The folks at American Friends Service Committee and Antiwar.com released this short video that gives some meaning to the cost.

and here is a classic antiwar song, "War" by Edwin Starr set to images from the Vietnam era by YouTube user justine4444.

Peace & Solidarity,

CHC

I'm still trying my best to sort through stuff on my back-up hard drive. Since the crash I have no idea where anything is as I had it pretty well sorted in my itunes. That being said, was listening to music earlier and thought these tracks were worth sharing.

All of these samples are illin'! I am sure that these have all been used eslewhere but this is where they might be most familiar. The Daedelus track is pretty cool as Madlib finds the weirdest shit for his beats and it happens to be one of my favorite MF Doom joints.

Edwin Starr "Easin' In" [Tone Loc's Loc'd After Dark] - HERE

The Meters "Clapping Song" [Eric B. & Rakim's Put Your Hands Together] - HERE

Daedelus "Experience" [MF Doom's Accordian] - HERE

Sister Nancy "Bam Bam" [Gang Starr's Mostly Tha Voice] - HERE

]]> http://newpowersoul.wordpress.com/?p=35 Sun, 08 Jun 2008 09:38:14 +0000 newpowersoul http://newpowersoul.wordpress.com/?p=35 War

Edwin Starr -- War

The Iraq War. Huh. Good god, y'all. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

It's Memorial Day in the United States and we're all busy "honoring" veterans by watching parades and grilling hamburgers. This holiday has officially been watered down to the point where it means nothing and honors no one. It glorifies America's overrated involvement on the international stage and conflates patriotism with military service.

I'm not entirely sure how Andrew feels about this, but the older I get the more opposed I am to any kind of deployment abroad. During the first Persian Gulf war, I was too young to see through the gloss of flag-waving. Now that I'm older, I can only see tremendous waste. Is it too late to trash the Monroe Doctrine and seek another period of popular non-intervention?

War is more than just a protest song. Starr's guttural delivery puts an almost terrified plea behind the lyrics. It's a plea to reason that is self-consciously falling on deaf ears.

Space.

Space.

The Tragically Hip -- Nautical Disaster

Too many people think of veterans as proud old men. I've talked to too many, though, who are shells of men, haunted by the things they saw years ago. Nautical Disaster is about a veteran of the Battle of Dieppe, a naval battle launched by Canadians (the Hip are Canadian) against German fortifications on the French coast.

The Germans knew they were coming and slaughtered almost everyone. It was one of the bloodiest routs suffered by Allied forces in all of World War II.

The veteran, now an old man, sees the battle over and over in flashbacks -- but he says only a fool would complain about surviving the battle, even though he must live with the memory of basically murdering his crewmates by leaving them behind during the retreat.

That's what war is, I think: Making the best of murder by attrition. Happy Memorial Day, America.

Artist: Edwin Starr
Album: The Best Disco in Town

Tracks :

1. Contact

Sick of the Iraq war? Better yet, are you feeling intensely anti-war right about now that you need a cathartic release? Well, here are a few songs to get you there and in a hurry. What I consider to be the best five antiwar songs ever. Not just peace or protest songs — but tunes that stick to the brutality of war.

1. Black Sabbath - War Pigs (above, from 1978). Lyrics such as "As the war machine keeps turning" will make you think of war profiteers Halliburton and Blackwater and curse them loudly.

2. Bob Dylan - Masters of War. One of the most caustic songs you will ever hear on the politics of war. In fact, if this song were written today the lyrics could be a good reference to Cheney or Rummy, among others. The song ends at the politician's grave, where the songwriter gives the ultimate disrespect.

3. Edwin Starr-War. Simple and to-the-point, this song pretty much says it all in a catchy and popular tune.

4. The Doors - The Unkown Soldier. Basically all Jim Morrison here. About the senselessness of the battlefield and the faceless statistics that carry home.

5. Metallica - One. This song takes you directly into the experience of a wounded soldier. A musical essay on how a soldier's existence is human and not merely an automaton with a gun.

And as an extra: Best antiwar album of all-time is U2's War. An anti-war masterpiece.

Feel free to pick more favorites in comments below.

Frankie says ... relax.

This one comes from back when Bruce was the Boss.

Actually, the whole of this journal appears to be free to access - so worth having a root around.

and another by Justin Champion on What Are Historians For?

(the title of which seems to invite the Edwin Starr-style response 'Huh, absolutely nuthin', say it again!')

Edwin Starr gave the world "War," the incomparable anti-Vietnam War protest song written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. Enough said. Starr died of a heart attack at the age of 61.

Please support Record Store Day on April 19th!

We all owe a debt of gratitude to the Democratic operatives that have risked their lives to bring us this first haunting photo:

Here we can obviously see a seemingly innocent piece of playground equipment that has been twisted by the right-wing propaganda masters into some sort of sick political metaphor...

Undercover operatives for the Democratic Party have told us that Republican parents force their unwilling children up the molded plastic stairs into the GOP's "Indoctrination Machine." These children remain inside for up to 48 hours until they are fully processed. The children, once they are completely transformed into a smelly mass of waste material, will eventually tumble down the chute behind the Indoctrination Machine fully prepared to carry-on the Neocon Agenda.

Said one Republican mother after her child was expelled from the Indoctrination Machine: "Oh, he's still the little stinker he always was...." where she snickered and waddled away.

UNICEF, Save the Children and Sally Struthers have begun nationwide media campaigns to save these poor little children before they've become indoctrinated into the little GOP shit's that's expected of each and every one of them. So please: If you can give anything, please give to Sally Struther's Christian Children's Fund. Because Jesus, and only Jesus could love these little Turds.

I found it on Bartcop Nation... So it must be true!

Part of the Motown hit making machine from 1961 to 1973, Johnny Bristol could take partial credit for countless massive hits as a writer and/or producer. Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Michael Jackson, Edwin Starr and Stevie Wonder are just a handful of who he has helped make superstars out of. Bristol also released a half dozen of his own albums throughout the 70's, 80's and early 90's. He passed away at the age of 65, reportedly from natural causes.

More here. (via Neatorama)

Happy New Year. I hope 2008 brings with it all that you want or at the very least, one or two nice things.

Looking back, 2007 wasn’t the best. Dwelling on the past though is not something I do, although as I get older – and increasingly closer to meeting my creator – looking back is sometimes much more comforting than looking forward…!!!

Yet some things never change and with the arrival of the new year comes this year’s first Big Brother incarnation: ‘Celebrity Hijack’. Instead of celebrities humiliating themselves a la Jade Goody, Jo O’Meera and Danielle Lloyd last year, this year we have the joy of watching a gaggle of ‘talented’ wannabees being humiliated by a range of different ‘celebrity big brothers’ ultimately playing god.

Giving in to my baser instincts, I succumbed to watching the ‘housemates’ arrive. In doing so I was sadly greeted by Little Britain’s Matt Lucas systematically humiliating ‘John’ - the Chairman of the Scottish Youth Parliament and the first teenager ever to be appointed to this position or so the Big Brother website tells me – crawl on the floor, stroke various housemates, claim to play the kazoo and repeatedly say ‘cake’. All – I hasten to add – causing me to go into convulsions of hysterical laughter (well, snigger). Seeing poor ‘John’ put through this humiliation reminded me of George Galloway. There was never going to be any good come out of him pretending to drink milk from Rula Lenska’s hand like a kitten. George, it’s you who is to blame.

No doubt ‘Celebrity Hijack’ will draw in the audiences, encouraging a thousand other television producers to run out and find the next willing and able ‘contestants’ to take part in another new ‘reality tv’ show (a concept that must surely be challenged under the trade descriptions act sometime soon).

In turn, this will initiate another batch of young hopefuls, hoping to establish their ‘celebrity’ status by falling in love, getting married, getting divorced, falling in love, getting married etc in the public gaze. No reference to Kerry Katona intended.

Reality tv though can be extremely damaging and what seems a good idea at the start – even though I’m sure that no-one can still be this naïve – can backfire on you. Take for instance Channel 4’s recent ‘Make Me a Muslim’ series, shown shortly before Christmas it was meant to challenge people’s perceptions about Islam and to show how living ‘like a Muslim’ would be beneficial for British society. Instead, over three nights the series merely reinforced and confirmed all their worse fears. Quite spectacularly, it encouraged Muslims to do it themselves.

Two years ago I wrote here in the Post about the misconceptions that people had about Islam, particularly about how there was no fun to be had by Muslims. Written during Islam Awareness Week it coincided with the launch of the city’s Unity FM and the weekly radio show that I co-hosted with my good friend Musab (going under the highly original title, ‘The Chris & Musab Show’). What I was trying to challenge with this piece were all the things that ‘Make Me a Muslim’ reinforced and confirmed, more worryingly to a much wider audience. So much for my good intentions.

What then did the show achieve? What misconceptions did it challenge? Not much in all honesty and I’m certain that it neither helped to ‘Make a Muslim’ nor to put the ‘fun back into fundamental’. Instead – and as with all reality tv – what it achieved in ‘reality’ was merely to reinforce the very things that it was devised to (allegedly) challenge.

My new year’s hope (rather than resolution) then for 2008 is that we finally see the quick but extremely painful death of ‘reality tv’ along with all its celebrities and celebrity wannabees (and wannabee wannabees also). And so to paraphrase the late Edwin Starr’s anthem ‘War’, all together now ‘reality tv’ “what is it good for? Absolutely nothing…”. I’ll say that again. Have a great year.

=

Edwin Starr - WAR
War...huh...yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Uh ha haa ha
War...huh...yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutley nothing...say it again y'all
War..huh...look out...
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing...listen to me ohhhhh

WAR! I despise,
'cos it means destruction of innocent lives,
War means tears to thousands of mother's eyes,
When their sons gone to fight and lose their lives.

I said WAR!...huh...good God y'all,
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing...say it again
War! Huh...What is it good for (Edwin sings 'Wohh oh Lord' over the top)
Absolutely nothing...listen to me

WAR! It ain't nothing but a heartbreaker,
War. Friend only to the undertaker.
Ohhh! War is an enemy to all mankind,
The thought of war blows my mind.
War has caused unrest within the younger generation
Induction then destruction...who wants to die? Ohhh

WAR! good God y'all huh
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing...say it say it SAY IT!
WAR!...uh huh yeah hu!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing...listen to me

WAR! It ain't nothing but a heartbreaker,
War! It's got one friend that's the undertaker.
Ohhhh! War has shattered many a young man's dream,
Made him disabled, bitter and mean,
Life is much too short and precious to spend fighting wars these days.
War can't give life, it can only take it away!

Ohhh WAR! huh...good God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing...say it again
War!...huh...woh oh oh Lord
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing...listen to me

War! It ain't nothing but a heartbreaker,
War. Friend only to the undertaker...woo
Peace lovin' understand then tell me,
Is there no place for them today?
They say we must fight to keep our freedom,
But Lord knows there's got to be a better way.

Ohhhhhhh WAR! huh...good God y'all...
What is it good for?...you tell me!
Say it say it say it saaaay it!
War! good God now...huh
What is it good for?
Stand up and shout it...NOTHING [END]

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothing!

war! EdwiN Starr!

(...)
Os lo digo, infelices, jodidos de la vida, vencidos, desollados, siempre empapados de sudor; os lo advierto: cuando los grandes de este mundo empiezan a amaros es porque van a convertiros en carne de cañón.
(...)

Viaje al fin de la nOche .LOUIS FERDINAND CELINE

When it comes to music it's said that covers are the most sincere form of flattery. I've never had a huge problem with covers. I do get a bit knit-picky about some of them though, like the Pixies doing Head On by the Jesus and Mary Chain the same year it came out. They did a great version of it but I wonder how many people actually know it's not their song... I still love their version. Or Nirvana doing Man Who Sold the World, I know Cobain was all about David Bowie but his version fully sucked. Hardly important in the whole damn grand scheme of things...

I always loved to hear the late seventies Punk bands covering the Garage Rock bands of the late sixties. Like the Damned doing Looking at You by the MC5 - they it so good that I almost had to stop listening to the MC5's version! Nostalgia? C'mon, I was -1 when that tune came out.

Maybe it's just the music I'm about and really, that wouldn't be surprising because I am a conceded prick and nothing could ever live up to my expectations, but the fact is I only get bothered by covers when the band is using the cover as either a sample or when it's just a blatant attempt at looking "cool". Like Megadeath covering Anarchy in the UK... please, they were a hokey wanna-be Metallica, all the sudden it was about the Pistols? All that did was give the Metal Heads something to relate to when they were trying to drink at my parties. Fuckers. It used to annoy the shit out of me that Guns and Roses covered Nice Boys by Rose Tattoo, especially considering it didn't so much as say "Anderson" in the fucking credits. Who would ever know it wasn't Axl's tune?

Here's my short list of what I think are acceptable covers:

Ramones covering Time Has Come Today, by the Chambers Brothers

The Clash covering The Prisoner, by Toots and the Maytals

The Clash covering Pressure Drop, by Toots Hibbert

The Clash covering Police and Thieves, by Junior Murvin

The Damned covering Looking at You, by the MC5

The Damned covering 1970, by the Stooges

Sisters of Mercy covering 1969, by the Stooges

Stiff Little Fingers covering Doesn't Make it Alright, by the Specials

Stiff Little Fingers covering Johnny Was, by Bob Marley

Rich Kids on LSD covering Detroit Rock City, by KISS

Pixies covering Head On, by the Jesus and Mary Chain

Flunk covering Blue Monday and True Faith, by New Order

DOA covering War, by Edwin Starr

Smashing Pumpkins covering Landslide, by Fleetwood mac

New Order covering Ceremony, by Joy Division

Girls Against Boys covering She's Lost Control, by Joy Division

Yeah, there's more. This is all I have on the top of my mind right now. I know there was a lot of trading tunes in the Hardcore scene, I never really knew whose tune was whose but it all seemed to work out, aside from Rollins Black Flag doing all the first four years of real Black Flag. I know it was Ginn's band but if he was all about re-formating the band, (what did he call it, Jazz Punk? hahahahahaha! what a fucking joke) why do the originals? Why did he have to go and fuck up Black Flag? They were so good before the introduction of that loser Henry Rollins.

A while back, I wrote a piece explaining why the precepts of nonviolence and of having compassion for all living things did not extend to mosquitoes. Sort of.

Recently, the “Explainer” series at Slate.com did a fun video essay asking the question: Are Mosquitoes Good for Anything?

I consider this to be a metaphysical question, the answer to which is best belted-out, à la Edwin Starr:

Mossies! Huh! Good God y’all!
What are they good for?
Absolutely nothing!
Say it again...

The Slate video essay treats the subject as more of an ecology question, and judges the mosquito’s worth as miniscule (which, if true, makes my answer a mere rounding error). Slate asks, “What would happen if mosquitoes vanished from the face of the face of the earth one day?” The answer is presented quite unsatisfyingly, and without citation: “Scientists guess that nothing too terrible would happen to the mosquitoes ecosystems.” In other words, the few creatures that snack on mossies have plenty of other things to eat. Probably.

Sure, scientists on either end of the tree-hugger – better-living-through-chemistry continuum have been notoriously wrong in predicting ecosystem chain reactions. But be honest: isn’t Mosquito eradication one experiment you’d pay good money to see anyway?

DDT was our last-best-hope against the little bastards; at least until it was banned in 1972 with the advent of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in reaction to the newly emerging phenomenon of grass-roots environmental activism, in turn spurred by the publication of Rachel Carson’s in Silent Spring a decade earlier.

Critics of the worldwide DDT ban allege that malaria was nearly routed, and that the 100 million malarial deaths since then are a direct result of the ban. Neither the premise, nor the conclusion are quite right. Mossies are tough critters to eradicate, because their life cycle is short and they require so little specialized terrain in which to breed. A tiny amount of still water is all they need to unleash the next generation of blood-sucking menace. Even today, the reason public health officials aim to reduce mossy populations, rather than wipe them out, has nothing to do with unforeseen ecosystem shock, soft-heartedness, or soft-headedness. It has everything to do with the fact that the latter objective is Quixotic. So DDT was never going to rid us of Mosquitoes or the malaria they carry; but it sure would have helped. A lot.

Banning DDT as an agricultural pesticide seems to have made good sense, even in retrospect. Its widespread use had undeniable toxicity for birds and fish, with well-demonstrated broader ecosystem consequences. More germane to this discussion, by the elimination of DDT as a ubiquitous, cross-system pesticide and limiting DDT to “vector control” (i.e., specific species targeting), adaptive genetic mutation and selection of resistant mosquitoes will have been much slower. The problem was: following the ban, it wasn’t used to specifically target mosquito populations either.

Where does all this leave us? Scratching more than we should, and sleeping less. And I, for one, didn’t really love my bout of dengue fever in 2005.

So go on hating these worthless insect-punks with all your heart! Just don’t ever expect to see the end of them.

Edwin Starr - War. 1970 slår han igenom med denna protestsång mot USA:s krig i Vietnam.

Last week, we saw our Decider in Chief tell all of us that he's already committed 21,000 troops into Baghdad, which confuses me as to the reason behind the presentation in the first place. Isn't that about the same thing as being stopped at a red light and the guy behind you gets out of his car, walks up to your window and says: "I've already committed to the idea of running into your back with my car, please buckle up."?

A War Of Words

Last October, we witnessed Michael Richards go on some wacked-out tirade against black folks and calling them the "N------" word. Mr. Richards, a Jew, later tries to apologise six ways to Sunday, including phoning in while Jerry Seinfeld was out on the sofa with Jay Leno. (Click the picture of Richards to see the YouTube video if you're interested in seeing this idiot do it all over again.) Albeit Richards' meltdown was in the middle of his act, the media was in a frenzie about his word choice...everybody was talking about it.

During that same time, TR Knight of the ABC show "Greys Anatomy" came out of the closet rather quietly. What was going on? Isaiah Washington was talking to some of the cast members and referencing TR by calling him a faggot. Then during the Golden Globe awards, a reporter asked the cast of Greys Anatomy a question to which Isaiah Washington excitedly grabbed the microphone and said; "I did not...call TR Knight a faggot."

TR Knight, as he reported on Ellen Degeneres' show "Ellen", said he was around the corner when Washington let the slur slip out of his mouth the first time. He said little on the show about Washington's comment on Ellen's show, however Katherine Heigl who plays Dr Isobel "Izzie" Stephens, was quoted to say (about Washington); "He should just not be allowed to speak in public" [about this topic].

How weird the two incidents, both happening right around the same time frame, that one gets virtually no airtime in comparason.

By the way, if you want to sign an "e-protest" and have your voice heard to have Isaiah Washington fired, you can click here. The best write up argument about this incident came from AfterElton which you can read by clicking here. Another excellent write up on this story comes from Dorothy Surrenders and their peice on "Anatomy of Hate".

Now tell me something: If Isaiah Washington can call TR Knight a faggot while in the workplace, would it be perfectly acceptable for TR Knight to turn around and say; "F*** off, nigger!" Is there a balance in that?

Perhaps the more honest response is a simple response: "Don't call us a faggot and we won't call you."

A War of Legislation

Brandt Hershman, a state senator from Indiana (a Republican of course), has won the GOP Hypocrit of the week with his newest legislation to prevent gay folks from getting married in the Hoosier State.

The legislator's ex-wife alleges that in 2000 he drove her to an abortion clinic and he paid for her to have an abortion. Even better, he then filed for divorce a week later. Nice. He said that he didn't force her to do so, she claimed that he did.

This guy is just as bad as Newt "Newtie" Gingrich, who met his wife in recovery after cancer surgery with his attorney present demanding that she sign his divorce papers.

The most notorious incident in Gingrich's marriage -- first reported by David Osborne in Mother Jones magazine in 1984 -- was when he cornered Jackie in her hospital room where she was recovering from uterine cancer surgery and insisted on discussing the terms of the divorce he was seeking.

Shortly after that infamous encounter, Gingrich refused to pay his alimony and child-support payments. The First Baptist Church in his hometown had to take up a collection to support the family Gingrich had deserted.

Let's also point out that Newtie's women all had to give him a blow-job because, as he put it, "so I can say that I haven't slept with you". He was mighty upset about Clinton's blow-job act, but for him...It's okay.

It's becoming more and more of a stereotype that these neocons are nothing but a Sunday School teacher's failure with a macaroni , paper and glitter potrait. "The National Sunday School Teacher Association" shouldn't be blamed... Newtie, Hershman and Bush Co. are the obvious constant.

A War on Church

Bishop Desmond Tutu is at it again, blasting Peter Akinola's homophobia within the Anglican Church. Just in time before their upcoming big meetings (Anglican Communion) where the fur will fly and homophobes will be screaming about how terrifying gay people aren't.

I have to hand it to Bishop Tutu - some folks like Billy Graham, some like Jerry Falwell (I don't know why), while others love Sinead O'Conner as a favorite person of the religious cloth... For me? It's Bishop Desmond Tutu who has always managed to live his life as a Christian should, and as Christ commanded us.

No wait... That sounded all weird and stuff....!! I take that back!!

A War on Attorneys

The Bush Administration is terminating the services of, or demoting attorneys involved in the Jack Abramoff scandals. When Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez was asked about this activity, Gonzalez went into complete denial claiming that the firing of these attorneys were simply another example of brilliant management-style by the President.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has denied political motivations behind the resignations, recently telling Congress, “Nothing could be further from the truth.” He added that they were a “sign of good management” by the Bush administration.

Meanwhile, a top official in the Pentagon is trying to intimidate law firms that are representating prisoners in Guantanamo. The Pentagon, tried to separate themselves from Charles "Cully" Stimson's comments by stating emphatically that he doesn't represent the view of the Bush Administration. Stimson, who seemed to be on a rant, went on to say;

"And I think, quite honestly, when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001, those CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms," Stimson said.

Asked who might be paying the law firms to represent Guantanamo detainees, Stimson hinted at wrongdoing for which some explaining should be done.

"It's not clear, is it? Some will maintain that they're doing it out of the goodness of their heart — that they're doing it pro bono, and I suspect they are," he said. "Others are receiving monies from who knows where and I'd be curious to have them explain that."

Well boys and girls, if you can't call this Stalinism or Marxism, when shall we begin?

A War On Racism

In a Virginia newspaper interview relating to Virginia offering an apology to African Americans for its involvement with slavery, Delegate Frank D. Hargrove stated simply:

slavery ended nearly 140 years ago with the Civil War and added that "our black citizens should get over it."

Mr. Hargrove went on to ask the rhetorical question of whether or not Jews should apologizing for the crucifixition of Christ!

As a proud Yankee, it's high time we put people like Frank Hargrove on notice by saying we have no plans to apologize for kicking his grand-daddy's ass in the Civil War. We have no qualms about remindng Mr. Hargrove and his racist buddy Virgil Goode that their grandfathers' asses were handed to them and we have no intention of ever apologizing for it and we'll happily do it again!

I wonder how any Republican can be proud to stand up with these neo-nazi scumballs? I mean, don't they smell bad or something?!

A War on Music

And finally (whew!) there's the matter of war in music. While I typed all of this and zoomed around picking up links and pictures, I kept humming the same tune in my head... "War..What is it good for? UH! ...AAAboslutely nothing! Say it again!!" Of course, thinking about Ewdin Starr's original 1970 version kept sticking in my brain. Then U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday song danced around in my head, which was from their WAR album back in 198-something.

But one tune stuck out especially...and I have to admit - the Video they produced was pretty damned cool too. So, if'n ya wanna see my musical interpretation of "war"... Click here: