- LIKUD MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT WANTS TO USE PALESTINIANS AS HUMAN SHIELD AGAINST HAMAS ROCKET ATTACKS

ACCIDENTAL WALMARTYR

A worker at a Wal-Mart in New York City’s Long Island suburbs was killed when a throng of shoppers broke down the doors to the store early this morning and knocked him to the ground ...MORE

THOSE POOR WESTERNERS IN INDIA

Two days ago, the headlines were screaming that "westerners" under attack in India. As we know this is the nice way of saying white people. Does an Indian descent Canadian or American born citizen count as a Westerner?

Three days later and a lot of ambiguous news empty of real detail and numbers about who the victims were, now we know that from over 150 people killed, about 15 of them were westerners. So, how does Vancouver Sun, The globe and Mail and National Post defend their claim of Westerners being targeted?

Were the so called terrorists dumb, or blind, to to distinguish between whte people and Indians? How come despite their racist anti white intentions only 15 westerers were killed? Media is so lucky most people don't have a long memory nor do they give a shit to question these kinds of allegations.

As to why the media here emphasizes the western angel, they know that people in the west only consider their own loss a real tragedy. So to get people's attention and scare them, you gotta make them feel that it's them who are at danger. Telling people that 150 Indians dies in terrorist attacks doesn't even but it to a coffee table conversation among "Westerners". The last attack on the same Indian city killed about 120 Indians. Do we even remember this happening a few months ago?

An average of 50 Iraqis (non white) die in any given terrorist attack in Iraq. When was the last time you heard a Westerner worry about that?

BAD ECONOMY: JAGUAR PEOPLE IN THE LINE UP TO BUY MCDONALD BURGERS
- COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE THE NEW VICTIM OF MORTGAGE CRISIS
- WORLD SIGNS ANTI CLUSTER BOMB PACT, ISRAEL USA CHINA AND RUSSIA REFUSE TO JOIN
- (THANKS TO IRAN) IRAQI PARLIAMENT APPROVES THE SECURITY PACT WITH USA

ARE INDIAN TERRORIST ATTACKS THE REALIZATION of BIDEN'S PROPHECY?

We all remember less than a month ago, Joe Biden predicted that Omaba will face an international crisis within 6 months of his presidency. What he didn't make clear was if the two months between election and inauguration counts in the 6 or not.

Now "Westerners were targetd" and that close to 100 people are dead (nobody says a word about who these 80 plus people are. According to IBN, the CNN sister station in India, we know one of the dead is an anti terrorism high level guy names HEMANT KARKARE.

This also happen to be an indian version of 911 where the unfolding events are mass televised.

Is this going to become the reason why Obama will attack Pakistan?

We still don't know if this is what Biden was talking about, or not.

DANIEL RICH: DOWNBURST

DANIEL RICH
DOWNBURST

Daniel Rich was born in 1977 Ulm, Germany and raised in Atlanta, GA. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Rich received a MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2004); a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art (2001); and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2004). His work has been exhibited in New York at Elizabeth Dee Gallery (2005), at Sunday Gallery (2007), and at Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston (2007) among others.

Opening Reception
December 11, 2008
6-8 PM

Perry Rubenstein Gallery
527 West 23rd Street
534 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
Tel (212) 627-8000
Fax (212) 627-6336
www.perryrubenstein.com

WHICH ONE'S WORSE?

George W. Bush presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Alan Greenspan,the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve and the architect of the current financial metdown, on November 9, 2005 in the East Room of the White House.

NEW YORK ANONYMOUS

We will be publishing a series of diary entries by New York Anonymous, an artist, among other things, kind of guy. This ishis first post. Let's welcome him to idadabase.

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A few days ago a friend of mine called to inform me he was moving to a new apt and asked if I was interested in getting back a painting I had given to him in 2001.meanwhile, I had not seen that painting since 2001 and was anxious to get it back. My first thought, when I saw it? How awful it was.

An abstract painting with swirls and half circles and Pollack strokes, with scribbles and not good colors. The Untitled 20"x54" piece was done on recycled Corian board. I must have been very angry or very unbalanced, no drug enhancement needed.



I brought it home and hung it in my bedroom. Viewing it daily. There were few elements in the painting I liked but compared to what I'm doing now, I felt I had progressed tremendously. I am content with everything creative I have released to the world and was so pleased that Untitled 20"x54" had been returned to me never to see the light of day.

Sunday night, I get a text message from a friend in Chicago. He was in charge of a benefit/auction that I had three works in, All 3 from 2008. None of my work had sold; not even a bid. By the time I got to bed I felt awful and really down in the dumps.

I have participated in so many Auctions/Benefits and the "new work" never sells. Then I started thinking even though my work had progressed, I'd never sold any, maybe 2 in total. The rest were bartered or given away as gifts. I'm going to continue making them anyway.

I thought contemporary art was about new ideas and practices. My new paintings are new and different. I've been told repeatedly (in a good way) they have never seen such a concept before. Yet I am in NYC and a cum shot on Page 6 or photos of naked teens vomiting, or DVD of open-heart surgery projected on a brick wall has more relevance than a 3D abstract painting made from paper.

I compare Untitled 20"x 54" to my (no bid) auction/benefit works and wonder if I had accomplished anything at all since that early awful painting. A Friend of mine tells me it's a good thing, meaning "I'm waaay ahead of everyone else".

CAN YOU FEEL IT: MR FINGERS VS OBAMA

JAMES ZOGBY GRILLED ON ELECTRONIC INTIFADA

James Zogby isn't just an Arab American with an opinion. He is the president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a well-known writer, and an esteemed leader within the Arab American community. Many non-Arab Americans highly regard his analysis and look to his articles as a resource to understand the Middle East.

This is precisely why his latest article, "Rahm Emanuel and Arab Perceptions," published by The Huffington Post, is so disturbing. In the piece, Zogby tries to calm the fears of Arab Americans about United States President-elect Barack Obama's first appointment, Rahm Emanuel, to White House Chief of Staff. Zogby expressed shock and dismay that his constituency, once euphoric over the election of Obama, was now sending him angry and cynical letters

The mission statement of the AAI reads in part: "The Arab American Institute (AAI) represents the policy and community interests of Arab Americans throughout the United States and strives to promote Arab American participation in the US electoral system." Perhaps Zogby should reread his own organization's mission statement.

FULL TEXT

GAZA CONTINUES TO SUFFER AT THE HANDS OF THE APARTHEID REGIME

GAZA CITY, Gaza -- Half of Gaza's bakeries have closed down and the other half have resorted to animal feed to produce bread as Israel's complete blockade of the coastal territory enters its 19th day. CONTINUE READING

- DISCUSSIONS WITHIN THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF NEW YORK
conference at New York's Central Synagogue on Jews uniting against the war.

CAN YOU FEEL IT?

CAN YOU FEEL IT? VS OBAMA
Produced by us at i.dadabase
original music: Can You Feel It?: Mr. Finger

GALLERIES CLOSED: ROEBLING HALL AND RIVINGTON ARMS CLOSE DOWN

We will keep a closed eye on the gallery closings around the world. If you hear of a venue closing, please email us so we can update the list. So far:
ROEBLING HALL
RIVINGTON ARMS (at the end of the current year)

ISRAELI KILLING MACHINE AFTER THE IRANIAN PRESIDENT

The face you see above does not belong to a criminal behind bars, or a lunatic from a mental asylum, even though from his clothing and his looks one may think that he belongs to one or both. A lot of people think that hee should be behind the bars, not because of stuff he talks about all the time, but particularly for the inhuman and nazi like with which him, as the head of israeliy military violated Lebanese soverighnty in the summer of 2006 and the war crimes he committed.

His name is Moshe Ya'lon. Even in Israel he carries the nickname of boogie for being out of touch and blowing it. Here is his new story: WE MUST CONSIDER KILLING AHMADINEJAD

- NEW YORK TIMES: TIME FOR BUSH TO LEAVE OFFICE NOW

WE MISS AURORA BISTRO ON MAIN STREET

As you may know, Auroral Bistro has closed its doors. We are sad for losing a great restaurant on Main Street, But can bet that Jeff Van Geest, the chef at Aurora, is happy about his decision.

Dear Jeff, we've been there. Enjoy your time off and see you soon in whatever capacity you decide to work.

BORN IN SIN

Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist for the Haaretz newspaper, where he is also an editorial board member. He is a prominent left-wing commentator. He formerly served as spokesman for Shimon Peres from 1978 and 1982. evy himself has spoken of his 'modest mission to prevent a situation in which many Israelis will be able to say, "We didn't know".' A recurrent theme in his articles is what he describes as Israeli society's 'moral blindness' to the effects of its acts of war and occupation in Gaza and the West Bank. He has criticized Israel's government for refusing to stop the construction of settlements on private Palestinian land, describing the policy as 'the most criminal enterprise in [Israel's] history'.[4] He decries an attitude which reflects, he believes, Israel's systematic dehumanization of its neighbors.

This is from Gideon's recent article for Haaretz:

"The Israeli occupation enterprise has never been so prosperous, sweeping up in its whirlpool all of Israeli society and a vast army of settlers, secret agents, soldiers, prosecutors, journalists, politicians, judges, doctors, engineers, builders, architects, industrialists, artists, archaeologists and average apathetic citizens. Everyone, absolutely everyone, is implicated. They speak peace, but make war; oppose the settlements, but take part in their construction; say `two states,` but vote Likud; close their eyes, hide their faces and wrap themselves in the most dangerous of blankets: blankets of apathy." FULL TEXT

QUEEN KNIGHTS THE PRESIDENT OF ISRAEL

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II awarded President Shimon Peres honorary knighthood on Thursday in an official ceremony in Buckingham Palace in London.

here, the Sovereign of an ethnic colony gets acknowledged as a subject of the Queen of England. Peres's knighthood not only sanctions apartheid, but by symbolically crushing the sovereignty of Israel, brings the Jewish state back to its "rightful" place, the British empire. The Apartheid of Israel now is the Apartheid of England.

STOCK'S BACK TO FUTURE

By the time the NYC Stock Exchange closed today, Dow Jones average was down to 7552 points. The financial media say that this is as low as where the index was in 2002. That's telling us less than half of the truth.

The 7500 index was experienced only briefly in July 2002, and then again for another short period in September 2002. For a realistic comparison with what happened today one needs to go back to week of june 6-13, 1997. Thats right, more than 11 years ago the stocks slowly and expectedly went up from 7200 to 7600.

So, in reality, what we are seeing today is a return not to 6 years ago, but sadly to almost 12 years ago. Except, this time, the fortunes are slowly and expectedly going down. If you believe Suzi Orman and Ali Velshi (CNN), the button of the stock market was supposed to be somewhere between 8500 and 9000. These guys were sending people to buy stocks for all of last month, saying if you don't need your money for a couple of years, it's really a good time to buy Ford, Google and Citigroup.

Sure.

The year 1994 in very important in the recent developments. That's when the Clinton administration removed the first set of checks and balances that had restricted shady business since FDR's measures in the 30's. A quick look at the stock charts shows us that in 1994, before the restrictions were removed, the market had a modest gain from 3700 to 3900.

Compare this with the gains for 1995: 3900 to 5200. then in 1996: 5200 to 6700 and in 1997: 6700 to 7800. This is the same 1997 that I was just talking about a few paragraph earlier. But I don't think that the 1997 level is low enough. To shed all the fake advances of the last 13 years, the stocks will have to go to where they were in before then. That is before the Clinton financial team screw things up, plus a couple of years for safety. Now we can arrive at a more conservative estimate of a real bottom, around 3000. It's like the retro 90's we are currently starting.

Right now we are in the preparation mode for what is going to later happen. We may spend the next two years going slowly down to get there. Don't forget, these two years will happen on Obama's watch, and people would more or less come to hate him for his inability to fully address the problems.

I love the retro 90's, but I hope I am wrong about the rest.

GLOBAL BANKERS VS US AUTOMAKERS

For those of you who don't remember, within a few days of stocks going down last September, the entire White House, media and US congressional apparatus started telling people how important it is to "save the banks" and how crucial it is to spend hundreds of billions of Dollars doing so. Everyone bought into this theory that US taxpayers should give 700 billion Dollars to bankers. all sort of black scenarios were painted vividly for the public, so they knew why they had to fork over the taxes to the people who, just one year ago, were generating billions of dollars of profits.

No one, not even a single commentator asked, if the government is worried about money being lent out, why should they not open a new banking system and lend out cash directly to those who are "creating jobs" or operating their "businesses"? Why should the government give blank cheques to banks without a guarantee, then run around and worry about whether the cash is getting out to those who legitimately needs to borrow?

And how many people to the banks employ in total in USA? around 1,000,000 people.



Last week the giant automakers began asking for some cash, not 700 billion, not even 100 billion. They wanted 25 billion from the 700 allocated for the economic package. Rightaway the media and the government started shaming them for this. All of a sudden there was no dark scenario about millions of people losing their job, something that is a possibility if the automakers fail. Mind you, the automakers directly hire about 6 million Americans for their operations and millions of others under contrators. That doesn't include all those who work for the major automakers in Canada and other markets.

As you can see there is a turf war between bankers, international ones who have been in charge of the US economy more or less since 1913, with the last remaining giant industrialists. And the bankers are about to win. They want the last bastion of high paid jobs in USA to die. They want capital from cheap labour places to come and buy these companies and transfer the machinery and skills to China or India or even cheaper places. That's what I suspect is happening behind the GM, Ford and Chrysler bash fests in CNN and other media outlets.

Nobody is chasing rich bank executives to see if they take corporate jets or not. According to Bloomberg, nobody even know who is really getting the 700 billion, because the federal Reserve doesn't want to disclose the list of recipients.

We all hate cars, but we have to make sure that our disdain for gas guzzlers don't encourage us to help destroy the last remaining large unionized employers of USA.

Think about it, banking and investment industry hires about 100,000 people. Giant automakers hire about 6 million people. Who deserves to be supported right now in the hard times between the two?

- BLOOMBERG REPORTS ON THE DISMAL SITUATION OF VANCOUVER'S REAL ESTATE

IPHONE PICTURES FROM NEW YORK

CLICK HERE

HAMID DABASHI ON BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA

Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University

FULL TEXT
The New York day on that fateful Tuesday morning was long and electrified -- everything was abuzz with the thing called "history." Above all, children were visible on that fateful day -- parents taking them along to take their pictures on voting lines, against campaign posters -- for posterity. Rushing, meanwhile, to polling stations, rescheduling their day based on the length of the line they had to wait in, all the while arranging to have a few friends over for takeaway Chinese that evening, while glued to the television screen as the electoral votes were counted, waiting for Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida -- the swing states that could go one way or another -- their parents waited until exactly 11pm Eastern Standard Time when Wolf Blitzer at CNN and Keith Olberman at MSNBC went cosmic and declared Barack Obama the elected president.

From our apartment windows on the Columbia University campus on the Upper West Side of Manhattan we could hear the gradual but steady outburst of joyous screams, spontaneous songs, initially murmuring, but, like Ravel's Boléro, ever so slowly beginning to crescendo. The melodious joy began in Harlem to our east and north and slowly spread citywide. Ella Fitzgerald was in the air, as was Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

All the way from Harlem to Times Square, young people were pouring into the streets, cars and trucks blowing their horns, the privacy of homes and the solitude of living rooms nowhere near enough to contain this explosion of joy. In more than 30 years of living in this country I had never seen anything like this -- an instantaneous outburst of inarticulate happiness, a gushing forth of ecstatic delight simply to be alive at this dawn of a renewed covenant with history.

It was the end of a long day for ordinary folks, after a far longer number of years and decades and a catastrophe called "George W. Bush," but what a blessed sight for the world finally to heave a sigh of relief, to awake from the nightmare, and to see the light, that good can happen! It was a cathartic moment, a sudden change of vista and a vision of hope -- for all of us to have been around, to be here at this moment, to see this come to pass, and to imagine (in our fondest dreams, if not our damnedest delusions) America other than it has been.

OBAMA MAY NEVER do a thing he has promised -- but that will detract nothing from tonight. For tonight he belonged to eternity, to the succession of African slave ships brought to this shore, to the millions of African-Americans upholding their dignity against racism, sustaining their struggle, facing bigotry fiercely and awaiting victory. Along with millions of others, Jesse Jackson, an aging warrior of the Civil Rights Movement, was crying on television for the whole world to watch: the tears of African- Americans, young and old, remembering their parents' sufferings, their bondage, their history, and now this cathartic moment. What an unsurpassed honour to have been alive, to have been part of it, to have witnessed it, to have cast a silent and humble vote for it!

This night belonged to Malcolm X, to W E B Du Bois, to Martin Luther King, Jr, to Booker T Washington, to Frederick Douglass, to Harriet Tubman, Miles Davis, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and it belonged to every defiant soul who has stood up to the tyranny of white racism, has said no to injustice, and has upheld the dignity of an entire people on behalf of humanity at large, just in order to stay alive and see the dawn of this day.

On this momentous occasion, though "in equal scale weighing delight and dole," this liberating election must first and foremost be celebrated and not marred by any premature and undue hesitation. This moment belongs to African-Americans and to the generations and centuries of suffering they have endured. The celebration comes with a clear understanding that the colour line is no longer the problem of the twenty-first century.

Any concerns at this moment will have to remain theoretical conjectures in anticipation of the months and years that will follow that fateful day of Tuesday, 20 January 2009, when one singularly charismatic African-American will stand on the historic steps of the United States Capitol, with his hand on the Bible, and swear his oath of office in the voice he has learned from Malcolm X: "I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear..."

Along with the millions of ordinary, decent, courageous, and hopeful Americans who have voted for him and made this moment possible, the world has every reason to join the occasion and listen to the assured nobility of that voice. Even more than to that solemn oath, the world will hold Obama accountable to that voice.
FULL TEXT

GUGGENHEIM'S RELATIONAL AESTHETICS EXHIBITION

MY PHOTOS OF GUGGENHEIM
Jerry Salt'z Review of the relational aesthetics exhbiton at the Guggenheim in New York.
We saw the exhibition and felt exactly the same as the critic of New York Magazine. Especially missing in the exhibition was Andrea Fraser. There is a picture of Mauricio Catalan's Pinocchio. The bed was a great piece so as the coffee served by Illy.

- RUNWAY WARS BETWEEN WEINSTEIN AND ZUCKER (OF NBC)
- GANG TERRORISM ON THE RISE IN ISRAEL
- HOW OBAMA LEARNED TO LOVE ISRAEL
OLD ARTICLE FROM ELECTONIC INTIFADA
- ZIZEK ON THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN (FROM LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS)
- IT'S THE END OF THE SPECULATIVE ART MARKET AS WE KNOW IT, AND I FEEL FINE
- ZIONIST WAR CRIMINAL HENREY KISSINGER PUSHES FOR CLINTON TO BECOME THE SECRETARY OF STATE

THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN OBAMA AND THE NEOCONS OVER THE JOB OF SECRETARY OF STATE

Israel and israel lovers have made their choice clear and it's Hilary Clinton. But obama resists, because he does not want to put someone who voted for the Iraq war and follows the AIPAC directives blindly in charge of US diplomacy. Obama wants Richardson, but CNN and Arnold Schwarzenegger (who endorsed MacCain just a few months ago) think Clinton is a "great choice".

I personally prefer the former Secretary of State C. Rice to Clinton. Hilary is very dangerous. Watch out Obama, don't fall for that evil woman.

UPCOMING EXHIBITION AT CAG- SHANNON OKSANEN: SUMMERLAND

November 21, 2009 - January 18, 2009
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, November 20th, 6-9pm

LAST DAYS OF BUSH

The latest picture from the White House. Bush and his gang give the sign of horns.

OBAMA'S SECOND ZIONIST APPOINTEE

The Joy of change lasted what? Like a day? By yesterday evening America woke up to a relatively new name in the new power configuration: Rahm Emanuel, the son of an Israeli military officer, an ardent hawkish Zionist who now holds the second most senior position in an Obama presidency as his chief of staff. Like Joe Biden, he is a self declared and proud Zionist. Would that automatically make him a neoconservative? No, but it would be interesting to see if there has been a change in the attitude among left leaning Zionists. Do they really wanna deal with the mideast crisis? Or they see Obama as another 4 or 8 years of buying time for the Apartheid regime in Palestine.

I personally think that it is the economy, locally and globally that would give meaning to the Obama presidency and dictate the direction for the new regime in the White House. For a real change of direction, the stock market has to plunge further down. 8500 points is not low enough to trigger "change". We need a stock market below 6000. then maybe we will see real change. Until then, we can hold our collective breath and watch the transition team. meanwhile at Gagosian Gallery, a beautiful exhibition of work by HIROSHI SUGIMOTO opened last night.

THE NIGHT OF THE REGIME CHANGE IN AMERICA

It felt like the night of a regime change, like the ones we see on TV in Ukraine or Georgia. Last time I experienced this type of outpouring of public emotions was the day after the Islamic revolution in Iran back in 1978.

There were no slogans. No banners, only one word and one picture: OBAMA. Everyone screamed Obama. The cab driver, the people on the street, neighbours hanging from their windows.

The night started for us in midtown in front of the Rockefeller centre and CNN and it continued on to Gavin Brown's Gallery at the southwest corner of Soho where an election exhibition was about to open. The artist had replicated the portraits of all 43 US presidents and had hung them around the room, with Obama's framed picture waiting to be hung on an empty spot in the row of portraits. There was also a big bag of balloons hanging from the ceiling waiting to come down in case of an Obama Victory. (PICTURES)

There were free food, free drinks, wine, beer and champagne for everyone and the city's art community more or less had gathered to experience the night. We were sitting next to Dan Colen, Tomma Abts and Gavin Brown himself. At one point someone ordered 1000 dollars of Mexican Takeout for our side of the room. It was an amazing experience of collective joy. Socialism seemed very close.

The sharing didn't stop among the artists. Outside, on the way to the Lower East Side hang out Nowhere Bar, people were giving away drinks, food and even drugs. I received so many hugs and kisses it felt like a very special new year's eve.

Next morning, I had to fork up 10 dollars for a copy of New York Times that right now trades for up to 500 dollar on EBAY.

Check out the pictures. I will post more pics, videos and commentary very soon.

Welcome to change!