Johnny Roquemore and the Apostles of Bluegrass include David Ross on Bass and John Nipper on Mandolin on this song. It's a great story of Little Davey and his Broomstick Pony told to a Reggae beat in a charming island kind of way mon...
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Saturday Reggae Redneck Music Blogging
Looks like we ain't done with Reggae just yet. Heh.
Priorities ...
We haz dem! D-cap:
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9. Congress (who apparently really live in a Video Game) took weeks to find $33 billion to help 2.5 million Americans fighting to keep food on their tables, but took about an hour to to find $60 billion to help Americans fight 50 Al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan.
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Headlong into obscurity ...
We're on our way. Greenwald via Mimus:
As we, and many of our commenters, have said here on many occasions, we are heading the way of the Roman Empire.
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Second, as was painfully predictable and predicted, the bulk of political discussion in the wake of the WikiLeaks disclosures focuses not on our failing, sagging, pointless, civilian-massacring, soon-to-be-decade-old war, but rather on the Treasonous Evil of WikiLeaks for informing the American people about what their war entails. While it's true that WikiLeaks should have been much more careful in redacting the names of Afghan sources, watching Endless War Supporters prance around with righteous concern for Afghan lives being endangered by the leak is really too absurd to bear. You know what endangers innocent Afghan lives? Ten years of bombings, checkpoint shootings, due-process-free hit squads, air attacks, drones, night raids on homes, etc. etc.
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As we, and many of our commenters, have said here on many occasions, we are heading the way of the Roman Empire.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Afghanistan Is Our Welfare State
El Rude-o
Cut to the chase:
I have nothing to add to that. Well, one thing:
As we're leaving we should simply make it abundantly clear to the Afghans, Pakistanis, Taliban, to the most disinterested casual observer in the whole fucking world, that if ever another attack like 9/11 comes from there, we will turn that whole diseased region into perfectly-arced-to-the-curvature-of-the-earth self-lighting glass.
One of the less glamorous aspects of the release by Wikileaks of oodles of secret documents related to the sad circle jerk that is the Afghanistan war is the clear demonstration that the actual day-to-day existence of Afghans is dependent on the occupiers (or, you know, mostly us). Sure, it's important to talk about the other revelations (or confirmations): the collusion between Pakistani intelligence and the Taliban, the ill-equipped troops in battle, and the bullshit Afghan forces that have the discipline of a pack of brain-damaged cats. But, as Evan Hill writes for Al-Jazeera, the mundane and quotidian aspects of Afghan existence demonstrate a level of dependency on NATO and the United States that'd make an opium dealer jealous.
The NATO provincial reconstruction teams (PRT) essentially decide who has power and who does not, who gets paid with reconstruction cash and who goes home empty-handed, and you can bet that every one of those decisions simply leads to the inevitable creation of more enemies that need to be fought.
Cut to the chase:
What you get from these less sexy documents is a portrait of soldiers and officials attempting to transform a country into something it is not. It's impossible. And what Wikileaks has forced us to see is that it's madness to continue.
I have nothing to add to that. Well, one thing:
As we're leaving we should simply make it abundantly clear to the Afghans, Pakistanis, Taliban, to the most disinterested casual observer in the whole fucking world, that if ever another attack like 9/11 comes from there, we will turn that whole diseased region into perfectly-arced-to-the-curvature-of-the-earth self-lighting glass.
92,000 pages of misery
Mark Morford has (cough) analyzed the 92,000 page Wikileak.
They don't have to make sense as long as they make money.
I have scoured all the data, factored in the countless bombings and roadside detonations (and there are, seemingly, millions); I have made pie charts and bar graphs, plotted points of interest on special war paper, geo-located all the various deadly flashpoints using Google Earth, all while making 10,000 little explosion sounds with my mouth, just like George Bush used to do in the bathtub when Uncle Dick talked about "liberating" the Middle East.
I have come to some important conclusions. First off, as mentioned just about everywhere -- including by the president himself -- talk of these documents "putting lives at risk," is complete and utter BS, and is merely meant to discourage and intimidate anyone from doing anything like this ever again, because it's all been just hugely embarrassing and humiliating to U.S. intelligence, sort of like Tiger Woods' pervy text messages appearing on the front page of USA Today. They hate that.
War is hell. Have you heard that before? Of course you have. Do you know what it means? From what I can tell from the WikiLeaks scandal, here is what it does not mean: It does not mean war is some sort of rugged Herculean manly uberpatriotic exercise in glorious freedom, justice, truth, that just might also, whoops, get a little bloody. It does not quite mean a noble force for good and democracy. It might have meant that once, long ago, for a shining moment, maybe, on the back of a coin somewhere. It hasn't meant anything near that for 1,000 years. Capitalism saw to that.
It's sort of like evil. We love to imagine evil to be this towering, fanged menace, this spectacular fiend, a creepy and gruesome beast borne of a thousand horror movies. The truth is at once far less interesting, and yet far more terrifying. Because evil is more like Dick Cheney's tiny sneer, the religious nutball's weakest synapse, the wheezing death of the soul.
[...] The truth is, we will all be dead before we know the full costs of these wars. A generation or two will have to pass before we can get them in scale and perspective, and even then, like so many before them, they still won't make any goddamn sense.
They don't have to make sense as long as they make money.
"Not just Cheech and Chong"
Quite a long piece at AlterNet on Prop 19, the California initiative to legalize mota.
Much, much more and quite a few comments, some good, some inane.
I guess if we're going to have to vote for Democrats, it makes sense to vote for legalization of a substance that can numb us a little to the way Dems do things.
That's better than having the Repugs in power. The only thing to numb us to their way would be legalized suicide and euthanasia.
Prop. 19's newly hired field director, James Rigdon, thinks marijuana legalization has a lot more going for it than other issues. "There's something appealing about this for everyone -- helping the economy, incarceration issues, personal freedom ideas, public safety concerns. People from all walks are willing to come out and support us," Rigdon tells me. "Our supporters aren't just Cheech and Chong. They're everyday people who support this because it's good for everybody."
This is tied to another worry Gutwillig observes. "The research and focus groups I've seen see the whole revenue thing as gravy -- it matters to people who've already made up their minds about supporting Prop. 19. But it's not the reason someone is going to come off the fence. [Talking about revenue] doesn't resonate with voters, nor should it," he says. "But what does resonate is the other side of the fiscal coin, which is the opportunity to save and redirect scarce law enforcement resources. That message makes a big difference. People's instincts tell them there is something fundamentally hypocritical about marijuana prohibition."
Prop. 19 hopes to appeal to the instincts of Californians who believe the drug war has failed.
Prop. 19's most vocal opposition comes from the top. Gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown don't see eye to eye on much, but they both seem to have decided it's politically expedient to oppose the measure. Senator Dianne Feinstein also recently came out against it.
"I was at a party with doctors who said they used to light up with Jerry Brown," says Garzon. "But you know, the reality is that we know that politicians aren't going to lead on this issue."
Much, much more and quite a few comments, some good, some inane.
I guess if we're going to have to vote for Democrats, it makes sense to vote for legalization of a substance that can numb us a little to the way Dems do things.
That's better than having the Repugs in power. The only thing to numb us to their way would be legalized suicide and euthanasia.
The Enthusiasm Gap
First and last ¶ of a piece by Paul Krugman:
His point is hold your nose and go vote for Democrats.
Why does the Obama administration keep looking for love in all the wrong places? Why does it go out of its way to alienate its friends, while wooing people who will never waver in their hatred?
Just to be clear, progressives would be foolish to sit out this election: Mr. Obama may not be the politician of their dreams, but his enemies are definitely the stuff of their nightmares. But Mr. Obama has a responsibility, too. He can’t expect strong support from people his administration keeps ignoring and insulting.
His point is hold your nose and go vote for Democrats.
Modern Feudalism ...
To hear the other side tell it, we'd be better off if we were all serfs, under the 'protection' of our local billionaire lord. 'We must keep rich people rich so the rest of us can scratch out a living serving them.'
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Blame Gordon, once again ...
See, he put up the wandering Jew music and I immediately thought of this.
Looks like the Reggae thing has been put to bed. Heh ...
Bond - Korobushka
Looks like the Reggae thing has been put to bed. Heh ...
Well maybe ...
One more. The King, Bob Marley ... heh ... at ... heh ... Harvard. Heh ...
Bob Marley - No Woman, No Cry
National disgrace ...
Our girl Martha Raddatz (honey's seen more time in war zones than I have) has a look at the PTSD epidemic in the US Army:
They're strung out, drugged out, and suicidal (been there) and they'll make the scale of Vietnam vets with PTSD seem like a drop in the bucket.
Another note: Like I said about Michael Ware, it's time for Martha to get on a different beat. She's starting to show the stress herself.
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The figures in recent years are staggering.
The number of soldiers committing suicide has increased since 2004, surpassing civilian rates in 2008. Use of prescription drugs has tripled in the past five years; prescription amphetamines use has doubled between 2006 and 2009. One third of soldiers take at least one prescription drug and 14 percent of soldiers are on some form of powerful painkiller.
Crime is rising every year as well. Each year has seen an increase of 5,000 misdemeanors over the previous year, meaning soldiers are expected to commit around 55,000 such crimes in 2010. Sexual offenses have tripled since 2003. Domestic abuse is up 177 percent in the past six years.
Non-combat deaths among the force have increased steadily since 2001 to the point where the report says that in 2009 more soldiers died as a result of accidents and "high risk behavior" than at war.
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They're strung out, drugged out, and suicidal (been there) and they'll make the scale of Vietnam vets with PTSD seem like a drop in the bucket.
Another note: Like I said about Michael Ware, it's time for Martha to get on a different beat. She's starting to show the stress herself.
Quote of the Day
Mr. Supertrain:
That's it. Unless the poor live in conditions resembling the Mumbai slums, they ain't gettin' any of our largess.
There's definitely a strong strain of thinking among elites in this country that the biggest problem this country faces is that our poor people have it just a bit too good ...
That's it. Unless the poor live in conditions resembling the Mumbai slums, they ain't gettin' any of our largess.
Totally Bored Thursday Mountain Music Blogging
I was sorta lookin' fer something to help Fixer come down from his ganja music kick. I like old-time mountain music and stumbled across this. This oughta do it.
Totally awful afterthought that I will live to regret:
Would a dispute between Mountain Jew families be known as the Hatfeld-Mc Oy feud?
Sorry. It clawed its way outta my brain.
Thanks to MsShai1990, Israel.
Totally awful afterthought that I will live to regret:
Would a dispute between Mountain Jew families be known as the Hatfeld-Mc Oy feud?
Sorry. It clawed its way outta my brain.
Okay ...
Last one and I'll get off the Reggae kick. My man Jimmy Cliff:
Off to work.
Later ...
Jimmy Cliff - The Harder They Come
Off to work.
Later ...
And then baste with red wine ...
Against the backdrop of a Senate that can't seem to grasp the reality of climate change, NOAA has issued "The 2009 State of the Climate report." It's just a scientific study "based on comprehensive data from multiple sources," so there's no reason for anyone in the GOP to take it seriously. They eschew science anyway. But, it's really happening:
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And, like everything else, the Republicans will delay and obfuscate (solely to protect their corporate paymasters' bottom line) until the problem is intractable. Climate change is the greatest danger facing humanity as a whole and the Republicans treat it as a political toy instead of doing the responsible thing. By the time everyone wakes up it will be far too late.
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