Other Music from a... Different Kitchen

Labels: DJ Noodles, Fix Your Face Music Group, Sun N.Y., Trazz

"Many people listen to the White House these days and conclude that a U.S. attack on Iran is imminent: "To be quite honest, I'm a little concerned that it's Iraq again," as Senator John Rockefeller, the new chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said recently.

Some senior U.S. soldiers were worried about the strategic wisdom and even the legality of invading Iraq, but nobody resigned over it. It was obvious that the U.S. would win the actual war quickly and cheaply, and almost nobody worried about the aftermath.

But an attack on Iran is different, even though it would not involve American ground troops (since all available U.S. combat troops are committed to Iraq), because any competent general knows that this is a war the U.S. cannot win.

Air strikes alone cannot win a war, however massive they are, and they probably could not even destroy all of Iran's nuclear facilities, which are numerous, dispersed and often deeply buried. Many Iranians would be killed, but what would the U.S. do next? It would have very few options, whereas Iran would have many.

Iran could flood Iraq with sophisticated weapons and send volunteers to help the fight against U.S. forces there. It could throw international markets into turmoil by halting its own oil exports. It could try to close the entire gulf to tanker traffic (with a fair chance of success) and throw the entire world economy into crisis."

Labels: Afghanistan, Dick Cheney, General Peter Pace, Iran, Iraq war, Jalal Talabani, War on Terror

Labels: Bun B, MIMS, Seed

Labels: C.L. Smooth, DJ Jazzy Jeff

Labels: Fall Out Boy, Kanye West

Labels: Flocabulary, H2A, Hip-Hop Association, It's All About M.E.E. Festival

"No. Obama ain’t perfect. No mortal is but facts are facts. Obama is the best
candidate in the entire field and certainly the most viable Black candidate of
all time– all due respect to Shirley Chisholm, in particular, and the other
Blacks who have been willing to take on that challenge. (And damn if he don’t
have that sincere politician part down.) The specifics of Obama’s background
undoubtedly make him less threatening to the White american mainstream but
dwelling on that is petty and to borrow from my favorite and often contradictory
rapper Nas, “slave shit”.... "

Labels: '08 Election, Barack Obama, Ludacris, Politics

Labels: Kardinal Offishall, Kidz in the Hall, Marco Polo, Rawkus Records

Labels: Dean Martin, Little Richard, Nas, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr.

Those 'rapid refunds' offered by many tax preparation firms leading up to April 15 are draining millions of dollars from the poorest neighborhoods with loans that have interest rates as high as 700%, advocates warned Sunday.

City residents who take the usurious loans hoping to get a quicker refund have spent more than $324 million in fees and interest over a three-year period, according to the Neighborhood economic Development Advocacy project.

Residents of Brownsville in Brooklyn shelled out more than $8.5 million in fees from 2002 to
2005 alone.

Billed as rapid refunds among other names, the refund anticipation loans or RALs, are issued by out-of-state banks that charge interest rates that exceed the New York's 25% interest ceiling on loans -- with some going as high as 700%.

Other fees and charges hidden inside these further whittle away at taxpayers' refund checks. The loans are marketed aggressively in low-income communities, advocates said.

"When advocates mapped out the amount of money lost to these loans by zip code, they found that the highest amounts where being in paid in communities comprised largely of minorities and the working poor. Often the taxpayers were eligible for Earned Income Tax Credits, but saw that federal money go toward fees instead of their families, Keeley said.

"The areas with the most amount of fees siphoned away match almost identically to the areas that are more than 50% Black or Hispanic -- that's staggering," Keeley said.

Labels: AM New York, Michael Clancy, Rapid Refunds

Labels: Deadeye, DJ Noodles, DJ Rated R, Hell Razah, Little Brother, Mick Boogie, Statik Selektah, Termanology, Tony Touch, Young Chris

Website | MySpace | BUY Skateboards 2 Scrapers here (or on itunes here)

Labels: East Village Radio, The Pack

Labels: Cipha Sounds, Daytona, Jim Jones, Pharrell, Star Trak, Teyana Taylor, The Pack

Labels: Busta Rhymes, DJ Dmadness, Erykah Badu, Ghostface, J Valentine, K-Fox, Peanut Butter Wolf, Stones Throw, Sunny Valentine

Labels: Lil Mama, Lip Gloss

"The empty streets, deserted avenues and abandoned houses prompt a gnawing question, nearly 17 months after Hurricane Katrina: Is this what New Orleans has come to — a city half its old size?

Over and over, the city’s leaders reassure citizens that better days and, above all, more people are in the future. Their destiny will not merely be to reside in a smaller city with a few good restaurants and curious local customs, the citizens are told.

But some economists and demographers are beginning to wonder whether New Orleans will top out at about half its prestorm population of about 444,000, already in a steep decline from its peak of 627,525 in the 1960 Census. At the moment, the population is well below half, and future gains are likely to be small."

Labels: George Bush, Hurricane Katrina, Jay-Z, Minority Report, New Orleans, State of the Union

Labels: Certified Bananas, Nick Catchdubs, The Pack, Vans

Labels: M.I.A., The Pack

Labels: Barack Obama, Bruce Gordon, Julia Hare, Lerone Bennett, State of the Black Union, Tavis Smiley

Labels: Dirty South Punk Rock, Whole Wheat Bread

Labels: 9th Wonder, Aloe Blacc, Dj Drama, Freeway, Goapele, Jimmie Reign, Jus Ske, Keyshia Cole, Little Brother, Luther Vandross, Madlib, Mark Ronson, Oh No, Stones Throw, Teddy Pendergrass

Labels: Dujeous, Lily Allen, Mark Ronson

Labels: Dr. Teeth, Quit Hatin' the South, UGK, Underground Kingz

Labels: Jay-Z, Kidz in the Hall, Little Brother, Rawkus Records

Labels: Toggi

Labels: Bob Marley

"A senior Iranian diplomat in Baghdad has been abducted by gunmen appearing to be Iraqi army troops [emphasis added].

Iraqi officials confirmed Tuesday that gunmen riding in two vehicles abducted the Iranian diplomat after stopping his convoy in the central Karradah district late Sunday.

Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi forces have opened a command center for a new joint security operation in baghdad, where sectarian and insurgent violence continues to take Iraqi lives."

Labels: Iran, Iraq war

Labels: M.I.A., Missy Elliott, Timbaland

Labels: Dogg Pound, The Game

"Up to the walls of Jericho
She marched with a spear in her hand
Go blow them ram horns she cried
For the battle is in my hand

The walls have not come down, but they have been given a serious shaking.

That Jericho voice is stilled now.

Molly Ivins has been quieted.

The writer and journalist, dearly loved and admired by many, hated and feared by many, died of cancer in her Texas home on Jan. 31, 2007.

The walls of ignorance and prejudice and cruelty, which she railed against valiantly all her public life, have not fallen, but their truculence to do so does not speak against her determination to make them collapse.

Weeks before she died, she launched what she called "an old-fashioned newspaper crusade" against President Bush's announcement that he was going to send more troops to Iraq.

She wrote, "We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. Every single day every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. We need people in the streets banging pots and pans and demanding, 'Stop it now!' ""

Click here to read the full article.

Related:

Times political blog The Caucus: Goodbye, Molly.

Online:

BUY Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America, Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? and other books by Molly Ivins here.

"The outgoing top U.S. general in Iraq diplomatically aired his differences with the commander in chief on Thursday, telling lawmakers that President Bush has ordered thousands more troops into Iraq than needed to tamp down violence in Baghdad.

Gen. George Casey quickly added he understood how his recently confirmed successor, Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, could want the full complement of 21,500 additional troops that Bush has ordered to Iraq. Casey said they could "either reinforce success, maintain momentum or put more forces in a place where the plans are not working.""

"A woman who told police she had been raped was jailed for two days after officers found an old warrant accusing her of failing to pay restitution for a 2003 theft arrest.

While she was behind bars, according to the college student’s attorney, a jail worker refused to give her a second dose of the morning-after contraceptive pill because of the worker’s religious convictions [emphasis added].

The 21-year-old woman was released Monday only after attorney Vic Moore reported her plight to the local media."