Taking Out The Trash

Updating a story first posted on here, the former 80's icon, Boy George will be picking up trash from the streets during August to fulfill his court-ordered community service.

The one-time Culture Club singer will be issued a shovel, broom, plastic bags and gloves when he reports for five days of work on Aug. 14, department spokesman Vito Turso said.

"This is the epitome of community service," Turso told the Daily News for Monday editions. "It's not like he's going to be working in an air-conditioned office."

Born George O'Dowd, the singer has struggled with drug problems for years. He was ordered to do community service after pleading guilty in March to false reporting of an incident. He called police with a bogus report of a burglary at his lower Manhattan apartment in October, and the responding officers found cocaine inside.

Turso's statement was the first indication of what sort of work the singer would be given. He could be assigned to pick up streets in Chinatown, Little Italy, Nolita or parts of the Lower East Side.

O'Dowd, 45, became an '80s icon with his androgynous appearance and vocals on hits like "Karma Chameleon" and "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" A Manhattan judge threatened the singer with jail time if he failed to complete his five days before Aug. 28.

His delaying tactics backfired. Now he gets to do his five days work at the peak of summer heat instead of the relative coolness of the spring. Fabulous planning.

Got Change For A Three Dollar Bill?

A fairly large number of early American banknote printing plates are going up for auction. Once issued by private banks, the banknotes became obsolete overnight when the Federal government began printing it's own in 1866 and imposed a 10% transaction fee on the private notes.

"For historical significance, it's hard to overstate it," said Douglas Mudd, curator of exhibitions at the American Numismatic Association Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colo. "These are unique items. These are the plates that were used to produce notes and paper documents that built this country."

Before they go up for auction, the plates are being examined and catalogued by a New Hampshire firm that specializes in rare currency and coins, American Numismatic Rarities.

It sometimes needs to do detective work.

"When they come to us, it doesn't say `Hey, this was used in 1841 to print this.' We have to figure it out ourselves … and when we can, sometimes we have a eureka moment," said Q. David Bowers of American Numismatic Rarities.

The 200 tons of plates are from the archives of the American Bank Note Co., formed in New York in 1858 by the consolidation of seven major engraving and printing firms.

The collection comprises about 900 plates used for printing money plus 10,000 to 20,000 of various sizes that were used for other printing jobs.

"These were hand-engraved by highly skilled artists," Bowers said. "It would not be unusual for someone to spend weeks doing a whole scene. They wore eyepieces and had very fine tools and magnifiers and did it one line at a time."

American Bank Note inherited plates its predecessors had been accumulating for decades, including ones used to print advertisements, letterhead stationery and stock certificates that helped fuel the country's economic and westward expansion during the early 1800s.

The company, now based at Trevose, Pa., near Philadelphia, printed money for banks around the country until the federal government imposed a 10 percent tax on transactions involving such currency in 1866, Bowers said.

"People brought their state bank notes back to the bank and said `Give me federal money instead.' So almost overnight, they all left circulation," he said.

The plates were packed up and left in storage until 2004, when the collection was purchased for an undisclosed price by John Albanese of Archival Collectibles of Far Hills, N.J. He has been sending the plates to New Hampshire to be researched before selling them at a series of auctions.

The first, scheduled for Aug. 11 in Denver, will have 158 plates used to print currency and stock certificates for everything from early railroads to mining companies. They include "vignette" plates, which portray scenes of Americana or landmarks that banks and other companies used to embellish their currency, letterhead, checks or advertising.

The first auction will include the aforementioned $3 bill printing plates. They were used by a bank in Texas and were apparently a quite popular denomination at the time.

Down Mexico Way

Supporters of the loser in Mexico's presidential election are choking the capitol city of that country in an attempt to influence the court that has to certify the election. They are setting up camps right in the middle of major intersections.

MEXICO CITY (AFP) - Supporters of a defeated Mexican leftist presidential candidate blocked major arteries in the heart of Mexico City and vowed to hold their ground until the electoral court orders a vote recount.

Hours earlier, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rallied more than one million supporters in the capital to denounce alleged election fraud they blamed for his narrow defeat four weeks ago.

"I proposed to them that we stay here, in a permanent assembly, until the resolution of the (electoral) court," the former Mexico City mayor said at the rally in El Zocalo, the main square of the capital.

Government officials said some 1.2 million of his supporters filled the capital's streets chanting "no to fraud" and calling for a vote-by-vote recount of the 41.7 million ballots cast in the July 2 election.

Lopez Obrador asked his backers to set up 47 camping sites across the gridlocked city's main thoroughfares, promising they would be entertained with art and performances while peacefully lobbying for his cause.

"I told them I myself will be living in one of those sites while we are holding these meetings," he said.

"I know that what I propose is not easy, but it is essential for our cause."

Five hours after his speech, dozens of tents were already installed on two of the capital's main arteries as the sit-ins got under way ahead of the Monday morning rush hour.

One cannot help but wonder whether Hugo Chavez's hand is in this mess somewhere. That AMLO is taking advice from Al Gore's former campaign staffers seems quite likely as well.

Cautionary Note

Henry Kissinger in today's Washington Post reminds the world that there is still an issue that must be dealt with. Iran.

Heretofore the Six have been vague about their response to an Iranian refusal to negotiate, except for unspecific threats of sanctions through the United Nations Security Council. But if a deadlock between strained forbearance by the Six and taunting invective from the Iranian president leads to de facto acquiescence in the Iranian nuclear program, prospects for multilateral international order will dim everywhere. If the permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany are unable jointly to achieve goals to which they have publicly committed themselves, every country, especially those composing the Six, will face growing threats, be they increased domestic pressure from radical Islamic groups, terrorist acts or the nearly inevitable conflagrations sparked by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The analogy of such a disaster is not Munich, when the democracies yielded the German-speaking part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler, but the response when Mussolini invaded Abyssinia. At Munich, the democracies thought that Hitler's demands were essentially justified by the principle of self-determination; they were repelled mostly by his methods. In the Abyssinian crisis, the nature of the challenge was uncontested. By a vast majority, the League of Nations voted to treat the Italian adventure as aggression and to impose sanctions. But they recoiled before the consequences of their insight and rejected an oil embargo, which Italy would have been unable to overcome. The league never recovered from that debacle. If the six-nation forums dealing with Iran and North Korea suffer comparable failures, the consequence will be a world of unchecked proliferation, not controlled by either governing principles or functioning institutions.

His argument, that there must be a response from the six that brings Iran to the table ready to join the modern world. The problem, of course, is whether the Mullahs are willing to give up imperial ambitions. And they most definitely have such ambitions.

President Bush has announced America's willingness to participate in the discussions of the Six with Iran to prevent emergence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. But it will not be possible to draw a line between nuclear negotiations and a comprehensive review of Iran's overall relations to the rest of the world.

The legacy of the hostage crisis, the decades of isolation and the messianic aspect of the Iranian regime represent huge obstacles to such a diplomacy. If Tehran insists on combining the Persian imperial tradition with contemporary Islamic fervor, then a collision with America — and, indeed, with its negotiating partners of the Six — is unavoidable. Iran simply cannot be permitted to fulfill a dream of imperial rule in a region of such importance to the rest of the world.

At the same time, an Iran concentrating on the development of the talents of its people and the resources of its country should have nothing to fear from the United States. Hard as it is to imagine that Iran, under its present president, will participate in an effort that would require it to abandon its terrorist activities or its support for such instruments as Hezbollah, the recognition of this fact should emerge from the process of negotiation rather than being the basis for a refusal to negotiate. Such an approach would imply the redefinition of the objective of regime change, providing an opportunity for a genuine change in direction by Iran, whoever is in power.

It comes to to the world acting together to stop a growing menace before it reaches the crisis point. It remains to be seen if the world can pull it off.

Insanity

Captain's Quarter's points to a truly frightening development in the uproar over Mel Gibson's drunken rant. The head of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League wants a criminal probe opened into Gibson's speech.

However, some people just cannot abide the fact that even stupid people have the right to free speech. Abraham Foxman, the director of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, wants the police to open a criminal probe into Gibson's stupid remarks:

Gibson's reported criticism of Jews, contained in a leaked police report detailing his arrest early on Friday morning, included the phrase: "F*****g Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."

He has since apologised for his actions, saying they were "despicable", but community Jewish leaders called for Gibson to be ostracised from Hollywood, where the A-list actor is considered an industry powerbroker.

Calling for a criminal investigation into the Oscar-winning actor and director's remarks, Abraham Foxman, the national director of the US Jewish Anti-Defamation League, said: "We believe there should be consequences to bigots and bigotry."

What crime does Foxman claim Gibson violated with these remarks? Americans have the right to say some pretty stupid things. Hell, the blogosphere proves that almost every day! We also can say some hateful things about our fellow man, and it's still not a crime.

Sorry, Mr. Foxman. Gibson broke no laws with his rant. You are not granted a constitutional right to never be offended. Gibson's rant was appalling, hateful and downright stupid. Welcome to free speech. Your call for criminalization of that speech is an abomination.

All Joe All Week

The media is spewing forth a vast amount of ink  - or pixels - on the primary in Connecticut. I suppose that's only to be expected when it's down to the last week of campaigning. But I really can't recall this much national attention on a state primary before this. The pro-Lieberman columnists versus the anti-Lieberman ones; the pro and anti papers; it's getting difficult to sort them all out. (And they are anti-Lieberman, not pro-Lamont. The NYT endorsement of Lamont was really an outright attack piece on Lieberman.)

So today, Jonathan Alter weighs in from Newsweek. While not at all flattering to Joe Lieberman, Alter is even less flattering to the anti-war left.

Lieberman's problems began long before he was kissed by President Bush at last year's State of the Union. With his Senate seat safe, he didn't have to fight in 2000. He went easier on Dick Cheney in their vice presidential debate than he did a few weeks back against fellow Democrat Lamont. During the Florida recount, he made a point of favoring military absentee ballots likely to be Republican. Lieberman has voted 90 percent of the time with the Democrats—but his first impulse is often to find fault with them. His 2004 run for the White House was better known for its attacks on fellow Democrats than on the incumbent. He approved of Washington intervention in the Terri Schiavo case. On Iraq, he buys the GOP argument that equates criticism of the commander in chief with hurting the troops, which means no real oversight. (Has he forgotten the Truman Committee during World War II?) The duty of the opposition is to oppose.

….

But if the blogs aren't a force on the ground, they are becoming a powerful factor in directing the passions (and pocketbooks) of far-flung Democratic activists. They're helping fuel a collective version of what shrinks call "projection," where the anger of Democrats at Bush is projected on a handy target, in this case Lieberman. But in doing so, they have neglected what FDR called "the putting of first things first." Job one for Democrats is identifying which Republican House incumbents are vulnerable in their own states and directing all available energy against them. Savaging fellow Democrats (except those who cannot win) should come after taking control, not before.

Which is in line with the position I've held all along. This was an unnecessary fight at a bad time. The losers will be the Democratic party one way or the other.

The Dead As Props

If you want to see what staged photographs look like, look no further than Qana. In a truly sickening display of blatant propaganda, Hezbollah has manipulated photos and photographers using dead children as props for their photo ops. And the various photographers play along on command. EU Referendum has some photo sequences with time stamps to show how the manipulation is being carried out. It's extremely thorough.