA's relentless promotion of the "little pinky" gesture had made it more offensive to males than the traditional "middle finger".

"The 'finger', it's so common now, that we're over it, but this finger is a whole new thing and it's been promoted so much everybody knows it and you just get offended," he said.

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Margin Gallery's Reviews...

margin gallery press page

The Hot Seat :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Entertainment ::October 18, 2007
Get cultured
"Sojourn"
Through Oct. 21 at Margin Art Gallery and Collective, 1915 S. Halsted; 5-8 p.m. Thursday Friday; 2-8 p.m. Saturday; noon-6 p.m. Sunday This exhibit's title is apt, given the journey taken by this barely year-old collective and the paths its artists have traveled to show something meaningful in this Pilsen space. The trip may veer from expectations, like Todd Logan and Paul Kepner's framed e-mails, which elevate the frivolous medium to more adequately convey life crises, or Linda Logan's "Disposable Art," shredded paper salvaged in wood boxes and classified by hue. And in the "Parking Garage" diptych and "Off Ramp" triptych, Jason Watts elevates our auto addiction to a bright pop art religion.

Must-See Art Exhibits: Visual Arts: Justin Sondak: CenterstageChicago.com: October 10, 2007
Soujourn
Runs through October 21 at Margin Art Gallery and Collective The exhibit's title references the journey taken by this barely year-old collective and its artists, like Avisheh Mohsenin’s reconnection to departed loved ones living in worlds she never knew, and Todd Logan and Paul Kepner’s recontextualized emails. The darkest corners of this exhibit, from T.W. Li's reevaluation of images related to 9/11 to Paige Barnes's return to childhood's forbidden forest, are its most fascinating.

The Chicago Reader
Margin 1915 S. Halsted. “Sojourn,” work by Jason Watts, N@ima T@aradji, and the dozen other members of the Margin cooperative, through Sun 10/21. Thu-Fri 5-8, Sat 2-8, Sun noon-6. 312-401-5253

The Three Stooges of Annapolis!

Bush popularity: 32%

Olmert popularity: 37%

Abbas popularity: unknown

:)

Annapolis Rhymes with Petropolis

Fantasy vs. Reality in Palestine-Israel

put anything over on them -- not their own establishment or Israel or the U.S. No Palestinian victory is on the horizon, by any means, but this spirit of resistance may prevent the establishment at Annapolis from surrendering basic rights.

Israeli correspondent Gideon Levy touched on the essence of the conflict in a commentary in Ha'aretz that was completely at odds with Sunday's wishful front-page headlines and indeed with the very basis of the Annapolis summit. Addressing underlying Israeli worries that Israel will be pressed to make costly concessions, Levy noted that Israel is in fact not being asked to "give" anything to the Palestinians but only "to return their stolen land and restore their trampled self-respect, along with their fundamental human rights and humanity." This, he says, is "the primary core issue," but no one talks about this anymore; justice "has deliberately been erased from all negotiations."

Levy's realization is an extremely important element in understanding just what is wrong with Annapolis, as with all U.S. peacemaking going back to well before the Bush administration's current efforts. Justice for Palestinians has never been part of the equation, which is why no peace effort has ever succeeded and why Annapolis will also sooner or later collapse. Levy wonders, "Does Israel have the moral right to continue the occupation?" and points out that the world, even the Palestinian leadership, and particularly the Israelis who "bear the guilt," have never asked this core question.

Levy speaks only about 40 years of occupation, perhaps not realizing that, when this question is answered, the inevitable next question is, Does Israel have the moral right to continue in possession of the homes and land of Palestinians expelled and dispossessed in 1948? No true peace will ever be possible unless both questions are dealt with.

Perhaps Levy expresses the real hope for the future: that there are Israelis who have their priorities straight -- who recognize, as he says, that the commonly accepted core issues are secondary to the "primary core issue" of justice -- and who know that ultimately the grave injustice that Israel has done to the Palestinians cannot continue.

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Patriotism--The NeoCon's Style

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Quotable

“Believing war to be a crime against humanity, the War Resisters League, founded in 1923, advocates Gandhian nonviolence as the method for creating a democratic society free of war, racism, sexism, and human exploitation.”

--War Resisters Ligue

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Resist the Warmongers.

War Tax Resistance

Resisting war taxes is really very simple — don’t pay all the tax due on your annual Federal income tax form, or don’t pay the Federal excise tax on telephone bills, or both.

Direct action for peace often entails exposure to unpredictable risks. War tax resistance is no exception. Though getting a notice from the IRS is very likely, jail is virtually unknown for war tax resisters


IRS Notices and Fines

Those who file but refuse to pay will probably get several tax due notices, adding on civil penalties in the 5 to 25% range, plus compound interest at a rate around 10%. If your resistance is token (e.g., say $1), the interest and penalties will not amount to very much even after several years.

Nonfilers may go undetected, but if the IRS catches up with them, they may find stiffer penalties imposed, with no statute of limitations. The statute of limitations for filers is 10 years beyond the date of assessment (which is often a few months after filing). A false or inflated W-4 form, or a return claiming an unallowable deduction or credit affecting the calculation of tax due, may lead to an additional $500 penalty.

The IRS considers their notices and threatening letters their most effective tax collection tool. However, sometimes they do proceed beyond their threatening notices.

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Protest

Hands Off Iran

This President is guilty, in short, of what in legal circles is known as the "crime of aggression." And if we as citizens do not hold him accountable for this crime, if we do not actively defy this government, we will be complicit in the codification of a new world order, one that will have terrifying consequences. For a world without treaties, statutes and laws is a world where any nation, from a rogue nuclear state to a great imperial power, will be able to invoke its domestic laws to annul its obligations to others. This new order will undo five decades of international cooperation--largely put in place by the United States--and thrust us into a Hobbesian nightmare. We must as citizens make sacrifices to defend a world where diplomacy, broad cooperation and the law are respected. If we allow these international legal systems to unravel, we will destroy the possibility of cooperation between nation-states, including our closest allies.

The strongest institutional barrier standing between us and a war with Iran is being mounted by Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Adm. William Fallon, head of the Central Command; and Gen. George Casey, the Army's new chief of staff. These three men have informed Bush and Congress that the military is too depleted to take on another conflict and may not be able to contain or cope effectively with a regional conflagration resulting from strikes on Iran. This line of defense, however, is tenuous. Not only can Gates, Fallon and Casey easily be replaced but a provocation by Iran could be used by war propagandists here to stoke a public clamor for revenge.

A country that exists in a state of permanent war cannot exist as a democracy. Our long row of candles is being snuffed out. We may soon be in darkness. Any resistance, however symbolic, is essential. There are ways to resist without being jailed. If you owe money on your federal tax return, refuse to pay some or all of it, should Bush attack Iran. If you have a telephone, do not pay the 3 percent excise tax. If you do not owe federal taxes, reduce what is withheld by claiming at least one additional allowance on your W-4 form--and write to the IRS to explain the reasons for your protest. Many of the details and their legal ramifications are available on the War Resisters League's website (www.warresisters.org/wtr.htm).

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It is ah...Uh....

Quotable

"After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say "I want to see the manager."
- William S. Burroughs

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Badges?... We Don't Need No Stinkin' Badges.

U.S. Digs In to Guard Iraq Oil Export

The U.S. Navy is building a military installation atop this petroleum-export platform as the U.S. establishes a more lasting military mission in the oil-rich north Persian Gulf.

While presidential candidates debate whether to start bringing ground troops home from Iraq, the new construction suggests that one footprint of U.S. military power in Iraq isn't shrinking anytime soon: American officials are girding for an open-ended commitment to protect the country's oil industry.

You and I Could Have Bought a House...

$3,500 Billion!

How much, already? Three thousand five hundred billion? Numbers like this leave us cold because they exceed the understanding of ordinary mortals, which gets confused after a million.

I will spare the reader the corny old populist refrain about how, had this money been invested in the fight against poverty, it would have enabled this and that. Everyone knows that, on this scale, that's not how things work.

All the same, it's possible to bring it all back to a human dimension. For example, this $3,500 billion represents $46,400 for every American family - the price of a home in certain poor regions of the country.

And one may also compare the issue to another decision of the United States, one taken in 1947, to promote the Marshall Plan. That succeeded in pulling 16 European countries out from the ruins of World War II and only cost American taxpayers $100 billion (in today's dollars) - or 35 times less.

What one measures this way is not only a mountain of bank notes. But also the gulf between policy supplied with vision and another policy which cruelly lacked it.

Kucinich... Just Imagine.

Truth does sneak into the debates every once in a while...

Interesting...

Free Paul Jacob

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How Long Will this Go On?

Cut Israel Off - by Charley Reese

Americans have been brainwashed into believing that it's the Arabs, and the Palestinians in particular, who don't want peace. That is a big lie. The Palestinians made an enormous concession when they agreed to settle for a state on 18 percent of Palestine. Saudi Arabia proposed several years ago a peace plan in which all of the Arab countries would recognize Israel in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories. The Israelis rejected it out of hand, just as they reject Arab efforts to have the Middle East a nuclear-free zone. Israel's goal is and always has been to take all of Palestine and to get rid of the Palestinians. The Israelis employed ethnic cleansing in 1948 and again in 1967 to make hundreds of thousands of Palestinians refugees. For 40 years, the Israelis have refused to give back the Palestinian and Syrian lands they seized in war. They have blatantly violated international law by building settlements on occupied land, and by violating the airspace of other sovereign countries. Palestinians are the victims, not the villains, in this case. The Israelis make their lives miserable in the hope they will give up and leave. At the same time, the Israelis, in cahoots with the American government, maintain a charade of proposed peace talks. They of course never come to fruition. The Israeli government is not about to allow the Palestinians to have a viable state. If they give the Palestinians anything, it will be a patchwork of enclaves completely surrounded and controlled by Israel. Having created 700,000 Palestinian refugees, the Israelis have from the beginning refused to allow them to return to their homes, farms and businesses, all of which Israel confiscated on the specious grounds that they were "abandoned property."

Just lies after Lies

This is amazing... Flat out lies and propaganda. New York Times makes Pravda look good!

IAEA Again Verifies Iranian Compliance

Even though compliance by Iran is the principal and only conclusion of the current IAEA report [.pdf] – entitled Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions 1737 and 1747 in the Islamic Republic of Iran – the neo-crazy media sycophants at the New York Times don't even mention it in their "report" on the IAEA report!

Well, if they don't even mention the IAEA report's principal conclusion – that Iran is compliant with its NPT Safeguards Agreement – what do Elaine Sciolino and William Broad report?

That Iran has not suspended its uranium-enrichment activies, "contrary to the decisions of the Security Council"?

No, no.

Quoth Sciolino-Broad:

"VIENNA, Nov. 15 — A new report says Iran has made new but incomplete disclosures about its past nuclear activities, missing a key deadline under an agreement with the IAEA."

Incomplete "disclosures"?

Missed a "key deadline"?

Wrong, wrong.

Nowhere in the IAEA report does Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei even suggest that Iran has missed a "key deadline" previously agreed to by Iran and the IAEA. Furthermore, far from complaining about "incomplete disclosures," ElBaradei reported that Iran has provided "sufficient access" to individuals, and has "responded in a timely manner" to questions, and provided "clarifications and amplifications" on issues raised in the context of the "work plan."

Really amazing!!

This is soooooo cool!!

Quotable

"Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them."

-- H.L.Menken

The Real Cost of the Wars

The economic costs to the United States of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far total approximately $1.5 trillion, according to a new study by congressional Democrats that estimates the conflicts' "hidden costs"- including higher oil prices, the expense of treating wounded veterans and interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars.

That amount is nearly double the $804 billion the White House has spent or requested to wage these wars through 2008, according to the Democratic staff of Congress's Joint Economic Committee. Its report, titled "The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War," estimates that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have thus far cost the average U.S. family of four more than $20,000.

"The full economic costs of the war to the American taxpayers and the overall U.S. economy go well beyond even the immense federal budget costs already reported," said the 21-page draft report, obtained yesterday by The Washington Post.

The Bushola's Legacy

Yey for Evanston!

I knew there was a reason I liked Evanston when I moved here almost three years ago!

School board to ignore state moment-of-silence law

Evanston-Skokie School District 65 will ignore new legislation mandating a moment of silence in Illinois public schools after trying unsuccessfully to seek a waiver that would free the district from following the law, board members said.

After discussing it Monday night, five of the school board's seven members agreed the board should not force teachers in the district's 16 elementary and middle schools to observe the law, they said.

"We have no intention of either prohibiting or forcing compliance," said board member Katie Bailey. It is unclear what steps, if any, the state might take to force the district to comply with the law. The legislation does not provide penalties for non-compliance nor offer guidelines on how to deal with schools -- or in this case school boards -- that choose to ignore it.

Yesterday is here

Brings Tears to my Eyes

nick cave - into my arms

And What They Are Going to Do?

Watch them vote Clinton into office. Idiots deserve the government they get.

And Sales of Loofahs Lead to O'Reilley

FBI Hoped to Follow Falafel Trail to Iranian Terrorists Here

Like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists.

The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents. A similar project was aimed at Sunni Arabs in the Washington, D.C., area.

The brainchild of top FBI counterterrorism officials Phil Mudd and Willie T. Hulon, according to well-informed sources, the project didn’t last long. It was torpedoed by the head of the FBI’s criminal investigations division, Michael A. Mason, who argued that putting somebody on a terrorist list for what they ate was ridiculous — and possibly illegal.

Right from Bush's Play Book

Final shreds of Pakistan's democracy are ripped up

As the country was plunged into a fresh crisis Musharraf gesticulated into the camera as he blamed his woes on the country's Islamist extremists, its activist judges and its 'negative media'. The country was at a 'dangerous juncture' he warned, clenching his fist. 'Now is the time for action.'

The Voice of Religion