To the city of Bedford, New York: Let Qaddafi set up his goddamn tents! From the BBC:

The erection of the tent "violated several codes and laws of the town of Bedford", attorney Joel Sachs says. It also emerged the Bedouin-style tent was being set up on property rented from real estate mogul Donald Trump. Col Qaddafi had reportedly planned to use the tent for entertaining during the UN General Assembly in New York.

Libyan officials have so far not publicly commented on the issue. Col Qaddafi - who arrived in New York on Tuesday - traditionally shuns official residences during his trips abroad.

Update: Qaddafi's statement at the UN General Assembly's opening ceremony went just about as well as his attempt set up this tents in Bedford. How bad was it? He called the UN Security Council the "Terror Council."     

Update 2: Foreign Policy has pictures of Qaddafi's meltdown here. 

Fred Halliday's reflections on 40 years of Qaddafi rule in Libya.

Money quote:

There are many ways to enter the strange story of al-Jamahiriya ("the state of the masses"), whose originating event was marked on 1 September 2009 by a spectacular celebration in Tripoli filled with extravagant stage-management and kitsch special-effects. The event was seen in much of the world outside Libya against the background of the concurrent media and diplomatic controversy over the release from a Scottish jail on 20 August 2009 of the only person convicted of any part in the Pan-Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie in December 1998, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi (who, incidentally, belongs to an influential branch of the Magariha tribe, which links him to Major Jelloud).  As a result, the experience of these four decades in Libya's history - and their impact on the Arab world and beyond - has been somewhat overshadowed. A pity, for these offer some sobering lessons in the politics of illusion.