Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
"Louisiana 1927"
by Randy Newman
From the album "Good Old Boys"
What has happened down here is the wind have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
Rained real hard and rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline
The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright
The river have busted through cleard down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangelne
CHORUS
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tyrin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame what the river has
done
To this poor crackers land."
CHORUS
Friday, August 26, 2005
This weeks show:
"The Sunday Morning Hangover" features novelty and jazz '78s from the collection of host Reverend Marc Time, 8am, KWVA 88.1 FM.
Also a tribute to Robert Moog and more Phil Spector backing tracks.
In three weeks: Mood Area 52 Live!!!!!
Also a tribute to Robert Moog and more Phil Spector backing tracks.
In three weeks: Mood Area 52 Live!!!!!
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Whistle A Happy Tune Dammit!
Sunday September 4, 2005 8 AM
ON THE AIR "The Sunday Morning Hangover" features "The Wacky World of Whistling" featuring artists such as Brother Bones, Fred Lowery, Sister Jean and other whistlers. With Host Reverend Marc Time.8am, KWVA 88.1 FM.Go to http://www.whistlingrecords.com/ for Whistling downloads, histories and info.
ON THE AIR "The Sunday Morning Hangover" features "The Wacky World of Whistling" featuring artists such as Brother Bones, Fred Lowery, Sister Jean and other whistlers. With Host Reverend Marc Time.8am, KWVA 88.1 FM.Go to http://www.whistlingrecords.com/ for Whistling downloads, histories and info.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Fifty Years After the Fair
Lyrics by Aimee Mann
photo by Rose Marie Reinwald 1939 World's Fair NYC
But how beautiful it was - tomorrow
We'll never have a day of sorrow
We got through the 30's, but our belts were tight
We conceived of a future with no hope in sight
We've got decades ahead of us to get it right
I swear - fifty years after the fair
Fifty years after the fair
I live in tomorrow town
Even on a wing and a prayer
The future never came around
It hurts to even think of those days
The damage we do
By the hopes that we raise
photo by Rose Marie Reinwald 1939 World's Fair NYC
But how beautiful it was - tomorrow
We'll never have a day of sorrow
We got through the 30's, but our belts were tight
We conceived of a future with no hope in sight
We've got decades ahead of us to get it right
I swear - fifty years after the fair
Fifty years after the fair
I live in tomorrow town
Even on a wing and a prayer
The future never came around
It hurts to even think of those days
The damage we do
By the hopes that we raise
Robert Moog: 20th Century Music Nerd Genius
By Frank Houston (from Salon.com)
In 1955, four years after the theremin's eerily weepy sound was employed in "The Day the Earth Stood Still," RCA introduced the first modern synthesizer. The machine made sounds by manipulating electrical waves to denote timbre, pitch and volume. Like early computers, it filled a room and was tended by men in lab coats.A few years later Robert Moog, a graduate student in physics at Cornell University, published a magazine article explaining how to build a theremin, offering do-it-yourself kits for $49.95. Orders poured in, and Moog sold 1,000 that year. "We had $13,000 in the bank," he recalled recently, "a humongous cache of wealth for a graduate student back then!" The windfall enabled a career that helped bring electronic music out of the realm of novelty acts and university labs. A decade after the first RCA machine, Moog introduced the first widely adopted electronic instrument -- the synthesizer that bears his name.
When Moog (rhymes with "vogue") unveiled the Moog music synthesizer in 1965, his engineering skills combined with a bit of business luck to radically change the way music was made. Synthesizers went from being computers to instruments that could be found in any music store. The flowering of rock music may have come via Leo Fender, Les Paul and the Gibson Guitar Co., but the innovative music of the early 21st century owes far more to Moog and his imitators and successors.
Growing up in the '40s in Flushing, Queens, Moog suffered the usual cruelties boys inflict on the smarter, more introverted members of their tribe: "I was the class brain," he recalled in one of several e-mail interviews. "I knew I was smarter than they were, so they felt compelled to beat me up periodically to keep me in my place." He spent a lot of time with his father, who liked to dabble in electronics, and started his own electronics projects. He built his first theremin with the help of a hobby-magazine article at age 14. "I was hooked," he recalled. Five years later, Moog published his own do-it-yourself theremin article.
Moog's mother, meanwhile, gave him piano lessons and made him practice hours every day in the hope that he'd become a concert pianist, "klopping" him if he "didn't practice right." He found refuge in New York's prestigious Bronx High School of Science, where he "actually had some friends who were as nerdy as I was." Later, at Queens College, Moog finally developed what he called "a medical-minimum amount of social grace," and even started dating.
After getting some exposure to the liberal arts at Columbia University's Engineering School, Moog began graduate education in the engineering physics department of Cornell University. He took eight years to get his Ph.D., largely because of his part-time hobby: building theremins and other electronic instruments. The degree came in 1965, a year after Moog launched his synthesizer business.
Moog built his synthesizer in 1964 after a composer told him about the need for user-friendly electronic instruments utilizing new solid-state technology. The Moog was modular: You used patch cords to select your waveform (the sound's timbre) and frequency (pitch), and plugged in the interface -- a keyboard, instead of the binary code on paper that had defined the first RCAs. Moog's engineering wizardry did the rest.
RCA synthesizers, intended for an elite market of labs financed by universities and record companies, had cost $100,000 and up. In 1967 the new Moog sold for $11,000. It wasn't the only synthesizer around; many experts also commend Donald Buchla's modular synthesizer, built around the same time. But the Moog became prized for its utility and elegance, making Moog the name that brought synthesized music to the masses.
The Moog's biggest break came in 1969, when musician Walter (now Wendy) Carlos had a huge, Grammy-winning hit with "Switched-on Bach," popularizing electronic music with Moog-made renditions of Johann Sebastian Bach. Canadian pianist and Bach interpreter Glenn Gould said that Carlos' Fourth Brandenburg Concerto was "the finest performance of any of the Brandenburgs -- live, canned or intuited -- that I've ever heard."
The Beatles introduced a new Moog in the majestic "Because," on "Abbey Road," the last album they recorded. The instrument was somehow perfectly suited to the layered, atmospheric vocals and John Lennon's ethereal lyrics. In 1971, Carlos brought the Moog to cinema, scoring Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" with electronic Beethoven whose gleeful perversity helped lend the movie its malevolent sheen.
Still, these were products of studio recording. It took musicians with a talent for excess -- such as keyboardist Keith Emerson -- to tote the enormous Moog setup, a towering box of electronics, onto the stage for live shows. Ever mindful of utility, Moog next introduced the portable, performance-minded Minimoog. Rock-oriented musicians like Jan Hammer showed that the synthesizer could be used as an expressive lead instrument. Jazzers like Josef Zawinul used the instrument to "add new colors to the traditional sound world of jazz," says Doug Keislar, editor of the Computer Music Journal.
"It was really the advent of the Minimoog that saw synthesizers take off," Keislar says. "The Minimoog showed that there was a significant market for portable, cheaper synthesizers." Or as Moog put it, in typically dry fashion, "By 1974 or so, having a Minimoog would make it a lot easier to get a job playing the local Ramada Inn."
A century after Thomas Edison reproduced the first recorded sound, the synthesizer began to spread into musical genres from the avant-garde to jazz. In 1977, the instrument took a central role in emerging forms of electronic music, with Donna Summer's hit dance single, "I Feel Love," created almost entirely on Moog synthesizers, and German band Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express," an album of purely technological music.
On Aug 21, 2005 Bob Moog passed away. He was a gentle and humble man with a wonderful sense of humor and a brilliance that inspired millions around the world.
By Frank Houston (from Salon.com)
In 1955, four years after the theremin's eerily weepy sound was employed in "The Day the Earth Stood Still," RCA introduced the first modern synthesizer. The machine made sounds by manipulating electrical waves to denote timbre, pitch and volume. Like early computers, it filled a room and was tended by men in lab coats.A few years later Robert Moog, a graduate student in physics at Cornell University, published a magazine article explaining how to build a theremin, offering do-it-yourself kits for $49.95. Orders poured in, and Moog sold 1,000 that year. "We had $13,000 in the bank," he recalled recently, "a humongous cache of wealth for a graduate student back then!" The windfall enabled a career that helped bring electronic music out of the realm of novelty acts and university labs. A decade after the first RCA machine, Moog introduced the first widely adopted electronic instrument -- the synthesizer that bears his name.
When Moog (rhymes with "vogue") unveiled the Moog music synthesizer in 1965, his engineering skills combined with a bit of business luck to radically change the way music was made. Synthesizers went from being computers to instruments that could be found in any music store. The flowering of rock music may have come via Leo Fender, Les Paul and the Gibson Guitar Co., but the innovative music of the early 21st century owes far more to Moog and his imitators and successors.
Growing up in the '40s in Flushing, Queens, Moog suffered the usual cruelties boys inflict on the smarter, more introverted members of their tribe: "I was the class brain," he recalled in one of several e-mail interviews. "I knew I was smarter than they were, so they felt compelled to beat me up periodically to keep me in my place." He spent a lot of time with his father, who liked to dabble in electronics, and started his own electronics projects. He built his first theremin with the help of a hobby-magazine article at age 14. "I was hooked," he recalled. Five years later, Moog published his own do-it-yourself theremin article.
Moog's mother, meanwhile, gave him piano lessons and made him practice hours every day in the hope that he'd become a concert pianist, "klopping" him if he "didn't practice right." He found refuge in New York's prestigious Bronx High School of Science, where he "actually had some friends who were as nerdy as I was." Later, at Queens College, Moog finally developed what he called "a medical-minimum amount of social grace," and even started dating.
After getting some exposure to the liberal arts at Columbia University's Engineering School, Moog began graduate education in the engineering physics department of Cornell University. He took eight years to get his Ph.D., largely because of his part-time hobby: building theremins and other electronic instruments. The degree came in 1965, a year after Moog launched his synthesizer business.
Moog built his synthesizer in 1964 after a composer told him about the need for user-friendly electronic instruments utilizing new solid-state technology. The Moog was modular: You used patch cords to select your waveform (the sound's timbre) and frequency (pitch), and plugged in the interface -- a keyboard, instead of the binary code on paper that had defined the first RCAs. Moog's engineering wizardry did the rest.
RCA synthesizers, intended for an elite market of labs financed by universities and record companies, had cost $100,000 and up. In 1967 the new Moog sold for $11,000. It wasn't the only synthesizer around; many experts also commend Donald Buchla's modular synthesizer, built around the same time. But the Moog became prized for its utility and elegance, making Moog the name that brought synthesized music to the masses.
The Moog's biggest break came in 1969, when musician Walter (now Wendy) Carlos had a huge, Grammy-winning hit with "Switched-on Bach," popularizing electronic music with Moog-made renditions of Johann Sebastian Bach. Canadian pianist and Bach interpreter Glenn Gould said that Carlos' Fourth Brandenburg Concerto was "the finest performance of any of the Brandenburgs -- live, canned or intuited -- that I've ever heard."
The Beatles introduced a new Moog in the majestic "Because," on "Abbey Road," the last album they recorded. The instrument was somehow perfectly suited to the layered, atmospheric vocals and John Lennon's ethereal lyrics. In 1971, Carlos brought the Moog to cinema, scoring Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" with electronic Beethoven whose gleeful perversity helped lend the movie its malevolent sheen.
Still, these were products of studio recording. It took musicians with a talent for excess -- such as keyboardist Keith Emerson -- to tote the enormous Moog setup, a towering box of electronics, onto the stage for live shows. Ever mindful of utility, Moog next introduced the portable, performance-minded Minimoog. Rock-oriented musicians like Jan Hammer showed that the synthesizer could be used as an expressive lead instrument. Jazzers like Josef Zawinul used the instrument to "add new colors to the traditional sound world of jazz," says Doug Keislar, editor of the Computer Music Journal.
"It was really the advent of the Minimoog that saw synthesizers take off," Keislar says. "The Minimoog showed that there was a significant market for portable, cheaper synthesizers." Or as Moog put it, in typically dry fashion, "By 1974 or so, having a Minimoog would make it a lot easier to get a job playing the local Ramada Inn."
A century after Thomas Edison reproduced the first recorded sound, the synthesizer began to spread into musical genres from the avant-garde to jazz. In 1977, the instrument took a central role in emerging forms of electronic music, with Donna Summer's hit dance single, "I Feel Love," created almost entirely on Moog synthesizers, and German band Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express," an album of purely technological music.
On Aug 21, 2005 Bob Moog passed away. He was a gentle and humble man with a wonderful sense of humor and a brilliance that inspired millions around the world.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Gallery told to drop 'gay' Batman
DC Comics has ordered a New York gallery to remove pictures which show Batman and Robin kissing and embracing.
The Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts gallery was told it would face legal action unless it removed watercolours of the superhero by artist Mark Chamberlain.
"DC Comics wants me to hand over all unsold work," said Ms Cullen.
Arts website Artnet was also told to remove the series of semi-naked images of Batman and Robin from its website. DC Comics was unavailable to comment.
The colour pictures, which depict the superheroes in a number of homoerotic poses, were put on display in the gallery in February.
Seven images from the collection were subsequently displayed on the Artnet site.
Artist Chamberlain's works have been exhibited in numerous Manhattan galleries since 1991, with collections entitled Neo-Erotic and Gender Tennis among others.
Two years ago an artwork featuring Kylie Minogue's bottom was pulled from the Royal Academy's summer show after the singer's lawyers complained.
Mark Chamberlain�s Response:
QUEER BATMAN IN CONTEXT
I am recreating the characters of Batman and Robin in small watercolors and oil paintings, in which I explore blunt sexuality, suppressed romance, whimsy, camp and various forms of male bonding. In the process I play on the homoerotic element that has always veiled the characters, and to some extent the more culturally conservative social context of the 1950s from which the characters emerged.
In 1954 Dr. Frederick Wertham, psychiatric consultant to the Chief Censor of the United States Treasury Department, published Seduction of the Innocent, a 400-page rant against the comic book industry. In it, he claimed that comic books caused violence, delinquency and deviant behavior in children, and was to be blamed for the rise of homosexuality in society. Batman was held to be particularly subversive. He writes:
At home [Batman and Robin] lead an idyllic life. They are Bruce Wayne and "Dick" Grayson. Bruce is described as a "socialite" and the official relationship is that Dick is Bruce's ward. They live in sumptuous quarters, with beautiful flowers in large vases and have a butler, Alfred. Batman is sometimes shown in a dressing gown...the young boy sometimes worries about his partner. It is like a wish dream of two homosexuals living together. Sometimes they are shown on a couch, Bruce reclining and Dick sitting next to him, jacket off, collar open, and his hand on his friend's arm. Like girls in other stories, Robin is sometimes held captive by the villains...
Robin is a handsome athletic boy, usually showing his uniform with bare legs. He is buoyant with energy and devoted to nothing on earth or interplanetary space as much as to Bruce Wayne. He often stands with legs spread, the genital region discreetly evident.
The U.S. Senate promptly held hearings, the Comic Books Code Authority was established and rigid self-censorship practices were begun within the industry.
I think gay men understand instinctively that Batman and Robin stories can be read as a queer narrative. We relate to the secrecy, fraternity, removal and fetish wear, especially in adolescence. When I was five years old and would watch Batman on TV, I thought that the idea of these two men running around in a cave wearing masks and tights was so hot I was mesmerized. In this body of work, I am taking a homoerotic subtext of Batman and bringing it into full relief, while giving form to a few personal fantasies in the process.
www.dereksantos.com/comicpage/presilver.html
THE END
DC Comics has ordered a New York gallery to remove pictures which show Batman and Robin kissing and embracing.
The Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts gallery was told it would face legal action unless it removed watercolours of the superhero by artist Mark Chamberlain.
"DC Comics wants me to hand over all unsold work," said Ms Cullen.
Arts website Artnet was also told to remove the series of semi-naked images of Batman and Robin from its website. DC Comics was unavailable to comment.
The colour pictures, which depict the superheroes in a number of homoerotic poses, were put on display in the gallery in February.
Seven images from the collection were subsequently displayed on the Artnet site.
Artist Chamberlain's works have been exhibited in numerous Manhattan galleries since 1991, with collections entitled Neo-Erotic and Gender Tennis among others.
Two years ago an artwork featuring Kylie Minogue's bottom was pulled from the Royal Academy's summer show after the singer's lawyers complained.
Mark Chamberlain�s Response:
QUEER BATMAN IN CONTEXT
I am recreating the characters of Batman and Robin in small watercolors and oil paintings, in which I explore blunt sexuality, suppressed romance, whimsy, camp and various forms of male bonding. In the process I play on the homoerotic element that has always veiled the characters, and to some extent the more culturally conservative social context of the 1950s from which the characters emerged.
In 1954 Dr. Frederick Wertham, psychiatric consultant to the Chief Censor of the United States Treasury Department, published Seduction of the Innocent, a 400-page rant against the comic book industry. In it, he claimed that comic books caused violence, delinquency and deviant behavior in children, and was to be blamed for the rise of homosexuality in society. Batman was held to be particularly subversive. He writes:
At home [Batman and Robin] lead an idyllic life. They are Bruce Wayne and "Dick" Grayson. Bruce is described as a "socialite" and the official relationship is that Dick is Bruce's ward. They live in sumptuous quarters, with beautiful flowers in large vases and have a butler, Alfred. Batman is sometimes shown in a dressing gown...the young boy sometimes worries about his partner. It is like a wish dream of two homosexuals living together. Sometimes they are shown on a couch, Bruce reclining and Dick sitting next to him, jacket off, collar open, and his hand on his friend's arm. Like girls in other stories, Robin is sometimes held captive by the villains...
Robin is a handsome athletic boy, usually showing his uniform with bare legs. He is buoyant with energy and devoted to nothing on earth or interplanetary space as much as to Bruce Wayne. He often stands with legs spread, the genital region discreetly evident.
The U.S. Senate promptly held hearings, the Comic Books Code Authority was established and rigid self-censorship practices were begun within the industry.
I think gay men understand instinctively that Batman and Robin stories can be read as a queer narrative. We relate to the secrecy, fraternity, removal and fetish wear, especially in adolescence. When I was five years old and would watch Batman on TV, I thought that the idea of these two men running around in a cave wearing masks and tights was so hot I was mesmerized. In this body of work, I am taking a homoerotic subtext of Batman and bringing it into full relief, while giving form to a few personal fantasies in the process.
www.dereksantos.com/comicpage/presilver.html
THE END
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Sunday's Radio Show
ON THE AIR "The Sunday Morning Hangover" features Robert Crumb's "Sweet Shellac" Radio Show, Part 4: Black American String Band '78s, 8am, KWVA 88.1 FM.
Also: Phil Spector Sessions, C.W.McCall, Jeannie C. Riley and the usual outside eclectic retro.
Also: Phil Spector Sessions, C.W.McCall, Jeannie C. Riley and the usual outside eclectic retro.
Monday, August 15, 2005
$1.27 billion Disappears in Iraq While U.S. Officials Watch
By Hannah Allam
Knight Ridder Newspapers
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi investigators have uncovered widespread fraud and waste in more than $1 billion worth of weapons deals arranged by middlemen who reneged or took huge kickbacks on contracts to arm Iraq's fledgling military, according to a confidential report and interviews with U.S. and Iraqi officials.
The Iraqi Board of Supreme Audit, in a report reviewed by Knight Ridder, describes transactions suggesting that senior U.S.-appointed Iraqi officials in the Defense Ministry used three intermediary companies to hide the kickbacks they received from contracts involving unnecessary, overpriced or outdated equipment.
Knight Ridder reported last month that $300 million in defense funds had been lost. But the report indicates that the audit board uncovered a much larger scandal, with losses likely to exceed $500 million, that's roiling the ministry as it struggles to build up its armed forces.
Te episode deprives Iraq's military of essential gear that could help prepare the way for U.S. forces to withdraw. It also raises questions about the new government's ability to provide an effective defense against an entrenched insurgency and win broad acceptance among Iraqis.
The audit board's investigators looked at 89 contracts of the past year and discovered a pattern of deception and sloppiness that squandered more than half the Defense Ministry's annual budget aimed at standing up a self-sufficient force, according to a copy of the 33-page report.
Iraqi Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi confirmed most of audit board report's findings in an interview last Sunday, saying that at least $500 million in Iraqi money essentially has disappeared. He's removed nine senior officials so far - he fired the ministry's procurement chief and placed his own deputy minister, Bruska Shaways, on leave - and said he was working through a list of other employees who faced dismissal and possible criminal charges.
Among the findings:
-Multimillion-dollar contracts were awarded to favored weapons suppliers without a bidding process and without the required approval from the prime minister's office. Investigators wrote that the chief procurer went "beyond his authority" in purchasing equipment.
-Senior Iraqi officials kept little or no record of major purchases, sometimes noting lucrative deals in "undated and unnumbered" memos. Nearly all purchases contained a clause - unusual in international contracting of this magnitude - that required the contract's full value to be paid up front in cash.
-Instead of buying directly from a foreign company or government, Iraqi arms procurers hired third-party companies to negotiate the contracts. When Iraqi leaders later complained about unfulfilled contracts, they discovered they had no recourse to demand a refund because the payments were made to Iraqi middlemen who vanished after receiving the millions. "The undertakings make no obligation ... toward the Iraqi Ministry of Defense," according to the report.
-The sole beneficiary on 43 of the 89 contracts was a former currency-exchange operator, Nair Mohamed al-Jumaili, whose name doesn't even appear on the contracts. At least $759 million in Iraqi money was deposited into his personal account at a bank in Baghdad, according to the report. Internal records incorrectly "indicated that the Ministry of Defense signed contracts with Poland, Arab countries, the United States and Europe, but we discovered that all contracts were signed and executed with Iraqi suppliers," the report said.
The contracts under scrutiny total $1.27 billion, nearly equal to the estimated $1.3 billion allocated for the Defense Ministry's budget this year. The money came solely from Iraqi coffers, not from the training budget of the U.S. military or from NATO and foreign donations to Iraq's military.
"There's no rebuilding, no weapons, nothing," said retired Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abdul Aziz al-Yaseri, who worked in the Defense Ministry at the height of the alleged corruption. "There are no real contracts, even. They just signed papers and took the money."
Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, who oversees the U.S. military's training of Iraqi troops, conducts weekly briefings with the defense minister. Other Iraqi defense officials seldom are spotted without American civilian advisers nearby. The close relationship has raised questions as to how $500 million or more could vanish without U.S. intervention to stop the suspicious contracts that flowed for at least eight months.
"Ask them. I have the same question," al-Dulaimi said. "I blame those who posted them (the officials under investigation). And, by the way, the CPA posted them."
"Before me, there was another prime minister. His name was Bremer," Ayad Allawi, who served as interim premier when the corruption investigation began sometime last year, told Knight Ridder. "He ran this country, he had this ministry and a lot of the corruption started then. ... There was no auditing. Airplanes were flying in and the money was handed out in suitcases."
Former Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan has told U.S. and Iraqi officials that Bremer personally requested that Ziad Cattan - the alleged ringleader of the corruption and the ministry's former procurement chief - stay in his job after sovereignty was transferred last summer.
Even as hints of a corruption scandal emerged last spring, Cattan told others in the ministry that U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld personally had assured his job and no Iraqi had the power to remove him, al Dulaimi said. Instead of fleeing the investigation closing in on him, Cattan lobbied for even more authority. He wanted to become defense minister, a seat reserved for a Sunni Arab by al Jaafari's Shiite-dominated government, which was elected last January.
While many of the contracts did result in useful, if overpriced, equipment for Iraq's 80,000 new troops, contracts involving shoddily refurbished helicopters from Poland, crates of loose ammunition from Pakistan and a fleet of leak-prone armored personnel carriers were among purchases that now are deemed unnecessary or unusable.
With the money paid in advance and no mechanism for a refund, al-Dulaimi said, the Defense Ministry is negotiating with weapons dealers to substitute the equipment for more useful items such as guns, radio communications and other vital supplies.
"It's chaos," al-Dulaimi said, visibly exasperated. "It's a result of all the chaos brought to Iraq."
Knight Ridder Newspapers
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi investigators have uncovered widespread fraud and waste in more than $1 billion worth of weapons deals arranged by middlemen who reneged or took huge kickbacks on contracts to arm Iraq's fledgling military, according to a confidential report and interviews with U.S. and Iraqi officials.
The Iraqi Board of Supreme Audit, in a report reviewed by Knight Ridder, describes transactions suggesting that senior U.S.-appointed Iraqi officials in the Defense Ministry used three intermediary companies to hide the kickbacks they received from contracts involving unnecessary, overpriced or outdated equipment.
Knight Ridder reported last month that $300 million in defense funds had been lost. But the report indicates that the audit board uncovered a much larger scandal, with losses likely to exceed $500 million, that's roiling the ministry as it struggles to build up its armed forces.
Te episode deprives Iraq's military of essential gear that could help prepare the way for U.S. forces to withdraw. It also raises questions about the new government's ability to provide an effective defense against an entrenched insurgency and win broad acceptance among Iraqis.
The audit board's investigators looked at 89 contracts of the past year and discovered a pattern of deception and sloppiness that squandered more than half the Defense Ministry's annual budget aimed at standing up a self-sufficient force, according to a copy of the 33-page report.
Iraqi Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi confirmed most of audit board report's findings in an interview last Sunday, saying that at least $500 million in Iraqi money essentially has disappeared. He's removed nine senior officials so far - he fired the ministry's procurement chief and placed his own deputy minister, Bruska Shaways, on leave - and said he was working through a list of other employees who faced dismissal and possible criminal charges.
Among the findings:
-Multimillion-dollar contracts were awarded to favored weapons suppliers without a bidding process and without the required approval from the prime minister's office. Investigators wrote that the chief procurer went "beyond his authority" in purchasing equipment.
-Senior Iraqi officials kept little or no record of major purchases, sometimes noting lucrative deals in "undated and unnumbered" memos. Nearly all purchases contained a clause - unusual in international contracting of this magnitude - that required the contract's full value to be paid up front in cash.
-Instead of buying directly from a foreign company or government, Iraqi arms procurers hired third-party companies to negotiate the contracts. When Iraqi leaders later complained about unfulfilled contracts, they discovered they had no recourse to demand a refund because the payments were made to Iraqi middlemen who vanished after receiving the millions. "The undertakings make no obligation ... toward the Iraqi Ministry of Defense," according to the report.
-The sole beneficiary on 43 of the 89 contracts was a former currency-exchange operator, Nair Mohamed al-Jumaili, whose name doesn't even appear on the contracts. At least $759 million in Iraqi money was deposited into his personal account at a bank in Baghdad, according to the report. Internal records incorrectly "indicated that the Ministry of Defense signed contracts with Poland, Arab countries, the United States and Europe, but we discovered that all contracts were signed and executed with Iraqi suppliers," the report said.
The contracts under scrutiny total $1.27 billion, nearly equal to the estimated $1.3 billion allocated for the Defense Ministry's budget this year. The money came solely from Iraqi coffers, not from the training budget of the U.S. military or from NATO and foreign donations to Iraq's military.
"There's no rebuilding, no weapons, nothing," said retired Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abdul Aziz al-Yaseri, who worked in the Defense Ministry at the height of the alleged corruption. "There are no real contracts, even. They just signed papers and took the money."
Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, who oversees the U.S. military's training of Iraqi troops, conducts weekly briefings with the defense minister. Other Iraqi defense officials seldom are spotted without American civilian advisers nearby. The close relationship has raised questions as to how $500 million or more could vanish without U.S. intervention to stop the suspicious contracts that flowed for at least eight months.
"Ask them. I have the same question," al-Dulaimi said. "I blame those who posted them (the officials under investigation). And, by the way, the CPA posted them."
"Before me, there was another prime minister. His name was Bremer," Ayad Allawi, who served as interim premier when the corruption investigation began sometime last year, told Knight Ridder. "He ran this country, he had this ministry and a lot of the corruption started then. ... There was no auditing. Airplanes were flying in and the money was handed out in suitcases."
Former Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan has told U.S. and Iraqi officials that Bremer personally requested that Ziad Cattan - the alleged ringleader of the corruption and the ministry's former procurement chief - stay in his job after sovereignty was transferred last summer.
Even as hints of a corruption scandal emerged last spring, Cattan told others in the ministry that U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld personally had assured his job and no Iraqi had the power to remove him, al Dulaimi said. Instead of fleeing the investigation closing in on him, Cattan lobbied for even more authority. He wanted to become defense minister, a seat reserved for a Sunni Arab by al Jaafari's Shiite-dominated government, which was elected last January.
While many of the contracts did result in useful, if overpriced, equipment for Iraq's 80,000 new troops, contracts involving shoddily refurbished helicopters from Poland, crates of loose ammunition from Pakistan and a fleet of leak-prone armored personnel carriers were among purchases that now are deemed unnecessary or unusable.
With the money paid in advance and no mechanism for a refund, al-Dulaimi said, the Defense Ministry is negotiating with weapons dealers to substitute the equipment for more useful items such as guns, radio communications and other vital supplies.
"It's chaos," al-Dulaimi said, visibly exasperated. "It's a result of all the chaos brought to Iraq."
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Marc Time
by Wesley Willis
You can really get in the groove.
You really whoop the horse's ass.
You can really rock it out.
You are the marc time king.
MARC TIME!!!
MARC TIME!!!
MARC TIME!!!
MARC TIME!!!
Marc Time really whoops a camel's ass.
You are the best in the long run.
I like you a lot in the long run.
I like you well.
MARC TIME!!!
MARC TIME!!!
MARC TIME!!!
MARC TIME!!!
Right on brother.
I like Marc Time a lot.
Marc Time is the best.
You are my special marc time.
Rock over London,
Rock on Chicago.
Pontiac - we build excitement.
by Wesley Willis
You can really get in the groove.
You really whoop the horse's ass.
You can really rock it out.
You are the marc time king.
MARC TIME!!!
MARC TIME!!!
MARC TIME!!!
MARC TIME!!!
Marc Time really whoops a camel's ass.
You are the best in the long run.
I like you a lot in the long run.
I like you well.
MARC TIME!!!
MARC TIME!!!
MARC TIME!!!
MARC TIME!!!
Right on brother.
I like Marc Time a lot.
Marc Time is the best.
You are my special marc time.
Rock over London,
Rock on Chicago.
Pontiac - we build excitement.
Friday, August 12, 2005
We Got A Big Ol' Convoy...
MIAMI -- More than 600 truckers gathered in their big rigs Wednesday to protest the rising gas prices in South Florida, NBC 6's Hank Tester reported.
The trucks, which included tractor-trailers, dump trucks and box trucks, gathered at the intersection of Okeechobee Road and the Florida Turnpike in Miami-Dade County.
Traffic in the area was at a standstill as the trucks started a caravan headed toward Miami City Hall.
The trucks traveled 20 miles to present a petition requesting a fuel surcharge break for independently owned trucks.
The truckers claim that the high cost of gas has made it impossible for them to earn a living.
"The airlines are charging passengers. The steam ship lines are charging the shippers. Everyone who's got clout is getting a surcharge," said Ron Carver of the Teamsters Union. "But the truck drivers who have to buy their own fuel are going into bankruptcy because they don't have the clout to demand this. So they're here today asking Congress to pass a mandatory fuel surcharge to keep them afloat."
The drivers told NBC 6 that the shipping companies that contract them to haul to the Port of Miami pay around 85 cents per mile. With the high cost of gas, operating per mile could cost 60 cents.
"A lot of people are making money on this business -- the shipping line, the owner of the company, the marine terminal. They make a lot of money but we are poor," driver Luis Rivera said.
Rivera owns his own rig and contracts with shippers who he says do not adjust per mile fees to cover the increase in gas. For Rivera, what's left is not much of a living for he, his wife and kids.
"She says that this business is really wrong," Rivera said. "We don't have any money, no possibility, no American dreams. We can do nothing."
Both Telemundo 51 and NBC 6 put in calls to local shippers who contract with the drivers. None wanted to talk to the media.
Commissioner Tomas Regaldo has promised to pass the trucker's petition on to federal lawmakers.
The trucks, which included tractor-trailers, dump trucks and box trucks, gathered at the intersection of Okeechobee Road and the Florida Turnpike in Miami-Dade County.
Traffic in the area was at a standstill as the trucks started a caravan headed toward Miami City Hall.
The trucks traveled 20 miles to present a petition requesting a fuel surcharge break for independently owned trucks.
The truckers claim that the high cost of gas has made it impossible for them to earn a living.
"The airlines are charging passengers. The steam ship lines are charging the shippers. Everyone who's got clout is getting a surcharge," said Ron Carver of the Teamsters Union. "But the truck drivers who have to buy their own fuel are going into bankruptcy because they don't have the clout to demand this. So they're here today asking Congress to pass a mandatory fuel surcharge to keep them afloat."
The drivers told NBC 6 that the shipping companies that contract them to haul to the Port of Miami pay around 85 cents per mile. With the high cost of gas, operating per mile could cost 60 cents.
"A lot of people are making money on this business -- the shipping line, the owner of the company, the marine terminal. They make a lot of money but we are poor," driver Luis Rivera said.
Rivera owns his own rig and contracts with shippers who he says do not adjust per mile fees to cover the increase in gas. For Rivera, what's left is not much of a living for he, his wife and kids.
"She says that this business is really wrong," Rivera said. "We don't have any money, no possibility, no American dreams. We can do nothing."
Both Telemundo 51 and NBC 6 put in calls to local shippers who contract with the drivers. None wanted to talk to the media.
Commissioner Tomas Regaldo has promised to pass the trucker's petition on to federal lawmakers.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Matthew McGrory
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Matthew McGrory, the deep-voiced 7-foot-plus actor who moved from appearances on Howard Stern's radio show to a high-profile role as a gentle giant in the movie "Big Fish," died Tuesday. He was 32.
McGrory died at his home in Los Angeles, said director Drew Sky, who was working with him on his current movie, a biopic of wrestler-turned-actor Andre the Giant. Paramedics determined he died of apparent natural causes, police said.
McGrory, who wore size 29 1/2 shoes, played a human Sasquatch in 2001's "Bubble Boy," an alien in "Men In Black II" (2002) and Tiny in the Rob Zombie horror movies "House of 1000 Corpses" (2003) and its sequel released this year, "The Devil's Rejects."
His big break in Hollywood came in 2003 with Tim Burton-directed "Big Fish." Ewan McGregor's character refuses to be intimidated by the size of McGrory's Karl character, walking up to shake his hand.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Matthew McGrory, the deep-voiced 7-foot-plus actor who moved from appearances on Howard Stern's radio show to a high-profile role as a gentle giant in the movie "Big Fish," died Tuesday. He was 32.
McGrory died at his home in Los Angeles, said director Drew Sky, who was working with him on his current movie, a biopic of wrestler-turned-actor Andre the Giant. Paramedics determined he died of apparent natural causes, police said.
McGrory, who wore size 29 1/2 shoes, played a human Sasquatch in 2001's "Bubble Boy," an alien in "Men In Black II" (2002) and Tiny in the Rob Zombie horror movies "House of 1000 Corpses" (2003) and its sequel released this year, "The Devil's Rejects."
His big break in Hollywood came in 2003 with Tim Burton-directed "Big Fish." Ewan McGregor's character refuses to be intimidated by the size of McGrory's Karl character, walking up to shake his hand.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, Calif., gathers herself as she recounts stories of her son to a reporter by a tent that she is staying in on the side of the road that leads to President Bush's ranch, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2005, in Crawford, Texas. Her simple, quiet protest of the war that took her son's life is gaining momentum as dozens joined her Wednesday at the site. Sheehan, 48, has insisted on speaking to Bush and vowed to remain during his ranch stay through the end of the month. Her tenacity has gained the support of anti-war groups, with one activist calling her "the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement."(AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Monday, August 08, 2005
What I Want For My Birthday....
TEN REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD VOTE FOR“THE SUNDAY MORNING HANGOVER” AS THE BEST RADIO SHOW ON EUGENE WEEKLY’S BEST OF EUGENE BALLOT 2005
1) This week the Eugene Weekly has on the back cover the official ballot for the best of Eugene readers poll. And every year some lameass radio show like the STORM AND DENNIS show, 94.5 FM wins best radio show. Rather than having some corporate happy talk loser show that plays wimpy top 40 soft rock win again this year, strike a blow for free form radio that doesn’t suck and vote for “The Hangover”.
2) My show “The Sunday Morning Hangover” has been entertaining Eugene for almost three years playing obscure and forgotten popular music from the early 1900’s up to present day sounds.
3) In the space of Two hours on Sunday mornings on KWVA 88.1 FM I have covered musical genres such as Exotica, Lounge, International, Found Music, Stupid Songs, Bizarre Children’s Music, Jazz, Rock, Country, Folk, Classical, Nostalgia, and Comedy while trying to maintain a palatable mix entertaining enough to listen to even with a Hangover.
4) Past shows have featured Rare and Unreleased tracks not commercially available and unheard on other radio shows.
5) I have produced and obtained Biographic Specials about artists such as Martin Denny, Ray Charles, The Bonzo Dog Band, Brian Eno, Peggy Lee, Henry Mancini, William Shatner, The Kinks, The Beach Boys, and Pink Floyd.
6) Special segments include musical explorations of Bossa Nova, Stolen Melodies, Whistling Recordings, Song Poems, Doo Wop, Vintage 78’s and Bird Records.
7) The Hangover is not just about music. Talk and Discussion segments have included info on the Arts, Hangover Cures, Entertainment News, Obits, Tributes, Horoscopes, Political Comment, Weird News, and Pet Parades.
8) Topical Specials have entertained and informed you about Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Labor Day.
9) All of this is accomplished free of charge on a strictly volunteer basis with benefits to me other than sharing my love for music and thoughts about life, with NO COMMERCIALS.
10) The Tenth reason to vote The Sunday Morning Hangover Best Eugene Radio Show is to feed and stroke my massive ego, and everyone knows all radio DJ’s are egomaniacal assholes who need constant attention.
So there you have it. PLEASE VOTE EARLY AND OFTEN and get your votes in by my Birthday, September 2.
If my show appears anywhere on that list I will be able to die with a smile on my face.
Thank You.
1) This week the Eugene Weekly has on the back cover the official ballot for the best of Eugene readers poll. And every year some lameass radio show like the STORM AND DENNIS show, 94.5 FM wins best radio show. Rather than having some corporate happy talk loser show that plays wimpy top 40 soft rock win again this year, strike a blow for free form radio that doesn’t suck and vote for “The Hangover”.
2) My show “The Sunday Morning Hangover” has been entertaining Eugene for almost three years playing obscure and forgotten popular music from the early 1900’s up to present day sounds.
3) In the space of Two hours on Sunday mornings on KWVA 88.1 FM I have covered musical genres such as Exotica, Lounge, International, Found Music, Stupid Songs, Bizarre Children’s Music, Jazz, Rock, Country, Folk, Classical, Nostalgia, and Comedy while trying to maintain a palatable mix entertaining enough to listen to even with a Hangover.
4) Past shows have featured Rare and Unreleased tracks not commercially available and unheard on other radio shows.
5) I have produced and obtained Biographic Specials about artists such as Martin Denny, Ray Charles, The Bonzo Dog Band, Brian Eno, Peggy Lee, Henry Mancini, William Shatner, The Kinks, The Beach Boys, and Pink Floyd.
6) Special segments include musical explorations of Bossa Nova, Stolen Melodies, Whistling Recordings, Song Poems, Doo Wop, Vintage 78’s and Bird Records.
7) The Hangover is not just about music. Talk and Discussion segments have included info on the Arts, Hangover Cures, Entertainment News, Obits, Tributes, Horoscopes, Political Comment, Weird News, and Pet Parades.
8) Topical Specials have entertained and informed you about Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Labor Day.
9) All of this is accomplished free of charge on a strictly volunteer basis with benefits to me other than sharing my love for music and thoughts about life, with NO COMMERCIALS.
10) The Tenth reason to vote The Sunday Morning Hangover Best Eugene Radio Show is to feed and stroke my massive ego, and everyone knows all radio DJ’s are egomaniacal assholes who need constant attention.
So there you have it. PLEASE VOTE EARLY AND OFTEN and get your votes in by my Birthday, September 2.
If my show appears anywhere on that list I will be able to die with a smile on my face.
Thank You.
Next Sunday's Show:
August 14 Sunday:
"The Sunday Morning Hangover" features Robert Crumb's "Sweet
Shellac" Radio Show Part 3-French Jazz 78's before Django- 8am, KWVA 88.1
FM.
"The Sunday Morning Hangover" features Robert Crumb's "Sweet
Shellac" Radio Show Part 3-French Jazz 78's before Django- 8am, KWVA 88.1
FM.
Friday, August 05, 2005
Another Great Website
XTABAY---you can download all kinds of Exotic LP's and bad music here, but my new fave is the Neil CD which I will play some of on my radio show sunday morning.
And Yes Amelia Ghost World is a great flic.
http://dennyesq.blogspot.com/
And Yes Amelia Ghost World is a great flic.
http://dennyesq.blogspot.com/
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
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