Sunday, August 19, 2007

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Bully Boy Meets Jenna's Fiance"

bullbyomeetsjenna'sfiance


Isaiah's latest The World Today Just Nuts "Bully Boy Meets Jenna's Fiance." Bully Boy, in wedding drag, asks, "So do you do drugs? Do you like killing people? Do you believe in screwing over the average citizens? Are you a professional liar?" The fiance responds, "No sir." Bully Boy then asks, "Then how the hell do you expect to fit into this family?"





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Falluja, UK 'stretched,' al-Maliki accomplishes noting

In a flip, Damien Cave has the best piece (a "news analysis") in this morning's New York Times and Richard A. Oppel Jr. has the worst.

Oppel's piece runs on the front page and is entitled "Falluja’s Calm Is Seen as Fragile if US Leaves." It opens with what should have required a remark but apparently didn't: Falluja's chief of police (Faisal Ismail Hussein) waving around a photo of bucket containing a severed head. If anyone doesn't grasp it, that's not how you sell yourself to the press. (But Oppel appears not to notice.) If you're supposedly restoring order to a region, you shouldn't come off like a nut job who would keep a photo like that let alone wave it around to the press.

Falluja's always been a difficult region for the Times because they did so much to lie about what happened there. Actually, a few did attempt to get bits and pieces of truth out there. But there was Dexy with his 'award winning' rah-rah that took hold. (He will hopefully be stripped of the prize at a later date.) There's a vehicle ban, Oppel tells you. He even tells you about the concrete barriers that divide the destroyed city in 10 sections. He neglects to tell you about the retina scans. Maybe he feels that informing the US public the city has been divided (by the US) into ten sections gets the point across that there is no freedom in Falluja, only punishment? If so, opening with a nut case put in charge of the city waving around a photo of a severed head was the way to go.

But elsewhere he's repeating the myths that if US forces leave Falluja the city will fall apart. The city fell appart (and was largely reduced to rubble) because the US destroyed in November 2004. Men and boys were slaughtered. Those lucky enough to survive (many of whom fled before the slaughter) often now live in 'tent cities' -- well outside Falluja -- in abject poverty.

The 'success' has to do with Falluja being destroyed, with Falluja being turned from a city (even a destroyed one) into a nightmare vision of a police state.

It doesn't matter what the US does or what al-Maliki does. Falluja's going to pop. And when that time comes, if the US is still on ground there, it won't matter that they're present.

That's reality.

Foreign forces can't destroy a city and enforce their ideas of order and expect it to last. (In the US, apparently a hurricane can do the first part and the White House can get away with it.) (Can and still has.)

The walls will come down. Not by US choice but by the decisions of the citizens of Falluja.

Turning to Damien Cave who, again, offers the best thing he's done all week (I'm referring to last week, but I haven't been to sleep yet so it's still last week). It's entited "Iraqi Premier Stirs Discontent, Yet Hangs On" and, repeating, it's Cave best writing. He deserves praise for it.

Martha notes this from Megan Greenwell's "Iraqi Leaders' Talks Yield Scant Results" (Washington Post):

Iraq's top five government leaders began a review of the country's de-Baathification law Saturday but appeared not to have reached an agreement on that topic or any of the other critical issues that have plunged the country into a political crisis.
[. . .]
The lack of concrete results from meetings this week diminishes hopes of creating a unified government by Sept. 15, when President Bush and Congress are to receive a report about conditions in Iraq.

Gareth notes the BBC's "UK troops 'stretched but winning'" where General Sir Richard Dannatt says the UK troops are stretched (but 'winning'! -- he must have missed the Times of London today):

His comments came as Defence Secretary Des Browne denied claims the government is failing in its duty to UK troops who put their lives on the line for their country.
The Royal British Legion had said the Military Covenant - guaranteeing troops fair treatment in return for forgoing other rights - is not being upheld.
Shadow Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox said: "We face the problem that in Britain the government has overstretched our armed forces without giving them sufficient resources to do the job they're being asked to do."
He went on to criticise the level of commitment from Britain's allies.
Dr Fox said: "Our international allies, particularly some of our European allies and Nato, simply have not been stepping up to the plate in an international operation of this nature."

From Sarah Baxter and Michael Smith's "Britain faces Iraq rout says US" (Times of London):

A MILITARY adviser to President George W Bush has warned that British forces will have to fight their way out of Iraq in an “ugly and embarrassing” retreat.
Stephen Biddle, who also advises the US commander in Iraq, said Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias in the south would try to create the impression they were forcing a retreat. “They want to make it clear they have forced the British out. That means they’ll use car bombs, ambushes, RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] . . . and there will be a number of British casualties.”
The comments coincide with British military estimates that withdrawal could cost the lives of 10 to 15 soldiers.

New content at The Third Estate Sunday Review:

Truest statement of the week
A Note to Our Readers
Editorial: The death toll from the illegal war mou...
TV: Another cesspool trying to pass for news
Getting to know . . . Pelosi
17 US service members announced dead last week
The boom goes bust
Once up a time . . . A scary tale
Timothy J. Learn arrested for being AWOL in Ithaca...
Highlights


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





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Kat's Korner: Cowboy Junkies kick it up another notch

cowboyjunikies
Kat: The Cowboy Junkies appeared on my radar, and on the radars of many who know them, with their second album, 1988's The Trinity Session. The stand out tracks for me were their covers of "Blue Moon" and "Sweet Jane" but the entire album was listenable and seemed to fit together and set a mood in the way that Sade's done on her best albums. After that, they honestly fell of my radar and might have stayed off were it not for an appearance on Laura Flanders' radio program where they discussed a number of topics including their new CD Early 21st Century Blues (2005).

For someone who hadn't listened to them in some time, that was a huge surprise and one of the best CDs of 2005. Since then they've put out a live set (CD and DVD) that I didn't really grab me. Their new studio CD came out last spring and is entitled at the end of paths taken. It's amazing.

The Cowboy Junkies are three Timmins siblings: Margo on vocals, Peter on drums and Michael on guitar. Non-relative Alan Anton rounds out the group and mainly with his bass playing. He also co-wrote three songs with Michael Timmins who is the group's primary songwriter and responsible (solo) for all the other songs on the CD.

The album hangs together wonderfully. If you loved what they did with Bruce Springsteen's "You're Missing" in 2005, you'll love what they're doing here which is going even deeper into meditations on life and loss. Those are the songs that work best for Margo's voice because she can sing a lament like few others.

When paired with Michael, as on "Someday Soon" where they take part in some vocal interplay, the voice can be playful, but, on most on the tracks, it's the haunted quality that Margo's staking out and she's digging deeper than you'd expect.

A lot is made of the second album being recorded in a church as though that accounted the purity in Margo's tones. She always had that ability to grab you and pull you in, whether she was recording in a church or a concert hall. Early 21st Century Blues shocked me because I had checked out and was surprised to find out how much she'd grown. That's not with vocal gymnastics but with her ability to shade and interpret. That album was so good it made my picks of the best of 2005.

I was expecting the next studio CD to coast -- and more than happy with that expectation based on the level reached. She has shaped up to be everything so many wanted from Annie Lennox's solo career. But she's growing by leaps and bounds these days and to listen at the end of paths taken is to feel as if she's been holding out on you. There are moments she grabs in the repeated phrase "And the rain comes down" ("Follower 2") that are completely unexpected and 100% thrilling.

This isn't a Margo Timmins solo album and after the you get over still more vocal growth, the thing that will probably hit you next is what a band the group's become. They're in there supporting the vocals and driving the songs. I just mentioned "Follower 2" and it would be a huge diservice to move on to any other song without noting the amazing drum work going on in that song. It is so inspired and pushes the song to another level without overtaking it. The Timmins and Anton have to be the best music combo today.

The keyboard work on "It Doesn't Really Matter Anyway" is perfection and everyone has their moments over and over in each song.

Two lyrical passages may best sum up the album. Both were written by Michael Timmins. From the amazing "Still Lost:"

Here we stand at the end of paths taken
(Guiding Light Inspiration)
The slow decline
The crumbling foundation, the stations, and now the cross
but we're still lost.

And from my personal favorite track on the entire CD, "Spiral Down:"

Now it all begins
or continues to
spiral down,
spiral down.

I've laid it out on paper
instructions of what to do
as my mind begins to waver
losing contact with you.

If all you know by the Cowboy Junkies is "Sweet Jane," you'll probably be eager to hear either of those tracks but, let me warn you, they aren't the band they were in 1988. They've matured well beyond their years. If I still voted in those Rolling Stone readers poll (I stopped the year 'readers' gave Backstreet Boys the prize for best band -- that was also the first year they allowed people who didn't purchase the issue with the ballots to vote so a lot of embarrassing crap made the list as various fan sites steered people to online voting), they'd have my vote for Band of the Year.

If we had anything resembling real diversity in radio, everyone would know this CD. It would be blaring from car radios and received like the musical equivalent of needed rain. at the end of paths not taken may be the biggest surprise of 2007 for me because I was expecting to enjoy it but to enjoy it because I assumed they'd remain at the level of their last studio album. Instead, they've yet again kicked it up another notch.

Check it out and you'll see what I mean. Miss out and keep confusing bombastic with what a band can do. You can find the CD in stores and online and more information at Rounder Records and at the Cowboy Junkies' website. But to really experience the beauty of at the end of paths not taken, you'll have to listen.






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