Monday, March 10, 2014

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The 'Patriot' takes a Stand"





Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The 'Patriot' takes a Stand."  Liz Wahl explains, "It's me, brave American patriot Lix Wahl.  I quit RT last week declaring it a propaganda outlet.  I offered a lot of meaningless details like my family's immigration record.  None of which explains why I spent so long at RT or how the Ukraine relates to my alleged patriotism.  Now I promote Fake Ass Jeans."  At which point, Valerie Jarrett declares the campaign's slogan, "Oh, the smell of it!"  Isaiah archives his comics at The World Today Just Nuts.










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Nouri will get the votes of Moqtada's supporters?

Hey, remember when the useless gasbags were telling you that Moqtada al-Sadr resigning meant that his votes would go to Nouri al-Maliki?

We called that stupidity out repeatedly (see Feb. 18th snapshot for one example).

For those still too stupid to grasp that Moqtada's supporters will not be voting for Nouri?


All Iraq News reports Moqtada's supporters were out in full force, protesting in Ammara against Nouri (who called Moqtada "immature" in his France24 interview).  All Iraq News notes that they also flooded the streets of Nassiriya protesting against Nouri.

While they call for Nouri's resignation today, Al Mada reports Ayad Allawi called for Nouri's resignation yesterday.  Allawi wants a caretaker government set up now, ahead of the elections.  This was proposed last go round.

Through Sunday, Iraq Body Count counts 346 violent deaths -- 346 in the first nine days of the month.

Today?


National Iraqi News Agency reports an Abu Ghraib roadside bombing left three people injured, a second Abu Ghraib bombing left two people injured, a Haditha roadside bombing left intelligence official Sabah Jubair al-Dulaimi dead and three Iraqi military personnel were left injured, a Malia roadside bombing left two Iraqi soldiers injured, Joint Operations Command announced they killed 6 suspects in Falluja, Sheikh Adowan al-Zuhairi was shot dead in Muqdadiyah, 2 Baqbua bombings left 2 people dead and four more injured, 2 bombings "between Amiriyat al-Fallujah and Babylon" left eleven Iraqi soldiers injured, a shooting inside a Mosul mosque left an Imam and a security guard injured, Baghdad Operations Command announced they killed 1 suspect, 2 police members were shot dead in Baquba,  and 2 corpses were discovered in Taji ("gunshot wounds").


Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The 'Patriot' takes a Stand" went up earlier today, but I'll change the time stamp and make it the last thing up here before the snapshot.  He'll have another comic tomorrow.  Kat's "Kat's Korner: Are you listening to Ben Taylor?" went up Sunday.  New content at Third:




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Talk Nation Radio: Elaine Scarry: The U.S. Constitution Bans Nukes

This is from David Swanson's War Is A Crime:


Talk Nation Radio: Elaine Scarry: The U.S. Constitution Bans Nukes

http://davidswanson.org/node/4338

https://soundcloud.com/davidcnswanson/talknationradio-20140312

Elaine Scarry, who teaches at Harvard University, is the author of The Body in Pain and On Beauty and Being Just. Her writings following 9/11 include Who Defended the Country? and Rule of Law, Misrule of Men. We discuss her new book, Thermonuclear Monarchy: Choosing Between Democracy and Doom.


Total run time: 29:00

Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.

Download from Archive or LetsTryDemocracy.
Pacifica stations can also download from AudioPort.
Syndicated by Pacifica Network.
Please encourage your local radio stations to carry this program every week!
Please embed the SoundCloud audio on your own website!
Past Talk Nation Radio shows are all available free and complete at
http://davidswanson.org/talknationradio


--
David Swanson's wants you to declare peace at http://WorldBeyondWar.org  His new book is War No More: The Case for Abolition. He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works for http://rootsaction.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook.  
Sign up for occasional important activist alerts here http://davidswanson.org/signup
Sign up for articles or press releases here http://davidswanson.org/lists
This email may be unlawfully collected, held, and read by the NSA which violates our freedoms using the justification of immoral, illegal wars absurdly described as being somehow for freedom.

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Sunday, March 09, 2014

Hejira

Collective punishment is defined as a War Crime and Nouri excels at War Crimes.  So today, his indiscriminate shelling of Falluja residential neighborhoods left 6 people dead and seventeen injured.


Turning to some of today's other reported violence, National Iraqi News Agency reports a Tuz attack left 1 "employee in the North Oil Company" dead and twelve more injured, a Zuham Village bombing left 1 Sahwa and 1 civilian dead and two children injured, Joint Operations Command announced they killed 6 suspects in Kirkuk, a Tariq Camp attack left 3 Iraqi soldiers dead and four more injured, a Ramadi clash left four Iraqi soldiers injured, 2 Iraqi soldiers were shot dead in Abu Ghraib, 1 person was shot dead in Mada'in, 2 Iraqi soldiers were shot in Bahbahan, Colonel Salem Hassan was shot dead in eastern Mosul, a Mosul roadside bombing left three police members and two civilians injured, a Taji roadside bombing left 2 police members dead and two more injured, a Muttahidoon coalition MP, Nahida al-Daini, was targeted for assassination with a Mahroot bombing today and while she survived without injury two of her bodyguards and nine civilians were injured, a Khirbet Aziz Village bombing left four military personnel injured, 2 Iraqi soldiers were shot dead during an attack on a Mosul checkpoint, security forces killed 1 suspect in Tal Afar, Deputy Police Chief of Kirkuk Turhan Abdul Rahman announced they killed 3 suspects in Kirkuk,  an al-Zaidan bombing left 1 Iraqi soldier dead and four injured, Major General Ali Ghaidan announced they killed 2 suspects in Qarma, a Hilla suicide bomber took his own life and the lives of 47 people with another one hundred-and-twenty-five injured, and the corpse of 1 Ministry of Transport employee was found dumped in eastern Baghdad.

Margaret Griffis (Antiwar.com) counts 97 dead and 237 injured today.

As we noted yesterday, thug Nouri gave an interview to France state television (France24) in which he accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of causing the problems in Iraq.   BBC states today, "In the past, he has blamed unnamed regional countries for destabilising Iraq."


Unnamed?

Do they have amnesia?  He's repeatedly named Saudi Arabia and Turkey in the past.  He also previously had a public war with Qatar.  He ended that war of worlds in order to get good press.  Apparently, he no longer cares or thinks he doesn't need good press.


Meanwhile, the guilty dog barks.  Al-Manar reports, "Iraq's transportation minister Hadi al-Amiri told a news conference Sunday that he'd pay for the losses out of his own pocket and would hand his son over to authorities if the investigation proved he was behind the Middle East Airline flight being stopped from landing on Thursday."

How stupid is Nouri's Cabinet?  I guess it's a prerequisite that you be immensely stupid if you're going to be Nouri's friend and Hadi al-Amiri is really stupid.

He declares he'll pay for the costs and "hand his son over to authorities" if it is "proved he was" the one behind this.

Who is "he"?

Let's play this out.

 Iraq's transportation minister Hadi al-Amiri told a news conference Sunday that he'd pay for the losses out of his own pocket and would hand his son over to authorities if the investigation proved [Hadi al-Amiri] was behind the Middle East Airline flight being stopped from landing on Thursday.


In that interpretation, the Transportation Minister is saying that if it's proved he himself was behind preventing the plane from landing, he would turn his son over to authorities.

Why?

How would that make sense?

'I have been found guilty of doing it, so here is my son.'?

Let's try it another way.

 Iraq's transportation minister Hadi al-Amiri told a news conference Sunday that he'd pay for the losses out of his own pocket and would hand his son over to authorities if the investigation proved [his son] was behind the Middle East Airline flight being stopped from landing on Thursday.


How is his son potentially behind it?

We can see his son making a call to his father and his father issuing an order.

But is Hadi al-Amiri floating the notion that his son, having missed the plane that waited on the runway for him for six additional minutes, picked up the phone and dialed the Baghdad Airport and ordered them -- in a "Do you not know who my father is!" manner -- to tell the plane to turn around and go back to Lebanon?

It appears that's what he is attempting to float publicly.  He refused to take questions.

If you're new to the story, you can refer to  Thursday's snapshot and Friday's snapshot for more.





I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name

 The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4489.


Kat's "Kat's Korner: Are you listening to Ben Taylor?" went up earlier today.  On this week's Law and Disorder Radio,  an hour long program that airs Monday mornings at 9:00 a.m. EST on WBAI and around the country throughout the week, hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Michael S. Smith and Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Rights) topics  addressed include net neutrality (with attorney Matt Wood), the dismissal of the case involving the NYPD spying on Muslims in New Jersey (with guest Professor Deepa Kumar), the upcoming Brooklyn Folk Festival and feedback from listeners.


We're still working on Third.  Two biggest hold ups?

1) No editorial idea.  If Iraq is the problem, Ava and I cover Iraq in our TV piece so the editorial can actually be on any topic in the world.

2) Jim wants Ava and I to do another piece.  We are saying "no."  He thinks he can break that no but he can't.  We already wrote a mammoth TV piece (covering SNL, an MSNBC 'special,' a radio critique, a celebrity interview and Democracy so-called Now).  That left us exhausted.  Not only are we tired, we want to give it a wee to see if Women's Media Center can find a spine or maybe the blog for Ms. magazine.  We could have written the piece last week and almost did.  But the real war on women never ends.  And we'll return to that topic but do so next week when we can note that a number of feminist outlets do their part to encourage the war on women.






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Kat's Korner: Are you listening to Ben Taylor?

Kat: Singer-songwriter and jam master Ben Taylor's touring the West Coast, Tuesday performing in Hermosa Beach, Wednesday in San Francisco, then on to Seattle . . .

This gives me a chance to note his latest album, the one he's promoting right now, Listening




Sun Pedal Recordings released Listening in August 2012.  You may or may not know that.  I didn't until well into 2013.  By which point, it seemed pointless to review it.

Instead, I thought I'd just write it off as another album the digital music de-volution couldn't get behind.

The digital music de-volution has allowed strippers and skanks and men who exploit both to rake up hits -- even if, like Robin Thicke, they just steal from Marvin Gaye.

But real artists?

They struggle.


 I've counted my blessings and earned my mistakes 
And I'll see you the next time around
I'm done with the game 
Let there be no mistake
But I'll see you the next time around

That's Ben singing about any number of things but to me it's about the music industry.

He can sing.  He can write a a strong song.  He can play the guitar.  He can make a satisfying album.

But so what?

In 1988, a friend nervously palmed me an audio cassette -- did so in such a way that I was a little alarmed.  It was all very secretive, all very hush-hush.  "Listen," he told me, "it's going to be the most important album of the year."

He was working for a division of Warner Bros., yes.  But I was strictly photography at this point so there was no way he thought I'd be doing a music review.  And it wasn't hype as we understand it.  Hype would have been, "It's going to be the biggest seller of the year."

I tossed it in my purse and forgot about it for a bit until I was stopped at an intersection infamous for it's slow, slow signal change.  Bored with the radio, I remembered the tape and dug around my purse to find it.  The only label was an artist's name.  I'd never heard of him or her before.  I put the tape in my player and . . .


 Don't you know 
Talkin' bout a revolution
Sounds like a whisper
Don't you know
Talkin' bout a revolution 
Sounds like a whisper 

Tracy Chapman.  And in many different ways, people across the country got the word out on her self-titled debut which was 1988's best album.


How would a Tracy Chapman break through today?

Bring Jay-Z on her song to rap about beating up women? Twerk on stage in her bra?

What would it take to get her single noticed today?

And grasp that it would only be a single.

U2 just kicked back the planned release of their latest album.  They're going back to the studio and working on it some more. Bono grates on my nerves but I still love Larry, The Edge and Adam so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they were trying to make an album and they're going back into the studio to try to make a better album.

I also give them the benefit of the doubt on that because I want to believe someone still cares about albums.

That wasn't always the case.  The Beatles, the Mamas and the Papas, the Rolling Stones and others took popular music into longform art.  It was a mirror of what Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Johnny Mathis and others were already doing in what I'll call the Hit Parade genre.

That's when the world split between a Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow on FM and, on AM,  the Monkees warbling  "Last Train To Clarksville" -- a song the four actors hired to play a group did not write or play an instrument on.


The kiddies, we all understood, needed to chew on their candy before they'd be old enough to sink their teeth into anything but empty calories.

For good or bad, artists and bands focused on the LP -- the long play album -- and not the 45 vinyl that singles were released on.

When it worked, it was amazing.  Joni Mitchell's Blue, for example, is one of the 20th century's musical classics.  And she didn't have one hit single on it.  Nor did she intend to.  On her follow up album, For The Roses, to appease David Geffen, she wrote "You Turn Me On I'm A Radio" which was the hit he wanted for the album.  Not everyone was so reluctant to have hit singles and most tried to balance the two.

Ben's father got a little bitchy when his then-wife was having hits and it became a mantra for James that he was an album artist and Carly Simon was a singles artist.  It became a mantra Carly picked up and repeated herself.  It wasn't actually true.  James tried over and over for hits but really struggled to write one.  That's why most of his hits are cover songs.  Carly, by contrast, was able to produce satisfying albums with a track or two that could successfully be pulled off to become a hit single.

But heaven forbid the male ego have to face that reality during marriage: That the wife had more talent and creativity than the husband.

Since the marriage ended, the reality's become clear enough even for Sweet Boring James.

When Ben was starting out, nothing destroyed my interest quicker than a mention of his father.

I can remember being excited by Carly's Letters Never Sent and being excited about all of it including the bits leading into songs like "What About A Holiday?" -- which featured Sally Taylor -- and "Time Works On All The Wild Young Men" -- which featured Ben Taylor.

I shared the album with many friends and for every 9 good and smart people there was a Natalie.

Natalie, just FYI, was a friend I dropped quickly. Around the time she married her second husband while passing off another man's child as the second husband's child.  She stayed long enough to spend all his money, then charge him into the poor house, announce her daughter was not his child and leave him for a third husband.  (She would rake up five marriages before the age of 29.  After that, I lose track.)

While nine people could listen and express delight over the riches of the album (which includes Carly's deadly kiss-off "Half Way 'Round The World"), Natalie could only gush, "Oh, that one song!  Where James' son sounds just like him!"

For those who hate women (including women like Natalie who hate other women), 44 seconds will triumph over everything else.  For those like Natalie, they will even insist that Ben sounds exactly like his father.  No, he doesn't.  His voice is richer -- it's the difference between a dark chocolate and a thin wafer or cracker.  Ben's voice is also less nasal and lacks James' intonation problems. At his height, James sang like a boy tenor.  Ben's recordings are of a man singing, not a boy.

But I've heard that crap a lot over the years since 1994 when Letters Never Sent was released.

And it pissed me off and it's pissed others off as well.

It has nothing to do with Ben though it may have harmed his career.  I can remember seeing Famous Among The Barns at Tower when it came up and turning my nose at it because I just wasn't in the mood for all the crap.  Sally Taylor can sing, she can write songs, she's very talented.  No big labels were rushing to sign her.

Ben?  The music industry thought they could make a buck off him and, let's be clear, that was because he was a man.

Well, they couldn't make a buck off him.

Selling him as James Junior went no where.  No surprise.

His father's fans didn't want a clone and the rest of us avoided his father's records for good reason.

Then he ended up on his own and discovering his own voice with 2008's The Legend of Kung Folk Pt. 1 and now he was someone worth listening to.  But it was 2008 and the world of music had changed.

What he had to offer wasn't easily marketed so those who valued it would have a difficult time finding about the album.

Of all the reviews I've done, my May 2009 review of David Saw's Broken Down Figure is one of my favorites. That is an amazing album, one I listen to to this day, that was either overlooked or slammed.  I get e-mails on it to this day.  People discover the album either through the review or discover the album and going looking for reviews and find my positive one.  Either way, they write.  And they are writing these detailed e-mails about Broken Down Figure and what it means and what it specifically means to them.

That's not surprising because it's a rich album.

But by 2009, the digital de-volution meant lots of luck selling an album.

Ben's album came out in August 2012.  He's touring right now to promote it.  That's apparently the only way to get the word out these days.  For all the 'social networks' and apps and other crap, the reality is that we've de-volved into music consumers that just want the hits everyone is singing because, please God, don't you dare let me be even a little different than Billy and Muffy and all the other cool kids.

The digital de-volution preaches and demands conformity.

And the result is what we used to know as Muzac.  Piped in elevator crap, meaningless and not worthy of real attention.

Ben, on his own or with David Saw, can't write a meaningless song.

So he's doomed to cross the country playing his songs and trying to get the word out the way one might have if they were a folk singer in 1961.

I can't forget, I'm always holding you 
I draw you in with every breath
Same song, same sky
So far away 
I sing along to make the time go by
You may be a lot of things but you're not alone, you're not alone

There are so many reasons to love that track including the song itself.  But there's a lot to be said for the production and for Ben's instincts as a singer.  On the latter, he floats the vocal when most would rush it.  Donna Summer was one of the few singers who, if presented with a song with this beat, would have the confidence to float it.

He brings confidence and assurance to the vocal, he keeps it light and he makes it sexy.

It is among the perfect and near perfect songs on his album Listening.

But barring Fox deciding it's the perfect theme for Nick and Jess on New Girl, most people aren't going to hear the song or the album.


The digital de-volution is not assisting music or art currently.  Until that changes, real artists will continue to suffer.  If you're tired of being victimized by the hulled out and hollow 'hits' of today, make a point to check out Ben's Listening.





ben taylor
david saw


























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