The Lay of the Land: Libya, Ivory Coast, Mexico, US

US OIL: $108/BARREL

EU & WORLD OIL: $120/BARREL

US/MEXICO BORDER

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS DRESSED IN U.S. MARINE CORPS UNIFORMS IN U.S. GOVERNMENT VEHICLES

(2 X PICTURES)

LIBYA

3RD APRIL: +/- 60 NATO (UK & FRANCE) AIRSTRIKES AGAINST QADAFFI MILITARY

2ND APRIL: +/- 70 NATO (UK & FRANCE) AIRSTRIKES AGAINST QADAFFI MILITARY

IVORY COAST (AFRICA)

FORMER PRESIDENT GBAGBO REFUSAL TO ACCEPT ELECTED PRESIDENT OUATTARA

FRANCE MILITARY SIEZURE OF ABIDJAN AIRPORT (largest city)

UNITED NATIONS IMMINENT AIR STRIKES AGAINST IVORY COAST MILITARY

+/- 9,000 UN MILITARY PERSONNEL (OPERATION COTE D'IVOIRE)

+/- 1,500 FRENCH MILITARY PERSONNEL (OPERATION LICORNE)

UN IVORY COAST COMMANDER YOUNG-JIN (SOUTH KOREA)

UN SECRETARY GENERAL (NEW YORK): BAN KI-MOON (SOUTH KOREA)

LIBERIA MILITARY PERSONNEL JOINING IVORY COAST MILITARY

+/- 1,000 KIA

If Congress and the President keep putting band-aids on shotgun wounds...

Yakov Smirnoff will be able to do national tours again and preface every joke with: "In America... ." What a country!

What's going on in Kiev with the swine flu?

Kiev, the Ukraine--I got this message in a link from a Facebook friend. Here's the text of the message from the U.S. Embassy in the Ukrainian capital. What's this all about?

Dear Friends and Wardens,

The U.S. Embassy is aware of the disease outbreak being widely reported in Western Ukraine. According to press reports, the Ministry of Health has confirmed that the disease in question is 2009-H1N1 influenza, sometimes referred to as novel H1N1 or swine flu. The Embassy is monitoring the situation and remains in contact with Ukrainian public health authorities responding to it. According to the press, Ukrainian authorities have put several precautionary measures in place. For example, the Embassy understands that the current school vacation will be extended for three weeks; authorities have asked that public gatherings not take place; and pregnant women are being advised to defer non-emergency visits to hospitals where patients suffering from flu-like symptoms are being treated. Additionally, some press reports have said that restrictions limiting the "unnecessary" movement between regions will be in place for the next three weeks, although no details of how officials will determine the urgency of travel have been released. Individuals reporting flu-like symptoms are being advised to limit contact with other people, and, in some cases, are being treated in isolation units at local hospitals. However, public health officials have told the Embassy that as of October 30, no general quarantine is in effect.

If you are quarantined or placed in isolation due to 2009-H1N1 influenza, please contact the Embassy at the number below and let us know, so we can monitor your situation. However, please be aware that the Embassy cannot demand your immediate release if you have been detained or quarantined in accordance with local public health and legal authorities.

Due to legal restrictions and a lack of sufficient resources, the Embassy is not in a position to provide private citizens with pandemic-related supplies, medications or medical treatment, including vaccines, and cannot provide specific medical advice. Questions and concerns about influenza or other illnesses should be directed to a medical professional. A list of local hospitals and doctors can be found on our website at http://kiev.usembassy.gov/amcit_medical_eng.html.

For more information on how to prepare for a severe pandemic, please see the State Department "Pandemic Influenza Fact Sheet" and "Options During a Pandemic" flyer located on www.travel.state.gov. Detailed information about 2009-H1N1 influenza can be found on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website at http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/, the U.S. Government’s federal influenza website at http://www.flu.gov, and the World Health Organization website at http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html.

U.S. citizens residing or traveling in Ukraine are encouraged to register with the Embassy through the State Department's travel registration website, https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs/ui/, to obtain updated travel and security information. U.S. citizens without Internet access may register directly with the Embassy. Registration is important; it allows the Embassy and the State Department to assist you in an emergency.

The Embassy is located at 10 Yuriy Kotsyubysnky Street in Kyiv. The Consular Section is located at 6 Pymonenko Street. The American Citizen Services telephone number is 38-044-490-4445; the fax number is 38-044-490-4040; the email address is kyivacs@state.gov. For after-hours emergencies, please call 38-044-490-4000.

GreyMachine - Disconnected (2009) album review

It was in the winter of 1991-92 that I first listened to the music of Justin K. Broadrick, onetime drummer/founder of the legendary Napalm Death, and I've never looked back. The album was the extraordinary "Streetcleaner" (1989), and it was percolating its way through college campuses and neighborhoods across North America, seeping its way into the minds of incredibly angry, nihilistic youth.

Broadrick has had his ups-and-downs over the years with the decline of Godflesh, numerous side-projects, a series of personal crises, but has survived the crash of the conventional music industry and come back with a real vengeance since 2005 and the first release of Jesu on the Hydrahead label, run by the inimitable heavy rock group Isis.

Broadrick is a real gadfly in the music world, crossing genre boundaries and conventions while pushing the envelope and creating new styles and approaches that are rapidly imitated (think the band Korn, a group whose style he doesn't want credit for) poorly, such as the hybridization of hip-hop and intensely heavy rock-stylings. But if there's a thread running through his music, it's the psychedelic, the ponderous, a gazing into the abyss of our common era, and that shines through more brightly in this new project than ever before. If you're a real aficionado of unforgivably heavy rock, layered, dense, and brutal, this is going to be your new fix for a very long time to come. It's projects like this that keep rock--barely living--alive in a microcosmic sense, and that's fine by me.

What's so shocking and exciting about this release, however, is that Broadrick has returned to playing drums once again, and it's been a long-time-coming. Other than possibly some playing on the "Sweet Tooth" project, I don't believe he's played drums on a recording in such a direct way since his time in Napalm Death in the 1980s, so this is a real historic occasion, and he's great on it. Reenlisting Dave Cochrane of God and Head of David was going to be a logical move as was the bass and electronics of the great Diarmuid ("Dermot") Dalton of Cable Regime and Jesu, while the inclusion of Isis guitarist and visual artist Aaron Turner compliments the general wash of sound you'd expect from a Broadrick-fronted project.

Layered doesn't even begin to describe the sound, this is a real feat of music engineering here where noise, heaviness, and the psychedelic create a very satisfying admixture that recalls Ornette Coleman's "harmolodics" theory. "Vultures Descend" is one of the more interesting and exciting tracks, but if I were to pick a favorite, it would have to be the destroying "Sweatshop," a cut that's going to please the most purist of Godflesh fans who've been wondering if Broadrick lost it after 2005. He hasn't, this was well worth the wait. It's strange, but in a way, he's cycled back to his Napalm Death days, the days of the legendary "SCUM" LP (1986), a heavily-layered affair awash in noise, now with the inclusion of discreet electronics, sampling, and few vocals at all. We got a taste of what was to come in 2003's final Techno Animal project, "Curse of the Golden Vampire," a project that was also reminiscent of ND in several areas and a good taste of how close drum and bass sounds to speed metal rhythmically!

Like the very best of JB's output, this album is going to be impossible to define. Every member but one rooks-in electronics, looping, sampling, and even the occasional synthesized sound that creates quite an onslaught. Imagine the layering and looping approach of electric period Miles (think "Bitches Brew") applied to a rock band and you're getting closer; guitars are subsumed by drums; drums are subsumed by the roar of the overall sound, fighting their way to the top; vocals occasionally fight their way up; synths and samples cut their way through the mix, while the bass keeps chugging. If it sounds like war, that's because it is, this, our common era. Disconnected couldn't be more timely or timeless.

GreyMachine, the return of apocalypse rock amidst the apocalyps

WWW--Grey Machine is Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh, Final, Techno Animal, Napalm Death, ICE, etc.), Dave Cochrane (Head of David), Aaron Turner (Isis), Diarmuid Dalton (Godflesh, Cable Regime, Final), and their first release together that came out earlier this month promises to conquer, especially old school Godflesh fans like myself.

After the 2002 demise of that band, Broadrick moved on to form Jesu, his new rock project, and the first releases were pretty heavy, not that I haven't liked the Eno and postpunk inflections along the way, but...

Let's be honest: the last wide-release album of Jesu ("Conqueror") wasn't very good at all, it had a couple good tunes and lacked any real dynamic and fell pretty flat creatively. The singles, small-run releases on Broadrick's Avalanche imprint, and EPs since then have been a significant improvement even without the heft, the heaviness. If you don't like really heavy experimental music that eschews the rules of genre you won't like this, not that I care.

Apparently Justin was feeling a little wounded by the criticisms coming from old fans like myself and decided to show everyone that he's just as capable of apocalypse rock as he ever was and the first reviews are confirming that Grey Machine's "Disconnected" is that very thing, so it's time to breathe a sigh of relief. A review is forthcoming at this site, but have an ear-bleeding, soul-destroying listen of some song samples here in-the-meantime: http://www.last.fm/music/GREYMACHINE .

"Vultures Descend" is absolutely stunning in itself and also reminiscent of some of the best output by the Swans. Someone has to do the soundtrack to the apocalypse, and that man is Justin K. Broadrick along with his numerous collaborators. Projects like this transcend the boundaries of mere rock music. Enjoy (or don't).

The Return of Throbbing Gristle, and the death of Reagan and Thatcherism

WWW--On April 25th, I'll be going to see industrial pioneers, Throbbing Gristle in Chicago. Not everyone knows who they are, but they are essentially the creators of "industrial culture" and beyond. For years-and-years all I've been able to do is read about them and lament that I never got to see them perform live since their last show was in San Francisco in May 1981.

But several years ago, they finally decided to put things from the past aside--all the slights, issues, and arguments--and regrouped, doing a few shows in London, then throughout most of Europe and parts of the rest of the globe.

It's hard to describe the sound of TG, but an old college acquaintance put it best when he wrote, "TG is like a drug...you either like it or you don't." I don't just like TG, I love them. Having seen PTV3 in 2004, this is going to be part of a surprisingly fulfilled wish list.

When TG broke-up in May 1981, the Reagan revolution was in its infancy. England was suffering under the same kind of marketplace fascism, and as they've been a virtual economic satellite of the United States ("51st State"!) since the late-1970s, we've had a shared fate as cultures. Groups like TG have been that much needed antidote to obsolete conventional wisdom and thinking, a genuine part of our Western counterculture.

TG ended where Reaganism began. Now TG begins anew as Reaganism ends, dies. As above, so below, so mote it be. The final show in Chicago will be in a Presbyterian church, it couldn't be more fitting. Welcome back.

THE LONG BEACH HATE CRIMES: THE DEAFENING SILENCE OF BLACK LEADERSHIP, THE PRESS, AND THE LEFT

Long Beach, California--I'm pleased with the convictions of the nine defendants, with eight getting the "enhanced" charges for hate crimes. When you attack people unprovoked, hurling such racial-epithets as: "white bitches," "we hate white people," "I hate f*cking white people," and more, you're targeting someone because they are different. Regardless of their color, they are being treated as they should be--as profoundly disturbed criminals who should be jailed until they can prove they're normal:

All 10 minors, nine girls and one boy ages 12 to 18, were charged with felony assault for the beating, which took place around 9 p.m. in the 3800 block of Linden Avenue, an affluent section of Bixby Knolls popular with trick-or-treaters for its lavish displays. A hate crime enhancement was added to eight minors' charges, stemming from victim and witness statements that several youths within a crowd of 20 to 40 people yelled racial slurs as the victims were pelted with newspapers, fruit and pumpkins, then beat to the ground with fists, feet, a skateboard and tree branches. (Free Republic, 01.26.2007)

It took the L.A. Times over a month to publish the epithets in-full, particularly the "white bitches" comment. There's no excuse for their behavior, yet the mainstream media has shown a strange reluctance early-on in the story to classify the vicious attacks as "hate crimes," yet that's exactly what they were.

While the Black communities in California seem divided on the event, prominent Black leaders in southern California have called them that with some minor-exceptions. So what gives? These defendants are not "victims" in the incident, and there is even evidence that a few of them are in gangs and have possibly been protected by others through witness intimidation (of another Black teen whose car was totaled in the alleged incident--they declined to testify afterward).

Where's Jesse Jackson? Where's Al Sharpton, CORE, the NAACP, or the SCLC? Nowhere. Jesse Jackson ancient comments that "Black people cannot be racist" has never been taken-seriously, or his "hymietown" statements, but why the silence?

In fairness to Jesse Jackson, he's been ill since last week and had to cancel a visit to Ohio. But how would he and other Black "leaders" classify this incident? Their silence speaks volumes. We had an explosion of moralism over a comedian using the word "nigger" recently, and other comments directed at two Black hecklers in a club, but the sound of crickets over this story of a Black-on-White hate crime. The hypocrisy is obvious and pathetic. There is the possibility that because this crime plays-into Black racism, speaking-out against it by these leaders would be viewed as a betrayal--they don't see any material gain in condemning it. But this is just one incident of Black-on-White crime that got little notice or comment.

During the morning-hours of June 16th, 2002, a Black man whose wife had died and had recently learned he had contracted HIV (and a colorful criminal record stretching-back to 1985), shot three white people, and even terrorized a Japanese-American:

The gunman was identified as Steven Johnson, 34, a black man who has AIDS and who, the police said, told investigators he was bent on killing as many white people as he could. ...As this was happening, witnesses say Johnson was quoted ranting about white people and vowed revenge for thousands of years of suffering [?!]," Commissioner Kelly said. "He also mentioned that this was, quote, `fun,' and that a real man chooses when he dies. (NYT, 06.17.2002)

Read the article--nobody, and I mean nobody, wanted to assign the event the moniker of a "hate crime", and that's wrong. If a group of young White men had done this, it would have rocketed around the globe overnight in the world press. As a matter of fact, this was the case with Tawana Brawley, an ambulance Al Sharpton once chased over a cliff. Is it that this kind of story just doesn't sell? It's possible, but there is a definite reluctance here for fear of being labeled "racist." This writer has no-such fears in this area, and insists on a reasoned approach rather than a double-standard.

Perhaps the problem in the neighborhoods of Long Beach is one of poor role-models and poor models of manhood; but how often does anyone ask about environmental questions when Whites attack Blacks? We should, while still recognizing that there is no excuse based on the facts of the crime.

I grant the history of slavery has caused incredible damage to Black Americans, it is undeniable--but what does that have to do with the facts surrounding this case in Long Beach? Either you believe in justice, or you don't. It's like being pregnant. There are no half-way measures here when an unprovoked violent crime has occurred. I will also grant there have been stories that there might have (a big "might") been irregularities in the early identification of the suspects. That's what appeals are for, and not every single suspect was convicted on the hate crimes charges. On the other hand, the judge in the case barred significant DNA evidence of blood on one of the defendant's jeans from a victim. (LA Times, 12.14.2006) The excuse? "Too time-consuming." Jesus.

Justice Department statistics now state that Black-on-White hate crimes make up 20% of the 10,000 reported each year. This is an emergent phenomena, and a troubling one. Another troubling trend is the increase of Latino-on-Black crimes that are predominantly gang-related, something that has even had coverage right here in Michiana.

Standing-up for the guilty to serve an agenda--even a good one--only feeds the Right the ammunition they want. Because of the Left's tendency towards mythology, rationalization, and delusion (just like the Right's in many-respects), they're getting that ammunition. The most-pressing problem is Latino-on-Black (and vice-versa) hate crime, which increased in Long Beach in 2005 according to the LA Human Relations Commission that was founded in-the-wake of the 1965 Watts riots:

"This month, the authorities reported that crimes in the city motivated by racial, religious or sexual-orientation discrimination had increased 34 percent in 2005 over the previous year [Ed.--No final stats for 2006]." (IHT, 01.17.2007)

We are a silly species, and hell is other people.

Free Republic:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1774400/posts

NYT, June 17th, 2002:
http://www.angelfire.com/pa/sergeman/issues/shootsthree.html

Earl Ofari Hutchinson at Alternet:
http://www.alternet.org/stories/45807/

LA Times on Barred Evidence in the Long Beach Trial:
http://www.topix.net/content/trb/0044260246419346595823647812750701184887

LA Human Relations Commission Report on Hate Crimes in 2005:
http://lahumanrelations.org/publications/docs/2005HCR.pdf