Sunday, April 12, 2009

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Brotherly Embarrassment"

Brotherly Embarrassment

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Brotherly Embarrassment." Michelle Obama grins, applauds and declares, "And people thought my brother would be the embarrassment." Abo Obama waves and declares, "Hey everybody, it's me, Abo Obama, also called Samson. I'm 41 years old and last November while my brother was running for US president, I was busted trying to assault a 13 year old girl in England. Now the UK won't let me back in but good news, American girls, I can still get into the US." Isaiah archives his comics at The World Today Just Nuts.







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And the war drags on . . .

In today's New York Times, Alissa J. Rubin offers "Arrests of a Council's Members Deepens the Bitterness of Sunnis in Iraq" about the "Awakening" Councils, Sahwa or "Sons of Iraq." Using the 13 killed yesterday (the death toll rose to 13) in the suicide bombing attack in Iskandariyah
as the starting point, Rubin explores the continued attacks on the Sahwa and the tensions in the Sunni community as a result. Rubin observes that for all the speculation over the very visible attacks (including arrests), the tensions were always there between the Sahwa movement (Sunni) and the US installed government in Baghdad which is dominated by Shi'ites (and by Iraqis who willingly went into exile and only returned to Iraq after the US invaded). Rubin notes the 27-day imprisonment of Sheik Maher Sarhan Abbas who was arrested "in secret and came to light when The New York Times by chance contacted someone who had seen him in jail." While the US continues to see Abbas as someone to be trusted and while his "Shiite neighbors trusted him" as well, Nouri's foces burst into his home on March 15th, "just after midnight, heavily armed men flung deafening smoke grenades into his home in Hawr Jab, a small village on Baghdad’s southern outskirts, his family said. They burst into the bedroom where Sheik Maher and his wife were watching television as their 3-year-old daughter slept in a small bed next to them." Along with Nouri's goons, US forces were present and it's suspceted that they "were probably from a Special Operations unit". The latest hypothesis among "Awakenings" is that their Sunni enemies are telling lies to the Shi'ite government which, loathing the "Awakenings," uses any excuse to arrest them. Rubin includes this:


A senior American official in Iraq was also skeptical of the motives for the arrests. "Why is the government doing this?" said the official, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the news media.
"Every time we said to the government, 'You have to let this guy go,' they do it, which they wouldn't if they thought he was really dangerous," the American said. "I think they have their hand in the sectarian cookie jar."

Corinne Reilly and Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) report on yesterdya's bombing and note that it followed a week of violence, "On Monday a series of seven explosions killed dozens in Baghdad. Back-to-back bombings Tuesday and Wednesday in the capital’s Kadhemiyah district killed at least 15. And on Friday at least seven people, including five American soldiers, died in a massive suicide attack in the northern city of Mosul."

They're just there to try and make the people free,
But the way that they're doing it, it don't seem like that to me.
Just more blood-letting and misery and tears
That this poor country's known for the last twenty years,
And the war drags on.
-- words and lyrics by Mick Softly (available on Donovan's Fairytale)

Last Sunday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4266 and tonight? 4272. Today the US military announced: "One U.S. Coalition Soldier died of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated in Salah-ad Din Province, April 12. The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense." As we noted last Sunday of the US death toll, "Sort of a slap upside the face to all the 'reporters' writing their 'deaths have trended down' stories on April 1st and April 2nd. They know who they are and, thing is, so do we." Today UPI notes that 9 US service members have died in Iraq already this month.

In some of today's reported violence . . .

Bombings?

Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad roadside bombing which left seven people wounded, a Baghdad roadside bombing which wounded four US soldiers, a Mosul roadside bombing which injured "two police officers" and, dropping back to Saturday, a Baghdad roadside bombing which wounded two police officers.

Shootings?

Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 police officer shot dead in Mosul last night.

In Iraq today, a committee in Parliament offered a rebuke of the police. Sameer N. Yacoub (AP) reports the committee was offended that the police raided an art show and seized an illustration "lampooning Iraq's prime minister." No word on whether or not he was in 'Muslim garb' and doing a fist bump. (For those who didn't catch that, it was a reference to the faux outrage over a New Yorker cartoon cover that demonstrated there's more than a little bit of Denmark in the US.) Meanwhile the top US commander in Iraq, Gen Ray Odierno, appeared on CNN today and was interviewed by John King (link has text and video). He discussed the treaty masquerading as a Status Of Forces Agreement which supposedly binds the US to leave all Iraqi cities by the end of this June and to leave the country by the end of 2011. Despite that alleged 'binding' agreement, Odierno stated US troops might not leave Iraqi cities at the end of June ("If we believe that we'll need troops to maintain a presence in some of the cities, we'll recommend that, but, ultimately, it will the decision of Prime Minister Maliki"), however , "As you ask me today, I believe it's a 10 -- that we will be gone by 2011." He believes. Not "It's a 10, we will be gone in 2011." Believes. Odierno's not staking his reputation on anyone else's promise and he has always worded very carefully on this topic. Jonathan D. Salant (Bloomberg News) puts it this way, "Odierno said he expects to meet the 2011 deadline. There are 142,000 U.S. troops in Iraq." Deborah Solomon (Wall St. Journal) summarizes it as follows, "The top U.S. general in Iraq said the U.S. is on track to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by August 2010 but could adjust the pace over the next 18 months depending on the stability of the country." Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) interviews Baghdad Christians about their security. Andrew Wolfson (Journal-Courier) does the roll out for Steven D. Green's defense ("I got problems!") and we'll skip that and instead note the War Crimes:

Three months later, according to court records, Green and three comrades, buzzed on black-market Iraqi, slipped away from their post near Yusufiyah, cut through a security fence and marched through a field a few hundred yards to a home they knew from patrols.
There, as Pfc. Jesse Spielman stood guard, Spcs. Paul Cortez and James Barker took turns raping 14-year-old Abeer Kassem Al-Janabi, while Green, in a bedroom next door, allegedly executed the girl's mother, father and 6-year-old sister.
Abeer screamed in terror. as she was sexually assaulted and heard her family members being shot one by one, according to Army and court records. Then Green allegedly raped Abeer and shot her in the head, those same records show.
To destroy evidence of the rape, Spielman and the other soldiers burned Abeer's body, reducing its upper half to ashes. Then they tossed one of the murder weapons -- an AK-47 the family owned -- into a canal and returned to their checkpoint, where they burned their own bloody clothes and threw some chicken wings on the grill for dinner.
The slayings triggered international outrage after the U.S. soldiers' involvement was made known.


New content at Third:

Truest statement of the week
Truest statement of the week II
A note to our readers
Editorial: No time and no interest is the message
TV: Women and sitcoms
White House caught in another lie
"Take it up with Barack"
Ty's Corner
Lt. Muthana Shaad's Gay Boy Chronicles
Movie roundtable
And the Katrina goes to . . .
Acceptance
ETAN
Highlights

Kat's "Kat's Korner: The LOtUSFLOW3R Blooms ... and rocks" went up this morning and Isaiah's latest goes up after this. Pru notes Simon Assaf's "US plans in danger as Iraq deal falls apart" (Great Britain's Socialist Worker):

One of the central planks of the US strategy to pacify Iraq has begun to unravel – just as it prepares to draw down its troops from the country.
The US and its allies in the Iraqi government have turned on the "Awakening Councils" – around 90,000 former resistance fighters who switched sides at the height of the insurgency.
These militias, also known as the "Sons of Iraq", had turned their guns on other resistance groups in return for a US promise to pull out of Sunni Muslim areas.
The deal marked the end of the insurgency in western Iraq and parts of the capital of Baghdad. Those fighters who refused to accept the deal were labelled as "Al Qaida" and killed.
In return, the councils were given effective control over Sunni neighbourhoods and paid a monthly wage.
They were also given a pledge that they could hold onto their weapons to keep a check on Shia Muslim death squads that had been attacking the resistance.
The US was then able to declare a victory of sorts and set a date for transferring its troops to Afghanistan.
Stopped
But late last year the US stopped its payments of wages and promised the Iraqi government – run by parties linked to the death squads – would pay the bill.
Further promises were made offering to incorporate the council fighters into Iraq’s security forces.
But the Iraqi government has reneged on the deal and began arresting or killing off key council leaders.
This sparked a brief uprising in March after Iraqi security forces seized the head of the Awakening Council in the Fadhil neighbourhood of Baghdad.
In a sign of frustration, the US commander for Baghdad said, "These men had broken faith with their fellow Sons of Iraq, the Iraqi people and us."
The growing discontent among the Awakening Councils has been marked by a return of roadside bombs targeting US troops and a string of bomb attacks against Shia areas.
© Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.
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the new york times
alissa j. rubin










laith hammoudi
hussein kadhim


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Kat's Korner: The LOtUSFLOW3R Blooms ... and rocks

Kat: "Kat! Kat!" Betty's oldest son was calling to me as we got back from the airport Saturday. "You've got to review an album! You've got to!"

Okay, okay, I will. Seriously, I didn't care if it was a Disney Kid's album, when someone's that excited about an album, it probably needs to be reviewed. It wasn't a Disney Kid, it was Prince. Yeah, I panned Prince's last album, but I was eager to hear this one, mainly because of the excitement factor.

Prince LOtUSFLOW3R

"Can I play you my favorite song?" he was asking but already cueing up the CD player so no answer was needed. "This is a great song, it's probably the best thing he's ever written. It's about clovers." As the chords came on, I recognized it. You probably will immediately as well:

I don't hardly know her
But I think I could love her
I hope she walks over
Cause I've been waiting to show her
Crimson and clover
Over and over . . .

Tommy James and the Shondells hit with it back in the sixties, Joan Jett in the eighties. Prince has woven in "Wild Thing" and a bit of "Foxy Lady." But, thing is, it really does sound like one of the best thing Prince's ever written. "4Ever" is the track that's immediately after and it finds Prince doing some of best guitar work and best songwriting work. That's lyrically and musically but a caveat: On the chorus, you'll note Prince's jazz chords. This may be the beginning of his jazz phase, the one Joni ran through in the late seventies.

The album opens with an instrumental entitled "From The Lotus" which owes a lot to jazz and closes with ". . . Back 2 The Lotus" which is basically an instrumental (Prince talks over it) that sounds like someone attempting to inject Jimi Hendrix into jazz and then, at two-minutes and twenty-seconds, a bit of Thin Lizzy with a return of Jimi about twenty seconds later. Of the two, I prefer the album closer.

If you're not grasping my caveat, not only did you not live through Don Juan's Reckless Daughter and Mingus, you haven't heard "Love Like Jazz" which sounds like the Burt Bacharach and Hal David classic "You'll Never Get To Heaven (if You Break My Heart)" as smoothed over by a band whom things "elevator music" is the ultimate compliment. It ends with a throb sound which goes into "77 Beverly Park" for several measures before your apparently supposed to picture yourself at your favorite Mexican food eatery with Prince going table to table as he strums on his guitar. "Wall of Berlin" finds Prince remembering most people purchase a Prince album because of his vocals. What's he singing about? I have no idea. If you can figure it out, good for you.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. For the bulk of the new album, LOtUSFLOW3R, he appears to be either attempt to reconsider Donovan (I'm a huge Donovan fan) or on who knows what but get me some pronto because it's got to be good. "$" is an example there and it's one of the best tracks on the album. "How many times do you look for happy and never see the rich folks there? But if the dee jay really dropped the needle all the truth players just don't care?" No idea. "Everybody's dancing" he snaps throughout and they should be.

"Dreamer" finds him rocking out as does the second track "Boom" and they are probably the ones that will make longterm fans happiest. Prince hasn't rocked out like this on an album in sometime. Of the two, I prefer the guitar work on "Dreamer" but, overall, find "Boom" to be stronger. ("Dreamer" finds him lyrically attempting something similar to the Temptations classic "Ball of Confusion"). Betty's son prefers "Dreamer" and was rocking out on an electric guitar while it played. As he and Prince wound down, I said I'd review it and he started telling me it was one of three discs. I'm sure he saw my grimace, the involuntary shudder. Three discs?

Prince managed to serve up a disc worth listening to and now I was about to tempt fate by expecting he had the goods for another or two more? Fortunately the third disc is is Bria Valente's Elixer and I could rule it out as not being Prince's disc. That left MPLSOUND.

"(There'll Never B) Another Like Me" is Prince in a boastful mood and with enough energy to back it up. That's not always the case and boasts from a lethargic pose convince no one, but Prince's got enough fire on this track that you believe him and believe that's a bad thing. It's strong enough to make you wish it was 1985 all over again and every radio station your turned to was playing either Prince or, more likely, the latest Prince wanna be. "Chocolate Box" follows up and I'm starting to wonder if this might actually be the better of the two discs?

By the time "Dance 4 Me" (and it's musical allusions to his "Erotic City") starts blasting, it's obvious this is the stronger disc. And, remember, LOtUSFLOW3R was no piker. But this one leaves out the jazz flirtations and the instrumentals to just rock out. It's like Prince's done wandering the desert and has returned to the world. He tosses out "U're Gonna C Me" next and it's been so very, very long since Prince has done a ballad worth listening to. For me, you probably have to drop back to "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold" (1999's RAVE un2 the joy fantastic) but it's quickly followed by "Here" which not only contains some of Prince's most passionate singing, it also comes closer to carrying off the syncopation "Love Like Jazz" can't. The ballads are so strong, it's as if Prince's returning to the studio after a smoke break during the recording of Sign of the Times.

"Valentina" works as a rock song and paean to Salma Hayeck and has some wonderful syncopation going on. It's over so quickly and it's so good that it really doesn't feel like it last 3:57. "Better With Time" follows and reminds that no one can croon like Prince when he wants to. "Ol' School Company" has a bedrock groove on which Prince offers some of his most pointed lyrics including: "Everybody talking bout hard time like they just started yesterday, People I know they been struggling -- at least it seems that way, Fat cats on Wall St. they got a bailout while somebody else got to wait, 700 billion but my old neighborhood nothing changed but the date." This gives way to the album closer "No More Candy 4 U" which finds Prince in a hard driving move that recalls Fats Domino. All in all, an amazing disc.

The three disc package is currently available only at Target where its price is $11.98. I have no time to listen to Bria Valente and write a review that's going up on Sunday so I'll point out the obvious: Prince has called the shots for a lot of women. Some, like Sheila E., had talent on their own. But listen to The Glamorous Life with headphones and you'll notice Prince singing every note as though he had laid down a guide track that someone accidentally mixed in. Then there were the ones who had no real talent such as Apollonia 6 and Prince took over completely in the studio. I have no idea whether Bria Valente has talent or not but even if she's Apollonia 6, they still managed to produce "Blue Limousine" and "Sex Shooter" under Prince's guidance. You've got 21 tracks by Prince for $11.98, Bria could be as untalented as Keith's girlfriend in that episode of The Partridge Family and it wouldn't matter, you've already gotten your money's worth. And then some. If you're interested in downloading the album, you can check this Prince site and if you'd like to get the album on disc(s) and do not have a Target in your area (or don't feel like visiting one), click here for Target's webpage for the three-disc set (note, the page says 28 tracks on the three discs, I count 31 tracks on the discs in my hands).








thomas friedman is a great man


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