Monday, December 31, 2012

Kat's Korner: 2012 In Music

Kat:  2012 was not a good year for music.  It was scattershot with no emerging trends (good or bad) and artistry would arrive only to be ignored over and over.  People were still pretending that certain artists could sing when they can't and, being unable to hit five notes, they rely on half notes which is why listening to so much popular music today can give you a headache.  A friend who's a dee jay sent me a sound wave of Katy Perry's awful "Wide Awake" stripped of all instrumentation.  To hear the off-key vocal is to remember that what Perry sounds like singing used to be ridiculed.  Specifically, radio stations would strip away all the musicians and Paul McCartney's lead vocals so you could hear what Linda McCartney's singing actually sounded like.  If Linda were alive today, she could win several Grammys.

These are tonal nightmares.  And the straining voices, forever breaking, are an embarrassment.  NPR, always quick to play the stupid card, did a story in 2012 about how songs were using minor keys.  They never get it at NPR.  We're not getting the full, warm, full bodied notes because we don't have many people who can sing that way (and also meet the label's notion of what is 'hot').  So instead we get caterwauling and keening.

When I started covering music here in 2004, I was always convinced that rock would somehow save us.  That, as rock in the 60s replaced pop, and as punk rock revived a dying genre in the 70s and as grunge did the same in the 90s, rock had to be just around the corner waiting to save us again.

Note to YMCAs, country clubs and public pools, don't hire Evan Dando as a lifeguard.

Watching the documentary Hit So Hard: The Life and Near-Death Story of Drummer Patty Schemel, I was reminded yet again of the power and glory of rock.  And I wondered yet again why it has forsaken us?  Maybe because rock can't rock when it's busy licking the boots of power?  And Ani DiFranco certainly demonstrated how awful a whore to power can sound.

2012 did have some good moments.  They were individual moments.  They weren't allowed to build to anything for various reasons and they couldn't redeem the crappy year.


roberta flack


Topping the year's best was Let It Bee Roberta: Roberta Flack Sings The BeatlesRoberta's amazing vocals are still worth noting but getting far less attention (but still deserving of praise) was her skills arranging and producing.  Stevie Wonder may have been the only other 70s artist to navigate the sound board as skillfully as Roberta.  This album would have been a godsend any year.  She finds her own way into these Beatles classics and gives them new life and meaning in a way that only true song masters (Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, etc.) can.  My favorite track remains "I'm Looking Through You" but I wouldn't argue loudly with anyone who selected something else from this rich album.

Second place goes to Heart's Fanatic.  When I feel like giving up on rock, along come the Wilson sisters who believe in its power even more firmly than I do.  I still marvel over the layers and textures and "Marshalla" has become the song to beat on the album for me after many listens. At a certain point, many bands begin to sound like pale copies of themselves.  To avoid that, they may do something like Rod Stewart and go off into another genre.  Leave it to Ann and Nancy Wilson, the most underrated of rock stars, to demonstrate that rock is alive and kicking (and let me plug their book from 2012, Kicking and Dreaming).

Third place is Animal Collective's Centipede HZ which again demonstrates that the group is at its best when it's not following any patterns or trying to achieve standard success.  If they can follow the rabbit fully down the hole for the next album, they may become the biggest band of the decade.

I never got to do a review for the album at fourth place, Neil Young's Psychedelic Pill.  It came out at the very end of October.  I listened and liked it but didn't feel the need to review it because (a) I'm naturally lazy and (b) I liked it, I didn't love it.  Then I heard C.I. singing a great song and when she noticed I was staring and took out her ear buds, I asked what it was?  "Driftin' Back."  The opening cut from Neil's new album with Crazy Horse.  Crazy Horse brings energy and life but sometimes it can be at the expense of what Neil's saying.  I never really got, for example, "After The Gold Rush" until Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton did a cover of it.  So that was right before Thanksgiving and I knew I had to give the album a fresh and closer listen.  I did for two weeks and toyed with including it in the review of the awful Rolling Stones collection but thought maybe I'd find time to give it its own review.  No such luck.  But this is a great album and another classic from Neil.

Bonnie Raitt slips in at number five with Slipstream.  This was a confident and welcome return from an artist who has a lot to say.  I have a feeling it would be higher on many best-of-the-years lists (it would be higher on mine) had the press around the release not focused so much on what was left off the album and what was planned for the follow up.  In other words, Bonnie served up a delicious album.  But what's being promised is a lot more than delicious.


Number six is Teramaze's Anhedonia.  A guy I was dating turned me on to this back in June.  There;s not really a way to review the groove and power in words.  This is an Australian band and I like to think of them as a jam band working in the heavy metal genre.  If radio had any guts today, the title track would have been the soundtrack of 2012.


Number seven found Susanna Hoffs returning as a solo act and finally nailing it with Someday.  This is the album her fans always hoped she'd make, assured and sparkling like the grass after a light rain.   If you haven't heard the album yet, check out Susanna on NPR's World Cafe and see if that doesn't make you want to download.


Number eight is Alanis Morissette's Havoc and Bright Lights.  As noted in my review:


The original queen of the f**ked up, the woman who wanted the world to know she would "go down on you in a theater" after -- after -- you dumped her for another woman, the woman who name-checked and, yes, thanked disillusonment, who offered "Versions of Violence" has returned.   And as Alanis demonstrates on "Havoc," she's still more interested in what lies underneath than in the shiny surface.


I honestly think this is one that will be ranked even higher by me in another year.  Repeat listens have only made me love it more.  If it had come out earlier in the year, I'd probably have it higher but it's still growing on me.



Grafiti6, if only they could make an album that sounded like the way singer Jamie Scott looks.


jamie scott




At number nine chiefly for the track "Free" from their album Colours. Hopefully, the follow up will contain more of the sexual abandon and pain of "Free."  The rest of the album had some strong tracks but only "Free" lived up to the image Jamie Scott's projecting in the photo above.




Number ten?  Not Your Kind of People.  Garbage.  There's no denying Shirley Manson's talent.  She's got range, she's got pitch, she's got power. Sadly, she's also got this band. Specifically Butch Vig.  The awful producer who harmed and destroyed many a grunge rock band, put together Garbage and though Shirley is much more than the parts, it's hard to take the band too seriously as a result of Vig.  Which is a real shame because Not Your Kind of People was the most cohesive statement the band's had yet and makes their classic "I'm Only Happy When It Rains" sound like "Walking On Sunshine" by comparison.  Another album like this one and even I'll have to take the band a lot more seriously.



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Click here for my 2004 music piece, here for 2005, 2006 in music, 2007 in music, here for 2008, here for my 2009 piece, my look at the decade, here for my 2010 piece. and here for my 2011 piece.


Other 2012 year in review pieces include Ruth's "Ruth's Radio Report 2012,"  "2012 in Books (Martha & Shirley)" and Ann's  "2012 Best in Film (Ann and Stan)" and Stan's "2012 Best in Film (Ann and Stan)" which we reposted "2012 Best in Film (Ann and Stan)."














Iraq snapshot

Monday, December 31, 2012.  Chaos and violence continue, protests continue, corruption continues, questions are asked as to why the US supports Thug Nouri, events of the year in Iraq get reviewed, and more.
 
 

Then came the official end of the war. On December 31, 2011, the country celebrated "Iraq Day" and the departure of U.S. troops. As Iraq prepares to mark the anniversary, also known as the "Day of Sovereignty," last year's celebratory tone has been replaced by a more somber one.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's political bloc, the Islamic Dawa Party, called on Iraqis not to become divided along sectarian or ethnic lines by "malicious schemes." The country has struggled to define itself, as its government stumbles from one political crisis to another.

Just as the last U.S. troops withdrew, al-Maliki, a Shiite, moved to arrest Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, who al-Maliki accused of using his security detail as a hit squad.

More recently, a few days before the first Iraq Day anniversary, thousands of Sunnis took to the streets in Anbar province, a major trade thoroughfare to Jordan and Syria, to protest al-Maliki's order to arrest the bodyguards of Finance Minister Rafaie Esawi, a Sunni. The arrest of Esawi's bodyguards came just hours after President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who is widely viewed as a stabilizing political force in Iraq, left the country to undergo treatment for cancer in Germany.

 
 
2012 saw another cholera outbreak in Iraq thanks to Nouri al-Maliki's refusal to spend any of the billions made off of oil on the Iraqi people.  They lack potable water in most areas.  If you don't have potable water -- safe water -- to drink, you have to boil it before using it (or add purification tablets) and you better hope you didn't rush the boil and that the tablets still work.  This wouldn't be a problem if Nouri would fix the public services.  He's been prime minister since 2006, that's six years so the resposibility and the failure is all on him.
 
In addition to a lack of potable water, Nouri's also failed to provide dependable electricity.  All this time later, it's still apparently too much to expect to have electricity for more than a few hours.  Strange because, before the start of the Iraq War, these electricity shortages weren't so common.  Even something as basic as santiation is beyond Nouri's capabilities so children -- risking infection and disease -- can be found playing in the piled up sewage so common on many Iraqi streets.  Nouri's also refused to spend money on the crumbling infrastructure.  This winter, Iraqis saw what Nouri's cheapness has resulted in: Flooding throughout Iraq, homes falling down from the flooding, people dying in the homes, people dying from drowning, people dying from electrocution, people trudging through parts of Baghdad in knee-high water.  When you let the infrastructure fall apart, drainage becomes problematic.  The Iraqi Red Crescent Society had to evacuate at least one village this month as a result of homes collapsing from the flooding
 
Surely Nouri's done better somewhere, right?  Nope.  Iraq is still among the most corrupt countries as ranked by Transparency International. 176 countries were ranked this year on transparency and Iraq came in as the 169th most transparent country.  Only seven countries were ranked as less transparent.  Nouri's long been accused of skimming off Iraq's funds and his family lives high on the hog.  He also employs his son who is said to be as much of a terror as Uday Hussein was said to be.  Nouri's son is part of current corruption scandal.
 

October 9th, with much fanfare, Nouri signed a $4.2 billion dollar weapons deal with Russia.  He strutted and preened and was so proud of himself.  Yet shortly after taking his bows on the world stage and with Parliament and others raising objections, Nouri quickly announced the deal was off.  The scandal, however, refuses to go away. The Iraq Times stated Nouri was offering up his former spokesperson  Ali al-Dabbagh and others to protect the truly corrupt -- the truly corrupt -- according to members of Parliament -- including Nouri's son who got a nice little slice off the deal.  These charges came from Shi'ite MPs as well as Sunnis and Kurds.  Even the Shi'ite National Alliance has spoken out.  All Iraq News noted National Alliance member and one-time MP Wael Abdul Latif is calling for Nouri to quickly bring charges against those involved in the corruption.  (The arms deal is now treated by the Iraqi press as corrupt and not allegedly corrupt, FYI.)   Latif remains a major player in the National Alliance and the National Alliance has backed Nouri during his second term.  With his current hold on power reportedly tenous and having already lost the support of Moqtada al-Sadr, Nouri really can't afford to tick off the National Alliance as well.  Kitabat reported MP Maha al-Douri, of Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc in Parliament, is saying Nouri's on a list of officials bribed by Russia for the deal. 
 
Then there's the other big news this year, bomb sniffing dogs and explosive detectors.  Iraq's finally getting them.  This might be seen as 'good news' except for one thing: They've needed them for years and Nouri's pride prevented that.
 
The magic wands.  It's a story so old even David Petraeus weighed in at one point.  Nouri's government spent a small fortune purchasing these magic wands from a British company that apparently didn't also sell magic beans.  You held the magic wand by a car and you 'jogged' in place, pumping your legs up and down and the magic wand, activated by your movement, would then detect a bomb if one was present.  If you're not believing it, October, 9, 2009,  an Iraqi correspondent for McClatchy was exploring the subject at Inside Iraq:

Before starting telling you what happens in most of the checkpoints you should know about the "explosives detectors". The device is carried by security man who stops your car and walk beside it carrying the device. The device's pointer changes its direction when passed by a car that supposedly carries explosives.
 
 
In November of 2009, Rod Nordland (New York Times) reported:

The small hand-held wand, with a telescopic antenna on a swivel, is being used at hundreds of checkpoints in Iraq. But the device works "on the same principle as a Ouija board" -- the power of suggestion -- said a retired United States Air Force officer, Lt. Col. Hal Bidlack, who described the wand as nothing more than an explosives divining rod.
Still, the Iraqi government has purchased more than 1,500 of the devices, known as the ADE 651, at costs from $16,500 to $60,000 each. Nearly every police checkpoint, and many Iraqi military checkpoints, have one of the devices, which are now normally used in place of physical inspections of vehicles.
With violence dropping in the past two years, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has taken down blast walls along dozens of streets, and he contends that Iraqis will safeguard the nation as American troops leave.
 
It wasn't just that US generals laughed at the magic wands, by 2010 even the British government was disturbed, demanding the devices no longer be manufactured and suing the company.  But Nouri refused to join in the lawsuit (he apparently only likes to sue the press and politicians) and insisted that the magic wands continued to be used.  Instead of admitting that he had wasted over one million dollars on magic wands that didn't work, Nouri put his vanity ahead of the safety of the Iraqi people.  Last November, years after the problem was first discovered, it was quietly announced that Iraq would finally be getting bomb sniffing dogs and explosive sensors.
 
Did he not sue because he got a kickback on the deal?  Who knows?
 
Iraqis continue to live in poverty and it is a nation of widows and orphans -- over a million orphans we learned as the year wound down.  Nouri's 'answer' to that?  End the food-ration card system.  This system was put in place in the 90s and provided the Iraqi people with basic staples.  After the start of the Iraq War in 2003, the US government targeted the food-ration card system.  Paul Bremer was only the first US official to attempt to end it.  Ending it would not be easy so they instead worked on cutting it each year so that it offered less and less.  In 2006, when Nouri became prime minister, he continued the cuts.
 
This fall, he decided, with record poverty and unemployment close to 40% in Iraq, that now was the time to end this program.  Cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr was the first to call him out and insist this wasn't happening.  Iraqiya and others quickly backed Moqtada and Nouri was forced to back down (and even tried to claim that it wasn't his idea -- his Cabinet had planned it out without him).  Iraq takes in billions on oil sales each year.  Yet Nouri claimed there was no profit to share with the Iraqi people.  Moqtada also pushed back on that and has been meeting regularly with the ministries to find out where the money is going.
 
It's not going to the Iraqi people.  Well what about justice?  Is Nouri providing justice?  Early 2012 saw the Ministry of the Interior visit schools and tell Iraqi students that Emo and LGBT youth were devil worshippers, were vampires, were perverts and that they must die.  That's appallling and that's Nouri.  Nouri is the Minister of the Interior.  How can he be the Minister of the Interior and the Prime Minister.  Back in July, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed, "Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has struggled to forge a lasting power-sharing agreement and has yet to fill key Cabinet positions, including the ministers of defense, interior and national security, while his backers have also shown signs of wobbling support."   See, according to the Iraqi Constitution, if you can't appoint a full Cabinet, you can't become prime minister (someone else is named prime minister designate and given 30 days to build a Cabinet).  But US President Barack Obama wanted Nouri to have a second term so no rules applied then (or apply now).
 
So Nouri had his Ministry go into schools and egg on violence against Emo and LGBT Iraqis -- and Iraqis who might be mistaken for Emo or LGBT.  There was worldwide outrage.  The story got covered by outlets that normally didn't even cover Iraq -- such as England's NME and the US' Rolling Stone magazine.  Nouri called off his dogs and tried to lie that the Ministry of Interior was not involved; however, the Iraqi press quickly printed the handout the Ministry of the Interior had circulated on its school visits.  Nouri's such a damn liar.
 
Dropping back to the November 12th snapshot:
 
Staying with violence, as noted in the October 15th snapshot, Iraq had already executed 119 people in 2012.  Time to add more to that total.  Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) reported last night that 10 more people were executed on Sunday ("nine Iraqis and one Egyptian").  Tawfeeq notes the Ministry of Justice's statement on the executions includes, "The Iraqi Justice Ministry carried out the executions by hanging 10 inmates after it was approved by the presidential council."  And, not noted in the report, that number's only going to climb.  A number of Saudi prisoners have been moved into Baghdad over the last weeks in anticipation of the prisoners being executed.  Hou Qiang (Xinhua) observes, "Increasing executions in Iraq sparked calls by the UN mission in the country, the European Union and human rights groups on Baghdad to abolish the capital punishment, criticizing the lack of transparency in the proceedings of the country's courts."
 
Amnesty International was among those condemning the mass executions.  Though all the executions for 2012 have yet to be tabulated, Iraq is expected to be at the top of the list of most people put to death. 
 
Nouri's also targeted the press.  5 journalists were killed in 2012 (we'll have more on that near the end of the snapshot). Outlets that report realities Nouri doesn't like are repeatedly attacked.  Both Al Mada and Kitabat were hacked in 2012 following their hard hitting reporting on corruption.  Dropping back to Saturday, December 15th:
 

The Iraq Times reports that cable channel Baghdadi was surrounded by the Iraqi military on Friday and they forced everyone out and then shut the station down.  They also note that Nouri ordered the closure.  The Iraq Times reports that Iraqiya spokesperson Maysoon al-Damalouji declared today that Nouri is attempting to rebuild the Republic of Fear (a reference to the days of Saddam Hussein) and decried the closing of Baghdadiya TV.
 
The satellite channel's crime?  Reporting on the corruption in the Russian oil deal. This month, he also began targeting Fakhri Karim who is the editor and chair of Al Mada newspaper -- he's had Karim's home surrounded by the US military.  Isn't it strange how in 'free' Iraq, Nouri's always sending in the military to attack the press.  And isn't it strange how the US government -- even most of the US media -- refuse to call that out?  (Friday, he used the military to keep reporters away from the protests in an attempt to ensure that they did not get coverage.)
 
The White House backs thug Nouri.  Elaine pointed out Friday:

Nouri is a threat and danger to the Iraqi people.
They voted for change and Barack went around their votes, the democracy, the Constitution to devise a contract (Erbil Agreement) to give Nouri a second term.
Again, gays are targeted, Sunnis are targeted, Nouri refused to even have one woman in his Cabinet until there was international outcry -- and this is who the US government backs.
Remember that the next time Barack wants to pretend to give a damn about human rights.
 
Nouri is in his second term as prime minister.  Why?  Barack Obama.  In March 2010, Iraqis voted in parliamentary elections.  Nouri's State of Law was expected to win by a wide margin.  The Iraqi people had other ideas.  Nouri's State of Law came in second to the Ayad Allawi headed Iraqiya slate.  Per the Constitution, per democracy, per vote counting, that made Iraqiya the winner and, as such, they were supposed to be immediately named prime minister-designate (one person from their slate, most likely Allawi) and then given 30 days to form a Cabinet.  Failure to do so would result in someone else being named prime minister-designate.  This is clearly outlined in the Constitution.  But Nouri didn't want to lose his post.  So he threw a public tantrum for eight months basically refusing to vacate the palace.  And he was able to get away with that because he had the support of Barack Obama.  During this time, the US government didn't argue for fairness or democracy or rule of law or the Constitution.  They went to the political blocs and told them that they were in the wrong.  They told them they needed to be mature and give.  They need to give to the loser.  Grasp that, the US government started a propaganda campaign at political leaders to get them to give up what they'd won to the loser Nouri.  A few asked questions.  Supposedly Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (currently in Germany receiving medical treatment) got very short with US Vice President Joe Biden in one phone call (no, not the one where Joe asked him to let Allawi be president).  Talbani finally, supposedly, had the brains to ask, "What's in it for us?"
 
Like a lightening bolt, the US government decided they could give Nouri a second term by going around the Constitution, by drawing a contract between the political blocs.  This 'inspiration' resulted in the US-brokered Erbil Agreement.  Leaders of political blocs agreed to give Nouri a second term (and end the eight-month plus stalemate) in exchange for Nouri agreeing to give them certain things.  The primary demand by the Kurds was that Article 140 of the Constitution be implemented (finally).  Iraqiya's primary demand was that an independent national security council be created and headed by a member of Iraqiya.  Nouri used this contract to get his second term.  Then he trashed the contract.  The White House had given their word that not only was the contract legally binding but that they would stand by it.  They did nothing.
 
In the summer of 2011, the Kurds, Moqtada al-Sadr and Iraqiya began publicly calling for Nouri to honor the contract.  He blew them off creating the current stalemate on which numerous political crises have been stacked.  John Barry's "'The Engame' Is A Well Researched, Highly Critical Look at U.S. Policy in Iraq" (Daily Beast):



Washington has little political and no military influence over these developments [in Iraq]. As Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor charge in their ambitious new history of the Iraq war, The Endgame, Obama's administration sacrificed political influence by failing in 2010 to insist that the results of Iraq's first proper election be honored: "When the Obama administration acquiesced in the questionable judicial opinion that prevented Ayad Allawi's bloc, after it had won the most seats in 2010, from the first attempt at forming a new government, it undermined the prospects, however slim, for a compromise that might have led to a genuinely inclusive and cross-sectarian government."

What was in it for the White House?  Well they were allowed to leave behind US forces in Iraq after the drawdown (wrongly billed as "withdrawal") of December 2011.  They were able to leave "trainers," CIA, FBI, Special-Ops and more.  And the White House is able to add more.  Back in September, Tim Arango (New York Times) reported:

 
Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that could result in the return of small units of American soldiers to Iraq on training missions. At the request of the Iraqi government, according to General Caslen, a unit of Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence.
 
More troops sent in.  This month, Press TV and The Voice of Russia both reported that the US military was deploying more US troops into Iraq from Kuwait.  Then there's the Memorandum of Understanding For Defense Cooperation Between the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Iraq and the Department of Defense of the United States of America which was signed December 6th.  As we noted in the December 10th and December 11th snapshots, this allows US troops in Iraq for joint-patrols and counter-terrorism missions.  Maybe that's why Barack Obama has backed thug Nouri?  John Glaser (Antiwar.com) reports today:
 
The Obama administration has kept largely quiet about Maliki's behavior, aside from about $2 billion in annual aid and tens of billions in military assistance. While this keeps the halls of power in Washington and the oil corporations happy, even the best case scenarios are damning, for Iraqi citizens as well as the geopolitics of the region.
"Maliki is heading towards an incredibly destructive dictatorship, and it looks to me as though the Obama administration is waving him across the finishing line," Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at the London School of Economics said earlier this year. "Meanwhile, the most likely outcomes, which are either dictatorship or civil war, would be catastrophic because Iraq sits between Iran and Syria."
 
 
 
In 2010, Nouri was su
Violence slams Iraq today as both the month and the year wind down.  Mu Xuequan (Xinhua) notes Iraq witnessed "a wave of bombings and shootings."  EFE counts 23 dead and seventy-five injured.
 
 
Specific incidents of violence?   All Iraq News notes a Baghdad mortar attack which left "multiple" people injured, an undisclosed number of people were injured in a Tuz Khurmatu car bombing, a Mosul polling stationg was attacked leaving 2 guards dead,  there was an attack on a Sahwa leader's home in Diyala Province today that left 1 of his bodyguards dead, 3 Musayyib bombings have left 4 people dead and another seven injureda Khalis car bombing has left fiften people injured and 2 Balad Ruz bombings left 4 members of one family dead and a child injured. Alsumaria notes that Ammar Youssef survived an attempted assassination by bombing today in Tikrit -- two civilians were injured in the bomb targeting the President of the Salahuddin Province Council.  Alsumaria reports a Baghdad car bombing has claimed 3 lives and left sixteen injured.  All Iraq News adds that the victims were largely part of a convoy planning a pilgrimage to pay respects to Imam Hussein. AP explains Imam Hussein is the grandson "of the Prophet Muhammad" who died in the 7th century.   Press TV notes that the death toll in the Baghdad bombing has risen to 4 and 1 in Latifyah and 1 in Tuz Khurmatu. There was also a bombing in Hilla and  Reuters quotes hospital worker Mohammed Ahmed who states, "We heard the sound of a big explosion and the windows of our office shattered.  We immediately lay on the ground.  After a few minutes I stood up and went to the windows to see what happened.  I saw flames and people lying on the ground."   On Hilla, Nehal el-Sherif (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) reports, "Seven people were killed and four wounded when gunmen blew up three houses, security sources told the German news agency dpa. The attack followed a car bombing that killed one person and wounded 17 near a Shiite mosque in the city."  All Iraq News also notes that visitors to a Shi'ite shrine in Babylon were targeted with a car bombing, leaving 1 dead and three injured.  And Alsumaria notes a Kirkuk rocket attack that left 5 police officers dead and six other people injured.  RTE offers, "No group has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, which targeted government officials, police patrols and members of both the Sunni and Shia sects."
 
 
The latest attacks also came amid continuing anti-government demonstrations in several Sunni-dominated cities protesting against marginalization by the Shiite-led government as well as the alleged arrest of hundreds of Sunnis.
The demonstrators also accused the Shiite-dominated security forces of arresting women instead of the wanted male of their family members.
The protests were first sparked last week after the Iraqi security forces arrested chief of the Sunni Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi's protection force and nine bodyguards over charges of terrorism.
 
 
The Middle East Monitor offers this take, "The demonstrators are demanding to an end to what they allege is the Iraqi government's 'marginalisation and exclusion policy'; they're also asking for the release of prisoners as well as an end to inhumane treatment in the country's prison."
 
Protests continued over the weekend.  Al Bawaba News noted, "Pressure is mounting on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to step down, after the largest scale protests so far saw tens of thousands of Iraqis gather on Friday to call for his removal."  All Iraq News reported that Minister of Defense Saadoun al-Dulaimi received a list of demands from members of the council of Anbar Province whose citizens passed on the demands: They want the detention of women stopped, they want detainees released and Article 4 of the Constitution reviewed.  The Defense Minister was visiting Anbar Province one day after Friday's massive demonstration took place in Falluja (with a conservative estimate of the protesters being 60,000). Al Mada noted that Nouri pronounced Friday's protests in Mosul and Ramadi "uncivilized"; however, rock throwing wouldn't emerge until Sunday.

Mosul is the capital of Nineveh Province.  All Iraq News reported that Council Members have informed the central government in Baghdad that their citizens demand the release of prisoners an end to Article 4 and an end to the Justice and Accountability Commission.  Article 4 is how Nouri dubs various Iraqi rivals 'terrorists.'  And the Justice and Accountability Commission is what Nouri uses to prevent people from running in elections.  They have no job, they have no real role.  Any Saddam Hussein loyalists would have long ago been captured.  But Nouri uses this Article 4 to destroy his political rivals.  Alsumaria added that Nineveh Provincial Council announced Saturday a general strike in solidarity with the protesters. It's a 72-hour strike (medical facilities will not be on strike). Today Alsumaria reports that Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi has declared that Parliament will abolsih Article 4.  He compares Article 4 to the Sword of Damocles hanging over the neck of Iraqis.

Atheel (or Ethel) al-Nujaifi is the governor of the province.  He's also the brother of Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi.  Alsumaria notes that the governor declared Saturday that Nouri al-Maliki can end the current crisis within 24 hours just be returning the arrested to their provinces.  Al Mada explains that Nouri has repeatedly targeted Atheel al-Nujaifi.

In October, allegations of torture and rape of women held in Iraqi prisons and detention centers began to make the rounds.  In November, the allegations became a bit more and a fistfight broke out in Parliament with an angry State of Law storming out.  By December, Members of Parliament on certain security committees were speaking publicly about the abuses.  Then Nouri declared that anyone talking about this topic was breaking the law. He continued on this tangent for weeks claiming this past week that he would strip MPs of their immunity.  (The Constitution doesn't allow for that.)  Also this past week, it was learned that at least four females were raped in a Baghdad prison.

The outrage here is part of what has fueled the protests.  Alsumaria notes the Ministry of Justice's latest spin Saturday: Only women guards are at these prisons!  Whether that's true or not (most likely it is not) world history demonstrates that when women are imprisoned it's very common for someone to get the 'bright idea' to sell access to these women.  Greed is a strong motivator.  Again, the very claim is doubtful but if there are no men on staff, that doesn't mean men have not been present in the prisons.  It wasn't enough to silence objections or stop the protests.  Sunday,  Al Arabiya noted, "Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered on Sunday the release of female prisoners, who were arrested for terrorism charges without judicial warrants or because of terror crimes committed by their relatives, to appease to protesters who want to see the scrapping of anti-terrorism measures in the country, a local website reported."
 
Protests continued on Sunday with most of the press attention going to Ramadi where  Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq was involved in an incident.   Chen Zhi (Xinhua) reports that al-Mutlaq's office issued a statement claiming there was an assassination attempt on him while he was by the protesters and, following the assassination attempt, his bodyguards fired on the protesters.  His office also claims that his bodyguards were injured.   Citing witnesses and video, AP states that the bodygaurds fired on protesters who were making demands and throwing "rocks and bottles." AP notes that two protesters were injured by the gunshots.  Reuters speaks with local witnesses and ends up with the same sequence of events AP has.  Salma Abdelaziz, Yousuf Basil and Mohammed Lazim (CNN) report:


Some demonstrators Sunday called for al-Multaq, who is Sunni, to submit his resignation to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government. Protesters chanted, "Leave! Leave!" and threw stones at him, witnesses told CNN.
The deputy prime minister's bodyguards opened fire in an attempt to disperse the crowd as protesters hurled stones at the stage, Anbar provincial council member Suhaib al-Rawi told CNN. A protester with a gunshot wound was among five people injured, al-Rawi said. Details about the other injuries were not immediately clear.


All Iraq News counts 1 protester dead and four injured.  Samantha Stainburn (Global Post) observes, "It is not known if the injured protests were shot intentionally or accidentally."  The statement al-Mutlaq's office issued can be seen as an attempt by the politician to cover what happened.  Why he was stupid enough to go to a protest is beyond me.  Yes, he is Sunni and, yes, he is in the Iraqiya slate.  But Saleh al-Mutlaq is not popular.  He and Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi (also Sunni and Iraqiya) were both targeted by Nouri in December of 2011.  While Tareq ended up having to leave the country and being convicted of 'terrorism,' Saleh sailed right through.  In May, Nouri dropped his efforts to strip Saleh of his office.

By that point, there had been months of speculation in the Iraqi press that Saleh al-Mutlaq had cut a deal to save his own ass, that he was now in partnership with Nouri al-Maliki.  This seemed to be even more true when Saleh was seen as undermining efforts to get a no-confidence vote against Nouri as spring was winding down.

Saleh al-Mutlaq is seen -- rightly or wrongly -- by Sunni Iraqis as someone who protects himself and does nothing for other Sunnis (whether they're politicians or average citizens).  His actions on Sunday did nothing to alter that opinion.  Today Dar Addustour observes that Mutlaq was seen as attempting to distract protesters from their legitimate demands for and that his words were seen as throwing shoes at the protesters.  (Remember, throwing shoes is a major insult in Iraq.)  Kitabat adds that al-Mutlaq further insulted the protesters by refusing to get on the platform to address them.
 
Al Mada notes the Mosul sit-in continued today.  They also report that, according to a police source, six people taking part in a sit-in in Salahuddin Province were arrested yesterday and that the Salahuddin Provincial Council is warning Baghdad against ignoring the demands of the protesters.  Alsumaria reports that Speaker of Parliament al-Nujaifi declared today that the government must offer real solutions and not fall back on procrastination.
 
 
On death and violence, Mark Sweney (Guardian) notes that of the 121 journalists killed worldwide in 2012, the International Federation of Journalists points out five were in Iraq.  IFJ notes these are the top countries:
 
1) Syria: 35 journalists killed
 
2) Somolia: 18 journalists killed
 
3) Pakistan: 10 journalists killed
  (tie) Mexico: 10 journalists killed
 
5) Philippines: 5 journalists killed
   (tie) Iraq: 5 journalists killed
 
 
The five Iraqi journalists killed were Salahaddin TV's Kamiran Salaheddin, Al Adwa's Farqad Husseini, Dyali TV's Ziad Tareq, Al Gamaheer's Samir Shikh Ali and Sama Al-Mossoul TV's Ghazwan Anas. This list does not include Safir editor-in-chief Safi Qasis who has been missing since December 9th and is hopefully still alive.  Yesterday, the Iraq Journalists Syndicate released their report.  There were five Iraqi journalists killed in 2012.    Aswat al-Iraq noted, "The Iraqi press Syndicate said on Saturday that five journalists have been killed in Iraq in 2012 by armed group raising the number of media men who have been killed since 2003 to 373.Xinhua also noted it, "Five journalists were killed in Iraq's violence during 2012, bringing the number of the journalists killed in the country to 373 since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, an Iraqi journalists' body said on Saturday." It's a shame that the so-called Committee to Protect Journalist couldn't get it right.  According to their report released earlier this month, no journalists were killed in Iraq.  It doesn't make their top 20 because no one died.  How shameful.
 
 
 
 
 

Ruth's Radio Report 2012

Ruth: 2012 may have been the year 'news' radio finally succeeded in running off the bulk of the audience.  E-mail after e-mail would arrive from people noting how sick they were of the media coronation of U.S. President Barack Obama -- and these started coming in back in September. 

That was national programming, that was local programming.

Dallas community members begged me to give Krys Boyd's Think (KERA) a listen.  I did.  I heard nothing to praise as a supposed 'discussion' on the two major party presidential campaigns took place with both guests, and the host, agreeing Mitt Romney was an awful person.  A point Ava and C.I. would make later, taking on a different broadcast of the same show, was that this aired in an area where Mr. Romney would do very well in the vote (he carried Texas).  So, to them, it was very surprising that supposed public radio, local, regional public radio, was not representing local voices.

And that really describes the problem with public radio today.

The audience is not recognized.  The truth is not told.

Supposed public affairs programs will (and did) book a man who wrote an almanac of made up facts, but they will not cover the issues that matter.  They will laugh and giggle and all try so hard to offer their own version of The Daily Show, but they will not do their job.

They will choose sides.  They will reduce, in an hour long 'discussion,' issues to the most cartoonish and simplistic terms.  They will not elevate the audience because they are too busy flattering the audiences built-in prejudices.

And this will all take place while we, the U.S. taxpayer, foot the bill.

Is it any wonder that the common theme of e-mails to me about radio this year can be boiled down as follows:


Look, Ruth, I want to stay informed.  That is why I have tried to keep listening to NPR/Pacifica but I just cannot take this whoring/nonsense.  Life is too short.  I am switching over to a music station and will spend the rest of this year with tunes.


And who can blame them?

 Or who can blame them for their growing fear of what the media will be like in a few short weeks when they get the visuals for the coronation they have been 'reporting' for months now?

We have a Drone War going on.  We still have U.S. service members in Iraq.  Even after 'withdrawal,' President Obama will be leaving U.S. service members in Afghanistan.  The U.S. government continues to allow torture and practice extraordinary rendition -- most recently with  Mahdi Hashi.

But instead of calling that out, we get programs with guests like the disgusting Glenn Greenwald attacking Kathryn Bigelow's new film  Zero Dark Thirty.  My grandchildren and I saw the film December 25th at the AMC Loews on Third Avenue in New York.


I loved the film.  I was surprised by how much.  But I was also surprised to learn that others did too.  There were serious conversations about torture taking place as the film ended and people began leaving the theater.  I see that some serious critics can also praise the film.

Ty Burr (Boston Globe) noted:

The most thrilling aspect of Kathryn Bigelow's black-ops procedural is how unmelodramatic it is -- how smartly it avoids hollow flag-waving and the sort of Hollywood suspense clichés that even get "Argo" in the end. The film doesn't just follow the decade-long narrative of how Osama bin Laden was located and killed, it tracks an evolution of intelligence-gathering, from punishing force to reason and instinct to the surgical application of military might. The torture scenes early on are meant to be controversial: We're in that room with the new CIA recruit played by Jessica Chastain, as horrified as she is and thrown back on our own response. "Zero Dark Thirty" is a drama of one woman's stubbornness, but, more than that, it calmly shows us bureaucracy, breakthroughs, cruelty, commitment, the reality of collateral damage, and a national desire for revenge slaked at last. And then it asks, well, how do you feel about that?

Susan King (Los Angeles Times) reported earlier this month that Ms. Bigelow's film "was named best film of 2012 by the African-American Film Critics Association."  Dana Stevens (Slate) explained that "this is a vital, disturbing, and necessary film precisely because it wades straight into the swamp of our national trauma about the war on terror and our prosecution of it, and no one -- either on the screen or seated in front of it -- comes out clean."

Is that what the Greenwalds are rejecting when they attack this movie?

The opening torture scene?  It is graphic and it is disgusting.

If Glenn Greenwald cannot grasp that it is not an endorsement of torture, that probably tells us the kind of porn Mr. Greenwald is into.

I have largely ignored the sexism involved in the attacks in this report because I believe Ava and C.I. addressed it fully in "Media: The allure of Bash The Bitch."  I want to note one section of that article:

'Explaining' why he felt it was okay to attack Bigelow, Bret Easton Ellis wrote, "The Hurt Locker also felt like it was directed by a man.  Its testosterone level was palpable, whereas in Sofia Coppola's work you're aware of a much softer presence behind the camera."
Does he not get how sexist and insane that sounds?


He is not the only one who does not get how sexist his words were.  In the last week, I heard two different NPR programs cite that belief by Mr. Easton Ellis as if it were factual and non-sexist.  The sexism behind the attacks cannot be ignored nor can it be ignored how casually NPR embraces sexism.


Should that surprise us?  In the last years, Ann has teamed with Ava and C.I. to call out the gender imbalance when it comes to guests on NPR programs.   With Talk of the Nation, they found "30% isn't 50% (Ann, Ava and C.I.);" with The Diane Rehm Show, they found "Diane Rehm's gender imbalance (Ann, Ava and C.I.)" to be only 34.48% of guests were women;  and with Fresh Air, they found "Terry Gross' new low (Ann, Ava and C.I.)" was 18.54%.  With these kind of figures for public radio which is mandated to strive for diversity, is it any wonder how casual the acceptance of sexism has become?


Back to Zero Dark Thirty, the film is attacked by three U.S. Senators as well.  Three U.S. Senators who, Third has pointed out,  make criticism about the information being inaccurate and the film embracing torture when, in fact, if information is a problem, that falls on the Senate which can release any information on these secretive operations, and, if torture is being embraced, that falls to the Senate which should have demanded the Justice Department prosecute torture and should have held open hearings about the U.S. government's use of torture.

If I were Senator Dianne Feinstein, for example, I would be thrilled that the focus was on a film and not on my own actions as Chair of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee for the last five years.

Equally true, the C.I.A. is denouncing the film.  If that was supposed to make me avoid it, sorry, it only made me more interested in the film.  But then I do not worship the C.I.A.

It really is amazing what people will allow themselves to get righteously indignant over.  As the year wound down, we saw that they would get appalled by a film, World Can't Wait would even stage a protest, but the reality that the film conveyed, the actions of the U.S. government, they would not protest, they would not criticize.

It is so much easier, in this endless coronation, to attack a film and a director for putting on the big screen what the U.S. government has been doing for years and continues to do -- so much easier than attacking the criminals in charge.  Yet again, we want to kill the messenger.




------------------
Ruth also covered radio in 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008, .

Other 2012 year in review pieces include "2012 in Books (Martha & Shirley)" and Ann's  "2012 Best in Film (Ann and Stan)" and Stan's "2012 Best in Film (Ann and Stan)" which we reposted "2012 Best in Film (Ann and Stan)."














Violence claims at least 20 lives with at least 50 more injured

Violence slams Iraq today as both the month and the year wind down.   All Iraq News notes a Baghdad mortar attack which left "multiple" people injured, an undisclosed number of people were injured in a Tuz Khurmatu car bombing, a Mosul polling stationg was attacked leaving 2 guards dead,  there was an attack on a Sahwa leader's home in Diyala Province today that left 1 of his bodyguards dead, 3 Musayyib bombings have left 4 people dead and another seven injureda Khalis car bombing has left fiften people injured and 2 Balad Ruz bombings left 4 members of one family dead and a child injured. Alsumaria notes that Ammar Youssef survived an attempted assassination by bombing today in Tikrit -- two civilians were injured in the bomb targeting the President of the Salahuddin Province Council.  Alsumaria reports a Baghdad car bombing has claimed 3 lives and left sixteen injured.  All Iraq News adds that the victims were largely part of a convoy planning a pilgrimage to pay respects to Imam Hussein.  All Iraq News also notes that visitors to a Shi'ite shrine in Babylon were targeted with a car bombing, leaving 1 dead and three injured.  And Alsumaria notes a Kirkuk rocket attack that left 5 police officers dead and six other people injured.

Let's do the math.  At least 20 are reported dead and at least fifty injured.  AP tries to track the violence here, Reuters here, RT here and BBC here.  All need to work a little harder.  AFP counts 12 dead.  Through Sunday, Iraq Body Count tabulates 236 deaths this month in Iraq from violence.

In other news Nouri and his thugs are attempting to crack down on the protests -- because that's what tyrants do.  And notice that the US government doesn't say one damn word.  As usual.  He is there puppet.  AFP explains that Nouri's Cabinet secretary has declared that the protests are illegitimate and illegal (while admitting they are Constitutional -- the thickness of State of Law's stupidity will never surprise).  By State of Law's 'logic,' the Civil Rights Movement was illegal.  You can't have protests without disruptions -- you can't even have a parade without disruptions.  Shame on the White House for their continued silence and they better start looking at the Iraqi press because this silence is not going unnoticed.


I didn't plan to do an entry this morning.  A friend with a wire service called and asked, "Did you see all the bombings?"  So I asked Ruth to wait a minute before posting her year-in-review here so I could do a quick entry on the violence.  (Thank you, Ruth.)  She will post her report as soon as this goes up.

Bonnie reminds that Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Princess and President" went up last night.  In addition,  "2012 in Books (Martha & Shirley)" went up yesterday.  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 torture and rape in Iraqi prisons, the Eurpoean Court of Human Rights labeling CIA interrogration procedures as torture, the one and only Tariq Ali joins the hosts for a discussion of a number of important issues and the one and only Jim Lafferty was among those speaking at the National Lawyers Guild's recent 75th anniversary celebration and some of his speech is played.




The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.




wbai
law and disorder radio
michael s. smith
heidi boghosian
michael ratner

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Princess and President"

the princess and the president


Isaiah's latest The World Today Just Nuts "Princess and President."  Barack does a ta-dah! while David Gregory grins.  Barack declares, "Notice my single tear.  I turn it on when I need sympathy.  I'm a big crybaby and a princess.  Today I told Meet The Press the worst day of my presidency was the shooting at Newton that killed 26 people.  I didn't say Benghazi when 4 Americans were killed even though, as president, I am responsible for those deaths.  I didn't list the over 2000 people killed in my over 300 Drone Strikes in Pakistan or the 1543 US service members killed in Afghanistan since I became president and princess in 2009.  I'm a big frilly princess!  Did I mention my single tear?" Isaiah archives his comics at The World Today Just Nuts.








the common ills

Hejira

Protests continued today in Iraq.  Nevzat Hmedin (Al Mada) reports that Mosul saw the third day in a row of sit-ins and they declaread they will not leave untl their demands are met. And some demands may end up getting met.  Al Arabiya reports, "Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered on Sunday the release of female prisoners, who were arrested for terrorism charges without judicial warrants or because of terror crimes committed by their relatives, to appease to protesters who want to see the scrapping of anti-terrorism measures in the country, a local website reported."  Women and girls held in Iraq prisons and detention centers has been one motivating factor leading to the protests including last week's days of "honor" and "dignity."   Al Jazeera explains:

Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh, reporting from Ramadi, said the protests had been triggered by the arrest 10 days ago of nine bodyguards for the finance minister, Rafia al-Issawi, in Baghdad. 
"They're not only protesting against the arrest of the bodyguards. They're also now protesting against the imprisonment of Sunnis," our correspondent said. "They say the Sunnis have been targeted by the Shia-led government."
"So they're demanding the release of female prisoners. They're demanding the release of male prisoners. And also they want an end to what they say is marginalisation and discrimination against Sunnis."


Al Jazeera has a text and video report of today's protests here.

In October, allegations of torture and rape of women held in Iraqi prisons and detention centers began to make the rounds.  In November, the allegations became a bit more.  By December, Members of Parliament on certain security committees were speaking publicly about the abuses.  This led to a fist fight in Parliament.  Then Nouri's State of Law stormed out.  Then Nouri declared that anyone talking about this topic was breaking the law. He continued on this tangent for weeks claiming this past week that he would strip MPs of their immunity.  (The Constitution doesn't allow for that.)  Also this past week, it was learned that at least four females were raped in a Baghdad prison.

Whether Nouri is doing this in an effort to respond to protesters or in an effort to bury the scandal (and the accompanying outrage) isn't known at this point.


Meanwhile, Ramadi's getting a lot of press attention.  Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq went there today.   Chen Zhi (Xinhua) reports that al-Mutlaq's office issued a statement claiming there was an assassination attempt on him while he was by the protesters and, following the assassination attempt, his bodyguards fired on the protesters.  His office also claims that his bodyguards were injured.   Citing witnesses and video, AP states that the bodygaurds fired on protesters who were making demands and throwing "rocks and bottles." AP notes that two protesters were injured by the gunshots.  Reuters speaks with local witnesses and ends up with the same sequence of events AP has.  Salma Abdelaziz, Yousuf Basil and Mohammed Lazim (CNN) report:


Some demonstrators Sunday called for al-Multaq, who is Sunni, to submit his resignation to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government. Protesters chanted, "Leave! Leave!" and threw stones at him, witnesses told CNN.
The deputy prime minister's bodyguards opened fire in an attempt to disperse the crowd as protesters hurled stones at the stage, Anbar provincial council member Suhaib al-Rawi told CNN. A protester with a gunshot wound was among five people injured, al-Rawi said. Details about the other injuries were not immediately clear.


All Iraq News counts 1 protester dead and four injured.  Samantha Stainburn (Global Post) observes, "It is not known if the injured protests were shot intentionally or accidentally."  The statement al-Mutlaq's office issued can be seen as an attempt by the politician to cover what happened.  Why he was stupid enough to go to a protest is beyond me.  Yes, he is Sunni and, yes, he is in the Iraqiya slate.  But Saleh al-Mutlaq is not popular.  He and Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi (also Sunni and Iraqiya) were both targeted by Nouri in December of 2011.  While Tareq ended up having to leave the country and being convicted of 'terrorism,' Saleh sailed right through.  In May, Nouri dropped his efforts to strip Saleh of his office.

By that point, there had been months of speculation in the Iraqi press that Saleh al-Mutlaq had cut a deal to save his own ass, that he was now in partnership with Nouri al-Maliki.  This seemed to be even more true when Saleh was seen as undermining efforts to get a no-confidence vote against Nouri as spring was winding down.

Saleh al-Mutlaq is seen -- rightly or wrongly -- by Sunni Iraqis as someone who protects himself and does nothing for other Sunnis (whether they're politicians or average citizens).

He went to a Sunni area, Ramadi, where protests had long been taking place and was immediately greeted with a demand that he resign from the Cabinet.  (That would not have taken him out of his MP status.  He just would no longer be a Cabinet member.)  He was appalled by the idea and rejected it outright.

Nouri's first term was notorious for one Cabinet walk out after another.

But Saleh wouldn't even entertain the idea?

You've got provincial councils going on strike but Saleh can't even do a walk out?

Of course they threw rocks and bottles at him.  He was already seen as a sell-out.  And people want to believe that's not the case but then he appears before them and acts like that?  He destroys his own image.

He never should have gone and it's a sign of just how out of touch with Sunni public opinion he is that he did show up.


Alsumaria notes that today's violence included a Kirkuk roadside bombing which left two people injured and  All Iraq News notes that unknown assailants in military uniform stormed the home of Baghdad gas station owner Mohammed Fadel and shot him dead and left his sister injured.



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] 4488.


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Isaiah's latest goes up after this.   The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.